I'm back from Scotland ~ what a journey! Heavy rain; thick mud on terrible, rutted roads and bad tempered coachmen! I don't feel like visiting the docks themselves today, but have decided to see who is working in the Custom House down at 40, East-end Old Dock.
I noticed that E. ARNAUD, the Collector was there, together with a battery of Clerks, working feverishly by oil lamplight in very dingy conditions. Amongst whom I could see (in the gloom), Messrs. Richard BROOKE, Thomas PARKE, Latham HANMER, Charles LOWNDES, John BENSON, James GUIBALL, Nathaniel TYRER, Thomas SHERLOCK, Joshua HARRISON, Samuel LOCKHART, John TOWNE, Peter BLEASE, John MOCOCK, Joseph MOSSOP, Thomas HENDRICH, John ROSS, James CARRINGTON, Thomas TITTENSOR, James Richmond GALAN, John HARTELL, Henderson KNUBLEY ~beyond that, I could not recognise anyone in the gloomy distance. I then decided to penetrate further into this dismal place and went into the Comptroller's Office. There he sat on a small wooden dais, staring at his clerks over his little round spectacles. Amongst this band of people I could pick out:- Alexander STANLEY [the Comptroller himself], and Messrs. Adam NORRIS, James NORRIS, Joseph KELSALL, John WIGNALL, Robert TAYLOR, Thomas GODWIN, John RICHARDS, Edward David JONES and Joseph Dodson OWENS. The rest of the ground floor of this rambling building, is taken up by the Out-Door Department of the Custom and Excise, whose Acting Inspector-General ~ Robert LUDGATE Esq., was temporarily indisposed. However, as far as I could see, all his staff were going about their business within the confines of the very large office. Principal Surveyor of Warehouses ~ George SYERS Comptrolling Surveyor of Warehouses ~ William HARBOARD Clerk to Comptrolling Surveyor of Warehouses ~ F. WILSON General Goods Warehouse Keeper ~ James WATKINS Warehouse Keeper for East India Goods ~ Matthew GUY Clerk ~ Charles GORE Warehouse Keeper for Seized Goods &c., secured in King's Warehouse ~ H. SEGAR Surveyors of Searchers, Landing-Waiters and Coast-Waiters ~ Edward RIGG, J. W. GLENTON, John BEZER, B. SMITH, N. MacVICAR, and T. G. KENDALL. note ~ one of the above officers is annually appointed to be the Surveyor of the Searchers.
will give a full list of the Searchers, Landing-Waiters, Gaugers and Coast-Waiters when I next visit the Docks Area, together [I hope ~ if they will let me in!] with the list of personel in the Excise Office at 58 Hanover Street. In the meantime I am going home to itemise the information I have gained visiting the Custom House today. For those of you who follow my wanderings around Liverpool itself, I will be carrying on with these early next week.