During our research we have become increasingly interested in George Cheape, the customs collector at Prestonpans at the time of the battle. His name cropped up a number of times in various local records, and he is also named (“Collector Cheap”) in Alexander Carlyle’s autobiogaphy. We managed to discover a little about his family: George was the son of the Laird of Rossie in Fife, brother to a ship’s captain, and uncle to a wine merchant in Leith. In 1716 he married Mary Wedderburn, whose wealthy family owned the Gosford estate in East Lothian and whose cousin was Lt Colonel Peter Halkett (who led his regiment at Prestonpans). George and Mary had two “beautiful girls” as well as a son, Thomas, who went on the grand tour to Italy in the 1750s. The Cheapes were clearly a well-connected and prosperous family!
Where, then, did the Cheapes live? Their home was clearly substantial, as Alexander Carlyle remembers that it was used to accommodate 23 wounded officers after the battle. It might also have been conspicuously so, as Carlyle suggests that they were ordered to be sent there by the Duke of Perth who is unlikely to have any special knowledge of the town. Peter Halkett may have been able to supply the latter, however, as he was taken prisoner during the battle and assisted the Jacobites in negotiating the surrender of the baggage guard at Cockenzie to avoid further fruitless bloodshed. Perhaps it was he who recommended his cousin’s house for the treatment of his comrades.
For a long time we were unable to find any clues as to where the Cheapes’ house was located. Recently however, we came across a plan labelled as “Part of the High Street of Preston Pans” and dating to 1780. The map had no accompanying context, but its purpose was clearly to record the location of a number of “company buildings”. After some digging it became clear that the most likely candidate was the Prestonpans Vitriol Company, a pioneering sulphuric acid works founded in 1749. Across the road from some of the company property, the map labels a large property as “Mr Downey’s House”. This must surely refer to Patrick Downey – manager of the vitriol works in the 1760s and one of its owners by the 1770s. Most intriguingly of all, however, was that the map labelled the land adjacent to Downey’s house as “Customs House Property”. This is the best lead we have yet found as to where the Customs House might have been. Although the map is from 40 years after the battle, could it be the same property that was inhabited by George and Mary Cheape?
The next step was of course to identify where the Vitriol Company’s plan was depicting. The distinctive arrangement of the roads strongly suggests that it shows the junction of the High Street with Harlaw Hill. This allows us to identify Mr Downey’s House with Harlawhill House – which still stands despite severe neglect in recent years which has required emergency interventions from Historic Environment Scotland and East Lothian Council. The location established, map regression helps us to identify the land which is labelled as belonging to the Customs House. Using later OS maps from the 19th century, there is a clear candidate for a substantial dwelling with large gardens adjacent to Harlawhill. Unfortunately this building no longer stands, although a successor property occupies the same site. The access to this building passes through a stone gateway which clearly pre-dates the current building. So, is this the gate into the grounds of the former Customs House, where the Cheapes had lived in 1745?
A few weeks ago, our curator Arran paid a visit to the National Records Office in Edinburgh. There he was shown a small bundle of folded papers bound with string: the salt tax returns for 1745-6. Unfolding the returns for Prestonpans and Cockenzie, Arran was able to read the tables and calculations which George Cheape had carefully compiled, recording the quantities of salt produced by each producer in the community and the duties collected on them. The dramatic fall in revenue in the aftermath of the battle was obvious, as was Cheape’s attempt to quantify how much of the revenue had been collected by the Jacobites. A note in Cheape’s hand recorded his instructions from the authorities to investigate whether the salt officers had colluded in securing that money for the Jacobites – which tallies with the presence of numerous salt watchmen and officers in the government’s “List of Persons Concerned in the Rebellion”. There was something humbling about holding Cheape’s papers. Perhaps now we have identified where he lived too, and can can imagine the Collector and his family passing the gate pillars onto Harlawhill road on their short walk past the manse and into the church, where they would greet their friends the Carlyles. This is the very essence of what Beyond the Battle is all about!
We will continue to investigate our theory on the location of the customs house, and hope that more corroboration can soon be found. If anyone knows any more about this history of the building beyond these gates (9-15 Harlawhill), we would love to know.