John Carter (active c.1777–1807) was the leader of a famous smuggling family of the south Cornish coast and went by the nickname the 'King of Prussia' — given him, it is said, because as a boy he always insisted on being king in his brothers' games and idolised Frederick the Great. The secluded inlet his family worked, once called Porthleah, became known as Prussia Cove in his honour, and with its neighbouring coves of Bessie's and Pisky's it was so hidden beneath the cliffs that no revenue cutter could spot a vessel unloading there.
The story
The Carters ran a large, well-armed and famously well-organised operation, with their own gun-cutter and lugger and an intimate knowledge of the Cornish and French shores. The most celebrated tale of John Carter is that, when a cargo of his tea was seized and locked in the Custom House at Penzance, he and his men broke in by night and carried off only what was rightfully his — leaving everything else untouched, so that the officers concluded 'honest John Carter' had been there. He died in 1803, a smuggler whose reputation for fair dealing made him a folk-hero of the Cornish coast.