Archaeology InSites

Whisky, bribes and London monopolies

The whisky produced at Kennetpans, as at any distillery, was extremely valuable both to the producer and to the tax man. With the Act of Union in 1707, the tax on whisky and malt became permanent, encouraging evasion through the illicit trade. However, in the latter part of the 18th century, there was a dramatic growth of exports to England for all Scottish distillers, including the Steins. By 1788, the export tax on Kilbagie and Kennetpans (levied on spirits sent to the English market) was greater than the total land tax for the whole of Scotland. Changes in the taxation laws during this era increased the returns to the Exchequer, but trammelled the whisky producers in Scotland. At the same time, English spirit traders lobbied the Parliament at Westminster to do something about the volumes of whisky flowing into London resulting from the booming Lowland whisky production. When times were hard, distilleries would be sequestrated, as happened at Kennetpans in 1788, when the Lowland Licence Act stopped the making of whisky for 12 months at all Scottish lowland distilleries supplying the English trade. Kennetpans reopened in 1791 after it was bought by two businessmen and leased back to John Stein Junior. The Distillery finally closed after John Stein died in 1825.

Bribery and corruption was also a part of the whisky story in the 18th century. One such scandal directly touched Kennetpans and the Kilbagie Distillery. The County Magazine reports on a trial that took place at the High Court in 1786, where James Stein of Kilbagie Distillery 'stood indicted ...for the crime of bribing, or attempting to bribe, Mr John Bonnar, Solicitor of Excise, by thrusting into his pocket, on the 2[n]d of September 1785, a paper parcel, containing 500l. sterling, in Bank notes, with the following words wrote on the inside of the cover, 'this is to be repeated once a year'.' The jury found that 'the delivery of 500l. sterling to Mr John Bonnar proven; but do not find the intention of seducing and corrupting the said John Bonnar proven.' One could say that James Stein was extremely lucky: tax evasion and bribery charges against distillers were not unknown at this time. He, in his turn, sued for lost business. Chutzpah, indeed!

Today the ruins of Kennetpans are in a parlous state but they are perhaps more intact than those of any other late 18th century distillery in Scotland. The present owners of the Kennetpans Distillery complex are keen to celebrate and publicise this 'forgotten' industrial venture with the setting up of a local Trust and the remains were designated as a Scheduled Monument in 1991.


* 'Whisky' has been corrupted from the Gaelic, usquebae (various spellings) and is the equivalent of aqua vitae or 'water of life' - a generic term for distilled alcoholic beverages. Aqua vitae were originally taken as a tonic, although the convivial effects of drinking the 'tonic' no doubt soon outstripped its imagined medicinal value.
**John's brother, James, founded the Kilbagie Distillery, a mile to the north, around the same time. During the late 18th century, the Stein family ( or rather the Stein dynasty) owned and operated the Kilbagie and Kennetpans distilleries in Clackmannanshire, the Canonmills and Lochrin distilleries in Edinburgh and the Kincaple distillery in Fife. They controlled a significant chunk of both the whisky-making and whisky trade in Scotland at this time - along with the Haigs, who married into the Stein family in the 1750s. Miriam R McDonald - Industrial Survey, Historic Environment Scotland