History - Nandie Keast

On the 21st September 1846, Ferdinand Keast was enrolled Town Sergeant of Saltash. This honour carried with it the duties of being Verger to St Nicholas Church, Town Crier, official bill-poster, and more.

"Nandie" Keast, as he was known, was senior sergeant when Saltash Borough still held jurisdiction over Plymouth Sound, Cattewater, the Hamoaze, and the estuaries of the Tamar, Tavy, and Lynher Rivers. Bearing a pocket-sized silver oar as his authority, and armed with a substantial oak truncheon to support it, Nandie's duties often called him aboard vessels to collect various dues or to exercise other prerogatives, such as the arrest of fugitives.

On one memorable occasion, he boarded a vessel in Plymouth Sound to collect the Port Dues, but the captain was in an argumentative mood and took Nandie down to his cabin to discuss matters over a bottle. After a few glasses of schnapps and a short nap, Nandie came on deck to find that the crew had weighed anchor and set sail for the Channel Islands. Nandie, instead of getting a shilling, got an involuntary voyage to Jersey, where the vessel discharged and was re-laden. Returning to England, the captain dropped the embodiment of Saltash law at another port to find his own way home, none the worse for his unpremeditated trip.

Town Sergeant of the Borough for 45 years, Nandie died on New Year's Day 1891, aged 88. Unfortunately, at his funeral, the grave was a little too small, and the coffin could not at once be lowered. Irreverent youths who had long gone in awe of their Town Sergeant promptly spread the report that Nandie, always of a dogged nature, would not "go down" but kept bobbing up and asking for two pennyworth of rum!

^ top ^