Customer (tax collector)

A customer is an archaic term for a government appointed official who is empowered to collect taxation in the form of customs duty (import duty, export duty, tariffs, etc.) in certain defined physical locations or jurisdictions.

In England generally the office was sold by the crown as a farm, thus enabling the customer to pay a one-off fixed price for the right to assess, collect and retain as his personal property, as much revenue as the law allowed. Customers were frequently appointed for seaports which received imported goods, for example the Customer of Plymouth in Devon was one such office.

The appointment was made by letters patent on behalf of the crown, thus the holder was a patent officer.[1] Most patent officers created several deputies who served under them. For example, the Customer of Plymouth appointed his own substitutes at ports covering much of the Cornwall peninsula, including Padstow, St Ives, Penzance, Helford, Falmouth, Penryn, St Mawes, Truro, Fowey, Looe, Saltash, etc.[2]

Customer of Plymouth

The following persons held the office of Customer of Plymouth:

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
  • John Tickpenny, during the reign of King Henry VII (1485-1509)[3]
  • Thomas Edmonds (d.1604) of Plymouth in Devon and of Fowey in Cornwall (eldest son of Henry Edmunds of Salisbury in Wiltshire), Customer of Plymouth in 1564. He married firstly Joane de la Bere, a daughter of Anthony De la Bere of Sherborne in Dorset, by whom he was the father of the diplomat and courtier Sir Thomas Edmonds (1563-1639).[4]
  • Thomas I Peyton (1594/5),[5] of St. Edmund's Bury, who married Cicilia Bourchier, a daughter of John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath (d.1560) of Tawstock, Devon.[6] The office was hereditary as his son Thomas Peyton (who married a daughter of Thomas Dowrich of Dowrich) was also Customer of Plymouth.[7]
  • Thomas II Peyton, son, who married a daughter of Thomas Dowrich of Dowrich.[8]
  • Henry Hereford (early 16th c.)[9] On Candlemas Day 1528 he was paid wages of £95 7 shillings at Greenwich Palace recorded in the records of the Treasurer of the Chamber's Accounts as: "Hen. Hereford, customer of Plymouth, for ships sent by him into Spain with the King's ambassadors and letters, and for the discryvinge the Emperor's navy at his last coming out of Spain into England".[10]
  • John Connock (16th/17th c), nephew of Richard Connock (1560-1620), MP for Bodmin and Liskeard[11]

Customer of Exeter

The following persons held the office of Customer of Exeter, Devon:

Customer of Southampton

The following persons held the office of Customer of Southampton:

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
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References
  1. Fortescue, John, (Ed.), The Correspondence of King George the Third: From 1760 to December ..., Volume 3, No.4016
  2. Fortescue
  3. Historia Regis Henrici Septimi, a Bernardo Andrea Tholosate Conscripta ... By Bernard Andreas
  4. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.327, pedigree of "Edmonds of Plymouth"
  5. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/3cc76650-5f0d-4358-b1f5-d42a7b87319f
  6. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.107
  7. Vivian, p.290, pedigree of Dowrich
  8. Vivian, p.290, pedigree of Dowrich
  9. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/orenge-john-1480-1538-or-later
  10. 'Henry VIII: Treasurer of the Chamber's Accounts', in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 5, 1531-1532, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1880), pp. 303-326
  11. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/connock-richard-1560-1620
  12. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.514, pedigree of Kendall
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