Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Has anyone knowledge in the 1790-1860,s of what an Excise Officer,s job was.
I had thought for some time it was to do with Custom,s and Excise,Smugglers and such,but I have been looking at a number of old Directories and this relation of mine although he seems to travel between England and Ireland was living at many Pub,s.!Would it be connected.
In the census I have found him in,he seems to live in a private house.
Many thanks
Tsumi

Hi Tsumi,

Your relative could have been a tax collector, if you have a look on the old occupations website it only gives info on excise man.

http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/e.html

Jan

That looks good,would explain him living at times in the Pub,s maybe collecting the revenue from Beer and Sprits.
I was maybe giving too much thought to Smugglers between England and Ireland.
Thanks very much Jan.

Tsumi

Records for Excise Officers are held at the National Archives. If you google Excise Officer Records you will come up with the National Archives and a guide headed "Looking for records of a Excise Officer" which will give you lots of information on how to find the records.

The first bit is this

This is a brief guide to help you with your research. The National Archives holds most surviving English and many surviving Irish records of Excise officers. They are held in several different series, mainly within the CUST department records. There is no single index of people or places that can be used to find service records, so your search for information might require some patience.


It also tells you this

Excise officers were introduced to collect taxes levied on home products such as alcoholic drinks and as a result were sometimes very unpopular.

In 1849 the Board of Excise was amalgamated with the Board of Stamps and Taxes to form the Board of Inland Revenue. In 1909 it merged with the Board of Customs.

Many thanks for the very comprehensive reply,I had tried the NA, but had put in his name and of course got nothing about him, I will now have another go with his occupation.Once again many thanks for your time and knowledge,also Jan.
Cheers Tsumi