It’s been a while since I wrote a post about criminal history, one of my favourite subjects, so I decided this month will be a short two part series on smugglers, who I haven’t really covered in previous criminal posts. This first post is on Thomas Johnstone, a smuggler whose life is hard to distinguish from fact or fiction, but is astounding all the same. In fact, his life could easily have come from an adventure novel. The next post will be about the Hawkhurst Gang, a group of smugglers who dominated the coast of South-East England, named after their base of Hawkhurst in Kent. You can view this here.
Now, back to Thomas Johnstone. He was born in Lymington on the Hampshire coast in 1772. He was known for his good looks and for being over 6 feet tall, so he must have been a sight to behold. Perhaps it was his appearance that somewhat helped in the smuggling career he would later go on to have. By the age of twelve, Thomas already knew how to sail a boat thanks to his fisherman and smuggler father, so much so that by fifteen, he was smuggling himself.[1]
By the age of 21, Thomas had become a privateer (a state sanctioned pirate) to fight the French, but was later captured by them. However, he was such a smooth talker and was able to negotiate his release on the promise that he would become a spy for the French, being sent off in a boat with letters to pass on for his captors.[2] Upon his return to England, he was press ganged into the Royal Navy, but he deserted and returned to his previous smuggling skills.[3]
Smuggling was of course a dangerous game, even for someone as wily as Thomas was. By 1798, he was again imprisoned for his smuggling antics and an incident with the revenue men.[4] He was held at Winchelsea Prison but just as before, he made an escape by bribing the gaoler. From Winchelsea, Thomas was able to make safe passage to the Netherlands, where he lived somewhat underground for around a year because he had been declared an outlaw.[5]
Still, always one to see an opportunity for money making, Thomas offered his services to the Royal Navy to help boot the French out from the Netherlands, hoping this would work in his favour. Is there any doubt that it did? Well not really as he was paid £1,000 (around £44,000 in today’s money) and a pardon for his assistance. With his newfound pardon and fortune, he was able to move to London, but in his usual style, Johnstone was unable to stay out of trouble for long. In 1802, he was imprisoned in the Fleet Prison, the famous London debtors prison, for a large £11,000 (around £484,000 today) debt.[6]
Whilst at the Fleet, Thomas was placed in what was known as a strong room to hold dangerous prisoners as he was recognised from his smuggling background. Due to his previous charges, it was thought it would be best to transport him to the even more infamous prison of Newgate.[7] Before Thomas could be transported though, he made yet another escape. He managed to break parts of his cell door off and used a rope ladder to scale the prison wall, although he was reported to have injured himself in the process.[8] Upon the discovery of his escape, the watchman was imprisoned himself for probably helping Thomas to escape.[9] It was clear that Thomas was not just capable, but would have had friends to help him make all these successful escape attempts and to move between countries so easily. Although it is probable he was also able to change his appearance enough to remain undetected.
We next catch up with Thomas in France, where he was involved in plans to smuggle gold from England to France to help pay for Napoleon’s many campaigns. It is said, although there is no way to corroborate these claims, that Napoleon himself asked Thomas to help with his plans to invade England, but when he refused, Thomas was imprisoned for nine months.[10] Upon he released, he moved to America, where he became acquainted with Robert Fulton, an inventor and steamboat investor.
Fulton was famous for his early submarine known as the Nautilus, which he ended up building himself in 1800 after being unsuccessful in persuading the French to invest so they could use it as a weapon against the British.[11] Johnstone supposedly nearly drowned in an early demonstration of the submarine, but also helped Fulton in his first ‘limpet mines’, which were an early form of torpedo, that he tried to get the British to use against the French.[12]
Despite what was a fascinating life, although some of Johnstone’s exploits may be somewhat exaggerated, amazingly, he died peacefully at the age of 67. Still, whatever the truth may be, he certainly did escape from prison many times, which in itself is an impressive feat. Perhaps someone ought to make a good period drama about Johnstone’s life, it would certainly be dramatic!
More on smugglers in part two of this short series on the aforementioned Hawkhurst Gang.
[1] Helen Hollick, Life of a Smuggler: Fact and Fiction (Barnsley and Philadelphia: Pen and Sword, 2019), p. 119
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid; ‘Escape of Johnston, the Smuggler, from Fleet Prison’, Sussex Advertiser, 6 December 1802
[5] ‘Escape of Johnston, the Smuggler, from Fleet Prison’, Sussex Advertiser
[6] Helen Hollick, Life of a Smuggler: Fact and Fiction; Lymington Harbour, ‘History of Lymington’, https://www.lymingtonharbour.co.uk/history-of-lymington
[7] ‘Escape of Johnston, the Smuggler, from Fleet Prison’, Sussex Advertiser
[8] Helen Hollick, Life of a Smuggler: Fact and Fiction
[9] ‘Escape of Johnston, the Smuggler, from Fleet Prison’, Sussex Advertiser
[10]Helen Hollick, Life of a Smuggler: Fact and Fiction
[11] Britannica, ‘Robert Fulton’, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Fulton-American-inventor
[12] Helen Hollick, Life of a Smuggler: Fact and Fiction
Voyager of History 
Interesting read, thank you! I wonder if our modern ideas of what a prison is like – and borders, and border crossings – overstate the difficulties faced by the resourceful rogue in olden days. If you’re someone with the right connections, or a useful set of skills you can provide to an influential person, what looks like a token jail sentence satisfies the law’s requirements and leaves you at libery to pursue other adventures. Are smugglers often a disguise for spies?
LikeLike