Career
Gulliver and his gang.ran fifteen luggers to transport gin, silk, lace and tea from the Continent to Poole Bay and came to control the coast from Lymington on The Solent in Hampshire, through Dorset to Torbay in Devon. He was known as "King of the Dorset Smugglers" and was also referred to as "the gentle smuggler who never killed a man". His men whitened their hair and wore smock-frocks and were known as the "white-wigs".
He owned several farms including one at Eggardon Hill in Dorset where he planted large clumps of trees to act as navigation aids for his ships.
An extremely wealthy man, Gulliver was also able to build many grand houses, among them "Howe Lodge", in Kinson, Bournemouth, a purpose built smuggling stronghold. When it was demolished in 1958 a number of hiding places were found within, including a secret room only accessible through a door 10 feet up a chimney.
lieutenant was at Howe Lodge that he allegedly covered his face in white powder and lay in an open coffin. When they went away, Gulliver got out of the coffin and escaped.
Later, a mock funeral was held using a coffin filled with stones.
In a 1788 report from the Custom House, Poole, to His Majesty"s Commissioners of Customs in London it is mentioned that:
"Gulliver was considered one of the greatest and most notorious smugglers in the west of England and particularly in the spirits and tea trades but in the year 1782 he took the benefit of his Majesty"s proclamation for pardoning such offences and as we are informed dropped that branch of smuggling and afterwards confined himself chiefly to the wine trade which he carried on to a considerable extent having vaults at various places along the coast and "in remote places". Gulliver became a respected citizen gentleman and banker. He retired to Gulliver"s House, West Borough, Wimborne and died there on Friday 13 September 1822, leaving an estate of £60,000, with properties across Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset.
His body was interred at Wimborne Minster.
During Gulliver"s period as Wimbourne Minster"s church warden, there is no record of any payment being made for sacramental wine. His descendants include.
Sir Frederick Fryer. Lieutenant General Sir John Fryer.
The banker Edward Castleman, owner of Chettle House. Captain Thomas Hanham instrumental in the campaign to legalise cremation in England.
Willibald Alexis"s historical romance Walladmor (1823) includes a smuggler character whom the novel"s English translator Thomas De Quincey recognized as based on Isaac Gulliver. De Quincey used the identification to add further material.
Gulliver appears as a character in Leon Garfield"s novel The Drummer Boy (1970).
