The Admiral Benbow pub in Penzance advertises that it has been serving ‘pirates, smugglers and rum since 1695’!
The ‘man on the roof’ of the pub is Octavious Lanyon reputedly the head of the Benbow Brandy Men.
The government levied duties on a whole range of goods: tea, salt, muslin, silk and brandy. Salt was especially important for the Cornish fishing industry so the taxes were unpopular and many Cornish people had no qualms about smuggling in order to survive. The locals called it ‘Cornish Free Trade’!
Smuggling routes ran from France through the Channel Islands and on to Cornwall. Smugglers often met in local pubs to plan their activities. The Admiral Benbow was the meeting place of the Benbow Brandy Men.
There is a tunnel under the pub (only discovered a few years ago) which led down to the harbour and allowed the smugglers to move their goods out of sight of the revenue men.
Octavious Lanyon was the head of the smugglers and he climbed onto the roof to create a diversion during a raid by the revenue men. He is thought to have been shot and seriously injured.
Some of the gang were captured. John Martin alias Shelly, Walter Cross, John Williams, William Stone alias Quinn, James Bell, William Bell and Benjamin Savory were found guilty of ‘being persons of malicious minds and dispositions’ and of being on the vessel Happy Go Lucky which had fired on the revenue ship.
The Admiral Benbow pub was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’ and it features in the first chapter of the book as the inn owned by Jack Hawkin’s parents.
So who was Octavious Lanyon?
There aren’t any records of a baptism, marriage or burial of anyone called Octavious Lanyon in Cornwall. If he existed it must be an alias. There are plenty of Lanyons in the Penzance area at that time but identifying who Octavious might have been is impossible without more information.
Source – Tom Gainey – Cornwall Live
The Lanyons 