Tuesday Talk - the most famous smugglers' pub...

... Jamaica Inn

© Alexa Zari - purchased from Shutterstock

In my original draft of my latest release The Life of a Smuggler : Fact and Fiction, I included, what I considered to be interesting snippets about smuggling in fiction. Alas Pen and Sword, the publisher, decided that the original brief to write about 70,ooo words was to be cut to 40,000, so much of the references to fiction had to go. I wasn't very pleased as it meant a lot of re-writing, but on the other hand, I now have quite a bit of material that I can use for my Tuesday Talk blog posts! 

Lady Browning – Dame Daphne du Maurier DBE, wrote several much-loved novels, including Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, Frenchman’s Creek, The Birds (on which Hitchcock based his horror movie,) and her haunting smuggling adventure, Jamaica Inn. Author J. G. Harlond has written a superb piece about du Maurier, which I'll be posting in a couple of weeks' time - but I'm here to talk about the pub and the book.

Jamaica Inn is a real place, and it really was involved with smugglers and the illicit trade of contraband. 

Born in May 1907, Daphne du Maurier’s first novel, The Loving Spirit, was published in 1931, and while many of her subsequent works are now not considered to carry great literary merit, they are wonderful stories which linger in the mind and cling to the soul. They rarely finish with a ‘happy ending’, but often leave the reader to wonder how the characters fared beyond that last page. They are not historically accurate, few novels of pre-twenty-first century are, and they are a trifle old-fashioned regarding plot, character and style, but then, du Maurier did write them in the pre-Second World War era, and when a tale is a good tale, do the pedantics matter? She was a gifted storyteller, producing novels of engrossing suspense and the unexpected, while enhancing a sense of the past that is rich with believability. She created atmosphere as if it was the easiest thing in the world to do. She died in 1989 at her home in Cornwall, where many of her tales are set. In my opinion, her passing was a great loss to the world of fiction, with, for me, her best being Frenchman's Creek and Jamaica Inn.

The real Jamaica Inn, and therefore the fictional one, is high on the wild and rugged landscape of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, beside the A30 midway between Launceston and Bodmin.

Bodmin Moor, looking towards Cornwall
© Roger A. Smith Wikimedia

Built in 1750, and extended in 1778, the Inn originally stood on its own with no other buildings nearby, and was intended specifically as a coaching inn, a stopping-off point for travellers journeying to or from Cornwall to Bristol, Bath, London and beyond – an eighteenth century equivalent to a motorway service station. Somewhere to ease aching, stiff, joints, visit the lavatory, have a bite to eat. Maybe rest a while… but with fresh horses to be accessed instead of fuel. Poldark fans might be interested to know that Ross would have stopped at Jamaica Inn for a pee and a pint on his way to and from London. 

The Inn now offers a warm welcome in the bar and restaurant, has twenty en-suite bedrooms, a souvenir shop, a Smugglers Museum, and a ghost or two. Then, as now, it must have been a relief to see the lights of the inn glowing in the distance on a wet, windy and dreary night. Crossing Bodmin Moor, even within the comfort of a modern car, can be somewhat daunting when the weather, especially the mist or high winds, close in. Not to mention the snow… which was mentioned in great detail just under a week ago here in the West Country. Jamaica Inn was in the local and national news when Bodmin, and dozens of travellers were cut off by the snow - the Inn opened its door and gave everyone shelter, placing beds and mattresses in every available space. 

Some regular visitors of the past, however, were always welcomed but secretly, and they preferred to come and go under the cover of darkness. Jamaica Inn was a smuggler’s ‘halfway house’, an exchange point for the contraband brought ashore along the coast to be transferred, quickly and quietly, to carts taking the goods further into England. Once transferred and on its way to London or Oxford, or wherever, there was little hope of tracing its origin, or those who smuggled the contraband in being discovered.

Often thought to refer to the smuggled Jamaica rum stored in the cellars, the name, Jamaica Inn is more likely to trace back to the inn’s original landowners, the Trelawney family, two of whom were Governors of Jamaica.

Edward Trelawny, was born in Trelawne, Cornwall in 1699, a son of Bishop Jonathan Trelawny. He fought in the British Imperial Army against the French, and was then elected for Parliament, representing both East and West Looe, Cornwall. When he also became Commissioner of Customs his entitlement to sit as an M.P. was overturned because his official status made him ineligible for Parliament.

Modern Jamaica
© unsourced Wikimedia

In 1738 he was appointed Governor of Jamaica, and in the following year he was responsible for initiating a peace agreement between Jamaica’s English settlers and the Africans, known as Maroons, who had escaped slavery, ending what had been a long-running conflict. He was openly against slavery, publishing a controversial pamphlet in 1747 where he spoke out against the trading of slaves. Given that Jamaica, and much of the English and Colonial economy at the time depended on slaves, he dared not champion the actual abolition of slavery itself, knowing that he could then risk his position as governor and any chance of again taking a seat in Parliament. However, the fight of putting an end to the barbarity of the Trade probably seemed a suitable compromise. 

In 1751 he married a widow who held a considerable fortune of between £30-40,000 in Jamaican money, (several million in today's money,) then, on grounds of ill health he left official office in 1752, and returned, presumably, to the Trelawney estates in Cornwall. He died in January 1754. His estate passed to Sir John Trelawny, his brother, and then to John’s cousin and brother-in-law Harry Trelawny. Harry later became the fifth Baronet, and father-in-law to Sir William Trelawny who, in turn, was a Member of Parliament for West Looe from 1757 to 1767, and then became Governor of Jamaica until he died in 1772. Trelawny Parish in Jamaica was named after him. 

But what about the inn?

Only speculation on my part, but does it not seem logical that Jamaica Inn is connected to Edward Trelawny? 

• He retired in 1752, the same year as the inn was built.

• He had the money from his new wife.

• He knew he was dying. 

What a fine memorial! And of course, more than likely, a suitable, discreet, way to import any contraband smuggling that he, very possibly, dabbled in…

The Smugglers Museum at the present inn is worth a visit. Alongside displays featuring the history of the inn itself, and an area featuring information about  Daphne du Maurier, there are many artefacts relating to smugglers and smuggling, alongside a host of interesting information. 

The Fictional Jamaica Inn 

Du Maurier’s fictional tale was published in 1936. The inspiration for her novel sounds just as fictional but is, apparently, true…

The young Daphne and a companion became lost in heavy mist while riding on Bodmin Moor, and their horses took them to safety by heading towards the inn.

While recovering from her fright, the local rector diverted Daphne’s attention by telling her absorbing stories of ghosts – and smugglers. Maybe one of those tales was about the characters who were to populate her novel?

As for the story itself:

Twenty-three year-old Mary Yellan travels to live with her only surviving relative, her recently dead mother’s sister, Patience Merlyn. Patience’s husband, Joss, turns out to be a sour character; a drunkard and a bully, with the inn itself, dark, gloomy and in desperate need of repair. Nor are there any guests or travellers; it is just a dismal house in the middle of nowhere out on the moors.

Mary becomes attracted to Jem, Joss’s younger brother who is very different in character. Jem is a petty thief, but has none of the brutality that Joss parades. It does not take Mary long, however, to work out that Joss is involved with wreckers, smugglers and murderers. Desperate to do the right thing, she tells a friend, Francis Davey, vicar of the neighbouring village, of her concerns and suspicions.

Spending a happy day with Jem at Launceston, her enjoyment is ruined when Jem fails to return after supposedly collecting the jingle (a cart) to take them home. Distraught, she is rescued by Davey who, in his hired carriage, meets her walking along the road home. Unfortunately – but adding to the plot and the drama – the carriage is waylaid by a group of Joss Merlyn’s wreckers, and Mary is forced to witness their deliberate wrecking of a ship and the murder of the ship’s crew. 

But to say more would spoil the story for any who have not read it…

There have been several film adaptations, sadly, the most recent by BBC TV was not well received as the production was very dark (as in lack of lighting, not as in ‘horror’), and the sound quality was poor, resulting in much of the dialogue, even with the volume turned up high, coming across as mumbling. 

What a pity. Still, read the book, no lighting or sound issues with the printed word!

“It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought in a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was now only a little after two o’clock of the afternoon the pallor of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in a mist. It would be dark by four.”

What intriguing, evocative, opening lines! 

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