I'm trying to find out about William Bate, who was named as an Officer of Excise, of London, in his father John Bate's will dated 1796. I found a reference to a William Bate in the National Archives Customs index as entering the service in 1836 - too late for my William Bate, but I thought he might be a relation and I was in London anyway so I visited TNA to look him up.
He doesn't seem to have been a relation of my William Bate, however, and one of the advisers there said I probably wouldn't find any relevant records as early as the 1790s: but there are references in Rootschat posts to Officers of Excise much earlier than the 1790s. Can anyone advise where I might pursue my search?
The other slightly confusing thing about my William Bate being an Officer of Excise is that what I know about him indicates that he was a Catholic, and I thought Catholics were barred from public office until the 1820s ...
Scranpot
