Jack Rattenbury

Jack Rattenbury, nicknamed Rob Roy of the West (c. 1778, in Beer, Devon – 1844), was an English smuggler.

[1] He died aged sixty-five, and was buried on 28 April 1844 in Seaton churchyard, at an unmarked spot close to the north transept.

[3] The Beer Quarry Caves were of great use to smugglers as they could be used to store contraband, hidden from the excise officials.

In 1879 Sir Walter Besant and James Rice published a book of stories, 'Twas in Trafalgar Bay, about Rattenbury.

[4] Author Mary Upton wrote a 2007 novel about him entitled Rattenbury: a novel based on the memoirs of a West Country smuggler.