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Frontispiece 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 
IN    BRITAIN 

1756    TO     1815 

A  RECORD  OF  THEIR  LIVES,  THEIR  ROMANCE 
AND  THEIR  SUFFERINGS 

BY 

FRANCIS  ABELL 


HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

OXFORD     UNIVERSITY     PRESS 

LONDON   EDINBURGH   GLASGOW 

NEW  YORK    TORONTO    MELBOURNE    BOMBAY 

1914 


OXFORD:  HORACE  HART 

PRINTER  TO  THE    UNIVERSITY 


JX 


PREFACE 

Two  influences  have  urged  me  to  make  a  study  of 
the  subject  of  the  prisoners  of  war  in  Britain. 

First  :  the  hope  that  I  might  be  able  to  vindicate 
our  country  against  the  charge  so  insistently  brought 
against  her  that  she  treated  the  prisoners  of  war  in 
her  custody  with  exceptional  inhumanity. 

Second :  a  desire  to  rescue  from  oblivion  a  not 
unimportant  and  a  most  interesting  chapter  of  our 
national  history. 

Whether  my  researches  show  the  foregoing  charge 
to  be  proven  or  not  proven  remains  for  my  readers 
to  judge.  I  can  only  say  that  I  have  striven  to  the 
utmost  to  prevent  the  entrance  of  any  national  bias 
into  the  presentation  of  the  picture. 

As  to  the  second  influence.  It  is  difficult  to  account 
for  the  fact  that  so  interesting  a  page  of  our  history 
should  have  remained  unwritten.  Even  authors  of 
fiction,  who  have  pressed  every  department  of  history 
into  their  service,  have,  with  about  half  a  dozen 
exceptions,  neglected  it  as  a  source  of  inspiration, 
whilst  historical  accounts  are  limited  to  Mr.  Basil 
Thomson's  Story  of  Dartmoor  Prison,  Dr.  T.  J.  Walker's 
Norman  Cross,  and  Mr.  W.  Sievwright's  Perth  Depot, 
all  of  which  I  have  been  permitted  to  make  use  of, 
and  local  handbooks. 

Yet   the   sojourn   among   us   of  thousands  of   war 


iv  PREFACE 

prisoners  between  the  years  1756  and  1815  must  have 
been  an  important  feature  of  our  national  life— 
especially  that  of  officers  on  parole  in  our  country 
towns ;  despite  which,  during  my  quest  in  many 
counties  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales,  I  have  been 
surprised  to  find  how  rapidly  and  completely  the 
memory  of  this  sojourn  has  faded ;  how  faintly  even  it 
lingers  in  local  tradition ;  how  much  haziness  there 
is,  even  in  the  minds  of  educated  people,  as  to  who  or 
what  prisoners  of  war  were ;  and  how  the  process  of 
gathering  information  has  been  one  of  almost  literal 
excavation  and  disinterment.  But  the  task  has  been 
a  great  delight.  It  has  introduced  me  to  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  interesting  people ;  it  has  taken  me  to  all 
sorts  of  odd  nooks  and  corners  of  the  country  ;  and 
it  has  drawn  my  attention  to  a  literature  which  is  not 
less  valuable  because  it  is  merely  local.  I  need  not 
say  that  but  for  the  interest  and  enthusiasm  of  private 
individuals  I  could  never  have  accomplished  the  task, 
and  to  them  I  hope  I  have  made  sufficient  acknow- 
ledgement in  the  proper  places,  although  it  is  possible 
that,  from  their  very  multitude,  I  may  have  been 
guilty  of  omissions,  for  which  I  can  only  apologize. 

FRANCIS  ABELL 

LONDON,  1914. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS          .         .  i 

II.    THE  EXCHANGE  OF  PRISONERS    ...  25 

III.  THE  PRISON  SYSTEM — THE  HULKS      .         .  37 

IV.  LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  .....  54 
V.    LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  (continued)  ...  75 

VI.    PRISON-SHIP  SUNDRIES        ....  92 
VII.    TOM    SOUVILLE  :     A   FAMOUS    PRISON-SHIP 

ESCAPER         ......  103 

VIII.    THE     PRISON     SYSTEM  -  -  THE     PRISONERS 

ASHORE.    GENERAL      .         .         .         .115 
IX.   THE  PRISONS  ASHORE  : 

I.  SlSSINGHURST  CASTLE             .            .            .  125 

X.           2.  NORMAN  CROSS        ....  133 

XI.           3.  PERTH 155 

XII.                4.  PORTCHESTER 166 

XIII.  5.  LIVERPOOL 186 

XIV.  6.  GREENLAW — VALLEYFIELD         .         .  196 
XV.           7.  STAPLETON,  NEAR  BRISTOL        .         .  207 

XVI.           8.  FORTON,  PORTSMOUTH      .         .         .  215 

XVII.           9.  MILLBAY,  PLYMOUTH        .         .         .  220 

XVIII.         10.  DARTMOOR 235 

XIX.    SOME  MINOR  PRISONS         ....  262 

WINCHESTER 262 

ROSCROW  AND  KERGILLIACK          .         .  264 

SHREWSBURY       .....  266 

YARMOUTH           .....  268 

EDINBURGH 269 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XX.    Louis  VANHILLE  :  A  FAMOUS  ESCAPER        .  278 

XXI.    THE  PRISON  SYSTEM — PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  284 

XXII.    PAROLE  LIFE 299 

XXIII.  THE  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  SCOTLAND    .  316 

XXIV.  PAROLE  PRISONERS  IN  SCOTLAND  (continued)  338 
XXV.    PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  WALES     .         .         .  357 

XXVI.    ESCAPE  AGENTS  AND  ESCAPES     .         .         .  365 

XXVII.    ESCAPES  OF  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE     .         .  376 

XXVIII.    COMPLAINTS  OF  PRISONERS          .         .         .  395 

XXIX.    PAROLE  LIFE  :   SUNDRY  NOTES  .         .         .  412 

XXX.    PAROLE  LIFE  :    SUNDRY  NOTES  (continued)  .  432 

XXXI.    VARIORUM  : 

1.  SOME  DISTINGUISHED  PRISONERS  OF 

WAR    ......  442 

2.  SOME  STATISTICS      ....  449 

3.  EPITAPHS  OF  PRISONERS  .         .         .451 

INDEX 455 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


PLAIT  MERCHANTS  TRADING  WITH  THE  FRENCH  PRISONERS  OF 

WAR  AT  NORMAN  CROSS Frontispiece 

From  a  painting  by  A .  C.  Cooke,  Esq.,  in  the  Town  Hall,  Luton  ; 

reproduced  here  by  permission  of  the  artist. 
FRENCH  SAILORS  ON  AN  ENGLISH  PRISON  SHIP       ...  42 

After  Bombled. 
PRISON  SHIPS     .........  45 

From  a  sketch  by  the  Author. 
MEMORIAL  TO  FRENCH  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  THE  ROYAL 

NAVAL  BARRACKS,  CHATHAM  ...  .To  face  p.  46 

GARNERAY  DRAWING  AN  ENGLISH  SOLDIER    ....  62 

After  Louis  Garneray. 
THE  CROU'.Y  HULK  SEEN  FROM  THE  STERN      ....  67 

After  Louis  Garneray. 
EXTERIOR  VIEW  OF  A  HULK          ......  72 

After  Louis  Garneray. 

THE  Vi- \GF.A NCR  HULK 74 

After  Louis  Garneray. 
ORLOP  DECK  OF  5*r.vs«'/cA-  PRISON  SHIP,  CHATHAM         .         .  101 

After  Colonel  Lebertre. 
SISSINGHURST  CASTLE  .......    To  face  p.  126 

From  an  old  print  in  the  possession  of  Henry  Neve,  Esq.,  by 

whose  permission  it  is  reproduced. 
ARTICLES  IN  WOOD  MADE  BY  THE  PRISONERS  AT  SISSINGHURST 

CASTLE,  1763 •    To  face  p.  152. 

Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  owner,  Henry  Neve,  Esq. 
MEMORIAL  TO   FRENCH  PRISONERS  OF  WAR    WHO  DIED  AT 

NORMAN  CROSS.     Unveiled  July  28,  1914       .         .         .    To  face  p.  134 
NORMAN  CROSS  PRISON        .......  13? 

Hill's  Plan,  1797-1803. 
COLOURED  STRAW  WORK-BOX,  MADE  BY  FRENCH  PRISONERS 

OF  WAR       ....  .    To  face  p.  148 

Presented  to  the  Author  by  Mrs.  Ashley  Dodd,  of  Godinton 

Park,  Ashford,  Kent. 
THE  BLOCK  HOUSE,  NORMAN  CROSS,  1809     ....   To  face  p.  152 

From  a  sketch  by  Captain  George  Lloyd  in  the  United  Service 

Museum,  Whitehall. 
PORTCHESTER  CASTLE          ...  .  Tofacep.i66 

From  the  '  Victoria  History  of  England— South  Hampshire  ', 
by  permission  of  Messrs.  Constable  6>  Co, 


viii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

PLAN  OF  PORTCHESTER  CASTLE,  1793 168 

CLOCK    MADE   IN    PORTCHESTER   CASTLE,    1809,    BY   FRENCH 
PRISONERS   OF   WAR,   FROM   BONES    SAVED   FROM   THEIR 

RATIONS To  face  p.  173 

In  the  Author's  possession. 
BONE  MODEL  OF  H.M.S.  F/CTW?)-MADE  BY  PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

AT  PORTSMOUTH  ........    To  face  p.  176 

In  the  possession  of  Messrs.  Doxford  &>  Sons,  Pallion,  Sunder- 

land,  by  whose  permission  it  is  reproduced. 
THE  OLD  TOWER  PRISON,  LIVERPOOL  .          .          .          .  187 

From  an  old  Print. 

MONUMENT  AT  VALLEYFIELD  TO  PRISONERS  OF  WAR       .          .  199 

STAPLETON  PRISON      ........    To  face  p.  212 

From  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine  ',  1814. 
DARTMOOR  WAR  PRISON,  IN  1812  .....  236 

From  a  sketch  signed  '  John  Wethems  '  in  the  Public  Record 
Office.     Reproduced  by  permission  of  Basil  Thomson,  Esq., 
and  Colonel  Winn. 
DARTMOOR.    THE  ORIGINAL  MAIN  ENTRANCE          .          .          .  248 

From  a  sketch  by  the  Author. 
WOODEN  WORKING  MODEL  OF  A  FRENCH  TRIAL  SCENE  MADE 

BY  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  AT  DARTMOOR    ....    To  face  £.251 

In  the  possession  of  Maberley  Phillips,  Esq.,  F.S.A.,  by  whose 

permission  it  is  reproduced. 
BONE  MODEL  OF  GUILLOTINE  MADE  BY  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  AT 

DARTMOOR To  face  p.  256 

Now  in  the  Museum,  Plymouth,  and  reproduced  here  by  per- 
mission of  the  owner,  Charles  Luxmoore,  Esq.,  from  a  photo- 
graph by  Mr.  J.  R.  Browning,  Exeter. 

DARTMOOR  PRISON,  ILLUSTRATING  THE  'MASSACRE'  OF  1815     .    To  face  p.  260 
From  Benjamin  Waterhouse's  'Journal  of  a  Young  Man  of 

Massachusetts  ' . 
JEDBURGH  ABBEY,  1812       .......    To  face  p.  347 

From  a  painting  by  Ensign  Bazin,  a  French  prisoner  of  war. 

Reproduced  by  permission  of  J.  Veitch,  Esq. 
BONE  MODEL  OF  H.M.S.  PRINCJ-:  OF  W^ILI-S  MADE  BY  PRISONERS 

OF  WAR To  face  p.  416 

Now  in  the  United  Service  Museum,  Whitehall. 

LA  TOUR  D'AUVERGNE   DEFENDING   HIS  COCKADE    AT  BoDMIN  443 

From  Montorgueil's  'La  Tour  d'Auvergne  ', 


CHAPTER  I 
INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS 

HE  who,  with  the  object  of  dealing  fairly  and  squarely  with 
that  interesting  and  unaccountably  neglected  footnote  to  British 
history,  the  subject  of  prisoners  of  war  in  Britain,  has  sifted  to 
the  best  of  his  ability  all  available  sources  of  information  both 
at  home  and  abroad,  as  the  present  writer  has  done,  feels  bound 
to  make  answer  to  the  questions  : 

1.  Did  we  of  Britain  treat  our  prisoners  of  war  with  the 
brutality  alleged  by  foreign  writers  almost  without  exception  ? 

2.  Did  our  Government  sin  in  this  respect  more  than  did 
other  Governments  in  their  treatment  of  the  prisoners  taken 
from  us  ? 

As  an  Englishman  I  much  regret  to  say  in  reply  to  the  first 
question,  that,  after  a  very  rigorous  examination  of  authorities 
and  weighing  of  evidence,  and  making  allowance  for  the  not 
unnatural  exaggeration  and  embellishment  by  men  smarting 
under  deprivation  of  liberty,  I  find  that  foreigners  have  not 
unduly  emphasized  the  brutality  with  which  we  treated  a  large 
proportion  of  our  prisoners  of  war,  and  I  am  fairly  confident 
that  after  a  study  of  the  following  pages  my  readers  will  agree 
with  me. 

Between  our  treatment  of  prisoners  on  parole  and  in  confine- 
ment on  land,  and  foreign  treatment  of  our  countrymen 
similarly  situated,  the  difference,  if  any,  is  very  slight,  but 
nothing  comparable  with  the  English  prison-ship  system  existed 
anywhere  else,  except  at  Cadiz  after  the  battle  of  Baylen  in 
1808,  and  to  the  end  of  time  this  abominable,  useless,  and  inde- 
fensible system  will  remain  a  stain  upon  our  national  record. 

In  reply  to  the  second  question,  the  balance  appears  to  be 
fairly  even  between  the  behaviour  of  our  own  and  foreign 
Governments — at  any  rate,  between  ours  and  that  of  France — 
for  Britain  and  France  practically  monopolize  the  consideration 
of  our  subject  ;  the  number  of  prisoners  taken  by  and  from  the 

ABELL  B 


2  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

United  States,  Spain,  Holland,  Denmark,  and  other  countries, 
is  comparatively  insignificant. 

Each  Government  accused  the  other.  Each  Government 
defended  itself.  Each  Government  could  bring  forward 
sufficient  evidence  to  condemn  the  other.  Each  Government, 
judging  by  the  numerous  official  documents  which  may  be 
examined,  seems  really  to  have  aimed  at  treating  its  prisoners 
as  humanely  and  as  liberally  as  circumstances  would  allow. 
Each  Government  was  badly  served  by  just  those  sections  of 
its  subordinates  which  were  in  the  closest  and  most  constant 
contact  with  the  prisoners.  It  is  impossible  to  read  the  printed 
and  written  regulations  of  the  two  Governments  with  regard 
to  the  treatment  of  war-prisoners  without  being  impressed  by 
their  justness,  fairness,  and  even  kindness.  The  French  rules 
published  in  1792,  for  instance,  are  models  of  humane  con- 
sideration ;  they  emphatically  provided  that  foreign  prisoners 
were  to  be  treated  exactly  as  French  soldiers  in  the  matter  of 
sustenance,  lodging,  and  care  when  sick. 

All  this  was  nullified  by  the  behaviour  of  subordinates.  It  is 
equally  impossible  to  read  the  personal  narratives  of  British 
prisoners  in  France  and  of  French  prisoners  in  Britain  without 
being  convinced  that  the  good  wills  of  the  two  Governments 
availed  little  against  the  brutality,  the  avarice,  and  the  dis- 
honesty of  the  officials  charged  with  the  carrying  out  of  the 
benevolent  instructions. 

It  may  be  urged  that  Governments  which  really  intended  to 
act  fairly  would  have  taken  care  that  they  were  suitably  served. 
So  we  think  to-day.  But  it  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  period  covered  in  this  book — from  1756  to  1815 — cannot  be 
judged  by  the  light  of  to-day.  It  was  an  age  of  corruption 
from  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  society,  and  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that,  if  Ministers  and  Members  of  Parliament, 
and  officers  of  every  kind — naval,  military,  and  civil — were  as 
essentially  objects  of  sale  and  purchase  as  legs  of  mutton  and 
suits  of  clothes,  the  lower  orders  of  men  in  authority,  those  who 
were  in  most  direct  touch  with  the  prisoners  of  war,  should  not 
tiave  been  immune  from  the  contagion. 

Most  exactly,  too,  must  it  be  remembered  by  the  commen- 
tator of  to-day  that  the  age  was  not  only  corrupt,  but  hard  and 


INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS  3 

brutal ;  that  beneath  the  veneer  of  formal  politeness  of  manner 
there  was  an  indifference  to  human  suffering,  and  a  general 
rudeness  of  tastes  and  inclinations,  which  make  the  gulf  separ- 
ating us  from  the  age  of  Trafalgar  wider  than  that  which 
separated  the  age  of  Trafalgar  from  that  of  the  TudorsTj 

It  is  hard  to  realize  that  less  than  a  century  ago  certain 
human  beings — free-born  Britons — were  treated  in  a  fashion 
which  to-day  if  it  was  applied  to  animals  would  raise  a  storm 
of  protest  from  John  o'  Groats  to  the  Land's  End  :  that  the 
fathers  of  some  of  us  who  would  warmly  resent  the  aspersion  of 
senility  were  subject  to  rules  and  restrictions  such  as  we  only 
apply  to  children  and  idiots  ;  that  at  the  date  of  Waterloo  the 
efforts  of  Howard  and  Mrs.  Fry  had  borne  but  little  fruit  in  our 
prisons  ;  and  that  thirty  years  were  yet  to  pass  ere  the  last 
British  slave  became  a  free  man.  Unfortunates  were  regarded 
as  criminals,  and  treated  accordingly,  and  the  man  whose  only 
crime  was  that  he  had  fought  for  his  country,  received  much 
the  same  consideration  as  the  idiot  gibbering  on  the  straw  of 
Bedlam. 

It  could  not  be  expected  that  an  age  which  held  forgery  and 
linen-stealing  to  be  capital  offences ;  which  treated  freely- 
enlisted  sailors  and  soldiers  as  animals,  civil  offenders  as 
lunatics,  and  lunatics  as  dangerous  criminals ;  of  which  the 
social  life  is  fairly  reflected  in  the  caricatures  of  Gillray  and 
Rowlandson ;  which  extolled  much  conduct  which  to-day 
we  regard  as  base  and  contemptible  as  actually  deserving  of 
praise  and  admiration,  should  be  tenderly  disposed  towards 
thousands  of  foreigners  whose  enforced  detention  in  the  land 
added  millions  to  taxation,  and  caused  a  constant  menace  to 
life  and  property. 

So,  clearly  bearing  in  mind  the  vast  differences  between  our 
age  and  that  covered  in  these  pages,  let  us  examine  some  of 
the  recriminations  between  Britain  and  France,  chiefly  on  the 
question  of  the  treatment  of  prisoners  of  war,  as  a  preparation 
for  a  more  minute  survey  of  the  life  of  these  unfortunates 
among  us,  and  an  equitable  judgement  thereon. 

In  Britain,  prisoners  of  war  were  attended  to  by  4  The  Com- 
missioners for  taking  care  of  sick  and  wounded  seamen  and  for 
exchanging  Prisoners  of  War ',  colloquially  known  as  '  The  Sick 

B  2 


4  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

and  Hurt '  Office,  whose  business  was,  '  To  see  the  sick  and 
wounded  seamen  and  prisoners  were  well  cared  for,  to  keep 
exact  accounts  of  money  issued  to  the  receiver,  to  disburse  in 
the  most  husbandly  manner,  and  in  all  things  to  act  as  their 
judgements  and  the  necessities  of  the  service  should  require.' 
John  Evelyn,  Samuel  Pepys,  and  Home,  the  author  of  Douglas, 
had  been  Commissioners.  On  December  22,  1799,  the  care  of 
prisoners  of  war  was  transferred  to  the  Transport  Office,  and 
so  remained  until  1817.  In  1819  the  Victualling  Office  took 
over  the  duty. 

Throughout  the  period  of  the  Seven  Years'  War — that  is, 
from  1756  to  1763 — there  was  a  constant  interchange  of  letters 
upon  the  subject  of  the  treatment  of  prisoners  of  war.  The 
French  king  had  made  it  a  rule  to  distribute  monthly,  from  his 
private  purse,  money  for  the  benefit  of  his  subjects  who  were 
prisoners  in  Britain;  this  was  called  the  Royal  Bounty.  It  was 
applied  not  merely  to  the  relief  and  comfort  of  the  prisoners 
while  in  confinement,  but  also  to  the  payment  of  their  home- 
ward passages  when  exchanged,  and  of  certain  dues  levied  on 
them  by  the  British  Government  upon  entering  and  leaving 
the  country.  The  payment  was  made  on  a  graduated  scale, 
according  to  rank,  by  regularly  appointed  French  agents  in 
England,  whose  exact  and  beautifully  kept  accounts  may  be 
examined  at  the  Archives  Nationales  in  Paris. 

This  Royal  Bounty,  the  French  Government  asserted,  had 
been  inspired  by  the  continual  complaints  about  the  bad  treat- 
ment of  their  countrymen,  prisoners  of  war  in  England.  To 
this  it  was  replied  that  when  the  French  prisoners  arrived  it  was 
determined  and  arranged  that  they  should  have  exactly  the 
same  victualling  both  in  quality  and  quantity  as  British  seamen, 
and  this  was  actually  increased  by  half  a  pound  of  bread  per 
man  per  diem  over  the  original  allowance.  It  was  asserted 
that  all  the  provisions  issued  were  good,  although  the  bread 
was  not  always  fresh  baked.  This  should  be  remedied.  (/The 
meat  was  the  same  in  quality  as  that  served  out  to  British 
seamen — indeed  it  was  better,  for  orders  were  issued  that  the 
prisoners  should  have  fresh  meat  every  meat  day  (six  in  the 
week)  whereas  British  seamen  had  it  only  twice  a  week,  and 
sometimes  not  so  often. 


INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS  5 

The  Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty  expressed  their  diffi- 
culty in  believing  that  the  French  prisoners  were  really  in  need 
of  aid  from  France,  but  said  that  if  such  aid  was  forthcoming 
it  should  be  justly  distributed  by  appointed  agents. 

They  appended  a  Table  d'Avitaillement  to  this  effect : 

Every  day  except  Saturday  every  man  received  one  and  a  half 
pounds  of  bread,  three-quarters  of  a  pound  of  beef,  and  one 
quart  of  beer.  On  Saturday  instead  of  the  beef  he  got  four 
ounces  of  butter  or  six  ounces  of  cheese.  Four  times  a  week 
each  man  was  allowed  in  addition  half  a  pint  of  peasj 
^For  money  allowance  officers  of  men-of-war  received  one 
shilling  a  day,  officers  of  privateers  and  merchant  ships  six- 
pence. These  officers  were  on  parole,  and  in  drawing  up  their 
report  the  Admiralty  officials  remark  that,  although  they  have 
to  regret  very  frequent  breaches  of  parole,  their  standard  of 
allowances  remains  unchanged. 

LJWith  regard  to  the  prison  accommodation  for  the  rank  and 
file,  at  Portchester  Castle,  Forton  Prison  (Portsmouth),  Millbay 
Prison  (Plymouth),  the  men  slept  on  guard-beds,  two  feet  six    ^ 
inches  in  breadth,  six  feet  in  length,  provided  with  a  canvas  :> 
case  filled  with  straw  and  a  coverlid.     Sick  prisoners  were 
treated  precisely  as  were  British^ 

At  Exeter,  Liverpool,  and  Sissinghurst — '  a  mansion  house 
in  Kent  lately  fitted  up  for  prisoners  ' — the  men  slept  in  ham- 
mocks, each  with  a  flock  bed,  a  blanket,  and  a  coverlid. 

All  this  reads  excellently,  but  from  the  numberless  com- 
plaints made  by  prisoners,  after  due  allowance  has  been  made 
for  exaggeration,  I  very  much  doubt  if  the  poor  fellows  received 
their  full  allowance  or  were  lodged  as  represented. 

This  was  in  1757.  As  a  counterblast  to  the  French  remon- 
strances, our  Admiralty  complained  bitterly  of  the  treatment 
accorded  to  British  prisoners  in  French  prisons,  especially  that 
at  Dinan.  We  quote  the  reply  of  De  Moras,  the  French 
Administrator,  for  comparison.  The  French  scale  of  pro- 
visioning prisoners  was  as  follows  : 

On  Sunday,  Monday,  Tuesday,  and  Thursday  each  prisoner 
received  one  and  a  half  pounds  of  bread,  one  pint  of  beer  at 
least,  one  pound  of  good,  fresh  meat,  well  cooked,  consisting  of 
beef,  mutton,  or  veal,  '  without  heads  and  feet ',  soup,  salt,  and 


6  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

vinegar.  On  Wednesday,  Friday,  and  Saturday,  and  c  maigre  ' 
days,  half  a  pound  of  beans  or  peas  well  cooked  and  seasoned, 
and  two  ounces  of  butter.  The  same  allowance  was  made  in  all 
prisons,  except  that  in  some  wine  took  the  place  of  beer. 

The  Administrator  complained  that  he  had  great  difficulty 
in  getting  contractors  for  provisioning  prisoners — a  fact  not 
without  significance  when  we  note  how  eagerly  the  position  of 
contractor  for  prisoners  of  war  was  competed  for  in  England. 

De  Moras  further  stated  that  prisoners  when  sick  were  sent 
to  the  regular  Service  Hospitals,  where  they  received  the  same 
attention  as  Frenchmen.  Each  officer  prisoner  received  a 
money  allowance  of  thirty  sous — one  shilling  and  threepence — 
a  day,  and  renewed  clothing  when  needed. 

The  following  remonstrance,  dated  1758,  is  one  of  many 
relating  to  alleged  British  peculation  in  the  matter  of  the 
French  Royal  Bounty. 

'  Plusieurs  Frangais  enfermes  dans  le  chateau  de  Portchester 
representent  1'excessive  longueur  de  leur  detention  et  ont  fait 
connoitre  une  manoeuvre  qui  les  prive  d'un  secours  en  argent 
que  le  Roy  leur  fait  donner  tous  les  mois  ;  apres  avoir  change 
Tor  et  1'argent  qui  leur  a  ete  donne  pour  une  monnoie  de 
cuivre  nommee  half  pens  on  en  a  arrete  le  cours  et  on  les  a  mis 
dans  rimpossibilite  de  jouir  du  soulagement  que  le  Roy  avoit 
voulu  leur  accorder.' 

Commenting  upon  this  De  Moras  adds  : 

'  Je  suis  instruit  que  les  chatiments  les  plus  rigoureux  sont 
employes  a  1'egard  des  Frangais  prisonniers  pour  la  faute  la 
plus  legere  et  que  celui  qui  cherche  a  s 'evader  est  charge  de 
fers,  mis  en  cachot,  et  perd  toute  esperance  de  liberte.  Je  sais 
que  quelques  paroles  inconsiderees  lachees  centre  votre  agent 
a  Portsmouth  ont  excite  sa  cole-re  au  point  de  faire  depouiller 
150  Frangais  et  de  leur  faire  donner  la  bastonnade  avec  si  peu 
de  managements  que  quelques-uns  sont  morts  des  suites  de 
cette  barbare  punition.  Quant  a  la  nourriture  elle  est  asses 
decriee  par  tous  les  Francais  qui  reviennent  d'Angleterre,  et  il 
est  vray  que  si  on  leur  distribue  souvent  du  biscuit  aussy  mal 
fabrique  que  celuy  que  quelques-uns  d'eux  ont  raporte,  et  que 

1''ay  veu,  1'usage  n'en  peut  estre  que  desagreable  et  pernicieux. 
Is  disent  aussy  que  la  viande  ne  vaut  pas  mieux,  et  qu'il  en 
est  de  m£me  de  toutes  les  especes  de  denrees. 

'  Je  ne  1'attribue  qu'a  1'infidelite  et  a  1'avidite  des  entre- 
preneurs/ 


INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS  7 

In  1758,  as  a  reply  to  complaints  made  to  the  British  Govern- 
ment about  the  treatment  of  prisoners  at  Portchester,  a  report 
to  the  following  effect  was  made  by  De  Kergan,  an  officer  of  the 
French  East  India  Company  on  parole. 

1.  The  chief  punishment  is  the  cachot,  which  is  wholesomely 
situated  above  ground  near  the  entrance  gate.     It  is  untrue 
that  prisoners  are  placed  there  in  irons. 

2.  Prisoners  recaptured  after  escape  are  put  in  the  cachot 
upon  half-rations  until   the  expenses  of  recapture  and  the 
reward  paid  for  the  same  are  made  up,  but  prisoners  are  never 
deprived  of    the   French    King's    Bounty    or    debarred    the 
market. 

3.  Only  three  men  have  lost  everything  as  a  result  of  re- 
capture :    one  was  a  lieutenant  who  had  broken  parole  from 
Petersfield  ;   the  others  were  two  sailors  who  defended  them- 
selves against  Hambledon  people  who  tried  to  capture  them, 
and  killed  one. 

4.  It  is  utterly  untrue  that  150  prisoners  have  been  flogged. 

5.  The  biscuit  sent  to  M.  de  Moras  as  a  specimen  of  the 
prison  food  did  not  come  from  Portchester. 

6.  He  reports  well  upon  the  food  served  out  to  the  prisoners. 

7.  All  complaints  are  listened  to. 

From  the  fact  that  De  Kergan  was  shortly  afterwards  allowed 
to  go  home  to  France  with  his  servant,  it  is  difficult  to  resist 
the  conclusion  that  it  had  been  '  arranged  '  by  the  British 
authorities  that  he  should  have  been  selected  to  make  the 
above  report  under  promise  of  reward. 

De  Moras  adds  that  although  the  number  of  English  prisoners 
multiplies  continually,  it  is  owing  to  the  slackness  of  exchange. 
On  the  part  of  France,  he  declares  that  they  are  all  well  treated, 
and  asserts  that  the  balance  of  prisoners  due  to  France  is  800. 
Complaints  from  France  about  the  non-distribution  of  the 
King's  Bounty  are  continued  during  the  year  1758  and  the 
following  years,  and  a  proposal  is  made  that  agents  should  be 
stationed  in  each  county  to  attend  solely  to  the  proper  arrange- 
ment and  distribution  of  all  charitable  contributions,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  prisoners. 

'  C'est  le  seul  mo  yen/  says  De  Moras, '  qui  puisse  faire  gouter 


8  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

aux  officiers  et  aux  soldats  que  le  sort  des  armes  a  prives  de  la 
liberte  quelqu'apparence  des  avantages  de  la  Paix  au  milieu 
me'me  des  malheurs  de  la  guerre.' 

More  complaints  from  our  side  brought  an  answer  in  which 
lay  the  kernel  of  the  whole  matter  :  '  L'exactitude  des  inferieurs 
demande  a  estre  souvent  reveillee.' 

In  1759  the  care  of  the  French  prisoners  in  England  prac- 
tically devolved  entirely  upon  us,  as  their  Government  unac- 
countably withdrew  all  support.  The  natural  consequence  was 
that  their  condition  became  pitiable  in  the  extreme — so  much 
so  that  public  subscriptions  were  opened  on  behalf  of  the  poor 
fellows.  A  London  Committee  sat  at  the  Crown  and  Anchor  in 
the  Strand,  and  the  sum  of  £7,000  was  collected.  With  this 
sum  were  sent  to  different  prisons  3,131  great  coats,  2,034  waist- 
coats, 3,185  pairs  of  shoes,  3,054  pairs  of  breeches,  6,146  shirts, 
3,006  caps,  and  3,134  pairs  of  stockings.  Letters  of  grateful 
acknowledgement  and  thanks  were  received  from  most  of  the 
depots.  The  following  will  serve  as  a  specimen. 

'  Cornwall  Man-of-War  at  Chatham,  13.  i.  1760. 
'  Nous  les  prisonniers  de  guerre  a  bord  du  vaisseau  du  Roi 
le  "Cornwall",  dans  la  riviere  de  Chatham,  reconnoissons 
d'avoir  regu  chacun  par  les  mains  de  notre  bon  commandant 
Guillaume  Lefebre  des  hardes,  consistant  d'un  surtout,  une 
chemise,  un  bonnet,  une  paire  de  bas,  de  souliers  et  de  coulottes. 
Nous  prions  MM.  les  Anglais  qui  ont  eu  cette  bonte  pour 
infortunes  presque  depourvus  auparavant  de  quoi  se  garantir 
de  la  severite  de  la  saison,  et  de  grandes  souffrances  par  le 
froid,  d'etre  persuades  de  notre  vive  reconnoissance  qui  ne 
s'oubliera  pas.' 

The  letter  of  thanks  from  Sissinghurst  contains  excuses  for 
some  men  who  had  sold  the  clothes  thus  supplied  for  urgent 
necessaries,  such  as  tobacco  and  the  postage  of  letters,  and 
praying  for  the  remission  of  their  punishment  by  being  put  on 
half-rations.  From  Helston,  the  collector,  W.  Sandys,  wrote 
that  '  in  spite  of  vulgar  prejudices  which  were  opposed  to 
this  charity,  and  the  violent  clamours  raised  against  it  by  the 
author  of  a  letter  who  threw  on  its  promoters  the  accumulated 
reproach  of  Traitors,  Jacobites  and  Enemies  to  their  country,' 
he  sent  £32. 


INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS  9 

It  was  in  allusion  to  the  above  act  of  public  benevolence  that 
Goldsmith  wrote  in  the  twenty-third  letter  of  the  Citizen  of  the 
World  :  '  When  I  cast  my  eye  over  the  list  of  those  who  con- 
tributed on  this  occasion,  I  find  the  names  almost  entirely 
English  ;  scarce  one  foreigner  appears  among  the  number  .  .  . 
I  am  particularly  struck  with  one  who  writes  these  words  upon 
the  paper  enclosing  his  benefaction  :  ' '  The  mite  of  an  English- 
man, a  citizen  of  the  world,  to  Frenchmen,  prisoners  of  war, 
and  naked." 

Even  abroad  this  kindly  spirit  was  appreciated,  as  appears 
from  the  following  extract  from  a  contemporary  Brussels 
gazette  : 

'  The  animosity  of  the  English  against  the  French  decreases. 
They  are  now  supposed  to  hate  only  those  French  who  are 
in  arms.  A  subscription  is  opened  in  the  several  towns  and 
countries  for  clothing  the  French  prisoners  now  in  England, 
and  the  example  has  been  followed  in  the  capital.' 

In  1760  the  French  Government  thus  replied  to  complaints 
on  our  side  about  the  ill-treatment  of  British  prisoners  at  Brest. 

'  The  castle  at  Brest  has  a  casemate  22  feet  high,  22  feet 
broad,  and  82  long.  It  is  very  dry,  having  been  planked 
especially  and  has  large  windows.  Prisoners  are  allowed  to 
go  out  from  morning  till  evening  in  a  large  "meadow  "  [pro- 
bably an  ironical  fancy  name  for  the  exercising  yard,  similar 
to  the  name  of  "  Park"  given  to  the  open  space  on  the  prison 
hulks].  They  have  the  same  food  as  the  men  on  the  Royal 
ships  :  8  ounces  of  meat — a  small  measure  but  equal  to  the 
English  prison  ration — the  same  wine  as  on  the  Royal  ships, 
which  is  incomparably  superior  to  the  small  beer  of  England. 
Every  day  an  examination  of  the  prisoners  is  made  by  the 
Commissioner  of  the  Prison,  an  interpreter  and  a  representative 
of  the  prisoners.  Bedding  straw  is  changed  every  fifteen  days, 
exactly  as  in  the  Royal  Barracks.' 

Here  it  is  clear  that  the  Frenchman  did  exactly  as  the 
Englishman  had  done.  Having  to  give  a  reply  to  a  com- 
plaint he  copied  out  the  Regulation  and  sent  it,  a  formal  piece 
of  humbug  which  perhaps  deceived  and  satisfied  such  ;  men 
in  the  street  as  bothered  their  heads  about  the  fate  of  their 
countrymen,  but  which  left  the  latter  in  exactly  the  same 
plight  as  before. 


io  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

At  any  rate,  with  or  without  foundation,  the  general 
impression  in  England  at  this  time,  about  1760,  was  that  such 
Englishmen  as  were  unfortunate  enough  to  fall  into  French 
hands  were  very  badly  treated.  Beatson  in  his  Naval  and 
Military  Memoirs  *  says  : 

'  The  enemy  having  swarms  of  small  privateers  at  sea, 
captured  no  less  than  330  of  the  British  ships.  ...  It  is  to  be 
lamented  that  some  of  their  privateers  exercised  horrid  bar- 
barities on  their  prisoners,  being  the  crews  of  such  ships  as 
had  presumed  to  make  resistance,  and  who  were  afterwards 
obliged  to  submit :  Conduct  that  would  have  disgraced  the 
most  infamous  pirate  ;  and  it  would  have  redounded  much 
to  the  credit  of  the  Court  of  France  to  have  made  public 
examples  of  those  who  behaved  in  this  manner.  I  am  afraid, 
likewise,  that  there  was  but  too  much  reason  for  complaint 
of  ill-treatment  to  the  British  subjects,  even  after  they  were 
landed  in  France  and  sent  to  prison.  Of  this,  indeed,  several 
affidavits  were  made  by  the  sufferers  when  they  returned  to 
England. 

'  On  the  contrary,  the  conduct  of  Great  Britain  was  a  strik- 
ing example  of  their  kindness  and  humanity  to  such  unfor- 
tunate persons  as  were  made  prisoners  of  war.  The  prisons 
were  situated  in  wholesome  places,  and  subject  to  public 
inspection,  and  the  prisoners  had  every  favour  shown  them 
that  prudence  would  admit  of.  From  the  greatness  of  their 
number,  it  is  true,  they  frequently  remained  long  in  confine- 
ment before  they  could  be  exchanged  in  terms  of  the  cartel, 
by  which  their  clothes  were  reduced  to  a  very  bad  state, 
many  of  them,  indeed,  almost  naked,  and  suffered  much 
from  the  inclemency  of  the  weather.  No  sooner,  however, 
was  their  miserable  condition  in  this  respect  made  known, 
than  subscriptions  for  their  relief  were  opened  at  several 
of  the  principal  banking-houses  in  London,  by  which  very 
great  sums  were  procured,  and  immediately  applied  in  pur- 
chasing necessaries  for  those  who  stood  in  the  greatest  need 
of  them. 

'  The  bad  state  of  the  finances  of  France  did  not  permit  that 
kingdom  to  continue  the  allowance  they  formerly  granted  for 
the  maintenance  of  their  subjects  who  might  become  prisoners 
of  war  ;  but  the  nation  who  had  acquired  so  much  glory  in 
overcoming  them,  had  also  the  generosity  to  maintain  such 
of  these  unfortunate  men  as  were  in  her  power  at  the  public 
expense.' 

1  Vol.  iii.  (1790  ed.),  pp.  66-7. 


INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS  n 

The  American  prisoners  conveyed  to  England  during  the 
War  of  Independence,  seem  to  have  been  regarded  quite  as 
unworthy  of  proper  treatment.  On  April  2,  1777,  Benjamin 
Franklin  and  Silas  Deane  wrote  from  Paris  to  Lord  Stormont, 
British  Ambassador  in  Paris,  on  the  subject  of  the  ill-treatment 
of  American  prisoners  in  England,  and  said  that  severe  reprisals 
would  be  justifiable.  On  this  a  writer  in  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  October  1777,  commented  : 

'  It  must  certainly  be  a  matter  of  some  difficulty  to  dispose 
of  such  a  number  of  prisoners  as  are  daily  taken  from  captured 
American  privateers  ;  some  of  whom  have  from  100  to  300 
men  on  board,  few  less  than  70  or  80  ;  against  whom  the 
Americans  can  have  no  adequate  number  to  exchange.  .  .  . 
Were  the  privateersmen,  therefore,  to  be  treated  as  prisoners 
of  war,  our  gaols  would  be  too  few  to  hold  them.  What  then 
is  to  be  done  ?  Not  indeed  to  load  them  with  chains,  or  force 
them  with  stripes,  famine,  or  other  cruelties,  as  the  letter 
charges,  to  enlist  in  Government  service  ;  but  to  allow  them 
the  same  encouragement  with  other  subjects  to  enter  on 
board  the  King's  ships,  and  then  they  would  have  no  plea 
to  complain  of  hard  usage.' 

The  letter  referred  to,  sent  on  by  Stormont  to  Lord  North, 
contained  the  chief  grievance  that  '  stripes  had  been  inflicted 
on  some  to  make  them  commit  the  deepest  of  all  crimes — the 
fighting  against  the  liberties  of  their  country '.  The  reply  to 
this  was  the  stereotyped  one  '  that  all  possible  was  done  for  the 
prisoners  :  that  they  were  permitted  to  receive  charitable 
donations,  and  that  complaints  were  attended  to  promptly '. 
A  contemporary  number  of  the  London  Packet  contains  a  list 
of  subscriptions  for  the  benefit  of  the  American  prisoners 
amounting  to  £4,600.  The  Committee  for  the  collection  and 
administration  of  this  money,  who  sat  at  the  King's  Arms  at 
Cornhill,  seem  to  have  occupied  themselves  further,  for  in  1778 
they  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  one  Ebenezer  Smith  Platt, 
a  Georgia  merchant,  had  been  put  in  Newgate,  and  ironed, 
and  placed  in  that  part  of  the  prison  occupied  by  thieves, 
highwaymen,  housebreakers,  and  murderers,  without  any 
allowance  for  food  or  clothes,  and  must  have  perished  but 
for  private  benevolence. 


12  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

The  most  absurd  reports  of  the  brutal  treatment  of  French 
prisoners  in  England  were  circulated  in  France.  It  was  gravely 
reported  to  the  Directory  that  English  doctors  felt  the  pulses 
of  French  prisoner  patients  with  the  ends  of  their  canes ;  that 
prisoners  were  killed  en  masse  when  subsistence  became  dim- 
cult  ;  that  large  numbers  were  punished  for  the  faults  of 
individuals ;  and  that  the  mortality  among  them  was  appalling. 
The  result  was  that  the  Directory  sent  over  M.  Vochez  to 
inquire  into  matters.  The  gross  calumnies  were  exposed  to 
him  ;  he  was  allowed  free  access  to  prisons  and  prison  ships  ; 
it  was  proved  to  him  that  out  of  an  average  total  of  4,500 
prisoners  on  the  hulks  at  Portsmouth  only  six  had  died  during 
the  past  quarter,  and,  expressing  himself  as  convinced,  he 
returned,  promising  to  report  to  the  French  minister  the  '  gross 
misrepresentations  which  had  been  made  to  him  '. 

A  good  specimen  of  the  sort  of  report  which  sent  M.  Vochez 
over  to  England  is  the  address  of  M.  Riou  to  the  Council  of 
Five  Hundred  of  the  5th  of  Pluviose  of  the  year  6 — that  is 
January  25,  1798. 

After  a  violent  tirade  against  England  and  her  evil  sway  in 
the  world,  he  goes  into  details.  He  says  that  when  his  Govern- 
ment complained  of  the  promiscuous  herding  together  of 
officers  and  men  as  prisoners  of  war,  the  English  reply  was : 
'  You  are  republicans.  You  want  equality,  therefore  we  treat 
you  here  equally.'  Alluding  to  the  harsh  treatment  of  priva- 
teersmen  taken  prisoners,  he  declares  it  is  because  they  do  more 
harm  to  England  by  striking  at  her  commerce  than  any  fleets 
or  armies.  He  brings  up  the  usual  complaints  about  bad  and 
insanitary  prisons,  insufficient  food,  and  the  shameful  treat- 
ment of  officers  on  parole  by  the  country  people.  One  hundred 
Nantes  captains  and  officers  had  told  him  that  prisoners  were 
confined  in  parties  of  seventy-two  in  huts  seventeen  feet  long 
and  ten  feet  high,  some  of  them  being  merely  cellars  in  the 
hillside  ;  that  the  water  soaked  through  hammocks,  straw,  and 
bread  ;  that  there  was  no  air,  that  all  this  was  light  suffering 
compared  with  the  treatment  they  received  daily  from  agents, 
officers,  soldiers,  and  jailors,  who  on  the  slightest  pretext  fired 
upon  the  prisoners.  '  Un  jour,  a  Plymouth  merne,  un  prison- 
nier  ajuste  par  un  soldat  fut  tue.  On  envoie  chercher  le  com- 


INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS  13 

missaire.  II  vient :  souleve  le  cadavre  :  on  lui  demande 
justice  ;  il  repond  :  "  C'est  un  Francais,"  et  se  retire  !  ' 

Alluding  to  the  precautionary  order  which  had  been  recently 
given  in  England  that  all  parole  should  cease,  and  that  all 
officers  on  parole  should  be  sent  to  prisons  and  prison  ships,  he 
says  :  '  There  is  now  no  parole  for  officers.  All  are  pell-mell 
together,  of  all  ranks  and  of  both  sexes.  A  woman  was 
delivered  of  a  child,  she  was  left  forty-eight  hours  without 
attention,  and  even  a  glass  of  water  was  denied  her.  Even  the 
body  of  a  dead  dog  was  fought  for  by  the  famished  prisoners.' 

He  then  describes  in  glowing  terms  the  treatment  of  English 
prisoners  in  France  ;  he  suggests  a  tax  for  the  relief  of  the 
French  prisoners  of  war,  a  '  taxe  d'humanite,'  being  one-third 
of  the  ordinary  sumptuary  tax,  and  winds  up  his  attack  : 

'  Frangais  !  Vous  avez  depose  une  foule  d'offrandes  sur 
1'autel  de  la  Patrie  !  Ce  ne  sera  pas  tromper  vos  intentions 
que  de  les  employer  au  soulagement  de  Thumanite  souffrante. 
Vous  voulez  combattre  1'Angleterre  :  eh  bien  !  Soulagez  les 
victimes  ;  conservez  22,000  Republicans  qui  un  jour  tourneront 
contre  leurs  oppresseurs  leurs  bras  diriges  par  la  Vengeance  ! 
N'oubliez  pas  que  le  Gouvernement  anglais  medite  la  ruine 
de  la  Republique  ;  que,  familiarise  avec  tous  les  crimes,  il  en 
inventera  de  nouveaux  pour  essayer  de  la  renverser ;  mais 
elle  restera  triomphante,  et  le  Gouvernement  anglais  sera 
detruit  !  Attaquez  ce  monstre  !  II  expirera  sous  vos  coups  ! 
Quirot,  Le  Clerc  (Maine-et-Loire) ,  Riou.' 

The  Times  of  January  8,  1798,  comments  severely  upon  the 
frequent  tirades  of  the  Directory,  ridiculing  the  attitude  of 
a  Government  remarkable  above  all  others  for  its  despotic 
character  and  its  wholesale  violation  of  the  common  rights 
of  man,  as  a  champion  of  philanthropy,  of  morals,  and  of 
humanity,  and  its  appeal  to  all  nations  to  unite  against  the 
only  country  which  protects  the  victims  of  Directorial  anarchy. 
After  declaring  that  the  prisoners  in  England  are  treated  better 
than  prisoners  of  war  ever  were  treated  before,  a  fact  admitted 
by  all  reasonable  Frenchmen,  the  writer  says  : 

'  And  yet  the  Directory  dares  to  state  officially  in  the  face 
of  Europe  that  the  Cabinet  of  St.  James  has  resolved  to 
withdraw  all  means  of  subsistence  from  22,000  Republican 
prisoners  in  England,  and  has  shut  them  up  in  dungeons,  as 


14  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

if  such  a  measure,  supposing  it  even  to  be  true,  could  have  any 
other  object  than  to  force  the  French  Government  to  provide 
for  the  sustenance  of  the  French  prisoners  in  this  country  in 
the  same  manner  as  our  Government  does  with  respect  to  the 
English  prisoners  in  France.' 

In  February  1798  the  French  Directory  announced  through 
Barras,  the  president,  that  it  would  undertake  the  subsistence 
•of  the  French  prisoners  in  England,  meaning  by  subsistence, 
provisions,  clothing,  medical  attendance,  and  to  make  good  all 
depredations  by  prisoners. 

The  Times  of  February  27  said  : 

'  The  firm  conduct  of  our  Government  in  refusing  any 
longer  to  make  advances  for  the  maintenance  of  French 
prisoners,  has  had  the  good  effect  of  obliging  the  French 
Directory  to  come  forward  with  the  necessary  supplies,  and 
as  the  French  agents  have  now  the  full  management  of  this 
concern,  we  shall  no  longer  be  subject  to  their  odious  calumnies 
against  the  humanity  of  this  country.' 

Directly  the  French  Government  took  over  the  task  of 
feeding  and  clothing  the  prisoners  in  England,  they  reduced 
the  daily  rations  by  one  quarter.  This  irritated  the  prisoners 
extremely,  and  it  was  said  by  them  that  they  preferred  the 
'  atrocious  cruelty  of  the  despot  of  London  to  the  humanity 
and  measures  of  the  Five  Directors  of  Paris '.  A  correspondent 
-of  The  Times  of  March  16,  1798,  signing  himself  '  Director ', 
said  that  under  the  previous  British  victualling  regime,  a 
prisoner  on  his  release  showed  the  sum  of  four  guineas  which 
he  had  made  by  the  sale  of  superfluous  provisions,  and  the 
•same  writer  declared  that  it  had  come  to  his  knowledge  that 
the  new  French  provision  agent  had  made  overtures  to  the  old 
British  contractor  to  supply  inferior  meat. 

In  1798  it  was  resolved  in  the  House  of  Commons  that  an 
inquiry  should  be  made  to  establish  the  truth  or  the  reverse  of 
the  French  complaints  about  the  treatment  of  French  prisoners 
in  England.  It  was  stated  that  the  reports  spread  about  in 
France  were  purposely  exaggerated  in  order  to  inflame  national 
•feeling  against  Britain.  Mr.  Huskisson  confirmed  this  and 
.alluded  to  the  abominable  treatment  of  Sir  Sydney  Smith. 

Colonel  Stanley  affirmed  that  the  prisoners  were  generally 


INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS  15 

well  treated  :  he  had  lately  been  in  Liverpool  where  6,000  were 
confined,  and  found  the  officers  had  every  indulgence,  three 
billiard  tables,  and  that  they  often  performed  plays. 

In  May  1798  the  Report  was  drawn  up.  After  hearing 
evidence  and  making  every  inquiry  it  was  found  that  the 
French  complaints  were  gross  exaggerations  ;  the  Commis- 
sioners observed  that  '  our  prisoners  in  France  were  treated 
with  a  degree  of  inhumanity  and  rigour  unknown  in  any  former 
war,  and  unprecedented  in  the  annals  of  civilized  nations  ',  and 
reiterated  the  complaint  that  all  British  proposals  for  the 
exchange  of  prisoners  were  rejected. 

The  Report  stated  that  there  was  good  medical  attendance 
given  to  prisoners  in  Britain  ;  that  there  were  constant  checks 
on  fraud  by  contractors  and  officials  ;  that  the  prisoners 
appointed  their  own  inspector  of  rations  ;  that  fraudulent 
contractors  were  proceeded  against,  and  punished,  giving  as 
a  recent  example,  a  Plymouth  contractor  who,  having  failed 
in  his  engagements  to  supply  the  prisons  with  good  provisions 
of  full  weight,  was  imprisoned  for  six  months  and  fined  £300. 

The  Report  stated  that  the  daily  scale  of  provisions  for 
prisoners  in  health  was  :  one  and  a  half  pounds  of  bread,  three- 
quarters  of  a  pound  of  beef,  one-third  of  an  ounce  of  salt,  and 
one  quart  of  beer,  except  on  Saturdays,  when  four  ounces  of 
butter  and  six  ounces  of  cheese  were  substituted ;  and  on 
four  days  of  the  week  half  a  pint  of  pease,  or  in  lieu  one 
pound  of  cabbage  stripped  from  the  stalk. 

The  prisoners  selected  their  own  surgeons  if  they  chose,  and 
the  same  diet  was  given  to  sick  prisoners  as  to  sick  British 
seamen.  Each  man  was  provided  with  a  hammock,  a  palliasse, 
a  bolster  and  a  blanket,  the  straw  of  bolsters  and  palliasses 
being  frequently  changed. 

A  letter  written  in  1793  to  the  Supplement  of  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  holds  good  for  1798,  as  to  the  belief  of  the  man  in 
the  street  that  the  foregoing  liberal  and  humane  regulations 
were  worth  more  than  the  paper  they  were  written  on  : 

'  The  Sans  Culottes  we  hold  in  prison  never  lived  so  well 
in  their  lives  before  :  they  are  allowed  every  day  three-quarters 
•of  a  pound  of  good  beef,  two  pounds  of  bread  with  all  the 
finest  of  the  flour  in  it,  the  bran  alone  being  extracted,  two 


16  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

quarts  of  strong  well-relished  soup,  one  pound  of  cabbage 
with  the  heart  included,  and  a  quart  of  good  beer.  As  a 
Frenchman  can  live  upon  one  pound  of  meat  for  a  week,  this 
allowance  is  over-plenteous,  and  the  prisoners  sell  more  than 
half  of  it.  With  the  money  so  obtained  they  buy  as  much 
strong  beer  as  they  can  get  leave  to  have  brought  them.  .  .  . 
Such  is  the  manner  in  which  Englishmen  are  at  this  juncture 
treating  their  natural,  inveterate,  and  unalterable  enemies.' 

On  December  22,  1799,  the  French  Government — now  the 
Consulate — repudiated  the  arrangement  made  by  the  Directory 
for  the  subsistence  of  French  war-prisoners  in  England,  and  the 
British  Government  was  obliged  to  undertake  the  task,  the 
Transport  Office  now  replacing  the  old  '  Sick  and  Hurt '  Office. 
So  the  prisoner  committees  in  the  depots  and  prisons  were 
abolished,  and  all  persons  who,  under  the  previous  arrangement, 
were  under  the  French  agents  and  contractors,  and  as  such  had 
been  allowed  passports,  returned  to  their  original  prisoner  status. 

The  Duke  of  Portland  wrote  thus  to  the  Admiralty  : 

'  It  is  less  necessary  on  this  occasion  to  recall  the  circum- 
stances which  gave  rise  to  the  arrangement  under  which  the 
two  Governments  agreed  to  provide  for  the  wants  of  their 
respective  subjects  during  their  detention,  as  they  have  been 
submitted  to  Parliament  and  published  to  the  world  in  refuta- 
tion of  the  false  and  unwarrantable  assertions  brought  forward 
by  the  French  Government  on  this  subject  ;  but  His  Majesty 
cannot  witness  the  termination  of  an  arrangement  founded 
on  the  fairest  principles  of  Justice  and  Protection  due  by  the 
Powers  of  War  to  their  respective  Prisoners,  and  proved  by 
experience  to  be  the  best  calculated  to  provide  for  their 
comfort,  without  protesting  against  the  departure  (on  the 
part  of  the  French  Government)  from  an  agreement  entered 
into  between  the  two  countries,  and  which  tended  so  materially 
to  mitigate  the  Calamities  of  War.  To  prevent  this  effect  as 
much  as  possible  with  respect  to  the  British  prisoners  now  in 
France,  it  is  His  Majesty's  pleasure  that  Capt.  Cotes  should 
be  instructed  to  ascertain  exactly  the  rate  of  daily  allowance 
made  to  each  man  by  the  French  Government,  and  that  he 
should  take  care  to  supply  at  the  expense  of  this  country  any 
difference  that  may  exist  between  such  allowance  and  what 
was  issued  by  him  under  the  late  arrangement. 

'  With  respect  to  all  the  prisoners  not  on  Parole  in  this 
country,  it  is  His  Majesty's  command  that  from  the  date  of 
the  French  agent  ceasing  to  supply  them,  the  Commissioners 


INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS  17 

of  Transports  and  for  taking  care  of  prisoners  of  war  shall 
furnish  them  immediately  with  the  same  ration  of  Provisions 
as  were  granted  before  the  late  arrangement  took  place.' 

(Not  clothing,  as  this  had  always  been  supplied  by  the  French 
Government.) 

Previous  to  this  repudiatory  act  of  France,  the  British 
Government  made  a  similar  proposal  to  Holland,  accompanying 
it  with  the  following  remarks,  which  certainly  seem  to  point  to 
a  desire  to  do  the  best  possible  to  minimize  the  misery  of  the 
unfortunate  men. 

'  We  trust  that  your  Government  will  not  reject  so  humane 
a  proposition,  which,  if  accepted,  will,  of  course,  preclude  the 
possibility  of  complaints  or  recriminations  between  the  respec- 
tive Governments,  and  probably  meliorate  the  fate  of  every 
individual  to  which  it  relates.  In  health  their  mode  of  living 
will  be  more  conformable  to  their  former  habits.  In  sickness 
they  will  be  less  apt  to  mistrust  the  skill  of  their  attendants, 
or  to  question  the  interest  they  may  take  in  their  preservation. 
On  all  occasions  they  would  be  relieved  from  the  suspicion 
that  the  Hand  which  supplies  their  wants  and  ministers  to 
their  comfort,  is  directed  by  that  spirit  of  Hostility  which  is 
too  often  the  consequence  of  the  Prejudice  and  Enmity  excited 
by  the  State  of  War  between  Nations.' 

However,  the  Dutch  Government,  no  doubt  acting  under 
orders  from  without,  replied  that  it  was  impossible  to  comply. 
So  Dutch  prisoners  became  also  the  objects  of  our  national 
charity. 

The  Moniteur  thus  defended  the  Act  of  Repudiation  : 

'  The  notification  of  the  abandonment  by  the  French 
Government  of  the  support  of  French  prisoners  in  England 
is  in  conformity  with  the  common  customs  of  war,  and  is  an 
act  of  wise  administration  and  good  policy.  The  old  Directory 
is  perhaps  the  first  Government  which  set  the  example  of 
a  belligerent  power  supporting  its  prisoners  upon  the  territories 
of  its  enemies  .  .  .  Men  must  have  seen  in  this  new  arrangement 
a  sort  of  insult.  The  English  papers  of  that  time  were  filled 
with  bitter  complaints,  with  almost  official  justification  of  this 
conduct,  supported  by  most  authentic  proofs.  Well-informed 
men  saw  with  surprise  the  French  Government  abandon  itself 
blindly  to  these  impolitic  suggestions,  release  the  English  from 
the  expense  and  embarrassment  of  making  burthensome 


i8  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

advances,  exhaust  of  its  own  accord  the  remains  of  its  specie 
in  order  to  send  it  to  England ;  deprive  themselves  of  the 
pecuniary  resources  of  which  they  stood  in  such  pressing  need, 
in  order  to  add  to  the  pecuniary  resources  of  its  enemies  ; 
and,  in  short,  to  support  the  enormous  expenses  of  adminis- 
tration. 

'  The  English,  while  they  exclaimed  against  the  injustice 
of  the  accusation,  gathered  with  pleasure  the  fruits  of  this 
error  of  the  Directory ;  though  our  old  Monarchical  Govern- 
ment left  England  during  the  whole  war  to  support  the  expenses 
of  the  prisoners,  and  did  not  liquidate  the  balance  until  the 
return  of  Peace,  and  consequently  of  circulation,  credit, 
commerce,  and  plenty,  rendered  the  payment  more  easy. 
The  generally  received  custom  of  leaving  to  the  humanity  of 
belligerent  nations  the  care  of  protecting  and  supporting 
prisoners  marks  the  progress  of  civilization.' 

The  results  of  repudiation  by  France  of  the  care  of  French 
prisoners  in  England  were  not  long  in  showing  themselves. 

The  agent  at  Portchester  Castle  wrote  to  the  Transport 
Office: 

'August,    1800. 

'  GENTLEMEN  : 

'I  am  under  the  necessity  of  laying  before  you  the 
miserable  situation  of  a  great  number  of  Prisoners  at  this 
Depot  for  want  of  clothing.  Many  of  them  are  entirely  naked, 
and  others  have  to  cut  up  their  hammocks  to  cover  themselves. 
Their  situation  is  such,  that  if  not  provided  with  these  articles 
before  the  cold  weather  commences  they  must  inevitably 
perish. 

'  I  beg  to  observe  that  it  is  nearly  eighteen  months  since 
they  were  furnished  with  any  article  of  wearing  apparel  by 
the  French  Government,  and  then  only  a  single  shirt  to  each 
suit  which  must  necessarily  have  been  worn  out  long  since. 

JOHN  HOLMWOOD.' 

And  again,  later  on  : 

'  The  prisoners  are  reduced  to  a  state  of  dreadful  meagreness. 
A  great  number  of  them  have  the  appearance  of  walking 
skeletons.  One  has  been  found  dead  in  his  hammock,  and 
another  fell  out  from  mere  debility  and  was  killed  by  the  fall. 
The  great  part  of  those  sent  to  the  hospital  die  in  a  short  time, 
others  as  soon  as  they  are  received  there.' 

These  were  written  in  consequence  of  letters  of  complaint 
from  prisoners.  The  Agent  in  France  for  prisoners  of  war  in 
England,  Niou,  was  communicated  with,  but  no  reply  came. 


INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS  19 

Otto,  the  Commissioner  of  the  Republic  in  England,  however, 
said  that  as  the  French  Government  clothed  British  prisoners, 
although  they  were  not  exactly  British  prisoners  but  allies,  it  was 
our  duty  to  clothe  French  prisoners.  The  British  Government 
denied  this,  sa}dng  that  we  clothed  our  allies  when  prisoners 
abroad,  and  ascribed  much  of  the  misery  among  the  French 
prisoners  to  their  irrepressible  gambling  habits.  Dundas  wrote 
a  long  letter  to  the  French  Commissioners  about  the  neglect  of 
their  Government,  but  added  that  out  of  sheer  compassion  the 
British  Government  would  supply  the  French  prisoners  with 
sufficient  clothing.  Lord  Malmesbury  hinted  that  the  prisoners 
were  refused  the  chance  of  redress  by  the  difficulty  of  gaining 
access  to  their  Commissary,  which  Grenville  stated  was  abso- 
lutely untrue,  and  that  the  commonest  soldier  or  sailor  had 
entire  freedom  of  access  to  his  representative. 

On  October  29,  1800,  Otto,  the  French  Commissioner  in 
England,  wrote  : 

'  My  letter  from  Liverpool  states  that  the  number  of  deaths 
during  the  past  month  has  greatly  exceeded  that  of  four 
previous  months,  even  when  the  depot  contained  twice  the 
number  of  prisoners.  This  sudden  mortality  which  com- 
menced at  the  close  of  last  month,  is  the  consequence  of  the 
first  approach  of  cold  weather,  all,  without  exception,  having 
failed  from  debility.  The  same  fate  awaits  many  more  of 
these  unfortunate  beings,  already  half  starved  from  want  of 
proper  food,  and  obliged  to  sleep  upon  a  damp  pavement  or 
a  few  handfuls  of  rotten  straw.  Hunger  and  their  own  im- 
prudence, deprived  them  of  their  clothes,  and  now  the  effect 
of  the  cold  weather  obliges  them  to  part  with  a  share  of  their 
scanty  subsistence  to  procure  clothing.  In  one  word,  their 
only  hope  is  a  change  in  their  situation  or  death/ 

In  this  account  Otto  admits  that  the  prisoners'  '  imprudence' 
has  largely  brought  about  the  state  of  affairs.  Rupert  George, 
Ambrose  Serle,  and  John  Schenck,  the  Transport  Office  Com- 
missioners who  had  been  sent  to  inquire,  report  confirming  the 
misery,  and  re-affirm  its  chief  cause.  About  Stapleton  Prison 
they  say : 

'  Those  who  are  not  quite  ragged  and  half  naked,  are  generally 
very  dirty  in  their  scanty  apparel,  and  make  a  worse  appear- 
ance as  to  health  than  they  would  do  had  they  the  power  in 
such  a  dress  to  be  clean.  Profligacy  and  gambling  add  to  the 

C2 


20  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

distress  of  many,  and  it  is  perhaps  impossible  to  prevent  or 
restrain  this  spirit,  which  can  exercise  itself  in  corners.  The 
Dutch  prisoners  at  Stapleton  (1800),  being  clothed  by  the  Dutch 
Government  are  in  much  better  health  than  the  French.' 

The  Commissioners  sent  to  Otto  an  extract  of  a  letter  from 
Forton,  near  Gosport.  Griffin,  the  prison  surgeon,  says  that 
'  several  prisoners  have  been  received  into  the  Hospital  in  a 
state  of  great  debility  owing  to  their  having  disposed  of  their 
ration  of  provisions  for  a  week,  a  fortnight,  and  in  some  in- 
stances for  a  month  at  a  time.  We  have  felt  it  our  duty  to 
direct  that  such  persons  as  may  be  discovered  to  have  been 
concerned  in  purchasing  any  article  of  provision,  clothing  or 
bedding,  of  another  prisoner,  should  be  confined  in  the  Black 
Hole  and  kept  on  short  allowance  for  ten  days  and  also  be 
marked  as  having  forfeited  their  turn  of  exchange.' 

Callous,  almost  brutal,  according  to  our  modern  standards, 
as  wras  the  general  character  of  the  period  covered  by  this 
history,  it  must  not  be  inferred  therefrom  that  all  sympathy 
was  withheld  from  the  unfortunate  men  condemned  to  be 
prisoners  on  our  shores.  We  have  seen  how  generously  the 
British  public  responded  to  the  call  for  aid  in  the  cases  of 
the  French  prisoners  of  1759,  and  of  the  Americans  of  1778 ; 
we  shall  see  in  the  progress  of  this  history  how  very  largely 
the  heart  of  the  country  people  of  Britain  went  out  to  the 
prisoners  living  on  parole  amongst  them,  and  I  think  my 
readers  may  accept  a  letter  which  I  am  about  to  put  before 
them  as  evidence  that  a  considerable  section  of  the  British 
public  was  of  opinion  that  the  theory  and  practice  of  our 
system  with  regard  to  prisoners  of  war  was  not  merely  wrong, 
but  wicked,  and  that  very  drastic  reform  was  most  urgently 
needed. 

Some  readers  may  share  the  opinion  of  the  French  General 
Fillet,  which  I  append  to  the  letter,  that  the  whole  matter — the 
writing  of  the  anonymous  letter,  and  the  prosecution  and 
punishment  of  the  newspaper  editor  who  published  it,  was  a 
trick  of  the  Government  to  blind  the  public  eye  to  facts,  and 
that  the  fact  that  the  Government  should  have  been  driven  to 
have  recourse  to  it,  pointed  to  their  suspicion  that  the  public 
had  more  than  an  inkling  that  it  was  being  hoodwinked. 


INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS  21 

In  the  Statesman  newspaper  of  March  19,  1812,  appeared  the 
following  article  : 

'  Our  unfortunate  prisoners  in  France  have  now  been  in 
captivity  nine  years,  and,  while  the  true  cause  of  their  detention 
shall  remain  unknown  to  the  country  there  cannot  be  any 
prospect  of  their  restoration  to  their  families  and  homes.  In 
some  journeys  I  have  lately  made  I  have  had  repeated  oppor- 
tunities of  discovering  the  infamous  practices  which  produce 
the  present  evil,  and  render  our  exiled  countrymen  the 
hopeless  victims  of  misery  .  .  .' 

(The  writer  then  describes  the  two  classes  of  prisoners  of  war 
in  England.) 

'  They  are  all  under  the  care  of  the  Transport  Office  who 
has  the  management  of  the  money  for  their  maintenance, 
which  amounts  to  an  enormous  sum  (more  than  three  millions 
per  annum)  of  which  a  large  part  is  not  converted  to  the 
intended  purpose,  but  is  of  clear  benefit  to  the  Commissioners 
and  their  employers.  The  prisoners  on  parole  receiving  is.  6d. 
per  diem  produce  comparatively  little  advantage  to  the  Com- 
missioners, who  are  benefited  principally  by  the  remittances 
these  prisoners  receive  from  France,  keeping  their  money  five 
or  six  months,  and  employing  it  in  stock-jobbing.  They  gain 
still  something  from  these,  however,  by  what  their  agents 
think  proper  to  send  them  of  the  property  of  those  who  die 
or  run  away.  The  prisoners  in  close  confinement  are  very 
profitable.  These  prisoners  are  allowed  by  the  Government 
once  in  eighteen  months  a  complete  suit  of  clothing,  which 
however,  they  never  receive.  Those,  therefore,  among  them 
who  have  any  covering  have  bought  it  with  the  product  of 
their  industry,  on  which  the  Agents  make  enormous  profits. 
Those  who  have  no  genius  or  no  money  go  naked,  and  there 
are  many  in  this  deplorable  state.  Such  a  picture  Humanity 
revolts  at,  but  it  is  a  true  one,  for  the  produce  of  the  clothing 
goes  entirely  into  the  pockets  of  the  Commissioners. 

'  A  certain  amount  of  bread,  meat,  &c.,  of  good  quality 
ought  to  be  furnished  to  each  prisoner  every  day.  They 
receive  these  victuals,  but  they  are  generally  of  bad  quality, 
and  there  is  always  something  wanting  in  the  quantity — as 
one  half  or  one  third  at  least,  which  is  of  great  amount.  Be- 
sides, when  any  person  is  punished,  he  receives  only  one  half 
of  what  is  called  a  portion.  These  measures,  whenever  taken, 
produce  about  £250  or  £300  a  day  in  each  depot  according 
to  the  number  of  prisoners,  and  of  course,  are  found  necessary 
very  often.  These  are  the  regular  and  common  profits.  The 


22  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Commissioners  receive  besides  large  sums  for  expenses  of 
every  description  which  have  never  been  incurred  in  the 
course  of  the  year,  and  find  means  to  clear  many  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  pounds  to  share  with  their  employers/ 

The  writer  goes  on  to  say  that 

'  the  real  reason  for  bringing  so  many  prisoners  into  the 
country  is  not  military,  but  to  enrich  themselves  [i.e.  the 
Government] .  For  the  same  reason  they  keep  the  San  Domingo 
people  of  1803,  who,  by  a  solemn  capitulation  of  Aux  Cayes 
were  to  be  returned  to  France.  So  with  the  capitulation  of 
Cap  Francois,  who  were  sent  home  in  1811  as  clandestinely 
as  possible.  Bonaparte  could  say  ditto  to  us  if  any  of  ours 
capitulated  in  Spain  like  the  Duke  of  York  in  Holland. 

'  All  this  is  the  reason  why  our  people  in  France  are  so 
badly  treated,  and  it  is  not  to,  be  wondered  at. 

'  HONESTUS.' 

The  Transport  Office  deemed  the  plain-speaking  on  the  part 
of  an  influential  journal  so  serious  that  the  opinion  of  the 
Attorney-General  was  asked,  and  he  pronounced  it  to  be  'a 
most  scandalous  libel  and  ought  to  be  prosecuted '.  So  the 
proprietor  was  proceeded  against,  found  guilty,  fined  £500, 
imprisoned  in  Newgate  for  eighteen  months,  and  had  to  find 
security  for  future  good  behaviour,  himself  in  £1,000,  and  two 
sureties  in  £500  each. 

I  add  the  remarks  of  General  Fillet,  a  prisoner  on  a  Chatham 
hulk,  upon  this  matter.  They  are  from  his  book  UAngleterre, 
vue  a  Londres  et  dans  ses  provinces,  pendant  un  sejour  de  dix 
annees,  dont  six  comme  prisonnier  de  guerre — a  book  utterly 
worthless  as  a  record  of  facts,  and  infected  throughout  with 
the  most  violent  spirit  of  Anglophobism,  but  not  without 
value  for  reference  concerning  many  details  which  could  only 
come  under  the  notice  of  a  prisoner. 

'  Mr.  Lovel,  editor  of  the  Statesman,  a  paper  generally 
inclined  in  favour  of  the  French  Government,  had  published 
in  March  19,  1812,  a  letter  signed  "Honestus",  in  which  the 
writer  detailed  with  an  exactness  which  showed  he  was 
thoroughly  informed,  the  different  sorts  of  robberies  committed 
by  the  Transport  Office  and  its  agents  upon  the  French  prison- 
ers, and  summed  them  up.  According  to  him  these  robberies 
amounted  to  several  millions  of  francs  :  the  budget  of  the 
cost  of  the  prisoners  being  about  24,000,000  francs.  Mr.  Lovel 


INTERNATIONAL  RECRIMINATIONS  23 

was  prosecuted.  "  Honestus  "  preserved  his  anonymity  ;  the 
editor  was,  in  consequence,  condemned  to  two  years  imprison- 
ment and  a  heavy  fine.  His  defence  was  that  the  letter  had 
been  inserted  without  his  knowledge  and  that  he  had  had  no 
idea  who  was  the  author.  I  have  reason  to  believe,  without 
being  absolutely  sure,  that  the  writer  was  one  Adams,  an 
employe  who  had  been  dismissed  from  the  Transport  Office, 
a  rascal  all  the  better  up  in  the  details  which  he  gave  in  that 
he  had  acted  as  interpreter  of  all  the  prisoners'  correspondence, 
the  cause  of  his  resentment  being  that  he  had  been  replaced 
by  Sugden,  even  a  greater  rascal  than  he.  I  wrote  to  Mr. 
Brougham,  Lovel's  Solicitor,  and  sent  him  a  regular  sworn 
statement  that  the  prisoners  did  not  receive  one  quarter  the 
clothing  nominally  served  to  them,  and  for  which  probably 
the  Government  paid  ;  that,  estimating  an  outfit  to  be  worth 
£1,  this  single  item  alone  meant  the  robbery  every  eighteen 
months  of  about  £1,800,000.  My  letter,  as  I  expected,  pro- 
duced no  effect ;  there  was  no  desire  to  be  enlightened  on 
the  affair,  and  the  judicial  proceedings  were  necessary  to  clear 
the  Transport  Office  in  the  eyes  of  the  French  Government. 
Hence  the  reason  for  the  severe  punishment  of  Lovel,  whose 
fine,  I  have  been  assured,  was  partly  paid  by  the  Transport 
Office,  by  a  secret  agreement.' 

The  General,  after  some  remarks  about  the  very  different 
way  in  which  such  an  affair  would  have  been  conducted  in 
France,  appends  a  note  quoting  the  case  of  General  Virion, 
who,  on  being  accused  of  cruelty  and  rapacity  towards  the 
English  prisoners  in  Verdun,  blew  his  brains  out  rather  than 
face  the  disgrace  of  a  trial. 

Fillet  wrote  to  Lovel,  the  editor,  thus  : 

'  On  board  the  prison  ship  Brunswick, 

Chatham,  May  19,  1813. 
'  SIR  : 

'  Since  I  have  become  acquainted  with  the  business  of 
the  letter  of  "  Honestus  "  I  have  been  filled  with  indignation 
against  the  coward  who,  having  seemed  to  wish  to  expose  the 
horrible  truth  about  the  character  and  amount  of  the  robberies 
practised  upon  prisoners  of  war,  persists  in  maintaining  his 
incognito  when  you  have  asked  him  to  come  forward  in  your 
justification.  .  .  .  Unhappily,  we  are  Frenchmen,  and  it  seems 
to  be  regarded  in  this  country  as  treason  to  ask  justice  for  us, 
and  that  because  it  is  not  possible  to  exterminate  France 
altogether,  the  noblest  act  of  patriotism  seems  to  consist  in 
assassinating  French  prisoners  individually,  by  adding  to  the 


24  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

torments  of  a  frightful  imprisonment  privations  of  all  sorts, 
and  thefts  of  clothing  of  which  hardly  a  quarter  of  the  proper 
quantity  is  distributed.  .  .  . 

'  We  have  asked  for  impartial  inquiries  to  be  made  by 
people  not  in  the  pay  of  the  Admiralty ;  we  have  declared 
that  we  could  reveal  acts  horrible  enough  to  make  hairs  stand 
on  end,  and  that  we  could  bring  unimpeachable  witnesses  to 
support  our  testimony.  These  demands,  even  when  forwarded 
by  irreproachable  persons,  have  been  received  in  silence.  Is  it 
possible  that  there  are  not  in  England  more  determined  men 
to  put  a  stop  to  ill-doing  from  a  sense  of  duty  and  irrespective 
of  rank  or  nation  ?  Is  it  possible  that  not  a  voice  shall  ever 
be  raised  on  our  behalf  ? 

'  Your  condemnation  makes  me  fear  it  is  so. 

'  If  only  one  good  man,  powerful,  and  being  resolved  to 
remove  shame  from  his  country,  and  to  wash  out  the  blot 
upon  her  name  caused  by  the  knowledge  throughout  Europe 
of  what  we  suffer,  could  descend  a  moment  among  us,  and 
acquaint  himself  with  the  details  of  our  miseries  with  the 
object  of  relieving  them,  what  good  he  would  do  humanity, 
and  what  a  claim  he  would  establish  to  our  gratitude  !  ' 

Fillet  adds  in  a  note  : 

'  Lord  Cochrane  in  1813  wished  to  examine  the  prison  ships 
at  Portsmouth.  Although  he  was  a  member  of  Parliament, 
and  a  captain  in  the  navy,  permission  was  refused  him,  because 
the  object  of  his  visit  was  to  ascertain  the  truth  about  the 
ill-treatment  of  the  prisoners.  Lord  Cochrane  is  anything 
but  an  estimable  man,  but  he  is  one  of  those  who,  in  the 
bitterness  of  their  hatred  of  the  party  in  power,  sometimes  do 
good.  He  complained  in  Parliament,  and  the  only  reply  he 
got  was  that  as  the  hulks  were  under  the  administration  of  the 
Transport  Office,  it  could  admit  or  refuse  whomsoever  it  chose 
to  inspect  them.' 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  EXCHANGE  OF  PRISONERS 

FROM  first  to  last  the  question  of  the  Exchange  of  Prisoners 
was  a  burning  one  between  Great  Britain  and  her  enemies,  and, 
despite  all  efforts  to  arrange  it  upon  an  equitable  basis  and  to 
establish  its  practice,  it  was  never  satisfactorily  settled.  It  is 
difficult  for  an  Englishman,  reviewing  the  evidence  as  a  whole 
and  in  as  impartial  a  spirit  as  possible,  to  arrive  at  any  other 
conclusion  than  that  we  were  not  so  fairly  dealt  with  by  others 
as  we  dealt  with  them.  We  allowed  French,  Danish,  and 
Dutch  officers  to  go  on  parole  to  their  own  countries,  which 
meant  that  they  were  on  their  honour  to  return  to  England  if 
they  were  not  exchanged  by  a  certain  date,  and  we  continued  to 
do  so  in  face  of  the  fact  that  violation  of  this  pledge  was  the 
rule  and  not  the  exception,  and  that  prominent  officers  of  the 
army  and  navy  were  not  ashamed  thus  to  sin.  Or  we  sent  over 
shiploads  of  foreigners,  each  of  whom  had  been  previously 
arranged  for  as  exchanged,  but  so  often  did  the  cartel  ships,  as 
they  were  called,  return  empty  or  without  equivalent  numbers 
from  the  French  ports  that  the  balance  of  exchange  was  invari- 
ably heavily  against  Britain.  The  transport  of  prisoners  for 
whom  exchanges  had  been  arranged,  and  of  invalids  and  boys, 
was  by  means  of  cartel  ships  which  were  hired,  or  contracted 
for,  by  Government  for  this  particular  service,  and  were  subject 
to  the  strictest  regulation  and  supervision.  The  early  cartel 
ports  were  Dover,  Poole,  and  Falmouth  on  this  side  ;  Calais, 
St.  Malo,  Havre,  and  Morlaix  in  France,  but  during  the  Napo- 
leonic wars  Morlaix  was  the  French  port,  Plymouth,  Lynn, 
Dartmouth,  and  Portsmouth  being  those  of  England.  The 
French  ports  were  selected  with  the  idea  of  rendering  the 
marches  of  exchanged  prisoners  to  their  districts  as  easy  as 
possible. 

A  cartel  ship  was  not  allowed  to  carry  guns  or  arms,  nor  any 
merchandise  ;  if  it  did  the  vessel  was  liable  to  be  seized.  The 


26  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

national  flag  of  the  port  of  destination  was  to  be  flown  at  the 
fore-top-gallant  mast,  and  the  ship's  flag  on  the  ensign  staff, 
and  both  were  to  be  kept  continually  flying.  Passengers  were 
not  allowed  to  carry  letters,  nor,  if  from  England,  gold  coin  ; 
the  latter  restriction  being  imposed  so  as  partially  to  check  the 
lucrative  trade  of  guinea-running,  as,  during  the  early  nine- 
teenth century,  on  account  of  the  scarcity  of  gold  in  France, 
there  was  such  a  premium  upon  British  guineas  that  the 
smuggling  of  them  engaged  a  large  section  of  the  English  coast 
community,  who  were  frequently  backed  up  by  London  houses 
of  repute.  Passengers  going  to  France  on  their  own  account 
paid  £5  55.  each,  with  a  deposit  against  demurrage  on  account 
of  possible  detention  in  the  French  port  at  one  guinea  per  day, 
the  demurrage  being  deducted  from  the  deposit  and  the  balance 
returned  to  the  passenger. 

The  early  cartel  rates  were,  from  Dover  to  Calais,  6s.  per 
head  ;  between  all  the  Channel  ports  los.  6d.,  and  to  ports  out 
of  the  Channel,  £i  is.  For  this  the  allowance  of  food  was  one 
and  a  half  pounds  of  bread,  three-quarters  of  a  pound  of  meat, 
and  two  quarts  of  beer  or  one  quart  of  wine,  except  between 
Dover  and  Calais,  where  for  the  meat  was  substituted  four 
ounces  of  butter  or  six  ounces  of  cheese.  Commanding  officers 
had  separate  cabins  ;  a  surgeon  was  compulsorily  carried  ; 
officers  and  surgeon  messed  at  the  captain's  table.  It  was 
necessary  that  the  ship  should  be  provisioned  sufficiently  for 
an  emergency,  and  it  was  especially  ruled  that  if  a  ship  should 
be  delayed  beyond  sailing  time  owing  to  weather  or  incomplete 
number  of  passengers,  nobody  upon  any  pretence  was  to  leave 
the  ship. 

In  1808,  on  account  of  the  discomforts  and  even  the  dangers 
of  the  cartel  service,  as  well  as  the  abuse  of  it  by  parole-breakers 
and  others,  a  request  was  made  that  a  naval  officer  should  accom- 
pany each  cartel  ship,  but  this  was  refused  by  the  Admiralty 
upon  the  ground  that  as  such  he  might  be  arrested  upon  reach- 
ing a  French  port.  As  it  became  suspected  that  between  the 
cartel  shipowners  and  captains  and  the  escape  agents  a  very 
close  business  understanding  existed,  it  was  ordered  in  this 
same  year,  1808,  that  all  foreigners  found  about  seaport  towns 
on  the  plea  that  they  were  exchanged  prisoners  waiting  for 


THE  EXCHANGE  OF  PRISONERS  27 

cartel  ships,  should  be  arrested,  and  that  the  batches  of 
exchanged  prisoners  should  be  timed  to  reach  the  ports  so 
that  they  should  not  have  to  wait. 

Later,  when  practically  Plymouth  and  Morlaix  had  a  mono- 
poly of  the  cartel  traffic,  the  cartel  owner  received  uniformly 
half  a  guinea  per  man  if  his  carriage-rate  was  one  man  per  ton 
of  his  burthen  ;  and  seven  shillings  and  sixpence  if  at  the  more 
usual  rate  of  three  men  to  two  tons,  and  for  victualling  was 
allowed  fourteen  pence  per  caput  per  diem. 

In  1757  much  correspondence  between  the  two  Governments 
took  place  upon  the  subjects  of  the  treatment  and  exchange  of 
prisoners,  which  may  be  seen  at  the  Archives  Nationales  in 
Paris,  resulting  in  a  conference  between  M.  de  Marmontel  and 
M.  de  Moras,  Minister  of  Marine  and  Controller-General  of 
Finances,  and  Vanneck  &  Co.,  agents  in  England  for  French 
affairs.  Nothing  came  of  it  except  an  admission  by  the  French 
that  in  one  respect  their  countrymen  in  England  were  better 
treated  than  were  the  English  prisoners  in  France,  in  that 
whereas  the  French  prisoners  were  provided  with  mattresses 
and  coverlids,  the  English  were  only  given  straw.  England 
claimed  the  right  of  monopolizing  the  sea-carriage  of  prisoners  ; 
and  this  France  very  naturally  refused,  but  agreed  to  the  other 
clauses  that  king's  officers  should  be  preferred  to  all  other  in 
exchange,  that  women  and  children  under  twelve  should  be 
sent  without  exchange,  and  that  in  hospitals  patients  should 
have  separate  beds  and  coverlids.  But  after  a  long  exchange 
of  requests  and  replies,  complaints  and  accusations,  England 
ceased  to  reply,  and  matters  were  at  a  standstill. 

In  1758  there  was  a  correspondence  between  M.  de  Moras 
and  M.  de  Marmontel  which  shows  that  in  these  early  days  the 
principle  of  the  exchange  of  prisoners  possessed  honourable 
features  which  were  remarkably  wanting  on  the  French  side 
during  the  later  struggles  between  the  two  countries.  Three 
French  '  broke-paroles  '  who  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of 
the  time  should,  when  discovered,  have  been  sent  back  to 
England,  could  not  be  found.  M.  de  Moras  suggested  that 
in  this  case  they  should  imitate  the  action  of  the  British 
authorities  in  Jersey,  who,  unable  to  find  nine  English 
prisoners  who  had  escaped  from  Dinan,  stolen  a  fishing-boat, 


28  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

and  got  over  to  Jersey,  had  sent  back  the  stolen  vessel  and  nine 
French  prisoners  as  an  equivalent. 

The  following  was  the  passport  form  for  French  prisoners 
whose  exchange  had  been  effected. 

'  By  the  Commissioners  for  taking  care  of  sick  and  wounded 
seamen,  and  for  Exchanging  Prisoners  of  War. 

'  Whereas  the  one  person  named  and  described  on  the  back 
hereof  is  Discharged  from  being  Prisoner  of  War  to  proceed 
from  London  to  France  by  way  of  Ostend  in  exchange  for  the 
British  prisoner  also  named  and  described  on  the  back  hereof  ; 
you  and  every  of  you  (sic)  are  hereby  desired  to  surfer  the  said 
Discharged  Person  to  pass  from  London  to  France  accordingly 
without  any  hindrance  or  molestation  whatever.  This  pass- 
port to  continue  in  force  for  six  days  from  the  date  of  these 
presents. 

'  June  3rd.  1757. 

'  To  all  and  Singular  the  King's  officers  Civil 
and  Military,  and  to  those  of  all  the  Princes  and 
States  in  Alliance  with  His  Majesty.' 

In  1758  the  complaints  of  the  French  Government  about  the 
unsatisfactory  state  of  the  prisoner  exchange  system  occupy 
many  long  letters.  '  II  est  trop  important  de  laisser  subsister 
une  pareille  inaction  dans  les  echanges  ;  elle  est  prejudiciable 
aux  deux  Puissances,  et  facheuse  aux  families  ',  is  one  remark. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  complaint  went  from  our  side  that  we 
sent  over  on  one  occasion  219  French  prisoners,  and  only  got 
back  143  British,  to  which  the  French  replied  :  '  Yes  :  but 
your  143  were  all  sound  men,  whereas  the  219  you  sent  us  were 
invalids,  boys,  and  strangers  to  this  Department.'  By  way  of 
postscript  the  French  official  described  how  not  long  since  a 
Dover  boat,  having  captured  two  fishing-smacks  of  Boulogne 
and  St.  Valery,  made  each  boat  pay  twenty-five  guineas 
ransom,  beat  the  men  with  swords,  and  wounded  the  St.  Valery 
captain,  remarking:  'le  precede  est  d'autant  plus  inhumain 
qu'il  a  eu  lieu  de  sang-froid  et  qu'il  a  ete  exerce  contre  des  gens 
qui  achetoient  leur  liberte  au  prix  de  toute  leur  fortune '. 

This  and  other  similar  outrages  on  both  sides  led  to  the 
mutual  agreement  that  fishing-boats  were  to  be  allowed  to 
pursue  their  avocation  unmolested — an  arrangement  which  in 


THE  EXCHANGE  OF  PRISONERS  29 

later  times,  when  the  business  of  helping  prisoners  to  escape 
was  in  full  swing,  proved  to  be  a  mixed  blessing. 

I  do  not  think  that  the  above-quoted  argument  of  the  French, 
that  in  return  for  sound  men  we  were  in  the  habit  of  sending  the 
useless  and  invalids,  and  that  this  largely  compensated  for  the 
apparent  disproportion  in  the  numbers  exchanged — an  argu- 
ment which  they  used  to  the  end  of  the  wars  between  the  two 
nations — is  to  be  too  summarily  dismissed  as  absurd.  Nor 
does  it  seem  that  our  treatment  of  the  poor  wretches  erred  on 
the  side  of  indulgence,  for  many  letters  of  complaint  are  extant, 
of  which  the  following  from  a  French  cartel-ship  captain  of 
1780  is  a  specimen : 

'  Combien  n'est-il  pas  d'inhumanite  d'envoyer  des  prison- 
niers  les  plus  malades,  attaques  de  fievre  et  de  dissentoire. 
J'espere,  Monsieur,  que  vous,  connoissant  les  sentiments  les  plus 
justes,  que  vous  voudriez  bien  donner  vos  ordres  a  M.  Monck- 
ton,  agent  des  prisonniers  francais,  pour  qu'il  soit  donne 
a  mes  malades  des  vivres  frais,  suivant  1'ordinnance  de  votre 
Majeste  ;  ou,  qu'ils  soient  mis  a  I'hopital.' 

It  would  seem  that  during  the  Seven  Years'  War  British 
merchant-ship  and  privateer  officers  were  only  allowed  to  be  on 
parole  in  France  if  they  could  find  a  local  person  of  standing  to 
guarantee  the  payment  of  a  sum  of  money  to  the  Government 
in  the  case  of  a  breach  of  parole. 

The  parole  rules  in  France,  so  far  as  regarded  the  limits 
assigned  to  prisoners  at  their  towns  of  confinement,  were  not 
nearly  so  strict  as  in  England,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  no 
system  of  guarantee  money  like  that  just  mentioned  existed 
in  England. 

On  March  12,  1780,  a  table  of  exchange  of  prisoners  of  war, 
with  the  equivalent  ransom  rates,  was  agreed  to,  ranging  from 
£60  or  sixty  men  for  an  admiral  or  field-marshal  to  £i  or  one 
man  for  a  common  sailor  or  soldier  in  the  regular  services,  and 
from  £4  or  four  men  for  a  captain  to  £i  or  one  man  of  privateers 
and  merchantmen. 

In  1793  the  French  Government  ordained  a  sweeping  change 
by  abolishing  all  equivalents  in  men  or  money  to  officers,  and 
decreed  that  henceforth  the  exchange  should  be  strictly  of 
grade  for  grade,  and  man  for  man,  and  that  no  non-combatants 


30  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

or  surgeons  should  be  retained  as  prisoners  of  war.  How  the 
two  last  provisions  came  to  be  habitually  violated  is  history. 

On  February  4, 1795,  the  Admiralty  authorized  the  '  Sick  and 
Hurt '  Office  to  send  a  representative  to  France,  to  settle,  if 
possible,  the  vexed  question  of  prisoner  exchange,  and  on 
March  22  Mr.  F.  M.  Eden  started  for  Brest,  but  was  taken  on 
to  Roscoff .  A  week  later  a  French  naval  officer  called  on  him 
and  informed  him  that  only  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety 
could  deal  with  this  matter,  and  asked  him  to  go  to  Paris.  He 
declined  ;  so  the  purport  of  his  errand  was  sent  to  Paris.  A 
reply  invited  him  to  go  to  Dieppe.  Here  he  met  Comeyras, 
who  said  that  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  would  not  agree 
to  his  cartel,  there  being,  they  said,  a  manifest  difference 
between  the  two  countries  in  that  Great  Britain  carried  on  the 
war  with  the  two  professions — the  navy  and  the  army — and 
that  restoring  prisoners  to  her  would  clearly  be  of  greater 
advantage  to  her  than  would  be  the  returning  of  an  equal 
number  of  men  to  France,  who  carried  on  war  with  the  mass  of 
the  people.  Moreover,  Great  Britain  notoriously  wanted  men 
to  replace  those  she  had  lost,  whilst  France  had  quite  enough 
to  enable  her  to  defeat  all  her  enemies. 

So  Eden  returned  to  Brighthelmstone.  Later,  a  meeting 
at  the  Fountain,  Canterbury,  between  Otway  and  Marsh  for 
Britain,  and  Monnerson  for  France,  was  equally  fruitless,  and  it 
became  quite  evident  that  although  France  was  glad  enough  to 
get  general  officers  back,  she  had  no  particular  solicitude  for 
the  rank  and  file,  her  not  illogical  argument  being  that  every 
fighting  man,  officer  or  private,  was  of  more  value  to  Britain 
than  were  three  times  their  number  of  Frenchmen  to  France. 

In  1796  many  complaints  were  made  by  the  British  cartel- 
ship  masters  that  upon  landing  French  prisoners  at  Morlaix 
their  boats  were  taken  from  them,  they  were  not  allowed  to  go 
ashore,  soldiers  were  placed  on  board  to  watch  them;  that 
directly  the  prisoners  were  landed,  the  ships  were  ordered  to 
sea,  irrespective  of  the  weather ;  and  that  they  were  always 
informed  that  there  were  no  British  prisoners  to  take  back. 

In  this  year  we  had  much  occasion  to  complain  of  the  one- 
sided character  of  the  system  of  prisoner  exchange  with  France, 
the  balance  due  to  Britain  in  1796  being  no  less  than  5,000. 


THE  EXCHANGE  OF  PRISONERS  31 

Cartel  after  cartel  went  to  France  full  and  came  back  empty  ; 
in  one  instance  only  seventy-one  British  prisoners  were  returned 
for  201  French  sent  over  ;  in  another  instance  150  were  sent 
and  nine  were  returned,  and  in  another  450  were  sent  without 
return. 

From  the  regularity  with  which  our  authorities  seem  to 
have  been  content  to  give  without  receiving,  one  cannot  help 
wondering  if,  after  all,  there  might  not  have  been  some  founda- 
tion for  the  frequent  French  retort  that  while  we  received 
sound  men,  we  only  sent  the  diseased,  and  aged,  or  boys.  Yet 
the  correspondence  from  our  side  so  regularly  and  emphatically 
repudiates  this  that  we  can  only  think  that  the  burden  of  the 
prisoners  was  galling  the  national  back,  and  that  the  grumble 
was  becoming  audible  which  later  broke  out  in  the  articles  of  the 
Statesman,  the  Examiner,  and  the  Independent  Whig. 

From  January  i,  1796,  to  March  14,  1798,  the  balance 
between  Britain  and  Holland  stood  thus  : 

Dutch  officers  returned  316,  men  416          .          .          732 
British      ,,  ,,          64,       ,,  290          .          .          354 

Balance  due  to  us  .         378 

Just  at  this  time  there  were  a  great  many  war-prisoners  in 
England.  Norman  Cross  and  Yarmouth  were  full,  and  new 
prison  ships  were  being  fitted  out  at  Chatham.  The  corre- 
spondence of  the  '  Sick  and  Hurt '  Office  consisted  very  largely  of 
refusals  to  applicants  to  be  allowed  to  go  to  France  on  parole, 
so  that  evidently  the  prisoner  exchange  was  in  so  unsatis- 
factory a  condition  that  even  the  passage  of  cartel  loads  of 
invalids  was  suspended. 

In  1798  an  arrangement  about  the  exchange  of  prisoners  was 
come  to  between  England  and  France.  France  was  to  send 
a  vessel  with  British  prisoners,  5  per  cent  of  whom  were  to  be 
officers,  and  England  was  to  do  the  same.  The  agents  on  each 
side  were  to  select  the  prisoners.  It  was  also  ruled  that  the 
prisoners  in  each  country  were  to  be  supported  by  their  own 
country,  and  that  those  who  were  sick,  wounded,  incapaci- 
tated, or  boys,  should  be  surrendered  without  equivalent. 

But  in  1799  the  French  Republican  Government  refused  to 
clothe  or  support  its  prisoners  in  Britain,  so  that  all  exchanges 


32  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

of  prisoners  ceased.  Pending  the  interchange  of  correspon- 
dence which  followed  the  declaration  of  this  inhuman  policy, 
the  French  prisoners  suffered  terribly,  especially  as  it  was 
winter,  so  that  in  January  1801,  on  account  of  the  fearful 
mortality  among  them,  it  was  resolved  that  they  should  be 
supplied  with  warm  clothing  at  the  public  expense,  and  this 
was  done,  the  cost  being  very  largely  defrayed  by  voluntary 
subscriptions  in  all  parts  of  the  Kingdom. 

This  was  not  the  first  or  second  time  that  British  benevolence 
had  stepped  in  to  stave  off  the  results  of  French  inhumanity 
towards  Frenchmen. 

The  letter  before  quoted  from  the  agent  at  Portchester 
(p.  1 8)  and  the  report  on  Stapleton  (p.  19)  in  the  chapter  on 
International  Recriminations  have  reference  to  this  period. 

This  state  of  matters  continued  ;  the  number  of  French 
prisoners  in  Britain  increased  enormously:  for  the  French 
Government  would  return  no  answers  to  the  continued  repre- 
sentations from  this  side  as  to  the  unsatisfactory  character  of 
the  Exchange  question.  Yet  in  1803  it  was  stated  that  although 
not  one  British  prisoner  of  war,  and  only  five  British  subjects, 
had  been  returned,  no  less  than  400  French  prisoners  actually 
taken  at  sea  had  been  sent  to  France. 

In  1804  Boyer,  an  officer  at  Belfast,  wrote  to  his  brother  the 
general,  on  parole  at  Montgomery,  that  the  Emperor  would  not 
entertain  any  proposal  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners  unless  the 
Hanoverian  army  were  recognized  as  prisoners  of  war.  This 
was  a  sore  topic  with  Bonaparte.  In  1803  the  British  Govern- 
ment had  refused  to  ratify  the  condition  of  the  Treaty  of 
Sublingen  which  demanded  that  the  Hanoverian  army,  helpless 
in  the  face  of  Bonaparte's  sudden  invasion  of  the  country, 
should  retire  behind  the  Elbe  and  engage  not  to  serve  against 
France  or  her  Allies  during  the  war,  in  other  words  to  agree  to 
their  being  considered  prisoners  of  war.  Bonaparte  insisted 
that  as  Britain  was  intimately  linked  with  Hanover  through 
her  king  she  should  ratify  this  condition.  Our  Government 
repudiated  all  interest  in  Hanover's  own  affairs  :  Hanover  was 
forced  to  yield,  but  Britain  retaliated  by  blockading  the  Elbe 
and  the  Weser,  with  the  result  that  Hamburg  and  Bremen  were 
half  ruined. 


THE  EXCHANGE  OF  PRISONERS  33 

A  form  of  exchange  at  sea  was  long  practised  of  which  the 
following  is  a  specimen  : 

'  We  who  have  hereunto  set  our  names,  being  a  lieutenant 
and  a  master  of  H.B.M.'s  ship  Virgin,  do  hereby  promise  on 
our  word  of  honour  to  cause  two  of  His  Christian  Majesty's 
subjects  of  the  same  class  who  may  be  Prisoners  in  England 
to  be  set  at  liberty  by  way  of  Exchange  for  us,  we  having 
been  taken  by  the  French  and  set  at  liberty  on  said  terms, 
and  in  case  we  don't  comply  therewith  we  are  obliged  when 
called  on  to  do  so  to  return  as  Prisoners  to  France.  Given 
under  our  hands  in  port  of  Coruna,  July  31,  1762.' 

As  might  be  supposed,  this  easy  method  of  procuring  liberty 
led  to  much  parole  breaking  on  both  sides,  but  it  was  not  until 
1812  that  such  contracts  were  declared  to  be  illegal. 

During  1805  the  British  Government  persisted  in  its  efforts 
to  bring  about  an  arrangement  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners, 
but  to  these  efforts  the  extraordinary  reply  was  : 

'  Nothing  can  be  done  on  the  subject  without  a  formal  order 
from  the  Emperor,  and  under  the  present  circumstances  His 
Imperial  Majesty  cannot  attend  to  this  business.' 

The  Transport  Board  thus  commented  upon  this  : 

'  Every  proposal  of  this  Government  relative  to  the  exchang- 
ing of  prisoners  has  been  met  by  that  of  France  with  insulting 
evasion  or  contemptuous  silence.  As  such  [sic]  it  would  be 
derogatory  to  the  honour  of  the  Kingdom  to  strive  further 
in  the  cause  of  Humanity  when  our  motives  would  be  mis- 
named, and  the  objects  unattained. 

'  This  Board  will  not  take  any  further  steps  in  the  subject, 
but  will  rejoice  to  meet  France  in  any  proposal  from  thence.' 

In  the  same  year  the  Transport  Office  posted  as  a  circular  the 
Declaration  of  the  French  Government  not  to  exchange  even 
aged  and  infirm  British  prisoners  in  France. 

In  1806  the  Transport  Office  replied  as  follows  to  the  request 
for  liberation  of  a  French  officer  on  parole  at  Tiverton,  who 
cited  the  release  of  Mr.  Cockburn  from  France  in  support  of  his 
petition  : 

'  Mr.  Cockburn  never  was  a  prisoner  of  war,  but  was  detained 
in  France  at  the  commencement  of  hostilities  contrary  to  the 
practise  of  civilized  nations,  and  so  far  from  the  French 


34  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Government  having  released,  as  you  say,  many  British  prison- 
ers, so  that  they  might  re-establish  their  health  in  their  own 
country,  only  three  persons  coming  under  the  description  have 
been  liberated  in  return  for  672  French  officers  and  1,062  men 
who  have  been  sent  to  France  on  account  of  being  ill.  Even 
the  favour  granted  to  the  above  mentioned  three  persons  was 
fay  the  interest  of  private  individuals,  and  cannot  be  con- 
sidered as  an  act  of  the  Government  of  that  country.' 

(A  similar  reply  was  given  to  many  other  applicants.) 

Denmark,  like  Holland,  made  no  replies  to  the  British 
Government's  request  for  an  arrangement  of  the  exchange  of 
prisoners,  and  of  course,  both  took  their  cue  from  France.  In 
the  year  1808  the  balance  due  from  Denmark  to  Britain  was 
3,807.  There  were  1,796  Danish  prisoners  in  England.  Between 
1808  and  1813  the  balance  due  to  us  was  2,697.  As  another 
result  of  the  French  policy,  the  Transport  Office  requested 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  Spain  to  arrange  for  the  exchange  of 
prisoners  on  the  spot,  as,  under  present  circumstances,  once 
a  man  became  a  prisoner  in  France,  his  services  were  probably 
lost  to  his  country  for  ever.  Yet  another  result  was  that  the 
prisoners  in  confinement  all  over  Britain  in  1810,  finding  that  the 
exchange  system  was  practically  suspended,  became  turbulent 
and  disorderly  to  such  an  extent,  and  made  such  desperate 
attempts  to  break  out,  notably  at  Portchester  and  Dartmoor, 
that  it  was  found  necessary  to  double  the  number  of  sentries. 

At  length  in  1810,  soon  after  the  marriage  of  Bonaparte  with 
Marie  Louise,  an  attempt  was  made  at  Morlaix  to  arrange 
matters,  and  the  Comte  du  Moustier  met  Mr.  Mackenzie  there. 
Nothing  came  of  it,  because  of  the  exorbitant  demands  of 
Bonaparte.  He  insisted  that  all  prisoners— English,  French, 
Spanish,  Portuguese,  Italians — should  be  exchanged,  man  for 
man,  rank  for  rank,  on  the  same  footing  as  the  principal  power 
under  whom  they  fought  ;  in  other  words,  that  for  50,000 
Frenchmen,  only  10,000  British  would  be  returned,  the  balance 
being  made  up  of  Spanish  and  Portuguese  more  or  less  raw 
levies,  who  were  not  to  be  compared  in  fighting  value  with 
Englishmen  or  Frenchmen. 

The  second  section  of  the  fourth  article  of  Mr.  Mackenzie's 
note  was  : 


THE  EXCHANGE  OF  PRISONERS  35 

'  All  the  French  prisoners,  of  whatever  rank  and  quality, 
at  present  detained  in  Great  Britain,  or  in  the  British  posses- 
sions, shall  be  released.  The  exchange  shall  commence 
immediately  after  the  signature  of  this  convention,  and  shall 
be  made  by  sending  successively  to  Morlaix,  or  to  any  other 
port  in  the  British  Channel  that  may  be  agreed  on,  or  by 
delivering  to  the  French  Commissioners,  a  thousand  French 
prisoners  for  a  thousand  English  prisoners,  as  promptly  and 
in  the  same  proportion  as  the  Government  shall  release  the 
latter.' 

As  neither  party  would  yield,  the  negotiations  were  broken 
off.  The  Moniteur  complained  that  some  one  of  higher  rank 
than  Mr.  Mackenzie  had  not  been  sent  as  British  representative, 
and  the  British  paper  The  Statesman  commented  strongly  upon 
•our  non-acceptance  of  Bonaparte's  terms,  although  endorsing 
our  refusal  to  accede  to  the  particular  article  about  the  pro- 
portion of  the  exchange. 

General  Fillet,  before  quoted,  criticizes  the  British  action  in 
his  usual  vitriolic  fashion.  After  alluding  bitterly  to  the 
conduct  of  the  British  Government  in  the  matters  of  San 
Domingo  and  the  Hanoverian  army — both  of  which  are  still 
regarded  by  French  writers  as  eminent  instances  of  British  bad 
faith,  he  describes  the  Morlaix  meeting  as  an  '  infamous  trap  ' 
on  the  part  of  our  Government. 

'We  had  the  greater  interest  in  this  negotiation,'  he  says  ; 
*  we  desired  exchange  with  a  passion  difficult  to  describe. 
Well !  we  trembled  lest  France  should  accept  conditions  which 
would  have  returned  to  their  homes  all  the  English  prisoners 
without  our  receiving  back  a  single  Frenchman  who  was  not 
sick  or  dying  ...  it  was  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  one  aim 
of  the  London  Cabinet  was  to  destroy  us  all,  and  from  this 
moment  it  set  to  work  to  capture  as  many  prisoners  as  possible, 
so  that  it  might  almost  be  said  that  this  was  the  one  object 
of  the  War  !  ' 

Las  Cases  quotes  Bonaparte's  comments  in  this  matter  : 

'  The  English  had  infinitely  more  French  than  I  had  English 
prisoners.  I  knew  well  that  the  moment  they  had  got  back 
their  own  they  would  have  discovered  some  pretext  for  carrying 
the  exchange  no  further,  and  my  poor  French  would  have 
remained  for  ever  in  the  hulks.  I  admitted,  therefore,  that 
I  had  much  fewer  English  than  they  had  French  prisoners  : 

D2 


36  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

but  then  I  had  a  great  number  of  Spanish  and  Portuguese, 
and  by  taking  them  into  account,  I  had  a  mass  of  prisoners 
considerably  greater  than  theirs.  I  offered,  therefore,  to 
exchange  the  whole.  This  proposition  at  first  disconcerted 
them,  but  at  length  they  agreed  to  it.  But  I  had  my  eye  on 
everything.  I  saw  clearly  that  if  they  began  by  exchanging 
an  Englishman  against  a  Frenchman,  as  soon  as  they  got 
back  their  own  they  would  have  brought  forward  something 
to  stop  the  exchanges.  I  insisted  therefore  that  3,000  French- 
men should  be  exchanged  against  1,000  English  and  2,000 
Spaniards  and  Portuguese.  They  refused  this,  and  so  the 
negotiations  broke  off.' 

Want  of  space  prevents  me  from  quoting  the  long  conver- 
sation which  was  held  upon  the  subject  of  the  Exchange 
of  Prisoners  of  War  between  Bonaparte  and  Las  Cases  at 
St.  Helena,  although  it  is  well  worth  the  study. 

As  the  object  of  this  work  is  confined  to  prisoners  of  war 
in  Britain,  it  is  manifestly  beyond  its  province  to  discuss  at 
length  the  vexed  questions  of  the  comparative  treatment  of 
prisoners  in  the  two  countries.  I  may  reiterate  that  on  the  whole 
the  balance  is  fairly  even,  and  that  much  depended  upon  local 
surroundings.  Much  evidence  could  be  cited  to  show  that  in 
certain  French  seaports  and  in  certain  inland  towns  set  apart 
for  the  residence  of  Bonaparte's  detenus  quite  as  much  brutality 
was  exercised  upon  British  subjects  as  was  exercised  upon 
French  prisoners  in  England.  Much  depended  upon  the 
character  of  the  local  commandant ;  much  depended  upon  the 
behaviour  of  the  prisoners  ;  much  depended  upon  local  senti- 
ment. Bitche,  for  instance,  became  known  as  '  the  place  of 
tears '  from  the  misery  of  the  captives  there  ;  Verdun,  on  the 
other  hand,  after  the  tyrannical  commandant  Virion  had  made 
away  with  himself,  was  to  all  appearances  a  gay,  happy,  fashion- 
able watering-place.  Bitche  had  a  severe  commandant,  and  the 
class  of  prisoner  there  was  generally  rough  and  low.  Beau- 
chene  was  a  genial  jailer  at  Verdun,  and  the  mass  of  the 
prisoners  were  well-to-do.  So  in  Britain.  Woodriff  was  disliked 
at  Norman  Cross,  and  all  was  unhappiness.  Draper  was 
beloved,  and  Norman  Cross  became  quite  a  place  of  captivity 
to  be  sought  after. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  PRISON  SYSTEM— THE  HULKS 

THE  foreign  prisoner  of  war  in  Britain,  if  an  ordinary  sailor 
or  soldier,  was  confined  either  on  board  a  prison  ship  or  in 
prison  ashore.  Officers  of  certain  exactly  defined  ranks  were 
allowed  to  be  upon  parole  if  they  chose,  in  specified  towns. 
Some  officers  refused  to  be  bound  by  the  parole  requirements, 
and  preferred  the  hulk  or  the  prison  with  the  chance  of  being 
able  to  escape. 

Each  of  these — the  Hulks,  the  Prisons,  Parole — will  be  dealt 
with  separately,  as  each  has  its  particular  characteristics  and 
interesting  features. 

The  prison  ship  as  a  British  institution  for  the  storage  and 
maintenance  of  men  whose  sole  crime  was  that  of  fighting 
against  us,  must  for  ever  be  a  reproach  to  us.  There  is  nothing 
to  be  urged  in  its  favour.  It  was  not  a  necessity ;  it  was  far 
from  being  a  convenience  ;  it  was  not  economical ;  it  was  not 
sanitary.  Man  took  one  of  the  most  beautiful  objects  of  his 
handiwork  and  deformed  it  into  a  hideous  monstrosity.  The 
line- of-bat tie  ship  was  a  thing  of  beauty,  but  when  masts  and 
rigging  and  sails  were  shorn  away,  when  the  symmetrical  sweep 
of  her  lines  was  deformed  by  all  sorts  of  excrescences  and 
superstructures,  when  her  white,  black-dotted  belts  were 
smudged  out,  it  lay,  rather  than  floated,  like  a  gigantic  black, 
shapeless  coffin.  Sunshine,  which  can  give  a  touch  of  pic- 
turesqueness,  if  not  of  beauty,  to  so  much  that  is  bare  and 
featureless,  only  brought  out  into  greater  prominence  the  dirt, 
the  shabbiness,  the  patchiness  of  the  thing.  In  fog  it  was 
weird.  In  moonlight  it  was  spectral.  The  very  prison  and 
cemetery  architects  of  to-day  strive  to  lead  the  eye  by  their 
art  away  from  what  the  mind  pictures,  but  when  the  British 
Government  brought  the  prison  ship  on  to  the  scene  they 


38  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

appear  to  have  aimed  as  much  as  possible  at  making  the  outside 
reflect  the  life  within. 

No  amount  of  investigation,  not  the  most  careful  sifting  of 
evidence,  can  blind  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  British  prison 
hulks  were  hells  upon  water.  It  is  not  that  the  mortality  upon 
them  was  abnormal :  it  was  greater  than  in  the  shore  prisons, 
but  it  never  exceeded  3  per  cent  upon  an  average,  although 
there  were  periods  of  epidemic  when  it  rose  much  higher.  It 
is  that  the  lives  of  those  condemned  to  them  were  lives  of  long, 
unbroken  suffering.  The  writer,  as  an  Englishman,  would 
gladly  record  otherwise,  but  he  is  bound  to  tell  the  truth, 
the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth.  True  it 
is  that  our  evidence  is  almost  entirely  that  of  prisoners 
themselves,  but  what  is  not,  is  that  of  English  officers,  and 
theirs  is  of  condemnation.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
experiences  we  shall  quote  are  those  of  officers  and  gentlemen, 
or  at  any  rate  educated  men,  and  the  agreement  is  so  remark- 
able that  it  would  be  opening  the  way  to  an  accusation  of 
national  partiality  if  we  were  to  refuse  to  accept  it. 

The  only  palliating  consideration  in  this  sad  confession  is 
that  the  prisoners  brought  upon  themselves  much  of  the  misery. 
The  passion  for  gambling,  fomented  by  long,  weary  hours  of 
enforced  idleness,  wrought  far  more  mischief  among  the  foreign 
prisoners  in  England,  than  did  the  corresponding  northern 
passion  for  drink  among  the  British  prisoners  abroad,  if  only 
from  the  fact  that  whereas  the  former,  ashore  and  afloat,  could 
gamble  when  and  where  they  chose,  drink  was  not  readily 
procurable  by  the  latter.  The  report  of  a  French  official  doctor 
upon  prison-ship  diseases  will  be  quoted  in  its  proper  place, 
but  the  two  chief  causes  of  disease  named  by  him — insufficient 
food  and  insufficient  clothing — were  very  largely  the  result  of 
the  passion  for  gambling  among  the  prisoners. 

A  correspondent  of  The  Times,  December  16,  1807,  writes  : 

'  There  is  such  a  spirit  of  gambling  existing  among  the 
French  prisoners  lately  arrived  at  Chatham  from  Norman 
Cross,  that  many  of  them  have  been  almost  entirely  naked 
during  the  late  severe  weather,  having  lost  their  clothes,  not 
even  excepting  their  shirts  and  small  clothes,  to  some  of  their 
fellow  prisoners  :  many  of  them  also  are  reduced  to  the  chance 


THE  PRISON  SYSTEM— THE  HULKS  39 

of  starving  by  the  same  means,  having  lost  seven  or  eight  days' 
provisions  to  their  more  fortunate  companions,  who  never 
fail  to  exact  their  winnings.  The  effervescence  of  mind  that 
this  diabolical  pursuit  gives  rise  to  is  often  exemplified  in  the 
conduct  of  these  infatuated  captives,  rendering  them  remark- 
ably turbulent  and  unruly.  Saturday  last,  a  quarrel  arose 
between  two  of  them  in  the  course  of  play,  when  one  of  them, 
who  had  lost  his  clothes  and  food,  received  a  stab  in  the  back/ 
'  Gambling  among  the  French  prisoners  on  the  several 
prison-ships  in  the  Medway  has  arrived  at  an  alarming  height. 
On  board  the  Buckingham,  where  there  are  nearly  600  prisoners, 
are  a  billiard  table,  hazard  tables,  &c.  ;  and  the  prisoners 
indulge  themselves  in  play  during  the  hours  they  are  allowed 
for  exercise.' 

For  the  chief  cause  of  suffering,  medical  neglect,  there  is, 
unhappily,  but  little  defence,  for,  if  the  complaints  of  neglect, 
inefhcacy,  and  of  actual  cruelty,  which  did  manage  to  reach 
the  august  sanctum  of  the  Transport  Office  were  numerous, 
how  many  more  must  there  have  been  which  were  adroitly 
prevented  from  getting  there. 

Again,  a  great  deal  depended  upon  the  prison-ship  com- 
mander. French  writers  are  accustomed  to  say  that  the 
lieutenants  in  charge  of  the  British  prison  ships  were  the  scum 
of  the  service — disappointed  men,  men  without  interest,  men 
under  official  clouds  which  checked  their  advance ;  and  it  must 
be  admitted  that  at  first  sight  it  seems  strange  that  in  a  time  of 
war  all  over  the  world,  when  promotion  must  have  been  rapid, 
and  the  chances  of  distinction  frequent,  officers  should  easily  be 
found  ready,  for  the  remuneration  of  seven  shillings  per  diem, 
plus  eighteen- pence  servant  allowance,  to  take  up  such  a  posi- 
tion as  the  charge  of  seven  or  eight  hundred  desperate  foreigners. 

But  that  this  particular  service  was  attractive  is  evident 
from  the  constant  applications  for  it  from  naval  men  with  good 
credentials,  and  from  the  frequent  reply  of  the  authorities  that 
the  waiting  list  was  full.  If  we  may  judge  this  branch  of  the 
service  by  others,  and  reading  the  matter  by  the  light  of  the 
times,  we  can  only  infer  that  the  Commander  of  a  prison  hulk 
was  in  the  way  of  getting  a  good  many  '  pickings ',  and  that  as, 
according  to  regulation,  no  lieutenant  of  less  than  ten  years' 
service  in  that  rank  could  apply  for  appointment,  the  berth 
was  regarded  as  a  sort  of  reward  or  solatium. 


40  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Be  that  as  it  may  have  been,  the  condition  of  a  prison  ship, 
like  the  condition  of  a  man-of-war  to-day,  depended  very 
largely  upon  the  character  of  her  commander.  It  is  curious  to 
note  that  most  of  the  few  testimonies  extant  from  prisoners  in 
favour  of  prison-ship  captains  date  from  that  period  of  the  great 
wars  when  the  ill-feeling  between  the  two  countries  was  most 
rancorous,  and  the  poor  fellows  on  parole  in  English  inland 
towns  were  having  a  very  rough  time. 

In  1803  the  Commandant  at  Portsmouth  was  Captain  Miller, 
a  good  and  humane  man  who  took  very  much  to  heart  the 
sufferings  of  the  war  prisoners  under  his  supervision.  He 
happened  to  meet  among  the  French  naval  officers  on  parole 
a  M.  Haguelin  of  Havre,  who  spoke  English  perfectly,  and 
with  whom  he  often  conversed  on  the  subject  of  the  hard 
lot  of  the  prisoners  on  the  hulks.  He  offered  Haguelin  a  place 
in  his  office,  which  the  poor  officer  gladly  accepted,  made  him 
his  chief  interpreter,  and  then  employed  him  to  visit  the  prison 
ships  twice  a  week  to  hear  and  note  complaints  with  the  view 
of  remedying  them. 

Haguelin  held  this  position  for  some  years.  In  1808  an 
English  frigate  captured  twenty-four  Honfleur  fishing-boats 
and  brought  them  and  their  crews  into  Portsmouth.  Miller 
regarded  this  act  as  a  gross  violation  of  the  laws  of  humanity, 
and  determined  10  undo  it.  Haguelin  was  employed  in  the 
correspondence  which  followed  between  Captain  Miller  and  the 
Transport  Office,  the  result  being  that  the  fishermen  were  well 
treated,  and  finally  sent  back  to  Honfleur  in  an  English  frigate. 
Then  ensued  the  episode  of  the  Flotte  en  jupons,  described  in  a 
pamphlet  by  one  Thomas,  when  the  women  of  Honfleur  came 
out,  boarded  the  English  frigate,  and  amidst  a  memorable 
scene  of  enthusiasm  brought  their  husbands  and  brothers  and 
lovers  safe  to  land.  When  Haguelin  was  exchanged  and  was 
leaving  for  France,  Miller  wrote  : 

'  I  cannot  sufficiently  express  how  much  I  owe  to  M.  Haguelin 
for  his  ceaseless  and  powerful  co-operation  on  the  numerous 
occasions  when  he  laboured  to  better  the  condition  of  his 
unfortunate  compatriots.  The  conscientiousness  which  charac- 
terized all  his  acts  makes  him  deserve  well  of  his  country.' 

In  1816,  Captain  (afterwards  Baron)  Charles  Dupin,  of  the 


THE  PRISON  SYSTEM— THE  HULKS  41 

French  Corps  of  Naval  Engineers,  placed  on  record  a  very 
scathing  report  upon  the  treatment  of  his  countrymen  upon 
the  hulks  at  Chatham.  He  wrote  : 

'  The  Medway  is  covered  with  men-of-war,  dismantled  and 
lying  in  ordinary.  Their  fresh  and  brilliant  painting  contrasts 
with  the  hideous  aspect  of  the  old  and  smoky  hulks,  which 
seem  the  remains  of  vessels  blackened  by  a  recent  fire.  It  is 
in  these  floating  tombs  that  are  buried  alive  prisoners  of  war — 
Danes,  Swedes,  Frenchmen,  Americans,  no  matter.  They  are 
lodged  on  the  lower  deck,  on  the  upper  deck,  and  even  on  the 
orlop-deck.  .  .  .  Four  hundred  malefactors  are  the  maximum 
of  a  ship  appropriated  to  convicts.  From  eight  hundred  to 
twelve  hundred  is  the  ordinary  number  of  prisoners  of  war, 
heaped  together  in  a  prison-ship  of  the  same  rate/ 

The  translator  of  Captain  Dupin's  report1  comments  thus 
upon  this  part  of  it  : 

'  The  long  duration  of  hostilities,  combined  with  our  resplen- 
dent naval  victories,  and  our  almost  constant  success  by  land 
as  well  as  by  sea,  increased  the  number  of  prisoners  so  much 
as  to  render  the  confinement  of  a  great  proportion  of  them  in 
prison-ships  a  matter  of  necessity  rather  than  of  choice  ; 
there  being,  in  1814,  upwards  of  70,000  French  prisoners  of 
war  in  this  country.' 

About  Dupin's  severe  remarks  concerning  the  bad  treatment 
of  the  prisoners,  their  scanty  subsistence,  their  neglect  during 
sickness  and  the  consequent  high  rate  of  mortality  among  them, 
the  translator  says  : 

'  The  prisoners  were  well  treated  in  every  respect  ;  their 
provisions  were  good  in  quality,  and  their  clothing  sufficient  ; 
but,  owing  to  their  unconquerable  propensity  to  gambling, 
many  of  them  frequently  deprived  themselves  of  their  due 
allowance  both  of  food  and  raiment.  As  to  fresh  air,  wind- 
sails  were  always  pointed  below  in  the  prison  ships  to  promote 
its  circulation.  For  the  hulks  themselves  the  roomiest  and 
airiest  of  two  and  three  deckers  were  selected,  and  were  cleared 
of  all  encumbrances. 

'  Post-captains  of  experience  were  selected  to  be  in  command 
at  each  port,  and  a  steady  lieutenant  placed  over  each  hulk. 
The  prisoners  were  mustered  twice  a  week  ;  persons,  bedding, 
and  clothing  were  all  kept  clean  ;  the  decks  were  daily  scraped 
and  rubbed  with  sand  :  they  were  seldom  washed  in  summer, 
.and  never  in  winter,  to  avoid  damp.  Every  morning  the  lee 
1  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xxvi,  No.  51,  Art.  I  (December  1821). 


42 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 


ports  were  opened  so  that  the  prisoners  should  not  be  too 
suddenly  exposed  to  the  air,  and  no  wet  clothes  were  allowed 
to  be  hung  before  the  ports. 

'  The  provisions  were  minutely  examined  every  morning  by 
the  lieutenant,  and  one  prisoner  from  each  mess  was  chosen 
to  attend  to  the  delivery  of  provisions,  and  to  see  that  they 


FRENCH  SAILORS  ON  AN  ENGLISH  PRISON  SHIP. 
(After  Bombled.) 

were   of   the   right   quality   and   weight.     The   allowance   of 
food  was  : 

'  Each  man  on  each  of  five  days  per  week  received  one  and 
a  half  pounds  of  wheaten  flour  bread,  half  a  pound  of  good 
fresh  beef  with  cabbage  or  onions,  turnips  and  salt,  and  on 
each  of  the  other  two  days  one  pound  of  good  salted  cod  or 
herrings,  and  potatoes.  The  average  number  of  prisoners  on 
a  seventy-four  was  from  six  to  seven  hundred,  and  this,  it 
should  be  remembered,  on  a  ship  cleared  from  all  encumbrances 
such  as  guns,  partitions,  and  enclosures.' 


THE  PRISON  SYSTEM— THE  HULKS 
Dupin  wrote  : 


43 


'  By  a  restriction  which  well  describes  the  mercantile 
jealousy  of  a  manufacturing  people,  the  prisoners  were  pro- 
hibited from  making  for  sale  woollen  gloves  and  straw  hats. 
It  would  have  injured  in  these  petty  branches  the  commerce 
of  His  Britannic  Majesty's  subjects  !  ' 

to  which  the  reply  was  : 

'  It  was  so.  These  "  petty  branches  "  of  manufactures  were 
the  employment  of  the  wives  and  children  of  the  neighbouring 
cottagers,  and  enabled  them  to  pay  their  rent  and  taxes  :  and, 
on  a  representation  by  the  magistrates  that  the  vast  quantities 
sent  into  the  market  by  the  French  prisoners  who  had  neither 
rent,  nor  taxes,  nor  lodging,  firing,  food  or  clothes  to  find,  had 
thrown  the  industrious  cottagers  out  of  work,  an  order  was 
sent  to  stop  this  manufacture  by  the  prisoners.' 

As  to  the  sickness  on  board  the  hulks,  in  reply  to  Dupin's 
assertions  the  Government  had  the  following  table  drawn  up 
relative  to  the  hulks  at  Portsmouth  in  a  month  of  1813  : 


Ship's  Name. 


Prothee 

Crown 

San  Damaso 

Vigilant 

Guildford 

San  Antonio 

Vengeance     . 

Veteran 

Suffolk 

Assistance 

Ave  Princessa 

Kron  Princessa 

Waldemar 

Negro 


Prisoners  in  Health.         Sick. 

583  10. 
608  3 

726  32 
590          8 
693          8 
820  9 
692          7 
592          7. 
683          6 

727  .   35 
769  9 
760           4 
809  i 
175           ° 


9,227 


139 


Dupin  also  published  tables  of  prison  mortality  in  England 
in  confirmation  of  the  belief  among  his  countrymen  that  it  was 
part  of  England's  diabolic  policy  to  make  prisoners  of  war  or  to 
kill  or  incapacitate  them  by  neglect  or  ill-treatment.  Between 
1803  and  1814,  the  total  number  of  prisoners  brought  to  Eng- 
land was  122,440.  Of  these,  says  M.  Dupin, 


44  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

There  died  in  English  prisons      .          .  .12,845 

Were  sent  to  France  in  a  dying  state  .          .      12,787 

Returned  to  France  since  1814,  their  health  more  or  less 

debilitated  ........     7Q>Q4I 


leaving  a  balance  of  26,767,  who  presumably  were  tough  enough 
to  resist  all  attempts  to  kill  or  wreck  them. 

To  this  our  authorities  replied  with  the  following  schedule  : 

Died  in  English  prisons       .          .          .          .  .10,341 

Sent  home  sick,  or  on  parole  or  exchanged,  those  under  the 

two  last  categories  for  the  most  part  perfectly  sound  men     17,607 

27,948 

leaving  a  balance  of  at  least  94,492  sound  men  ;  for,  not  only, 
as  has  been  said  above,  were  a  large  proportion  of  the  17,607 
sound  men,  but  no  allowance  was  made  in  this  report  for  the 
great  number  of  prisoners  who  arrived  sick  or  wounded. 

The  rate  of  mortality,  of  course,  varied.  At  Portsmouth  in 
1812  the  mortality  on  the  hulks  was  about  4  per  cent.  At 
Dartmoor  in  six  years  and  seven  months  there  were  1,455 
deaths,  which,  taking  the  average  number  of  prisoners  at  5,000, 
works  out  at  a  little  over  4  per  cent  annually.  But  during  six 
months  of  the  years  1809-1810  there  were  500  deaths  out  of 
5,000  prisoners  at  Dartmoor,  due  to  an  unusual  epidemic  and 
to  exceptionally  severe  weather.  With  the  extraordinary 
healthiness  of  the  Perth  depot  I  shall  deal  in  its  proper  place. 

I  have  to  thank  Mr.  Neves,  editor  of  the  Chatham  News,  for 
the  following  particulars  relative  to  Chatham 

'  The  exact  number  of  prisoners  accommodated  in  these 
floating  prisons  cannot  be  ascertained,  but  it  appears  they 
were  moored  near  the  old  Gillingham  Fort  (long  since  demol- 
ished) which  occupied  a  site  in  the  middle  of  what  is  now 
Chatham  Dockyard  Extension.  St.  Mary's  Barracks,  Gilling- 
ham, were  built  during  the  Peninsular  War  for  the  accom- 
modation of  French  prisoners.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
rate  of  mortality  among  the  prisoners  confined  in  the  hulks 
was  very  high,  and  the  bodies  were  buried  on  St.  Mary's 
Island  on  ground  which  is  now  the  Dockyard  Wharf. 

'  In  the  course  of  the  excavations  in  connexion  with  the 
extension  of  the  Dockyard  —  a  work  of  great  magnitude  which 
was  commenced  in  1864  and  not  finished  until  1884,  and  which 


THE  PRISON  SYSTEM— THE  HULKS 


45 


w  £ 


o  £ 


46  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

cost  £3,000,000,  the  remains  of  many  of  the  French  prisoners 
were  disinterred.  The  bones  were  collected  and  brought  round 
to  a  site  within  the  extension  works,  opposite  Cookham  Woods. 
A  small  cemetery  of  about  200  feet  square  was  formed,  railed 
in,  and  laid  out  in  flower-beds  and  gravelled  pathways.  A 
handsome  monument,  designed  by  the  late  Sir  Andrew  Clarke, 
was  erected  in  the  centre — the  plinth  and  steps  of  granite, 
with  a  finely  carved  figure  in  armour  and  cloaked,  and  holding 
an  inverted  torch  in  the  centre,  under  a  canopied  and  groined 
spire  terminating  in  crockets  and  gilt  finials.  In  addition  to 
erecting  this  monument  the  Admiralty  allotted  a  small  sum 
annually  for  keeping  it  in  order. 

4  The  memorial  bore  the  following  inscription,  which  was 
written  by  the  late  Sir  Stafford  Northcote,  afterwards  Lord 
Iddesleigh  : 

Here  are  gathered  together 

The  remains  of  many  brave  soldiers  and  sailors,  who,  having  been 
once  the  foes,  and  afterwards  captives,  of  England,  now  find  rest  in 
her  soil,  remembering  no  more  the  animosities  of  war  or  the  sorrows 
of  imprisonment.  They  were  deprived  of  the  consolation  of  closing 
their  eyes  among  the  countrymen  they  loved  ;  but  they  have  been 
laid  in  an  honoured  grave  by  a  nation  which  knows  how  to  respect 
valour  and  to  sympathize  with  misfortune. 

'  The  Government  of  the  French  Republic  was  deeply  moved 
by  the  action  of  the  Admiralty,  and  its  Ambassador  in  London 
wrote : 

The  Government  of  the  Republic  has  been  made  acquainted 
through  me  with  the  recent  decision  taken  by  the  Government  of 
the  Queen  to  assure  the  preservation  of  the  funeral  monument  at 
Chatham,  where  rest  the  remains  of  the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the 
First  Empire  who  died  prisoners  of  war  on  board  the  English  hulks. 
I  am  charged  to  make  known  to  your  lordship  that  the  Minister 
of  Marine  has  been  particularly  affected  at  the  initiative  taken  in 
this  matter  by  the  British  Administration.  I  shall  be  much  obliged 
to  you  if  you  will  make  known  to  H.M's  Government  the  sincere 
feelings  of  gratitude  of  the  Government  of  the  Republic  for  the 
homage  rendered  to  our  deceased  soldiers. 

(Signed)  WADDINGTON. 

'  In  1904  it  became  necessary  again  to  move  the  bones  of 
the  prisoners  of  war  and  they  were  then  interred  in  the  grounds 
of  the  new  naval  barracks,  a  site  being  set  apart  for  the  purpose 
near  the  chapel,  where  the  monument  was  re-erected.  It 
•occupies  a  position  where  it  can  be  seen  by  passers-by.  The 
number  of  skulls  was  506.  Quite  recently  (1910)  two  skeletons 
were  dug  up  by  excavators  of  the  Gas  Company's  new  wharf 
at  Gillingham,  and,  there  being  every  reason  to  believe  that 
they  were  the  remains  of  French  prisoners  of  war,  they  were 
returned  to  the  little  cemetery  above  mentioned.' 


MEMORIAL  TO  FRENCH  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  THE  ROYAL 
NAVAL  BARRACKS,  CHATHAM 


p.  46 


THE  PRISON  SYSTEM— THE  HULKS  47 

That  a  vast  system  of  jobbery  and  corruption  prevailed 
among  the  contractors  for  the  food,  clothing,  and  bedding  of  the 
prisoners,  and,  consequently,  among  those  in  office  who  had  the 
power  of  selection  and  appointment ;  and  more,  that  not  a  tithe 
of  what  existed  was  expressed,  is  not  the  least  among  the  many 
indictments  against  our  nation  at  this  period  which  bring  a 
flush  of  shame  to  the  cheek.  As  has  been  before  remarked,  all 
that  printed  regulations  and  ordinance  could  do  to  keep 
matters  in  proper  order  was  done.  What  could  read  better, 
for  instance,  than  the  following  official  Contracting  Obligations 
for  1797  : 

'  Beer  :    to  be  equal  in  quality  to  that  issued  on  H.M.'s  ships. 
Beef  :       to  be  good  and  wholesome  fresh  beef,  and  delivered 

in  clean  quarters. 
Cheese  :     to   be   good   Gloucester   or  Wiltshire,    or   equal   in 

quality. 

Pease  :     to  be  of  the  white  sort  and  good  boilers. 
Greens  :    to   be   stripped   of  outside   leaves   and    fit   for   the 

copper. 
Beer  :      every  7  barrels  to  be  brewed  from  8  bushels  of  the 

strongest  amber  malt,  and  6  or  7  Ib.  of  good  hops 

at  £i  i8s.  per  ton. 
Bread  :    to  be  equal  in  quality  to  that  served  on  H.M.'s  ships.' 

As  if  there  was  really  some  wish  on  the  part  of  the  authorities 
to  have  things  in  order,  the  custom  began  in  1804  for  the  Trans- 
port Board  to  send  to  its  prison  agents  and  prison-ship  com- 
manders this  notice  : 

'  I  am  directed  by  the  Board  to  desire  that  you  will  imme- 
diately forward  to  this  office  by  coach  a  loaf  taken  indis- 
criminately from  the  bread  issued  to  the  prisoners  on  the  day 
you  receive  this  letter.' 

In  so  many  cases  was  the  specimen  bread  sent  pronounced 
'  not  fit  to  be  eaten  ',  that  circulars  were  sent  that  all  prisons 
and  ships  would  receive  a  model  loaf  of  the  bread  to  be  served 
out  to  prisoners,  '  made  of  whole  wheaten  meal  actually  and 
bona  fide  dressed  through  an  eleven  shilling  cloth  '. 

Nor  was  the  regulation  quantity  less  satisfactory  than  the 
nominal  quality.  In  1812  the  scale  of  victualling  on  prison 
ships  according  to  the  advertisement  to  contractors  was  : 


48  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Sunday.  i  J  Ib.  bread. 

Monday.  \  Ib.  fresh  beef. 

Tuesday.  J  Ib.  cabbage  or  turnip. 

Thursday.        I    ounce  Scotch  barley. 
Saturday.  £  ounce  salt. 

J-  ounce  onions. 
Wednesday,     ijlb.   bread,   lib.   good  sound    herrings,   lib. 

good  sound  potatoes. 
Friday.  ij  Ib.  bread,  i  Ib.  good  sound  cod,  i  Ib.  potatoes. 

In  the  year  1778  there  were  924  American  prisoners  of  war  in 
England.  It  has  been  shown  before  (p.  n)  how  the  fact  of  their 
ill-treatment  was  forcibly  taken  up  by  their  own  Government, 
but  the  following  extract  from  a  London  newspaper  further 
shows  that  the  real  cause  of  their  ill-treatment  was  no  secret : 

'  As  to  the  prisoners  who  were  kept  in  England  '  (this  is 
the  sequel  of  remarks  about  our  harsh  treatment  of  American 
prisoners  in  America),  '  their  penury  and  distress  was  un- 
doubtedly great,  and  was  much  marked  by  the  fraud  and 
cruelty  of  those  who  were  entrusted  with  their  government,  and 
the  supply  of  their  provisions.  For  these  persons,  who  certainly 
never  had  any  orders  for  ill-treatment  of  the  prisoners  by 
countenance  in  it,  having,  however,  not  been  overlooked  with 
the  utmost  vigilance,  besides  their  prejudice  and  their  natural 
cruelty,  considered  their  offices  as  only  lucrative  jobs  which  were 
created  merely  for  their  emolument.  Whether  there  was  not 
some  exaggeration,  as  there  usually  is  in  these  accounts, 
it  is  certain  that  though  the  subsistence  accorded  them  by 
Government  would  indeed  have  been  sufficient,  if  honestly 
administered,  to  have  sustained  human  nature,  in  the  respect 
to  the  mere  articles  of  foods,  yet  the  want  of  clothes,  firing, 
and  bedding,  with  all  the  other  various  articles  which  custom 
or  nature  regards  as  conducive  to  health  and  comfort,  became 
practically  insupportable  in  the  extremity  of  the  winter.  In 
consequence  of  the  complaint  by  the  prisoners,  the  matter 
was  very  humanely  taken  up  in  the  House  of  Peers  by  Lord 
Abingdon  .  .  .  and  soon  after  a  liberal  subscription  was  carried 
on  in  London  and  other  parts,  and  this  provided  a  sufficient 
remedy  for  the  evil.' 

On  April  13,  1778,  a  Contractors'  Bill  was  brought  in  to 
Parliament  by  Sir  Philip  Jenning  Clarke  '  for  the  restraining  of 
any  person  being  a  Member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  from 
being  concerned  himself  or  any  person  in  trust  for  him,  in  any 
contract  made  by  the  Commissioners  of  H.M.'s  Navy  or  Trea- 


THE  PRISON  SYSTEM— THE  HULKS  49 

sury,  the  Board  of  Ordnance,  or  by  any  other  person  or  persons 
for  the  public  service,  unless  the  said  contract  shall  be  made 
at  a  public  bidding  '. 

The  first  reading  of  the  Bill  was  carried  by  seventy-one  to 
fifty,  the  second  reading  by  seventy- two  to  sixty-one.  Success 
in  the  Lords  was  therefore  regarded  as  certain.  Yet  it  was 
actually  lost  by  two  votes  upon  the  question  of  commit- 
ment, and  the  exertion  of  Government  influence  in  the  Bill  was 
taken  to  mean  a  censure  on  certain  Treasury  officials. 

So  things  went  on  in  the  old  way.  Between  1804  and 
1808  the  evil  state  of  matters  was  either  so  flagrant  that  it 
commanded  attention,  or  some  fearless  official  new  broom  was 
doing  his  duty,  for  the  records  of  these  years  abound  with 
complaints,  exposures,  trials,  and  judgements. 

We  read  of  arrangements  being  discussed  between  con- 
tractors and  the  stewards  of  prison  ships  by  which  part  of  the 
statutory  provisions  was  withheld  from  the  prisoners  ;  of 
hundreds  of  suits  of  clothing  sent  of  one  size,  of  boots  supposed 
to  last  eighteen  months  which  fell  to  pieces  during  the  first  wet 
weather  ;  of  rotten  hammocks,  of  blankets  so  thin  that  they 
were  transparent;  of  hundreds  of  sets  of  handcuffs  being  re  turned 
as  useless  ;  of  contractors  using  salt  water  in  the  manufacture 
of  bread  instead  of  salt,  and  further,  of  these  last  offenders  being 
prosecuted,  not  for  making  unwholesome  bread,  but  for  defraud- 
ing the  Revenue  !  Out  of  1,200  suits  of  clothes  ordered  to  be  at 
Plymouth  by  October  1807,  as  provision  for  the  winter,  by 
March  1808  only  300  had  been  delivered  ! 

Let  us  take  this  last  instance  and  consider  what  it  meant. 

It  meant,  firstly,  that  the  contractor  had  never  the  smallest 
intention  of  delivering  the  full  number  of  suits.  Secondly, 
that  he  had,  by  means  best  known  to  himself  and  the  officials, 
received  payment  for  the  whole.  Thirdly,  that  hundreds  of 
poor  wretches  had  been  compelled  to  face  the  rigour  of  an 
English  winter  on  the  hulks  in  a  half  naked  condition,  to 
relieve  which  very  many  of  them  had  been  driven  to  gambling 
and  even  worse  crimes. 

And  all  the  time  the  correspondence  of  the  Transport  Office 
consists  to  a  large  extent  of  rules  and  regulations  and  pro- 
visions and  safeguards  against  fraud  and  wrong-doing  ;  moral 


50  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

precepts  accompany  inquiry  about  a  missing  guard-room  poker, 
and  sentimental  exhortations  wind  up  paragraphs  about  the 
letting  of  grazing  land  or  the  acquisition  of  new  chimney-pots. 
Agents  and  officials  are  constantly  being  reminded  and  advised 
and  lectured  and  reproved.  Money  matters  of  the  most  trifling 
significance  are  carefully  and  minutely  dealt  with.  Yet  we 
know  that  the  war-prison  contract  business  was  a  festering 
mass  of  jobbery  and  corruption,  that  large  fortunes  were  made 
by  contractors,  that  a  whole  army  of  small  officials  and  not  a 
few  big  ones  throve  on  the  '  pickings  '  to  be  had. 

Occasionally,  a  fraudulent  contractor  was  brought  up,  heavily 
fined  and  imprisoned ;  but  such  cases  are  so  rare  that  it  is  hard 
to  avoid  the  suspicion  that  their  prominence  was  a  matter  of 
expediency  and  policy,  and  that  many  a  rascal  who  should  have 
been  hanged  for  robbing  defenceless  foreigners  of  the  commonest 
rights  of  man  h&d  means  with  which  to  defeat  justice  and  to 
persist  unchecked  in  his  unholy  calling.  References  to  this 
evil  will  be  made  in  the  chapter  dealing  with  prisons  ashore,  in 
connexion  with  which  the  misdeeds  of  contractors  seem  to 
have  been  more  frequent  and  more  serious  than  with  the  hulks. 

If  it  is  painful  for  an  Englishman  to  be  obliged  to  write  thus 
upon  the  subject  of  fraudulent  contractors,  their  aiders  and 
abettors,  still  more  so  is  it  to  have  to  confess  that  a  profession 
even  more  closely  associated  with  the  cause  of  humanity  seems 
to  have  been  far  too  often  unworthily  represented. 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  unanimity  of  foreign  officer- 
prisoners  about  the  utter  misery  of  prison-ship  life,  but  in 
nothing  is  their  agreement  more  marked  than  their  condemna- 
tion, not  merely  of  our  methods  of  treatment  of  the  sick  and 
wounded,  but  of  the  character  of  the  prison-ship  doctors. 
Always  bearing  in  mind  that  Britain  treated  her  own  sailors 
and  soldiers  as  if  they  were  vicious  animals,  and  that  the  sick- 
bay and  the  cockpit  of  a  man-of-war  of  Nelson's  day  were 
probably  not  very  much  better  than  those  described  by  Smol- 
lett in  Roderick  Random,  which  was  written  in  1748,  there 
seems  to  have  been  an  amount  of  gratuitous  callousness  and 
cruelty  practised  by  the  medical  officers  attached  to  the  hulks 
which  we  cannot  believe  would  have  been  permitted  upon  the 
national  ships* 


THE  PRISON  SYSTEM— THE  HULKS  51 

And  here  again  the  Government  Regulations  were  admirable 
on  paper :  the  one  point  which  was  most  strongly  insisted  upon 
being  that  the  doctors  should  live  on  board  the  vessels,  and 
devote  the  whole  of  their  time  to  their  duties,  whereas  there  is 
abundant  evidence  to  show  that  most  of  the  doctors  of  the 
Portsmouth,  Plymouth,  and  Chatham  hulks  carried  on  private 
practices  ashore  and  in  consequence  lived  ashore. 

More  will  be  found  upon  this  unhappy  topic  in  the  next 
chapter  of  records  of  life  on  the  hulks,  but  we  may  fittingly 
close  the  present  with  the  report  upon  hulk  diseases  by  Dr. 
Fontana,  French  Officer  of  Health  to  the  Army  of  Portugal, 
written  upon  the  Brunswick  prison  ship  at  Chatham  in  1812, 
and  published  as  an  appendix  to  Colonel  Lebertre's  book  upon 
English  war-prison  life. 

He  divides  the  diseases  into  three  heads  : 

(1)  External,  arising  from  utter  want  of  exercise,  from  damp, 
from  insufficient  food — especially  upon  the  '  maigre  '  days  of  the 
week — and  from  lack  of  clothing.     Wounds  on  the  legs,  which 
were  generally  bare,  made  bad  ulcers  which  the  '  bourreaux '  of 
English  doctors  treated  with  quack  remedies  such  as  the  unguent 
basilicon.    He  describes  the  doctor  of  the  Fyen  prison  hospital- 
ship  as  a  type  of  the  English  ignorant  and  brutal  medical  man. 

(2)  Scorbutic  diatesis,  arising  from  the  ulcers  and  tumours  on 
the  lower  limbs,  caused  by  the  breathing  of  foul  air  from  twelve 
to  sixteen  hours  a  day,  by  overcrowding,  salt  food,  lack  of 
vegetables,  and  deprivation  of  all  alcohol. 

(3)  Chest   troubles — naturally   the   most   prevalent,    largely 
owing  to  moral  despair  caused  by  humiliations  and  cruelties, 
and  deprivations  inflicted  by  low-born,  uneducated  brutes, 
miserable  accommodation,  the  foul  exhalations  from  the  mud 
shores  at  low  water,  and  the  cruel  treatment  by  doctors,  who 
practised  severe  bleedings,   prescribed  no  dieting  except  an 
occasional  mixture,  the  result  being  extreme  weakness.     When 
the  patient  was  far  gone  in  disease  he  was  sent  to  hospital, 
where  more  bleeding  was  performed,  a  most  injudicious  use  of 
mercury  made,  and  his  end  hastened. 

The  great  expense  of  the  hulks,  together  with  the  comparative 
ease  with  which  escape  could  be  made  from  them,  and  the 
annually  increasing  number  of  prisoners  brought  to  England, 

E  2 


52  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

led  to  the  development  of  the  Land  Prison  System.  It  was 
shown  that  the  annual  expense  of  a  seventy-four,  fitted  to  hold 
700  prisoners,  was  £5,869.  Dartmoor  Prison,  built  to  hold 
6,000  prisoners,  cost  £135,000,  and  the  annual  expense  of  it  was 
£2,862  :  in  other  words,  it  would  require  eight  seventy-fours 
at  an  annual  expense  of  £46,952  to  accommodate  this  number 
of  prisoners. 

The  hulks  were  retained  until  the  end  of  the  great  wars,  and 
that  they  were  recognized  by  the  authorities  as  particular 
objects  of  aversion  and  dread  seems  to  be  evident  from  the 
fact  that  incorrigible  offenders  from  the  land  prisons  were  sent 
there,  as  in  the  case  of  the  wholesale  transfer  to  them  in  1812 
of  the  terrible  '  Romans '  from  Dartmoor,  and  from  the  many 
letters  written  by  prisoners  on  board  the  hulks  praying  to  be 
sent  to  prison  on  land,  of  which  the  following,  from  a  French 
officer  on  a  Gillingham  hulk  to  Lady  Pigott,  is  a  specimen  : 

H.M.S.  Sampson. 

'  MY  LADY  : 

'  Je  crains  d'abuser  de  votre  bonte  naturelle  et  de  ce 
doux  sentiment  de  compation  qui  vous  fait  toujours  prendre 
pitie  des  malheureux,  mais,  Madame,  un  infortune  sans  amis 
et  sans  soutiens  se  refugie  sous  les  auspices  des  personnes 
genereuses  qui  daignent  le  plaindre,  et  vous  avez  humaine- 
ment  pris  part  a  mes  maux.  Souffrez  done  que  je  vous  supplie 
encore  de  renouveler  vos  demandes  en  ma  faveur,  si  toutefois 
cette  demande  ne  doit  pas  etre  contraire  a  votre  tranquillite 
personnelle.  Voila  deux  ans  que  je  suis  renferme  dans  cette 
prison  si  nuisible  a  ma  sante  plus  chancellante  et  plus  debile 
que  jamais.  Voila  six  ans  et  plus  que  je  suis  prisonnier  sans 
espoir  qu'un  sort  si  funeste  et  si  peu  merite  finisse.  Si  je 
n'ai  pas  merite  la  mort,  et  si  on  ne  veut  pas  me  la  donner, 
il  faut  qu'on  me  permette  de  retourner  m'isoler  a  terre,  ou 
je  pourrais  alors  dans  la  tranquillite  vivre  d'une  maniere  plus 
convenable  a  ma  faible  constitution,  et  resister  au  malheur, 
pour  vous  prouver,  my  lady,  que  quand  j'ai  commis  la  faute 
pour  laquelle  je  souffre  tant,  ce  fut  beaucoup  plus  par  manque 
d'experience  que  par  vice  du  coeur. 

'  JEAN-AUGUSTE   NEVEU.' 

1812. 

This  letter  was  accompanied  by  a  certificate  from  the  doctor 
of  the  Trusty  hospital  ship,  and  the  supplicant  was  noted  to  be 
sent  to  France  with  the  first  batch  of  invalids. 


THE  PRISON  SYSTEM— THE  HULKS  53 

Many  of  the  aforementioned  letters  are  of  the  most  touching 
description,  and  if  some  of  them  were  shown  to  be  the  clever 
concoctions  of  desperate  men,  there  is  a  genuine  ring  about  most 
which  cannot  fail  to  move  our  pity.  Lady  Pigott  was  one  of  the 
many  admirable  English  women  who  interested  themselves  in 
the  prisoners,  and  who,  as  usual,  did  so  much  of  the  good  work 
which  should  have  been  done  by  those  paid  to  do  it.  It  is 
unfortunate  for  our  national  reputation  that  so  many  of  the 
reminiscences  of  imprisonment  in  England  which  have  come 
down  to  us  have  been  those  of  angry,  embittered  men,  and  that 
so  little  written  testimony  exists  to  the  many  great  and  good 
and  kindly  deeds  done  by  English  men  and  women  whose 
hearts  went  out  to  the  unfortunate  men  on  the  prison  ships, 
in  the  prisons,  and  on  parole,  whose  only  crime  was  having 
fought  against  us.  But  that  there  were  such  acts  is  a  matter 
of  history. 


CHAPTER  IV 
LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS 

FROM  a  dozen  accounts  by  British,  American,  and  French 
writers  I  have  selected  the  following,  as  giving  as  varied  a  view 
as  possible  of  this  phase  of  the  War  Prison  system. 

The  first  account  is  by  the  Baron  de  Bonnefoux,  who  was 
captured  with  the  Belle  Poule  in  the  West  Indies  by  the 
Ramillies,  Captain  Pickmore  in  1806,  was  allowed  on  parole  at 
Thame  and  at  Odiham,  whence  he  broke  parole,  was  captured, 
and  taken  to  the  Bahama  at  Chatham. 

When  Bonnefoux  was  at  Chatham,  there  were  five  prison 
ships  moored  under  the  lee  of  Sheppey  between  Chatham  and 
Sheerness.  He  describes  the  interior  arrangements  of  a  hulk, 
but  it  resembles  exactly  that  of  the  painter  Garneray  whose 
fuller  account  I  give  next. 

Writing  in  1835,  the  Baron  says  : 

'  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  more  severe  punishment  ;  it  is 
cruel  to  maintain  it  for  an  indefinite  period,  and  to  submit 
to  it  prisoners  of  war  who  deserve  much  consideration,  and 
who  incontestably  are  the  innocent  victims  of  the  fortune  of 
war.  The  British  prison  ships  have  left  profound  impressions 
on  the  minds  of  the  Frenchmen  who  have  experienced  them  ; 
an  ardent  longing  for  revenge  has  for  long  moved  their  hearts, 
and  even  to-day  when  a  long  duration  of  peace  has  created 
so  much  sympathy  between  the  two  nations,  erstwhile  enemies, 
I  fear  that,  should  this  harmony  between  them  be  disturbed, 
the  remembrance  of  these  horrible  places  would  be  reawakened.' 

Very  bitterly  does  the  Baron  complain  of  the  bad  and  insuffi- 
cient food,  and  of  the  ill-fitting,  coarse,  and  rarely  renewed 
clothing,  and  he  is  one  of  those  who  branded  the  commanders 
of  the  prison  ships  as  the  '  rebuts  ' — the  '  cast-offs  '  of  the 
British  navy. 

The  prisoners  on  the  Bahama  consisted  largely  of  privateer 
captains,  the  most  restless  and  desperate  of  all  the  prisoners  of 
war,  men  who  were  socially  above  the  common  herd,  yet  who 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  55 

had  not  the  cachet  of  the  regular  officers  of  the  navy,  who 
regarded  themselves  as  independent  of  such  laws  and  regula- 
tions as  bound  the  latter,  and  who  were  also  independent  in  the 
sense  of  being  sometimes  well-to-do  and  even  rich  men.  At 
first  there  was  an  inclination  among  some  of  these  to  take 
Bonnefoux  down  as  an  '  aristo  '  ;  they  '  tutoyer'd '  him,  and 
tried  to  make  him  do  the  fagging  and  coolie  work  which,  on 
prison  ships  as  in  schools,  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  new-comer. 

But  the  Baron  from  the  first  took  up  firmly  the  position  of 
an  officer  and  a  gentleman,  and  showed  the  rough  sea-dogs  of 
the  Channel  ports  that  he  meant  it,  with  the  result  that  they 
let  him  alone. 

Attempted  escapes  were  frequent.  Although  under  constant 
fear  of  the  lash,  which  was  mercilessly  used  in  the  British  army 
at  this  time,  the  soldiers  of  the  guard  were  ready  enough  to  sell 
to  the  prisoners  provisions,  maps,  and  instruments  for  effecting 
escape.  One  day  in  1807  five  of  the  prisoners  attempted  to  get 
off  in  the  empty  water  casks  which  the  Chatham  contractor  took 
off  to  fill  up.  They  got  safely  enough  into  the  water  boat, 
unknown  of  course  to  its  occupants  (so  it  seems,  at  any  rate,  in 
this  case,  although  there  was  hardly  a  man  who  had  dealings 
with  the  hulks  who  would  not  help  the  prisoners  to  escape  for 
money),  but  at  nightfall  the  boat  anchored  in  mid-stream  ; 
one  of  the  prisoners  got  stuck  in  his  water-cask  and  called  for 
aid  ;  this  was  heard  by  the  cabin-boy,  who  gave  the  alarm,  the 
result  being  that  the  prisoners  were  hauled  out  of  their  hiding 
places,  taken  on  board,  and  got  ten  days  Black  Hole.  The 
Black  Hole  was  a  prison  six  feet  square  at  the  bottom  of  the 
hold,  to  which  air  only  came  through  round  holes  not  big 
enough  for  the  passage  of  a  mouse.  Once  and  once  only  in  the 
twenty-four  hours  was  this  cachot  visited  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  food  and  taking  away  the  latrine  box.  Small  wonder 
that  men  often  went  mad  and  sometimes  died  during  a  length- 
ened confinement,  and  that  those  who  came  out  looked  like 
corpses. 

The  above-mentioned  men  were  condemned  to  pay  the  cost 
of  their  capture,  and,  as  they  had  no  money,  were  put  on  half 
rations  ! 

The  time  came  round  for  the  usual  sending  of  aged  and 


56  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

infirm  prisoners  to  shore  prisons.  One  poor  chap  sold  his  right 
to  go  to  Bonnefoux,  and  he  and  his  friend  Rousseau  resolved 
to  escape  en  route.  Bonnefoux,  however,  was  prevented  from 
going,  as  his  trunk  had  arrived  from  Odiham  and  he  was 
required  to  be  present  to  verify  its  contents. 

In  December  1807,  three  Boulogne  men  cut  a  hole  just  above 
the  water  near  the  forward  sentry  box  on  the  guard  gallery 
which  ran  round  the  outside  of  the  ship,  and  escaped.  Others 
attempted  to  follow,  but  one  of  them  cried  out  from  the  ex- 
treme cold,  was  fired  at  and  hauled  on  board.  Three  managed 
to  get  off  to  Dover  and  Calais,  one  stuck  in  the  mud  and  was 
drowned,  and  the  Baron  says  that  the  captain  of  the  Bahama 
allowed  him  to  remain  there  until  he  rotted  away,  as  a  deterrent 
to  would-be  imitators. 

Milne,  captain  of  the  Bahama,  the  Baron  says,  was  a  drunken 
brute  who  held  orgies  on  board  at  which  all  sorts  of  loose  and 
debased  characters  from  the  shore  attended.  Upon  one 
occasion  a  fire  was  caused  by  these  revels,  and  the  captain,  who 
was  drunk,  gave  orders  that  the  prisoners  should  be  shot  at 
should  the  fire  approach  them,  rather  than  that  they  should 
escape. 

A  rough  code  of  justice  existed  between  the  prisoners  for  the 
settlement  of  differences  among  themselves.  One  Mathieu, 
a  privateersman,  kept  a  small  tobacco  stall.  A  soldier,  who 
already  had  a  long  bill  running  with  him,  wanted  tobacco  on 
credit.  Mathieu  refused  ;  the  soldier  snatched  some  tobacco 
off  the  stall,  Mathieu  struck  him  with  a  knife  and  wounded  him 
badly.  Mathieu  was  a  very  popular  character,  but  justice 
had  to  be  done,  even  to  a  captive.  Luckily  the  soldier  re- 
covered, and  Mathieu  got  off  with  indemnification. 

During  the  very  bad  weather  of  March  1808,  the  sentries 
ordinarily  on  the  outer  gallery  were  taken  on  board.  To  this 
gallery  a  boat  was  always  made  fast,  and  the  Baron,  Rousseau, 
and  another  resolved  to  escape  by  it.  So  they  cut  the  painter 
and  got  off,  using  planks  for  oars,  with  holes  in  them  for  hand- 
hold. They  reached  land  safely,  and  hid  all  day  in  a  field, 
feeding  on  provisions  they  had  brought  from  the  Bahama.  At 
nightfall  they  started,  and,  meeting  a  countryman,  asked  the 
way  to  Chatham.  '  Don't  go  there,'  he  replied,  '  the  bridge 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  57 

is  guarded,  and  you  will  be  arrested.'  One  of  the  prisoners,  not 
knowing  English,  only  caught  the  last  word,  and,  thinking  it 
was  '  arretez ',  drew  a  piece  of  fencing  foil,  with  which  each  was 
armed,  and  threatened  the  man.  The  others  saved  him,  and 
in  recognition  he  directed  them  to  a  village  whence  they  could 
cross  the  Medway.  They  walked  for  a  long  time  until  they 
were  tired,  and  reaching  a  cottage,  knocked  for  admission.  A 
big  man  came  to  the  door.  They  asked  hospitality,  and  threat- 
ened him  in  case  of  refusal.  '  My  name  is  Cole,'  said  the  man, 
'  I  serve  God,  I  love  my  neighbour,  I  can  help  you.  Depend 
on  me.'  They  entered  and  were  well  entertained  by  Cole's 
wife  and  daughter,  and  enjoyed  the  luxury  of  a  night's  rest  in 
a  decent  bed.  Next  morning,  Cole  showed  them  how  to  reach 
the  Dover  road  across  the  river,  and  with  much  difficulty  was 
persuaded  to  accept  a  guinea  for  his  services. 

Such  instances  of  pity  and  kindness  of  our  country  people 
for  escaped  prisoners  are  happily  not  rare,  and  go  far  to  counter- 
balance the  sordid  and  brutal  treatment  which  in  other  cases 
they  received. 

That  evening  the  fugitives  reached  Canterbury,  and,  after 
buying  provisions,  proceeded  towards  Dover,  and  slept  in  a 
barn.  Freedom  seemed  at  hand  when  from  Dover  they  had  a 
glimpse  of  the  French  coast,  but  fortune  still  mocked  them,  for 
they  sought  in  vain  along  the  beach  for  a  boat  to  carry  them 
over.  Boats  indeed  were  there,  but  all  oars,  sails,  and  tackle 
had  been  removed  from  them  in  accordance  with  Government 
advice  circulated  in  consequence  of  the  frequent  escapes  of 
French  officers  on  parole  by  stealing  long-shore  boats. 

So  they  went  on  to  Deal,  and  then  to  Folkestone.  Here  they 
were  recognized  as  escaping  prisoners  and  were  pursued,  but 
they  ran  and  got  safely  away.  They  held  a  consultation  and 
decided  to  go  to  Odiham  in  Hampshire,  where  all  of  them  had 
friends  among  the  officers  on  parole  there,  who  would  help 
them  with  money.  The  writer  here  describes  the  great  suffer- 
ings they  underwent  by  reason  of  the  continuous  bad  weather, 
their  poor  clothing,  their  footsoreness,  and  their  poverty.  By 
day  they  sheltered  in  ditches,  woods,  and  under  hedges,  and 
journeyed  by  night,  hungry,  wet  to  the  skin,  and  in  constant 
dread  of  being  recognized  and  arrested.  For  some  unknown 


58  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

reason,  instead  of  pushing  westward  for  their  destination  they 
went  back  to  Canterbury,  thence  to  London,  then  via  Houn- 
slow  Heath  to  Odiham,  where  they  arrived  more  dead  than  alive, 
shoeless,  their  clothing  in  rags,  and  penniless.  At  Odiham  they 
went  to  one  of  the  little  houses  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town, 
built  especially  for  French  prisoners.  This  house  belonged  to 

a  Mr.  R ,  and  here  the  three  men  remained  hidden  for  eight 

days.  Suddenly  the  house  was  surrounded  by  armed  men, 
the  Baron  and  his  companions  were  arrested  and  put  into 
the  lock-up.  Cere,  a  friend  of  the  Baron's,  believed  that 
R —  -  had  betrayed  them,  and  challenged  him.  A  duel  was 
fought  in  which  R —  -  was  badly  wounded,  and  when  he 
recovered  he  found  that  feeling  among  the  Frenchmen  in 
Odiham  was  so  strong,  that  the  Agent  sent  him  away  to  Scot- 
land under  a  false  name.  At  Odiham  lock-up,  Sarah  Cooper, 
an  old  friend  of  the  Baron's  when  he  was  on  parole  there, 
who  had  helped  him  to  get  away,  came  to  see  him  and  left  him 
a  note  in  which  she  said  she  would  help  him  to  escape,  and  would 
not  leave  him  until  she  had  taken  him  to  France.  The  escape 
was  planned,  Sarah  contrived  to  get  him  a  rope  ladder  and  had 
a  conveyance  ready  to  take  him  away,  but  just  as  his  foot  was 
on  the  ladder  the  police  got  the  alarm,  he  was  arrested,  chained, 
and  shut  up  in  the  cachot. 

For  three  days  the  Baron  remained  in  irons,  and  then  was 
marched  to  Chatham,  so  closely  watched  by  the  guards  that 
every  night  the  prisoner's  clothes  and  boots  were  removed,  and 
were  not  returned  until  the  morning.  They  went  to  Chatham 
by  way  of  London  where  they  were  Confined  in  the  Savoy 
prison,  then  used  for  British  deserters.  These  men  were 
friendly  to  the  Frenchmen.  All  of  them  had  been  flogged,  one 
had  received  1,100  lashes,  and  was  to  receive  300  more. 

On  May  I,  1808,  the  unfortunate  men  found  themselves  once 
more  on  the  Bahama,  with  a  sentence  of  ten  days  in  the  Black 
Hole. 

Captain  Milne  of  the  Bahama  was  exasperated  at  these 
escapes,  and  attempts  to  escape,  and  was  brutal  in  his  endea- 
vours to  get  hold  of  the  tools  with  which  the  prisoners  had 
worked.  He  tried  the  effect  of  starvation,  but  this  only  fanned 
the  spirit  of  revolt  in  the  ship,  the  state  of  life  in  which  became 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  59 

very  bad,  threats,  disputes,  quarrels  and  duels  being  of  every- 
day occurrence.  The  climax  came  when  bad  weather  pre- 
vented the  delivery  of  bread,  and  the  prisoners  were  put  on 
biscuit.  They  assembled  in  the  pare,  the  open  space  between 
the  two  batteries,  forty  feet  square,  and  declared  they  would 
not  disperse  until  other  provisions  were  served  out.  Milne 
was  mad  with  anger  and  drink,  and  ordered  the  soldiers  to  fire 
upon  the  prisoners,  but  the  young  officer  in  command  would 
not  respect  the  order,  and,  instead,  counselled  a  more  moderate 
action.  Bonnefoux  managed  to  calm  the  prisoners,  and 
determined  personally  to  interview  Milne,  and  represented  to 
him  that  to  compel  eight  hundred  desperate,  hungry  men  to 
descend  from  the  pare  would  mean  bloodshed.  The  captain 
yielded,  and  peace  was  temporarily  assured. 

However,  more  hole-boring  was  discovered  ;  Rousseau,  the 
Baron's  friend,  slipped  overboard  and  swam  away,  but  was 
captured  just  as  he  was  landing  ;  the  result  being  that  the 
watch  kept  was  stricter  than  ever. 

The  Baron  here  dilates  upon  the  frightful  immorality  of  the 
life  on  the  Bahama.  He  says  : 

'  II  n'existait  ni  crainte,  ni  retenue,  ni  amour-propre  dans  la 
classe  qui  n'avait  pas  ete  dotee  des  bienfaits  de  quelque 
education.  On  y  voyait  done  regner  insolemment  rimmoralite 
la  plus  perverse,  les  outrages  les  plus  honteux  a  la  pudeur  et 
les  actes  les  plus  degoutants,  le  cynisme  le  plus  effronte,  et 
dans  ce  lieu  de  misere  generale  une  misere  plus  grande  encore 
que  tout  ce  qu'on  peut  imaginer.' 

There  were  three  classes  of  prisoners. 

(i)  Les  Raff  ales.  (2)  Les  Messieurs  ou  Bourgeois.  (3)  Les 
Omciers. 

The  Raff  ales  were  the  lowest,  and  lowest  of  the  Raff  ales  were 
the  '  Manteaux  imperiaux.'  These  had  nothing  in  the  world 
but  one  covering,  which  swarmed  with  lice,  hence  the  facetious 
allusion  in  their  name  to  the  bees  of  the  Imperial  Mantle. 
These  poor  wretches  eat  nothing  during  the  day,  for  their 
gambling  left  them  nothing  to  eat,  but  at  night  they  crept 
about  picking  up  and  devouring  the  refuse  of  the  food.  They 
slept  packed  closely  side  by  side  on  the  deck.  At  midnight  the 
officer  of  the  evening  gave  the  word,  '  Par  le  flanc  droit  !  '  and 


60  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

all  turned  on  to  their  right  sides.  At  3  a.m.  the  word  rang  out 
*  Pare  a  virer  !  '  l  and  all  turned  on  to  their  left  sides. 

They  gambled  with  dice  for  their  rations,  hammocks,  clothes, 
anything,  and  the  winners  sold  for  two  sous  what  often  was 
worth  a  franc.  They  had  a  chief  who  was  fantastically  garbed, 
and  a  drummer  with  a  wooden  gamelle.  Sometimes  they  were 
a  terror  to  the  other  prisoners,  but  could  always  be  appeased 
with  something  to  gamble  with. 

Bonnefoux's  companions  worked  in  wood  and  straw.  The 
Bahama  had  been  captured  from  the  Spaniards  and  was  built 
of  cedar,  and  the  wood  extracted  by  the  prisoners  in  making 
escape  holes  they  worked  into  razor-boxes  and  toilette  articles. 
Bonne foux  himself  gave  lessons  in  French,  drawing,  mathe- 
matics, and  English,  and  published  an  English  Grammar,  a  copy 
of  which  is  at  Paris,  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale. 

Gradually  the  spread  of  the  taste  for  education  had  a  refining 
and  civilizing  effect  on  board  the  Bahama,  and  when  Bonnefoux 
finally  obtained  parole  leave,  the  condition  of  affairs  was  very 
much  improved. 

In  June  1809  the  Baron  left  the  Bahama  for  Lichfield,  and 
with  him  was  allowed  to  go  one  Dubreuil,  a  rough  typical 
privateer  captain,  who  never  had  any  money,  but  had  a  con- 
stant craving  for  tobacco.  He  had  been  kind  to  Colonel  and 
Mrs.  Campbell,  whom  he  had  taken  prisoners,  and  who  had 
promised  to  befriend  him  should  luck  turn  against  him.  Bonne- 
foux had  helped  him  pecuniarily,  and  in  return  Dubreuil 
promised  to  teach  him  how  to  smoke  through  his  eyes  ! 

The  next  relation  is  that  of  Louis  Garneray,  a  marine  painter 
of  some  note,  specimens  of  whose  work  during  his  nine  years' 
captivity  in  England  may  still  be  found  in  Portsmouth  and 
its  neighbourhood,  and  one  at  least  of  whose  later  pictures  is 
in  the  Marine  Gallery  of  the  Paris  Louvre. 

What  follows  is  an  analysis  in  brief  of  his  book  Mes  Pontons 
(which  is,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  the  most  complete  picture 
of  life  on  a  prison  ship  yet  published),  and,  being  but  a  brief 
analysis,  is  incomplete  as  to  numberless  most  interesting  details, 
so  that  I  would  recommend  any  reader  who  wishes  to  be 
minutely  informed  upon  the  subject  to  read  the  original  volume 
1  '  Prepare  to  tack  !  ' 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  61 

of  320  pages.  It  is  caustically,  even  savagely  written,  but  nine 
years  cut  out  of  a  young  man's  life  cannot  serve  to  sweeten  his 
disposition. 

In  May  1806  Garneray,  who  had  been  captured  in  the  West 
Indies,  was  taken  on  board  the  hulk  Prothee  at  Portsmouth, 
stripped,  plunged  into  a  cold  bath,  and  clothed  in  an  ill-fitting 
orange-yellow  suit,  on  the  back  of  which  the  large  letters  T.  O. 
proclaimed  him  as  under  the  care  of  the  Transport  Office.  He 
describes  the  Prothee, — as  he  is  hustled  into  the  mob  of  '  dead 
people  come  out  for  a  moment  from  their  graves,  hollow- 
eyed,  earthy  complexioned,  round  backed,  unshaven,  their 
frames  barely  covered  with  yellow  rags,  their  bodies  frightfully 
thin,' — as  a  black,  shapeless  sarcophagus,  of  which  the  only  parts 
open  to  air  was  the  space  between  the  fo'c'sle  and  the  poop  and 
the  fo'c'sle  itself,  which  was  unbearable  from  the  smoke  of  the 
many  chimneys  on  it.  Each  end  of  the  ship  was  occupied  by 
the  garrison,  the  officers  aft  and  the  soldiers  forward.  A  stout 
barrier  divided  the  guard  from  the  prisoners,  which  was  so 
garnished  with  heavy-headed  nails  as  to  seem  like  iron,  and  was 
fitted  with  loop-holes  for  inspection,  and,  if  needs  be,  for  firing 
through.  On  the  lower  deck  and  in  the  lower  battery  were 
packed  seven  hundred  human  beings. 

Only  one  ladder  communicated  between  the  lower  deck  and 
the  lower  battery.  In  the  latter  the  only  daylight  came 
through  port-holes,  in  the  former  through  narrow  scuttles,  all 
of  which  had  iron  gratings. 

All  round  the  ship,  just  above  the  water-line,  ran  a  gallery 
with  open-work  floor,  and  along  this  paced  three  sentries  by 
day  and  seven  by  night.  The  ship  was  commanded  by  a  lieu- 
tenant and  a  master,  and  was  garrisoned  by  forty  or  fifty 
soldiers  under  a  marine  officer  and  about  twenty  sailors.  The 
day  guard  consisted  of  three  sentries  on  the  gallery,  one  on  the 
ladder  communicating  with  the  battery,  one  on  the  fo'c'sle, 
one  on  each  gangway,  and  on  the  poop  a  dozen  armed  men 
ready  for  instant  action.  At  night  there  were  seven 
sentries  on  the  gallery,  one  on  the  battery  ladder ;  an 
officer,  a  sergeant,  a  corporal,  and  a  dozen  sailors  were  con- 
tinually moving  round,  and  every  quarter  of  an  hour  the 
1  All 's  well '  rang  out. 


62 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 


The  ship's  boats  were  slung  ten  feet  above  the  water,  and  one 
was  chained  to  the  gallery  aft. 

At  6  a.m.  in  summer  and  8  in  winter,  the  port-holes  were 
opened,  and  the  air  thus  liberated  was  so  foul  that  the  men 
opening  the  port-holes  invariably  jumped  back  immediately. 
At  6  p.m.  in  summer  and  2  p.m.  in  winter,  every  wall  and 


GARNERAY  DRAWING  AN  ENGLISH  SOLDIER. 
(After  Louis  Garneray.} 

grating  was  sounded  with  iron  bars,  and  one  hour  later  all  the 
prisoners  were  driven  on  deck  and  counted. 

The  only  furniture  in  the  ship  was  a  bench  along  each  side 
and  four  in  the  middle,  the  prisoners  squatting  on  deck  at  mess 
time.  Each  prisoner  on  arrival  received  a  hammock,  a  thin 
coverlet,  and  a  hair  mattress  weighing  from  two  to  three 
pounds.  For  a  long  time  no  distinction  was  made  between 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  63 

officers  and  men,  but  latterly  a  special  ship  was  allowed  for 
officers.  Some  idea  of  the  crowding  on  board  may  be  gained 
from  the  facts  that  each  battery,  130  feet  long,  40  feet  broad, 
and  6  feet  high,  held  nearly  400  prisoners,  and  that  the 
hammocks  were  so  closely  slung  that  there  was  no  room  to 
sleep  on  deck. 

The  alimentation  of  the  prisoners,  humane  and  ample  as  it 
looks  on  paper,  seems  to  have  been  a  gross  sham.  Not  only 
did  the  contractors  cheat  in  quality  and  quantity,  but  what 
with  forfeitures  on  account  of  breaches  of  discipline,  and 
observance  of  the  law  imposed  by  the  prisoners  on  themselves, 
that,  deductions  or  no  deductions,  no  man  should  have  a  larger 
ration  than  another,  and  contributions  to  men  planning  to 
escape,  it  was  impossible  for  all  to  touch  full  rations. 

The  prisoners  elected  their  own  cooks,  and  nominally  a 
committee  of  fifteen  prisoners  was  allowed  to  attend  at  the 
distribution  to  see  that  quality  and  quantity  were  just,  but  the 
guards  rarely  allowed  them  to  do  so.  Six  men  formed  a  mess  ; 
no  spoons,  knives  or  forks  were  supplied,  merely  bowls  and  pan- 
nikins. The  fish  supplied  on  '  maigre  '  days — Wednesdays  and 
Fridays — was  usually  uneatable,  and  the  prisoners  often  sold 
the  herrings  at  a  penny  each  to  the  purveyors,  who  kept  them 
for  redistribution,  so  that  it  was  said  that  some  herrings- 
had  done  duty  for  ten  years  !  With  the  money  thus  made  the 
prisoners  bought  butter  or  cheese.  The  cod  they  re-cooked  ; 
the  bread  was  filthy  and  hard.  Complaints  were  useless,  and 
the  result  was  constant  hunger. 

All  but  the  Raff  ales,  the  scum,  occupied  themselves  with 
trades  or  professions.  There  were  tobacco  manufacturers, 
professors  of  dancing,  fencing,  and  stick-play,  who  charged  one 
sou  for  a  lesson,  which  often  lasted  an  hour.  Mathematics  and 
languages  were  taught  at  the  same  rate.  Wliilst  these  and 
many  other  occupations  were  busy,  up  and  down  the  battery 
passed  the  '  merchants  '  crying  their  wares,  hungry  men  who 
offered  their  rags  for  sale,  menders  of  shoes,  and  the  occupants 
of  favourable  positions  in  the  battery  inviting  bids  for  them,  so 
that  despite  the  rags  and  the  hunger  and  the  general  misery, 
there  was  plenty  of  sound  and  movement,  and  general 
evidence  of  that  capability  for  adapting  themselves  to- 


64  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

circumstance   which   so  invariably  distinguished   the   French 
prisoners  in  England  from  the  British  prisoners  in  France. 

Garneray's  chief  friend  on  board  was  a  sturdy  Breton  priva- 
teer Captain  named  Bertaud.  Bertaud  hated  the  English 
fiercely,  and,  being  somewhat  of  a  bruiser,  had  won  the  esteem 
of  his  companions  quite  as  much  by  his  issue  of  the  following 
challenge  as  by  his  personal  qualities. 

'  Challenge  to  the  English  !  Long  live  French  Brittany  ! 
The  undersigned  Bertaud,  native  of  Saint-Brieuc,  annoyed  at 
hearing  the  English  boast  that  they  are  the  best  boxers  in  the 
world,  which  is  a  lie,  will  fight  any  two  of  them,  in  any  style 
with  fists,  but  not  to  use  legs. 

'  He  will  also,  in  order  to  prove  his  contempt  for  these 
boasters,  receive  from  his  two  adversaries  ten  blows  with  the 
fist  before  the  fight  wherever  his  adversaries  choose,  and 
afterwards  he  will  thrash  them.  Simply,  he  stipulates  that  as 
soon  as  he  has  received  the  ten  blows  and  before  the  fight 
begins  he  shall  be  paid  two  pounds  sterling  to  compensate  him 
for  the  teeth  which  shall  have  been  broken. 

'  Done  on  board  the  Prothee  where  Bertaud  mopes  himself 
to  death  !  ' 

Garneray  calls  him  a  madman,  and  says  that  the  ten  blows 
alone  will  do  for  him.  What  is  his  game  ? 

'  I  shall  pocket  two  pounds,  and  that  will  go  into  our  escape 
fund,'  replied  the  Breton  laughing. 

Garneray  and  Bertaud  had  been  saving  up  for  some  time  for 
the  escape  they  resolved  to  attempt,  and,  although  Bertaud's 
challenge  was  not  taken  up,  they  at  last  owned  forty-five 
shillings,  to  which  Garneray's  writing  lessons  at  a  shilling  each 
to  the  little  girl  of  the  Prothee' s  commander  chiefly  contributed. 
Each  made  himself  a  bag  of  tarred  cloth  to  hold  clothes  and 
provisions,  they  had  bored  a  hole  through  the  ship's  side  large 
enough  to  slip  through,  and  only  waited  for  a  dark  quiet  night. 
As  it  was  the  month  of  July  this  soon  came.  Bertaud  got 
through  first,  Garneray  was  on  the  point  of  following  when  a 
challenge  rang  out,  followed  by  a  musket-shot,  and  peeping 
through  the  hole,  to  his  horror  he  saw  poor  Bertaud  suspended 
over  the  water  by  the  cord  of  his  bag  which  had  caught  in  an 
unnoticed  nail  in  the  ship's  side.  Then  was  a  terrible  thing 
thing  done.  The  soldiers  hammered  the  helpless  Frenchman 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  65 

with  their  musket  butts,  Garneray  heard  the  fall  of  some- 
thing heavy  in  the  water  ;  there  was  silence  ;  then  as  if 
by  magic  the  whole  river  was  lit  up,  and  boats  from  all  the 
other  vessels  put  off  for  the  Proihee.  Garneray  slipped  back 
to  his  hammock,  but  was  presently  turned  out  with  all  the  other 
prisoners  to  be  counted.  His  anxiety  about  the  fate  of  his 
friend  made  him  ask  a  sailor,  who  replied  brutally,  '  Rascal, 
how  should  I  know  ?  So  far  as  I  am  concerned  I  wish  every 
Frenchman  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  !  '  For  a  consideration 
of  a  shilling,  however,  the  man  promised  to  find  out,  and  told 
Garneray  that  the  poor  Breton  had  received  three  bayonet 
thrusts,  a  sabre-cut  on  the  head,  and  musket-butt  blows  else- 
where, but  that  the  dog  still  breathed  !  For  twenty  days  the 
man  gave  his  shilling  bulletins,  and  then  announced  that  the 
Breton  was  convalescent. 

Garneray  and  Bertaud  made  another  attempt  some  months 
later.  Garneray  had  saved  money  he  had  earned  by  drawing 
designs  for  the  straw-workers  among  the  prisoners,  who  had 
hitherto  not  gone  beyond  birds  and  flowers,  and  who  readily 
paid  for  his  ships  in  full  sail  and  other  marine  objects. 

It  was  mid-winter  and  bitterly  cold,  so  the  two  adventurers 
prepared  themselves  by  rubbing  themselves  with  oil  saved 
from  the  little  lamp  by  which  Garneray  taught  his  pupils. 
Without  attracting  notice  they  slipped  overboard,  and  swam 
for  the  muddy  shore  of  an  island.  This  they  crossed  on  patins 
which  Bertaud  had  provided,  and  reached  the  river  by  Gosport. 
Only  occasional  pulls  at  the  rum  flask  prevented  them  from 
perishing  with  cold,  and  their  second  swim  nearly  cost  both  of 
them  their  lives.  Each  in  turn  had  to  support  the  other,  and 
they  were  on  the  point  of  giving  up  when  they  reached  an 
anchored  vessel.  Here  a  watchdog  greeted  them,  and  kept  up 
his  barking  until  he  aroused  the  crew,  who  hailed  them  in  what 
they  thankfully  recognized  to  be  broken  English.  Alas !  Their 
joy  was  short-lived.  The  skipper  of  the  vessel  was  a  Dane,  and 
so  far  from  promising  to  help  them  declared  he  would  send 
them  back  to  the  hulk,  abusing  them  violently.  This  was  too 
much  for  the  fiery  Breton,  who,  seizing  a  knife,  sprang  upon  the 
Dane  and  bore  him  to  the  ground.  They  tied  and  gagged  him, 
and,  said  Bertaud,  '  Now  let  us  be  off !  ' 


66  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

But  Garneray  declared  himself  too  exhausted  to  attempt 
another  swim,  even  for  liberty,  and  said  he  would  go  back  to 
the  hulk.  The  prospect  of  this  was  too  horrible  for  Bertaud. 
'  Better  be  drowned  and  be  done  with  it,'  said  he,  '  than  live  to 
be  killed  by  inches,'  and  before  Garneray  could  remonstrate, 
to  the  amazement  of  the  Danish  sailors,  he  sprang  overboard. 

At  four  the  next  morning  the  Danes  brought  Garneray  back 
to  the  Prothee.  Instantly,  although  he  was  wet  through  and 
half  dead  with  cold,  he  was  put  into  the  cachot,  and  but  for  the 
fact  that  the  carpenters  had  been  working  there  and  had  left 
a  pile  of  shavings,  amongst  which  he  nestled,  he  could  not  have 
lived  through  the  night.  Next  day  he  was  released  and  sent 
back  to  the  battery,  but  no  fresh  clothes  were  issued  to  him, 
and  but  for  the  charity  of  his  fellow  prisoners  he  would  have 
gone  naked. 

Seeing  all  the  prisoners  peering  excitedly  through  the  grated 
port-holes,  Garneray,  sick  in  his  hammock,  asked  the  reason  : 
'  See,  the  crows  !  '  was  the  reply. 

He  joined  the  onlookers,  and  describes  his  feelings  when  he 
saw  stretched  on  the  mud  of  the  Portchester  river  the  body  of 
Bertaud,  already  an  attraction  for  the  crows.  On  the  brutal 
scene  which  followed,  the  dragging  of  the  body  to  the  ship, 
and  the  utterly  inhuman  response  made  to  Garneray 's  prayer 
for  the  decent  treatment  of  his  friend's  remains,  it  is  as  unneces- 
sary as  it  is  distasteful  to  dwell. 

Garneray  was  now  changed  from  the  Prothee  to  the  Crown — 
a  ship  with  a  bad  reputation  among  the  prisoners. 

Captain  R —  -  of  the  Crown  was  a  brute  in  every  sense  of 
the  word,  and  the  prisoners  maddened  him  by  winning  for  the 
Crown  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  unmanageable,  because 
the  worst  managed,  hulk  in  Portchester  River.  Bully,  sot,  and 
coward  as  he  was,  he  by  no  means  had  his  own  way.  On  one 
occasion  five  prisoners  escaped.  Although  it  was  mid- winter 

and  snowing,  R had  the  muster  of  half-clad  wretches  made 

in  the  open.  The  number  could  never  be  made  right,  and 
count  after  count  was  made,  during  a  space  of  three  days.  The 
whole  affair  was  a  cleverly  concocted  device  to  gain  for  the 
escaped  men  time  to  get  safely  away.  A  master-carpenter 
among  the  prisoners  had  cut  a  means  of  communication  between 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS 


67 


two  of  the  batteries,  through  which,  unseen  by  the  authorities, 
men  could  slip  from  one  to  the  other,  get  on  deck,  and  so  swell 
or  diminish  the  muster  roll  as  arranged.  The  trick  was  not 
discovered,  but  that  there  was  a  trick  was  evident,  and  R — 
was  determined  to  be  revenged.  He  summoned  the  floating  fire- 
engines  in  harbour,  and,  although  it  was  mid-winter,  actually 


THE  CROW  HULK,  SEEN  FROM  THE  STERN. 
(After  Louis  Garneray.) 

pumped  icy  water  into  the  lower  deck  and  batteries  until  they 
were  drenched,  as  well  as  the  prisoners,  their  hammocks,  and 
their  clothes. 

On  another  occasion  when  for  counting  purposes  those  on 
the  Crown  were  transferred  en  masse  on  board  the  San  Antonio, 
they  returned  to  find  that  during  their  temporary  absence  R — 
had  actually,  '  as  a  measure  of  precaution/  he  said,  destroyed 

F  2 


68  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

all  the  tools  and  implements  and  books  which  the  prisoners  used 
in  their  poor  little  occupations  and  trades,  and  among  them 
Garneray's  canvases,  easels,  brushes,  and  colours.  The  im- 
mediate result  was  a  stupor  of  impotent  rage  ;  this  gave  way 
to  open  insubordination,  insult,  and  such  a  universal  paroxysm 

of  indignation  that  even  R- was  cowed,  and  actually  made 

a  show  of  leniency,  offering  terms  of  mediation  which  were 
scornfully  rejected. 

Garneray  relates  another  boxing  episode  with  great  gusto. 

A  certain  Colonel  S ,  belonging  to  a  well-known  English 

family,  came  to  visit  Captain  R accompanied  by  a  colossal 

negro,  gorgeously  arrayed,  called  Little  White,  and  a  splendid 
Danish  hound.  His  purpose  was  to  match  Little  White 
against  a  French  boxer  for  the  entertainment  of  his  fashionable 
friends  ashore.  At  first  sight  there  would  seem  to  be  very 
poor  sport  in  the  pitting  of  a  well-fed,  well-trained  giant 
against  even  the  fittest  champion  of  a  crowd  of  half-clad, 
half-starved,  wholly  untrained  prisoners  of  war.  Although  the 
real  object  of  the  gallant  Colonel  was  to  show  off  his  black  pet, 
and  to  charm  the  beauty  and  fashion  of  Portsmouth  with  an 
exhibition  of  prowess,  to  prove  that  he  was  simply  animated 
by  a  love  of  sport,  he  had  the  consent  of  R —  -  that  the 
prisoner  champion  should  be  prepared  in  some  way  for  the 
contest  by  extra  feeding  and  so  forth. 

Robert  Lange,  a  quiet,  inoffensive  Breton  with  a  quenchless 
hatred  of  the  English,  and  a  reputed  athlete,  at  once  accepted 
the  challenge,  especially  as  the  (to  him)  enormous  prize  of 
twenty  guineas  was  being  offered. 

The  day  appointed  for  the  contest  came.  Great  prepara- 
tions had  been  made  on  the  poop  of  the  Crown  for  the  reception 
of  the  fashionable  company  invited  to  assist  at  the  spectacle 

of  Colonel  S 's  black  knocking  out  in  the  first  round,  and 

probably  killing,  a  Frenchman. 

Colonel  S —  -  arrived,  and  with  him  Little  White  and  the 
big  dog,  and  flotillas  of  boats  brought  out  the  company,  largely 
consisting  of  ladies, '  parees  avec  ce  luxe  eclatant  et  de  mauvais 
gout  si  essentiellement  britannique,'  who  settled  themselves 
on  the  stand  rigged  up  for  the  occasion,  in  laughing  and  chatter- 
ing anticipation  of  something  funny. 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  69 

Robert  Lange  was  playing  cards  below  when  he  was  told 
that  the  entertainment  was  only  wanting  him.  Very  coolly 
he  sent  word  back  that  he  would  come  as  soon  as  he  had  finished 
his  hand,  and  nothing  would  induce  him  to  hurry.  Captain 
R —  -  wanted  to  put  Lange  into  the  cachot  at  once  for  this 
impertinence,  but  Colonel  S—  -  calmed  him  by  assuring  him 
that  it  was  the  custom  in  England  to  grant  any  indulgence  to 
a  man  condemned  to  die. 

Meanwhile  Little  White  divested  himself  of  his  gorgeous 
flunkey  dress,  and  the  appearance  of  his  magnificent  physique 
caused  a  chorus  of  admiration  for  him,  and  of  pity  for  the 
presumptuous  Frenchman,  to  burst  from  the  company. 

In  due  course  Robert  Lange  slouched  up,  his  hands  in  his 
pockets,  a  pipe  in  his  mouth,  and  his  cotton  cap  on  the  back  of 
his  head.  His  appearance  brought  out  a  murmur  of  disap- 
pointment from  the  visitors,  who  considered  they  were  being 

made  the  victims  of  one  of  Colonel  S 's  famous  hoaxes. 

The  murmurs  turned  to  smiles  when  Robert  confessed  ignorance 
about  seconds,  and  asked  what  a  watch  was  wanted  for.  How- 
ever, these  things  being  explained  to  him,  he  chose  Garneray 
and  a  fellow  Breton  as  seconds,  told  Garneray  to  pocket  the 
magnificent  watch  which  the  Colonel  offered  him,  said  he  was 
ready  for  the  dance  to  begin,  and  placed  himself  in  a  fighting 
position  which  occasioned  roars  of  laughter  from  the  polite 
crowd. 

'I'm  beginning  to  lose  my  temper  at  the  mockery  of  these 
fools,'  said  Lange  to  Garneray  ;  '  what  are  they  waiting  for  ?  ' 

'  Colonel,'  said  Garneray,  '  my  man  is  ready.  May  we* 
begin  ?  ' 

'  There  is  just  one  formality  customary  on  these  occasions/ 
replied  the  Colonel.  '  The  combatants  ought  to  shake  hands  to 
show  there  is  no  ill-feeling  between  them.' 

The  big  black  thrust  forward  his  hand  saying,  '  Shake  my 
hand  with  respect.  It  has  bowled  over  many  a  Frenchman.' 

At  this  gratuitous  insult,  which  the  English  applauded, 
a  thrill  of  indignation  agitated  the  crowd  of  French  prisoners. 

'  What  does  this  chap  say  ?  '   asked  Lange  of  Garneray. 

Garneray  told  him.  Instantly  there  sprang  into  his  face 
and  into  his  eyes  a  light  of  anger  very  unusual  to  him,  and  what 


70  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Garneray  feared  was  that  the  furious  Breton  would  violate  the 
laws  of  combat  and  spring  upon  the  negro  before  the  latter  had 
taken  up  his  fighting  position.  But  it  was  not  so.  Let  me 
translate  Garneray 's  description  of  what  followed :  '  At 
length  Robert  Lange  seized  the  negro's  hand.  Their  hands 
entwined,  their  gaze  fixed,  their  inflamed  faces  close  together, 
the  two  combatants  motionless,  resembled  a  marble  group. 
By  degrees,  it  seemed  to  me  that  on  the  face  of  Little  White 
there  was  a  look  of  pain.  I  was  not  wrong.  Suddenly  with 
a  cry  of  pain  which  he  had  been  suppressing  the  negro  bit  his 
lip  with  passion,  half  closed  his  eyes,  threw  his  head  back  as  he 
raised  his  shoulder  convulsively,  and  seemed  to  lose  conscious- 
ness. All  this  time  the  Breton  was  as  calm  and  motionless  as 
a  statue.  What  was  going  on  was  something  so  unforeseen,  so 
extraordinary  that  we  did  not  know  what  to  think  of  it.  Robert 
Lange  solved  the  riddle. 

'  "  Wretch  !  "  he  cried  with  a  resounding  voice.  "  This  hand 
which  has  done  for  so  many  Bretons  shall  not  henceforth 
frighten  a  child  !  " 

'  In  fact,  the  hand  of  the  Breton  had  gripped  the  negro's 
with  such  force  that  the  blood  sprang  from  its  fingers. 

'  "  Stop  !  stop  !  "  cried  the  black  in  his  agony.  But  Robert 
was  pitiless,  and  did  not  loosen  his  grasp  until  the  giant  was  on 
his  knees  before  him.' 

An  enthusiastic  burst  of  cheering  rose  from  the  French 
prisoner  spectators,  and,  to  cut  the  story  short,  the  Colonel 
handed  Robert  Lange  the  twenty  guineas,  and  was  obliged  to 
apologize  to  the  gay  company  assembled  to  see  the  triumph 
of  the  negro,  for  the  unexpected  and  brief  character  of  the 
entertainment. 

Then  he  called  his  big  Danish  hound  and  prepared  to  embark. 
But  the  dog  did  not  appear  and  could  not  be  found.  Somebody 
said  he  had  last  been  seen  going  into  the  battery.  Captain 
R—  -  started,  and  his  face  reddened  deeply.  '  Then — then/ 
he  stammered.  '  If  your  dog  has  got  into  the  battery,  you  will 
never  see  him  again  !  ' 

'  Never  see  him  again  !  What  do  you  mean  ?  '  roared  the 
Colonel. 

'  I  mean  that  by  this  time  he  represents  two  legs  of  mutton, 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  71 

several  dishes  of  "  ratatouille  ",  and  any  number  of  beeftaks  \ 
In  other  words,  the  prisoners  have  eaten  him  !  ' 

It  v\  as  even  so.  The  vision  of  a  large  plump  dog  had  been 
too  much  for  the  Raff  ales,  and  as  the  irate  Colonel  was  rowed 
shorewards  from  the  ship,  he  saw  the  skin  of  his  pet  nailed  on 
to  the  outer  side  of  it. 

Captain  R —  -  revenged  himself  for  the  double  fiasco  by 
a  series  of  brutal  persecutions  and  punishments  which  cul- 
minated in  open  rebellion,  severe  fighting,  much  bloodshed, 
and  at  last  in  a  proclamation  by  the  Captain  that  unless  the 
ringleaders  were  delivered  up  to  him,  imploring  pardon  for 
what  had  happened,  he  would  have  every  man  shot. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  long  duration  and  intensity  of  Captain 

R 's  persecution  had  reached  the  ears  of  the  authorities, 

and  just  at  the  expiration  of  the  hour  which  he  had  given  the 
prisoners  for  decision,  the  great  folk  of  the  Admiralty  arrived, 
and  the  result  of  a  court  of  inquiry  which  lasted  the  whole  day, 
and  which  even  Garneray  admits  was  conducted  with  impar- 
tiality, was  that  he  was  removed. 

A  few  weeks  later  Garneray  observed  two  of  the  worst  of  the 
Raffales  seated  on  a  bench  playing  ecarte  very  seriously,  and 
surrounded  by  a  silent  and  equally  serious  crowd.  Suspecting 
that  this  was  no  ordinary  gambling  bout,  he  inquired,  and  was 
told  that  by  a  drawing  of  lots  these  two  men  had  been  left  to 
decide  who  should  kill  the  ship's  master,  one  Linch,  the  worst 
type  of  hulk  tyrant.  In  vain  Garneray  exerted  himself  to 
prevent  the  committal  of  so  terrible  a  crime.  The  game  was 
played  out,  and  five  minutes  later  the  master  -was  stabbed  to 
the  heart  as  he  stood  on  the  upper  deck. 

Towards  the  end  of  1811  the  Vengeance,  to  which  hulk 
Garneray  had  been  shifted  from  the  Crown,  received  her  quota 
of  the  unfortunate  Frenchmen  who,  after  the  capitulation  of 
Baylen  in  1808,  had  been  imprisoned  by  the  Spaniards  on  the 
island  of  Cabrera,  where  they  had  been  submitted  to  the  most 
terrible  sufferings  and  hardships,  and  had  died  like  flies.  Garneray 
describes  the  appearance  of  thirty  of  these  poor  creatures  who 
had  been  apportioned  to  the  Vengeance,  as  they  came  alongside. 

'  The  poor  wretches,  lying  at  the  bottom  of  the  boat,  cried 
aloud  in  their  agony  and  tossed  in  the  delirium  of  fever  ;  thin 


72 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 


as  skeletons,  pale  as  corpses,  scarcely  covered,  although  the 
cold  was  intense,  by  their  miserable  rags.  ...  Of  these  thirty 
only  about  ten  had  strength  enough  to  get  on  board.' 

The  doctor  of  the  Vengeance  refused  to  receive  them  on 
board,  saying  that  by  their  infection  they  would  in  a  fortnight's 
time  turn  the  ship  into  one  great  tomb,  and  they  were  ordered 


EXTERIOR  VIEW  OF  A  HULK. 
(After  Louis  Garneray.) 

to  be  put  on  board  the  Pegasus  hospital  ship.  While  the  arrange- 
ments for  their  reception  were  being  made,  the  unfortunates 
were  kept  in  their  agony  in  the  boat  alongside,  for  the  captain 
of  the  Vengeance  said  it  was  not  worth  while  to  disarrange  his 
ship  for  such  men,  for  so  short  a  time. 

More  brutality  followed.  The  captain  of  the  Pegasus  sent 
word  that  the  poor  wretches  should  be  bathed  before  being  sent 
to  him,  saying  that  his  hospital  was  so  full  that  he  had  no 
accommodation  of  this  sort.  And  this  was  actually  done  ;  they 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  73 

were  plunged  into  icy  cold  water,  and  then  packed  off  to  the 
Pegasus,  the  result  being  that  many  of  them  were  hauled  on 
board  dying. 

As  the  doctor  of  the  Vengeance  predicted,  the  infection 
brought  by  the  survivors  of  Cabrera  spread  through  the  ship 
with  terrible  severity,  and  Garneray  himself  was  seized  with 
fever,  and  was  sent  on  board  the  Pegasus.  He  tells  how  by  the 
intervention  of  a  fellow-countryman  who  was  a  hospital  assis- 
tant, he  contrived  to  avoid  the  horrors  of  the  compulsory  cold 
bath  on  entrance,  and  proceeds  to  relate  a  circumstance  which, 
horrible  as  it  is,  I  give  for  what  it  is  worth. 

A  neighbour  invalid  had  a  diamond  ring  on  his  finger.  He 
was  a  soldier  of  Spain,  and  the  ring  no  doubt  had  been  obtained, 
as  Garneray  says,  '  by  the  luck  of  war  '.  He  was  very  far  gone  ; 
indeed  his  death  could  only  be  a  matter  of  a  few  hours. 
Garneray,  rapidly  becoming  convalescent,  heard  two  English 
attendants  conspire  to  take  the  dying  man  away  at  once  to  the 
mortuary  and  there  to  relieve  him  of  his  ring.  They  carried 
him  away  ;  Garneray  called  for  his  French  friend,  and  bid 
him  go  at  once  and  prevent  the  brutal  deed.  He  did  so,  and 
the  man  actually  recovered,  but  he  told  Garneray  that  it  was 
quite  the  rule  in  this  crowded  hospital  ship  for  patients  to  be 
hurried  away  before  they  were  dead  into  the  mortuary  in  order 
to  make  room  for  others  ! 

Garneray  says  : 

'  It  is  difficult  to  give  the  reader  an  idea  of  the  barbarous 
manner  in  which  the  French  were  treated  on  this  hospital 
ship.  I  will  only  give  one  more  instance,  for  my  aim  is  not 
to  horrify,  and  there  were  acts  of  cruelty  which  the  pen  hesi- 
tates to  describe.  One  day  the  English  doctor  was  asked  to 
authorize  wine  to  be  given  to  a  young  officer,  grievously  ill, 
in  order  to  strengthen  him.  "  Are  you  mad  ?  "  replied  the 
doctor.  '  To  dare  to  ask  me  to  give  strength  to  an  enemy  ? 
Get  out  !  You  must  be  a  fool  !  " 

When  Garneray  returned  to  the  Vengeance  he  had  news  of 
the  Baron  de  Bonnefoux — extracts  from  whose  life  upon  the 
Chatham  hulks  have  already  been  given, — and  speaks  of  him  as 
bent  upon  escaping,  and  fears  he  would  be  shot  one  of  these 
days. 


74 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 


Garneray  later  is  allowed  to  go  on  parole  t o  Bishop' s  Waltham, 
about  his  sojourn  at  which  place  something  will  be  said  when 
the  story  of  the  Prisoners  on  Parole  comes  to  be  told.  Suffice 
it  therefore  to  say  that  Garneray  got  away  from  Bishop's 
Waltham  to  Portsmouth,  and  well  across  the  Channel  on 


THE  VENGEANCE. 
(After  Louis  Garneray.} 

a  smuggling  vessel,  when  he  was  recaptured  by  a  British 
cruiser,  and  once  again  found  himself  a  prisoner  on  the  Ven- 
geance. After  more  sufferings,  brutal  treatment,  and  illness, 
Garneray  was  at  length  made  free  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris 
in  1814. 


CHAPTER  V 
LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS— (continued) 

I  NEXT  give  the  remarks  of  Colonel  Lebertre,  who,  having 
broken  his  parole  by  escaping  from  Alresford,  was  captured, 
and  put  on  the  Canada  hulk  at  Chatham.  This  was  in  1811. 
He  complains  bitterly  that  officers  in  the  hulks  were  placed  on 
a  level  with  common  prisoners,  and  even  with  negroes,  and 
says  that  even  the  Brunswick,  which  was  considered  a  better 
hulk  than  the  others,  swarmed  with  vermin,  and  that  although 
cleanliness  was  strongly  enjoined  by  the  authorities,  no  allow- 
ance for  soap  was  made,  no  leave  given  to  bathe  even  in  sum- 
mer, and  that  fresh  clothing  was  very  rarely  issued. 

But  most  strongly  does  he  condemn  the  conduct  of  the  idle 
curious  who  would  come  off  from  the  shore  to  see  the  prisoners 
on  the  hulks. 

'  Les  femmes  m£me  ont  montre  une  indifference  vraiment 
choquante.  On  en  a  vu  rester  des  heures  entieres  les  yeux 
fixes  sur  le  Pare  oil  se  tiennent  les  prisonniers,  sans  que  e 
spectacle  de  misere  qui  affecterait  si  vivement  une  Francaise 
ait  fait  couler  une  seule  larme  ;  le  rire  insultant  etait,  au 
contraire,  sur  leurs  levres.  Les  prisonniers  n'ont  connu  qu'un 
seul  exemple  d'une  femme  qui  s'evanouit  a  la  vue  du  Pare.' 

In  the  House  of  Commons  on  December  26,  1812,  during 
a  debate  upon  the  condition  of  the  foreign  prisoners  of  war  in 
England,  Croker,  Secretary  to  the  Admiralty,  declared  that  he 
had  inspected  the  hulks  at  Portsmouth,  and  had  found  the 
prisoners  thereon  '  comfortable  and  happy  and  well  provided 
with  amusement ',  and  Sir  George  Warrender  said  much  the 
same  about  Chatham. 

Colonel  Lebertre  remarks  on  this  : 

'  Men  sensual  and  hardened  by  pleasures  !  You  who  in 
full  Parliament  outrage  your  victims  and  declare  that  the 
prisoners  are  happy  !  Would  you  know  the  full  horror  of 
their  condition,  come  without  giving  notice  beforehand  ; 
dare  to  descend  before  daylight  into  the  tombs  in  which  you 


76  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

bury  living  creatures  who  are  human  beings  like  yourselves  ; 
try  to  breathe  for  one  minute  the  sepulchral  vapour  which 
these  unfortunates  breathe  for  many  years,  and  which  some- 
times suffocates  them  ;  see  them  tossing  in  their  hammocks, 
assailed  by  thousands  of  insects,  and  wooing  in  vain  the  sleep 
which  could  soften  for  one  moment  their  sufferings  !  ' 

He  describes,  as  did  the  Baron  de  Bonnefoux,  the  Raffales 
who  sold  all  their  clothes,  and  went  naked  in  obedience  to  one 
of  the  laws  of  their  camaraderie,  who  slept  huddled  together 
for  warmth  in  ranks  which  changed  position  by  words  of  com- 
mand. He  says  that  some  of  the  prisoners  were  so  utterly 
miserable  that  they  accepted  pay  from  the  authorities  to  act 
as  spies  upon  their  fellows.  He  describes  the  rude  courts  of 
justice  held,  and  instances  how  one  man  who  stole  five  louis 
received  thirty  blows  with  a  rope's  end  ;  he  refers  to  the 
terrible  vice  prevalent  upon  the  prison  ships,  and  remarks  that 
'  life  on  them  is  the  touchstone  of  a  man's  character  '. 

When  he  arrived  on  the  Canada  there  was  no  vacant  sleeping 
place,  but  for  120  francs  he  bought  a  spot  in  the  middle  of  the 
battery,  not  near  a  port,  '  just  big  enough  to  hold  his  dead 
body '.  Still,  he  admits  that  the  officers  treated  him  with  as 
much  consideration  as  their  orders  would  allow. 

On  August  n,  1812,  in  response  to  many  urgent  remon- 
strances from  influential  prisoners  against  the  custom  of  herding 
officers  and  men  together,  all  the  officers  on  the  hulks  at 
Chatham  were  transferred  to  the  lower  or  thirty-six  gun  battery 
of  the  Brunswick,  in  number  460.  Here  they  had  to  submit  to 
the  same  tyranny  as  on  the  other  ships,  except  that  they  were 
allowed  to  have  wine  if  they  could  afford  to  pay  six  francs 
a  bottle  for  it,  which  few  of  them  could  do.  Later,  General 
Fillet  and  other  '  broke  paroles ',  on  account  of  the  insulting 
letters  they  wrote  on  the  subject  of  being  allowed  rum  or  other 
spirits,  were  confined  to  the  regulation  small  beer.  The  Trans- 
port Office  wrote  :  '  Indeed,  when  the  former  unprincipled 
conduct  of  these  officers  is  considered,  with  their  present  com- 
bination to  break  through  the  rules,  obviously  tending  to 
insurrection  and  a  consequent  renewal  of  bloodshed,  we  think 
it  proper  that  they  should  immediately  be  removed  to  separate 
prison  ships.' 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  77 

We  now  come  to  the  most  rabid  of  the  Frenchmen,  General 
Fillet.  Fillet  was  severely  wounded  and  taken  prisoner  at 
Vimiero  in  1808,  and — in  violation,  he  says,  of  the  second  article 
of  the  Convention  of  Cintra,  which  provided  that  no  French 
should  be  considered  prisoners  of  war,  but  should  be  taken  out 
of  Portugal  with  arms,  &c.,  by  British  ships — was  brought  to 
England,  with  many  other  officers.  He  was  at  once  allowed 
to  be  on  parole  at  Alresford,  but,  not  considering  himself  bound 
by  any  parole  terms,  attempted  to  escape  with  Paolucci,  Cap- 
tain of  the  Friedland  captured  in  1808  by  the  Standard  and 
Active,  but  was  recaptured  and  sent  to  the  depot  at  Norman 
Cross.  Here  his  conduct  was  so  reprehensible  that  he  was  sent 
to  the  Brunswick  at  Chatham'.  From  the  Brunswick  he  tried 
to  escape  in  a  vegetable  boat,  but  this  attempt  failed,  and  it  is 
to  the  subsequent  rigour  of  his  treatment  that  must  be  attri- 
buted his  vitriolic  hatred  of  Britain. 

General  Fillet  is  of  opinion  that  the  particular  branch  of  the 
Navy  told  off  for  duty  on  the  prison  ships  was  composed  of 
the  most  miserable  scum  of  English  society  ;  of  men  who  have 
either  been  accomplices  in  or  guilty  of  great  crimes,  and  who 
had  been  given  by  the  magistrates  the  alternative  of  being 
marines  or  of  being  hanged  ! 

He  speaks  of  the  Chatham  hulks  as  abominably  situated 
near  foul  marshes — which  is  undeniably  true.  The  quarters 
of  the  prisoners  were  in  no  place  high  enough  for  a  man  to 
stand  upright  ;  fourteen  little  ports,  unglazed  but  barred,  of 
seventeen  inches  square,  on  each  side  of  the  deck,  gave  all  the 
light  and  air  obtainable.  When  they  were  shut  they  were  fast 
shut,  so  that  during  the  winter  months  the  prisoners  breathed 
foul  air  for  sixteen  hours  a  day.  Hence  they  went  naked,  and 
so,  when  the  cold  air  was  admitted  the  results  were  fatal.  The 
overcrowding  of  the  hulks,  says  Fillet,  was  part  of  the  great 
Government  design  of  killing  the  prisoners,  and  asserts  that 
even  a  London  newspaper,  quoting  the  opinion  of  a  medical 
board  in  London,  said  that  the  strongest  of  men,  after  six  years' 
life  on  the  hulks,  must  be  physically  wrecked  for  life. 

The  hammock  space  allowed  was  six  feet  in  length,  but 
swinging  reduced  them  to  four  and  a  half.  Newcomers  were 
often  obliged  to  sleep  on  the  bare  deck,  as  there  was  no  other 
vacant  space,  and  there  was  no  distinction  of  ranks.  However, 


78  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

officers  were  generally  able  to  buy  spaces,  upon  which  practice 
Fillet  remarks  : 

'  C'est  une  miserable  speculation  pour  un  pauvre  prisonnier 
aflame"  ;  il  consent  a  vendre  sa  place  afm  de  se  procurer  un 
peu  plus  de  vivre  pendant  quelques  jours,  et  arm  de  ne  pas 
mourir  de  faim  il  accelere  la  destruction  de  sa  sante,  et  se 
reduit  dans  cette  horrible  situation  a  coucher  sur  un  plancher 
ruisselant  d'eau,  Tevaporisation  des  transpirations  forcees  qui 
a  lieu  dans  ce  sejour  d'angoisses  et  de  la  mort.' 

He  declares  that  the  air  is  so  foul  when  the  decks  are  shut 
up  that  the  candles  will  not  burn,  and  he  has  heard  even  the 
guards  call  for  help  when  they  have  opened  the  hatches  and  the 
air  has  escaped.  The  food  he  describes  as  execrable,  so  that 
the  two  boats  which  had  the  monopoly  of  coming  alongside  to 
sell  butter,  tea,  coffee,  sugar,  potatoes,  candles,  and  tobacco  at 
a  price  one-third  above  that  on  land,  did  a  roaring  trade. 
The  general  reply  to  complaints  was  that  any  food  was  good 
•enough  for  French  dogs. 

If  they  were  badly  fed,  says  Fillet,  they  were  worse  clothed. 
Nominally  they  received  every  eighteen  months  a  coat,  waist- 
coat, breeches,  two  pairs  of  stockings,  two  shirts,  a  pair  of  shoes, 
and  a  cap.  He  declares  he  can  prove  that  the  prisoners  did  not 
receive  this  complete  rig-out  once  in  four  years,  and  that  if  a 
prisoner  had  any  rags  of  his  own,  or  received  any  money,  he  got 
no  clothes  !  What  clothes  they  did  get  were  so  badly  made 
that  they  generally  had  to  be  re-made.  He  says  that  at  Ports- 
mouth, where  the  hulk  agent  Woodriff  was  at  any  rate  con- 
scientious enough  to  issue  the  clothes  on  the  due  dates,  his 
secretary  would  buy  back  the  shirts  at  one  shilling  each,  and  so, 
as  Government  paid  three  shillings  each  for  them,  and  there 
were  at  Portsmouth,  Forton,  and  Portchester  some  twelve 
thousand  prisoners  on  the  average,  his  '  pickings '  must  have 
been  considerable  ! 

In  a  note  he  gives  the  instance  of  the  reply  of  Commander 
Mansell,  who  commanded  the  prison-ship  police  at  Chatham 
in  1813,  when  the  fact  that  not  one  quarter  of  the  clothing  due 
to  the  prisoners  had  been  delivered  to  them,  was  proved  clearly  : 
'  I  am  afraid  it  is  too  true,  but  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
I  cannot  help  it.' 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  79 

From  the  Garnet  d'Etapes  du  Sergt.-Maj.  Beaudouin,  31*  demi- 
brigade  de  ligne,  I  take  the  following  account  of  life  on  the 
hulks. 

:  On  October  3ist,  1809,  Beaudouin  left  Valleyfield  where  he 
had  been  confined  since  June  loth,  1804,  and  came  on  board 
the  Bristol  hulk  at  Chatham.  At  this  time  the  hulks  were  the 
Glory,  three  decker,  Bristol,  Crown  Prince,  Buckingham, 
Sampson  (mauvais  sujets),  Rochester,  Southwick,  Irresistible, 
Bahama  (Danes),  and  Trusty,  hospital  ship,  holding  in  all 
6,550  prisoners.' 

Beaudouin  says : 

'  The  difference  between  the  land  prisons  and  the  hulks  is 
very  marked.  There  is  no  space  for  exercise,  prisoners  are 
crowded  together,  no  visitors  come  to  see  them,  and  we  are 
like  forsaken  people.  There  is  no  work  but  the  corvees  to  get 
our  water,  and  to  scrape  in  winter  and  wash  in  summer  our 
sleeping  place.  In  a  word,  only  to  see  them  is  to  be  horrified. 
The  anchorage  at  Chatham  is  bounded  by  low  and  ill-cultured 
shores  ;  the  town  is  two  miles  away — a  royal  dockyard  where 
there  is  much  ship-building.  At  the  side  of  it  is  a  fine,  new, 
well-armed  fort,  and  adjoining  it  a  little  town  named  Rochester, 
where  there  are  two  windmills,  and  two  more  in  Chatham. 
By  the  London  road,  three  miles  off,  there  are  four  windmills. 
The  people  of  this  country  are  not  so  pleasant  and  kind  as  in 
Scotland,  in  fact  I  believe  "  the  sex  "  is  not  so  beautiful.' 

Very  soon  the  Bristol  was  condemned  and  its  prisoners  trans- 
ferred to  the  Fyen,  and  at  the  same  time  the  Rochester  and 
Southwick  were  replaced  by  the  Canada  and  Nassau.  On  the 
Fyen  were  850  prisoners,  but  during  1810  and  1811  a  great 
many  Chatham  prisoners  were  sent  to  Norman  Cross  and 
Scotland. 

Beaudouin  comments  thus  bitterly  : 

1  It  is  unfortunate  for  me  that  my  circle  of  acquaintances 
is  so  limited,  and  that  I  cannot  therefore  make  sufficiently 
known  the  crimes  of  a  nation  which  aims  at  the  supremacy  in 
Europe.  It  poses  as  an  example  among  nations,  but  there  are 
no  brigands  or  savages  as  well  versed  in  wickedness  as  it  is. 
Day  by  day  they  practise  their  cruelties  upon  us,  unhappy 
prisoners.  That  is  where  they  are  cowardly  fighters  !  against 
defenceless  men  !  Half  the  time  they  give  us  provisions 
which  the  very  dogs  refuse.  Half  the  time  the  bread  is  not 
baked,  and  is  only  good  to  bang  against  a  wall  ;  the  meat 


8o  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

looks  as  if  it  had  been  dragged  in  the  mud  for  miles.  Twice 
a  week  we  get  putrid  salt  food,  that  is  to  say,  herrings  on 
Wednesday,  cod-fish  on  Saturday.  We  have  several  times 
refused  to  eat  it,  and  as  a  result  got  nothing  in  its  place,  and 
at  the  same  time  are  told  that  anything  is  good  enough  for 
a  Frenchman.  Therein  lies  the  motive  of  their  barbarity.' 

A  short  description  of  the  terrible  Sampson  affair  is  given 
elsewhere  (p.  93),  but  as  Beaudouin  was  evidently  close  by  at 
the  time,  his  more  detailed  account  is  perhaps  worth  quoting. 

'  On  the  Sampson  the  prisoners  refused  to  eat  the  food. 
The  English  allowed  them  to  exist  two  days  without  food. 
The  prisoners  resolved  to  force  the  English  to  supply  them 
with  eatable  provisions.  Rather  than  die  of  hunger  they  all 
went  on  deck  and  requested  the  captain  either  to  give  them 
food  or  to  summon  the  Commandant  of  the  anchorage.  The 
brute  replied  that  he  would  not  summon  the  Commandant, 
and  that  they  should  have  no  other  provisions  than  those 
which  had  been  served  out  to  them  two  days  previously. 
The  prisoners  refused  to  touch  them.  The  "  brigand  "  then 
said  :  "As  you  refuse  to  have  this  food,  I  command  you  to 
return  below  immediately  or  I  will  fire  upon  you."  The 
prisoners  could  not  believe  that  he  really  meant  what  he  said 
and  refused  to  go  below. 

'  Hardly  had  they  made  this  declaration,  when  the  Captain 
gave  the  word  to  the  guard  to  fire,  which  was  at  once  done, 
the  crowd  being  fired  upon.  The  poor  wretches,  seeing  that 
they  were  being  fired  upon  without  any  means  of  defence, 
crowded  hastily  down,  leaving  behind  only  the  killed  and 
wounded — fifteen  killed  and  some  twenty  wounded  !  Then 
the  Captain  hoisted  the  mutiny  signal  which  brought  rein- 
forcements from  the  other  ships,  and  all  were  as  jubilant  as  if 
a  great  victory  had  been  won. 

'  I  do  not  believe  that  any  Frenchman  lives  who  hates  this 
nation  more  than  I  do  ;  and  all  I  pray  for  is  that  I  may  be 
able  to  revenge  myself  on  it  before  I  die.' 

Beaudouin  wrote  a  poem  of  514  alexandrines,  entitled  : 

Les  Prisons  <T  Albion. 

Ou  la  malheureuse  situation  des  prisonniers  en  Angletene. 
Bellum  nobis  haec  mala  fecit. 

I  give  in  the  original  the  first  and  last  '  chants '  of  this 
embittered  production. 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  81 


'  Tu  veux,  mon  cher  ami,  que  ranimant  ma  verve 
Je  te  peigne  sans  fard,  sans  crainte,  et  sans  reserve, 
Le  Tableau  des  tourmens  et  de  I'afm'ction 
Sous  lesquels  sont  plonges  les  captifs  d' Albion. 
J'obeis  a  la  voix,  et  ma  muse  craintive, 
Entonnant  a  regret  la  trompette  plaintive, 
Va  chanter  sur  des  tons,  helas  !    bien  douloureux, 
Les  maux,  les  maux  cuisans  de  bien  des  malheureux.' 

LXIV 

'  Je  t'ai  depeint  sans  fard  1'exacte  verite, 
Tels  sont  les  maux  cruels  de  la  captivite. 
O  vous  qui  de  bonheur  goutez  en  paix  les  charmes, 
Si  vous  lisez  mes  vers,  donnez-nous  quelques  larmes  ; 
S'ils  n'impriment  chez  vous  une  tendre  affection, 
Vous  e"tes,  plus  que  nous,  dignes  de  compassion  !  ' 

Speaking  of  the  horrible  moral  effects  of  the  bad  treatment 
he  says  : 

'  The  ruin  of  their  comrades  and  the  depravities  which 
were  daily  committed  in  public,  impressed  right  thinking  men 
with  so  frightful  force  that  this  place  means  a  double  suffering 
to  them.' 

In  1812  it  was  reported  that  a  batch  of  incurables  would  be 
sent  home  to  France,  and  Beaudouin  resolved  to  get  off  with 
them  by  making  himself  ill.  He  starved  himself  into  such  a 
condition  that  he  was  sent  into  hospital,  but  the  doctor  would 
not  pass  him  as  an  incurable.  He  swallowed  tobacco  juice, 
and  at  last,  in  a  miserable  state,  turned  up  with  trie  candidates. 
Then  it  was  announced  that  no  privateersmen,  but  only  regular 
seamen,  would  be  sent.  Beaudouin,  being  a  soldier,  and  being 
among  the  privateersmen,  was  in  despair.  However,  a  kindly 
English  doctor  pitied  him,  cured  him  of  his  self-inflicted  illness, 
and  got  him  leave  to  go. 

On  June  2,  1812,  he  was  ready  to  sail,  but  was  searched  first 
for  letters.  Luckily  none  were  discovered,  although  he  had 
sixty  sewn  between  the  soles  of  his  shoes,  and  200  in  a  box  with 
a  double  bottom.  He  sailed  on  June  4,  the  king's  birthday 
—that  day  eight  years  previously  he  had  arrived  at  Greenock 
amidst  the  Royal  salutes — arrived  at  Morlaix,  and  so  home 


82  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

to  Boiscommun  (Loiret),  canton  of  Beaune-la-Rolande,  arron- 
dissement  of  Pithiviers. 

The  following  experiences  of  an  American  prisoner  of  war 
are  from  The  Journal  of  a  Young  Man  of  Massachusetts, 
(1816),  who  was  a  surgeon,  by  name  Benjamin  Waterhouse, 
captured  at  sea  in  May  1813,  and  confined  on  Melville  Island, 
Halifax,  whence  he  was  transported  to  Chatham,  and  then  to 
Dartmoor.  The  account  is  interesting  as  showing  the  very 
marked  difference  between  the  American  and  the  French 
prisoners  of  war,  and  is  otherwise  remarkable  for  the  hatred 
and  contempt  of  the  writer  for  Britons  in  general  and  for 
Scotsmen  in  particular,  entire  pages  being  devoted  to  their 
vilification.  Waterhouse,  with  a  hundred  of  his  countrymen, 
was  shipped  to  England  on  the  Regulus,  and  his  complaints  are 
bitter  about  the  shameful  treatment  on  board — the  filth,  the 
semi-starvation,  the  vermin,  the  sleeping  on  stone  ballast,  the 
lack  of  air  owing  to  the  only  opening  to  the  lower  deck  being  a 
hatchway  two  feet  square,  the  brutal  rule  of  allowing  only  two 
prisoners  to  go  on  deck  at  a  time,  and  the  presence  in  their  midst 
of  the  only  latrine.  The  captain,  a  Scotsman,  would  only 
yield  to  constant  petitions  and  remonstrances  so  far  as  to 
sanction  the  substitution  of  iron  bars  for  the  hatchway. 

After  a  miserable  voyage  the  prisoners  reached  Portsmouth, 
and,  starved,  vermin-eaten,  and  in  rags,  were  shipped  off  to 
the  Crown  Prince,  Captain  Hutchison,  at  Chatham,  where 
were  thirteen  other  prison  ships  and  some  1,200  Americans. 
On  this  hulk,  Waterhouse  says,  they  fared  '  as  well  as  could  be 
expected  .  .  .  not  that  we  fared  so  well  as  British  prisoners 
fare  in  America  ',  the  daily  allowance  being  half  a  pound  of  beef, 
one  gill  of  barley,  one  and  a  half  pounds  of  bread,  on  five  days  of 
the  week,  and  on  the  others  one  pound  cod  fish,  and  one  pound 
potatoes,  or  one  pound  smoked  herring,  porter  and  beer  being 
purchasable.  He  dilates  bitterly  on  the  extraordinary  lack 
of  humanity  in  John  Bull,  as  evidenced  by  the  hard  fare  of 
soldiers  and  sailors,  the  scoundrelism  of  some  officers,  especially 
those  of  the  provisioning  departments,  and,  above  all,  the 
shockingly  cruel  punishments  in  the  Army  and  Navy.  During 
the  daytime,  he  says,  life  on  a  prison  ship  was  not  so  unpleasant, 
but  at  night  the  conditions  were  very  bad — especially  as 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  83 

American  prisoners  were  more  closely  watched  and  guarded 
than  were  men  of  other  nationalities.  '  The  French  were 
always  busy  in  some  little  mechanical  employ,  or  in  gaming, 
or  in  playing  the  fool,  but  the  Americans  seemed  to  be  on  the 
rack  of  invention  to  escape.' 

Amongst  themselves,  the  Americans  elected  by  voting,  every 
four  weeks,  a  President,  and  twelve  Committee  men,  whose 
functions  were  to  make  wholesome  laws,  to  define  crimes  and 
award  punishments,  and  particularly  to  insist  upon  personal 
cleanliness.  The  punishments  were  fines,  whippings,  and  in 
very  extreme  cases  the  Black  Hole.  The  volubility  and  the 
eloquence  of  the  orators  at  these  Committee  Meetings  very 
much  impressed  the  British  officers.  The  Frenchmen,  Water- 
house  says,  were  almost  to  a  man  gamblers  : 

'  Their  skill  and  address  at  these  games  of  apparent  hazard 
were  far  superior  to  the  Americans.  They  seemed  calculated 
for  gamesters  ;  their  vivacity,  their  readiness,  and  their  ever- 
lasting professions  of  friendship  were  nicely  adapted  to  inspire 
confidence  in  the  unsuspecting  American  Jack  Tar,  who  has 
no  legerdemain  about  him.  Most  of  the  prisoners  were  in 
the  way  of  earning  a  little  money  ;  but  almost  all  of  them 
were  deprived  of  it  by  the  French  gamesters.  Our  people 
stood  no  chance  with  them,  but  were  commonly  stripped  of 
•every  cent,  whenever  they  set  out  seriously  to  play  with 
them.  How  often  have  I  seen  a  Frenchman  capering,  singing, 
and  grinning  in  consequence  of  his  stripping  one  of  our  sailors 
of  all  his  money  ;  .  .  .  the  officers  among  them  are  the  most 
adroit  gamesters.  We  have  all  tried  hard  to  respect  them  ; 
but  there  is  something  in  their  conduct  so  much  like  swindling, 
that  I  hardly  know  what  to  say  of  them.  When  they  knew 
that  we  had  received  money  for  the  work  we  had  been  allowed 
to  perform,  they  were  very  attentive,  and  complaisant  and 
flattering.  .  .  .  They  would  come  round  and  say  :  "  Ah  !  Boston 
fine  town,  very  pretty — Cape  Cod  fine  town,  very  fine  ! 
Town  of  Rhode  Island  superb  !  Bristol  Ferry  very  pretty  ! 
General  Washington  tres  grand  homme,  General  Madison  brave 
homme  !  "  With  these  expressions  and  broken  English,  they 
would  accompany,  with  their  monkey  tricks,  capering  and 
grinning  and  patting  us  on  the  shoulder,  with  :  "  The  Ameri- 
cans are  brave  men — fight  like  Frenchmen  ;  "  and  by  their 
insinuating  manners  allure  our  men  once  more  to  their  wheels 
of  fortune  and  billiard- tables,  and  as  sure  as  they  did,  so  sure 
did  they  strip  them  of  all  their  money. ' 

G  2 


84  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Waterhouse  adds  that  '  if  an  American,  having  lost  all  his 
money,  wanted  to  borrow  of  a  Frenchman  under  promise  of 
repayment,  the  latter  would  say :  "  Ah  mon  ami !  I  am  sorry, 
very  sorry,  indeed  ;  it  is  la  fortune  de  guerre.  If  you  have  lost 
your  money  you  must  win  it  back  again  ;  that  is  the  fashion 
in  my  country — we  no  lend,  that  is  not  the  fashion  !  "  .  .  . 

'  There  were  here  some  Danes  as  well  as  Dutchmen.  It  is 
curious  to  observe  their  different  looks  and  manners.  .  .  .  Here 
we  see  the  thick-skulled  plodding  Dane,  making  a  wooden 
dish  ;  or  else  some  of  the  most  ingenious  making  a  clumsy 
ship  ;  while  others  submitted  to  the  dirtiest  drudgery  of  the 
hulk,  for  money ;  and  there  we  see  a  Dutchman,  picking  to 
pieces  tarred  ropes  ...  or  else  you  see  him  lazily  stowed  away 
in  some  corner,  with  his  pipe  .  .  .  while  here  and  there  and 
every  where,  you  find  a  lively  singing  Frenchman,  working 
in  hair,  or  carving  out  of  a  bone,  a  lady,  a  monkey,  or  the 
central  figure  of  the  crucifixion  !  Among  the  specimens  of 
American  ingenuity  I  most  admired  their  ships,  which  they 
built  from  three  to  five  feet  long.  .  .  .  Had  not  the  French 
proved  themselves  to  be  a  very  brave  people,  I  should  have 
doubted  it  by  what  I  have  observed  of  them  on  board  the 
prison-ship.  They  would  scold,  quarrel  and  fight,  by  slapping 
each  other's  chops  with  the  flat  hand,  and  cry  like  so  many 
girls.  .  .  .  Perhaps  such  a  man  as  Napoleon  Bonaparte  could 
make  any  nation  courageous.' 

Very  bitter  were  the  complaints  of  the  Americans  about  the 
supine  and  indifferent  attitude  towards  them  of  Beasley,  their 
agent,  who  was  supposed  to  keep  constant  watch  and  ward 
over  the  interests  of  his  unfortunate  countrymen.  He  lived 
in  London,  thirty-two  miles  away,  paid  no  attention  to  com- 
plaints forwarded  to  him,  and  was  heartily  hated  and  despised. 
Once  he  paid  a  visit  to  the  hulks  in  Gillingham  Creek,  but 
seemed  anxious  to  avoid  all  interviews  and  questionings,  and 
left  amidst  a  storm  of  hisses  and  jeers. 

Waterhouse  dwells  severely  on  the  fact  that  the  majority  of 
the  Americans  on  the  Crown  Prince  and  the  other  hulks  were 
not  men  who  had  been  fairly  taken  in  open  combat  on  the  high 
seas,  but  men  who  had  been  impressed  into  the  British  Navy 
from  American  merchant  ships  previous  to  the  war  between  the 
two  countries  and  who,  upon  the  Declaration  of  War,  had  given 
themselves  up  as  prisoners  of  war,  being  naturally  unwilling  to- 
fight  against  their  own  country,  but  who  had  been  kept  prisoners 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  85 

instead  of  being  exchanged.  This  had  been  the  British  prac- 
tice since  1755,  but  after  the  War  of  Independence  it  had  ceased. 
All  the  same  the  British  authorities  had  insisted  upon  the  right 
of  search  for  British  subjects  on  American  ships,  and  to  the 
arbitrary  and  forcible  exercise  of  this  '  right '  was  very  largely 
owing  the  War  of  1812. 

Waterhouse  admits  that  on  the  whole  he  was  treated  as  well 
on  the  Crown  Prince  as  were  the  British  prisoners  at  Salem  or 
Boston.  Recruiting  sergeants  for  the  British  service  came  on 
board  and  tried  to  tempt  Americans  with  a  bounty  of  sixteen 
guineas,  but  they  were  only  chaffed  and  sent  off. 

Later  on,  500  more  prisoners  arrived  from  America  in 
a  pitiable  condition,  mostly  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  men — 
'  Colonel  Boerstler's  men  who  had  been  deceived,  decoyed  and 
captured  near  Beaver  Dams  on  January  23rd,  1813  '.  With  v 
their  cruel  treatment  on  board  the  Nemesis  on  their  trans- 
Atlantic  voyage,  Waterhouse  contrasts  favourably  the  kind 
treatment  of  the  prisoners  brought  by  the  Poictiers  74,  Captain 
Beresford,  after  his  capture  of  the  American  Wasp  and  her 
prize  the  Frolic. 

The  author  gives  a  glaring  instance  of  provision  cheating. 
By  the  terms  of  his  contract,  if  the  bread  purveyor  failed  to 
send  off  to  the  hulks  fresh  bread  when  the  weather  was  favour- 
able, he  forfeited  half  a  pound  of  bread  to  each  man.  For 
a  long  time  the  prisoners  were  kept  in  ignorance  of  this  agree- 
ment, but  they  found  it  out,  and  on  the  next  occasion  when 
the  forfeit  was  due,  claimed  it.  Commodore  Osmore  refused 
it,  and  issued  hard  ship's  bread.  The  prisoners  refused  to 
take  it.  Osmore  was  furious,  and  ordered  his  marines  to  drive 
the  prisoners,  now  in  open  mutiny,  below.  A  disturbance 
was  imminent,  but  the  Americans  remained  firm,  and  the 
commodore  gave  way. 

The  American  prisoners  took  in  newspapers,  as  they  were 
mostly  intelligent  and  well-educated  men,  but  paid  dearly 
for  them. 

The  papers  were  the  Statesman,  Star,  Bell's  Weekly  Messenger, 
and  Whig.  The  Statesman  cost  285.  a  month,  plus  i6s.  a  month 
for  conveyance  on  board. 

As  the  weather  grew  milder,  matters  were  more  comfortable 


86  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

on  board  until  small-pox  broke  out.  Vaccination  was  exten- 
sively employed,  but  many  prisoners  refused  to  submit  to  it, 
not  from  unbelief  in  its  efficacy,  but  from  misery  and  unwilling- 
ness to  live  !  Then  came  typhus,  in  April  1814.  There  were 
800  prisoners  and  100  British  on  the  ship.  The  hospital  ship 
being  crowded,  part  of  the  Crown  Prince  was  set  apart  for 
patients,  with  the  result  that  the  mortality  was  very  high. 
Still  Beasley,  the  American  agent,  never  came  near  the  ship  to 
inquire  into  affairs. 

The  gambling  evil  had  now  assumed  such  proportions  that 
the  Americans  determined  to  put  it  down.  In  spite  of  the 
vigorous  opposition  of  the  Frenchmen,  the  '  wheels  of  fortune  * 
were  abolished,  but  the  billiard-tables  remained,  it  being 
urged  by  the  Frenchmen  that  the  rate  of  a  halfpenny  per 
game  was  not  gambling,  and  that  the  game  afforded  a  certain 
amount  of  exercise.  There  remained,  however,  a  strong  pro- 
gambling  party  among  the  Americans,  and  these  men  insisted 
upon  continuing,  and  the  committee  sent  one  of  them  to  the 
Black  Hole  without  a  trial.  This  angered  his  mates  ;  a  meet- 
ing was  held,  violent  speeches  were  made  in  which  the  names 
of  Hampden,  Sidney,  and  Wilkes  were  introduced,  and  he  was 
brought  out.  He  was  no  ordinary  rough  tar,  but  a  respectable 
well-educated  New  England  yeoman,  with  the  '  gift  of  the 
gab  '  ;  and  the  results  of  his  harangue  were  that  the  committee 
admitted  their  error,  and  he  was  released. 

Finally  the  billiard- tables  were  abolished  ;  a  great  improve- 
ment was  soon  manifest  among  the  captives,  education  was 
fostered,  and  classes  formed,  although  a  few  rough  characters 
still  held  aloof,  and  preferred  skylarking,  and  the  slanging  and 
chaffing  of  passers-by  in  boats  on  the  river. 

In  May  1814  four  men  went  on  deck  and  offered  themselves 
for  British  service.  Two  got  away,  but  two  were  caught  by 
their  mates,  tried,  and  sentenced  to  be  marked  with  indian  ink 
on  their  foreheads  with  the  letter  T  (  =  Traitor) .  The  Frenchmen 
were  now  being  shipped  home.  Some  of  them  had  been 
prisoners  since  1803 .  Waterhouse  comments  upon  the  appalling 
ignorance  among  English  people  in  the  educated  class  of  all 
matters  American,  and  quotes  the  instance  of  the  lady  who, 
wishing  to  buy  some  of  the  articles  made  by  the  American 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  87 

prisoners,  was  confronted  by  the  difficulty  of  '  not  knowing 
their  language  '  ! 

Waterhouse  describes  the  surroundings  of  the  Crown  Prince 
thus: 

'  The  Medway  is  a  very  pleasant  river  ...  its  banks  are  rich 
and  beautiful.  .  .  .  The  picture  from  the  banks  of  the  river 
to  the  top  of  the  landscape  is  truly  delightful,  and  beyond 
any  thing  I  ever  saw  in  my  own  country,  and  this  is  owing 
to  the  hedges.  .  .  .  Nearly  opposite  our  doleful  prison  stands 
the  village  of  Gillingham,  adorned  with  a  handsome  church  ; 
on  the  side  next  Chatham  stands  the  castle,  defended  by  more 
than  an  hundred  cannon.  .  .  .  This  place  is  noted  for  making 
sulphate  of  iron.  .  .  .  Near  to  this  village  of  Gillingham  is  a  neat 
house  with  a  good  garden,  and  surrounded  by  trees,  which 
was  bequeathed  by  a  lady  to  the  oldest  boatswain  in  the 
Royal  Navy.' 

Waterhouse  complains  strongly  of  the  immorality  on  board  : 
'  Such  a  sink  of  vice,  I  never  saw,  or  ever  dreamt  of,  as  I  have 
seen  here.'  He  relates  a  daring  escape.  A  hole  was  cut 
through  the  ship's  side  near  the  stern,  the  copper  being  removed 
all  round  except  on  one  side  so  as  to  lap  over  and  be  opened 
or  closed  at  will.  Sixteen  men  escaped  through  this,  and 
swam  ashore  one  dark  night,  the  sentry  on  duty  close  by 
being  allured  away  by  the  singing  of  droll  songs  and  the 
passing  of  a  can  of  grog.  At  the  numbering  of  the  prisoners 
next  morning,  the  correct  tale  was  made  up  by  the  passing 
through  a  hole  cut  in  the  bulk-head  of  sixteen  men  who  had 
been  already  counted.  At  another  attempt  two  men  slipped 
into  the  water  ;  one  of  them  got  tired  and  benumbed  with 
cold,  and  turned  back.  The  sentry  heard  him  breathing  and 
said  :  '  Ah  !  Here  is  a  porpoise,  and  I'll  stick  him  with  my 
bayonet,'  and  only  the  crying  out  of  the  poor  would-be  refugee 
saved  him.  The  ship's  officers  on  examining  the  hole  were 
amazed,  and  one  of  them  remarked  that  he  did  not  believe 
that  the  Devil  himself  could  keep  these  fellows  in  hell  if  they 
made  up  their  minds  to  get  out.  The  next  day  the  other 
poor  chap  was  seen  lying  dead  on  the  beach,  and  to  the  disgust 
of  the  prisoners  was  allowed  to  remain  there  two  days  before 
he  was  buried. 

Commodore  Osmore  was  always  the  butt  of  the  American 


88  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

prisoners.  A  yarn  got  about  that  he  had  procured  a  sheep  from 
a  farmer  ashore  without  paying  for  it.  Thereupon  his  appear- 
ance was  the  signal  for  a  chorus  of  c  Baa !  Baa ! '  He  was  mad 
with  rage,  and  ordered  the  port  through  which  the  insulting 
chorus  had  been  made  to  be  closed.  The  Americans  forced  it 
open.  The  marines  drove  the  prisoners  from  the  fo'c'sle  into  the 
*  Pound  '.  As  more  '  Baa !  's  resounded,  they  were  driven 
below  decks,  and  all  market  boats  were  stopped  from  approach- 
ing the  ship,  so  that  for  two  days  the  prisoners  were  without 
extra  food.  However,  Captain  Hutchison  instituted  an 
inquiry,  and  peace  was  arranged. 

In  June  1814  three  men  escaped  in  a  water  tank.  Others 
would  have  followed,  but  one  of  the  former  party  had  stupidly 
written  an  ironical  letter  of  thanks  to  Captain  Hutchison,  in 
which  he  described  the  method  of  escape. 

A  daring  escape  was  made  from  the  Irresistible  in  broad 
daylight.  Four  Americans  saw  a  jolly-boat  made  fast  to  the 
accommodation-ladder  under  the  charge  of  a  sentry.  One  of 
them  was  a  big,  strong  Indian  of  the  Narragansett  tribe  from 
Rhode  Island.  The  four  men  dashed  down,  seized  the  sentry, 
disarmed  him,  threw  him  into  the  boat,  and  pulled  off.  They 
were  fired  at  from  all  sides,  and  boats  put  off  from  all  the 
ships  to  chase  them,  but  only  one  man  was  wounded.  They 
reached  shore  and  struck  across  the  fields,  which  were  soon 
covered  by  people  in  chase  from  the  farms  and  brickfields, 
who  soon  ran  all  the  prisoners  down  except  the  Indian,  who 
out-distanced  the  prisoners,  and  would  have  got  away  had  he 
not  sprained  his  ankle  in  getting  over  a  fence,  and  even  then, 
as  he  was  sitting  down,  none  of  the  country  folk  would  approach 
him,  until  the  marines  came  up.  The  chase  had  been  closely 
followed  with  great  excitement  on  the  ship,  and  on  the  arrival 
of  the  captured  men  alongside,  they  were  loudly  cheered, 
their  healths  drunk,  and  the  Indian  at  once  dubbed  '  Baron 
Trenck '.  Said  the  boys  :  '  If  it  took  350  British  seamen 
and  marines  to  capture  four  Yankees,  how  many  British 
sailors  and  marines  would  it  take  to  catch  ten  thousand  of  us  ?  ' 

Two  Scotsmen  Waterhouse  excepted  from  his  condemnation 
of  their  nation  :  Galbraith,  the  master-at-arms,  and  Barnes, 
the  sailing-master,  who  was  wont  to  reprove  them  for  misdeeds, 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  89 

saying  :  '  I  expect  better  things  of  you  as  Americans,  I  con- 
sider you  all  in  a  different  light  from  that  of  a  d — d  set  of 
French  monkeys.' 

The  British  officers  were  clearly  uneasy  about  their  custody 
of  the  Americans,  and  felt  it  to  be  an  ignoble  business.  Said 
they  :  '  The  Yankees  seemed  to  take  a  pleasure  in  making  us 
uneasy,  and  in  exciting  our  apprehensions  of  their  escape, 
and  then  they  laugh  and  make  themselves  merry  at  our 
anxiety.  In  fact,  they  have  systematized  the  art  of  tor- 
menting.' . 

The  Government,  too,  appreciated  ;  the  difficult  task  which 
the  miserable  officers  of  this  miserable  Medway  fleet  had  to 
perform '.  It  did  not  wish  them  to  be  more  rigorous,  yet  knew 
that  more  rigour  was  necessary.  Rumours  got  about  that  in 
desperation  the  Government  was  about  to  transfer  all  the 
Americans  from  the  prison  ships  to  Dartmoor — the  place 
which,  it  was  said,  had  been  lost  by  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire 
at  a  game  of  hazard  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  determined 
to  utilize  it  profitably  by  making  a  prison  there. 

The  national  festival  on  July  4  was  duly  celebrated  on 
board  the  two  prison  ships  Crown  Prince  and  Nassau.  An 
additional  allowance  of  drink  was  sanctioned,  but  the  American 
flag  was  only  allowed  to  be  flown  as  high  as  the  '  railings '. 
There  were  drums  and  pipes  which  played  Yankee  Doodle  on 
the  fo'c'sle  :  cheers  were  exchanged  between  the  ships,  and  the 
toast  of  the  day  was  drunk  in  English  porter.  There  was,  of 
course,  much  speechifying,  especially  on  the  Nassau,  where 
one  orator  declaimed  for  half  an  hour,  and  another  recited 
a  poem,  '  The  Impressment  of  an  American  Sailor  Boy ',  which 
is  too  long  to  be  quoted,  but  which,  says  our  author,  brought 
tears  into  many  eyes.  All  passed  off  quietly,  and  acknow- 
ledgement is  made  of  the  '  extraordinary  good  behaviour  of  all 
the  British  officers  and  men  on  board  the  Crown  Prince '. 

Although  Commodore  Osmore  was  unpopular  with  the 
Americans,  his  charming  wife  exercised  a  good  influence  in 
the  ship  by  her  amiability  and  appreciation  of  the  fact  that 
American  prisoners  were  not  all  a  gang  of  vagabonds  ;  and 
gradually  a  better  feeling  developed  between  captors  and 
captured. 


90  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

In  August  1814  the  news  of  the  transfer  to  Dartmoor  was 
confirmed,  and,  says  Waterhouse,  was  received  with  regret 
on  the  Crown  Prince — the  ship  being  '  actually  viewed  with 
feelings  of  attachment '.  The  last  scene,  however,  was  marked 
by  a  disturbance. 

Thirty  prisoners  had  been  told  off  to  prepare  for  embarkation 
on  a  tender.  At  the  appointed  hour  no  tender  appeared,  and 
the  embarkation  was  put  off.  But  all  hammocks  had  been 
packed,  and  upon  application  to  Osmore  for  hammocks,  the 
prisoners  were  told  to  shift  as  they  could  for  the  night,  as  the 
tender  would  arrive  early  the  next  morning,  and  it  was  not 
worth  while  to  unpack  the  hammocks.  Upon  hearing  this  the 
prisoners  resolved  that  if  they  were  to  be  deprived  of  their 
night's  rest,  nobody  else  should  have  any.  So  they  harnessed 
themselves  to  benches,  and  ran  about  the  deck,  shouting  and 
singing,  and  bumping  the  benches  against  everything  which 
would  make  a  noise,  jammed  down  the  marines'  crockery 
and  brought  into  play  every  article  which  could  add  to  the 
pandemonium.  Osmore  sent  a  marine  down  to  quiet  them. 
The  marine  returned,  dishevelled,  and  disarmed.  Osmore 
was  furious.  '  I'll  be  d — d  if  I  do  not  fire  on  them  !  '  he 
roared  :  '  Fire,  and  be  d — d,'  was  the  response.  As  it  was 
useless  to  attempt  to  quiet  them,  and  to  fire  would  have  been 
criminal,  the  commodore  retired,  and  did  what  he  could  to 
sleep  amid  the  infernal  din  of  bumping  benches,  jangling 
metal,  shouts  and  songs,  which  lasted  throughout  the  night. 

When  the  tender  took  the  men  off  in  the  morning  it  was 
to  the  accompaniment  of  a  great  roar  of  '  Baa  !  Baa  !  '  as  a 
parting  shot. 

The  remainder  of  the  Crown  Prince  Americans  were  trans- 
ferred to  the  Bahama  on  October  15,  1814.  Here  they  found 
300  of  their  countrymen  of  the  vicious,  baser  sort,  gamblers 
all,  and  without  any  men  of  influence  to  order  them.  Danes 
occupied  the  main  deck  and  Americans  the  lower.  Jail  fever 
had  played  havoc  among  Danes  and  Americans — no  less  than 
84  of  the  latter  being  buried  in  the  marshes  in  three  months. 

Next  to  the  Bahama  lay  the  Belliqueux  hulk,  full  of  harmless 
and  dull  Scandinavians,  so  that  the  captain  thereof,  having 
nothing  to  do  in  his  own  ship,  started  to  spy  upon  the  doings 


LIFE  ON  THE  HULKS  91 

aboard  the  Bahama,  and  succeeded  in  getting  a  marine  punished 
for  smuggling  liquor.  Next  day,  the  rations  were  fish  and 
potatoes.  The  Americans  collected  all  their  potatoes,  and 
watched  for  the  appearance  of  the  Belliqueux  commander  for 
his  spying  promenade  on  his  quarter  deck,  the  result  being 
that  when  he  did  appear,  he  was  greeted  with  such  a  hail  of 
potatoes  that  he  was  fain  to  beat  an  undignified  retreat. 
Soon  he  came  off  in  his  boat  to  complain  to  Commander  Wilson 
of  the  Bahama  of  his  treatment.  Wilson,  a  passionate,  hot- 
tempered,  but  just  and  humane  man,  said  he  was  very  sorry, 
but  could  do  nothing,  so  back  the  discomfited  officer  had  to 
go,  pelted  with  more  potatoes  and  some  coals.  Said  Wilson  : 
'  These  Americans  are  the  sauciest  dogs  I  ever  saw  ;  but 
d — n  me  if  I  can  help  liking  them,  nor  can  I  ever  hate  men 
who  are  so  much  like  ourselves.' 

In  October  1814  two  hundred  Americans  were  sent  to 
Plymouth,  where  they  were  at  once  boarded  by  an  army 
of  loose  women. 

With  Waterhouse's  experiences  at  Dartmoor  I  deal  in  the 
chapter  devoted  to  that  prison. 


CHAPTER  VI 
PRISON-SHIP  SUNDRIES 

UNDER  this  heading  are  included  various  reminiscences  of, 
and  particulars  about,  the  prison  ships  which  could  not  be 
conveniently  dealt  with  in  the  foregoing  chapters. 

In  April  1759  five  French  prisoners  from  the  Royal  Oak 
hulk  at  Plymouth  were  executed  at  Exeter  for  the  murder 
of  Jean  Maneaux,  who  had  informed  the  agent  that  his 
comrades  had  forged  passports  in  order  to  facilitate  their 
escape  to  France.  Finding  this  out,  they  got  Maneaux  into 
an  obscure  corner  of  the  ship,  tied  him  to  a  ringbolt,  and 
gave  him  sixty  lashes  with  a  rope  to  the  end  of  which  was 
fastened  an  iron  thimble  as  thick  as  a  man's  wrist.  He  got 
loose,  and  fell  back ;  they  jumped  on  him  till  they  broke  his 
neck,  then  cut  his  body  into  small  pieces,  and  conveyed  them 
through  a  waste  pipe  overboard.  The  next  day  twenty-seven 
prisoners  were  arrested,  and  one  of  them  pointed  out  the  actual 
murderers. 

In  1778  two  prisoners  escaped  from  the  San  Rafael  at  Ply- 
mouth, swam  off  to  a  lighter  full  of  powder,  overpowered  the 
man  in  charge,  ran  down  through  all  the  ships  in  Hamoaze, 
round  Drake's  Island,  and  got  safely  away  to  France,  where 
they  sold  the  powder  at  a  handsome  price. 

Even  more  daring  was  the  deed  of  eleven  Frenchmen 
who,  early  in  the  morning  of  April  7,  1808,  made  their 
escape  from  the  hulk  Vigilant  at  Portsmouth,  by  cutting  a  hole, 
and  swimming  to  the  Amphitrite,  a  ship  in  ordinary,  fitted  up 
as  the  abode  of  the  Superintendent  Master.  They  boarded 
a  boat,  hanging  on  the  davits,  clothed  themselves  in  the  great- 
coats of  the  boat's  crew,  lowered  her,  and  in  the  semi-darkness 
pulled  away  to  the  Master  Attendant's  buoy  boat,  one  of  the 
finest  unarmed  crafts  in  the  harbour,  valued  at  £1,000.  They 
boarded  her,  immediately  got  under  way  at  about  five  a.m., 


PRISON-SHIP  SUNDRIES  93 

and  successfully  navigated  her  to  Havre,  or  Cherbourg,  which 
they  reached  in  the  evening,  and  sold  her  for  £700.  She  was 
fitted  out,  armed  with  eight  six-pounders,  and  went  forth  as 
a  privateer  under  the  name  of  Le  Buoy  Boat  de  Portsmouth. 
Her  career,  however,  was  short,  for  in  November  she  was 
captured  by  the  Coquette. 

The  above-mentioned  prison  ship  Vigilant  seems  to  have 
hardly  deserved  her  name,  for  in  the  year  1810  alone  no 
less  than  thirty-two  prisoners  escaped  from  her,  and  of  these 
only  eight  were  recaptured. 

On  another  occasion  three  prisoners  escaped  from  a  hulk, 
got  a  small  skiff,  rowed  to  Yantlett  Creek,  where  they  boarded 
a  fishing-smack  of  which  the  master  and  boy  were  asleep. 
The  master  made  a  stout  resistance  and  called  on  the  boy  to 
help  him,  but  he  was  too  terrified  to  do  so.  The  master 
was  overpowered  and  severely  beaten,  and  then  managed 
to  jump  overboard.  The  Frenchmen  got  off,  taking  the  boy 
with  them. 

The  Sampson  at  Chatham  was  evidently  an  ill-omened 
ship.  It  was  on  board  her  that  occurred  the  disastrous  event 
of  May  31,  1811,  when  the  half-starved  prisoners,  upon  being 
docked  of  half  their  rations  for  the  misdeeds  of  a  few  of  their 
number,  broke  out  into  open  mutiny,  which  was  only  quelled 
at  the  cost  of  six  prisoners  being  killed  and  a  great  many 
wounded.  On  the  Sampson,  also,  was  fought  a  particularly 
terrible  duel  in  1812.  Two  prisoners  quarrelled  and  determined 
to  settle  their  difference  quietly.  So,  attended  only  by  their 
seconds,  they  betook  themselves  to  the  ordinary  ship  prison, 
which  happened  to  be  empty,  and,  armed  with  sticks  to  which 
scissor-blades  had  been  fastened,  fought.  One  of  them 
received  a  mortal  thrust  in  the  abdomen,  but,  although  his 
bowels  were  protruding,  he  continued  to  parry  his  opponent's 
blows  until  he  was  exhausted.  He  died  in  spite  of  the  surgeon's 
attentions. 

On  board  the  same  ship  in  1813,  three  prisoners  decided  to 
murder  the  master's  mate  and  the  sergeant  of  marines — men 
universally  detested  for  their  brutal  behaviour — and  drew 
lots  as  to  who  should  do  it.  The  lot  fell  upon  Charles  Man- 
seraux.  But  he  had  '  compunction  of  conscience  '  because 


94  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

the  sergeant  was  a  married  man  with  a  family.  However,  he 
had  to  kill  some  one,  and  fixed  on  a  private  of  the  Marines. 
He  took  the  opportunity  when  the  unfortunate  man  was  doing 
duty  on  the  fo'c'sle  and  drove  a  knife  into  his  back.  Another 
prisoner  saw  the  deed  done,  knocked  Manseraux  down  and 
secured  him.  Manseraux  and  the  others  were  tried  at  the 
Maidstone  Assizes,  found  guilty,  and  executed. 

Duelling  and  crimes  of  violence  seem  to  have  been  rampant 
on  certain  ships  more  than  on  others.  The  San  Damaso  at 
Portsmouth  was  one  of  these,  although  on  the  Chatham  hulks 
the  unnatural  deaths  were  so  frequent  that  the  Coroner  of 
Rochester  in  1812  claimed  special  fees  from  the  Transport 
Office  on  account  of  the  trebling  of  his  duties,  a  claim  which 
was  not  granted. 

A  very  bold  attempt  at  escape  in  broad  daylight  was  made 
by  some  desperate  prisoners  of  the  Canada  hulk  at  Chatham 
in  1812.  Beef  was  being  hoisted  on  board  the  prison  ship 
from  a  lighter  alongside,  on  board  of  which  were  half  a 
dozen  American  prisoners  who  were  assisting  in  the  operation. 
Suddenly,  they  cut  the  painter,  and,  helped  by  a  stiff  breeze, 
actually  sailed  off,  and,  although  the  guards  on  all  the  prison 
ships  fired  at  them,  would  have  escaped  if  they  had  not  run 
aground  off  Commodore's  Hard,  Gillingham.  They  sprang 
ashore  here,  and  ran,  but  the  mud  was  too  much  for  them 
and  they  were  captured. 

The  Americans,  whether  ashore  or  afloat,  were  the  hardest 
prisoners  to  guard  of  any.  They  seem  never  to  have  relaxed 
in  their  plans  and  attempts  to  escape,  and  as  they  were  in- 
variably better  supplied  with  money  than  Frenchmen  and 
Spaniards,  they  could  add  the  power  of  the  bribe  to  the 
power  which  knowledge  of  their  captors'  language  gave  them. 
Hence  no  estimate  can  be  formed  of  the  real  number  of  Ameri- 
cans who  got  away  from  the  hulks,  for,  although  a  very  exact 
system  of  roll  call  was  in  use,  the  ingenuity  of  the  Americans, 
immensely  backed  by  their  purses,  contrived  matters  so  that 
not  merely  were  the  numbers  on  board  always  complete  at 
each  roll  call,  but  upon  more  than  one  occasion,  by  some 
over-exercise  of  ingenuity,  the  captain  of  a  hulk  actually 
found  himself  commanding  more  prisoners  than  there  were  ! 


PRISON-SHIP  SUNDRIES  95 

By  way  of  relief  to  the  monotony  of  this  guerre  a  entrance 
between  captors  and  captives  we  may  quote  instances  when 
the  better  humanity  of  the  hapless  ones  came  to  the  fore. 

In  1812  a  prisoner  made  an  attempt  to  set  the  hulk  Ganges 
on  fire  at  Plymouth,  and  a  large  hole  was  burned  in  her  side. 
The  other  prisoners  helped  to  extinguish  the  flames,  and  were 
so  angry  with  the  incendiary  that  they  were  with  difficulty 
prevented  from  tearing  him  to  pieces. 

Three  officers  of  the  Inverness  Militia  were  sailing  in  the 
harbour  at  Portsmouth  in  the  same  year,  when  a  squall  upset 
their  boat,  and  they  were  thrown  into  the  water.  One  of  the 
officers  could  not  swim,  and  seeing  him  struggling  for  life, 
a  French  prisoner  on  the  Crown  hulk  at  once  sprang  overboard 
and  brought  him  safely  to  the  ship.  He  was  at  once  liberated 
and  returned  to  France. 

But  even  heroism  became  a  cloak  for  trickery  among  these 
weary,  hopeless,  desperate  exiles  ever  on  the  watch  for  a  chance 
of  escaping.  In  1810  a  French  prisoner  at  Plymouth  obtained 
his  freedom  by  saving  a  British  sentry  from  drowning,  but  the 
number  of  British  sentries  who,  after  this,  met  with  accidents 
which  tumbled  them  overboard,  and  the  unfailing  regularity 
with  which  heroic  prisoner-rescuers  appeared  on  the  scene, 
awakened  the  suspicions  of  the  authorities,  who  found  out 
that  these  occurrences  were  purely  commercial  transactions. 
So  they  stopped  automatically. 

It  is  equally  pleasing  to  come  across,  in  this  continually 
dreary  record  of  crime  and  misery,  a  foreign  testimony  to 
English  kindness.  The  following  letter  was  kindly  lent  to  me 
by  Mr.  J.  E.  Mace,  of  Tenterden,  Kent,  to  whose  grandfather 
it  was  addressed  : 

'Chatham.     Le  10  Janvier,  1798. 

'  A  Monsieur  Mace,  Tenterden. 

'  CHER  MONSIEUR  : 

'  S'il  est  cruel  d'etre  livre  aux  degouts  et  aux  peines 
que  cause  la  captivite  la  plus  dure,  il  est  bien  doux  de  trouver 
des  etres  sensibles  qui,  comme  vous,  cher  Monsieur,  savent 
plaindre  le  sort  rigoureux  des  victimes  de  la  guerre.  Ce  que 
vous  avez  eu  la  bonte  de  m'envoyer,  plus  encore,  1'expression 
des  beaux  sentiments  me  touche,  me  penetre  de  la  plus  vive 
reconnaissance,  et  me  fait  sentir  avec  une  nouvelle  force  cette 


96  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

verite  constante  : — L'Humanite  rapproche  et  unit  tous  les 
coeurs  faits  pour  elle.  Comme  vous,  cher  Monsieur,  et  avec 
vous,  je  desire  avec  ferveur  que  les  principes  de  notre  Divin 
Legislateur  reprennent  leur  Empire  sur  la  terre,  la  consequence 
en  est  si  belle  ! 

'  Dieu  vous  garde  beaucoup  d'annees. 

'  FARBOURIET,  Colonel  i2lue  Hussards.' 

In  1807,  as  a  consequence  of  the  bombardment  of  Copen- 
hagen and  the  subsequent  surrender  to  England  of  the  Danish 
fleet,  there  were  1,840  Danish  prisoners  in  England,  who 
received  double  the  allowance  of  French  prisoners,  inasmuch 
as  they  were  rather  hostages  than  prisoners — hostages  for  the 
good  behaviour  of  Denmark  as  regards  Napoleon  ; — the  captain 
of  a  man-of-war  got  four  shillings  per  diem,  a  commanding 
officer  two  shillings,  the  captain  of  an  Indiaman  three  shillings, 
and  so  on.  In  other  respects  they  were  treated  as  prisoners 
of  war. 

These  Danes  were  largely  taken  from  the  hulks  to  man  our 
merchant  navy,  and  one  Wipperman,  a  Danish  clerk  on 
H.M.S.  Utile,  seems  to  have  made  this  transfer  business  a  very 
profitable  one,  until  the  accusation  brought  against  him  by 
a  Danish  prisoner  of  war  of  having  obtained  a  watch  and  some 
money  under  false  pretences,  brought  to  light  the  fact  that  his 
men  rarely  if  ever  joined  the  British  merchant  service  except 
to  desert  at  the  first  opportunity,  and  generally  went  at  large 
as  free  men.  He  was  severely  punished,  and  his  exposure 
brought  to  an  end  an  extensive  crimping  system  by  which 
hundreds  of  dangerous  foreigners  had  been  let  loose  from  the 
prison  ships,  many  of  them  spies  and  escape-aiders. 

Foreign  writers  have  included  among  their  various  com- 
plaints against  the  British  Government  its  reluctance  to  allow 
religious  ministration  among  the  prisoners  of  war.  But  the 
Transport  Office,  as  we  shall  see  later,  had  learned  by  experience 
that  the  garb  of  sanctity  was  by  no  means  always  the  guarantee 
of  sanctity,  and  so  when  in  1808  a  Danish  parson  applied  to  be 
allowed  on  the  prison  ships  at  Chatham,  he  got  his  permission 
only  on  the  condition  that  '  he  does  not  repeat  the  old  offence 
of  talking  upon  matters  unconnected  with  his  mission  and  so 
cause  much  incorrect  inferences  ' — a  vague  expression  which 


PRISON-SHIP  SUNDRIES  97 

probably  meant  talking  about  outside  affairs  to  prisoners,  who 
had  no  other  source  of  information. 

In  1813  the  Transport  Office  replied  to  the  Bishop  of 
Angouleme,  who  requested  that  a  priest  named  Paucheron 
might  minister  on  the  prison  ships  at  Chatham,  that  they 
could  not  accede  inasmuch  as  Paucheron  had  been  guilty  '  of 
highly  improper  conduct  in  solemnizing  a  marriage  between 
a  prisoner  of  war  and  a  woman  in  disguise  of  a  man  '. 

In  no  branch  of  art  did  French  prisoners  show  themselves 
more  proficient  than  in  that  of  forgery,  and,  although  when 
we  come  to  treat  of  the  prisons  ashore  we  shall  find  that,  from 
the  easier  accessibility  to  implements  there,  the  imitation  of 
passports  and  bank  notes  was  more  perfectly  effected  than 
by  the  prisoners  on  the  hulks,  the  latter  were  not  always 
unsuccessful  in  their  attempts. 

In  1809  Guiller  and  Collas,  two  prisoners  on  El  Firme 
at  Plymouth,  opened  negotiations  with  the  captain's  clerk 
to  get  exchanged  to  the  Genereux,  telling  him  what  their 
object  was  and  promising  a  good  reward.  He  pretended  to 
entertain  their  proposals,  but  privately  told  the  captain. 
Their  exchange  was  effected,  and  their  ally  supplied  them  with 
paper,  ink,  and  pencils  of  fine  hair,  with  which  they  imitated 
notes  of  the  Bank  of  England,  the  Naval  and  Commercial 
Bank,  and  an  Okehampton  Bank.  Not  having  the  official 
perforated  stamp,  they  copied  it  to  perfection  by  means  of 
smooth  halfpennies  and  sail-makers'  needles.  When  all  was 
ready,  the  clerk  gave  the  word  to  the  authorities,  and  the 
clever  rascals  got  their  reward  on  the  gallows  at  Exeter  in  i&io, 
being  among  the  first  war  prisoners  to  be  executed  for  forgery. 

In  1812  two  French  prisoners  on  a  Portsmouth  hulk, 
Dubois  and  Benry ,  were  condemned  to  be  hanged  at  Winchester 
for  the  forgery  of  a  £i  Bank  of  England  note.  Whilst  lying 
in  the  jail  there  they  tried  to  take  their  own  lives  by  opening 
veins  in  their  arm  with  broken  glass  and  enlarging  the  wounds 
with  rusty  nails,  declaring  that  they  would  die  as  soldiers, 
not  as  dogs,  and  were  only  prevented  by  force  from  carrying 
out  their  resolve.  They  died  crying  '  Vive  1'Empereur  !  ' 

In  1814  six  officers  were  found  to  have  obtained  their 
liberty  by  forged  passports.  These  men  were,  in  their  own 


98  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

vernacular,  *  Broke-Paroles ' — men  who  had  been  sent  from 
parole  places  to  prison  ships,  for  the  crime  of  forging  passports. 
Further  investigation  caused  suspicion  to  be  fixed  upon 
a  woman  calling  herself  Madame  Carpenter,  who  was  ostensibly 
a  tea  and  sugar  dealer  at  46  Foley  Street,  Portland  Chapel, 
London,  but  who  had  gained  some  influence  at  the  Transport 
Office  through  having  rendered  services  to  British  prisoners 
in  France,  which  enabled  her  to  have  access  to  the  prison  ships 
in  her  pretended  trade,  although  she  was  a  Frenchwoman. 
I  cannot  discover  what  punishment  she  received.  We  shall 
hear  more  of  her  in  the  chapter  upon  Stapleton  Prison. 

A  clever  quibble  saved  the  life  of  a  prisoner  on  the  San 
Rafael  hulk  at  Plymouth.  He  was  tried  at  Exeter  for  imitating 
a  £2  note  with  indian  ink,  but  pleaded  that  as  he  was  under 
the  protection  of  no  laws  he  had  not  broken  any,  and  was 
acquitted.  This  was  before  cases  of  murder  and  forgery  were 
brought  under  the  civil  jurisdiction. 

Well-deserved  releases  of  prisoners  in  recognition  of  good 
actions  done  by  them  in  the  past  were  not  rare.  In  1808 
a  prisoner  on  the  Sampson  at  Chatham,  named  Sabatier,  was 
released  without  exchange  on  the  representation  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society,  who  acted  for  Captain  Carbonel  of  the 
famous  privateer  Grand  Bonaparte,  who  had  shown  great 
kindness  to  the  crew  and  passengers  of  the  ship  Duff  which 
he  had  captured. 

In  the  same  year  a  prisoner  at  Plymouth,  named  Verdie, 
was  released  unconditionally  on  the  petition  of  Lieut.  Ross, 
R.N.,  for  having  kindly  treated  the  Lieutenant's  father  when 
the  latter  was  a  prisoner  in  France. 

In  1810  a  Portsmouth  prisoner  was  unconditionally  liberated 
upon  his  proving  satisfactorily  that  he  had  helped  Midshipman 
Holgate  of  the  Shannon  to  escape  from  imprisonment  in 
France. 

Almost  to  the  very  last  the  care  of  sick  prisoners  on  the 
hulks  seems  to  have  been  criminally  neglected.  For  instance, 
the  In-letters  to  the  Transport  Office  during  the  year  1810 
are  full  of  vehement  or  pathetic  complaints  about  the  miserable 
state  of  the  sick  on  the  Marengo  and  Princess  Sophia  hospital 
ships  at  Portsmouth.  Partly  this  may  be  due  to  an  economical 


PRISON-SHIP  SUNDRIES  99 

craze  which  affected  the  authorities  at  this  time,  but  it  must 
be  chiefly  attributed  to  medical  inefficiency  and  neglect. 
Most  of  the  chief  medical  officers  of  the  prison  ships  had  their 
own  private  practices  ashore,  with  what  results  to  the  poor 
foreigners,  nominally  their  sole  care,  can  be  imagined,  and  all 
of  them  resented  the  very  necessary  condition  that  they  should 
sleep  on  the  ships. 

In  this  year  1810,  Dr.  Kirkwood,  of  the  Europe  hospital  ship 
at  Plymouth,  was  convicted  of  culpable  neglect  in  regularly 
sleeping  ashore,  and  was  superseded.  As  a  result  of  an 
inquiry  into  the  causes  of  abnormal  sickness  on  the  Vigilant 
and  at  Forton  Prison,  Portsmouth,  the  surgeons  were  all 
superseded,  and  the  order  was  issued  that  all  prison-ship 
surgeons  should  daily  examine  the  healthy  prisoners  so  as  to 
check  incipient  sickness.  I  append  the  States  of  the  Renown 
hospital  ship  at  Plymouth  for  February  1814  : 

"  Staff  :  2  surgeons,  I  assistant  surgeon,  I  matron,  I  inter- 
preter, i  cook,  i  barber,  i  mattress  maker,  I  tailor, 
i  washerwoman,  and  10  nurses. 

Received   141.     Discharged   69.     Died   19.     Remain- 
ing 53- 

'  Fever  and  dysentery  have  been  the  prevalent  complaints 
among  the  prisoners  from  Pampelune,  whose  deplorable  state 
the  Board  of  Inspection  are  in  full  possession  of.  (Among 
these  were  some  forty  women  "in  so  wretched  a  state  that 
t.iey  were  wholly  destitute  of  the  appropriate  dress  of  their 
sex  ".  Two  of  the  British  officers'  wives  collected  money  for 
the  poor  creatures  and  clothed  them.)  Pneumonia  has 
recently  attacked  many  of  these  ill-conditioned  men  termed 
Romans,  many  of  whom  were  sent  here  literally  in  a  state  of 
nudity,  an  old  hammock  in  the  boat  to  cover  them  being 
excepted.' 

(The  Romans  above  mentioned  were  the  most  degraded  and 
reckless  of  the  Dartmoor  prisoners,  who  had  been  sent  to  the 
hulks  partly  because  there  was  no  power  in  the  prison  that 
could  keep  them  in  order,  and  partly  because  their  filthy  and 
vicious  habits  were  revolting  to  the  other  and  more  decent 
prisoners.) 

The  horrors  of  the  English  prison  ships  were  constantly 
quoted  by  French  commanders  as  spurs  to  the  exertions  of  their 
men.  Bonaparte  more  than  once  dwelt  on  them.  Phillipon, 

H  2 


ioo  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

the  gallant  defender  of  Badajos,  afterwards  a  prisoner  on 
parole  in  England,  reminded  his  men  of  them  as  they  crowded 
to  hurl  our  regiments  from  the  breaches.  '  An  appeal ',  says 
Napier,  '  deeply  felt,  for  the  annals  of  civilized  nations  furnish 
nothing  more  inhuman  towards  captives  of  war  than  the 
prison  ships  of  England.' 

The  accompanying  drawing  from  Colonel  Lebertre's  book 
may  give  some  idea  of  the  packing  process  practised  on  the 
hulks.  It  represents  a  view  from  above  of  the  orlop  deck  of 
the  Brunswick  prison  ship  at  Chatham— a  ship  which  was 
regarded  as  rather  a  good  one  to  be  sent  to.  The  length  of 
this  deck  was  125  feet,  its  breadth  40  feet  in  the  widest 
part,  and  its  height  4  feet  10  inches,  so  that  only  boys  could 
pass  along  it  without  stooping.  Within  this  space  460  persons 
slept,  and  as  there  was  only  space  to  swing  431  hammocks, 
29  men  had  to  sleep  as  best  they  could  beneath  the  others. 

Something  with  an  element  of  fun  in  it  may  serve  as  a  relief 
to  the  prevalent  gloom  of  this  chapter.  It  has  been  shown 
how  largely  gambling  entered  into  the  daily  life  of  the  poor 
wretches  on  the  hulks,  and  how  every  device  and  excuse  for 
it  were  invented  and  employed,  but  the  instance  given  by 
Captain  Harris  in  his  book  upon  Dartmoor  is  one  of  the  oddest. 

'  When  the  lights  were  extinguished ',  he  says,  '  and  the 
ship's  lantern  alone  cast  a  dim  glimmer  through  the  long 
room,  the  rats  were  accustomed  to  show  themselves  in  search 
of  the  rare  crumbs  to  be  found  below  the  hammocks.  A 
specially  tempting  morsel  having  been  placed  on  an  open 
space,  the  arrival  of  the  performers  was  anxiously  looked  for. 
They  were  all  known  by  name,  and  thus  each  player  was  able 
to  select  his  champion  for  the  evening.  As  soon  as  a  certain 
number  had  gained  the  open  space,  a  sudden  whistle,  given 
by  a  disinterested  spectator,  sent  them  back  to  their  holes,, 
and  the  first  to  reach  his  hole  was  declared  the  winner.  An 
old  grey  rat  called  "  Pere  Ratapon  "  was  a  great  favourite 
with  the  gamblers,  for,  though  not  so  active  as  his  younger 
brethren,  he  was  always  on  the  alert  to  secure  a  good  start 
when  disturbed.' 

In  justice  to  our  ancient  foe  I  give  here  a  couple  of  extracts, 
for  which  I  have  to  thank  Mr.  Gates  of  Portsmouth,  from  the 
Hampshire  Telegraph,  illustrative  of  generous  behaviour  towards 
Englishmen  who  had  been  forced  to  aid  prisoners  to  escape.. 


PRISON-SHIP  SUNDRIES 


101 


102  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

'  July  2Oth,  1801.  In  a  cartel  vessel  which  arrived  last  week 
from  France,  came  over  one  Stephen  Buckle,  a  waterman  of 
this  town.  Three  gentlemen  had  hired  this  waterman  to  take 
them  to  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  they  had  not  proceeded  farther 
than  Calshot  Castle  when  they  rose  upon  him,  gagged  him, 
tied  him  hand  and  foot,  and  threatened  him  with  instant 
death  if  he  made  the  slightest  noise  or  resistance.  The  boat- 
man begged  for  mercy,  and  promised  his  assistance  in  any 
undertaking  if  they  would  spare  his  life ;  on  which  he  was 
released,  and  was  told  they  were  French  prisoners,  and  ordered 
to  make  for  the  nearest  port  in  France,  at  his  peril.  The  dark- 
ness of  the  night,  and  the  calmness  of  the  wind,  favoured  their 
intentions,  for  after  rowing  two  days  and  nights  in  a  small, 
open  skiff,  without  having  the  least  sustenance,  they  arrived 
safe  at  Cherbourg.  The  waterman  was  interrogated  at  the 
Custom  House  as  to  the  prisoners'  escape  ;  when,  after  giving 
the  particulars  and  identifying  the  persons,  saying  they 
threatened  to  murder  him,  the  officers  took  the  three  French- 
men into  custody,  to  take  their  respective  trials.  The  poor 
man's  case  being  made  known  to  the  Government,  he  was 
ordered  to  be  liberated,  and  his  boat  restored.' 

'(September  2ist,  1807.  Between  9  and  10  o'clock  on  the 
evening  of  last  Sunday  three  weeks,  two  men  engaged  Thomas 
Hart,  a  ferryman,  to  take  them  from  Gosport  beach  to  Spit- 
head,  to  go  on  board  a  ship  there,  as  they  said.  When  the 
boat  reached  Spithead  they  pretended  the  ship  had  gone  to 
St.  Helens,  and  requested  the  waterman  to  go  out  after  her. 
Having  reached  that  place,  one  of  them,  who  could  speak 
English,  took  a  dagger  from  under  his  coat,  and  swore  he 
wculd  take  the  life  of  the  wateiman  if  he  did  not  land  them 
in  France. 

'  Under  this  threat  the  man  consented  to  follow  their  direc- 
tions, and  landed  them  at  Fecamp.  The  men  appeared  to  be 
in  the  uniform  of  officers  of  the  British  Navy.  The  waterman 
was  lodged  in  prison  at  Havre  de  Grace,  and  kept  there  for 
ten  days.  He  was  then  released  on  representing  himself  to 
be  a  fisherman,  his  boat  was  returned  to  him,  and  the  French- 
men gave  him  six  or  seven  pounds  of  bread,  some  cyder,  and 
a  pocket  compass,  and  a  p£  ss  to  prevent  his  being  interrupted 
by  any  French  vessel  he  might  meet  with.  In  this  state  they 
set  him  adrift  ;  he  brought  several  letters  from  English 
prisoners  in  France,  and  from  French  persons  to  their  friends 
in  prison  in  this  country.' 


CHAPTER  VII 

TOM  SOUVILLE 

A  FAMOUS  PRISON-SHIP  ESCAPER 

IN  old  Calais  there  is  or  was  a  Rue  Tom  Souville.  No 
foreigners  and  not  many  Calaisiens  know  who  Tom  Souville 
was,  or  what  he  had  done  to  deserve  to  have  a  street  named 
after  him.  The  answer  to  these  questions  is  so  interesting  that 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  allow  it  a  chapter. 

About  the  year  1785,  Tom  Souville,  aged  nine,  was,  in 
accordance  with  a  frequent  custom  of  that  day,  sent  to  England 
for  the  purpose  of  learning  English  in  exchange  for  a  little 
English  boy  who  came  over  to  France.  He  was  quartered  in 
the  house  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wood,  of  Dover,  whose  sailor  brother 
took  a  great  fancy  to  the  little  stranger,  and  made  him  his 
constant  companion  on  cruises  up  and  down  the  Channel, 
with  the  result  that  Tom  Souville  got  to  know  the  Channel 
coasts  thoroughly,  a  stock  of  learning  which  he  afterwards 
made  use  of  in  a  fashion  little  dreamed  of  by  the  old  salt,  his 
mentor. 

At  Christmas  1786,  after  eighteen  months'  happiness  at 
Dover,  he  returned  to  Calais,  and  in  obedience  to  his  irre- 
sistible bent,  joined  the  navy.  In  1795,  the  Formidable,  with 
Tom  Souville  on  board,  was  taken  by  H.M.S.  Queen  Charlotte, 
off  Isle-Croix,  after  a  fight  in  which  she  lost  320  killed  and 
wounded  out  of  her  complement  of  717,  and  Tom  with  his 
Captain,  Linois,  of  whom  mention  will  be  made  later  in  this 
work,  were  taken  to  Portsmouth.  Tom  Souville  refused  to 
sign  a  parole  form,  so  was  put  into  the  cachot  of  the  Diamond 
hulk  ;  but  only  for  a  short  time,  as  he  was  soon  exchanged. 
However,  in  1797  he  was  again  captured,  this  time  on  the 
Actif,  and  was  confined  on  the  Crown  hulk. 

Of  life  on  the  Crown  he  gives  the  usual  description.  He 
speaks  of  the  prisoner  professors  (who  were  known  as  the 


104  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

'  Academicians ')  being  obliged  to  give  their  lessons  at  night, 
as  the  noise  during  the  day-time  made  teaching  impossible. 
But  as  no  lights  were  allowed  'tween  decks  after  a  certain 
hour,  they  saved  up  the  fat  of  their  ration  meat,  and  put  it  into 
an  oyster-shell  with  a  wick  of  cotton  threads,  fencing  it  round 
with  clothes.  Sometimes  the  air  was  so  foul  that  the  light 
went  out.  If  they  were  discovered,  the  guards  destroyed 
everything,  books,  paper,  slates,  pens,  &c. 

Souville  mentions  one  thing  I  have  not  noticed  in  any 
account  of  prison-ship  life,  that  there  were  French  women  on 
board,  '  de  basse  extraction  et  extremement  grossieres'. 

He  emphasizes  the  incapacity  and  brutality  of  the  British 
doctors,  and  particularizes  one  Weiss  (not  a  British  name,  one 
is  thankful  to  note !)  as  a  type.  He  says  that  the  orthodox 
treatment  of  the  prisoners  from  San  Domingo,  who  were  suffer- 
ing from  the  vomito  negro,  was  to  plunge  them  into  icy  water  ! 

A  system  of  signalling  and  holding  conversation  between 
one  prison  ship  and  another  was  carried  out  by  the  carpenters, 
who  had  their  benches  on  the  upper  deck,  a  regular  alphabet 
being  arranged  by  means  of  hammer  knocks  and  shifting  the 
position  of  the  benches.  He  is  the  first  also  to  mention  that 
theatricals  were  performed  on  a  prison  ship  ;  the  pieces  given 
being  a  two-act  vaudeville,  Les  Aventures  d'une  voyageuse 
sensible,  and  a  drama  in  five  acts,  La  Fiancee  du  Corsaire. 
The  orchestra  consisted  of  a  flute  and  a  violin  ;  the  female 
dresses  were  lent  by  the  ladies  of  Portsmouth  and  Gosport, 
who  also  came  as  spectators.  But  the  chief  amusement, 
he  says,  was  to  vex  the  authorities  as  much  as  possible, 
to  call  the  captain,  who  had  an  inflated  sense  of  his  own 
importance,  a  mere  turnkey,  to  make  songs  on  him,  and  above 
all  to  play  tricks  at  the  roll  call,  so  as  to  create  confusion  and 
bewilderment. 

The  attempts  to  escape  were  very  frequent,  and  this  in 
spite  of  a  recent  savage  threat  that  for  every  prisoner  who 
escaped  two  should  be  hanged.  Souville  describes  a  daring 
escape  which  inspired  him  to  action.  A  cutter  laden  with 
powder  was  alongside  one  of  the  hulks,  waiting  for  morning 
to  discharge  into  the  Egmont  man-of-war.  Lieutenant 
Lariviere  and  four  or  five  other  prisoners  managed  to  slip  out 


TOM  SOUVILLE  105 

of  the  Crown  and  board  her.  They  found  the  crew  fast 
asleep,  tied  and  gagged  them  securely,  and  adopted  their 
clothes.  At  daybreak  they  hoisted  their  sail,  Lariviere  giving 
loud  commands  in  English,  and  passed  by  the  Egmont,  waiting 
for  her  powder.  She  hailed  them  to  stop,  but  they  crowded  on 
all  sail,  and  although  the  alarm  was  signalled,  and  they  were 
pursued,  they  crossed  safely  to  Roscoff. 

As  Souville,  when  he  refused  to  be  put  on  parole,  had  openly 
declared  that  he  would  escape  at  the  first  opportunity,  he  was 
carefully  guarded.  Thanks  to  his  excellent  knowledge  of 
English  he  made  friends  among  the  bluejackets  of  the  guard, 
and  especially  with  one  Will,  whom  he  had  helped  with  money 
when  his  mother's  home  was  threatened  to  be  broken  up 
for  debt. 

So  he  started  the  delicate  and  difficult  operation  of  boring 
a  hole  in  the  ship's  side,  large  enough  to  admit  the  passage  of 
a  human  body,  above  the  water  line,  yet  not  too  near  the  grated 
platform  running  round  the  ship,  continually  patrolled  by 
guards.  He  counted  on  Will's  aid,  and  confided  his  scheme 
to  him. 

The  very  next  morning  he  was  conducted  to  the  Black  Hole, 
and  was  informed  that  his  design  had  been  betrayed,  and  he 
instantly  guessed  that  his  supposed  friend  Will  was  the  betrayer, 
as  he  alone  was  in  the  secret.  Whilst  in  the  cachot  he  found 
a  mysterious  note  merely  saying  that  at  a  certain  hour  on  a 
certain  day  the  high  tide  would  be  over  the  mud-banks  which 
had  proved  fatal  to  so  many  fugitives  from  the  hulks.  In 
the  cachot  with  him  were  three  men  who  had  successfully 
shammed  madness  in  order  to  get  sent  to  France,  and  who  were 
about  to  be  liberated.  One  of  them,  whose  form  of  assumed 
madness  had  been  to  crow  day  and  night  like  a  cock,  gave  Tom 
a  clue  to  a  hole  he  had  commenced  to  bore  in  the  event  of  his 
sham  madness  failing. 

Souville  found  the  hole,  finished  it,  and  on  the  date  named  in 
the  note  slipped  out,  and  started  for  a  three-mile  swim  towards 
a  light  ashore.  After  much  labour,  he  negotiated  the  mud- 
banks,  and  landed.  Exhausted,  he  fell  asleep,  and  was  awakened 
by  a  man.  He  sprang  to  his  feet  and  prepared  to  defend 
himself  from  arrest ;  but  the  man  impressed  silence,  and  pointed 


106  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

to  a  fisher-hut  whence  a  light  shone,  evidently  that  to  which 
he  had  steered  at  first,  but  of  which  he  had  lost  sight  during 
his  long  struggle  in  the  water. 

He  entered  the  hut  and  found  Will  !  The  whole  affair,  the 
arrest,  the  cachot,  and  the  mysterious  note  turned  out  to  be 
Will's  plot,  who  explained  that  if  he  had  not  divulged  the  secret 
of  Souville's  first  escape-hole  when  it  was  known  that  he  had 
discovered  it,  he  would  probably  have  got  a  thousand  lashes 
at  the  triangles,  and  that  to  atone  for  it  he  had  conveyed  to 
the  cachot  the  note  which  was  the  means  of  Tom's  escape. 

No  time  was  lost  in  completely  disguising  him,  and  he 
started.  As  he  passed  along  the  smuggler's  cliff  path  he 
heard  the  guns  which  proclaimed  the  escape  of  a  prisoner. 
At  9  a.m.  he  passed  Kingston,  and  got  to  Farlington  on  the 
Chichester  road.  Here  he  put  up  at  a  lodging  house,  replying 
to  suspicious  inquiries  that  he  was  from  London,  bound  for  an 
American  ship  coming  from  Dover.  From  here  he  took  coach 
to  Brighton,  and  in  two  days  was  at  Dover.  At  Dover  he 
waited  two  more  days  before  he  could  find  a  neutral  ship  to  take 
him  across,  and  then  quietly  smuggled  himself  on  to  a  Danish 
brig  bound  for  Calais,  and  hid  under  a  coil  of  rope  on  deck. 
Whilst  here  the  Admiralty  people  came  on  board  to  search  for 
fugitives,  and  one  of  them  actually  sat  on  the  heap  of  rope 
under  which  he  was.  The  brig  sailed,  and  then,  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  the  master  and  crew,  Tom  presented  himself.  At  first 
the  master  was  disposed  to  put  back  and  give  Tom  up,  for  the 
penalties  were  heavy  for  harbouring  escaped  prisoners,  but  the 
promise  of  a  handsome  reward  and  Tom's  mention  of  influential 
friends  overcame  his  scruples  and  Tom  was  safely  landed. 

He  went  home,  got  the  money,  of  which  he  gave  1,000  francs 
to  the  skipper,  500  francs  to  the  crew,  and  500  to  the  fisherman 
who  landed  him. 

Souville  now  started  the  privateering  business  which  was  to 
make  him  famous,  and  during  the  years  1806  and  1807  won  for 
his  Glaneur  a  reputation  on  both  sides  of  the  Channel.  At 
Dunkirk  he  distinguished  himself  on  shore  by  saving  two  lives 
from  a  runaway  carriage  which  had  been  upset  into  the  port. 
He  then  changed  to  the  General  Paris,  and  made  a  number  of 
rich  captures,  but  on  November  30,  1808,  was  captured  off 


TOM  SOUVILLE  107 

Folkestone  by  two  corvettes  and  a  cutter,  and  found  himself  on 
the  Assistance  prison  ship  at  Portsmouth.  On  the  Assistance 
he  made  so  many  attempts  to  escape  that  he  was  changed  to  the 
Crown.  Here  he  met  an  old  shipmate,  Captain  Havas,  of  the 
Furet  privateer,  but  from  policy  they  agreed  not  to  let  it  be 
seen  that  they  were  friends,  and  they  lost  no  time  in  setting  to 
work  with  saws  made  of  barrel-hoops,  and  bits  of  fencing  foils 
for  gimlets,  to  make  a  hole  a  square  foot  in  size  through  the 
nine  inches  of  the  wooden  ship's  side,  and,  to  avoid  the  noise 
they  made  being  heard,  they  worked  while  the  English  soldiers 
were  scrubbing  the  decks. 

By  the  beginning  of  January  1809  the  hole  was  ready. 
January  9  was  a  suitable  day  for  this  project,  being  foggy,  and 
the  only  obstacle  was  the  bitter  cold  of  the  water.  They  had 
saved  up  rum,  and  grease  wherewith  to  rub  themselves,  and 
had  a  compass,  a  knife,  a  flask  for  the  rum,  and  a  waterproof 
fishing-basket  to  hold  a  change  of  clothes.  At  midnight  they 
opened  the  hole  ;  Havas  slipped  out,  and  Souville  followed, 
but  in  doing  so  made  a  slight  noise,  but  enough  to  attract  the 
notice  of  the  sentry.  They  swam  away  amidst  a  storm  of 
bullets  fired  at  random  in  the  fog  and  darkness.  Souville  was 
soon  caught  by  one  of  the  boats  which  at  the  first  alarm  had 
put  out  from  all  the  hulks.  Havas  hung  on  to  the  rudder  of  a 
Portuguese  ship  under  repair,  and  paused  to  rest.  When  all 
was  quiet,  he  climbed  up,  boarded  the  ship,  crept  down  to  the 
hold,  got  under  a  basket,  and,  utterly  worn  out,  fell  asleep. 

A  cabin  boy  coming  for  the  basket  in  the  morning,  at  the 
appearance  of  a  strange  man  under  it  was  terrified  and  cried 
out.  Havas  rushed  up  on  deck,  but  at  the  mouth  of  the  hatch- 
way was  met  by  an  English  soldier  who  promptly  knocked 
him  down,  and  he  was  secured. 

The  adventurers  got  a  month's  Black  Hole,  and  when  they 
were  released  found  the  precautions  against  escape  were  stricter 
than  ever.  In  May  1809  tne  news  came  that  all  the  prisoners 
taken  at  Guadeloupe  were  to  be  exchanged.  Havas  and 
Souville  determined  to  profit  by  the  opportunity,  and  bought 
two  turns  of  exchange  from  soldiers,  with  the  idea  of  getting 
away  as  Guadeloupe  prisoners.  But,  in  order  to  pass  the 
sentry  it  was  necessary  that  they  should  have  the  appearance 


io8  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

of  having  served  in  the  tropics,  so  they  had  '  to  make  them- 
selves up  ',  with  false  moustaches  and  stained  faces.  This  was 
effected,  and  at  the  signal  of  departure  the  two  adventurers 
joined  the  Guadeloupe  contingent  and  were  taken  ashore. 
But  on  the  jetty  stood  Captain  Ross,  of  the  Crown,  scrutinizing 
the  prisoners. 

'  You  didn't  expect  me  here,  my  man,'  said  he  to  Havas,  at 
the  same  time  taking  hold  of  his  moustache,  which  came  off  in 
his  hand.  '  Never  mind  ;  although  I  am  in  duty  bound  to 
take  you  before  Commodore  Woodriff,  I'll  ask  him  to  let  you 
off ;  if  I  don't  you'll  sink  my  ship  with  your  eternal  hole-boring 
through  her  !  ' 

He  meant  what  he  said,  for,  although  somewhat  of  a  marti- 
net (so  says  the  biographer  of  Souville — Henri  Chevalier), 
he  was  a  good  fellow  at  heart,  but  Woodriff,  who  had  been  in 
command  at  Norman  Cross  in  1797,  was  of  another  disposition  : 
'  un  de  ces  moroses  Anglais  dont  1'air  sombre  cache  un  carac- 
tere  plus  dur  encore  que  severe.'  He  refused  Ross's  request, 
and  even  admonished  him  for  laxity  of  vigilance,  and  so  our 
friends  were  sent  back  to  the  Crown,  and  got  another  month's 
cachot.  Then  they  were  separated,  Havas  being  sent  to  the 
Suffolk  and  Tom  Souville  to  the  Vengeance.  Six  uneventful 
months  passed  ;  then  the  prisoners  of  the  Suffolk  and  Vengeance 
were  transferred  to  the  San  Antonio,  and  Havas  and  Souville 
were  re-united,  and  took  into  partnership  Etienne  Thibaut. 
The  commander  of  the  San  Antonio  was  an  affable  Scot  with 
a  soft  heart  towards  his  prisoners.  He  took  a  fancy  to  Havas, 
often  chatted  with  him,  and  at  last  engaged  him  as  a  French 
teacher.  Captain  B.  had  a  pretty  wife,  '  belle  en  tout 
point,  blonde,  grande,  svelte  et  gracieuse,'  and  a  charming 
little  girl,  possessing  'de  bonnes  joues  roses,  de  grands  yeux 
bleus,  et  des  cheveux  dores  a  noyer  sa  tete  si  un  ruban  ne  les  eut 
captives  sur  son  cou ;  enfant  petulante  et  gaie,  fraiche  comme 
une  fleur,  vive  comme  un  oiseau  '. 

Havas  makes  friends  with  the  child,  but  aims  at  the  favour 
of  the  mother.  Being  a  dashing,  attractive,  sailor-like  fellow, 
he  succeeds,  and  moves  her  sympathy  for  his  fate.  Finally 
Mrs.  B.  promises  that  he  shall  go  with  her  to  a  French 
theatrical  performance  ashore,  as  her  husband  rarely  quits  the 


TOM  SOUVILLE  109 

ship  except  on  duty.  So  they  go,  one  fine  spring  day,  she  and 
Havas,  and  a  Scots  Captain  R.  with  them  to  save  appearances, 
first  to  the  hulk  Veteran  where  they  learn  that  the  play,  to  be 
acted  in  Portchester  Castle,  will  be  Racine's  Phedre,  and  that 
it  will  commence  at  4  p.m. 

They  attended  the  play.  An  old  caulker  played  Theseus, 
Phedre  was  presented  by  a  novice,  and  Hippolyte  by  a  top-man, 
which  probably  means  that  it  was  ludicrous.  After  the  play, 
Captain  R.  went  into  the  town,  leaving  Havas  and  Mrs. 
B.  to  enjoy  a  beautiful  springtime  walk  together,  winding 
up  with  refreshments  in  an  arbour  which  Mrs.  B.  had 
engaged.  All  this  time,  however,  Havas  was  not  so  intoxi- 
cated with  the  delightful  novelty  of  a  tete-a-tete  walk  with  a. 
pretty  Englishwoman  on  a  lovely  day  in  a  fair  country,  as  not 
to  be  making  mental  notes  of  the  local  geography. 

During  the  long  continuance  of  the  fine  weather,  which  was- 
all  against  their  project,  the  three  men  made  preparations  for 
escape,  and  particularly  in  the  manufacture  of  wooden  skates 
for  use  over  the  two  great  mud-banks  which  separated  the 
hulks  from  the  shore,  and  which  had  always  been  fatal  obstacles 
to  escaping  prisoners.  At  length  the  long-looked-for  change 
in  the  weather  came,  and  at  I  a.m.  on  a  wild,  stormy  morning 
Havas  and  Souville  got  off  (in  the  French  original  I  find  no 
allusion  to  Thibaut),  well  furnished  with  necessaries,  including 
complete  suits  of  stylish  clothing  !  Once  they  were  challenged, 
but  the  uproar  of  the  storm  saved  them,  and,  moreover,  the  sea, 
even  in  the  land-locked  part,  was  so  high  that  the  sentries  had 
been  withdrawn  from  the  external  gallery.  It  was  a  hard 
struggle,  but  they  reached  the  first  mud-spit  safely,  got  over  it 
on  their  skates,  swam  another  bit,  and  at  the  second  mud- 
bank  had  to  rest,  as  Souville  was  taken  with  a  sudden  vertigo. 
Finally,  after  three  terrible  hours  of  contest  with  wind  and. 
wave,  they  landed.  Thence  they  made  their  way  into  the 
fields,  washed  and  scraped  the  mud  off,  and  with  the  stylish 
clothes  transformed  themselves,  as  the  account  says,  into 
'  elegants '. 

For  four  hours  they  walked  until  they  struck  the  London 
road,  along  which  they  tramped  for  an  hour,  that  is  until  about 
10  a.m.,  and  breakfasted  at  an  inn.  At  3  p.m.  they  reached . 


no  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Petersfield,  went  boldly  to  the  best  hotel,  dined  as  became 
gentlemen  of  their  appearance,  and  ordered  a  post-chaise  to  be 
ready  to  take  them  to  Brighton  at  4  a.m. 

They  were  three  days  on  the  journey  to  Brighton  !  Souville's 
admirable  English  was  their  protection,  and  the  only  incon- 
venience they  experienced  was  from  the  remarks  of  people  who 
contrasted  their  elegant  appearance  with  the  small  amount  of 
luggage  they  carried,  consisting  of  a  pocket-handkerchief  con- 
taining their  belongings. 

They  arrived  at  Brighton  at  10  a.m.  on  a  Sunday  morning. 
The  Duke  of  York  had  arrived  there  to  review  the  troops 
assembled  at  Brighton  Camp  on  account  of  Bonaparte's 
threatened  invasion,  so  that  the  town  was  crowded  with  soldiers 
and  visitors,  accommodation  was  not  to  be  had,  and  no  chance 
of  sailing  to  France  was  likely  to  be  offered.  So  they  decided 
to  walk  on  to  Hastings,  a  risky  proceeding,  as  the  country 
swarmed  with  soldiers.  They  walked  for  a  day  and  a  half,  and 
then  resolved  to  drive.  For  the  night  they  had  lodged  at  an 
inn  which  was  full  of  soldiers,  all  of  whom  were  incited  by 
rewards  to  look  out  for  spies,  so  they  shut  themselves  in  their 
room  with  food  and  two  bottles  of  port,  and  busied  themselves 
with  mending  and  furbishing  up  the  elegant  clothes,  which 
were  beginning  to  show  signs  of  wear  and  tear.  The  next  day 
they  left  by  coach  ;  their  fellow  passengers  included  a  f adfed 
lady  of  thirty,  a  comedienne,  so  she  said,  with  whom  Souville 
soon  became  on  such  excellent  terms  that  she  gave  him  her 
address  at  Hastings,  and  on  the  next  day  he  went  for  a  pleasant 
walk  with  her,  noting  carefully  the  lie  of  the  country  and  looking 
out  for  a  suitable  boat  on  the  beach  in  which  to  get  over  to 
France.  Boats  in  plenty  there  were  ;  but,  in  accordance  with 
the  Admiralty  circular,  inspired  by  the  frequent  appropriations 
of  boats  by  escaping  foreigners,  from  all  of  them  masts,  oars,  and 
sails  had  been  removed.  So  our  friends  resolved  to  walk  on  to 
Folkestone.  They  reached  the  '  Bay  of  Rice  '  (Rye  Bay  ?) 
and  had  to  pass  the  night  in  the  open,  as  there  was  no  inn, 
and  arrived  at  Folkestone  at  6  p.m.  the  next  day. 

During  these  stirring  times  of  war  between  Britain  and 
France,  the  French  privateers  and  the  English  smugglers  found 
it  to  be  to  their  mutual  interests  to  be  good  friends,  for  not  only 


TOM  SOUVILLE  in 

were  the  smugglers  the  chief  carriers  of  escaped  French  prisoners, 
many  of  whom  were  officers  of  privateers,  but  they  were  valu- 
able sources  of  information  concerning  the  movements  of 
war-ships  and  likely  prizes.  In  return  the  French  coastal 
authorities  allowed  them  free  access  to  their  ports  for  purposes 
of  the  contraband  trade.  During  his  career  afloat  Souville  had 
done  a  good  turn  to  Mr.  J.  P.,  an  English  smuggler  captain 
living  at  Folkestone,  and  Mr.  J.  P.  promised  that  he  would 
requite  this  at  the  first  opportunity.  And  so  Tom  determined 
to  find  him  at  Folkestone.  His  excellent  English  soon  procured 
him  J.  P.'s  address,  and  there  the  fugitives  had  a  royal  recep- 
tion, dinner,  bed,  a  bath  the  next  morning,  fresh  clothes  and 
a  change  of  linen.  At  breakfast  they  read  the  news  of  their 
escape  and  of  the  big  reward  offered  for  their  recapture  in  the 
local  newspaper. 

They  spent  five  happy  days  under  this  hospitable  roof, 
waiting  for  favourable  weather,  and  for  their  host  to  procure 
them  a  suitable  boat.  This  came  about  in  due  cours2,  and 
after  a  farewell  banquet,  the  party,  consisting  of  Souville, 
arm-in-arm  with  Mrs.  P.,  Havas  with  her  sister,  J.  P.,  and 
three  friends,  proceeded  to  the  beach,  and  at  9  p.m.  Souville  and 
Havas  embarked  for  Calais,  where  they  arrived  after  a  good 
passage,  and  had  an  enthusiastic  reception,  for  it  had  been 
reported  that  in  escaping  from  the  San  Antonio,  they  had  been 
engulfed  in  the  mud-banks. 

Tom  Souville  lost  no  time  in  resuming  his  privateering  life, 
and  continued  to  be  most  successful,  amassing  money  and 
gaining  renown  at  the  same  time,  but  in  1812,  when  on  the 
Renard,  having  in  tow  a  brig  prize  of  200  tons,  he  was  again 
captured,  and  once  more  found  himself  on  the  Crown  prison 
ship,  in  '  Southampton  Lake  '.  The  Crown  was  still  commanded 
by  Ross — called  in  the  original  (which  is  in  the  form  of  an  inter- 
view with  Souville  by  Eugene  Sue)  '  Rosa  ',  that  being  the 
sound  of  the  name  in  French  ears.  Ross  was  a  fine  old  fellow 
who  had  lost  an  arm  at  Trafalgar,  but  he  hated  the  French. 
Ross,  knowing  Tom  Souville's  fame,  ironically  conducts  him 
personally  over  the  Crown,  pointing  out  all  the  latest  devices 
for  the  prevention  of  escape,  and  tells  Tom  that  he  will  have 
a  corporal  specially  told  off  to  '  attend  to  him '.  He  offers  to 


H2  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

allow  Tom  to  go  ashore  every  day  if  he  will  give  his  parole  not 
to  attempt  escape,  but  Tom  refuses. 

On  the  Crown  Tom  finds  an  old  friend,  Tilmont,  a  privateer 
captain,  and  they  at  once  set  to  work  on  a  plan  for  escape. 
One  morning  Captain  Ross  sends  for  Tom  and  quietly  informs 
him  that  one  J  olivet  had  sold  him  the  secret  of  the  hole  then  in 
the  process  of  being  cut  by  Tom  and  Tilmont,  and  as  he  tells 
him  this  they  walk  up  and  down  the  lower  deck  together. 
Whilst  they  are  walking  there  is  a  great  noise  of  tramping 
overhead.  Ross  asks  what  it  is,  and  Tom  replies  that  the 
prisoners  are  dancing.  The  captain  calls  an  orderly  and  tells 
him  to  stop  the  dancing,  '  the  noise  is  distressing  to  Monsieur 
here,'  he  adds  sarcastically.  Tom  is  annoyed  and  begs  he  will 
allow  the  poor  men  to  amuse  themselves,  but  the  captain  is 
obdurate.  Presently  the  noise  ceases,  and  to  Tom's  horror  he 
hears  in  the  ensuing  silence  the  sound  of  Tilmont  working  away 
at  the  hole.  However,  it  did  not  attract  the  captain's  atten- 
tion. The  truth  was  that  the  whole  affair,  the  betrayal  of  the 
hole,  the  dancing  on  deck,  and  the  interview  with  Captain  Ross, 
was  of  Souville's  arranging.  J  olivet  got  £10  IDS.  for  betraying 
the  secret,  which  he  at  once  paid  into  the  ship's  '  Escape  Fund ' ; 
he  had  made  it  a  condition  that  Souville  and  Tilmont  should 
not  be  punished ;  the  dancing  on  deck  was  arranged  to  be  at 
the  time  of  the  interview  between  the  captain  and  Tom,  so  that 
the  noise  of  Tilmont's  final  touches  to  the  work  of  boring  the 
hole  should  be  drowned. 

A  few  days  before  this,  one  Dubreuil  had  attempted  to 
escape,  but  had  been  suffocated  in  the  mud-bank.  On  the 
morning  after  the  interview  above  described,  the  bugle  sounded 
for  all  the  prisoners  to  be  paraded  on  the  upper  deck.  Here 
they  found  the  captain  and  officers,  all  in  full  uniform,  the  guard 
drawn  up  with  fixed  bayonets,  and  on  the  deck  in  front  of  them 
a  long  object  covered  with  a  black  cloth.  The  cloth  was 
removed,  and  the  wasted  body  of  Dubreuil,  with  his  eyes 
picked  out,  was  exposed. 

Souville  was  called  forward. 

'  Do  you  recognize  the  body  ?  '  asked  the  captain. 

*  Yes,'  replied  Tom,  '  but  it  does  not  matter  much.  He 
was  a  bad  fellow  who  struck  his  mother.' 


TOM  SOUVILLE  113 

The  horrible  exhibition  had  been  intended  as  a  deterrent 
lesson  to  the  prisoners  in  general  and  to  Souville  in  particular, 
especially  as  it  was  known  that  he  and  Dubreuil  had  been  life- 
long acquaintances  in  Calais,  but,  as  far  as  Tom  was  concerned, 
his  reply  sufficiently  proved  that  it  was  thrown  away  on  him, 
whilst  among  the  other  prisoners  it  excited  only  disgust  and 
indignation. 

Tom  Souville's  escape  was  arranged  for  that  same  night. 

It  was  quite  favourable  for  his  enterprise,  dark  and  so  stormy 
that  the  hulk  rolled  heavily.  Tilmont  made  Tom  take  a  good 
drink  of  sugar,  rum,  and  coffee  ;  the  two  men  greased  themselves 
all  over  thoroughly  ;  round  Tom's  neck  was  an  eelskin  full  of 
guineas,  in  his  hat  a  map  of  the  Channel,  in  a  '  boussole  '  tinder 
and  steel,  a  knife  in  the  cord  of  his  hat,  and  a  change  of  clothes 
in  a  little  leather  bag  on  his  back. 

Overboard  he  slipped  (Tilmont's  name  is  not  again  men- 
tioned, although  he  greased  himself,  so  I  presume  he  did  not 
start.  There  are  many  instances  of  poor  fellows,  after  much 
elaborate  preparation,  being  deterred  at  the  last  moment  by 
the  darkness,  the  black  depths  below,  the  long  swim,  and  the 
extreme  uncertainty  of  the  result).  It  was  a  hard,  long 
struggle  in  the  wild  night,  and  throughout  appeared  the  face  of 
Dubreuil  with  its  empty  orbits  before  the  swimmer.  However, 
in  two  hours  and  a  half  he  reached  land.  He  rested  for  a  while, 
cleaned  the  mud  off,  changed  his  clothes  and  started  to  walk. 

In  nine  days  he  reached  Winchelsea,  walking  by  night  and 
hiding  by  day,  for  this  time  his  clothes  were  not  of  the  '  elegant  ' 
style,  and  the  land  was  full  of  spy-hunters.  He  went  on  to 
Folkestone,  and  rested  by  the  garden  wall  of  a  villa  in  the  out- 
skirts. As  he  rested  he  heard  the  voice  of  a  woman  singing  in 
the  garden.  At  once  he  recognized  it  as  the  voice  of  a  captain's 
wife  who  had  been  of  the  merry  party  at  J.  P.'s  house  on  the 
occasion  of  his  last  visit  to  Folkestone,  called  her  by  name,  and 
announced  his  own.  He  was  warmly  welcomed,  there  was  a 
repetition  of  the  old  festivities,  and  in  due  course  he  was  found 
a  passage  for  Calais,  where  he  arrived  safely.  Once  more  he 
trod  the  deck  of  the  famous  Renard,  and  was  so  successful  that 
he  saved  money  enough  to  buy  a  cutter  on  his  own  account. 
He  soon  became  one  of  the  most  famous  Channel  corsaires  ;  and 

ABELL 


ABE 


ii4  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

in  addition  a  popular  hero,  by  his  saving  many  lives  at  sea,  not 
only  of  his  own  countrymen,  but  of  English  fishermen,  and  in 
one  case,  of  the  crew  of  a  British  ship  of  war  which  had  been 
disabled  by  foul  weather. 

Then  came  the  Peace  of  1814  ;  and  when,  after  Waterloo, 
friendly  relationship  was  solidly  established  between  the  two 
countries,  Tom  Souville,  only  at  home  on  the  ocean,  obtained 
command  of  the  cross-channel  packet  Iris,  which  he  retained 
almost  up  to  the  day  of  his  death  in  1840,  at  the  age  of 
sixty-four. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  PRISON  SYSTEM 

THE  PRISONERS  ASHORE.     GENERAL 

DURING  the  progress  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  from  1756  to 
1763,  it  became  absolutely  necessary,  from  the  large  annual 
increase  in  the  number  of  prisoners  of  war  brought  to  England, 
that  some  systematic  accommodation  for  prisoners  on  land 
should  be  provided.  Some  idea  of  the  increase  may  be  formed 
when  we  find  that  the  number  of  prisoners  of  war  in  England 
at  the  end  of  1756  was  7,261,  and  that  in  1763,  the  last  year  of 
the  war,  it  was  40,000. 

The  poor  wretches  for  whom  there  was  no  room  in  the  already 
overcrowded  hulks  were  herded  together  wherever  space  could 
be  found  or  made  for  them. 

They  were  in  borough  jails  —  veritable  hells  on  earth  even 
when  filled  with  native  debtors  and  felons  :  they  were  in 
common  prisons  such  as  the  Savoy  and  Wellclose  Square  in 
London  :  they  were  in  hired  and  adapted  strong  houses  such  as 
the  Wool  House  at  Southampton,  and  the  old  pottery  works 
in  Liverpool,  or  in  adapted  country  houses  such  as  Sissinghurst 
in  Kent,  or  in  adapted  farms  like  Roscrow  and  Kergilliack  in 
Cornwall  ;  or  in  barracks  as  at  Winchester,  Tynemouth  and 
Edinburgh.  Port  Chester  Castle  was  but  an  adaptation,  so  was 
Fort  on,  near  Gosport,  and  the  only  place  of  confinement  built 
as  a  prison,  and  kept  exclusively  for  prisoners  of  war,  was  for 
a  long  time  the  Millbay  prison  at  Plymouth. 

In  1760  public  attention  was  drawn  to  the  *  dangerous  spirit  ' 
among  the  French  prisoners  in  England.  Escapes  were  frequent, 
were  carried  out  by  large  bodies  of  men,  and  in  many  cases  were 
characterized  by  open  acts  of  defiance  and  violence.  Inquiries 
were  made  about  places  which  could  be  prepared  to  accommo- 
date, between  them,  from  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  prisoners 
~*  "Tar.  No  place  was  too  sacred  for  the  prison-hunters.  A 


t 


n6  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

report  upon  the  suitability  of  Kenilworth  Castle  was  drawn  up 
by  a  Dr.  Palmer,  who  concluded,  '  If  the  buildings  are  com- 
pleted, some  thousands  of  prisoners  will  be  so  accommodated 
as  I  flatter  myself  will  reflect  Honour  on  the  British  Nation.' 

General  Simon,  we  shall  see  later,  was  confined  in  Dumbarton 
Castle.  The  Royal  Palace  at  Linlithgow  only  escaped  con- 
version into  a  war  prison  by  the  exertions  of  Viscount  Dundas, 
Lord  of  the  Admiralty — a  fact  to  which  Sir  Walter  Scott 
thus  alludes  in  Waverley : 

'  They  halted  at  Linlithgow,  distinguished  by  its  ancient 
palace,  which,  Sixty  Years  since,  was  entire  and  habitable, 
and  whose  venerable  ruins,  not  quite  Sixty  Years  since,  very 
narrowly  escaped  the  unworthy  fate  of  being  converted  into 
a  barrack  for  French  prisoners.  May  repose  and  blessings 
attend  the  ashes  of  the  patriotic  statesman,  who,  amongst  his 
last  services  to  Scotland,  interposed  to  prevent  this  profana- 
tion !  ' 

So  the  business  of  searching  for  suitable  places  and  of  adapta- 
tion of  unsuitable  went  on,  the  prisoners  being  of  course  the 
chief  sufferers,  which  in  that  hard,  merciless  age  was  not  a 
matter  of  much  concern,  and  it  was  not  until  1782  that  a  rr.ove 
in  the  right  direction  seemed  to  be  made  by  the  abandonment 
of  the  old  evil  place  of  confinement  at  Knowle,  near  Bristol 
(visited  and  commented  on  by  Wesley  in  1759  and  1760,  and 
by  Howard  in  1779),  and  the  transfer  of  the  prisoners  to  the 
'  Fish  Ponds  '  prison,  better  known  later  as  Stapleton. 

In  1779  Howard  says,  in  his  General  Report  upon  the  prisons 
on  land,  '  The  French  Government  made  an  allowance  of  $d. 
per  diem  to  Captains,  Mates,  sailing  masters  and  surgeons  ;  zd. 
per  diem  to  boatswains,  carpenters,  and  petty  officers  generally, 
and  id.  per  diem  to  all  below  these  ratings  (which  is  almost 
exactly  the  same  as  the  allowances  made  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment to  its  prisoners  abroad).  There  is,  besides,  a  supply  from 
the  same  Court  of  clothes,  linen,  and  shoes  to  those  who  are 
destitute  of  these  articles  ;  a  noble  and  exemplary  provision 
much  to  the  honour  of  those  who  at  present  conduct  public 
affairs  in  France/ 

Howard  found  the  American  prisoners,  except  at  Pembroke, 
clean  and  well  clothed,  thanks  to  liberal  supplies  from  their 


THE  PRISONERS  ASHORE  117 

own  country  as  well  as  from  England.  He  noted  the  care  and 
assiduity  of  the  '  Sick  and  Hurt '  Office  in  London,  and  decided 
that  England  and  France  treated  foreign  prisoners  very  much 
alike  on  the  whole. 

In  1794  Charles  Townshend  wrote  to  the  Earl  of  Ailesbury  : 
'  The  French  prisoners  have  their  quarters  in  Hillsea  Barracks 
(Portsmouth) ,  find  our  biscuit  and  beef  much  better  than  their 
own,  and  are  astonished  at  the  good  treatment  they  meet  with. 
Most  of  them  are  very  young,  and  were  driven  on  board  by  the 
bayonet.' 

I  quote  this  as  I  am  only  too  glad  when  I  come  across  any 
record  or  evidence  which  can  serve  to  brighten  the  dark  dreary 
record  of  these  chapters  in  our  national  history. 

In  1795  there  were  13,666  prisoners  of  war  in  Britain,  of 
whom  1,357  were  officers  on  parole  ;  of  the  remainder  the 
largest  number,  4,769,  were  at  Port  Chester  Castle. 

In  1796-7  the  great  depot  at  Norman  Cross  near  Peter- 
borough, to  contain  7,000  prisoners,  was  built  and  occupied. 
In  1798,  further  inquiries  were  made  by  the  Government  for 
prison  accommodation,  as  the  inflow  of  prisoners  was  unceasing 
and  ever  increasing,  the  total  for  this  year  being  35,000.  The 
advertised  specifications  give  us  an  idea  of  the  space  then 
considered  sufficient  for  prisoners.  Besides  accommodation 
for  a  garrison  calculated  at  the  proportion  of  one  guard  for 
every  twenty  prisoners,  cells  were  required  measuring  eight  feet 
by  seven,  and  eleven  feet  high,  for  four  or  five  prisoners, 
or  rooms  twenty-four  feet  by  twenty-two  to  be  divided  into 
nine  cells,  and  replies  were  received  from  Coldbath  Fields, 
London,  Liverpool,  Manchester,  Preston,  Lancaster  Castle, 
Shrewsbury,  and  Dorchester. 

In  1799  Stapleton  Prison,  near  Bristol,  was  to  be  enlarged  so 
as  to  be  ready  in  June  1800,  for  twice  its  then  complement  of 
prisoners. 

In  1803  a  very  general  impression  was  prevalent  in  high 
places  that  an  invasion  of  England  was  imminent  from  Ireland 
with  which  the  prisoners  of  war  all  over  the  country,  but 
especially  the  Western  counties,  were  to  be  associated,  and  so, 
at  the  request  of  Sir  Rupert  George  of  the  Transport  Office, 
a  detailed  report  was  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Yorke  of  the  best  means 


u8  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

to  be  taken  to  guard  against  this.  To  this  was  appended  a 
memorandum  of  the  capacity  and  condition  of  various  inland 
prisons,  such  as  Manchester,  Stafford,  Shrewsbury,  Dorchester, 
Gloucester,  Coldbath  Fields  in  London,  and  Liverpool. 

In  1806  the  great  prison  at  Dartmoor,  built  to  hold  6,000 
prisoners,  and  thus  relieve  the  dangerous  congestion  at  Ply- 
mouth, was  founded,  but  the  first  prisoners  did  not  enter  it 
until  1809.  In  1811  a  large  depot  was  formed  at  Valleyfield 
near  Penicuik  on  the  Esk,  about  nine  miles  south  of  Edin- 
burgh, which  was  gradually  enlarged  until  at  the  Peace  of  1814 
it  contained  10,000  prisoners. 

So  by  this  time,  1814,  there  were  nine  large  prisons  at  Dart- 
moor, Norman  Cross,  Millbay,  Stapleton,  Valleyfield,  Forton, 
Portchester,  Chatham  (where  the  present  St.  Mary's  Barracks 
were  first  used  as  a  war-prison),  and  Perth,  holding  about  45,000 
prisoners  ;  there  were  about  2,000  officers  on  parole  ;  the 
hulks  at  Portsmouth,  Plymouth,  and  Chatham — about  fifty 
ships — would  hold  nearly  35,000  prisoners,  and  the  grand  total 
would  be  well  in  excess  of  the  largest  number  of  war  prisoners 
in  Britain  in  one  year,  that  is,  72,000  in  1814. 

In  1812  the  following  notification  was  sent  to  the  Admiralty, 
who  evidently  treated  it  seriously,  as  a  copy  of  it  was  sent  to 
the  agents  of  all  the  war  prisons  in  the  country  : 

'  Extra  Secret  Intelligence. 

'  The  large  fleet  here  (Boulogne)  remain  perfectly  inactive, 
but  the  Flotilla  are  only  waiting  for  orders.  I  was  yesterday 
told  by  one  of  the  Captains  that  6,000  men  would  soon  be 
embarked,  that  the  place  of  landing  was  to  be  as  near  as 
possible  to  Stilton  Prison  (Norman  Cross)  and  that  every  man 
was  to  carry  two  complete  sets  of  arms,  &c.,  in  order  to  equip 
the  prisoners  they  may  release.' 

Three  men,  named  La  Ferre,  Denisham,  and  De  Mussy,  were 
to  land  as  American  gentlemen,  and  to  take  charge  quietly  and 
unobtrusively.  The  head-quarters  were  to  be  near  Liverpool, 
Hull,  and  between  Portsmouth  and  Plymouth,  whence  these 
emissaries  were  to  gain  access  to  all  the  prisons,  and  prepare  the 
minds  of  the  inmates  for  the  Great  Event. 

Nothing  came  of  this,  but  the  correspondence  of  the  Trans- 
port Office  reveals  the  fact  that  by  one  means  or  another  a  more 


THE  PRISONERS  ASHORE  119 

or  less  regular  correspondence  was  kept  up  between  France  and 
the  prisons,  and  that  there  were  concerned  in  it  some  very  well 
known  officers  on  parole,  and  even  some  Englishmen. 

The  captaincy  of  a  war  prison  was  no  sinecure,  and  if  his- 
tory shows  that  one  or  two  of  the  officers  occupying  the  position 
were  ill-fitted  for  it,  assuredly  they  had  no  reason  to  complain 
of  a  lack  of  rules,  regulations,  and  instructions  from  head- 
quarters, and  they  were  called  to  order  in  no  measured  terms. 

The  care  of  the  prisoners  themselves,  desperate,  restless, 
cunning  rascals  as  many  of  them  were,  seems  to  have  bothered 
the  agent  much  less  than  the  care  of  those  who  were  in  any  way 
associated  with  the  working  of  the  prison — the  big  and  little 
officials,  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  garrison,  the  contractors, 
the  tradesmen,  the  workmen,  the  servants,  the  inn-keepers, 
farmers,  post-office  officials,  even  the  stage  coachmen  and 
guards,  not  to  mention  the  neighbouring  gentry,  parsons  and 
old  ladies  who,  of  course,  knew  very  much  better  how  to  run 
a  war-prison  than  did  Captain  Pressland,  or  Captain  Cotgrave, 
or  Captain  Draper,  or  any  other  selected  man. 

Another  fact  which  contributed  to  the  irksomeness  of  the 
post  was  that  although  a  naval  captain  was  always  the  head 
of  a  war  prison,  and  his  turnkeys  were  generally  of  the  same 
service,  and  he  was  the  responsible  head  of  the  establishment, 
the  guardianship  of  the  prisoners  was  absolutely  in  the  hands  of 
the  military  authorities,  who  were  therefore  responsible  for  the 
safe-keeping  of  the  prisoners.  Any  difference  therefore  between 
the  naval  captain  and  the  military  colonel  as  to  the  arrangement 
and  disposal  of  the  guards — and  such  differences  were  frequent 
—was  sure  to  betray  itself  in  the  condition  of  the  prison. 

It  may  be  easily  understood  that  although  it  was  the  naval 
captain  in  charge  of  a  prison  who  was  held  responsible  for  every 
escape  of  a  prisoner,  he  would  be  pretty  sure  to  put  the  onus  of 
it  on  to  the  military  commander,  who,  in  turn,  would  be  ready 
to  attribute  the  mishap  to  anything  but  deficiency  in  the 
arrangement  of  sentries  or  to  any  slackness  on  the  part  of 
his  men. 

Take  again  the  position  of  the  war  prisoner  agent,  as  he 
was  called,  with  regard  to  the  numberless  appeals  to  his 
humanity  with  which  he  was  assailed.  The  period  of  the  Great 


120  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Wars  was  not  characterized  by  hyper-sensitiveness  on  the  score 
of  human  suffering  and  want,  although  I  thoroughly  believe 
that  the  men  selected  for  the  position  of  war  prisoner  agents 
were  generally  as  kindly  disposed  and  as  sympathetic,  as  refined 
and  well-bred  Englishmen  as  could  be  in  an  age  not  remarkable 
for  gentleness.  It  must  be  remembered  that  they  had  ever  to 
be  on  their  guard  against  ruse  and  stratagem. 

A  forcible  illustration  is  afforded  by  the  much  vexed  question 
of  the  religious  condition  of  the  prisoners.  In  1798  the  Bishop 
of  Leon  asked  that  French  priests  should  be  allowed  to  minister 
to  the  prisoners  at  Portchester  and  Stapleton,  and,  although 
it  was  notorious  that  by  far  the  greater  number  of  Frenchmen 
were  not  merely  indifferent  to  religion,  but  avowed  preachers 
of  atheism,  the  permission  was  given,  and  the  Abbes  De  La  Marc 
and  Pasquier  were  told  off  for  duty.  Later  on,  however,  it 
would  seem  that  the  privilege  thus  accorded  had  been  grossly 
abused,  and  the  permission  cancelled,  for  the  Transport  Office 
writes  : 

'  The  T.  O.  regrets  that  it  is  not  in  their  power  to  permit 
the  emigre  priests  to  visit  War  Prisons.  We  feel  it  our  duty, 
however,  to  say  that  in  the  present  difficult  times  when  pre- 
tended Friends  are  not  always  distinguishable  from  real  Foes, 
we  feel  it  our  Duty  to  be  on  our  guard  respecting  Intercourse 
with  all  Prisoners  of  war  under  our  charge,  and  though  we 
have  a  sincere  desire  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  Christian 
Religion  under  any  Denomination,  yet  where  it  has  been,  and 
is  uniformly,  if  not  universally,  insulted  by  the  Republicans 
of  your  Nation  who  constitute  the  bulk  of  our  captives,  we 
must  be  cautious  of  every  species  of  Introduction  to  men  so 
generally  unprincipled,  and  who  are  at  best  the  Dupes  of  an 
ignorant  and  insidious  Philosophy.  We  allow  much  when 
we  grant  permission  to  your  Priests  upon  the  express  desire 
of  the  Parties,  and  we  appeal  to  you  whether  it  be  not  an 
indulgence  which  would  not  be  conceded  to  Protestant  Divines 
under  similar  circumstances  in  any  Roman  Catholic  Country, 
and  particularly  in  France  itself  under  its  ancient  Government/ 

The  bishop  also  applies  to  have  a  priest  at  Deal.  The  Trans- 
port Office  refuses,  saying  that  Deal  is  not  a  depot  for  prisoners, 
but  only  a  receiving  place,  and  there  are  no  turnkeys  and 
clerks,  such  '  as  the  admission  of  an  Ecclesiastic  might  render 
necessary'. 


THE  PRISONERS  ASHORE  121 

In  1801,  the  same  Bishop  of  Leon  had  the  assurance  to 
request  the  release  of  a  French  priest  taken  under  arms.  To 
this  the  Transport  Office  replied  : 

'  The  Board  is  rather  surprised  that  you  should  apply  to 
them  on  behalf  of  such  a  person,  as  they  conceive  it  to  be 
against  the  spirit  of  all  Religion  that  men  in  Holy  Orders 
should  be  found  in  Military  Array,  and  they  are  more  con- 
vinced that  they  should  not  comply  with  such  a  request,  as  no 
assurance  can  be  given  or  be  relied  on  that  so  unprincipled 
a  man  may  not  put  off  his  Function  for  his  own  purposes 
a  second  time  and  repeat  his  enormity.' 

In  1808,  the  Bishop  of  Moulins  was  chaplain  to  the  prisoners 
at  Norman  Cross,  and,  according  to  the  Rev.  Arthur  Brown, 
author  of  a  little  book  about  this  prison,  devoted  his  life  to  the 
spiritual  regeneration  of  the  poor  fellows  in  captivity,  although 
Dr.  Walker,  of  Peterborough,  estimates  the  bishop  somewhat 
differently. 

At  any  rate,  his  boy  attendant,  a  prisoner,  was  found  guilty 
of  breaking  one  of  the  prison  rules  by  selling  straw  hats  clandes- 
tinely made  by  the  prisoners,  and  was  ordered  back  into  con- 
finement. The  bishop,  who  did  not  live  in  the  prison,  but  was 
staying  at  the  Bell,  in  Stilton,  applied  for  another  prisoner 
attendant,  but  was  refused. 

Again,  in  1814,  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  asked 
that  the  Transport  Office  agents  should  be  allowed  to  distri- 
bute New  Testaments  among  the  prisoners  at  Stapleton  and 
Norman  Cross.  The  Office  replied  : 

'  We  cannot  impress  such  a  duty  on  our  agents,  as  they 
consider  it  an  impossibility  to  prevent  the  prisoners  from 
selling  them,  as  all  the  Vigilance  exercised  by  the  officers  of 
the  Department  is  insufficient  to  prevent  the  prisoners  from 
making  away  with  the  most  necessary  articles  of  clothing  and 
bedding.' 

That  the  Transport  Office  were  justified  in  their  refusal  is 
confirmed  by  an  incident  at  the  final  embarkation  of  the  French 
prisoners  from  the  Perth  depot  in  July  of  the  same  year,  1814. 
A  considerable  number  of  French  Testaments  were  sent  from 
Edinburgh  to  be  distributed  among  the  prisoners  leaving  for 
France.  The  distribution  was  duly  made,  but  by  the  time  the 


122  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

prisoners  had  reached  the  waterside,  almost  every  man  had  sold 
his  Testament  for  a  trifling  sum. 

It  cannot  be  doubted,  I  think,  that  the  hardships  endured 
by  the  prisoners  in  the  war  prisons  were  very  much  exaggerated, 
and  also  that  to  a  very  large  extent  the  prisoners  brought  them 
upon  themselves.  Especially  was  this  the  case  in  the  matter  of 
insufficient  food  and  clothing.  Gambling  was  the  besetting  sin 
of  the  prisons,  and  to  get  the  wherewithal  to  gamble  the  pri- 
soners sold  clothing,  bedding,  and  not  only  their  rations  for  the 
day,  but  for  days  to  come.  At  Dartmoor  the  evil  occasioned 
by  the  existence  of  the  sale  of  rations  by  prisoners  to  '  brokers  ', 
who  resold  them  at  a  profit,  was  so  great  that  Captain  Cotgrave, 
the  Governor,  in  February  1813,  sent  a  number  of  the  '  brokers  ' 
to  the  cachot.  To  their  remonstrance  he  replied,  in  writing, 
much  as  a  sailor  man  he  would  have  spoken  : 

'  To  the  Prisoners  in  the  Cachot  for  purchasing  Provisions. 
The  Orders  to  put  you  on  short  allowance  (2/3rds)  from  the 
Commissioners  of  His  Majesty's  Transport  Board  is  for  pur- 
chasing the  provisions  of  your  fellow  prisoners,  by  which  means 
numbers  have  died  from  want  of  food,  and  the  hospital  is 
filled  with  sick  not  likely  to  recover.  The  number  of  deaths 
occasioned  by  this  inhuman  practise  occasions  considerable 
expense  to  the  Government,  not  only  in  coffins,  but  the  hospital  is 
filled  with  these  poor,  unhappy  wretches  so  far  reduced  from 
want  of  food  that  they  linger  a  considerable  time  in  the  hospital 
at  the  Government's  expense,  and  then  fall  a  victim  to  the 
cruelty  of  those  who  have  purchased  their  provisions,  to  the 
disgrace  of  Christians  and  whatever  nation  they  belong  to. 

'  The  testimony  of  the  surgeons  and  your  countrymen  prove 
the  fact/ 

The  appeal  was  useless,  and  he  issued  a  proclamation  a 
month  later,  threatening  to  stop  the  markets  if  the  practice 
was  persisted  in.  This  was  equally  fruitless.  Charitable  people 
pitied  the  poor  half-naked  prisoners  in  winter,  and  supplied 
them  abundantly  with  clothing ;  but  when  the  same  men  were 
pointed  out  to  them  a  few  days  later  as  naked  as  before,  and  it 
was  represented  to  them  that  by  their  well-meant  benevolence 
they  were  actually  encouraging  that  which  it  was  most  desirable 
to  check,  they  refused  to  believe  it.  Hence  it  became  necessary 
to  punish  severely.  The  most  efficacious  form  of  punishment 


THE  PRISONERS  ASHORE  123 

was  to  put  an  offender's  name  at  the  bottom  of  the  list  for  being 
exchanged  against  British  prisoners  to  be  sent  from  France 
or  whatever  country  we  happened  to  be  at  war  with.  But  even 
this  had  no  deterrent  effect  upon  some,  and  the  frenzy  for  gain 
was  so  remarkable  that  in  all  the  prisons  there  was  a  regular 
market  for  the  purchase  and  sale  of  places  on  the  Exchange 
List,  until  the  Government  stopped  the  practice.  The  most 
common  form  of  punishment  was  putting  offenders  on  short 
allowance.  For  making  away  with  hammock,  bed,  or  blanket, 
the  prisoner  was  put  on  short  allowance  for  ten  days  ;  for 
making  away  with  any  two  of  these  articles  he  was  docked  for 
fourteen  days  ;  for  cutting  or  damaging  bedding  or  clothes,  he 
had  half  rations  for  five  days  and  had  to  make  the  damage  good. 

Acts  of  violence  brought  confinement  in  the  cachot  or  Black 
Hole.  A  prisoner  who  wounded  a  turnkey  was  to  be  kept 
handcuffed,  with  his  hands  behind  him,  for  not  less  than 
twelve  hours,  and  for  not  more  than  twenty-four  ! 

For  murder  and  forgery  the  prisoners  came  under  the  civil 
law  ;  death  was  the  penalty  for  both,  but  until  1810  no  prisoner- 
forgers,  although  convicted,  had  been  punished  with  death 
in  England,  owing  to  a  doubt  in  the  minds  of  judges  whether 
prisoners  of  war  were  answerable  to  municipal  tribunals  for 
this  sort  of  offence,  which  is  not  against  the  law  of  nations. 

Prisoners  who  were  not  mentally  or  physically  gifted  enough 
to  earn  money  by  the  exercise  of  their  talents  or  employment 
in  handicraft,  had  other  opportunities  of  doing  so.  For  work- 
ing about  the  prisons  as  carpenters,  gardeners,  washermen,  they 
were  paid  threepence  a  day.  As  helpers  in  the  infirmaries — 
one  to  every  ten  patients — they  received  sixpence  a  day. 
Officers  recaptured  after  breaking  their  parole  or  sent  to  prison 
for  serious  offences  were  glad,  if  they  had  means,  to  pay  prisoners 
threepence  a  day  to  act  as  their  servants,  and  do  their  dirty 
work  generally.  At  the  same  rate  sweepers  were  engaged  at  the 
ratio  of  one  to  every  hundred  men  ;  cooks,  in  the  proportion  of 
one  for  every  400  men,  received  ^\d.  a  day,  and  barbers  earned 
3d.  a  day.  At  Dartmoor  some  five  hundred  prisoners  were 
employed  in  these  and  other  ways,  each  man  wearing  on  his  cap 
a  tin  plate  with  the  nature  of  his  calling  thereon  inscribed. 
A  necessarily  rough  estimate  showed  that  nearly  half  of  the 


124  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

inmates  of  the  war  prisons  made  honest  money  in  one  way  or 
another  ;  the  remainder  were  gamblers  and  nothing  else. 
Still,  a  very  large  number  of  the  wage-earners  were  gamblers 
also.  Of  these  various  professions  and  trades  much  will  be  said 
in  the  accounts  of  the  prison  life  which  follow,  and  when  com- 
parisons are  instituted  between  the  versatility,  the  deftness, 
the  ingenuity,  the  artistic  feeling,  and  the  industry  of  the 
French  prisoners  in  Britain,  and  the  helpless  indolence  of  the 
British  prisoners  abroad,  testimony  is  unconsciously  given  in 
favour  of  that  national  system  by  which  men  of  all  social  grades, 
of  all  professions,  and  of  all  trades,  are  compelled  to  serve  in  the 
defence  of  their  country,  as  contrasted  with  that  which,  until 
late  years,  deemed  only  the  scum  of  the  population  as  properly 
liable  to  military  service. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  PRISONS  ASHORE 

I.      SlSSINGHURST   CASTLE 

ABOUT  the  Sissinghurst  one  looks  on  to-day  there  is  little 
indeed  to  remind  us  that  here  stood,  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago,  a  famous  war  prison,  and  it  is  hard  to  realize  that  in  this 
tranquil,  picturesque,  out-of-the-way  nook  of  Kent,  for  seven 
long  years,  more  than  three  thousand  captive  fighting  men 
dragged  out  a  weary  existence. 

Originally  the  splendid  seat  of  the  Baker  family,  and  in  the 
heyday  of  its  grandeur  one  of  the  Kentish  halting-places  of 
Queen  Elizabeth  during  her  famous  progress  in  1571,  it  had  far 
fallen  from  its  high  estate  when,  in  1756,  Government,  hard 
pressed  to  find  accommodation  for  the  annually  increasing 
numbers  of  prisoners  of  war,  leased  it. 

Of  the  '  Castle  ',  as  it  came  to  be  called,  of  this  period,  the 
gate-house,  a  line  of  outbuildings  which  were  partially  used  as 
barracks  for  the  troops  on  guard,  and  a  few  memories,  alone 
survive.  The  great  quadrangle  has  disappeared,  but  the  line 
of  the  ancient  moat,  in  parts  still  filled  with  water,  in  part 
incorporated  with  garden  ground,  still  enables  the  visitor  to 
trace  the  original  extent  of  the  buildings.  Part  of  the  line  of 
ivy-clad  buildings  which  face  the  approach  are  said  to  have 
been  used  as  a  small-pox  hospital,  and  the  name  Francois  may 
still  be  seen  carved  on  the  brick  ;  the  field  known  as  the  '  Horse 
Race  '  was  the  prison  cemetery,  and  human  remains  have  some- 
times within  living  memory  been  disturbed  therein. 

Otherwise,  legends  of  the  prison  linger  but  faintly  in  the 
neighbourhood  ;  but  from  some  of  these  it  would  seem  that 
officer-prisoners  at  Sissinghurst  were  allowed  out  on  parole. 
The  place-name  'Three  Chimneys',  at  a  point  where  three 
roads  meet,  exactly  one  mile  from  Sissinghurst,  is  said  to  be  a 


126  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

corruption  of  '  Trois  Chemins  ',  so  called  by  the  French  prisoners 
whose  limit  it  marked. 

Wilsley  House,  just  out  of  Cranbrook,  a  fine  old  residence, 
formerly  belonging  to  a  merchant  prince  of  the  Kentish  cloth 
trade,  now  occupied  by  Colonel  Alexander,  is  said  to  have  been 
tenanted  by  French  officers  on  parole,  and  some  panel  paintings 
in  one  of  the  rooms  are  said  to  have  been  their  work,  but  I  think 
they  are  of  earlier  date.  The  neighbouring  Barrack  Farm  is 
said  to  have  been  the  prison  garrison  officers'  quarters,  and  the 
house  next  to  the  Sissinghurst  Post  Office  is  by  tradition  the 
old  garrison  canteen. 

The  only  individual  from  whom  I  could  gather  any  recollec- 
tions of  the  French  prisoner  days  was  an  old  farm  labourer 
named  Gurr,  living  at  Goford.  He  told  me  that  his  great- 
grandfather, ploughing  one  day  near  the  prison,  suddenly  saw 
three  men  creeping  along  a  hedgerow  close  to  him.  Recogniz- 
ing them  to  be  Sissinghurst  prisoners,  he  armed  himself  with 
the  coulter  of  his  plough  and  went  up  to  them.  The  poor 
fellows  seemed  exhausted  and  bewildered,  and  went  with  him 
back  to  the  Castle  without  offering  any  resistance,  telling  him 
on  the  way  that  they  had  got  out  by  tunnelling  under  the  moat 
with  small  mattocks.  Gurr  said  that  he  had  often  dug  up 
human  bones  in  the  meadow  opposite  the  Castle  entrance. 

The  following  letter,  I  think,  was  written  from  Sissinghurst, 
but  it  may  be  from  Portchester.  I  insert  it  here  as  in  all 
contemporary  correspondence  '  le  chateau  '  means  Sissinghurst. 

'  Le  Chateau,  3Ome  mai,  1756. 

'  MONSIEUR  : 

'  La  presente  est  pour  vous  prier  de  nous  donner  de 
delargissement,  attendu  que  nous  ne  sommes  point  obliges 
pour  une  personne  de  nous  voir  detenus  commes  nous  sommes. 
Nous  vous  avertisons  que  si  nous  n'avons  pas  1'elargissement 
nous  minerons  le  Chateau,  et  nous  sommes  resolus  de  nous 
battre  centre  nos  ennemis.  Nous  ne  sommes  point  obliges 
de  souffrir  par  raport  d'un  joli  qui  ne  nous  veu  que  de  la 
peine.  Nous  avons  des  armes,  de  la  Poudre  blanche  et  des 
Bales  (Balles  ?)  pour  nous  defendre.  Nous  vous  prions  de 
nous  donner  la  liberte  le  plus  tot  possible,  attendu  que  nous 
sommes  tout  prest  a  suivre  notre  dessein.  On  nous  a  deja 
tue  un  homme  dans  le  prison,  et  nous  aurons  la  vengeance. 

'  Nous  avons  ete  tranquille  jusqu'aujourdui,  mais  presente- 


p.  126 


SISSINGHURST  CASTLE  127 

ment  nous  allons  jouer  a  la  Franco ise  des  rigodons  sans  violons 
attendu  que  nous  sommes  tous  d'un  accord. 

'  Jugez  de  Reste, 

'  Votre  tres  affectionne  et 
'  Fran 90 is  en  general.' 

On  June  24,  1758,  the  following  complaint  was  sent  up : 

'  NOSSEIGNEURS  : 

'  Nous  avons  eu  1'honneur  de  vous  envoyer  un  placet  en 
date  du  I7m9  de  ce  mois,  et  nous  la  vous  tenus  [sic]  entre  les 
mains  de  Mr.  Paxton,  Secretaire  de  Mr.  Cook  [Cooke]  le  i8me 
nous  y  faisions  de  justes  plaintes  touchant  le  Gouvernement  de 
Mr.  Cook  qui  n'est  rien  moins  que  tyrannique  et  capricieuse, 
et  nous  vous  le  posions  tout  au  long  sa  derniere  injustice. 
Craignans  qu'on  ne  vous  ait  pas  mis  celuy  la,  nous  avons  pris 
la  liberte  de  vous  faire  cette  lettre  pour  vous  prier  de  nous 
rendre  justice.  Si  Mr.  Cook  n'avoit  rien  a  se  reprocher  il  ne 
retiendrait  pas  les  lettres  que  nous  vous  addressons.  Tout  le 
monde  scait  ce  que  merite  celuy  qui  detourne  des  oreilles  de 
justice,  les  cris  de  ceux  qui  la  reclame  et  qui  n'ont  d'autre 
crime  que  d'etre  infortunes,  nous  esperons  nosseigneurs  que 
vous  y  aurez  egarder  que  vous  nous  ferez  justice,  nous  vous 
aurons  a  jamais  1'obligation. 

'  Vos  humbles  et  tres  obeisans  serviteurs 
'  Pour  tous  les  prisonniers  en  general.' 

At  about  the  same  date  twenty-seven  paroled  naval  officers 
at  Cranbrook  signed  a  complaint  that  they  were  not  allowed  by 
the  one-mile  limit  of  their  parole  to  visit  their  crews,  prisoners 
at  Sissinghurst,  two  miles  away,  to  help  them  in  their  distress 
and  to  prevent  them  being  robbed  by  the  English  who  have  the 
monopoly  of  getting  things  for  sale  into  the  prison,  notably  the 
jailers  and  the  canteen  man,  not  to  mention  others.  Also  that 
the  prisoners  at  Sissinghurst  had  no  chance  of  ventilating  their 
grievances,  which  were  heavy  and  many  : 

'  De  remedier  a  une  injustice,  ou  plutot  a  une  cruaute  que 
les  nations  les  plus  barbares  n'exercisions.  En  effet  c'est 
une  tiranie  audieuse  que  de  vouloir  forcer  des  pauvres  prison- 
niers a  n'acheter  d'autre  marchandises  que  celles  venant  des 
mains  de  leurs  Gardiens,  et  d'empecher  leurs  parens  et  amis  de 
leur  envoyer  a  beaucoup  meilleur  marche  aussy  bien.' 

Many  of  the  letters  from  relations  in  France  to  prisoners  at 
Sissinghurst  are  preserved  at  the  Record  Office.  It  is  only 


128  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

from  acquaintance  with  these  poor  tattered,  blotted  ebullitions 
of  affection  and  despair  that  the  modern  Englishman  can  glean 
a  notion  of  what  confinement  in  an  English  prison  of  husbands, 
fathers,  brothers,  and  lovers  meant  to  hundreds  of  poor,  simple 
peasant  and  fisher  women  of  France.  The  breath  of  most  of 
them  is  religious  resignation  :  in  a  few,  a  very  few,  a  spirit 
of  resentment  and  antagonism  to  Britain  is  prominent ;  most  of 
them  are  humble  domestic  chronicles  blended  with  prayers  for 
a  speedy  liberation  and  for  courage  in  the  meanwhile.  There  is 
nothing  quite  like  these  mid- eighteenth  century  letters  in  the 
correspondence  of  the  succeeding  great  struggle,  when  the 
principles  of  the  Revolution  had  penetrated  to  the  homes  of 
the  lowliest.  One  sees  reflected  in  it  the  simplicity,  the 
childish  confidence  in  the  Tightness  and  fitness  of  all  in  authority, 
and,  above  all,  the  deep  sense  of  religion,  which  invested  the 
peasantry  of  France  with  a  great  and  peculiar  charm. 

During  this  year,  1758,  the  letters  of  complaint  are  many  and 
pitiful,  the  chief  subject  being  the  non-delivery  to  prisoners  of 
their  letters,  and  the  undue  surveillance  exercised  over  corre- 
spondence of  the  tenderest  private  nature.  In  1760  the  occu- 
pants of  Sissinghurst  received  their  share  of  the  clothes  provided 
by  English  compassion.  Many  of  them  were  accused  of  selling 
these  clothes,  to  which  they  replied  that  it  was  to  buy  neces- 
saries or  tobacco,  or  for  postage,  and  added  that  they  had  been 
for  a  long  time  on  half-rations. 

On  .October  14  a  desperate  attempt  to  escape  was  made,  and 
frustrated  in  an  unnecessarily  brutal  manner.  A  prisoner 
named  Artus,  his  brother,  and  other  prisoners  discovered  a 
disused  latrine.  Into  this  they  crept,  broke  through  a  brick 
wall  by  a  drain,  and  reached  the  edge  of  the  moat,  and  crossed  it 
to  the  opposite  bank  close  to  the  first  of  the  three  sentries  on 
duty  along  it.  This  was  at  ten  o'clock  on  a  moonlight  night. 
Two  of  the  prisoners  passed  the  first  and  second  sentries  and 
got  some  way  into  the  fields.  Artus  and  his  brother  were  to 
follow,  and  were  crawling  on  hands  and  knees  to  avoid  being 
seen.  The  first  sentry,  who  was  close  by,  did  nothing,  having 
probably  been  bribed  ;  but  the  other  two  sentries,  being 
alarmed  by  a  fourth  sentry,  who  was  on  the  right  hand  of  the 
first,  ran  up  and  challenged  Artus,  who  cried  :  '  Don't  fire  ! 


SISSINGHURST  CASTLE  129 

Surrender  !  '  But  the  sentry  disregarded  this,  wounded  him 
in  two  places  on  the  arm,  tearing  his  waistcoat,  and  then  fired 
at  him  point  blank,  blowing  off  half  his  head.  Artus's  brother, 
three  yards  behind,  was  secured  by  a  drummer  who  was  armed 
with  nothing  but  a  drumstick,  thus  proving  the  utterly  unneces- 
sary killing  of  Artus.  Two  other  prisoners  were  captured  later 
in  the  drain,  ready  to  come  out. 

In  the  Annual  Register  we  read  that  on  Saturday,  July  16, 
1760,  the  alarm  was  given  that  a  thousand  prisoners  had  broken 
out  of  the  Castle  and  were  abroad  in  the  country.  '  To  arms' 
was  beaten  immediately.  '  You  would  have  been  pleased  to 
see  with  what  readiness  and  alacrity  the  Surrey  Militia  here, 
universally,  officers  and  men,  advanced  towards  the  place  of 
danger  ',  says  the  correspondent,  '  I  say,  "  towards,"  because 
when  they  got  as  far  as  Milkhouse  Street,  the  alarm  was  dis- 
covered to  be  a  mistake.  Many  of  the  townspeople  and 
countrymen  joined  them.' 

On  one  Sunday  morning  in  1761  the  good  people  of  Cranbrook 
were  sent  flying  out  of  church  by  the  news  that  the  Sissinghurst 
prisoners  had  broken  out  and  were  scouring  the  country  fully 
armed,  but  this  also  was  a  false  alarm. 

It  was  from  the  top  of  the  still  standing  gatehouse-tower  that 
the  deed  was  perpetrated  which  caused  the  following  entry  in 
the  Cranbrook  Register  : 

'  1761.     William  Bassuck  :  killed  by  a  French  prisoner.' 
Bassuck  was  on  sentry-go  below,  and  the  Frenchman  dropped 
a  pail  on  him. 

In  1762  the  misery  of  the  prisoners  at  Sissinghurst  culminated 
in  a  Petition  to  the  Admiralty,  signed  by  almost  all  of  them, 
of  so  forcible  and  circumstantial  a  character,  that  in  common 
justice  it  could  not  be  overlooked,  and  so  Dr.  Maxwell  was  sent 
down  to  examine  the  charges  against  Cooke,  the  agent. 

The  Complaints  and  their  replies  were  as  follows  : 

(1)  That  the  provisions  were  bad  in  quality,  of  short  measure 
and  badly  served. 

Reply  :  Not  proved. 

(2)  That  cheese  had   been  stopped  four  '  maigre '  days  in 
succession  to  make  good  damage  done  by  prisoners. 

Reply  :   Only  upon  two  days. 


130  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

(3)  That  prisoners  had  been  put  upon  half  allowance  in  the 
cachot  or  Black  Hole  for  staying  in  the  wards  on  account  of  not 
having  sufficient  clothing  to  leave  them. 

Reply  :  They  were  not  put  in  the  cachot,  but  upon  half 
allowance  for  remaining  in  the  wards  during  the  day  contrary 
to  the  Regulations.  There  was  no  need  for  them  to  lack 
'  cloaths '. 

(4)  That  they  were  put  upon  half  allowance  for  appearing 
at  a  sudden  muster  without  clothes. 

Reply  :  This  muster  was  ordered  by  the  agent,  Cooke, 
because  he  suspected  the  prisoners  of  embezzling  clothes  and  of 
gambling  them  away. 

(5)  That   the   prisoners   had   been   threatened   with   being 
deprived  of  their  turn  of  Exchange  for  signing  this  Petition  to 
the  Board  of  Admiralty. 

Reply  :  There  was  no  foundation  for  this  statement. 

(6)  That  Cooke  had  refused  to  pay  them  for  more  than 
eighteen  days'  work  in  carrying  coals,  although  they  were 
twenty-eight  days. 

Reply  :  In  reality  they  had  only  worked  for  parts  of 
these  days,  and  had  been  paid  for  the  work  actually  done. 

(7)  That   Cooke   showed   no   zeal  for  the  welfare   of   the 
prisoners. 

Reply  :  That  there  is  no  foundation  for  this  statement. 

(8)  That  they  were  ill-treated  by  the  Militia  guards. 

This  last  complaint  was  the  most  serious  of  all,  and  the 
examination  into  it  revealed  a  state  of  affairs  by  no  means 
creditable  to  the  authorities.  Here  it  should  be  stated  that  on 
account  of  the  great  and  constant  demand  made  by  the  war 
upon  the  regular  troops,  the  task  of  guarding  the  prisons  was 
universally  performed  by  the  Militia — undesirable  men  from 
more  than  one  point  of  view,  especially  from  their  lack  of  self- 
restraint  and  their  accessibility  to  bribery.  The  following 
cases  were  cited.  On  November  28,  1757,  Ferdinand  Brehost, 
or  Gratez,  was  shot  dead  by  a  sentry  of  General  Amherst's  regi- 
ment. The  sentry  in  defence  said  that  he  had  had  orders  to  fire 
upon  any  prisoners  who  did  not  take  down  the  clothes  they 
hung  upon  the  palisades  when  ordered  to. 

It  was  adjudged  that  the  sentry  fired  too  precipitately. 


SISSINGHURST  CASTLE  131 

On  the  night  of  October  29,  1759,  the  prisoner  Jacobus  Loffe 
was  shot  dead  in  his  hammock  by  a  sentry. 

In  defence  the  sentry  said  that  he  called  out  several  times  for 
the  prisoners  to  put  out  their  lights.  They  refused  and  bid 
him  fire  and  be  damned.  The  evidence  showed  that  all  the 
prisoners  were  asleep,  and  that  the  light  seen  by  the  sentry  was 
the  reflection  on  the  window  of  a  lamp  outside  the  building. 

The  same  judgement  as  in  the  other  case  was  given. 

On  July  n,  1760,  two  prisoners  were  shot  by  a  sentry.  John 
Bramston,  the  sentry,  said  in  defence  that  a  prisoner  came  too 
near  the  forbidden  barrier,  refused  to  keep  off  when  ordered 
to,  with  the  result  that  Bramston  fired,  killed  him,  and  another 
prisoner  further  away. 

Bramston  was  tried  at  Maidstone  and  acquitted,  the  jury 
finding  that  he  did  no  more  than  his  duty  in  accordance  with 
the  general  orders  at  the  Castle.  Still,  it  came  out  in  evidence 
that  orders  had  been  issued  that  sentries  were  not  to  fire  if  the 
object  could  be  secured  by  the  turnkey.  Colonel  Fairfax  indeed 
ordered  that  sentries  were  not  to  fire  at  all.  He  had  found  out 
that  Bramston  was  sometimes  out  of  his  senses,  and  he  had 
discharged  him  from  the  service,  but  he  was  actually  on  duty 
after  this  affair,  was  found  to  have  loaded  his  piece  with  two 
balls,  and  after  the  murder  on  the  nth  had  threatened  to  kill 
more  prisoners. 

On  the  same  day  two  other  prisoners  were  stabbed  by 
sentries.  In  one  case,  however,  a  prisoner  gave  evidence  in 
favour  of  the  sentry,  saying  that  he  did  not  believe  there  was 
any  intention  to  kill,  but  that  the  sentry  being  surrounded  by 
a  crowd  of  prisoners,  pushed  his  bayonet  to  keep  them  at  a 
distance  for  fear  that  they  intended  mischief. 

It  also  came  out  that  the  soldiers  were  allowed  to  strike  the 
prisoners  with  the  flats  of  their  sabres.  This  was  now  for- 
bidden. Also  that  the  soldiers  abused  the  power  they  had  of 
taking  away  the  prisoners'  knives  when  they  made  improper 
use  of  them,  and  actually  sold  the  knives  thus  confiscated  to 
other  prisoners.  Also  that  the  soldiers  wilfully  damaged  forms 
and  tables  so  that  the  prisoners  should  be  punished. 

The  Commissioners  of  the  '  Sick  and  Hurt '  Office,  in  their 
summing  up  of  Dr.  Maxwell's  evidence,  said  that,  while  there 

K  2 


132  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

was  no  doubt  much  exaggeration  by  the  petitioners,  there  was 
too  much  reason  for  complaint,  and  found  that  the  person  in 
charge  was  not  so  much  to  blame,  but  the  '  common  centinels  ', 
whose  understanding  did  not  enable  them  to  distinguish 
between  the  letter  and  the  meaning  of  their  orders,  and  that 
this  arose  from  the  lack  of  printed  standing  orders.  The  officers 
of  the  guard  had  arbitrary  powers  independent  of  the  agent, 
and  the  latter  said  when  asked  why  he  did  not  complain  to  the 
Board,  that  he  did  not  care  to  dispute  with  the  officers. 

It  will  be  noted  that  this  inquiry  was  not  held  until  1762, 
that  is  to  say,  until  seven  years  of  tyranny  had  been  practised 
upon  these  unfortunate  foreigners,  and  seven  years  of  nameless 
horrors  suffered  in  forced  silence.  Small  wonder  that  through- 
out the  correspondence  of  this  period  Sissinghurst  is  spoken  of 
with  disgust  and  loathing. 

The  record  of  only  one  Sissinghurst  prisoner  marrying  aa 
Englishwoman  exists — that,  in  1762,  of  Laurence  Calberte, 
'  a  prisoner  among  the  French  at  Sissinghurst  House  ',  to  Mary 
Pepper. 

I  have  to  thank  Mr.  Neve  of  the  Castle  House,  Sissinghurst^ 
for  his  kindness  in  allowing  me  to  have  the  photograph  taken 
of  some  exquisite  little  articles  made  in  wood  by  Sissinghurst 
prisoners,  and  also  to  reproduce  a  picture  of  the  '  Castle ',  as  it 
was  when  used  as  a  prison. 

After  its  evacuation  at  the  Peace  of  Paris,  in  1763,  Sissing- 
hurst Castle  became  a  workhouse,  and  when  it  ceased  to  be 
used  for  this  purpose  gradually  fell  into  ruin  and  was  pulled 
down. 


ARTICLES  IN  WOOD  MADE  BY  THE  PRISONERS  AT 
SlSSINGHURST  CASTLE,  1763 


p.  132 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  PRISONS  ASHORE 

2.    NORMAN  CROSS 

P  IT  is  just  as  hard  for  the  visitor  to-day  to  the  site  of  Norman 
Cross,  to  realize  that  here  stood,  until  almost  within  living 
memory,  a  huge  war-prison,  as  it  is  at  Sissinghurst.  Whether 
one  approaches  it  from  Peterborough,  six  miles  away,  through 
the  semi-rural  village  of  Yaxley,  by  which  name  the  prison  was 
often  called,  or  by  the  Great  North  Road  from  Stilton — famous 
for  the  sale,  not  the  manufacture,  of  the  famous  cheese,  and  for 
the  wreck  of  one  of  the  stateliest  coaching  inns  of  England,  the 
Bell — we  see  but  a  large,  ordinary-looking  meadow,  dotted 
with  trees,  with  three  or  four  houses  on  its  borders,  and  except 
for  its  size,  which  is  nearly  forty  acres,  differing  in  no  way  from 
the  fields  around. 

An  examination  of  the  space,  however,  under  the  guidance 
of  Dr.  Walker,  does  reveal  remains.  We  can  trace  the  great 
ditch  which  passed  round  the  prison  inside  the  outer  wall ; 
some  of  the  twenty-one  wells  which  were  sunk  still  remain,  and 
about  thirty  feet  of  the  original  red  brick  wall,  built  in  the  old 
'  English  bond  '  style,  is  still  above  ground.  As,  with  the 
exceptions  presently  to  be  noted,  the  prisons  proper,  with  the 
offices  pertaining  thereto,  were  built  entirely  of  wood,  and  were 
sold  and  removed  when  the  prison  ceased  to  be,  nothing  of  it 
remains  here,  although  some  of  the  buildings  were  re-erected  in 
Peterborough  and  the  neighbouring  villages,  and  may  still  be 
seen.  The  only  war-time  buildings  remaining  are  the  Prison 
Superintendent's  house,  now  occupied  by  Alderman  Herbert, 
and  the  agent's  house,  now  belonging  to  Mr.  Franey,  both,  of 
course,  much  altered  and  beautified,  and  one  which  has  been 
variously  described  to  me  as  the  officers'  quarters  and  the  Bar- 
rack Master's  residence.  In  the  Musee  Historique  Militaire  at 
the  Invalides,  in  Paris,  there  is  a  most  minutely  and  beautifully 


134  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

executed  model  of  the  Norman  Cross  Prison,  the  work  of  one 
Foulley,  who  was  a  prisoner  here  for  five  years  and  three  months. 
Not  only  are  the  buildings,  wells,  palisades,  pumps,  troughs, 
and  other  details  represented,  but  tiny  models  of  prisoners  at 
work  and  at  play  are  dotted  about,  and  in  front  of  the  chief,  the 
eastern  gate,  a  battalion  of  Militia  is  drawn  up,  complete  to 
the  smallest  particulars  of  arms  and  equipment. 

Not  the  least  interesting  relic  of  the  prison  days  is  the 
prisoners'  burial-ground  at  the  lower  end  of  a  field  sloping  down 
from  the  west  side  of  the  Great  North  Road. 

On  July  28  of  the  present  year  (1914)  a  memorial  to  the 
prisoners  of  war  who  died  at  Norman  Cross  was  unveiled  by 
Lord  Weardale.  The  idea  originated  with  Dr.  T.  J.  Walker 
and  Mr.  W.  H.  Sands,  and  was  developed  by  the  Entente 
Cordiale  Society.  The  memorial  is  in  the  form  of  a  stone  pillarr 
surmounted  by  an  eagle  with  outstretched  wings,  standing 
upon  a  square  pedestal  approached  by  steps,  the  lowermost  of 
which  is  shaped  like  the  palisading  of  the  old  prison,  and  faces 
the  Great  North  Road,  the  burial  ground  being  at  the  bottom 
of  the  field  behind  it.  Upon  the  monument  is  inscribed  : 

'In  Memoriam.  This  column  was  erected  A.D.  1914  to  the 
memory  of  1,770  soldiers  and  sailors,  natives  or  allies  of  France, 
taken  prisoners  of  war  during  the  Republican  and  Napoleonic 
wars  with  Great  Britain,  A.D.  1793-1814,  who  died  in  the 
military  depot  at  Norman  Cross,  which  formerly  stood  near 
this  spot,  1797-1814. 

Dulce  et  decorum  est  pro  patria  mori. 

Erected  by 

The  Entente  Cordiale  Society  and  friends  on  the  initiative 
of  the  late  W.  H.  Sands,  Esq.,  Honorary  Secretary  of  the 
Society.' 

One  might  expect  to  find  at  Yaxley  Church,  as  in  so  many 
other  places  in  England  associated  with  the  sojourn  of  war 
prisoners,  epitaphs  or  registry  entries  of  officers  who  died  on 
parole,  but  there  are  none.  All  that  Yaxley  preserves  of  its 
old  connexion  with  the  war  prison  are  the  stone  caps  of 
the  prison  east  gate  piers,  which  now  surmount  the  piers  of  the 
west  churchyard  entrance,  and  the  tablet  in  the  church  to  the 
memory  of  -Captain  Draper,  R.N.,  an  agent  of  the  prison, 
which  is  thus  lettered  : 


MEMORIAL  TO  FRENCH  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  WHO  DIED 
AT  NORMAN  CROSS 

Unveiled  July  28,  1914 


134 


NORMAN  CROSS  135 

'  Inscribed  at  the  desire  and  the  sole  Expence  of  the  French 
Prisoners  of  War  at  Norman  Cross,  to  the  memory  of  Captain 
John  Draper,  R.N.,  who  for  the  last  18  months  of  his  life 
was  Agent  to  the  Depot ;  in  testimony  of  their  esteem  and 
gratitude  for  his  humane  attention  to  their  comforts  during 
that  too  short  period.  He  died  February  23rd,  1813,  aged 
53  years.' 

The  Rev.  Arthur  Brown,  in  his  little  book  The  French 
Prisoners  of  Norman  Cross,  says  that  the  prisoners  asked  to  be 
represented  at  his  funeral,  and  that  their  petition  concluded 
with  the  assurance  that,  mauvais  sujets  as  some  of  them  were, 
not  one  would  take  advantage  of  the  liberty  accorded  them  to 
attempt  to  escape.  It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  their  request 
was  granted.  Other  relics  of  the  prisoners,  in  the  shape  of 
articles  made  by  them  for  sale  with  the  rudest  of  tools  and  the 
commonest  of  materials,  are  tolerably  abundant,  although  the 
choicest  are  to  be  seen  in  museums  and  private  collections, 
notably  those  in  the  Peterborough  Museum  and  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Mr.  Dack,  the  curator.  Probably  no  more  varied  and 
beautiful  specimens  of  French  prisoner  work  in  wood,  bone, 
straw,  and  grass,  than  these  just  mentioned,  are  to  be  found  in 
Britain. 

The  market  at  which  these  articles  were  sold  was  held  daily 
from  10  a.m.  till  noon,  according  to  some  accounts,  twice 
a  week  according  to  others.  It  was  important  enough,  it  is 
said,  to  have  dwarfed  that  at  Peterborough  :  as  much  as  £200 
was  known  to  have  been  taken  during  a  week,  and  at  one  time 
the  concourse  of  strangers  at  it  was  so  great  that  an  order  was 
issued  that  in  future  nobody  was  to  be  admitted  unless  accom- 
panied by  a  commissioned  officer.  Visitors  were  searched,  and 
severe  penalties  were  imposed  upon  any  one  dealing  in  Govern- 
ment stores,  a  Yaxley  tradesman  in  whose  possession  were 
found  palliasses  and  other  articles  marked  with  the  broad  arrow 
being  fined  heavily,  condemned  to  stand  in  the  pillory  at 
Norman  Cross,  and  imprisoned  for  two  years. 

In  the  year  1796  it  became  absolutely  necessary  that  special 
accommodation  should  be  provided  for  the  ever-increasing 
number  of  prisoners  of  war  brought  to  Britain.  The  hulks 
were  full  to  congestion,  the  other  regular  prisons, — such  as  they 


136  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

were, — the  improvised  prisons,  and  the  hired  houses,  were 
crowded  ;  disease  was  rife  among  the  captives  on  account  of  the 
impossibility  of  maintaining  proper  sanitation,  and  the  spirit 
of  revolt  was  showing  itself  among  men  just  then  in  the  full  flush 
of  the  influences  of  the  French  Revolution.  Norman  Cross 
was  selected  as  the  site  of  a  prison  which  should  hold  7,000  men, 
and  it  was  well  chosen,  being  a  tract  of  land  forty  acres  in 
extent,  healthily  situated  on  high  ground,  connected  with  the 
sea  by  water-ways  via  Lynn  and  Peterborough  ;  and  with 
London,  seventy-eight  miles  distant,  by  the  Great  North  Road. 
Time  pressed  ;  buildings  of  stone  or  brick  were  not  to  be 
thought  of,  so  it  was  planned  that  all  should  be  of  wood, 
surrounded  by  a  brick  wall,  but  this  last  was  not  completed  for 
some  time  after  the  opening  of  the  prison.  The  skeletons  of 
the  prison  blocks  were  framed  and  shaped  in  London,  sent 
down,  and  in  four  months,  that  is  to  say  in  March  1797,  the 
labour  of  500  carpenters,  working  Sundays  and  week-days, 
rendered  some  of  the  blocks  ready  for  habitation. 

The  first  agent  appointed  was  Mr.  Delafons,  but  he  only 
acted  for  a  few  days  previous  to  the  arrival  of  Mr.  James  Perrot 
from  Port  Chester,  on  April  i,  1797.  The  superintendent  of  the 
transport  of  the  prisoners  was  Captain  Daniel  Woodriff,  R.N. 

On  March  23,  1797,  Woodriff  received  notice  and  instructions 
about  the  first  arrival  of  prisoners.  On  March  26  they  came 
— 934  in  number — in  barges  from  Lynn  to  Yaxley,  at  the  rate 
of  is.  lod.  per  man,  and  victualling  at  yd.  per  man  per  day, 
the  sustenance  being  one  pound  of  bread  or  biscuit,  and  three 
quarters  of  a  pound  of  beef. 

The  arrivals  came  in  fast,  so  that  between  April  7  and  May  18, 
1797,  3,383  prisoners  (exclusive  of  seven  dead  and  three  who 
escaped),  passed  under  the  care  of  the  ten  turnkeys  and  the 
eighty  men  of  the  Caithness  Legion  who  guarded  Norman  Cross. 

Complaints  and  troubles  soon  came  to  light.  A  prisoner  in 
1797,  '  who  appeared  above  the  common  class  of  men ',  com- 
plained that  the  bread  and  beef  were  so  bad  that  they  were  not 
fit  for  a  prisoner's  dog  to  eat,  that  the  British  Government  was 
not  acquainted  with  the  treatment  of  the  prisoners,  and  that 
this  was  the  agent's  fault  for  not  keeping  a  sufficiently  strict 
eye  upon  his  subordinates.  This  was  confirmed,  not  only  by 


1.  Officers'  Barracks. 

2.  Field  Officers'  Barracks. 

3.  Barrack  Master's  House. 

4.  Soldiers'  Barracks. 

5.  Non-Commissioned  Officers. 

6.  Military  Hospital. 

7.  Magazines. 

8.  Engine-house. 

9.  Guard  Rooms. 

10.  Soldiers'  Cooking-houses. 

11.  Canteens. 

12.  Military  Straw  Barn. 

13.  Officers'  Privies. 

14.  Soldiers'  Privies. 

15.  Shed  for  spare  soil  carts. 

16.  Block  House. 

17.  Agent      and      Superintendent's 

House. 

18.  Prisoners'  Straw  Barn. 

19.  Dead  House. 


20.  Prisoners'  Hospitals. 

21.  Barracks  for  Prisoners  of  War. 

22.  Apartments  for  Clerks  and  Assis- 

tant Surgeons. 

23.  Agent's  Office. 

24.  Store  House. 

25.  Prisoners'  Cooking-houses. 

26.  Turnkeys'  Lodges. 

27.  Prisoners'  Black  Hole. 

28.  Wash-house   to   Prisoners'   Hos- 

pital. 

29.  Building  for  Medical  Stores. 

30.  Prisoners'  Privies. 

31.  Coal  Yards. 

32.  Privies. 

33.  Ash  Pits. 

Wells  marked  thus  o. 

A.  Airing  Grounds. 

B.  Lord  Carysfort's  Grounds. 


NORMAN  CROSS  PRISON.     (Hill's  Plan,  1797-1803.) 


138  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

inquiry  among  the  prisoners,  but  by  the  evidence  of  the  petty 
officers  and  soldiers  of  the  garrison,  who  said  '  as  fellow  crea- 
tures they  must  allow  that  the  provisions  given  to  the  prisoners 
were  not  fit  for  them  to  eat,  and  that  the  water  they  had  was 
much  better  than  the  beer'.  In  spite  of  this  evidence,  the 
samples  sent  up  by  the  request  of  the  '  Sick  and  Hurt '  Office  in 
reply  to  this  complaint,  were  pronounced  good. 

In  July  1797  the  civil  officials  at  Norman  Cross  complained 
of  annoyances,  interferences,  and  insults  from  the  military. 
Major-General  Bowyer,  in  command,  in  his  reply  stated :  '  I 
cannot  conceive  the  civil  officers  have  a  right  to  take  prisoners 
out  of  their  prisons  to  the  canteens  and  other  places,  which  this 
day  has  been  mentioned  to  me/ 

By  July  18  such  parts  of  the  prison  as  were  completed  were 
very  full,  and  in  November  the  buildings  were  finished,  and 
the  sixteen  blocks,  each  holding  400  prisoners,  were  crowded. 
The  packing  of  the  hammocks  in  these  blocks  was  close,  but  not 
closer  than  in  the  men-of-war  of  the  period,  and  not  very  much 
closer  than  in  the  machinery-crowded  big  ships  of  to-day.  The 
blocks,  or  casernes  as  they  were  called,  measured  100  feet  long 
by  twenty-four  feet  broad,  and  were  two  stories  high.  On  the 
ground  floor  the  hammocks  were  slung  from  posts  three  abreast, 
and  there  were  three  tiers.  In  the  upper  story  were  only  two 
tiers.  As  to  the  life  at  Norman  Cross,  it  appears  to  me  from 
the  documentary  evidence  available  to  have  been  more  tolerable 
than  at  any  of  the  other  great  prisons,  if  only  from  the  fact  that 
the  place  had  been  specially  built  for  its  purpose,  and  was  not, 
as  in  most  other  places,  adapted.  The  food  allowance  was  the 
same  as  elsewhere  ;  viz.,  on  five  days  of  the  week  each  prisoner 
had  one  and  a  half  pounds  of  bread,  half  a  pound  of  beef,  greens 
or  pease  or  oatmeal,  and  salt.  On  Wednesday  and  Friday  one 
pound  of  herrings  or  codfish  was  substituted  for  the  beef,  and 
beer  could  be  bought  at  the  canteen.  The  description  by 
George  Borrow  in  Lavengro — '  rations  of  carrion  meat  and 
bread  from  which  I  have  seen  the  very  hounds  occasionally 
turn  away ',  is  now  generally  admitted  to  be  as  inaccurate  as 
his  other  remarks  concerning  the  Norman  Cross  which  he  could 
only  remember  as  a  very  small  boy. 

The  outfit  was  the  same  as  in  other  prisons,  but  I  note  that 


NORMAN  CROSS  139 

in  the  year  1797  the  store-keeper  at  Norman  Cross  was  instructed 
to  supply  each  prisoner  as  often  as  was  necessary,  and  not,  as 
elsewhere,  at  stated  intervals,  with  one  jacket,  one  pair  of 
trousers,  two  pairs  of  stockings,  two  shirts,  one  pair  of  shoes, 
one  cap,  and  one  hammock.  By  the  way,  the  prisoners'  shoes 
are  ordered  '  not  to  have  long  straps  for  buckles,  but  short 
ears  for  strings  '. 

On  August  8,  1798,  Perrot  writes  from  Stilton  to  Woodriff  : 

'  If  you  remember,  on  returning  from  the  barracks  on 
Sunday,  Captain  Llewellin  informed  us  that  a  report  had  been 
propagated  that  seven  prisoners  intended  to  escape  that  day, 
which  we  both  looked  upon  as  a  mere  report  ;  they  were 
counted  both  that  night,  but  with  little  effect  from  the  addi- 
tions made  to  their  numbers  by  the  men  you  brought  from 
Lynn,  and  yesterday  morning  and  afternoon,  but  in  such 
confusion  from  the  prisoners  refusing  to  answer,  from  others 
giving  in  fictitious  names,  and  others  answering  for  two  or 
three.  In  consequence  of  all  these  irregularities  I  made  all 
my  clerks,  a  turnkey,  and  a  file  of  soldiers,  go  into  the  south 
east  quadrangle  this  morning  at  five  o'clock,  and  muster  each 
prison  separately,  and  found  that  six  prisoners  from  the 
Officers'  Prison  have  escaped,  but  can  obtain  none  of  their 
names  except  Captain  Dorfe,  who  some  time  ago  applied  to 
me  for  to  obtain  liberty  for  him  to  reside  with  his  family  at 
Ipswich  where  he  had  married  an  English  wife.  The  officers 
remaining  have  separately  and  conjunctively  refused  to  give 
the  names  of  the  other  five,  for  which  I  have  ordered  the  whole 
to  be  put  on  half  allowance  to-morrow.  After  the  most 
diligent  search  we  could  only  find  one  probable  place  where 
they  had  escaped,  by  the  end  next  the  South  Gate,  by  breaking 
one  of  the  rails  of  the  picket,  but  how  they  passed  afterwards 
is  a  mystery  still  unravelled.' 

During  the  years  1797-8  there  were  many  Dutch  prisoners 
here,  chiefly  taken  at  Camper  down. 

William  Prickard,  of  the  Leicester  Militia,  was  condemned  to 
receive  500  lashes  for  talking  of  escape  with  a  prisoner. 

On  February  21,  1798,  Mr.  James  Stewart  of  Peterborough 
thus  wrote  to  Captain  Woodriff  : 

'  I  have  received  a  heavy  complaint  from  the  prisoners  of 
war  of  being  beat  and  otherwise  ill-treated  by  the  officials  at 
the  Prison.  I  can  have  no  doubt  but  that  they  exaggerate 
these  complaints,  for  what  they  describe  as  a  dungeon  I  have 


140  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

examined  myself  and  find  it  to  be  a  proper  place  to  confine 
unruly  prisoners  in,  being  above  ground,  and  appears  perfectly 
dry.  How  far  you  are  authorized  to  chastise  the  prisoners  of 
war  I  cannot  take  upon  me  to  determine,  but  I  presume  to 
think  it  should  be  done  sparingly  and  with  temper.  I  was  in 
hopes  the  new  system  adopted,  with  the  additional  allowance 
of  provisions  would  have  made  the  prisoners  more  easy  and 
contented  under  their  confinement,  but  it  would  appear  it 
caused  more  turbulence  and  uneasiness  .  .  .  That  liquor  is 
conveyed  to  the  prisoners  I  have  no  doubt,  you  know  some 
of  the  turnkeys  have  been  suspected.' 

Two  turnkeys  were  shortly  afterwards  dismissed  for  having 
conveyed  large  quantities  of  ale  into  the  prison. 

Rendered  necessary  by  complaints  from  the  neighbourhood, 
the  following  order  was  issued  by  the  London  authorities 
in  1798. 

'  Obscene  figures  and  indecent  toys  and  all  such  indecent 
representations  tending  to  disseminate  Lewdness  and  Immor- 
ality exposed  for  sale  or  prepared  for  that  purpose  are  to  be 
instantly  destroyed.' 

Constant  escapes  made  the  separation  of  officers  from  men 
and  the  suspension  of  all  intercourse  between  them  to  be  strictly 
enforced. 

Perrot  died  towards  the  end  of  1798,  and  Woodriff  was  made 
agent  in  January  1799.  Soon  after  Woodriff's  assuming  office 
the  Mayor  of  Lynn  complained  of  the  number  of  prisoners  at 
large  in  the  town,  and  unguarded,  waiting  with  Norman  Cross 
passports  for  cartel  ships  to  take  them  to  France.  To  appre- 
ciate this  complaint  we  must  remember  that  the  rank  and  file, 
and  not  a  few  of  the  officers,  of  the  French  Revolutionary  Army 
and  Navy,  who  were  prisoners  of  war  in  Britain,  were  of  the 
lowest  classes  of  society,  desperate,  lawless,  religionless,  un- 
principled men  who  in  confinement  were  a  constant  source  of 
anxiety  and  watchfulness,  and  at  large  were  positively  dangers 
to  society.  If  a  body  of  men  like  this  got  loose,  as  did  fifteen 
on  the  night  of  April  5,  1799,  from  Norman  Cross,  the  fact  was 
enough  to  carry  terror  throughout  a  countryside. 

Yet  there  was  a  request  made  this  year  from  the  Norman 
Cross  prisoners  that  they  might  have  priests  sent  to  them.  At 
first  the  order  was  that  none  should  be  admitted  except  to  men 


NORMAN  CROSS  141 

dangerously  ill,  but  later,  Ruello  and  Vexier  were  permitted  to 
reside  in  Number  8  Caserne,  under  the  rule  '  that  your  officers 
do  strictly  watch  over  their  communication  and  conduct,  lest, 
under  pretence  of  religion,  any  stratagems  or  devices  be  carried 
out  to  the  public  prejudice  by  people  of  whose  disposition  to 
abuse  indulgence  there  have  already  existed  but  too  many 
examples  '. 

That  Captain  Woodriffs  position  was  rendered  one  of  grave 
anxiety  and  responsibility  by  the  bad  character  of  many  of  the 
prisoners  under  his  charge  is  very  clear  from  the  continual  tenor 
of  the  correspondence  between  him  and  the  Transport  Board. 
The  old  punishment  of  simple  confinement  in  the  Black  Hole 
being  apparently  quite  useless,  it  was  ordered  that  offenders 
sentenced  to  the  Black  Hole  should  be  put  on  half  rations,  and 
also  lose  their  turn  of  exchange.  This  last  was  the  punishment 
most  dreaded  by  the  majority  of  the  prisoners,  although  there 
was  a  regular  market  for  these  'turns  of  exchange,  varying  from 
£40  upwards,  which  would  seem  to  show  that  to  many  a  poor 
fellow,  life  at  Norman  Cross  with  some  capital  to  gamble  with 
was  preferable  to  a  return  to  France  in  exchange  for  a  British 
prisoner  of  similar  grade,  only  to  be  pressed  on  board  a  man-of- 
war  of  the  period,  or  to  become  a  unit  of  the  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  soldiers  sent  here  and  there  to  be  maimed  or 
slaughtered  in  a  cause  of  which  they  knew  little  and  cared  less. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  these  increased  punishments  were 
made  law  with  the  concurrence,  if  not  at  the  suggestion,  of  the 
French  Agent,  Niou,  who  remarked  with  respect  to  the  system 
of  buying  and  selling  turns  of  exchange,  .  .  .  une  conduite 
aussi  lache  devant  etre  arretee  par  tous  les  moyens  possibles. 
Je  viens  en  consequence  de  mettre  les  Vendeens  (I  am  inclined 
to  regard  '  Vendeens  '  as  a  mistake  for  '  vendants')  a  la  queue 
des  echanges.' 

The  year  1799  seems  to  have  been  a  disturbed  one  at  Norman 
Cross.  In  August  the  prisoners  showed  their  resentment  at 
having  detailed  personal  descriptions  of  them  taken,  by  dis- 
orderly meetings,  the  result  being  that  all  trafficking  between 
them  was  stopped,  and  the  daily  market  at  the  prison-gate 
suspended. 

Stockdale,  the  Lynn  manager  of  the  prison  traffic  between 


142  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

the  coast  and  Norman  Cross,  writes  on  one  occasion  that  of  125 
prisoners  who  had  been  started  for  the  prison,  '  there  were  two 
made  their  escape,  and  one  shot  on  their  march  to  Lynn,  and 
I  am  afraid  we  lost  two  or  three  last  night  .  .  .  there  are  some 
very  artful  men  among  them  who  will  make  their  escape  if 
possible '. 

Attempts  to  escape  during  the  last  stages  of  the  journey 
from  the  coast  to  the  prison  were  frequent.  On  February  4, 
1808,  the  crews  of  two  privateers,  under  an  escort  of  the  77th 
Regiment,  were  lodged  for  the  night  in  the  stable  of  the  Angel 
Inn  at  Peterborough.  One  Simon  tried  to  escape.  The  sentry 
challenged  and  fired.  Simon  was  killed,  and  the  coroner's  jury 
brought  in  the  verdict  of  '  Justifiable  homicide '. 

On  another  occasion  a  column  of  prisoners  was  crossing  the 
Nene  Bridge  at  Peterborough,  when  one  of  them  broke  from  the 
ranks,  and  sprang  into  the  river.  He  was  shot  as  he  rose  to 
the  surface. 

On  account  of  the  proximity  of  Norman  Cross  to  a  country- 
side of  which  one  of  the  staple  industries  was  the  straw  manu- 
facture, the  prevention  of  the  smuggling  of  straw  into  the 
prison  for  the  purpose  of  being  made  into  bonnets,  baskets, 
plaits,  &c.,  constantly  occupied  the  attention  of  the  authorities. 
In  1799  the  following  circular  was  sent  by  the  Transport  Board 
to  all  prisons  and  depots  in  the  kingdom  : 

'  Being  informed  that  the  Revenues  and  Manufactures  of 
this  country  are  considerably  injured  by  the  extensive  sale  of 
Straw  Hats  made  by  the  Prisoners  of  War  in  this  country, 
Ave  do  hereby  require  and  direct  you  to  permit  no  Hat,  Cap,  or 
Bonnet  manufactured  by  any  of  the  Prisoners  of  War  in  your 
custody,  to  be  sold  or  sent  out  of  the  Prison  in  future,  under 
any  pretence  whatever,  and  to  seize  and  destroy  all  such 
articles  as  may  be  detected  in  violation  of  this  order.' 

This  traffic,  however,  was  continued,  for  in  1807  the  Transport 
Board,  in  reply  to  a  complaint  by  a  Mr.  John  Poynder  to  Lord 
Liverpool, '  requests  the  magistrates  to  help  in  stopping  the  traffic 
with  prisoners  of  war  in  prohibited  articles,  straw  hats  and 
straw  plait  especially,  as  it  has  been  the  means  of  selling  obscene 
toys,  pictures,  &c.,  to  the  great  injury  of  the  morals  of  the 
rising  generation '. 


NORMAN  CROSS  143 

To  continue  the  prison  record  in  order  of  dates  :  in  1801  the 
Transport  Board  wrote  to  Otto,  Commissioner  in  England  of 
the  French  Republic, 

'SiR: 

'  Having  directed  Capt.  Woodriff,  Superintendant  at 
Norman  Cross  Prison,  to  report  to  us  on  the  subject  of  some 
complaints  made  by  the  prisoners  at  that  place,  he  has  informed 
me  of  a  most  pernicious  habit  among  the  prisoners  which  he 
has  used  every  possible  means  to  prevent,  but  without  success. 
Some  of  the  men,  whom  he  states  to  have  been  long  confined 
without  receiving  any  supplies  from  their  friends,  have  only 
the  prison  allowance  to  subsist  on,  and  this  allowance  he 
considers  sufficient  to  nourish  and  keep  in  health  if  they 
received  it  daily,  but  he  states  this  is  not  the  case,  although 
the  full  ration  is  regularly  issued  by  the  Steward  to  each  mess 
of  12  men.  There  are  in  these  prisons,  he  observes,  some 
men — if  they  deserve  that  name — who  possess  money  with 
which  they  purchase  of  some  unfortunate  and  unthinking 
fellow-prisoner  his  ration  of  bread  for  several  days  together, 
and  frequently  both  bread  and  beef  for  a  month,  which  he,  the 
merchant,  seizes  upon  daily  and  sells  it  out  again  to  some 
other  unfortunate  being  on  the  same  usurious  terms,  allowing 
the  former  one  half-penny  worth  of  potatoes  daily  to  keep  him 
alive.  Not  contented  with  this  more  than  savage  barbarity, 
he  purchases  next  his  clothes  and  bedding,  and  sees  the  miser- 
able man  lie  naked  on  his  plank  unless  he  will  consent  to 
allow  him  one  half-penny  a  night  to  lie  in  his  own  hammock, 
which  he  makes  him  pay  by  a  further  deprivation  of  his  ration 
when  his  original  debt  is  paid.  ...  In  consequence  of  this 
representation  we  have  directed  Capt.  Woodriff  to  keep 
a  list  of  every  man  of  this  description  of  merchants  above 
mentioned  in  order  they  may  be  put  at  the  bottom  of  the  list 
of  exchange/ 

In  this  year  a  terrible  epidemic  carried  off  nearly  1,000 
prisoners.  The  Transport  Board's  Surveyor  was  sent  down, 
and  he  reported  that  the  general  condition  of  the  prison  was 
very  bad,  especially  as  regarded  sanitation.  The  buildings 
were  merely  of  fir-quartering,  and  weather-boarded  on  the 
outside,  and  without  lining  inside,  the  result  being  that  the 
whole  of  the  timbering  was  a  network  of  holes  bored  by  the 
prisoners  in  order  to  get  light  inside.  In  the  twelve  solitary 
cells  of  the  Black  Hole  there  was  no  convenience  whatever. 
The  wells  were  only  in  tolerable  condition.  The  ventilation 


144  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

of  the  French  officers'  rooms  was  very  bad.  The  hospital  was 
better  than  other  parts  of  the  prison.  The  report  notes  that 
the  carpenters,  sawyers,  and  masons  were  prisoners,  a  fact  at 
once  constituting  an  element  of  uncertainty,  if  not  of  danger. 
In  December  1801  Woodriff  found  it  necessary  to  post  up  an 
order  about  shamming  ill  in  order  to  be  changed  to  better 
quarters  : 

'  Ayant  connaissance  que  nombre  de  prisonniers  frangais 
recherchent  journellement  les  moyens  de  se  donner  1'air  aussi 
miserable  que  possible  dans  le  dessein  d'etre  envoyes  a  1'Hopital 
ou  au  No.  13  par  le  chirurgien  de  visite,  et  que  s'ils  sont  regus, 
soit  pour  Tun  ou  1'autre,  ils  vendent  de  suite  leurs  effets  (s'ils 
ne  1'ont  deja  fait  pour  se  faire  recevoir)  le  Gouvernement  done 
[sic]  avis  de  nouveau  qu'aucun  prisonnier  ne  sera  re9U  pour 
I'Hopital  ou  pour  le  No.  13  s'il  ne  produit  ses  effets  de  Literie 
et  les  Hardes  qu'il  peut  avoir  recu  dernierement.' 

Generals  Rochambeau  and  Boyer  were  paroled  prisoners  who 
seem  to  have  studied  how  to  give  the  authorities  as  much 
trouble  and  annoyance  as  possible.  The  Transport  Board, 
weary  of  granting  them  indulgences  which  they  abused,  and 
of  making  them  offers  which  they  contemptuously  rejected, 
clapped  them  into  Norman  Cross  in  September  1804.  They 
were  placed  in  the  wards  of  the  military  hospital,  a  sentinel  at 
their  doors,  and  no  communication  allowed  between  them,  or 
their  servants,  and  the  rest  of  the  prisoners.  They  were  not 
allowed  newspapers,  no  special  allowance  was  made  them  of 
coals,  candles,  and  wood,  they  were  not  permitted  to  go  beyond 
the  hospital  airing  ground,  and  Captain  Pressland,  the  then 
agent  of  the  prison,  was  warned  to  be  strictly  on  his  guard,  and 
to  watch  them  closely,  despite  his  favourable  remarks  upon  their 
deportment.  It  was  at  about  this  time  that  the  alarm  was  wide- 
spread that  the  prisoners  of  war  in  Britain  were  to  co-operate 
with  an  invasion  by  their  countrymen  from  without.  General 
Boyer,  at  Tiverton  in  1803,  '  whilst  attentive  to  the  ladies,  did 
not  omit  to  curse,  even  to  them,  his  fate  in  being  deprived  of  his 
arms,  and  without  hope  of  being  useful  to  his  countrymen  when 
they  arrive  in  England '.  Rochambeau  at  Norman  Cross  was 
even  more  ridiculous,  for  when  he  heard  that  Bonaparte's 
invasion  was  actually  about  to  come  off,  he  appeared  for  two 


NORMAN  CROSS  145 

days  in  the  airing  ground  in  full  uniform,  booted  and  spurred. 
Later  news  sent  him  into  retirement. 

Extracts  from  contemporary  newspapers  show  that  the 
alarm  was  very  general.  Said  The  Times  : 

'  The  French  prisoners  on  the  prospect  of  an  invasion  of  this 
country  begin  to  assume  their  Republican  fierte  ;  they  tell 
their  guards — "  It  is  your  turn  to  guard  us  now,  but  before 
the  winter  is  over  it  will  be  our  turn  to  guard  you." 

'  The  prisoners  already  in  our  hands,  and  those  who  may 
be  added,  will  occasion  infinite  perplexity.  The  known 
licentiousness  of  their  principles,  the  utter  contempt  of  all 
laws  of  honour  which  is  so  generally  prevalent  among  the 
French  Republicans,  and  the  audacity  of  exertions  which  may 
arise  from  a  desire  of  co-operating  with  an  invading  force, 
may  render  them  extremely  dangerous,  especially  if  left  in 
the  country,  where  the  thinness  of  the  population  prevents 
perpetual  inspection  and  where  alarm  flies  so  rapidly  as  to 
double  any  mischief.' 

A  suggestion  was  made  that  the  prisoners  should  be  concen- 
trated in  the  prisons  of  London  and  neighbourhood,  and  some 
newspapers  even  echoed  Robespierre's  truculent  advice  : 
'  Make  no  prisoners.' 

In  1804,  in  reply  to  another  application  that  priests  might 
reside  within  the  prison  boundaries,  the  authorities  said : 

'  As  to  the  French  priests  and  the  procurement  of  lodgings 
at  Stilton,  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  them,  but  with  respect 
to  the  proposal  of  their  inhabitation  in  our  Depots,  we  cannot 
possibly  allow  of  such  a  measure  at  this  critical  time  to 
Foreigners  of  that  equivocal  description.' 

The  ever-recurring  question  as  to  the  exact  lines  of  demar- 
cation to  be  drawn  between  the  two  chief  men  of  the  prison, 
the  Agent  and  the  Commander  of  the  garrison,  occupies  a  great 
deal  of  Departmental  literature.  We  have  given  one  specimen 
already,  and  in  1804  Captain  Pressland  was  thus  addressed  by 
his  masters  in  London  : 

'  As  the  interior  regulation  and  management  of  the  Prison 
is  entirely  under  your  direction,  we  do  not  see  any  necessity 
for  returns  being  made  daily  to  the  C.O.  of  the  Guard,  and 
we  approve  of  your  reason  for  declining  to  make  such  returns  ; 
but  as,  on  the  other  hand,  the  C.O.  is  answerable  for  the 


146  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

security  of  the  Prison,  it  is  not  proper  that  you  should  interfere 
in  that  respect  any  further  than  merely  to  suggest  what  may 
appear  to  you  to  be  necessary  or  proper  to  be  done.' 

In  the  same  year  a  serious  charge  was  brought  against  Cap- 
tain Pressland  by  the  prisoners,  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
deducting  two  and  a  half  per  cent  from  all  sums  passing  through 
his  hands  for  payment  to  the  prisoners.  He  admitted  having 
done  so,  and  got  off  with  a  rebuke.  It  may  be  mentioned  here 
that  the  pay  of  a  prison  agent  was  thirty  shillings  per  diem, 
the  same  as  that  of  a  junior  post  captain  on  sea  fencible 
service — quarters,  but  no  allowances  except  £10  los.  per  annum 
for  stationery.  In  1805  the  boys'  building  was  put  up.  At 
first  the  suggested  site  was  on  the  old  burial  ground ;  but  as  it 
was  urged  that  such  a  proceeding  might  produce  much  popular 
clamour,  as  well  as  '  other  disagreeable  consequences  ',  it  was 
put  outside  the  outer  stockade,  north  of  the  Hospital.  It  is 
said  that  the  boys  were  here  brought  up  as  musicians  by  the 
Bishop  of  Moulins. 

At  this  time  escapes  seem  to  have  been  very  frequent,  and 
this  in  spite  of  the  frequent  changing  of  the  garrison,  and  the  rule 
that  no  soldier  knowing  French  should  be  on  guard  duty.  All 
implements  and  edged  tools  were  taken  from  the  prisoners,  only 
one  knife  being  allowed,  which  was  to  be  returned  every  night, 
locked  up  in  a  box,  and  placed  in  the  Guard-room  until  the  next 
morning,  and  failure  to  give  up  knives  meant  the  Black  Hole. 
Any  prisoner  attempting  to  escape  was  to  be  executed  im- 
mediately, but  I  find  no  record  of  this  drastic  sentence  being 
carried  into  effect. 

From  The  Times  of  October  15,  1804,  I  take  the  following  : 

'  An  alarming  spirit  of  insubordination  was  on  Wednesday 
evinced  by  the  French  prisoners,  about  3,000,  at  Norman 
Cross.  An  incessant  uproar  was  kept  up  all  the  morning, 
and  at  noon  their  intention  to  attempt  the  destruction  of  the 
barrier  of  the  prison  became  so  obvious  that  the  C.O.  at  the 
Barrack,  apprehensive  that  the  force  under  his  command, 
consisting  only  of  the  Shropshire  Militia  and  one  battalion 
of  the  Army  of  reserve,  would  not  be  sufficient  in  case  of 
necessity  to  environ  and  restrain  so  large  a  body  of  prisoners, 
dispatched  a  messenger  requiring  the  assistance  of  the  Volun- 
teer force  at  Peterborough.  Fortunately  the  Yeomanry  had 


NORMAN  CROSS  147 

had  a  field  day,  and  one  of  the  troops  was  undismissed  when 
the  messenger  arrived.  The  troops  immediately  galloped  into 
the  Barracks.  In  the  evening  a  tumult  still  continuing  among 
the  prisoners,  and  some  of  them  taking  advantage  of  the 
extreme  darkness  to  attempt  to  escape,  further  reinforcements 
were  sent  for  and  continued  on  duty  all  night.  The  prisoners, 
having  cut  down  a  portion  of  the  wood  enclosure  during  the 
night,  nine  of  them  escaped  through  the  aperture.  In  another 
part  of  the  prison,  as  soon  as  daylight  broke,  it  was  found 
that  they  had  undermined  a  distance  of  34  feet  towards  the 
Great  South  Road,  under  the  fosse  which  surrounds  the  prison, 
although  it  is  4  feet  deep,  and  it  is  not  discovered  they  had 
any  tools.  Five  of  the  prisoners  have  been  re-taken.' 

A  little  later  in  the  year,  on  a  dark,  stormy  Saturday  night, 
seven  prisoners  escaped  through  a  hole  they  had  cut  in  the 
wooden  wall,  and  were  away  all  Sunday.  At  8  p.m.  on  that 
day,  a  sergeant  and  a  corporal  of  the  Durham  Militia,  on  their 
way  north  on  furlough,  heard  men  talking  a  '  foreign  lingo  ' 
near  Whitewater  toll-bar.  Suspecting  them  to  be  escaped 
prisoners,  they  attacked  and  secured  two  of  them,  but  five  got 
off.  On  Monday  two  of  these  were  caught  near  Ryall  toll-bar 
in  a  state  of  semi-starvation,  having  hidden  in  Uffington 
Thicket  for  twenty-four  hours  ;  the  other  three  escaped. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  tasks  which  faced  the  agents  of 
prisons  in  general,  and  of  Norman  Cross  in  particular,  was  the 
checking  of  contraband  traffic  between  the  prisoners  and  out- 
siders. At  Norman  Cross,  as  I  have  said,  the  chief  illicit  trade 
was  in  straw-plaiting  work.  Strange  to  say,  although  the 
interests  of  the  poor  country  people  were  severely  injured  by 
this  trade,  the  wealth  and  influence  of  the  chief  dealers 
were  so  great  that  it  was  difficult  to  get  juries  to  convict, 
and  when  they  did  convict,  to  get  judges  to  pass  deterrent 
sentences.  In  1807,  for  instance,  legal  opinion  was  actually 
given  that  a  publican  could  not  have  his  licence  refused  because 
he  had  carried  on  the  straw-plait  traffic  with  the  prisoners, 
although  it  was  an  open  secret  that  the  innkeepers  of  Stilton, 
Wansford,  Whittlesea,  Peterborough,  and  even  the  landlord  of 
the  inn  which  in  those  days  stood  opposite  where  now  is  the 
present  Norman  Cross  Hotel,  were  deeply  engaged  in  it. 

In  1808,  'from  motives  of  humanity',  the  prisoners  at  Norman 

L  2 


148  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Cross  were  allowed  to  make  baskets,  boxes,  ornaments,  &c.,  of 
straw,  if  the  straw-plaiting  traffic  could  be  effectually  pre- 
vented. The  manufacture  of  these  articles,  which  were  often 
works  of  the  most  refined  beauty  and  delicacy,  of  course  did 
not  harm  the  poor,  rough  straw-plaiters  of  Bedfordshire  and 
Northamptonshire ;  but  the  radius  of  its  sale  was  limited,  the 
straw-plaiting  meant  quick  and  good  returns,  and  the  difficulty 
to  be  faced  by  the  authorities  was  to  ensure  the  rightful  use  of 
the  straw  introduced.  In  1808  there  were  many  courts-martial 
upon  soldiers  of  the  garrison  for  being  implicated  in  this  traffic, 
and  in  each  case  the  soldier  was  severely  flogged  and  the  straw 
bonnet  ordered  to  be  burned.  It  was  no  doubt  one  of  these 
episodes  which  so  aroused  George  Borrow's  ire.1  The  guard 
of  the  coach  from  Lincoln  to  Stilton  was  put  under  observation 
by  order  of  the  Transport  Office,  being  suspected  of  assisting 
people  to  carry  the  straw  plait  made  in  the  prison  to  Baldock 
to  be  made  into  bonnets. 

In  1809  Pressland  writes  thus  seriously  to  the  Transport 
Office: 

'  That  every  step  that  could  possibly  be  taken  by  General 
Williams  [Commander  of  the  Garrison]  and  myself  to  prevent 
this  illicit  Traffic  [has  been  taken],  the  Board  will,  I  trust, 
readily  admit,  and  I  am  well  convinced  that  without  the  pro- 
secution of  those  dealers  who  are  particularized  in  the  docu- 
ments forwarded  by  the  Lincoln  coach  this  evening,  it 
will  ever  continue,  to  the  great  injury  of  the  country  in 
general ;  for  already  eight  or  nine  soldiers  have  deserted  from 
a  dread  of  punishment,  having  been  detected  by  those  whom 
they  knew  would  inform  against  them,  and  I  shall  leave  the 
Board  to  judge  how  far  the  discipline  of  the  Regiments  has 
been  hurt,  and  the  Soldiers  seduced  from  their  duty  by  the 
bribes  they  are  constantly  receiving  from  Barnes,  Lunn,  and 
Browne.  It  now  becomes  a  serious  and  alarming  case,  for  if 
these  persons  can  with  so  much  facility  convey  into  the  Prison 
sacks  of  5  and  6  feet  in  length,  they  might  convey  weapons  of 
every  description  to  annoy  those  whose  charge  they  are  under, 
to  the  great  detriment  of  H.M.'s  service,  and  the  lives  of  His 
subjects  most  probably/ 

A  large  bundle  of  documents  contains  the  trial  of  Barnes, 
Lunn,  Browne,  and  others,  for,  in  conjunction  with  bribed 

1  See  Lavengro,  chap.  iv. 


COLOURED  STRAW  WORK-BOX 
Made  by  French  prisoners  of  war 


p.  148 


NORMAN  CROSS  149 

soldiers  of  the  garrison,  taking  straw  into  the  prison  and  receiv- 
ing the  plaited  article  in  exchange.  The  evidence  of  soldiers 
of  the  guard  showed  that  James,  ostler  at  the  Bell,  Stilton,  had 
been  seen  many  times  at  midnight  throwing  sacks  of  straw  over 
the  palisades,  and  receiving  straw  plait  in  return,  and  also 
bonnets,  and  that  he  was  always  assisted  by  soldiers.  Barnes 
had  said  that  he  would  get  straw  into  the  prison  in  spite  of 
General  Williams  or  anybody  else,  as  he  had  bought  five  fields 
of  wheat  for  the  purpose.  He  was  acting  for  his  brother,  a 
Baldock  straw-dealer. 

The  trial  came  off  at  Huntingdon  on  March  20,  1811,  the 
result  being  that  Lunn  got  twelve  months,  and  the  others  six 
months  each.  It  may  be  noted  here  that  so  profitable  for 
dealers  was  this  contraband  trade  in  war-prison  manufactured 
straw  articles,  that  a  Bedfordshire  man,  Matthew  Wingrave, 
found  it  to  be  worth  his  while  to  buy  up  wheat  and  barley  land 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  great  Scottish  depot  at  Valleyfield, 
near  Penicuik,  and  carry  on  business  there. 

As  an  instance  of  the  resentment  aroused  by  this  judgement 
among  those  interested  in  the  illicit  trade,  a  Sergeant  Ives  of 
the  West  Essex  Militia,  who  had  been  especially  active  in  the 
suppression  of  the  straw-plait  business,  was,  according  to  the 
Taunton  Courier,  stopped  between  Stilton  and  Norman  Cross 
by  a  number  of  fellows,  who,  after  knocking  him  down  and 
robbing  him  of  his  watch  and  money,  forced  open  his  jaws 
with  savage  ferocity  and  cut  off  a  piece  of  his  tongue. 

In  November  1807  a  brick  wall  was  built  round  Norman 
Cross  prison  ;  the  outer  palisade  which  it  replaced  being  used 
to  repair  the  inner. 

In  1809  Flaigneau,  a  prisoner,  was  tried  at  Huntingdon  for 
murdering  a  turnkey.  The  trial  lasted  six  hours,  but  in  spite  of 
the  instructions  of  the  judge,  the  jury  brought  him  in  Not  Guilty. 

Forgery  and  murder  brought  the  prisoners  under  the  Civil 
Law.  Thus  in  1805  Nicholas  Deschamps  and  Jean  Roubillard 
were  tried  at  Huntingdon  Summer  Assizes  for  forging  £i  bank 
notes,  which  they  had  done  most  skilfully.  They  were  sen- 
tenced to  death,  but  were  respited  during  His  Majesty's  plea- 
sure, and  remained  in  Huntingdon  gaol  for  nine  years,  until 
they  were  pardoned  and  sent  back  to  France  in  1814. 


150  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

From  the  Stamford  Mercury  of  September  16,  180,8,  I  take 
the  following  : 

'  Early  on  Friday  morning  last  Charles  Francois  Maria 
Boucher,  a  French  officer,  a  prisoner  of  war  in  this  country, 
was  conveyed  from  the  County  Gaol  at  Huntingdon  to  Yaxley 
Barracks  where  he  was  hanged,  agreeable  to  his  sentence  at 
the  last  assizes,  for  stabbing  with  a  knife,  with  intent  to  kill 
Alexander  Halliday,  in  order  to  effect  his  escape  from  that 
prison.  The  whole  garrison  was  under  arms  and  all  the 
prisoners  in  the  different  apartments  were  made  witnesses  of 
the  impressive  scene/ 

I  shall  deal  later  in  detail  with  the  subject  of  prisoners  on 
parole,  so  that  it  suffices  here  to  say  that  every  care  was  taken 
to  avoid  the  just  reproach  of  the  earlier  years  of  the  great  wars 
that  officer  prisoners  of  war  in  England  were  promiscuously 
herded  on  hulks  and  in  prisons  with  the  rank  and  file,  and  it 
was  an  important  part  of  Prison  Agent's  duties  to  examine  each 
fresh  arrival  of  prisoners  with  a  view  to  selecting  those  of 
character  and  the  required  rank  qualifying  them  for  the  privi- 
leges of  being  allowed  on  parole  in  certain  towns  and  villages 
set  apart  for  the  purpose. 

In  1796  about  100  Norman  Cross  prisoners  were  out  on 
parole  in  Peterborough  and  the  neighbourhood.  The  Wheat- 
sheaf  d±  Stibbington  was  a  favourite  house  of  call  with  the  parole 
prisoners,  says  the  Rev.  A.  Brown  in  the  before-quoted  book,  and 
this,  when  afterwards  a  farmhouse,  belonged  to  an  old  man,  born 
before  the  close  of  the  war,  who  told  Dr.  Walker  that  as  a  child 
he  had  often  seen  the  prisoners  regale  themselves  here  with  the 
excellent  cooking  of  his  grandmother,  the  milestone  which  was 
their  limit  from  Wansford,  where  they  lodged,  being  just  out- 
side the  house. 

The  parole  officers  seem  to  have  been  generally  received  with 
kindness  and  hospitality  by  the  neighbouring  gentry,  and  a  few 
marriages  with  English  girls  are  recorded,  although  when  it 
became  known  that  such  unions  were  not  recognized  as  binding 
by  the  French  Government,  and  that  even  the  English  wives 
of  Frenchmen  were  sent  back  from  Morlaix,  the  cartel  port, 
the  English  girls  became  more  careful.  Some  of  the  gentry, 
indeed,  seem  to  have  interested  themselves  too  deeply  in  the 


NORMAN  CROSS  151 

exiles,  and  in  1801  the  Transport  Office  requests  the 
attention  of  its  Agent  '  to  the  practices  of  a  person  of  some 
property  near  Peterborough,  similar  to  those  for  which  Askew 
was  convicted  at  the  Huntingdon  Assizes  '—which  was  for 
aiding  prisoners  to  escape. 

By  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  May  30,  1814,  Peace  was  declared 
between  France  and  Britain,  and  in  the  same  month  4,617 
French  prisoners  at  Norman  Cross  were  sent  home  via  Peter- 
borough and  Lynn  unguarded,  but  the  prison  was  not  finally 
evacuated  until  August.  It  was  never  again  used  as  a  prison, 
but  was  pulled  down  and  sold. 

We  have  already  become  acquainted  with  General  Pillet 
as  a  rabid  chronicler  of  life  on  the  Chatham  hulks  ;  we  shall 
meet  him  again  out  on  parole,  and  now  let  us  hear  what  he 
has  to  say  about  Norman  Cross  in  his  book  on  England. 

'  I  have  seen  at  Norman  Cross  a  plot  of  land  where  nearly 
four  thousand  men,  out  of  seven  thousand  in  this  prison,  were 
buried.  Provisions  were  then  dear  in  England,  and  our 
Government,  it  was  said,  had  refused  to  pay  the  balance  of 
an  account  due  for  prisoners.  To  settle  this  account  all  the 
prisoners  were  put  on  half-rations,  and  to  make  sure  that  they 
should  die,  the  introduction  of  food  for  sale,  according  to 
custom,  was  forbidden.  To  reduced  quantity  was  added 
inferior  quality  of  the  provisions  served  out.  There  was 
distributed  four  times  a  week,  worm-eaten  biscuit,  fish  and 
salt  meat ;  three  times  a  week  black,  half  baked  bread  made 
of  mouldy  flour  or  of  black  wheat.  Soon  after  eating  this 
one  was  seized  with  a  sort  of  drunkenness,  followed  by  violent 
headache,  diarrhoea,  and  redness  of  face  ;  many  died  from 
a  sort  of  vertigo.  For  vegetables,  uncooked  beans  were  served 
up.  In  fact,  hundreds  of  men  sank  each  day,  starved  to  death, 
or  poisoned  by  the  provisions.  Those  who  did  not  die  imme- 
diately, became  so  weak  that  gradually  they  could  digest 
nothing/  (Then  follow  some  details,  too  disgusting  to  be  given 
a  place  here,  of  the  extremities  to  which  prisoners  at  Norman 
Cross  were  driven  by  hunger.)  '  Hunger  knows  no  rules.  The 
corpses  of  those  who  died  were  kept  for  five  or  six  days  without 
being  given  up  by  their  comrades,  who  by  this  means  received 
the  dead  men's  rations.' 

This  veracious  chronicler  continues  : 

'  I  myself  took  a  complaint  to  Captain  Pressland.  Next 
day,  the  officers  of  the  two  militia  battalions  on  guard  at  the 


152  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

prison,  and  some  civilians,  arrived  just  at  the  moment  for  the 
distribution  of  the  rations.  At  their  head  was  Pressland 
who  was  damning  the  prisoners  loudly.  The  rations  were 
shown,  and,  as  the  whole  thing  had  been  rehearsed  beforehand, 
they  were  good.  A  report  was  drawn  up  by  which  it  was 
shown  that  the  prisoners  were  discontented  rascals  who 
grumbled  at  everything,  that  the  food  was  unexceptionable, 
and  that  some  of  the  grumblers  deserved  to  be  shot,  for  an 
example.  Next  day  the  food  was  just  as  bad  as  ever.  .  .  . 
Certainly  the  prisoners  had  the  chance  of  buying  provisions 
for  themselves  from  the  wives  of  the  soldiers  of  the  garrison 
twice  a  week.  But  these  women,  bribed  to  ruin  the  prisoners, 
rarely  brought  what  was  required,  made  the  prisoners  take 
what  they  brought,  and  charged  exorbitant  prices,  and,  as 
payment  had  to  be  made  in  advance,  they  settled  things  just 
as  they  chose.' 

With  reference  to  the  medical  attendance  at  Norman  Cross, 
Fillet  says  : 

'  I  have  been  witness  and  victim,  as  prisoner  of  war,  of  the 
false  oath  taken  by  the  doctors  at  Norman  Cross.  They  were 
supplied  with  medicines,  flannel,  cotton  stuffs,  &c.,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  prisoners,  for  compresses,  bandages, 
and  so  forth.  When  the  supply  was  exhausted,  the  doctor, 
in  order  to  get  a  fresh  supply,  drew  up  his  account  of  usage, 
and  swore  before  a  jury  that  this  account  was  exact.  The 
wife  of  the  doctor  at  Norman  Cross,  like  that  of  the  doctor 
of  the  Crown  Prince  at  Chatham,  wore  no  petticoats  which 
were  not  made  of  cotton  and  flannel  taken  from  the  prison 
stores.  So  with  the  medicines  and  drugs.  The  contractor 
found  the  supply  ample,  and  that  there  was  no  necessity  to 
replace  it,  so  he  shared  with  the  doctor  and  the  apothecary 
the  cost  of  what  he  had  never  delivered,  although  in  the 
accounts  it  appeared  that  he  had  renewed  their  supplies.' 

With  George  Borrow's  description  in  Lavengro  of  the  bru- 
talities exercised  upon  the  prisoners  at  Norman  Cross  by  the 
soldiers  of  the  garrison,  many  readers  will  be  familiar.  As 
the  recollection  is  of  his  early  boyhood,  it  may  be  valued 
accordingly. 

In  1808  a  tourist  among  the  churches  of  this  part  of  East 
Anglia  remarks  upon  the  good  appearance  of  the  Norman  Cross 
prisoners,  particularly  of  the  boys — the  drummers  and  the 
'  mousses  '.  He  adds  that  many  of  the  prisoners  had  learned 
English  enough  '  to  chatter  and  to  cheat ',  and  that  some  of 


p.  152 


NORMAN  CROSS  153 

them  upon  release  took  away  with  them  from  two  to  three 
hundred  pounds  as  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  their  handiwork 
in  drawings,  wood,  bone  and  straw  work,  chessmen,  draughts, 
backgammon  boards,  dice,  and  groups  in  wood  and  bone  of  all 
descriptions. 

In  1814  came  Peace.  The  following  extracts  from  contem- 
porary newspapers  made  by  Mr.  Charles  Dack,  Curator  of  the 
Peterborough  Museum,  refer  to  the  process  of  evacuation, 
Norman  Cross  Depot  being  also  known  as  Stilton  or  Yaxley 
Barracks. 

'  nth  April,  1814.  The  joy  produced  amongst  the  prisoners 
of  war  at  Norman 'Cross  by  the  change  of  affairs  in  France 
(the  abdication  of  Bonaparte)  is  quite  indescribable  and 
extravagant.  A  large  white  flag  is  set  up  in  each  of  the 
quadrangles  of  the  depot,  under  which  the  thousands  of  poor 
fellows,  who  have  been  for  years  in  confinement,  dance,  sing, 
laugh,  and  cry  for  joy,  with  rapturous  delight. 

'  5th  May,  1814.  The  prisoners  at  Stilton  Barracks  are  so 
elated  at  the  idea  of  being  so  soon  liberated,  that  they  are 
all  bent  on  selling  their  stock,  which  they  do  rapidly  at  50  per 
cent  advanced  prices.  Many  of  them  have  realized  fortunes 
of  from  £500  to  £1,000  each. 

'  June  gth,  Lynn.  Upwards  of  1,400  French  prisoners  of  war 
have  arrived  in  this  town  during  the  last  week  from  Stilton 
Barracks,  to  embark  for  the  coast  of  France.  Dunkirk,  we 
believe,  is  the  place  of  their  destination.  In  consequence  of  the 
wind  having  been  hitherto  unfavourable,  they  have  been  pre- 
vented from  sailing,  and  we  are  glad  to  state  that  their  conduct 
in  this  town  has  hitherto  been  very  orderly  ;  and  although  they 
are  continually  perambulating  the  street,  and  some  of  them 
indulging  in  tolerable  libations  of  ale,  we  have  not  heard  of 
a  single  act  of  indecorum  taking  place  in  consequence.' 

To  these  notes  the  late  Rev.  G.  N.  Godwin,  to  whom  I  am 
indebted  for  many  details  of  life  at  Norman  Cross,  added  in 
the  columns  of  the  Norwich  Mercury  : 

'  The  garrison  of  the  depot  caught  the  infection  of  wild  joy, 
and  a  party  of  them  seized  the  Glasgow  mail  coach  on  its 
arrival  at  Stilton,  and  drew  it  to  Norman  Cross,  whither  the 
horses,  coachman  and  guard  were  obliged  to  follow.  The 
prisoners  were  so  elated  at  the  prospect  of  being  liberated  that 
they  ceased  to  perform  any  work.  Many  of  them  had  realized 
fortunes  of  £500  to  £1,000  each  in  Bank  of  England  notes.' 


154  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

The  Cambridge  Chronicle  gives  a  pleasant  picture  on 
May  6th :  '  About  200  prisoners  from  Norman  Cross  Barracks 
marched  into  this  town  on  Sunday  last  .  .  .  they  walked  about 
the  town  and  'Varsity  and  conducted  themselves  in  an  orderly 
manner.' 

Although  it  was  rumoured  that  the  buildings  at  Norman 
Cross  were  to  be  utilized,  after  the  departure  of  the  war 
prisoners,  as  a  barrack  for  artillery  and  cavalry,  this  did  not 
come  about.  The  buildings  were  sold  in  lots  ;  in  Peterborough 
some  of  them  were  re-erected  and  still  exist,  and  a  pair  of 
slatted  gates  are  now  barn-doors  at  Alwalton  Rectory  Farm, 
but  the  very  memories  of  this  great  prison  are  fast  dying  out 
in  this  age  of  the  migration  of  the  countryman. 

On  October  2,  1818,  the  sale  of  Norman  Cross  Barracks 
began,  and  lasted  nine  days,  the  sum  realized  being  about 
£10,000.  A  curious  comment  upon  the  condition  of  the  prison 
is  presented  by  the  fact  that  a  house  built  from  some  of  it 
became  known  as  '  Bug  Hall ',  which  has  a  parallel  in  the 
case  of  Portchester  Castle  ;  some  cottages  built  from  the 
timber  of  the  casernes  there,  when  it  ceased  to  be  a  war  prison, 
being  still  known  as  '  Bug  Row  '. 

In  Shelley  Row,  Cambridge,  is  an  ancient  timbered  barn 
which  is  known  to  have  been  regularly  used  as  a  night-shelter 
for  prisoners  on  their  way  to  Norman  Cross. 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  PRISONS  ASHORE 

3.     PERTH 

THE  following  particulars  about  the  great  Depot  at  Perth 
are  largely  taken  from  Mr.  W.  Sievwright's  book,  now  out  of 
print  and  obtainable  with  difficulty.1  Mr.  P.  Baxter  of  Perth, 
however,  transcribed  it  for  me  from  the  copy  in  the  Perth 
Museum,  and  to  him  my  best  thanks  are  due. 

The  Depot  at  Perth  was  completed  in  1812.  It  was  con- 
structed to  hold  about  7,000  prisoners,  and  consisted  of  five 
three-story  buildings,  each  130  feet  long  and  30  feet  broad, 
with  outside  stairs,  each  with  a  separate  iron  palisaded  airing- 
ground  and  all  converging  upon  what  was  known  as  the  '  Market 
Place  '.  Each  of  these  blocks  held  1,140  prisoners.  South  of 
the  great  square  was  a  building  for  petty  officers,  accommo- 
dating 1,100,  and  north  of  it  the  hospital  for  150  invalids. 
Both  of  these  latter  buildings  are  still  standing,  having  been 
incorporated  with  the  present  General  Prison.  The  sleeping 
quarters  were  very  crowded ;  so  much  so,  says  Sievwright,  that 
the  prisoners  had  to  sleep  '  spoon  fashion  ',  (as  we  have  seen  on 
the  prison  ships),  the  turning-over  process  having  to  be  done 
by  whole  ranks  in  obedience  to  words  of  command  ;  '  Atten- 
tion !  Squad  number  so  and  so  !  Prepare  to  spoon !  One ! 
Two  !  Spoon  !  ' 

Around  the  entire  space  was  a  deep  moat,  ten  feet  broad ; 
beyond  this  an  iron  palisade ;  beyond  this  a  wall  twelve  feet 
six  inches  high,  with  a  sentry-walk  round  it.  Three  or  four 
regiments  of  Militia  were  always  kept  in  Perth  for  guard  duties, 
which  occupied  300  men.  Many  acres  of  potatoes  were  planted 
outside  the  prison.  When  peace  was  finally  made,  and  the 
prison  was  emptied,  the  owners  of  these  profitable  acres  were 

1  Historical  Sketch  of  the  old  Depot  or  Prison  for  French  Prisoners  of 
War  at  Perth.  By  William  Sievwright.  Perth  :  1894. 


156  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

in  despair,  until  one  of  them  discovered  the  London  market, 
and  this  has  been  kept  ever  since. 

The  first  prisoners  came  from  Plymouth  via  Dundee  in 
August  1812.  They  had  been  lodged  the  first  night  in  the 
church  of  Inchtore.1  '  During  the  night ',  says  Penny  in  his 
Traditions  of  Perth,  '  the  French  prisoners  found  means  to 
extract  the  brass  nails  and  purloin  the  green  cloth  from  the 
pulpit  and  seats  in  the  Church,  with  every  other  thing  they 
could  lay  their  hands  on.'  Penny  seems  to  have  exaggerated. 
One  prisoner  stole  a  couple  of  '  mort  cloths  '.  This  so  enraged 
his  fellows  that  they  tried  him  by  court  martial,  and  sentenced 
him  to  twenty-four  lashes.  He  got  seventeen  there  and  then, 
but  fainted,  and  the  remainder  were  given  him  later. 

The  prisoners  were  400  in  number,  and  had  some  women  with 
them,  and  were  in  tolerably  good  condition.  A  great  many 
came  in  after  Salamanca.  They  had  been  marched  through 
Fifeshire  in  very  bad  weather.  '  The  poor  creatures,  many  of 
them  half  naked,  were  in  a  miserable  plight  ;  numbers  of  them 
gave  up  upon  the  road,  and  were  flung  into  carts,  one  above 
the  other,  and  when  the  carts  were  full,  and  capable  of  holding 
no  more,  the  others  were  tied  to  the  backs  with  ropes  and 
dragged  along.' 

Kirkcaldy  on  the  Forth  was  the  chief  port  for  landing  the 
prisoners  ;  from  Kirkcaldy  they  were  marched  overland  to 
Perth. 

The  first  attempt  at  escape  from  the  new  Depot  was  made  in 
September  1812,  there  being  at  this  time  about  4,000  prisoners 
there.  A  prisoner  slipped  past  the  turnkey  as  the  latter  was 
opening  a  door  in  the  iron  palisading,  and  got  away.  The 
alarm  was  given  ;  the  prisoner  had  got  to  Friarton  Toll,  half 
a  mile  away,  but  being  closely  pursued  was  captured  in  a  wheat 
field. 

One  Petite  in  this  year  was  a  slippery  customer.  He  got 
out  of  Perth  but  was  recaptured,  and  lodged  at  Montrose  on 

1  This  is  not  the  only  instance  of  a  church  being  used  as  a  dormitory 
for  prisoners  on  the  march.  When  the  officers  at  Wincanton  were 
marched  to  Gosport  en  route  for  Scotland  in  1812  they  slept  in  the 
church  at  Mere,  Wiltshire,  and  the  prisoners  taken  at  Fishguard  in 
1797  were  lodged  in  the  church  at  Haverfordwest. 


PERTH  157 

the  march  back  to  gaol.  Thence  he  escaped  by  unscrewing  the 
locks  of  three  doors,  but  was  again  caught  at  Ruthven  print- 
field,  and  safely  lodged  in  his  old  quarters  in  Perth  gaol. 
Shortly  after  he  was  ordered  to  be  transferred  to  Valleyfield, 
and  a  sergeant  and  eight  men  were  considered  necessary  to 
escort  him.  They  got  him  safely  as  far  as  Kirkcaldy,  where 
they  halted,  and  M.  Petite  was  lodged  for  the  night  in  the  local 
prison  ;  but  when  they  came  for  him  in  the  morning,  he  was 
not  to  be  found,  and  was  never  heard  of  again  ! 

Here  Sievwright  introduces  a  story  from  Penny,  of  date 
previous  to  the  Depot. 

'  On  April  2Oth,  1811,  it  was  reputed  at  the  Perth  Barracks 
that  four  French  prisoners  had  passed  through  Perth.  A  de- 
tachment of  soldiers  who  were  sent  in  pursuit  on  the  road  to 
Dundee,  found,  not  those  they  were  seeking,  but  four  others, 
whom  they  conveyed  to  Perth  and  lodged  in  gaol.  On  the 
morning  of  April  24th,  they  managed  to  effect  their  escape. 
By  cutting  some  planks  out  of  the  partition  of  their  apartment, 
they  made  their  way  to  the  Court  Room,  from  the  window 
of  which  they  descended  to  the  street.  On  their  table  was 
found  a  letter  expressing  their  gratitude  to  the  magistrates 
and  inhabitants  of  Perth  for  the  civilities  they  had  received, 
and  promising  a  return  of  the  kindness  to  any  Scotsman 
whom  they  might  find  among  the  British  prisoners  in  France/ 

As  a  supplement  to  this,  it  is  recorded  that  two  of  the  original 
quarry  were  afterwards  captured,  but  were  released  uncon- 
ditionally later  on,  when  one  of  them  proved  that  he  had 
humanely  treated  General  Walker,  when  the  latter  was  lying 
seriously  wounded  at  Badajos,  saved  him  from  being  dispatched 
by  a  furious  grenadier,  and  had  him  removed  to  a  hospital. 
The  General  gave  him  his  name  and  address,  and  promised  to 
help  him  should  occasion  arise. 

In  January  1813  three  prisoners  got  off  in  a  thick  fog  and 
made  their  way  as  far  as  Broughty  Ferry  on  the  Forth.  On 
their  way,  it  came  out  later,  they  stopped  in  Dundee  for  refresh- 
ment without  any  apparent  dread  of  disturbance,  and  were 
later  seen  on  the  Fort  hill  near  Broughty  Ferry.  In  the  evening 
they  entered  a  shop,  bought  up  all  the  bread  in  it  and  had  a 
leather  bottle  filled  with  spirits.  At  nine  the  same  evening 
they  boarded  Mr.  Grubb's  ship  Nancy,  and  immediately  got 


158  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

under  weigh  unnoticed.  The  Nancy  was  of  fifteen  tons  burden, 
and  was  known  to  be  provisioned  for  ten  days,  as  she  was  going 
to  start  the  next  morning  on  an  excursion.  The  prisoners 
escaped,  and  a  woman  and  two  Renfrewshire  Militiamen  were 
detained  in  prison  after  examination  upon  suspicion  of  having 
concealed  and  aided  the  prisoners  with  information  about  the 
Nancy  which  they  could  hardly  have  obtained  ordinarily. 

This  was  on  Thursday,  January  21.  On  the  night  of  Monday, 
i8th,  a  mason  at  the  Depot,  on  his  way  from  Newburgh  to 
Perth,  was  stopped  by  three  men  at  the  Coates  of  Fingask  on 
the  Rhynd  road,  and  robbed  of  £i  i8s.  6d.  The  robbers  had 
the  appearance  of  farm  servants,  but  it  seems  quite  likely  that 
they  were  the  daring  and  successful  abductors  of  the  Nancy. 

On  January  21, 1813,  there  were  6,788  prisoners  at  the  Depot. 
On  the  evening  of  February  22,  1813,  seven  prisoners  bribed 
a  sentinel  to  let  them  escape.  He  agreed,  but  at  once  gave 
information,  and  was  instructed  to  keep  up  the  deception.  So, 
at  the  fixed  hour  the  prisoners,  awaiting  with  confident  excite- 
ment the  arrival  of  their  deliverer,  were,  instead,  found  hiding 
with  scaling-ladders,  ropes,  and  all  implements  necessary  for 
escape  upon  them,  and  a  considerable  sum  of  money  for  their 
needs.  They  were  at  once  conveyed  to  the  punishment  cells 
under  the  central  tower. 

At  Perth,  as  elsewhere,  the  prisoners  were  allowed  to  amuse 
themselves,  and  to  interest  themselves  in  the  manufacture  of 
various  knick-knacks,  toys,  boxes,  and  puzzles,  from  woed,  and 
the  bones  of  their  beef ;  of  these  they  made  a  great  variety, 
and  many  of  them  are  masterpieces  of  cunning  deftness, 
and  wonderfully  beautiful  in  delicacy  and  perfection  of  work- 
manship. They  made  straw  plait,  a  manufacture  then  in  its 
infancy  in  this  country ;  numbers  made  shoes  out  of  bits  of 
cloth,  cutting  up  their  clothes  for  the  purpose,  and  it  is  possible 
that  their  hammocks  may  have  yielded  the  straw.  It  is  said 
that  after  a  time  straw  plait  and  shoes  were  prohibited  as 
traffic.  Some  of  the  prisoners  dug  clay  out  of  their  courtyards 
and  modelled  figures  of  smugglers,  soldiers,  sailors,  and 
women.  The  prisoners  had  the  privilege  of  holding  a  market 
daily,  to  which  the  public  were  admitted  provided  they 
carried  no  contraband  articles.  Potatoes,  vegetables,  bread, 


PERTH  159 

soap,  tobacco,  and  firewood,  were  all  admitted.  Large 
numbers  of  the  inhabitants  went  daily  to  view  the 
markets,  and  make  purchases.  The  prisoners  had  stands 
set  out  all  round  the  railing  of  the  yards,  on  which  their  wares 
were  placed.  Many  paid  high  prices  for  the  articles.  While 
some  of  the  prisoners  were  busy  selling,  others  were  occupied 
in  buying  provisions,  vegetables  and  other  necessaries  of  food. 
Some  of  the  prisoners  played  the  flute,  riddle,  and  other  instru- 
ments, for  halfpence ;  Punch's  opera  and  other  puppet  shows 
were  also  got  up  in  fine  style.  Some  were  industrious  and 
saving  ;  others  gambled  and  squandered  the  clothes  from  their 
bodies,  and  wandered  about  with  only  a  bit  of  blanket  tied 
round  them. 

From  Penny's  Traditions  of  Perth  comes  the  following  market 
trick : 

'  As  much  straw  plait  as  made  a  bonnet  was  sold  for  four 
shillings,  and,  being  exceedingly  neat,  it  was  much  inquired 
after.  In  this  trade  many  a  one  got  a  bite,  for  the  straw  was 
all  made  up  in  parcels,  and  for  fear  of  detection  smuggled  into 
the  pockets  of  the  purchasers. 

'  An  unsuspecting  man  having  been  induced  by  his  wife 
to  purchase  a  quantity  of  straw  plait  for  a  bonnet,  he  attended 
the  market  and  soon  found  a  seller.  He  paid  the  money,  but, 
lest  he  should  be  observed,  he  turned  his  back  on  the  prisoner, 
and  got  the  things  slipped  into  his  hand,  and  thence  into  his 
pocket.  Away  he  went  with  his  parcel,  well  pleased  that  he 
had  escaped  detection  (for  outsiders  found  buying  straw  plait 
were  severely  dealt  with  by  the  law),  and  on  his  way  home  he 
thought  he  would  examine  his  purchase,  when,  to  his  astonish- 
ment and  no  doubt  to  his  deep  mortification,  he  found  instead 
of  straw  plait,  a  bundle  of  shavings  very  neatly  tied  up. 
The  man  instantly  returned,  and  told  of  the  deception,  and 
insisted  on  getting  back  his  money.  But  the  prisoner  from 
whom  the  purchase  had  been  made  could  not  be  seen.  Whilst 
trying  to  get  a  glimpse  of  his  seller,  he  was  told  that  if  he 
did  not  go  away  he  would  be  informed  against,  and  fined  for 
buying  the  supposed  straw  plait.  He  was  retiring  when 
another  prisoner  came  forward  and  said  he  would  find  the  other, 
and  make  him  take  back  the  shavings  and  return  the  money. 
Pretending  deep  commiseration,  the  second  prisoner  said  he 
had  no  change,  but  if  the  straw  plait  buyer  would  give  him 
sixteen  shillings,  he  would  give  him  a  one  pound  note,  and 
take  his  chance  of  the  man  returning  the  money.  The  dupe 


160  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

gave  the  money  and  took  the  note — which  was  a  forgery  on 
a  Perth  Bank.' 

Attempts  to  escape  were  almost  a  weekly  occurrence,  and 
some  of  them  exhibited  very  notable  ingenuity,  patience,  and 
daring.  On  March  26,  1813,  the  discovery  was  made  of  a 
subterranean  excavation  from  the  latrine  of  No.  2  Prison, 
forty-two  feet  long,  and  so  near  the  base  of  the  outer  wall  that 
another  hour's  work  would  have  finished  it. 

On  April  4,  1813,  was  found  a  pit  twenty  feet  deep  in  the 
floor  of  No.  2  Prison,  with  a  lateral  cut  at  about  six  feet  from 
the  bottom.  The  space  below  this  cut  was  to  receive  water, 
and  the  cut  was  to  pass  obliquely  upwards  to  allow  water  to 
run  down.  A  prisoner  in  hospital  was  suspected  by  the  others 
of  giving  information  about  this,  and  when  he  was  discharged 
he  was  violently  assaulted,  the  intention  being  to  cut  off  his 
ears.  He  resisted,  however,  so  that  only  one  was  taken  off. 
Then  a  rope  was  fastened  to  him,  and  he  was  dragged  through 
the  moat  while  men  jumped  on  him.  He  was  rescued  just  in 
time  by  a  Durham  Militiaman. 

On  the  28th  of  the  same  month  three  prisoners  got  with  false 
keys  into  an  empty  cellar  under  the  central  tower.  They  had 
provided  themselves  with  ordinary  civilian  attire  which  they 
intended  to  slip  over  their  prison  clothes,  and  mix  with  the 
market  crowd.  They  were  discovered  by  a  man  going  into  the 
cellar  to  examine  the  water  pipes.  Had  they  succeeded 
a  great  many  more  would  have  followed. 

On  May  5,  1813,  some  prisoners  promised  a  big  bribe  to  a 
soldier  of  the  Durham  Militia  if  he  would  help  them  to  escape. 
He  pretended  to  accede,  but  promptly  informed  his  superiors, 
who  told  him  to  keep  up  the  delusion.  So  he  allowed  six 
prisoners  to  get  over  the  outer  wall  by  a  rope  ladder  which  they 
had  made.  Four  were  out  and  two  were  on  the  burial  ground 
which  was  between  the  north  boundary  wall  and  the  Cow  Inch, 
when  they  were  captured  by  a  party  of  soldiers  who  had  been 
posted  there.  The  other  two  were  caught  in  a  dry  ditch. 
They  were  all  lodged  in  the  cachot.  It  was  well  for  the  '  faithful 
Durham',  for  the  doubloons  he  got  were  only  three-shilling 
pieces,  and  the  bank  notes  were  forgeries ! 

In    June    three    men    escaped    by    breaking    the    bar   of 


PERTH  161 

a  window,  and  dropping  therefrom  by  a  rope  ladder.  One  of 
them  who  had  got  on  board  a  neutral  vessel  at  Dundee  ven- 
tured ashore  and  was  captured  ;  one  got  as  far  as  Montrose, 
but  was  recognized  ;  of  the  fate  of  the  third  we  do  not  hear. 

A  duel  took  place  between  two  officers  with  sharpened  foils. 
The  strictest  punctilio  was  observed  at  the  affair,  and  after  one 
had  badly  wounded  the  other,  hands  were  shaken,  and  honour 
satisfied. 

About  this  time  a  clerk  in  the  Depot  was  suspended  for 
attempting  to  introduce  a  profligate  woman  into  the  prison. 

The  usual  market  was  prohibited  on  Midsummer  market  day, 
1813,  and  the  public  were  excluded,  as  it  was  feared  that  the 
extraordinary  concourse  of  people  would  afford  opportunities  for 
the  prisoners  to  escape  by  mixing  with  them  in  disguise. 

The  Medical  Report  of  July  1813  states  that  out  of  7,000 
prisoners  there  were  only  twenty-four  sick,  including  con- 
valescents, and  of  these  only  four  were  confined  to  their  beds. 

On  August  15,  1813,  the  prisoners  were  not  only  allowed  to 
celebrate  the  Emperor's  birthday,  but  the  public  were  apprised 
of  the  f£te  and  invited  to  attend  a  balloon  ascent.  The  crowd 
duly  assembled  on  the  South  Inch,  but  the  balloon  was  acci- 
dentally burst.  There  were  illuminations  of  the  prisons  at  night, 
and  some  of  the  transparencies,  says  the  chronicler,  showed 
much  taste  and  ingenuity.  Advantage  was  taken  of  the 
excitement  of  this  gala  day  to  hurry  on  one  of  the  most  daring 
and  ingenious  attempts  to  escape  in  the  history  of  the  prison. 
On  the  morning  of  August  24  it  was  notified  that  a  number  of 
prisoners  had  escaped  through  a  mine  dug  from  the  latrine 
of  No.  2  prison  to  the  bottom  of  the  southern  outer  wall. 
It  was  supposed  that  they  must  have  begun  to  get  out 
at  2  a.m.  that  day,  but  one  of  them,  attempting  to  jump  the 
'  lade  ',  fell  into  the  water  with  noise  enough  to  alarm  the 
nearest  sentry,  who  fired  in  the  direction  of  the  sound.  The 
alarm  thus  started  was  carried  on  by  the  other  sentries,  and  it 
was  found  that  no  fewer  than  twenty-three  prisoners  had  got 
away.  Ten  of  them  were  soon  caught.  Two  who  had  got  on 
board  a  vessel  on  the  Perth  shore  were  turned  off  by  the  master. 
One  climbed  up  a  tree  and  was  discovered.  One  made  an 
attempt  to  swim  the  Tay,  but  had  to  give  up  from  exhaustion, 

ABELL  M 


162  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

and  others  were  captured  near  the  river,  which,  being  swollen 
by  recent  rains,  they  had  been  unable  to  cross  ;  and  thirteen 
temporarily  got  away. 

Of  these  the  Caledonian  Mercury  wrote  : 

'  Four  of  the  prisoners  who  lately  escaped  from  the  Perth 
Depot  were  discovered  within  a  mile  of  Arbroath  on  August  28  _h 
by  a  seaman  belonging  to  the  Custom  House  yacht  stationed 
there,  who  procured  the  assistance  of  some  labourers,  and 
attempted  to  apprehend  them,  upon  which  they  drew  their 
knives  and  threatened  to  stab  any  one  who  lay  [sic]  hold  of 
them,  but  on  the  arrival  of  a  recruiting  party  and  other  assis- 
tance the  Frenchmen  submitted.  They  stated  that  on  Thursday 
night — (they  had  escaped  on  Tuesday  morning)  they  were  on 
board  of  a  vessel  at  Dundee,  but  which  they  were  unable  to 
carry  off  on  account  of  a  neap  tide  which  prevented  her  float- 
ing ;  other  three  or  four  prisoners  had  been  apprehended  and 
lodged  in  Forfar  Gaol.  It  has  been  ascertained  that  several 
others  had  gone  Northwards  by  the  Highland  Road  in  the 
direction  of  Inverness.' 

The  four  poor  fellows  in  Forfar  Jail  made  yet  another  bold 
bid  for  liberty.  By  breaking  through  the  prison  wall,  they 
succeeded  in  making  a  hole  to  the  outside  nearly  large  enough 
for  their  egress  before  they  were  discovered.  The  only  tool 
they  had  was  a  part  of  the  fire-grate  which  they  had  wrenched 
in  pieces.  Their  time  was  well  chosen  for  getting  out  to  sea, 
for  it  was  nearly  high  water  when  they  were  discovered.  Two 
others  were  captured  near  Blair  Atholl,  some  thirty  miles  north 
of  Perth,  and  were  brought  back  to  the  Depot. 

Brief  allusion  has  been  made  to  the  remarkable  healthiness 
of  the  prisoners  at  Perth.  The  London  papers  of  1813  lauded 
Portchester  and  Portsmouth  as  examples  of  sanitary  well-being 
to  other  prisoner  districts,  and  quoted  the  statistics  that,  out 
of  20,680  prisoners  there,  only  154  were  on  the  sick  list,  but 
the  average  at  Perth  was  still  better.  On  August  26,  1813, 
there  were  7,000  prisoners  at  Perth,  of  whom  only  fourteen 
were  sick.  On  October  28,  out  of  the  same  number,  only  ten 
were  sick  ;  and  on  February  3,  1814,  when  the  weather  was 
very  severe,  there  was  not  one  man  in  bed. 

The  forgery  of  bank  notes  and  the  manufacture  of  base 
coin  was  pursued  as  largely  and  as  successfully  at  Perth  as 


PERTH  163 

elsewhere.     In  the  Perth  Courier  of  September  19,  1813,  we 
read  : 

'  We  are  sorry  to  learn  that  the  forgery  of  notes  of  various 
banks  is  carried  on  by  prisoners  at  the  Depot,  and  that  they 
find  means  to  throw  them  into  circulation  by  the  assistance 
of  profligate  people  who  frequent  the  market.  The  eagerness 
of  the  prisoners  to  obtain  cash  is  very  great,  and  as  they 
retain  all  they  procure,  they  have  drained  the  place  almost 
entirely  of  silver  so  that  it  has  become  a  matter  of  difficulty 
to  get  change  of  a  note.  .  .  .  Last  week  a  woman  coming  from 
the  Market  at  the  Depot  was  searched  by  an  order  of  Captain 
Moriarty,  when  there  was  found  about  her  person  pieces  of 
base  money  in  imitation  of  Bank  tokens  (of  which  the  prisoners 
are  suspected  to  have  been  the  fabricators),  to  the  amount  of 
£5  175.  After  undergoing  examination,  the  woman  was  com- 
mitted to  gaol.' 

It  was  publicly  announced  on  September  16,  1813,  that 
a  mine  had  been  discovered  in  the  floor  of  the  Officers'  Prison, 
No.  6,  at  the  Depot.  This  building,  a  two-story  oblong  one, 
now  one  of  the  hospitals,  still  stands  to  the  south  of  the  General 
Prison  Village  Square.  An  excavation  of  sufficient  diameter 
to  admit  the  passage  of  a  man  had  been  cut  with  iron  hoops, 
as  it  was  supposed,  carried  nineteen  feet  perpendicularly  down- 
wards and  thirty  feet  horizontally  outwards. 

A  detachment  of  the  guard  having  been  marched  into  the 
prison  after  this  discovery,  the  men  were  stoned  by  the  prisoners, 
among  whom  the  soldiers  fired  three  shots  without  doing  any 
injury.  At  n  o'clock  the  next  Sunday  morning,  about  forty 
prisoners  were  observed  by  a  sentry  out  of  their  prison,  strolling 
about  the  airing  ground  of  No.  3.  An  alarm  was  immediately 
given  to  the  guard,  who,  fearing  a  general  attempt  to  escape, 
rushed  towards  the  place  where  the  prisoners  were  assembled, 
and,  having  seized  twenty-four  of  them,  drove  the  rest  back 
into  the  prison.  In  the  tumult  three  of  the  prisoners  were 
wounded  and  were  taken  to  the  hospital.  The  twenty-four 
who  were  seized  were  lodged  in  the  cachot,  where  they  remained 
for  a  time,  together  with  eleven  retaken  fugitives. 

Next  morning,  on  counting  over  the  prisoners  in  No.  3, 
twenty-eight  were  missing.  As  a  light  had  been  observed  in 
the  latrine  about  8  o'clock  the  preceding  evening,  that  place 

M  2 


164  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

was  examined  and  a  mine  was  discovered  communicating  with 
the  great  sewer  of  the  Depot.  Through  this  outlet  the  ab- 
sentees had  escaped.  Two  of  them  were  taken  on  the  following 
Monday  morning  at  Bridge  of  Earn,  four  miles  distant,  and 
three  more  on  Thursday. 

A  short  time  previous  to  this  escape,  800  prisoners  had  been 
transferred  to  Perth  from  the  Penicuik  Depot,  and  these,  it  was 
said,  were  of  a  most  turbulent  and  ungovernable  character,  so 
that  the  influence  of  these  men  would  necessitate  a  much 
sterner  discipline,  and  communication  between  the  prisoners 
and  the  public  much  more  restricted  than  hitherto.  In  the 
foregoing  case  the  punishments  had  been  very  lenient,  the 
market  being  shut  only  for  one  day. 

Gradually  most  of  the  escaped  prisoners  were  retaken,  all  in 
a  very  exhausted  state. 

Not  long  after,  heavy  rains  increased  the  waters  of  the  canal 
so  that,  by  breaking  into  it,  they  revealed  an  excavation  being 
made  from  No.  i. 

In  the  same  month  three  prisoners  got  out,  made  their  way 
to  Findon,  Kincardineshire,  stole  a  fishing-boat,  provisioned 
it  by  thefts  from  other  boats,  and  made  off  successfully. 

Yet  another  mine  was  discovered  this  month.  It  ran  from 
a  latrine,  not  to  the  great  sewer,  but  in  a  circuitous  direction 
to  meet  it.  The  prisoners  while  working  at  this  were  sur- 
rounded by  other  prisoners,  who  pretended  to  be  amusing 
themselves,  whilst  they  hid  the  workers  from  the  view  of  the 
sentries.  But  an  unknown  watcher  through  a  loophole  in  a 
turret  saw  the  buckets  of  earth  being  taken  to  the  well,  pumped 
upon  and  washed  away  through  the  sewer  to  the  Tay,  and  he 
gave  information. 

Yet  again  a  sentry  noticed  that  buckets  of  earth  were  being 
carried  from  No.  6  prison,  and  informed  the  officer  of  the  guard, 
who  found  about  thirty  cartloads  of  earth  heaped  up  at  the 
two  ends  of  the  highest  part  of  the  prison  known  as  the  Cock 
Loft. 

On  April  n,  1814,  the  news  of  the  dethronement  of  Bona- 
parte reached  Perth,  and  was  received  with  universal  delight. 
The  prisoners  in  the  Depot  asked  the  agent,  Captain  Moriarty,. 
to  be  allowed  to  illuminate  for  the  coming  Peace  and  freedom-,, 


PERTH  165 

but  at  so  short  a  notice  little  could  be  done,  although 
the  tower  was  illuminated  by  the  agent  himself.  That  the 
feeling  among  the  prisoners  was  still  strong  for  Bonaparte, 
however,  was  presently  shown  when  half  a  dozen  prisoners  in 
the  South  Prison  hoisted  the  white  flag  of  French  Royalty. 
Almost  the  whole  of  their  fellow  captives  clambered  up  the 
walls,  tore  down  the  flag,  and  threatened  those  who  hoisted  it 
with  violent  treatment  if  they  persisted. 

The  guard  removed  the  Royalists  to  the  hospital  for  safety, 
and  later  their  opponents  wrote  a  penitential  letter  to  Captain 
Moriarty.  In  June  1814  the  removal  of  the  prisoners  began. 
Those  that  went  down  the  river  in  boats  were  heartily  cheered 
by  the  people.  Others  marched  to  Newburgh,  where,  on  the 
quay,  they  held  a  last  market  for  the  sale  of  their  manufactures, 
which  was  thronged  by  buyers  anxious  to  get  mementoes  and 
willing  to  pay  well  for  them.  'All  transactions  were  conducted 
honourably,  while  the  additional  graces  of  French  politeness 
made  a  deep  impression  upon  the  natives  of  Fife,  both  male 
and  female/  adds  the  chronicler.  It  was  during  this  march  to 
Newburgh  that  the  prisoners  sold  the  New  Testaments  dis- 
tributed among  them  by  a  zealous  missionary. 

Altogether  it  was  a  pleasant  wind-up  to  a  long,  sad  period, 
especially  for  the  Frenchmen,  many  of  whom  got  on  board  the 
transports  at  Newburgh  very  much  richer  men  than  when  they 
first  entered  the  French  depot,  or  than  they  would  have  been 
had  they  never  been  taken  prisoners.  Especially  pleasant,  too, 
is  it  to  think  that  they  left  amidst  tokens  of  goodwill  from  the 
people  amongst  whom  many  of  them  had  been  long  captive. 

The  Depot  was  finally  closed  July  31,  1814. 

During  one  year,  that  is  between  September  14,  1812,  and 
September  24,  1813,  there  were  fourteen  escapes  or  attempted 
escapes  of  prisoners.  Of  these  seven  were  frustrated  and 
seven  were  more  or  less  successful,  that  is  to  say,  sixty-one 
prisoners  managed  to  get  out  of  the  prison,  but  of  these  thirty- 
two  were  recaptured  while  twenty-nine  got  clean  away. 

From  1815  to  1833  the  Depot  was  used  as  a  military  clothing 
store,  and  eventually  it  became  the  General  Prison  for  Scotland. 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  PRISONS  ASHORE 

4.       PORTCHESTER 

OF  the  thousands  of  holiday-makers  and  picnickers  for  whom 
Portchester  Castle  is  a  happy  recreation  ground,  and  of  the 
hundreds  of  antiquaries  who  visit  it  as  being  one  of  the  most 
striking  relics  of  combined  Roman  and  Norman  military  archi- 
tecture in  Britain,  a  large  number,  no  doubt,  learn  that  it  was 
long  used  as  a  place  of  confinement  for  foreign  prisoners  of  war, 
but  are  not  much  impressed  with  the  fact,  which  is  hardly  to 
be  wondered  at,  not  only  because  the  subject  of  the  foreign 
prisoners  of  war  in  Britain  has  never  received  the  attention  it 
deserves,  but  because  the  interest  of  the  comparatively  modern 
must  always  suffer  when  in  juxtaposition  with  the  interest  of 
the  far-away  past. 

But  this  comparatively  modern  interest  of  Portchester  is, 
as  I  hope  to  show,  very  real. 

As  a  place  of  confinement  Portchester  could  never,  of  course, 
compare  with  such  purposely  planned  prisons  as  Dartmoor, 
Stapleton,  Perth,  or  Norman  Cross.  Still,  from  its  position, 
and  its  surrounding  walls  of  almost  indestructible  masonry, 
from  fifteen  to  forty  feet  high  and  from  six  to  ten  feet  thick,  it 
answered  its  purpose  very  well.  True,  its  situation  so  near  the 
Channel  would  seem  to  favour  attempts  to  escape,  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  escape  from  Portchester  Castle  by  no  means 
implied  escape  from  England,  for,  ere  the  fugitive  could  gain 
the  open  sea,  he  had  a  terrible  gauntlet  to  run  of  war-shipping 
and  forts  and  places  of  watch  and  ward,  so  that  although  the 
number  of  attempted  escapes  from  Portchester  annually  was 
greater  than  that  of  similar  attempts  from  other  places  of 
confinement,  the  successful  ones  were  few. 

Portchester  is  probably  the  oldest  regular  war  prison  in 
Britain.  In  1745  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  records  the  escape 
of  Spanish  prisoners  from  it,  taken,  no  doubt,  during  the  War 


PORTCHESTER  167 

of  the  Austrian  Succession,  but  it  was  during  the  Seven  Years' 
War  that  it  became  eminent. 

In  1756  Captain  Fraboulet  of  the  French  East  India  Com- 
pany's frigate  Astree,  who  appears  to  have  been  a  medical 
representative  of  the  Government,  reported  on  the  provisions 
at  Portchester  as  being  very  good  on  the  whole,  except  the 
small  beer,  which  he  described  as  being  very  weak,  and  '  apt  to 
cause  a  flux  of  blood',  a  very  prevalent  malady  among  the 
prisoners.  He  complained,  and  the  deficiency  was  remedied. 
Of  the  hospital  accommodation  he  spoke  badly.  There  was  no 
hospital  in  the  Castle  itself,  so  that  patients  had  either  to  be 
sent  to  Fareham,  two  miles  away,  where  the  hospital  was  badly 
placed,  being  built  of  wood  and  partly  on  the  muddy  shores  of 
the  river,  or  to  Forton,  which,  he  says,  is  seven  miles  off.  This 
distance,  he  says,  could  be  reduced,  if  done  by  water,  but  it 
was  found  impossible  to  find  boatmen  to  take  the  invalids,  the 
result  being  that  they  were  carted  there,  and  often  died  on  the 
way.  He  also  complained  that  in  the  hospital  the  dying  and 
the  convalescent  were  in  the  same  wards,  and  he  begged  the 
Government  to  establish  a  hospital  at  Portchester.  He  says 
that  he  will  distribute  the  King's  Bounty  no  more  to  invalids, 
as  they  spend  it  improperly,  bribing  sentries  and  attendants, 
and  all  who  have  free  access  and  egress,  to  get  them  unfit  food, 
such  as  raw  fruit,  salt  herrings,  &c.  He  will  only  pay  healthy 
men.  He  has  done  his  best  to  re-establish  order  in  the  Castle  ; 
has  asked  the  Commissioners  of  the  '  Sick  and  Hurt '  Office  to 
put  down  the  public  gaming-tables  ;  to  imprison  those  who 
gamble  and  sell  their  kits  and  food,  and  to  stop  the  sale  of  raw 
fruit,  salt  fish,  and  all  food  which  promotes  flux  of  blood. 

In  1766  Valerie  Coffre  quarrelled  with  a  fellow  prisoner, 
Nicholas  Chartier,  and  killed  him  with  a  knife.  He  was  found 
guilty  and  sentenced  to  death.  He  was  attended  by  a  Roman 
Catholic  priest,  was  very  earnest  in  his  devotions,  and  was 
executed  at  Winchester,  the  whole  of  his  fellow  prisoners  being 
marched  thither  under  a  strong  guard  to  witness  the  scene.  He 
was  a  handsome,  well-built  man  of  twenty- two. 

In  1784  the  Castle  was  properly  fitted  up  as  a  War  Prison. 
The  ancient  moat  outside  the  walls,  which  during  long  years  of 
neglect  had  become  choked  up  with  rubbish,  was  filled  with 


i68 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 


water,  and  the  keep  was  divided  into  five  stories,  connected 
with  a  wooden  stairway  at  the  side,  and  the  entire  Castle  was 
arranged  for  the  accommodation  of  about  8,000  prisoners. 

In  1794  the  prisoners  captured  in  Howe's  victory  of  the 
'  Glorious  First  of  June  '  were  lodged  in  Portchester.  One  of 
the  prizes  taken,  the  Impetueux,  took  fire,  and  at  one  time 


PLAN  OF  PORTCHESTER  CASTLE,  1793. 

A.   Kitchens.     B.  Hospital,     c.  Black  Hole.     D.  Caserns. 

E.  Great  Tower. 

there  was  danger  that  the  fire  would  spread.  The  prisoners  at 
Portchester  were  delighted,  and  danced  about  singing  the  fa  ira 
and  the  Marseillaise,  but  happily  the  ship  grounded  on  a  mud- 
bank,  and  no  further  damage  was  done. 

In  1796  two  prisoners  quarrelled  over  politics,  one  stabbed 
the  other  to  death,  and  was  hanged  at  Winchester. 

In  1797  the  agent  in  charge  complained  that  many  Ports- 
mouth people,  under  pretence  of  attending  Portchester  Parish 


PORTCHESTER  169 

Church,  which  stood  within  the  Castle  enceinte,  came  really  to 
buy  straw  hats  and  other  forbidden  articles  manufactured  by 
the  prisoners. 

The  inconvenience  of  the  position  of  this  church  was  further 
manifested  by  a  daring  escape  which  was  made  about  this  time. 
One  Sunday  morning,  just  as  service  had  begun,  the  sentry  on 
duty  at  the  Water  Gate  saw  three  naval  officers  in  full  uniform 
come  towards  him  from  the  churchyard.  Thinking  that  they 
were  British  officers  who  had  seen  their  men  into  church  and 
were  going  for  a  walk,  he  presented  arms  and  allowed  them  to 
pass.  Soon  after  it  was  discovered  that  three  smart  French 
privateer  captains  had  escaped,  and  without  doubt  they  had 
contrived  to  get  second-hand  British  naval  uniforms  smuggled 
in  to  them  by  soi-disant  worshippers  ! 

A  comical  incident  is  recorded  in  connexion  with  Portchester 
churchyard.  A  sentry  was  always  on  duty  at  an  angle  of  the 
churchyard  close  to  the  South  or  Water  Gate,  where  there  was 
and  still  is  a  remarkable  echo.  Upon  one  wild,  stormy  night, 
this  position  was  occupied  by  a  soldier  of  the  Dorset  Militia, 
which,  with  the  Denbighshire  Militia,  performed  garrison  duty 
at  the  Castle.  Suddenly  the  man  saw  against  the  wall  a  tall, 
white  figure  with  huge  horns.  He  mastered  up  courage  enough 
to  challenge  it,  but  the  only  reply  was  a  distinct  repetition  of 
his  words.  He  fired  his  piece,  but  in  his  agitation  evidently 
missed  his  aim,  for  the  figure  bounded  towards  him,  and  he, 
persuaded  that  he  had  to  do  with  the  Devil,  ran,  and  gave  the 
alarm.  Captain  M.,  the  officer  of  the  guard,  cursed  the  man 
for  his  fears  and,  drawing  his  sword,  ran  out  to  meet  the 
intruder.  The  figure  charged  him,  bowled  him  over  among  the 
gravestones,  and  made  for  the  Landport  Gate,  the  sentry  at 
which  had  just  opened  it  at  the  sound  of  the  disturbance  in  the 
churchyard,  to  see  what  was  going  on.  The  figure  disposed  of 
him  as  he  had  done  Captain  M.,  and  made  straight  away  for  the 
door  of  the  Denbighshires'  drum-major's  quarters,  where  it 
proved  to  be  the  huge,  white  regimental  goat,  who,  when  dis- 
turbed by  the  sentry,  had  been  browsing  upon  his  hind  legs, 
on  the  pellitory  which  grows  on  the  Castle  walls  ! 

From  the  Rev.  J.  D.  Henderson's  little  book  on  Portchester 
I  take  the  following  : 


170  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

'  One  Francis  Dufresne,  who  was  confined  here  for  more 
than  five  years,  escaped  again  and  again,  despite  the  vigilance 
of  his  guards.  He  seems  to  have  been  as  reckless  and  adven- 
turous as  any  hero  of  romance,  and  the  neighbourhood  was 
full  of  stories  of  his  wanderings  and  the  tricks  he  resorted  to 
to  obtain  food.  Once,  after  recapture,  he  was  confined  in 
the  Black  Hole,  a  building  still  to  be  seen  at  the  foot  of  the 
Great  Tower,  called  the  "  Exchequer  "  on  plans  of  the  Castle. 
Outside  walked  a  sentry  day  and  night,  but  Dufresne  was 
not  to  be  held.  He  converted  his  hammock  into  what  sailors 
call  a  "  thumb  line ",  and  at  the  dead  of  night  removed 
a  flat  stone  from  under  his  prison  door,  crawled  out,  passed 
with  silent  tread  within  a  few  inches  of  the  sentry,  gained 
a  winding  stair  which  led  to  the  summit  of  the  Castle  wall, 
from  which  he  descended  by  the  cord,  and,  quickly  gaining 
the  open  country,  started  for  London,  guiding  himself  by  the 
stars.  Arrived  in  London,  he  made  his  way  to  the  house  of 
M.  Otto,  the  French  Agent  for  arranging  the  exchange  of 
prisoners.  Having  explained,  to  the  amazement  of  Otto,  that 
he  had  escaped  from  Portchester,  he  said  : 

"  Give  me  some  sort  of  a  suit  of  clothes,  and  a  few  sous  to 
defray  my  expenses  to  the  Castle,  and  I'll  return  and  astonish 
the  natives." 

'  Otto,  amused  at  the  man's  cleverness  and  impudence, 
complied,  and  Dufresne  in  a  few  days  alighted  from  the 
London  coach  at  Fareham,  walked  over  to  Portchester,  but 
was  refused  admission  by  the  guard,  until,  to  the  amazement 
of  the  latter,  he  produced  the  passport  by  which  he  had 
travelled.  He  was  soon  after  this  exchanged. 

'  Sheer  devilment  and  the  enjoyment  of  baffling  his  cus- 
todians seems  to  have  been  Dufresne's  sole  object  in  escaping. 
For  a  trifling  wager  he  would  scale  the  walls,  remain  absent 
for  a  few  days,  living  on  and  among  the  country  folk,  and 
return  as  he  went,  so  that  he  became  almost  a  popular  char- 
acter even  with  the  garrison.' 

Much  romance  which  has  been  unrecorded  no  doubt  is  inter- 
woven with  the  lives  of  the  foreign  prisoners  of  war  in  Britain. 
Two  cases  associated  with  Portchester  deserve  mention. 

The  church  register  of  1812  records  the  marriage  of  Patrick 
Bisson  to  Josephine  Desperoux.  The  latter  was  one  of  a 
company  of  French  ladies  who,  on  their  voyage  to  Mauritius, 
were  captured  by  a  British  cruiser,  and  sent  to  Portchester. 
Being  non-combatants,  they  were  of  course  not  subjected  to 
durance  vile  in  the  Castle,,  but  were  distributed  among  the 


PORTCHESTER  171 

houses  of  the  village,  and,  being  young  and  comely,  were  largely 
entertained  and  feted  by  the  gentry  of  the  neighbourhood,  the 
result  being  that  one,  at  least,  the  subject  of  our  notice,  capti- 
vated an  English  squire,  and  married  him. 

The  second  case  is  that  of  a  French  girl,  who,  distracted 
because  her  sailor  lover  had  been  captured,  enlisted  as  a  sailor 
on  a  privateer  on  the  bare  chance  of  being  captured  and  meeting 
him.  As  good  luck  would  have  it,  she  was  captured,  and  sent 
to  the  very  prison  where  was  her  sweetheart,  Portchester 
Castle.  For  some  months  she  lived  there  without  revealing  her 
sex,  until  she  was  taken  ill,  sent  to  the  hospital,  where,  of 
course,  her  secret  was  soon  discovered.  She  was  persuaded  to 
return  to  France  on  the  distinct  promise  that  her  lover  should 
be  speedily  exchanged. 

An  attempt  to  escape  which  had  fatal  results  was  made  in 
1797.  Information  was  given  to  the  authorities  that  a  long 
tunnel  had  been  made  from  one  of  the  prison  blocks  to  the 
outside.  So  it  was  arranged  that,  at  a  certain  hour  after  lock-up 
time,  the  guards  should  rush  in  and  catch  the  plotters  at  work. 
They  did  so,  and  found  the  men  in  the  tunnel.  Shortly  after- 
wards the  alarm  was  given  in  another  quarter,  and  prisoners 
were  caught  in  the  act  of  escaping  through  a  large  hole  they  had 
made  in  the  Castle  wall.  All  that  night  the  prisoners  were  very 
riotous,  keeping  candles  lighted,  singing  Republican  songs, 
dancing  and  cheering,  so  that  '  it  was  found  necessary  '  to  fire 
ball  cartridges  among  them,  by  which  many  men  were  wounded. 
But  the  effect  of  this  was  only  temporary.  Next  morning  the 
tumult  and  disorder  recommenced.  The  sentries  were  abused 
and  insulted,  and  one  prisoner,  trying  to  get  out  at  a  ventilator 
in  the  roof  of  one  of  the  barracks,  was  shot  in  the  back,  but  not 
mortally.  Another  was  shot  through  the  heart,  and  the 
coroner's  verdict  at  the  inquest  held  upon  him  was  '  Justifiable 
Homicide '. 

On  another  occasion  treachery  revealed  a  plot  of  eighteen 
Spaniards,  who,  armed  with  daggers  which  they  had  made  out 
of  horseshoe  files,  assembled  in  a  vault  under  one  of  the  towers 
with  the  idea  of  sallying  forth,  cutting  down  the  sentries,  and 
making  off ;  but  the  guards  crawled  in  and  disarmed  them 
after  a  short  struggle. 


172  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

In  1798  a  brewer's  man,  John  Cassel,  was  sentenced  to  six 
months'  imprisonment  for  helping  two  French  captains  to 
escape  by  carrying  them  away  in  empty  beer  casks. 

In  The  Times  of  July  2,  1799,  I  find  the  following  : 

'  Three. French  prisoners  made  their  escape  from  Portchester 
to  Southampton.  A  party  of  pleasure  seekers  had  engaged 
Wassell's  vessel  to  go  to  the  Isle  of  Wight.  At  an  early  hour 
on  Saturday  morning  on  repairing  to  the  Quay,  the  man  could 
not  discover  his  pleasure  boat.  Everyone  was  concerned  for 
his  loss,  and  many  hours  elapsed  before  any  tidings  could  be 
heard  of  her,  when  some  fishing-boats  gave  information  that 
they  had  met  her  near  Calshot  Castle  about  3  a.m.,  but  had 
no  suspicion  she  had  been  run  away  with.  In  the  evening 
news  came  that  in  steering  so  as  to  keep  as  far  from  Spithead 
as  possible,  the  Frenchmen  were  near  running  ashore  at 
Ryde.  This  convinced  the  pilots  that  Wassell  was  not  on 
board  the  vessel,  when  they  went  to  its  assistance,  secured  the 
three  men  and  saved  the  vessel/ 

'  The  bodies  of  six  drowned  Frenchmen  were  found  in 
Portsmouth  Harbour  ;  their  clothes  were  in  bundles  on  their 
backs,  and  their  swimming,  no  doubt,  was  impeded  thereby.' 

'  1800,  August  :  A  naked  French  prisoner  was  found  in 
a  field  near  Portchester.  He  said  he  had  lived  on  corn  for 
three  days,  and  that  the  body  of  his  friend  was  lying  on  the 
beach  close  by.' 

The  quiet  pathos  of  the  above  two  bald  newspaper  announce- 
ments must  appeal  to  everybody  who  for  a  moment  pictures  in 
his  mind  what  the  six  poor,  drowned  fellows,  and  the  two  friends 
— one  taken,  the  other  left— must  have  gone  through  in  their 
desperate  bids  for  liberty.  These  are  the  little  by-scenes  which 
make  up  the  great  tragedy  of  the  War  Prisoners  in  England. 

In  December  of  this  year  there  was  great  sickness  and 
mortality  at  Portchester. 

In  the  same  year  a  plot  to  murder  sentries  and  escape  was 
discovered  the  day  before  the  date  of  the  arranged  deed.  Forty 
men  were  concerned  in  the  plot,  and  upon  them  were  found 
long  knives,  sharpened  on  both  sides,  made  out  of  iron  hoops. 

In  1807  a  Portchester  prisoner  named  Cabosas  was  fined  one 
shilling  at  Winchester  for  killing  a  fellow  prisoner  in  a  duel,  and 
in  the  same  year  one  Herquiand  was  hanged  at  Winchester  for 
murder  in  the  Castle. 


CLOCK   MADE    IN    PORTCHESTER   CASTLE,  1809 

by  French  prisoners  of  war,  from  bones  saved  from 
their  rations 


PORTCHESTER  173 

In  1810  it  was  reported  that  Portchester  Castle  was  too 
crowded,  and  that  only  5,900  prisoners  could  be  kept  in  health 
there  instead  of  the  usual  7,000. 

I  will  now  give  some  accounts  of  life  at  Portchester,  and 
I  begin  with  one  by  an  English  officer,  '  The  Light  Dragoon/ 
as  a  relief  from  the  somewhat  monotonous  laments  which 
characterize  the  average  foreign  chronicler,  although  it  will  be 
noted  that  our  writer  does  not  allow  his  patriotism  to  bias  his 
judgement. 

Placed  on  guard  over  the  prisoners,  he  says  : 

'  Whatever  grounds  of  boasting  may  belong  to  us  as  a  nation, 
I  am  afraid  that  our  methods  of  dealing  with  the  prisoners 
taken  from  the  French  during  the  war  scarcely  deserves  to  be 
classed  among  them.  Absolute  cruelties  were  never,  I  believe, 
perpetrated  on  these  unfortunate  beings  ;  neither,  as  far  as 
I  know,  were  they,  on  any  pretence  whatever,  stinted  in  the 
allowance  of  food  awarded  to  them.  But  in  other  respects 
they  fared  hardly  enough.  Their  sleeping  apartments,  for 
instance,  were  very  much  crowded.  Few  paroles  were  extended 
to  them  (it  is  past  dispute  that  when  the  parole  was  obtained 
they  were,  without  distinction  of  rank,  apt  to  make  a  bad 
use  of  it),  while  their  pay  was  calculated  on  a  scale  as  near  to 
the  line  of  starvation  as  could  in  any  measure  correspond 
with  our  nation's  renown  for  humanity.  On  the  other  hand, 
every  possible  encouragement  was  given  to  the  exercise  of 
ingenuity  among  the  prisoners  themselves  by  the  throwing 
open  of  the  Castle  yard  once  or  twice  a  week,  when  their  wares 
were  exhibited  for  sale,  amid  numerous  groups  of  jugglers, 
tumblers,  and  musicians,  all  of  whom  followed  their  respective 
callings,  if  not  invariably  with  skill,  always  with  most  praise- 
worthy perseverance.  Moreover,  the  ingenuity  of  the  captives 
taught  them  how  on  these  occasions  to  set  up  stalls  on  which 
all  manner  of  trinkets  were  set  forth,  as  well  as  puppet  shows 
and  Punch's  opera.  .  .  .  Then  followed  numerous  purchases, 
particularly  on  the  part  of  the  country  people,  of  bone  and 
ivory  knick-knacks,  fabricated  invariably  with  a  common  pen- 
knife, yet  always  neat,  and  not  infrequently  elegant.  Nor 
must  I  forget  to  mention  the  daily  market  which  the  peasantry, 
particularly  the  women,  were  in  the  habit  of  attending,  and 
which  usually  gave  scope  for  the  exchange  of  Jean  Crapaud's 
manufacture  for  Nancy's  eggs,  or  Joan's  milk,  or  home-baked 
loaf.  .  .  . 

'  It  happened  one  night  that  a  sentry  whose  post  lay  outside 
the  walls  of  the  old  Castle,  was  startled  by  the  sound  as  of 


174  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

a  hammer  driven  against  the  earth  under  his  feet.  The  man 
stopped,  listened,  and  was  more  and  more  convinced  that 
neither  his  fears  nor  his  imagination  had  misled  him.  So  he 
reported  the  circumstance  to  the  sergeant  who  next  visited 
his  post,  and  left  him  to  take  in  the  matter  such  steps  as 
might  be  expedient.  The  sergeant,  having  first  ascertained, 
.as  in  duty  bound,  that  the  man  spoke  truly,  made  his  report 
to  the  captain  on  duty,  who  immediately  doubled  the  sentry 
at  the  indicated  spot,  and  gave  strict  orders  that  should  as 
much  as  one  French  prisoner  be  seen  making  his  way  beyond 
the  Castle  walls,  he  should  be  shot  without  mercy. 

'  Then  was  the  whole  of  the  guard  got  under  arms  :  then 
were  beacons  fired  in  various  quarters  ;  while  far  and  near, 
from  Portsmouth  not  less  than  from  the  cantonments  more 
close  at  hand,  bodies  of  troops  marched  upon  Portchester. 
Among  others  came  the  general  of  the  district,  bringing  with 
him  a  detachment  of  sappers  and  miners,  by  whom  all  the 
floors  of  the  several  bedrooms  were  tried,  and  who  soon  brought 
the  matter  home  to  those  engaged  in  it.  Indeed  one  man 
was  taken  in  the  gallery  he  was  seeking  to  enlarge,  his  only 
instrument  being  a  spike  nail  wherewith  to  labour.  The  plot 
thus  discovered  was  very  extensive  and  must,  if  carried 
through,  have  proved  a  desperate  one  to  both  parties.  For 
weeks  previous  to  the  discovery,  the  prisoners,  it  appeared, 
had  been  at  work,  and  from  not  fewer  than  seven  rooms,  all 
of  them  on  the  ground  floor,  they  had  sunk  shafts  12  feet 
in  depth,  and  caused  them  all  to  meet  at  one  common  centre, 
whence  as  many  chambers  went  off.  These  were  driven 
beyond  the  extremity  of  the  outer  wall,  and  one,  that  of 
which  the  sentry  was  thus  unexpectedly  made  aware,  the 
ingenious  miners  had  carried  forward  with  such  skill,  that  in 
two  days  more  it  would  have  been  in  a  condition  to  be  opened. 

'  The  rubbish,  it  appeared,  which  from  these  several 
covered  ways  they  scooped  out,  was  carried  about  by  the 
prisoners  in  their  pockets  till  they  found  an  opportunity  of 
scattering  it  over  the  surface  of  the  great  square.  Yet  the 
desperate  men  had  a  great  deal  more  to  encounter  than  the 
mere  obstacles  which  the  excavation  of  the  castle  at  Port- 
chester presented. 

'  Their  first  proceeding  after  emerging  into  the  upper  air 
must  needs  have  been  to  surprise  and  overpower  the  troops 
that  occupied  the  barracks  immediately  contiguous,  an 
operation  of  doubtful  issue  at  the  best,  and  not  to  be  accom- 
plished without  a  terrible  loss  of  life,  certainly  on  one  side, 
probably  on  both.  Moreover,  when  this  was  done,  there 
remained  for  the  fugitives  the  still  more  arduous  task  of  making 


PORTCHESTER  175 

their  way  through  the  heart  of  the  garrison  town  of  Portsmouth, 
and  seizing  a  flotilla  of  boats,  should  such  be  high  and  dry 
upon  the  beach.  Yet  worse  even  than  this  remained,  for 
both  the  harbour  and  the  roads  wore  crowded  with  men-of- 
war  the  gauntlet  of  whose  batteries  the  deserters  must  of 
necessity  have  run.  .  .  .' 

One  wishes  that  the  British  officer  could  have  given  us  some 
account  of  the  inner  life  at  Portchester,  from  his  point  of  view, 
but  the  foreign  narratives  which  follow  seem  to  have  been 
written  in  a  fair  and  broad  spirit  which  would  certainly  have 
not  been  manifest  had  the  genius  loci  of  the  hulks  been  influ- 
encing the  minds  of  the  writers. 

The  two  following  accounts,  by  St.  Aubin  and  Philippe  Gille, 
were  written  by  men  who  were  probably  in  Portchester  at  the 
same  time,  as  both  had  come  to  England  from  Cabrera— that 
terrible  prison  island  south  of  Majorca,  to  which  the  Spaniards 
sent  the  captives  of  Baylen  in  July  1808 — unfortunates  whose 
prolonged  living  death  there  must  ever  remain  an  indelible  stain 
upon  our  conduct  during  the  Peninsular  War. 

St.  Aubin  describes  the  Castle  as  divided  into  two  by  a  broad 
road  running  between  palisades,  on  the  one  side  of  which  were 
a  large  and  a  small  tower  and  nine  two-storied  wooden  buildings, 
and  on  the  other  a  church,  kitchens,  storehouses,  offices,  and 
hospital.  It  is  evident  that  what  he  calls  the  large  tower  is  the 
castle  keep,  for  this  held  from  1,200  to  1,500  prisoners,  while 
each  of  the  nine  barracks  accommodated  500. 

St.  Aubin  gives  us  the  most  detailed  account  of  the  Port- 
chester prisoners  and  their  life.  At  6  a.m.  in  summer,  and 
7  in  winter,  the  bell  announced  the  arrival  of  the  soldiers  and 
turnkeys,  who  opened  the  doors  and  counted  the  prisoners. 
At  9  o'clock  the  market  bell  rang  and  the  distributions  of  bread 
were  made.  The  prisoners  were  divided  into  plats  or  messes 
of  twelve,  each  plat  was  again  subdivided,  and  each  had  two 
gamelles  or  soup-pots.  At  midday  the  bell  announced  the 
closing  of  the  market  to  English  sellers,  who  were  replaced  by 
French,  and  also  the  distribution  of  soup  and  meat.  At  sunset 
the  bell  went  again,  jailers  and  sobers  went  through  the 
evening  count,  all  were  obliged  to  be  within  doors,  and  lights 
were  put  out. 


176  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Occasionally  in  the  grand  pre,  as  the  enclosure  within  the 
walls  was  called,  there  was  a  general  airing  of  prisons  and 
hammocks,  and  the  prisoners  were  obliged  to  stay  out  of  doors 
till  midday  ;  during  this  performance  the  masons  went  round 
to  sound  walls  and  floors,  to  see  that  no  attempts  to  escape 
were  being  engineered.  Each  story  of  the  tower  and  the 
prisons  had  two  prison  superintendents  at  eight  shillings  per 
month,  who  were  responsible  for  their  cleanliness,  and  a  barber. 
The  doctor  went  through  the  rooms  every  day. 

The  prisoners  prepared  their  own  food,  the  wages  of  the  master 
cooks  being  sevenpence  per  diem.  St.  Aubin  complains  bitterly 
of  the  quality  of  the  provisions,  especially  of  the  bread,  and  says 
that  it  was  quite  insufficient  on  account  of  the  avarice  of  the  con- 
tractors, but  at  any  rate,  he  says,  it  was  regularly  distributed. 

In  spite  of  all  this,  Port  Chester  was  preferred  by  the  prisoners 
to  other  depots,  because  it  was  easy  to  get  money  and  letters 
from  France  ;  and  it  may  be  noted  that  while  we  get  little  or  no 
mention  of  recreation  and  amusement  at  Norman  Cross,  01 
Stapleton,  or  Perth,  unless  gambling  comes  within  the  category, 
we  shall  see  that  at  Portchester  the  prisoners  seem  to  have  done 
their  very  best  to  make  the  long  days  pass  as  pleasantly  as 
possible. 

Portchester  was  a  veritable  hive  of  industry.  There  were 
manufacturers  of  straw  hats,  stockings,  gloves,  purses,  and 
braces.  There  were  cunning  artificers  in  bone  who  made 
tobacco  boxes,  dominoes,  chessmen,  models  of  all  kinds, 
especially  of  men-of-war,  one  of  which  latter,  only  one  foot  in 
length,  is  said  to  have  been  sold  for  £26,  as  well  as  of  the  most 
artistic  ornaments  and  knick-knacks.  There  were  tailors,  gold- 
smiths (so  says  St.  Aubin),  shoemakers,  caterers,  limonadiers, 
and  comedians  of  the  Punch  and  Judy  and  marionette  class. 
There  were  professors  of  mathematics,  of  drawing,  of  French, 
of  English,  of  Latin,  of  fencing,  of  writing,  of  dancing,  of  the 
baton,  and  of  la  boxe.  St.  Aubin  quotes  as  a  strange  fact  that 
most  of  the  prisoners  who,  on  going  to  Portchester,  knew  neither 
reading  nor  writing, '  en  sont  sortis  la  tete  et  la  bourse  passable- 
men  t  meublees. 

But  the  unique  feature  of  Portchester  industry  was  its  thread 
lace  manufacture. 


BONE  MODEL  OF  H.M.S.  VICTORY 
Made  by  prisoners  of  war  at  Portsmouth 


p.  176 


PORTCHESTER  177 

The  brilliant  idea  of  starting  this  belonged  to  a  French 
soldier  prisoner  who  had  been  born  and  bred  in  a  lace-making 
country,  and  had  been  accustomed  to  see  all  the  women  working 
at  it.  He  recalled  the  process  by  memory,  took  pupils,  and  in 
less  than  a  year  there  were  3,000  prisoners  in  Portchester 
making  lace,  and  among  these  were  '  capitalists  '  who  employed 
each  as  many  as  from  fifty  to  sixty  workmen.  So  beautiful 
was  this  lace,  and  so  largely  was  it  bought  by  the  surrounding 
families,  that  the  English  lace-makers  protested,  its  manu- 
facture within  the  prison  was  forbidden,  and  it  is  said  that  the 
work  of  suppression  was  carried  out  in  the  most  brutal  manner, 
the  machines  being  broken  and  all  lace  in  stock  or  in  process  of 
manufacture  destroyed. 

Gambling,  says  St.  Aubin,  was  the  all-pervading  vice  of 
Portchester,  as  in  the  other  prisons.  For  '  capitalists  '  there 
was  actually  a  roulette  table,  but  the  rank  and  file  gambled 
upon  the  length  of  straws,  with  cards  or  dominoes,  for  their 
rations,  their  clothes,  or  their  bedding.  The  authorities 
attempted  occasionally  to  check  the  mania  among  the  most 
enslaved  by  placing  them  apart  from  their  fellows,  reclothing 
them,  and  making  them  eat  their  rations,  but  in  vain,  for  they 
pierced  the  walls  of  their  places  of  confinement,  and  sold  their 
clothes  through  the  apertures.  Duels,  as  a  consequence,  were 
frequent,  the  usual  time  for  these  being  the  dinner  hour, 
because  all  the  prisoners  were  then  temporarily  in  the  salles. 

St.  Aubin  thus  describes  his  fellow  prisoners.  Sailors,  he 
says,  were  brusque  but  obliging  ;  soldiers  were  more  honest, 
softer  and  less  prompt  to  help  ;  maitres  d'armes  were  proud 
and  despotic.  The  scum  of  the  communitjT-  were  the  Raff  ales, 
who  lived  in  the  top  story  of  the  tower.  Among  the  two 
hundred  of  these  there  were  only  two  or  three  suits  of  clothes, 
which  were  worn  in  turn  by  those  who  had  to  go  out  foraging 
for  food.  These  men  terrorized  the  rest,  and  their  captain  was 
even  held  in  some  sort  of  fear,  if  not  respect,  by  the  authorities. 

The  prison  amusements  were  various.  The  prisoners  who 
had  no  occupations  played  draughts,  cards,  dominoes,  and 
billiards.  On  Sundays  the  beer-man  came,  and  much  drunken- 
ness prevailed,  especially  upon  fete  days,  such  as  St.  Martin's, 
Christmas,  and  August  15,  the  Emperor's  birthday:  the 


ABE 


178  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

principal  drinks  being  compounds  of  beer  and  spirits  known 
as  '  strom  '  and  '  shum  '.  On  St.  Cecilia's  Day  the  musicians 
always  gave  an  entertainment,  but  the  chief  form  of  amusement 
was  the  theatre. 

This  was  arranged  in  the  basement  of  the  large  tower — that 
is,  the  keep,  where  three  hundred  people  could  be  accommo- 
dated. Part  of  the  boxes  were  set  apart  for  English  visitors, 
who  appreciated  the  French  performances  so  much  that  they 
even  said  that  they  were  better  than  what  they  were  accustomed 
to  in  Portsmouth,  and  flocked  to  them,  much  to  the  disgust  of 
the  native  managers,  who  represented  to  the  authorities  that 
those  untaxed  aliens  were  taking  the  bread  out  of  their  mouths. 
The  Government  considered  the  matter,  and  upon  the  plea  that 
the  admission  of  the  English  public  to  the  French  theatre  was 
leading  to  too  great  intimacy  between  the  peoples,  and  thus 
would  further  the  escapes  of  prisoners,  took  advantage  of  the 
actual  escape  of  a  prisoner  in  English  dress  to  ordain  that 
although  the  theatre  might  continue  as  heretofore,  no  English 
were  to  be  admitted.  The  result  of  this  was  that  the  receipts 
dropped  from  £12  to  £5  a  night. 

St.  Aubin  remarks,  en  ^passant,  that  Commander  William 
Patterson  and  Major  Gentz,  who  were  chiefly  responsible  for 
the  retention  of  the  theatre,  were  the  only  Englishmen  he  ever 
met  who  were  worthy  of  respect ! 

Of  the  pieces  played,  St.  Aubin  mentions  L'Heureuse  Etour- 
derie  by  himself  ;  the  tragedies  Zaire,  Mahomet,  Les  Templiers  ; 
the  comedies  Les  Deux  Gendres,  Les  Folies  amoureuses,  Le 
Barbier  de  Seville,  Le  Tyran  domestique,  Defiance  et  Malice  ; 
many  dramas,  and  even  vaudevilles  and  operas  such  as  Les 
Deux  Journees,  Pierre  le  Grand,  Francoise  de  Foix,  of  which  the 
music  was  composed  by  prisoners  and  played  by  an  orchestra 
of  twelve. 

A  terrible  murder  is  said  to  have  been  the  outcome  of 
theatricals  in  the  prison.  In  describing  it  St.  Aubin  starts  with 
the  opinion  that '  Les  maitres  d'armes  sont  toujours  fort  vilains 
messieurs'.  There  was  a  quarrel  between  a  gunner  and 
a  maitre  des  logis ;  some  said  it  was  about  a  theatrical  part,  but 
others  that  the  gunner,  Tardif,  had  committed  a  crime  in  past 
days,  had  described  it  in  writing,  that  the  paper  had  fallen  from 


PORTCHESTER  179 

his  hammock  into  that  of  Leguay,  the  mattre  des  logis,  and  that 
Tardif  determined  to  get  the  possessor  of  his  secret  out  of  the 
way.  So  he  attacked  Leguay,  who  ran  bleeding  to  his  ham- 
mock, followed  by  Tardif,  who  then  dispatched  him,  and 
displayed  a  strange,  fierce  joy  at  the  deed  when  overpowered 
and  tied  to  a  pillar.  He  was  tried,  and  condemned  to  be 
hanged  at  Port  Chester  in  the  sight  of  all  the  prisoners.  '  The 
scaffold  was  erected  on  the  Portsmouth  road ',  says  St.  Aubin, 
not  within  the  Castle  precincts,  as  another  account  states.  He 
had  previously  sold  his  body  for  ten  francs  to  a  surgeon  for 
dissection. 

At  the  request  of  the  prisoners  the  body  of  Leguay  was 
buried  in  Portchester  churchyard.  All  joined  to  raise  funds  for 
the  funeral,  and  the  proceeds  of  a  performance  of  Robert,  chef  de 
brigands,  was  devoted  to  the  relief  of  the  widow  and  children 
of  the  murdered  man. 

At  the  funeral  of  Leguay,  sous-officiers  of  his  regiment, 
the  loth  Dragoons,  carried  the  coffin,  which  was  preceded  by 
a  British  military  band,  and  followed  by  the  sous-officiers  in 
uniform,  British  officers,  and  inhabitants  of  the  neighbourhood. 

Tardif  was  conveyed  from  Winchester  to  the  King's  Arms  Inn 
at  Portchester,  where  Mr.  White,  the  Roman  Catholic  priest, 
tried  to  get  him  to  take  the  last  Sacrament,  but  in  vain  :  Tardif 
only  wanted  the  execution  to  be  got  over  as  soon  as  possible. 
He  was  taken  in  a  cart  to  the  prison  yard,  where  were  assembled 
7,000  prisoners.  Again  the  priest  urged  him  to  repent,  but  it 
was  useless.  The  cap  was  drawn  over  his  face,  but  he  tore  it 
away,  and  died  as  he  had  lived.  The  behaviour  of  the  spectator 
prisoners  was  exemplary. 

At  the  Peace  and  Restoration  of  1814,  although  the  Port- 
chester prisoners  were  Bonapartists  almost  to  a  man,  quite 
a  boyish  joy  was  exhibited  at  the  approaching  liberation  : 
great  breakfasts  were  given  in  the  village,  and  by  the  end  of 
May  the  Castle  was  empty. 

The  notes  on  Portchester  of  Philippe  Gille,  author  of  Memoir es 
d'un  Consent  de  779^,  are  as  interesting  as  those  of  St.  Aubin, 
particularly  as  regards  the  amusements  of  the  prisoners,  and 
I  make  no  apology  for  adding  to  them  his  immediately  previous 
experiences,  as  they  are  not  distasteful  reading. 

N  2 


i8o  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Gille  was  taken  prisoner  in  Baylen,  and  at  first  was  put  on 
board  No.  27  Hulk,  at  Cadiz,  in  which  ship,  he  says,  were 
crowded  no  less  than  1,824  prisoners  !  Thence  he  was  sent  to 
Cabrera  and  relates  his  frightful  experiences  on  that  prison 
island. 

After  a  time  the  prisoners  were  taken  on  board  British  ships, 
and  learned  that  their  destination  was  an  English  prison — 
perhaps  the  dreaded  hulks  ! 

Gille  was  on  board  the  Britannia.  Let  me  tell  the  effect  of  the 
change  in  his  own  words,  they  are  so  gratifying  : 

'  Aux  traitements  cruels  des  feroces  Espagnols  succedaient 
tout  a  coup  les  soins  compatissants  des  soldats  et  matelots 
anglais  ;  ces  braves  gens  nous  temoignaient  toutes  sortes 
d'egards.  Us  transporterent  a  bras  plusieurs  de  nos  camarades 
malades  on  amputes.  Les  effets  qui  nous  appartenaient 
furent  aussi  monies  par  leurs  soins,  sans  qu'ils  nous  laissaient 
prendre  la  peine  de  rien.' 

On  board  there  were  cleanliness  and  space,  good  food  for 
officers  and  men  alike,  and  plenty  of  it,  the  allowance  being  the 
same  for  six  prisoners  as  for  four  British.  Rum  was  regularly 
served  out,  and  Gille  lays  stress  on  a  pudding  the  prisoners 
made,  into  the  composition  of  which  it  entered. 

They  duly  reached  Plymouth  ;  the  beautiful  scenery  im- 
pressed Gille,  but  he  was  most  astonished  when  the  market- 
boats  came  alongside  to  see  fish-women  clothed  in  black  velvet, 
with  feathers  and  flowers  in  their  hats  ! 

Thence  to  Portsmouth,  where  they  got  a  first  sight  of  the 
hulks,  which  made  Gille  shudder,  but  he  was  relieved  to  learn 
that  he  and  his  fellows  were  destined  for  a  shore  prison. 

On  September  28,  1810,  they  arrived  at  Portchester.  Here 
they  wrere  minutely  registered,  and  clothed  in  a  sleeved  vest, 
waistcoat,  and  trousers  of  yellow  cloth,  and  a  blue  and  white 
striped  cotton  shirt,  and  provided  with  a  hammock,  a  flock 
mattress  of  two  pounds  weight,  a  coverlet,  and  tarred  cords  for 
hammock  lashings. 

Gille  gives  much  interesting  detail  about  the  theatre.  The 
Agent,  William  Patterson,  found  it  good  policy  to  further  any 
scheme  by  which  the  prisoners  could  be  kept  wholesomely 
occupied,  and  so  provided  all  the  wood  necessary  for  the  build- 


PORTCHESTER  181 

ing  of  the  theatre,  which  was  in  charge  of  an  ex-chief-machinist 
of  the  Theatre  Feydau  in  Paris,  Carre  by  name.  He  made  a 
row  of  boxes  and  a  hall  capable  of  holding  300  people,  and 
thoroughly  transformed  the  base  story  of  the  keep,  which  was 
unoccupied  because  prisoners  confined  there  in  past  times  had 
died  in  great  numbers,  and  the  authorities  deemed  it  unwhole- 
some as  a  sleeping-place. 

Carre's  Arabian  F eerie  was  a  tremendous  success,  but  it  led 
to  the  Governmental  interference  with  the  theatre  already 
mentioned.  An  English  major  who  took  a  lively  interest  in  the 
theatre  (probably  the  Major  Gentz  alluded  to  by  St.  Aubin) 
had  his  whole  regiment  in  to  see  it  at  one  shilling  a  head,  and 
published  in  the  Portsmouth  papers  a  glowing  panegyric  upon 
it,  and  further  invited  the  directors  of  the  Portsmouth  Theatre 
to  '  come  to  see  how  a  theatre  should  be  run  '.  They  came, 
were  very  pleased  and  polite,  but  very  soon  after  came  an  order 
from  the  authorities  that  the  theatre  should  be  shut.  How- 
ever, by  the  influence  of  the  Agent,  it  was  permitted  to  continue, 
on  the  condition  that  no  English  people  were  to  be  admitted. 

Carre  painted  a  drop-scene  which  was  a  masterpiece.  It  was 
a  view  of  Paris  from  a  house  at  the  corner  of  the  Place  Dauphine 
on  the  Pont-Neuf,  showing  the  Cafe  Paris  on  the  point  of  the 
island,  the  Bridges  of  the  Arts,  the  Royal  and  the  Concorde, 
and  the  Bains  des  Bons-Hommes  in  the  distance,  the  Colonnade 
of  the  Louvre,  the  Tuileries  with  the  national  flag  flying,  the 
Hotel  de  Monnaies,  the  Quatre  Nations,  and  the  '  theatins  '  of 
the  Quai  Voltaire.  It  may  be  imagined  how  this  home-touch 
aroused  the  enthusiasm  of  the  poor  exiles  ! 

New  plays  were  received  from  Paris,  amongst  them  Le  Petit 
Poucet,  Le  Diable  ou  la  Bohemienne,  Les  Deux  Journees  and 
Adolphe  et  Clara.  The  musical  pieces  were  accompanied  by  an 
orchestra  (of  prisoners,  of  course)  under  Corret  of  the  Conserva- 
toire, who  composed  fresh  music  for  such  representations  as 
Francoise  de  Foix  and  Pierre  le  Grand,  as  their  original  music 
was  too  expensive,  and  who  played  the  cornet  solos,  Gourdet 
being  first  violin. 

Gille's  own  metier  was  to  make  artificial  flowers,  and  to  give 
lessons  in  painting,  for  which  he  took  pupils  at  one  franc  fifty 
centimes  a  month — the  regulation  price  for  all  lessons.  He 


182  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

also  learned  the  violin,  and  had  an  instrument  made  by  a  fellow 
prisoner. 

At  Portchester,  as  elsewhere,  a  Masonic  Lodge  was  formed 
among  the  prisoners. 

In  1812  was  brought  to  light  the  great  plot  for  the  70,000 
prisoners  in  England  to  rise  simultaneously,  to  disarm  their 
guards,  who  were  only  militia  men,  and  to  carry  on  a  guerilla 
warfare,  avoiding  all  towns.  At  Portchester  the  7,000  prisoners 
were  to  overpower  the  garrison,  which  had  two  cannon  and  800 
muskets,  and  march  to  Forton,  where  were  3,000  prisoners. 
The  success  of  the  movement  was  to  depend  upon  the  co- 
operation of  the  Boulogne  troops  and  ships,  in  keeping  the 
British  fleet  occupied,  but  the  breaking  up  of  the  Boulogne 
Camp,  in  order  to  reinforce  the  Grand  Army  for  the  expedition 
to  Russia,  caused  the  abandonment  of  the  enterprise. 

The  news  of  the  advance  of  the  Allies  in  France  only  served 
to  bind  the  Imperialists  together  :  the  tricolour  cockade  was 
universally  worn,  and  an  English  captain  who  entered  the 
Castle  wearing  a  white  cockade  was  greeted  with  hisses,  groans, 
and  even  stone-throwing,  and  was  only  saved  from  further 
mischief  by  the  Agent — a  man  much  respected  by  the  prisoners 
— who  got  him  away  and  gave  him  a  severe  lecture  on  his 
foolishness.  On  Easter  Day,  1814,  the  news  of  Peace,  of  the 
accession  of  Louis  XVIII,  and  of  freedom  for  the  prisoners  came. 
The  Agent  asked  the  prisoners  to  hoist  the  white  flag  as  a  greet- 
ing to  the  French  officer  who  was  coming  to  announce  formally 
the  great  news,  and  to  arrange  for  the  departure  of  the  prisoners. 
A  unanimous  refusal  was  the  result,  and  a  British  soldier  had 
to  hoist  the  flag.  Contre-amiral  Troude  came.  There  was 
a  strong  feeling  against  him,  inasmuch  as  it  was  reported  that 
in  order  to  gain  his  present  position  he  had  probably  given  up 
his  fleet  to  England,  and  a  resolution  was  drawn  up  not  to 
acclaim  him.  All  the  same,  Gille  says,  the  speech  he  made  so 
impressed  the  prisoners  that  he  was  loudly  cheered,  and  went 
away  overcome  with  emotion. 

The  next  day  his  mission  took  him  to  the  prison  ships.  Here 
he  did  not  succeed  so  well,  for  as  he  approached  one  of  the 
hulks  he  had  a  large  basket  of  filth  thrown  over  him,  and 
he  had  to  leave  without  boarding  her.  By  way  of  punish- 


PORTCHESTER  183 

ment,  the  prisoners  on  this  ship  were  made  the  last  to  leave 
England. 

On  May  15,  1814,  the  evacuation  of  Portchester  began.  Gille 
left  on  the  2Oth,  carrying  away  the  best  of  feelings  towards  the 
Agent  and  the  Commandant,  the  former  showing  his  sympathy 
with  the  prisoners  to  the  very  last,  by  taking  steps  so  that  the 
St.  Malo  men,  of  whom  there  were  a  great  many,  should  be  sent 
direct  to  their  port  instead  of  being  landed  at  Calais. 

Gille  describes  a  very  happy  homeward  voyage,  thanks 
largely  to  the  English  doctor  on  the  ship,  who,  finding  that 
Gille  was  a  Mason,  had  him  treated  with  distinction,  and  even 
offered  to  help  him  with  a  loan  of  money. 

Pillet,  the  irrepressible,  tells  a  yarn  that  '  Milor  Cordower 
(Lord  Cawdor),  Colonel  du  regiment  de  Carmarthen  ',  visiting 
the  Castle  one  day,  was  forgetful  enough  to  leave  his  horse  un- 
attended, tied  up  in  the  courtyard ;  when  he  returned  there  was 
no  horse  to  be  found,  and  it  turned  out  that  the  prisoners, 
mad  with  hunger,  had  taken  the  horse,  killed  it,  and  eaten  it  raw. 
Pillet  adds  that  all  dogs  who  strayed  Portchester  way  suffered 
the  same  fate,  and  that  in  support  of  his  statement  he  can 
bring  many  naval  officers  of  Lorient  and  Brest. 

Pillet 's  story,  I  think,  is  rather  better  than  Garneray's  about 
the  great  Dane  on  the  prison  ship  (see  pp.  68-71). 

The  last  French  prisoners  left  Portchester  at  the  end  of  May 
1814,  but  American  prisoners  were  here  until  January  1816. 
After  the  Peace  all  the  wooden  buildings  were  taken  down  and 
sold  by  auction  (a  row  of  cottages  in  Fareham,  built  out  of 
the  material,  still  enjoys  the  name  of  'Bug  Row').  Relics 
of  this  period  of  the  Castle's  history  are  very  scanty. 
The  old  Guard  House  at  the  Land  Gate,  now  the  Castle 
Custodian's  dwelling,  remains  much  as  it  was,  and  a  line  of 
white  stones  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  approach  marks  the 
boundary  of  the  old  prison  hospital,  which  is  also  com- 
memorated in  the  name  Hospital  Lane. 

The  great  tower  still  retains  the  five  stories  which  were  ar- 
ranged for  the  prisoners,  and  on  the  transverse  beams  are  still 
the  hooks  to  which  the  hammocks  were  suspended.  Some  crude 
coloured  decoration  on  the  beams  of  the  lowest  story  may  have 
been  the  work  of  the  French  theatrical  artists,  but  I  doubt  it. 


184  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Names  of  French  and  other  prisoners  are  cut  on  many  of  the 
walls  and  wooden  beams,  notably  at  the  very  top  of  the  great 
tower,  which  is  reached  by  a  dark,  steep  newel  stair  of  Norman 
work,  now  almost  closed  to  the  public  on  account  of  the 
dangerous  condition  of  many  of  the  steps.  This  was  the  stair 
used  by  Dufresne,  and  the  number  of  names  cut  in  the  topmost 
wall  would  seem  to  show  that  the  lofty  coign,  whence  might 
be  seen  a  widespread  panorama,  stretching  on  three  sides  far 
away  to  the  Channel,  and  to  these  poor  fellows  possible  liberty, 
was  a  favourite  resort.  I  noted  some  twenty  decipherable 
names,  the  earliest  date  being  1745  and  the  latest  1803. 

Only  one  death  appears  in  the  Church  Register — that  of 
'  Peter  Goston,  a  French  prisoner  ',  under  date  of  December  18, 
1812. 

There  seems  to  have  been  no  separate  burial  ground  for  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  prisoners,  but  it  is  said  that  they  were 
shovelled  away  into  the  tide-swept  mud-flats  outside  the  South 
Gate,  and  that,  for  economy,  a  single  coffin  with  a  sliding  bottom 
did  duty  for  many  corpses.  But  human  remains  in  groups 
have  been  unearthed  all  around  the  Castle,  and,  as  it  is  known 
that  at  certain  periods  the  mortality  among  the  prisoners  was 
very  high,  it  is  believed  that  these  are  to  be  dated  from  the 
prisoner-of-war  epoch  of  the  Castle's  history. 

No  descendants  of  the  prisoners  are  to  be  traced  in  or 
about  Portchester ;  but  Mrs.  Durrand,  who  is  a  familiar  figure  to 
all  visitors  to  the  Castle,  believes  that  her  late  husband's 
grandfather  was  a  French  prisoner  of  war  here. 

It  may  be  noted  that  Arthur  Wellesley,  afterwards  Duke  of 
Wellington,  was  at  one  time  an  officer  of  the  garrison  at  Port- 
chester. 


NOTE  ON  THE  PORTCHESTER  THEATRICALS 

A  correspondent  of  the  French  paper  L'Intermediaire,  the  equivalent 
of  our  Notes  and  Queries,  gives  some  details.  The  Portchester 
Theatricals  originated  with  the  prisoners  who  came  from  Cabrera  and 
the  Isle  de  Leon.  On  these  awful  islands  the  prisoners  played  entirely 
as  amateurs,  but  at  Portchester  the  majority  of  the  actors  were 
salaried  ;  indeed,  only  three  were  not. 


PORTCHESTER  185 

I  give  a  list  of  the  actors  in  or  about  the  year  1810  : 

1.  Societaires  (salaried  subscribers). 

Hanin,   an  employe   in  the   English   prison  office,   with   the   purely 

honorary  title  of  Director. 

Breton,  Sergeant,  2nd  Garde  de  Paris        Comique. 

Reverdy          ,,  ,,  ,,  pere  noble. 

Lafontaine      ,,  ,,  ,,  jeune  premier. 

Gruentgentz   ,,  ,,  ,,  mere  et  duegne. 

Moreau,  Captain  ,,  ,,  lesColins. 

Blin  de  Balue,  Sergeant,  Marine  Artillery  les  tyrans. 

Sutat  (?),  Marechal  des  logis  jeune  premiere. 

Wanthies,  Captain,  4th  Legion  soubrette  et  jeune  premiere. 

Defacq,  fourrier,  chasseurs  a  cheval  jeune  premier  en  seconde. 

Siutor  or  Pintor,  marin  jouant  les  accessoires. 

Palluel,  fourrier,  2nd  Garde  de  Paris  bas  comique. 

Carre,  soldat  ,,  ,,  machiniste. 

Montlefort,  Marine  artificier. 

2.  Amateurs. 

Gille,  fourrier,  ist  Legion  jeunes  premiers. 

Quantin    ,,  les  ingenues. 

Iwan,  chasseurs  a  cheval  les  confidents. 

The  orchestra  consisted  of  four  violins,  two  horns,  three  clarinets, 
and  one  '  octave  '. 

In  the  above  list  both  Gille  and  Quantin  wrote  memoirs  of  their 
stay  at  Porchester.  The  former  I  have  quoted. 

A  French  writer  thus  sarcastically  speaks  of  the  dramatic  efforts 
of  these  poor  fellows  : 

'  Those  who  never  have  seen  the  performances  of  wandering  troupes 
in  some  obscure  village  of  Normandy  or  Brittany  can  hardly  form  an 
idea  of  these  prison  representations  wherein  rough  sailors  with  a  few 
rags  wrapped  about  them  mouth  the  intrigues  and  sentiments  of  our 
great  poets  in  the  style  of  the  cabaret.' 

No  doubt  the  performances  on  the  hulks  were  poor  enough.  The 
wonder  to  us  who  know  what  life  was  on  the  hulks  is,  not  that  they 
were  poor,  but  that  there  was  any  heart  to  give  them  at  all.  But  there 
is  plenty  of  evidence  that  the  performances  in  such  a  prison  as 
Porchester,  wherein  were  assembled  many  men  of  education  and 
refinement,  were  more  than  good.  At  any  rate,  we  have  seen  that 
they  were  good  enough  to  attract  English  audiences  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  interfere  with  the  success  of  the  local  native  theatres,  and  to 
bring  about  the  exclusion  from  them  of  these  English  audiences. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  PRISONS  ASHORE 

5.     LIVERPOOL 

LIVERPOOL  became  a  considerable  depot  for  prisoners  of  war, 
from  the  force  of  circumstances  rather  than  from  any  suitability 
of  its  own.  From  its  proximity  to  Ireland,  the  shelter  and 
starting  and  refitting  point  of  so  many  French,  and,  later, 
American  privateers,  Liverpool  shared  with  Bristol,  and 
perhaps  with  London,  the  position  of  being  the  busiest  priva- 
teering centre  in  Britain. 

Hence,  from  very  early  days  in  its  history,  prisoners  were 
continually  pouring  in  and  out ;  in,  as  the  Liverpool  privateers, 
well  equipped  and  armed  by  wealthy  individuals  or  syndicates, 
skilfully  commanded  and  splendidly  fought,  swept  the  narrow 
seas  and  beyond,  and  brought  in  their  prizes  ;  out,  as  both 
sides  were  ready  enough  to  exchange  men  in  a  contest  of  which 
booty  was  the  main  object,  and  because  the  guarding  of  hun- 
dreds of  desperate  seafaring  men  was  a  matter  of  great  difficulty 
and  expense  in  an  open  port  with  no  other  than  the  usual 
accommodation  for  malefactors. 

Before  1756  the  prisoners  of  war  brought  into  Liverpool  were 
stowed  away  in  the  common  Borough  Gaol  and  in  an  old 
powder  magazine  which  stood  on  the  north  side  of  Brownlow 
Street,  where  Russell  Street  now  is.  Prisoners  taken  in  the 
Seven  Years'  War  and  the  American  War  of  Independence 
were  lodged  in  the  Tower  Prison  at  the  lower  end  of  Water 
Street,  on  the  north  side,  where  now  Tower  Buildings  stand, 
between  Tower  Garden  and  Stringers  Alley,  which  remained 
the  chief  jail  of  Liverpool  until  July  1811.  It  was  a  castel- 
lated building  of  red  sandstone,  consisting  of  a  large  square 
embattled  tower,  with  subordinate  towers  and  buildings, 
forming  three  sides  of  a  quadrangle  of  which  the  fourth  side 
was  occupied  by  a  walled  garden,  the  whole  covering  an  area 
of  about  3,700  square  yards. 


LIVERPOOL 


187 


188  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

In  1756  the  Admiralty  had  bought  the  dancing-room  and 
the  buildings  adjoining  at  the  bottom  of  Water  Street,  and 
'  fitted  them  up  for  the  French  prisoners  in  a  most  commodious 
manner,  there  being  a  handsome  kitchen  with  furnaces,  &c., 
for  cooking  their  provisions,  and  good  lodging  rooms  both  above 
and  below  stairs.  Their  lordships  have  ordered  a  hammock 
and  bedding  (same  as  used  on  board  our  men  of  war) ,  for  each 
prisoner,  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  will  be  a  means  of  procuring 
our  countrymen  who  have  fallen  into  their  hands  better  usage 
than  hitherto,  many  of  them  having  been  treated  with  great 
inhumanity. ' 

One  of  the  most  famous  of  the  early  French  '  corsaires ', 
Thurot — who  during  the  Seven  Years'  War  made  Ireland  his 
base,  and,  acting  with  the  most  admirable  skill  and  audacity, 
caused  almost  as  much  loss  and  consternation  on  this  coast  as 
did  Paul  Jones  later — was  at  last  brought  a  prisoner  into  Liver- 
pool on  February  28,  1760. 

The  romance  of  Felix  Durand,  a  Seven  Years'  War  prisoner 
at  the  Tower,  is  almost  as  interesting  as  that  of  Louis  Vanhille, 
to  which  I  devote  a  separate  chapter. 

The  wife  of  one  P.,  an  ivory  carver  and  turner  in  Dale 
Street,  and  part  owner  of  the  Mary  Ellen  privateer,  had  a 
curiously  made  foreign  box  which  had  been  broken,  and  which 
no  local  workman  could  mend.  The  French  prisoners  were 
famous  as  clever  and  ingenious  artisans,  and  to  one  of  them, 
Felix  Durand,  it  was  handed.  He  accepted  the  job,  and 
wanted  ample  time  to  do  it  in.  Just  as  it  should  have  been 
finished,  fifteen  prisoners,  Durand  among  them,  escaped  from 
the  Tower,  but,  having  neither  food  nor  money,  and,  being 
ignorant  of  English  and  of  the  localities  round  Liverpool,  all, 
after  wandering  about  for  some  time  half-starved,  either 
returned  or  were  captured. 

Says  Durand,  describing  his  own  part  in  the  affair  : 

'  I  am  a  Frenchman,  fond  of  liberty  and  change,  and  I  deter- 
mined to  make  my  escape.  I  was  acquainted  with  Mr.  P. 
in  Dale  Street ;  I  did  work  for  him  in  the  Tower,  and  he  has 
a  niece  who  is  tout  a  fait  charmante.  She  has  been  a  constant 
ambassadress  between  us,  and  has  taken  charge  of  my  money 
to  deposit  with  her  uncle  on  my  account.  She  is  very  engaging, 


LIVERPOOL  189 

and  when  I  have  had  conversation  with  her,  I  obtained  from 
her  the  information  that  on  the  east  side  of  our  prison  there 
were  two  houses  which  opened  into  a  short  narrow  street 
[perhaps  about  Johnson  Lane  or  Oriel  Chambers].  Made- 
moiselle is  very  kind  and  complacent,  and  examined  the 
houses  and  found  an  easy  entrance  into  one.' 

So,  choosing  a  stormy  night,  the  prisoners  commenced  by 
loosening  the  stone  work  in  the  east  wall,  and  packing  the 
mortar  under  their  beds.  They  were  safe  during  the  day,  but 
once  when  a  keeper  did  come  round,  they  put  one  of  their  party 
in  bed,  curtained  the  window  grating  with  a  blanket,  and  said 
that  their  compatriot  was  ill  and  could  not  bear  the  light.  So 
the  officer  passed  on.  At  last  the  hole  was  big  enough,  and  one 
of  them  crept  through.  He  reported  an  open  yard,  that  it  was 
raining  heavily,  and  that  the  night  was  affreuse.  They  crept 
out  one  by  one  and  got  into  the  yard,  whence  they  entered 
a  cellar  by  the  window,  traversed  a  passage  or  two,  and  entered 
the  kitchen,  where  they  made  a  good  supper,  of  bread  and  beef. 
While  cutting  this,  one  of  them  let  fall  a  knife,  but  nobody 
heard  it,  and,  says  Durand, '  Truly  you  Englishmen  sleep  well  ! ' 

Finally,  as  a  neighbouring  clock  struck  two,  they  managed 
to  get  past  the  outer  wall,  and  one  man,  sent  to  reconnoitre, 
reported  :  '  not  a  soul  to  be  seen  anywhere,  the  wind  rushing 
up  the  main  street  from  the  sea.' 

They  then  separated.  Durand  went  straight  ahead,  '  passed 
the  Exchange,  down  a  narrow  lane  [Dale  Street]  facing  it,  in 
which  I  knew  Mademoiselle  dwelt,  but  did  not  know  the  house  ; 
therefore  I  pushed  on  till  I  came  to  the  foot  of  a  hill.  I  thought 
I  would  turn  to  the  left  at  first,  but  went  on  to  take  my  chance 
of  four  cross  roads — '  (Old  Haymarket,  Townsend  Lane,  now 
Byron  Street,  Dale  Street,  and  Shaw's  Brow,  now  William 
Brown  Street). 

He  went  on  until  he  came  to  the  outskirts  of  Liverpool  by 
Townsend  Mill  (at  the  top  of  London  Road),  and  so  on  the  road 
to  Fresco t,  ankle-deep  in  mud.  He  ascended  Edge  Hill,  keep- 
ing always  the  right-hand  road,  lined  on  both  sides  with  high 
trees,  and  at  length  arrived  at  a  little  village  (Wavertree)  as 
a  clock  struck  three.  Then  he  ate  some  bread  and  drank  from 
a  pond.  Then  onwards,  always  bearing  to  the  right,  on  to 


i go  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

'  the  quaint  little  village  of  Hale/  his  final  objective  being 
Dublin,  where  he  had  a  friend,  a  French  priest. 

At  Hale  an  old  woman  came  out  of  a  cottage  and  began  to 
take  down  the  shutters.  Durand,  who,  not  knowing  English, 
had  resolved  to  play  the  part  of  a  deaf  and  dumb  man,  quietly 
took  the  shutters  from  her,  and  placed  them  in  their  proper 
position.  Then  he  took  a  broom  and  swept  away  the  water 
from  the  front  of  the  door  ;  got  the  kettle  and  filled  it  from  the 
pump,  the  old  woman  being  too  astonished  to  be  able  to  say 
anything,  a  feeling  which  was  increased  when  her  silent  visitor 
raked  the  cinders  out  of  the  grate,  and  laid  the  fire.  Then  she 
said  something  in  broad  Lancashire,  but  he  signified  that  he 
was  deaf  and  dumb,  and  he  understood  her  so  far  as  to  know 
that  she  expressed  pity.  At  this  point  he  sank  on  to  a  settle 
and  fell  fast  asleep  from  sheer  exhaustion  from  walking  and 
exposure.  When  he  awakened  he  found  breakfast  awaiting 
him,  and  made  a  good  meal.  Then  he  did  a  foolish  thing.  At 
the  sound  of  horses'  hoofs  he  sprang  up  in  alarm  and  fled  from 
the  house — an  act  doubly  ill-advised,  inasmuch  as  it  betrayed 
his  affliction  to  be  assumed,  and,  had  his  entertainer  been  a 
man  instead  of  an  old  woman,  would  assuredly  have  stirred  the 
hue  and  cry  after  him. 

He  now  took  a  wrong  turning,  and  found  himself  going 
towards  Liverpool,  but  corrected  his  road,  and  at  midday 
reached  a  barn  where  two  men  were  threshing  wheat.  He 
asked  leave  by  signs  to  rest,  which  was  granted.  We  shall  now 
see  how  the  native  ingenuity  of  the  Frenchman  stood  him  in 
good  stead  in  circumstances  where  the  average  Englishman 
would  have  been  a  useless  tramp  and  nothing  more.  Seeing 
some  fresh  straw  in  a  corner,  Durand  began  to  weave  it  into 
a  dainty  basket.  The  threshers  stayed  their  work  to  watch 
him,  and,  when  the  article  was  finished,  offered  to  buy  it.  Just 
then  the  farmer  entered,  and  from  pity  and  admiration  took 
him  home  to  dinner,  and  Durand's  first  act  was  to  present 
the  basket  to  the  daughter  of  the  house.  Dinner  finished,  the 
guest  looked  about  for  work  to  do,  and  in  the  course  of  the 
afternoon  he  repaired  a  stopped  clock  with  an  old  skewer  and 
a  pair  of  pincers,  mended  a  chair,  repaired  a  china  image,  cleaned 
an  old  picture,  repaired  a  lock,  altered  a  key,  and  fed  the  pigs  ! 


LIVERPOOL  191 

The  farmer  was  delighted,  and  offered  him  a  barn  to  sleep 
in,  but  the  farmer's  daughter  injudiciously  expressed  her 
admiration  of  him,  whereupon  her  sweetheart,  who  came  in  to 
spend  the  evening,  signed  to  him  the  necessity  of  his  immediate 
departure. 

For  weeks  this  extraordinary  man,  always  simulating  a  deaf- 
mute,  wandered  about,  living  by  the  sale  of  baskets,  and  was 
everywhere  received  with  the  greatest  kindness. 

But  misfortune  overtook  him  at  length,  although  only  tem- 
porarily. He  was  standing  by  a  very  large  tree,  a  local  lion, 
when  a  party  of  visitors  came  up  to  admire  it,  and  a  young  lady 
expressed  herself  in  very  purely  pronounced  French.  Unable 
to  restrain  himself,  Durand  stepped  forward,  and  echoed  her 
sentiments. 

'  Why  !  '  exclaimed  the  lady.  '  This  is  the  dumb  man  who 
was  at  the  Hall  yesterday  repairing  the  broken  vases  !  ' 

The  result  was  that  he  was  arrested  as  an  escaped  prisoner  of 
war,  sent  first  to  Ormskirk,  and  then  back  to  his  old  prison  at 
the  Liverpool  Tower. 

However,  in  a  short  time,  through  the  influence  of  Sir  Edward 
Cunliffe,  one  of  the  members  for  Liverpool,  he  was  released,  and 
went  to  reside  with  the  P.'s  in  Dale  Street.  In  the  following 
September  Mr.  Durand  and  Miss  P.  became  man  and  wife,  and 
he  remained  in  Liverpool  many  years,  as  partner  in  her  uncle's 
business. 

In  1779  Howard  the  philanthropist,  in  his  tour  through  the 
prisons  of  Britain,  visited  the  Liverpool  Tower.  He  reported 
that  there  were  therein  509  prisoners,  of  whom  fifty-six  were 
Spaniards,  who  were  kept  apart  from  the  French  prisoners,  on 
account  of  racial  animosities.  All  were  crowded  in  five  rooms, 
which  were  packed  with  hammocks  three  tiers  high.  The  airing 
ground  was  spacious.  There  were  thirty-six  invalids  in  a  small 
dirty  room  of  a  house  at  some  distance  from  the  prison.  There 
were  no  sheets  on  the  beds,  but  the  surgeons  were  attentive,  and 
there  were  no  complaints. 

At  the  prison,  he  remarked,  the  bedding  required  regulation. 
There  was  no  table  hung  up  of  regulations  or  of  the  victualling 
rate,  so  that  the  prisoners  had  no  means  of  checking  their 
allowances.  The  meat  and  beer  were  good,  but  the  bread  was 


192  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

heavy.  The  late  Agent,  he  was  informed,  had  been  very 
neglectful  of  his  duties,  but  his  successor  bore  a  good  character, 
and  much  was  expected  of  him. 

It  has  been  said  that  most  of  the  prisoners  of  war  in  Liverpool 
were  privateersmen.  In  1779  Paul  Jones  was  the  terror  of  the 
local  waters,  and  as  his  continual  successes  unsettled  the 
prisoners  and  incited  them  to  continual  acts  of  mutiny  and 
rebellion,  and  escapes  or  attempts  to  escape  were  of  daily 
occurrence,  a  general  shifting  of  prisoners  took  place,  many  of 
the  confined  men  being  sent  to  Chester,  Carlisle,  and  other 
inland  towns,  and  the  paroled  men  to  Ormskirk  and  Wigan. 

In  1779  Sir  George  Saville  and  the  Yorkshire  Militia  sub- 
scribed £50  to  the  fund  for  the  relief  of  the  French  and  Spanish 
prisoners  in  Liverpool.  The  appeal  for  subscriptions  wound  up 
with  the  following  complacent  remark  : 

'  And  as  the  Town  of  Liverpool  is  already  the  Terror  of  our 
Foes,  they  will  by  this  means  (at  the  time  they  acknowledge 
our  Spirit  and  Bravery)  be  obliged  to  reverence  our  Virtue  and 
Humanity.' 

In  1781  the  Rev.  Gilbert  Wakefield  wrote  : 

'  The  American  and  French  Wars  had  now  been  raging  for 
some  months,  and  several  hundred  prisoners  of  the  latter 
nation  had  been  brought  into  Liverpool  by  privateers.  I  fre- 
quently visited  them  in  their  confinement,  and  was  much 
mortified  and  ashamed  of  their  uniform  complaints  of  hard 
usage  and  a  scanty  allowance  of  unwholesome  provision. 
What  I  occasionally  observed  in  my  visits  gave  me  but  too 
much  reason  to  believe  the  representations  of  this  pleasing 
people,  who  maintained  their  national  sprightliness  and  good 
humour  undamped  even  in  captivity.  I  was  happy  to  learn 
later  from  the  prisoners  themselves  the  good  effects  of  my 
interference,  and  the  Commissary,  the  author  of  their  wrongs, 
was  presently  superseded  .  .  .  When  I  met  him  in  the  street 
later  there  was  fire  in  his  eye,  and  fury  in  his  face.' 

In  1793,  the  New  Borough  Gaol  in  Great  Howard  Street,, 
(formerly  Milk  House  Lane) ,  which  had  been  built  in  1786,  but 
never  used,  was  made  ready  for  prisoners  of  war. 

The  following  letter  to  the  Liverpool  Courier  of  January  12, 
1798,  was  characterized  by  The  Times  as  '  emanating  from 
some  sanguinary  Jacobin  in  some  back  garret  of  London  '  : 


LIVERPOOL  193 

'  The  French  prisoners  in  the  dungeons  of  Liverpool  are 
actually  starving.  Some  time  ago  their  usual  allowance  was 
lessened  under  pretence  of  their  having  bribed  the  sentinels 
with  the  superfluity  of  their  provisions.  Each  prisoner  is 
allowed  Jib.  of  beef,  lib.  bread,  &c.,  and  as  much  water  as 
he  can  drink.  The  meat  is  the  offal  of  the  Victualling  Office  — 
the  necks  and  shanks  of  the  butchered  ;  the  bread  is  so  bad 
and  so  black  as  to  incite  disgust  ;  and  the  water  so  brackish 
as  not  to  be  drunken,  and  they  are  provided  with  straw. 
The  officers,  contrary  to  the  rule  of  Nations,  are  imprisoned 
with  the  privates,  and  are  destined  with  them  to  experience 
the  dampness  and  filth  of  these  dismal  and  unhealthy  dungeons. 
The  privileges  of  Felons  are  not  allowed  them.  Philanthropes/ 

So  the  Mayor  and  Magistrates  of  Liverpool  made  minute 
inspection  of  the  prison  (which  had  been  arranged  in  accordance 
with  Howard's  recommendations),  and  published  a  report 
which  absolutely  contradicted  the  assertions  of  '  Philanthropes  '. 
There  were,  it  said,  six  large  detached  buildings,  each  of  three 
stories,  106  feet  long,  twenty-three  feet  high,  and  forty-seven 
feet  wide  ;  there  were  two  kitchens,  each  forty-eight  feet  long, 
twenty  feet  broad,  and  thirteen  feet  high.  In  the  two  upper 
stories  the  prisoners  slept  in  cells  or  separate  compartments, 
nine  feet  long,  seven  feet  broad,  and  eleven  feet  high,  each  with 
a  glazed  window,  and  in  each  were  generally  three  or  four,  never 
more  than  five,  prisoners.  The  Hospital  occupied  two  rooms, 
each  thirty-three  feet  long,  thirty  feet  broad,  and  eleven  feet 
high.  The  officer-prisoners,  seventy  in  number,  occupied 
a  separate  building,  and  the  other  prisoners,  1,250  in 
number,  were  in  the  five  buildings.  The  mortality  here, 
from  May  15  to  December  31,  1798,  among  1,332  prisoners 
was  twenty-six. 

Richard  Brooke,  in  Liverpool  from  ijjj  to  1800,  says  : 


'  Amongst  the  amusements  some  of  the  French  prisoners 
during  their  confinement  here  performed  plays  in  a  small 
theatre  contrived  for  that  purpose  within  the  walls,  and  in 
.  some  instances  they  raised  in  a  single  night  £50  for  admission 
money.  Many  of  my  readers  will  recollect  that  with  the  usual 
ingenuity  of  the  French  the  prisoners  manufactured  a  variety 
of  snuff-boxes,  rings,  trinkets,  crucifixes,  card-boxes,  and  toys 
which  were  exhibited  in  a  stand  at  the  entrance  of  the  Gaol 
and  sold  for  their  benefit.' 

ABELL 


194  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

One  famous  prisoner  here  was  a  Pole,  named  Charles  Domery, 
whose  voracity  was  extraordinary.  He  ate  anything.  After 
the  surrender  of  the  frigate  on  which  he  was  captured  he  was  so 
hungry  that  he  was  caught  tearing  the  mangled  limb  of  one  of 
his  fallen  comrades.  In  one  year  he  ate  174  cats,  some  of  them 
alive,  besides  dogs,  rats,  candles,  and  especially  raw  meat. 
Although  he  was  daily  allowed  the  rations  of  ten  men,  he  was 
never  satisfied.  One  day  the  prison  doctor  tested  his  capacity, 
and  at  a  sitting  he  ate  fourteen  pounds  of  raw  meat  and  two 
pounds  of  candles,  and  washed  it  all  down  with  five  bottles  of 
porter.  Some  of  the  French  prisoners  used  to  upbraid  him 
with  his  Polish  nationality,  and  accuse  him  of  disloyalty  to  the 
Republic.  Once,  in  a  fit  of  anger  at  this,  he  seized  a  knife,  cut 
two  wide  gashes  on  his  bare  arm,  and  with  the  blood  wrote  on 
the  wall  '  Vive  la  Republique  !  ' 

He  stood  six  feet  two  inches,  was  well  made,  and  rather  thin, 
and,  despite  the  brutality  of  his  taste  in  food,  was  a  very 
amiable  and  inoffensive  man. 

The  following  touching  little  letter  was  evidently  written  by 
a  very  poor  prisoner  whose  wife  shared  his  confinement. 

'  De  Livrepool  :    Ce  21  Septanbre  1757. 
'  Mon  cher  frere  je  vous  dis  ses  deux  mot  pour  vous  dire 
que  ma  tres  cher  femme  a  quitte  ce  monde  pour  aller  a  lotre 
monde  ;   je  vous  prit  da  priyer  pour  elle  et  de  la  recommender 
a  tous  nos  bons  paran. 

'  Je  suis  en  pleuran  votre 
'  Serviteur  et  frere 

'  JOSEPH  LE  BLAN.' 

From  Brooke's  Liverpool  I  also  take  the  following : 

'  A  considerable  number  of  prisoners  were  confined  in  the 
Borough  Gaol,  a  most  ill-judged  place  of  confinement  when 
its  contiguity  to  Coast  and  Shipping,  and  the  facilities  afforded 
for  escape  of  prisoners  in  case  of  the  appearance  of  an  Enemy 
off  the  Coast  are  considered.  In  general  the  prisoners  were 
ill  clad  and  appeared  dispirited  and  miserable,  and  the  mor- 
tality among  them  was  very  considerable  ;  the  hearse  was 
constantly  in  requisition  to  convey  from  the  Gaol  the  corpse 
of  some  poor  Frenchman  to  the  public  cemetery  at  St.  John's 
Church  (where  they  were  buried  unmarked  in  a  special  corner 
set  apart  for  felons  and  paupers).  Soon  after  the  Peace  of 


LIVERPOOL  195 

Amiens,  1802,  eleven  hundred  were  liberated,  some  of  whom 
had  been  there  for  years.' 

One  of  these  men  had  accumulated  three  hundred  guineas  by 
his  manufactures. 

As  no  book  alludes  to  Liverpool  as  possessing  a  war-prison 
after  1802,  it  may  be  concluded  that  it  ceased  to  have  one 
after  that  date.  This,  I  think,  is  probable,  as  it  was  eminently 
unsuitable  owing  to  its  position  and  its  proximity  to  disturbed 
Ireland.1 

1  In  addition  to  other  sources  of  information,  the  foregoing  notes 
on  the  war-prisoners  in  Liverpool  are  taken  from  Picton's  Memorials 
of  Liverpool ;  the  Histories  of  Muir  and  Barnes;  Stonehouse's  Recol- 
lections of  Old  Liverpool ;  Gomer  Williams's  Liverpool  Privateers  ;  and 
Richard  Brooke's  Liverpool  from  7775  to  1800. 


O  2 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  PRISONS  ASHORE 

6.     GREENLAW — VALLEYFIELD 

ABOUT  a  mile  and  a  half  on  the  Edinburgh  side  of  Penicuik, 
on  the  great  south  road  leading  to  Peebles  and  Dumfries,  is  the 
military  station  of  Glencorse,  the  depot  of  the  Royal  Scots 
Regiment.  Until  about  ten  years  ago  the  place  was  known  as 
Greenlaw,  but  the  name  was  changed  owing  to  postal  confusion 
with  Greenlaw  in  Berwickshire. 

In  1804,  when,  for  many  reasons,  war-prisoners  were  hurried 
away  from  England  to  Scotland,  the  old  mansion  house  of 
Greenlaw  was  bought  by  the  Government  and  converted  into 
a  depot  for  200  prisoners  of  war.  It  was  situated  in  the  south- 
west  corner  of  a  park  of  sixty  acres,  and  consisted  of  a  great 
square  building,  which  was  surrounded  by  a  high  wooden 
palisade,  outside  which  was  an  airing  ground,  and  space  for  the 
necessary  domestic  offices,  guard  rooms,  garrison  quarters,  and 
so  forth,  within  an  outer  stone  wall.  Other  buildings,  chiefly 
in  wood,  were  added,  and  until  1811  it  was  the  only  Scottish  war- 
prison  south  of  Edinburgh. 

For  a  year  Greenlaw  depended  upon  regulars  from  Edinburgh 
for  its  garrison,  but  after  1805  the  drain  upon  the  army  for 
foreign  service  was  so  great,  that  the  Militia  was  again  requisi- 
tioned to  do  duty  at  the  war- prisons.  The  garrison  at  Greenlaw 
consisted  of  one  captain,  four  subalterns,  eight  sergeants,  four 
drummers,  and  155  rank  and  file,  the  head-quarters  being  at 
the  Old  Foundry  in  Penicuik.  Discipline  seems  to  have  been 
strict,  and  special  attention  was  given  to  the  appearance  and 
turn-out  of  the  men.  Eleven  sentries  were  on  duty  night  and 
day,  each  man  having  six  blank  and  six  ball  cartridges,  the 
latter  only  to  be  used  in  case  of  serious  need — a  very  necessary 
insistance,  as  the  militiamen,  although  of  a  better  class  generally 
than  their  successors  of  recent  years,  were  more  apt  to  be 


GREENLAW— VALLEYFIELD  197 

carried  away  by  impulse  than  seasoned  regulars.  A  private  of 
the  Stirling  Militia  was  condemned  in  1807  to  receive  800  lashes 
for  being  drunk  and  out  of  quarters  after  tattoo,  for  having 
struck  his  superior  officer,  and  used  mutinous  language — and 
this  was  a  sentence  migitated  on  account  of  his  previous  good 
conduct  and  his  expression  of  regret. 

After  the  Peace  of  1814,  Greenlaw  seems  to  have  remained 
untenanted  until  1846,  when  extensive  buildings  were  added 
— mostly  of  wood — and  it  was  made  the  military  prison  for 
Scotland.  This  it  continued  to  be  until  1888.  In  1876  still 
further  additions  were  made  in  a  more  substantial  fashion, 
as  it  was  decided  to  make  it  also  the  Scottish  South  Eastern 
Military  Depot.  In  1899  the  old  military  prisons  in  wood  were 
demolished,  and  with  them  some  of  the  original  war-prison 
buildings,  so  that  all  at  present  existing  of  the  latter  are  the 
stone  octagon  Guard  House,  in  the  war-times  used  as  the  place 
of  confinement  for  officers,  and  the  line  of  building,  now  the 
married  men's  quarters,  then  the  garrison  officer's  quarters, 
and  some  of  the  original  stone  boundary  wall. 

In  1810  the  Government  bought  the  Esk  Mills  at  Valleyfield, 
and  on  February  6, 1811,  the  first  batch  of  350  prisoners  arrived. 
Building  was  rapidly  pushed  forward  to  provide  accommodation 
for  5,000  prisoners  at  a  cost  of  £73,000,  the  new  war-prison 
being  known  as  Valleyfield. 

'  About  nine  miles  south  of  Edinburgh/  says  a  writer  in 
Chambers' s  Journal  for  1887,  '  on  the  main  road  to  Peebles, 
stands  the  village  of  Penicuik,  for  the  most  part  built  on  the 
high  road  overlooking  and  sloping  down  the  valley  of  the  North 
Esk.  Passing  through  the  village,  and  down  the  slope  leading 
to  the  bridge  that  spans  the  Esk  and  continues  the  road,  we 
turn  sharply  to  the  left  just  at  the  bridge,  and  a  short  distance 
below  are  the  extensive  paper-mills  of  Messrs.  Alexander  Cowan 
and  Sons,  called  the  Valleyfield  Paper  Mills.' 

I  followed  this  direction,  and  under  the  courteous  guidance 
of  Mr.  Cowan  saw  what  little  remains  of  one  of  the  most  famous 
war-prisons  of  Britain. 

Until  1897  one  of  the  original  '  casernes  '  was  used  as  a  rag 
store.  In  August  of  that  year  this  was  pulled  down.  It 
measured  300  feet  long,  '  and  its  walls  were  eleven  feet  six 


198  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

inches  thick.'1  It  had  formed  one  of  the  first  buildings  at 
Glencorse.  Valleyfield  House,  now  the  residence  of  Mr.  Cowan, 
was  in  the  days  of  the  war-prison  used  as  the  Hospital. 

In  1906,  during  excavations  for  the  new  enamelling  house 
at  the  Mills,  a  dozen  coffins  were  unearthed,  all  with  their  heads 
to  the  east.  The  new  buildings  of  1812  at  Valleyfield  consisted 
of  six  '  casernes ',  each  from  80  to  100  feet  long,  of  three 
stories,  built  of  wood,  with  openings  closed  by  strong  wooden 
shutters.  They  were  without  fire-places,  as  it  was  considered 
that  the  animal  heat  of  the  closely-packed  inmates  would 
render  such  accessories  unnecessary  !  The  whole  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  stout  wooden  stockade,  outside  which  was  a 
carriage-road. 

Notwithstanding  apparent  indifference  to  the  comfort  of  the 
prisoners,  the  mortality  at  Valleyfield  during  three  years  and 
four  months  was  but  309,  being  at  the  rate  of  18*5  per  mille, 
and  in  this  is  included  a  number  of  violent  deaths  from  duels, 
quarrels,  and  the  shooting  of  prisoners  attempting  to  escape. 

In  the  beautiful  hill-side  garden  of  Valleyfield  House  is 
a  monument,  erected  by  Mr.  Alexander  Cowan,  to  the  memory 
of  these  prisoners,  inaugurated  on  June  26,  1830,  the  day  on 
which  George  IV  died.  On  it  was  inscribed  : 

'  The  mortal  remains  of  309  prisoners  of  war  who  died  in 
this  neighbourhood  between  2ist  March,  1811,  and  26th  July, 
1814,  are  interred  near  this  spot.' 

'Grata  Quies  Patriae :  sed  et  Omnis  Terra  Sepulchrum.' 
'  Certain  inhabitants  of  this  parish,  desiring  to  remember  that 
all  men  are  brethren,  caused  this  monument  to  be  erected 
in  the  year  1830.' 

On  the  other  side  : 

'  Pres  de  ce  Lieu  reposent  les  cendres  de  309  Prisonniers 
de  Guerre  morts  dans  ce  voisinage  entre  le  21  Mars  1811  et 
le  26  Juillet  1814.  Nes  pour  benir  les  vceux  de  vieillissantes 
meres,  par  le  sort  appeles  a  devenir  amants,  aimes  epoux  et 
peres. 

'  Us  sont  morts  exiles.  Plusieurs  Habitants  de  cette 
Paroisse,  aimant  a  croire  que  tous  les  Hommes  sont  Freres, 
firent  elever  ce  monument  1'an  1830.' 

1  I  quote  this  between  inverted  commas,  as  I  cannot  help  question- 
ing its  accuracy. 


GREENLAW— VALLEYFIELD 


199 


It  may  be  noted  that  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who  showed  a  warm 
interest  in  the  erection  of  the  monument,  suggested  the  Latin 
quotation,  which  is  from  Saumazarius,  a  poet  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  Despite  the  inscription,  the  monument  was  raised  at 
the  sole  expense  of  Mr.  Alexander  Cowan. 


I  HE  MORTAL  REMAIN^  Of 
30$  PWONKKSUr  WV»W«OD>£f 
IN    THIS    NEKMROVRMOOH 


CEA 

PARISH,  DESIRING  TO  'TiMfM 

THAT  AII  VIEN 

THIS 

TOBS   tRKCTED 
TH£  Y<  Aft     !?,J<1 


MONUMENT  AT  VALLEYFIELD  TO  PRISONERS  OF  WAR. 

An  interesting  episode  is  associated  with  this  monument. 
In  1845,  Mr.  John  Cowan  of  Beeslack,  on  a  visit  to  the  Paris 
Invalides,  found  an  old  Valleyfield  prisoner  named  Marcher, 
and  on  his  return  home  sent  the  old  soldier  a  picture  of  the 
Valleyfield  Memorial,  and  in  the  Cowan  Institute  at  Penicuik, 
amongst  other  relics  of  the  war-prison  days,  is  an  appreciative 
letter  from  Marcher,  dated  from  the  Invalides,  December  1846. 

Marcher,  when  asked  his  experience  of  Valleyfield,  said  that 


200  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

it  was  terribly  cold,  that  there  were  no  windows,  no  warmth, 
no  fruit,  but  that  the  cabbages  were  very  large.  He  lost  an 
arm  at  Waterloo. 

The  guard  consisted  of  infantry  of  the  Ayr  and  Kircudbright 
militia  and  artillery,  who  had  their  camp  on  the  high  ground 
west  of  Kirkhill  Village.  On  one  occasion  an  alarm  that 
prisoners  were  escaping  was  given  :  the  troops  hurried  to  the 
scene  of  action,  the  artillery  with  such  precipitancy  that  horses, 
guns,  and  men  were  rolled  down  the  steep  hill  into  the  river, 
luckily  without  injuries. 

The  attempts  to  escape  were  as  numerous  here  as  elsewhere, 
and  the  Black  Hole,  made  of  hewn  ashlar  work,  never  lacked 
occupants.  One  man,  a  sailor,  it  was  impossible  to  keep  within, 
and,  like  his  fellow  countryman,  Dufresne,  at  Portchester,  was 
used  to  getting  in  and  out  when  he  liked,  and  might  have  got 
away  altogether,  but  for  his  raids  upon  farm-houses  and  cottages 
around,  which  caused  the  natives  to  give  him  up.  On  one 
occasion  three  prisoners  rigged  a  false  bottom  to  the  prison 
dust-cart,  hid  themselves  therein,  and  were  conveyed  out  of  the 
prison.  When  the  cart  stopped,  the  prisoners  got  out,  and 
were  entering  a  wood,  when  a  soldier  met  them.  Him  they  cut 
at,  and  he,  being  unarmed,  let  them  go.  They  were,  however, 
recaptured.  On  December  18, 1811,  fourteen  prisoners  got  out, 
but  were  all  recaptured.  One  memorable  attempt  to  get  out  by 
a  tunnel  from  one  of  the  original  buildings,  to  another  in  course 
of  erection,  and  thence  to  the  outer  side  of  the  stockade,  was 
made  in  the  same  year.  The  tunnel  was  one  hundred  yards 
long,  and  the  enormous  quantity  of  earth  excavated  was 
carried  out  in  the  men's  pockets,  dropped  about  on  the  airing 
ground,  and  trodden  down.  The  venture  only  failed  owing  to 
the  first  man  mistaking  the  hour  of  day,  and  emerging  before 
sunset,  whereupon  he  was  seen  by  a  sentry  and  fired  on. 

It  was  at  the  daily  market  when  the  country  people  were 
brought  into  acquaintance  with  the  prisoners,  that  many 
attempts  to  escape  were  made,  despite  the  doubling  of  the 
guards.  One  prisoner  had  arranged  with  the  carter  who  came 
every  morning  to  take  away  the  manure  that  he  would  conceal 
himself  in  the  cart,  keep  himself  covered  up  with  the  filth,  and 
thus  pass  the  sentries.  The  field  where  the  rubbish  was  emptied 


GREENLAW— VALLEYFIELD  201 

was  just  outside  the  village,  and  the  prisoner  would  know  that 
it  was  time  for  him  to  crawl  out  and  run  away  when  the  cart 
halted.  All  started  well ;  the  cart  passed  through  the  gate, 
and  passed  the  first,  second,  and  third  sentries,  and  was  close  to 
where  the  Free  Church  manse  now  stands,  when  a  friend  of 
the  carter  hailed  him  in  a  loud  voice.  The  cart  pulled  up,  and 
the  poor  prisoner,  thinking  that  this  was  the  signal,  jumped 
out,  and  was  shot  down  before  he  had  gone  many  yards. 

Another  prisoner,  by  name  Pirion,  broke  his  parole,  and  was 
making  his  way  to  London  by  the  coach  road,  and  took  shelter 
from  the  rain  wherfhe  had  got  as  far  south  as  Norman  Cross, 
not  knowing  where  he  was.  He  was  recognized  as  an  old 
Norman  Cross  prisoner,  and  was  arrested  and  brought  back. 

In  1812  the  report  upon  the  condition  of  Valleyfield  was  very 
bad,  and  in  particular  it  was  recommended  that  a  special 
stockade  should  be  built  to  hide  the  half-naked  prisoners  from 
public  view  at  the  market. 

In  1813  a  Valleyfield  prisoner  was  released  in  order  that  he 
might  help  a  Mr.  Ferguson  in  the  'cod  and  herring  fishery  : 
almost  as  easy  a  release  as  that  of  the  Norman  Cross  prisoner 
who  was  freed  because  he  had  instructed  the  Earl  of  Win- 
chester's labourers  at  Burleigh,  by  Stamford,  in  the  use  of  the 
Hainault  scythe  ! 

At  one  time  very  few  of  the  prisoners  at  Valleyfield  were 
Frenchmen.  About  twenty  of  them  were  allowed  to  live  on 
parole  outside  the  prison,  and  some  of  them  enjoyed  the  friend- 
ship of  the  Cowan  family ;  one  in  particular,  Ancamp,  a  Nantes 
merchant,  had  been  a  prisoner  nine  and  a  half  years,  and  had  had 
a  son  born  to  him  since  his  capture,  whom  he  had  never  seen. 

"In  1814,  Valleyfield  was  evacuated,  and  remained  unoccupied 
until ,,1820,  when,  after  having  been  advertised  for  sale  and  put 
up  to  auction  several  times  without  success,  it  was  purchased 
by  Cowan  for  £2,200. 

In'Penicuik  many  relics  of  the  prisoners'  manufactures  may 
still  be  seen,  and  what  is  now  the  public  park  was  formerly 
the  vegetable  garden  of  the  prison. 

An  elderly  lady  at  Lasswade  told  Mr.  Bresnil  of  Loanhead 
that  she  remembered  in  her  childhood  an  old  farmer  who 
was  pointed  out  as  having  made  his  fortune  by  providing 


202  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

oatmeal  to  the  prisoners  at  Valleyfield  of  an  inferior  quality 
to  that  for  which  he  had  contracted. 

I  shall  now  give  two  accounts  of  life  at  these  prisons.  The 
first  is  by  Sergeant-Major  Beaudouin,  of  the  3ist  Line  Regi- 
ment, whom  we  have  met  before  in  this  book  on  the  hulks  at 
Chatham.  He  was  captured  off  Havana,  26th  Germinal,  An 
XII,  that  is,  on  April  16,  1804,  on  board  one  of  the  squadrons 
from  St.  Nicholas  Mole,  San  Domingo,  and  brought  via  Belfast 
to  Greenock,  at  which  port  he  happened  to  arrive  on  June  4, 
in  the  midst  of  the  celebrations  of  the  King's  birthday.  (It 
may  be  mentioned  that  he  quitted  England  finally,  eight  years 
later,  on  the  same  day.)  Bonaparte  in  effigy,  on  a  donkey,  was 
being  paraded  through  the  street  preparatory  to  being  burned, 
and  the  natives  told  him  that  they  hoped  some  fine  day  to  catch 
and  burn  Bonaparte  himself,  which  upset  Beaudouin  and  made 
him  retort  that  despite  all  England's  strength  France  would 
never  be  conquered,  and  that  100,000  Frenchmen  landed  in 
England  would  be  sufficient  to  conquer  it,  whereupon  a  distur- 
bance ensued. 

Beaudouin  landed  at  Port  Glasgow,  and  thence  to  Renfrew 
and  Glasgow,  of  which  city  he  remarks  : 

'  Cette  ville  parait  tres  grande  et  belle ;  costume  tres 
brillant.  Ce  qu'il  y  a  de  remarquable  c'est  que  les  paysans 
sont  aussi  bien  mis  comme  ceux  de  la  ville  ;  on  ne  peut  en 
faire  la  difference  que  par  le  genre.  Ce  qui  jure  beaucoup 
dans  leur  costume,  c'est  que  les  femmes  marchent  presque 
toujours  nu-pieds.  La  quantite  de  belles  femmes  n'est  pas 
grande,  comme  on  dit  ;  en  outre,  en  general  elles  ont  les 
bouches  commes  des  fours.' 

From  Glasgow  the  prisoners  marched  to  Airdrie,  ten  miles, 
where  the  people  were  affable.  For  the  six  prisoners  there  was 
an  escort  of  a  sergeant,  a  corporal,  and  eight  men. 

From  Airdrie  they  proceeded  to  Bathgate,  fourteen  miles, 
thence  to  Edinburgh,  twenty-two  miles,  where  they  were  lodged 
for  the  night  in  the  guard-house  of  the  Castle.  From  Edinburgh 
they  came  to  Greenlaw,  ten  miles,  June  10,  1804. 

Beaudouin  thus  describes  Greenlaw  : 

'  Cette  prison  est  une  maison  de  campagne.  A  deux  milles 
ou  loge  le  detachement  qui  nous  garde  est  Penicuik.  Cette 


GREENLAW— VALLEYFIELD  203 

maison  est  entouree  de  deux  rangs  de  palissades  avec  des 
factionnaires  tout  autour  ;  a  cote  est  situe  un  petit  bois  qui 
favorise  quelquefois  des  desertions.' 

At  first  they  were  quartered  with  Dutch  prisoners,  but  when 
peace  was  made  between  Britain  and  Holland,  these  latter  left. 

At  Greenlaw  there  were  106  French  and  40  Spanish 
prisoners.  The  Spaniards  were  very  antagonistic  to  the 
French,  and  also  among  themselves,  quarrelling  freely  and 
being  very  handy  with  their  knives.  Beaudouin  gives  many 
instances  of  their  brutality.  At  call-over  a  Spaniard  waited 
for  another  to  come  through  the  door,  and  stabbed  him  in  the 
face.  An  Italian  and  a  Spaniard  fought  with  knives  until  both 
were  helpless.  Two  Spaniards  quarrelled  about  their  soup,  and 
fought  in  public  in  the  airing  ground.  The  guard  did  not 
attempt  to  interfere — and  wisely. 

'  Les  Espagnols/  says  Beaudouin,  '  possedent  toutes  les 
bonnes  qualites.  Premierement  ils  sont  paresseux  a  1'exces, 
sales,  traitres,  joueurs,  et  voleurs  comme  des  pies.' 

He  describes  Valleyfield  as  cold,  with  very  little  fine  weather, 
but  healthy.  At  the  end  of  a  week  or  so  the  newly  arrived 
prisoners  settled  to  work  of  different  kinds.  Some  plaited 
straw  for  bonnets,  some  made  tresse  cornue  for  baskets  and  hats  ; 
some  carved  boxes,  games,  &c. ;  some  worked  hair  watch-chains ; 
some  made  coloured  straw  books  and  other  knick-knacks,  all  of 
which  they  sold  at  the  barriers. 

Beaudouin  learned  to  plait  straw,  and  at  first  found  it  diffi- 
cult as  his  fingers  were  so  big.  The  armateur,  the  employer, 
gave  out  the  straw,  and  paid  for  the  worked  article  three  sous 
per  '  brasse ',  a  little  under  six  feet.  Some  men  could  make 
twelve  '  brasses  '  a  day.  Beaudouin  set  to  work  at  it,  and  in 
the  course  of  a  couple  of  months  became  an  adept.  After  four 
years  came  the  remonstrance  of  the  country  people  that  this 
underpaid  labour  by  untaxed  men  was  doing  infinite  injury  to 
them  ;  the  Government  prohibited  the  manufactures,  and 
much  misery  among  the  prisoners  resulted.  From  this  pro- 
hibition resulted  the  outside  practice  of  smuggling  straw  into 
the  prison,  and  selling  it  later  as  the  manufactured  article,  and 
a  very  profitable  industry  it  must  have  been,  for  we  find  that, 
during  the  trial  of  Matthew  Wingrave  in  1813,  for  engaging  in 


204  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

the  straw-plait  trade  with  the  prisons  at  Valleyfield,  it  came  out 
that  Wingrave,  who  was  an  extensive  dealer  in  the  article,  had 
actually  moved  up  there  from  Bedfordshire  on  purpose  to  carry 
on  the  trade,  and  had  bought  cornfields  for  the  purpose.  The 
evidence  showed  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  bribing  the  soldiers 
to  keep  their  eyes  shut,  and  that  not  a  few  people  of  character 
and  position  were  associated  with  him  in  the  business. 

Beaudouin  then  learned  to  make  horsehair  rings  with  names 
worked  into  them :  these  fetched  sixpence  each  :  rings  in  human 
hair  were  worth  a  shilling.  For  five  years  and  a  half  he  worked 
at  this,  and  in  so  doing  injured  his  eyesight.  '  However,'  he  said, 
'  it  kept  me  alive,  which  the  rations  would  never  have  done.' 

Nominally  the  clothing  was  renewed  every  year,  but  Beau- 
douin declares  that  he  had  only  one  change  in  five  and  a  half 
years.  To  prevent  the  clothes  from  being  sold,  they  were  of 
a  sulphur-yellow  colour. 

'  En  un  mot,  les  Anglais  sont  tous  des  brigands,'  he  says, 
and  continues  : 

'  I  have  described  many  English  atrocities  committed  in 
the  Colonies  ;  they  are  no  better  here.  In  the  prison  they 
have  practised  upon  us  all  possible  cruelties.  For  instance, 
drum-beat  was  the  signal  for  all  lights  to  be  put  out,  and  if 
by  chance  the  drum  is  not  heard  and  the  lights  remain,  the 
prisoners  are  fired  upon  without  warning,  and  several  have 
been  shot.' 

The  prisoners  signed  a  petition  about  their  miserable  con- 
dition generally,  and  this  outrage  in  particular,  and  sent  it  up 
to  the  Transport  Board.  Fifteen  days  later  the  Agent  entered 
the  prison  furious  :  '  I  must  know  who  wrote  that  letter  to  the 
Government,'  he  roared,  '  and  I  will  put  him  into  the  blokhall 
(Black  Hole)  until  he  says  who  put  it  in  the  post.' 

It  ended  in  his  being  dismissed  and  severely  punished. 
Ensign  Maxwell  of  the  Lanark  Militia,  who  had  ordered  the 
sentry  to  fire  into  the  prison  because  a  light  was  burning 
there  after  drum-beat,  whereby  a  prisoner,  Cotier,  was  killed, 
was  condemned  to  nine  months'  imprisonment  in  the  Tolbooth. 
This  was  in  I807.1  Many  of  the  prisoners  went  to  Edinburgh 

1  In  Glencorse  churchyard  is  a  cross  upon  which  is  engraved  : 
'Ici  repose  Charles  Cotier  de  Dunquerque,  mort  8  Janv.,  1807.' 


GREENLAW— VALLEYFIELD  205 


as  witnesses  in  this  case,  and  thereafter  an  order  was  posted  up 
forbidding  any  firing  upon  the  prisoners.  If  lights  remained, 
the  guard  was  to  enter  the  prison,  and,  if  necessary,  put  the 
offenders  into  the  Black  Hole,  but  no  violence  was  to  be  used. 
On  March  30,  1809,  all  the  French  prisoners  at  Greenlaw 
were  ordered  to  Chatham,  of  which  place  very  bad  reports  were 
heard  from  men  who  had  been  on  the  hulks  there. 

'  Us  disent  qu'ils  sont  plus  mal  qu'a  Greenlaw.  Premiere- 
ment,  les  vivres  sont  plus  mauvais,  excepte  le  pain  qui  est  un 
peu  meilleur  :  en  outre,  aucun  ouvrage  ne  se  fait,  et  aucun 
bourgeois  vient  les  voir.  Je  crains  d'y  aller.  Dieu  merci  I 
Jusqua  ce  moment-ci  je  me  suis  monte  un  peu  en  linge, 
car,  quand  je  suis  arrive  au  prison  mon  sac  ne  me  genait  point, 
les  Anglais,  en  le  prenant,  ne  m'ont  laisse  que  ce  que  j'avais  sur 
le  dos.  Quand  je  fus  arrive  au  prison  ma  chemise  etait  pourrie 
sur  mon  dos  et  point  d'autre  pour  changer.' 

On  October  31,  1809,  Beaudouin  left  Greenlaw,  where  he  had 
been  since  June  10,  1804,  for  Sheerness,  Chatham,  and  the 
Bristol  prison-ship. 

The  next  reference  to  Greenlaw  is  from  James  Anton's 
A  Military  Life.  He  thus  describes  the  prison  at  which  he 
was  on  guard  : 

'  The  prison  was  fenced  round  with  a  double  row  of  stockades  ; 
a  considerable  space  was  appropriated  as  a  promenade,  where 
the  prisoners  had  freedom  to  walk  about,  cook  provisions,  make 
their  markets  and  exercise  themselves  at  their  own  pleasure, 
but  under  the  superintendence  of  a  turnkey  and  in  the  charge 
of  several  sentries.  .  .  .  The  prisoners  were  far  from  being 
severely  treated  :  no  work  was  required  at  their  hands,  yet  few 
of  them  were  idle.  Some  of  them  were  occupied  in  culinary 
avocations,  and  as  the  guard  had  no  regular  mess,  the  men  on 
duty  became  ready  purchasers  of  their  labscuse,  salt-fish, 
potatoes,  and  coffee.  Others  were  employed  in  preparing 
straw  for  plaiting  ;  some  were  manufacturing  the  cast-away 
bones  into  dice,  dominoes,  paper-cutters,  and  a  hundred  articles 
of  toy-work  .  .  .  and  realized  considerable  sums  of  money.  .  .  . 
Those  prisoners  were  well  provided  for  in  every  respect,  and 
treated  with  the  greatest  humanity,  yet  to  the  eye  of  a  stranger 
they  presented  a  miserable  picture  of  distress,  while  some  of 
them  were  actually  hoarding  up  money  .  .  .  others  were 
actually  naked,  with  the  exception  of  a  dirty  rag  as  an  apron. 
.  .  .  And  strangers  who  visited  the  prison  commiserated  the 


206  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

apparent  distress  of  this  miserable  class,  and  charity  was 
frequently  bestowed  on  purpose  to  clothe  their  nakedness  ;  but 
no  sooner  would  this  set  of  despicables  obtain  such  relief,  than 
they  took  to  the  cards,  dice,  or  dominoes,  and  in  a  few  hours 
were  as  poor  and  naked  as  ever.  .  .  .  When  they  were  indulged 
with  permission  to  remain  in  their  hammocks,  when  the  weather 
was  cold,  they  drew  the  worsted  out  of  the  rags  that  covered 
them,  wound  it  up  in  balls,  and  sold  it  to  the  industrious 
knitters  of  mitts,  and  left  themselves  without  a  covering  by 
night.  The  inhabitants  of  Penicuik  and  its  neighbourhood, 
previous  to  the  establishment  of  this  depot  of  prisoners,  were  as 
comfortable  and  contented  a  class  of  people  as  in  any  district  in 
Britain.  The  steep  woody  banks  of  the  Esk  were  lined  with 
prospering  manufactories.  .  .  .  When  the  militiamen  were 
first  quartered  here,  they  met  with  a  welcome  reception  ;  .  .  . 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  those  kindly  people  began  to  con- 
sider the  quartering  of  soldiers  upon  them  more  oppressive  than 
they  at  first  anticipated.  Trade  declined  as  prisoners  increased. 
.  .  .  One  of  the  principal  factories,  Valleyfield,  was  afterwards 
converted  into  another  depot  for  prisoners,  and  Esk  Mills  into 
a  barrack  for  the  military  ;  this  gave  a  decisive  blow  to  trade/ 

To  Mr.  Robert  Black,  and  indirectly  to  Mr.  Howden,  I  am 
much  indebted  for  information  about  Greenlaw.  To  Mr.  Cowan 
for  helping  me  at  Valleyfield  I  have  already  expressed  my 
obligation,  but  I  must  not  omit  to  say  that  much  of  the  fore- 
going information  about  Valleyfield  and  the  Esk  Mills  has  been 
taken  from  The  Reminiscences  of  Charles  Cowan  of  Logan  House, 
Midlothian,  printed  for  private  circulation  in  1878. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  PRISONS  ASHORE 
7.    STAPLETON,  NEAR  BRISTOL 

BRISTOL,  as  being  for  so  many  centuries  the  chief  port  of 
western  England,  always  had  her  full  quota  of  prisoners  of 
war,  who,  in  the  absence  of  a  single  great  place  of  confinement, 
were  crowded  away  anywhere  that  room  could  be  made  for 
them.  Tradition  says  that  the  crypt  of  the  church  of  St.  Mary 
Redcliff  was  used  for  this  purpose,  but  it  is  known  that  they 
filled  the  caverns  under  the  cliff  itself,  and  that  until  the  great 
Fishponds  prison  at  Stapleton,  now  the  workhouse,  was  built 
in  1783,  they  were  quartered  in  old  pottery  works  at  Knowle, 
near  Totterdown  and  Pile  Hill,  on  the  right-hand  side  of  the 
road  from  Bristol,  on  the  south  of  Firfield  House. 

In  volume  XI  of  Wesley's  Journal  we  read  : 

'  Monday,  October  15,  1759,  I  walked  up  to  Knowle,  a  mile 
from  Bristol,  to  see  the  French  prisoners.  About  eleven 
hundred  of  them,  we  were  informed,  were  confined  in  that  little 
place,  without  anything  to  lie  on  but  a  little  dirty  straw,  or 
anything  to  cover  them  but  a  few  foul  thin  rags,  either  by  day 
or  night,  so  that  they  died  like  rotten  sheep.  I  was  much 
affected,  and  preached  in  the  evening,  Exodus  23,  verse  9. 
£18  was  contributed  immediately,  which  was  made  up  to  £24 
the  next  day.  With  this  we  bought  linen  and  woollen  cloth, 
which  was  made  up  into  shirts,  waistcoats,  and  breeches.  Some 
dozens  of  stockings  were  added,  all  of  which  were  carefully 
distributed  where  there  was  the  greatest  want.  Presently 
after,  the  Corporation  of  Bristol  sent  a  large  quantity  of  mat- 
tresses and  blankets,  and  it  was  not  long  before  contributions 
were  set  on  foot  in  London  and  in  various  parts  of  the  Kingdom/ 

But  it  was  to  be  the  same  story  here  as  elsewhere  of  gambling 
being  the  cause  of  much  of  the  nakedness  and  want,  for  he 
writes  : 

'  October  24,  1760.  I  visited  the  French  prisoners  at  Knowle, 
and  found  many  of  them  almost  naked  again.  In  hopes  of 
provoking  others  to  jealousy  I  made  another  collection  for 
them/ 


208  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

In  1779  John  Howard  visited  Knowle  on  his  tour  of  inspec- 
tion of  the  prisoners  of  England.  He  reported  that  there  were 
151  prisoners  there,  '  in  a  place  which  had  been  a  pottery  ', 
that  the  wards  were  more  spacious  and  less  crowded  than  at  the 
Mill  Prison  at  Plymouth,  and  that  in  two  of  the  day  rooms  the 
prisoners  were  at  work — from  which  remark  we  may  infer  that 
at  this  date  the  industry  which  later  became  so  notable  a  char- 
acteristic of  the  inmates  of  our  war- prisons  was  not  general. 
The  bread,  he  says,  was  good,  but  there  was  no  hospital,  the 
sick  being  in  a  small  house  near  the  prison,  where  he  found  five 
men  together  in  a  dirty  and  offensive  room. 

In  1782  the  prison  at  Fishponds,  Stapleton,  was  built. 
Howard  visited  it  in  that  year,  and  reported  that  there  were 
774  Spaniards  and  thirteen  Dutchmen  in  it,  that  there  were  no 
chimneys  to  the  wards,  which  were  very  dirty,  as  they  were 
never  washed,  and  that  an  open  market  was  held  daily  from 
10  to  3.  In  1794  there  were  1,031  French  prisoners  at  Staple- 
ton,  of  whom  seventy-five  were  in  hospital. 

In  1797  the  ferment  among  the  prisoners  caused  by  reports 
of  the  success  of  Tate's  '  invasion  '  at  Fishguard,  developed 
into  an  open  riot,  during  which  a  sentry  fired  and  accidentally 
killed  one  of  his  comrades.  Tradition  says  that  when  the 
Bristol  Volunteers  were  summoned  to  take  the  place  of  the 
Militia,  who  had  been  hurried  away  to  Fishguard,  as  there 
could  be  found  no  arms  for  them,  all  the  mop-sticks  in  Bristol 
were  bought  up  and  furnished  with  iron  heads,  which  converted 
them  into  very  respectable  pikes.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that, 
in  view  of  the  desperate  feeling  among  the  prisoners  and  the 
comparative  inefficiency  of  their  guards,  it  was  suggested  that 
all  the  prisoners  should  be  lowered  into  the  Kingswood  coal-pits ! 

In  1799  tne  prison  was  enlarged  at  the  contract  price  of 
£475 ;  the  work  was  to  be  done  by  June  1800,  and  no  Sunday 
labour  was  to  be  employed,  although  Sanders,  of  Pedlar's  Acre, 
Lambeth,  the  contractor,  pleaded  for  it,  as  a  ship,  laden  with 
timber  for  the  prison,  had  sunk,  and  so  delayed  the  work. 

In  1800  the  following  report  upon  the  state  of  Stapleton 
Prison  was  drawn  up  and  published  by  two  well-known  citizens 
of  Bristol,  Thomas  Batchelor,  deputy-governor  of  St.  Peter's 
Hospital,  and  Thomas  Andrews,  a  poor-law  guardian  : 


STAPLETON  209 

'  On  our  entrance  we  were  much  struck  with  the  pale, 
emaciated  appearance  of  almost  every  one  we  met.  They 
were  in  general  nearly  naked,  many  of  them  without  shoes  and 
stockings,  walking  in  the  Courtyard,  which  was  some  inches 
deep  in  mud,  unpaved  and  covered  with  loose  stones  like 
the  public  roads  in  their  worst  state.  Their  provisions  were 
wretched  indeed  ;  the  bread  fusty  and  disagreeable,  leaving 
a  hot,  pungent  taste  in  the  mouth  ;  the  meat,  which  was  beef, 
of  the  very  worst  quality.  The  quantity  allowed  to  each 
prisoner  was  one  pound  of  this  infamous  bread,  and  J  Ib.  of  the 
carrion  beef  weighed  with  its  bone  before  dressing,  for  their 
subsistence  for  24  hours.  No  vegetables  are  allowed  except 
to  the  sick  in  the  hospital.  We  fear  there  is  good  reason  for 
believing  that  the  prices  given  to  the  butcher  and  baker  are 
quite  sufficient  for  procuring  provisions  of  a  far  better  kind. 
On  returning  to  the  outer  court  we  were  shocked  to  see  two 
poor  creatures  on  the  ground  leading  to  the  Hospital  Court; 
the  one  lying  at  length,  apparently  dying,  the  other  with 
a  horse-cloth  or  rug  close  to  his  expiring  fellow  prisoner  as  if  to 
catch  a  little  warmth  from  his  companion  in  misery.  They 
appeared  to  be  dying  of  famine.  The  majority  of  the  poor 
wretches  seemed  to  have  lost  the  appearance  of  human  beings, 
to  such  skeletons  were  they  reduced.  The  numbers  that  die  are 
great,  generally  6  to  8  a  day;  250  have  died  within  the  last 
six  weeks.' 

After  so  serious  a  statement  made  publicly  by  two  men  of 
position  an  inquiry  was  imperative,  and '  all  the  accusations  were 
[it  was  said]  shown  to  be  unfounded '.  It  was  stated  that  the 
deaths  during  the  whole  year  1800  were  141  out  of  2, 900 prisoners, 
being  a  percentage  of  4!  ;  but  it  was  known  that  the  deaths  in 
November  were  forty-four,  and  in  December  thirty-seven, 
which,  assuming  other  months  to  have  been  healthier  would  be 
about  16  per  cent.,  or  nearly  seven  times  the  mortality  even 
of  the  prison  ships.  The  chief  cause  of  disease  and  death  was 
said  to  be  want  of  clothing,  owing  to  the  decision  of  the  French 
Government  of  December  22,  1799,  not  to  clothe  French 
prisoners  in  England  ;  but  the  gambling  propensities  of  the 
prisoners  had  even  more  to  do  with  it.  '  It  was  true/  said  the 
Report  of  the  Commission  of  Inquiry,  '  that  gambling  was 
universal,  and  that  it  was  not  to  be  checked.  It  was  well  known 
that  here,  as  at  Norman  Cross,  some  of  the  worst  gamblers 
frequently  did  not  touch  their  provisions  for  several  days. 


210  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

The  chief  forms  of  gambling  were  tossing,  and  deciding  by  the 
length  of  straws  if  the  rations  were  to  be  kept  or  lost  even  for 
weeks  ahead.  This  is  the  cause  of  all  the  ills,  starvation, 
robbery,  suicide,  and  murder.'  But  it  was  admitted  that  the 
chief  medical  officer  gave  very  little  personal  attention  to  his 
duties,  but  left  them  to  subordinates. 

It  was  found  that  there  was  much  exaggeration  in  the  state- 
ments of  Messrs.  Batchelor  and  Andrews,  but  from  a  modern 
standard  the  evidence  of  this  was  by  no  means  satisfactory. 
All  the  witnesses  seem  to  have  been  more  or  less  interested  from 
a  mercantile  point  of  view  in  the  administration  of  the  prison, 
and  Mr.  Alderman  Noble,  of  Bristol,  was  not  ashamed  to  state 
that  he  acted  as  agent  on  commission  for  the  provision  con- 
tractor, Grant  of  London. 

Messrs.  Batchelor  and  Andrews  afterwards  publicly  retracted 
their  accusations,  but  the  whole  business  leaves  an  unpleasant 
taste  in  the  mouth,  and  one  may  make  bold  to  say  that,  making 
due  allowance  for  the  embellishment  and  exaggeration  not 
unnaturally  consequent  upon  deeply-moved  sympathies  and 
highly-stirred  feelings,  there  was  much  ground  for  the  volun- 
teered remarks  of  these  two  highly  respectable  gentlemen. 

In  1801,  Lieutenant  Ormsby,  commander  of  the  prison, 
wrote  to  the  Transport  Board  : 

'  Numbers  of  prisoners  are  as  naked  as  they  were  previous 
to  the  clothing  being  issued.  At  first  the  superintendants 
were  attentive  and  denounced  many  of  the  purchasers  of  the 
clothing,  but  they  gradually  got  careless.  We  are  still  losing 
as  many  weekly  as  in  the  depth  of  winter.  The  hospital  is 
crowded,  and  many  are  forced  to  remain  outside  who  ought  to 
be  in.' 

This  evidence,  added  to  that  of  commissioners  who  reported 
that  generally  the  distribution  of  provisions  was  unattended 
by  any  one  of  responsible  position,  and  only  by  turnkeys — men 
who  were  notoriously  in  league  with  the  contractors — would  seem 
to  afford  some  foundation  for  the  above-quoted  report.  About 
this  time  Dr.  Weir,  the  medical  inspection  officer  of  the  Trans- 
port Board,  tabulated  a  series  of  grave  charges  against  Surgeon 
Jeffcott,  of  Stapleton,  for  neglect,  for  wrong  treatment  of  cases, 
and  for  taking  bribes  from  the  prison  contractors  and  from  the 


STAPLETON  211 

prisoners.  Jeffcott,  in  a  long  letter,  denies  these  accusations, 
and  declares  that  the  only  '  presents  '  he  had  received  were 
4  three  sets  of  dominoes,  a  small  dressing  box,  four  small  straw 
boxes,  and  a  line  of  battle  ship  made  of  wood/  for  which  he 
paid.  The  result  of  the  inquiry,  however,  was  that  he  was 
removed  from  his  post  ;  the  contractor  was  severely  punished 
for  such  malpractices  as  the  using  of  false  measures  of  the  beer 
quart,  milk  quart,  and  tea  pint,  and  with  him  was  implicated 
Lemoine,  the  French  cook. 

That  the  peculation  at  Stapleton  was  notorious  seems  to  be 
the  case,  for  in  1812  Mr.  Whitbread  in  Parliament  '  heartily 
wished  the  French  prisoners  out  of  the  country,  since,  under 
pretence  of  watching  them,  so  many  abuses  had  been  engen- 
dered at  Bristol,  and  an  enormous  annual  expense  was  incurred.' 
In  1804  a  great  gale  blew  down  part  of  the  prison  wall,  and 
an  agitation  among  the  prisoners  to  escape  was  at  once  notice- 
able. A  Bristol  Light  Horseman  was  at  once  sent  into  the 
city  for  reinforcements,  and  in  less  than  four  hours  fifty  men 
arrived — evidently  a  feat  in  rapid  locomotion  in  those  days  ! 

From  the  Commissioners'  Reports  of  these  times  it  appears 
that  the  law  prohibiting  straw  plaiting  by  the  prisoners  was 
much  neglected  at  Stapleton,  that  a  large  commerce  was  carried 
on  in  this  article  with  outside,  chiefly  through  the  bribery  of  the  Q 
soldiers  of  the  guard,  who  did  pretty  much  as  they  liked,  which, 
says  the  report,  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  when  the  officers  of 
the  garrison  made  no  scruple  of  buying  straw-plaited  articles 
for  the  use  of  their  families. 

As  to  the  frequent  escapes  of  prisoners,  one  potent  cause  of 
this,  it  was  asserted,  was  that  in  wet  weather  the  sentries  were 
in  the  habit  of  closing  the  shutters  of  their  boxes  so  that  they 
could  only  see  straight  ahead,  and  it  was  suggested  that  panes 
of  glass  be  let  in  at  the  sides  of  the  boxes. 

The  provisions  for  the  prisoners  are  characterized  as  being 
'  in  general  '  very  good,  although  deep  complaints  about  the 
quality  of  the  meat  and  bread  are  made. 

'  The  huts  where  the  provisions  are  cooked  have  fanciful 
inscriptions  over  their  entrances,  which  produce  a  little  variety 
and  contribute  to  amuse  these  unfortunate  men.' 

All  gaming  tables  in  the  prison  were  ordered  to  be  destroyed, 

p  2 


212  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

because  one  man  who  had  lost  heavily  threw  himself  off  a  build- 
ing and  was  killed  ;  but  billiard  tables  were  allowed  to  remain, 
only  to  be  used  by  the  better  class  of  prisoners.  The  hammocks 
were  condemned  as  very  bad,  and  the  issue  of  the  fish  ration 
was  stopped,  as  the  prisoners  seemed  to  dislike  it,  and  sold  it. 

In  1805  the  new  prison  at  Stapleton  was  completed,  and 
accommodation  for  3,000  additional  prisoners  afforded,  making 
a  total  of  5,000.  Stapleton  was  this  year  reported  as  being 
the  most  convenient  prison  in  England,  and  was  the  equivalent 
of  eight  prison-ships. 

In  1807  the  complaints  about  the  straw-plaiting  industry 
clandestinely  carried  on  by  the  Stapleton  prisoners  were 
frequent,  and  also  that  the  prison  market  for  articles  manu- 
factured by  the  prisoners  was  prejudicial  to  local  trade. 

Duelling  was  very  frequent  among  the  prisoners.  On 
March  25,  1808,  a  double  duel  took  place,  and  two  of  the 
fighters  were  mortally  wounded.  A  verdict  of  manslaughter 
was  returned  against  the  two  survivors  by  the  coroner's  jury, 
but  at  the  Gloucester  assizes  the  usual  verdict  of  '  self-defence  ' 
was  brought  in.  In  July  1809  a  naval  and  a  military  officer 
quarrelled  over  a  game  of  marbles  ;  a  duel  was  the  result, 
which  was  fought  with  sticks  to  which  sharpened  pieces  of  iron 
had  been  fixed,  and  which  proved  effective  enough  to  cause  the 
death  of  one  of  the  combatants.  A  local  newspaper  stated 
that  during  the  past  three  years  no  less  than  150  duels  had  been 
fought  among  the  prisoners  at  Stapleton,  the  number  of  whom 
averaged  5,500,  and  that  the  coroner,  like  his  confreres  at 
Dartmoor  and  Rochester,  was  complaining  of  the  extra  work 
caused  by  the  violence  of  the  foreigners. 

In  1809  a  warder  at  Stapleton  Prison  was  dismissed  from  his 
post  for  having  connived  at  the  conveyance  of  letters  to  Colonel 
Chalot,  who  was  in  prison  for  having  violated  his  parole  at 
Wantage  by  going  beyond  the  mile  limit  to  meet  an  English 
girl,  Laetitia  Barrett.  Laetitia's  letters  to  him,  in  French, 
are  at  the  Record  Office,  and  show  that  the  Colonel  was  be- 
trayed by  a  fellow  prisoner,  a  rival  for  her  hand. 

In  1813  the  Bristol  shoemakers  protested  against  the  manu- 
facture of  list  shoes  by  the  Stapleton  prisoners,  but  the  Govern- 
ment refused  to  issue  prohibiting  orders. 


<s 

8  |3 

O  &>0 

«n  <s 

5  ^ 

0-,  co 

K  •'» 

o  S 


STAPLETON  213 

Forgery  was  largely  practised  at  Stapleton  as  in  other  prisons, 
and  in  spite  of  warnings  posted  up,  the  country  people  who  came 
to  the  prison  market  were  largely  victimized,  but  Stapleton  is 
particularly  associated  with  the  wholesale  forgery  of  passports 
in  the  year  1814,  by  means  of  which  so  many  officer  prisoners  were 
enabled  to  get  to  France  on  the  plea  of  fidelity  to  the  restored 
Government.  In  this  year  a  Mr.  Edward  Prothero  of  39,  Harley 
Street,  Bristol,  sent  to  the  Transport  Office  information  con- 
cerning the  wholesale  forgery  of  passports,  in  the  sale  of  which 
to  French  officers  a  Madame  Carpenter,  of  London  (already 
mentioned  in  Chapter  VI),  was  concerned. 

The  signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  on  May  30,  1814,  stopped 
whatever  proceedings  might  have  been  taken  by  the  Govern- 
ment with  regard  to  Madame  Carpenter,  but  it  appears  that  some 
sort  of  inquiry  had  been  instituted,  and  that  Madame  Carpenter, 
although  denying  all  traffic  in  forged  passports,  admitted  that 
she  was  on  such  terms  with  the  Transport  Board  on  account  of 
services  rendered  by  her  in  the  past  when  residing  in  France 
to  British  prisoners  there,  as  to  be  able  to  ask  favours  of  it. 
The  fact  is,  people  of  position  and  influence  trafficked  in  pass- 
ports and  privileges,  just  as  people  in  humbler  walks  of  life 
trafficked  in  contracts  for  prisons  and  in  the  escape  of  prisoners, 
and  Madame  Carpenter  was  probably  the  worker,  the  business 
transactor,  for  one  or  more  persons  in  high  place  who,  even  in 
that  not  particularly  shamefaced  age,  did  not  care  that  their 
names  should  be  openly  associated  with  what  was  just  as 
much  a  business  as  the  selling  of  legs  of  mutton  or  pounds 
of  tea. 

In  spite  of  what  we  have  read  about  the  misery  of  life  at 
Stapleton,  it  seems  to  have  been  regarded  by  prisoners  else- 
where as  rather  a  superior  sort  of  place.  At  Dartmoor,  in  1814, 
the  Americans  hailed  with  delight  the  rumour  of  their  removal 
to  Stapleton,  well  and  healthily  situated  in  a  fertile  country, 
and,  being  near  Bristol,  with  a  good  market  for  manufactures, 
not  to  speak  of  its  being  in  the  world,  instead  of  out  of  it,  as 
were  Dartmoor  and  Norman  Cross ;  and  the  countermanding 
order  almost  produced  a  mutiny. 

It  appears  that  dogs  were  largely  kept  at  Stapleton  by  the 
prisoners,  for  after  one  had  been  thrown  into  a  well  it  was 


214  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

ordered  that  all  should  be  destroyed,  the  result  being 
710  victims  !  They  were  classed  as  '  pet '  dogs,  but  one  can 
hardly  help  suspecting  that  men  in  a  chronic  state  of  hunger 
would  be  far  more  inclined  to  make  the  dogs  feed  them 
than  to  feed  dogs  as  fancy  articles. 

It  is  surprising  to  read  that,  notwithstanding  the  utter 
irreligion  of  so  many  French  prisoners  in  Britain,  in  more  than 
one  prison,  at  Millbay  and  Stapleton  for  instance,  Mass  was 
never  forgotten  among  them.  At  Stapleton  an  officer  of  the 
fleet,  captured  at  San  Domingo,  read  the  prayers  of  the  Mass 
usually  read  by  the  priest  ;  an  altar  was  painted  on  the  wall, 
two  or  three  cabin-boys  served  as  acolytes,  as  they  would  have 
done  had  a  priest  been  present,  and  there  was  no  ridicule  or 
laughter  at  the  celebrations. 

After  the  declaration  of  peace  in  1815,  the  raison  d'etre  of 
Stapleton  as  a  war-prison  of  course  ceased.  In  1833  it  was 
bought  by  the  Bristol  Poor-Board  and  turned  into  a  work- 
house. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  PRISONS  ASHORE 

8.      FORTON,    NEAR   PORTSMOUTH 

ALTHOUGH  the  Fortune  Prison,  as  it  seems  to  have  been  very 
generally  called,  had  been  used  for  war-prisoners  during  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  its  regular  adaptation  to  that  purpose  was 
probably  not  before  1761,  in  which  year  2,000  prisoners  were 
removed  thither  from  Portchester  '  guarded  by  the  Old  Buffs  '. 
During  the  War  of  American  Independence  many  prisoners  of 
that  nationality  were  at  Forton,  and  appear  to  have  been 
ceaselessly  engaged  in  trying  to  escape.  In  1777  thirty  broke 
out,  of  whom  nineteen  were  recaptured  and  were  so  harshly 
punished  that  they  complained  in  a  letter  which  somehow 
found  its  way  into  the  London  papers.  The  next  year,  the 
Westminster  Militia,  encamped  on  Weovil  Common,  attracted 
by  alarm  guns  at  Forton,  marched  thither,  and  found  American 
and  French  prisoners  escaping  through  a  hole  in  the  outer  wall, 
but  were  too  late  to  prevent  five-and-twenty  from  getting  away 
altogether.  The  attempt  was  supposed  to  be  the  sequel  of  a 
plot  by  which,  a  fortnight  previously,  eleven  Americans  had 
escaped.  On  the  same  day  there  was  a  mutiny  in  the  prison 
hospital,  provoked,  it  was  alleged,  by  the  neglect  and  the 
callous  treatment  of  patients  by  the  doctors  and  their  sub- 
ordinates. 

In  the  same  year,  1778,  another  batch  of  no  less  than  fifty- 
seven  Americans  made  a  desperate  attempt  to  get  out.  The 
Black  Hole  at  Forton  was  underneath  part  of  the  prisoners' 
sleeping  quarters.  A  hole  large  enough  for  the  passage  of 
a  man  was  made  in  the  floor  of  a  sleeping  room,  being  covered 
by  a  bed — that  is,  a  mattress — and  through  this  the  earth  from 
a  tunnel  which  led  from  the  Black  Hole  to  beyond  the  prison 
walls,  was  brought  and  hidden  in  the  chimney  and  in  hammocks 
until  opportunities  came  for  its  removal  elsewhere.  As  no 


216  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

report  was  published  of  the  recapture  of  these  men,  we  may 
presume  that  they  got  away. 

In  1779  Howard  made  his  report  upon  Forton.  He  found 
there  251  Americans  and  177  Frenchmen.  The  condition  of 
the  former,  he  says,  was  satisfactory — probably  a  result  of  the 
generous  public  subscription  of  the  previous  year  in  aid  of 
them. 

Of  the  French  part  of  the  prison  he  speaks  badly.  The  meat 
was  bad,  the  bread  loaves  were  of  short  weight,  the  straw  in  the 
mattresses  had  been  reduced  to  dust  by  long  use,  and  many 
of  them  had  been  emptied  to  clear  them  of  vermin.  The  floors 
of  the  hospital  and  the  sleeping  quarters,  which  were  laid 
rough,  were  dirty  and  offensive. 

The  prisoners  complained  to  Howard,  who  told  them  to 
write  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  '  Sick  and  Hurt '  Office. 
They  replied  that,  as  every  letter  had  to  be  examined  by  the 
Agent,  this  would  be  of  no  good. 

Howard  emphasizes  severely  the  evident  roguery  of  the 
contractors  employed  in  the  furnishing  of  provisions  and 
clothing. 

The  year  1793  was  marked  at  Forton,  as  elsewhere,  by  a 
general  insubordinate  feeling  among  the  Frenchmen,  of  whom 
there  were  850  in  the  prison.  In  April,  a  sentry  on  guard 
outside  the  palisade  heard  a  mysterious  scraping  sound  beneath 
his  feet,  and  gave  the  alarm.  Examination  revealed  two  loose 
planks  in  one  of  the  sleeping-rooms,  which,  being  taken  up, 
exposed  the  entrance  to  a  tunnel,  afterwards  found  to  run 
twenty-seven  feet  to  the  outer  side  of  the  palisade.  One  of  the 
prisoners  confessed  that  a  plot  had  been  made  to  kill  the  Agent 
and  his  officers. 

In  July  the  following  report  was  made  upon  Forton  : 

'  The  French  at  Forton  continue  extremely  restless  and 
turbulent,  and  cannot  bear  their  captivity  with  moderation  and 
temper  though  they  are  exceedingly  well  supplied  with  pro- 
visions and  every  necessity  their  situation  requires.  A  sailor 
made  a  desperate  attempt  to  disarm  a  sentinel  through  the  bar 
of  the  compartment  where  he  was  confined.  The  sentry  with 
great  exertion  disengaged  himself,  and  fired  at  the  offender, 
but  wounded  unfortunately  another  prisoner,  not  the  aggressor. 
Friday  se'nnight,  the  guard  discovered  a  plot  by  which  several 


FORTON  217 

prisoners  had  planned  an  escape  over  the  wall  by  tying  together 
their  hammocks  and  blankets.  The  sentry  on  duty  fired  in  at 
the  windows,  and  hit  one  of  the  rioters,  who  is  since  dead. 

'  Three  French  prisoners  were  dangerously  wounded  while 
endeavouring  to  escape  from  Forton.  One  of  them  with  a 
drawn  knife  rushed  upon  the  guard,  a  private  of  the  Anglesea 
Militia,  who  fired  at  him.  The  Frenchman  seized  him  by  the 
coat,  whereupon  the  guard  ran  the  offender  through  the  body/ 

General  Hyde,  the  Commandant  at  Portsmouth,  ordered,  in 
consequence  of  the  insubordination  fomented  by  the  French 
political  excitement  of  the  time,  that  no  prisoners  should  be 
allowed  to  wear  the  national  cockade,  or  to  scribble  seditious 
statements  on  the  prison  walls,  or  to  play  any  national  music, 
under  penalty  of  the  cachot.  It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  say 
that  the  enforcement  of  these  orders  was  physically  impossible. 

In  1794  an  epidemic  at  Forton  caused  the  deaths  of  200 
prisoners  in  one  month. 

In  1806  the  great  amount  of  sickness  at  Forton  brought 
about  an  official  inquiry,  the  result  of  which  was  the  super- 
seding of  the  head  surgeon. 

In  1807,  a  fire  broke  out  one  day  in  the  prison  at  2  p.m., 
which  continued  until  9  a.m.  The  prisoners  behaved  very  well, 
helping  to  put  the  fire  out,  and  not  attempting  to  escape. 

In  November,  1810,  no  less  than  800  prisoners  were  on  the 
sick  list. 

In  1811,  Sous-lieutenant  Doisyde  Villargennes,  of  the  26th 
French  line  regiment,  arrived  at  Portsmouth,  a  prisoner  of  war, 
taken  after  Fuentes  d'Onoro,  and  was  allowed  to  be  on  parole 
ashore  pending  his  dispatch  to  an  inland  parole  town.  He 
knew  that  his  foster-brother  was  in  prison  at  Forton,  and  got 
leave  to  visit  him.  I  am  particularly  glad  to  give  the  testimony 
of  a  French  prisoner  of  war  to  the  improved  state  of  affairs — 
at  Forton,  at  any  rate.  He  says  : 

'  II  y  regnait  1'ordre  le  plus  parfait,  sous  un  reglement  severe 
mais  humain.  Nous  n'entendimes  pas  de  sanglots  de  deses- 
poir,  nous  ne  vimes  point  la  tristesse  dans  les  yeux  des  habitants, 
mais  de  tous  cotes,  au  contraire,  c'etaient  des  eclats  de  rire  ou 
des  chansons  patriotiques  qui  resonnaient.  .  .  .  Mon  frere 
de  lait  me  conduisit  vers  un  petit  coin  confortable  qu'il 
occupait  en  compagnie  d'un  camarade.  J'y  remarquai  un  lit 


2i8  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

de  bonne  apparence,  ainsi  que  d'autres  meubles  modestes  qu'ils 
avaient  pu  acheter  avec  leur  propre  argent.  La  cuisine  occu- 
pait  le  compartiment  voisin;  elle  servait  a  200  hommes,  et 
1'odeur  qu'elle  repandait  ne  faisait  nullement  presumer  que 
les  habitants  pussent  etre  affames.  Je  restai  a  diner.  Je  ne 
dirai  pas  que  le  repas  etait  somptueux,  mais  les  mets  etaient 
suffisants  et  de  bonne  qualite,  et  bien  que  servis  dans  des  plats 
et  assiettes  d'etain,  avec  des  couteaux  et  des  fourchettes  du 
meme  metal,  ils  etaient  accompagnes  d'une  si  cordiale  reception 
que  le  souvenir  de  ce  diner  m'a  toujours  laisse  sous  une  agreable 
impression.' 

There  were  no  wines  or  liqueurs,  but  abundance  of  '  the 
excellent  ale  which  England  alone  produces '.  Doisy  asked 
whence  came  the  money  to  pay  for  all  this  abundance.  His 
host  told  him  that,  being  a  basket-maker's  son,  and  knowing 
the  trade,  he  got  permission  to  work  at  it  and  to  sell  his  goods. 
For  a  time  this  was  very  successful,  but  the  large  output  of 
cheap,  untaxed  work  from  the  prison  brought  remonstrance 
from  the  straw-workers  of  Portsmouth,  Barnstaple,  and  other 
places,  with  the  result  that  Government  prohibited  it.  But 
the  ingenious  Frenchman  soon  found  another  string  for  his  bow, 
and  he  became,  with  many  others,  a  manufacturer  of  ornaments 
and  knick-knacks,  boxes,  combs,  toys,  and  especially  ship  models, 
from  the  bones  of  his  food.  These  beef  and  mutton  bones  were 
carefully  saved  on  all  sides,  and  those  who  could  not  work  them, 
sold  them  at  good  prices  to  those  who  could.  Germain  Lamy,  his 
foster-brother,  told  Doisy  that  he  and  his  comrade  worked  at 
the  bone  model  of  a  seventy-four,  with  rigging  made  of  hair, 
for  six  months,  and  sold  it  for  £40. 

Lamy  was  released  at  the  peace  of  1814.  He  took  back 
to  France  16,500  francs  ;  bought  a  little  farm,  married,  and 
settled  down,  but  died  of  cholera  in  1832. 

In  1813  took  place  the  '  Brothers  murder,'  a  crime  which 
made  a  very  great  and  lasting  sensation. 

Three  Frenchmen — Francois  Relif,  Jean  Marie  Dauze,  and 
Daniel  du  Verge,  escaped  from  Forton,  and  engaged  George 
Brothers,  a  pilot  and  boatman,  to  take  them,  they  said,  from 
the  Point  to  one  of  the  ships  at  Spithead.  Off  the  Block-House 
they  told  him  that  they  intended  to  escape,  and  proposed  that 
he  should  take  them  over  to  France.  He  refused  :  they 


FORTON  219 

threatened,  but  he  persisted  and  tried  to  signal  the  shipping. 
Whereupon  they  attacked  him,  stabbed  him  in  sixteen  places, 
threw  his  body  overboard,  and  set  their  course  seaward.  This 
was  seen  from  the  shore,  a  fleet  of  boats  set  off  in  pursuit,  and, 
after  a  smart  chase — one  account  says  of  fifteen  miles — the  fugi- 
tives were  captured,  although  it  was  thought  that  they  would 
have  escaped  had  they  known  how  to  manage  a  sailing  boat. 
They  were  taken  on  board  H.M.S.  Centaur,  searched,  and  upon 
them  were  found  three  knives  and  a  large  sum  of  money.  They 
were  taken  then  to  jail  ashore.  One  of  the  prisoners  was  found 
to  have  thirty  crown  pieces  concealed  about  him,  and  confessed 
that  having  saved  up  this  money,  which  he  had  made  by  the  sale 
of  lace,  toys,  and  other  manufactures,  he  had  bought  a  suit  of 
decent  clothes,  and,  mixing  with  visitors  to  the  depot,  thus 
disguised  had  got  off.  In  the  meanwhile  the  body  of  Brothers 
had  been  recovered,  placed  first  in  one  of  the  casemates  of 
Point  Battery,  and  then  taken  amidst  an  enormous  crowd  to 
his  house  in  Surrey  Street,  Landport. 

The  three  murderers  were  executed  at  Winchester.  The 
funeral  of  Brothers  in  Kingston  churchyard  was  the  occasion 
of  a  large  public  demonstration,  and,  be  it  recorded,  the 
prisoners  at  Forton  expressed  their  abhorrence  of  the  crime 
by  getting  up  a  subscription  for  the  murdered  man's  widow 
and  children,  to  which  it  is  said  one  of  the  murderers  con- 
tributed £7. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  PRISONS  ASHORE 

Q.       MlLLBAY,    NEAR   PLYMOUTH 

SAXON  prisoners  taken  at  Leuthen  were  at  the  '  New  Prison/ 
Plymouth,  in  1758.  In  this  year  they  addressed  a  complaint  to 
the  authorities,  praying  to  be  sent  elsewhere,  as  they  were  ostra- 
cized, and  even  reviled,  by  the  French  captives,  and  a  round- 
robin  to  the  officer  of  the  guard,  reminding  him  that  humanity 
should  rule  his  actions  rather  than  a  mere  delight  in  exercising 
authority,  and  hinting  that  officers  who  had  made  war  the 
trade  of  their  lives  probably  knew  more  about  its  laws  than 
Mr.  Tonkin,  the  Commissioner  in  charge  of  them,  appeared  to 
know. 

In  1760  no  less  than  150  prisoners  contrived  to  tunnel  their 
way  out  of  the  prison,  but  all  except  sixteen  were  recaptured. 

Of  the  life  at  the  old  Mill  Prison,  as  it  was  then  called,  during, 
the  War  of  American  Independence,  a  detailed  account  is  given 
by  Charles  Herbert  of  Newburyport,  Massachusetts,  captured 
in  the  Dolton,  in  December  1776,  by  H.M.S.  Reasonable,  64. 

With  his  sufferings  during  the  voyage  to  England  we  have 
nothing  to  do,  except  that  he  was  landed  at  Plymouth  so  afflicted 
with  '  itch ',  which  developed  into  small-pox,  that  he  was  at 
once  taken  to  the  Royal  Hospital.  It  is  pleasing  to  note  that 
he  speaks  in  the  highest  terms  of  the  care  and  kindness  of  the 
doctor  and  nurses  of  this  institution. 

When  cured  he  was  sent  to  Mill  Prison,  and  here  made 
money  by  carving  in  wood  of  boxes,  spoons  and  punch  ladles, 
which  he  sold  at  the  Sunday  market. 

Very  soon  the  Americans  started  the  system  of  tunnelling 
out  of  the  prison,  and  attempting  to  escape,  which  only  ceased 
with  their  final  discharge.  Herbert  was  engaged  in  the  scheme 
of  an  eighteen  feet  long  excavation  to  a  field  outside,  the  earth 


MILLBAY  221 

from  which,  they  rammed  into  their  sea-chests.   By  this,  thirty- 
two  men  got  out,  but  eleven  were  captured,  he  being  one. 

Men  who  could  make  no  articles  for  sale  in  the  market  sold 
their  clothes  and  all  their  belongings. 

Theft  among  the  prisoners  was  punished  by  the  offenders 
being  made  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  their  comrades,  who  were 
armed  with  nettles  for  the  occasion. 

Herbert  complains  bitterly  of  the  scarcity  and  quality  of  the 
provisions,  particularly  of  the  bread,  which  he  says  was  full  of 
straw-ends.  '  Many  are  tempted  to  pick  up  the  grass  in  the 
yard  and  eat  it ;  and  some  pick  up  old  bones  that  have  been 
laying  in  the  dirt  a  week  or  ten  days  and  pound  them  to  pieces 
and  suck  them.  Some  will  pick  snails  out  of  holes  in  the  wall 
and  from  among  the  grass  and  weeds  in  the  yard,  boil  them, 
eat  them,  and  drink  the  broth.  Men  run  after  the  stumps  of 
cabbages  thrown  out  by  the  cooks  into  the  yard,  and  trample 
over  each  other  in  the  scuffle  to  get  them.' 

Christmas  and  New  Year  were,  however,  duly  celebrated, 
thanks  to  the  generosity  of  the  prison  authorities,  who  provided 
the  materials  for  two  huge  plum-puddings,  served  out  white 
bread  instead  of  the  regulation  '  Brown  George  ',  mutton 
instead  of  beef,  turnips  instead  of  cabbage,  and  oatmeal. 

Then  came  a  time  of  plenty.  In  London  £2,276  was  sub- 
scribed for  the  prisoners,  and  £200  in  Bristol.  Tobacco,  soap, 
blankets,  and  extra  bread  for  each  mess  were  forthcoming, 
although  the  price  of  tobacco  rose  to  five  shillings  a  pound. 
Candles  were  expensive,  so  marrow-bones  were  used  instead, 
one  bone  lasting  half  as  long  as  a  candle. 

On  February  i,  1778,  five  officers — Captains  Henry  and 
Eleazar  Johnston,  Offin  Boardman,  Samuel  Treadwell,  and 
Deal,  got  off  with  two  sentries  who  were  clothed  in  mufti, 
supplied  by  Henry  Johnston.  On  February  17,  the  two 
soldiers  were  taken,  and  were  sentenced,  one  to  be  shot  and 
the  other  to  700  lashes,  which  punishment  was  duly  carried 
out.  Of  the  officers,  Treadwell  was  recaptured,  and  suffered 
the  usual  penalty  of  forty  days  Black  Hole,  and  put  on  half 
allowance.  Continued  attempts  to  escape  were  made,  and  as 
they  almost  always  failed  it  was  suspected  that  there  were 
traitors  in  the  camp.  A  black  man  and  boy  were  discovered  : 


222  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

they  were  whipped,  and  soon  after,  in  reply  to  a  petition 
from  the  whites,  all  the  black  prisoners  were  confined  in  a 
separate  building,  known  as  the  '  itchy  yard. ' 

Still  the  attempts  continued.  On  one  occasion  two  men 
who  had  been  told  off  for  the  duty  of  emptying  the  prison  offal 
tubs  into  the  river,  made  a  run  for  it.  They  were  captured, 
and  among  the  pursuers  was  the  prison  head-cook,  whose  wife 
held  the  monopoly  of  selling  beer  at  the  prison  gate,  the  result 
being  that  she  was  boycotted. 

Much  complaint  was  made  of  the  treatment  of  the  sick, 
extra  necessaries  being  only  procurable  by  private  subscription, 
and  when  in  June  1778,  the  chief  doctor  died,  Herbert  writes  : 
'  I  believe  there  are  not  many  in  the  prison  who  would  mourn, 
as  there  is  no  reason  to  expect  that  we  can  get  a  worse  one.' 

On  Independence  Day,  July  4,  all  the  Americans  provided 
themselves  with  crescent-shaped  paper  cockades,  painted  with 
the  thirteen  stars  and  thirteen  stripes  of  the  Union,  and  inscribed 
at  the  top  '  Independence  ',  and  at  the  bottom  '  Liberty  or 
Death  '.  At  one  o'clock  they  paraded  in  thirteen  divisions. 
Each  in  turn  gave  three  cheers,  until  at  the  thirteenth  all 
cheered  in  unison. 

The  behaviour  of  a  section  of  blackguards  in  the  community 
gave  rise  to  fears  that  it  would  lead  to  the  withdrawal  of 
charitable  donations.  So  articles  were  drawn  up  forbidding, 
under  severe  penalties,  gambling,  '  blackguarding  ',  and  bad 
language.  This  produced  violent  opposition,  but  gradually 
the  law-abiders  won  the  day. 

An  ingenious  attempt  to  escape  is  mentioned  by  Herbert. 
Part  of  the  prison  was  being  repaired  by  workmen  from  outside. 
An  American  saw  the  coat  and  tool-basket  of  one  of  these  men 
hanging  up,  so  he  appropriated  them,  and  quietly  sauntered 
out  into  the  town  unchallenged.  Later  in  the  day,  however, 
the  workman  recognized  his  coat  on  the  American  in  the  streets 
of  Plymouth,  and  at  once  had  him  arrested  and  brought  back. 

On  December  28,  1778,  Herbert  was  concerned  in  a  great 
attempt  to  escape.  A  hole  nine  feet  deep  was  dug  by  the  side 
of  the  inner  wall  of  the  prison,  thence  for  fifteen  feet  until  it 
came  out  in  a  garden  on  the  other  side  of  the  road  which  bounded 
the  outer  wall.  The  difficulty  of  getting  rid  of  the  excavated 


M1LLBAY  223 

dirt  was  great,  and,  moreover,  excavation  could  only  be  pro- 
ceeded with  when  the  guard  duty  was  performed  by  the  Militia 
regiment,  which  was  on  every  alternate  day,  the  sentries  of 
the  I3th  Regular  regiment  being  far  too  wideawake  and  up 
to  escape-tricks.  Half  the  American  prisoners — some  two 
hundred  in  number — had  decided  to  go.  All  was  arranged 
methodically  and  without  favour,  by  drawing  lots,  the  opera- 
tion being  conducted  by  two  chief  men  who  did  not  intend 
to  go. 

Herbert  went  with  the  first  batch.  There  were  four  walls, 
each  eight  feet  high,  to  be  scaled.  With  five  companions 
Herbert  managed  these,  and  got  out,  their  aim  being  to  make  for 
Teignmouth,  whence  they  would  take  boat  for  France.  Some- 
how, as  they  avoided  high  roads,  and  struck  across  fields,  they 
lost  their  bearings,  and  after  covering,  he  thinks,  at  least 
twenty  miles,  sat  down  chilled  and  exhausted,  under  a  hay- 
stack until  day-break.  They  then  restarted,  and  coming  on 
to  a  high  road,  learned  from  a  milestone  that,  after  all,  they 
were  only  three  miles  from  Plymouth  ! 

Day  came,  and  with  it  the  stirring  of  the  country  people. 
To  avoid  observation,  the  fugitives  quitted  the  road,  and  crept 
away  to  the  shelter  of  a  hedge,  to  wait,  hungry,  wet,  and  ex- 
hausted, during  nine  hours,  for  darkness.  The  end  soon  came. 

In  rising,  Herbert  snapped  a  bone  in  his  leg.  As  it  was  being 
set  by  a  comrade,  a  party  of  rustics  with  a  soldier  came  up, 
the  former  armed  with  clubs  and  flails.  The  prisoners  were 
taken  to  a  village,  where  they  had  brandy  and  a  halfpenny 
cake  each,  and  taken  back  to  Plymouth. 

At  the  prison  they  learned  that  109  men  had  got  out,  of 
whom  thirty  had  been  recaptured.  All  had  gone  well  until 
a  boy,  having  stuck  on  one  of  the  walls,  had  called  for  help,  and 
so  had  given  the  alarm.  Altogether  only  twenty-two  men 
escaped.  Great  misery  now  existed  in  the  prison,  partly 
because  the  charitable  fund  had  been  exhausted  which  had 
hitherto  so  much  alleviated  their  lot,  and  partly  on  account  of 
the  number  of  men  put  on  half  allowance  as  a  result  of  their 
late  escape  failure,  and  so  scanty  was  food  that  a  dog  belonging 
to  one  of  the  garrison  officers  was  killed  and  eaten. 

Herbert   speaks   in   glowing   terms   of   the   efforts   of    two 


224  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

American  '  Fathers  ',  Heath  and  Sorry,  who  were  allowed  to 
visit  the  prison,  to  soften  the  lot  of  the  captives. 

Finally,  on  March  15,  1779,  Herbert  was  exchanged  after  two- 
years  and  four  months'  captivity. 

In  a  table  at  the  end  of  his  account,  he  states  that  between 
June  1777,  and  March  1779,  there  were  734  Americans  in  Mill 
Prison,  of  whom  thirty-six  died,  102  escaped,  and  114  joined 
the  British  service.  Of  these  last,  however,  the  majority  were 
British  subjects. 

In  1779  Howard  reported  that  there  were  392  French  and 
298  American  prisoners  in  Millbay.  He  noted  that  neither  the 
wards  nor  the  court-yards  apportioned  to  the  Frenchmen  were 
so  spacious  and  convenient  as  were  those  in  the  American  part 
of  the  prison,  nor  were  the  provisions  so  good.  In  the  hospital 
there  were  fifty  patients  ;  it  was  dirty  and  offensive,  and 
Howard  found  only  three  pairs  of  sheets  in  use. 

(Herbert,  above  quoted,  said  that  the  hospital  was  not 
worthy  of  the  name,  that  when  it  rained  the  wet  beat  upon  the 
patients  as  they  lay  in  their  beds.) 

A  new  hospital  was  building,  Howard  continues,  but  he  con- 
sidered the  wards  were  being  made  too  low  and  too  close,  being 
seventeen  feet  ten  inches  wide,  and  ten  feet  high.  In  the 
American  blocks  the  regulations  were  hung  up  according  to 
rule,  and  he  notes  Article  5  of  these  to  the  effect  that  :  '  As 
water  and  tubs  for  washing  their  linen  and  clothes  will  be 
allowed,  the  prisoners  are  advised  to  keep  their  persons  as  clean 
as  possible,  it  being  conducive  to  health/ 

I  now  make  an  extract  from  The  Memoirs  of  Commodore 
Barney,  published  in  Boston,  1832,  chiefly  on  account  of  his 
stirring  escape  from  Millbay,  therein  described. 

Barney  was  captured  in  December  1780  by  H.M.S.  Intrepid, 
Captain  Malloy,  whom  he  stigmatizes  as  the  embodiment  of  all 
that  is  brutal  in  man.  He  was  carried  to  England  on  the 
Yarmouth,  74,  with  seventy  other  American  officers.  They 
were  confined,  he  says,  in  the  hold,  under  three  decks,  twelve  feet 
by  twenty  feet,  and  three  feet  high,  without  light  and  almost 
without  air.  The  result  was  that  during  the  fifty-three  days' 
passage  in  the  depths  of  winter,  from  New  York  to  Plymouth, 
eleven  of  them  died,  and  that  when  they  arrived  at  Plymouth, 


MILLBAY  225 

few  of  them  were  able  to  stand,  and  all  were  temporarily  blinded 
by  the  daylight. 

It  sounds  incredible,  but  Mrs.  Barney,  the  editress  of  the 
volume,  says  :  '  What  is  here  detailed  is  given  without  adorn- 
ment or  exaggeration,  almost  in  the  very  words  of  one  who  saw 
and  suffered  just  as  he  has  described.' 

Barney  was  sent  first  to  a  hulk,  which  he  describes  as  a 
Paradise  when  compared  with  the  Yarmouth,  and  as  soon  as 
they  could  walk,  he  and  his  companions  went  to  Mill  Prison, 
'  as  rebels.' 

He  lost  no  time  in  conspiring  to  escape.  With  infinite  pains 
he  and  others  forced  their  way  through  the  stone  walls  and 
iron  gratings  of  the  common  sewer,  only  to  find,  after  wading 
through  several  hundred  feet  of  filth,  their  exit  blocked  by 
a  double  iron  grating.  He  then  resolved  to  act  independently, 
and  was  suddenly  afflicted  by  a  sprain  which  put  him  on 
crutches.  He  found  a  sympathetic  friend  in  a  sentry  who,  for 
some  reason  or  other,  had  often  manifested  friendship  for  the 
American  prisoners.  This  man  contrived  to  obtain  for  him 
a  British  officer's  undress  uniform.  One  day  Barney  said  to 
him,  '  To-day  ?  '  to  which  the  laconic  reply  was  '  Dinner  ',  by 
which  Barney  understood  that  his  hours  on  duty  would  be 
from  twelve  till  two. 

Barney  threw  his  old  great  coat  over  the  uniform  ;  arranged 
with  his  friends  to  occupy  the  other  sentries'  attention  by  chaff 
and  chat ;  engaged  a  slender  youth  at  roll-call  time  to  carry 
out  the  old  trick  of  creeping  through  a  hole  in  the  wall  and 
answer  to  Barney's  name  as  well  as  his  own  ;  and  then  jumped 
quickly  on  to  the  shoulders  of  a  tall  friend  and  over  the  wall. 

Throwing  away  his  great-coat,  he  slipped  four  guineas  into 
the  accomplice  sentry's  hand,  and  walked  quietly  off  into 
Plymouth  to  the  house  of  a  well-known  friend  to  the  American 
cause.  No  little  alarm  was  caused  here  by  the  sudden  appear- 
ance of  a  visitor  in  British  uniform,  but  Barney  soon  explained 
the  situation,  and  remained  concealed  until  night,  when  he 
was  taken  to  the  house  of  a  clergyman.  Here  he  found  two 
Americans,  not  prisoners,  desirous  of  returning  to  America,  and 
they  agreed  to  buy  a  fishing  boat  and  risk  the  crossing  to 
France. 

ABELL  n 


226  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

So  the  British  uniform  was  exchanged  for  fisher  garb,  the 
boat  purchased,  and  the  three  started.  As  his  companions 
were  soon  prostrate  from  sea-sickness,  Barney  had  to  manage 
the  craft  himself  ;  passed  through  the  British  war-ships  safely, 
and  seemed  to  be  safe  now  from  all  interference,  when  a 
schooner  rapidly  approached,  showing  British  colours,  and 
presently  lowered  a  boat  which  was  pulled  towards  them. 

Instantly,  Barney  resolved  to  play  a  game  of  bluff.  Luckily, 
in  changing  his  attire  he  had  not  left  the  British  uniform  behind. 
The  boat  came  alongside  and  a  privateer  officer  came  aboard 
and  asked  Barney  his  business. 

'  Government  business  to  France,'  replied  Barney  with 
dignity — and  displayed  the  British  uniform. 

The  officer  was  not  satisfied,  and  said  that  he  must  report  to 
his  captain.  This  he  did  ;  the  privateer  captain  was  no  more 
satisfied  than  his  lieutenant,  and  politely  but  firmly  declared 
his  intention  of  carrying  Barney  back  to  Plymouth,  adding 
that  it  must  be  funny  business  to  take  a  British  officer  in 
uniform  over  to  France  in  a  fishing  boat. 

'  Very  well,'  said  Barney,  calm  and  dignified  to  the  end; 
'  then  I  hold  you  responsible,  for  the  interruption  of  my  errand, 
to  Admiral  Digby,  to  whose  flag-ship  I  will  trouble  you  to 
take  me/ 

All  the  same  Barney  saw  that  the  game  was  up,  and  back 
towards  Plymouth  he  had  to  turn.  Barney's  story  is  not 
very  clear  as  to  how  he  managed  to  escape  the  notice  of  the 
crew  of  the  privateer,  on  board  which  he  now  was,  but  he 
slipped  into  a  boat  alongside,  cut  her  adrift,  and  made  for 
'  Cawsen '.  Landing  here,  and  striking  away  inland,  he  thought 
it  best  to  leave  the  high  road,  and  so,  climbing  over  a  hedge,  he 
found  himself  in  Edgcumbe  Park.  Presently  he  came  upon 
an  old  gardener  at  work.  Barney  accosted  him,  but  all  the 
reply  he  got  was  :  '  It's  a  fine  of  half  a  guinea  for  crossing 
a  hedge.'  Barney  had  no  money,  but  plenty  of  pleasant  talk, 
the  result  of  which  was  that  the  old  man  passed  him  out  by  a 
side  gate  and  showed  him  a  by-way  towards  the  river.  Barney, 
for  obvious  reasons,  wished  to  avoid  the  public  ferry,  so  crossed 
over  in  a  butcher's  boat,  and  passing  under  the  very  wall  of 
Mill  Prison,  was  soor  in  Plymouth  and  at  the  clergyman's  house. 


MILLBAY  227 

He  had  had  a  narrow  escape,  for  in  less  than  an  hour 
after  Admiral  Digby  had  received  the  privateer  captain's 
report,  a  guard  had  been  sent  off  from  Mill  Prison  to  Cawsand, 
and  had  he  kept  to  the  high  road  he  would  assuredly  have  been 
captured.  Whilst  at  the  clergyman's  house,  the  Town  Crier 
passed  under  the  window,  proclaiming  the  reward  of  five 
guineas  for  the  apprehension  of  '  Joshua  Barney,  a  Rebel 
Deserter  from  Mill  Prison  '. 

Barney  remained  here  three  days.  Then,  with  a  fresh 
outfit,  he  took  a  post  chaise  for  Exeter.  At  midnight  the  Town 
Gate  was  reached,  and  a  soldier  closely  examined  Barney  and 
compared  him  with  his  description  on  the  Apprehension  bill. 
Again  his  sang-froid  came  to  the  rescue,  and  he  so  contorted  his 
face  and  eyes  that  he  was  allowed  to  proceed,  and  his  escape 
was  accomplished. 

In  1783  Barney  was  at  Plymouth  again  ;  this  time  as  a 
representative  of  the  Republic  in  a  time  of  peace,  and  although 
an  individual  of  importance,  entertaining  all  the  great  officials 
of  the  port  on  the  George  Washington,  and  being  entertained  by 
them  in  return,  he  found  time  not  only  to  visit  the  kindly 
clergyman  who  had  befriended  him,  but  to  look  up  the  old 
gardener  at  Mount  Edgcumbe,  amply  pay  the  fine  so  long  due, 
and  discover  that  the  old  man  was  the  father  of  the  sentry  who 
had  enabled  him  to  escape  from  Mill  Prison  ! 

An  account  by  another  American,  Andrew  Sherburne, 
published  at  Utica,  in  1825,  of  a  sojourn  in  Mill  Prison  in  1781, 
is  quoted  only  for  his  remarks  on  the  hospital  system,  which 
do  not  accord  with  those  of  other  writers.  He  says  : 

'  However  inhuman  and  tyrannical  the  British  Government 
was  in  other  respects,  they  were  to  be  praised  and  respected  for 
the  suitable  provision  they  made  for  the  sick  in  the  hospitals  at 
Mill  Prison.' 

In  1798  Vochez,  the  official  sent  to  England  by  the  French 
Directory  to  inquire  into  the  true  state  of  French  prisoners 
under  our  care,  brought  an  action  against  certain  provision 
contractors  for  astounding  breaches  of  their  engagements,  in 
the  shape  of  a  system  of  short  weightage  carried  on  for  years, 
and  of  supplying  provisions  of  an  inferior  character.  In  this 
he  was  supported  by  Captain  Lane,  a  travelling  inspector  of 

Q2 


228  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

prisons,  and  an  honest  official,  and  this,  wrote  Vochez,  '  despite 
the  contradiction  by  a  number  of  base  and  interested  prisoners 
brought  to  London  for  that  express  purpose  to  attack  the 
unblemished  character  of  that  officer.' 

Captain  Lane  insisted  that  the  Governor  of  the  Prison  should 
give  certificates  as  to  the  badness  of  the  provisions  supplied ; 
this  was  done,  and  Vochez's  case  was  established.  The 
Admiralty  entirely  endorsed  Captain  Lane's  recommendation 
that  in  every  case  the  Governors  of  Prisons  should  certify  as 
to  the  character  of  provisions  supplied  by  contractors,  highly 
complimented  him  on  his  action,  and  very  heavily  mulcted  the 
rascally  contractors.  Unhappily,  the  vile  system  was  far  from 
being  abolished.  The  interests  of  too  many  influential  people 
were  linked  with  those  of  the  contractors  for  a  case  such  as  the 
above  to  be  more  than  a  flash  in  the  pan,  and  the  prison 
contractors  continued  to  flourish  until  the  very  end  of  the 
Great  War  period. 

In  1799  Mill  Prison  was  practically  rebuilt,  and  became 
known  as  Millbay.  The  condition  of  it  at  this  time  seems  to 
have  been  very  bad.  It  was  said  that  some  of  the  poor  inmates 
were  so  weak  for  lack  of  proper  food  that  they  fell  from  their 
hammocks  and  broke  their  necks,  that  supplies  of  bedding  and 
clothing  were  only  to  be  had  from  '  capitalists  '  among  the 
prisoners,  who  had  bought  them  from  the  distribution  officers 
and  sold  them  at  exorbitant  rates. 

In  1806,  at  the  instance  of  some  Spanish  prisoners  in  Millbay, 
a  firm  of  provision  contractors  was  heavily  mulcted  upon  proof 
that  for  a  long  time  past  they  had  systematically  sent  in  stores 
of  deficient  quality. 

In  1807  the  Commissioners  of  the  Transport  Office  refused 
an  application  that  French  prisoners  at  Millbay  should  be 
allowed  to  manufacture  worsted  gloves  for  H.M's  87th  Regi- 
ment, on  the  grounds  that,  if  allowed,  it  would  seriously  inter- 
fere with  our  own  manufacturing  industry,  and  further,  would 
lead  to  the  destruction  by  the  prisoners  of  their  blankets  and 
other  woollen  articles  in  order  to  provide  materials  for  the  work. 
I  now  proceed  to  give  a  very  interesting  account  of  prisoner 
life  in  Millbay  Prison  from  fidouard  Corbiere's  book,  Le  Negrier. 
When  a  lad  of  fifteen,  Corbiere  was  captured  on  the  Val  de 


MILLBAY  229 

Grace  privateer  by  H.M.S.  Gibraltar,  in  1807.  The  Val  de  Grace 
must  have  been  a  very  small  craft,  for  not  only  did  she  not 
show  fight,  but  the  Gibraltar  simply  sent  off  a  boat's  crew,  made 
fast  hawsers  and  tackles,  and  hoisted  the  Frenchman  bodily 
on  board.  Corbiere  and  his  fellows  were  sent  to  Millbay. 
Before  describing  his  particular  experiences,  he  gives  a  page  or 
so  to  a  scathing  picture  of  our  shore  prisons,  but  he  impressively 
accentuates  the  frightful  depravity  brought  about  by  the  suffer- 
ings endured,  and  says  that  nobody  who  had  not  lived  in  an 
English  war-prison  could  realize  the  utter  depths  of  wickedness 
to  which  men  could  fall.  At  Millbay,  he  says,  the  forts  a  bras 
ruled  all  by  mere  brute  strength.  Victories  at  fights  or  wrest- 
ling matches  were  celebrated  by  procession  round  the  airing 
grounds,  and  the  successful  men  formed  the  '  Government '  of 
the  Pre,  as  the  airing  ground  was  called,  regulating  the  gambling, 
deciding  disputes,  officiating  at  duels — of  which  there  were  many, 
the  weapons  being  razors  or  compass  points  fixed  on  the  ends 
of  sticks — and  generally  exercising  despotic  sway.  They  were 
usually  topsmen  and  sailors.  The  Remains  were  the  pariahs 
at  Millbay,  and  the  Rafales  the  lowest  of  all,  naked  rascals  who 
slept  in  ranks,  spoon  fashion,  as  described  elsewhere. 

The  usual  industries  were  carried  on  at  Millbay.  Much  money 
was  made  by  the  straw  plaiters  and  workers,  some  of  the  latter 
earning  18  sous  a  day.  But  the  straw  '  capitalists  ',  the 
men  who  bought  straw  wholesale  through  the  soldiers  of  the 
guard,  and  who  either  employed  workers  themselves,  or  sold 
the  straw  to  other  employers,  accumulated  fortunes,  says 
Corbiere,  of  from  30,000  to  40,000  francs.  There  were  teachers 
of  sciences,  languages,  music,  dancing  and  fencing.  There  were 
eating-cabins  where  a  '  beef  steak  '  could  be  got  for  four  sous. 
There  were  theatrical  performances,  but  not  of  the  same 
character  or  quality  as,  for  instance,  at  Port  Chester. 

On  Sundays,  as  at  Stapleton,  the  prayers  of  the  Mass  were 
read.  Each  province  was  particular  in  observing  its  own 
festivals — Basques  and  Bretons  notably. 

A  great  many  *  broke-paroles  '  were  here,  and,  Corbiere 
remarks,  the  common  sailors  took  advantage  of  their  fallen 
position  and  ostentatiously  treated  them  as  equals,  and  even 
as  inferiors.  Not  so  the  soldiers,  who  punctiliously  observed 


230  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

the  distinctions  of  rank  ;  and  there  were  even  instances  of 
private  soldiers  helping  officers  not  used  to  manual  labour 
to  supplement  their  daily  rations. 

Corbiere  also  emphasizes  the  fact  that,  notwithstanding  the 
depth  of  degradation  to  which  the  prisoners  sank  among 
themselves,  they  always  preserved  a  proud  attitude  towards 
strangers,  and  never  begged  of  visitors  and  sight-seers. 

In  the  prison,  regular  Courts  of  Justice  were  held,  the  chief 
maitre  d'armes  being  generally  elected  President  if  he  could 
read.  The  Court  was  held  within  the  space  of  twelve  ham- 
mocks, shut  in  by  hangings  of  old  cloth.  The  only  ordinary 
punishment  was  flogging,  but  a  very  terrible  exception  was 
made  in  the  following  case.  One  of  the  grandest  and  boldest 
projects  for  escape  from  a  war- prison  which  had  ever  been 
conceived  had  been  secretly  proceeded  with  at  Millbay  for 
some  time.  It  consisted  of  a  tunnel  no  less  than  532  yards 
long  (Corbiere's  words  are  '  half  a  quarter  league  ',  and  the 
French  league  of  this  time  measured  2  miles  743  yards) 
coming  out  in  a  field,  by  which  the  whole  of  the  5,000  prisoners 
were  to  get  away  after  overcoming  and  disarming  the  guard. 
The  enormous  quantity  of  earth  excavated  was  carried  by  the 
workers  in  their  pockets  and  emptied  into  the  latrines,  and 
although  I  give  tfre  account  as  written,  I  cannot  repress  a  doubt 
that  Corbiere,  who  was  then  but  a  boy,  may  have  been  mistaken 
in  his  figures,  for  this  process  alone  of  emptying  a  tunnel,  big 
enough  to  allow  the  passage  of  a  man,  in  continual  fear  of 
detection,  must  have  been  very  long  and  laborious. 

At  any  rate  one  Jean  Caff e  sold  the  secret  to  the  authorities , 
the  result  being  that  on  the  appointed  night,  when  the  tunnel 
was  full  of  escaping  prisoners,  the  first  man  to  emerge  at  the 
outlet  was  greeted  by  Scots  soldiers,  and  the  despairing  cry 
arose,  Le  trou  est  vendu  ! 

Drums  beat,  the  alarm  brought  more  soldiers  from  Plymouth, 
and  the  would-be  escapers  were  put  back  into  prison,  but,  so 
maddened  were  they  at  the  failure  at  the  eleventh  hour  of  their 
cherished  plot,  that  they  refused  to  put  out  the  lights,  sang 
songs  of  defiance,  and  broke  out  into  such  a  riot  that  the  guard 
fired  into  them,  with  what  result  Corbiere  does  not  state. 

The  next  morning,  search  was  made  for  Caffe,  who  no  doubt 


MILLBAY  231 

had  been  hidden  by  the  authorities,  and  the  miserable  man  was 
found  with  some  guineas  in  his  pocket.  The  rage  of  his  country- 
men was  the  deeper  because  Gaffe  had  always  been  regarded 
as  a  poor,  witless  sort  of  fellow,  for  whom  everybody  had  pity, 
and  who  existed  upon  the  charity  of  others,  and  the  cry  arose 
that  he  should  be  at  once  put  to  death.  But  the  chief  of  the  Pre, 
who  happened  to  be  Corbiere's  captain  on  the  Val  de  Grace,  ar.d 
of  whom  more  anon,  said '  Non  !  II  faut  auparavant  le  fletrir  ! ' 

So  Gaffe  was  dragged  before  the  entire  assembly  of  prisoners. 
A  professional  tattooer  then  shaved  his  head,  laid  him  on  a 
table,  and  held  him  down  whilst  on  his  forehead  was  pricked : 
'  Fletri  pour  avoir  VENDU  5000  de  ses  camarades  dans  la  nuit 
du  4  Septembre  1807.' 

This  accomplished,  he  was  taken  to  a  well,  thrown  down  it, 
and  stones  hurled  on  him  until  he  was  hidden  from  sight,  and 
his  cries  could  be  heard  no  more.  Corbiere  adds  that,  so  far 
from  the  authorities  trying  to  stop  this  summary  execution,  the 
British  commander  said  that  it  served  him  right,  and  that  he 
would  have  done  the  same. 

Ivan,  the  privateer  captain  who  had  been  chief  official  at 
the  foregoing  execution,  had  won  his  position  as  a  Chef  de  Pre 
in  the  following  way.  He  was  dancing  at  a  ball  in  Calais  when 
the  news  was  brought  him  that  a  rich  British  prize  had  been 
sighted,  and  without  stopping  to  change  his  costume,  he  had 
hurried  on  board  the  Val  de  Grace,  so  that  the  prize  should  not 
escape  him.  Hence,  when  captured  by  the  Gibraltar,  he  was 
in  full  dancing  kit, — laced  coat,  ruffles,  silk  stockings  and  all— 
and  in  the  same  garb  had  been  introduced  into  Millbay  Prison, 
much  to  the  amusement  of  his  fellow  countrymen.  Par- 
ticularly did  he  attract  the  attention  of  the  chief  fort  a  bras, 
who  had  a  good  deal  to  say  about  carpet  knight  and  armchair 
sailor,  which  was  so  distasteful  to  Ivan  that  he  challenged 
him,  fought  him,  and  half -killed  him.  The  result  of  which 
was  that  the  same  night  he  was  elected  a  Chef  de  Pre  with 
much  pomp  and  circumstance.  Furthermore,  discovering 
among  the  prisoners  old  comrades  of  the  Sans  Facon  privateer, 
they  elected  him  head  cook,  a  position  in  the  prison  of  no  small 
consideration. 

Now  Mr.  Milliken,  purser  of  the  prison,  had  a  pretty  wife 


232  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

who  took  such  a  fancy  to  the  handsome,  dashing  young  French 
privateer  captain  that  she  made  him  a  present  of  a  New  Testa- 
ment, although  it  was  well  she  did  not  hear  his  description  of 
it  as  'le  beau  fichu  cadeau'.  At  the  same  time  Milliken, 
socially  superior,  Corbiere  remarks,  to  his  wife,  pitying  the 
boy  (Corbiere  himself)  thus  thrust  by  fate  at  the  very  threshold 
of  his  life  into  the  wild,  wicked  world  of  a  war-prison,  offered 
him  employment  in  his  office,  which  he  gladly  accepted,  going 
there  every  day,  but  returning  every  night  to  the  prison. 
Milliken's  office  was  on  the  ground  floor  of  his  dwelling-house, 
and  Mrs.  Milliken  with  her  servant  Sarah  were  constantly  in 
and  out,  the  result  being  that  the  boy  became  very  friendly 
with  them,  and  their  chief  object  seemed  to  be  to  make  his  life 
as  happy  as  possible,  the  only  cloud  upon  it  being  his  separation 
every  day  from  Ivan,  for  whom  he  had  an  affection  bordering 
upon  idolatry.  For  weeks  Corbiere  had  the  happiest  of  lives, 
indulged  in  every  way  by  Mrs.  Milliken,  and  made  much  of  by 
her  visitors,  to  most  of  whom  a  lively,  intelligent,  French  lad 
was  a  refreshing  novelty.  To  dress  him  up  in  feminine  attire 
was  a  favourite  amusement  of  the  ladies,  '  and ',  says  Corbiere, 
4  they  were  good  enough  to  say  that,  except  for  my  rolling  gait, 
begot  of  a  lifetime  spent  afloat,  I  should  pass  well  for  a  distin- 
guished-looking girl.' 

One  morning  Mrs.  Milliken  gave  him  bad  news.  Ivan  had 
escaped  from  the  prison.  He  says  :  '  Whatever  feeling  I  had 
of  gladness  that  my  dear  friend  was  out  of  prison,  was  smothered 
not  merely  by  the  sense  of  my  own  desolate  position,  but  by 
surprise  that  he  should  have  left  me.' 

A  day  or  two  later  a  young  woman  appeared  at  the  back  door 
of  the  Millikens'  house,  which  gave  on  to  the  street,  looked 
around  cautiously  for  a  few  moments,  and  then  rapidly  passed 
down  the  street.  It  was  Corbiere.  It  was  a  daring  move,  and 
it  was  not  long  before  he  wished  he  had  not  made  it,  for  Ply- 
mouth streets  in  these  piping  war-times  were  no  place  for 
a  respectable  girl,  and  no  doubt  his  flurried,  anxious  look,  and 
palpable  air  of  being  a  stranger,  commanded  unusual  attention. 
Whither  he  was  going  he  had  no  idea,  and  for  an  hour  he  went 
through  what  he  confesses  to  have  been  one  of  the  severest 
trials  of  a  life  full  of  adventure  and  ordeal.  He  was  on  the 


MILLBAY  233 

point  of  trying  to  find  his  way  back  to  the  Millikens'  house, 
when  an  old  Jew  man,  with  a  bag  over  his  shoulder,  brushed 
against  him,  and  at  the  same  time  whispered  his  name.  It  was 
Ivan.  The  boy  could  have  shouted  for  joy,  but  Ivan  impressed 
silence,  and  motioned  him  to  follow.  Arrived  at  Stonehouse, 
Ivan  paused  at  a  house,  whispered  to  Corbiere  to  walk  on, 
return,  and  enter,  and  went  in  himself.  This  was  done,  and 
Corbiere  describes  how,  when  at  last  together  in  the  house, 
they  unrestrainedly  indulged  their  joy  at  being  again  together, 
and  Ivan  explained  how  both  of  their  escapes  had  been  arranged 
by  Mrs.  Milliken.  Then  Ivan  detailed  his  plan  for  getting  out 
of  England.  He  had  thirty  false  one- pound  notes,  manu- 
factured in  Millbay  Prison,  which  he  had  bought  for  a  guinea, 
and  the  next  day  they  would  start  off  on  foot  for  Bigbury, 
about  fifteen  miles  distant,  on  the  coast,  near  which  they  would 
charter  a  smuggler  to  take  them  across. 

That  evening  they  went  into  the  town  to  make  a  few  neces- 
sary purchases,  and  in  his  delight  at  being  free  again,  Ivan 
proposed  that  they  should  go  to  the  theatre  at  Plymouth  Dock, 
They  did,  and  it  nearly  proved  the  undoing  of  them,  for  some 
American  sailors  were  there  who  naturally  regarded  as  fair 
game  a  nice-looking,  attractively  dressed  girl  in  the  company 
of  a  bearded  old  Jew,  and  paid  Corbiere  attentions  which 
became  so  marked  as  to  provoke  Ivan,  the  result  being  a  row, 
in  the  course  of  which  Ivan's  false  beard  was  torn  off,  and 
Corbiere's  dress  much  deranged,  and  the  cry  of  '  Runaway 
prisoners  ! '  beginning  to  be  heard,  the  two  rushed  out  of  the 
theatre,  and  through  the  streets,  until  they  were  in  the  open 
country. 

They  spent  the  night,  which  luckily  was  warm  and  fine,  in 
a  ditch,  and  the  next  morning  saw  an  anchored  boat  riding  close 
in  shore.  They  swam  out  and  boarded  her,  and  found  that 
there  were  rudder  and  oars  chained,  but  no  sails  or  mast.  Ivan 
broke  the  chain,  and  rigged  up  some  of  Corbiere's  female  clothes 
on  an  oar,  for  sail  and  mast.  Some  days  ensued  of  much 
suffering  from  hunger  and  thirst,  as,  being  without  bearings, 
they  simply  steered  by  the  sun,  south-east,  and  at  last  they 
were  sighted  and  picked  up  by  the  Gazelle,  French  '  aventurier ', 
of  St.  Malo,  and  in  her  went  to  Martinique. 


234  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

In  1809  the  Transport  Office,  in  reply  to  French  prisoners  at 
Millbay  asking  leave  to  give  fencing  lessons  outside  the  prison, 
refused,  adding  that  only  officers  of  the  guard  were  allowed  to 
take  fencing  lessons  from  prisoners,  and  those  in  the  prison. 

In  1811  a  dozen  prisoners  daubed  themselves  all  over  with 
mortar,  and  walked  out  unchallenged  as  masons.  Five  were 
retaken.  Another  man  painted  his  clothes  like  a  British 
military  uniform,  and  got  away,  as  he  deserved  to. 

In  1812  additional  buildings  to  hold  2,000  persons  were 
erected  at  Millbay. 

In  1813  a  notable  scene,  indicative  of  the  prevalence  occa- 
sionally of  a  nice  feeling  between  foes,  was  witnessed  at  Millbay, 
at  the  funeral  of  Captain  Allen  of  the  United  States  ship  Argus, 
who  had  died  of  wounds  received  in  the  action  with  the  Pelican. 
Allen  had  been  first  lieutenant  of  the  United  States  in  her 
victorious  action  with  the  British  Macedonian,  and  had  received 
his  promotion  for  his  bravery  in  that  encounter.  Moreover, 
all  the  British  prisoners  taken  by  him  testified  to  his  humanity 
and  kindness.  A  contemporary  newspaper  says  : 

'  The  Funeral  Procession  as  it  moved  from  the  Mill  Prison 
to  the  Old  Church,  afforded  a  scene  singularly  impressive  to  the 
prisoners,  who  beheld  with  admiration  the  respect  paid  by 
a  gallant,  conquering  enemy  to  the  fallen  hero.  500  British 
Marines  first  inarched  in  slow  time,  with  arms  reversed  ;  the 
band  of  the  Plymouth  Division  of  Marines  followed,  playing 
the  most  solemn  tunes.  An  officer  of  Marines  in  military 
mourning  came  after  these.  Two  interesting  black  boys,  the 
servants  of  the  deceased,  then  preceded  the  hearse.  One  of 
these  bore  his  master's  sword,  and  the  other  his  hat.  Eight 
American  officers  followed  the  hearse,  and  the  procession  was 
closed  with  a  number  of  British  Naval  officers. 

'  On  the  arrival  of  the  body  at  the  Old  Church,  it  was  met  by 
the  officiating  Minister,  and  three  volleys  over  the  grave  closed 
the  scene.' 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  PRISONS  ASHORE 

10.     DARTMOOR 

IN  July  1805,  the  Transport  Office,  impressed  by  the  serious 
crowding  of  war-prisoners  on  the  hulks  at  Plymouth  and  in  the 
Millbay  Prison,  requested  their  representative,  Mr.  Daniel  Alex- 
ander, to  meet  the  Hon.  E.  Bouverie,  at  the  house  of  Sir  Thomas 
Tyrwhitt,  warden  of  the  Stannaries,  at  Tor  Royal,  with  the 
view  of  choosing  a  site  for  a  great  war- prison  to  hold  5,000  men. 

Mr.  Baring-Gould  more  than  hints  that  the  particular  spot 
chosen  owed  its  distinction  entirely  to  the  personal  interests 
of  Sir  Thomas.  Says  he  : 

'  It  is  on  the  most  inclement  site  that  could  have  been 
selected,  catching  the  clouds  from  the  South  West,  and  con- 
densing fog  about  it  when  everything  else  is  clear.  It  is 
exposed  equally  to  the  North  and  East  winds.  It  stands  over 
1,400  feet  above  the  sea,  above  the  sources  of  the  Meavy,  in 
the  highest  as  well  as  least  suitable  situation  that  could  have 
been  selected  ;  the  site  determined  by  Sir  Thomas,  so  as  to  be 
near  his  granite  quarries.' 

On  March  20,  1806,  the  first  stone  was  laid ;  on  May  24,  1809, 
the  first  prisoners  came  to  it ;  in  July  the  first  two  prisoners  got 
out  of  it  by  bribing  the  sentries,  men  of  the  Notts  Militia. 
The  Frenchmen  were  recaptured,  one  at  a  place  called  '  The 
Jumps  ',  the  other  at  Kingsbridge.  The  soldiers,  four  in  num- 
ber, confessed  they  had  received  eight  guineas  each  for  their 
help,  and  two  of  them  were  condemned  to  be  shot. 

Thirty  acres  were  enclosed  by  stone  walls,  the  outer  of  which 
was  sixteen  feet  high,1  and  was  separated  by  a  broad  military 
way  from  the  inner  wall,  which  was  hung  with  bells  on  wires 
connected  with  all  the  sentry  boxes  dotted  along  it.  One  half 

1  Other  authorities  give  the  height  of  the  outer  wall  as  eight  feet, 
which  was  raised  in  1812  to  twelve  feet,  and  of  the  inner  wall  as 
twelve  feet. 


DARTMOOR 


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238  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

of  the  circle  thus  enclosed  was  occupied  by  five  huge  barracks, 
each  capable  of  holding  more  than  1,000  men,  with  their  airing 
grounds  and  shelters  for  bad  weather,  their  inner  ends  converg- 
ing on  a  large  open  space,  where  was  held  the  market.  Each 
barrack  consisted  of  two  floors,  and  above  the  top  floor  ran,  the 
length  of  the  building,  a  roof  room,  designed  for  use  when  the 
weather  was  too  bad  even  for  the  outdoor  shelters,  but,  as  we 
shall  see,  appropriated  for  other  purposes.  On  each  floor, 
a  treble  tier  of  hammocks  was  slung  upon  cast-iron  pillars. 
Each  barrack  had  its  own  airing  ground,  supply  of  running 
water,  and  Black  Hole.  The  other  half-circle  was  occupied  by 
two  spacious  blocks,  one  the  hospital,  the  other  the  petty 
officers'  prison,  by  the  officials'  quarters,  the  kitchen,  washing- 
houses,  and  other  domestic  offices,  and  outside  the  main,  the 
Western  Gate,  the  barrack  for  400  soldiers  and  the  officers' 
quarters.  The  cost  of  the  prison  was  £135,000. 

By  the  foreign  prisoners  of  war  Dartmoor  was  regarded,  and 
not  without  reason,  as  the  most  hateful  of  all  the  British 
prisons.  At  Norman  Cross,  at  Stapleton,  at  Perth,  at  Valley- 
field,  at  Forton,  at  Millbay,  they  were  at  any  rate  within  sight 
and  hearing  of  the  outer  world.  Escape  from  any  one  of  these 
places  was,  of  course,  made  as  difficult  as  possible,  .but  when 
once  an  exit  was  effected,  the  rest  was  comparatively  easy.  But 
escape  from  Dartmoor  meant  very  much  more  than  the  mere 
evading  of  sentries,  the  breaching  and  scaling  of  walls,  or  the 
patient  labour  of  underground  burrowing.  When  all  this  was 
accomplished  the  fugitive  found  himself  not  in  a  crowded  city, 
where  he  could  be  lost  to  sight  among  the  multitude,  nor  in 
the  open  country  where  starvation  was  at  any  rate  impossible, 
nor  by  a  water  highway  to  freedom,  nor,  in  short,  in  a  world 
wherein  he  could  exercise  his  five  senses  with  at  least  a  chance 
of  success  ;  but  in  the  wildest,  most  solitary,  most  shelterless, 
most  pathless,  and,  above  all,  most  weather-tormented  region 
of  Britain.  Any  one  who  has  tried  to  take  his  bearings  in 
a  Dartmoor  fog,  or  who  has  been  caught  by  a  Dartmoor  snow- 
storm at  the  fall  of  day  can  realize  this ;  those  who  have  not 
had  one  or  other  of  these  experiences,  cannot  do  better  than 
read  The  American  Prisoner,  by  Mr.  Eden  Phillpotts. 

More  than  this :   at  the  other  prisons  a  more  or  less  sym- 


DARTMOOR  239 

pathetic  public  was  near  at  hand  which  kept  the  prisoners  in 
touch  with  the  free  life  without,  even  if  many  of  its  members 
were  merely  curious  gapers  and  gazers,  or  purchasers  of  manu- 
factures. At  Dartmoor  the  natives  who  came  to  the  prison 
gates,  came  only  to  sell  their  produce.  Being  natives  of  a 
remote  district,  they  were  generally  prejudiced  against  the 
prisoners,  and  Farmer  Newcombe's  speech  in  Mr.  Phillpotts' 
Farm  of  the  Dagger,  accurately  reproduces  the  sentiments 
prevalent  among  them  : 

'  Dartymoor's  bettern  they  deserve  anyway.  I  should  like 
to  know  what 's  too  bad  for  them  as  makes  war  on  us.  'Tis  only 
naked  savages,  I  should  have  thought,  as  would  dare  to  fight 
against  the  most  civilized  and  God-fearing  nation  in  the  world/ 

Finally,  it  is  much  to  be  feared  that  the  jacks-in-omce  and 
petty  officials  at  Dartmoor,  secure  in  their  seclusion  as  they 
thought,  were  exacting  and  tyrannical  to  a  degree  not  ventured 
upon  in  other  places  of  confinement  more  easily  accessible  to 
the  light  of  inspection,  and  unsurrounded  by  a  desert  air  into 
which  the  cries  of  anguish  and  distress  would  rise  in  vain. 

All  the  same,  it  was  not  long  before  the  condition  of  prison 
life  in  Dartmoor  became  known,  even  in  high  places. 

In  July  1811,  the  Independent  Whig  published  revelations  of 
the  state  of  Dartmoor  which  caused  Lord  Cochrane,  member 
for  Westminster,  to  bring  the  facts  before  the  notice  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  but  he  expressed  his  disappointment  that 
his  exposure  had  been  without  result,  asserting  that  the  Govern- 
ment was  afraid  of  losing  what  little  character  it  had.  He 
declared  that  the  soil  of  Dartmoor  was  one  vast  marsh,  and  was 
most  pestilential.  Captivity,  said  he,  was  irksome  enough 
without  the  addition  of  disease  and  torture.  He  asserted  that 
the  prison  had  been  built  for  the  convenience  of  the  town,  and 
not  the  town  for  the  convenience  of  the  prison,  inasmuch  as 
the  town  was  a  speculative  project  which  had  failed.  '  Its 
inhabitants  had  no  market,  were  solitary,  insulated,  absorbed, 
and  buried  in  their  own  fogs.'  To  remedy  this  it  was  necessary 
to  do  something,  and  so  came  about  the  building  of  the  prison. 

The  article  in  the  Independent  Whig  which  attracted  Lord 
Cochrane 's  attention  was  as  follows  : 


240  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

'  To  foreigners,  bred  for  the  most  part  in  a  region  the  tem- 
perature of  which  is  so  comparatively  pure  to  the  air  of  our 
climate  at  the  best  of  times,  a  transition  so  dreadful  must 
necessarily  have  fatal  consequences,  and  indeed  it  is  related 
that  the  prisoners  commonly  take  to  their  beds  at  the  first 
arrival,  which  nothing  afterwards  can  induce  them  to  quit.  .  .  . 
Can  it  bear  reflection,  much  less  inspection  ?  Six  or  seven 
thousand  human  beings,  deprived  of  liberty  by  the  chance  of 
war  .  .  .  consigned  to  linger  out  probably  many  tedious  years 
in  misery  and  disease  ! 

'  While  we  declaim  against  the  injustice  and  tyranny  of  our 
neighbours,  shall  we  neglect  the  common  duties  of  humanity  ? 
If  we  submit  to  crowd  our  dungeons  with  the  virtuous  and  the 
just  of  our  country,  confounding  moral  guilt  with  unintentional 
error,  and  subjecting  them  to  indiscriminate  punishment  and 
the  most  inhuman  privations,  though  we  submit  to  this  among 
ourselves,  do  not  let  us  pursue  the  same  system  towards  indi- 
viduals thrown  on  our  compassion  by  the  casualties  of  war,  lest 
we  provoke  a  general  spirit  of  retaliation,  and  plunge  again  the 
civilized  world  into  the  vortex  of  Barbarism.  Let  us  not 
forget  that  the  prisoner  is  a  living  trust  in  our  hands,  not  to  be 
subject  to  the  wayward  fancy  of  caprice,  but  a  deposit  placed 
at  our  disposal  to  be  required  at  a  future  hour.  It  is  a  solemn 
charge,  involving  the  care  of  life  and  the  principle  of  humanity/ 

'  Humanitas '  wrote  in  the  Examiner,  commenting  upon 
Whit  bread's  defence  and  laudation  of  Dartmoor  as  a  residence, 
and  amazed  at  the  selection  of  such  a  place  as  the  site  for  a 
prison  : 

'  The  most  inclement  climate  in  England  ;  for  nine  months 
there  is  no  sun,  and  four  and  a  half  times  as  much  rain  as  in 
Middlesex.  The  regiments  on  duty  there  have  to  be  changed 
every  two  months.  Were  not  the  deaths  during  the  first  three 
years  1,000  a  year,  and  3,000  sick  ?  Did  not  from  500  to  600 
die  in  the  winter  of  1809  ?  Is  it  not  true  that  since  some  gentle- 
men visited  the  prison  and  published  their  terrible  experiences, 
nobody  has  been  allowed  inside  ? ' 

The  writer  goes  on,  not  so  much  to  condemn  the  treatment 
of  the  prisoners  as  to  blame  the  Government  for  spending  so 
much  money  on  such  a  site. 

The  Transport  Office  took  counsel's  opinion  about  prose- 
cuting these  two  newspapers  for  libel.  It  was  as  follows  : 

'  In  my  opinion  both  these  papers  are  libellous.  The  first 
is  the  strongest,  but  if  the  statement  of  deaths  in  the  other  is, 


DARTMOOR  241 

as  I  conceive  it  is,  wholly  unsupported  by  the  fact,  this  is  equally 
mischievous.  It  is  not,  however,  by  any  means  clear  to  me 
that  a  jury  will  take  the  same  view  of  the  subject,  .  .  .  but 
unless  some  serious  consequences  are  to  be  apprehended  from 
suffering  these  publications  to  go  unnoticed,  I  should  not  be 
inclined  to  institute  prosecutions  upon  them. 

V.  GIBBS/ 

Later  on,  Vicary  Gibbs  thinks  that  they  should  be  prosecuted, 
but  wants  information  about  the  heavy  mortality  of  November 
1809  to  April  1810,  and  also  tables  of  comparison  between  the 
deaths  in  our  own  barracks  and  those  in  French  prisons. 

I  cannot  trace  the  sequel  of  this,  but,  reading  by  the  light  of 
the  times,  it  is  probable  that  the  matter  was  hushed  up  in  the 
same  way  as  were  the  exposures  of  Messrs.  Batchelor  and 
Andrews  at  Stapleton  a  few  years  previously.  The  heavy 
mortality  of  the  six  months  of  1809-10  was  due  to  an  epi- 
demic of  measles,  which  carried  off  no  less  than  419  persons  in 
the  four  months  of  1810  alone. 

Violent  deaths  among  Dartmoor  prisoners,  whether  from 
suicide  or  duel  or  murder,  were  so  frequent,  even  in  the  earliest 
years  of  the  prison,  that  in  1810  the  coroner  of  this  division  of 
the  county  complained,  praying  that  on  account  of  the  large 
numbers  of  inquests  held — greater,  he  said,  since  the  opening 
of  the  prison  than  during  the  preceding  fourteen  years — the 
ordinary  allowance  to  jurors  of  8d.  per  man  be  increased  to  is. 
He  emphasized  the  difficulty  of  collecting  jurors,  these  being 
principally  small  farmers  and  artificers,  who  had  in  most  cases 
to  travel  long  distances.  The  Parish  of  Lydford  paid  the  fees, 
and  the  coroner's  request  was  granted. 

From  the  Story  of  Dartmoor  Prison  by  Mr.  Basil  Thomson, 
I  have,  with  the  kind  permission  of  the  author,  taken  many  of 
the  following  facts,  and  with  these  I  have  associated  some  from 
the  pen  of  the  French  writer,  Catel. 

In  the  preface  to  the  latter's  book  we  read  : 

'  About  six  leagues  to  the  North  of  Plymouth,  under  a  dark 
and  melancholy  sky,  in  a  cold  and  foggy  atmosphere,  a  rocky; 
dry  and  almost  naked  soil,  covered  eight  months  of  the  year 
with  a  mantle  of  snow,  shuts  in  a  space  of  some  square  leagues. 
This  appearance  strikes  the  view,  and  communicates  a  sort  of 
bitterness  to  the  soul.  Nature,  more  than  indifferent  in 

ABELL  R 


242  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

complete  stagnation,  seems  to  have  treated  with  avaricious  parsi- 
mony this  corner  of  land,  without  doubt  the  ugliest  in  England. 
It  is  in  this  place,  where  no  human  thought  dare  hope  for  the 
smallest  betterment,  that  British  philanthropy  conceived  and 
executed  the  double  project  of  building  a  prison  in  time  of  war 
for  French  prisoners,  in  time  of  Peace  for  her  own  criminals 
condemned  to  penal  servitude.  Comment  is  needless.  The 
reader  will  appreciate  the  double  humanitarian  thought  which 
is  apparent  in  its  conception.' 

Mr.  Thomson  informs  us  that  the  present  Infirmary  was  the 
old  petty  officers'  prison.  Here  were  confined  officers  who  had 
broken  their  parole  and  who  had  been  recaptured.  Some  of 
Rochambeau's  San  Domingo  officers  were  here,  and  the  building 
was  known  as  the  '  Petit  Cautionnement '.  As  most  of  the 
officers  here  had  private  means,  they  formed  a  refined  little 
society,  dressed  and  lived  well,  and  had  servants  to  attend  on 
them,  taken  from  the  ordinary  prisoners,  who  were  paid  3^. 
a  day.  Duels  were  frequent.  In  1809,  on  the  occasion  of  some 
national  or  provincial  festival,  there  was  a  procession  with  band 
and  banners.  One  Souville,  a  maitre  d'armes,  felt  himself  slighted 
because  he  had  not  been  chosen  to  carry  the  national  flag,  and 
snatched  it  from  a  youth  of  eighteen,  to  whom  it  had  been 
entrusted.  The  youth  attacked  him  with  his  fists  and  gave  him 
a  thrashing,  which  so  enraged  the  other,  whose  metier  was  that 
of  arms,  that  he  challenged  him.  The  youth  could  not  fence, 
but  as  the  weapons  were  sticks  with  razor-blades  affixed,  this 
was  not  of  serious  moment.  Souville,  however,  cut  one  of  the 
youth's  fingers  off. 

In  1812  two  prisoners  fought  with  improvised  daggers  with 
such  ferocity  that  both  died  before  they  could  be  carried  to  the 
hospital.  In  1814,  two  fencing  masters,  hitherto  great  friends, 
quarrelled  over  the  merits  of  their  respective  pupils,  and  fought 
with  fists.  The  beaten  man,  Jean  Vignon,  challenged  the 
other  to  a  more  real  trial  by  combat,  and  they  fought  in  the 
'  cock-loft '  of  No.  4  Prison — where  are  now  the  kitchen  and 
chapel.  Vignon  killed  his  opponent  while  the  latter  was  stoop- 
ing to  pick  up  his  foil,  was  brought  up  before  the  civil  court, 
and  condemned  to  six  months  for  manslaughter. 

Every  day,  except  Sunday,  a  market  was  held  from  nine 
to  twelve.  Here,  in  exchange  for  money  and  produce,  the 


DARTMOOR  243 

prisoners  sold  the  multifarious  articles  of  their  manufacture, 
excepting  woollen  mittens  and  gloves,  straw  hats  or  bonnets, 
shoes,  plaited  straw,  obscene  toys  and  pictures,  or  articles  made 
out  of  prison  stores. 

The  chief  punishment  was  relegation  to  the  cachot  or  Black 
Hole.  At  first  this  was  a  small  building  in  the  Infirmary  Yard 
of  such  poor  construction  that  it  was  frequent  for  the  inmates 
to  break  out  of  it  and  mix  with  the  other  prisoners.  But  in 
1811  the  French  prisoners  built  a  new  one,  twenty  feet  square, 
arch-roofed,  and  with  a  floor  of  granite  blocks  weighing  a  ton 
each. 

Some  escapes  from  Dartmoor  were  notable,  one,  indeed,  so 
much  so  that  I  have  given  the  hero  of  it,  Louis  Vanhille, 
a  chapter  to  himself.  Sevegran,  a  naval  surgeon,  and  Aunay, 
a  naval  officer,  observing  that  fifty  men  were  marched  into  the 
prison  every  evening  to  help  the  turnkeys  to  get  the  prisoners 
into  their  respective  casernes,  made  unto  themselves  Glengarry 
caps  and  overcoats  out  of  odds  and  ends  of  cloth  and  blanket 
and,  with  strips  of  tin  to  look  like  bayonets,  calmly  fell  in  at 
the  rear  of  the  guard  as  they  left  the  prison,  and,  favoured  by 
rain  and  darkness,  followed  out  of  the  prison,  and,  as  the  troops 
marched  into  barracks,  got  away.  They  had  money,  so  from 
Plymouth — whither  they  tramped  that  night — they  took  coach 
to  London.  In  order  that  they  should  have  time  to  get  well 
away,  their  accomplices  in  the  prison  at  the  call-over  the  next 
morning  got  up  a  disturbance  which  put  the  turnkey  out  of 
his  reckoning,  and  so  they  were  not  at  once  missed. 

Next  evening,  three  other  prisoners,  Keronel,  Vasselin,  and 
Cherabeau,  tried  the  same  trick.  All  went  well.  At  the  third 
gate,  the  keeper  asked  if  the  locking-up  was  finished,  and  as 
there  was  no  reply  he  said  :  '  All  these  lobsters  are  deaf  with 
their  caps  over  their  ears.'  The  men  escaped. 

Dr.  Walker  quotes  an  attempt  of  a  similar  character  from 
Norman  Cross  : 

'  A  French  prisoner  made  himself  a  complete  uniform  of  the 
Hertfordshire  Militia,  and  a  wooden  gun,  stained,  surmounted 
by  a  tin  bayonet.  Thus  equipped,  he  mixed  with  the  guard, 
and  when  they  were  ordered  to  march  out,  having  been  relieved, 
Monsieur  fell  in  and  marched  out  too.  Thus  far  he  was 

R  2 


244  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

fortunate,  but  when  arrived  at  the   guard  room,  lo  !  what 
befell  him. 

'  His  new  comrades  ranged  their  muskets  on  the  rack,  and  he 
endeavoured  to  follow  their  example  ;  but,  as  his  wooden  piece 
was  unfortunately  a  few  inches  too  long,  he  was  unable  to 
place  it  properly.  This  was  observed,  so  of  course  his  attempt 
to  get  away  was  frustrated/ 

The  bribing  of  sentries  was  a  very  necessary  condition  of 
escape.  One  or  two  pounds  would  generally  do  it,  and  it  was 
through  the  sky-light  of  the  '  cock-lofts  '  that  the  prisoners 
usually  got  out  of  the  locked-up  barracks. 

In  February  1811,  four  privates  of  the  Notts  Militia  were 
heavily  bribed  for  the  escape  of  two  French  officers.  One  of 
them,  thinking  he  was  unfairly  treated  in  the  division  of  the 
money,  gave  information,  and  a  picket  was  in  waiting  for  the 
escaping  Frenchmen.  The  three  men  were  sentenced  to  900 
lashes  each.  Two  were  pardoned,  but  one,  who  had  given  the 
prisoners  fire-arms,  got  450. 

In  March,  1812,  Edward  Palmer,  a  '  moorman,'  was  fined  £5 
and  got  twelve  months'  imprisonment  for  procuring  a  disguise 
for  a  French  prisoner  named  Bellaird. 

Early  in  the  same  year  three  prisoners  escaped  with  the 
connivance  of  a  Roscommon  Militiaman.  The  sequel  moves 
one's  pity.  Pat  was  paid  in  bank-notes.  He  offered  them  for 
exchange,  and,  to  his  amazement,  was  informed  not  only  that 
he  could  receive  nothing  for  them,  but  that  he  must  consider 
himself  under  arrest  for  uttering  forged  notes.  It  was  too  true. 
The  three  Frenchmen  had  paid  him  handsomely  in  notes 
fabricated  by  one  Lustique.  The  Irishman  would  not  say 
where  he  got  the  notes,  and  it  really  did  not  matter,  for  if  he 
had  admitted  that  he  received  them  as  the  price  of  allowing 
French,  prisoners  to  escape,  he  would  have  been  flogged  to 
death  :  as  it  was,  he  and  Lustique  were  hanged. 

Forgery  was  a  prominent  Dartmoor  industry.  Bank  of 
England  notes  were  forged  to  some  extent,  but  local  banks  such 
as  Grant,  Burbey  and  Co.  of  Portsmouth,  Harris,  Langholme, 
and  Harris  of  Plymouth,  the  Plymouth  Commercial  Bank,  the 
Tamar  Bank,  the  Launceston  and  Totnes  Bank,  were  largely 
victimized.  To  such  an  extent  were  these  frauds  carried  out 


DARTMOOR  245 

that  it  was  ordered  that  an  official  should  attend  at  the  prison 
market  to  write  his  name  on  all  notes  offered  by  prisoners  in 
payment  for  goods  received. 

It  was  no  doubt  with  reference  to  the  local  knowledge  of 
soldiers  on  guard  being  valuable  to  intending  escapes  from  the 
prison  that  the  authorities  refused  the  application  of  the 
ist  Devon  Militia  to  be  on  guard  at  Dartmoor,  as  there  were 
'  several  strong  objections  to  the  men  of  that  regiment  being 
employed '. 

There  were  distinct  grades  among  the  Dartmoor  prisoners. 
First  came  '  Les  Lords  '-  -'  broke  parole  '  officers,  and  people 
with  money.  Next  came  '  Les  Laboureurs ',  the  clever,  indus- 
trious men  who  not  only  lived  comfortably  by  the  sale  of  the 
articles  they  manufactured,  but  saved  money  so  that  some  of 
them  left  the  prison  at  the  Declaration  of  Peace  financially  very 
much  better  off  than  when  they  came.  These  were  the  '  respect- 
able prisoners  '.  After  the  labourers  came  the  '  Indifferents  ' 
—loafers  and  idlers,  but  not  mischief-makers  or  harm-workers  ; 
the  '  Miserables ',  mischievous  rascals  for  ever  plotting  and 
planning  ;  and  finally,  the  most  famous  of  all,  the  '  Romans  ', 
so  called  because  they  existed  in  the  cock-loft,  the  '  Capitole ', 
of  one  of  the  barracks.  These  men,  almost  entirely  priva- 
teersmen,  the  scum  and  sweepings  of  seaport  towns,  or  land 
rascals  with  nothing  to  lose  and  all  to  gain  in  this  world,  formed 
a  veritable  power  in  the  prison.  Gamblers  to  a  man,  they  were 
mostly  naked,  and  held  so  faithfully  to  the  theory  of  Communism, 
that  when  it  was  necessary  that  someone  should  descend  from 
the  cock-loft  eyrie  in  order  to  beg,  borrow,  or,  what  was  more 
usual,  to  steal  food  or  rags,  the  one  pair  of  breeches  was  lent  to 
him  for  the  occasion.  The  only  hammock  among  them  belonged 
to  the  '  General '  or,  to  be  more  correct,  was  his  temporarily, 
for  not  even  in  Hayti  were  generals  made  and  unmade  with 
such  dispatch.  The  sleeping  arrangement  was  that,'  mention 
of  which  has  already  been  made,  known  as  the  '  spoon ' 
system,  by  which  the  naked  men  lay  so  close  together 
for  warmth  that  the  turn-over  of  the  ranks  had  to  be  made 
at  certain  intervals  by  word  of  command.  Catel  tells  an 
excellent  story  of  the  '  Romans ' .  These  gentry  held  a  parade  on 
one  of  the  anniversaries,  and  were  drawn  up  in  order  when 


246  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

a  fine  plump  rat  appeared  on  the  airing  ground — a  new  arrival, 
clearly,  or  he  would  have  kept  carefully  away.  This  was  too 
much  for  half-famished  men  ;  the  ranks  were  instantly  broken 
and  the  chase  began.  As  luck  would  have  it,  the  rat  ran  into 
the  garrison  kitchens,  where  the  day's  rations  were  being  pre- 
pared, and  in  a  very  few  minutes  the  pots  and  pans  were  cleared 
of  their  contents.  Soldiers  were  at  once  hurried  to  the  scene, 
but  being  few  in  number  they  were  actually  overpowered  and 
disarmed  by  the '  Romans ',  who  marched  them  to  the  Governor's 
house.  Here  the  '  General ',  with  a  profound  salute,  spoke  as 
follows  : 

'  Sir,  we  have  come  here  to  deliver  over  to  you  our  prisoners 
and  their  arms.  It  is  a  happy  little  occurrence  this,  as  regards 
your  soldiers,  quiet  now  as  sheep.  We  beg,  you,  therefore,  to 
grant  them  as  reward  double  rations,  and  to  make  up  the  loss 
we  have  caused  in  the  provisions  of  our  honoured  visitors/ 

Catel  adds  that  the  rat  was  caught  and  eaten  raw  ! 

Gradually,  their  violence  and  their  thieving  propensities 
made  them  a  terror  to  the  other  prisoners  ;  the  Americans,  in 
particular,  objected  to  their  filthy  habits,  and  at  length  their 
conduct  became  so  intolerable  that  they  were  marched  off  to 
the  Plymouth  hulks,  on  which  they  were  kept  until  the  Peace 
of  1814. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  when  an  epidemic  swept  the 
prisons  and  carried  off  the  decent  and  cleanly  by  hundreds,  the 
impregnable  dirt-armour  of  the  '  Romans  '  kept  them  unscathed. 
This  epidemic  was  the  terrible  visitation  of  malignant  measles 
which  from  November  1809  to  April  1810  inclusive,  claimed 
about  400  victims  out  of  5,000  prisoners.  The  burial-ground 
was  in  the  present  gas-house  field  ;  the  mortuary,  where  the 
bodies  were  collected  for  burial,  was  near  the  present  General 
Hospital.  No  funeral  rites  were  observed,  and  not  more  than 
a  foot  of  earth  heaped  over  the  bodies. 

Catel  also  relates  a  very  clever  and  humorous  escape.  Theat- 
ricals were  largely  patronized  at  Dartmoor,  as  in  the  other 
prisons.  A  piece  entitled  Le  Capitaine  Calonne  et  sa  dame  was 
written  in  eulogy  of  a  certain  British  garrison  officer  and  his 
lady,  and,  being  shown  to  them  in  manuscript,  so  flattered  and 
delighted  them,  that,  in  order  that  the  piece  should  not  lack 


DARTMOOR  247 

local  colour  at  the  opening  performance,  the  Captain  offered  to 
lend  a  British  suit  of  regimentals,  and  his  lady  to  provide 
a  complete  toilette,  for  the  occasion. 

These,  of  course,  were  gladly  accepted.  The  theatre  was 
crowded,  and  the  new  piece  was  most  successful,  until  the 
opening  of  the  third  act,  when  the  manager  stepped  forward, 
and,  amidst  whistles  and  catcalls,  said  :  '  Messieurs,  the  play 
is  finished.  The  English  Captain  and  his  lady  are  out  of  the* 
prison/  This  was  true.  During  the  second  act  the  prisoner- 
Captain  and  his  lady  quietly  passed  out  of  the  prison,  being 
saluted  by  guards  and  sentries,  and  got  away  to  Tavistock. 
Catel  relates  with  gusto  the  adventure  of  the  real  captain  and 
his  wife  with  the  said  guards  and  sentinels,  who  swore  that  they 
had  left  the  prison  some  time  before. 

The  delight  of  the  prisoners  can  be  pictured,  and  especially 
when  it  was  rumoured  two  days  later  that  the  real  Captain 
received  his  uniform,  and  his  lady  her  dress,  in  a  box  with 
a  polite  letter  of  thanks  from  the  escaped  prisoners. 

An  escape  of  a  similar  character  to  the  foregoing  was  effected 
from  one  of  the  Portsmouth  hulks.  On  one  occasion  a  prisoner 
acted  the  part  of  a  female  so  naturally,  that  an  English  naval 
Captain  was  deceived  completely.  He  proposed  to  the  sup- 
posed girl  to  elope.  The  pseudo-maiden  was  nothing  loth, 
and  (said  the  late  Rev.  G.  N.  Godwin  in  a  lecture  from  which 
I  take  this)  there  is  an  amusing  sketch  showing  the  Captain  in 
full  uniform  passing  the  gangway  with  the  lady  on  his  arm, 
the  sentry  presenting  arms  meanwhile.  Of  course,  when  the 
gallant  officer  discovered  his  mistake,  there  was  nothing  for  it 
but  to  assist  in  the  escape  of  the  astute  prisoner. 

In  1812,  Hageman,  the  bread  contractor,  was  brought  up  for 
fraudulent  dealing,  and  was  mulcted  in  £3,000,  others  concerned 
in  the  transactions  being  imprisoned  for  long  terms. 

I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  ring  a  change  in  the  somewhat 
monotonous  tone  of  the  prisoners'  complaints,  inasmuch  as 
American  prisoners  have  placed  on  record  their  experiences :  one 
of  them,  Andrews,  in  a  very  comprehensive  and  detailed  form. 

From  the  autumn  of  1812  to  April  of  1813,  there  were  900 
American  prisoners  at  Chatham,  100  at  Portsmouth,  700  at 
Plymouth,  '  most  of  them  destitute  of  clothes  and  swarming 


248 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 


with  vermin/  On  April  2,  1813,  the  Transport  Board  ordered 
them  all  to  Dartmoor,  no  doubt  because  of  their  ceaseless 
attempts  to  escape  from  the  hulks.  They  were  horrified,  for 
they  knew  it  to  have  the  reputation  of  being  the  worst  prison 
in  England. 

From  the  Plymouth  hulks  Hector  and  Le  Brave,  250  were 
landed  at  New  Passage,  and  marched  the  seventeen  miles  to 
Dartmoor,  where  were  already  5,000  French  prisoners.  On 
May  i,  1813,  Cotgrave,  the  Governor,  ordered  all  the  American 


DARTMOOR.     THE  ORIGINAL  MAIN  ENTRANCE. 
(From  a  sketch  by  the  Author.} 

prisoners  to  be  transferred  to  No.  4  caserne,  where  were  already 
900  French  '  Romans  '. 

The  garrison  at  Dartmoor  consisted  of  from  1,200  to  1,500 
men,  who,  says  Andrews,  without  the  smallest  foundation  of 
fact,  had  been  told  off  for  this  duty  as  punishment  for  offences. 
The  truth  is,  that  as  our  small  regular  army  was  on  duty  in 
many  places  elsewhere,  the  Militia  had  to  be  drawn  upon  for 
the  garrisoning  of  war-prisons,  and  that  on  account  of  the  many 
'  pickings  '  to  be  had,  war- prison  duty  was  rather  sought  than 
shunned.  The  garrison  was  frequently  changed  at  all  the  war- 


DARTMOOR  249 

prisons  for  no  other  reason  than  that  between  guards  and 
guarded  an  undesirable  intimacy  usually  developed. 

The  American  prisoners,  who,  throughout  the  war,  were 
generally  of  a  superior  type  to  the  Frenchmen,  very  much 
resented  this  association  of  them  with  the  low-class  ruffians 
in  No.  4.  I  may  here  quote  Mr.  Eden  Phillpotts's  remarks  in 
his  Farm  of  the  Dagger. 

'  There  is  not  much  doubt  that  these  earlier  prisoners  of  war 
suffered  very  terribly.  Their  guards  feared  them  more  than 
the  French.  From  the  hulks  came  warnings  of  their  skill  and 
ingenuity,  their  courage,  and  their  frantic  endeavours  to  regain 
liberty.  The  American  Agent  for  Prisoners  of  War  at  Plymouth, 
one  Reuben  Beasley,  was  either  a  knave  or  a  fool,  and  never 
have  unhappy  sufferers  in  this  sort  endured  more  from  a  callous, 
cruel,  or  utterly  inefficient  and  imbecile  representative.  With 
sleepless  rigour  and  severity  were  the  Americans  treated  in 
that  stern  time  ;  certain  advantages  and  privileges  permitted 
to  the  French  at  Princetown  were  at  first  denied  them,  and  to 
all  their  petitions,  reasonable  complaints,  and  remonstrances, 
the  egregious  Beasley  turned  a  deaf  ear,  while  the  very  medical 
officer  at  the  gaol  at  that  season  lacked  both  knowledge  of 
medicine  and  humanity,  and  justified  his  conduct  with  false- 
hood before  he  was  removed  from  office.' 

Theirs  was  indeed  a  hard  lot.  This  last-mentioned  brute, 
Dyer,  took  note  of  no  sickness  until  it  was  too  far  gone  to  be 
treated,  and  refused  patients  admission  to  the  hospital  until 
the  last  moment :  for  fear,  he  said,  of  spreading  the  disease. 
They  were,  as  Mr.  Phillpotts  says,  denied  many  privileges  and 
advantages  allowed  to  Frenchmen  of  the  lowest  class  ;  they 
were  shut  out  from  the  usual  markets,  and  had  to  buy 
through  the  French  prisoners,  at  25  per  cent,  above  market 
prices. 

On  May  18,  1813,  250  more  Americans  came  from  the  Hector 
hulk,  and  on  July  i,  100  more. 

July  4,  1813,  was  a  dark  day  in  the  history  of  the  prison. 
The  Americans,  with  the  idea  of  getting  up  an  Independence 
Day  celebration,  got  two  flags  and  asked  permission  to  hold 
a  quiet  festival.  Captain  Cotgrave,  the  Governor,  refused,  and 
sent  the  guard  to  confiscate  the  flags.  Resistance  was  offered  ; 
there  was  a  struggle  and  one  of  the  flags  was  captured.  In  the 


250  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

evening  the  disturbance  was  renewed,  an  attempt  was  made  tc 
recapture  the  flag,  the  guard  fired  upon  the  prisoners  and 
wounded  two.  The  feeling  thus  fostered  burst  out  into  a  flame 
on  July  10,  when  the  '  Romans  '  in  the  two  upper  stories  of  No.  4 
Prison  collected  weapons  of  all  sorts,  and  attacked  the  Ameri- 
cans unexpectedly,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  killing  them  all 
A  terrible  encounter  was  the  result,  in  the  midst  of  which  the 
guards  charged  in  and  separated  the  two  parties,  but  nol 
until  forty  on  both  sides  had  been  badly  wounded.  After  this 
a  wall  fifteen  feet  high  was  built  to  divide  the  airing  grounc 
of  No.  4. 

Andrews  describes  the  clothing  of  the  prisoners  as  consisting 
of  a  cap  of  wool,  one  inch  thick  and  coarser  than  rope  yarn 
a  yellow  jacket — not  large  enough  to  meet  round  the  smallesl 
man,  although  most  of  the  prisoners  were  reduced  by  lew 
living  to  skeletons — with  the  sleeves  half-way  up  the  arms 
a  short  waistcoat,  pants  tight  to  the  middle  of  the  shin,  shoei 
of  list  with  wooden  soles  one  and  a  half  inches  thick. 

An  epidemic  of  small-pox  broke  out  ;  complaints  poured  ir 
to  Beasley  about  the  slack  attention  paid  to  it,  about  the 
overcrowding,  the  consequent  vermin,  and  the  frauds  of  the 
food  contractors,  but  without  results.  Then  came  remon- 
strances about  the  partiality  shown  in  giving  all  lucrative 
offices  to  French  prisoners,  that  is  to  say,  positions  such  as  one 
sweeper  to  every  100  men  at  threepence  a  day,  one  cook  tc 
every  200  at  fourpence  halfpenny;  barber  at  threepence 
nurses  in  the  hospital  at  sixpence — all  without  avail.  As  a  rul( 
the  Americans  were  glad  to  sell  their  ration  of  bad  beef  tc 
Frenchmen,  who  could  juggle  it  into  fancy  dishes,  and  with  th( 
money  they  bought  soap  and  chewing-tobacco. 

At  length  Beasley  came  to  see  for  himself,  but  although  he 
expressed  surprise  at  the  crowding  of  so  many  prisoners,  anc 
said  he  was  glad  he  had  not  to  be  in  Dartmoor,  he  could  promise 
no  redress. 

Andrews  alludes  to  the  proficiency  of  the  French  prisoners  ir 
the  science  of  forging  not  only  bank-notes,  but  shillings  out  o: 
Spanish  dollars  which  they  collected  from  the  outside  of  the 
market,  making  eight  full-weight  shillings  out  of  every  foui 
dollars.  The  performers  were  chiefly  officers  who  had  broker 


WOODEN  WORKING  MODEL  OF  A  FRENCH  TRIAL  SCENE 
Made  by  prisoners  of  war  at  Dartmoor 


p.  251 


DARTMOOR  251 

parole.  The  ordinary  run  of  Dartmoor  prisoners,  he  says, 
somewhat  surprisingly,  so  far  from  being  the  miserable  suffering 
wretches  we  are  accustomed  to  picture  them,  were  light-hearted, 
singing,  dancing,  drinking  men  who  in  many  cases  were  saving 
money. 

Isaac  Cotgrave  he  describes  as  a  brutal  Governor,  who  seemed 
to  enjoy  making  the  lot  of  the  prisoners  in  his  charge  as  hard  as 
possible,  and  he  emphasizes  the  cruelty  of  the  morning  out-of- 
door  roll-call  parade  in  the  depth  of  winter ;  but  he  speaks 
highly  of  the  kindness  and  consideration  of  the  guards  of 
a  Scottish  Militia  regiment  which  took  over  the  duty. 

Hitherto  the  negroes,  who  formed  no  inconsiderable  part  of 
American  crews,  were  mixed  with  the  white  men  in  the  prisons. 
A  petition  from  the  American  white  prisoners  that  the  blacks 
should  be  confined  by  themselves,  as  they  were  dirty  by  habit 
and  thieves  by  nature,  was  acceded  to. 

Gradually  the  official  dread  of  American  determination  to 
obtain  liberty  was  modified,  and  a  general  freedom  of  inter- 
course was  instituted  which  had  not  been  enjoyed  before. 
A  coffee-house  was  established,  trades  sprang  up,  markets  for 
tobacco,  potatoes,  and  butter  were  carried  on,  the  old  French 
monopoly  of  trade  was  broken  down,  and  the  American 
prisoners  imitated  their  French  companions  in  manufacturing 
all  sorts  of  objects  of  use  and  ornament  for  sale.  The  French 
prisoners  by  this  time  were  quite  well  off,  the  different  pro- 
fessors of  sciences  and  arts  having  plenty  of  pupils,  straw- 
plaiting  for  hats  bringing  in  threepence  a  day,  although  it 
was  a  forbidden  trade,  and  plenty  of  money  being  found  for 
theatrical  performances  and  amusements  generally. 

The  condition  of  the  Americans,  too,  kept  pace,  for  Beasley 
presently  announced  further  money  allowances,  so  that  each 
prisoner  now  received  6s.  3d.  per  month,  the  result  being  a 
general  improvement  in  outward  appearance. 

On  May  20,  1814,  peace  with  France  was  announced  amidst 
the  frenzied  rejoicings  of  the  French  prisoners.  All  Frenchmen 
had  to  produce  their  bedding  before  being  allowed  to  go.  One 
poor  fellow  failed  to  comply,  and  was  so  frantic  at  being  turned 
back,  that  he  cut  his  throat  at  the  prison  gate.  500  men  were 
released,  and  with  them  some  French-speaking  American 


252  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

officers  got  away,  and  when  this  was  followed  by  a  rumour  that 
all  the  Americans  were  to  be  removed  to  Stapleton,  where  there 
was  a  better  market  for  manufactures,  and  which  was  far 
healthier  than  Dartmoor,  the  tone  of  the  prison  was  quite  lively 
and  hopeful.  This  rumour,  however,  proved  to  be  unfounded, 
but  it  was  announced  that  henceforth  the  prisoners  would  be 
occupied  in  work  outside  the  prison  walls,  such  as  the  building 
of  the  new  church,  repairing  roads,  and  in  certain  trades. 

On  July  3,  1814,  two  Argus  men  fought.  One  killed  the 
other  and  was  committed  to  Exeter  for  manslaughter. 

On  July  4,  Independence  Day  celebrations  were  allowed,  and 
money  being  comparatively  abundant,  a  most  successful 
banquet  on  soup  and  beef  was  held. 

On  July  8,  a  prisoner,  James  Hart,  died,  and  over  his  burial- 
place  the  following  epitaph  was  raised  : 

'  Your  country  mourns  your  hapless  fate, 
So  mourn  we  prisoners  all  ; 
You've  paid  the  debt  we  all  must  pay, 
Each  sailor  great  and  small. 
Your  body  on  this  barren  moor, 
Your  soul  in  Heaven  doth  rest  ; 
Where  Yankee  sailors  one  and  all, 
Hereafter  will  be  blest.' 

The  prison  was  much  crowded  in  this  year,  1814  ;  in  No.  4 
barrack  alone  there  were  1,500  prisoners,  and  yet  the  new 
doctor,  Magrath,  who  is  described  by  Andrews  as  being  both 
skilful  and  humane,  gave  very  strong  testimony  to  its  healthiness. 

In  reply  to  a  general  petition  from  the  prisoners  for  examina- 
tion into  their  grievances,  a  Commission  was  sent  to  Dartmoor 
in  1813,  and  the  next  year  reported  that  the  only  complaints 
partially  justifiable  were  that  of  overcrowding,  which  was 
argely  due  to  the  preference  of  the  prisoners  for  the  new 
buildings  with  wooden  floors,  which  were  finished  in  the  summer 
of  1812  ;  and  that  of  the  '  Partial  Exchange  ',  which  meant 
that  whereas  French  privateers  when  they  captured  a  British 
ship,  landed  or  put  the  crew  in  a  neutral  ship  and  kept  the 
officers,  British  captors  kept  all. 

Two  desperate  and  elaborate  attempts  at  escape  by  tunnelling 
were  made  by  American  prisoners  in  1814.  Digging  was  done 


DARTMOOR  253 

in  three  barracks  simultaneously — from  No.  4,  in  which  there 
were  1,200  men,  from  No.  5,  which  was  empty,  and  from  No.  6, 
lately  opened  and  now  holding  800  men — down  in  each  case 
twenty  feet,  and  then  250  feet  of  tunnel  in  an  easterly  direction 
towards  the  road  outside  the  boundary  wall.  On  September  2 
Captain  Shortland,  the  new  Agent,  discovered  it ;  some  say  it 
was  betrayed  to  him,  but  the  prisoners  themselves  attributed 
it  to  indiscreet  talking.  The  enormous  amount  of  soil  taken 
out  was  either  thrown  into  the  stream  running  through  the 
prison,  or  was  used  for  plastering  walls  which  were  under  repair, 
coating  it  with  whitewash. 

When  the  excitement  attendant  on  this  discovery  had 
subsided,  the  indefatigable  Americans  got  to  work  again.  The 
discovered  shafts  having  been  partially  blocked  by  the  autho- 
rities with  large  stones,  the  plotters  started  another  tunnel 
from  the  vacant  No.  5  prison,  to  connect  with  the  old  one 
beyond  the  point  of  stoppage.  Mr.  Basil  Thomson  has  kindly 
allowed  me  to  publish  an  interesting  discovery  relative  to  this, 
made  in  December,  1911  : 

'  While  excavating  for  the  foundations  of  the  new  hall  at 
Dartmoor,  which  is  being  built  on  the  site  of  IV.  A  and  B  Prison, 
the  excavators  broke  into  what  proved  to  be  one  of  the  subter- 
ranean passages  which  were  secretly  dug  by  the  American 
prisoners  in  1814  with  a  view  to  escape.  Number  IV  Prison, 
then  known  as  Number  V,  was  at  that  time  empty,  and,  as 
Charles  Andrews  tells  us,  the  plan  was  to  tunnel  under  the 
boundary  walls  and  then,  armed  with  daggers  forged  at  the 
blacksmith's  shop,  to  emerge  on  a  stormy  night  and  make  for 
Torbay,  where  there  were  believed  to  be  fishing  boats  sufficient 
to  take  them  to  the  French  coast.  No  one  was  to  be  taken 
alive.  The  scheme  was  betrayed  by  a  prisoner  named  Bagley 
(of  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire),  who,  to  save  him  from  the 
fury  of  the  prisoners,  was  liberated  and  sent  home.  .  .  .  One 
of  these  tunnels  was  disclosed  when  the  foundation  of  IV.  C  Hall 
were  dug  in  1881.  The  tunnel  found  last  month  may  have 
been  the  excavation  made  after  the  first  shaft  had  been  filled 
up.  It  was  14  feet  below  the  floor  of  the  prison,  3  feet  in 
height,  and  4  feet  wide.  More  than  one  person  explored  it  on 
hands  and  knees  as  far  as  it  went,  which  was  about  20  feet  in 
the  direction  of  the  boundary  wall.  A  marlin  spike  and  a 
ship's  scraper  of  ancient  pattern  were  found  among  the  debris, 
and  are  now  in  the  Prison  Museum/ 


254  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

At  this  time  (Sept.  1814)  there  were  3,500  American  prisoners 
at  Dartmoor,  and  so  constant  were  they  in  their  petty  annoyance, 
almost  persecution,  of  their  guardians  ;  so  independent  were 
they  of  rules  and  regulations  ;  so  constant  with  their  petitions, 
remonstrances,  and  complaints  ;  so  untiring  in  their  efforts  to 
escape  ;  so  averse  to  anything  like  settling  down  and  making 
the  best  of  things,  as  did  the  French,  that  the  authorities 
declared  they  would  rather  be  in  charge  of  20,000  Frenchmen 
than  of  2,000  Americans. 

After  the  above-related  attempts  to  escape,  the  prisoners 
were  confined  to  Nos.  2  and  3  barracks,  and  put  on  two-thirds 
ration  allowance  to  pay  for  damage  done. 

In  October,  1814,  eight  escaped  by  bribing  the  sentries  to 
procure  them  military  coats  and  caps,  and  so  getting  off  at 
night.  Much  amusement,  too,  was  caused  one  evening  by 
the  jangling  of  the  alarm  bells,  the  hurrying  of  soldiers  to 
quarters,  and  subsequent  firing  at  a  '  prisoner  '  escaping  over 
the  inner  wall — the  '  prisoner  '  being  a  dummy  dressed  up. 

In  November,  5,000  more  prisoners  came  into  the  prison. 
There  was  much  suffering  this  winter  from  the  cold  and  scanty 
clothing.  A  petition  to  have  fires  in  the  barracks  was  refused. 
A  man  named  John  Taylor,  a  native  citizen  of  New  York  City, 
hanged  himself  in  No.  5  prison  on  the  evening  of  December  i. 

Peace,  which  had  been  signed  at  Ghent  on  December  24, 
1814,  was  declared  at  Dartmoor,  and  occasioned  general  jubila- 
tion. Flags  with  '  Free  Trade  and  Sailors'  Rights  '  thereon 
paraded  with  music  and  cheering,  and  Shortland  politely 
requested  that  they  should  be  withdrawn,  but  met  with  a  flat 
refusal.  Unfortunately  much  of  unhappy  moment  was  to 
happen  between  the  date  of  the  ratification  of  the  Treaty  of 
Ghent  in  March,  1815,  and  the  final  departure  of  the  pris- 
oners. Beasley  was  unaccountably  negligent  and  tardy  in  his 
arrangements  for  the  reception  and  disposal  of  the  prisoners, 
so  that  although  de  jure  they  were  free  men,  de  facto  they  were 
still  detained  and  treated  as  prisoners.  Small-pox  broke  out, 
and  it  was  only  by  the  unwearying  devotion  and  activity  of 
Dr.  Magrath,  the  prison  surgeon,  that  the  epidemic  was  checked, 
and  that  the  prisoners  were  dissuaded  from  going  further  than 
giving  Beasley  a  mock  trial  and  burning  him  in  effigy. 


DARTMOOR  255 

On  April  20,  1815,  263  ragged  and  shoeless  Americans  quitted 
Dartmoor,  leaving  5,193  behind.  The  remainder  followed  in 
a  few  days,  marching  to  Plymouth,  carrying  a  huge  white  flag 
on  which  was  represented  the  goddess  of  Liberty,  sorrowing 
over  the  tomb  of  the  killed  Americans,  with  the  legend : 
'  Columbia  weeps  and  will  remember  !  '  Before  the  prisoners 
left,  they  testified  their  gratitude  to  Dr.  Magrath  for  his 
unvarying  kindness  to  them,  by  an  address. 

'  Greenhorn/  another  American,  gives  little  details  about 
prison  life  at  Dartmoor,  which  are  interesting  as  supplementary 
to  the  fuller  book  of  Andrews. 

'  Greenhorn  '  landed  at  Plymouth  on  January  30,  1815,  after 
the  Treaty  of  Ghent  had  been  signed,  but  before  its  ratification, 
and  was  marched  via  Mannamead,  Yelverton,  and  the  Dursland 
Inn  to  Dartmoor. 

He  describes  the  inmates  of  the  American  '  Rough  Alleys  ' 
as  corresponding  in  a  minor  degree  to  the  French  '  Romans  ', 
the  principal  source  of  their  poverty  being  a  gambling  game 
known  as  '  Keno  '. 

He  says — and  it  may  be  noted — that  he  found  the  food  at 
Dartmoor  good,  and  more  abundant  than  on  board  ship.  The 
American  prisoners  kept  Sunday  strictly,  all  buying,  selling, 
and  gambling  was  suspended  by  public  opinion,  and  every  man 
dressed  in  his  cleanest  and  best,  and  spent  the  day  quietly. 
He  speaks  of  the  great  popularity  of  Dr.  Magrath,  although  he 
made  vaccination  compulsory.  Ship-model  making  was  a  chief 
industry.  The  Americans  settled  their  differences  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  fashion,  the  chief  fighting-ground  being  in  Bath  Alley. 
Announcements  of  these  and  of  all  public  meetings  and  enter- 
tainments were  made  by  a  well-known  character,  '  Old  Davis/ 
in  improvised  rhyme.  Another  character  was  the  pedlar 
Frank  Dolphin. 

In  dress,  it  was  the  aim  of  every  one  to  disguise  the  hideous 
prison-garb  as  much  as  possible,  the  results  often  being  ludicrous 
in  the  extreme. 

Everybody  was  more  or  less  busy.  There  were  schoolmasters 
and  music  teachers,  a  band,  a  boxing  academy,  a  dancing 
school,  a  glee-club,  and  a  theatre.  There  were  straw-basket 
making,  imitation  Chinese  wood-carving,  and  much  false 


256  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

coining,  the  lead  of  No.  6  roof  coming  in  very  handy  for  this 
trade.  Washermen  charged  a  halfpenny  a  piece,  or  one  penny 
including  soap  and  starch. 

No.  4  was  the  bad  prison — the  Ball  Alley  of  the  roughs. 
Each  prison,  except  No.  4,  was  managed  by  a  committee  of 
twelve,  elected  by  the  inmates.  From  their  decisions  there 
was  no  appeal.  Gambling  was  universal,  ranging  from  the 
penny  '  sweet-cloth  '  to  Vingt-et-un.  Some  of  the  play  was 
high,  and  money  was  abundant,  as  many  of  the  privateersmen 
had  their  prize-money.  One  man  possessed  £1,100  on  Monday, 
and  on  Thursday  he  could  not  buy  a  cup  of  coffee.  The  rule 
which  precluded  from  the  privilege  of  parole  all  but  the 
masters  and  first  mates  of  privateers  of  fourteen  guns  and 
upwards  brought  a  number  of  well-to-do  men  into  the  prison, 
and,  moreover,  the  American  Government  allowance  of  2\d. 
a  day  for  soap,  coffee,  and  tobacco,  circulated  money. 

The  following  notes  from  the  Journal  of  a  Young  Man  of 
Massachusetts,  Benjamin  Waterhouse  by  name,  whom  we  have 
already  met  on  the  Chatham  hulks,  are  included,  as  they  add 
a  few  details  of  life  at  Dartmoor  to  those  already  given. 

Waterhouse  says  : 

'  I  shall  only  say  that  I  found  it,  take  it  all  in  all,  a  less 
disagreeable  prison  than  the  ships  ;  the  life  of  a  prudent, 
industrious,  well-behaved  man  might  here  be  rendered  pretty 
easy,  for  a  prison  life,  as  was  the  case  with  some  of  our  own 
countrymen  and  some  Frenchmen ;  but  the  young,  the  idle, 
the  giddy,  fun-making  youth  generally  reaped  such  fruit  as  he 
sowed.  Gambling  was  the  wide  inlet  to  vice  and  disorder,  and 
in  this  Frenchmen  took  the  lead.  These  men  would  play  away 
everything  they  possessed  beyond  the  clothes  to  keep  them 
decent.  They  have  been  known  to  game  away  a  month's 
provision,  and  when  they  had  lost  it,  would  shirk  and  steal 
for  a  month  after  for  their  subsistence.  A  man  with  some 
money  in  his  pocket  might  live  pretty  well  through  the  day  in 
Dartmoor  Prison,  there  being  shops  and  stalls  where  every 
little  article  could  be  obtained  ;  but  added  to  this  we  had  a 
good  and  constant  market,  and  the  bread  and  meat  supplied  by 
Government  were  not  bad  ;  and  as  good  I  presume  as  that 
given  to  British  prisoners  by  our  own  Government.' 

He  speaks  very  highly  of  the  tall,  thin,  one-eyed  Dr.  Magrath, 
the  prison  doctor,  but  of  his  Scots  assistant,  McFarlane,  as 


BONE  MODEL  OF  GUILLOTINE 
Made  by  prisoners  of  war  at  Dartmoor 


p.  256 


DARTMOOR  257 

a  rough,  inhuman  brute.  Shortland,  the  governor,  he  describes 
as  one  who  apparently  revelled  in  the  misery  and  discomfort  of 
the  prisoners  under  his  charge,  although  in  another  place  he 
defines  him  as  a  man,  not  so  much  bad-hearted,  as  an  ill- 
educated,  tactless  boor. 

Waterhouse  describes  the  peculiarly  harsh  proceeding  of 
Shortland  after  the  discovery  of  the  tunnel  dug  from 
under  No.  6  caserne.  All  the  prisoners  with  their  baggage 
were  driven  into  the  yard  of  No.  i  :  thence  in  a  few  days  to 
another  yard,  and  so  on  from  yard  to  yard,  so  that  they  could 
not  get  time  to  dig  tunnels ;  at  the  same  time  they  were  sub- 
jected to  all  kinds  of  petty  bullyings,  such  as  being  kept  waiting 
upon  numbering  days  in  the  open,  in  inclement  weather,  until 
Shortland  should  choose  to  put  in  an  appearance.  On  one  of  these 
occasions  the  Americans  refused  to  wait,  and  went  back  to  their 
prisons,  for  which  offence  the  market  was  stopped  for  two  days. 

At  the  end  of  1814  there  were  at  Dartmoor  2,350  Americans. 
There  seemed  to  be  much  prosperity  in  the  prison  :  the  market 
was  crowded  with  food,  and  hats  and  boots  and  clothes  ;  Jew 
traders  did  a  roaring  trade  in  watches,  seals,  trinkets,  and  bad 
books  ;  sharp  women  also  were  about,  selling  well-watered 
milk  at  4^.  a  gallon ;  the '  Rough  Alleys  '  were  in  great  strength, 
and  kept  matters  lively  all  over  the  prison. 

Number  4  caserne  was  inhabited  by  black  prisoners,  whose 
ruler  was  '  King  Dick/  a  giant  six  feet  five  inches  in  height,  who, 
with  a  huge  bearskin  hat  on  head,  and  a  thick  club  in  hand, 
exercised  regal  sway,  dispensing  justice,  and,  strange  to  say, 
paying  strict  attention  to  the  cleanliness  of  his  subjects'  berths. 
Nor  was  religion  neglected  in  No.  4,  for  every  Sunday  '  Priest 
Simon '  preached,  assisted  by  '  Deacon  John  ',  who  had  been  a 
servant  in  the  Duke  of  Kent's  household,  and  who  at  first 
urged  that  Divine  Service  should  be  modelled  on  that  customary 
on  British  men-of-war  and  in  distinguished  English  families, 
but  was  overruled  by  the  decision  of  a  Methodist  preacher  from 
outside.  '  King  Dick  '  always  attended  service  in  full  state.  He 
also  kept  a  boxing  school,  and  in  No.  4  were  also  professors  of 
dancing  and  music  and  fencing,  who  had  many  white  pupils, 
besides  theatricals  twice  a  week,  performed  with  ludicrous 
solemnity  by  the  black  men,  whose  penchant  was  for  serious 


258  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

and  tragical  dramas.  Other  dramatic  performances  were  given 
by  an  Irish  Regular  regiment  from  Spain,  which  relieved  the 
Derby  Militia  garrison,  in  the  cock-loft  of  No.  6  caserne,  the 
admission  thereto  being  6d. 

Still,  there  was  much  hunger,  and  when  it  was  rumoured  that 
Jew  clothes-merchants  in  the  market  were  dealing  with  undue 
sharpness  with  unfortunate  venders,  a  raid  was  made  by  the 
Americans  upon  their  stalls  and  booths  which  wrought  their 
destruction. 

Beasley  was  still  a  bete  noire.  His  studied  neglect  of  the 
interests  of  those  whose  interests  were  in  his  charge,  his  failure 
to  acquaint  himself  by  personal  attention  with  their  com- 
plaints, made  him  hated  far  more  than  were  the  British  officials, 
excepting  Shortland.  One  day  he  was  tried  in  effigy,  and 
sentenced  to  be  hung  and  burnt.  A  pole  was  rigged  from  the 
roof  of  No.  7  caserne,  Beasley's  effigy  was  hung  therefrom,  was 
cut  down  by  a  negro,  taken  away  by  the  '  Rough  Alleys  ',  and 
burnt.  On  the  same  day,  '  Be  you  also  ready '  was  found 
painted  on  the  wall  of  Shortland's  house.  He  said  to  a  friend  : 

'  I  never  saw  or  ever  read  or  heard  of  such  a  set  of  Devil- 
daring,  God-provoking  fellows,  as  these  same  Yankees.  I  had 
rather  have  the  charge  of  5,ooo  Frenchmen,  than  500  of  these 
sons  of  liberty  ;  and  yet  I  love  the  dogs  better  than  I  do  the 
d d  frog-eaters.' 

On  March  20,  1815,  came  the  Ratification  of  Peace,  but, 
although  this  made  the  Americans  virtually  free  men,  much 
of  a  lamentable  nature  was  to  happen  ere  they  practically 
became  so. 

As  is  so  often  the  case  in  tragedy,  a  comparatively  trifling 
incident  brought  it  about. 

On  April  4,  1815,  the  provision  contractors  thought  to  get 
rid  of  their  stock  of  hard  bread  (biscuit)  which  they  held  in 
reserve  by  serving  it  out  to  the  prisoners  instead  of  the  fresh 
bread  which  was  their  due.  The  Americans  refused  to  have  it, 
swarmed  round  the  bakeries  on  mischief  intent,  and  refused  to 
disperse  when  ordered  to.  Shortland  was  away  in  Plymouth 
at  the  time,  and  the  officer  in  charge,  seeing  that  it  was  useless 
to  attempt  to  force  them  with  only  300  Militia  at  his  command, 
yielded,  and  the  prisoners  got  their  bread.  When  Shortland 


DARTMOOR  259 

returned,  he  was  very  angry  at  what  he 'deemed  the  pusillani- 
mous action  of  his  subordinate,  swore  that  if  he  had  been  there 
the  Yankees  should  have  been  brought  to  order  at  the  point  of 
the  bayonet,  and  determined  to  create  an  opportunity  for 
revenge. 

This  came  on  April  6.  According  to  the  sworn  testimony  of 
witnesses  at  the  subsequent  inquiry,  some  boys  playing  at  ball 
in  the  yard  of  No.  7  caserne,  knocked  a  ball  over  into  the 
neighbouring  barrack  yard,  and,  upon  the  sentry  on  duty  there 
refusing  to  throw  it  back,  made  a  hole  in  the  wall,  crept  through 
it,  and  got  the  ball.  Shortland  pretended  to  see  in  this  hole- 
making  a  project  to  escape,  and  made  his  arrangements  to 
attract  all  the  prisoners  out  of  their  quarters  by  ringing  the 
alarm  bell,  and,  in  order  to  prevent  their  escape  back  into  them, 
had  ordered  that  one  of  the  two  doors  in  each  caserne  should 
be  closed,  although  it  was  fifteen  minutes  before  the  regulation 
lock-up  time  at  6  o'clock.  It  was  sworn  that  he  had  said : 
'  I'll  fire  the  d d  rascals  presently.' 

At  6  p.m.  the  alarm  bell  brought  the  prisoners  out  of  all 
the  casernes — wherein  they  were  quietly  settled — to  see  what 
was  the  cause.  In  the  market  square  were  '  several  hundred ' 
soldiers,  with  Shortland  at  their  head,  and  at  the  same  time 
many  soldiers  were  being  posted  in  the  inner  wall  commanding 
the  prison  yards.  One  of  these,  according  to  a  witness,  called 
out  to  the  crowd  of  prisoners  to  go  indoors  as  they  would  be 
charged  on  very  soon.  This  occasioned  confusion  and  alarm 
and  some  running  about.  What  immediately  followed  is  not 
very  clear,  but  it  was  sworn  that  Shortland  ordered  the  soldiers 
to  charge  the  prisoners  huddled  in  the  market  square ;  that  the 
soldiers — men  of  the  Somerset  Militia — hesitated  ;  that  the 
order  was  repeated,  and  the  soldiers  charged  the  prisoners,  who 
retreated  into  the  prison  gates ;  that  Shortland  ordered  the 
gates  to  be  opened,  and  that  the  consequent  confusion  among 
hundreds  of  men  vainly  trying  to  get  into  the  casernes  by  the 
one  door  of  each  left  open,  and  being  pushed  back  by  others 
coming  out  to  see  what  was  the  matter,  was  wilfully  magnified 
by  Shortland  into  a  concerted  attempt  to  break  out,  and  he 
gave  the  word  to  fire. 

It  was  said  that,  seeing  a  hesitation  among  his  officers  to 

S  2 


260  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

repeat  the  command,  Shortland  himself  seized  a  musket  from 
a  soldier  and  fired  the  first  shot.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  firing 
became  general  from  the  walls  as  well  as  from  the  square  ; 
soldiers  came  to  the  doors  of  two  of  the  casernes  and  fired 
through  them,  with  the  result,  according  to  American  accounts, 
that  seven  men  were  killed,  thirty  were  dangerously  wounded, 
and  thirty  slightly  wounded ;  but  according  to  the  Return 
signed  by  Shortland  and  Dr.  Magrath,  five  were  killed  and 
twenty-eight  wounded. 

A  report  was  drawn  up,  after  the  inquiry  instituted  directly 
following  the  event,  by  Admiral  Duckworth  and  Major-General 
Brown,  and  signed  by  the  Assistant  Commissioners  at  the 
Inquiry,  King  for  the  United  States,  and  Larpent  for  Great 
Britain,  which  came  to  no  satisfactory  conclusion.  It  was 
evident,  it  said,  that  the  prisoners  were  in  an  excited  state 
about  the  non-arrival  of  ships  to  take  them  home,  and  that 
Shortland  was  irritated  about  the  bread  affair;  that  there 
was  much  unauthorized  firing,  but  that  it  was  difficult  exactly 
to  apportion  blame.  This  report  was  utterly  condemned  by 
the  committee  of  prisoners,  who  resented  the  tragedy  being 
styled  '  this  unfortunate  affair ',  reproached  King  for  his  lack 
of  energy  and  unwarrantable  self-restraint,  and  complained  of 
the  hurried  and  imperfect  way  in  which  the  inquiry  was  con- 
ducted and  the  evidence  taken.  At  this  distance  of  time  an 
Englishman  may  ask  :  '  If  it  was  known  that  peace  between 
the  two  countries  had  been  ratified  on  March  20,  how  came  it 
that  Americans  were  still  kept  in  confinement  and  treated  as 
prisoners  of  war  on  April  6  ? '  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  hardly 
possible  to  accept  the  American  view  that  the  tragedy  was 
the  deliberate  work  of  an  officer  of  His  Majesty's  service  in 
revenge  for  a  slight. 

By  July,  1815,  all  the  Americans  but  450  had  left,  and  the 
last  Dartmoor  war- prisoners,  4,000  Frenchmen,  taken  at  Ligny, 
came  in.  These  poor  fellows  were  easy  to  manage  after  the 
Americans ;  2,500  of  them  came  from  Plymouth  with  only 
300  Militiamen  as  guard,  whilst  for  Americans  the  rule  was 
man  for  man. 

The  last  war-prisoners  left  Dartmoor  in  December,  1815,  and 
from  this  time  until  1850  it  was  unoccupied,  which  partially 


ill 


DARTMOOR  261 

accounts  for  the  utter  desecration  of  the  burial-ground,  until, 
under  Captain  Stopforth,  it  was  tidied  up  in  garden  fashion, 
divided  into  two  plots,  one  for  Americans,  the  other  for  French- 
men, in  the  centre  of  each  of  which  was  placed  a  memorial 
obelisk  in  1865. 

The  present  church  at  Princetown  was  built  by  war-prisoners, 
the  stone- work  being  done  by  the  French,  the  wood- work  by  the 
Americans.  The  East  Window  bears  the  following  inscription  : 

'  To  the  Glory  of  God  and  in  memory  of  the  American 
Prisoners  of  War  who  were  detained  in  the  Dartmoor  War 
Prison  between  the  years  1809  and  1815,  and  who  helped  to 
build  this  Church,  especially  of  the  218  brave  men  who  died 
here  on  behalf  of  their  country.  This  Window  is  presented  by 
the  National  Society  of  United  States  Daughters  of  1812. 
Dulce  est  pro  patria  mori.' 


CHAPTER  XIX 
SOME  MINOR  PRISONS 

As  has  been  already  stated,  before  the  establishment  of 
regular  prisons  became  a  necessity  by  the  increasing  flow  of 
prisoners  of  war  into  Britain,  accommodation  for  these  men 
had  to  be  found  or  made  wherever  it  was  possible.  With  some 
of  these  minor  prisons  I  shall  deal  in  this  chapter. 

WINCHESTER 

Measured  by  the  number  of  prisoners  of  war  confined  here, 
Winchester  assuredly  should  rank  as  a  major  establishment, 
but  it  seems  to  have  been  regarded  by  the  authorities  rather  as 
a  receiving-house  or  a  transfer  office  than  as  a  real  prisoner 
settlement,  possibly  because  the  building  utilized — a  pile  of 
barracks  which  was  originally  intended  by  Charles  the  Second 
to  be  a  palace  on  the  plan  of  Versailles,  but  which  was  never 
finished,  and  which  was  known  as  the  King's  House  Prison — 
was  not  secure  enough  to  be  a  House  of  Detention.  It  was 
burned  down  in  1890. 

In  1756  there  were  no  less  than  5,000  prisoners  at  Winchester. 
In  1761  the  order  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  military  from  the 
city  because  of  the  approaching  elections  occasioned  much 
alarm,  and  brought  vigorous  protests  from  leading  inhabitants 
on  account  of  the  4,000  prisoners  of  war  who  would  be  left 
practically  unguarded,  especially  as  these  men  happened  to  be 
just  then  in  a  ferment  of  excitement,  and  a  general  outbreak 
among  them  was  feared.  Should  this  take  place,  it  was  repre- 
sented that  nothing  could  prevent  them  from  communicating 
with  the  shipping  in  Southampton  River,  and  setting  free  their 
countrymen  prisoners  at  Portchester  and  Forton  Hospital, 
Gosport. 

In  1779  Howard  visited  Winchester.  This  was  the  year 
when  the  patients  and  crew  of  a  captured  French  hospital  ship, 


WINCHESTER  263 

the  Ste.  Julie,  brought  fever  into  the  prison,  causing  a  heavy 
mortality. 

Howard  reported  that  1,062  prisoners  were  confined  here, 
that  the  wards  were  lofty  and  spacious,  the  airing  yards  large, 
that  the  meat  and  beer  were  good,  but  that  the  bread,  being 
made  with  leaven,  and  mixed  with  rye,  was  not  so  good  as  that 
served  out  to  British  prisoners.  He  recommended  that  to 
prevent  the  prisoners  from  passing  their  days  lying  indolently 
in  their  hammocks,  work-rooms  should  be  provided.  Several 
prisoners,  at  the  time  of  his  visit,  were  in  the  Dark  Hole  for 
attempting  to  escape,  and  he  observed  that  to  be  condemned  to 
forty  days'  confinement  on  half-rations  in  order  to  pay  the  ten 
shillings  reward  to  the  men  who  apprehended  them  seemed  toe 
severe.  The  hospital  ward  was  lofty  and  twenty  feet  wide. 
Each  patient  had  a  cradle,  bedding,  and  sheets,  and  the  atten- 
dance of  the  doctor  was  very  good.  He  spoke  highly  of  Smith, 
the  Agent,  but  recommended  a  more  regular  system  of  War- 
Prison  inspection. 

Forgery  was  a  prevalent  crime  among  the  Winchester 
prisoners.  In  1780  two  prisoners  gave  information  about 
a  systematic  manufacture  of  false  passports  in  the  prison,  and 
described  the  process.  They  also  revealed  the  existence  of 
a  false  key  by  which  prisoners  could  escape  into  the  fields,  the 
maker  of  which  had  disappeared.  They  dared  not  say  more, 
as  they  were  suspected  by  their  fellow-prisoners  of  being 
informers,  and  prayed  for  release  as  reward. 

To  the  letter  conveying  this  information  the  Agent  appended 
a  note  : 

'  I  have  been  obliged  this  afternoon  to  take  Honore  Martin 
and  Apert  out  of  the  prison  that  they  may  go  away  with  the 
division  of  prisoners  who  are  to  be  discharged  to-morrow, 
several  prisoners  having  this  morning  entered  the  chamber  in 
which  they  sleep,  with  naked  knives,  declaring  most  resolutely 
they  were  determined  to  murder  them  if  they  could  find  them, 
to  prevent  which  their  liberty  was  granted/ 

In  1810  two  prisoners  were  brought  to  Winchester  to  be 
hanged  for  forging  seven-shilling  pieces.  I  think  this  must  be 
the  first  instance  of  prisoners  of  war  being  hanged  for  forgery. 


264  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

ROSCROW  AND  KERGILLIACK,  NEAR  PENRYN,  CORNWALL 

In  spite  of  the  great  pains  I  have  taken  to  get  information 
about  these  two  neighbouring  prisons,  the  results  are  most 
meagre.  Considering  that  there  were  war-prisoners  there  con- 
tinuously from  the  beginning  of  the  Seven  Years'  War  in  1756 
until  the  end  of  the  century,  that  there  were  900  prisoners  at 
Roscrow,  and  600  at  Kergilliack,  it  is  surprising  how  absolutely 
the  memory  of  their  sojourn  has  faded  away  locally,  and  how 
little  information  I  have  been  able  to  elicit  concerning  them 
from  such  authorities  on  matters  Cornish  as  Mr.  Thurstan 
Peter,  Sir  Arthur  Quiller-Couch,  Mr.  Otho  Peter,  and  Mr.  Vaw- 
drey  of  St.  Budock.  The  earliest  document  referring  to  these 
prisoners  which  I  have  found  is  a  letter  of  thanks  from  the 
prisoners  at  Kergilliack  in  1757,  for  the  badly  needed  reform 
of  the  hospital,  but  I  do  not  think  that  the  two  places  ranked 
amongst  the  regular  war-prisons  until  twenty  years  later.  At 
no  time  were  they  much  more  than  adapted  farms.  Roscrow 
consisted  of  a  mansion,  in  a  corner  of  which  was  a  public-house, 
to  which  a  series  of  substantial  farm-buildings  was  attached, 
which,  when  surrounded  by  a  wall,  constituted  the  prison. 
Kergilliack,  or  Regilliack,  as  I  have  seen  it  written,  was  of  much 
the  same  character.1 

In  1797  the  Roscrow  prisoners,  according  to  documents 
I  found  at  the  Archives  Nationales  in  Paris,  were  nearly  all 
privateersmen.  Officers  and  men  were  herded  together,  which 
the  former  deeply  resented ;  as  they  did  much  else,  such  as 
being  bullied  by  a  low  class  of  jailers,  the  badness  of  the 
supplies,  the  rottenness  of  the  shoes  served  out  to  them,  the 
crowded  sleeping  accommodation,  the  dirt,  and  lastly  the  fact 
that  pilchards  formed  a  chief  part  of  their  diet. 

In  this  year  a  Guernsey  boy  named  Hamond  revealed  to  the 

1  A  recent  visit  to  Kergilliack  revealed  nothing  more  than  a  large 
field  behind  Kergilliack  upper  farm,  bounded  by  an  unusually  massive 
wall,  and  said  to  have  been  the  prison  exercising  ground,  and  outside  it 
a  tumulus  locally  reputed  to  mark  the  prison  burial-place,  and  held  to 
be  haunted. 

An  elaborately  moulded  plaster  ceiling  at  Meudon  Farm  in  Mawnan, 
five  miles  from  Kergilliack,  is  said  to  have  been  the  work  of  foreign 
prisoners  of  war. 


ROSCROW  AND  KERGILLIACK  265 

authorities  a  mine  under  the  foundation  of  the  house,  five  feet 
below  the  ground  and  four  feet  in  diameter,  going  out  twenty 
yards  towards  the  inside  fence.  He  had  found  the  excavated 
earth  distributed  among  the  prisoners'  hammocks,  and  told  the 
turnkey.  He  was  instantly  removed,  as  he  would  certainly 
have  been  murdered  by  the  other  prisoners. 

The  tunnel  was  a  wonder  of  skill  and  perseverance.  It  was 
said  that  the  excavators  had  largely  worked  with  nothing  but 
their  hands,  and  that  their  labour  had  been  many  times  in- 
creased by  the  fact  that  in  order  to  avoid  the  constant  occur- 
rence of  rock  they  had  been  obliged  to  make  a  winding  course. 

Complaints  increased  :  the  bad  bread  was  often  not  delivered 
till  5  p.m.  instead  of  8  a.m.,  the  beer  was  undrinkable,  and  the 
proportion  of  bone  to  meat  in  the  weighed  allowance  ridiculous. 
The  Agent  paying  no  attention  to  reiterated  complaints,  the 
following  petition,  signed  at  Kergilliack  as  well  as  at  Roscrow, 
was  sent  to  the  Transport  Office  Commissioners  for 

'  that  redress  which  we  have  a  right  to  expect  from 
Mr.  Bannick's  [the  Agent]  exertions  on  our  behalf  ;  but, 
unfortunately  for  us,  after  making  repeated  applications  to 
him  whenever  chance  threw  him  in  our  way,  as  he  seldom 
visited  the  prison,  we  have  the  mortification  of  finding  that  our 
reasonable  and  just  remonstrances  has  been  treated  with  the 
most  forbiding  frowns  and  the  distant  arrogance  of  the  most 
arbitrary  Despot  when  he  has  been  presented  with  a  sample  of 
bread  delivered  to  us,  or  rather,  rye,  flour,  and  water  cemented 
together,  and  at  different  times,  and  as  black  as  our  shoes. 
(Signed) 

'  THE  GENERAL  BODY  OF  FRENCH  OFFICERS 
CONFINED  IN  ROSCROW  PRISON.' 

A  further  remonstrance  was  set  forth  that  the  Agent  and  his 
son,  who  was  associated  with  him,  were  bullies  ;  that  the  sur- 
geon neglected  his  duties  ;  and  that  the  living  and  sleeping 
quarters  were  bad  and  damp. 

The  only  result  I  can  find  of  these  petitions,  is  a  further 
exasperation  of  the  prisoners  by  the  stopping  of  all  exchange 
privileges  of  those  who  had  signed  them. 

The  following  complaints  about  the  hospital  at  Falmouth  in 
the  year  1757  I  have  placed  at  the  end  of  this  notice,  as  I 
cannot  be  sure  that  they  were  formulated  by,  or  had  anything 


266  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

to  do  with,  foreign  prisoners  of  war.  From  the  fact  that  they 
are  included  among  a  batch  of  documents  at  the  Record  Office 
dealing  with  prisoners  of  war,  I  think  it  is  quite  possible  that 
they  may  be  associated  with  them,  inasmuch  as  Falmouth,  like 
Dover,  Deal,  and  other  coast  ports,  was  a  sort  of  receiving  office 
for  prisoners  captured  on  privateers,  previous  to  their  disposal 
elsewhere. 

It  was  complained  that : 

1.  No  bouillon  was  served  if  no  basin  was  brought  :    the 

allowance  being  one  small  basin  in  24  hours. 

2.  Half  the  beds  had  no  sheets,  and  what  sheets  there  were 

had  not  been  changed  for  six  months. 

3.  Beds  were  so  scarce  that  new  arrivals  were  kept  waiting 

in  the  open  yards. 

4.  The  attendants  were  underpaid,  and  therefore  useless. 

5.  No  bandages  were  supplied,  so  that  the  patients'  own 

shirts  had  to  be  torn  up  to  make  them. 

6.  Stimulants  and  meat  were  insufficient,  and  the  best  of 

what  there  was  the  attendants  secured  beforehand. 

7.  Half -cured  patients  were  often  discharged  to  make  room 

for  others. 

From  what  Mr.  Vawdrey,  the  Vicar  of  St.  Budock,  Falmouth, 
has  written  to  me,  it  is  certain  that  French  officers  were  on 
parole  in  different  places  of  this  neighbourhood.  Tradition 
says  that  those  who  died  were  buried  beneath  a  large  tree  on 
the  right  hand  of  the  north  entrance  of  the  church.  There 
are  entries  in  the  registers  of  the  deaths  of  French  prisoners, 
and,  if  there  is  no  evidence  of  marriages,  there  is  that  '  some 
St.  Budock  girls  appear  to  have  made  captivity  more  blessed  for 
some  of  them '.  Some  people  at  Meudon  in  Mawnan,  named 
Courage,  farmers,  trace  their  descent  from  a  French  lieutenant 
of  that  name.  Mawnan  registers  show  French  names.  Pen- 
dennis  Castle  was  used  as  a  war-prison,  both  for  French  from  the 
Peninsula,  and  for  Americans  during  the  war  of  1812. 

SHREWSBURY 

I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  J.  E.  Anden,  M.A.,  F.R.Hist.S.,  of 
Tong,  Shifnal,  for  the  following  extracts  from  the  diary  of 
John  Tarbuck,  a  shoemaker,  of  Shrewsbury  : 

'  September,  1783.     Six  hundred  hammocks  were  slung  in 


SHREWSBURY  267 

the  Orphan  Hospital,  from  which  all  the  windows  were  removed, 
to  convert  it  into  a  Dutch  prison,  and  as  many  captive  sailors 
marched  in.  Many  of  the  townspeople  go  out  to  meet  them, 
and  amongst  the  rest  Mr.  Roger  Yeomans,  the  most  corpulent 
man  in  the  country,  to  the  no  small  mirth  of  the  prisoners,  who, 
on  seeing  him,  gave  a  great  shout  :  "  Huzza  les  Anglais  !  Roast 
beef  for  ever ! "  This  exclamation  was  soon  verified  to  their 
satisfaction,  as  the  Salop  gentry  made  a  subscription  to  buy 
them  some  in  addition  to  that  allowed  by  their  victors,  together 
with  shoes,  jackets,  and  other  necessaries.  'Twas  pleasing  to 
see  the  poor  creatures'  gratitude,  for  they'd  sing  you  their 
songs,  tho'  in  a  foreign  land,  and  some  companies  of  their  youth 
would  dance  with  amazing  dexterity  in  figures  totally  unlike 
the  English  dances  with  a  kind  of  regular  confusion,  yet  with 
grace,  ease,  and  truth  to  the  music.  I  remember  there  was  one 
black  boy  of  such  surprising  agility  that,  had  the  person  seen 
him,  who,  speaking  against  the  Abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  said 
there  was  only  a  link  between  the  human  and  the  brute  creation, 
it  would  have  strengthened  his  favourite  hypothesis,  for  he 
leaped  about  with  more  of  the  swiftness  of  the  monkey  than  the 
man. 

'  I  went  one  Sunday  to  Church  with  them,  and  I  came  away 
much  more  edified  than  from  some  sermons  where  I  could  tell 
all  that  was  spoken.  The  venerable  appearance  and  the 
devotion  evident  in  every  look  and  gesture  of  the  preacher, 
joined  to  the  grave  and  decent  deportment  of  his  hearers  .  .  . 
had  a  wonderful  effect  on  my  feelings  and  tended  very  much  to 
solemnize  my  affections. 

'  May,  1785.  Four  of  the  Dutch  prisoners  escape  by  means 
of  the  privy  and  were  never  retaken.  Many  others  enlist  in  the 
English  service,  and  are  hissed  and  shouted  at  by  their  fellows, 
and  deservedly  so.  The  Swedes  and  Norwegians  among  them 
are  marched  away  (being  of  neutral  nations)  to  be  exchanged.' 

A  newspaper  of  July  1784  (?)  says  : 

'  On  Thursday  last  an  unfortunate  affair  happened  at  the 
Dutch  Prison,  Shrewsbury.  A  prisoner,  behaving  irregular, 
was  desired  by  a  guard  to  desist,  which  was  returned  by  the 
prisoner  with  abusive  language  and  blows,  and  the  prisoner, 
laying  hold  of  the  Centinel's  Firelock,  forced  off  the  bayonet, 
and  broke  the  belt.  Remonstrance  proving  fruitless,  and  some 
more  of  the  Prisoners  joining  their  stubborn  countryman,  the 
Centinel  was  obliged  to  draw  back  and  fire  among  them,  which 
killed  one  on  the  spot  The  Ball  went  through  his  Body  and 
wounded  one  more.  The  man  that  began  the  disturbance 
escaped  unhurt.' 


268  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

The  prisoners  left  Shrewsbury  about  November  1785. 

A  correspondent  of  a  Shrewsbury  newspaper  in  1911  writes  : 

'  A  generation  ago  there  were  people  living  who  remembered 
the  rebuilding  of  Mont  ford  Bridge  by  prisoners  of  war.  They 
went  out  each  Monday,  tradition  says,  in  carts  and  wagons, 
and  were  quartered  there  during  the  week  in  farm-houses  and 
cottages  near  their  work,  being  taken  back  to  Shrewsbury  at 
the  end  of  each  week/ 

The  correspondence  evoked  by  this  letter,  however,  suffi- 
ciently proved  that  this  was  nothing  more  than  tradition. 

YARMOUTH 

Prisoners  were  confined  here  during  the  Seven  Years'  War, 
although  no  special  buildings  were  set  apart  for  their  reception, 
and,  as  elsewhere,  they  were  simply  herded  with  the  common 
prisoners  in  the  ordinary  lock-up.  In  1758  numerous  com- 
plaints came  to  the  '  Sick  and  Hurt  '  Office  from  the  prisoners 
here,  about  their  bad  treatment,  the  greed  of  the  jailer,  the 
bad  food,  the  lack  of  medical  attendance  and  necessaries,  and 
the  misery  of  being  lodged  with  the  lowest  class  of  criminals. 
Prisoners  who  were  seriously  ill  were  placed  in  the  prison 
hospital ;  the  jailer  used  to  intercept  money  contributed  by 
the  charitable  for  the  benefit  of  the  prisoners,  and  only  paid  it 
over  after  the  deduction  of  a  large  commission.  The  straw 
bedding  was  dirty,  scanty,  and  rarely  changed  ;  water  had  to 
be  paid  for,  and  there  was  hardly  any  airing  ground. 

After  the  building  of  Norman  Cross  Prison,  Yarmouth 
became,  like  Deal  and  Falmouth,  a  mere  receiving  port,  but 
an  exceedingly  busy  one,  the  prisoners  being  landed  there 
direct  from  capture,  and  generally  taken  on  by  water  to  Lynn, 
whence  they  were  conveyed  by  canal  to  Peterborough. 

From  the  Norwich  Mercury  of  1905  I  take  the  following 
notes  on  Yarmouth  by  the  late  Rev.  G.  N.  Godwin  : 

'  Columns  of  prisoners,  often  1,000  strong,  were  marched 
from  Yarmouth  to  Norwich,  and  were  there  lodged  in  the 
Castle.  They  frequently  expressed  their  gratitude  for  the 
kindness  shown  them  by  the  Mayor  and  citizens.  One  smart 
privateer  captain  coolly  walked  out  of  the  Castle  in  the  company 
of  some  visitors,  and,  needless  to  say,  did  not  return. 

'  From  Yarmouth  they  were  marched  to  King's  Lynn,  halting 


YARMOUTH  269 

at  Costessy,  Swanton  Mosley  (where  their  "  barracks"  are  still 
pointed  out),  East  Dereham,  where  some  were  lodged  in  the 
detached  church  tower,  and  thence  to  Lynn.  Here  they  were 
lodged  in  a  large  building,  afterwards  used  as  a  warehouse,  now 
pulled  down.  [For  a  further  reference  to  East  Dereham  and 
its  church  tower,  see  p.  453.] 

'At  Lynn  they  took  water,  and  were  conveyed  in  barges 
and  lighters  through  the  Forty  Foot,  the  Hundred  Foot,  the 
Paupers'  Cut,  and  the  Nene  to  Peterborough,  whence  they 
marched  to  Norman  Cross. 

'  In  1797,  28  prisoners  escaped  from  the  gaol  at  Yarmouth  by 
undermining  the  wall  and  the  row  adjoining.  All  but  five  of 
them  were  retaken.  In  the  same  year  4  prisoners  broke  out 
of  the  gaol,  made  their  way  to  Lowestoft,  where  they  stole 
a  boat  from  the  beach,  and  got  on  board  a  small  vessel,  the 
crew  of  which  they  put  under  the  hatches,  cut  the  cable,  and 
put  out  to  sea.  Seven  hours  later  the  crew  managed  to  regain 
the  deck,  a  rough  and  tumble  fight  ensued,  one  of  the  French- 
men was  knocked  overboard,  and  the  others  were  ultimately 
lodged  in  Yarmouth  gaol/ 


EDINBURGH 

For  the  following  details  about  a  prison  which,  although  of 
importance,  cannot  from  its  size  be  fairly  classed  among  the  chief 
Prisoners  of  War  depots  of  Britain,  I  am  largely  indebted  to 
the  late  Mr.  Macbeth  Forbes,  who  most  generously  gave  me 
permission  to  use  freely  his  article  in  the  Bankers'  Magazine  of 
March  1899.  I  emphasize  his  liberality  inasmuch  as  a  great  deal  of 
the  information  in  this  article  is  of  a  nature  only  procurable  by 
one  with  particular  and  peculiar  facilities  for  so  doing.  I  allude 
to  the  system  of  bank-note  forgery  pursued  by  the  prisoners. 

Edinburgh  Castle  was  first  used  as  a  place  of  confinement  for 
prisoners  of  war  during  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and,  like  Liver- 
pool, this  use  was  made  of  it  chiefly  on  account  of  its  convenient 
proximity  to  the  waters  haunted  by  privateers.  The  very 
first  prisoners  brought  in  belonged  to  the  Chevalier  Bart  priva- 
teer, captured  off  Tynemouth  by  H.M.S.  Solebay,  in  April  1757, 
the  number  of  them  being  28,  and  in  July  of  the  same  year 
a  further  108  were  added. 

'  In  the  autumn  of  1759  a  piteous  appeal  was  addressed  to 
the  publishers  of  the  Edinburgh  Evening  Courant  on  behalf  of 


270  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

the  French  prisoners  of  war  in  Edinburgh  Castle  by  one  who 
"  lately  beheld  some  hundreds  of  French  prisoners,  many  of 
them  about  naked  (some  without  any  other  clothing  but  shirts 
and  breeches  and  even  these  in  rags) ,  conducted  along  the  High 
Street  to  the  Castle."  The  writer  says  that  many  who  saw  the 
spectacle  were  moved  to  tears,  and  he  asked  that  relief  might 
be  given  by  contributing  clothing  to  these  destitute  men.  This 
letter  met  with  a  favourable  response  from  the  citizens,  and 
a  book  of  subscriptions  was  opened  forthwith.  The  prisoners 
were  visited  and  found  to  number  362.  They  were  reported 
to  be  "  in  a  miserable  condition,  many  almost  naked,"  and 
winter  approaching.  There  were,  however,  revilers  of  this 
charitable  movement,  who  said  that  the  public  were  being- 
imposed  upon  ;  that  the  badly  clothed  were  idle  fellows  who 
disposed  of  their  belongings  ;  that  they  had  been  detected  in 
the  Castle  cutting  their  shoes,  stockings,  and  hammocks  into 
pieces,  in  the  prospect  of  getting  these  articles  renewed.  "  One 
fellow,  yesterday,  got  twenty  bottles  of  ale  for  a  suit  of  clothes 
given  him  by  the  good  people  of  the  town  in  charity,  and  this 
he  boasted  of  to  one  of  the  servants  in  the  sutlery." 

'  The  promoters  of  the  movement  expressed  their  "surprise 
at  the  endeavours  used  to  divert  the  public  from  pursuing  so 
humane  a  design.".  .  .  .  They  also  pointed  out  that  the 
prisoners  only  received  an  allowance  of  6d.  a  day,  from  which 
the  contractor's  profit  was  taken,  so  that  little  remained  for 
providing  clothes.  An  estimate  was  obtained  of  the  needs  of 
the  prisoners,  and  a  list  drawn  up  of  articles  wanted.  Of  the 
362  persons  confined  8  were  officers,  whose  subsistence  money 
was  is.  a  day,  and  they  asked  no  charity  of  the  others  ;  no 
fewer  than  238  had  no  shirt,  and  108  possessed  only  one. 
Their  other  needs  were  equally  great.  The  "  City  Hospitals 
for  Young  Maidens  "  offered  to  make  shirts  for  twopence  each, 
and  sundry  tailors  to  make  a  certain  number  of  jackets  and 
breeches  for  -nothing.  The  prisoners  had  an  airing  ground,  but 
as  it  was  necessary  to  obtain  permission  before  visiting  them, 
the  chance  they  had  of  disposing  of  any  of  their  work  was  very 
slight  indeed/ 

William  Fergusson,  clerk  to  Dr.  James  Walker,  the  Agent 
for  the  prisoners  of  war  in  the  Castle,  described  as  a  man  of 
fine  instincts,  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  few  officials  who, 
brought  into  daily  contact  with  the  prisoners,  learned  to 
sympathize  with  them,  and  to  do  what  lay  in  their  power  to 
mitigate  the  prisoners'  hard  lot. 

Early  in   May  1763,  the  French   prisoners   in   the  Castle, 


EDINBURGH  271 

numbering  500,  were  embarked  from  Leith  to  France,  the 
Peace  of  Paris  having  been  concluded. 

During  the  Revolutionary  War  with  France,  Edinburgh 
Castle  again  received  French  prisoners,  mostly,  as  before, 
privateersmen,  the  number  between  1796  and  1801  being  1,104. 
In  the  later  Napoleonic  wars  the  Castle  was  the  head-quarters 
of  Scotland  for  distributing  the  prisoners,  the  commissioned 
officers  to  the  various  parole  towns  of  which  notice  will  be  taken 
in  the  chapters  treating  of  the  paroled  prisoners  in  Scotland, 
and  the  others  to  the  great  depots  at  Perth  and  Valleyfield. 
We  shall  see  when  we  come  to  deal  with  the  paroled  foreign 
officers  in  Scotland  in  what  pleasant  places,  as  a  rule,  their 
lines  were  cast,  and  how  effectively  they  contrived  to  make  the 
best  of  things,  but  it  was  very  much  otherwise  with  the  rank 
.and  file  in  confinement. 

'  An  onlooker  ',  says  Mr.  Forbes,  '  has  described  the  appear- 
ance of  the  prisoners  at  Edinburgh  Castle.  He  says  : — These 
poor  men  were  allowed  to  work  at  their  tasteful  handicrafts  in 
small  sheds  or  temporary  workshops  at  the  Castle,  behind  the 
palisades  which  separated  them  from  their  free  customers 
outside.  There  was  just  room  between  the  bars  of  the  palisade 
for  them  to  hand  through  their  exquisite  work,  and  to  receive 
in  return  the  modest  prices  which  they  charged.  As  they 
sallied  forth  from  their  dungeons,  so  they  returned  to  them  at 
night.  The  dungeons,  partly  rock  and  partly  masonry,  of 
Edinburgh  Castle,  are  historic  spots  which  appeal  alike  to 
the  sentiment  and  the  imagination.  They  are  situate  in 
the  south  and  east  of  the  Castle,  and  the  date  of  them  goes  far 
back.'  It  is  unnecessary  to  describe  what  may  still  be  seen, 
practically  unchanged  since  the  great  war-times,  by  every 
visitor  to  Edinburgh. 

In  1779  Howard  visited  Edinburgh  during  his  tour  round 
the  prisons  of  Britain.  His  report  is  by  no  means  bad. 
He  found  sixty-four  prisoners  in  two  rooms  formerly  used 
.as  barracks ;  in  one  room  they  lay  in  couples  in  straw- 
lined  boxes  against  the  wall,  with  two  coverlets  to  each  box. 
In  the  other  room  they  had  hammocks  duly  fitted  with  mat- 
tresses. The  regulations  were  hung  up  according  to  law — an 
Important  fact,  inasmuch  as  in  other  prisons,  such  as  Pembroke, 


272  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

where  the  prison  agents  purposely  omitted  to  hang  them  up, 
the  prisoners  remained  in  utter  ignorance  of  their  rights  and 
their  allowances.  Howard  reported  the  provisions  to  be  all 
good,  and  noted  that  at  the  hospital  house  some  way  off, 
where  were  fourteen  sick  prisoners,  the  bedding  and  sheets  were 
clean  and  sufficient,  and  the  medical  attention  good. 

This  satisfactory  state  of  matters  seems  to  have  lasted,  for 
in  1795  the  following  letter  was  written  by  the  French  prisoners 
in  the  Castle  to  General  Dundas  : 

'  Les  prisonniers  de  guerre  frangais  detenus  au  chateau 
d'Edinburgh  ne  peuvent  que  se  louer  de  1'attention  et  du  bon 
traitement  qu'ils  ont  regu  de  Com. -Gen.  Dundas  et  officiers 
des  brigades  Ecossoises,  en  foi  de  quoi  nous  livrons  le  present. 

'FR.  LEROY.' 

Possibly  the  ancient  camaraderie  of  the  Scots  and  French 
nations  may  have  had  something  to  do  with  this  pleasant 
condition  of  things,  for  in  1797  Dutch  prisoners  confined  in  the 
Castle  complained  about  ill  treatment  and  the  lack  of  clothing, 
and  the  authorities  consented  to  their  being  removed  to  '  a 
more  airy  and  comfortable  situation  at  Fountainbridge '. 

In  1799  the  Rev.  Mr.  FitzSimmons,  of  the  Episcopal  Chapel, 
an  Englishman,  was  arraigned  before  the  High  Court  of  Justi- 
ciary for  aiding  in  the  escape  of  four  French  prisoners  from 
the  Castle,  by  concealing  them  in  his  house,  and  taking  them 
to  a  Newhaven  fishing  boat  belonging  to  one  Neil  Drysdale, 
which  carried  them  to  the  Isle  of  Inchkeith,  whence  they 
escaped  to  France.  Two  of  them  had  sawn  through  the  dun- 
geon bars  with  a  sword-blade  which  they  had  contrived  to 
smuggle  in.  The  other  two  were  parole  prisoners.  He  was 
sentenced  to  three  months'  imprisonment  in  the  Tolbooth. 

A  French  prisoner  in  1799,  having  learned  at  what  hour  the 
dung  which  had  been  collected  in  the  prison  would  be  thrown 
over  the  wall,  got  himself  put  into  the  hand-barrow  used  for  its 
conveyance,  was  covered  over  with  litter,  and  was  thrown  down 
several  feet ;  but,  being  discovered  by  the  sentinels  in  his  fall, 
they  presented  their  pieces  while  he  was  endeavouring  to 
conceal  himself.  The  poor  bruised  and  affrighted  fellow  sup- 
plicated for  mercy,  and  waited  on  his  knees  until  his  jailers 
came  up  to  take  him  back  to  prison. 


EDINBURGH  273 

In  1811  forty-nine  prisoners  contrived  to  get  out  of  the 
Castle  at  one  time.  They  cut  a  hole  through  the  bottom  of 
the  parapet  wall  at  the  south-west  corner,  below  the  '  Devil's 
Elbow/  and  let  themselves  down  by  a  rope  which  they  had 
been  smuggling  in  by  small  sections  for  weeks  previously. 
One  man  lost  his  hold,  and  fell,  and  was  mortally  injured. 
Five  were  retaken  the  next  day,  and  fourteen  got  away  along 
the  Glasgow  road.  Some  were  retaken  later  near  Linlithgow 
in  the  Polmount  plantations,  exhausted  with  hunger.  They 
had  planned  to  get  to  Grangemouth,  where  they  hoped  to  get 
on  board  a  smuggler.  They  confessed  that  the  plot  was  of  long 
planning.  Later  still,  six  more  were  recaptured.  They  had 
made  for  Cramond,  where  they  had  stolen  a  boat,  sailed  up  the 
Firth,  and  landed  near  Hopetoun  House,  intending  to  go  to 
Port  Glasgow  by  land.  These  poor  fellows  said  that  they  had 
lived  for  three  days  on  raw  turnips.  Not  one  of  the  forty-nine 
got  away. 

I  now  come  to  the  science  of  forgery  as  practised  by  the 
foreign  prisoners  of  war  in  Scotland,  and  I  shall  be  entirely 
dependent  upon  Mr.  Macbeth  Forbes  for  my  information. 

The  Edinburgh  prisoners  were  busy  at  this  work  between 
1811  and  the  year  of  their  departure,  1814. 

The  first  reputed  case  was  that  of  a  Bank  of  Scotland  one- 
guinea  note,  discovered  in  1811.  It  was  not  a  very  skilful 
performance,  for  the  forged  note  was  three-fourths  of  an  inch 
longer  than  the  genuine,  and  the  lettering  on  it  was  not  en- 
graved, but  done  with  pen  and  printing  ink.  But  this  defect 
was  remedied,  for,  three  weeks  after  the  discovery,  the  plate  of 
a  guinea  note  was  found  by  the  miller  in  the  mill  lade  at  Stock- 
bridge  (the  north  side  of  Edinburgh),  in  cleaning  out  the  lade. 

In  1812  a  man  was  tried  for  the  possession  of  six  one-pound 
forged  notes  which  had  been  found  concealed  between  the  sole 
of  his  foot  and  his  stocking.  His  story,  as  to  how  he  came  into 
possession  of  them  seems  to  have  satisfied  the  judge,  and  he 
was  set  free ;  but  he  afterwards  confessed  that  he  had  received 
them  from  a  soldier  of  the  Cambridge  Militia  under  the  name 
of  '  pictures '  in  the  house  of  a  grocer  at  Penicuik,  near  the 
Valleyfield  Depot,  and  that  the  soldier  had,  at  his,  the  accused 
man's,  desire,  purchased  them  for  2s.  each  from  the  prisoners. 


274  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

In  July  1812  seven  French  prisoners  of  war  escaped  from 
Edinburgh  Tolbooth,  whither  they  had  been  transferred  from 
the  Castle  to  take  their  trial  for  the  forgery  of  bank-notes. 
'  They  were  confined ',  says  a  contemporary  newspaper,  '  in  the 
north-west  room  on  the  third  story,  and  they  had  penetrated 
the  wall,  though  very  thick,  till  they  got  into  the  chimney  of 
Mr.  Gilmour's  shop  (on  the  ground  floor),  into  which  they 
descended  by  means  of  ropes.  As  they  could  not  force  their 
way  out  of  the  shop,  they  ascended  a  small  stair  to  the  room 
above,  from  which  they  took  out  half  the  window  and  descended 
one  by  one  into  the  street,  and  got  clear  off.  In  the  course  of 
the  morning  one  of  them  was  retaken  in  the  Grass  Market,  being 
traced  by  the  sooty  marks  of  his  feet.  We  understand  that, 
except  one,  they  all  speak  broken  English.  They  left  a  note  on 
the  table  of  the  shop  saying  that  they  had  taken  nothing  away.' 

Afterwards  three  of  the  prisoners  were  taken  at  Glasgow,  and 
another  in  Dublin. 

From  the  first  discoveries  of  forgeries  by  prisoners  of  war, 
the  Scottish  banks  chiefly  affected  by  them  had  in  a  more  or  less 
satisfactory  way  combined  to  take  steps  to  prevent  and  to 
punish  forgeries,  but  it  was  not  until  they  offered  a  reward  of 
£100  for  information  leading  to  the  discovery  of  persons  forging 
or  issuing  their  notes  that  a  perceptible  check  to  the  practice 
was  made.  This  advertisement  was  printed  and  put  outside 
the  depot  walls  for  the  militia  on  guard,  a  French  translation 
was  posted  up  inside  for  the  prisoners,  and  copies  of  it  were 
sent  to  the  Agents  at  all  parole  towns.  With  reference  to  this 
last,  let  it  be  said  to  the  credit  of  the  foreign  officers  on  parole, 
both  in  England  and  Scotland,  that,  although  a  Frenchman 
has  written  to  the  contrary,  there  are  no  more  than  two 
recorded  instances  of  officers  on  parole  being  prosecuted  or 
suspected  of  the  forgery  of  bank-notes.  (See  pp.  320  and 
439.)  Of  passport  forgeries  there  are  a  few  cases,  and  the 
forgery  mentioned  on  p.  439  may  have  been  of  passports  and 
not  of  bank-notes. 

In  addition,  says  Mr.  Macbeth  Forbes,  the  military  autho- 
rities were  continually  on  the  qui  vive  for  forgers.  The  gover- 
nors of  the  different  depots  ordered  the  turnkeys  to  examine 
narrowly  notes  coming  in  and  out  of  prison.  The  militiamen 


EDINBURGH  275 

had  also  to  be  watched,  as  they  acted  so  frequently  as  inter- 
mediaries, as  for  instance  : 

'  In  November  1813  Mr.  Aitken,  the  keeper  of  the  Canongate 
Tolbooth,  detected  and  took  from  the  person  of  a  private 
soldier  in  a  militia  regiment  stationed  over  the  French  prisoners 
in  Penicuik,  and  who  had  come  into  the  Canongate  Prison  to 
see  a  friend,  forged  guineas  and  twenty-shilling  notes  on  two 
different  banks  in  this  city,  and  two  of  them  in  the  country, 
amounting  to  nearly  £70.  The  soldier  was  immediately  given 
over  to  the  civil  power,  and  from  thence  to  the  regiment  to 
which  he  belonged,  until  the  matter  was  further  investigated/ 

In  July  1813  the  clerk  of  the  Valleyfield  Depot  sent  to  the 
banks  twenty-six  forged  guinea  notes  which  were  about  to  be 
sold,  but  were  detected  by  the  turnkey. 

The  Frenchmen  seem  to  have  chiefly  selected  for  imitation 
the  notes  of  the  Bank  of  Scotland,  and  the  Commercial  Banking 
Company  of  Scotland,  as  these  had  little  or  no  pictorial  delinea- 
tion, and  consisted  almost  entirely  of  engraved  penmanship. 
The  forgers  had  to  get  suitable  paper,  and,  as  there  were  no 
steel  pens  in  those  days,  a  few  crow  quills  served  their  purpose. 
They  had  confederates  who  watched  the  ins  and  outs  of  the 
turnkey  ;  and,  in  addition  to  imitating  the  lettering  on  the 
face  of  the  note,  they  had  to  forge  the  watermark,  the  seals  of 
the  bank,  and  the  Government  stamp.  The  bones  of  their 
ration  food  formed,  literally,  the  groundwork  of  the  forger's 
productions,  and  as  these  had  to  be  properly  scraped  and 
smoothed  into  condition  before  being  in  a  state  to  be  worked 
upon  with  ordinary  pocket-knives,  if  the  result  was  often  so 
crude  as  to  deceive  only  the  veriest  yokel,  the  Scottish  banks 
might  be  thankful  that  engraving  apparatus  was  unprocurable. 

The  following  advertisement  of  the  Bank  of  Scotland  em- 
phasizes this  crudity  of  execution  : 

'  Several  forged  notes,  in  imitation  of  the  notes  of  the 
governor  and  company  of  the  Bank  of  Scotland,  having  ap- 
peared, chiefly  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  depots  of  French 
prisoners  of  war,  a  caution  is  hereby,  on  the  part  of  the  said 
governors  and  company,  given  against  receiving  such  forged 
notes  in  payment.  And  whoever  shall,  within  three  months 
from  the  date  hereof,  give  such  information  as  shall  be  found 
sufficient,  on  lawful  trial,  to  convict  any  one  concerned  in  forging 

T  2 


276  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

or  feloniously  uttering  any  of  the  said  notes,  shall  receive  a 
reward  of  a  hundred  pounds  sterling.  These  forged  notes  are 
executed  by  the  hand  with  a  pen  or  pencil,  without  any  engrav- 
ing. In  most  of  them  the  body  of  the  note  has  the  appearance 
of  foreign  handwriting.  The  names  of  the  bank  officers  are 
mostly  illegible  or  ill-spelled.  The  ornamental  characters  of 
the  figures  generally  ill-executed.  The  seals  are  very  ill- 
imitated.  To  this  mark  particular  attention  is  requested.' 

The  seals,  bearing  the  arms  of  the  Bank  of  Scotland,  are  of 
sheep's  bone,  and  were  impressed  upon  the  note  with  a  hammer, 
also  probably  of  bone,  since  all  metal  tools  were  prohibited. 
The  partially  executed  forgery  of  a  Bank  of  Scotland  guinea 
note  shows  the  process  of  imitating  the  lettering  on  the  note  in 
dotted  outline,  for  which  the  forgers  had  doubtless  some  good 
reason,  which  is  not  at  once  patent  to  us. 

Until  1810  the  punishment  for  forgery  was  the  hulks. 
During  that  year  the  law  in  England  took  a  less  merciful  view 
of  the  crime,  and  offenders  were  sentenced  to  death  ;  and  until 
1829,  when  the  last  man  was  hanged  for  forgery,  this  remained 
the  law. 

As  to  Scotland  Mr.  Forbes  says  :  '  The  administration  was 
probably  not  so  severe  as  in  England  ...  no  French  prisoner 
suffered  anything  more  than  a  slight  incarceration,  and  a  sub- 
sequent relegation  to  the  prison  ships,  where  some  thousands 
of  his  countrymen  already  were.' 

Armed  with  a  Home  Office  permit  I  visited  the  prisons  in  the 
rock  of  Edinburgh  Castle.  Owing  to  the  facts  that  most  of 
them  have  been  converted  into  military  storerooms  and  that 
their  substance  does  not  lend  itself  readily  to  destruction,  they 
remain  probably  very  much  as  when  they  were  filled  with  the 
war-prisoners,  and,  with  their  heavily  built  doors  and  their 
strongly  barred  apertures,  which  cannot  be  called  windows, 
their  darkness  and  cold,  the  silence  of  their  position  high  above 
even  the  roar  of  a  great  city,  convey  still  to  the  minds  of  the 
visitors  of  to-day  a  more  real  impression  of  the  meaning  of  the 
word  '  imprisonment  '  than  does  any  other  war-prison,  either 
extant  or  pictured.  At  Norman  Cross,  at  Portchester,  at 
Stapleton,  at  Dartmoor,  at  Perth,  there  were  at  any  rate  open 
spaces  for  airing  grounds,  but  at  Edinburgh  there  could  have 


EDINBURGH  277 

been  none,  unless  the  narrow  footway,  outside  the  line  of 
caverns,  from  the  wall  of  which  the  precipice  falls  sheer  down, 
was  so  utilized. 

Near  the  entrance  to  the  French  prisons  the  following  names 
are  visible  on  the  wall  : 

Charles  Jobien,  Calais,  1780. 

Morel  de  Calais,  1780. 

1780.    Proyol  prisonnier  nee  natif  de  bourbonnais  (?). 

With  the  Peace  of  1814  came  the  jail-delivery,  and  it  caused 
one  of  the  weirdest  scenes  known  in  that  old  High  Street  so 
inured  to  weird  scenes.  The  French  prisoners  were  marched 
down  by  torchlight  to  the  transport  at  Leith,  and  thousands  of 
citizens  lined  the  streets.  Down  the  highway  went  the  liberated 
ones,  singing  the  war-songs  of  the  Revolution — the  Marseillaise 
and  the  fa  ira.  Wildly  enthusiastic  were  the  pale,  haggard- 
looking  prisoners  of  war,  but  the  enthusiasm  was  not  exhausted 
with  them,  for  they  had  a  great  send-off  from  the  populace. 

In  Sir  T.  E.  Colebrooke's  Life  of  Mountstuart  Elphinstone, 
Mr.  John  Russell  of  Edinburgh  writes  that  when  he  first  knew 
Mountstuart,  his  father,  Lord  Elphinstone,  was  Governor  of 
Edinburgh  Castle,  in  which  were  confined  a  great  number  of 
French  prisoners  of  war.  With  these  prisoners  the  boy  Mount- 
stuart loved  to  converse,  and,  learning  from  them  their  revo- 
lutionary songs,  he  used  to  walk  about  singing  the  Marseillaise, 
fa  ira,  and  Les  Aristocrates  a  la  Lanterne,  much  to  the  disgust 
of  the  British  officers,  who,  however,  dared  not  check  such 
a  proceeding  on  the  part  of  the  son  of  the  Governor.  Mount- 
stuart also  wore  his  hair  long  in  accordance  with  the  revolu- 
tionary fashion. 


CHAPTER  XX 

LOUIS  VANHILLE  :    A  FAMOUS  ESCAPEE 

I  DEVOTED  Chapter  VII  to  the  record  of  Tom  Souville,  a 
famous  ship-prison-breaker,  and  in  this  I  hope  to  give  quite 
as  interesting  and  romantic  an  account  of  the  career  of  Louis 
Vanhille,  who  was  remarkable  in  his  method  in  that  he 
seemed  never  to  be  in  a  hurry  to  get  out  of  England,  but 
actually  to  enjoy  the  power  he  possessed  of  keeping  himself 
uninterfered  with  for  a  whole  year  in  a  country  where  the  hue 
and  cry  after  him  was  ceaseless. 

At  the  outset  I  must  make  my  acknowledgement  to  M. 
Pariset  of  the  University  of  Nancy,  for  permission  to  use  his 
monograph  upon  this  really  remarkable  man. 

Louis  Vanhille,  purser  of  the  Pandour  privateer,  was  sent  to 
Launceston  on  parole  May  12, 1806.  He  is  described  as  a  small 
man  of  thirty-two,  of  agreeable  face  and  figure,  although 
small-pox  marked,  fair  as  befitted  his  Flemish  origin,  and 
speaking  English  almost  perfectly.  He  was  socially  gifted,  he 
painted  and  caricatured,  could  dress  hair,  and  could  make  mats, 
and  weave  bracelets  in  seventeen  patterns.  He  was  well-off 
to  boot,  as  the  Pandour  had  been  a  successful  ship,  and  he  had 
plenty  of  prize  money. 

In  Launceston  he  lodged  with  John  Tyeth,  a  pious  Baptist 
brewer.  Tyeth  had  three  married  daughters  and  two  unmar- 
ried, Fanny  and  a  younger,  who  kept  the  Post  Office  at  Laun- 
ceston. Although  Tyeth  was  a  Baptist,  one  of  his  daughters 
was  married  to  Bunsell,  the  Rector  of  Launceston,  so  that 
decorum  and  preciseness  prevailed  in  the  local  atmosphere,  to 
which  Vanhille  politically  adapted  himself  so  readily  as  to 
become  a  convert  to  Tyeth's  creed.  In  addition  he  paid 
marked  attention  to  Miss  Fanny,  who  was  plain-looking  but 
kept  the  Post  Office  ;  an  action  which  occasioned  watchfulness 
on  the  part  of  Tyeth  pere,  who,  in  common  with  most  English- 
men of  his  day,  regarded  all  Frenchmen  as  atheists  and  revolu- 
tionaries. Vanhille's  manner  and  accomplishments  won  him 
friends  all  round.  Miss  Johanna  Colwell,  an  old  maid,  a 


LOUIS  VANHILLE:  A  FAMOUS  ESCAPER        279 

sentimental  worker  of  straw  hats,  who  lived  opposite  the 
brewery,  pitied  him.  Further  on,  at  Mr.  Pearson's,  lodged 
Vanhille's  great  friend,  Dr.  Derouge,  an  army  surgeon,  who 
cured  Vanhille  of  small-pox.  Then  there  was  Dr.  Mabyn  of 
Camelford,  Dr.  Frankland,  R.N.,  John  Rowe  the  tailor,  Dale 
the  ironmonger,  who,  although  tradesmen,  were  of  that  well- 
to-do,  highly  respectable  calibre  which  in  old-time  country 
towns  like  Launceston  placed  them  on  a  footing  of  friendliness 
with  the  '  quality  '.  Vanhille  seems  to  have  settled  himself 
down  to  become  quite  Anglicized,  and  to  forget  that  he  was 
a  prisoner  on  parole,  and  that  any  such  individual  existed 
as  Mr.  Spettigue,  the  Agent.  He  went  over  to  Camelford  to 
dine  with  Dr.  Mabyn  ;  he  rode  to  Tavistock  on  the  Tyeth's 
pony  to  visit  the  Pearces,  ironmongers  of  repute,  and  parti- 
cularly to  see  the  Misses  Annie  and  Elizabeth  Penwarden,  gay 
young  milliners  who  spoke  French.  He  was  also  much  in  the 
society  of  Fanny  Tyeth,  made  expeditions  with  her  to  see 
'  Aunt  Tyeth '  at  Tavistock,  and  was  regarded  as  her  fiance. 

Dr.  Derouge  began  to  weary  of  captivity,  and  tried  without 
success  to  get  exchanged.  The  reason  given  for  his  non-success 
was  that  he  had  got  a  girl  with  child.  Launceston  was  scanda- 
lized ;  only  a  Frenchman  could  do  such  a  thing.  The  autho- 
rities had  to  find  some  one  to  pay  for  the  child's  subsistence  as 
the  mother  could  not  afford  to,  and  so  Proctor,  Guardian  of  the 
Poor,  and  Spettigue,  the  Agent,  fastened  it  on  Dr.  Derouge, 
and  he  was  ordered  to  pay  £25.  But  he  could  not ;  so  Vanhille, 
who  had  come  into  some  money  upon  the  death  of  his  mother, 
paid  it.  What  followed  is  not  quite  clear.  In  a  letter  dated 
December  5,  1811,  Spettigue,  in  a  letter  to  the  Admiralty,  says 
that  Derouge  and  Vanhille  tried  to  escape,  but  were  prevented 
by  information  given  by  one  Burlangier,  '  garde-magasin  des 
services  reunis  de  1'armee  de  Portugal.'  He  reported  their 
absences  at  Camelford,  and  finally  they  were  ordered  to  Dart- 
moor on  December  12,  1811.  The  Transport  Office  instructed 
Spettigue  to  keep  a  watch  on  Tyeth  and  others.  Launceston 
was  angry  at  this  ;  it  missed  Derouge  and  Vanhille,  and  went 
so  far  as  to  get  the  Member  of  Parliament,  Giddy,  to  address 
the  Transport  Office  on  the  matter,  and  request  their  reinstate- 
ment on  parole,  but  the  reply  was  unsatisfactory. 


280  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

At  Dartmoor,  Vanhille  and  Derouge  were  sent  to  the  sub- 
alterns' quarters.  Very  soon  the  attractive  personality  of 
Vanhille  led  him  to  an  influential  position  among  the  prisoners, 
and  he  was  elected  their  representative  in  all  matters  of  differ- 
ence between  them  and  the  authorities,  although  Cotgrave,  the 
Governor,  refused  to  acknowledge  him  as  such,  saying  that  he 
preferred  a  prisoner  of  longer  standing,  and  one  whom  he  knew 
better. 

Vanhille  now  determined  to  get  out  of  Dartmoor.  To  reach 
France  direct  was  difficult,  but  it  was  feasible  by  America,  as  he 
had  a  sister  well  married  in  New  Orleans  who  could  help  him. 

At  the  daily  market  held  at  the  prison  gate  Vanhille  became 
acquainted  with  Mary  Ellis.  Piece  by  piece  she  brought  him 
from  Tavistock  a  disguise — an  old  broad-brimmed  hat,  big 
boots,  and  brown  stockings,  and  by  August  21,  1812,  he  was 
ready.  On  that  day  he  received  from  his  comrades  a  sort  of 
testimonial  or  letter  of  recommendation  for  use  after  his  escape 
at  any  place  where  there  might  be  Frenchmen  : 

'  Le  comite  representant  les  officiers  militaires  et  marchands 
detenus  dans  la  prison  Royale  de  Dartmoor  certifient  que 
Louis  Vanhille  est  un  digne  et  loyal  Frangais,  et  un  compagnon 
d'infortune  digne  de  tous  les  egards  de  ses  compatriotes  .  .  . 
pour  lui  servir  et  valoir  ce  que  de  raison  en  cas  de  mutation 
de  prison/ 

The  next  day  he  put  on  his  disguise,  mixed  with  the  market 
folk,  crossed  the  court  of  his  quarter,  and  the  market  place, 
passed  two  sentries  who  took  him  for  a  potato  merchant,  got 
to  the  square  in  the  middle  of  which  were  the  Agent's  house 
and  offices,  passed  another  gate,  the  sentry  at  which  took  no 
notice  of  him,  turned  sharp  to  the  right  by  the  stables  and  the 
water  reservoir,  and  got  on  to  the  main  road.  He  walked 
rapidly  on  towards  Tavistock,  and  that  night  slept  under  the 
Tyeth  roof  at  Launceston — a  bold  policy  and  only  to  be  adopted 
by  one  who  knew  his  ground  thoroughly  well,  and  who  felt  sure 
that  he  was  safer,  known  in  Launceston,  than  he  would  be  as 
a  stranger  in  Plymouth  or  other  ports. 

Next  day  he  went  to  Camelford,  and  called  on  Dr.  Mabyn, 
who  said  :  '  Monsieur  Vanhille,  comme  ami  je  suis  heureux 
de  vous  voir,  mais  a  present  je  ne  puis  vous  donner  asile  sous 


LOUIS  VANHILLE  :  A  FAMOUS  ESCAPER         281 

mon  toit.'  Thence  he  went  to  Padstow,  but  no  boatman 
would  take  him  to  Bristol  or  Cork,  so  he  returned  to  Launceston 
and  remained  there  two  days.  Here  he  bought  a  map,  changed 
his  disguise,  and  became  Mr.  Williams,  a  pedlar  of  odds  and 
ends.  Thence  he  went  on  to  Bideford,  Appledore,  and  by  boat 
to  Newport,  thence  to  Abergavenny,  a  parole  town,  where  he 
met  Palierne,  an  old  Launceston  comrade  ;  thence  back  to 
Launceston,  where  he  rested  a  couple  of  days.  Then,  always 
on  foot,  he  went  to  Exeter,  Okehampton,  and  Tawton,  took 
wagon  to  London,  where  he  only  stayed  a  night,  then  on  to 
Chatham — a  dangerous  neighbourhood  on  account  of  the  hulks, 
and  back  to  Abergavenny  via  Guildford,  Petersfield,  Alresford, 
Winchester,  Salisbury,  Warminster,  Bath,  and  Bristol,  arriving 
at  Abergavenny  on  September  21,  1812. l 

From  Abergavenny  Vanhille  went  by  Usk  to  Bristol,  but 
could  find  no  suitable  ship  to  take  him  to  America,  so  he  took 
coach  back  to  Launceston,  and  spent  two  weeks  there  with  the 
Tyeths,  which  would  seem  to  show  that  Spettigue  was  either 
purposely  blind  or  very  stupid.  Vanhille  then  crossed  Corn- 
wall rapidly  to  Falmouth — always,  be  it  remembered,  as 
a  pedlar.  Falmouth  was  a  dangerous  place,  being  the  chief 
port  for  the  Cartel  service  with  Morlaix,  and  a  strict  look-out 
was  kept  there  for  passengers  intending  to  cross  the  Channel. 
Vanhille  went  to  the  Blue  Anchor  Inn,  and  here  he  met  the 
famous  escape  agent,  Thomas  Feast  Moore,  alias  Captain 
Harman,  &c.,  who  at  once  recognized  what  he  was,  and  prof- 
f erred  his  services,  stating  that  he  had  carried  many  French 
officers  over  safely.  This  was  true,  but  what  he  omitted  to 
state  was  that  he  was  at  present  in  the  Government  service, 
having  been  pardoned  for  his  misdeeds  as  an  escape  agent  on 
condition  that  he  made  use  of  his  experience  by  giving  the 
Government  information  about  intending  escapers.2 

1  To  account  for  this  extraordinary,  and  apparently  quite  unnecessary 
journey,  during  which  Vanhille  seems  always  to  have  had  plenty  of 
money,  M.  Pariset  thinks  it  possible  that  he  was  really  an  emissary  of 
the  committee  which  was  at  this  time  earnestly  considering  the  plan 
of  a  general  rising  of  all  the  prisoners  of  war  in  England. 

2  I  give  this  as  in  M.  Pariset 's  original.     I  have  not  been  able  to  find 
that  Moore  ever  was  thus  employed.     He  made  the  offer  at  his  trial, 
but  the  Government  declined  it. 


282  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Vanhille  wanted  no  aid  to  escape,  but  he  cleared  out  from 
Falmouth  at  once,  was  that  evening  at  Wadebridge,  the  next 
day  at  Saltash,  then,  avoiding  Launceston,  went  by  Okehamp- 
ton,  Moreton-Hampstead,  and  Exeter  to  Cullompton,  and 
thence  by  coach  to  Bristol,  where  he  arrived  on  October  15, 
1812. 

After  his  escape  from  Dartmoor,  this  extraordinary  man  had 
been  fifty-five  days  travelling  on  foot,  in  carriage,  and  by  boat, 
and  had  covered  1,238  miles,  by  far  the  greater  number  of 
which  he  tramped,  and  this  with  the  hue  and  cry  after  him  and 
offers  of  reward  for  his  arrest  posted  up  everywhere. 

He  now  dropped  the  pedlar  pretence  and  became  an  ordinary 
Briton.  At  Bristol  he  learned  that  the  Jane,  Captain  Robert 
Andrews,  would  leave  for  Jamaica  next  month.  He  corre- 
sponded with  his  Launceston  friends,  who  throughout  had  been 
true  to  him,  and,  in  replying,  the  Tyeths  had  to  be  most  careful, 
assuming  signatures  and  disguising  handwriting,  and  Miss 
Fanny  at  the  Post  Office  would  with  her  own  hands  obliterate 
the  post-mark.  Old  Tyeth  sent  him  kind  and  pious  messages. 
On  November  10  the  Jane  left  Bristol,  but  was  detained  at 
Cork  a  month,  waiting  for  a  convoy,  and  did  not  reach  Montego 
Bay,  Jamaica,  until  January  2,  1813.  From  Jamaica  there 
were  frequent  opportunities  of  getting  to  America,  and  Vanhille 
had  every  reason  to  congratulate  himself  at  last  on  being  a 
free  man. 

Unfortunately  the  Customs  people  in  Jamaica  were  parti- 
cularly on  the  alert  for  spies  and  runaways,  especially  as  we 
were  at  war  with  the  United  States.  Vanhille  was  suspected 
of  being  what  he  was,  and  the  examination  of  his  papers  not 
being  satisfactory,  he  was  arrested  and  sent  home,  and  on 
May  20, 1813,  found  himself  a  prisoner  at  Forton.  He  was  sent 
up  to  London  and  examined  by  Jones,  of  Knight  and  Jones, 
solicitors  to  the  Admiralty,  with  a  view  of  extracting  from  him 
information  concerning  his  accomplices  in  Launceston,  a  town 
notorious  for  its  French  proclivities. 

Jones  writes  under  date  of  June  14, 1813,  to  Bicknell,  solicitor 
to  the  Transport  Office,  that  he  has  examined  Vanhille,  who 
peremptorily  refuses  to  make  any  disclosures  which  may 
implicate  the  persons  concerned  in  harbouring  him  after  he  had 


LOUIS  VANHILLE:  A  FAMOUS  ESCAPER       283 

escaped  from  Dartmoor,  and  who  ultimately  got  him  out  of  the 
kingdom.  He  hopes,  however,  to  reach  them  by  other  means. 

Harsh  treatment  was  now  tried  upon  him,  he  was  half  starved, 
and  as  he  was  now  penniless  could  not  remedy  matters  by 
purchase.  In  three  weeks  he  was  sent  on  board  the  Crown 
Prince  hulk  at  Chatham,  and  later  to  the  Glory.  Correspon- 
dence between  him  and  Dr.  Derouge  at  Launceston  was  dis- 
covered, and  Derouge  was  sent  to  a  Plymouth  hulk.  Dale,  the 
Launceston  ironmonger,  who  had  been  one  of  the  little  friendly 
circle  in  that  town,  had  fallen  into  evil  ways,  and  was  now 
starving  in  Plymouth.  Jones,  the  Admiralty  lawyer,  received 
a  communication  from  him  saying  that  for  a  consideration  he 
would  denounce  all  Vanhille 's  friends.  He  was  brought  up  to 
London,  and  he  told  all  their  names,  with  the  result  that  they 
were  summoned.  But  nothing  could  be  got  out  of  them. 
Mrs.  Wilkins  at  the  inn,  who  for  some  reason  disliked  Vanhille, 
would  have  given  information,  but  she  had  none  to  give. 

Dale  was  sent  back  to  Plymouth,  saying  that  if  he  could  see 
Dr.  Derouge,  who  would  not  suspect  him,  he  would  get  the 
wanted  information.  So  the  two  men  met  in  a  special  cabin, 
and  rum  was  brought.  Derouge,  unsuspecting,  tells  all  the 
story  of  the  escape  from  Dartmoor,  and  brings  in  the  name  of 
Mary  Ellis,  who  had  provided  Vanhille  with  his  disguise. 
Then  he  begins  to  suspect  Dale's  object,  and  will  not  utter 
another  word. 

Dale  is  sent  to  Launceston  to  get  more  information,  but 
fails  ;  resolves  to  find  out  Mary  Ellis  at  Tavistock,  but  five 
weeks  elapse,  and  no  more  is  heard  of  him,  except  that  he 
arrived  there  half  dead  with  wet  and  fatigue. 

The  Peace  of  1814  brought  release  to  Vanhille,  and  on 
April  19  he  reached  Calais. 

M.  Pariset  concludes  his  story  with  the  following  remark  : 
'  Vanhille  avait  senti  battre  le  cceur  anglais  qui  est,  comme 
chacun  sait,  bienveillant  et  fidele,  apres  qu'il  s'est  donne.'  , 

I  should  here  say  that  M.  Pariset's  story  does  not  go  further 
than  the  capture  of  Vanhille  in  Jamaica.  The  sequel  I  have 
taken  from  the  correspondence  at  the  Record  Office.  I  have 
been  told  that  the  name  of  Vanhille  is  by  no  means  forgotten  in 
Launceston. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
THE  PRISON  SYSTEM 

PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE 

WHEN  we  come  to  the  consideration  of  the  parole  system, 
we  reach  what  is  for  many  reasons  the  most  interesting  chapter 
in  a  dark  history.  Life  on  the  hulks  and  in  the  prisons  was 
largely  a  sealed  book  to  the  outside  public,  and,  brutal  in  many 
respects  as  was  the  age  covered  by  our  story,  there  can  be  little 
question  that  if  the  British  public  had  been  made  more  aware 
of  what  went  on  behind  the  wooden  walls  of  the  prison  ships 
and  the  stone  walls  of  the  prisons,  its  opinion  would  have 
demanded  reforms  and  remedies  which  would  have  spared  our 
country  from  a  deep,  ineffaceable,  and,  it  must  be  added,  a  just 
reproach. 

But  the  prisoners  on  parole  played  a  large  part  in  the  every- 
day social  life  of  many  parts  of  England,  Wales,  and  Scotland, 
for  at  least  sixty  years — a  period  long  enough  to  leave  a  clear 
impression  behind  of  their  lives,  their  romances,  their  virtues, 
their  vices,  of  all,  in  fact,  which  makes  interesting  history — and, 
although  in  one  essential  particular  they  seem  to  have  fallen 
very  far  short  of  the  traditional  standard  of  honour,  the  memory 
of  them  is  still  that  of  a  polished,  refined,  and  gallant  race  of 
gentlemen. 

The  parole  system,  by  which  officers  of  certain  ratings  were 
permitted,  under  strict  conditions  to  which  they  subscribed  on 
their  honour,  to  reside  in  certain  places,  was  in  practice  at  any 
rate  at  the  beginning  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  in  1757  the 
following  were  the  parole  towns  : 

In  the  West  :  Redruth,  Launceston,  Callington,  Falmouth, 
Tavistock,  Torrington,  Exeter,  Crediton,  Ashburton,  Bideford, 
Okehampton,  Helston,  Alresford,  Basingstoke,  Chippenham, 
Bristol,  Sodbury  (Gloucestershire),  and  Bishop's  Waltham. 
In  the  South :  Guernsey,  Ashford,  Tenter  den,  Tonbridge,  Wye 
(Kent),  Goudhurst,  Sevenoaks,  Petersfield,  and  Romsey.  In  the 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  285 

North  :  Dundee  and  Newcastle-on-Tyne.  Kinsale  in  Ireland, 
Beccles  in  Suffolk,  and  Whitchurch  in  Shropshire.  At  first  I  had 
doubts  if  prisoners  on  parole  were  at  open  ports  like  Falmouth, 
Bristol,  and  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  but  an  examination  of  the 
documents  at  the  Record  Office  in  London  and  the  Archives 
Nationales  in  Paris  established  the  fact,  although  they  ceased 
to  be  there  after  a  short  time.  Not  only  does  it  seem  that 
parole  rules  were  more  strictly  enforced  at  this  time  than  they 
were  later,  but  that  violation  of  them  was  regarded  as  a  crime 
by  the  Governments  of  the  offenders.  Also,  there  was  an 
arrangement,  or  at  any  rate  an  understanding,  between  Eng- 
land and  France  that  officers  who  had  broken  their  parole  by 
escaping,  should,  if  discovered  in  their  own  country,  either  be 
sent  back  to  the  country  of  their  imprisonment,  or  be  imprisoned 
in  their  own  country.  Thus,  we  read  under  date  1757  : 

'  Rene  Brisson  de  Dunkerque,  second  capitaine  et  pilote  du 
navire  Le  Prince  de  Soubise,  du  dit  port,  qui  etoit  detenu 
prisonnier  a  Waltham  en  Angleterre,  d'ou  il  s'est  evade,  et  qui, 
etant  de  retour  a  Dunkerque  le  i6eme  Oct.  1757,  y  a  ete  mis 
en  prison  par  ordre  du  Roy.' 

During  1778,  1779,  and  six  months  of  1780,  two  hundred 
and  ninety-five  French  prisoners  alone  had  successfully  escaped 
from  parole  places,  the  greatest  number  being,  from  Alresford 
forty-five,  Chippenham  thirty-three,  Tenterden  thirty-two, 
Bandon  twenty-two,  Okehampton  nineteen,  and  Ashburton 
eighteen. 

In  1796  the  following  ratings  were  allowed  to  be  on  parole  : 
i.  Taken  on  men-of-war  :  Captain,  lieutenant,  ensign,  surgeon, 
purser,  chaplain,  master,  pilot,  midshipman,  surgeon's  mate, 
boatswain,  gunner,  carpenter,  master-caulker,  master-sail- 
maker,  coasting  pilot,  and  gentleman  volunteer. 

2.  Taken  on  board  a  privateer  or  merchantman :  Captain, 
passenger  of  rank,  second  captain,  chief  of  prizes,  two  lieu- 
tenants for  every  hundred  men,  pilot,  surgeon,  and  chaplain. 

No  parole  was  to  be  granted  to  officers  of  any  privateer  under 
eighty  tons  burthen,  or  having  less  than  fourteen  carriage  guns, 
which  were  not  to  be  less  than  four-pounders. 

In  1804  parole  was  granted  as  follows  : 


286  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

1.  All  commissioned  officers  of  the  Army  down  to  sous- 
lieutenant. 

2.  All  commissioned  officers  of  the  Navy  down  to  gardes- 
marine  (midshipmen). 

3.  Three  officers  of  privateers  of  a  hundred  men,  but  not 
under  fourteen  guns. 

4.  Captains  and  next  officers  of  merchant  ships  above  fifty 
tons. 

The  parole  form  in  1797  was  as  follows  : 

'  By  the  Commissioners  for  conducting  H.M's.  Transport 
Service,  and  for  the  care  and  custody  of  Prisoners  of  War. 

'  These  are  to  certify  to  all  H.M's.  officers,  civil  and  military, 
and  to  whom  else  it  may  concern,  that  the  bearer  ...  as 
described  on  the  back  hereof  is  a  detained  (French,  American, 
Spanish  or  Dutch)  prisoner  of  war  at  ...  and  that  he  has 
liberty  to  walk  on  the  great  turnpike  road  within  the  distance 
of  one  mile  from  the  extremities  of  the  town,  but  that  he  must 
not  go  into  any  field  or  cross  road,  nor  be  absent  from  his 
lodging  after  5  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  during  the  six  winter 
months,  viz.  from  October  ist  to  March  3ist,  nor  after  8  o'clock 
during  the  summer  months.  Wherefore  you  and  everyone  of 
you  [sic]  are  hereby  desired  and  required  to  suffer  him,  the 
said  ...  to  pass  and  repass  accordingly  without  any  hindrance 
or  molestation  whatever,  he  keeping  within  the  said  limits  and 
behaving  according  to  law.' 

The  form  of  parole  to  be  signed  by  the  prisoner  was  this  : 

'  Whereas  the  Commissioners  for  conducting  H.M's.  Trans- 
port service  and  for  the  care  and  custody  of  French  officers  and 
sailors  detained  in  England  have  been  pleased  to  grant  .  .  . 
leave  to  reside  in  ...  upon  condition  that  he  gives  his  parole 
of  honour  not  to  withdraw  one  mile  from  the  boundaries  pre- 
scribed there  without  leave  for  that  purpose  from  the  said 
Commissioners,  that  he  will  behave  himself  decently  and  with 
due  regard  to  the  laws  of  the  kingdom,  and  also  that  he  will  not 
directly  or  indirectly  hold  any  correspondence  with  France 
during  his  continuance  in  England,  but  by  such  letter  or  letters 
as  shall  be  shown  to  the  Agent  of  the  said  Commissioners  under 
whose  care  he  is  or  may  be  in  order  to  their  being  read  and 
approved  by  the  Superiors,  he  does  hereby  declare  that  having 
given  his  parole  he  will  keep  it  inviolably/ 

In  all  parole  towns  and  villages  the  following  notice  was 
posted  up  in  prominent  positions  : 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  287 

'  Notice  is  hereby  given, 

'  That  all  such  prisoners  are  permitted  to  walk  or  ride  on  the 
great  turnpike  road  within  the  distance  of  one  mile  from  the 
extreme  parts  of  the  town  (not  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  Parish) 
and  that  if  they  shall  exceed  such  limits  or  go  into  any  field  or 
cross-road  they  may  be  taken  up  and  sent  to  prison,  and  a 
reward  of  Ten  Shillings  will  be  paid  by  the  Agent  for  appre- 
hending them.  And  further,  that  such  prisoners  are  to  be 
in  their  lodgings  by  5  o'clock  in  the  winter,  and  8  in  the  summer 
months,  and  if  they  stay  out  later  they  are  liable  to  be  taken 
up  and  sent  to  the  Agent  for  such  misconduct.  And  to  prevent 
the  prisoners  from  behaving  in  an  improper  manner  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  town,  or  creating  any  riots  or  disturbances 
either  with  them  or  among  themselves,  notice  is  also  given  that 
the  Commissioners  will  cause,  upon  information  being  given  to 
their  Agents,  any  prisoners  who  shall  so  misbehave  to  be 
committed  to  prison.  And  such  of  the  inhabitants  who  shall 
insult  or  abuse  any  of  the  Prisoners  of  War  on  parole,  or  shall 
be  found  in  any  respect  aiding  or  assisting  in  the  escape  of  such 
prisoners  shall  be  punished  according  to  law/ 

The  rewards  offered  for  the  conviction  of  prisoners  for  the 
violation  of  any  of  the  conditions  of  their  parole,  and  particu- 
larly for  recapturing  escaped  prisoners  and  for  the  conviction 
of  aiders  in  escape,  were  liberal  enough  to  tempt  the  ragamuffins 
of  the  parole  places  to  do  their  utmost  to  get  the  prisoners  to 
break  the  law,  and  we  shall  see  how  this  led  to  a  system  of 
persecution  which  possibly  provoked  many  a  foreign  officer, 
perfectly  honourable  in  other  respects,  to  break  his  parole. 
I  do  not  attempt  to  defend  the  far  too  general  laxity  of  principle 
wrhich  made  some  of  the  most  distinguished  of  our  prisoners 
break  their  solemnly  pledged  words  by  escaping  or  trying  to 
escape,  but  I  do  believe  that  the  continual  dangling  before 
unlettered  clowns  and  idle  town  loafers  rewards  varying  from 
ten  guineas  for  recapturing  an  escaped  prisoner  to  ten  shillings 
for  arresting  an  officer  out  of  his  lodging  a  few  minutes  after 
bell  ringing,  or  straying  a  few  yards  off  the  great  turnpike,  was 
putting  a  premium  upon  a  despicable  system  of  spying  and 
trapping  which  could  not  have  given  a  pleasurable  zest  to 
a  life  of  exile. 

Naturally,  the  rules  about  the  correspondence  of  prisoners 
on  parole  were  strict,  and  no  other  rules  seem  to  have  been 


288  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

more  irksome  to  prisoners,  or  more  frequently  violated  by 
them.  All  letters  for  prisoners  on  parole  had  to  pass  through 
the  Transport  Office.  Remittances  had  to  be  made  through 
the  local  agent,  if  for  an  even  sum  in  the  Bank  of  England 
notes,  if  for  odd  shillings  and  pence  by  postal  orders.  It  is, 
however,  very  certain  that  a  vast  amount  of  correspondence 
passed  to  and  from  the  prisoners  independently  of  the  Trans- 
port Office,  and  that  the  conveyance  and  receipt  of  such  corre- 
spondence became  as  distinctly  a  surreptitious  trade  called 
into  existence  by  circumstances  as  that  of  aiding  prisoners  to 
escape. 

Previous  to  1813  the  money  allowance  to  officers  on  parole 
above  and  including  the  rank  of  captain  was  ten  shillings  and 
sixpence  per  week  per  man,  and  below  that  rank  eight  shillings 
and  ninepence.  In  that  year,  complaints  were  made  to  the 
British  Government  by  M.  Riviere,  that  as  it  could  be  shown 
that  living  in  England  was  very  much  more  expensive  than  in 
France,  this  allowance  should  be  increased.  Our  Government 
admitted  the  justice  of  the  claim,  and  the  allowances  were 
accordingly  increased  to  fourteen  shillings,  and  eleven  shillings 
and  eightpence.  It  may  be  noted,  by  the  way,  that  this  was 
the  same  Riviere  who  in  1804  had  denied  our  right  to  inquire 
into  the  condition  of  British  prisoners  in  France,  curtly  saying  : 
'  It  is  the  will  of  the  Emperor  !  ' 

The  cost  of  burying  the  poor  fellows  who  died  in  captivity, 
although  borne  by  the  State,  was  kept  down  to  the  most 
economical  limits,  for  we  find  two  orders,  dated  respectively 
1805  and  1812,  that  the  cost  was  not  to  exceed  £2  2s.,  that 
plain  elm  coffins  were  to  be  used,  and  that  the  expense  of  gloves 
and  hat -bands  must  be  borne  by  the  prisoners.  Mr.  Farnell, 
the  Agent  at  Ashby-de-la-Zouch,  was  called  sharply  to  order 
for  a  charge  in  his  accounts  of  fourteen  shillings  for  a  hat-band  ! 

In  1814  funerals  at  Portsmouth  were  cut  down  to  half  a 
guinea,  but  I  presume  this  was  for  ordinary  prisoners.  The 
allowances  for  surgeons  in  parole  places  in  1806  were  : 

For  cures  when  the  attendance  was  for  more  than  five  days, 
six  shillings  and  eightpence,  when  for  less,  half  that  sum. 
Bleeding  was  to  be  charged  sixpence,  and  for  drawing  a  tooth, 
one  shilling.  Serious  sick  cases  were  to  be  sent  to  a  prison 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  289 

hospital,  and  no  allowance  for  medicines  or  extra  subsistence 
was  to  be  made. 

We  must  not  allow  sentimental  sympathy  with  officers  and 
gentlemen  on  parole  to  blind  our  eyes  to  the  fact  constantly 
proved  that  it  was  necessary  to  keep  the  strictest  surveillance 
over  them.  Although,  if  we  except  their  propensity  to  regard 
lightly  their  parole  obligations,  their  conduct  generally  may  be 
called  good,  among  so  many  men  there  were  necessarily  some 
very  black  sheep.  At  one  time  their  behaviour  in  the  parole 
towns  was  often  so  abominable  as  to  render  it  necessary  to  place 
them  in  smaller  towns  and  villages. 

In  1793  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham  wrote  thus  to  Lord 
Grenville  from  Winchester  (Dropmore  MSS.)  : 

'  I  have  for  the  last  week  been  much  annoyed  by  a  constant 
inundation  of  French  prisoners  who  have  been  on  their  route 
from  Portsmouth  to  Bristol,  and  my  officers  who,  during  the 
long  marches  have  had  much  of  their  conversation,  all  report 
that  the  language  of  the  common  men  was,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  equally  insolent,  especially  upon  the  subject  of 
monarchy.  The  orders  which  we  received  with  them  were  so 
perfectly  proper  that  we  were  enabled  to  maintain  strict 
discipline  among  them,  but  I  am  very  anxious  that  you  should 
come  to  some  decisions  about  your  parole  prisoners  who  are  now 
nearly  doubled  at  Alresford  and  (Bishop's)  Waltham,  and  are 
hourly  more  exceptionable  in  their  language  and  in  their  com- 
munication with  the  country  people.  I  am  persuaded  that 
some  very  unpleasant  consequences  will  arise  if  this  practice  is 
not  checked,  and  I  do  not  know  how  it  is  to  be  done.  Your 
own  good  heart  will  make  you  feel  for  the  French  priests  now 
at  Winchester  to  whom  these  people  (230  at  Alresford,  160  at 
Waltham)  have  openly  avowed  massacre  whenever  the  troops 
are  removed.  .  .  .  Pray  think  over  some  arrangement  for 
sending  your  parole  prisoners  out  of  England,  for  they  certainly 
serve  their  country  here  better  than  they  could  do  at  sea  or  in 
France  (so  they  say  openly).' 

The  authorities  had  to  be  constantly  on  their  guard  against 
deceptions  of  all  kinds  practised  by  the  paroled  prisoners,  in 
addition  to  the  frequent  breaches  of  parole  by  escape.  Thus 
applications  were  made  almost  daily  by  prisoners  to  be  allowed 
either  to  exchange  their  places  of  residence  for  London,  or  to 
come  to  London  temporarily  'upon  urgent  private  affairs'. 


ABELL 


2go  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

At  first  these  permissions  were  given  when  the  applicants  were 
men  whose  positions  or  reputations  were  deemed  sufficient 
guarantees  for  honourable  behaviour,  but  experience  soon 
taught  the  Transport  Office  that  nobody  was  to  be  trusted,  and 
so  these  applications,  even  when  endorsed  by  Englishmen  of 
position,  were  invariably  refused. 

For  instance,  in  1809,  the  Office  received  a  letter  from  one 
Brossage,  an  officer  on  parole  at  Launceston,  asking  that  he 
might  be  removed  to  Reading,  as  he  was  suffering  from  lung 
disease.  The  reply  was  that  as  a  rule  people  suffering  from 
lung  disease  in  England  were  only  too  glad  to  be  able  to  go  to 
Cornwall  for  alleviation  or  cure.  The  truth  was  that  M.  Brossage 
wanted  to  exchange  the  dullness  of  a  Cornish  town  for  the  life 
and  gaiety  of  Reading,  which  was  a  special  parole  town 
reserved  for  officers  of  distinction. 

Another  trick  which  the  authorities  characterized  as  '  an 
unjustifiable  means  of  gaining  liberty  ',  was  to  bribe  an  invalid 
on  the  roster  for  France  to  be  allowed  to  personate  him.  Poor 
officers  were  as  glad  to  sell  their  chance  in  this  way,  as  were 
poor  prisoners  on  hulks  or  in  prisons. 

In  1811  some  officers  at  Lichfield  obtained  their  release 
because  of  '  their  humane  conduct  at  the  late  fire  at  Mr.  Lee's 
house  '.  But  so  many  applications  for  release  on  account  of 
similar  services  at  fires  came  in  that  the  Transport  Office  was 
suspicious,  and  refused  them,  '  especially  as  the  French  Govern- 
ment does  not  reward  British  officers  for  similar  services/ 

In  the  same  year  one  Andoit  got  sent  to  Andover  on  parole 
in  the  name  of  another  man,  whom  no  doubt  he  impersonated, 
although  he  had  no  right  to  be  paroled,  and  at  once  made  use 
of  the  opportunity  and  escaped. 

Most  touching  were  some  of  the  letters  from  paroled  officers 
praying  to  have  their  places  of  parole  changed,  but  when  the 
Transport  Office  found  out  that  these  changes  were  almost 
invariably  made  so  that  old  comrades  and  friends  could  meet 
together  to  plan  and  arrange  escapes,  rejection  became  the 
invariable  fate  of  them.  For  some  time  many  French  officers 
on  parole  had  been  permitted  to  add  to  their  incomes  by  giving 
lessons  in  dancing,  drawing,  fencing,  and  singing  in  English 
families,  and  for  these  purposes  had  special  permits  to  go 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  291 

beyond  the  usual  one  mile  limit.  But  when  in  1811,  M.  Faure 
applied  to  go  some  distance  out  of  Redruth  to  teach  French, 
and  M.  Ulliac  asked  to  be  allowed  to  exceed  limits  at  Ashby- 
de-la-Zouch  to  teach  drawing,  the  authorities  refused,  and 
this  despite  the  backing  up  of  these  requests  by  local  gentry, 
giving  as  their  reason  :  '  If  complied  with  generally  the 
prisoners  would  become  dispersed  over  all  parts  of  the  country 
without  any  regular  control  over  their  conduct/  Prisoners 
were  not  even  allowed  to  give  lessons  away  from  their  lodgings 
out  of  parole  hours. 

Very  rarely,  except  in  the  cases  of  officers  of  more  than 
ordinarily  distinguished  position,  were  relaxations  of  parole 
rules  permitted.  General  Pillet  at  Bishop's  Waltham  in  1808, 
had  leave  to  go  two  miles  beyond  the  usual  one  mile  limit  two 
or  three  times  a  week,  'to  take  the  air.'  General  Pageot  at 
Ashbourne  was  given  eight  days'  leave  to  visit  Wooton  Lodge 
in  1804,  with  the  result  related  elsewhere  (p.  414). 

In  1808  General  Brenier,  on  parole  at  Wantage,  was  allowed 
35.  a  day  '  on  account  of  the  wound  in  his  thigh  ',  so  unusual 
a  concession  as  to  cause  the  Transport  Office  to  describe  it  as 
'  the  greatest  rate  of  allowance  granted  to  any  prisoner  of  war 
in  this  country  under  any  circumstances  '.  Later,  however, 
some  prisoners  at  Bath  were  made  the  same  allowance. 

At  first  sight  it  seems  harsh  on  the  part  of  the  Transport 
Office  to  refuse  permission  for  a  prisoner  at  Welshpool  to  lodge 
with  the  postmistress  of  that  place,  but  without  doubt  it  had 
excellent  reason  to  think  that  for  purposes  of  escape  as  well  as 
for  carrying  on  an  unsuspected  correspondence,  the  post-office 
would  be  the  very  place  for  a  prisoner  to  live  at.  Again,  the 
forgery  of  documents  was  very  extensively  carried  on  by  the 
prisoners,  and  in  1803  the  parole  agents  were  advised  : 

'  With  respect  to  admitting  prisoners  of  war  at  Parole  we  beg 
to  observe  that  we  think  it  proper  to  adhere  to  a  regulation 
which  from  frequent  abuses  we  found  it  absolutely  necessary 
to  adopt  last  war  ;  namely,  that  no  blank  form  of  parole 
certificates  be  sent  to  the  agents  at  the  depots,  but  to  transmit 
them  to  the  Agents,  properly  filled  up  whenever  their  ranks 
shall  have  been  ascertained  at  this  office,  from  lists  sent  by  the 
agents  and  from  extracts  from -the  Role  d' Equipage  of  each 
vessel  captured.' 

u  2 


292  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Of  course,  the  reason  for  this  was  that  blank  parole  forms 
had  been  obtained  by  bribery,  had  been  filled  up,  and  that  all 
sorts  of  undesirable  and  dangerous  rascals  got  scattered  among 
the  parole  places. 

So  long  back  as  1763  a  complaint  came  from  Dover  that  the 
Due  de  Nivernois  was  in  the  habit  of  issuing  passes  to  prisoners 
of  war  on  parole  in  England  to  pass  over  to  Calais  and  Boulogne 
as  ordinary  civilians,  and  further  inquiry  brought  out  the  fact 
that  he  was  not  the  only  owner  of  a  noble  name  who  trafficked 
in  documents  which,  if  they  do  not  come  under  the  category  of 
forgeries,  were  at  any  rate  false. 

In  1804  a  letter  from  France  addressed  to  a  prisoner  on  parole 
at  Tiverton  was  intercepted.  It  was  found  to  contain  a  blank 
printed  certificate,  sealed  and  signed  by  the  Danish  vice-consul 
at  Plymouth.  Orders  were  at  once  issued  that  no  more  certifi- 
cates from  him  were  to  be  honoured,  and  he  was  accused  of  the 
act.  He  protested  innocence,  and  requested  that  the  matter 
should  be  examined,  the  results  being  that  the  documents  were 
found  to  be  forgeries. 

Of  course,  the  parole  agents,  that  is  to  say,  the  men  chosen 
to  guard  and  minister  to  the  wants  of  the  prisoners  in  the 
parole  towns,  occupied  important  and  responsible  positions. 
At  first  the  only  qualifications  required  were  that  they  should 
not  be  shopkeepers,  but  men  fitted  by  their  position  and  their 
personality  to  deal  with  prisoners  who  were  officers,  and  there- 
fore ipso  facto,  gentlemen.  But  during  the  later  years  of  the 
great  wars  they  were  chosen  exclusively  from  naval  lieutenants 
of  not  less  than  ten  years'  standing,  a  change  brought  about  by 
complaints  from  many  towns  and  from  many  prisoners  that  the 
agents  were  palpably  underbred  and  tactless,  and  particularly 
perhaps  by  the  representation  of  Captain  Moriarty,  the  agent  at 
Valleyfield  near  Edinburgh,  and  later  at  Perth,  that  '  the  men 
chosen  were  attorneys  and  shopkeepers  for  whom  the  French 
officers  have  no  respect,  so  that  the  latter  do  just  what  they 
like  ',  urging  that  only  Service  men  should  occupy  these  posts. 

The  duties  of  the  parole  agent  were  to  see  that  the  prisoners 
under  his  charge  fulfilled  all  the  obligations  of  their  parole,  to 
muster  them  twice  a  week,  to  minister  to  their  wants,  to  pay 
them  their  allowances,  to  act  as  their  financial  agents,  to  hear 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  293 

and  adjust  their  complaints,  to  be,  in  fact,  quite  as  much  their 
guide,  philosopher,  and  friend  as  their  custodian.  He  had  to 
keep  a  strict  account  of  all  receipts  and  payments,  which  he 
forwarded  once  a  month  to  the  Transport  Office  :  he  had  to 
keep  a  constant  watch  on  the  correspondence  of  the  prisoners, 
not  merely  seeing  that  they  held  and  received  none  clandes- 
tinely, but  that  every  letter  was  to  pass  the  examination  of  the 
Transport  Office  ;  and  his  own  correspondence  was  voluminous, 
for  in  the  smallest  parole  places  there  were  at  least  eighty 
prisoners,  whilst  in  the  larger,  the  numbers  were  close  upon 
four  hundred. 

For  all  this  the  remuneration  was  5  per  cent,  upon  all 
disbursements  for  the  subsistence  of  the  prisoners  with  allow- 
ances for  stationery  and  affidavits,  and  it  may  be  very  naturally 
asked  how  men  could  be  found  willing  to  do  all  this,  in  addition 
to  their  own  callings,  for  such  pay.  The  only  answer  is  that 
men  were  not  only  willing  but  anxious  to  become  parole  agents 
because  of  the  '  pickings  '  derivable  from  the  office,  especially 
in  connexion  with  the  collection  and  payment  of  remittances 
to  prisoners.  That  these  '  pickings  '  were  considerable  there 
.can  be  no  doubt,  particularly  as  they  were  available  from  so 
many  sources,  and  as  the  temptations  were  so  many  and  so 
strong  to  accept  presents  for  services  rendered,  or,  what  was 
more  frequent,  for  duty  left  undone. 

On  the  whole,  and  making  allowance  for  the  character  of 
the  age  and  the  numberless  temptations  to  which  they  were 
exposed,  the  agents  of  the  parole  towns  seem  to  have  done  their 
hard  and  delicate  work  very  fairly.  No  doubt  in  the  process 
of  gathering  in  their  '  pickings '  there  was  some  sharp  practice 
by  them,  and  a  few  instances  are  recorded  of  criminal  trans- 
actions, but  a  comparison  between  the  treatment  of  French 
prisoners  on  parole  in  England  and  the  English  detenus  in 
France  certainly  is  not  to  our  discredit. 

The  Transport  Office  seems  to  have  been  unremitting  in  its 
watchfulness  on  its  agents,  if  we  are  to  judge  by  the  mass 
of  correspondence  which  passed  between  the  one  and  the  others, 
and  which  deals  so  largely  with  minutiae  and  details  that  its 
consideration  must  have  been  by  no  means  the  least  heavy  of 
the  duties  expected  from  these  gentlemen. 


294  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Mr.  Tribe,  Parole  Agent  at  Hambledon,  seems  to  have  irri- 
tated his  superiors  much  by  the  character  of  his  letters,  for  in 
1804  he  is  told  : 

'  As  the  person  who  writes  your  letters  does  not  seem  to 
know  how  to  write  English  you  must  therefore  in  future  write 
your  own  letters  or  employ  another  to  write  them  who  can 
write  intelligibly/ 

And  again : 

'  If  you  cannot  really  write  more  intelligibly  you  must  employ 
a  person  to  manage  your  correspondence  in  future,  but  you  are 
not  to  suppose  that  he  will  be  paid  by  us  for  his  trouble.' 

Spettigue,  Parole  Agent  at  Launceston,  got  into  serious 
trouble  in  1807  for  having  charged  commissions  to  prisoners 
upon  moneys  paid  to  them,  and  was  ordered  to  refund  them.  He 
was  the  only  parole  agent  who  was  proved  to  have  so  offended. 

Smith,  Parole  Agent  at  Thame,  was  rebuked  in  February,  1809, 
for  having  described  aloud  a  prisoner  about  to  be  conveyed  from 
Thame  to  Portsmouth  under  escort  as  a  man  of  good  character 
and  a  gentleman,  the  result  being  that  the  escort  were  put  off 
their  guard,  and  the  prisoner  escaped,  Smith  knowing  all  the 
time  that  the  prisoner  was  the  very  reverse  of  his  description, 
and  that  it  was  in  consequence  of  his  having  obtained  his 
parole  by  a  '  gross  deception  ',  that  he  was  being  conveyed  to 
the  hulks  at  Portsmouth.  However,  Kermel,  the  prisoner, 
was  recaptured. 

Enchmarsh,  Parole  Agent  at  Tiverton,  was  reprimanded  in 
July  1809  for  having  been  concerned  in  the  sale,  by  a  prisoner, 
of  a  contraband  article,  and  was  reminded  that  it  was  against 
rules  for  an  agent  to  have  any  mercantile  transactions  with 
prisoners. 

Lewis,  Parole  Agent  at  Reading,  was  removed  in  June  1812, 
because  when  the  depot  doctor  made  his  periodical  round  in 
order  to  select  invalids  to  be  sent  to  France,  he  tried  to  bribe 
Dr.  Weir  to  pass  General  Joyeux,  a  perfectly  sound  man,  as  an 
invalid  and  so  procure  his  liberation. 

Powis,  Parole  Agent  at  Leek  in  Staffordshire,  son  of  a  neigh- 
bouring parson,  was  removed  in  the  same  year,  having  been 
accused  of  withholding  moneys  due  to  prisoners,  and  continually 
failing  to  send  in  his  accounts. 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  295 

On  the  other  hand,  Smith,  the  Agent  at  Thame,  was  blamed  for 
having  shown  excessive  zeal  in  his  office  by  hiring  people  to 
hide  and  lie  in  wait  to  catch  prisoners  committing  breaches  of 
parole.  Perhaps  the  Transport  Office  did  not  so  much  disap- 
prove of  his  methods  as  un-English  and  mean,  but  they  knew 
very  well  that  the  consequent  fines  and  stoppages  meant  his 
emolument. 

That  parole  agents  found  it  as  impossible  to  give  satisfaction 
to  everybody  as  do  most  people  in  authority  is  very  clear  from 
the  following  episodes  in  the  official  life  of  Mr.  Crapper,  the 
Parole  Agent  at  Wantage  in  1809,  who  was  a  chemist  by  trade, 
and  who  seems  to  have  been  in  ill  odour  all  round.  The 
episodes  also  illustrate  the  keen  sympathy  with  which  in  some 
districts  the  French  officers  on  parole  were  regarded. 

On  behalf  of  the  prisoners  at  Wantage,  one  Price,  J.P.,  wrote 
of  Crapper,  that  '  being  a  low  man  himself,  he  assumes  a  power 
which  I  am  sure  is  not  to  your  wish,  and  which  he  is  too  ignorant 
to  exercise  '.  It  appears  that  two  French  officers,  the  generals 
Maurin  and  Lefebvre,  had  gone  ten  miles  from  Wantage — that 
is,  nine  miles  beyond  the  parole  limit — to  dine  with  Sir  John 
Throckmorton.  Crapper  did  his  duty  and  arrested  the  generals ; 
they  were  leniently  punished,  as,  instead  of  being  sent  to  a 
prison  or  a  hulk,  they  were  simply  marched  off  to  Wincanton. 
The  magistrates  refused  to  support  Crapper,  but,  despite 
another  letter  in  favour  of  the  generals  by  another  J.P., 
Goodlake,  who  had  driven  them  in  his  carriage  to  Throck- 
morton's  house,  and  who  declared  that  Crapper  had  a  hatred 
for  him  on  account  of  some  disagreement  on  the  bench,  the 
Transport  Office  defended  their  agent,  and  confirmed  his 
action. 

From  J.  E.  Lutwyche,  Surveyor  of  Taxes,  in  whose  house 
the  French  generals  lodged,  the  Transport  Office  received  the 
following : 

'  GENTLEMEN, 

'  I  beg  leave  to  offer  a  few  remarks  respecting  the  French 
generals  lately  removed  from  Wantage.  Generals  Lefebvre 
and  Maurin  both  lodged  at  my  house.  The  latter  always 
conducted  himself  with  the  greatest  Politeness  and  Propriety, 
nor  ever  exceeded  the  limits  or  time  prescribed  by  his  parole 


296  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

until  the  arrival  of  General  Lefebvre.  Indeed  he  was  not 
noticed  or  invited  anywhere  till  then,  nor  did  he  at  all  seem  to 
wish  it,  his  time  being  occupied  in  endeavouring  to  perfect 
himself  in  the  English  language.  When  General  Lefebvre 
arrived,  he,  being  an  object  of  curiosity  and  a  man  of  consider- 
able rank,  was  invited  out,  and  of  course  General  Maurin  (who 
paid  him  great  attention)  with  him,  which  certainly  otherwise 
would  never  have  been  the  case.  General  Lefebvre  has  cer- 
tainly expressed  himself  as  greatly  dissatisfied  with  the  way  in 
which  he  had  been  taken,  making  use  of  the  childish  phrase  of 
his  being  entrapped,  and  by  his  sullen  manner  and  general  con- 
duct appeared  as  if  he  was  not  much  inclined  to  observe  the 
terms  of  his  parole/ 

Another  anti-Crapperist  writes  : 

'  GENTLEMEN, 

'  I  take  this  liberty  in  informing  you  that  in  case  that  the 
Prisoners  of  War  residing  here  on  Parole  be  not  kept  to  stricter 
orders,  that  they  will  have  the  command  of  this  Parish.  They 
are  out  all  hours  of  the  night,  they  do  almost  as  they  have 
a  mind  to  do  :  if  a  man  is  loaded  ever  so  hard,  he  must  turn 
out  of  the  road  for  them,  and  if  any  person  says  anything  he  is 
reprimanded  for  it. 

•     '  They  have  too  much  liberty  a  great  deal. 
'  I  am,  Gentlemen, 

'  With  a  good  wish  to  my  King  and  Country, 
'  A  TRUE  ENGLISHMAN.' 

Another  correspondent  asserted  that  although  Mr.  Crapper 
complained  of  the  generals'  breach  of  parole,  he  had  the  next 
week  allowed  thirty  of  the  French  prisoners  to  give  a  ball  and 
supper  to  the  little  tradesmen  of  the  town,  which  had  been 
kept  up  till  3  a.m. 

Crapper  denied  this,  and  said  he  had  refused  the  application 
of  the  prisoners  for  a  dance  until  10  p.m.,  given  at  an  inn  to  the 
'  ladies  of  the  town — the  checked  apron  Ladies  of  Wantage  '. 

Yet  another  writer  declared  that  Crapper  was  a  drunkard, 
and  drank  with  the  prisoners.  To  this,  Crapper  replied  that  if 
they  called  on  him  as  gentlemen,  he  was  surely  entitled  to  offer 
them  hospitality.  The  same  writer  spoke  of  the  French 
prisoners  being  often  drunk  in  the  streets,  of  Crapper  fighting 
with  them  at  the  inns,  and  accused  him  of  withholding  money 
from  them.  Crapper,  however,  appears  as  Parole  Agent  for 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  297 

Wantage,  with  340  prisoners  in  his  charge,  some  time  after  all 
this. 

I  have  given  Crapper's  case  at  some  length  merely  as  an 
instance  of  what  parole  agents  had  to  put  up  with,  not  as  being 
unusual.  Ponsford  at  Moreton-Hampstead,  Smith  at  Thame, 
and  Eborall  at  Lichfield,  seem  to  have  been  provoked  in  much 
the  same  way  by  turbulent  and  defiant  prisoners. 

For  very  palpable  reasons  the  authorities  did  not  encourage 
close  rapprochements  between  parole  agents  and  the  prisoners 
under  their  charge.  At  Tavistock  in  1779,  something  wrong 
in  the  intercourse  between  Ford,  the  Agent,  and  his  flock,  had 
led  to  an  order  that  not  only  should  Ford  be  removed,  but  that 
certain  prisoners  should  be  sent  to  Launceston.  Whereupon 
the  said  prisoners  petitioned  to  be  allowed  to  remain  at  Tavis- 
stock  under  Ford  : 

'  A  qui  nous  sommes  tres  sincerement  attaches,  tant  par 
les  doux  fa£ons  qu'il  a  scu  toujours  avoir  pour  nous,  meme  en 
executant  ses  ordres,  que  par  son  honnetete  particuliere  et  la 
bonne  intelligence  qu'il  a  soin  de  faire  raigner  autant  qu'il  est 
possible  entre  les  differentes  claces  de  personnes  qui  habitent 
cette  ville  et  les  prisonniers  qu'y  sont  ; — point  sy  essentiel  et 
sy  particulierement  bien  menage  jusqu'a  ce  jour.' 

On  the  other  hand,  one  Tarade,  a  prisoner,  writes  describing 
Ford  as  a  '  petit  tyran  d'Afrique  ',  and  complains  of  him, 
evidently  because  he  had  refused  Tarade  a  passport  for  France. 
Tarade  alludes  to  the  petition  above  quoted,  and  says  that  the 
subscribers  to  it  belong  to  a  class  of  prisoners  who  are  better 
away.  Another  much-signed  petition  comes  from  dislikers  of 
Ford  who  beg  to  be  sent  to  Launceston,  so  we  may  presume 
from  the  action  of  the  authorities  in  ordering  Ford's  removal, 
that  he  was  not  a  disinterested  dispenser  and  withholder  of 
favours. 

In  Scotland  the  agents  seem  generally  to  have  been  on  very 
excellent  terms  with  the  prisoners  in  their  charge,  and  some 
friendships  were  formed  between  captors  and  captives  which 
did  not  cease  with  the  release  of  the  latter.  Mr.  Macbeth 
Forbes  relates  the  following  anecdote  by  way  of  illustration  : 

'  The  late  Mr.  Romanes  of  Harryburn  (whose  father  had 
been  Agent  at  Lauder)  says  about  M.  Espinasse,  for  long  a 


298 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 


distinguished  French  teacher  in  Edinburgh,  who  was  for  some 
time  a  parole  prisoner  at  Lauder  :  "  When  I  was  enrolled  as  a 
pupil  with  M.  Espinasse  some  fifty  years  ago,  he  said :  '  Ah !  your 
fader  had  me  \ '  supplying  the  rest  of  the  sentence  by  planting 
the  flat  part  of  his  right  thumb  into  the  palm  of  his  left  hand — 
'  Now  I  have  you  !  '  repeating  the  operation.  And  when  my 
father  called  to  see  M.  Espinasse,  he  was  quite  put  out  by 
M.  Espinasse  seizing  and  hugging  and  embracing  him,  shouting 
excitedly  :  '  Ah,  mon  Agent  !  mon  Agent ! '  : 

Smith  at  Kelso,  Nixon  at  Hawick,  Romanes  at  Lauder,  and 
Bell  at  Jedburgh,  were  all  held  in  the  highest  esteem  by  the 
prisoners  under  them,  and  received  many  testimonials  of  it. 

The  following  were  the  Parole  Towns  between  1803  and 
1813: 


Abergavenny. 

Alresford. 

Andover. 

Ashbourne. 

Ashburton. 

Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 

Biggar. 

Bishop's  Castle. 

Bishop's  Waltham. 

Brecon. 

Bridgnorth. 

Chesterfield. 

Chippenham. 

Credit  on. 

Cupar. 

Dumfries. 

Hambledon. 


Hawick. 

Jedburgh. 

Kelso. 

Lanark. 

Lauder. 

Launceston. 

Leek. 

Lichfield. 

Llanfyllin. 

Lochmaben. 

Lockerbie. 

Melrose. 

Montgomery. 

Moreton-Hampstead. 

Newt  own. 

Northampton. 

North  Tawton. 


Qdiham. 

Okehampton. 

Oswestry. 

Peebles. 

Peterborough . 

Reading. 

Sanquhar. 

Selkirk. 

South  Molt  on. 

Tavistock. 

Thame. 

Ti  vert  on. 

Wantage. 

Welshpool. 

Whitchurch. 

Wincanton. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

PAROLE  LIFE 

THE  following  descriptions  of  life  in  parole  towns  by  French 
writers  may  not  be  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  reader  who 
naturally  wishes  to  get  as  correct  an  impression  of  it  as  possible, 
inasmuch  as  they  are  from  the  pens  of  men  smarting  under 
restrictions  and  perhaps  a  sense  of  injustice,  irritated  by  ennui, 
by  the  irksomeness  of  confinement  in  places  which  as  a  rule  do 
not  seem  to  have  been  selected  because  of  their  fitness  to  ad- 
minister to  the  joys  of  life,  and  by  the  occasional  evidences  of 
being  among  unfriendly  people.  But  I  hope  to  balance  this 
in  later  chapters  by  the  story  of  the  paroled  officers  as  seen 
by  the  captors. 

The  original  French  I  have  translated  literally,  except  when 
it  has  seemed  to  me  that  translation  would  involve  a  sacrifice 
of  terseness  or  force. 

Listen  to  Lieutenant  Gicquel  des  Touches,  at  Tiverton,  after 
Trafalgar  : 

'  A  pleasant  little  town,  but  which  struck  me  as  particularly 
monotonous  after  the  exciting  life  to  which  I  was  accustomed. 
My  pay,  reduced  by  one-half,  amounted  to  fifty  francs  a  month, 
which  had  to  satisfy  all  my  needs  at  a  time  when  the  continental 
blockade  had  caused  a  very  sensible  rise  in  the  price  of  all 
commodities.  ...  I  took  advantage  of  my  leisure  hours  to 
overhaul  and  complete  my  education.  Some  of  my  comrades 
of  more  literary  bringing-up  gave  me  lessons  in  literature  and 
history,  in  return  for  which  I  taught  them  fencing,  for  which 
I  always  had  much  aptitude,  and  which  I  had  always  practised 
a  good  deal.  The  population  was  generally  kindly  disposed 
towards  us  ;  some  of  the  inhabitants  urging  their  interest  in  us 
so  far  as  to  propose  to  help  me  to  escape,  and  among  them 
a  young  and  pretty  Miss  who  only  made  one  condition — that 
I  should  take  her  with  me  in  my  flight,  and  should  marry  her 
when  we  reached  the  Continent.  It  was  not  much  trouble  for 
me  to  resist  these  temptations,  but  it  was  harder  to  tear  myself 
away  from  the  importunities  of  some  of  my  companions,  who, 


300  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

not  having  the  same  ideas  as  I  had  about  the  sacredness  of  one's 
word,  would  have  forced  me  to  escape  with  them. 

'  Several  succeeded  :  I  say  nothing  about  them,  but  I  have 
often  been  astonished  later  at  the  ill-will  they  have  borne  me 
for  not  having  done  as  they  did.' 

Gicquel  was  at  Tiverton  six  years  and  was  then  exchanged. 

A  Freemasons'  Lodge,  Enfants  de  Mars,  was  opened  and 
worked  at  Tiverton  about  1810,  of  which  the  first  and  only 
master  was  Alexander  de  la  Motte,  afterwards  Languages 
Master  at  Blundell's  School.  The  Masons  met  in  a  room  in 
Frog  Street,  now  Castle  Street,  until,  two  of  the  officers  on 
parole  in  the  town  escaping,  the  authorities  prohibited  the 
meetings.  The  Tyler  of  the  Lodge,  Rivron  by  name,  remained 
in  Tiverton  after  peace  was  made,  and  for  many  years  worked 
as  a  slipper-maker.  He  had  been  an  officer's  servant. 

The  next  writer,  the  Baron  de  Bonnefoux,  we  have  already 
met  in  the  hulks.  His  reminiscences  of  parole  life  are  among  the 
most  interesting  I  have  come  across,  and  are  perhaps  the  more 
so  because  he  has  a  good  deal  of  what  is  nice  and  kind  to  say 
of  us. 

On  his  arrival  in  England  in  1806,  Bonnefoux  was  sent  on  parole 
to  Thame  in  Oxfordshire.  Here  he  occupied  himself  in  learning 
English,  Latin,  and  drawing,  and  in  practising  fencing.  In  the 
Mauritius,  Bonnefoux  and  his  shipmates  had  become  friendly 
with  a  wealthy  Englishman  settled  there  under  its  French 
Government  at  1'Ile  de  France.  This  gentleman  came  to 
Thame,  rented  the  best  house  there  for  a  summer,  and  con- 
tinually entertained  the  French  officer  prisoners.  The  Lupton 
family,  of  one  son  and  two  daughters,  the  two  Stratford  ladies, 
and  others,  were  also  kind  to  them,  whilst  a  metropolitan 
spirit  was  infused  into  the  little  society  by  the  visits  of  a  Miss 
Sophia  Bode  from  London,  so  that  with  all  these  pretty, 
amiable  girls  the  Baron  managed  to  pass  his  unlimited  leisure 
very  pleasantly.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  an  element  of 
the  population  of  Thame  which  bore  a  traditional  antipathy  to 
Frenchmen  which  it  lost  no  opportunity  of  exhibiting.  It 
was  a  manufacturing  section,  composed  of  outsiders,  between 
whom  and  the  natives  an  ill-feeling  had  long  existed,  and  it 
was  not  long  before  our  Baron  came  to  an  issue  with  them. 


PAROLE  LIFE  301 

One  of  these  men  pushed  against  Bonnefoux  as  he  was  walking 
in  the  town,  and  the  Frenchman  retaliated.  Whereupon  the 
Englishman  called  on  his  friends,  who  responded.  Bonnefoux, 
on  his  side,  called  up  his  comrades,  and  a  regular  melee,  in 
which  sticks,  stones,  and  fists  were  freely  used,  ensued,  the 
immediate  issue  of  which  is  not  reported.  Bonnefoux  brought 
his  assailant  up  before  Smith,  the  Agent,  who  shuffled  about  the 
matter,  and  recommended  the  Baron  to  take  it  to  Oxford,  he 
in  reality  being  in  fear  of  the  roughs.  Bonnefoux  expressed 
his  disgust,  Smith  lost  his  temper,  and  raised  his  cane,  in  reply 
to  which  the  Baron  seized  a  poker.  Bonnefoux  complained 
to  the  Transport  Office,  the  result  of  which  was  that  he  was 
removed  to  Odiham  in  Hampshire,  after  quite  a  touching 
farewell  to  his  English  friends  and  his  own  countrymen,  receiv- 
ing a  souvenir  of  a  lock  of  hair  from  '  la  jeune  Miss  Harriet 
Stratford  aux  beaux  yeux  bleus,  au  teint  eblouissant,  a  la 
physionomie  animee,  a  la  taille  divine  '. 

The  populace  of  Odiham  he  found  much  pleasanter  than 
that  of  Thame,  and  as  the  report  of  the  part  he  had  taken  in 
the  disturbance  at  Thame  had  preceded  him,  he  was  enthusias- 
tically greeted.  The  French  officers  at  Odiham  did  their  best  to 
pass  the  time  pleasantly.  They  had  a  Philharmonic  Society, 
a  Freemasons'  Lodge,  and  especially  a  theatre  to  which  the 
local  gentry  resorted  in  great  numbers,  Shebbeare,  the  Agent, 
being  a  good  fellow  who  did  all  in  his  power  to  soften  the  lot  of 
those  in  his  charge,  and  was  not  too  strict  a  construer  of  the 
laws  and  regulations  by  which  they  were  bound. 

Bonnefoux  made  friends  everywhere  ;  he  seems  to  have  been 
a  light-hearted  genial  soul,  and  did  not  spare  the  ample  private 
means  he  had  in  helping  less  fortunate  fellow  prisoners.  For 
instance,  a  naval  officer  named  Le  Forsiney  became  the  father 
of  an  illegitimate  child.  By  English  law  he  had  to  pay  six 
hundred  francs  for  the  support  of  the  child,  or  be  imprisoned. 
Bonnefoux  paid  it  for  him. 

In  June  1807,  an  English  friend,  Danley,  offered  to  take  him 
to  Windsor,  quietly  of  course,  as  this  meant  a  serious  violation 
of  parole  rules.  They  had  a  delightful  trip :  Bonnefoux  saw 
the  king,  and  generally  enjoyed  himself,  and  got  back  to  Odiham 
safely.  He  said  nothing  about  this  escapade  until  September, 


302  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

when  he  was  talking  of  it  to  friends,  and  was  overheard  by 
a  certain  widow,  who,  having  been  brought  up  in  France, 
understood  the  language,  as  she  sat  at  her  window  above. 
Now  this  widow  had  a  pretty  nurse,  Mary,  to  whom  Bonnefoux 
was  '  attracted  ',  and  happening  to  find  an  unsigned  letter 
addressed  to  Mary,  in  which  was  :  '  To-morrow,  I  shall  have 
the  grief  of  not  seeing  you,  but  I  shall  see  your  king/  she 
resolved  upon  revenge.  A  short  time  after,  there  appeared  in 
a  newspaper  a  paragraph  to  the  effect  that  a  foreigner  with 
sinister  projects  had  dared  to  approach  the  king  at  Windsor. 
The  widow  denounced  Bonnefoux  as  the  man  alluded  to  :  the 
Agent  was  obliged  to  examine  the  matter,  the  whole  business 
of  the  trip  to  Windsor  came  out,  and  although  Danley  took  all 
the  blame  on  himself,  and  tried  to  shield  Bonnefoux,  the  order 
came  that  the  latter  was  at  once  to  be  removed  to  the  hulks  at 
Chatham. 

In  the  meanwhile  a  somewhat  romantic  little  episode  had 
happened  at  Odiham.  Among  the  paroled  prisoners  there 
was  a  lieutenant  (Aspirant  de  premiere  classe)  named  Rous- 
seau, who  had  been  taken  in  the  fight  between  Admiral 
Duckworth  and  Admiral  Leissegnes  off  San  Domingo  in 
February,  1806.  His  mother,  a  widow,  was  dying  of  grief  for 
him,  and  Rousseau  resolved  to  get  to  her,  but  would  not  break 
his  parole  by  escaping  from  Odiham.  So  he  wrote  to  the 
Transport  Office  that  if  he  was  not  arrested  and  put  on  board 
a  prison  ship  within  eight  days,  he  would  consider  his  parole 
as  cancelled,  and  would  act  accordingly,  his  resolution  being 
to  escape  from  any  prison  ship  on  which  he  was  confined, 
which  he  felt  sure  he  could  do,  and  so  save  his  parole. 
Accordingly,  he  was  arrested  and  sent  to  Portsmouth. 

Bonnefoux,  pending  his  removal  to  Chatham,  was  kept  under 
guard  at  the  George  in  Odiham,  but  he  managed  to  get  out, 
hid  for  the  night  in  a  new  ditch,  and  early  the  next  morning 
went  to  a  prisoner's  lodging-house  in  the  outskirts  of  Odiham, 
and  remained  there  three  days.  Hither  came  Sarah  Cooper, 
daughter  of  a  local  pastry-cook,  no  doubt  one  of  the  dashing 
young  sailor's  many  cheres  amies.  She  had  been  informed  of 
his  whereabouts  by  his  friends,  and  told  him  she  would  conduct 
him  to  Guildford. 


PAROLE  LIFE  303 

The  weather  was  very  wet,  and  Sarah  was  in  her  Sunday 
best,  but  said  that  she  did  not  mind  the  rain  so  long  as  she 
could  see  Bonnefoux.  Says  the  latter  : 

'  Je  dis  alors  a  Sara  que  je  pensais  qu'il  pleuvrait  pendant 
la  nuit.  Elle  repliqua  que  peu  lui  import  ait  ;  enfin  j'objectai 
cette  longue  course  a  pied,  sa  toilette  et  ses  capotes  blanches, 
car  c'etait  un  dimanche,  et  elle  leva  encore  cette  difficulte  en 
pretendant  qu'elle  avait  du  courage  et  que  des  qu'elle  avait 
appris  qu'elle  pouvait  me  sauver  elle  n' avait  voulu  ni  perdre 
une  minute  pour  venir  me  chercher.  ...  Je  n'avais  plus  un 
mot  a  dire,  car  pendant  qu'elle  m'entrainait  d'une  de  ses  petites 
mains  elle  me  fermait  gracieusement  la  bouche.' 

They  reached  Guildford  at  daybreak,  and  two  carriages  were 
hired,  one  to  take  Bonnefoux  to  London,  the  other  to  take 
Sarah  back  to  Odiham.  They  parted  with  a  tender  farewell, 
Bonnefoux  started,  reached  London  safely,  and  put  up  at  the 
Hotel  du  Cafe  de  St.  Paul. 

In  London  he  met  a  Dutchman  named  Vink,  bound  for 
Hamburg  by  the  first  vessel  leaving,  and  bought  his  berth  on 
the  ship,  but  had  to  wait  a  month  before  anything  sailed  for 
Hamburg.  He  sailed,  a  fellow  passenger  being  young  Lord 
Onslow.  At  Gravesend,  officers  came  on  board  on  the  search 
for  Vink.  Evidently  Vink  had  betrayed  him,  for  he  could  not 
satisfactorily  account  for  his  presence  on  the  ship  in  accordance 
with  the  strict  laws  then  in  force  about  the  embarkation  of 
passengers  for  foreign  ports  ;  Bonnefoux  was  arrested,  for  two 
days  was  shut  down  in  the  awful  hold  of  a  police  vessel,  and 
was  finally  taken  on  board  the  Bahama  at  Chatham,  and  there 
met  Rousseau,  who  had  escaped  from  the  Portsmouth  hulk 
but  had  been  recaptured  in  mid-Channel. 

Bonnefoux  remained  on  the  Chatham  hulk  until  June  1809, 
when  he  was  allowed  to  go  on  parole  to  Lichfield.  With  him 
went  Dubreuil,  the  rough  privateer  skipper  whose  acquaintance 
he  made  on  the  Bahama,  and  who  was  released  from  the  prison 
ship  because  he  had  treated  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Campbell  with 
kindness  when  he  made  them  prisoners. 

Dubreuil  was  so  delighted  with  the  change  from  the  Bahama 
to  Lichfield,  that  he  celebrated  it  in  a  typical  sailor  fashion, 
giving  a  banquet  which  lasted  three  days  at  the  best  hotel 


304  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

in    Lichfield,    and   roared    forth    the    praises    of    his    friend 
Bonnefoux : 

De  Bonnefoux  nous  sommes  enchantes, 
Nous  allons  boire  a  sa  sante  ! 

Parole  life  at  Lichfield  he  describes  as  charming.  There 
was  a  nice,  refined  local  society,  pleasant  walks,  cafes,  concerts, 
reunions,  and  billiards.  Bonnefoux  preferred  to  mix  with 
the  artisan  class  of  Lichfield  society,  admiring  it  the  most  in 
England,  and  regarding  the  middle  class  as  too  prejudiced  and 
narrow,  the  upper  class  as  too  luxurious  and  proud.  He  says  : 

'  II  est  difficile  de  voir  rien  de  plus  agreable  a  1'ceil  que  les 
reunions  des  jeunes  gens  des  deux  sexes  lois  [sic]  des  foires  et 
des  marches.' 

Eborall,  the  Agent  at  Lichfield,  the  Baron  calls  a  splendid 
chap  :  so  far  from  binding  them  closely  to  their  distance  limit, 
he  allowed  the  French  officers  to  go  to  Ashby-de-la-Zouch,  to 
the  races  at  -Lichfield,  and  even  to  Birmingham.  Catalini 
came  to  sing  at  Lichfield,  and  Bonnefoux  went  to  hear  her  with 
Mary  Aldrith,  his  landlord's  daughter,  and  pretty  Nancy 
Fairbrother. 

And  yet  Bonnefoux  resolved  to  escape.  There  came  on 
'  business  '  to  Lichfield,  Robinson  and  Stevenson,  two  well- 
known  smuggler  escape-agents,  and  they  made  the  Baron  an 
offer  which  he  accepted.  He  wrote,  however,  to  the  Transport 
Office,  saying  that  his  health  demanded  his  return  to  France, 
and  engaging  not  to  serve  against  England. 

With  another  riaval  officer,  Colles,  he  got  away  successfully 
by  the  aid  of  the  smugglers  and  their  agents,  and  reached  Rye 
in  Sussex.  Between  them  they  paid  the  smugglers  one  hundred 
and  fifty  guineas.  At  Rye  they  found  another  escaped  prisoner 
in  hiding,  the  Captain  of  the  Diomede,  and  he  added  another 
fifty  guineas.  The  latter  was  almost  off  his  head,  and  nearly 
got  them  caught  through  his  extraordinary  behaviour.  How- 
ever, on  November  28,  1809,  they  reached  Boulogne  after  a  bad 
passage. 

Robinson  with  his  two  hundred  guineas  bought  contraband 
goods  in  France  and  ran  them  over  to  England.  Stevenson 
was  not  so  lucky,  for  a  little  later  he  was  caught  at  Deal  with 


PAROLE  LIFE  305 

an  escaped  prisoner,  was  fined  five  hundred  guineas,  and  in 
default  of  payment  was  sent  to  Botany  Bay. 

General  d'Henin  was  one  of  the  French  generals  who  were 
taken  at  San  Domingo  in  1803.  He  was  sent  on  parole  to 
Chesterfield  in  Derbyshire,  and,  unlike  several  other  officers 
who  shared  his  fate,  was  most  popular  with  the  inhabitants 
through  his  pleasing  address  and  manner.  He  married  whilst  in 
Chesterfield  a  Scots  lady  of  fortune,  and  for  some  years  resided 
with  her  at  Spital  Lodge,  the  house  of  the  Agent,  Mr.  Bower. 
He  and  Madame  d'Henin  returned  to  Paris  in  1814,  and  he 
fought  at  Waterloo,  where  his  leg  was  torn  off  by  a  cannon  shot. 

His  residence  in  England  seems  to  have  made  him  somewhat 
of  an  Anglophile,  for  in  Home's  History  of  Napoleon  he  is 
accused  of  favouring  the  British  at  Waterloo,  and  it  was  actually 
reported  to  Napoleon  by  a  dragoon  that  he  '  harangued  the 
men  to  go  over  to  the  enemy  '.  This,  it  was  stated,  was  just 
before  the  cannon  shot  struck  him. 

From  Chesterfield,  d'Henin  wrote  to  his  friend  General  Boyei 
at  Montgomery,  under  date  October  30,  1804.  After  a  long 
semi-religious  soliloquy,  in  which  he  laments  his  position  but 
supposes  it  to  be  as  Pangloss  says,  that  '  all  is  for  the  best 
in  this  best  of  worlds ',  he  speaks  of  his  bad  health,  of  his  too 
short  stay  at  '  Harrowgate  '  (from  which  health  resort,  by  the 
way,  he  had  been  sent,  for  carrying  on  correspondence  under 
a  false  name),  of  his  religious  conversion,  and  of  his  abstemious 
habits,  and  finishes  : 

'  Rien  de  nouveau.  Toujours  la  meme  vie,  triste,  maussade, 
ennuyeuse,  deplaisante  et  sans  fin,  quand  finira-t-elle  ?  II  fait 
ici  un  temps  superbe,  de  la  pluie,  depuis  le  matin  jusqu'au 
soir,  et  toujours  de  la  pluie,  et  du  brouillard  pour  changer.  Vie 
de  soldat  !  Vie  de  chien  !  ' 

All  the  same,  it  is  consoling  to  learn  from  the  following  letters 
written  by  French  officers  on  parole  to  their  friends,  that  com- 
pulsory exile  in  England  was  not  always  the  intolerable  punish- 
ment which  so  many  authors  of  reminiscences  would  have  us 
believe.  Here  is  one,  for  instance,  written  from  a  prisoner  on 
parole  at  Sevenoaks  to  a  friend  at  Tenterden,  in  1757 : 

'  I  beg  you  to  receive  my  congratulations  upon  having  been 
sent  into  a  country  so  rich  in  pretty  girls  :  you  say  they  are 

ABELL  X 


306  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

unapproachable,  but  it  must  be  consoling  to  you  to  know  that 
you  possess  the  trick  of  winning  the  most  unresponsive  hearts, 
and  that  one  of  your  ordinary  looks  attracts  the  fair  ;  and  this 
assures  me  of  your  success  in  your  secret  affairs  :  it  is  much 
more  difficult  to  conquer  the  middle-class  sex.  .  .  .  Your 
pale  beauty  has  been  very  ill  for  some  weeks,  the  reason  being 
that  she  has  overheated  herself  dancing  at  a  ball  with  all  the 
Frenchmen  with  whom  she  has  been  friendly  for  a  certain  time, 
which  has  got  her  into  trouble  with  her  mother.  .  .  .  Roussel 
has  been  sent  to  the  "  Castle  "  (Sissinghurst)  nine  days  ago, 
it  is  said  for  having  loved  too  well  the  Sevenoaks  girls,  and  had 
two  in  hand  which  cost  him  five  guineas,  which  he  had  to  pay 
before  going.  Will  you  let  me  know  if  the  country  is  suitable 
for  you,  how  many  French  there  are,  and  if  food  and  lodgings 
are  dear  ? 

£  To  Mr.  Guerdon.     A  French  surgeon  on  parole  at 
Tenterden.' 

The  next  is  from  a  former  prisoner,  then  living  at  Dunkirk, 
to  Mrs.  Miller  at  the  Post  Office,  Leicester,  dated  1757.  Note 
the  spelling  and  punctuation  : 

'  MADAME, — 

'  Vous  ne  scaurie  croire  quell  plaisire  j'ai  de  m'en- 
tretenir  avec  vous  mon  cceur  ne  pent  s'acoutumer  a  vivre  sans 
vous  voire.  Je  nait  pas  encore  rencontre  notre  chere  compagnon 
de  voyage.  Ne  m'oublie  point,  ma  chere  Elizabeth  vous  pouve 
estre  persuade  du  plaisire  que  j'aure  en  recevant  de  vos 
nouvelles.  Le  gros  Loys  se  porte  bien  il  doit  vous  ecrire  aussi 
qu'a  Madame  Covagne.  Si  vous  voye  Mrs.  Nancy  donne  luy 
un  baise  pour  moy  '. 

A  prisoner  writes  from  Alresford  to  a  friend  in  France  : 

'  I  go  often  to  the  good  Mrs.  Smith's.  Miss  Anna  is  at  pre- 
sent here.  She  sent  me  a  valentine  yesterday.  I  go  there 
sometimes  to  take  tea  where  Henrietta  and  Bet  si  Wynne  are. 
We  played  at  cards,  and  spent  the  pleasantest  evening  I  have 
ever  passed  in  England/ 

A  Captain  Quinquet,  also  at  Alresford,  thus  writes  to  his 
sister  at  Avranches  : 

'  We  pass  the  days  gaily  with  the  Johnsons,  daughters  and 
brother,  and  I  am  sure  you  are  glad  to  hear  that  we  are  so 
happy.  Come  next  Friday  !  Ah  !  If  that  were  possible,  what 
a  surprise  !  On  that  day  we  give  a  grand  ball  to  celebrate  the 
twenty-fifth  wedding  anniversary  of  papa  and  mamma.  There 


PAROLE  LIFE  307 

will  be  quite  twenty  people,  and  I  natter  myself  we  shall  enjoy 
ourselves  thoroughly,  and  if  by  chance  on  that  day  a  packet  of 
letters  should  arrive  from  you — Mon  Dieu  !  What  joy  !  ' 

He  adds,  quite  in  the  style  of  a  settled  local  gossip,  scraps  of 
news,  such  as  that  Mrs.  Jar  vis  has  a  daughter  born  ;  that  poor 
Mr.  Jack  Smith  is  dead  ;  that  Colonel  Lewis's  wife,  a  most 
amiable  woman,  will  be  at  the  ball  ;  that  Miss  Kimber  is  going 
to  be  married  ;  that  dear  little  Emma  learns  to  speak  French 
astonishingly  well  ;  that  Henrietta  Davis  is  quite  cured  from 
her  illness,  and  so  forth. 

There  is,  in  fact,  plenty  of  evidence  that  the  French  officers 
found  the  daughters  of  Albion  very  much  to  their  liking. 
Many  of  them  married  and  remained  in  England  after  peace 
was  declared,  leaving  descendants  who  may  be  found  at  this 
day,  although  in  many  cases  the  French  names  have  become 
anglicized. 

In  Andover  to-day  the  names  of  Jerome  and  Dugay  tell  of 
the  paroled  Frenchmen  who  were  here  between  1810  and  1815, 
whilst,  also  at  Andover,  '  Shepherd  '  Burton  is  the  grandson  of 
Aubertin,  a  French  prisoner. 

At  Chesterfield  (Mr.  Hawkesly  Edmunds  informs  me),  the 
names  of  Jacques  and  Presky  still  remain. 

Robins  and  Jacques  and  Etches  are  names  which  still  existed 
in  Ashbourne  not  many  years  ago,  their  bearers  being  known 
to  be  descended  from  French  prisoners  there. 

At  Odiham,  Alfred  Jaureguiberry,  second  captain  of  the 
Austerlitz  privateer,  married  a  Miss  Chambers.  His  son, 
Admiral  Jaureguiberry,  described  as  a  man  admirable  in  private 
as  in  public  life,  was  in  command  of  the  French  Squadron  which 
came  over  to  Portsmouth  on  the  occasion  of  Queen  Victoria's 
Jubilee  Naval  Review  in  1887,  and  he  found  time  to  call  upon 
an  English  relative. 

Louis  Hettet,  a  prisoner  on  parole  at  Bishop's  Castle,  Mont- 
gomeryshire, in  1814,  married  Mary  Morgan.  The  baptism  of 
a  son,  Louis,  is  recorded  in  the  Bishop's  Castle  register,  March  6, 
1:815.  The  father  left  for  France  after  the  Peace  of  1814  ; 
Mrs.  Hettet  declined  to  go,  and  died  at  Bishop's  Castle  not 
many  years  ago.  The  boy  was  sent  for  and  went  to  France. 

.Mrs.  Lucy  Louisa  Morris,  who  died  at  Oswestry  in  1908, 

x  2 


308  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

aged  83,  was  the  second  daughter  of  Lieutenant  Paris,  of  the 
French  Navy,  a  prisoner  on  parole  at  Oswestry. 

In  1886  Thomas  Benchin,  descendant  of  a  French  prisoner 
at  Oswestry,  died  at  Clun,  in  Shropshire,  where  his  son  is,  or  was 
lately,  living.  Benchin  was  famed  for  his  skill  in  making  toys 
and  chip-wood  ornaments. 

Robinot,  a  prisoner  on  parole  at  Montgomery,  married, 
in  June  1807,  a  Miss  Andrews,  of  Buckingham. 

At  Wantage,  in  1817,  General  de  Gaja,  formerly  a  prisoner  on 
parole,  married  a  grand-daughter  of  the  first  Duke  of  Leicester, 
and  his  daughter  married,  in  1868,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Atkinson,  vicar 
of  East  Hendred. 

At  Thame,  Frangois  Robert  Boudin  married  Miss  Bone,  by 
banns,  in  1813;  in  the  same  year  Jacques  Ferrier  married 
Mary  Green  by  banns  ;  Prevost  de  la  Croix  married  Elizabeth 
Hill  by  licence ;  and  in  1816  Louis-Amedee  Comte  married 
Mary  Simmons,  also  by  licence.  All  the  bridegrooms  were  or 
had  been  prisoners  on  parole. 

In  the  register  of  Leek  I  find  that  J.  B.  B.  Delisle,  Com- 
mandant of  the  port  of  Caen,  married  Harriet  Sheldon ; 
Frangois  Nean  married  Mary  Lees,  daughter  of  the  landlord  of 
the  Duke  of  York ;  Sergeant  Paymaster  Pierre  Magnier  married 
Frances  Smith,  who  died  in  1874,  aged  84  ;  Joseph  Vattel, 
cook  to  General  Brunet,  married  Sarah  Pilsbury.  Captains 
ToufHet  and  Chouquet  left  sons  who  were  living  in  Leek  in 
1880  and  1870  respectively,  and  Jean  Mien,  servant  to  General 
Brunet,  was  in  Leek  in  1870. 

Notices  of  other  marriages — at  Wincanton,  for  instance — will 
be  found  elsewhere. 

Against  those  who  married  English  girls  and  honourably 
kept  to  them,  must,  however,  be  placed  a  long  list  of  Frenchmen 
who,  knowing  well  that  in  France  such  marriages  were  held 
invalid,  married  English  women,  and  basely  deserted  them  on 
their  own  return  to  France,  generally  leaving  them  with  children 
and  utterly  destitute.  The  correspondence  of  the  Transport 
Office  is  full  of  warnings  to  girls  who  have  meditated  marriage 
with  prisoners,  but  who  have  asked  advice  first.  As  to  the 
subsistence  of  wives  and  children  of  prisoners,  the  law  was  that 
if  the  latter  were  not  British  subjects,  their  subsistence  was 


PAROLE  LIFE  309 

paid  by  the  British  Government,  otherwise  they  must  seek 
Parish  relief.  In  one  of  the  replies  the  Transport  Office  quotes 
the  case  of  Madame  Berton,  an  Englishwoman  who  had  married 
Colonel  Berton,  a  prisoner  on  parole  at  Chesterfield,  and  was 
permitted  to  follow  her  husband  after  his  release  and  departure 
for  France,  but  who,  with  a  son  of  nineteen  months  old,  on 
arrival  there,  was  driven  back  in  great  want  and  distress  by  the 
French  Government. 

In  contrast  with  the  practice  of  the  British  Government  in 
paying  for  the  subsistence  of  the  French  wives  and  children  of 
prisoners  of  war,  is  that  of  the  French  Government  as  described 
in  the  reply  of  the  Transport  Office  in  1813  to  a  Mrs.  Cumming 
with  a  seven-year-old  child,  who  applied  to  be  allowed  a  passage 
to  Morlaix  in  order  to  join  her  husband,  a  prisoner  on  parole 
at  Longwy : 

'  The  Transport  Office  is  willing  to  grant  you  a  passage  by 
Cartel  to  Morlaix,  but  would  call  your  attention  to  the  situation 
you  will  be  placed  in,  on  your  arrival  in  France,  provided  your 
husband  has  not  by  his  means  or  your  own  the  power  of  main- 
taining you  in  France,  as  the  French  Government  make  no 
allowance  whatever  to  wives  and  children  belonging  to  British 
prisoners  of  war,  and  this  Government  has  no  power  to  relieve 
their  wants.  Also  to  point  out  that  Longwy  is  not  an  open 
Parole  Town  like  the  Parole  Towns  in  England,  but  is  walled 
round,  and  the  prisoners  are  not  allowed  to  proceed  beyond  the 
walls,  so  that  any  resources  derivable  from  your  own  industry 
appears  to  be  very  uncertain/ 

The  Transport  Office  were  constantly  called  upon  to  adjudi- 
cate upon  such  matters  as  this  : 

'  In  1805,  Colonel  de  Bercy,  on  parole  at  Thame,  was  "  in 
difficulty  "  about  a  girl  being  with  child  by  him.  The  Office 
declined  to  interfere,  but  said  that  if  the  Colonel  could  not  give 
sufficient  security  that  mother  and  child  should  not  be  a  burden 
upon  the  rates,  he  must  be  imprisoned  until  he  did.' 

By  a  rule  of  the  French  Government,  Englishwomen  who 
had  already  lived  in  France  with  their  husbands  there  as 
prisoners  of  war  could  not  return  to  France  if  once  they  left  it. 
This  was  brought  about  by  some  English  officers'  wives  taking 
letters  with  them  on  their  return  from  England,  and,  although 


310  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

as  a  matter  of  policy  it  could  not  be  termed  tyrannical,  it  was 
the  cause  naturally  of  much  distress  and  even  of  calamity. 

The  next  account  of  parole  life  in  England  is  by  Louis 
Garneray,  the  marine  painter,  whose  description  of  life  on  the 
hulks  may  be  remembered  as  being  the  most  vivid  and  exact 
of  any  I  have  given. 

After  describing  his  rapture  at  release  from  the  hulk  at 
Portsmouth  and  his  joyous  anticipation  of  comparative  liberty 
ashore,  Garneray  says  : 

'  When  I  arrived  in  1811  under  escort  at  the  little  village 
(Bishop's  Waltham  in  Hampshire)  which  had  been  assigned  to 
me  as  a  place  of  residence,  I  saw  with  some  disillusion  that  more 
than  1,200  [sic]  French  of  all  ranks  [sic]  had  for  their  accom- 
modation nothing  but  some  wretched,  tumble-down  houses 
which  the  English  let  to  them  at  such  an  exorbitant  price  that 
a  year's  rent  meant  the  price  of  the  house  itself.  As  for  me,  I 
managed  to  get  for  ten  shillings  a  week,  not  a  room,  but  the  right 
to  place  my  bed  in  a  hut  where  already  five  officers  were.' 

The  poor  fellow  was  up  at  five  and  dressed  the  next  morning  : 

'  What  are  you  going  to  do  ?  asked  one  of  my  room  mates. 
'  I'm  going  to  breathe  the  morning  air  and  have  a  run  in  the 
fields,'  I  replied. 

'  Look  out,  or  you'll  be  arrested.' 

'  Arrested  !   Why  ?  ' 

'  Because  we  are  not  allowed  to  leave  the  house  before  six 
o'clock.' 

Garneray  soon  learned  about  the  hours  of  going  out  and 
coming  in,  about  the  one-mile  limit  along  the  high  road,  that 
a  native  finding  a  prisoner  beyond  the  limit  or  off  the  main 
road  had  not  only  the  right  to  knock  him  down  but  to  receive 
a  guinea  for  doing  so.  He  complained  that  the  only  recreations 
were  walking,  painting,  and  reading,  for  the  Government  had 
discovered  that  concerts,  theatricals,  and  any  performances 
which  brought  the  prisoners  and  the  natives  together  encour- 
aged familiarity  between  the  two  peoples  and  corrupted  morals, 
and  so  forbade  them.  Garneray  then  described  how  he  came 
to  break  his  parole  and  to  escape  from  Bishop's  Waltham. 

He  with  two  fellow- prisoner  officers  went  out  one  hot  morning 
with  the  intention  of  breakfasting  at  a  farm  about  a  mile  along 
the  high  road.  Intending  to  save  a  long  bit  they  cut  across 


PAROLE  LIFE  311 

by  a  field  path.  Garneray  stumbled  and  hurt  his  foot  and  so 
got  behind  his  companions.  Suddenly,  hearing  a  cry,  he  saw 
a  countryman  attack  his  friends  with  a  bill-hook,  wound  one 
of  them  on  the  arm,  and  kill  the  other,  who  had  begun  to 
expostulate  with  him,  with  two  terrible  cuts  on  the  head. 
Garneray,  seizing  a  stick,  rushed  up,  and  the  peasant  ran  off, 
leaving  him  with  the  two  poor  fellows,  one  dead  and  the  other 
badly  wounded.  He  then  saw  the  man  returning  at  the  head 
of  a  crowd  of  countrymen,  armed  with  pitchforks  and  guns, 
and  made  up  his  mind  that  his  turn  had  come.  However,  he 
explained  the  situation,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  that 
the  crowd  sided  with  him  against  their  brutal  compatriot. 
They  improvised  a  litter  and  carried  the  two  victims  back  to  the 
cantonment,  whilst  the  murderer  quietly  returned  to  his  work. 

When  the  extraordinary  brutality  of  the  attack  and  its 
unprovoked  nature  became  known,  such  indignation  was  felt 
among  the  French  officers  in  the  cantonment  that  they  drew 
up  a  remonstrance  to  the  British  Government,  with  the  trans- 
lation of  which  into  English  Garneray  was  entrusted.  Whilst 
engaged  in  this  a  rough-mannered  stranger  called  on  him  and 
warned,  him  that  he  had  best  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
remonstrance. 

He  took  the  translated  document  to  his  brother  officers,  and 
on  his  way  back  a  little  English  girl  of  twelve  years  quietly  and 
mysteriously  signed  to  him  to  follow  her.  He  did  so  to  a 
wretched  cottage,  wherein  lived  the  grandmother  of  the  child. 
Garneray  had  been  kind  to  the  poor  old  woman  and  had  painted 
the  child's  portrait  for  nothing,  and  in  return  she  warned  him 
that  the  constables  were  going  to  arrest  him.  Garneray 
determined  to  escape. 

He  got  away  from  Bishop's  Waltham  and  was  fortunate 
enough  to  get  an  inside  place  in  a  night  coach,  the  other  places 
being  occupied  by  an  English  clergyman,  his  wife,  and  daughter. 
Miss  Flora  soon  recognized  him  as  an  escaped  prisoner  and 
came  to  his  rescue  when,  at  a  halting  place,  the  coach  was 
searched  for  a  runaway  from  Bishop's  Waltham.  Eventually 
he  reached  Portsmouth,  where  he  found  a  good  English  friend 
of  his  prison-ship  days,  and  with  him  he  stayed  in  hiding  for 
nearly  a  year,  until  April  1813. 


312  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Longing  to  return  to  France,  he  joined  with  three  recently- 
escaped  French  officers  in  an  arrangement  with  smugglers — 
the  usual  intermediaries  in  these  escapes — to  take  them  there. 
To  cut  short  a  long  story  of  adventure  and  misadventure,  such 
as  we  shall  have  in  plenty  when  we  come  to  that  part  of  this 
section  which  deals  with  the  escapes  of  paroled  prisoners, 
Garneray  and  his  companions  at  last  embarked  with  the  smug- 
glers at  an  agreed  price  of  £10  each. 

The  smugglers  turned  out  to  be  rascals  ;  and  a  dispute  with 
them  about  extra  charges  ended  in  a  mid-Channel  fight,  during 
which  one  of  the  smugglers  was  killed.  Within  sight  of  the 
French  coast  the  British  ship  Victory  captured  them,  and  once 
more  Garneray  found  himself  in  the  cachot  of  the  Portsmouth 
prison- ship  Vengeance. 

Garneray  was  liberated  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  in  1814,  after 
nine  years'  captivity.  He  was  then  appointed  Court  Marine 
Painter  to  Louis  XVIII,  and  received  the  medal  of  the  Legion 
of  Honour. 

The  Marquis  d'Hautpol  was  taken  prisoner  at  Arapiles, 
badly  wounded,  in  July  1812,  and  with  some  four  hundred 
other  prisoners  was  landed  at  Portsmouth  on  December  12, 
and  thence  sent  on  parole  to  '  Brigsnorth,  petite  ville  de  la 
Principaute  de  Galles ',  clearly  meant  for  Bridgnorth  in 
Shropshire.  Here,  he  says,  were  from  eight  to  nine  hundred 
other  prisoners,  some  of  whom  had  been  there  eight  or  nine 
years,  but  certainly  he  must  have  been  mistaken,  for  at  no 
parole  place  were  ever  more  than  four  hundred  prisoners. 
The  usual  rules  obtained  here,  and  the  allowance  was  the 
equivalent  of  one  franc  fifty  centimes  a  day. 

Wishing  to  employ  his  time  profitably  he  engaged  a  fellow- 
prisoner  to  teach  him  English,  to  whom  he  promised  a  salary 
as  soon  as  he  should  receive  his  remittances.  A  letter  from 
his  brother-in-law  told  him  that  his  sisters,  believing  him  dead, 
as  they  had  received  no  news  from  him,  had  gone  into  mourn- 
ing, and  enclosed  a  draft  for  4,000  francs,  which  came  through 
the  bankers  Perregaux  of  Paris  and  '  Coutz  '  of  London.  He 
complains  bitterly  of  the  sharp  practices  of  the  local  Agent,  who 
paid  him  his  4,000  francs,  but  in  paper  money,  which  was  at 
the  time  at  a  discount  of  twenty-five  per  cent,  and  who,  upon 


PAROLE  LIFE  313 

his  claiming  the  difference,  '  me  repondit  fort  insolemment  que 
le  papier  anglais  valait  autant  que  Tor  frangais,  et  que  si  je  me 
permettais  d'attaquer  encore  le  credit  de  la  banque,  il  me 
ferait  conduire  aux  pontons  '.  So  he  had  to  accept  the  situa- 
tion. 

The  Marquis,  as  we  shall  see,  was  not  the  man  to  invent  such 
an  accusation,  so  it  may  be  believed  that  the  complaints  so 
often  made  about  the  unfair  practice  of  the  British  Government, 
in  the  matter  of  moneys  due  to  prisoners,  were  not  without 
foundation.  The  threat  of  the  Agent  to  send  the  Marquis  to  the 
hulks  if  he  persisted  in  claiming  his  dues,  may  have  been  but 
a  threat,  but  it  sounds  as  if  these  gentlemen  were  invested  with 
very  great  powers.  The  Marquis  and  a  fellow  prisoner,  Deche- 
vrieres,  adjutant  of  the  59th,  messed  together,  modestly,  but 
better  than  the  other  poorer  men,  who  clubbed  together  and 
bought  an  ox  head,  with  which  they  made  soup  and  ate  with 
potatoes. 

A  cousin  of  the  Marquis,  the  Comtesse  de  Beon,  knew  a  Miss 
Vernon,  one  of  the  Queen's  ladies  of  honour,  and  she  introduced 
the  Marquis  to  Lord '  Malville  ',  whose  seat  was  near  Bridgnorth, 
and  who  invited  him  to  the  house.  I  give  d'Hautpol's  im- 
pression in  his  own  words  : 

*  Ce  lord  etait  poli,  mais,  comme  tous  les  Anglais,  ennemi 
mortel  de  la  France.  J'etais  humilie  de  ses  prevenances  qui 
sentaient  la  protection.  Je  revins  cependant  une  seconde  fois 
chez  lui ;  il  y  avait  ce  jour-la  nombreuse  compagnie  ;  plusieurs 
officiers  anglais  s'y  trouvaient.  Sans  egards  pour  ma  position 
et  avec  une  certaine  affectation,  ils  se  mirent  a  deblaterer  en 
frangais  contre  1'Empereur  et  1'armee.  Je  me  levai  de  table 
indigne,  et  demandai  a  Lord  Malville  la  permission  de  me 
retirer  ;  il  s'efforce  de  me  retenir  en  blamant  ses  compatriotes, 
mais  je  persistai.  Je  n'acceptai  plus  d'invitations  chez  lui.' 

All  good  news  from  the  seat  of  war,  says  the  Marquis,  was 
carefully  hidden  from  the  prisoners,  so  that  they  heard  nothing 
about  Lutzen,  Bautzen,  and  Dresden.  But  the  news  of  Leipsic 
was  loudly  proclaimed.  The  prisoners  could  not  go  out  of 
doors  without  being  insulted.  One  day  the  people  dressed  up 
a  figure  to  represent  Bonaparte,  put  it  on  a  donkey,  and  paraded 
the  town  with  it.  Under  the  windows  of  the  lodging  of  General 


314  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Veiland,  who  had  been  taken  at  Badajos,  of  which  place  he 
was  governor,  they  rigged  up  a  gibbet,  hung  the  figure  on  it, 
and  afterwards  burned  it. 

At  one  time  a  general  uprising  of  the  prisoners  of  war  in 
England  was  seriously  discussed.  There  were  in  Britain  5,000 
officers  on  parole,  and  60,000  men  on  the  hulks  and  in  prisons. 
The  idea  was  to  disarm  the  guards  all  at  once,  to  join  forces  at 
a  given  point,  to  march  on  Plymouth,  liberate  the  men  on  the 
hulks,  and  thence  go  to  Portsmouth  and  do  the  same  there. 
But  the  authorities  became  suspicious,  the  generals  were 
separated  from  the  other  officers,  and  many  were  sent  to  distant 
cantonments.  The  Marquis  says  that  there  were  1,500  at 
Bridgnorth,  and  that  half  of  these  were  sent  to  Oswestry. 
This  was  in  November,  1813. 

So  to  Oswestry  d'Hautpol  was  sent.  From  Oswestry  during 
his  stay  escaped  three  famous  St.  Malo  privateer  captains. 
After  a  terrible  journey  of  risks  and  privations  they  reached 
the  coast — he  does  not  say  where — and  off  it  they  saw  at 
anchor  a  trading  vessel  of  which  nearly  all  the  crew  had  come 
ashore.  In  the  night  the  prisoners  swam  out,  with  knives  in 
their  mouths,  and  boarded  the  brig.  They  found  a  sailor 
sleeping  on  deck  ;  him  they  stabbed,  and  also  another  who  was 
in  the  cabin.  They  spared  the  cabin  boy,  who  showed  them 
the  captain's  trunks,  with  the  contents  of  which  they  dressed 
themselves.  Then  they  cut  the  cable,  hoisted  sail  and  made 
off — all  within  gunshot  of  a  man-of-war.  They  reached 
Morlaix  in  safety,  although  pursued  for  some  distance  by 
a  man-of-war.  The  brig  was  a  valuable  prize,  for  she  had  just 
come  from  the  West  Indies,  and  was  richly  laden.  This  the 
Frenchmen  at  Oswestry  learned  from  the  English  newspapers, 
and  they  celebrated  the  exploit  boisterously. 

Just  after  this  the  Marquis  received  a  letter  from  Miss  Vernon, 
in  which  she  said  that  if  he  chose  to  join  the  good  Frenchmen 
who  were  praying  for  restoration  of  the  Bourbons,  she  would 
get  him  a  passport  which  would  enable  him  to  join  Louis  XVIII 
at  Hartwell.  To  this  the  Marquis  replied  that  he  had  been  made 
prisoner  under  the  tricolour,  that  he  was  still  in  the  Emperor's 
service,  and  that  for  the  moment  he  had  no  idea  of  changing 
his  flag,  adding  that  rather  than  do  this  he  preferred  to  remain 


PAROLE  LIFE  315 

a  prisoner.  Miss  Vernon  did  not  write  again  on  this  topic 
until  the  news  came  of  the  great  events  of  1814 — the  victories 
of  the  British  at  San  Sebastian,  Pampeluna,  the  Bidassoa,  the 
Adur,  Orthez  and  Toulouse,  when  she  wrote  : 

'  I  hope  that  now  you  have  no  more  scruples  ;  I  send  you 
a  passport  for  London  ;  come  and  see  me,  for  I  shall  be  de- 
lighted to  renew  our  acquaintance.' 

He  accepted  the  offer,  went  to  London,  and  found  Miss 
Vernon  lodged  in  St.  James's  Palace.  Here  she  got  apartments 
for  him ;  he  was  feted  and  lionized  and  taken  to  see  the  sights 
of  London  in  a  royal  carriage.  At  Westminster  Hall  he  was 
grieved  to  see  the  eagle  of  the  39th  regiment,  taken  during  the 
retreat  from  Portugal,  and  that  of  the  loist,  taken  at  Arapiles. 
Then  he  returned  to  France. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
THE  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  SCOTLAND 

WITH  the  great  Scottish  prisons  at  Perth,  Valleyfield,  and 
Edinburgh  I  have  dealt  elsewhere,  and  it  is  with  very  particular 
pleasure  that  I  shall  now  treat  of  the  experiences  of  prisoners 
in  the  parole  towns  of  Scotland,  for  the  reason  that,  almost 
without  exception,  our  involuntary  visitors  seem  to  have 
been  treated  with  a  kindness  and  forbearance  not  generally 
characteristic  of  the  reception  they  had  south  of  the  Tweed, 
although  of  course  there  were  exceptions. 

As  we  shall  see,  Sir  Walter  Scott  took  kindly  notice  of  the 
foreigners  quartered  in  his  neighbourhood,  but  that  he  never 
lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  they  were  foreigners  and  warriors  is 
evident  from  the  following  letter  to  Lady  Abercorn,  dated 
May  3,  1812  : 

'  I  am  very  apprehensive  of  the  consequences  of  a  scarcity 
at  this  moment,  especially  from  the  multitude  of  French 
prisoners  who  are  scattered  through  the  small  towns  in  this 
country  ;  as  I  think,  very  improvidently.  As  the  peace  of  this 
county  is  intrusted  to  me,  I  thought  it  necessary  to  state  to  the 
Justice  Clerk  that  the  arms  of  the  local  militia  were  kept  with- 
out any  guard  in  a  warehouse  in  Kelso  ;  that  there  was  nothing 
to  prevent  the  prisoners  there,  at  Selkirk,  and  at  Jedburgh, 
from  joining  any  one  night,  and  making  themselves  masters 
of  this  depot  :  that  the  sheriffs  of  Roxburgh  and  Selkirk,  in 
order  to  put  down  such  a  commotion,  could  only  command 
about  three  troops  of  yeomanry  to  be  collected  from  a  great 
distance,  and  these  were  to  attack  about  500  disciplined  men, 
who,  in  the  event  supposed,  would  be  fully  provided  with  arms 
and  ammunition,  and  might,  if  any  alarm  should  occasion  the 
small  number  of  troops  now  at  Berwick  to  be  withdrawn,  make 
themselves  masters  of  that  sea-port,  the  fortifications  of  which, 
although  ruinous,  would  serve  to  defend  them  until  cannon  was 
brought  against  them.' 

The  Scottish  towns  where  prisoners  of  war  on  parole  were 
quartered,  of  which  I  have  been  able  to  get  information,  are 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  SCOTLAND         317 

Cupar,  Kelso,  Selkirk,  Peebles,  Sanquhar,  Dumfries,  Melrose, 
Jedburgh,  Hawick,  and  Lauder. 

By  the  kind  permission  of  Mrs.  Keddie  ('  Sarah  Tytler  ') 
I  am  able  to  give  very  interesting  extracts  from  her  book, 
Three  Generations:  The  Story  of  a  Middle-Class  Scottish  Family, 
referring  to  the  residence  of  the  prisoners  at  Cupar,  and  the 
friendly  intercourse  between  them  and  Mrs.  Keddie's  grand- 
father, Mr.  Henry  Gibb,  of  Balass,  Cupar. 

'  Certainly  the  foreign  officers  were  made  curiously  welcome 
in  the  country  town,  which  their  presence  seemed  to  enliven 
rather  than  to  offend.  The  strangers'  courageous  endurance, 
their  perennial  cheerfulness,  their  ingenious  devices  to  occupy 
their  time  and  improve  the  situation,  aroused  much  friendly 
interest  and  amusement.  The  position  must  have  been 
rendered  more  bearable  to  the  sufferers,  and  perhaps  more 
respectable  in  the  eyes  of  the  spectators,  from  the  fact,  for 
which  I  am  not  able  to  account,  that,  undoubtedly,  the  prisoners 
had  among  themselves,  individually  and  collectively,  con- 
siderable funds. 

'  The  residents  treated  the  jetsam  and  flotsam  of  war  with  more 
than  forbearance,  with  genuine  liberality  and  kindness,  receiving 
them  into  their  houses  on  cordial  terms.  Soon  there  was  not  a 
festivity  in  the  town  at  which  the  French  prisoners  were  not  per- 
mitted— nay,  heartily  pressed  to  attend.  How  the  complacent 
guests  viewed  those  rejoicings  in  which  the  natives,  as  they 
frequently  did,  commemorated  British  victories  over  the  enemy 
is  not  on  record. 

'  But  there  was  no  thought  of  war  and  its  fierce  passions 
among  the  youth  of  the  company  in  the  simple  dinners,  suppers, 
and  carpet- dances  in  private  houses.  There  were  congratula- 
tions on  the  abundance  of  pleasant  partners,  and  the  assurance 
that  no  girl  need  now  sit  out  a  dance  or  lack  an  escort  if  her 
home  was  within  a  certain  limited  distance  beyond  which  the 
prisoners  were  not  at  liberty  to  stray. 

'  I  have  heard  my  mother  and  a  cousin  of  hers  dwell  on  the 
courtesy  and  agreeableness  of  the  outlanders — what  good 
dancers,  what  excellent  company,  as  the  country  girls'  escorts. 
...  As  was  almost  inevitable,  the  natural  result  of  such 
intimacy  followed,  whether  or  not  it  was  acceptable  to  the 
open-hearted  entertainers.  Love  and  marriage  ensued  between 
the  youngsters,  the  vanquished  and  the  victors.  A  Colonel, 
who  was  one  of  the  band,  married  a  daughter  of  the  Episcopal 
clergyman  in  the  town,  and  I  am  aware  of  at  least  two  more 
weddings  which  eventually  took  place  between  the  strangers 


318  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

and   the    inhabitants.     (These   occurred   at   the   end   of   the 
prisoners'  stay.)' 

Balass,  where  the  Gibbs  lived,  was  within  parole  limits. 
One  day  Gibb  asked  the  whole  lot  of  the  prisoners  to  break- 
fast, and  forgot  to  tell  Mrs.  Gibb  that  he  had  done  so. 

'  Happily  she  was  a  woman  endowed  with  tranquillity  of 
temper,  while  the  ample  resources  of  an  old  bountiful  farm- 
house were  speedily  brought  to  bear  on  the  situation,  dis- 
pensed as  they  were  by  the  fair  and  capable  henchwomen  who 
relieved  the  mistress  of  the  house  of  the  more  arduous  of  her 
duties.  There  was  no  disappointment  in  store  for  the  patient, 
ingenious  gentlemen  who  were  wont  to  edify  and  divert  their 
nominal  enemy  by  making  small  excursions  into  the  fields  to 
snare  larks  for  their  private  breakfast-tables. 

'  Another  generous  invitation  of  my  grandfather's  ran  a 
narrow  risk  of  having  a  tragic  end.  Not  all  his  sense  of  the 
obligation  of  a  host  nor  his  compassion  for  the  misfortunes  of 
a  gallant  foe  could  at  times  restrain  race  antagonism,  and  his 
intense  mortification  at  any  occurrence  which  would  savour  of 
national  discomfiture.  Once,  in  entertaining  some  of  these 
foreign  officers,  among  whom  was  a  maitre  d'armes,  Harry 
Gibb  was  foolish  enough  to  propose  a  bout  of  fencing  with  the 
expert.  It  goes  without  saying  that  within  the  first  few  minutes 
the  yeoman's  sword  was  dexterously  knocked  out  of  his  hand. 
.  .  .  Every  other  consideration  went  down  before  the  deadly 
insult.  In  less  time  than  it  takes  to  tell  the  story  the  play 
became  grim  earnest.  My  grandfather  turned  his  fists  on  the 
other  combatant,  taken  unawares  and  not  prepared  for  the 
attack,  sprang  like  a  wild-cat  at  his  throat,  and,  if  the 
bystanders  had  not  interposed  and  separated  the  pair,  murder 
might  have  been  committed  under  his  own  roof  by  the  kindest- 
hearted  man  in  the  countryside.' 

This  increasing  intimacy  between  the  prisoners  and  the 
inhabitants  displeased  the  Government,  and  the  crisis  came 
when,  in  return  for  the  kindness  shown  them,  the  prisoners 
determined  to  erect  a  theatre  : 

'  The  French  prisoners  were  suffered  to  play  only  once  in 
their  theatre,  and  then  the  rout  came  for  them.  Amidst  loud 
and  sincere  lamentation  from  all  concerned,  the  officers  were 
summarily  removed  in  a  body,  and  deposited  in  a  town  at  some 
distance  .  .  .  from  their  former  guardians.  As  a  final  gage  d'amitie 
.  .  .  the  owners  of  the  theatre  left  it  as  a  gift  to  the  town/ 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  KELSO  319 

Later — in  the  'thirties — this  theatre  was  annexed  to  the 
Grammar  School  to  make  extra  class-rooms,  for  it  was  an  age 
when  Scotland  was  opposed  to  theatres. 

KELSO  x 

For  some  of  the  following  notes,  I  am  indebted  to  the  late 
Mr.  Macbeth  Forbes,  who  helped  me  notably  elsewhere,  and 
who  kindly  gave  me  permission  to  use  them. 

Some  of  the  prisoners  on  parole  at  Kelso  were  sailors,  but 
the  majority  were  soldiers  from  Spain,  Portugal,  and  the  West 
Indies,  and  about  twenty  Sicilians.  The  inhabitants  gave 
them  a  warm  welcome,  hospitably  entertained  them,  and  in 
return  the  prisoners,  many  of  whom  were  men  of  means,  gave 
balls  at  the  inns — the  only  establishments  in  these  pre-parish 
hall  days  where  accommodation  for  large  parties  could  be  had — 
at  which  they  appeared  gaily  attired  with  wondrous  frills  to 
their  shirts,  and  white  stockings. 

'  The  time  of  their  stay ',  says  Mr.  Forbes,  '  was  the  gayest 
that  Kelso  had  ever  seen  since  fatal  Flodden.' 

Here  as  elsewhere  there  were  artists  among  them  who  painted 
miniatures  and  landscapes  and  gave  lessons,  plaiters  of  straw 
and  manufacturers  of  curious  beautiful  articles  in  coloured 
straw,  wood-carvers,  botanists,  and  fishermen.  These  last, 
it  is  said,  first  introduced  the  sport  of  catching  fish  through 
holes  in  the  ice  in  mid-winter.  Billiards,  also,  are  said  to  have 
been  introduced  into  Scotland  by  the  prisoners.  They  mostly 
did  their  own  cooking,  and  it  is  noted  that  they  spoiled  some  of 
the  landladies'  tables  by  chopping  up  frogs  for  fricassees.  They 
bought  up  the  old  Kelso  '  theatre  ',  the  occasional  scene  of 
action  for  wandering  Thespians,  which  was  in  a  close  off  the 
Horse-Market,  rebuilt  and  decorated  it,  some  of  the  latter  work 
still  being  visible  in  the  ceiling  of  the  ironmongery  store  of  to- 
day. One  difficulty  was  the  very  scanty  dressing  accommoda- 
tion, so  the  actors  often  dressed  at  home,  and  their  passage 
therefrom  to  the  theatre  in  all  sorts  of  garbs  was  a  grand 
opportunity  for  the  gibes  of  the  youth  of  Kelso.  Kelso  was 

1  For  much  pertaining  to  Kelso,  as  for  other  matters  associated  with 
prisoners  of  war  on  parole  in  Scotland,  I  have  to  thank  Mr.  J.  John 
Vernon,  Hon.  Secretary  of  the  Hawick  Archaeological  Society. 


320  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

nothing  if  not  '  proper ',  so  that  when  upon  one  occasion  the 
postmistress,  a  married  woman,  was  seen  accompanying 
a  fantastically  arrayed  prisoner-actor  to  the  theatre  from  his 
lodging,  Mrs.  Grundy  had  much  to  say  for  some  time.  On 
special  occasions,  such  as  when  the  French  play  was  patronized 
by  a  local  grandee  like  the  Duchess  of  Roxburgh,  the  streets 
were  carpeted  with  red  cloth. 

Brement,  a  privateer  officer,  advertised  :  '  Mr.  Brement,  Pro- 
fessor of  Belles-Lettres  and  French  Prisoner  of  War,  respect- 
fully informs  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  Kelso  that  he  teaches 
the  French  and  Latin  languages.  Apply  for  terms  at  Mrs. 
Matheson's,  near  the  Market  Place.'  He  is  said  to  have  done 
well. 

Many  of  the  privateersmen  spoke  English,  as  might  be 
expected  from  their  constant  intercourse  with  men  and  places 
in  the  Channel. 

One  prisoner  here  was  suspected  of  being  concerned  with  the 
manufacture  of  forged  bank-notes,  so  rife  at  this  time  in 
Scotland,  as  he  ordered  of  Archibald  Rutherford,  stationer, 
paper  of  a  particular  character  of  which  he  left  a  pattern. 

Escapes  were  not  very  frequent.  On  July  25, 1811,  Surgeon- 
Major  Violland,  of  the  Hebe  corvette,  escaped.  So  did  Ensign 
Parnagan,  of  the  Hautpol  privateer,  on  August  5,  and  on  23rd  of 
the  same  month  Lieutenant  Rossignol  got  away.  On  Novem- 
ber ii  one  Bouchart  escaped,  and  in  June  1812  Lieutenant 
Anglade  was  missing,  and  a  year  later  several  got  off,  assisted, 
it  was  said,  by  an  American,  who  was  arrested. 

In  November  1811  the  removal  of  all  *  midshipmen  '  to 
Valleyfield,  which  was  ordered  at  all  Scottish  parole  towns, 
took  place  from  Kelso. 

Lieutenant  Journeil,  of  the  27th  Regiment,  committed 
suicide  in  September  1812  by  swallowing  sulphuric  acid.  He 
is  said  to  have  become  insane  from  home-sickness.  He  was 
buried  at  the  Knowes,  just  outside  the  churchyard,  it  being 
unconsecrated  ground. 

A  Captain  Levasseur  married  an  aunt  of  Sir  George  Harrison, 
M.P.,  a  former  Provost  of  Edinburgh,  and  the  Levasseurs  still 
keep  up  correspondence  with  Scotland. 

On  May  24,  1814,  the  prisoners  began  to  leave,  and  by  the 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  KELSO  321 

middle  of  June  all  had  gone.    The  Kelso  Mail  said  that  '  their 

deportment  had  been  uniformly  conciliatory  and  respectable  *. 

In  Fullarton's  Imperial  Gazetteer  of  Scotland  we  read  that : 

'  From  November  1810  to  June  1814,  Kelso  was  the  abode  of 
a  body,  never  more  than  230  in  number,  of  foreign  prisoners  of 
war,  who,  to  a  very  noticeable  degree,  inoculated  the  place 
with  their  fashionable  follies,  and  even,  in  some  instances 
tainted  it  with  their  laxity  of  morals/ 

Another  account  says  : 

'  Their  stay  here  seems  to  have  been  quiet  and  happy, 
although  one  man  committed  suicide.  They  carried  on  the 
usual  manufactures  in  wood  and  bone  and  basket  work  ;  gave 
performances  in  the  local  theatre,  which  was  decorated  by 
them  ;  were  variously  employed  by  local  people,  one  man 
devoting  his  time  to  the  tracking  and  snaring  of  a  rare  bird 
which  arrived  during  severe  weather.' 

Rutherford's  Southern  Counties  Register  and  Directory  for 
1866  says  : 

'  The  older  inhabitants  of  Kelso  remember  the  French 
prisoners  of  war  quartered  here  as  possessed  of  many  amiable 
qualities,  of  which  "  great  mannerliness  "  and  buoyancy  of 
spirits,  in  many  instances  under  the  depressing  effects  of  great 
poverty,  were  the  most  conspicuous  of  their  peculiarities ;  the 
most  singular  to  the  natives  of  Kelso  was  their  habit  of  gather- 
ing for  use  different  kinds  of  wild  weeds  by  the  road  side,  and 
hedge-roots,  and  killing  small  birds  to  eat — the  latter  a  practise 
considered  not  much  removed  from  cannibalism.  That  they 
were  frivolous  we  will  admit,  as  many  of  them  wore  earrings, 
and  one,  a  Pole,  had  a  ring  to  his  nose  ;  while  all  were  boyishly 
fond  of  amusement,  and  were  merry,  good-natured  creatures/ 

One  memorable  outbreak  of  these  spirits  is  recorded  in  the 
Kelso  Mail  of  January  30,  1812  : 

'  In  consequence  of  certain  riotous  proceedings  which  took 
place  in  this  town  near  the  East  end  of  the  Horn  Market  on 
Christmas  last,  by  which  the  peace  of  the  neighbourhood  was 
very  much  disturbed,  an  investigation  of  the  circumstances 
took  place  before  our  respectable  magistrate,  Bailie  Smith. 
From  this  it  appeared  that  several  of  the  French  prisoners  of 
war  here  on  parole  had  been  dining  together  on  Christmas  Day, 
and  that  a  part  of  them  were  engaged  in  the  riotous  proceedings/ 

These  '  riotous  proceedings  '  are  said  to  have  amounted  to 


322  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

little  more  than  a  more  or  less  irregular  arm-in-arm  procession 
down  the  street  to  the  accompaniment  of  lively  choruses. 
However,  the  Agent  reported  it  to  the  Transport  Office,  who 
ordered  each  prisoner  to  pay  £i  is.  fine,  to  be  deducted  from 
their  allowance.  The  account  winds  up  : 

'  It  is  only  an  act  of  justice,  however,  to  add  that  in  so  far 
as  we  have  heard,  the  conduct  of  the  French  prisoners  here  on 
parole  has  been  regular  and  inoffensive.' 

On  the  anniversary  of  St.  Andrew  in  1810,  the  Kelso  Lodge 
of  Freemasons  was  favoured  with  a  visit  from  several  French 
officers,  prisoners  of  war,  at  present  resident  in  the  town.  The 
Right  Worshipful  in  addressing  them,  expressed  the  wishes  of 
himself  and  the  Brethren  to  do  everything  in  their  power  to 
promote  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  the  exiles.  After  which 
he  proposed  the  health  of  the  Brethren  who  were  strangers  in 
a  foreign  land,  which  was  drunk  with  enthusiastic  applause. 

There  is  frequent  mention  of  their  appearance  at  Masonic 
meetings,  when  the  '  harmony  was  greatly  increased  by  the 
polite  manners  and  the  vocal  power  of  our  French  Brethren '. 

There  are  a  great  many  of  their  signatures  on  the  parchment 
to  which  all  strangers  had  to  subscribe  their  names  by  order  of 
the  Grand  Lodge.1 

The  only  war-prisoner  relics  in  the  museum  are  some  swords. 

I  have  to  thank  Sir  George  Douglas  for  the  following  interest- 
ing letters  from  French  prisoners  in  Kelso. 

The  first  is  in  odd  Latin,  the  second  in  fair  English,  the  third 
in  French.  The  two  latter  I  am  glad  to  give  as  additional 
testimonies  to  the  kindly  treatment  of  the  enforced  exiles 
amongst  us. 

The  first  is  as  follows  : 

'  Kelso  :   die  duodecima  mensis  Augusti  anni  1811. 

'  Honorifice  Praefecte : 

'  Monitum  te  facio,  hoc  mane,  die  duodecima  mensis  Augusti, 
hora  decima  et  semi,  per  vicum  transeuntem  vestimenta  mea 
omnino  malefacta  fuisse  cum  aqua  tarn  foetida  ac  mulier  quae 
jactavit  illam. 

'  Noxia  mulier  quae  vestimenta  mea,  conceptis  verbis,  abluere 

1  The  above,  and  other  Masonic  notes  which  follow,  are  from  the 
History  of  Freemasonry  in  the  Province  of  Roxburgh,  Peebles,  and 
Selkirkshire,  by  Mr.  W.  Fred  Vernon. 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  KELSO  323 

noluit,  culpam  insulsitate  cumulando,  uxor  est  domino  Wm. 
Stuart  Lanio  [Butcher  ?] 

'  Ut  persuasum  mihi  est  hanc  civitatem  optimis  legibus  nimis 
constitutam  esse  ut  ille  eventus  impunitus  feratur,  de  illo 
certiorem  te  facio,  magnifice  Praefecte,  ut  similis  casus  iterum 
non  renovetur  erga  captivos  Gallos,  quorum  tu  es  curator,  et, 
occurente  occasione,  defensor. 

'  Quandoquidem  aequitas  tua  non  mihi  soli  sed  cunctis  plane 
nota  est,  spe  magna  nitor  te  jus  dicturam  expostulation!  meae, 
cogendo  praedictam  mulierem  et  quamprimum  laventur  vesti- 
menta  mea.  In  ista  expectatione  gratam  habeas  salutationem 
illius  qui  mancipio  et  nexo,  honoratissime  praefecte,  tuus  est. 

'  MATRIEN. 

'  Honorato,  Honoratissimo  Domino  Smith, 
'  Captivorum  Gallorum  praefecto.     Kelso.' 

The  gist  of  the  above  being  that  Mrs.  Stuart  threw  dirty 
water  over  M.  Matrien  as  he  passed  along  the  street  in  Kelso, 
and  he  demands  her  punishment  and  the  cleansing  of  his 
clothes. 

The  second  letter  runs  : 

'  Paris,  on  the  6th  day  of  May,  1817. 

*  DEAR  SIR, 

'  I  have  since  I  left  Kelso  wrote  many  letters  to  my  Scots 
friends,  but  I  have  been  unfortunate  enough  to  receive  no 
answer.  The  wandering  life  I  have  led  during  four  years  is, 
without  doubt,  the  cause  of  that  silence,  for  my  friends  have 
been  so  good  to  me  that  I  cannot  imagine  they  have  entirely 
forgotten  me.  In  all  my  letters  my  heart  has  endeavoured  to 
prove  how  thankful  I  was,  but  my  gratitude  is  of  that  kind 
that  one  may  feel  but  cannot  express.  Pray,  my  good  Sir,  if 
you  remember  yet  your  prisonner,  be  so  kind  as  to  let  him 
have  a  few  lignes  from  you  and  all  news  about  all  his  old  good 
friends. 

'  The  difficulty  which  I  have  to  express  myself  in  your  tongue, 
and  the  countryman  of  yours  who  is  to  take  my  letter,  compel 
me  to  end  sooner  than  I  wish,  but  if  expressions  want  to  my 
mouth,  be  assure  in  revange  that  my  heart  shall  always  be  full 
of  all  those  feelings  which  you  deserve  so  rightly. 

*  Farewell,  I  wish  you  all  kind  of  happiness. 

'  Your  friend  for  ever, 
'  LE  CHEVALIER  LEBAS  DE  STE.  CROIX. 

'  My  direction :  a  Monsieur  le  Chevalier  Lebas  de  Ste.  Croix, 
Capitaine  a  la  legion  de  ITsere,  caserne  de  La  Courtille  a  Paris. 
P.S. — All  my  thanks  and  good  wishes  first  to  your  family,  to 

Y  2 


324  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

the  family  Waldie,  Davis,  Doctor  Douglas,  Rutherford,  and 
my  good  landlady  Mistress  Elliot. 

'  To  Mister  John  Smith  Esq., 

'  bridge  street, 

'  Kelso,  Scotland.' 

(In  Kelso,  towards  the  end  of  1912,  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
making  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Provost  Smith,  grandson  of 
the  gentleman  to  whom  the  foregoing  two  letters  were  addressed, 
and  Mr.  Smith  was  kind  enough  to  present  me  with  a  tiny  ring 
of  bone,  on  which  is  minutely  worked  the  legend  :  '  I  love  to 
see  you',  done  by  a  French  officer  on  parole  in  Kelso  in  1811.) 

The  third  letter  is  as  follows  : 

'  Je,  soussigne  officier  de  la  Legion  d'Honneur,  Lieutenant 
Colonel  au  8e  Regiment  de  Dragons,  sensible  aux  bons  traite- 
ments  que  les  prisonniers  francais  sur  parole  en  cette  ville 
recoivent  journellement  de  la  part  de  Mr.  Smith,  law  agent, 
invite  en  mon  nom  et  en  celui  de  mes  compagnons  d'infortune 
ceux  de  nos  compatriotes  entre  les  mains  desquels  le  hasard  de 
la  guerre  pourroit  faire  tomber  Mesdemoiselles  St.  Saure  (?) 
d'avoir  pour  elles  tous  les  egards  et  attentions  qu'elles  meritent, 
et  de  nous  aider  par  tous  les  bons  offices  qu'ils  pourront  rendre 
a  ces  dames  a  acquitter  une  partie  de  la  reconnaissance  que 
nous  devons  a  leur  famille. 

'  Kelso.     7  Avril,  1811. 

'DUDOUIT.' 

SELKIRK 

In  1811,  ninety-three  French  prisoners  arrived  at  Selkirk, 
many  of  them  army  surgeons.  Their  mile  limits  from  the 
central  point  were,  on  the  Hawick  road,  to  Knowes ;  over 
the  bridge,  as  far  as  the  Philiphaugh  entries ;  and  towards 
Bridgehead,  the  '  Prisoners'  Bush '.  An  old  man  named 
Douglas,  says  Mr.  Craig-Brown  (from  whose  book  on  Selkirk, 
I  take  this  information,  and  to  whom  I  am  indebted 
for  much  hospitality  and  his  many  pains  in  acting  as  my 
mentor  in  Selkirk),  remembered  them  coming  to  his  father's 
tavern  at  Heathenlie  for  their  morning  rum,  and  astonishing  the 
people  with  what  they  ate.  '  They  made  tea  out  of  dried  whun 
blooms  and  skinned  the  verra  paddas.  The  doctor  anes  was 
verra  clever,  and  some  of  them  had  plenty  o'  siller/ 

On  October  13,  1811,  the  prisoners  constructed  a  balloon, 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  SELKIRK          325 

and  sent  it  up  amidst  such  excitement  as  Selkirk  rarely  felt. 
Indeed,  the  Yeomanry  then  out  for  their  training  could  not  be 
mustered  until  they  had  seen  the  balloon. 

A  serious  question  came  up  in  1814  concerning  the  public 
burden  which  the  illegitimate  children  of  these  gentlemen  were 
causing,  and  complaints  were  sent  to  the  Transport  Office, 
whose  reply  was  that  the  fathers  of  the  children  were  liable  to 
the  civil  law,  and  that  unless  they  should  provide  for  their 
maintenance,  they  should  go  to  prison. 

Two  of  the  prisoners  quarrelled  about  a  girl  and  fought  a 
bloodless  duel  at  Linglee  for  half  an  hour,  when  the  authorities 
appeared  upon  the  scene  and  arrested  the  principals,  who  were 
sent  to  jail  for  a  month. 

Mr.  J.  John  Vernon  wrote  : 

'  In  an  article  upon  the  old  Selkirk  Subscription  Library, 
reference  is  made  to  the  use  of  the  Library  by  the  officers  who 
were  confined  in  Selkirk  and  district  during  the  Napoleonic  wars. 

'  Historical  reference  is  furnished  incidentally  in  the  pages 
of  the  Day  Book — the  register  of  volumes  borrowed  and 
returned.  There  is  no  mention  of  such  a  privilege  being  con- 
ferred by  the  members  or  committee,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
all  the  French  officers  who  were  prisoners  in  Selkirk  during  the 
Napoleonic  wars  were  allowed  to  take  books  from  the  Library 
as  freely  and  as  often  as  they  chose.  Beginning  with  April  5th, 
1811,  and  up  to  May  4th,  1814,  there  were  no  less  than  132 
closely  written  foolscap  pages  devoted  exclusively  to  their 
book-borrowing  transactions.  They  were  omnivorous  readers, 
with  a  penchant  for  History  and  Biography,  but  devouring  all 
sorts  of  literature  from  the  poetical  to  the  statistical.  Probably 
because  the  Librarian  could  not  trust  himself  to  spell  them,  the 
officers  themselves  entered  their  names,  as  well  as  the  names  of 
books.  Sometimes,  when  they  made  an  entry  for  a  comrade 
they  made  blunders  in  spelling  the  other  man's  name  :  that  of 
Forsonney,  for  instance,  being  given  in  four  or  five  different 
ways.  As  the  total  number  of  prisoners  was  94,  it  can  be  con- 
cluded from  the  list  appended  that  only  two  or  three  did  not 
join  the  Library. 

'  Besides  the  French  prisoners,  the  students  attending 
Professor  Lawson's  lectures  seem  to  have  had  the  privilege  of 
reading,  but  for  them  all  about  two  pages  suffice.  It  is  said 
that,  moved  by  a  desire  to  bring  these  benighted  foreigners  to 
belief  in  the  true  faith,  Doctor  Lawson  added  French  to  the 
more  ancient  languages  he  was  already  proficient  in,  but  the 


326  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

aliens  were  nearly  all  men  of  education  who  knew  their  Voltaire, 
with  the  result  that  the  Professor  made  poor  progress  with  his 
well  meant  efforts  at  proselytism,  if  he  did  not  even  receive 
a  shock  to  his  own  convictions/ 

There  were  several  Masonic  Brethren  among  the  foreign 
prisoners  at  Selkirk,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  on  March  9, 1812, 
it  was  proposed  by  the  Brethren  of  this  Lodge  that  on  account 
of  the  favour  done  by  some  of  the  French  Brethren,  they  should 
be  enrolled  as  honorary  members  of  the  Lodge,  and  this  was 
unanimously  agreed  to. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  French  Brethren  were  a  numerous 
body,  twenty-three  of  their  names  being  added  to  the  roll  of 
St.  John's  ;  and  we  find  that,  as  at  Melrose,  they  formed  them- 
selves into  a  separate  Lodge  and  initiated  their  fellow  country- 
men in  their  own  tongue. 

In  what  was  known  as  Lang's  Barn,  now  subdivided  into 
cottages,  the  French  prisoners  extemporized  a  theatre,  and  no 
doubt  some  of  their  decorative  work  lies  hidden  beneath  the 
whitewash.  The  barn  was  the  property  of  the  grandfather  of 
the  late  Andrew  Lang. 

The  experiences  of  Sous-lieutenant  Doisy  de  Villargennes, 
of  the  26th  French  line  regiment,  I  shall  now  relate  with  parti- 
cular pleasure,  not  only  on  account  of  their  unusual  interest, 
but  because  they  reflect  the  brightest  side  of  captivity  in 
Britain.  Doisy  was  wounded  after  Fuentes  d'Onoro  in  May 
1811,  and  taken  prisoner.  He  was  moved  to  hospital  at 
Celorico,  where  he  formed  a  friendship  with  Captain  Pattison, 
of  the  73rd.  Thence  he  was  sent  to  Fort  Belem  at  Lisbon, 
which  happened  to  be  garrisoned  by  the  26th  British  Regiment, 
a  coincidence  which  at  once  procured  for  him  the  friendship  of 
its  officers,  who  caused  him  to  be  lodged  in  their  quarters,  and 
to  be  treated  rather  as  an  honoured  guest  than  as  a  prisoner, 
but  with  one  bad  result — that  the  extraordinary  good  living 
aggravated  his  healing  wound,  and  he  was  obliged  to  return  to 
hospital.  These  were  days  of  heavy  drinking,  and  Lisbon  lay 
in  the  land  of  good  and  abundant  wine  ;  hosts  and  guest  had 
alike  fared  meagrely  and  hardly  for  a  long  time,  so  that  it  is  not 
difficult  to  account  for  the  effect  of  the  abrupt  change  upon 
poor  Doisy.  However,  he  pulled  round,  and  embarked  for 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  SELKIRK         327 

Portsmouth,  not  on  the  ordinary  prisoner  transport,  but  as 
guest  of  Pattison  on  a  war-ship.  Doisy,  with  sixty  other 
officers,  were  landed  at  Gosport,  and,  contrary  to  the  usual 
rule,  allowed  to  be  on  parole  in  the  town  previous  to  their 
dispatch  to  their  cautionnement. 

At  the  Gosport  prison — Forton — whither  he  went  to  look 
up  comrades,  Doisy  was  overjoyed  to  meet  with  his  own 
foster-brother,  whom  he  had  persuaded  to  join  his  regiment, 
and  whom  he  had  given  up  as  lost  at  Fuentes  d'Ofioro,  and  he 
received  permission  to  spend  some  time  with  him  in  the  prison. 
I  give  with  very  great  pleasure  Doisy's  remarks  upon  captivity 
in  England  in  general,  and  in  its  proper  place  under  the  heading 
of  Forton  Prison  (see  pp.  217-18)  will  be  found  his  description 
of  that  place,  which  is  equally  pleasant  reading. 

'  I  feel  it  my  duty  here,  in  the  interests  of  truth  and  justice, 
to  combat  an  erroneous  belief  concerning  the  hard  treatment 
of  prisoners  of  war  in  England.  ...  No  doubt,  upon  the 
hulks  they  led  a  very  painful  existence ;  execrable  feeding, 
little  opportunity  for  exercise,  and  a  discipline  extremely 
severe,  even  perhaps  cruel.  Such  was  their  fate.  But  we  must 
remember  that  only  refractory  prisoners  were  sent  to  the  hulks.' 

(Here  we  must  endorse  a  note  of  the  editor  of  Doisy's  book, 
to  the  effect  that  this  is  inaccurate,  inasmuch  as  there  were 
19,000  prisoners  upon  the  hulks,  and  they  could  not  all  have 
been  '  refractory '.) 

'  These  would  upset  the  discipline  of  prisons  like  Gosport. 
Also  we  must  remember  that  the  inmates  of  the  hulks  were 
chiefly  the  crews  of  privateers,  and  that  privateering  was  not 
considered  fair  warfare  by  England.'  (Strange  to  say,  the 
editor  passes  over  this  statement  without  comment.)  '  At 
Forton  there  reigned  the  most  perfect  order,  under  a  discipline 
severe  but  humane.  We  heard  no  sobbings  of  despair,  we  saw 
no  unhappiness  in  the  eyes  of  the  inmates,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
on  all  sides  resounded  shouts  of  laughter,  and  the  chorus  of 
patriotic  songs.' 

In  after  years,  when  Germain  Lamy,  the  foster-brother,  was 
living  a  free  man  in  France,  Doisy  says  that  in  conversation 
Lamy  never  alluded  to  the  period  of  his  captivity  in  England 
without  praising  warmly  the  integrity  and  the  liberality  of  all 
the  Englishmen  with  whom  as  a  prisoner-trader  he  had  business 


328  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

relations.  '  Such  testimonies/  says  Doisy,  '  and  others  of 
like  character,  cannot  but  weaken  the  feelings  of  hatred  and 
antagonism  roused  by  war  between  the  two  nations/ 

In  a  few  days  Doisy  was  marched  off  to  Odiham,  but,  on 
account  of  the  crowded  state  of  the  English  parole  towns,  it 
was  decided  to  send  the  newcomers  to  Scotland,  and  so,  on 
October  I,  1811,  they  landed  at  Leith,  190  in  number,  and 
marched  to  Selkirk,  via  Edinburgh  and  the  depot  at  Penicuik. 

There  was  some  difficulty  at  first  in  finding  lodgings  in  the 
small  Scottish  town  for  so  large  a  number  of  strangers,  but 
when  it  was  rumoured  that  they  were  largely  gentlemen  of 
means  and  likely  to  spend  their  money  freely,  accommodation 
was  quickly  forthcoming. 

Living  in  Scotland  Doisy  found  to  be  very  much  cheaper 
than  in  England,  and  the  weekly  pay  of  half  a  guinea,  regularly 
received  through  Coutts,  he  found  sufficient,  if  not  ample.  His 
lodging  cost  but  half  a  crown  a  week,  and  as  the  prisoners 
messed  in  groups,  and,  moreover,  had  no  local  hindrance  to  the 
excellent  fishing  in  Ettrick  and  Tweed,  board  was  probably 
proportionately  moderate.  As  the  French  prisoners  in  Selkirk 
spent  upon  an  average  £150  a  week  in  the  little  town,  and  were 
there  for  two  years  and  a  half,  no  less  a  sum  than  £19,500  was 
poured  into  the  local  pocket. 

The  exiles  started  a  French  cafe  in  which  was  a  billiard  table 
brought  from  Edinburgh,  to  which  none  but  Frenchmen  were 
admitted  ;  gathered  together  an  orchestra  of  twenty-two  and 
gave  Saturday  concerts,  which  were  extensively  patronized  by 
the  inhabitants  and  the  surrounding  gentry  ;  and  with  their 
own  hands  built  a  theatre  accommodating  200  people. 

'  Les  costumes/  said  Doisy,  'surtout  ceux  des  roles  feminins, 
nous  necessitaient  de  grands  efforts  d'habilite.  Aucun  de 
nous  n'avait  auparavant  exerce  le  metier  de  charpentier, 
tapissier,  de  tailleur,  ou  .  .  .  fait  son  apprentissage  chez  une 
couturiere.  L'intelligence,  toutefois,  stimulee  par  la  volonte, 
peut  engendrer  de  petits  miracles/ 

They  soon  had  a  repertoire  of  popular  tragedies  and  comedies, 
and  gave  a  performance  every  Wednesday. 

On  each  of  the  four  main  roads  leading  out  of  the  town  there 
was  at  the  distance  of  a  mile  a  notice-board  on  which  was 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  SELKIRK         329 

inscribed  :  '  Limite  des  Prisonniers  de  Guerre/  As  evidence 
of  the  goodwill  generally  borne  towards  the  foreigners  by  the 
country  folk,  when  a  waggish  prisoner  moved  one  of  these 
boards  a  mile  further  on,  no  information  was  lodged  about  it, 
and  although  a  reward  of  one  guinea  was  paid  to  anybody 
arresting  a  prisoner  beyond  limits,  or  out  of  his  lodgings  at 
forbidden  hours,  it  was  very  rarely  claimed.  Some  of  the 
prisoners  indeed  were  accustomed  daily  to  go  fishing  some 
miles  down  the  rivers. 

The  French  prisoners  did  not  visit  the  Selkirk  townsfolk,  for 
the  '  classy '  of  the  latter  had  come  to  the  resolution  not  to 
associate  with  them  at  all ;  but  the  priggish  exclusiveness  or 
narrow  prejudice,  or  whatever  it  might  have  been,  was  amply 
atoned  for  by  the  excellent  friendships  formed  in  the  surround- 
ing neighbourhoods.  There  was  Mr.  Anderson,  a  gentleman 
farmer,  who  invited  the  Frenchmen  to  fish  and  regaled  them 
in  typical  old-time  Scots  fashion  afterwards  ;  there  was  a  rich 
retired  lawyer,  whose  chief  sorrow  was  that  he  could  not  keep 
sober  during  his  entertainment  of  them  :  there  was  Mr.  Thor- 
burn,  another  gentleman  farmer,  who  introduced  them  to 
grilled  sheep's  head,  salmagundi,  and  a  cheese  of  his  own 
making,  of  which  he  was  particularly  proud. 

But  above  all  there  was  the  '  shirra  ',  then  Mr.  Walter  Scott, 
who  took  a  fancy  to  a  bright  and  lively  young  Frenchman, 
Tarnier  by  name,  and  often  invited  him  and  two  or  three 
friends  to  Abbotsford — Doisy  calls  it  '  Melrose  Abbey  '. 
This  was  in  February  1812.  Mrs.  Scott,  whom,  Doisy  says, 
Scott  had  married  in  Berlin — was  only  seen  some  minutes 
before  dinner,  never  at  the  repast  itself.  She  spoke  French 
perfectly,  says  Doisy.  Scott,  he  says,  was  a  very  different  man 
as  host  in  his  own  house  from  what  they  judged  him  to  be  from 
his  appearance  in  the  streets  of  Selkirk.  '  Un  homme  enjoue, 
a  la  physionomie  ordinaire  et  peu  significative,  a  1'attitude  meme 
un  peu  gauche,  a  la  demarche  vulgaire  et  aux  allures  a  1'avenant, 
causees  probablement  par  sa  boiterie.'  But  at  Abbotsford  his 
guests  found  him,  on  the  contrary,  a  gentleman  full  of  cordiality 
and  gaiety,  receiving  his  friends  with  amiability  and  delicacy. 
The  rooms  at  Abbotsford,  says  Doisy,  were  spacious  and  well 
lighted,  and  the  table  not  sumptuous,  but  refined. 


330  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Doisy  tells  us  that  what  seemed  to  be  the  all-absorbing 
subject  of  conversation  at  the  Abbotsford  dinner-table  was 
Bonaparte.  No  matter  into  what  other  channel  the  talk 
drifted,  their  host  would  hark  back  to  Bonaparte,  and  never 
wearied  of  the  anecdotes  and  details  about  him  which  the 
guests  were  able  to  give.  Little  did  his  informants  think  that, 
ten  years  later,  much  that  they  told  him  would  appear,  as  Doisy 
says,  in  a  distorted  form  rarely  favourable  to  the  great 
man,  in  Scott's  Life  of  Bonaparte.  He  quotes  instances,  and 
is  at  no  pains  to  hide  his  resentment  at  what  he  considers 
a  not  very  dignified  or  proper  proceeding  on  the  part  of 
Sir  Walter. 

Only  on  one  prominent  occasion  was  the  friendly  feeling 
between  the  prisoners  and  the  Selkirk  people  disturbed. 

On  August  15,  1813,  the  Frenchmen,  in  number  ninety, 
united  to  celebrate  the  Emperor's  birthday  at  their  cafe,  the 
windows  of  which  opened  on  to  the  public  garden.  They 
feasted,  made  speeches,  drank  numberless  toasts,  and  sang 
numberless  patriotic  songs.  As  it  was  found  that  they  had 
a  superabundance  of  food,  it  was  decided  to  distribute  it  among 
the  crowd  assembled  in  the  public  garden,  but  with  the  con- 
dition that  every  one  who  accepted  it  should  doff  his  hat  and 
cry  '  Vive  1'Empereur  Napoleon  !  '  But  although  a  couple  of 
Frenchmen  stood  outside,  each  with  a  viand  in  one  hand  and 
a  glass  of  liquor  in  the  other,  not  a  Scotsman  would  comply 
with  the  condition,  and  all  went  away.  One  man,  a  sort  of 
factotum  of  the  Frenchmen,  who  made  a  considerable  deal  of 
money  out  of  them  in  one  way  and  another,  and  who  was 
known  as  '  Bang  Bay  ',  from  his  habit,  when  perplexed  with 
much  questioning  and  ordering,  of  replying  '  by  and  by  ', 
did  accept  the  food  and  drink,  and  utter  the  required  cry,  and 
his  example  was  followed  by  a  few  others,  but  the  original 
refusers  still  held  aloof  and  gathered  together  in  the  garden, 
evidently  in  no  peaceable  mood. 

Presently,  as  the  feast  proceeded  and  the  celebrants  were 
listening  to  a  song  composed  for  the  occasion,  a  stone  was 
thrown  through  the  window,  and  hit  Captain  Gruffaud  of  the 
Artillery.  He  rushed  out  and  demanded  who  had  thrown  it. 
Seeing  a  young  man  grinning,  Gruffaud  accused  him,  and  as  the 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  SELKIRK          331 

youth  admitted  it,  Gruffaud  let  him  have  the  stone  full  in  the 
face.  A  disturbance  being  at  once  imminent,  the  French 
officers  broke  up  chairs,  &c.,  to  arm  themselves  against  an 
attack,  and  the  crowd,  seeing  this,  dispersed.  Soon  after,  the 
Agent,  Robert  Henderson,  hurried  up  to  say  that  the  crowd 
had  armed  themselves  and  were  re-assembling,  and  that  as  the 
Frenchmen  were  in  the  wrong,  inasmuch  as  they  had  exceeded 
their  time-limit,  nine  o'clock,  by  an  hour,  he  counselled  them 
to  go  home  quietly.  So  the  matter  ended,  and  Doisy  remarks 
that  no  evil  resulted,  and  that  Scots  and  French  became  better 
comrades  than  ever. 

Another  event  might  have  resulted  in  a  disturbance.     At  the 
news  of  a  victory  by  Wellington  in  Spain,  the  Selkirk  people 
set  their  bells  ringing,  and  probably  rejoiced  with  some  ostenta- 
tion.    A  short  time  after,  says  Doisy,  came  the  news  of  a  great 
French  victory  in  Russia  (?).     The  next  day,  Sunday,  some 
French  officers  attended  a  Quakers'  meeting  in  their  house, 
and  managed  to  hide  themselves.     At  midnight  a  dozen  of 
their  comrades  were  admitted  through  the  window,  bringing 
with  them  a  coil  of  rope  which  they  made  fast  to  that  of  the 
meeting-house  bell,  and  rang  vigorously,  awakening  the  town 
and  bringing  an  amazed  crowd  to  the  place,  and  in  the  confusion 
the  actors  of  the  comedy  escaped.     Then  came  the  Peace  of 
1814,  and  the  Frenchmen  were  informed   that  on  April  20 
a  vessel  would  be  at  Berwick  to  take  them  to  France.     The 
well-to-do  among  them  proposed  to  travel  by  carriage  to  Ber- 
wick, but  it  was  later  decided  that  all  funds  should  be  united 
and  that  they  should  go  on  foot,  and  to  defray  expenses  £60 
was  collected.     Before  leaving,  it  was  suggested  that  a  con- 
siderable increase  might  be  made  to  their  exchequer  if  they 
put  up  to  auction  the  structure  of  the  theatre,  as  well  as  the 
properties  and  dresses,  which  had  cost  £120.     Tarnier  was 
chosen  auctioneer,  and  the  bidding  was  started  at  £50,  but  in 
spite  of  his  eloquence  the  highest  bid  was  £40.     So  they  decided 
to  have  some  fun  at  the  last.     All  the  articles  were  carried  to 
the  field  which  the  prisoners  had  hired  for  playing  football, 
and  a  last  effort  was  made  to  sell  them.     But  the  highest  bid 
was  only  £2   more  than  before.     Rather  than  sell  at   such 
a  ridiculous   price,   the   Frenchmen,   armed  with  sticks   and 


332  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

stones,  formed  a  circle  round  the  objects  for  sale,  and  set  fire 
to  them,  a  glorious  bonfire  being  the  result. 

The  day  of  departure  came.  Most  of  the  Frenchmen  had 
passed  the  previous  night  in  the  Public  Garden,  singing,  and 
drinking  toasts,  so  that  all  were  up  betimes,  and  prepared  for 
their  tramp.  Their  delight  and  astonishment  may  be  imagined 
when  they  beheld  a  defile  of  all  sorts  of  vehicles,  and  even  of 
saddle-horses,  into  the  square,  and  learned  that  these  had  been 
provided  by  the  people  of  Selkirk  to  convey  them  to  Kelso, 
half  way  to  Berwick. 

Says  Doisy  :  '  Nous  nous  separames  done  de  nos  amis  de 
Selkirk  sans  garder  d'une  part  et  d'autre  aucun  des  sentiments 
de  rancune  pouvant  exister  auparavant  '. 

Mr.  Craig-Brown  relates  the  following  anecdote  : 

'  Many  years  after  the  war,  in  the  Southern  States  of  America, 
two  young  Selkirk  lads  were  astonished  to  see  themselves 
looked  at  with  evident  earnestness  by  two  foreigners  within 
earshot  of  them.  At  last  one  of  the  latter,  a  distinguished- 
looking  elderly  gentleman,  came  up  and  said:  "Pardon,  I  think 
from  your  speech  you  come  from  Scotland  ? 

'  "  We  do." 

'  "  Perhaps  from  the  South  of  Scotland  ?  " 
r'  Yes,  from  Selkirk." 

"  From  Selkirk !  Ah !  I  was  certain  :  General !  It  is  true. 
They  are  from  Selkirk."  Upon  which  his  companion  came  up, 
who,  looking  at  one  of  the  lads  for  a  while,  exclaimed  : 

'  "  I  am  sure  you  are  the  son  of  ze,  ze,  leetle  fat  man  who  kills 
ze  sheep  ! ' ' 

'  "  Faith  !  Ye're  recht !  "  said  the  astonished  Scot.  "  My 
father  was  Tudhope,  the  flesher  !  " 

'  Upon  which  the  more  effusive  of  the  officers  fairly  took  him 
round  the  neck,  and  gave  him  a  hearty  embrace.  Making 
themselves  known  as  two  of  the  old  French  prisoners,  they 
insisted  on  the  lads  remaining  in  their  company,  loaded  them 
with  kindness,  and  never  tired  of  asking  them  questions  about 
their  place  of  exile,  and  all  its  people,  particularly  the  sweet- 
hearts they  and  their  comrades  had  left  behind  them/ 

PEEBLES 

Although  Peebles  was  not  established  as  a  parole  town  until 
1803,  a  great  many  French  prisoners,  not  on  parole,  were  here 
in  1798-9,  most  of  them  belonging  to  the  thirty-six-gun  frigates 
Coquille  and  Resolue,  belonging  to  the  Brest  squadron  of  the 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  PEEBLES          333 

expedition  to  Ireland,  which  was  beaten  by  Sir  John  Warren. 
They  were  probably  confined  in  the  town  jail. 

The  first  parole  prisoners  were  Dutch,  Belgians,  and  Danes, 
'  all  of  whom  took  to  learning  cotton  hand-loom  weaving,  and 
spent  their  leisure  time  in  fishing  ',  says  Mr.  W.  Chambers.  In 
1810  about  one  hundred  French,  Poles,  and  Italians  came  : 
'  Gentlemanly  in  manner,  they  made  for  themselves  friends  in 
the  town  and  neighbourhood,  those  among  them  who  were 
surgeons  occasionally  assisting  at  a  medical  consultation.  They 
set  up  a  theatre  in  what  is  now  the  public  reading-room,  and 
acted  Moliere  and  Corneille.  In  1811  all  the  "midshipmen" 
(gardes-marines)  among  them  were  suddenly  called  to  the  Cross, 
and  marched  away  to  Valleyfield,  possibly  an  act  of  reprisal  for 
Bonaparte's  action  against  English  midshipmen/  x 

Shortly  after  their  removal,  all  the  other  prisoners  were  sent 
away  from  Peebles,  chiefly  to  Sanquhar.  This  removal  is  said 
to  have  been  brought  about  by  the  terror  of  a  lady  of  rank  in 
the  neighbourhood  at  so  many  enemies  being  near  Neidpath 
Castle,  where  were  deposited  the  arms  of  the  Peeblesshire  Militia. 

Mr.  Sanderson,  of  the  Chambers  Institute  at  Peebles,  my 
indefatigable  conductor  about  and  around  the  pleasant  old 
Border  town,  told  me  that  there  is  still  in  Peebles  a  family 
named  Bonong,  said  to  be  descended  from  a  French  prisoner  ; 
that  a  Miss  Wallink  who  went  to  Canada  some  years  ago  as 
Mrs.  Cranston,  was  descended  from  a  Polish  prisoner  ;  that  there 
was  recently  a  Mr.  Lenoir  at  the  Tontine  Hotel  (traditionally 
the  '  hotle  '  which  was  Meg  Dodd's  bugbear  in  St.  Ronan's 
Well),  and  that  a  drawing  master  named  Chastelaine  came  of 
French  prisoner  parentage. 

1  The  rank  of  garde-marine  in  the  French  Navy  corresponded  with 
that  of  sub-lieutenant  in  the  British  Navy  ;  there  was  no  rank  actually 
equivalent  to  our  midshipmen. 

The  British  midshipmen  were  sources  of  continued  anxiety  and 
annoyance  to  their  custodians  in  their  French  prisons.  They  defied  all 
rules  and  regulations,  they  refused  to  give  their  parole,  and  were  cease- 
less in  their  attempts  to  escape.  '  I  wish  to  goodness',  said  a  French 
officer  at  Bitche  one  evening  at  dinner,  '  I  knew  what  to  do  to  keep  those 
English  middies  within  bounds  !  ' 

'  There  is  only  one  way,  Sir,'  said  a  lady  at  the  table. 

'  What  is  that  ?  '   asked  the  officer  eagerly. 

'  Put  them  on  their  honour,'  replied  the  lady. 

General  Courcelles,  at  Verdun,  shut  up  140  middies  in  the  monastery 
at  St.  Vannes,  and  made  them  pay  for  maintenance. 


334  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

In  the  Museum  of  the  Chambers  Institute  are  four  excellent 
specimens  of  French  prisoner-made  ship  models,  and  on  the 
plaster  walls  of  a  house  are  a  couple  of  poorly  executed  oil 
frescoes  said  to  have  been  painted  by  prisoners. 

I  have  the  kind  permission  of  Messrs.  Chambers  to  quote  the 
following  very  complete  descriptions  of  French  prisoner  life  at 
Peebles  from  the  Memoirs  of  William  and  Robert  Chambers  by 
Mr.  William  Chambers. 

'  1803.  Not  more  than  20  or  30  of  these  foreign  exiles 
arrived  at  this  early  period.  They  were  mostly  Dutch  and 
Walloons,  with  afterwards  a  few  Danes.  These  men  did  not 
repine.  They  nearly  all  betook  themselves  to  learn  some 
handicraft  to  eke  out  their  scanty  allowance.  At  leisure  hours 
they  might  be  seen  fishing  in  long  leather  boots  as  if  glad  to 
procure  a  few  trout  and  eels.  Two  or  three  years  later  came 
a  detenu  of  a  different  class.  He  was  seemingly  the  captain  of 
a  ship  from  the  French  West  Indies,  who  brought  with  him  his 
wife  and  a  negro  servant-boy  named  Jack.  Black  Jack,  as  we 
called  him,  was  sent  to  the  school,  where  he  played  with  the 
other  boys  on  the  town  green,  and  at  length  spoke  and  read 
like  a  native.  He  was  a  good-natured  creature,  and  became 
a  general  favourite.  Jack  was  the  first  pure  negro  whom  the 
boys  at  that  time  had  ever  seen. 

'  None  of  these  classes  of  prisoner  broke  his  parole,  nor  ever 
gave  any  trouble  to  the  authorities.  They  had  not,  indeed,  any 
appearance  of  being  prisoners,  for  they  were  practically  free  to 
live  and  ramble  about  within  reasonable  bounds  where  they  liked. 

'  In  1810  there  was  a  large  accession  to  this  original  body  of 
prisoners  on  parole.  As  many  as  one  hundred  and  eleven  were 
already  on  their  way  to  the  town,  and  might  be  expected  shortly. 
There  was  speedily  a  vast  sensation  in  the  place.  The  local 
Militia  had  been  disbanded.  Lodgings  of  all  sorts  were  vacant. 
The  new  arrivals  would  on  all  hands  be  heartily  welcomed.  On 
Tuesday,  the  expected  French  prisoners  in  an  unceremonious 
way  began  to  drop  in.  As  one  of  several  boys,  I  went  out  to 
meet  them  coming  from  Edinburgh.  They  came  walking  in 
twos  and  threes,  a  few  of  them  lame.  Their  appearance  was 
startling,  for  they  were  in  military  garb  in  which  they  had  been 
captured  in  Spain.  Some  were  in  light  blue  hussar  dress, 
braided,  with  marks  of  sabre  wounds.  Others  were  in  dark 
blue  uniform.  Several  wore  large  cocked  hats,  but  the  greater 
number  had  undress  caps.  All  had  a  gentlemanly  air,  notwith- 
standing their  generally  dishevelled  attire,  their  soiled  boots, 
and  their  visible  marks  of  fatigue. 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  PEEBLES          335 

'  Before  night  they  had  all  arrived,  and,  through  the  activity 
of  the  Agent  appointed  by  the  Transport  Board,  they  had  been 
provided  with  lodgings  suitable  to  their  slender  allowance. 
This  large  batch  of  prisoners  on  parole  were,  of  course,  all  in 
the  rank  of  naval  or  military  officers.  Some  had  been  pretty 
high  in  the  service  and  seen  a  good  deal  of  fighting.  Several 
were  doctors,  or,  as  they  called  themselves,  officiers  de  sante. 
Among  the  whole  there  were,  I  think,  about  half  a  dozen  mid- 
shipmen. A  strange  thing  was  their  varied  nationality. 
Though  spoken  of  as  French,  there  was  in  the  party  a  mixture 
of  Italians,  Swiss,  and  Poles  ;  but  this  we  found  out  only  after 
some  intercourse.  Whatever  their  origin,  they  were  warm 
adherents  of  Napoleon,  whose  glory  at  this  time  was  at  its 
height.  Lively  in  manner,  their  minds  were  full  of  the  recent 
struggle  in  the  Peninsula. 

'  Through  the  consideration  of  an  enterprising  grocer,  the 
prisoners  were  provided  with  a  billiard  table  at  which  they 
spent  much  of  their  time.  So  far  well.  But  how  did  these 
unfortunate  exiles  contrive  to  live  ?  How  did  they  manage  to 
feed  and  clothe  themselves,  and  pay  for  lodgings  ?  The  allow- 
ance from  Government  was  on  a  moderate  scale.  I  doubt  if  it 
was  more  than  one  shilling  per  head  per  diem.  In  various 
instances  two  persons  lived  in  a  single  room,  but  even  that  cost 
half-a-crown  per  week.  The  truth  is  they  must  have  been  half 
starved,  but  for  the  fortunate  circumstance  of  a  number  of 
them  having  brought  money — foreign  gold-pieces,  concealed 
about  their  persons,  which  stores  were  supplemented  by  remit- 
tances from  France  ;  and  in  a  friendly  way,  at  least  as  regards 
the  daily  mess,  or  table  d'hote,  the  richer  helped  the  poorer, 
which  was  a  good  trait  in  their  character.  The  messing 
together  was  the  great  resource,  and  took  place  in  a  house  hired 
for  the  purpose,  in  which  the  cookery  was  conducted  under  the 
auspices  of  M.  Lavoche,  one  of  the  prisoners  who  was  skilled  in 
cuisine.  My  brother  and  I  had  some  dealings  with  Lavoche. 
We  cultivated  rabbits  in  a  hutch  built  by  ourselves  in  the  back- 
yard, and  sold  them  for  the  Frenchmen's  mess  ;  the  money  we 
got  for  them,  usually  eighteenpence  a  pair,  being  employed 
in  the  purchase  of  books. 

'  Billiards  were  indispensable,  but  something  more  was 
wanted.  Without  a  theatre,  life  was  felt  to  be  unendurable. 
But  how  was  a  theatre  to  be  secured  ?  There  was  nothing  of  the 
kind  in  the  place.  The  more  eager  of  the  visitors  managed  to 
get  out  of  the  difficulty.  There  was  an  old  and  disused  ball- 
room. It  was  rather  of  confined  dimensions,  and  low  in  the 
roof,  with  a  gallery  at  one  end,  over  the  entrance,  for  the 
musicians.  .  .  .  Walter  Scott's  mother,  when  a  girl,  (I  was 


336  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

told,)  had  crossed  Minchmoor,  a  dangerously  high  hill,  in  a 
chaise,  from  the  adjacent  country,  to  dance  for  a  night  in  that 
little  old  ball-room.  Now  set  aside  as  unfashionable,  the  room 
was  at  anybody's  service,  and  came  quite  handily  for  the 
Frenchmen.  They  fitted  it  up  with  a  stage  at  the  inner  end, 
and  cross  benches  to  accommodate  120  persons,  independently 
of  perhaps  20  more  in  the  musicians'  gallery.  The  thing  was 
neatly  got  up  with  scenery  painted  by  M.  Walther  and  M. 
Ragulski,  the  latter  a  young  Pole.  No  licence  was  required  for 
the  theatre,  for  it  was  altogether  a  private  undertaking.  Money 
was  not  taken  at  the  door,  and  no  tickets  were  sold.  Admission 
was  gained  by  complimentary  billets  distributed  chiefly  among 
persons  with  whom  the  actors  had  established  an  intimacy. 

'  Among  these  favoured  individuals  was  my  father,  who, 
carrying  on  a  mercantile  concern,  occupied  a  prominent  posi- 
tion. He  felt  a  degree  of  compassion  for  these  foreigners, 
constrained  to  live  in  exile,  and,  besides  welcoming  them  to  his 
house,  gave  them  credit  in  articles  of  drapery  of  which  they 
stood  in  need  ;  and  through  which  circumstance  they  soon 
assumed  an  improved  appearance  in  costume.  Introduced  to 
the  family  circle,  their  society  was  agreeable,  and  in  a  sense 
instructive.  Though  with  imperfect  speech,  a  sort  of  half- 
English,  half-French,  they  related  interesting  circumstances  in 
their  careers. 

'  How  performances  in  French  should  have  had  any  general 
attraction  may  seem  to  require  explanation.  There  had  grown 
up  in  the  town  among  young  persons  especially,  a  knowledge  of 
familiar  French  phrases  ;  so  that  what  was  said,  accompanied 
by  appropriate  gestures,  was  pretty  well  guessed  at.  But,  as 
greatly  contributing  to  remove  difficulties,  a  worthy  man,  of 
an  obliging  turn  and  genial  humour,  volunteered  to  act  as 
interpreter.  Moving  in  humble  circumstances  as  hand-loom 
weaver,  he  had  let  lodgings  to  a  French  captain  and  his  wife, 
and  from  being  for  years  in  domestic  intercourse  with  them,  he 
became  well  acquainted  with  their  language.  William  Hunter, 
for  such  was  his  name,  besides  being  of  ready  wit,  partook  of 
a  lively  musical  genius.  I  have  heard  him  sing  Malbrook  sen 
va  t'en  guerre  with  amazing  correctness  and  vivacity.  His  ser- 
vices at  the  theatre  were  therefore  of  value  to  the  natives  in 
attendance.  Seated  conspicuously  at  the  centre  of  what  we 
may  call  the  pit,  eyes  were  turned  on  him  inquiringly  when 
anything  particularly  funny  was  said  requiring  explanation, 
and  for  general  use  he  whisperingly  communicated  the  required 
interpretation.  So,  put  up  to  the  joke,  the  natives  heartily 
joined  in  the  laugh,  though  rather  tardily.  ...  As  for  the 
French  plays,  which  were  performed  with  perfect  propriety, 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  PEEBLES          337 

they  were  to  us  not  only  amusing  but  educational.  The  remem- 
brance of  these  dramatic  efforts  of  the  French  prisoners  of  war 
has  been  through  life  a  continual  treat.  It  is  curious  for  me  to 
look  back  on  the  performances  of  the  pieces  of  Moliere  in  circum- 
stances so  remarkable. 

'  My  mother,  even  while  lending  her  dresses  and  caps  to 
enable  performers  to  represent  female  characters,  never  liked 
the  extraordinary  intimacy  which  had  been  formed  between  the 
French  officers  and  my  father.  Against  his  giving  them  credit 
she  constantly  remonstrated  in  vain.  It  was  a  tempting  but 
perilous  trade.  For  a  time,  by  the  resources  just  mentioned, 
they  paid  wonderfully  well.  With  such  solid  inducements,  my 
father  confidingly  gave  extensive  credit  to  these  strangers — 
men  who,  by  their  positions,  were  not  amenable  to  the  civil  law, 
and  whose  obligations,  accordingly,  were  altogether  debts  of 
honour.  The  consequence  was  that  which  might  have  been 
anticipated.  An  order  suddenly  arrived  from  the  Government 
commanding  the  whole  of  the  prisoners  to  quit  Peebles,  and 
march  chiefly  to  Sanquhar  in  Dumfriesshire  :  the  cause  of  the 
movement  being  the  prospective  arrival  of  a  Militia  Regiment. 

'  The  intelligence  came  one  Sunday  night.  What  a  gloom 
prevailed  at  several  firesides  that  evening  ! 

'  On  their  departure  the  French  prisoners  made  many  fervid 
promises  that,  should  they  ever  return  to  their  own  country, 
they  would  have  pleasure  in  discharging  their  debt.  They  all 
got  home  in  the  Peace  of  1814,  but  not  one  of  them  ever  paid 
a  farthing,  and  William  Chambers  was  one  of  the  many  whose 
affairs  were  brought  to  a  crisis  therefrom/ 

It  will  be  seen  later  that  this  was  not  the  uniform  experience 
of  British  creditors  with  French  debtors. 


ABELL 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

PAROLE  PRISONERS  IN  SCOTLAND  (continued] 
SANQUHAR 

THE  first  prisoners  came  here  in  March  1812.  They  were 
chiefly  some  of  those  who  had  been  hurried  away  from  Win- 
canton  and  other  towns  in  the  west  of  England  at  the  alarm 
that  a  general  rising  of  war-prisoners  in  those  parts  was  im- 
minent, and  on  account  of  the  increasing  number  of  escapes 
from  those  places  ;  others,  were  midshipmen  from  Peebles.  In 
all  from  sixty  to  seventy  prisoners  were  at  Sanquhar.  A  letter 
from  one  of  the  men  removed  from  Peebles  to  Mr.  Chambers  of 
that  town  says  that  they  were  extremely  uncomfortable  ;  such 
kind  of  people  as  the  inhabitants  had  no  room  to  spare ;  the 
greater  part  of  the  Frenchmen  were  lodged  in  barns  and 
kitchens  ;  they  could  get  neither  beef  nor  mutton,  nothing 
but  salted  meat  and  eggs.  They  applied  to  the  Transport 
Office,  in  order  to  be  removed  to  Moffat. 

The  prisoners  at  Sanquhar  left  behind  them,  when  discharged 
at  the  Peace  of  1814,  debts  amounting  to  £160,  but  these  were 
paid  by  the  French  Commissioners  charged  with  effecting  the 
final  exchanges  in  that  year. 

One  duel  is  recorded.  It  was  fought  on  the  Washing  Green, 
and  one  of  the  combatants  was  killed.  Mr.  Tom  Wilson,  in 
his  Memorials  of  Sanquhar  Kirkyard,  identifies  the  victim  as 
Lieutenant  Arnaud,  whose  grave  bears  the  inscription  : 

'  In  memory  of  J.  B.  Arnaud,  aged  27  years,  Lieutenant 
in  the  French  Navy,  prisoner  of  war  on  parole  at  Sanquhar. 
Erected  by  his  companions  in  arms  and  fellow  prisoners  as 
a  testimony  of  their  esteem  and  attachment.  He  expired  in 
the  arms  of  friendship,  9th  November,  1812.' 

It  had  been  announced  that  he  died  of  small-pox,  but  Mr. 
Wilson  thinks  this  was  put  out  as  a  blind. 

Some  changes  of  French  names  into  English  are  to  be  noted 
here  as  elsewhere.  Thus,  Auguste  Gregoire,  cabin  boy  of  the 
Jeune  Corneille  privateer,  captured  in  1803,  was  confined  at 
Peebles,  and  later  at  Sanquhar.  He  married  a  Peebles  girl, 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  SANQUHAR        339 

but  as  she  absolutely  refused  to  go  with  him  to  France  when 
Peace  was  declared  in  1814  he  was  obliged  to  remain,  and 
became  a  teacher  of  dancing  and  deportment  under  the  name 
of  Angus  MacGregor.  So  also  one  Etienne  Foulkes  became 
Etney  Fox  ;  Baptiste  became  Baptie,  and  Walnet  was  turned 
into  Walden. 

There  was  a  Masonic  Lodge  at  Sanquhar — the  '  Paix  Desiree  '. 

The  banks  of  Crawick  were  a  favourite  resort  of  the  prisoners, 
and  on  a  rock  in  the  Holme  Walks  is  cut  '  Luego  de  Delizia 
1812  ',  and  to  the  right,  between  two  lines,  the  word  '  Souvenir  '. 
The  old  bathing  place  of  the  prisoners,  behind  Holme  House, 
is  still  known  as  '  The  Sodger's  Pool  '. 

Hop-plants  are  said  to  have  been  introduced  hereabouts  by 
the  prisoners — probably  Germans. 

Mr.  James  Brown  thus  writes  about  the  prisoners  at 
Sanquhar : 

'  They  were  Frenchmen,  Italians  and  Poles — handsome 
young  fellows,  who  had  all  the  manners  of  gentlemen,  and, 
living  a  life  of  enforced  idleness,  they  became  great  favourites 
with  the  ladies  with  whose  hearts  they  played  havoc,  and,  we 
regret  to  record,  in  some  instances  with  their  virtue.' 

'  This  ',  says  the  Rev.  Matthew  Dickie,  of  the  South  United 
Free  Church,  Sanquhar,  '  is  only  too  true.  John  Wysilaski, 
who  left  Sanquhar  when  quite  a  youth  and  became  a  "  settler  " 
in  Australia,  was  the  illegitimate  son  of  one  of  the  officers. 
This  John  Wysilaski  died  between  25  and  30  years  of  age, 
and  left  a  large  fortune.  Of  this  he  bequeathed  £60,000  to 
the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Victoria,  and  over  £4,000  to  the 
church  with  which  his  mother  had  been  connected,  viz.  the 
South  Church,  Sanquhar,  and  he  directed  the  interest  of  this 
sum  to  be  paid  to  the  Minister  of  the  South  Church  over  and 
above  his  stipend.  The  same  Polish  officer  had  another  son  by 
another  woman,  Louis  Wysilaski,  who  lived  and  died  in  his 
native  town.  I  remember  him  quite  well.' 

DUMFRIES 

The  first  detachment  of  officer-prisoners  arrived  at  Dumfries 
in  November  1811,  from  Peebles,  whence  they  had  marched  the 
thirty-two  miles  to  Mofiat,  and  had  driven  from  there.  The 

Z  2 


340  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

agent  at  Dumfries  was  Mr.  Francis  Shortt,  Town  Clerk  of  the 
Burgh,  and  brother  of  Dr.  Thomas  Shortt,  who,  as  Physician 
to  the  British  Forces  at  St.  Helena,  was  to  assist,  ten  years 
later,  at  the  post-mortem  examination  of  Bonaparte. 

At  first  the  prices  asked  by  the  inhabitants  for  lodgings 
somewhat  astonished  the  prisoners,  being  from  fifteen  to 
twenty-five  shillings  a  week,  but  in  the  end  they  were  moder- 
ately accommodated  and  better  than  in  Peebles.  Their  impres- 
sions of  Dumfries  were  certainly  favourable,  for  not  only  had 
they  in  Mr.  Shortt  a  just  and  kindly  Agent,  but  the  townsfolk 
and  the  country  gentry  offered  them  every  sort  of  hospitality. 
In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Chambers  of  Peebles,  one  of  them  says  : 
'  The  inhabitants,  I  think,  are  frightened  with  Frenchmen,  and 
run  after  us  to  see  if  we  are  like  other  people  ;  the  town  is 
pretty  enough,  and  the  inhabitants,  though  curious,  seem  very 
gentle/ 

Another,  after  a  visit  to  the  theatre,  writes  in  English  : 

'  I  have  been  to  the  theatre  of  the  town,  and  I  was  very 
satisfied  with  the  actors  ;  they  are  very  good  for  a  little  town 
like  Dumfries,  where  receipts  are  not  very  copious,  though 
I  would  have  very  much  pleasure  with  going  to  the  play-house 
now  and  then.  However,  I  am  deprived  of  it  by  the  bell  which 
rings  at  five  o'clock,  and  if  I  am  not  in  my  lodging  by  the  hour 
appointed  by  the  law,  I  must  at  least  avoid  to  be  in  the  public 
meeting,  at  which  some  inhabitants  don't  like  to  see  me.' 

It  was  long  before  the  natives  could  get  used  to  certain 
peculiarities  in  the  Frenchmen's  diet,  particularly  frogs.  A 
noted  Dumfries  character,  George  Hair,  who  died  a  few  years 
ago,  used  to  declare  that  '  the  first  siller  he  ever  earned  was  for 
gatherin'  paddocks  for  the  Frenchmen  ',  and  an  aged  inmate  of 
Lanark  Poorhouse,  who  passed  his  early  boyhood  at  Dumfries, 
used  to  tell  a  funny  frog  story.  He  remembered  that  fifteen 
or  sixteen  prisoners  used  to  live  together  in  a  big  house,  not  far 
from  his  father's,  and  that  there  was  a  meadow  near  at  hand 
where  they  got  great  store  of  frogs.  Once  there  was  a  Crispin 
procession  at  Dumfries,  and  a  Mr.  Renwick  towered  above  all 
the  others  as  King. 

'  The  Crispin  ploy,  ye  ken,  cam  frae  France,  an'  the  officers 
in  the  big  hoose  askit  the  King  o'  the  cobblers  tae  dine  wi'  them. 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  DUMFRIES         341 

They  had  a  gran'  spread  wi'  a  fine  pie,  that  Maister  Renwick 
thocht  was  made  o'  rabbits  toshed  up  in  some  new  f angled  way, 
an'  he  didna  miss  tae  lay  in  a  guid  stock.  When  a'  was  owre, 
they  askit  him  how  he  likit  his  denner,  an'  he  said  "  First  rate  ". 
Syne  they  lauched  and  speered  him  if  he  kent  what  the  pie  was 
made  o',  but  he  said  he  wasna  sure.  When  they  tell't  him  it 
was  paddocks,  it  was  a'  ane  as  if  they  had  gien  him  a  dose  of 
pizzen.  He  just  banged  up  an'  breenged  oot  the  hoose.  Oor 
bit  winnock  lookit  oot  on  the  Frenchmen's  backyaird,  an*  we 
saw  Maister  Renwick  sair,  sair  forfochen,  but  after  a  dainty 
bit  warsle,  he  an'  the  paddocks  pairtit  company.' 

It  is  recorded  that  the  French  prisoners  considered  a  good  fat 
cat  an  excellent  substitute  for  a  hare. 

At  a  fire,  two  French  surgeons  who  distinguished  themselves 
in  fighting  it,  were,  on  a  petition  from  the  inhabitants  to  the 
Transport  Board,  allowed  to  return  immediately  to  France. 
But  another  surgeon  who  applied  to  be  sent  to  Kelso  as  he  had 
a  relative  there,  was  refused  permission — a  refusal,  which,  it  is 
quite  possible,  was  really  a  compliment,  for  the  records  of 
parole  life  in  Britain  abound  with  evidence  of  the  high  estima- 
tion in  which  French  prisoner-surgeons  were  held  in  our 
country  towns. 

Between  thirty  and  forty  officers  tried  to  escape  from  Dum- 
fries during  the  three  years  of  its  being  a  Parole  Town  ;  most 
of  these  were  recaptured,  and  sent  to  Valleyfield  Prison.  Four 
officers  took  advantage  of  the  fishing-licence  usually  extended 
to  the  officers  on  parole  here,  by  which  strict  adherence  to  the 
mile  limit  was  not  insisted  upon,  and  gradually  got  their  belong- 
ings away  to  Lochmaben,  eight  miles  distant,  where  were  also 
parole  prisoners.  One  of  them  actually  wrote  to  the  Colonel 
of  the  Regiment  stationed  in  Dumfries,  apologizing  for  his 
action,  explaining  it,  promising  that  he  would  get  an  English 
officer-prisoner  in  France  exchanged,  and  that  he  would  not 
take  up  arms  against  her,  and  that  he  would  repay  all  the 
civilities  he  had  received  in  Scotland.  But  all  were  recaptured 
and  sent  to  Valleyfield. 

As  instances  of  the  strictness  with  which  even  a  popular 
agent  carried  out  his  regulations,  may  be  cited  that  of  the 
officer  here,  who  was  sent  to  Valleyfield  because  he  had  written 
to  a  lady  in  Devonshire,  enclosing  a  letter  to  a  friend  of  his, 


342  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

a  prisoner  on  parole  there,  without  first  showing  it  to  the  Agent. 
In  justice  to  Mr.  Shortt,  however,  it  is  right  to  say  that  had  the 
letter  been  a  harmless  one,  and  not,  as  was  generally  the  case, 
full  of  abuse  of  the  Government  and  the  country,  so  extreme 
a  view  would  not  have  been  taken  of  the  breach.  Another 
instance  was  the  refusal  by  the  Agent  of  a  request  in  1812  from 
the  officers  to  give  a  concert.  In  this  case  he  was  under  orders 
from  the  Transport  Office. 

In  March  1812,  a  number  of  the  prisoners  had  at  their  own 
request  copies  of  the  Scriptures  supplied  them  in  English, 
French,  German,  Italian,  and  Spanish. 

That  the  French  officers  on  parole  in  Britain  politically 
arranged  their  allegiance  to  the  Powers  that  were,  is  exemplified 
by  the  following  incidents  at  Dumfries.  On  the  re-establish- 
ment of  the  Bourbon  Dynasty,  the  following  address  was 
drawn  up  and  sent  to  the  French  Commissioners  for  the  release 
of  prisoners  : 

'  Dumfries,  le  6  Mai  1814. 

'  Les  officiers  detenus  sur  parole  donnent  leur  adhesion  aux 
actes  du  Gouverriement  Fran9ais  qui  rappelle  Tillustre  sang  des 
Bourbons,  au  trone  de  ses  ancetres.  Puissent  les  Fran$ais 
compter  une  longue  suite  de  rois  du  sang  de  Saint  Louis  et  de 
Henri  IV,  qui  a  tou jours  fait  leur  gloire  et  assure  leur  bonheur  ! 
Vive  Louis  XVIII  !  Vivent  les  Bourbons  !  ' 

On  the  24th  of  the  same  month  a  French  officer,  seeing  in  the 
window  of  a  bookseller's  shop  a  ludicrous  caricature  of  Bona- 
parte, went  into  the  shop  in  a  violent  passion,  bought  two 
copies,  and  tore  them  in  pieces  before  a  crowd  of  people,  utter- 
ing dreadful  imprecations  against  those  who  dared  to  insult 
'  his  Emperor  '.  The  fact  is  that  the  army  to  a  man  was 
Bonapartist  at  heart,  as  after  events  showed,  but  at  Dumfries, 
as  elsewhere,  personal  interests  rendered  it  politic  to  assume 
loyalty  and  devotion  to  the  re-established  Royalty.  Most  of 
the  prisoners,  however,  who  elected  to  remain  in  Britain  after 
the  Declaration  of  Peace  were  unswerving  Royalists.  Lieu- 
tenant Guillemet  at  Dumfries  was  one  of  these.  He  became 
a  professor  of  French  at  Dumfries  Academy  and  also  gave 
lessons  in  fencing,  and  was  a  great  favourite  with  his  pupils 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  DUMFRIES        343 

and  the  public.     His  son  was  for  many  years  a  chemist  at 
Maxwelltown. 

The  average  number  of  prisoners  was  about  100  :  they  were 
mostly  soldiers,  and  not  sailors,  on  account  of  the  proximity 
of  Dumfries  to  the  sea.  I  cannot  refrain  from  adding  to  the 
frequent  testimonies  I  have  quoted  as  illustrating  the  good 
understanding  which  existed  between  captors  and  captives  in 
Scotland,  the  following  extract  from  a  Farewell  Letter  which 
appeared  in  the  Dumfries  Courier,  April  26,  1814,  contributed 
by  Lieutenant  De  Montaignac  of  the  '  Parisian  Guard '. 

'  I  should  indeed  be  very  ungrateful  were  I  to  leave  this 
country  without  publicly  expressing  my  gratitude  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Dumfries.  From  the  moment  of  my  arrival  in 
Scotland,  the  vexations  indispensable  in  the  situation  of 
a  prisoner  have  disappeared  before  me.  I  have  been  two  years 
and  five  months  in  this  town,  prisoner  on  my  parole  of  honour; 
and  it  is  with  the  most  lively  emotion  that  I  quit  a  place  where 
I  have  found  so  many  alleviations  to  my  melancholy  situation. 
I  must  express  my  thanks  to  the  generous  proceedings  with 
which  I  have  been  loaded  by  the  most  part  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Dumfries  during  my  captivity,  proceedings  which  cannot 
but  give  an  advantageous  opinion  of  the  Scottish  nation.  I  will 
add  that  the  respectable  magistrates  of  this  town  have  con- 
stantly given  proofs  of  their  generous  dispositions  to  mitigate 
the  situation  of  the  prisoners  ;  and  that  our  worthy  Agent, 
Mr.  Shortt,  has  always  softened  our  lot  by  the  delicate  manner 
in  which  he  fulfilled  the  duty  of  his  functions.  It  is  then  with 
a  remembrance  full  of  gratitude,  esteem,  and  consideration  for 
the  honest  inhabitants  of  Dumfries,  that  I  quit  the  charming 
banks  of  the  Nith  to  return  to  the  capital  of  France,  my  beloved 
country,  from  which  I  have  been  absent  seven  years.' 

For  the  following  romantic  incidents  I  am  indebted  to 
Mr.  William  McDowell's  Memorials  of  St.  Michael's,  Dumfries,. 

Polly  Stewart,  the  object  of  one  of  Burns's  minor  poems, 
married  a  Dumfries  prisoner  of  war.  She  lived  at  Maxwelltown, 
and  her  father  was  a  close  friend  of  Burns.  A  handsome 
young  Swiss  prisoner,  Fleitz  by  name,  loved  her  and  married 
her,  and  when  Louis  XVIII  came  to  the  French  throne,  he, 
being  in  the  Swiss  Guard,  took  her  to  France.  When  Louis 
Philippe  became  king,  the  Swiss  body-guard  was  disbanded, 
and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fleitz  went  to  Switzerland.  It  is  said  that 


344  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

poor  Polly  had  an  unhappy  married  life,  but  at  any  rate 
nothing  was  heard  of  her  for  thirty  years,  when  she  returned  to 
Scotland,  and  not  long  after  her  husband  died  and  she  went  to 
a  cousin  in  France.  Here  her  mind  gave  way,  and  she  was 
placed  in  an  asylum,  where  she  died  in  1847,  aged  71. 

On  the  tombstone,  in  St.  Michael's  churchyard,  of  Bailie 
William  Fingass,  who  died  in  1686,  is  an  inscription  to  a  descen- 
dant, Anna  Grieve,  daughter  of  James  Grieve,  merchant,  who 
died  in  1813,  aged  19,  with  the  following  lines  subjoined  : 

'  Ta  main,  bienfaisante  et  cherie, 
D'un  exil  vient  essuyer  les  pleurs, 
Tu  me  vis  loin  de  parens,  de  patrie, 
Et  le  m£me  tombeau,  lorsque  tu  m'as  ravie, 
Renferme  nos  deux  cceurs.' 

The  story  is  this.  One  of  the  French  prisoners  on  parole 
at  Dumfries  fell  in  love  with  pretty  Anna  Grieve,  and  she 
regarded  his  suit  with  kindness.  Had  she  lived  they  would 
probably  have  been  married,  for  he  was  in  a  good  position  and 
in  every  way  worthy  of  her  hand.  When  she  died  in  the  flower 
in  her  youth,  he  was  overwhelmed  with  grief,  and  penned  the 
above-quoted  epitaph.  After  a  lapse  of  about  forty-six  years, 
a  gentleman  of  dignified  bearing  and  seemingly  about  seventy 
years  old,  entered  St.  Michael's  churchyard,  and  in  broken 
English  politely  accosted  Mr.  Watson,  who  was  busy  with  his 
chisel  on  one  of  the  monuments.  He  asked  to  be  shown  the 
spot  where  Mademoiselle  Grieve  was  buried,  and  on  being  taken 
to  it  exhibited  deep  emotion.  He  read  over  the  epitaph,  which 
seemed  to  be  quite  familiar  to  him,  and  it  was  apparent  that  it 
was  engraved  upon  the  tablets  of  his  memory,  he  being  none 
other  than  the  lover  of  the  lady  who  lay  below,  and  for  whom, 
although  half  a  century  had  elapsed,  he  still  retained  his  old 
attachment. 

(I  should  say  here  that  for  many  of  the  details  about  San- 
quhar  and  Dumfries  I  am  indebted  in  the  first  place  to  Mrs. 
Macbeth  Forbes,  for  permission  to  make  use  of  her  late  hus- 
band's notes  on  the  prisoner-life  at  these  places,  and  in  the 
•second  to  the  hon.  secretary  of  the  Dumfriesshire  and  Gallo- 
way Natural  History  and  Antiquarian  Society,  for  the  use  of 
a  resume  by  him  of  those  notes.) 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  SCOTLAND         345 

MELROSE 

In  the  life  of  Dr.  George  Lawson,  of  Selkirk,  the  French 
prisoners  on  parole  at  Melrose  are  alluded  to.  The  doctor 
astonished  them  with  his  knowledge  of  the  old-world  French 
with  which  they  were  unacquainted,  and  several  pages  of 
the  book  are  devoted  to  the  eloquent  attempts  of  one  of  the 
prisoners  to  bring  him  to  the  Roman  Catholic  communion. 

Appended  to  the  minutes  of  the  Quarterly  Meeting  of  the 
Melrose  Freemasons  on  September  25,  1813,  in  an  account  of 
the  laying  the  foundation-stone  of  a  public  well,  there  is  the 
following  reference  to  the  French  prisoners  interned  at  Melrose 
(the  minutes  of  the  Kelso,  Selkirk,  and  other  lodges  record  the 
fraternal  exchange  of  courtesies,  and  the  reception  of  these 
alien  Brethren  into  the  lodges,  but  at  Melrose  it  would  seem 
that  these  Brethren  held  a  lodge  of  their  own,  which  they  no 
doubt  worked  in  their  native  tongue  and  style,  by  leave  and 
warrant  of  the  Melrose  Lodge) 

'  The  French  Brethren  of  the  Lodge  of  St.  John  under  the 
distinctive  appelation  of  Benevolence  constituted  by  the  French 
prisoners  of  war  on  parole  here,  were  invited  to  attend,  which 
the  Master,  office-bearers,  and  many  of  the  Brethren  accord- 
ingly did/ 

The  lodge  has  preserved  in  its  archives  a  document  with  the 
names  of  the  French  prisoners,  adhibited  to  an  expression  of 
their  appreciation  of  the  kindness  they  had  received  during 
their  sojourn  at  Melrose,  which  was  given  to  the  Brethren  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  war  when  they  were  permitted  to  return 
to  their  own  country  and  homes. 

JEDBURGH 

Mr.  Maberley  Phillips,  F.S.A.,  from  whose  pamphlet  on 
prisoners  of  war  in  the  North  I  shall  quote  later  (pp.  388-9) 
a  description  of  an  escape  of  paroled  prisoners  from  Jedburgh, 
says  : 

'  Jedburgh  had  its  share  of  French  prisoners.  They  were 
for  the  most  part  kindly  treated,  and  many  of  them  were 
permitted  a  great  amount  of  liberty.  One  of  these  had  a  taste 
for  archaeology  and  visited  all  the  ruins  within  the  precincts  of 


346  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

his  radius,  namely,  a  mile  from  the  Cross.  There  is  a  tradition 
that  on  one  of  his  excursions,  he  was  directed  to  a  ruin  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  beyond  his  appointed  mark,  which  happened 
to  be  a  milestone.  He  asked  the  Provost  for  permission  to  go 
beyond  ;  that  worthy,  however,  refused,  but  he  quietly  added  : 
"  If  Mr.  Combat  did  walk  a  short  distance  beyond  the  mile  and 
nobody  said  anything,  nothing  would  come  of  it."  But  the 
Frenchman  had  given  his  word  of  honour,  and  he  could  not 
break  it.  A  happy  thought  struck  him.  He  borrowed  a 
barrow  one  afternoon,  and  with  it  and  the  necessary  imple- 
ments proceeded  out  to  the  obnoxious  milestone.  Having 
"  unshipped  "  the  milestone,  he  raised  it  on  to  the  barrow,  and 
triumphantly  wheeled  it  to  the  required  distance,  where  he 
fixed  it.  ...  For  a  generation  the  stone  stood  where  the 
Frenchman  placed  it,  no  one  being  any  the  worse  for  the  extra 
extent  of  the  Scotch  mile.' 


Many  of  the  prisoners  were  naval  officers  and  were  deeply 
versed  in  science,  including  navigation  and  astronomy.  A 
favourite  resort  of  these  was  Inchbonny,  the  abode  of  James 
Veitch,  the  self-taught  astronomer.  Inchbonny  is  situated  up 
the  Jed  about  half  a  mile  from  Jedburgh.  Among  the  prisoners 
who  made  a  point  of  visiting  Veitch's  workshop  we  may  men- 
tion Scot,  an  old  naval  lieutenant,  who  with  a  long  grey  coat 
was  to  be  seen  at  every  gleam  of  sunshine  at  the  Meridian  line 
with  compasses  in  hand,  resolving  to  determine  the  problem  of 
finding  the  longitude,  and  M.  Charles  Jehenne,  who  belonged 
to  the  navy,  and  who  was  captured  at  the  battle  of  Trafalgar. 
He  on  that  memorable  day  from  the  masthead  of  his  vessel 
observed  the  British  fleet  under  Nelson  bearing  down  upon  the 
French  and  Spanish  vessels.  '  They  saw  us  ',  he  was  wont  to 
say,  '  before  we  saw  them.'  He  was  a  constant  visitor  to  the 
workshop,  and  constructed  a  telescope  there  for  his  own  use. 
He  was  most  agreeable  in  his  manner,  and  careful  not  to  give 
any  trouble  when  doing  any  work  for  himself  with  Veitch's 
tools.  He  also  was  an  astronomer,  and  would  often  stay  out 
at  Inchbonny,  in  order  to  view  the  stars  through  Veitch's 
telescopes,  until  long  after  the  tolling  of  the  bell  which  warned 
the  prisoners  that  the  daily  period  of  liberty  had  again  expired. 
In  order  that  he  might  escape  being  noticed  by  the  observant 
eyes  of  any  who  might  be  desirous  of  obtaining  the  reward  given 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  JEDBURGH        347 

for  a  conviction,  he  usually  got  ti  loan  of  Veitch's  plaid,  and, 
muffled  in  this,  reached  his  quartrs  undetected. 

Billeted  along  with  Jehenne,  ad  staying  in  the  same  room, 
was  Ensign  Bazin,  of  St.  Malo,a  man  of  quiet  demeanour, 
captured  on  the  Torche  corvete  in  1805.  He  was  very 
talented  with  his  pencil,  and  Hid  of  drawing  sketches  of 
Jedburgh  characters,  many  of  ^hich  are  preserved  at  Inch- 
bonny.  He  made  a  painting  o  Jedburgh  Abbey,  which  he 
dedicated  to  Mr.  Veitch,  dated  182 .  In  this  picture  the  French 
prisoners  are  seen  marching  o  the  ramparts,  and,  in  the 
original,  their  faces  and  forms,  is  also  those  of  many  local 
characters,  are  so  admirably  sketced  as  to  be  easily  recognizable. 
A  duplicate  of  this  picture  h<  sent  home  to  his  mother. 
Mrs.  Grant  of  Laggan  perhaps  hd  Bazin  in  view  when  in  her 
Memoir  of  a  Highland  Lady,  shavrote  : 

'  A  number  of  French  prisoncs,  officers,  were  on  parole  at 
Jedburgh.  Lord  Buchanan,  wbm  we  met  there,  took  us  to 
see  a  painting  in  progress  by  omof  them  ;  some  battlefield,  all 
the  figures  portraits  from  memry.  The  picture  was  already 
sold  and  part  paid  for,  and  anther  ordered,  which  we  were 
very  glad  of,  the  handsome  yang  painter  having  interested 
us  much.' 

In  October  1813,  Bazin  receivd  a  pass  to  be  sent  to  Alresford, 
and  he  was  noted,  '  to  be  exchnged  at  the  first  opportunity. 
Has  been  long  imprisoned,  ands  a  great  favourite.'  He  was  of 
wealthy  parents,  and  got  back  o  France  some  time  before  his 
fellow  prisoners  were  released. 

Mrs.  Grant  thus  spoke  of  thcjedburgh  prisoners  : 

'  The  ingenuity  of  the  Frerh  prisoners  of  all  ranks  was 
amazing,  only  to  be  equalled  b  their  industry  ;  those  of  them 
unskilled  in  higher  arts  earned  )r  themselves  most  comfortable 
additions  to  their  allowance  b  turning  bits  of  wood,  bones, 
straw,  almost  anything  in  fact  into  neat  toys  of  many  sorts, 
eagerly  bought  up  by  all  who  ret  with  them.' 

At  Mr.  Veitch's  house,  Incbonny,  may  be  seen, by  those 
fortunate  enough  to  have  a  vrsonal  introduction,  much  of 
the  French  prisoner  handiwor —sketches,  telescopes>  and  an 
electric  machine  with  which  te  poor  fellows  had  much  fun, 
connecting  it  with  wires  to  a  late  on  the  window-sill  below, 


348  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

whereto  they  would  invite  passers-by — generally  girls — for 
a  chat  and  a  joke,  the  result  being  a  shock  which  sent  them 
flying- 
It  is  stated  that  when  the  word  came  that  the  Frenchmen 
were  to  be  allowed  to  return  to  their  native  land,  they  caused 
their  manufactures  and  other  articles  to  be  '  rouped  '.  One  of 
the  prisoners  whose  knowledge  of  the  English  language,  even 
after  his  prolonged  stay  in  this  quarter,  was  very  limited,  was 
delegated  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  the  Provost  of  the  Burgh  to 
hold  such  roup.  He  who  at  this  time  graced  the  office  of 
provostship  had  a  draper's  shop  in  Canongate,  and  hither  the 
Frenchman  went  on  his  errand.  His  lack  of  knowledge  of  the 
popular  tongue,  however,  proved  to  be  an  inconvenience,  for, 
on  arriving  at  the  shop,  he  could  only  request '  A  rope !  A  rope ! ' 
The  draper  had  his  customary  supply  of  old  ropes,  and,  willing 
to  oblige,  brought  them  out,  to  the  perplexity  of  the  visitor, 
and  commenced  to  '  wale  out  the  best  of  them  '.  Seeing  that 
his  would-be  benefactor  was  obviously  mistaken,  the  French 
envoy  reiterated  his  former  request,  and  supplemented  this  by 
adding  in  a  style  which  would  have  done  credit  to  any  auc- 
tioneer, '  One,  Two,  Tree  ! '  Light  dawned  upon  the  Provost's 
comprehension,  and  the  necessary  permission  was  not  long  in 
being  granted. 

Many  of  the  prisoners  are  supposed  to  have  rejoined  Bona- 
parte on  his  return  from  Elba,  and  to  have  fallen  at  Waterloo. 
The  officers  were  billeted  among  private  citizens,  says 
Mr.  Forbes,  while  several  occupied  quarters  immediately  under 
the  Clock  Tower.  Being  young  and  lusty,  they  were  dowered 
with  an  exceedingly  good  appetite,  and  as  they  got  little  to  eat 
so  far  as  their  allowance  went,  some  of  them  used  to  have 
a  pulley  and  hoist  their  loaves  of  bread  to  near  the  ceiling  to 
prevent  themselves  from  devouring  them  all,  and  to  ensure 
something  being  left  over  for  next  repast. 

The  prisoners  were  not  commonly  spoken  of  by  name,  but 
were  known  by  the  persons  with  whom  they  resided,  e.  g., 
'  Nannie  Tamson's  Frenchman',  '  Widow  Ross's  Frenchman  '. 
The  boys  were  a  great  plague  to  the  Frenchmen,  for  when  a 
great  victory  was  announced  their  dominie  gave  them  a  holiday, 
and  the  youngsters  celebrated  it  too  frequently  by  jeering  the 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  JEDBURGH        349 

prisoners,  and  by  shouting  and  cheering.  The  boys  at  a  school 
then  beside  the  road  at  No.  I  Milestone,  were  prominent 
in  these  triumphant  displays,  and  sometimes  pelted  the 
prisoners  with  stones. 

The  manners  of  the  Jedburgh  prisoners  are  thus  alluded  to 
in  the  False  Alarm,  a  local  pamphlet  : 

'  They  were  very  polite,  and  not  infrequently  put  us  rough- 
spun  Scotchmen  to  the  blush  with  their  polished  manners. 
They  came  in  course  of  time  to  be  liked,  but  it  seems  some  of 
the  older  members  of  the  community  could  never  be  brought 
to  fraternize  with  them.  One  old  man  actually  pointed  his  gun 
at  them,  and  threatened  to  fire  because  they  had  exceeded 
their  walking  limit.' 

An  aged  Jedburgh  lady's  reminiscences  are  interesting. 
She  says  : 

'  Among  the  officers  was  M.  Espinasse,  who  settled  in  Edin- 
burgh after  the  Peace  and  engaged  in  teaching  ;  Baron  Gold- 
shord  or  Gottshaw,  who  married  a  Jedburgh  lady,  a  Miss 
Waugh  ;  another,  whose  name  I  do  not  remember,  married 
a  Miss  Jenny  Wintrope,  who  went  with  him  to  the  South  of 
France.  There  was  a  Captain  Rivoli,  also  a  Captain  Racquet, 
and  a  number  of  others  who  were  well  received  by  the  towns- 
people, and  frequently  invited  to  parties  in  their  homes,  to  card- 
clubs,  etc.  They  were  for  the  most  part  pleasant,  agreeable 
gentlemen,  and  made  many  friends.  Almost  all  of  them 
employed  themselves  in  work  of  some  kind,  besides  playing  at 
different  kinds  of  games,  shooting  small  birds,  and  fishing  for 
trout.  They  much  enjoyed  the  liberty  granted  them  of  walking 
one  mile  out  of  the  town  in  any  direction,  as  within  that  dis- 
tance there  were  many  beautiful  walks  when  they  could  go  out 
one  road,  turn,  and  come  back  by  another.  During  their  stay, 
when  news  had  been  received  of  one  great  British  victory,  the 
magistrates  permitted  rejoicing,  and  a  great  bonfire  was  kindled 
at  the  Cross,  and  an  effigy  of  Napoleon  was  set  on  a  donkey  and 
paraded  round  the  town  by  torchlight,  and  round  the  bonfire, 
and  then  cast  into  the  flames.  I  have  often  heard  an  old 
gentleman,  who  had  given  the  boots  and  part  of  the  clothing, 
say  he  never  regretted  doing  anything  so  much  in  his  life,  as 
helping  on  that  great  show,  when  he  saw  the  pain  it  gave  to 
these  poor  gentlemen-prisoners,  who  felt  so  much  at  seeing  the 
affront  put  upon  their  great  commander. 

'  The  French  prisoners  have  always  been  ingenious  in  the 
use  they  made  of  their  meat  bones  .  .  .  they  took  them  and 


350  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

pounded  them  into  a  powder  which  they  mixed  with  the  soft 
food  they  were  eating.  It  is  even  said  that  they  flourished  on 
this  dissolved  phosphate  of  lime  and  gelatine. 

'  There  was  an  old  game  called  "  cradles  "  played  in  those 
days.  Two  or  three  persons  clasp  each  other's  hands,  and 
when  their  arms  are  held  straight  out  at  full  length,  a  person 
is  placed  on  these  stretched  hands,  who  is  sent  up  in  the  air 
and  down  again,  landing  where  he  started  from.  A  farmer 
thought  he  would  try  the  experiment  on  the  Frenchmen.  Some 
buxom  lassies  were  at  work  as  some  of  them  passed,  and  he 
gave  the  girls  the  hint  to  treat  the  foreigners  to  the  "  cradles  ". 
Accordingly  two  of  them  were  jerked  well  up  in  the  air  to  fall 
again  on  the  sturdy  hands  of  the  wenches.  The  experiment 
was  repeated  again  and  again  until  the  Frenchmen  were  glad 
to  call  a  halt.' 

Parole-breaking  was  rather  common,  and  began  some  months 
after  the  officers  arrived  in  the  town.  A  party  of  five  set  out 
for  Blyth  in  September  1811,  but  were  brought  to  Berwick 
under  a  military  escort,  and  lodged  in  jail.  Next  day  they 
were  marched  to  Penicuik  under  charge  of  a  party  of  the  Forfar- 
shire  Militia.  Three  of  them  were  good-looking  young  men  ; 
one  in  particular  had  a  very  interesting  countenance,  and, 
wishing  one  day  to  extend  his  walk,  in  order  to  get  some  water- 
cress for  salad,  beyond  the  limit  of  the  one-mile  stone,  uprooted 
it,  and  carried  it  in  his  arms  as  far  as  he  wished  to  go. 

Three  other  officers  were  captured  the  same  year,  and  sent  to 
Edinburgh  Castle,  and  in  1813  occurred  the  escape  and  capture 
to  be  described  later  (p.  388). 

The  highest  number  of  prisoners  at  Jedburgh  was  130,  and 
there  were  three  deaths  during  their  stay. 

HAWICK 

I  owe  my  best  thanks  to  Mr.  J.  John  Vernon,  hon.  secretary 
of  the  Hawick  Archaeological  Society,  for  the  following  note  on 
Hawick  : 

'  Not  many  of  Napoleon's  officers  were  men  of  means,  so 
to  the  small  allowance  they  received  from  the  British  Govern- 
ment, they  were  permitted  to  eke  out  their  income  by  teaching, 
sketching,  or  painting,  or  by  making  little  trifles  which  they 
disposed  of  as  best  they  could  among  the  townspeople.  At 
other  times  they  made  a  little  money  by  giving  musical  and 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  HAWICK          351 

dramatic  entertainments,  which  proved  a  source  of  enjoyment 
to  the  audience  and  of  profit  to  themselves. 

'Though  "prisoners",  they  had  a  considerable  freedom, 
being  allowed  to  go  about  as  they  pleased  anywhere  within 
a  radius  of  a  mile  from  the  Tower  Knowe.  During  their  resi- 
dence in  Hawick  they  became  very  popular  among  all  classes  of 
the  people  and  much  regret  was  expressed  when  the  time  came 
for  their  returning  to  the  Continent.  Hawick  society  was 
decidedly  the  poorer  by  their  departure.  Paradoxical  it  may 
seem,  but  most  of  those  who  were  termed  "  French  Prisoners  " 
.  were  in  reality  of  German  extraction  :  Fifteen  of  their  number 
became  members  of  the  Freemasons,  St.  John's  Lodge,  No.  in. 
They  were  lodged  in  private  houses  throughout  the  towns. 
No.  44  High  Street  was  the  residence  of  a  number  of  them,  who 
dwelt  in  it  from  June  1812  to  June  1814.' 

Speaking  of  Freemasonry  in  Hawick,  Mr.  W.  Fred  Vernon 

says : 

'  Each  succeeding  year  saw  the  Lodge  more  thinly  attended. 
An  impetus  to  the  working  and  attendance  was  given  about 
1810  by  the  affiliation  and  initiation  of  several  of  the  French 
prisoners  of  war  who  were  billeted  in  the  town,  and  from  time 
to  time  to  the  close  of  the  war  in  1815,  the  attendance  and 
prosperity  of  the  Lodge  was  in  striking  contrast  to  what  it  had 
been  previously.' 

The  following  extracts  are  from  a  book  upon  Hawick  pub- 
lished by  Mr.  J.  John  Vernon  in  November  1911. 

'  One  of  Bonaparte's  officers,  compelled  to  reside  for  nearly 
two  years  in  Hawick,  thus  expressed  himself  regarding  the 
weather  during  the  winter,  and  at  the  same  time  his  opinion  of 
the  people.  In  reply  to  a  sympathetic  remark  that  the  weather 
must  be  very  trying  to  one  who  had  come  from  a  more  genial 
climate,  the  officer  said  : 

"  It  is  de  devil's  wedder,  but  you  have  de  heaven  centre  for 
all  dat.  You  have  de  cold,  de  snow,  de  frozen  water,  and  de 
sober  dress  ;  but  you  have  de  grand  constitution,  and  de 
manners  and  equality  that  we  did  fight  for  so  long.  I  see  in 
your  street  de  priest  and  de  shoemaker  ;  de  banker  and  de 
baker,  de  merchant  and  de  hosier  all  meet  together,  be  com- 
panions and  be  happy.  Dis  is  de  equality  dat  de  French  did 
fight  for  and  never  got,  not  de  ting  de  English  newspapers  say 
we  want.  Ah  !  Scotland  be  de  fine  contre  and  de  people  be 
de  wise,  good  men.  ...  De  English  tell  me  at  Wincanton 
dat  de  Scots  be  a  nation  of  sauvages.  It  was  a  lie.  De  English 


352  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

be  de  sauvages  and  de  Scots  be  de  civilized  people.  De  high 
Englishman  be  rich  and  good  ;  de  low  Englishman  be  de  brute. 
In  Scotland  de  people  be  all  de  same  !  Oh  !  Scotland  be  a  fine 
centre !  " 

'  The  fact  that  so  many  of  the  French  prisoners  of  war  were 
quartered  in  Hawick  from  1812-14  did  much  towards  brighten- 
ing society  during  that  time.  Pity  for  their  misfortunes  pre- 
vailed over  any  feeling  that  the  name  "  Frenchman  "  might 
formerly  have  excited,  and  they  were  welcomed  in  the  homes 
of  the  Hawick  people.  It  heartened  them  to  be  asked  to 
dinner  ;  as  one  of  them  remarked  :  "  De  heart  of  hope  do  not 
jump  in  de  hungry  belly  ",  and  many  valued  friendships  were 
thus  formed.' 

'  The  presence  of  so  many  well-dressed  persons  for  so  long 
a  period  produced  a  marked  reform  in  the  costume  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Hawick/  says  James  Wilson  in  his  Annals  of 
Hawick. 

The  first  prisoners  came  to  Hawick  in  January  1812.  Of 
these,  thirty-seven  came  from  Wincanton,  forty-one  came 
direct  from  Spain  a  little  later,  thirty-seven  from  Launceston. 
The  prisoners  had  been  sent  hither  from  such  distant  places 
as  Launceston  and  Wincanton  on  account  of  the  increasing 
number  of  escapes  from  these  places,  the  inhabitants  of 
both  of  which,  as  we  have  seen,  were  notoriously  in  sympathy 
with  the  foreigners.  Two  surgeons  came  from  the  Greenlaw 
depot  to  attend  on  them.  Mr.  William  Nixon,  of  Lynnwood, 
acted  as  agent,  or  commissary,  and  by  the  end  of  1812  he  had 
120  prisoners  in  his  charge.  A  few  of  the  Hawick  prisoners 
were  quite  well-to-do.  There  is  a  receipt  extant  of  a  Captain 
Grupe  which  shows  that  he  had  a  monthly  remittance  from 
Paris  of  £13  45.  6d.,  in  addition  to  his  pay  and  subsistence 
money  as  a  prisoner  of  war. 

In  the  Kelso  Mail  of  June  20,  1814,  is  the  following  testimony 
from  the  prisoners,  on  leaving,  to  the  kind  and  hospitable 
treatment  they  had  so  generally  received  : 

'  Hawick,  May  2,  1814. 

'  The  French  officers  on  parole  at  Hawick,  wishing  to  express 
their  gratitude  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  and  its  vicinity 
for  the  liberal  behaviour  which  they  have  observed  to  them, 
and  the  good  opinion  which  they  have  experienced  from  them,. 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  HA  WICK  353 

unanimously  request  the  Magistrates  and  Mr.  Nixon,  their 
Commissary,  to  be  so  kind  as  to  allow  them  to  express  their 
sentiments  to  them,  and  to  assure  them  that  they  will  preserve 
the  remembrance  of  all  the  marks  of  friendship  which  they 
have  received  from  them.  May  the  wishes  which  the  French 
officers  make  for  the  prosperity  of  the  town  and  the  happiness 
of  its  inhabitants  be  fully  accomplished.  Such  is  the  most 
ardent  wish,  the  dearest  hope  of  those  who  have  the  honour  to 
be  their  most  humble  servants/ 

In  some  cases  intercourse  did  not  cease  with  the  departure 
of  the  prisoners,  and  men  who  had  received  kindnesses  as 
aliens  kept  up  correspondence  with  those  who  had  pitied  and 
befriended  them. 

On  May  18,  1814,  the  officers  at  Hawick,  mostly,  if  not 
entirely,  Bonaparte's  soldiers,  drifted  with  the  Royalist  tide, 
and  sent  an  address  to  Louis  XVIII,  conceived  in  much  the 
same  terms  as  that  from  Dumfries  already  quoted,  speaking 
of  '  the  happy  events  which  have  taken  place  in  our  country, 
and  which  have  placed  on  the  throne  of  his  ancestors  the 
illustrious  family  of  Bourbon ',  and  adding,  '  we  lay  at  the  feet 
of  the  worthy  descendant  of  Henry  IV  the  homage  of  our 
entire  obedience  and  fidelity  '. 

The  prisoners  were  always  welcome  visitors  at  the  house  of 
Goldielands  adjoining  the  fine  old  peel  tower  of  that  name, 
and  I  give  the  following  pleasant  testimony  of  one  of  them : 

'  To  Mr.  Elliott  of  Goldielands  : 
'SiR, 

'Very  sorry  that  before  my  leaving  Scotland  I  could  not 
have  the  pleasure  of  passing  some  hours  with  you.  I  take  the 
liberty  of  addressing  you  these  few  lines,  the  principal  object 
of  which  is  to  thank  you  for  all  the  particular  kindness  and 
friendship  you  honoured  me  with  during  my  stay  in  this  coun- 
try. The  more  lively  I  always  felt  this  your  kindness  since 
idle  prejudices  had  not  the  power  over  you  to  treat  us  with  that 
coldness  and  reserve  which  foreigners,  and  the  more  so,  prisoners 
of  war  in  Britain,  so  often  meet  with. 

'  If  in  the  case  only  that  my  conduct  whilst  I  had  the  honour 
of  being  acquainted  with  you,  has  not  met  with  your  dis- 
approval, I  pray  you  to  preserve  me,  even  so  far  off,  your 
friendship.  To  hear  sometimes  of  you  would  certainly  cause 
me  great  pleasure. 


354  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

'  Pray  acquaint  Mrs.  Elliott  and  the  rest  of  your  family  of  the 
high  esteem  with  which  I  have  the  honour  to  be,  Sir, 

'  Your  humble  servant, 

'G.  DE  TALLARD,  Lieut. 

'  Hawick,  March  u,  1814.' 


LAUDER 

I  am  indebted  to  the  late  Mr.  Macbeth  Forbes  for  these  notes. 

There  hangs  in  one  of  the  rooms  of  Thirlestane  Castle,  the 
baronial  residence  of  the  Earls  of  Lauderdale,  an  oil-painting 
executed  by  a  French  prisoner  of  war,  Lieutenant- Adjutant 
George  Maurer  of  the  Hesse-Darmstadt  Infantry.  He  is 
described  in  the  Admiralty  Records  as  a  youth  of  twenty,  with 
hazel  eyes,  fresh  complexion,  five  feet  nine  and  three-quarter 
inches  in  height,  well  made,  but  with  a  small  sword  scar  on  his 
left  cheek.  Although  his  production  is  by  no  means  a  striking 
work  of  art,  it  is  nevertheless  cherished  as  a  memento  of  the 
time  when — a  hundred  years  ago — French  prisoners  were 
billeted  in  Lauder,  Berwickshire,  and  indulged  in  pleasant 
intercourse  with  the  inhabitants  of  this  somewhat  remote  and 
out-of-the-way  country  town.  In  the  left  corner  of  the  painting, 
which  represents  Lauder  as  seen  from  the  west,  is  a  portrait, 
dated  August  1813,  of  the  artist  decked  in  a  sort  of  Tam-o'- 
Shanter  bonnet,  swallow-tailed  coat,  and  knee  breeches,  plying 
his  brush. 

The  average  number  of  prisoners  at  Lauder  was  between 
fifty  and  sixty,  and  the  average  age  was  twenty-six.  They 
appear  to  have  conducted  themselves  with  great  propriety  in 
the  quiet  town  ;  none  of  them  was  ever  sent  to  the  Tolbooth. 
They  resided  for  the  most  part  with  burgesses,  one  of  whom 
was  James  Haswell,  a  hairdresser,  whose  son  remembered  two 
of  the  prisoners  who  lived  in  his  father's  house,  and  who  made 
for  him  and  his  brothers,  as  boys,  suits  of  regimentals  with 
cocked  hats,  and  marched  them  through  the  town  with  bayonets 
at  their  sides. 

About  the  end  of  January  1812,  Captain  Pequendaire,  of 
L'Espoir  privateer,  escaped.  At  Lauder  he  never  spoke  a  word 
of  English  to  any  one,  and  about  six  weeks  after  his  arrival  he 
disappeared.  It  came  out  that  he  had  walked  to  Stow,  near 


PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  IN  LAUDER          355 

Lauder,  and  taken  the  coach  there,  and  that  he  had  got  off 
because  he  spoke  English  so  perfectly  as  to  pass  for  a  native  ! 

Angot,  second  captain  of  L'Espoir,  was  released  upon  the 
representation  of  inhabitants  of  St.  Valery,  that  he  with  others 
had  saved  the  lives  of  seventy-nine  British  seamen  wrecked  on 
the  coast. 

A  duel  took  place  on  a  terrace  on  the  east  side  01  Lauderdale 
Castle  between  two  prisoners  armed  with  razors  fastened  to  the 
end  of  walking-sticks.  No  harm  was  done  on  this  occasion. 

The  prisoners  were  always  kindly  and  hospitably  treated  by 
the  inhabitants.  On  one  occasion  some  of  them  were  at  a  dinner- 
party at  Mr.  Brodie's,  a  farmer  of  Pilmuir.  The  farm  was  beyond 
the  one-mile  limit,  but  no  notice  would  have  been  taken  if  the 
prisoners  had  duly  reported  themselves  and  enabled  the  Agent 
to  make  the  necessary  declaration,  but,  unfortunately,  a  heavy 
snowstorm  prevented  them  from  getting  back  to  Lauder,  and 
the  report  went  in  that  So-and-so  had  not  appeared.  The  Trans- 
port Board  at  once  dealt  with  the  matter,  and  the  parish 
Minister,  the  Rev.  Peter  Cosens,  who  had  been  one  of  the  party 
at  Pilmuir,  wrote  to  the  authorities  by  way  of  explaining,  and 
the  reply  received  was  very  severe,  the  authorities  expressing 
surprise  that  one  in  his  position  should  have  given  countenance 
to,  and  should  seek  to  palliate  or  excuse,  the  offence.  The 
result  to  the  prisoners  is  not  known,  but  they  were  probably 
let  off  with  a  fine  stopped  out  of  their  allowance. 

Many  of  the  prisoners  knew  little  or  no  English  when  they 
came  to  Lauder.  On  the  occasion  of  a  detachment  coming 
into  the  town,  some  of  the  baggage  had  not  arrived,  and  the 
interpreter  of  the  party  appeared  before  the  Agent,  and  made 
a  low  bow,  and  held  up  a  finger  for  each  package  that  was 
wanting,  and  uttered  the  only  appropriate  English  word  he 
knew,  '  Box  '.  Another,  who  wished  to  buy  eggs,  went  into 
a  shop,  and,  drawing  his  cloak  around  him,  sat  down  and 
clucked  like  a  hen. 

Many  of  the  prisoners  in  the  Scottish  towns  were  Germans 
in  French  service.  In  January  1813,  the  Lauder  St.  Luke's 
Lodge  of  Freemasons  admitted  eight  Germans  and  one  French- 
man, and  it  is  related  that  on  the  occasion  of  their  induction, 
when  the  time  for  refreshments  after  business  came,  the  foreign 

A  a  2 


356  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

installations  delighted  the  company  with  yarns  of  their  military 
experiences.  When  the  great  movement  for  German  liberty 
got  into  full  swing,  Britain  encouraged  the  French  prisoners  of 
German  nationality  to  fight  for  their  own  country.  Accord- 
ingly the  eleven  German  prisoners  in  Lauder,  belonging  to  the 
Hesse-Darmstadt  regiment,  received  £5  each  at  the  end  of 
February  1814,  to  pay  their  expenses  to  Hawick,  whence  to 
proceed  to  the  seat  of  war.  It  is  related  that  the  joy  they  felt 
at  their  release  was  diminished  by  their  regret  at  leaving  the 
town  where  they  had  been  treated  by  the  inhabitants  with  so 
much  marked  hospitality  and  kindness.  The  evening  previous 
to  their  departure,  the  magistrates  gave  them  an  entertainment 
at  the  Black  Bull  Inn,  and  wished  them  all  success  in  their 
efforts  to  restore  liberty  and  prosperity.  The  remaining 
twenty-two  prisoners  finally  left  Lauder,  June  3,  1814  ;  others 
having  been  previously  removed  to  Jedburgh,  Kelso,  and  Dum- 
fries. While  they  were  in  Lauder  some  of  the  merchants  gave 
them  credit,  and  they  were  honourably  repaid  on  the  prisoners' 
return  to  their  own  country.  Maurer,  the  artist  before  alluded 
to,  often  revisited  his  friends  in  Lauder,  and  always  called  on 
and  dined  with  the  Agent,  and  talked  over  old  times. 

.  LOCKERBIE  AND  LOCHMABEN 

About  a  score  of  prisoners  were  at  each  of  these  places,  but 
as  the  record  of  their  lives  here  is  of  very  much  the  same 
character  as  of  prisoner  life  elsewhere,  it  hardly  makes  a  demand 
upon  the  reader's  attention.  In  both  places  the  exiles  con- 
ducted themselves  peaceably  and  quietly,  and  they,  especially 
the  doctors,  were  well  liked  by  the  inhabitants. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  WALES 
IN  MONTGOMERYSHIRE 

I  AM  indebted  to  Canon  Thomas  of  Llandrinio  Rectory, 
Llanymynech,  for  information  which  led  me  to  extract  the 
following  interesting  details  from  the  Montgomeryshire  Archaeo- 
logical Collections. 

Batches  of  French  officers  were  on  parole  during  the  later 
years  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  at  Llanfyllin,  Montgomery, 
Bishop's  Castle,  Newtown,  and  Welshpool. 

Llanfyllin 

About  120  French  and  Germans  were  quartered  here  during 
the  years  1812  and  1813.  Many  of  them  lived  together  in 
a  large  house,  formerly  the  Griffith  residence,  which  stood 
where  is  now  Bachie  Place.  Others  were  at  the  '  Council 
House  '  in  High  Street.  In  a  first-floor  room  of  this  latter 
may  still  be  seen  thirteen  frescoes  in  crayon  executed  by  the 
prisoners,  representing  imaginary  mountain  scenery.  Formerly 
there  were  similar  frescoes  in  a  neighbouring  house,  once  the 
Rampant  Lion  Inn,  now  a  tailor's  shop,  but  these  have  been 
papered  over,  and  according  to  the  correspondent  who  supplies 
the  information,  '  utterly  destroyed  '.  These  prisoners  were 
liberally  supplied  with  money,  which  they  spent  freely.  An 
attachment  sprang  up  between  a  prisoner,  Captain  Angerau, 
and  the  Rector's  daughter,  which  resulted  in  their  marriage 
after  the  Peace  of  1814.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  1908 
a  grandson  of  Captain  Angerau  visited  Llanfyllin. 

The  following  pleasing  testimony  I  take  from  Bygones, 
October  30,  1878  : 

'  The  German  soldiers  from  Hessia,  so  well  received  by  the 
inhabitants  of  Llanfyllin  during  their  captivity,  have  requested 
the  undersigned  to  state  that  the  kindness  and  the  favour 


358  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

shewn  them  by  the  esteemed  inhabitants  of  Llanfyllin  will  ever 
remain  in  their  thankful  remembrance. 

'  C.  W.  WEDIKIND. 

'  Newtown,  June  17,  1817.' 

Montgomery 

A  correspondent  of  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  contributed 
a  notice  of  the  death  at  Montgomery  of  an  old  gentleman  named 
Chatuing  who  had  been  nearly  four  years  a  prisoner  in  that 
town,  and  who  had  preferred  to  remain  there  after  the  Peace 
of  1814. 

Occasionally  we  come  across  evidence  that  there  were  men 
among  the  prisoners  on  parole  who  were  not  above  acting  as 
Government  spies  among  their  fellows.  One  Beauvernet  at 
Montgomery  was  evidently  one  of  these,  for  a  Transport  Office 
letter  to  the  Agent  in  that  town  in  1806  says  : 

'  Mr.  Beauvernet  may  rest  perfectly  satisfied  that  any  infor- 
mation communicated  by  him  will  not  in  any  way  be  used  to 
his  detriment  or  disadvantage.' 

Allen,  the  Montgomery  Agent,  is  directed  to  advance  Beau- 
vernet £10,  as  part  of  what  ultimately  would  be  given  him.  One 
Muller  was  the  object  of  suspicion,  and  he  was  probably  an 
escape  agent,  as  in  later  letters  Beauvernet  is  to  be  allowed  to 
choose  where  he  will  '  work  ',  and  eventually,  on  the  news  that 
Muller  has  gone  to  London,  is  given  a  passport  thither,  and 
another  £10.  Of  course  it  does  not  follow  from  this  that  Beau- 
vernet was  actually  a  prisoner  of  war,  and  he  may  have  been 
one  of  the  foreign  agents  employed  by  Government  at  good 
pay  to  watch  the  prisoners  more  unostentatiously  than  could 
a  regular  prisoner  agent,  but  the  opening  sentence  of  the 
official  letter  seems  to  point  to  the  fact  that  he  was  a  prisoner. 

A  French  officer  on  parole  at  Montgomery,  named  Dumont, 
was  imprisoned  for  refusing  to  support  an  illegitimate  child,  so 
that  it  came  upon  the  rates.  He  wrote,  however,  to  Lady 
Pechell,  declaring  that  he  was  the  victim  '  of  a  sworn  lie  of  an 
abandoned  creature  ',  complaining  that  he  was  shut  up  with 
the  local  riff-raff,  half  starved,  and  penniless,  and  imploring  her 
to  influence  the  Transport  Board  to  give  him  the  subsistence 
money  which  had  been  taken  from  him  since  his  committal  to 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  MONTGOMERY        359 

prison  to  pay  for  the  child.  What  the  Transport  Board  replied 
does  not  appear,  but  from  the  frequency  of  these  complaints  on 
the  part  of  prisoners,  there  seems  no  doubt  that,  although  local 
records  show  that  illicit  amours  were  largely  indulged  in  by 
French  and  other  officers  on  parole,  in  our  country  towns, 
much  advantage  of  the  sinning  of  a  few  was  taken  by  unprin- 
cipled people  to  blackmail  others. 

In  the  Cambrian  of  May  2,  1806,  is  the  following  : 

'  At  the  last  Quarter  Sessions  for  Montgomeryshire,  a  farmer 
of  the  neighbourhood  of  Montgomery  was  prosecuted  by  order 
of  the  Transport  Office  for  assaulting  one  of  the  French  pri- 
soners on  parole,  and,  pleading  guilty  to  the  indictment,  was 
fined  £10,  and  ordered  to  find  sureties  for  keeping  the  peace  for 
twelve  months.  This  is  the  second  prosecution  which  the 
Board  has  ordered,  it  being  determined  that  the  prisoners  shall 
be  protected  by  Government  from  insult  while  they  remain  in 
their  unfortunate  position  as  Prisoners  of  War.' 

Bishop's  Castle 

At  Bishop's  Castle  there  were  many  prisoners,  and  in  Bygones 
Thomas  Caswell  records  chats  with  an  old  man  named 
Meredith,  in  the  workhouse,  who  had  been  servant  at  the 
Six  Bells,  where  nine  officers  were  quartered.  '  They  cooked 
their  own  food,  and  I  waited  upon  them.  They  were  very 
talkative  .  .  .  they  were  not  short  of  money,  and  behaved  very 
well  to  me  for  waiting  upon  them.' 

The  attempted  escape  of  two  Bishop's  Castle  prisoners  is 
described  on  page  391. 

Newtown 

'  Mr.  David  Morgan  of  the  Canal  Basin,  Newtown,  who  is 
now  (February  1895)  81  years  of  age,  remembers  over  300 
prisoners  passing  through  Kerry  village  on  their  way  from 
London  via  Ludlow,  to  Newtown.  He  was  then  a  little  boy 
attending  Kerry  school,  and  the  children  all  ran  out  to  see 
them.  All  were  on  foot,  and  were  said  to  be  all  officers.  A 
great  number  of  them  were  billeted  at  various  public-houses, 
and  some  in  private  houses  in  Newtown.  They  exerted  them- 
selves greatly  in  putting  out  a  fire  at  the  New  Inn  in  Severn 
Street,  and  were  to  be  seen,  says  my  informant,  an  aged  inhabi- 
tant, "  like  cats  about  the  roof  ".  When  Peace  was  made,  they 
returned  to  France,  and  many  of  them  were  killed  at  Waterloo. 
The  news  of  that  great  battle  and  victory  reached  Newtown 


360  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

on  Pig  Fair  Day,  in  June  1815.  I  have  a  memorandum  book 
of  M.  Auguste  Tricoche,  one  of  the  prisoners,  who  appears  to 
have  served  in  the  French  fleet  in  the  West  Indies,  and  to  have 
been  taken  prisoner  at  the  capture  of  Martinique  in  1810.' 

Welshpool 

1  On  the  occasion  of  a  great  fire  at  the  corner  shop  in  Decem- 
ber 1813,  there  was  a  terrific  explosion  of  gunpowder  which 
hurled  portions  of  timber  into  the  Vicarage  garden,  some 
distance  off.  The  French  prisoners  were  very  active,  and 
some  of  them  formed  a  line  to  the  Lledan  brook  (which  at  that 
time  was  not  cul verted  over),  whence  they  conveyed  water  to 
the  burning  building  to  others  of  their  comrades  who  courage- 
ously entered  it. 

4  Dr.  P.  L.  Serph,  one  of  the  prisoners,  settled  down  at  Welsh- 
pool,  where  he  obtained  a  large  practice  as  a  physician  and 
surgeon,  and  continued  to  reside  there  until  the  time  of  his 
death.  Dr.  Serph  married  Ann,  the  daughter  of  John  Moore, 
late  of  Crediton  in  the  county  of  Devon,  gentleman,  by  Elizabeth 
his  wife.  Mrs.  Serph  died  in  1837,  and  there  is  a  monument  to 
their  memory  in  Welshpool  churchyard. 

'  There  is  at  Gungrog  a  miniature  of  Mrs.  Morris  Jones  painted 
by  a  French  prisoner  ;  also  a  water  colour  of  the  waterfall  at 
Pystyl  Rhaiadr,  which  is  attributed  to  one  of  them.  I  recollect 
seeing  in  the  possession  of  the  late  Mr.  Oliver  E.  Jones,  druggist, 
a  view  of  Powis  Castle,  ingeniously  made  of  diverse-coloured 
straws,  the  work  of  one  of  the  prisoners. 

'  It  is  said  that  French  blood  runs  in  the  veins  of  some  of  the 
inhabitants  of  each  of  these  towns  where  the  prisoners  were 
located. 

'  R.  WILLIAMS/ 

IN  PEMBROKESHIRE 

Pembroke 

In  1779  Howard  the  philanthropist  visited  Pembroke,  and 
reported  to  this  effect : 

He  found  thirty-seven  American  prisoners  of  war  herded 
together  in  an  old  house,  some  of  them  without  shoes  or  stock- 
ings, all  of  them  scantily  clad  and  in  a  filthy  condition.  There 
were  no  tables  of  victualling  and  regulations  hung  up,  nor  did 
the  prisoners  know  anything  more  about  allowances  than  that 
they  were  the  same  as  for  the  French  prisoners.  The  floors 
were  covered  with  straw  which  had  not  been  changed  for  seven 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  PEMBROKE  361 

weeks.  There  were  three  patients  in  the  hospital  house,  in 
which  the  accommodation  was  very  poor. 

Fifty-six  French  prisoners  were  in  an  old  house  adjoining  the 
American  prison.  Most  of  them  had  no  shoes  or  stockings,  and 
some  had  .no  shirts.  There  was  no  victualling  table  and  the 
prisoners  knew  nothing  about  their  allowance.  Two  or  three 
of  them  had  a  money  allowance,  which  should  have  been  3/6 
per  week  each,  for  aliment,  but  from  this  6d.  was  always  de- 
ducted. They  lay  on  boards  without  straw,  and  there  were 
only  four  hammocks  in  two  rooms  occupied  by  thirty-six 
prisoners.  There  was  a  court  for  airing,  but  no  water  and  no 
sewer.  In  two  rooms  of  the  town  jail  were  twenty  French 
prisoners.  They  had  some  straw,  but  it  had  not  been  changed 
for  many  weeks.  There  was  no  supply  of  water  in  the  jail, 
and  as  the  prisoners  were  not  allowed  to  go  out  and  fetch  it, 
they  had  to  do  without  it.  On  one  Sunday  morning  they  had 
had  no  water  since  Friday  evening.  The  bread  was  tolerable, 
the  beer  very  small,  the  allowance  of  beef  so  scanty  that  the 
prisoners  preferred  the  allowance  of  cheese  and  butter.  In  the 
hospital  were  nine  French  prisoners,  besides  five  of  the  Cullo- 
den's  crew,  and  three  Americans.  All  lay  on  straw  with 
coverlets,  but  without  sheets,  mattresses,  or  bedsteads. 

This  was  perhaps  the  worst  prison  visited  by  Howard,  and  he 
emphatically  recommended  the  appointment  of  a  regular 
inspector.  In  1779  complaints  came  from  Pembroke  of  the 
unnecessary  use  of  fire-arms  by  the  militiamen  on  guard,  and 
that  150  prisoners  were  crowded  into  one  small  house  with  an 
airing  yard  twenty-five  paces  square — this  was  the  year  of 
Howard's  visit.  His  recommendations  seem  to  have  had  little 
effect,  for  in  1781  twenty-six  prisoners  signed  a  complaint  that 
the  quantity  and  the  quality  of  the  provisions  were  deficient ; 
that  they  had  shown  the  Agent  that  the  bread  was  ill-baked, 
black,  and  of  bad  taste,  but  he  had  taken  no  notice  ;  that  he 
gave  them  cow's  flesh,  which  was  often  bad,  thinking  that  they 
would  refuse  it  and  buy  other  at  their  own  expense  ;  that  he 
vexed  them  as  much  as  he  could,  telling  them  that  the  bread 
and  meat  were  too  good  for  Frenchmen  ;  that  on  their  com- 
plaining about  short  measure  and  weight  he  refused  to  have  the 
food  measured  and  weighed  in  their  presence  in  accordance 


362  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

with  the  regulations  ;  that  he  tried  to  get  a  profit  out  of  the 
straw  supplied  by  making  it  last  double  the  regulation  time 
without  changing  it,  so  that  they  were  obliged  to  buy  it  for 
themselves  ;  and  that  he  had  promised  them  blankets,  but, 
although  it  was  the  raw  season  of  the  year,  none  had  yet  been 
issued. 

In  1797  the  Admiralty  inspector  reported  that  the  condition 
of  the  depot  at  Pembroke  was  very  unsatisfactory  ;  the  dis- 
cipline slack,  as  the  Agent  preferred  to  live  away  at  Hubber- 
stone,  and  only  put  in  an  occasional  appearance  ;  and  that  the 
state  of  the  prisoners  was  mutinous  to  a  dangerous  degree. 

The  Fishguard  affair  of  7797 

If  the  Great  Western  Railway  had  not  brought  Fishguard 
into  prominence  as  a  port  of  departure  for  America,  it  would 
still  be  famous  as  the  scene  of  the  last  foreign  invasion  of 
England.  On  February  22,  1797,  fifteen  hundred  Frenchmen, 
half  of  whom  were  picked  men  and  half  galley  slaves,  landed 
from  four  vessels,  three  of  which  were  large  frigates,  under  an 
Irish  General  Tate,  at  Cerrig  Gwasted  near  Fishguard.  They 
had  previously  been  at  Ilfracombe,  where  they  had  burned 
some  shipping.  There  was  a  hasty  gathering  of  ill-armed 
pitmen  and  peasants  to  withstand  them,  and  these  were  pre- 
sently joined  by  Lord  Cawdor  with  3,000  men,  of  whom  700 
were  well-trained  Militia.  Cawdor  rode  forward  to  reconnoitre, 
and  General  Tate,  deceived,  as  a  popular  legend  goes,  into 
the  belief  that  he  was  opposed  by  a  British  military  force 
of  great  strength,  by  the  appearance  behind  his  lordship  of 
a  body  of  Welshwomen  clad  in  their  national  red  '  whittles  ' 
and  high-crowned  hats,  surrendered. 

Be  the  cause  what  it  might,  by  February  24,  without  a  shot 
being  fired,  700  Frenchmen  were  lodged  in  Haverfordwest 
Jail,  500  in  St.  Mary's  Church,  and  the  rest  about  the  town. 
Later  on,  for  security,  500  Frenchmen  were  shut  up  in  the 
Golden  Tower,  Pembroke,  and  with  this  last  body  a  romance 
is  associated.  Two  girls  were  daily  employed  in  cleaning  the 
prison,  and  on  their  passage  to  and  fro  became  aware  of  two 
handsome  young  Frenchmen  among  the  prisoners  selling  their 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  ABERGAVENNY       363 

manufactures  at  the  daily  market,  who  were  equally  attracted 
by  them.  The  natural  results  were  flirtation  and  the  concoc- 
tion of  a  plan  of  escape  for  the  prisoners.  The  girls  contrived 
to  smuggle  into  the  prison  some  shin  bones  of  horses  and  cows, 
which  the  prisoners  shaped  into  digging  tools,  and  started  to 
excavate  a  passage  sixty  feet  long  under  the  prison  walls  to  the 
outer  ditch  which  was  close  to  the  harbour,  the  earth  thus  dug 
out  being  daily  carried  away  by  the  girls  in  the  pails  they  used 
in  their  cleaning  operations.  Six  weeks  of  continuous  secret 
labour  saw  the  completion  of  the  task,  and  all  that  now  re- 
mained was  to  secure  a  vessel  to  carry  the  performers  away. 
Lord  Cawdor's  yacht  at  anchor  offered  the  opportunity.  Some 
reports  say  that  a  hundred  prisoners  got  out  by  the  tunnel 
and  boarded  the  yacht  and  a  sloop  lying  at  hand ;  but  at  any 
rate,  the  two  girls  and  five  and  twenty  prisoners  secured  the 
yacht,  and,  favoured  by  a  thick  fog,  weighed  anchor  and 
got  away.  For  three  days  they  drifted  about  ;  then,  meeting 
a  brig,  they  hailed  her,  represented  themselves  as  shipwrecked 
mariners,  and  were  taken  aboard.  They  learned  that  a  reward 
of  £500  was  being  offered  for  the  apprehension  of  the  two  girls 
who  had  liberated  a  hundred  prisoners,  and  replied  by  clap- 
ping the  brig's  crew  under  hatches,  and  setting  their  course  for 
St.  Malo,  which  they  safely  reached. 

The  girls  married  their  lovers,  and  one  of  them,  Madame 
Roux,  ci-devant  Eleanor  Martin,  returned  to  Wales  when  peace 
was  declared,  and  is  said  to  have  kept  an  inn  at  Merthyr,  her 
husband  getting  a  berth  at  the  iron- works. 

Another  of  General  Tate's  men,  a  son  of  the  Marquis  de 
Saint-Amans,  married  Anne  Beach,  sister-in-law  of  the  Rev. 
James  Thomas,  Vicar  of  St.  Mary's,  Haverfordwest,  and  head 
master  of  the  Grammar  School.  General  Tate  himself  was 
confined  in  Portchester  Castle. 

IN  MONMOUTHSHIRE 
A  bergavenny 

There  were  some  two  hundred  officers  on  parole  here,  but  the 
only  memory  of  them  extant  is  associated  with  the  Masonic 
Lodge,  '  Enfants  de  Mars  et  de  Neptune  ',  which  was  worked  by 


364  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

them  about  1813-14.  Tradition  says  that  the  officers'  mess 
room,  an  apartment  in  Monk  Street,  remarkable  for  a  hand- 
some arched  ceiling,  also  served  for  Lodge  meetings.  De  Grasse 
Tilly,  son  of  Admiral  De  Grasse,  who  was  defeated  by  Rodney 
in  the  West  Indies,  was  a  prominent  member  of  this  Lodge. 
At  the  present  '  Philanthropic  '  Lodge,  No.  818,  Abergavenny, 
are  preserved  some  collars,  swords,  and  other  articles  which 
belonged  to  members  of  the  old  French  prisoners'  Lodge. 

IN  BRECKNOCKSHIRE 

Prisoners  were  at  Brecon  ;  tombs  of  those  who  died  may  be 
seen  in  the  old  Priory  Churchyard,  and  '  The  Captain's  Walk  ' 
near  the  County  Hall  still  preserves  the  memory  of  their 
favourite  promenade. 

In  1814  the  Bailiff  of  Brecon  requested  to  have  the  parole 
prisoners  in  that  town  removed.  The  reason  is  not  given,  but 
the  Transport  Office  refused  the  request. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

ESCAPE  AGENTS  AND  ESCAPES 

To  the  general  reader  some  of  the  most  interesting  episodes 
of  the  lives  of  the  paroled  prisoners  of  war  in  Britain  are  those 
which  are  associated  with  their  escapes  and  attempts  to  escape. 
Now,  although,  as  has  been  already  remarked,  the  feeling  of  the 
country  people  was  almost  unanimously  against  the  prisoners 
during  the  early  years  of  the  parole  system,  that  is,  during  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  from  1756  to  1763,  during  the  more  tremen- 
dous struggles  which  followed  that  feeling  was  apparently  quite 
as  much  in  their  favour,  and  the  authorities  found  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  inhabitants  far  more  troublous  to  combat  than  the 
ingenuity  and  daring  of  the  prisoners.  If  the  principle  govern- 
ing this  feeling  among  the  upper  classes  of  English  society  was 
one  of  chivalrous  sympathy  with  brave  men  in  misfortune,  the 
object  of  the  lower  classes — those  most  nearly  concerned  with 
the  escapes — was  merely  gain. 

There  were  scores  of  country  squires  and  gentlemen  who 
treated  the  paroled  officers  as  guests  and  friends,  and  who  no 
doubt  secretly  rejoiced  when  they  heard  of  their  escapes,  but 
they  could  not  forget  that  every  escape  meant  a  breach  of 
solemnly- pledged  honour,  and  I  have  met  with  very  few  in- 
stances of  English  ladies  and  gentlemen  aiding  and  abetting  in 
the  escapes  of  paroled  prisoners. 

So  profitable  an  affair  was  the  aiding  of  a  prisoner  to  escape 
that  it  soon  became  as  regular  a  profession  as  that  of  smuggling, 
with  which  it  was  so  intimately  allied.  The  first  instance 
I  have  seen  recorded  was  in  1759,  when  William  Scullard, 
a  collar-maker  at  Liphook,  Hampshire,  was  brought  before  the 
justices  at  the  Guildford  Quarter  Sessions,  charged  with  pro- 
viding horses  and  acting  as  guide  to  assist  two  French  prisoners 
of  distinction  to  escape — whence  is  not  mentioned.  After 


366  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

a  long  examination  he  was  ordered  to  be  secured  for  a  future 
hearing,  and  was  at  length  committed  to  the  New  Jail  in 
Southwark,  and  ordered  to  be  fettered.  The  man  was  a  reputed 
smuggler,  could  speak  French,  and  had  in  his  pocket  a  list  of  all 
the  cross-roads  from  Liphook  round  by  Dorking  to  London. 

In  1812  Charles  Jones,  Solicitor  to  the  Admiralty,  describes 
the  various  methods  by  which  the  escapes  of  paroled  prisoners 
are  effected.  They  are  of  two  kinds,  he  says  : 

'  i.  By  means  of  the  smugglers  and  those  connected  with 
them  on  the  coast,  who  proceed  with  horses  and  covered 
carriages  to  the  depots  and  by  arrangement  rendezvous  about 
the  hour  of  the  evening  when  the  prisoners  ought  to  be  within 
doors,  about  the  mile  limit,  and  thus  carry  them  off,  travelling 
through  the  night  and  in  daytime  hiding  in  woods  and  coverts. 
The  horses  they  use  are  excellent,  and  the  carriages  constructed 
for  the  purpose.  The  prisoners  are  conveyed  to  the  coast, 
where  they  are  delivered  over  to  the  smugglers,  and  concealed 
until  the  boat  is  ready.  They  embark  at  night,  and  before 
morning  are  in  France.  These  escapes  are  generally  in  pursu- 
ance of  orders  received  from  France. 

'  2.  By  means  of  persons  of  profligate  lives  who,  residing  in 
or  near  the  Parole  towns,  act  as  conductors  to  such  of  the 
prisoners  as  choose  to  form  their  own  plan  of  escape.  These 
prisoners  generally  travel  in  post-chaises,  and  the  conductor's 
business  is  to  pay  the  expenses  and  give  orders  on  the  road  to 
the  innkeepers,  drivers,  &c.,  to  prevent  discovery  or  suspicion 
as  to  the  quality  of  the  travellers.  When  once  a  prisoner 
reaches  a  public-house  or  inn  near  the  coast,  he  is  considered 
safe.  But  there  are  cases  when  the  prisoners,  having  one 
among  themselves  who  can  speak  good  English,  travel  without 
conductors.  In  these  cases  the  innkeepers  and  post-boys 
alone  are  to  blame,  and  it  is  certain  that  if  this  description  of 
persons  could  be  compelled  to  do  their  duty  many  escapes 
would  be  prevented.  .  .  .  The  landlord  of  the  Fountain  at 
Canterbury  has  been  known  to  furnish  chaises  towards  the 
coast  for  six  French  prisoners  at  a  time  without  a  conductor/ 

The  writer  suggested  that  it  should  be  made  felony  to  assist 
a  prisoner  to  escape,  but  the  difficulty  in  the  way  of  this  was 
that  juries  were  well  known  to  lean  towards  the  accused.  In 
the  same  year,  1812,  however,  this  came  about.  A  Bill  passed 
the  Commons,  the  proposition  being  made  by  Castlereagh  that 
to  aid  in  the  escape  of  a  prisoner  should  cease  to  be  misde- 


ESCAPE  AGENTS  AND  ESCAPES  367 

meanour,  and  become  a  felony,  punishable  by  transportation 
for  seven  or  fourteen  years,  or  life.  Parole,  he  said,  was  a  mere 
farce  ;  bribery  was  rampant  and  could  do  anything,  and  an 
organized  system  existed  for  furthering  the  escape  of  prisoners 
of  rank.  Within  the  last  three  years  464  officers  on  parole  had 
escaped,  but  abroad  not  one  British  officer  had  broken  his  parole. 
The  chief  cause,  he  continued,  was  the  want  of  an  Agent 
between  the  two  countries  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners,  and 
it  was  an  extraordinary  feature  of  the  War  that  the  common 
rules  about  the  exchange  of  prisoners  were  not  observed. 

The  most  famous  escape  agent  was  Thomas  Feast  Moore, 
alias  Maitland,  alias  Herbert,  but  known  to  French  prisoners  as 
Captain  Richard  Harman  of  Folkestone.  He  was  always  flush 
of  money,  and,  although  he  was  known  to  be  able  to  speak 
French  very  fluently,  he  never  used  that  language  in  the 
presence  of  Englishmen.  He  kept  a  complete  account  of  all 
the  depots  and  parole  places,  with  the  ranks  of  the  principal 
prisoners  thereat,  and  had  an  agent  at  each,  a  poor  man  who 
was  glad  for  a  consideration  to  place  well-to-do  prisoners  in 
communication  with  Harman,  and  so  on  the  road  to  escape. 
Harman's  charge  was  usually  £100  for  four  prisoners.  As 
a  rule  he  got  letters  of  recommendation  from  the  officers  whose 
escapes  he  safely  negotiated,  and  he  had  the  confidence  of  some 
of  the  principal  prisoners  in  England  and  Scotland.  He  was 
generally  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Whitstable  and  Canterbury, 
but,  for  obvious  reasons,  owned  to  no  fixed  residence.  He  seems 
to  have  been  on  the  whole  straight  in  his  dealings,  but  once  or 
twice  he  sailed  very  closely  in  the  track  of  rascally  agents  who 
took  money  from  prisoners,  and  either  did  nothing  for  them, 
or  actually  betrayed  them,  or  even  murdered  them. 

On  March  22,  1810,  General  Pillet,  '  Adjudant  Commandant, 
Chef  de  l'£tat-Major  of  the  First  Division  of  the  Army  of 
Portugal/  and  Paolucci,  commander  of  the  Friedland,  taken 
by  H.M.S.  Standard  and  Active  in  1808,  left  their  quarters  at 
Alresford,  and  were  met  half  a  mile  out  by  Harman  with 
a  post-chaise,  into  which  they  got  and  drove  to  Winchester, 
alighting  in  a  back  street  while  Harman  went  to  get  another 
chaise.  Thence  they  drove  circuitously  to  Hastings  via 
Croydon,  Sevenoaks,  Tunbridge,  Robert sbridge,  and  Battle, 


368  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Harman  saying  that  this  route  was  necessary  for  safety,  and 
that  he  would  get  them  over,  as  he  had  General  Osten,  in 
thirty-four  hours. 

They  arrived  at  Hastings  at  7  p.m.  on  March  23,  and  alighted 
outside  the  town,  while  Harman  went  to  get  lodgings.  He 
returned  and  took  them  to  the  house  of  Mrs.  Akers,  a  one-eyed 
woman  ;  they  waited  there  four  days  for  fair  weather,  and  then 
removed  to  the  house  of  one  Paine,  for  better  concealment  as 
the  hue  and  cry  was  after  them.  They  hid  here  two  days, 
whilst  the  house  was  searched,  but  their  room  was  locked  as  an 
empty  lumber  room.  Pillet  was  disgusted  at  the  delays,  and 
that  evening  wanted  to  go  to  the  Mayor's  house  to  give  himself 
up,  but  the  landlord  brought  them  sailor  clothes,  and  said  that 
two  women  were  waiting  to  take  them  where  they  pleased. 
They  refused  the  clothes,  went  out,  met  Rachael  Hutchinson 
and  Elizabeth  Akers,  and  supposed  they  would  be  taken  to  the 
Mayor's  house,  but  were  at  once  surrounded  and  arrested. 
All  this  time  Harman,  who  evidently  saw  that  the  delay  caused 
by  the  foul  weather  was  fatal  to  the  chance  that  the  prisoners 
could  get  off,  had  disappeared,  but  was  arrested  very  shortly 
at  the  inn  at  Hollington  Corner,  three  miles  from  Hastings.  He 
swore  that  he  did  not  know  them  to  be  escaped  prisoners,  but 
thought  they  were  Guernsey  lace-merchants. 

During  the  examination  which  followed,  the  Hastings  town 
crier  said  that  he  had  announced  the  escape  of  the  prisoners 
at  forty-three  different  points  of  the  eight  streets  which  com- 
posed Hastings. 

Pillet  and  Paolucci  were  sent  to  Norman  Cross,  and  Harman 
to  Horsham  jail. 

At  the  next  examination  it  came  out  that  Harman  had 
bought  a  boat  for  the  escape  from  a  man  who  understood  that 
it  was  to  be  used  for  smuggling  purposes  by  two  Guernsey  lace 
men.  The  Mayor  of  Hastings  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  no 
Hastings  petty  jury  would  commit  the  prisoners  for  trial, 
although  a  grand  jury  might,  such  was  the  local  interest  in  the 
escape-cum-smuggling  business.  However,  they  were  com- 
mitted. At  Horsham,  Harman  showed  to  Jones,  the  Solicitor 
to  the  Admiralty,  an  iron  crown  which  he  said  had  been 
given  him  by  the  French  Government  for  services  rendered,  but 


ESCAPE  AGENTS  AND  ESCAPES  369 

which  proved  to  have  been  stolen  from  Paolucci's  trunk,  of 
which  he  had  the  key. 

Harman,  on  condition  of  being  set  free,  offered  to  make 
important  disclosures  to  the  Government  respecting  the  escape 
business  and  its  connexion  with  the  smugglers,  but  his  offer 
was  declined,  and,  much  to  his  disgust,  he  was  sent  to  serve  in 
the  navy.  '  He  could  not  have  been  disposed  of  in  a  way  less 
expected  or  more  objectionable  to  himself/  wrote  the  Admiralty 
Solicitor,  Jones,  to  McLeay,  the  secretary. 

But  Harman 's  career  was  by  no  means  ended.  After  serving 
on  the  Enterprise,  he  was  sent  to  the  Namur,  guardship  at  the 
Nore,  but  for  a  year  or  more  a  cloud  of  mystery  enveloped  him, 
and  not  until  1813  did  it  come  out  that  he  must  have  escaped 
from  the  Namur  very  shortly  after  his  transfer,  and  that  during 
the  very  next  year,  1811,  he  was  back  at  his  old  calling. 

A  man  giving  the  name  of  Nicholas  Trelawney,  but  obviously 
a  Frenchman,  was  captured  on  August  24,  1811,  on  the  Whit- 
stable  smack  Elizabeth,  lying  in  Broadstairs  Roads,  by  the  Lion 
cutter.  At  his  examination  he  confessed  that  he  was  a  prisoner 
who  had  broken  parole  from  Tiverton,  and  got  as  far  as  Whit- 
stable  on  July  4.  Here  he  lodged  at  an  inn  where  he  met 
Mr.  '  Feast '  of  the  hoy  Whitstable.  In  conversation  the 
Frenchman^  not  knowing,  of  course,  who  Mr.  '  Feast  '  really 
was,  described  himself  as  a  Jerseyman  who  had  a  licence  to  take 
his  boat  to  France,  but  she  had  been  seized  by  the  Customs,  as 
she  had  some  English  goods  in  her.  He  told  *  Feast '  that  he 
much  wanted  to  get  to  France,  and  '  Feast '  promised  to  help 
him,  but  without  leading  the  Frenchman  to  suppose  that  he 
knew  him  to  be  an  escaped  prisoner  of  war. 

He  paid  '  Feast '  £10  ios.,  and  went  on  board  the  Elizabeth 
to  get  to  Deal,  as  being  a  more  convenient  port  for  France. 
'  Feast '  warned  him  that  he  would  be  searched,  and  persuaded 
him  to  hand  over  his  watch  and  £18  for  safe  keeping.  He  saw 
nothing  more  of  Mr.  '  Feast  '  and  was  captured. 

When  the  above  affair  made  it  clear  that  Harman,  alias 
Feast  Moore,  was  at  work  again,  a  keen  servant  of  the  Transport 
Office,  Mantell,  the  Agent  at  Dover,  was  instructed  to  get  on  to 
his  track.  Mantell  found  that  Harman  had  been  at  Broad- 
stairs,  to  France,  and  in  Dover,  at  which  place  his  well-known 


370  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

boat,  the  Two  Sisters,  was  discovered,  untenanted  and  with  her 
name  obliterated.  Mantell  further  learned  that  on  the  very 
night  previous  to  his  visit  Harman  had  actually  been  landed 
by  Lieutenant  Peace  of  the  armed  cutter  Decoy,  saying  that  he 
bore  important  dispatches  from  France  for  Croker  at  the  Ad- 
miralty. The  lieutenant  had  brought  him  ashore,  and  had 
gone  with  him  to  an  inn  whence  he  would  get  a  mail-coach  to 
London.  Mantell  afterwards  heard  that  Harman  went  no 
farther  than  Canterbury. 

Mantell  described  Harman's  usual  mode  of  procedure  :  how, 
the  French  prisoners  having  been  duly  approached,  the  terms 
agreed  upon,  and  the  horses,  chaises,  boats  with  sails,  oars, 
charts  and  provisions  arranged  for,  he  would  meet  them  at 
a  little  distance  outside  their  place  of  confinement  after  dark, 
travel  all  night,  and  with  good  luck  get  them  off  within  two 
days  at  the  outside.  Mantell  found  out  that  in  August  1811 
Harman  got  four  prisoners  away  from  Crediton  ;  he  lived  at 
Mr.  Parnell's,  the  White  Lion,  St.  Sidwell's,  under  the  name  of 
Herbert,  bought  a  boat  of  Mr.  Owen  of  Topsham,  and  actually 
saw  his  clients  safe  over  Exmouth  bar. 

His  manner,  said  Mantell,  was  free  and  open  ;  he  generally 
represented  his  clients  to  be  Guernseymen,  or  emigres,  or  Portu- 
guese, and  he  always  got  them  to  sign  a  paper  of  recommen- 
dation. 

In  July  1813  news  came  that  Harman  was  at  work  in  Kelso, 
Scotland.  A  stranger  in  that  town  had  been  seen  furtively 
carrying  a  trunk  to  the  Cross  Keys  inn,  from  which  he  presently 
went  in  a  post-chaise  to  Lauder.  He  was  not  recognized,  but 
frequent  recent  escapes  from  the  town  had  awakened  the 
vigilance  of  the  Agent,  and  the  suspicious  behaviour  of  this 
stranger  at  the  inn  determined  that  official  to  pursue  and  arrest 
him.  The  trunk  was  found  to  belong  to  Dagues,  a  French 
officer,  and  contained  the  clothes  of  three  other  officers  on 
parole,  and  from  the  fact  that  the  stranger  had  made  inquiries 
about  a  coach  for  Edinburgh,  it  was  clear  that  an  arrangement 
was  nipped  in  the  bud  by  which  the  officers  were  to  follow, 
pick  up  the  trunk  at  Edinburgh,  and  get  off  from  Leith. 

Harman  was  disguised,  but  the  next  morning  the  Kelso 
Agent  saw  at  once  that  he  answered  the  description  of  him 


ESCAPE  AGENTS  AND  ESCAPES  371 

which  had  been  circulated  throughout  the  kingdom,  and  sent 
him  to  Jedburgh  Jail,  while  he  communicated  with  London. 

The  result  of  Harman's  affair  was  that  the  Solicitor-General 
gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  it  was  better  he  should  be  detained 
as  a  deserter  from  the  navy  than  as  an  aider  of  prisoners  to 
escape,  on  the  ground  that  there  were  no  sufficiently  overt 
acts  on  the  parts  of  the  French  prisoners  to  show  an  intention 
to  escape  !  What  became  of  Harman  I  cannot  trace,  but  at 
any  rate  he  ceased  to  lead  the  fraternity  of  escape  agents. 

Waddell,  a  Dymchurch  smuggler,  was  second  only  to  Harman 
as  an  extensive  and  successful  escape  agent.  In  1812  he  came 
to  Moreton-Hampstead,  '  on  business ',  and  meeting  one 
Robins,  asked  him  if  he  was  inclined  to  take  part  in  a  lucrative 
job,  introducing  himself,  when  in  liquor  afterwards  at  the  inn, 
as  the  author  of  the  escape  of  General  Lefebvre-Desnouettes 
and  wife  from  Cheltenham,  for  which  he  got  £210,  saying  that 
while  in  France  he  engaged  to  get  General  Reynaud  and  his 
aide-de-camp  away  from  Moreton-Hampstead  for  £300  or 
300  guineas,  which  was  the  reason  of  his  presence  there.  He 
added  that  he  was  now  out  on  bail  for  £400  about  the  affair  of 
Lefebvre-Desnouettes,  and  was  bound  to  appear  at  Maidstone 
for  trial.  If  convicted  he  would  only  be  heavily  fined,  so  he 
was  anxious  to  put  this  affair  through. 

Robins  agreed,  but  informed  the  Agent,  and  Waddell  was 
arrested.  As  regards  General  Reynaud,  above  alluded  to, 
that  officer  wrote  to  the  Transport  Office  to  say  that  the  report 
of  his  intention  to  abscond  was  untrue.  The  Office  replied 
that  it  was  glad  to  hear  so,  but  added,  '  In  consequence  of  the 
very  disgraceful  conduct  of  other  French  officers  of  high  rank, 
such  reports  cannot  fail  to  be  believed  by  many/ 

As  a  rule  the  prisoners  made  their  way  to  London,  whence 
they  went  by  hoy  to  Whitstable  and  across  the  Channel,  but 
the  route  from  Dymchurch  to  Wimereux  was  also  much 
favoured.  Spicer  of  Folkestone,  Tom  Gittens  (known  as  Pork 
Pie  Tom),  James  King,  who  worked  the  western  ports  ;  Kite, 
Hornet,  Cullen,  Old  Stanley,  Hall,  Waddle,  and  Stevenson  of 
Folkestone ;  Yates,  Norris,  Smith,  Hell  Fire  Jack,  old  Jarvis 
and  Bates  of  Deal  ;  Piper  and  Allen  of  Dover  ;  Jimmy  Whather 
and  Tom  Scraggs  of  Whitstable,  were  all  reported  to  be  '  deep 

B  b  2 


372  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

in  the  business  ',  and  Deal  was  described  as  the  '  focus  of 
mischief.  The  usual  charge  of  these  men  was  £80  per  head,, 
but,  as  has  been  already  said,  the  fugitives  ere  they  fairly  set 
foot  on  their  native  soil  were  usually  relieved  of  every  penny 
they  possessed. 

An  ugly  feature  about  the  practice  of  parole-breaking  is  that 
the  most  distinguished  French  officers  did  not  seem  to  regard 
it  seriously.  In  1812  General  Simon  escaped  from  Odiham 
and  corresponded  with  France  ;  he  was  recaptured,  and  sent 
to  Tothill  Fields  Prison  in  London,  and  thence  to  Dumbarton 
Castle,  where  two  rooms  were  furnished  for  him  exactly  on  the 
scale  of  a  British  field  officer's  barrack  apartment  ;  he  was 
placed  on  the  usual  parole  allowance,  eight eenpence  per  day 
for  himself,  and  one  shilling  and  threepence  per  day  for  a  ser- 
vant, and  he  resented  very  much  having  to  give  up  a  poniard: 
in  his  possession.  From  Dumbarton  he  appears  to  have  car- 
s  ried  on  a  regular  business  as  an  agent  for  the  escape  of  paroled 
prisoners,  for,  at  his  request,  the  Transport  Office  had  given 
permission  for  two  of  his  subalterns,  also  prisoners  on  parole,. 
Raymond  and  Boutony  by  name,  to  take  positions  in  London 
banks  as  French  correspondents,  and  it  was  discovered  that 
these  men  were  actually  acting  as  Simon's  London  agents  for 
the  escape  of  prisoners  on  parole.  It  was  no  doubt  in  conse- 
quence of  this  discovery  that  in  1813  orders  were  sent  to 
Dumbarton  that  not  only  was  Simon  to  be  deprived  of  news- 
papers, but  that  he  was  not  to  be  allowed  pens  and  ink,  '  as  he 
makes  such  a  scandalous  and  unbecoming  use  of  them.' 

In  May  1814  Simon,  although  he  was  still  in  close  confine- 
ment, was  exchanged  for  Major-General  Coke,  it  being  evidently 
considered  by  the  Government  that  he  could  do  less  harm 
fighting  against  Britain  than  he  did  as  a  prisoner. 

The  frequent  breaches  of  parole  by  officers  of  distinction  led 
to  severe  comments  thereon  by  the  Transport  Board,  especially 
with  regard  to  escapes.  In  a  reply  to  General  Prive,  who  had 
complained  of  being  watched  with  unnecessary  rigour,  it  was 
said  :  '  With  reference  to  the  "  eternal  vigilance  "  with  which 
the  officers  on  parole  are  watched,  I  am  directed  to  observe  that 
there  was  a  little  necessity  for  this,  as  a  great  many  Persons 
who  style  themselves  Men  of  Honour,  and  some  of  them  mem- 


ESCAPE  AGENTS  AND  ESCAPES  373 

bers  of  the  Legion  of  Honour,  have  abandoned  all  Honour  and 
Integrity  by  running  from  Parole,  and  by  bribing  unprincipled 
men  to  assist  in  their  Escape.' 


1  Certain  measures  have  been  regarded  as  expedient  in 
consequence  of  the  very  frequent  desertions  of  late  of  French 
officers,  not  even  excepting  those  of  the  highest  rank,  so  that 
their  Parole  of  Honour  has  become  of  little  Dependence  for 
their  Security  as  Prisoners  of  War.  Particularly  do  we  select 
General  Lefebvre-Desnouettes,  an  officer  of  the  Legion  of 
Honour,  a  General  of  Division,  Colonel  commanding  the 
Chasseurs  a  cheval  de  la  Garde.  He  was  allowed  unusually 
great  privileges  on  parole — to  reside  at  Cheltenham,  to  go 
thence  to  Malvern  and  back  to  Cheltenham  as  often  as  he  liked  ; 
his  wife  was  allowed  to  reside  with  him,  and  he  was  allowed  to 
have  two  Imperial  Guardsmen  as  servants.  Yet  he  absconded, 
May  i,  1812,  with  his  servants  and  naval  lieutenant  Armand 
le  Due,  who  had  been  allowed  as  a  special  favour  to  live  with 
him  at  Cheltenham.' 

Lord  Wellington  requested  that  certain  French  officers 
should  be  given  their  parole,  but  in  reply  the  Transport  Office 
declined  to  consent,  and  as  a  reason  sent  him  a  list  of  310 
French  officers  who  had  broken  their  parole  during  the  current 
year,  1812. 

The  Moniteur  of  August  9,  1812,  attempted  to  justify  these 
breaches  of  parole,  saying  that  Frenchmen  only  surrendered  on 
the  condition  of  retaining  their  arms,  and  that  we  had  broken 
that  condition. 

At  the  Exeter  Assizes,  in  the  summer  of  1812,  Richard 
Tapper  of  Moreton-Hampstead,  carrier,  Thomas  and  William 
Vinnacombe  of  Cheriton  Bishop,  smugglers,  were  convicted  and 
sentenced  to  transportation  for  life  for  aiding  in  the  attempted 
escape  of  two  merchant  captains,  a  second  captain  of  a  priva- 
teer, and  a  midshipman  from  Moreton-Hampstead,  from  whom 
they  had  received  £25  down  and  a  promise  of  £150.  They 
went  under  Tapper's  guidance  on  horseback  from  Moreton  to 
Topsham,  where  they  found  the  Vinnacombes  waiting  with  a 
large  boat.  They  started,  but  grounded  on  the  bar  at  Exmouth, 
and  were  captured. 

In  the  same  year,  acting  upon  information,  the  Government 


374  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

officers  slipped  quietly  down  to  Deal,  Folkestone,  and  Sandgate, 
and  seized  a  number  of  galleys  built  specially  for  the  cross- 
Channel  traffic  of  escaped  prisoners.  They  were  beautifully 
constructed,  forty  feet  long,  eight-oared,  and  painted  so  as  to 
be  almost  invisible.  It  was  said  that  in  calm  weather  they 
could  be  rowed  across  in  two  hours  ! 

The  pillory  was  an  additional  punishment  for  escape-aiders. 
Russel,  in  his  History  of  Maidstone,  says  that  '  the  last  persons 
who  are  remembered  to  have  stood  in  the  pillory  were  two  men, 
who  in  the  first  decade  of  the  present  (nineteenth)  century,  had 
assisted  French  prisoners  of  War  to  escape  while  on  Parole '. 

But  I  find  that  in  1812,  seven  men  were  condemned  at 
Maidstone,  in  addition  to  two  years'  imprisonment,  to  stand  in 
the  pillory  on  every  market-day  for  a  month,  for  the  same 
offence.  In  this  year,  Hughes,  landlord  of  the  Red  Lion  and 
postmaster  at  Rye,  Hatter,  a  fisherman,  and  Robinson,  of 
Oswestry,  were  sentenced  to  two  years  in  Horsham  Jail,  and 
in  the  first  month  to  be  pilloried  on  Rye  Coast,  as  near  France 
as  possible,  for  aiding  in  the  escape  of  General  Phillipon  and 
Lieutenant  Garnier. 

Men,  not  regular  escape  agents,  as  well  as  the  latter,  often 
victimized  the  poor  Frenchmen  under  pretence  of  friendship. 

One  Whithair,  of  Tiverton,  was  accused,  at  the  Exeter  Summer 
Assizes  of  1812,  by  French  prisoners  of  having  cheated  them. 
He  had  obtained  £200  from  six  officers  on  parole  at  Okehampton 
— he  said  to  purchase  a  boat  to  get  them  off,  and  horses  to  carry 
them  to  the  coast — through  the  medium  of  Madame  Riccord, 
the  English  wife  of  one  of  the  French  officers.  Whithair  had 
also  persuaded  them  to  send  their  trunks  to  Tiverton  in  readi- 
ness. They  waited  four  months,  and  then  suspected  that 
Whithair  was  tricking  them,  and  informed  the  Agent.  Whit- 
hair was  arrested,  and  condemned  to  pay  £200,  and  to  be 
imprisoned  until  he  did  so.  Later,  Whithair  humbly  petitioned 
to  be  released  from  Newgate  on  the  plea  that  during  his 
imprisonment  he  would  have  no  chance  of  paying  the  fine,  and 
the  Superintendent  recommended  it. 

It  may  be  imagined  that  the  profession  of  escape-aiding  had 
much  the  same  fascination  for  adventurous  spirits  as  had 
what  our  forefathers  called  '  the  highway '.  So  we  read  of 


ESCAPE  AGENTS  AND  ESCAPES  375 

a  young  gentleman  of  Rye,  who,  having  run  through  a  fortune, 
determined  to  make  a  trial  of  this  career  as  a  means  of 
restoring  his  exchequer,  but  he  was  evidently  too  much 
of  an  amateur  in  a  craft  which  required  the  exercise  of  a  great 
many  qualities  not  often  found  in  one  man's  composition. 
His  very  first  venture  was  to  get  off  two  officers  of  high  rank 
from  Reading,  for  which  he  was  to  receive  three  hundred 
guineas,  half  paid  down.  He  got  them  in  a  post-chaise 
as  far  as  the  inn  at  Johns  Cross,  Mountfield,  about  fourteen 
miles  from  Hastings,  but  here  the  Excise  officers  dropped  upon 
them,  and  there  was  an  end  of  things. 

At  Ashbourne  in  Derbyshire,  a  young  woman  was  brought  up 
on  March  13,  1812,  charged  with  aiding  prisoners  on  parole  to 
escape,  and  evidently  there  had  been  hints  about  improper 
relationship  between  her  and  the  Frenchmen,  for  she  published 
the  following  : 

'To  the  Christian  Impartial  Reader. 

'  I  the  undernamed  Susanna  Cotton  declares  she  has  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  escape  of  the  French  prisoners,  although 
she  has  been  remanded  at  Stafford,  and  that  there  has  been  no 
improper  relationship  as  rumoured. 

'  Judge  not  that  ye  be  not  judged.  Parents  of  female  children 
should  not  readily  believe  a  slander  of  their  sex,  nor  should 
a  male  parent  listen  to  the  vulgar  aggravation  that  too  often 
attends  the  jocular  whispering  report  of  a  crime  so  important. 
For  it  is  not  known  what  Time,  a  year  or  a  day,  may  bring  forth. 

'  Misses  Lomas  and  Cotton  take  this  opportunity  (tho'  an 
unpleasant  one)  of  returning  their  grateful  acknowledgement 
of  Public  and  Individual  Favours  conferred  on  them  in  their 
Business  of  Millinery,  and  hope  for  a  continuance  of  them,  and 
that  they  will  not  be  withheld  by  reason  of  any  Prejudices 
which  may  have  arisen  from  the  Slander  above  alluded  to.' 

The  prosecution  was  withdrawn,  although  Miss  Cotton's 
denials  were  found  to  be  untrue. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
ESCAPES  OF  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE 

THE  newspapers  of  our  forefathers  during  the  eighteenth  and 
early  nineteenth  centuries  contained  very  many  advertisements 
like  the  two  following.  The  first  is  from  the  Western  Flying 
Post,  of  1756,  dated  from  Launceston,  and  offering  Two  Guineas 
reward  for  two  officers,  who  had  broken  their  parole,  and  were 
thus  described  : 

'  One,  Mons.  Barbier,  a  short  man,  somewhat  pock-marked, 
and  has  a  very  dejected  look,  and  wore  a  snuff-coloured  coat ; 
the  other,  Mons.  Beth,  a  middle-aged  man,  very  strongly  set, 
wore  his  own  hair  and  a  blue  coat.  The  former  speaks  no 
English,  but  the  latter  very  well.  They  were  both  last  seen 
near  Exeter,  riding  to  that  city.' 

The  second  is  from  the  London  Observer  of  April  21,  1811  : 

BREACH  OF  PAROLE  OF  HONOUR. — Transport  Office,  April  12, 

1811. 

'  Whereas  the  two  French  Officers,  Prisoners  of  War,  named 
and  described  at  the  foot  hereof,  have  absconded  from  Chester- 
field in  violation  of  their  Parole  of  Honour  ;  the  Commissioners 
for  conducting  His  Majesty's  Transport  Service,  etc.,  do  hereby 
offer  a  Reward  of  Five  Guineas  for  the  recapture  of  each  of  the 
said  Prisoners,  to  any  Person  or  Persons  who  shall  apprehend 
them,  and  deliver  them  at  this  office,  or  otherwise  cause  them 
to  be  safely  lodged  in  any  of  the  Public  Gaols.  Joseph  Exelman, 
General  of  Brigade,  age  36,  5  feet  nj  inches  high,  stout,  oval 
visage,  fresh  complexion,  light  brown  hair,  blue  eyes,  strong 
features. 

'  Auguste  de  la  Grange,  Colonel,  age  30,  6  feet  high,  stout, 
round  visage,  fair  complexion,  brown  hair,  dark  eyes,  no  mark  in 
particular/ 

Excelmans  was  one  of  Bonaparte's  favourites.  He  and 
De  la  Grange  induced  Jonas  Lawton,  an  assistant  to  Doctor 
John  Elam,  the  surgeon  at  Chesterfield,  to  make  the  necessary 


ESCAPES  OF  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE          377 

arrangements  for  escape,  and  to  accompany  them.  They  left 
Chesterfield  concealed  in  a  covered  cart,  and  safely  reached 
Paris.  Here  Lawton  was  liberally  rewarded,  and  provided 
with  a  good  post  as  surgeon  in  a  hospital,  and  retained  the 
position  long  after  the  conclusion  of  peace. 

Merely  escaping  from  the  parole  town  did  not  become  frequent 
until  it  was  found  necessary  to  abolish  virtually  the  other 
method  of  returning  to  France  which  we  allowed.  By  this,  an 
officer  on  parole  upon  signing  a  declaration  to  the  effect  that 
unless  he  was  exchanged  for  a  British  officer  of  similar  rank  by 
a  certain  date  he  would  return  to  England  on  that  date,  was 
allowed  to  go  to  France,  engaging,  of  course,  not  to  serve  against 
us.  But  when  it  became  not  a  frequent  but  a  universal  rule 
among  French  officers  to  break  their  honour  and  actually  to 
serve  against  us  during  their  permitted  absence,  the  Govern- 
ment was  obliged  to  refuse  all  applications,  with  the  result  that 
to  escape  from  the  parole  town  became  such  a  general  practice 
as  to  call  into  existence  that  profession  of  escape-aiding  which 
was  dealt  with  in  the  last  chapter. 

The  case  of  Captain  Jurien,  now  to  be  mentioned,  is  neither 
better  nor  worse  than  scores  of  others. 

On  December  10,  1803,  the  Transport  Office  wrote  to  him 
in  Paris  : 

'  As  the  time  allowed  for  your  absence  from  this  Kingdom 
expired  on  November  22nd,  and  as  Captain  Brenton,  R.N.,  now 
a  prisoner  of  war  in  France,  has  not  been  released  in  exchange 
for  you  agreeably  to  our  proposal,  you  are  hereby  required  to 
return  to  this  country  according  to  the  terms  of  your  Parole 
Agreement.' 

But  on  March  16,  1804,  Jurien  had  not  returned.  One  result 
was  that  when  a  Colonel  Neraud  applied  to  be  sent  to  France 
upon  his  giving  his  word  to  have  a  British  officer  exchanged  for 
him,  the  Transport  Office  reminded  him  that  Jurien  had  been 
released  on  parole,  August  22,  1803,  on  the  promise  that  he 
would  return  in  three  months,  if  not  exchanged  for  Captain 
Brenton,  and  that  seven  months  had  passed  and  he  was  still 
away.  They  added  that  the  French  Government  had  not 
released  one  British  officer  in  return  for  500  French,  who  had 
been  sent  on  parole  to  France,  some  of  whom,  furthermore,  in 


378  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

violation  of  their  parole,  were  in  arms  against  Britain.  '  Hence 
your  detention  is  entirely  owing  to  the  action  of  your  own 
Government.' 

As  time  went  on,  and  Jurien  and  the  others  did  not  return, 
the  Transport  Office,  weary  of  replying  to  the  frequent 
applications  of  French  officers  to  go  to  France  on  parole,  at 
last  ceased  to  do  so,  with  the  result  that  attempted  escapes 
from  parole  places  became  frequent. 

At  the  same  time  it  must  not  be  understood  that  laxity  of 
honour  as  regards  parole  obligation  of  this  kind  was  universal. 
When  in  1809  the  Transport  Office,  in  reply  to  a  request  by 
General  Lefebvre  to  be  allowed  to  go  to  France  on  parole,  said 
that  they  could  not  accede  inasmuch  as  no  French  officer  thus 
privileged  had  been  allowed  to  return,  they  italicized  the  word 
'  allowed  ',  and  cited  the  case  of  General  Frescinet,  '  who  made 
most  earnest  but  ineffectual  Intreaty  to  be  allowed  to  fulfil  the 
Parole  d'Honneur  '  he  had  entered  into,  by  returning  to  this 
country. 

Thame  seems  to  have  been  a  particularly  turbulent  parole 
town,  and  one  from  which  escapes  were  more  than  usually 
numerous.  One  case  was  peculiar.  Four  prisoners  who  had 
been  recaptured  after  getting  away  justified  their  attempt 
by  accusing  Smith,  the  Agent,  of  ill-behaviour  towards  them. 
Whereupon  the  other  prisoners  at  Thame,  among  them 
Villaret-Joyeuse,  testified  against  them,  and  in  favour  of  Smith. 

The  experiences  of  Baron  Le  Jeune  are  among  the  most 
interesting,  and  his  case  is  peculiar  inasmuch  as  although  he 
was  nominally  a  prisoner  on  parole,  he  was  not  so  in  fact,  so 
that  his  escape  involved  no  breach.  In  1811  he  was  taken 
prisoner  by  Spanish  brigands,  who  delivered  him  to  the  English 
garrison  at  Merida.  Here  he  was  treated  as  a  guest  by  Major- 
General  Sir  William  Lumley  and  the  officers,  and  when  he 
sailed  for  England  on  H.M.S.  Thetis  he  had  a  state-cabin,  and 
was  regarded  as  a  distinguished  passenger.  On  arriving  at 
Portsmouth  his  anxiety  was  as  to  whether  the  hulks  were  to  be 
his  fate.  '  And  our  uneasiness  increased  ',  he  writes  in  the 
Memoirs,  whence  the  following  story  is  taken,  '  when  we  passed 
some  twenty  old  vessels  full  of  French  prisoners,  most  of  them 
wearing  only  yellow  vests,  whilst  others  were  perfectly  naked. 


ESCAPES  OF  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE          379 

At  this  distressing  sight  I  asked  the  captain  if  he  was  taking  us 
to  the  hulks.  To  which  he  replied  with  a  frown  :  "  Yes,  just 
as  a  matter  of  course."  At  the  same  moment  our  boat  drew 
up  alongside  the  San  Antonio,  an  old  8o-gun  ship.  We  ascended 
the  side,  and  there,  to  our  horror,  we  saw  some  five  to  six 
hundred  French  prisoners,  who  were  but  one-third  of  those  on 
board,  climbing  on  to  each  other's  shoulders,  in  the  narrow 
space  in  which  they  were  penned,  to  have  a  look  at  the  new- 
comers, of  whose  arrival  they  seemed  to  have  been  told.  Their 
silence,  their  attitude,  and  the  looks  of  compassion  they  be- 
stowed on  me  as  I  greeted  them  en  passant  seemed  to  me  omens 
of  a  terrible  future  for  me.' 

The  captain  of  the  hulk  apologized  to  the  baron  for  having 
no  better  accommodation.  Le  Jeune,  incredulous,  made  him 
repeat  it,  and  flew  into  a  rage.  He  snatched  a  sword  from  an 
Irishman  and  swore  he  would  kill  any  one  who  would  keep  him 
on  a  hulk.  The  French  prisoners  shouted  :  '  Bravo  !  If  every 
one  behaved  as  you  do,  the  English  would  not  dare  treat 
us  so  ! ' 

The  captain  of  the  hulk  was  alarmed  at  the  possible  result  of 
this  with  1,500  desperate  prisoners,  and  hurried  the  baron  into 
his  boat. 

Thus  Baron  Le  Jeune  escaped  the  hulks  ! 

He  was  then  taken  to  the  Forton  Depot,  where  he  remained 
three  days,  and  was  then  ordered  to  Ashby-de-la-Zouch.  So 
rapidly  was  he  hurried  into  a  coach  that  he  had  not  time  to 
sign  his  parole  papers  and  resolved  to  profit  by  the  omission. 
He  passed  many  days  on  a  very  pleasant  journey  via  Andover 
and  Blenheim,  for  he  paused  to  see  all  that  was  interesting  on 
the  way,  and  even  went  to  theatres.  He  found  about  a  hundred 
French  prisoners  at  Ashby  (some  of  whom,  he  says,  had  been 
there  fifteen  years  !),  and  reported  himself  to  the  Agent,  Farnell, 
a  grocer,  '  certainly  the  tallest,  thinnest,  most  cadaverous 
seller  of  dry  goods  in  the  world.' 

At  Ashby  he  found  old  friends,  and  passed  his  time  with 
them,  and  in  learning  English.  He  was  invited  to  Lord 
Hastings'  house  about  a  mile  from  Ashby.  Hastings  was 
brother  to  Lord  Moira,  a  friend  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  here 
he  met  the  orphan  daughter  of  Sir  John  Moore.  He  was  most 


380  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

kindly  treated,  and  Lord  Hastings  said  he  would  try  to  get 
leave  for  him  to  live  in  London. 
Then  came  a  change. 

'  A  man  came  to  me  one  morning,  and  said  to  me  privately 
that  the  Duke  of  Rovigo,  minister  of  Police  in  France,  autho- 
rized by  the  Emperor,  had  sent  him  to  propose  to  me  that 
I  should  let  him  arrange  for  me  to  get  out  of  England,  and 
return  to  France.  I  distrusted  him,  for  I  had  heard  of  the 
tricks  of  escape  Agents,  and  said  I  would  first  consult  my 
friend,  Colonel  Stoffel.  I  did  so.  Stoffel  said  it  was  a  bond  fide 
offer,  but  the  emissary  had  brought  no  money  with  him,  and  it 
would  cost  probably  200  guineas.' 

Where  was  the  baron  to  get  such  a  sum  ?  He  went  to 
Baudins,  a  merchant,  and  asked  him  for  a  loan,  and  at  a 
ball  that  night  Baudins  signalled  that  the  loan  was  all  right. 
Farnell  was  at  the  ball,  and  the  baron  describes  his  comical 
assumption  of  dignity  as  the  guardian  of  the  French  prisoners. 
Baudins  lent  Baron  Le  Jeune  the  money  in  gold  without  asking 
interest  on  it. 

'  I  was  invited  to  a  grand  dinner  by  General  Hastings  the 
very  evening  we  were  to  start,  and  I  duly  appeared  at  it.  The 
evening  passed  very  brightly,  and  at  dessert,  after  the  ladies 
had  retired,  the  men  remained  behind  to  drink  wine  together, 
beginning  with  a  toast  to  the  ladies.  As  a  matter  of  taste,  as 
well  as  of  design,  I  kept  my  head  clear,  and  when  my  com- 
panions were  sufficiently  exhilarated  by  the  fumes  of  the  claret 
they  had  drunk,  they  returned  with  somewhat  unsteady  steps 
to  the  drawing-room,  where  tea  had  been  prepared  by  the 
ladies.' 

The  baron  won  the  goodwill  of  all  and  was  invited  to  return 
the  next  day. 

At  ii  p.m.,  it  being  very  dark,  he  slipped  out  through  the 
park  to  meet  Colonel  Stoffel  and  a  guide.  He  waited  an  hour, 
but  at  last  they  arrived  in  a  post-chaise,  and  they  drove  off. 
Passing  through  Northants,  North  Middlesex  [sic],  London, 
and  Reigate,  they  came  to  Hythe,  where  they  stopped  the  next 
night.  They  pretended  to  be  invalids  come  for  a  course  of  sea 
baths,  and  the  baron  was  actually  assisted  out  of  the  carriage 
by  Custom-house  officers.  The  chaise  dismissed,  tea  was 
ordered  while  the  guide  went  to  make  inquiries  about  Folke- 


ESCAPES  OF  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE          381 

stone.  He  returned  with  a  horror-struck  face,  and  wrote  on 
a  slate  :  '  Pay  at  once  and  let  us  be  off/  Le  Jeune  gave  the 
girl  of  the  house  a  guinea,  and  told  her  to  keep  the  change, 
which  made  her  look  suspicious,  as  if  the  money  had  not  been 
honestly  come  by.  No  time  was  to  be  lost,  for  Hythe  was  full 
of  troops.  The  guide  advised  the  baron  to  drop  the  erect 
bearing  of  a  soldier,  and  assume  a  stoop.  They  got  away,  and 
hid  in  a  wheat-field  during  the  day  while  the  guide  again  went 
into  Folkestone.  He  was  away  seventeen  hours.  At  length 
they  got  to  Folkestone,  and  Le  Jeune  was  introduced  to  a 
smuggler  named  Brick,  a  diabolical-looking  man,  who  said  he 
would  take  them  safely  over  to  France. 

Brick  asked  the  Baron  for  200  guineas,  and  got  them. 
The  wind  was  contrary,  he  said,  but  he  would  lodge  them  well. 
A  decent  room  was  hired  with  a  trap-door  under  the  bed  for 
escape,  and  here  they  remained  thirteen  days.  Le  Jeune 
became  impatient,  and  at  last  resolved  to  risk  weather  and 
everything  else  and  go.  '  Well  !  follow  me  !  like  the  others  !  ' 
growled  Brick  ferociously  to  the  sailor  with  him.  But  the 
woman  of  the  house  implored  Le  Jeune  and  Stoffel  not  to  go 
with  Brick  :  they  remained  determined,  but  she  persisted  and 
held  them  back,  and  so,  now  persuaded  that  she  had  good 
reasons  for  her  action,  and  she  seeming  a  decent  body,  they 
remained.  Later  on  they  learned  how  close  to  danger  they  had 
been,  for  the  woman  told  them  that  Brick  had  taken  the  money 
of  a  score  of  fugitives  like  themselves,  promising  to  land  them 
in  France,  hiding  them  under  nets  to  avoid  the  coast-guard, 
and  as  soon  as  they  were  well  out,  murdering  them  and  flinging 
their  bodies  overboard  with  stones  tied  to  them,  knowing  that 
transportation  awaited  him  if  he  was  caught  aiding  prisoners 
to  escape. 

They  asked  the  woman  to  help  them,  for  now  they  had  no 
money.  The  baron  told  the  sailor  that  he  would  give  him 
fifty  livres  at  Boulogne,  if  he  landed  them  there.  He  was  an 
honest  fellow,  brought  them  a  sailor's  clothes,  and  went  along 
the  beach  with  them,  replying,  '  Fishermen  '  to  the  many 
challenges  they  got.  Finding  a  small  boat,  they  shoved  it  off, 
and  got  in,  so  as  to  board  a  fishing-smuggling  smack  riding 
outside.  It  was  a  foul  night,  and  three  times  they  were  hurled 


382  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

back  ashore,  wet  to  the  skin ;  so  they  returned.  The  next  day 
the  weather  moderated  and  they  got  off,  under  the  very  lee  of 
a  police  boat,  which  they  deceived  by  pretending  to  get  net? 
out.  In  six  hours  they  were  within  sight  of  Boulogne,  but 
were  obliged  to  keep  off  or  they  would  be  fired  upon,  until  they 
had  signalled  and  were  told  to  come  in. 

At  this  time  England  sent  by  smugglers  a  quantity  of  in- 
cendiary pamphlets  which  the  French  coast-guard  had  orders 
to  seize,  so  that  Le  Jeune  and  Stoffel  were  searched  and,  guarded 
by  armed  men,  marched  to  the  Commissary  of  Police,  '  just  as 
if  ',  Le  Jeune  said,  '  we  were  infected  with  the  plague.' 

Luckily,  the  Commissary  was  an  old  friend  of  the  baron, 
so  they  had  no  further  trouble,  but  paid  the  sailor  his  fifty 
livres,  and  went  to  Paris.  At  an  interview  with  the  Emperor, 
the  latter  said  to  Le  Jeune,  '  And  did  you  see  Lefebvre- 
Desnouettes  ?  ' 

'  No,  sire,  but  I  wrote  to  him.  He  is  extremely  anxious  to 
get  back  to  you,  and  is  beginning  to  lose  hope  of  being  ex- 
changed. He  would  do  as  I  have  done  if  he  were  not  afraid  of 
your  Majesty's  displeasure.' 

'  Oh  !  Let  him  come  !  Let  him  come  !  I  shall  be  very  glad  to 
see  him,'  said  the  Emperor. 

'  Does  your  Majesty  give  me  leave  to  tell  him  so  in  your 
name  ?  ' 

'  Yes,  yes.     Don't  lose  any  time.' 

So  Madame  Lefebvre-Desnouettes  got  a  passport,  and  went 
over  to  England,  and  her  presence  did  much  to  distract  the 
attention  of  the  general's  guardians,  and  made  his  escape  com- 
paratively easy.  The  general,  as  a  German  or  Russian  Count, 
Madame  in  boy's  clothes  as  his  son,  and  an  A.D.C.  got  up  as 
a  valet-de-chambre,  went  in  a  post-chaise  from  Cheltenham  to 
London,  where  they  rested  for  a  couple  of  hours  at  Sabloniere's 
in  Leicester  Square,  then  at  midnight  left  for  Dover  and  thence 
to  Paris. 

General  Osten,  second  in  command  at  Flushing,  on  parole  at 
Lichfield,  was  another  gentleman  who  was  helped  to  get  off  by 
a  lady  member  of  his  family.  His  daughter  had  come  with 
him  from  Flushing,  and  in  December  1809  went  away  with 
.all  her  father's  heavy  baggage.  In  February  1810,  Waddell,  the 


ESCAPES    OF  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE         383 

escape  agent,  met  the  general  and  two  other  officers  in  Birming- 
ham, and  forty-six  hours  later  landed  with  them  in  Holland. 

In  this  year,  1810,  the  escapes  were  so  numerous  by  boats 
stolen  from  the  shores  that  the  Admiralty  issued  a  warn- 
ing that  owners  of  boats  on  beaches  should  not  leave  masts, 
oars,  and  tackle  in  them,  and  in  1812  compensation  was  refused 
to  a  Newton  Abbot  and  to  a  Paignton  fisherman,  because 
prisoners  had  stolen  their  boats,  which  had  been  left  with  their 
gear  on  the  beach,  despite  warning,  and  when  the  prisoners 
were  recaptured  it  was  found  that  they  had  destroyed  the  boats. 

In  October  1811,  six  French  officers — Bouquet,  army  surgeon, 
Leclerc,  lieutenant  of  hussars,  Denguiard,  army  surgeon,  Jean 
Henry,  '  passenger  '  on  privateer,  Gaffe,  merchant  skipper,  and 
Glena't,  army  lieutenant,  under  the  guidance  of  one  Johns,  left 
Okehampt  on,  crossed  the  moor  to  Bovey  Tracey,  where  they  met 
a  woman  of  whom  they  asked  the  way  to  Torbay.  She  replied, 
and  while  they  consulted  together,  gave  the  alarm  so  that  the 
villagers  turned  out  and  caught  three  of  the  runaways.  The 
other  three  ran  and  were  pursued.  Johns  turned  on  the 
foremost  pursuer  and  stabbed  him  so  that  he  died,  and  two 
others  were  wounded  by  the  Frenchmen,  but  the  latter  were 
caught  at  Torquay.  Johns  got  off,  but  on  November  2  was 
seen  at  Chesterfield,  where  he  got  work  on  a  Saturday  ;  instead 
of  going  to  it  on  Monday  morning,  however,  he  decamped,  and 
was  seen  on  the  Manchester  road,  eight  miles  from  Chesterfield. 
In  1812  a  man  named  Taylor,  of  Beer  Alston,  said  to  be  Johns, 
was  arrested,  but  proved  an  alibi  and  was  discharged. 

In  1812  General  Maurin,  who  may  be  remembered  in  con- 
nexion with  the  Crapper  trouble  at  Wantage,  escaped  with  his 
brother  from  Abergavenny,  whither  he  had  been  sent,  the 
smuggler  Waddell  being  paid  £300  for  his  help.  At  the  same 
time  General  Brou  escaped  from  Welshpool.  Both  these  officers 
had  been  treated  with  particular  leniency  and  had  been  allowed 
unusual  privileges,  so  that  the  Transport  Office  comments 
with  great  severity  upon  their  behaviour. 

On  November  8,  1812,  a  girl  named  Mary  Clarke  went  in 
very  foggy  weather  from  Wolverhampton  to  Bridgnorth  to 
meet  a  friend.  She  waited  for  some  time,  but  he  did  not  come  ; 
so  she  turned  back  towards  her  inn,  where  her  chaise  was 


384  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

waiting.  Here  was  Lieutenant  Montbazin,  a  French  naval 
officer,  who  had  broken  his  parole  from  Lichfield,  who  politely 
accosted  her  and  asked  her  if  she  was  going  to  Wolverhampton. 
She  replied  that  she  was.  Was  she  going  to  walk  ?  No  ;  she 
had  her  chaise.  Would  she  let  him  have  a  seat  if  he  paid  half 
expenses  ?  She  agreed,  and  went  back  for  the  chaise  while  he 
walked  on,  and  she  picked  him  up  half  a  mile  on,  between  some 
rocks  by  the  roadside.  So  they  went  on  to  Wolverhampton 
— and  to  Birmingham.  In  the  meantime  he  had  been  missed 
at  Lichfield,  and  followed,  and  in  the  back  parlour  of  the  Swan 
at  Birmingham  was  arrested  with  the  girl. 

This  was  Mary  Clarke's  evidence  in  court. 

In  defence,  Montbazin  said  that  he  had  been  exchanged  for 
four  British  seamen,  who  had  been  landed  from  France,  but 
that  the  Transport  Office  had  refused  to  let  him  go,  so  he  had 
considered  himself  absolved  from  his  parole. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the  girl's  story  was  con- 
cocted, that  her  meeting  with  Montbazin  was  part  of  a  pre- 
arranged plan,  and  the  Court  emphasized  their  opinion  that 
this  was  the  case  by  sending  the  lieutenant  to  a  prison  afloat, 
and  Mary  Clarke  to  one  ashore. 

In  October  1812,  eight  French  officers  left  Andover  quietly 
in  the  evening,  and,  a  mile  out,  met  two  mounted  escape-aiders. 
Behind  each  of  them  a  prisoner  mounted,  and  all  proceeded  at 
a  walk  for  six  miles,  when  they  met  another  man  with  three 
horses.  On  these  horses  the  remaining  six  prisoners  mounted, 
and  by  daybreak  were  at  Ringwood,  thirty-six  miles  on  their 
road  to  liberty.  All  the  day  they  remained  hidden  in  the 
forest,  living  upon  bread,  cheese,  and  rum,  which  their  guides 
procured  from  Ringwood.  At  nightfall  they  restarted,  passed 
through  Christchurch  to  Stanpit,  and  thence  to  the  shore, 
where  they  found  a  boat  waiting  for  them  ;  but  the  wind  being 
contrary  and  blowing  a  gale,  they  could  not  embark,  and  were 
obliged  to  remain  hidden  in  the  woods  for  three  days,  suffering 
so  much  from  exposure  and  want  that  they  made  a  bargain 
with  a  Mrs.  Martin  to  lodge  in  her  house  for  £12  until  the 
weather  should  moderate  sufficiently  for  them  to  embark. 
They  stayed  here  for  a  week,  and  then  their  suspense  and 
anxiety,  they  knowing  that  the  hue  and  cry  was  after  them, 


ESCAPES  OF  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE         385 

became  unbearable,  and  they  gave  the  smuggler-skipper  of  the 
Freeholder  a  promissory  note  for  six  hundred  guineas  to  hazard 
taking  them  off.  He  made  the  attempt,  but  the  vessel  was 
driven  ashore,  and  the  Frenchmen  were  with  difficulty  landed 
at  another  spot  on  the  coast  ;  here  they  wandered  about  in  the 
darkness  and  storm,  until  one  of  them  becoming  separated 
from  the  others  gave  himself  up,  and  the  discovery  of  his 
companions  soon  followed. 

The  result  of  the  trial  was  that  the  officers  were,  of  course, 
sent  to  the  hulks,  the  master  of  the  Freeholder  was  transported 
for  life,  four  of  his  men  for  seven  years,  and  the  aiders  acquitted. 
This  appears  curious  justice,  which  can  only  be  explained  by 
presuming  that  the  magistrates,  or  rather  the  Admiralty,  often 
found  it  politic  to  get  escape-aiders  into  their  service  in  this  way. 

Of  course,  all '  escapes  '  were  bad  offences  from  an  honourable 
point  of  view,  but  some  were  worse  than  others.  For  instance, 
in  1812,  the  Due  de  Chartres  wrote  a  strong  letter  of  inter- 
cession to  the  Transport  Office  on  behalf  of  one  Du  Baudiez. 
This  man  had  been  sent  to  Stapleton  Prison  for  having  broken 
his  parole  at  Odiham,  and  the  duke  asked  that  his  parole 
should  be  restored  him.  The  Transport  Office  decidedly 
rejected  the  application,  and  in  their  reply  to  the  duke  quoted 
a  letter  written  by  Du  Baudiez  to  his  sister  in  France  in  which 
he  says  that  he  has  given  his  creditors  in  Odiham  bills  upon 
her,  but  asks  her  not  to  honour  them,  because  '  Les  Anglais 
nous  ont  agonis  de  sottises,  lies  comme  des  b£tes  sauvages,  et 
traites  toute  la  route  comme  des  chiens.  Ce  sont  des  Anglais  ; 
rien  ne  m'etonne  de  ce  qu'ils  ont  fait . . .  ce  sont  tous  des  gueux, 
des  scelerats  depuis  le  premier  jusqu'au  dernier.  Aussi  je  vous 
prie  en  grace  de  protester  ces  billets  .  .  .  je  suis  dans  la  ferme 
resolution  de  ne  les  point  payer.' 

On  one  occasion  an  unexpected  catch  of  '  broke-paroles  ' 
was  made.  The  Revenue  Officers  believed  that  two  men  who 
were  playing  cards  in  an  inn  near  Canterbury  were  escaped 
prisoners,  and  at  8  p.m.  called  on  a  magistrate  to  get  help. 
The  magistrate  told  them  that  it  was  of  no  use  to  get  the 
constable,  as  at  that  hour  he  was  usually  intoxicated,  but 
authorized  them  to  get  the  military. 

This  they  did,  but  the  landlord  refused  to  open  the  door  and, 

ABELL  C   c 


386  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

during  the  parleying,  two  men  slipped  out  by  the  back  door, 
whom  the  officers  stopped,  and  presently  two  others,  who  were 
also  stopped.  All  four  were  French  '  broke-paroles  '  from 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch,  and  the  card-players  within  were  not 
prisoners  at  all.  The  captured  men  said  that  on  Beckenham 
Common  they  had  nearly  been  caught,  for  the  driver  of  the  cart 
stopped  there  at  10  p.m.  to  rest  the  horse.  The  horse-patrol, 
passing  by,  ordered  him  to  move  on.  As  he  was  putting  the 
horse  to,  the  Frenchmen,  all  being  at  the  back  of  the  cart,  tilted 
it  up  and  cried  out.  However,  the  horse-patrol  had  passed  on 
and  did  not  hear. 

In  the  two  next  cases  English  girls  play  a  part.  In  1814 
Colonel  Poerio  escaped  from  Ashbourne  with  an  English  girl  in 
male  attire,  but  they  were  captured  at  Loughborough.  At  the 
trial  an  Ashbourne  woman  said  that  one  day  a  girl  came  and 
asked  for  a  lodging,  saying  that  she  was  a  worker  at  '  lace- 
running  '  ;  she  seemed  respectable,  and  was  taken  in,  and 
remained  some  days  without  causing  any  suspicion,  although 
she  seemed  on  good  terms  with  the  French  prisoners  on  parole 
in  the  town.  One  evening  the  woman's  little  girl  met  the 
lodger  coming  downstairs,  and  said  :  '  Mam  !  she  has  got  a 
black  coat  on  !  '  When  asked  where  she  was  going,  she  replied, 
*  To  Colonel  Juliett's.  Will  be  back  in  five  minutes.'  (Colonel 
Juliett  was  another  prisoner.)  She  did  not  return,  and  that 
was  the  last  witness  saw  of  her. 

Upon  examination,  the  girl  said  that  she  kept  company  with 
Poerio,  but  as  her  father  did  not  approve  of  her  marrying  him 
she  had  resolved  to  elope.  She  took  with  her  £5,  which  she  had 
saved  by  '  running  '  lace.  They  were  arrested  at  the  Butt's 
Head,  Loughborough,  where  the  girl  had  ordered  a  chaise. 
Counsel  decided  that  there  was  no  case  for  prosecution  ! 

I  am  not  sure  if  this  Colonel  Poerio  is  identical  with  the  man 
of  that  name  who,  in  1812,  when  on  a  Chatham  hulk,  applied 
to  be  put  on  parole,  the  answer  being  a  refusal,  inasmuch  as  he 
was  a  man  of  infamous  character,  and  that  when  in  command 
of  the  island  of  Cerigo  he  had  poisoned  the  water  there  in  order 
to  relieve  himself  of  some  600  Albanian  men,  women,  and 
children,  many  of  whom  died — a  deed  he  acknowledged  himself 
by  word  and  in  writing. 


ESCAPES  OF  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE          387 

Colonel  Ocher  in  1811  got  off  from  Lichfield  with  a  girl,  was 
pursued  by  officers  in  a  chaise  and  four,  and  was  caught  at 
Meriden,  on  the  Coventry  road,  about  two  miles  beyond  Stone 
Bridge.  Upon  examination,  Ann  Green,  spinster,  lodging  at 
3,  Newman  Street,  Oxford  Street,  London,  said  that  she  came 
to  Birmingham  by  the  '  Balloon  '  coach,  according  to  instruc- 
tions she  had  received  from  a  Baron  Ferriet,  whom  she  knew. 
He  had  given  her  £6,  paid  her  fare,  and  sent  her  to  the  Swan 
with  two  Necks  in  Ladd  Lane,  where  she  was  given  a  letter, 
which,  as  she  could  not  read,  the  waiter  read  to  her.  The  letter 
told  her  to  go  to  Lichfield  to  the  St.  George  hotel,  as  the  baron 
had  business  to  attend  to  which  kept  him  in  London.  At  the 
Lichfield  hotel  there  was  a  letter  which  told  her  to  go  to 
Mr.  Joblin's,  where  Colonel  Ocher  lodged.  Here  she  left  word 
she  would  meet  him  in  the  fields,  which  she  did  at  9  p.m.,  when 
they  went  off,  and  were  captured  as  above. 

In  defence,  '  Baron  Ferriet  '  told  a  strange  story.  He  said 
he  had  been  in  the  British  Secret  Service  in  France.  He  lived 
there  in  constant  danger  as  there  was  a  reward  of  40,000  francs 
offered  for  him  by  the  French  Government.  At  Sables  d'Olonne, 
Colonel  Ocher's  family  had  hidden  him  when  the  authorities 
were  after  him,  and  had  saved  him,  and  Madame  Ocher  had 
looked  after  his  wife  and  family.  So,  in  a  long  letter  he  ex- 
plains in  very  fair  English  that  he  determined  to  repay  the 
Ochers  in  France  for  their  kindness  to  him  by  procuring  the 
escape  of  General  Ocher,  a  prisoner  on  parole  in  England,  and 
regarded  him  as  '  his  property  '. 

Although  the  prisoners  on  parole  had  no  lack  of  English 
sympathizers,  especially  if  they  could  pay,  a  large  section  of 
the  lower  class  of  country  folk  were  ever  on  the  alert  to  gain 
the  Government  reward  for  the  detection  and  prevention  of 
parole-breaking.  The  following  is  a  sample  of  letters  frequently 
received  by  the  '  Sick  and  Hurt  '  Office  and  its  agents  : 

'  MY  LORDS  AND  GENTLEMEN, 

'  This  informs  your  lordships  that  on  ye  3Oth  July  1780, 
I  was  on  Okehampton  road  leading  to  Tavistock,  saw  four 
French  prisoners,  on  horseback  without  a  guide.  They  signified 
to  me  that  they  had  leave  to  go  to  Tavistock  from  there  com- 
pany at  Okehampton.  After  I  was  past  Tavistock  four  miles 

c  c  2 


388  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

they  came  galloping  on  towards  Buckland  Down  Camp.  I  kept 
in  sight  of  them  and  perceived  them  to  ride  several  miles  or 
above  out  of  the  Turnpike  Road  taking  of  what  view  they 
could  of  Gentlemen's  seats,  and  ye  Harbour  and  Sound  and 
Camp,  and  I  thought  within  myself  it  was  very  strange  that 
these  profest  Enemies  should  be  granted  such  Libertys  as  this, 
by  any  Company  whatever.  Accordingly  came  to  a  Resolution 
as  soon  as  they  came  within  the  lines  of  the  Camp  ride  forward 
and  stopt  them  and  applyd  to  the  Commanding  Officer  which 
was  Major  Braecher  of  the  Bedfordshire  Militia,  who  broke 
their  letter,  and  not  thinking  it  a  proper  Passport  the  Major 
ordered  them  under  the  care  of  the  Quarter  Guard. 
[Winds  up  with  a  claim  for  reward.] 

4  JOSEPH  GILES, 
'Near  ye  P.O.,  Plymouth  Dock.' 

It  turned  out  in  this  case  that  the  Agent  at  Okehampton  had 
given  the  Frenchmen  permission  to  go  to  Tavistock  for  their 
trunks,  so  they  were  released  and  returned.  The  '  Sick  and 
Hurt '  Office  said  that  to  allow  these  prisoners  to  ride  unguarded 
to  Tavistock  was  most  improper,  and  must,  under  no  circum- 
stances, be  allowed  to  occur  again. 

From  a  paper  read  by  Mr.  Maberley  Phillips,  F.S.A.,  before 
the  Newcastle  Society  of  Antiquaries,  I  take  the  following 
instances  of  escapes  of  parole  prisoners  in  the  North. 

In  1813  there  were  on  parole  at  Jedburgh  under  the  Agent, 
George  Bell,  about  a  hundred  French  prisoners.  At  the  usual 
Saturday  muster-call  on  June  i,  all  were  present,  but  at  that 
of  June  4,  Benoit  Poulet  and  Jacques  Girot  were  missing.  From 
the  evidence  at  the  trial  of  the  accomplices  in  this  escape,  all 
of  whom  except  the  chief  agent,  James  Hunter  of  Whitton,  near 
Rothbury,  were  arrested,  and  three  of  whom  turned  King's 
evidence,  the  story  was  unfolded  of  the  flight  of  the  men — who 
were  passed  off  as  Germans  on  a  fishing  excursion — across  the 
wild,  romantic,  historic  fell-country  between  the  Border  and 
Alwinton  on  the  Coquet  ;  and  so  by  Whitton,  Belsay,  and 
Ponteland,  to  the  Bird  in  Bush  inn,  Pilgrim  Street,  Newcastle  ; 
whence  the  Frenchmen  were  supposed  to  have  gone  to  Shields, 
and  embarked  in  a  foreign  vessel  for  France. 

I  quote  this  and  the  following  case  as  instances  of  the  general 
sympathy  of  English  country  people  with  the  foreign  prisoners 
amongst  them.  The  C  our  ant  of  August  28,  1813,  says  :  '  The 


ESCAPES  OF  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE  389 

trial  of  James  Hunter  occupied  the  whole  of  Monday,  and  the 
court  was  excessively  crowded  ;  when  the  verdict  of  Not 
Guilty  was  delivered,  clapping  of  hands  and  other  noisy  symp- 
toms of  applause  were  exhibited,  much  to  the  surprise  of  the 
judge,  Sir  A.  Chambers,  who  observed  that  he  seemed  to  be  in 
an  assembly  of  Frenchmen,  rather  than  in  an  English  court  of 
justice.  The  other  prisoners  charged  with  the  same  offence, 
were  merely  arraigned,  and  the  verdict  of  acquittal  was  recorded 
without  further  trial.' 

Hunter  had  been  arrested  in  Scotland,  just  before  the  trial. 
Quoting  from  Wallace's  History  of  Blyth,  Mr.  Phillips  says  : 

'  One  Sunday  morning  in  the  year  1811,  the  inhabitants  were 
thrown  into  a  state  of  great  excitement  by  the  startling  news 
that  five  Frenchmen  had  been  taken  during  the  night  and  were 
lodged  in  the  guard-house.  They  were  officers  who  had  broken 
their  parole  at  Edinburgh  Castle  [?  Jedburgh],  and  in  making 
their  way  home  had  reached  the  neighbourhood  of  Blyth ;  when 
discovered,  they  were  resting  by  the  side  of  the  Plessy  wagon- 
way  beside  the  "  Shoulder  of  Mutton  "  field. 

'  A  party  of  countrymen  who  had  been  out  drinking,  hearing 
some  persons  conversing  in  an  unknown  tongue,  suspected 
what  they  were,  and  determined  to  effect  their  capture.  The 
fugitives  made  some  resistance,  but  in  the  end  were  captured, 
and  brought  to  Blyth,  and  given  into  the  charge  of  the  soldiers 
then  quartered  in  the  town.  This  act  of  the  countrymen  met 
with  the  strongest  reprobation  of  the  public '  (the  italics  are  mine). 
'  The  miscarriage  of  the  poor  fellows'  plan  of  escape  through  the 
meddling  of  their  captors,  excited  the  sympathy  of  the  inhabi- 
tants ;  rich  and  poor  vying  with  each  other  in  showing  kindness 
to  the  strangers.  Whatever  was  likely  to  alleviate  their  help- 
less condition  was  urged  upon  their  acceptance  ;  victuals  they 
did  not  refuse,  but  though  money  was  freely  offered  them,  they 
steadily  refused  to  accept  it.  The  guard-house  was  surrounded 
all  day  long  by  crowds  anxious  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  captives. 
The  men  who  took  the  prisoners  were  rewarded  with  £5  each, 
but  doubtless  it  would  be  the  most  unsatisfactory  wages  they 
ever  earned,  for  long  after,  whenever  they  showed  their  faces  in 
the  town,  they  had  to  endure  the  upbraiding  of  men,  women,  and 
children ;  indeed,  it  was  years  before  public  feeling  about  this 
matter  passed  away.' 

The  continuance  and  frequency  of  escapes  by  prisoners  on 
parole  necessitated  increased  rigidity  of  regulations.  The 


390  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

routes  by  which  prisoners  were  marched  from  place  to  place 
were  exactly  laid  down,  and  we  find  numberless  letters  of  in- 
struction from  the  Transport  Office  like  this  : 

'  Colonel  X  having  received  permission  to  reside  on  parole 
at  Ashby-de-la-Zouch,  his  route  from  Chatham  is  to  be  : 
Chatham,  Sevenoaks,  Croydon,  Kingston,  Uxbridge,  Wendover, 
Buckingham,  Towcester,  Daventry,  and  Coleshill.' 

The  instructions  to  conductors  of  prisoners  were  as  follows : 
Prisoners  were  to  march  about  twelve  miles  a  day.  Con- 
ductors were  to  pay  the  prisoners  sixpence  per  day  per  man 
before  starting.  Conductors  were  to  ride  ahead  of  prisoners, 
so  as  to  give  notice  at  towns  of  their  coming,  and  were  to  see 
that  the  prisoners  were  not  imposed  upon.  Conductors  (who 
were  always  mounted),  were  to  travel  thirty  miles  a  day  on  the 
return  journey,  and  to  halt  upon  Sundays. 

Of  course,  it  was  in  the  power  of  the  conductors  to  make  the 
journeys  of  the  prisoners  comfortable  or  the  reverse.  If  the 
former,  it  was  the  usual  custom  to  give  a  certificate  of  this 
kind: 

*  April  1798.  This  is  to  certify  that  Mr.  Thomas  Willis,  con- 
ductor of  134  Dutch  and  Spanish  prisoners  of  war  from  the 
Security  prison  ship  at  Chatham,  into  the  custody  of  Mr. 
Barker,  agent  for  prisoners  of  war  at  Winchester,  has  provided 
us  with  good  lodgings  every  night,  well  littered  with  straw,  and 
that  we  have  been  regularly  paid  our  subsistence  every  morning 
on  our  march,  each  prisoner  sixpence  per  day  according  to  the 
established  allowance. 

'(Signed).' 

The  ill-treatment  of  prisoners  on  the  march  was  not  usual, 
and  when  reported  was  duly  punished.  Thus  in  1804  a  Cold- 
stream  guardsman  on  escort  of  prisoners  from  Reading  to 
Norman  Cross,  being  convicted  of  robbing  a  prisoner,  was 
sentenced  to  600  lashes,  and  the  sentence  was  publicly  read  out 
at  all  the  depots. 

In  1811  posters  came  out  offering  the  usual  reward  for  the 
arrest  of  an  officer  who  had  escaped  from  a  Scottish  parole 
town,  and  distinguished  him  as  lacking  three  fingers  of  his  left 
hand.  A  year  later  Bow  Street  officers  Vickary  and  Lavender, 


ESCAPES  OF  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE          391 

'  from  information  received  ',  followed  a  seller  of  artificial 
flowers  into  a  public-house  in  '  Weston  Park,  Lincolns  Inn 
Fields/  The  merchant  bore  the  distinctive  mark  of  the 
wanted  foreigner,  and,  seeing  that  the  game  was  up,  candidly 
admitted  his  identity,  said  that  he  had  lived  in  London  during 
the  past  twelve  months  by  making  and  selling  artificial  flowers, 
and  added  that  he  had  lost  his  fingers  for  his  country,  and 
would  not  mind  losing  his  head  for  her. 

In  the  same  year  a  militia  corporal  who  had  done  duty  at 
a  prisoner  depot,  and  so  was  familiar  with  foreign  faces,  saw 
two  persons  in  a  chaise  driving  towards  Worcester,  whom  he  at 
once  suspected  to  be  escaped  prisoners.  He  stopped  the  chaise, 
and  made  the  men  show  their  passports,  which  were  not  satis- 
factory, and,  although  they  tried  to  bribe  him  to  let  them  go, 
he  refused,  mounted  the  bar  of  the  chaise,  and  drove  on.  One 
of  the  men  presently  opened  the  chaise-door  with  the  aim  of 
escaping,  but  the  corporal  presented  a  pistol  at  him,  and  he 
withdrew.  At  Worcester  they  confessed  that  they  had 
escaped  from  Bishop's  Castle,  and  said  they  were  Trafalgar 
officers. 

In  1812  prisoners  broke  their  parole  in  batches.  From 
Ti  vert  on  at  one  time,  twelve ;  from  Andover,  eight  (as 
recorded  on  pp.  384-5)  ;  from  Wincanton,  ten ;  and  of  these, 
four  were  generals  and  eighteen  colonels. 

In  the  Quarterly  Review,  December  1821,  the  assertion  made 
by  M.  Dupin,  in  his  report  upon  the  treatment  of  French 
prisoners  in  Britain,  published  in  1816,  and  before  alluded  to  in 
the  chapter  upon  prison-ships,  that  French  officers  observed 
their  parole  more  faithfully  than  did  English,  was  shown  to  be 
false.  Between  May  1803,  and  August  1811,  860  French 
officers  had  attempted  to  escape  from  parole  towns.  Of  these, 
270  were  recaptured,  and  590  escaped.  In  1808  alone,  154 
escaped.  From  1811  to  1814,  299  army  officers  escaped,  and  of 
this  number  9  were  generals,  18  were  colonels,  14  were  lieu- 
tenant-colonels, 8  were  majors,  91  were  captains,  and  159  were 
lieutenants.  It  should  be  noted  that  in  this  number  are  not 
included  the  many  officers  who  practically  '  escaped ',  in  that 
they  did  not  return  to  England  when  not  exchanged  at  the  end 
of  their  term  of  parole. 


392 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 


From  the  Parliament ar y  Papers  of  1812,  I  take  the  following 
table  : 

Transport  Office,  June  25,  1812. 

NUMBER  OF  ALL  FRENCH  COMMISSIONED  OFFICERS,  PRISONERS  OF  WAR, 
ON  PAROLE  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN. 


o|* 

o 

"*$ 

30$ 

"e  "^ 

sj 

I 

bi  o  o 

0 

1 

f3 

0 

Year  ending 

N.B.     The     numbers 

5th  June  1810 

1,685 

104 

47 

57 

stated    in  this   account 

Year  ending 
5th  June  1811 

2,087 

118 

47 

include    those    persons 
only  who  have  actually 

Year  ending 

absconded      from      the 

5th  June  1812 

2,142 

242 

63 

179 

places     appointed     for 

their  residence 

5»9H 

464 

157 

3°7 

A  considerable  number 

of    officers    have    been 

Besides  the  above, 

ordered     into     confine- 

the following  other 

ment  for  various  other 

prisoners   of    rank 

breaches  of  their  parole 

entitling   them   to 

engagements. 

be  on  parole,  have 

(Signed) 

broken    it    during 

RUP.  GEORGE. 

the     three     years 
above  mentioned  . 

218 

85 

133 

J.  BOWEN. 
J.  DOUGLAS. 

682 

242 

440 

During  the  above-quoted  period,  between  1803  and  1811, 
out  of  20,000  British  d&tenus,  not  prisoners  of  war,  in  France, 
it  cannot  be  shown  that  more  than  twenty-three  broke  their 
parole,  and  even  these  are  doubtful. 

Sometimes  the  epidemic  of  parole-breaking  was  severe 
enough  to  render  drastic  measures  necessary.  In  1797  orders 
were  issued  that  all  French  prisoners,  without  distinction  of 
rank,  were  to  be  placed  in  close  confinement. 

In  1803,  in  consequence  of  invasion  alarms,  it  was  deemed 
advisable  to  remove  all  prisoners  from  the  proximity  of  the 
coast  to  inland  towns,  the  Admiralty  order  being  : 

'  At  the  present  conjunction  all  parole  prisoners  from  the 
South  and  West  towns  are  to  be  sent  to  North  Staffordshire, 
and  Derbyshire — that  is,  to  Chesterfield,  Ashbourne,  and 
Leek/ 


ESCAPES  OF  PRISONERS  ON  PAROLE          393 

General  Morgan  at  Bishop's  Waltham  resented  this  removal 
so  far  away,  in  a  letter  to  the  Transport  Office,  to  which  they 
replied  : 

'  This  Board  has  uniformly  wished  to  treat  Prisoners  of  War 
with  every  degree  of  humanity  consistent  with  the  public  ' 
safety :  but  in  the  present  circumstances  it  has  been  judged 
expedient  to  remove  all  Prisoners  of  War  on  Parole  from  places  ^ 
near  the  Coast  to  Inland  towns.  You  will  therefore  observe 
that  the  order  is  not  confined  to  you,  but  relates  generally  to 
all  Prisoners  on  Parole  :  and  with  regard  to  your  comparison 
of  the  treatment  of  prisoners  in  this  country  with  that  of 
British  prisoners  in  France,  the  Commissioners  think  it  only 
necessary  to  remark  that  the  distance  to  which  it  is  now  pro- 
posed to  remove  you  does  not  exceed  170  miles,  whereas  British 
prisoners  in  France  are  marched  into  the  interior  to  a  distance 
of  500  miles  from  some  of  the  ports  into  which  they  are  carried/ 

Morgan  was  allowed  eventually  his  choice  of  Richmond  or 
Barnet  as  a  place  of  parole,  a  privilege  accorded  him  because 
of  his  kindness  to  a  Mr.  Hurry,  during  the,  detention  of  the 
latter  as  a  prisoner  in  France. 

In  1811,  so  many  prisoners  escaped  from  Wincanton  that 
ail  the  parole  prisoners  in  the  place  were  marched  to  London 
to  be  sent  thence  by  sea  to  Scotland  for  confinement.  '  Sudden 
and  secret  measures  '  were  taken  to  remove  them,  all  of  the 
rank  of  captain  and  above,  to  Fort  on  for  embarkation,  except 
General  Houdetot,  who  was  sent  to  Lichfield.  From  Oke- 
hampton  sixty  were  sent  to  Ilfracombe,  and  thence  to  Swansea 
for  Abergavenny,  and  from  Bishop's  Waltham  to  Oswestry  in 
batches  of  twelve  at  intervals  of  three  days. 

Many  parole  towns  petitioned  for  the  retention  of  the  pri- 
soners, but  all  were  refused  ;  the  inhabitants  of  some  places  in 
Devon  attempted  to  detain  prisoners  for  debts  ;  and  Ench- 
marsh,  the  Agent  at  Tiverton,  was  suspended  for  not  sending 
off  his  prisoners  according  to  orders.  Their  departure  was  the 
occasion  in  many  places  for  public  expressions  of  regret,  and 
this  can  be  readily  appreciated  when  it  is  considered  what  the 
residence  of  two  or  three  hundred  young  men,  some  of  whom 
were  of  good  family  and  many  of  whom  had  private  means,  in 
a  small  English  country  town  meant,  not  merely  from  a 
business  but  from  a  social  point  of  view. 


394  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

In  The  Times  of  1812  may  be  read  that  a  French  officer,  who- 
had  been  exchanged  and  landed  at  Morlaix,  and  had  expressed 
disgust  at  the  frequent  breaches  of  parole  by  his  countrymen, 
was  arrested  and  shot  by  order  of  Bonaparte.  I  merely  quote 
this  as  an  example  that  even  British  newspapers  of  standing 
were  occasionally  stooping  to  the  vituperative  level  of  their 
trans-Channel  confreres. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 
COMPLAINTS  OF  PRISONERS 

IT  could  hardly  be  expected  that  a  uniform  standard  of 
good  and  submissive  behaviour  would  be  attained  by  a  large 
body  of  fighting  men,  the  greater  part  of  whom  were  in  vigorous 
youth  or  in  the  prime  of  life,  although,  on  the  whole,  the  con- 
duct of  those  who  honourably  observed  their  parole  seems  to 
have  been  admirable — a  fact  which  no  doubt  had  a  great  deal 
to  do  with  the  very  general  display  of  sympathy  for  them 
latterly.  In  some  places  more  than  others  they  seem  to  have 
brought  upon  themselves  by  their  own  behaviour  local  odium, 
and  these  are  the  places  in  which  were  quartered  captured 
privateer  officers,  wild,  reckless  sea-dogs  whom,  naturally, 
restraint  galled  far  more  deeply  than  it  did  the  drilled  and 
disciplined  officers  of  the  regular  army  and  navy. 

In  1797,  for  instance,  the  inhabitants  of  Tavistock  com- 
plained that  the  prisoners  went  about  the  town  in  female 
garb,  after  bell-ringing,  and  that  they  were  associated  in  these 
masquerades  with  women  of  their  own  nation.  So  they  were 
threatened  with  the  Mill  Prison  at  Plymouth. 

In  1807  complaints  from  Chesterfield  about  the  improper 
conduct  of  the  prisoners  brought  a  Transport  Office  order  to  the 
Agent  that  the  strictest  observation  of  regulations  was  neces- 
sary, and  that  the  mere  removal  of  a  prisoner  to  another  parole 
town  was  no  punishment,  and  was  to  be  discontinued.  In  1808 
there  was  a  serious  riot  between  the  prisoners  and  the  townsfolk 
in  the  same  place,  in  which  bludgeons  were  freely  used  and 
heads  freely  broken,  and  from  Lichfield  came  complaints  of  the 
outrageous  and  insubordinate  behaviour  of  the  prisoners. 

In  1807  Mr.  P.  Wykeham  of  Thame  Park  complained  of  the 
prisoners  trespassing  therein  ;  from  Bath  came  protests  against 
the  conduct  of  General  Rouget  and  his  A. B.C. ;  and  in  1809  the 
behaviour  of  one  Wislawski  at  Odiham  (possibly  the  '  Wysilaski ' 
already  mentioned  as  at  Sanquhar)  was  reported  as  being  so 
atrocious  that  he  was  at  once  packed  off  to  a  prison-ship. 


396  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

In  1810,  at  Oswestry,  Lieutenant  Julien  complained  that  the 
Agent,  Tozer,had  insulted  him  by  threatening  him  with  his  cane, 
and  accusing  him  of  drunkenness  in  the  public-houses.  Tozer,  on 
the  other  hand,  declared  that  Julien  and  others  were  rioting 
in  the  streets,  that  he  tried  to  restore  order,  and  raised  his  cane 
in  emphasis,  whereupon  Julien  raised  his  with  offensive  intent. 

Occasionally  we  find  complaints  sent  up  by  local  profes- 
sionals and  tradesmen  that  the  prisoners  on  parole  unfairly 
compete  with  them.  Here  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  following 
of  trades  and  professions  by  prisoners  of  war  was  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  inmates  of  prisons  and  prison-ships,  and  that 
there  were  hundreds  of  poor  officers  on  parole  who  not  only 
worked  at  their  professions  (as  Garneray  the  painter  did  at 
Bishop's  Waltham)  and  at  specific  trades,  but  who  were  glad  to 
eke  out  their  scanty  subsistence-money  by  the  manufacture  of 
models,  toys,  ornaments,  &c. 

In  1812  a  baker  at  Thame  complained  that  the  prisoners  on 
parole  in  that  town  baked  bread,  to  which  the  Transport  Office 
replied  that  there  was  no  objection  to  their  doing  it  for  their 
own  consumption,  but  not  for  public  sale.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
the  baker  was  satisfied  with  this  very  academic  reply ! 

So  also  the  bootmakers  of  Portsmouth  complained  that  the 
prisoners  on  parole  in  the  neighbourhood  made  boots  for  sale 
at  lower  than  the  current  rates.  The  Transport  Office  replied 
that  orders  were  strict  against  this,  and  that  the  master 
bootmakers  were  to  blame  for  encouraging  this  '  clandestine 
trade.' 

In  1813  the  doctors  at  Welshpool  complained  that  the 
doctors  among  the  French  parole  prisoners  there  inoculated 
private  families  for  small-pox.  The  Transport  Office  forbade  it. 

In  the  same  year  complaints  came  from  Whit  church  in  Shrop- 
shire of  the  defiant  treatment  of  the  limit-rules  by  the  prisoners 
there;  to  which  the  Transport  Office  replied  that  they  had  ordered 
posts  to  be  set  up  at  the  extremities  of  the  mile-limits,  and 
printed  regulations  to  be  posted  in  public  places  ;  that  they 
were  fully  sensible  of  the  mischief  done  by  so  many  prisoners 
being  on  parole,  but  that  they  were  unable  to  stop  it. 

Still  in  1813,  the  Transport  Office  commented  very  severely 
upon  the  case  of  a  Danish  officer  at  Reading  who  had  been  found 


COMPLAINTS  OF  PRISONERS  397 

guilty  of  forging  a  '  certificate  of  succession ',  which  I  take  to  be 
a  list  of  prisoners  in  their  order  for  being  exchanged.  I  quote 
this  case,  as  crimes  of  this  calibre  were  hardly  known  among 
parole  prisoners ;  for  other  instances,  see  pages  320  and  439. 

Many  complaints  were  made  from  the  parole  towns  about 
the  debts  left  behind  them  by  absconded  prisoners.  The 
Transport  Office  invariably  replied  that  such  debts  being  private 
matters,  the  only  remedy  was  at  civil  law. 

When  we  come  to  deal  with  the  complaints  made  by  the 
prisoners — be  they  merely  general  complaints,  or  complaints 
against  the  people  of  the  country — the  number  is  so  great  that 
the  task  set  is  to  select  those  of  the  most  importance  and 
interest. 

Complaints  against  fellow  prisoners  are  not  common. 

In  1758  a  French  doctor,  prisoner  on  parole  at  Wye  in  Kent,, 
complains  that  ten  of  his  countrymen,  fellow  prisoners,  wanted 
him  to  pay  for  drinks  to  the  extent  of  twenty-seven  shillings. 
He  refused,  so  they  attacked  him,  tore  his  clothes,  stole  thirty- 
six  shillings,  a  handkerchief,  and  two  medals.  He  brought  his 
assailants  before  the  magistrates,  and  they  were  made  to  refund 
twenty-five  shillings.  This  so  enraged  them  that  they  made 
his  life  a  burden  to  him,  and  he  prayed  to  be  removed  else- 
where. 

In  1758  a  prisoner  on  parole  at  Chippenham  complained 
that  he  was  subjected  to  ill  treatment  by  his  fellow  prisoners. 
The  letter  is  ear-marked  : 

'  Mr.  Trevanion  (the  local  Agent)  is  directed  to  publish  to  all 
the  prisoners  that  if  any  are  guilty  of  misbehaviour  to 
each  other,  the  offenders  will  immediately  be  sent  to  the 
Prison,  and  particularly  that  if  any  one  molests  or  insults  the 
writer  of  this  letter,  he  shall  instantly  be  confined  upon  its 
being  proved.' 

Later,  however,  the  writer  complains  that  the  bullying  is 
worse  than  ever,  and  that  the  other  prisoners  swear  that  they 
will  cut  him  in  pieces,  so  that  he  dare  not  leave  his  lodgings, 
and  has  been  besieged  there  for  days. 

In  the  same  year  Dingart,  captain  of  the  Deux  Amis  priva- 
teer, writes  from  confinement  on  the  Royal  Oak  prison-ship  at 
Plymouth  that  he  had  been  treated  unjustly.  He  had,  he 


398  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

says,  a  difference  with  Feraud,  Captain  of  Le  Moras  privateer, 
at  Tavistock,  during  which  the  latter  struck  him,  ran  away, 
and  kept  out  of  sight  for  a  fortnight.  Upon  his  reappearance, 
the  complainant  returned  him  the  blow  with  a  stick,  whereupon 
Feraud  brought  him  up  for  assault  before  the  Agent,  Willesford, 
who  sent  him  to  a  prison- ship. 

At  Penryn  in  the  same  year,  Chevalier,  a  naval  lieutenant, 
complained  of  being  insulted  and  attacked  by  another  prisoner 
with  a  stick,  who,  '  although  only  a  privateer  sailor,  is  evidently 
favoured  by  Loyll  '  (Lloyd  ?)  the  Agent. 

In  1810  one  Savart  was  removed  from  Wincanton  to  Stapleton 
Prison  at  the  request  of  French  superior  officers  who  complained 
of  his  very  violent  conduct. 

These  complaints  were  largely  due  to  the  tactless  Government 
system  of  placing  parole  prisoners  of  widely  different  ranks 
together.  There  are  many  letters  during  the  Seven  Years'  War 
period  from  officers  requesting  to  be  removed  to  places  where 
they  would  be  only  among  people  of  their  own  rank,  and  not 
among  those  '  qui  imaginent  que  la  condition  de  prisonnier  de 
guerre  peut  nous  rendre  tous  egaux.' 

Nor  was  this  complaint  confined  to  prisoners  on  parole,  but 
•even  more  closely  affected  officers  who,  for  breaches  of  parole, 
were  sent  to  prisons  or  to  prison-ships.  There  are  strong  com- 
plaints in  1758  by  '  broke-paroles ',  as  they  were  termed,  of  the 
brutal  class  of  prisoners  at  Sissinghurst  with  whom  they  were 
condemned  to  herd ;  and  in  one  case  the  officer  prisoners  actually 
petitioned  that  a  prison  official  who  had  been  dismissed  and 
punished  for  cutting  and  wounding  an  ordinary  prisoner  should 
be  reinstated,  as  the  latter  richly  deserved  the  treatment  he  had 
received. 

Latterly  the  authorities  remedied  this  by  setting  apart 
prison- ships  for  officers,  and  by  providing  separate  quarters  in 
prisons.  Still,  in  dealing  with  the  complaints,  they  had  to  be 
constantly  on  their  guard  against  artifice  and  fraud,  and  if  the 
perusal  of  Government  replies  to  complaints  makes  us  some- 
times think  that  the  complainants  were  harshly  and  even 
brutally  dealt  with,  we  may  be  sure  that  as  a  rule  the  authorities 
had  very  sufficient  grounds  for  their  decisions.  For  example, 
in  1804,  Delormant,  an  officer  on  parole  at  Tiverton,  was  sent 


COMPLAINTS  OF  PRISONERS  399 

to  a  Plymouth  hulk  for  some  breach  of  parole.  He  complained 
to  Admiral  Colpoys  that  he  was  obliged  there  to  herd  with  the 
common  men.  Colpoys  wrote  to  the  Transport  Board  that  he 
had  thought  right  to  have  a  separate  ship  fitted  for  prisoner 
officers,  and  had  sent  Delormant  to  it.  Whereupon  the  Board 
replied  that  if  Admiral  Colpoys  had  taken  the  trouble  to  find 
out  what  sort  of  a  man  Delormant  really  was,  he  would  have 
left  him  where  he  was,  but  that  for  the  present  he  might  remain 
on  the  special  ship. 

One  of  the  commonest  forms  of  complaint  from  prisoners 
was  against  the  custom  of  punishing  a  whole  community  for 
the  sins  of  a  few,  or  even  of  a  single  man.  In  1758  a  round- 
robin  signed  by  seventy-five  prisoners  at  Sissinghurst  protested 
that  the  whole  of  the  inmates  of  the  Castle  were  put  upon  half 
rations  for  the  faults  of  a  few  '  impertinents  '. 

At  Okehampton  in  the  same  year,  upon  a  paroled  officer 
being  sent  to  a  local  prison  for  some  offence,  and  escaping  there- 
from, the  whole  of  the  other  prisoners  in  the  place  were  confined 
to  their  lodgings  for  some  days.  When  set  free  they  held  an 
indignation  meeting,  during  which  one  of  the  orators  waved 
a  stick,  as  the  mayor  said,  threateningly  at  him.  Whereupon 
he  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  at  '  Coxade  ',  the  '  Cockside  ' 
prison  near  Mill  Bay,  Plymouth. 

We  see  an  almost  pathetic  fanning  and  fluttering  of  that 
old  French  aristocratic  plumage,  which  thirty  years  later  was 
to  be  bedraggled  in  the  bloody  dust,  in  the  complaints  of  two 
highborn  prisoners  of  war  in  1756  and  1758.  In  the  former 
year  Monsieur  de  Bethune  strongly  resented  being  sent  on 
parole  from  Bristol  into  the  country  : 

'  Ayant  appris  de  Mr.  Surgunnes  (?)  que  vous  lui  mande  par 
votre  lettre  du  13  courant  si  Messire  De  Bethune,  Chevalier  de 
St.  Simon,  Marquis  d'Arbest,  Baron  de  Sainte  Lucie,  Seigneur 
haut,  et  bas  justicier  des  paroisses  de  Chateau vieux,  Corvilac, 
Laneau,  Pontmartin,  Neung  et  autres  lieux,  etoit  admis  a  la 
parole  avec  les  autres  officiers  pour  lesquels  il  s'interesse, 
j'aurai  1'avantage  de  vous  repondre,  qu'un  Grand  de  la  trempe 
de  Messire  De  Bethune,  qui  vous  adresse  la  presente,  n'est 
point  fait  pour  peupler  un  endroit  aussi  desert  que  la  campagne, 
attendu  qu'allie  du  coste  paternel  et  maternel  a  un  des  plus 
puissans  rois  que  jamais  terre  ait  porte,  Londres,  comme 


400  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Bristol  ou  autre  sejour  qu'il  voudra  choisir,  est  capable  de 
contenir  celui  qui  est  tout  a  vous. 

'De  Bristol;   le  15  Xbre.     1756.' 

Later  he  writes  that  he  hears  indirectly  that  this  letter  has 
given  offence  to  the  gentlemen  at  the  '  Sick  and  Hurt '  Office  on 
Tower  Hill,  but  maintains  that  it  is  excusable  from  one  who  is 
allied  to  several  kings  and  sovereign  princes,  and  he  expects 
to  have  his  passport  for  London. 

The  Prince  de  Rohan,  on  parole  at  Romsey,  not  adapting 
himself  easily  to  life  in  the  little  Hampshire  town,  although 
he  had  the  most  rare  privilege  of  a  six-mile  limit  around  it, 
wrote  on  July  4,  1758,  requesting  permission  for  self  and  three 
or  four  officers  to  go  to  Southampton  once  a  week  to  make 
purchases,  as  Romsey  Market  is  so  indifferent,  and  to  pass  the 
night  there.  The  six-mile  limit,  he  says,  does  not  enable  him 
to  avail  himself  of  the  hospitality  of  the  people  of  quality,  and 
he  wants  leave  to  go  further  with  his  suite .  He  adds  a  panegyric 
on  the  high  birth  and  the  honour  of  French  naval  officers,  which 
made  parole-breaking  an  impossibility,  and  he  resents  their 
being  placed  in  the  same  category  with  privateer  and  merchant- 
ship  captains. 

However,  the  Commissioners  reply  that  no  exceptions  can 
be  made  in  his  favour,  and  that  as  Southampton  is  a  sea-port, 
leave  to  visit  it  cannot  be  thought  of. 

In  1756  twenty-two  officers  on  parole  at  Cranbrook  in  Kent 
prayed  to  be  sent  to  Maidstone,  on  the  plea  that  there  were 
no  lodgings  to  be  had  in  Cranbrook  except  at  exorbitant  rates  ; 
that  the  bakers  only  baked  once  or  twice  a  week,  and  that 
sometimes  the  supply  of  bread  ran  short  if  it  was  not  ordered 
beforehand  and  an  extra  price  paid  for  it  ;  that  vegetables  were 
hardly  to  be  obtained  ;  and  that,  finally,  they  were  ill-treated 
by  the  inhabitants.  No  notice  was  taken  of  this  petition. 

In  1757  a  prisoner  writes  from  Tenterden  : 

'  S'il  faut  que  je  reste  en  Angleterre,  permettez-moi  encore 
de  vous  prier  de  vouloir  bien  m'envoier  dans  une  meilleure 
place,  n'ayant  pas  deja  lieu  de  me  louer  du  peuple  de  ce  village. 
Sur  des  plaintes  que  plusieurs  Fran9ais  ont  portees  au  maire 
depuis  que  je  suis  ici,  il  a  fait  afficher  de  ne  point  insulter  aux 
Frangais,  1'affiche  a  ete  le  meme  jour  arrachee.  On  a  remis  une 
autre.  II  est  bien  desagreable  d'etre  dans  une  ville  ou  Ton  est 


COMPLAINTS  OF  PRISONERS  401 

oblige  de  defendre  aux  peuples  d'insulter  les  prisonniers.  J'ai  oui 
dire  aux  Frangais  qui  ont  ete  a  Maidstone  que  c'etait  tres  bien  et 
qu'ils  n'ont  jamais  ete  insultes  .  .  .  ce  qui  me  fait  vous  demander 
une  autre  place,  c'est  qu'on  deja  faillit  d'etre  jete  dans  la  boue 
en  passant  dans  les  chemins,  ayant  eu  cependant  1'intention  de 
ceder  le  pave.' 

In  reply,  the  Commissioners  of  the  '  Sick  and  Hurt '  Office 
ask  the  Agent  at  Tenterden  why,  when  he  heard  complaints, 
he  did  not  inform  the  Board.  The  complainant,  however,  was 
not  to  be  moved,  as  he  had  previously  been  sent  to  Sissinghurst 
for  punishment. 

In  1758,  twenty  officers  at  Tenterden  prayed  for  removal  else- 
where, saying  that  as  the  neighbourhood  was  a  residential  one 
for  extremely  rich  people,  lodgings  at  moderate  prices  were  not 
to  be  had,  and  that  the  townspeople  cared  so  little  to  take  in 
foreign  guests  of  their  description,  that  if  they  were  taken  ill 
the  landlords  turned  them  out.  This  application  was  ear- 
marked for  inquiry. 

No  doubt  the  poor  fellows  received  but  scanty  courtesy  from 
the  rank  and  file  of  their  captors,  and  the  foreigner  then,  far 
more  than  now,  was  deemed  fair  game  for  oppression  and 
robbery.  In  support  of  this  I  will  quote  some  remarks  by 
Colonel  Thierry,  whose  case  certainly  appears  to  be  a  par- 
ticularly hard  one. 

Colonel  Thierry  had  been  sent  to  Stapleton  Prison  in  1812 
for  having  violated  his  parole  by  writing  from  Oswestry  to  his 
niece,  the  Comtesse  de  la  Frotte,  without  having  submitted  the 
letter,  according  to  parole  rule,  to  the  Agent.  He  asks  for 
humane  treatment,  a  separate  room,  a  servant,  and  liberty  to 
go  to  market. 

'  Les  vexations  dont  on  m'a  accable  en  route  sont  revoltantes. 
Les  scelerats  que  vos  lois  envoyent  a  Tyburn  ne  sont  pas  plus 
mal  traites  ;  une  semblable  conduite  envers  un  Colonel,  pri- 
sonnier  de  guerre,  est  une  horreur  de  plus  que  j'aurai  le  droit 
de  reprocher  aux  Anglais  pour  lesquels  j'ai  eu  tant  de  bontes 
lorsqu'ils  sont  tombes  en  mon  pouvoir.  Si  le  Gouvernement 
fran£ais  fut  instruit  des  mauvais  traitements  dont  on  accable 
les  Francais  de  touts  grades,  et  donnait  des  ordres  pour  user 
de  represailles  envers  les  Anglais  detenus  en  France  .  .  .  le 
Gouvernement  anglais  ordonnerait-il  a  ses  agents  de  traiter  avec 
plus  d'egards,  de  moderation,  d'humanite  ses  prisonniers.' 


402  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

In  a  postscript  the  Colonel  adds  that  his  nephew,  the  Comte 
de  la  Frotte,  is  with  Wellington,  that  another  is  in  the  Royal 
Navy,  and  that  all  are  English  born.  One  is  glad  to  know  that 
the  Colonel's  prayer  was  heard,  and  that  he  was  released  from 
Stapleton. 

In  1758  a  prisoner  writes  from  Tenterden  : 

'  Last  Thursday,  March  i6th,  towards  half-past  eight  at 
night,  I  was  going  to  supper,  and  passed  in  front  of  a  butcher's 
shop  where  there  is  a  bench  fixed  near  the  door  on  which  three 
or  four  youths  were  sitting,  and  at  the  end  one  who  is  a  marine 
drummer  leaning  against  a  wall  projecting  two  feet  on  to  the 
street.  When  I  came  near  them  I  guessed  they  were  talking 
about  us  Frenchmen,  for  I  heard  one  of  them  say:  "Here 
comes  one  of  them,"  and  when  I  was  a  few  paces  beyond  them 
one  of  them  hit  me  on  the  right  cheek  with  something  soft  and 
cold.  As  I  entered  my  lodging  I  turned  round  and  said  : 
"  You  had  better  be  careful  !  "  Last  Sunday  at  half-past  eight, 
as  I  was  going  to  supper,  being  between  the  same  butcher's 
shop  and  the  churchyard  gate,  some  one  threw  at  me  a  stick 
quite  three  feet  long  and  heavy  enough  to  wound  me  severely. 

Also  at  Tenterden,  a  prisoner  named  D'Helincourt,  going 
home  one  night  with  a  Doctor  Chomel,  met  at  the  door  of  the 
latter's  lodging  a  youth  and  two  girls,  one  of  whom  was  the 
daughter  of  Chomel's  landlord,  '  avec  laquelle  il  avait  plusieurs 
fois  pousse  la  plaisanterie  jusqu'a  1'embrasser  sans  qu'elle  1'eut 
jamaistrouve  mauvais,  et  ayant  engage  M.  Chomel  a  1'embrasser 
aussi/  But  the  other  girl,  whom  they  would  also  kiss,  played 
the  prude  ;  the  youth  with  her  misunderstood  what  D'Helin- 
court said,  and  hit  him  under  the  chin  with  his  fist,  which  made 
D'Helincourt  hit  him  back  with  his  cane  on  the  arm,  and  all 
seemed  at  an  end.  Not  long  after,  D'Helincourt  was  in  the 
market,  when  about  thirty  youths  came  along.  One  of  them 
went  up  to  him  and  asked  him  if  he  remembered  him,  and  hit 
him  on  the  chest.  D'Helincourt  collared  him,  to  take  him  to 
the  Mayor,  but  the  others  set  on  him,  and  he  certainly  would 
have  been  killed  had  not  some  dragoons  come  up  and  rescued 
him. 

Apparently  the  Agents  and  Magistrates  were  too  much  afraid 
of  offending  the  people  to  grant  justice  to  these  poor  strangers. 


COMPLAINTS  OF  PRISONERS  403 

At  Cranbrook  a  French  officer  was  assaulted  by  a  local  ruffian 
and  hit  him  back,  for  which  he  was  sent  to  Sissinghurst. 

In  1808  and  1809  many  complaints  from  officers  were  received 
that  their  applications  to  be  allowed  to  go  to  places  like  Bath 
and  Cheltenham  for  the  benefit  of  their  health  were  too  often 
met  with  the  stereotyped  reply  that  '  your  complaint  is  evi- 
dently not  of  such  a  nature  as  to  be  cured  by  the  waters  of  Bath 
or  Cheltenham '.  Of  course,  the  Transport  Office  knew  well 
enough  that  the  complaints  were  not  curable  by  the  waters  of 
those  places,  but  by  their  life  and  gaiety  :  by  the  change  from 
the  monotonous  country  town  with  its  narrow,  gauche  society, 
its  wretched  inns,  and  its  mile  limit,  to  the  fashionable  world  of 
gaming,  and  dancing,  and  music,  and  flirting  ;  but  they  also 
knew  that  to  permit  French  officers  to  gather  at  these  places  in 
numbers  would  be  to  encourage  plotting  and  planning,  and  to 
bring  together  gentlemen  whom  it  was  desirable  to  keep 
apart. 

So  in  the  latter  year  the  Mayor  of  Bath  received  an  order 
from  the  Earl  of  Liverpool  that  all  prisoners  of  war  were  to  be 
removed  from  the  city  except  those  who  could  produce  certifi- 
cates from  two  respectable  doctors  of  the  necessity  of  their 
remaining,  '  which  must  be  done  with  such  caution  as,  if 
required,  the  same  may  be  verified  on  oath.'  The  officers 
affected  by  this  order  were  to  go  to  Bishop's  Waltham,  Odiham, 
Wincanton,  and  Tiverton. 

Of  complaints  by  prisoners  on  parole  against  the  country 
people  there  must  be  many  hundreds,  the  greater  number  of 
them  dating  from  the  period  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.  During 
this  time  the  prisoners  were  largely  distributed  in  Kent,  a 
county  which,  from  its  proximity  to  France,  and  its  consequent 
continuous  memory  of  wrongs,  fancied  and  real,  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  Frenchmen  during  the  many  centuries  of  warfare 
between  the  two  countries,  when  Kent  bore  the  brunt  of  inva- 
sion and  fighting,  may  be  understood  to  have  entertained  no 
particular  affection  for  Frenchmen,  despite  the  ceaseless  com- 
merce of  a  particular  kind  which  the  bitterest  of  wars  could  not 
interrupt. 

A  few  instances  will  suffice  to  exemplify  the  unhappy  rela- 
tionship which  existed,  not  in  Kent  alone,  but  everywhere, 

D  d  2 


404  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

between  the  country  people  and  the  unfortunate  foreigners 
thrust  among  them. 

In  1757  a  prisoner  on  parole  at  Basingstoke  complained  that 
he  was  in  bed  at  n  p.m.,  when  there  came  '  7  ou  8  droles 
qui  les  defierent  de  sortir  en  les  accablant  d'injures  atroces,  et 
frappant  aux  portes  et  aux  fenetres  comme  s'ils  avoient  voulu 
jeter  la  maison  en  bas.'  Another  prisoner  here  had  stones 
thrown  at  him  '  d'une  telle  force  qu'elles  faisoient  feu  sur  le 
pave,'  whilst  another  lot  of  youths  broke  windows  and  almost 
uprooted  the  garden. 

From  Wye  in  Kent  is  a  whole  batch  of  letters  of  complaint 
against  the  people.  One  of  them  is  a  round-robin  signed  by 
eighty  prisoners  complaining  of  bad  and  dear  lodgings,  and 
praying  to  be  sent  to  Ashford,  which  was  four  times  the  size 
of  Wye,  and  where  there  were  only  forty-five  prisoners,  and 
lodgings  were  better  and  cheaper. 

At  Tonbridge,  in  the  same  year,  two  parole  officers  dropped 
some  milk  for  fun  on  the  hat  of  a  milk- woman  at  the  door  below 
their  window.  Some  chaff  ensued  which  a  certain  officious 
and  mischief-making  man  named  Miles  heard,  who  threatened 
he  would  report  the  Frenchmen  for  improper  conduct,  and  get 
them  sent  to  Sissinghurst  !  The  authors  of  the  '  fun  '  wrote  to 
the  authorities  informing  them  of  the  circumstances,  and  asking 
for  forgiveness,  knowing  well  that  men  had  been  sent  to  Sissing- 
hurst for  less.  Whether  the  authorities  saw  the  joke  or  not 
does  not  appear. 

The  rabble  of  the  parole  towns  had  recourse  to  all  sorts  of 
devices  to  make  the  prisoners  break  their  paroles  so  that  they 
could  claim  the  usual  reward  of  ten  shillings.  At  Helston, 
on  August  i,  1757,  Kingston,  the  Parole  Agent,  sent  to  Dyer, 
the  Agent  at  Penryn,  a  prisoner  named  Channazast,  for  being 
out  of  his  lodgings  all  night.  At  the  examination,  Tonken,  in 
whose  house  the  man  was,  and  who  was  liable  to  punishment 
for  harbouring  him,  said,  and  wrote  later  : 

'  I  having  been  sent  for  by  the  mayor  of  our  town  this  day  to 
answer  for  I  cannot  tell  what,  however  I'll  describe  it  to  you  in 
the  best  manner  I  am  able.  You  must  know  that  last  Friday 
evening,  I  asked  Monsieur  Channazast  to  supper  at  my  house 
who  came  according  to  my  request.  Now  I  have  two  French- 


COMPLAINTS  OF  PRISONERS  405 

men  boarded  at  my  house,  so  they  sat  down  together  till  most 
ten  o'clock.  At  which  time  I  had  intelligence  brought  me  that 
there  was  a  soldier  and  another  man  waiting  in  the  street  for 
him  to  come  out  in  order  to  get  the  ten  shillings  that  was  orders 
given  by  the  Mayor  for  taking  up  all  Frenchmen  who  was  seen 
out  of  their  Quarters  after  9  o'clock.  So,  to  prevent  this 
rascally  imposition  I  desired  the  man  to  go  to  bed  with  his  two 
countrymen  which  he  did  accordingly  altho'  he  was  not  out 
of  my  house  for  the  night — 

Reply  :   '  Make  enquiries  into  this.' 

From  Torrington  in  the  same  year  eighteen  prisoners  pray 
to  be  sent  elsewhere  : 

'  Insultes  a  chaque  instant  par  mille  et  millions  d'injures  ou 
menaces,  estre  souvent  poursuivis  par  la  popullace  jusqu'a 
nos  portes  a  coups  de  roches  et  coups  de  batons.  En  outre 
encore,  Monseigneur,  avant  hier  il  fut  tirre  un  coup  de  fusil 
a  plomb  a  cinque  heures  apres  midy  netant  distant  de  notre 
logement  que  d'une  portee  de  pistolet,  heureusement  celuy  qui 
nous  1'envoyoit  ne  nous  avoit  point  assez  bien  ajuste  .  .  .  qu'il 
est  dans  tous  les  villages  des  hommes  proposes  pour  rendre 
justice  tres  surrement  bien  judiscieux  mais  il  est  une  cause  qui 
1'empeche  de  nous  prouver  son  equite  comme  la  crainte  de 
detourner  la  populasce  adverse  .  .  .  nous  avons  ete  obliges  de 
commettre  a  tous  moments  a  suporter  sans  rien  dire  ce  surcrois 
de  malheurs.  .  .  .' 

Two  more  letters,  each  signed  by  the  same  eighteen  prisoners, 
follow  to  the  same  intent.  The  man  who  fired  the  shot  was 
brought  up,  and  punishment  promised,  but  nothing  was  done. 
Also  it  was  promised  that  a  notice  forbidding  the  insulting  of 
prisoners  should  be  posted  up,  but  neither  was  this  done.  The 
same  letters  complain  also  of  robbery  by  lodging  keepers,  for  the 
usual  rate  of  45.  a  week  was  raised  to  45.  6d.,  and  a  month  later 
to  55.  One  prisoner  refused  to  pay  this.  The  woman  who 
let  the  lodging  complained  to '  Enjolace,'  the  Agent,  who  tells 
the  prisoner  he  must  either  pay  what  is  demanded,  or  go  to 
prison. 

A  prisoner  at  Odiham  in  the  same  year  complained  that 
a  country  girl  encouraged  him  to  address  her,  and  that  when  he 
did,  summoned  him  for  violently  assaulting  her.  He  was  fined 
twelve  guineas,  complains  that  his  defence  was  not  heard,  and 


406  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

that  ever  since  he  had  been  insulted  and  persecuted  by  the 
country  people. 

In  1758  a  letter,  signed  by  fifty-six  prisoners  at  Sevenoaks, 
bitterly  complains  that  the  behaviour  of  the  country  people  is 
so  bad  that  they  dare  not  go  out.  In  the  same  year  a  doctor, 
a  prisoner  in  Sissinghurst  Castle,  complains  of  a  grave  injustice. 
He  says  that  when  on  parole  at  Sevenoaks  he  was  called  in  by 
a  fellow  countryman,  cured  him,  and  was  paid  his  fee,  but  that 
'  Nache  ',  the  Agent  at  Sevenoaks,  demanded  half  the  fee, 
and  upon  the  prisoner's  refusal  to  pay  him,  reported  the  case 
to  the  Admiralty,  and  got  him  committed  to  Sissinghurst. 

A  disgraceful  and  successful  plot  to  ruin  a  prisoner  is  told 
from  Petersfield  in  1758. 

Fifteen  officers  on  parole  appealed  on  behalf  of  one  of  their 
number  named  Morriset.  He  was  in  bed  on  December  22, 
at  8  a.m.,  in  his  lodging  at  one  'Schollers',  a  saddler,  when 
Mrs.  '  Schollers  '  came  into  the  room  on  the  pretext  of  looking 
for  a  slipper,  and  sat  herself  on  the  end  of  the  bed.  Suddenly, 
in  came  her  husband,  and,  finding  his  wife  there,  attacked 
Morriset  cruelly.  Morriset  to  defend  himself  seized  a  knife 
from  a  waistcoat  hanging  on  the  bed,  and  '  Schollers '  dropped 
his  hold  of  him,  but  took  from  the  waistcoat  three  guineas  and 
some  '  chelins  ',  then  called  in  a  constable,  accused  Morriset  of 
behaving  improperly  with  his  wife,  and  claimed  a  hundred 
pounds,  or  he  would  summons  him.  Morriset  was  brought  up 
before  the  magistrates,  and,  despite  his  protestations  of  inno- 
cence, was  sent  to  Winchester  Jail.  In  reply  to  the  appeal, 
the  Commissioners  said  that  they  could  not  interfere  in  what 
was  a  private  matter. 

In  the  same  year  a  prisoner  wrote  from  Callington  : 

'  Lundy  passe  je  fus  attaque  dans  mon  logement  par  Thomas, 
garcon  de  Mr.  Avis  qui,  apres  m'avoir  dit  toutes  les  sottises 
imaginables,  ne  s'en  contenta  pas,  sans  que  je  luy  repondis  a 
aucune  de  ses  mauvaises  parolles,  il  sauta  sur  moy,  et  me  frapa, 
et  je  fus  oblige  de  m'en  defendre.  Dimance  dernier  venant  de 
me  promener  a  8  heures  du  soir,  je  rancontray  dans  la  rue  pres 
de  mon  logement  une  quarantaine  d'Anglois  armes  de  batons 
pour  me  fraper  si  je  n'avois  peu  me  sauver  a  la  faveur  de  mes 
jambes.  Mardy  sur  les  7  heures  de  soir  je  fus  attaque  en 
pleine  place  par  les  Anglois  qui  me  donnerent  beaucoup  de 


COMPLAINTS  OF  PRISONERS  407 

coups  et  m'etant  defait  d'eux  je  me  sauvai  a  1'oberge  du  Soleil 
ou  j'ai  etc  oblige  de  coucher  par  ordre  de  Mr.  Ordon,  veu  qu'il 
y  avoit  des  Anglois  qui  m'attendoient  pour  me  maltraiter.' 

But  even  in  1756,  when  the  persecution  of  prisoners  by  the 
rural  riff-raff  was  very  bad,  we  find  a  testimony  from  the  officers 
on  parole  at  Sodbury  in  Gloucestershire  to  the  kindly  behaviour 
of  the  inhabitants,  saying  that  only  on  holidays  are  they  some- 
times jeered  at,  and  asking  to  be  kept  there  until  exchanged. 

Yet  the  next  year,  eighteen  officers  at  the  same  place  formu- 
late to  the  Commissioners  of  the  Sick  and  Wounded  the 
following  complaints  : 

1.  Three  Englishmen  attacked  two  prisoners  with  sticks. 

2.  A  naval  doctor  was  struck  in  the  face  by  a  butcher. 

3.  A  captain  and  a  lieutenant  were  attacked  with  stones, 
bricks,  and  sticks,  knocked  down,  and  had  to  fly  for  safety  to 
the  house  of  Ludlow  the  Agent. 

4.  A  second-captain,   returning   home,   was    attacked   and 
knocked  down  in  front  of  the  Bell  inn  by  a  crowd,  and  would 
have  been  killed  but  for  the  intervention  of  some  townspeople. 

5.  Two  captains  were  at  supper  at  the  Bell.     On  leaving  the 
house  they  were  set  on  by  four  men  who  had  been  waiting  for 
them,  but  with  the  help  of  some  townspeople  they  made  a 
fight  and  got  away. 

6.  Between  10   and   n  p.m.   a  lieutenant   had  a  terrible 
attack  made  on  his  lodging  by  a  gang  of  men  who  broke  in,  and 
left  him  half  dead.     After  wrhich  they  went  to  an  inn  where 
some  French  prisoners  lodged,  and  tried  to  break  in  '  jusqu'au 
point,  pour  ainsy  dire,  de  le  demolir,'  swearing  they  would  kill 
every  Frenchman  they  found. 

From  Crediton  a  complaint  signed  by  nearly  fifty  prisoners 
spoke  of  frequent  attacks  and  insults,  not  only  by  low  ruffians 
and  loafers,  but  by  people  of  social  position,  who,  so  far  from 
doing  their  best  to  dissuade  the  lower  classes,  rather  encouraged 
them.  Even  Mr.  David,  a  man  of  apparently  superior  position, 
put  a  prisoner,  a  Captain  Gazeau,  into  prison,  took  the  keys 
himself,  and  kept  them  for  a  day  in  spite  of  the  Portreeve's 
remonstrance,  but  was  made  to  pay  damages  by  the  effort  of 
another  man  of  local  prominence. 

The    men    selected    as    agents    in   the    parole    towns    too 


408  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

often  seem  to  have  been  socially  unfitted  for  their  positions 
as  the  '  guides,  philosophers,  and  friends  '  of  officers  and 
gentlemen.  At  Credit  on,  for  instance,  the  appointment  of 
a  Mr.  Harvey  called  forth  a  remonstrance  signed  by  sixty 
prisoners,  one  of  whom  thus  described  him  : 

'  Mr.  Harvey  a  son  arrivee  de  Londres,  glorieux  d'etre  exauce, 
n'eut  rien  de  plus  presse  que  de  f  aire  voir  dans  toutes  les  oberges 
et  dans  les  rues  les  ordres  dont  il  etait  revetu  de  la  part  des 
honorables  Commissaires  ;  ce  qui  ne  pourra  que  nous  faire  un 
tres  mauvais  effet,  veu  que  le  commun  peuple  qui  habite  ce 
pays-ci  est  beaucoup  irrite  contre  les  Franc,  ais,  a  cause  de  la 
Nation  et  sans  jusqu'au  present  qu'aucun  Frangais  n'est  donne 
aucun  sujet  de  plainte.' 

Again,  in  1756  the  aumonier  of  the  Comte  de  Gramont,  after 
complaining  that  the  inhabitants  of  Ashburton  are  '  un  peuple 
sans  regie  et  sans  education',  by  whom  he  was  insulted,  hissed, 
and  stoned,  and  when  he  represented  this  to  the  authorities  was 
'  garrotte  '  and  taken  to  Exeter  Prison,  ridicules  the  status  of 
the  agents — here  a  shoemaker,  here  a  tailor,  here  an  apothe- 
cary, who  dare  not,  for  business  reasons,  take  the  part  of  the 
prisoners.  He  says  he  offered  his  services  to  well-to-do  people 
in  the  neighbourhood,  but  they  were  declined — <leceit  on  his 
part  perhaps  being  feared. 

From  Ashford,  Kent,  a  complainant  writes,  in  1758,  that  he 
was  rather  drunk  one  evening  and  went  out  for  a  walk  to  pick 
himself  up.  He  met  a  mounted  servant  of  Lord  Winchilsea 
with  a  dog.  He  touched  the  dog,  whereupon  the  servant 
dismounted  and  hit  him  in  the  face.  A  crowd  then  assembled, 
armed  with  sticks,  and  one  man  with  a  gun,  and  ill-treated  him 
until  he  was  unconscious,  tied  his  hands  behind  him,  emptied 
his  pockets,  and  took  him  before  Mr.  Tritton.  Knowing 
English  fairly  well,  the  prisoner  justified  himself,  but  he  was 
committed  to  the  cachot.  He  was  then  accused  of  having 
ill-treated  a  woman  who,  out  of  pity,  had  sent  for  her  husband 
to  help  him.  He  handed  in  a  certificate  of  injuries  received, 
signed  by  Dr.  Charles  Fagg.  His  name  was  Marc  Layne. 

Complaints  from  Goudhurst  in  Kent  relate  that  on  one 
occasion  three  men  left  their  hop-dressing  to  attack  passing 
prisoners.  Upon  another,  the  French  officers  were,  mirdbile 


COMPLAINTS  OF  PRISONERS  409 

dictu,  playing  '  criquet ',  and  told  a  boy  of  ten  to  get  out  of  the 
way  and  not  interfere  with  them,  whereupon  the  boy  called  his 
companions,  and  there  ensued  a  disturbance.  A  magistrate 
came  up,  and  the  result  was  that  a  Captain  Lamoise  had  to  pay 
£i  is.  or  go  to  Maidstone  Jail. 

That  the  decent  members  of  the  community  reprobated  these 
attacks  on  defenceless  foreigners,  although  they  rarely  seem  to 
have  taken  any  steps  to  stop  them,  is  evident  from  the  following 
story.  At  Goudhurst,  some  French  prisoners,  coming  out  of 
an  inn,  were  attacked  by  a  mob.  Thirty-seven  paroled  officers 
there  signed  a  petition  and  accompanied  it  with  this  testimony 
from  inhabitants,  dated  November  9,  1757  : 

'  We,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Parish  of  Goudhurst,  certifie  that 
we  never  was  insulted  in  any  respect  by  the  French  gentlemen, 
nor  to  their  knowledge  have  they  caused  any  Riot  except  when 
they  have  been  drawn  in  by  a  Parcel  of  drunken,  ignorant,  and 
scandalous  men  who  make  it  their  Business  to  ensnare  them  for 
the  sake  of  a  little  money. 

(Signed.) 

STEPHEN  OSBOURNE.  THOS.  BALLARD.  JOHN  SAVAGE. 
JASPER  SPRANG.  RICHARD  ROYSE.  J.  DICKINSON. 
W.  HUNT.  JOHN  BUNNELL.  ZACH.  SIMS.' 

The  complainants  made  declaration  : 

1 .  That  the  bad  man  Rastly  exclaimed  he  would  knock  down 
the  first  Frenchman  he  met. 

2.  Two  French  prisoners  were  sounding  horns  and  hautboys 
in  the  fields.     The  servant  of  the  owner  ordered  them  to  go. 
They  went  quietly,  but  the  man  followed  them  and  struck  them. 
They  complained  to  Tarith,  the  Agent,  but  he  said  that  it  did 
not  concern  him. 

3.  This   servant   assembled   fifteen   men   with   sticks,   and 
stopped  all  exit  from  Bunnell's  inn,  where  five  French  prisoners 
were  drinking.     The  prisoners  were  warned  not  to  leave,  and, 
although  '  remplis  de  boisson ',  they  kept  in.     Nine  o'clock, 
ten  o'clock  came  ;   they  resolved  to  go  out,  one  of  them  being 
drunk  ;   they  were  attacked  and  brutally  ill-used. 

The  Agent  assured  them  that  they  should  have  justice,  but 
they  did  not  get  it. 

As  physical  resistance  to  attacks  and  insults  would  have 


410  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

made  matters  worse  for  the  Frenchmen,  besides  being  hopeless 
in  the  face  of  great  odds  of  numbers,  it  was  resolved  in  one 
place  at  any  rate,  the  name  of  which  I  cannot  find,  to  resort  to 
boycotting  as  a  means  of  reprisal.  I  give  the  circulated  notice 
of  this  in  its  original  quaint  and  illiterate  French  : 

'  En  consequence  de  la  deliberation  faite  et  teneu  par  le 
corps  de  Fra^ois  deteneus  en  cette  ville  il  a  este  ordonne 
qu'apres  qu'il  aura  cette  Notoire,  que  quelque  Marchand, 
Fabriquant,  Boutiquier  etcetera  de  cette  ville  aurons  insulte, 
injurie,  ou  comis  quelque  aiesais  (?)  au  vis  a  vis  de  quelque 
Fran$ois  tel  que  puis  etre,  et  que  le  fait  aura  ete  averee,  il  sera 
mis  une  affiche  dans  les  Lieus  les  plus  aparants  portant  proscrip- 
tion de  sa  Maison,  Boutique,  Fabrique  etcetera,  et  ordonne  et 
defendeu  a  tout  Frangois  quelque  qualite,  condition  qu'il  soy 
sous  Paine  d'etre  regarde  et  declare  trait e  a  la  Patrie  et  de 
subire  plus  grande  Punition  suivent  1'exsigence  du  cas  et  qu'il 
en  sera  decide. 

'LA  FRANCE.' 

The  above  is  dated  1758. 

In  1779  the  parole  prisoners  at  Alresford  complained  of  being 
constantly  molested  and  insulted  by  the  inhabitants,  and  asked 
to  be  sent  elsewhere.  Later,  however,  the  local  gentry  and 
principal  people  guarantee  a  cessation  of  this,  and  the  prisoners 
pray  to  be  allowed  to  stay.  The  officer  prisoners  asked  to  be 
allowed  to  accept  invitations  at  Winchester,  but  were  refused. 
In  the  same  year  prisoners  at  Redruth  complained  of  daily 
insults  at  the  hands  of  an  uncivilized  populace,  and  from  Chip- 
penham  twenty-nine  officers  signed  a  complaint  about  insults 
and  attacks,  and  stated  that  as  a  result  one  of  them  was  obliged 
to  keep  his  room  for  eight  days. 

On  the  other  hand,  prisoners  under  orders  to  leave  Tavistock 
for  another  parole  town  petition  to  be  allowed  to  remain  there, 
as  the  Agent  has  been  so  good  to  them  ;  and  as  a  sign  that  even 
in  Kent  matters  were  changing  for  the  better,  the  prayer  of 
some  parole  prisoners  at  Tenterden  to  be  sent  to  Cranbrook  on 
account  of  the  insults  by  the  people,  is  counterbalanced  by 
a  petition  of  other  prisoners  in  the  same  town  who  assert  that 
only  a  few  soldiers  have  insulted  them,  and  asking  that  no 
change  be  made,  as  the  inhabitants  are  hospitable  and  kindly, 
and  the  Agent  very  just  and  lenient. 


COMPLAINTS  OF  PRISONERS  411 

Much  quiet,  unostentatious  kindness  was  shown  towards  the 
prisoners  which  has  not  been  recorded,  but  in  the  Memoir  of 
William  Pearce  of  Launceston,  in  1810,  it  is  written  that  he 
made  the  parole  prisoners  in  that  town  the  objects  of  his  special 
attention  ;  that  he  gave  them  religious  instruction,  circulated 
tracts  among  them  in  their  own  language,  and  relieved  their 
necessities,  with  the  result  that  many  reformed  and  attended  his 
services.  One  prisoner  came  back  after  the  Peace  of  1815,  lived 
in  the  service  of  the  chapel,  and  was  buried  in  its  grave-yard. 
En  parenthese  the  writer  adds  that  the  boys  of  Launceston  got 
quite  into  the  habit  of  ejaculating  '  Morbleu  !  '  from  hearing 
it  so  constantly  on  the  lips  of  the  French  prisoners. 

In  the  Life  of  Hannah  More,  written  by  William  Roberts, 
we  read  : 

'  Some  French  officers  of  cultivated  minds  and  polished 
manners  being  on  their  parole  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bristol, 
were  frequent  guests  at  Mr.  More's  house,  and  always  fixed  upon 
Hannah  as  their  interpreter,  and  her  intercourse  with  their 
society  is  said  to  have  laid  the  ground  of  that  free  and  elegant 
use  of  their  language  for  which  she  was  afterwards  distinguished.' 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

PAROLE  LIFE.     SUNDRY  NOTES 

IN  this  and  the  succeeding  chapter  I  gather  together  a  num- 
ber of  notes  connected  with  the  life  of  the  paroled  prisoners  in 
Britain,  which  could  not  conveniently  be  classed  under  the 
headings  of  previous  chapters. 

BEDALE,  YORKSHIRE 

During  the  Seven  Years'  War  prisoners  were  on  parole  at 
Bedale  in  Yorkshire.  The  following  lines  referring  to  them, 
sent  to  me  by  my  friend,  Mrs.  Cockburn-Hood,  were  written  by 
Robert  Hird,  a  Bedale  shoemaker,  who  was  born  in  1768  : 

'  And  this  one  isle  by  Frenchmen  then  in  prisoners  did  abound, 
'Twas  forty  thousand  Gallic  men.     Bedale  its  quota  found  : 
And  here  they  were  at  liberty,  and  that  for  a  long  time, 
Till  Seventeen  Hundred  and  Sixty  Three,  they  then  a  Peace 

did  sign, 
But  though  at  large,  they  had  their  bound,  it  was  a  good  walk 

out, 

Matthew  Masterman  in  their  round,  they  put  him  to  the  rout ; 
This  was  near  to  the  Standing  Stone  :  at  Fleetham  Feast  he'd 

been, 
And  here  poor  Matthew  they  fell  on.     He  soon  defeated 

them  ; 
His  arms  were  long,  and  he  struck  hard,  they  could  not  bear 

his  blows, 
The  French  threw  stones,  like  some  petard  ;  he  ran,  and  thus 

did  lose. 
James  Wilkinson,  he  lived  here  then,  he'd  sons  and  daughters 

fair, 
Barber  he  was  in  great  esteem,  the  Frenchmen  oft  drew 

there.' 

To  this  the  sender  appended  a  note  : 

'  In  the  houses  round  Bedale  there  are  handscreens  decorated 
with  landscapes  in  straw,  and  I  have  a  curious  doll's  chair  in 
wood  with  knobs  containing  cherry  stones  which  rattle.  These 
were  made  by  French  prisoners,  according  to  tradition.' 


PAROLE  LIFE.     SUNDRY  NOTES  413 


DERBY 

1  am  indebted  to  Mr.  P.  H.  Currey,  F.R.I.B.A.,  of  Derby, 
for  the  following  extract,  dated  June  20,  1763,  from  All  Saints' 
Parish  Book,  quoted  in  Simpson's  History  of  Derby  : 

'  These  men  (the  prisoners  during  the  Seven  Years'  War), 
were  dispersed  into  many  parts  of  the  nation,  300  being  sent  to 
this  town  on  parole  about  July  1759,  where  they  continued 
until  the  end  of  the  War  in  1763.  Their  behaviour  at  first  was 
impudent  and  insolent,  at  all  times  vain  and  effeminate,  and 
their  whole  deportment  light  and  unmanly,  and  we  may  venture 
to  say  from  our  observation  and  knowledge  of  them,  that  in 
any  future  war  this  nation  has  nothing  to  fear  from  them  as  an 
enemy.  During  their  abode  here,  the  road  from  this  place  to 
Nottingham  was  by  act  of  Parliament  repaired,  the  part  from 
St.  Mary's  Bridge  (which  by  reason  of  the  floods  was  impassable) 
being  greatly  raised.  Numbers  of  these  people  were  daily 
employed,  who  worked  in  their  bag-wigs,  pig-tails,  ruffles, 
etc.,  etc.,  a  matter  which  afforded  us  much  merriment.  But, 
to  their  honour  let  it  be  remembered,  that  scarce  one  act  of 
fraud  or  theft  was  committed  by  any  of  them  during  their  stay 
among  us.  These  men  were  allowed  6d.  a  day  each  by  the 
British  Government.' 

We  read  that  an  Italian  prisoner  on  parole  at  Derby  in  1797 
went  to  Leicester  and  bought  a  pair  of  pistols,  thus  committing 
a  double  breach  of  his  parole  by  going  beyond  the  limit,  and  by 
possessing  himself  of  arms.  '  It  is  presumed,'  remarks  the 
chronicler, '  from  the  remarkable  anxiety  he  showed  to  procure 
possession  of  these  offensive  weapons,  that  he  has  some  parti- 
cular object  to  accomplish  by  them — perhaps  his  liberation.' 

It  is  much  more  likely  that  his  object  was  to  fight  a  duel. 

ASHBOURNE,  DERBYSHIRE 

Mr.  Richard  Holland,  of  Barton  under  Needwood,  Stafford- 
shire, has  favoured  me  with  this  note  about  Ashbourne. 

'  Here  in  1803  were  Rochambeau  and  300  of  his  officers. 
The  house  where  the  general  resided  is  well  known,  and  a  large 
building  was  erected  in  which  to  lodge  the  prisoners  who  could 
not  afford  to  find  their  own  houses  or  apartments.  I  have 
heard  that  the  limit  of  parole  was  two  miles.  ...  I  never 


414  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

heard  of  any  breaches  of  parole  or  crimes  committed  by  the 
prisoners.  .  .  . 

I  have  often  heard  that  the  prisoners  made  for  sale  many 
curious  articles,  models,  etc.,  .  .  .  but  I  remember  a  fine  draw- 
ing of  a  man-of-war  on  the  outside  wall  of  the  prison  referred 
to,  which  now  happens  to  belong  to  me.  .  .  .  Even  fifty  years 
ago  very  little  was  remembered  of  the  prisoners.  One  of  them 
was  a  famous  runner,  and  I  knew  an  old  man  who  told  me  he 
ran  a  race  with  the  Frenchman,  and  beat  him  too  !  ' 

In  1804  General  Pageot  was  on  parole  at  Ashbourne.  Here 
he  seems  to  have  been  received,  like  so  many  of  his  countrymen 
prisoners,  on  a  footing  of  friendship  at  the  houses  of  the  neigh- 
bouring gentry,  for  he  received  permission  to  live  for  eight  days 
at  Wooton  Lodge,  the  seat  of  Colonel  Wilson.  In  granting  this 
unusual  indulgence  the  Commissioners  remark  that  '  as  our 
people  are  very  strictly  treated  in  France,  it  is  improper  that 
unusual  indulgences  be  given  to  French  prisoners,  and  we  hope 
that  no  other  applications  will  be  made  '. 

Later  on  the  Commissioners  wrote  to  Colonel  Wilson  : 

1  As  it  appears  by  letters  between  General  Pageot  and  some 
of  his  countrymen  that  he  is  paying  his  addresses  to  a  Lady  of 
Respectability  in  or  near  Ashbourne,  the  Board  think  it  proper 
that  you  should  be  informed  that  they  have  good  authority  for 
believing  that  he  is  actually  a  married  man,  and  has  a  family 
in  France.' 

Still  later,  writing  to  Mr.  Bainbrigge,  the  Commissioners  say 
that  General  Pageot  has  been  sent  to  Montgomery,  and  they 
recommend  Mr.  Bainbrigge  to  take  measures  to  prevent  him 
having  any  communication  with  the  lady,  Mr.  Bainbrigge's 
niece. 

Say  they  : 

'  From  Motives  of  Public  Duty  the  Commissioners,  when 
they  first  heard  of  the  intended  connexion  between  General 
Pageot  and  Miss  Bainbrigge,  they  caused  such  suspicious  cir- 
cumstances respecting  the  General  as  came  to  their  knowledge 
to  be  communicated  to  the  young  lady's  mother,  and  that  it 
affords  them  very  much  satisfaction  now  to  find  that  her 
Friends  are  disposed  to  prevent  an  union  which  could  promise 
very  little  comfort  to  her  or  Honour  to  her  Family.' 


PAROLE  LIFE.     SUNDRY  NOTES  415 

CHESTERFIELD 

My  best  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  W.  Hawkesly  Edmunds, 
Scarsdale  House,  Chesterfield,  for  these  notes  : 

'  Mrs.  Roberts,  widow  of  Lieutenant  Roberts,  R.N.,  left  some 
interesting  reminiscences  among  her  papers.  She  says  : 

'  Different  indeed  was  the  aspect  of  the  town  from  what  one 
sees  to-day.  Grim  visages  and  whiskered  faces  met  one  at 
every  turn,  to  say  nothing  of  moustaches,  faded  uniforms,  and 
rusty  cocked  hats.  At  certain  hours  of  the  day  it  was  difficult 
to  walk  along  the  High  Street  or  the  middle  Causeway,  for 
these  were  the  favourite  promenades  of  the  officers  on  parole. 
When  the  weather  permitted,  they  assembled  each  morning 
and  evening  to  the  number  of  200  to  exchange  friendly  greetings 
with  all  the  extravagance  of  gesture  and  high-pitched  voice  for 
which  the  Frenchman  is  remarkable/ 

The  French  prisoners  in  Chesterfield  in  the  years  around 
1806  were  for  the  most  part,  if  not  wholly,  officers  and  their 
servants,  and  their  treatment  by  the  English  Government  was 
liberal  and  mild.  All  officers  down  to  the  rank  of  Captain, 
inclusive,  were  allowed  ten  shillings  per  week,  and  all  below 
that  rank,  seven  shillings  each.  On  giving  their  parole  they 
were  allowed  the  greatest  freedom  ;  had  permission  to  walk 
one  mile  from  the  town  in  any  direction,  but  had  to  be  in  their 
lodgings  at  8  each  evening.  At  that  hour  a  bell  rang,  known 
as  the  Frenchman's  Bell.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  very  bell  in  the 
tower  of  the  church  formerly  used  as  the  curfew  bell.  It  was 
in  connexion  with  this  mile  regulation  that  a  little  fraud 
was  perpetrated  by  Sir  Windsor  Hunloke,  Bart.,  which  was 
winked  at  by  the  authorities.  Wingerworth  Hall,  the  residence 
of  Sir  Windsor,  was  just  outside  the  mile  limit,  but  with  the 
desire  that  many  of  the  prisoners,  who,  like  himself,  were 
Roman  Catholics,  should  visit  him,  he  caused  the  milestone 
to  be  removed  along  the  road  to  the  other  side  of  the  hall, 
and  so  brought  his  residence  within  the  mile  limit.  This  old 
milestone  is  still  to  be  seen. 

The  prisoners  were  first  in  charge  of  a  Commissary,  a  local 
solicitor,  Mr.  John  Bower,  of  Spital  Lodge,  but  later  the 
Government  appointed  superannuated  lieutenants  in  the  Navy. 
The  first  of  these,  Lieutenant  Gawren,  found  that  there  had 
been  so  many-  escapes  during  Mr.  Bower's  kindly  but  lax 


416  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

regime  that  he  instituted  more  stringent  regulations,  and  mus- 
tered the  men  twice  a  week  instead  of  once,  and  he  inspected  all 
correspondence  both  to  and  from  the  prisoners.  The  first 
detachment  of  prisoners  arrived  in  1803,  officers  both  of  the 
Army  and  Navy ;  most  of  them  had  undergone  the  greatest 
privations.  These  were  the  prisoners  from  San  Domingo, 
whose  sufferings  during  the  sieges  of  the  blacks,  and  from 
sickness,  famine,  and  sword,  are  matters  of  history.  Indeed, 
had  not  the  British  squadron  arrived,  it  is  certain  all  their 
lives  would  have  been  sacrificed  by  the  infuriated  blacks  in 
revenge  for  the  barbarities  practised  on  them  by  the  French 
Commander-in-Chief  General  Rochambeau,  who,  with  Generals 
D'Henin,  Boyer,  and  Lapoype,  Commodore  Barre,  and  the 
other  naval  officers,  with  the  staffs  of  the  generals,  were  all  at 
Chesterfield. 

The  successes  of  Wellington  in  Spain  brought  many  more 
prisoners  to  Chesterfield,  and  a  great  number  captured  at  San 
Sebastian  and  Pampeluna. 

Most  of  the  prisoners  in  the  town  managed  to  add  to  the 
Government  allowance  by  teaching  languages,  drawing,  and 
music.  Others  produced  various  articles  for  sale.  Many  of 
them  were  excellent  ornamental  workers  in  hair  and  bone,  and 
there  were  not  a  few  who  were  adept  woodcarvers.  Making 
bone  models  of  men-of-war  was  a  favourite  occupation,  and  the 
more  elaborate  of  these  models  were  disposed  of  by  means  of 
lotteries.  Another  of  their  industries  was  the  working  of  straw, 
which  they  dyed  in  gay  colours,  or  plaited.  Silk-hat  making 
and  silk-weaving  they  are  said  to  have  introduced  into  the 
town.  They  were  also  experts  at  making  woollen  gloves,  &c., 
with  a  bone  crook.  One  Bourlemont  opened  a  depot  for  British 
wines.  One  prisoner  got  employment  as  a  painter,  but  another 
had  to  seek  work  as  a  banksman  at  the  Hady  coal-pits. 

Several  of  the  prisoners  were  surgeons,  and  practised  in  the 
town,  and  it  is  reported  that  so  great  were  the  services  some 
of  these  gentlemen  rendered  the  poor  of  the  town  gratuitously, 
that  representations  were  made  to  the  Government,  and  they 
were  given  free  pardons  and  safe-conducts  back  to  France. 

Some  prisoners  married,  one  the  daughter  of  Turner  the 
Parish  Clerk,  but  generally  beneath  them. 


p.  416 


CHESTERFIELD  417 

The  Abbe  Legoux  tried  to  have  religious  services  in  a  private 
house,  but  they  were  poorly  attended,  the  Republicans  nearly 
all  being  atheists,  and  preferring  to  pass  their  Sundays  at  card- 
tables  and  billiards. 

Mrs.  Roberts  thus  describes  some  peculiarities  of  the  pri- 
soners' dress  and  manners  : 

'  Their  large  hooped  gold  ear-rings,  their  pink  or  sky-blue 
umbrellas,  the  Legion  of  Honour  ribbons  in  their  button  holes  ; 
their  profuse  exchange  of  embraces  and  even  kisses  in  the  public 
street  ;  their  attendant  poodles  carrying  walking-sticks  in 
their  mouths,  and  their  incessant  and  vociferous  talking.  A 
great  source  of  amusement  was  the  training  of  birds  and  dogs. 

'  There  were  few  instances  of  friction  between  the  prisoners 
and  the  townsfolk,  but  there  was  one  angry  affray  which  led  to 
six  of  the  prisoners  being  sent  to  Norman  Cross  to  be  kept  in 
close  confinement.  The  wives  of  some  of  the  prisoners  had 
permission  to  join  their  husbands  in  confinement,  but  "  they 
were  very  dingy,  plain-looking  women." 

'  Colonel  Fruile  married  a  Miss  Moore,  daughter  of  a  Chester- 
field cabinet  maker,  and  she,  like  the  English  wives  of  other  of 
the  prisoners,  went  to  France  when  Peace  was  proclaimed. 
Rank  distinctions  between  officers  were  rigidly  observed,  and 
the  junior  officers  always  saluted  their  superiors  who  held 
levees  on  certain  days  of  the  week.  The  fortunes  of  Napoleon 
were  closely  followed  ;  defeats  and  victories  being  marked. 
During  the  sojourn  of  the  French  prisoners  at  Chesterfield,  took 
place  the  battles  of  Wagram,  Jena,  Vienna,  Berlin,  and  the 
Russian  campaign.  The  news  of  Trafalgar  produced  great 
dismay,  and  the  sight  of  rejoicings — of  sheep  and  oxen  roasted 
whole,  of  gangs  of  men  yoked  together  bringing  wood  and  coals 
for  bonfires,  was  too  much  to  bear,  and  most  of  them  shut  them- 
selves up  in  their  lodgings  until  the  rejoicings  were  over. 

'  After  the  Peace  a  few  of  the  prisoners  remained  in  Chester- 
field, and  some  of  their  descendants  live  in  the  town  to-day. 
Many  died,  and  were  buried  in  the  "  Frenchmen's  Quarter  " 
of  the  now  closed  Parish  churchyard.' 

OSWESTRY 

Oswestry,  in  Shropshire,  was  an  important  parole  town.  In 
1803,  when  rumours  were  afloat  that  a  concerted  simultaneous 
rising  of  the  French  prisoners  of  war  in  the  Western  Counties 
was  to  be  carried  out,  a  hurried  transfer  of  these  latter  was 
made  to  the  more  inland  towns  of  Staffordshire  and  Shropshire. 

ABELL  E   6 


4i8  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

and  it  has  been  stated  that  Oswestry  received  no  less  than  700, 
but  this  has  been  authentically  contradicted,  chiefly  by  corres- 
pondents to  Bygones,  a  most  complete  receptacle  of  old-time 
information  concerning  Shropshire  and  the  Welsh  border, 
access  to  which  I  owe  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  J.  E.  Anden  of 
Tong,  Shifnal. 

Among  the  distinguished  prisoners  at  Oswestry  were  the 
Marquis  d'Hautpol,  on  whose  Memories  of  Captivity  in  England 
I  have  already  drawn  largely  ;  General  Phillipon,  the  able 
defender  of  Badajos,  who  escaped  with  Lieut.  Gamier  from 
Oswestry ;  and  Prince  Arenburg,  who  was  removed  thither  to 
Bridgnorth  upon  suspicion  of  having  aided  a  fellow  prisoner 
to  escape. 

The  prisoners  were,  as  usual,  distributed  in  lodgings  about 
the  town  ;  some  were  at  the  Three  Tuns  inn,  where  bullet 
marks  in  a  wall  are  said  to  commemorate  a  duel  fought  between 
two  of  them. 

From  the  London  Chronicle  of  May  20,  1813,  I  take  the 
following  : 

'  There  is  in  this  town  (Oswestry)  a  French  officer  on  parole 
who  is  supposed  by  himself  and  countrymen  to  possess  strength 
little  inferior  to  Samson.  He  is  Monsieur  Fiarsse,  he  follows 
the  profession  of  a  fencing-master,  and  is  allowed  to  have 
considerable  skill  in  that  way.  He  had  been  boasting  that  he 
had  beat  every  Englishman  that  opposed  him  in  the  town 
where  he  was  last  on  parole  (in  Devonshire),  and  he  sent  a 
challenge  the  other  day  to  a  private  of  the  64th  Regiment  to 
a  boxing-match.  It  was  accepted.  The  Frenchman  is  a  very 
tall,  stout-built  man,  of  a  most  ferocious  countenance  ;  the 
soldier  is  a  little,  round-faced  man,  as  plump  as  a  partridge. 
Five  rounds  were  fought ;  the  first,  I  understand,  the  French- 
man threw  a  blow  at  his  adversary  with  all  his  strength  which 
brought  him  down  ;  he  rose,  however,  in  a  moment,  and  played 
his  part  so  well  that  I  think  M.  Fiarsse  will  never  like  to  attack 
a  British  soldier  again  !  The  little  fellow  made  him  spin  again, 
he  dealt  his  blows  with  such  judgement.  After  the  fifth  round, 
Fiarsse  said  :  "  It  is  'nough  !  I  vill  no  moe  !  " 

There  were  French  Royalist  refugees  at  Oswestry  as  else- 
where, and  one  of  the  hardest  tasks  of  local  parole  agents  was 
to  prevent  disturbances  between  these  men  and  their  bitter 
opponents  the  Bonapartist  officer  prisoners,  dwelling  in  the 


OSWESTRY  419 

same  towns.  In  fact,  the  presence  of  large  numbers  of  French 
Royalists  in  England,  many  of  them  very  highly  connected, 
brought  about  the  very  frequent  attacks  made  on  them  in 
contemporary  French  literature  and  journalism  for  playing  the 
parts  of  spies  and  traitors,  and  originated  the  parrot-cry  at 
every  French  diplomatic  or  military  and  naval  reverse,  '  Sold 
by  the  princes  in  England  !  ' 

There  are  graves  of  French  prisoners  in  Oswestry  church- 
yard. Upon  one  is  '  Ci-git  D.  J.  J.  J.  Du  Vive,  Capitaine- 
Adjudant  aux  £tats-Majors  generaux  :  prisonnier  de  guerre 
sur  parole  ;  ne  a  Pau,  Dep*  des  Basses-Pyrenees,  26  Juillet 
1762  ;  decede  a  Oswestry,  20  Juillet  1813.' 

LEEK 
Leek,  in  Staffordshire,  was  also  an  important  parole  centre. 

'  The  officer  prisoners  at  Leek  received  all  courtesy  and 
hospitality  at  the  hands  of  the  principal  inhabitants,  with  many 
of  whom  they  were  on  the  most  intimate  terms,  frequenting 
the  assemblies,  which  were  then  as  gay  and  as  well  attended  as 
any  within  a  circuit  of  20  miles.  They  used  to  dine  out  in  full 
uniform,  each  with  his  body-servant  behind  his  chair/  (Sleigh's 
History  of  Leek.) 

The  first  prisoners  came  here  in  1803  from  San. Domingo. 
In  1809  and  1812  many  more  arrived — some  accounts  say  as 
many  as  200,  and  one  fact  considered  worthy  of  record  is  that 
they  were  to  be  met  prowling  about  early  in  the  morning  in 
search  of  snails  ! 

A  correspondent  to  Notes  and  Queries  writes  : 

'  All  accounts  agree  that  these  unfortunates  conducted  them- 
selves with  the  utmost  propriety  and  self-respect  during  their 
enforced  sojourn  among  us  ;  endearing  themselves  to  the 
inhabitants  generally  by  their  unwonted  courtesy  and  strictly 
honourable  behaviour.  But  as  to  their  estimate  of  human  life, 
it  was  unanimously  remarked  that  they  seemed  to  value  it  no 
more  than  we  should  crushing  a  fly  in  a  moment  of  irritation/ 

The  Freemasons  had  a  Lodge  '  Reunion  Desiree/  and  a 
Chapter  '  De  1'Amitie/  working  at  Leek  in  1810-11. 


E  e  2 


420  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

ALRESFORD 

At  Alresford  the  prisoners  were  at  first  unpopular,  but  their 
exertions  at  a  fire  in  the  town  wrought  a  change  of  feeling  in 
their  favour.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  when  the  Commune 
in  Paris  in  1871  drove  many  respectable  people  abroad,  quite 
a  number  came  to  Alresford  (as  also  to  Odiham),  from  which 
we  may  deduce  that  they  were  descendants  of  men  who  had 
handed  down  pleasant  memories  of  parole  life  in  these  little 
Hampshire  towns. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Headley,  Vicar  of  Alresford,  kindly  allowed  me 
to  copy  the  following  from  his  Parish  Records  : 

'  1779.  The  Captain  and  officers  of  the  Spanish  man-of-war 
who  behaved  so  gallantly  in  the  engagement  with  the  Pearl, 
and  who  are  prisoners  of  war  at  Alresford,  lately  gave  an  elegant 
entertainment  and  ball  in  honour  of  Capt.  Montagu  and  his 
officers,  in  testimony  of  the  high  sense  they  entertain  of  the 
polite  and  most  generous  treatment  they  received  after  their 
capture.  Capt.  Montagu  and  his  officers  were  present,  also 
Capt.  Oates  and  officers  of  the  Sgth  Regiment,  and  many  of  the 
most  respectable  families  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Alresford.' 

I  am  indebted  also  to  Mr.  Headley  for  the  following  entries 
in  the  registers  of  his  church  : 

Burials. 

1794.     July  21.     St.  Aubin,  a  French  prisoner  on  parole. 
1796.     July  ii.    Baptiste  Guillaume  Jousemme  ;  aged  21,  born 

at  Castillones  in  France.     A  prisoner  on  parole. 
1803.     June  27.     Thomas    Monclerc.     Aged    42.     A    French 

servant. 

1809.  Dec.  12.     Jean  Charbonier.     A  French  prisoner. 

1810.  Dec.  14.     Hypolite  Riouffe.     A  French  prisoner. 

1811.  Aug.  2.     Pierre  Gamier.     A  French  prisoner. 

1811.  Dec    25.   Ciprian  Lavau.   A  French  prisoner.   Aged  29. 

1812.  Feb.  7.     Louis   de   Bousurdont.     A  French  prisoner. 

Aged  44. 
1812.  April  13.  Marie  Louise  Fournier.  A  French  prisoner. 

Aged  44. 
1812.  Aug.  8.  Jean  de  THuille.  A  French  prisoner.  Aged  51. 

Mr.  Payne  of  Alresford  told  me  that  the  clock  on  the  church 
tower,  which  bears  the  date  1811,  is  said  to  have  been  presented 
by  the  French  prisoners  on  parole  in  the  town  in  gratitude  for 
the  kindly  treatment  they  received  from  the  inhabitants. 


PAROLE  LIFE.     SUNDRY  NOTES  421 

THAME 

At  Thame,  in  1809,  Israel  Eel  was  charged  at  the  Oxford 
Quarter  Sessions  with  assaulting  Ravenau,  a  French  prisoner 
on  parole.  To  the  great  surprise  of  all,  not  a  true  bill  was 
returned. 

Some  of  the  prisoners  at  Thame  were  lodged  in  a  building 
now  called  the  '  Bird  Cage  ',  once  an  inn.  A  memory  of  the 
prisoners  lingers  in  the  name  of  '  Frenchman's  Oak  '  still  given 
to  a  large  tree  there,  it  having  marked  their  mile  boundary. 

General  Villaret-Joyeuse,  Governor  of  Martinique,  was  one 
of  the  many  prisoners  of  fame  or  rank  at  Thame.  He 
brought  upon  himself  a  rebuke  from  the  Transport  Office  in 
1809,  for  having  said  in  a  letter  to  his  brother,  '  Plusieurs 
Francais  se  sont  detruits  ne  pouvant  supporter  plus  longtemps 
rhumiliation  et  1'abjection  ou  ils  etaient  reduits.'  The  Trans- 
port Office  told  him  that  he  had  been  grossly  misinformed,  and 
that  during  the  past  war  only  two  prisoners  were  known  to  have 
destroyed  themselves  :  one  was  supposed  to  have  done  so  in 
consequence  of  the  deranged  state  of  his  account  with  the 
French  Government,  and  the  other,  having  robbed  his  brother 
prisoner  of  a  large  amount,  when  detected,  dreading  the  conse- 
quence. '  When  you  shall  have  better  informed  yourself  and 
altered  the  said  letter  accordingly,  it  will  be  forwarded  to 
France.' 

General  Prive,  one  of  Dupont's  officers,  captured  at  Baylen, 
was  called  to  order  for  making  false  statements  in  a  letter 
to  the  French  minister  of  war,  in  an  offensive  manner  :  '  The 
Board  have  no  objection  of  your  making  representations 
you  may  think  proper  to  your  Government  respecting  the 
Capitulation  of  Baylen,  and  transmitting  as  many  Truths  as 
you  please  to  France,  but  indecent  Abuse  and  reproachful 
Terms  are  not  to  be  suffered.' 

WlNC ANTON 

To  Mr.  George  Sweetman  I  am  indebted  for  some  interesting 
particulars  about  parole  prisoner  life  at  Wincanton  in  Somerset- 
shire. The  first  prisoners  came  here  in  1804,  captured  on  the 
Didon,  and  gradually  the  number  here  rose  to  350,  made  up  of 


422  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Frenchmen,  Italians,  Portuguese,  and  Spaniards.  In  1811  the 
census  showed  that  nineteen  houses  were  occupied  by  prisoners, 
who  then  numbered  297  and  9  women  and  children.  An 
'  oldest  inhabitant  ',  Mr.  Olding,  who  died  in  1870,  aged  eighty- 
five,  told  Mr.  Sweetman  that  at  one  time  there  were  no  less  than 
500  prisoners  in  Wincanton  and  the  adjacent  Bayford.  Some 
of  them  were  men  of  good  family,  and  were  entertained  at  all 
the  best  houses  in  the  neighbourhood. 

'  After  the  conquest  of  Isle  of  France/  said  Mr.  Olding, 
'  about  fifty  French  officers  were  sent  here,  who  were  reputed  to 
have  brought  with  them  half  a  million  sterling.  .  .  .  They  lived 
in  their  own  hired  houses  or  comfortable  lodgings.  The  poorer 
prisoners  took  their  two  meals  a  day  at  the  Restaurant  pour  les 
Aspirants.  The  main  staple  of  their  diet  was  onions,  leeks, 
lettuce,  cucumbers,  and  dandelions.  The  richer,  however,  ate 
butchers'  meat  plentifully/ 

Altogether  the  establishment  of  Wincanton  as  a  parole  town 
must  have  been  of  enormous  benefit  to  a  linen-weaving  centre 
which  was  feeling  severely  the  competition  of  the  great  Lanca- 
shire towns,  and  was  fast  losing  its  staple  industry. 

Mr.  Sweetman  introduces  an  anecdote  which  illustrates  the 
great  trading  difficulties  which  at  first  existed  between  foreigners 
who  knew  nothing  of  English,  and  natives  who  were  equally 
ignorant  of  French. 

One  of  the  many  butchers  who  attended  the  market  had 
bought  on  one  occasion  some  excellent  fat  beef  to  which  he 
called  the  attention  of  a  model  French  patrician,  and,  confusing 
the  Frenchman's  ability  to  understand  the  English  language 
with  defective  hearing,  he  shouted  in  his  loudest  tones,  which 
had  an  effect  contrary  to  what  he  expected  or  desired.  The 
officer  (noted  for  his  long  pig-tail,  old  round  hat,  and  long- 
waisted  brown  coat),  to  all  the  jolly  butcher's  earnest  appeals 
to  him  to  buy,  answered  nothing  but  '  Non  bon,  non  bon  !  ' 

'  Well,  Roger/  said  a  brother  butcher,  '  If  I  were  you,  he 
should  have  bone  enough  next  time  !  ' 

'  So  he  shall/  said  Roger,  and  on  the  next  market-day  he 
brought  a  fine  neck  and  chine  of  bull  beef,  from  which  lots  of 
steaks  were  cut,  and  soon  sold. 

Presently  the  old  officer  came  by,  and  Roger  solicited  his 


WINCANTON  423 

custom  for  his  fine  show  of  bones.     The  indignant  Frenchman 
again  exclaimed,  '  Non  bon  !   non  bon  !  ' 

'  Confound  the  fellow/  said  Roger,  '  what  can  he  want,  why, 
'tis  a'al  booin,  idden  it  ?  ' 

Both  men  were  becoming  really  angry,  when  a  boy  standing 
by,  who  had  speedily  acquired  some  knowledge  of  French, 
explained  the  matter  to  both  men.  When  at  length  they 
understood  each  other  they  both  laughed  heartily  at  the  mis- 
understanding, but  the  incident  became  a  standing  joke  against 
Roger  as  long  as  he  lived. 

The  mile  boundaries  of  the  prisoners  were  Bayford  Elm  on 
the  London  road  ;  Anchor  Bridge  on  the  Ilchester  road  ;  Aber- 
gavenny  Gate  on  the  Castle  Cary  road  ;  and  Gorselands  on  the 
Bruton  road.  The  prisoners  frequently  promenaded  the  streets  & 
in  great  numbers,  four  abreast.  The  large  rooms  in  the  public- 
houses  were  often  rented  for  holding  meetings  of  various  kinds. 
On  one  occasion  the  large  room  at  the  Swan  Inn  was  used  for 
the  lying  in  state  of  a  Freemason,  who  was  buried  in  a  very 
imposing  manner.  Two  other  great  officers  lay  in  state  at  the 
Greyhound  and  The  Dogs.  Many  died  frpm  various  causes 
incidental  to  captivity.  They  were  buried  in  the  churchyard, 
and  a  stone  there  marks  the  resting-place  of  a  Russian  or  a  Pole 
who  was  said  to  have  died  of  grief.1  One  of  them  committed 
suicide.  Another  poor  fellow  became  demented,  and  every 
day  might  have  been  heard  playing  on  a  flute  a  mournful  dirge, 
which  tune  he  never  changed.  Others  bore  their  estrangement 
from  home  and  country  less  sorrowfully,  and  employed  their 
time  in  athletic  sports  or  in  carving  various  articles  of  different 
kinds  of  wood  and  bone.  Some  were  allowed  to  visit  friends 
at  a  distance,  always  returning  faithfully  to  their  parole. 

During  the  winter  months  they  gave,  twice  a  week,  musical 
and  theatrical  entertainments.  Many  of  the  captives,  especially 
those  of  the  upper  ranks,  were  good  musicians.  These  held 
concerts,  which  were  attended  by  the  people  of  the  town. 

Sunday  was  to  them  the  dullest  day  of  the  week  ;  they  did 
not  know  what  to  make  of  it.  Some  of  them  went  to  the 
parish  church  and  assisted  in  the  instrumental  part  of  the 

1  I  failed  to  find  a  single  grave-stone  of  a  French  prisoner  of  war  at 
Wincanton. 


424  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

service.  A  few  attended  the  Congregational,  or  as  it  was  then 
called,  the  Independent  Chapel.  The  majority  of  them  were, 
in  name  at  least,  Roman  Catholics  ;  whatever  they  were,  they 
spent  Sundays  in  playing  chess,  draughts,  cards  and  dominoes, 
— indeed,  almost  anything  to  while  the  time  away. 

The  prisoners  used  to  meet  in  large  rooms  which  they  hired 
for  various  amusements.  Some  of  them  were  artists,  and 
Mr.  Sweetman  speaks  of  many  rooms  which  they  decorated 
with  wall-pictures.  In  one — the  '  Orange  Room  '  at  The  Dogs  in 
South  Street — may  still  be  seen  wall-paintings  done  by  them ; 
also  in  the  house  of  Mr.  James,  in  the  High  Street,  three  panels 
of  a  bedroom  are  painted  with  three  of  the  Muses.  Miss  Impey, 
of  Street,  has  some  drawings  done  by  a  prisoner,  Charles  Aubert, 
who  probably  did  the  paintings  above  alluded  to. 

As  time  went  on  and  the  prisoners  became  more  homesick 
and  more  impatient  of  restraint,  desertions  became  frequent, 
and  it  was  necessary  to  station  a  company  of  infantry  in  Win- 
canton,  and  they  were  '  kept  lively  '.  One  night  a  party  was 
escaping  and  the  constable  of  the  town,  attempting  to  prevent 
them,  was  roughly  handled.  The  soldiers  were  on  guard  all 
night  in  the  streets,  but  nevertheless  some  prisoners  managed 
even  then  to  escape. 

'  In  1811  ',  said  the  Salisbury  Journal,  '  Culliford,  a  notorious 
smuggler,  was  committed  to  Ilchester  Gaol  for  conveying  from 
Wincanton  several  of  the  prisoners  there  to  the  Dorsetshire  coast, 
whence  they  crossed  to  Cherbourg.  Culliford  was  caught  with 
great  difficulty,  and  then  only  because  of  the  large  reward  offered. ' 

There  was  at  Wincanton,  as  in  other  parole  towns,  a  Masonic 
Lodge  among  the  prisoners  ;  it  was  called  (as  was  also  the 
Lodge  at  Sanquhar)  '  La  Paix  Desiree  '.  There  were  English 
members  of  it.  Mr.  Sweetman  reproduces,  in  the  little  book 
upon  which  I  have  drawn  for  my  information,  the  certificate 
of  Louis  Michel  Duchemin,  Master  Mason  in  1810.  This 
M.  Duchemin  married  Miss  Clewett  of  Wincanton,  and  settled 
in  England,  dying  in  Birmingham  in  1854  or  1855.  His 
widow  only  survived  him  a  week,  but  he  left  a  son  who  in 
1897  lived  in  Birmingham,  following  his  father's  profession 
as  a  teacher  of  French.  M.  Duchemin  was  evidently  much 
esteemed  in  Wincanton,  as  the  following  testimonial  shows  : 


WINCANTON  425 

'  Wincanton,  June  1821. 

'  I,  the  undersigned,  having  been  His  Majesty's  Agent  for 
Prisoners  of  War  on  Parole  in  this  place  during  the  late  war,  do 
certify  that  Monsr.  L.  M.  Duchemin  was  resident  for  upwards 
of  six  years  on  his  Parole  of  Honour  in  this  Town,  from  the 
time  [1805]  of  the  capture  of  the  French  frigate  La  Torche  to  the 
removal  of  the  Prisoners  to  Scotland,  and  that  in  consequence 
of  his  universal  good  conduct,  he  was  excepted  (on  a  memorial 
presented  by  Inhabitants  to  the  Commissioners  of  H.  M.  Trans- 
port Service)  from  a  previous  Order  of  Removal  from  this  place 
with  other  prisoners  of  his  rank.  Monsr.  Duchemin  married 
while  resident  in  this  place  into  a  respectable  family,  and, 
having  known  him  from  1806  to  the  present  time,  I  can  with 
much  truth  concur  in  the  Testimonial  of  his  Wells  friends. 

'  G.  MESSITER.' 

This  Mr.  George  Messiter,  a  solicitor,  was  one  of  the  best  sort 
of  parole  agents,  and  is  thus  eulogized  by  Mr.  Sweetman  : 

'  He  was  a  gentleman  well  qualified  for  the  office  he  held  : 
of  a  noble  mien,  brave,  and  held  in  respect  by  all  who  knew 
him.  Under  his  direction  the  captives  were  supplied  with 
every  accommodation  he  could  give  them.  Several  years  after 
his  death  one  of  the  survivors,  an  army  surgeon,  came  to  the 
scene  of  his  former  captivity,  when  he  paid  a  high  tribute  to  the 
Commissary,  and  spoke  in  terms  of  affection  of  the  townspeople 
amongst  whom  he  had  sojourned.' 

When  it  is  remembered  that  Messiter  had  to  deal  with  such 
troublesome  fellows  as  Generals  Rochambeau  and  Boyer  (who 
were  actually  sent  away  from  Wincanton,  as  they  had  already 
been  sent  aw7ay  from  other  parole  places,  on  account  of  their 
misdeeds),  the  worth  of  this  testimony  may  be  appreciated. 

Not  many  marriages  between  prisoners  and  Englishwomen 
are  recorded  at  Wincanton,  for  the  same  reason  that  ruled 
•elsewhere — that  the  French  law  refused  to  regard  such 
marriages  as  valid. 

Alberto  Bioletti,  an  Italian  servant  to  a  French  officer, 
married  and  settled  in  the  town  as  a  hairdresser.  He  married 
twice,  and  died  in  1869,  aged  ninety-two.  William  Bouverie, 
known  as  '  Billy  Booby  ',  married  and  settled  here.  John 
Peter  Pichon  is  the  very  French  name  of  one  who  married 
Dinah  Edwards,  both  described  as  of  Wincanton,  in  1808. 
In  1809  Andree  Joseph  Jantrelle  married  Mary  Hobbs. 


426  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Mr.  Sweetman  says : 

'  Here,  as  in  all  other  parole  towns,  a  large  number  of 
children  were  born  out  of  wedlock  whose  fathers  were  reputed 
to  be  our  visitors.  Some  indeed  took  French  names,  and 
several  officers  had  to  pay  large  sums  of  money  to  the 
parish  authorities  before  they  left.  One  of  the  drawbacks  to 
the  sojourn  of  so  many  strangers  among  us  was  the  increase  of 
immorality.  One  informant  said  :  "  Not  the  least  source  of 
attraction  to  these  gallant  sons  of  France,  were  the  buxom 
country  maidens,  who  found  their  way  into  the  town,  but  lost 
their  way  back.  I  regret  to  say  that  our  little  town  was 
becoming  a  veritable  hotbed  of  vice." 

The  prisoners  were  suddenly  withdrawn  from  Wincanton, 
on  account  of  the  alarm,  to  which  I  have  alluded  elsewhere, 
that  a  general  rising  of  the  prisoners  of  war  all  over 
England,  but  chiefly  in  the  west,  had  been  concerted,  and 
partly  on  account  of  the  large  numbers  of  escapes  of  prisoners, 
favoured  as  they  were  by  the  proximity  of  the  Dorsetshire 
coast  with  its  gangs  of  smugglers. 

Mr.  Sweetman  continues : 

'  In  February  1812,  a  company  of  infantry  and  a  troop  of 
cavalry  arrived  at  the  South  Gate,  one  morning  at  roll-call 
time.  Before  the  roll  had  been  completed  the  troop  entered 
the  town  and  surrounded  the  captives.  The  infantry  followed, 
and  those  who  had  not  presented  themselves  at  roll-call  were 
sent  for.  So  sudden  had  been  the  call,  that  although  many  had 
wished  for  years  to  leave,  they  were  unprepared  when  the  time 
came.  At  4  o'clock  those  who  were  ready  departed  ;  some  had 
not  even  breakfasted,  and  no  one  was  allowed  to  have  any 
communication  with  them.  They  were  marched  to  Mere, 
where  they  passed  the  night  in  the  church.  Early  next  morning, 
those  who  were  left  behind,  after  having  bestowed  their  goods 
(for  many  of  them  had  furnished  their  own  houses),  followed 
their  brethren,  and,  joining  them  at  Mere,  were  marched  to 
Kelso.  Deep  was  the  regret  of  many  of  the  inhabitants  at 
losing  so  many  to  whom  they  had  become  endeared  by  ties  of 
interest  and  affection.  A  great  gap  was  made  in  the  life  of  the 
town  which  it  took  years  to  fill.' 

Seventeen  burials  are  recorded  in  the  Wincanton  registers 
from  the  end  of  July  1806  to  the  end  of  May  iSn. 

Prominent  prisoners  at  Wincanton  were  M.  de  Tocqueville, 
Rear-Admiral  de  Wailly-Duchemin,  and  Rochambeau,  whom 


WINCANTON  427 

Sir  Arthur  Quiller-Couch,  in  his  story  The  Westcotes,  the  scene 
of  which  he  lays  at  'Axcester' — i.e.  Wincanton — paints  as 
quite  an  admirable  old  soldier.  It  was  the  above-named  rear- 
admiral  who,  dying  at  Wincanton,  lay  in  state  in  the  panelled 
'  Orange  Room  '  of  The  Dogs.  This  is  now  the  residence  of 
Dr.  Edwards,  who  kindly  allowed  me  to  inspect  the  paintings 
on  the  panels  of  this  and  the  adjoining  room,  which  were 
executed  by  French  officers  quartered  here,  and  represent 
castles  and  landscapes,  and  a  caricature  of  Wellington,  whose 
head  is  garnished  with  donkey's  ears. 

The  '  Orange  Room  '  is  so  called  from  the  tradition  that 
Dutch  William  slept  here  on  his  way  from  Torbay  to  London  to 
assume  the  British  crown. 

Later  on  a  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  French  officers  captured 
at  Trafalgar  and  in  Sir  Richard  Strachan's  subsequent  action, 
were  quartered  here,  and  are  described  as  '  very  orderly,  and 
inoffensive  to  the  inhabitants  '. 

The  suicide  mentioned  above  was  that  of  an  officer  belonging 
to  a  highly  respectable  family  in  France,  who,  not  having  heard 
from  home  for  a  long  time,  became  so  depressed  that  he  went 
into  a  field  near  his  lodgings,  placed  the  muzzle  of  a  musket 
in  his  mouth,  and  pushed  the  trigger  with  his  foot.  The 
coroner's  jury  returned  a  verdict  of  '  Lunacy '. 

I  have  said  that  the  frequency  of  escapes  among  the  prisoners 
was  one  of  the  causes  of  their  removal  from  Wincanton.  The 
Commissary,  Mr.  George  Messiter,  in  November  1811  asked 
the  Government  to  break  up  the  Depot,  as,  on  account  of  the 
regularly  organized  system  established  between  the  prisoners 
and  the  smugglers  and  fishermen  of  the  Dorsetshire  coast,  it  was 
impossible  to  prevent  escapes.  Towards  the  close  of  1811  no 
fewer  than  twenty-two  French  prisoners  got  away  from  Win- 
canton.  The  Commissary's  request  was  at  once  answered,  and 
the  Salisbury  Journal  of  December  9,  1811,  thus  mentions 
the  removal : 

'  On  Saturday  last  upwards  of  150  French  prisoners  lately 
on  their  parole  at  Wincanton  were  marched  by  way  of  Mere 
through  this  city  under  an  escort  of  the  Wilts  Militia  and  a 
party  of  Light  Dragoons,  on  their  way  to  Gosport,  there  to  be 
embarked  with  about  50  superior  officers  for  some  place  in 


428  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Scotland.  Since  Culliford,  the  leader  of  the  gang  of  smugglers 
and  fishermen  who  aided  in  these  escapes,  was  convicted  and 
only  sentenced  to  six  months'  imprisonment,  they  have  become 
more  and  more  daring  in  their  violations  of  the  law.' 

ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH 

Ashby  occupies  an  interesting  page  in  that  little-known 
chapter  of  British  history  which  deals  with  the  prisoners  of  war 
who  have  lived  amongst  us,  and  I  owe  my  cordial  thanks  to 
the  Rev.  W.  Scott,  who  has  preserved  this  page  from  oblivion, 
for  permission  to  make  use  of  his  pamphlet. 

In  September  1804,  the  first  detachment  of  prisoners,  forty- 
two  in  number,  reached  Ashby,  and  this  number  was  gradually 
increased  until  it  reached  its  limit,  200.  The  first  arrivals  were 
poor  fellows  who  had  to  board  and  lodge  themselves  on  about 
ten  shillings  and  sixpence  a  week  ;  but  the  later  officers  from 
Pampeluna  had  money  concealed  about  their  clothing  and  in 
the  soles  of  their  boots. 

On  the  whole,  Mr.  Scott  says,  they  seem  to  have  had  a  toler- 
ably good  time  in  Ashby.  Their  favourite  walk  was  past  the 
Mount  Farm  near  the  Castle,  along  the  Packington  Road,  then 
to  the  left  to  the  Leicester  Road,  across  the  fields  even  now 
sometimes  called '  The  Frenchman's  Walk ',  but  more  generally, 
Packington  Slang.  The  thirty-shilling  reward  offered  to  any  one 
who  should  report  a  prisoner  as  being  out  of  bounds  was  very 
rarely  claimed,  for  the  officers  were  such  general  favourites  that 
few  persons  could  be  found  who,  even  for  thirty  shillings,  could 
be  base  enough  to  play  the  part  of  informer. 

An  indirect  evidence  of  the  good  feeling  existing  between 
the  townspeople  and  their  guests  is  afforded  by  the  story  of 
two  dogs.  One  of  these,  named  Mouton,  came  with  the  first 
prisoners  in  1804,  spent  ten  years  in  Ashby,  and  returned  with 
the  men  in  1814.  The  other  dog  came  with  the  officers  from 
Pampeluna,  and  was  the  only  dog  who  had  survived  the  siege. 
Both  animals  were  great  pets  with  the  people  of  Ashby. 

There  seem  to  have  been  at  least  two  duels.  Mr.  Measures, 
a  farmer  of  Packington,  on  coming  to  attend  to  some  cattle  in 
Packington  Slang,  saw  a  cloak  lying  on  the  ground,  and  upon 
removing  it  was  horrified  to  see  the  body  of  a  French  officer. 


ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH  429 

It  proved  to  be  that  of  Captain  Colvin.  He  was  buried  in  the 
churchyard  of  Packington,  and,  honour  being  satisfied,  the  man 
who  had  slain  him  was  one  of  the  chief  mourners.  There  is 
a  brief  entry  of  another  duel  in  Dr.  James  Kirkland's  records : 
'  Monsieur  Denegres,  a  French  prisoner,  killed  in  a  duel, 
Dec.  6th,  1808.' 

Good  friends  as  the  prisoners  were  with  the  male  inhabitants 
of  the  town,  and  with  the  neighbouring  farmers,  who  on  more 
than  one  occasion  lent  horses  to  officers  who  wished  to  escape, 
it  was  with  the  ladies  that  they  were  prime  favourites.  One 
of  the  prisoners,  Colonel  Van  Hoof,  was  the  admirer  of 
Miss  Ingle,  the  reigning  beauty  of  Ashby.  The  courtesy  and 
good  nature  of  the  prisoners  bore  down  all  obstacles  ;  and 
the  only  ill-wishers  they  had  were  the  local  young  dandies 
whose  noses  they  put  out  of  joint.  The  married  dames  were 
also  pleased  and  flattered  :  many  of  the  prisoners  were  ex- 
cellent cooks,  and  one  who  made  a  soup  which  was  the  envy  and 
despair  of  every  housekeeper  in  Ashby,  when  asked  by  a  lady 
the  secret  of  it,  said :  '  I  get  some  pearl  barley  and  carry  it  here 
several  days,'  placing  his  hand  melodramatically  over  his  heart. 

In  spite  of  the  mile-limit  regulation,  they  went  to  picnics 
in  Ashby  Old  Parks,  riding  in  wagons,  and  going  along  the  tram 
road  which  ran  from  Willesley  to  Ticknall.  On  these  occasions 
the  officers  were  accompanied  by  the  better  class  girls  of  the 
town  and  their  admirers.  Music  was  supplied  by  one  of  the 
Frenchmen  who  played  a  violin.  For  this  or  for  some  other 
reason  he  seems  to  have  been  a  first  favourite.  When  passing 
through  the  tunnel  underneath  Ashby  Old  Parks  Hill,  it  was 
no  unusual  thing  for  him  to  lay  aside  his  fiddle  to  kiss  the  girls. 
Of  course,  they  always  asked  him  to  play  while  in  the  tunnel 
in  order  to  keep  him  from  obliging  them  in  this  manner,  and  of 
course  he  would  know  what  they  meant. 

The  permanent  result  of  this  love-making  is  shown  by  the 
parish  register  of  Ashby  ;  from  1806  to  June  i,  1814,  the 
following  weddings  took  place  between  local  girls  and  French 
'  Prisoners  of  War  resident  in  this  Parish  ',  or  'on  parole  in 
this  Parish  '  : 

c8o6.     Francis  Robert  to  Jane  Bedford. 

Pierre  Serventie  to  Elizabeth  Rowbottom. 


430  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

1806.     Anthony  Hoffmann  to  Elizabeth  Peach. 

1809.  Louis  Jean  to  Elizabeth  Edwards. 

1810.  Francis  Picard  to  Charlotte  Bedford. 
Henry  Antoine  to  Sarah  Roberts. 
Pierre  Geffroy  to  Phillis  Parkins. 

1812.  Casimir  Gantreuil  to  Elizabeth  Adcock. 

Louis   Frangois   Le   Normand   Kegrist   to   Mary   Ann 

Kirkland. 

Louis  Adore  Tiphenn  to  Ann  Vaun. 
Frederic  Rouelt  to  Ann  Sharp. 

1813.  Auguste  Louis  Jean  Segoivy  to  Elizabeth  Bailey. 
Francis  Peyrol  to  Martha  Peach. 

1814.  Francis  Victor  Richard  Ducrocq  to  Sarah  Adcock. 
Richard  le  Tramp  to  Mary  Sharpe. 

Two  Masonic  Lodges  and  a  Rose  Croix  Chapter  were  estab- 
lished in  Ashby — the  above-mentioned  Louis  Jean  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  '  Vrais  Amis  de  1'Ordre  '  Lodge,  and  four  relics  of  his 
connexion  are  still  preserved.  Tradition  says  that  the  con- 
stitution of  the  Lodge  was  celebrated  by  a  ball  given  by  the 
French  officers,  the  hosts  presenting  to  each  lady  two  pairs  of 
white  gloves,  one  pair  long,  the  other  short. 

The  second  Lodge  was  '  De  la  Justice  et  de  1'Union  '. 

When  Peace  was  declared,  the  French  Masons  at  Ashby 
disposed  of  their  Lodge  furniture  to  the  '  Royal  Sussex  ', 
No.  353,  of  Repton,  in  Derbyshire.  In  1869  the  Lodge  removed 
to  Winshill,  Burton-on-Trent,  where  the  furniture  is  still  used. 

There  is  the  register  of  three  burials  : 

1806.  £tienne  Lenon. 

1807.  Francois  Rabin. 

1808.  Xavier  Mandelier. 

Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  Frenchmen  gave  proofs  of  their  skill 
in  fine  handiwork.  They  did  ornamental  work  in  several  new 
houses  ;  they  taught  the  townsfolk  the  art  of  crochet-work 
(I  quote  from  Mr.  Scott)  ;  they  were  artists,  carvers,  &c. 
Some  of  the  officers  worshipped  in  the  Baptist  Church,  and 
became  members  of  it.  The  conversion  of  Captain  Le  Jeune 
is  an  interesting  little  story.  Shocked  by  certain  phases  and 
features  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  he  became  a  deist  and 
finally  an  atheist,  and  during  the  Revolution  joined  readily  in 
the  ill-treatment  of  priests.  At  San  Domingo  he  was  taken 


ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH  431 

prisoner  in  1804,  and  sent  to  Ashby  on  parole.  Four  years 
later  the  death  of  his  father  very  deeply  impressed  him,  and  he 
began  to  think  seriously  about  the  existence  of  God.  A  fellow 
prisoner,  De  Serre,  a  member  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Ashby, 
a  devout  Christian,  became  intimate  with  him,  persuaded  him 
to  join  the  Church,  and  he  finally  became  an  active  and 
zealous  missionary  in  his  own  country  ;  and  until  his  death 
corresponded  with  the  Ashby  pastors,  and  particularly  with  the 
Rev.  Joseph  Goadly,  who  exercised  an  wholesome  and  powerful 
influence  among  the  French  prisoners  of  war. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

PAROLE  LIFE  :    SUNDRY  NOTES  (continued] 

ASHBURTON,  DEVON 
MR.  J.  H.  AMERY  says  in  Devon  Notes  and  Queries  : 

'  We  can  hardly  credit  the  fact  that  so  little  reliable  informa- 
tion or  even  traditional  legend,  remains  in  the  small  inland 
market  towns  where  so  many  officers  were  held  prisoners  on 
parole  until  as  recently  as  1815.  It  certainly  speaks  well  for 
their  conduct,  for  had  any  tragedy  been  connected  with  their 
stay,  tradition  would  have  preserved  its  memory  and  details. 
For  several  years  prior  to  1815  a  number  of  educated  foreigners 
formed  a  part  of  the  society  of  our  towns.  At  one  time  they 
were  lively  Frenchmen,  at  others  sober  Danes  or  spendthrift 
Americans.  They  lodged  and  boarded  in  the  houses  of  our 
tradesmen  ;  they  taught  the  young  people  modern  languages, 
music  and  dancing  ;  they  walked  our  streets  and  roads,  and 
took  a  general  interest  in  passing  events  ;  yet  to-day  hardly 
a  trace  can  be  discovered  of  their  presence  beyond  a  few 
neglected  mile- stones  on  our  country  roads,  and  here  and  there 
a  grave  in  our  Parish  churchyards.  This  is  particularly  the 
case  with  Ashburton.' 

He  goes  on  to  say  that  he  got  more  information  about  the 
American  prisoners  at  Ashburton  from  a  Bostonian  who  was  at 
the  post-office  there,  making  inquiries,  than  from  any  one  else. 
This  Bostonian's  grandfather  was  a  naval  surgeon  who  had 
been  captured  on  the  Polly  ;  had  been  sent  to  Dartmoor,  but 
was  released  on  parole  to  Ashburton. 

Mr.  Amery  gives  as  an  instance  of  this  local  indifference  to 
the  past  the  fact  that  the  family  of  Mr.  Joseph  Gribble,  solicitor 
and  county  coroner,  who  had  been  prisoner  agent  at  Ashburton, 
had  lived  opposite  to  the  entrance  to  the  vicarage  until  1899. 
but  that  by  that  time  everything  about  the  prisoners  had  been 
forgotten  by  them. 

Mr.  Amery  writes  to  me  : 

'  I  have  heard  our  people  say  that  my  great-uncle  who  lived 
here  at  that  time  used  to  have  open  house  for  the  prisoners  on 


ASHBURTON  433 

parole.  The  French  were  very  nice  and  gentlemanly,  but  the 
Americans  were  a  much  rougher  lot,  and  broke  up  things  a  good 
deal.  The  French  used  to  teach  French  and  dancing  in  the 
town.' 

The  following  Masonic  Petition  from  Ashburton  is  interesting : 

'  Ashburton,  April  6,  1814,  of  our  Lord,  and  in  Masonry  5814. 

To  the  Grand  Master,  Grand  Wardens,  and  Members  of  the 

Grand  Lodge,  London. 

'  BRETHREN, 

'  We,  the  undersigned,  being  Ancient  York  Masons,  take  the 
liberty  of  addressing  you  with  this  Petition  for  our  Relief,  being 
American  prisoners  of  war  on  parole  at  this  place.  We  are 
allowed  los.  6d.  per  week  for  our  support.  In  this  place  we 
cannot  get  lodgings  for  less  than  35.  per  week,  and  from  that  to 
55.  per  week.  Meat  is  constantly  from  9^.  to  is.  per  lb.,  and 
other  necessaries  in  proportion.  Judge,  brethren,  how  we  live, 
for  none  of  us  have  any  means  of  getting  money.  Our  clothes 
are  wearing  out,  and  God  knows  how  long  we  shall  be  kept  here  ; 
many  of  us  have  been  captured  9  or  10  months,  as  you  will 
see  opposite  our  signatures.  We  form  a  body  in  this  place  by 
ourselves  for  the  purpose  of  lecturing  each  other  once  a  week, 
and  have  had  this  in  contemplation  for  some  time,  but  have 
deferred  making  application  until  absolute  want  has  made  it 
necessary.  We  therefore  pray  that  you  will  take  into  con- 
sideration and  provide  some  means  for  our  relief.  You  will 
please  address  your  letter  to  Edwin  Buckannon. 
'  We  humbly  remain  your  pennyless  brethren. 

'  EDWIN  BUCKANNON.  G.  W.  BURBANK.  PIERSON 
BALDWIN.  WM.  MILLER.  ARCHD.  TAYLOR, 
JUNR.  EZRA  OBER.  WM.  SMITH.  JAMES 
LANS.  JOHN  SCHERS.' 

There  was  also  a  French  Lodge  at  Ashburton,  '  Des  Amis 
Reunis  ',  but  the  only  record  of  its  existence  is  a  certificate 
granted  to  Paul  Carcenac,  an  initiate.  It  is  roughly  drawn  by 
hand  on  parchment,  and  is  entirely  in  French,  and,  as  the 
recipient  is  under  obligation  to  affiliate  himself  to  some  regu- 
larly warranted  French  Lodge  immediately  on  his  return  to 
his  native  land,  it  would  seem  that  the  Lodge  at  Ashburton 
was  only  of  a  temporary  or  irregular  character. 

The  foregoing  references  to  Freemasonry  remind  us  that  this 
universal  brotherhood  was  the  occasion  of  many  graceful  acts 
during  the  Great  Wars  between  men  of  opposing  sides. 

ABELL  F  f 


434  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

TAVISTOCK 

There  were  upon  an  average  150  prisoners  here.  The 
Prison  Commissioners  wrote  : 

'  Some  of  them  have  made"  overtures  of  marriage  to  women 
in  the  neighbourhood,  which  the  magistrates  very  properly 
have  taken  pains  to  discourage.' 

This,  of  course,  refers  to  the  ruling  of  the  French  Government 
that  it  would  regard  such  marriages  as  invalid.  That  French 
women  sometimes  accompanied  their  husbands  into  captivity 
is  evident  from  not  infrequent  petitions  such  as  this  : 

'  The  French  woman  at  Tavistock  requests  that  Sir  Rupert 
George  (Chairman  to  the  Transport  Office)  will  interest  himself 
to  procure  rations  for  her  child  who  was  born  at  the  Depdt, 
and  is  nearly  five  months  old.' 

OKEHAMPTON 

Here,  very  little  information  is  obtainable,  as  very  few  of 
the  '  oldest  inhabitant  '  type  are  to  be  found,  and  there  are 
very  few  residents  whose  parents  have  lived  there  for  any 
length  of  time — a  sign  of  these  restless,  migrating  days  which 
makes  one  regret  that  the  subject  of  the  foreign  prisoners  of  war 
in  Britain  was  not  taken  up  before  the  movement  of  the  rural 
world  into  large  towns  had  fairly  set  in.  One  old  resident 
could  only  say  that  his  father  used  to  talk  of  from  five  to  six 
hundred  prisoners  being  at  Okehampton,  but  in  the  rural  mind 
numbers  are  handled  as  vaguely  as  is  time,  for  assuredly  in  no 
single  parole  town  in  Britain  were  there  ever  so  many  prisoners. 
Another  aged  resident  said  : 

'  They  were  all  bettermost  prisoners  :  the  rough  ones  were 
kept  at  Princetown,  but  these  were  quartered  in  various  houses, 
and  paid  very  well  for  it.  Their  bounds  were  a  mile  out  of 
-  town,  but  I  have  heard  they  were  very  artful,  and  shifted  the 
milestones  and  borough  stones.  My  father  told  me  that  one 
escaped,  but  he  was  shot  down  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
Bovey  Clay  Works.  There  was  a  riot  in  the  town  one  day 
amongst  them,  and  old  Dr.  Luxmoore,  who  was  a  big,  tall  man, 
mounted  his  big  horse,  and,  armed  with  his  hunting  whip,  rode 
down  through  the  prisoners,  who  were  fighting  in  the  town, 
and  with  the  cracks  of  it  dispersed  them  in  every  direction. 
.  .  .  The  Mess  Room  was  the  St.  James'  Street  schoolroom, 
and  stood  opposite  the  South  entrance  of  the  Arcade  which 


OKEHAMPTON  435 

was  pulled  down  a  few  years  ago.  In  their  spare  time  the 
prisoners  made  many  small  articles  snch  as  cabinets,  chairs, 
cribbage-boards,  and  various  models  of  churches  and  houses. 
Some  taught  their  languages  to  the  inhabitants.' 

ODIHAM 

General  Simon  was  at  Odiham.  We  have  had  to  do  with  him 
"before,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  thoroughly  bad.  He  had  been 
concerned  with  Bernadotte  and  Pinoteau  in  the  Conspiracy  of 
Rennes  against  Bonaparte's  Consular  Government,  had  been 
.arrested,  and  exiled  to  the  Isle  of  Rhe  for  six  years.  When 
Bonaparte  became  emperor  he  liberated  Simon  and  gave  him 
:a  command.  At  the  battle  of  Busaco,  September  27,  1810, 
Simon's  brigade  led  the  division  of  Loison  in  its  attack  on  the 
British  position,  and  Simon  was  first  man  over  the  entrench- 
ments. '  We  took  some  prisoners/  says  George  Napier,  '  and 
among  them  General  Simon.  He  was  horribly  wounded  in  the 
face,  his  jaw  being  broken  and  almost  hanging  on  his  chest. 
Just  as  myself  and  another  officer  came  to  him  a  soldier  was 
going  to  put  his  bayonet  into  him,  which  we  prevented,  and 
sent  him  up  as  prisoner  to  the  General.' 

Simon  reached  England  in  October  1810,  and  was  sent  on 
parole  to  Odiham.  The  prisoners  lived  in  houses  in  Bury 
Square,  opposite  the  stocks  and  the  church,  and  some  old  red- 
brick cottages  on  the  brink  of  the  chalk-pit  at  the  entrance  to 
the  town,  all  of  which  are  now  standing.  They  naturally  made 
the  fine  old  George  Inn  their  social  centre,  and  to  this  day  the 
tree  which  marked  their  mile  limit  along  the  London  road 
is  known  as  '  Frenchman's  Oak  '.  Simon  absconded  from 
Odiham,  and  the  advertisement  for  him  ran  : 

'  One  hundred  pounds  is  offered  for  the  capture  of  the  French 
general  Simon,  styled  a  baron  and  a  chevalier  of  the  Empire, 
who  lately  broke  his  parole  and  absconded  from  Odiham.' 

The  Times  of  Jan.  20,  1812,  details  his  smart  capture  by  the 
Bow  Street  officers.  They  went  first  to  Richmond,  hearing  that 
two  foreigners  of  suspicious  appearance  were  there .  The  informa- 
tion led  to  nothing,  so  they  went  on  to  Hounslow,  thinking  to 
intercept  the  fugitives  on  their  way  from  Odiham  to  the  Kent 
Coast,  and  here  they  heard  that  two  Frenchmen  had  hired 

Ff  2 


436  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

a  post-chaise  to  London.  This  they  traced  to  Dover  Street, 
Piccadilly,  but  the  clue  was  lost.  They  remembered  that  there 
was  a  French  doctor  in  Dover  Street,  but  an  interview  with  him 
revealed  nothing.  On  they  went  to  the  house  of  a  Madame 
Glion,  in  Pulteney  Street,  late  owner  of  a  Paris  diligence,  and, 
although  their  particular  quarry  was  not  there,  they  '  ran  in  ' 
three  other  French  '  broke-paroles  '.  Information  led  them  to 
Pratt  Street,  Camden  Town.  A  female  servant  appeared  in 
the  area  of  No.  4  in  reply  to  their  knocks,  denied  that  there  was 
any  one  in  the  house,  and  refused  them  admittance.  The 
officers,  now  reinforced,  surrounded  the  house,  and  some  men 
were  seen  sitting  in  a  back-parlour  by  candle-light.  Suddenly 
the  candles  were  put  out.  Lavender,  the  senior  officer,  went 
again  to  the  front  door  and  knocked.  The  servant  resisted  his 
pretext  of  having  a  letter  for  a  lady  in  the  house,  and  he  threat- 
ened to  shoot  her  if  she  still  refused  admission.  She  defied 
him.  Other  officers  had  in  the  meanwhile  climbed  over  the 
back  garden  wall  and  found  Simon  and  another  officer,  Surgeon 
Boiron,  in  the  kitchen  in  darkness. 

The  mistress  and  servant  of  the  house  were  both  French- 
women, and  they  were  carried  off  with  Simon  and  Boiron : 
altogether  a  capital  haul,  as  the  women  were  found  upon  exami- 
nation to  be  '  deep  in  the  business  '  of  aiding  and  abetting  in  the 
escape  of  prisoners.  With  Simon's  subsequent  career  I  have 
dealt  in  the  chapter  upon  Escapes  and  Escape  Agents. 

LEICESTER 

To  Mr.  John  Thorp  of  this  town  I  am  indebted  for  the 
following  notes  : 

'  In  1756  Count  Benville  and  30  other  French  officers  were 
on  parole  at  Leicester.  Most  of  them  were  men  of  high  rank, 
and  were  all  well  received  by  the  townpeople.1  They  were 
polite  and  agreeable  in  manner,  and  as  they  expended  about 
£9,000  during  their  stay  in  the  town  it  was  of  benefit  to  a  large 
part  of  the  inhabitants. 

'  A  number  of  French  prisoners  came  from  Tavistock  in 
1779,  and  remained  in  the  town  about  six  months.  They 
behaved  well  and  produced  agreeable  impressions  upon  the 

1  For  a  letter  from  a  former  Leicester  prisoner  of  this  date,  the- 
reader  may  be  referred  to  p.  306. 


LEICESTER  437 

inhabitants  by  their  light-hearted  and  amiable  manners,  and, 
in  consequence,  were  very  civilly  treated.  They  were  free 
from  boasting,  temperate,  and  even  plain  in  living,  and  paid 
the  debts  they  had  contracted  during  their  residence  in  the 
town.' 

TRAGIC  EVENTS 

Tragic  events  were  by  no  means  so  common  among  the 
prisoners  on  parole  as  in  the  prisons,  no  doubt  because  of  the 
greater  variety  in  their  lives,  and  of  their  not  being  so  constantly 
in  close  company  with  each  other. 

A  French  officer,  on  parole  at  Andover  in  1811,  at  what  is 
now  Portland  House  in  West  Street,  fell  in  love  with  the 
daughter  of  his  host,  and  upon  her  rejection  of  his  suit,  retired 
to  a  summer-house  in  the  garden,  opened  a  vein  in  his  arm,  and 
bled  to  death. 

Duels  were  frequent,  and  not  only  would  there  have  been 
more,  had  weapons  of  offence  been  procurable,  but  the  results 
would  have  been  more  often  fatal. 

In  1812  two  French  officers  at  Reading  fought  in  a  field  near 
the  New  Inn  on  the  Oxford  road.  They  could  not  get  pistols, 
but  one  gun.  They  tossed  for  the  first  shot  with  it  at  fifty 
paces,  and  the  winner  shot  his  opponent  through  the  back  of 
the  neck  so  that  he  died. 

At  Leek  in  Staffordshire  in  the  same  year,  a  Captain  Decourbes 
went  out  fishing  and  came  in  at  curfew.  At  8  p.m.  in  the 
billiard-room  of  the  Black's  Head,  a  Captain  Robert  chaffed 
him  about  his  prowess  as  an  angler,  words  were  exchanged,  and 
Robert  insulted  and  finally  struck  him.  Decourbes,  of  course, 
challenged  him.  The  only  weapon  they  could  get  was  a 
cavalry  horse -pistol  which  they  borrowed  from  a  yeomanry 
trooper.  They  met  at  Balidone  on  October  17.  Decourbes  won 
the  toss  for  first  shot  and  hit  Robert  in  the  breech.  Robert, 
who  had  come  on  to  the  ground  on  crutches,  then  fired  and  hit 
Decourbes  in  the  nape  of  the  neck.  Decourbes  managed  to  walk 
back  to  Leek,  but  he  died  in  ten  days. 

A  very  different  version  of  this  affair  was  given  in  a  contem- 
porary Times.  According  to  this,  Decourbes,  about  ten  days 
before  the  duel,  was  out  of  his  lodgings  after  the  evening  bell 
had  rung,  and  the  boys  of  Leek  collected  and  pelted  him  with 


438  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

stones.  His  behaviour  caused  one  of  his  brother  officers  to  say 
that  he  was  '  soft '  and  would  faint  at  the  sight  of  his  own  blood. 
Decourbes  gave  him  the  lie,  the  other  struck  him,  and  the  result 
was  a  challenge  and  the  duel  as  described.  But  the  verdict y 
'  Died  by  the  visitation  of  God,'  was  questioned,  and  the  writer 
of  a  letter  to  The  Times  declared  that  there  was  no  evidence  of 
a  duel,  as  Decourbes'  body  was  in  a  putrid  state,  and  that  three 
French  and  two  English  surgeons  had  declared  that  he  had 
died  from  typhus. 

In  1807  a  tragedy  was  enacted  at  Chesterfield  which  caused 
much  stir  at  the  time.  Colonel  Richemont  and  Captain  Meant 
were  fellow  prisoners,  released  from  the  Chatham  hulks,  and 
travelling  together  to  Chesterfield  where  they  were  to  live  on 
parole.  On  the  road  thither  they  slept  at  Atherstone.  When 
Richemont  arrived  at  the  Falcon  Hotel  at  Chesterfield  he  found 
that  his  trunk  had  been  robbed  of  a  quantity  of  gold  dust, 
a  variety  of  gold  coins,  and  of  some  gold  and  silver  articles. 
Suspecting  that  it  had  been  done  at  the  inn  in  Atherstone,  he 
caused  inquiry  to  be  made,  but  without  result.  He  then 
suspected  his  fellow  traveller  Meant,  caused  his  box  to  be 
searched,  and  in  it  found  silver  spoons  and  other  of  his  missing 
property. 

Meant,  on  being  discovered,  tried  to  stab  himself,  but,  being 
prevented,  seized  a  bottle  of  laudanum  and  swallowed  its  con- 
tents. Then  he  wrote  a  confession,  and  finding  that  the 
laudanum  was  slower  in  action  than  he  expected,  tried  to  stab 
himself  again.  A  struggle  took  place  ;  Meant  refused  the 
emetic  brought,  and  died.  Meant 's  brother-in-law  brought  an 
action  against  Richemont,  declaring  that  the  latter  in  reality 
owed  the  dead  man  a  large  sum  of  money,  and  that  Meant  had 
only  taken  his  due.  During  the  trial  Colonel  Richemont  was 
very  violent  against  the  British,  and  especially  when  the  jury 
decided  the  case  against  him,  and  found  that  the  dead  man  was 
his  creditor,  although,  of  course,  the  means  he  employed  to  get 
what  was  his  were  illegal. 

Meant  was  buried,  according  to  usage,  at  the  union  of  four 
cross  roads  just  outside  the  borough  boundary,  with  a  stake 
driven  through  his  body.  The  funeral  took  place  on  a  Sunday, 
and  great  crowds  attended. 


TRAGIC  EVENTS 


439 


On  April  13,  1812,  Pierre  de  Romfort  or  De  la  Roche,  a 
prisoner  on  parole  at  Launceston,  was  hanged  at  Bodmin  for 
forgery.  '  He  behaved  very  penitently,  and  was  attended  to  at 
the  last  moment  by  Mr.  Lefers,  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  living 
at  Lanhearne.' 

I  quote  this  because  it  is  one  of  the  very  few  instances  of  this 
crime  being  committed  by  a  prisoner  on  parole. 

INTERNATIONAL  COURTESIES 

It  is  gratifying  to  read  testimonies  such  as  the  following, 
taken  out  of  many,  to  chivalry  and  kindness  on  the  part  of  our 
enemies,  and  to  note  practical  appreciations  of  such  conduct. 

In  1804  Captain  Areguandeau  of  the  Blonde  privateer,  cap- 
tured at  sea  and  put  on  the  parole  list,  was  applied  for  by  late 
British  prisoners  of  his  to  whom  he  had  been  kind,  to  be  returned 
to  France  unconditionally.  The  Commissioners  of  the  Trans- 
port Board  regretted  that  under  existing  circumstances  they 
could  not  accede  to  this,  but  allowed  him  a  choice  of  parole 
towns — Tiverton,  Ashbourne,  Chesterfield,  Leek,  or  Lichfield. 

In  1806,  Guerbe,  second  captain  of  a  transport,  was  allowed 
to  be  on  parole  although  he  was  not  so  entitled  by  his  rank, 
because  of  his  humane  treatment  of  Colonel  Eraser  and  other 
officers  and  men,  lately  his  prisoners. 

Lefort,  _on  parole  at  Tiverton,  was  allowed  to  go  to  France 
on  parole  because  of  his  kindly  treatment  of  the  wounded 
prisoners  on  the  Hannibal  (which,  after  a  heroic  resistance,  ran 
aground  in  1801  at  Algeciras  and  was  captured). 

In  1813  Captain  Collins  of  H.M.S.  Surveillante  successfully 
obtained  the  unconditional  release  of  Captain  Loysel  because 
of  the  splendid  manner  in  which  the  latter  had  risked  his  life 
in  protecting  two  British  officers,  who  were  wounded  in  the 
unsuccessful  first  attack  on  San  Sebastian,  from  being  killed  by 
some  drunken  or  infuriated  French  soldiers. 

A  French  marine  officer  named  Michael  Coie,  a  prisoner  on 
parole,  died  at  Andover,  November  9,  1813.  It  happened  that 
the  2nd  battalion,  5th  Regiment  was  halting  on  the  march  in 
the  town,  and  the  commanding  officer,  Captain  Boyle,  at  once 
offered  to  attend  the  funeral,  with  the  battalion,  the  regimental 
band  at  the  head.  This  was  done,  all  the  French  officers  in 


440  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

Andover  being  present.  The  act  of  grace  was  much  appreciated 
by  the  prisoners. 

So  also  when  General  Rufin — a  great  favourite  of  Bonaparte, 
captured  at  Barossa  in  1811 — died  in  the  May  of  that  year  on 
his  passage  to  England,  his  body  was  interred  in  the  Garrison 
Chapel  at  Portsmouth,  with  every  rank  of  honour  and  distinc- 
tion, minute  guns,  flags  half-mast  high,  and  three  rounds  of 
nine  pieces  of  cannon  at  the  close. 

In  1814,  an  officer  on  parole  at  Oswestry  was  liberated  for 
having  rescued  an  infant  from  the  paws  of  a  lion. 

The  following  is  pleasing  reading  : 

General  Barraguay-Hilliers,  who  with  his  suite  was  captured 
in  the  Sensible  by  H.M.S.  Seahorse  in  June  1798,  arrived  at 
Portsmouth  in  August,  and  on  the  very  day  after  his  arrival  was 
allowed  to  go  on  parole  to  France  with  his  aides-de-camp, 
Lamotte  and  Vallie.  But  before  they  could  get  out  of  England 
an  amusing  incident  occurred  which  afforded  an  English 
gentleman  an  opportunity  for  displaying  a  graceful  courtesy. 
The  officers  reached  Lewes  en  route  for  Dover,  where  they  hoped 
to  get  a  neutral  vessel  to  France,  but,  as  Brighton  races  were 
on,  not  for  love  or  money  could  they  get  a  conveyance  to  carry 
them  on  their  journey.  None  of  them  could  speak  English  ; 
they  were  not  allowed  by  the  terms  of  their  parole  to  go  to 
London,  which  they  might  have  done  by  mail-coach,  so  they 
resolved  to  send  their  baggage  on  by  cart,  and  themselves 
proceed  on  foot.  Sir  John  Shelley  of  Maresfield  Park  heard  of 
their  predicament,  and  at  once  sent  carriages  to  take  them  on 
to  Dover. 

It  is  also  pleasant  to  read  that  at  Tiverton  the  French  officers 
on  parole  there,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  conducted  them- 
selves in  such  a  way  as  to  win  the  esteem  and  regard  of  their 
hosts,  and  in  many  cases  lasting  friendships  were  formed  with 
them.  After  the  establishment  of  Peace  in  1815,  some,  rather 
than  return  to  France,  remained.  Among  these  was  M.  Alex- 
andre  de  la  Motte,  who  lived  at  Tiverton,  acquired  property 
there,  and  gained  much  respect  as  French  master  at  Blundell's 
School. 

That  so  gregarious  a  race  as  the  French  should  form  clubs 
and  associations  for  social  purposes  among  themselves  in 


INTERNATIONAL  COURTESIES  441 

all  circumstances  can  be  readily  understood,  and  in  almost 
every  parole  town  some  such  institution  existed,  and  in  no 
small  degree  contributed  to  the  enlivenment  of  local  social 
life.  There  were  also  no  less  than  twenty-five  lodges  and 
chapters  of  Freemasons  in  England,  and  others  in  Scotland. 
Still,  the  Government,  from  politic  motives,  warned  their  Agents 
to  keep  these  institutions  under  observation,  and  were  disposed 
to  regard  with  suspicion  such  clubs  as  the  '  Des  Amis  Reunis '  at 
Ashburton  and  Plymouth,  the  '  Enfants  de  Mars  et  de  Neptune  ' 
at  Abergavenny  and  Tiverton,  and  others  of  like  character,  as 
being  institutions  for  the  fomentation  sub  rosd  of  agitation  and 
disaffection.  For  the  same  reasons  all  amusements  which 
gathered  crowds  were  discouraged  among  the  prisoners. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 
VARIORUM 

(i)  SOME  DISTINGUISHED  PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

WHEN  the  roll  of  the  46th  Regiment  (or,  as  it  was,  the  46th 
demi-brigade),  of  the  French  Army  is  called,  the  name  of 
La  Tour  dAuvergne  brings  forward  the  sergeant-major  of 
the  Grenadier  Company,  who  salutes  and  replies  :  '  Dead  upon 
the  field  of  honour  !  ' 

This  unique  homage  to  Theophile  de  La  Tour  dAuvergne — 
who  won  the  distinguishing  title  of  '  First  Grenadier  of  the 
Republican  Armies '  in  an  age  and  an  army  crowded  with  brave 
men,  quite  as  much,  so  says  history,  by  his  modesty  as  by  his 
bravery  in  action — was  continued  for  some  time  after  his  death 
in  1800,  was  discontinued,  was  revived  in  1887,  and  has  been 
paid  ever  since. 

In  1795,  after  the  taking  of  San  Sebastian  by  the  French,  he 
applied  for  leave  of  absence  on  account  of  his  health,  and 
started  by  sea  for  his  native  Brittany,  but  the  ship  in  which  he 
sailed  was  captured  by  British  cruisers.  He  was  brought  to 
England  and  sent  to  Bodmin  on  parole.  Here  he  insisted  upon 
wearing  his  Republican  cockade,  a  silly,  unnecessary  act  of 
bravado  which  so  annoyed  some  English  soldiers  that  they 
mobbed  him,  and,  as  he  showed  a  disposition  to  resent  the 
attack,  matters  would  have  gone  hard  with  him  but  for  timely 
rescue.  (I  reproduce  a  picture  of  one  of  these  attacks  from  his 
biography  by  Montorgueil,  not  on  account  of  its  merit,  but  of 
its  absurdity.  La  Tour  d'Auvergne,  it  will  be  noted,  uses  his 
sword  toasting-fork  wise.  Not  even  the  most  distinguished  of 
parole  prisoners  was  ever  allowed  to  wear  his  sword,  although 
some  were  not  required  to  give  them  up  according  to  rule.) 
This  inspired  the  following  letter  from  him  to  the  Agent  at 
Bodmin : 

'  ist  October,  1795. 

'  SIR, 

'  I  address  myself  to  you  as  the  Agent  entrusted  by  your 
Government  with  the  immediate  care  of  the  French  prisoners 


LA  TOUR  D'AUVERGNE  DEFENDING  HIS  COCKADE  AT  BODMIN 


444  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

at  Bodmin,  to  acquaint  you  with  the  outrage  just  perpetrated 
upon  me  by  some  soldiers  of  the  garrison  in  this  town,  who,  on 
their  return  from  drill,  attacked  me  with  their  arms,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  violent  extremes  with  the  object  of  depriving  me  of 
my  cockade,  a  distinctive  part  of  my  military  uniform.  I  have 
always  worn  it  during  my  detention  in  England,  just  as  your 
officers,  prisoners  in  my  country,  have  always  worn  theirs 
without  being  interfered  with.  It  is  impossible,  Sir,  that  such 
behaviour  towards  an  officer  of  the  French  Republic  should 
have  been  encouraged  by  your  Government,  or  that  it  should 
countenance  any  outrage  upon  peaceable  prisoners  who  are 
here  under  your  protection.  Under  these  circumstances,  Sir, 
I  beg  you  without  delay  to  get  to  the  root  of  the  insult  to  which 
I  have  been  subjected,  so  that  I  may  be  able  to  adapt  my 
conduct  in  future  accordingly.  Into  whatever  extremity  I  may 
find  myself  reduced  by  my  determination  not  to  remove  my 
distinctive  badge,  I  shall  never  regard  as  a  misfortune  the  ills  and 
interferences  of  which  the  source  will  have  been  so  honourable 
to  me.' 

The  reply  of  the  Agent  was  probably  much  the  same  as  the 
Transport  Office  made  in  1804  to  a  letter  from  the  Agent  at 
Leek,  in  Staffordshire,  to  whom  a  French  midshipman  had 
complained  of  similar  interference. 

'  We  think  the  French  midshipman  very  imprudent  in 
wearing  his  Cockade,  as  it  could  answer  no  good  purpose,  and 
might  expose  him  to  evils  greater  than  he  has  already  experi- 
enced from  the  rage  of  the  populace,  and  you  are  to  inform  him 
if  he  persists  he  must  not  expect  protection  from  the  conse- 
quences.' 

In  1797  the  inhabitants  of  Bishop's  Waltham  complained  of 
the  constant  wearing  by  the  prisoners  there  of  Republican 
cockades,  and  the  reply  was  exactly  as  above. 

In  Cornwall  La  Tour  d'Auvergne  occupied  himself  with 
literary  pursuits,  especially  with  philology,  and  was  pleased 
and  interested  to  find  how  much  there  was  in  common  between 
phrases  and  words  of  Cornwall,  and  those  of  Brittany .  Con- 
cerning his  captivity  he  wrote  thus  to  Le  Coz,  Archbishop  of 
Besancon  : 

'  I  will  not  bother  you  with  an  account  of  all  I  have  had 
to  suffer  from  the  English  during  a  year  of  captivity,  they  being 
no  doubt  egged  on  by  our  French  e[migres]  and  pfrinces].  My 
Republican  spirit  finds  it  hard  to  dissemble  and  to  adapt  itself 


SOME  DISTINGUISHED  PRISONERS  445 

to  circumstances,  so  I  shall  show  myself  to  be  what  I  always 
have  been,  Frenchman  and  patriot.  The  revered  symbol  of  my 
nation,  the  tricolour  cockade,  was  always  on  my  hat,  and  the 
dress  I  wore  dans  les  fers  was  that  which  I  wore  in  battle. 
Hence  the  hatred  let  loose  against  me  and  the  persecutions 
which  I  have  had  to  endure.' 

He  returned  to  France  from  Penryn,  February  19,  1796,  and 
was  killed  at  Oberhausen  in  Bavaria  in  June  1800. 

From  the  following  extract  from  Legard's  biography,  and 
from  the  phrase  dans  les  fers  which  I  have  italicized  above, 
La  Tour  d'Auvergne  would  seem  to  have  been  in  prison, 
possibly  for  persistent  adherence  to  cockade-wearing  : 

'  It  was  horrible  to  see  the  misery  of  so  many  brave  French- 
men, crammed  into  unwholesome  dungeons,  struggling  against 
every  sort  of  want,  exposed  to  every  rigour  and  every  vexation 
imaginable  ,and  devoured  by  cruel  maladies.  La  Tour  d'Au- 
vergne kept  up  their  courage,  helped  them  in  every  way,  shared 
his  money  with  them,  and  was  indignant  to  hear  how  agents  of 
the  Government  tried  to  seduce  them  from  their  fidelity,  corrupt 
them,  and  show  them  how  hateful  was  the  French  Government/ 

After  Trafalgar  the  Spanish  prisoners  were  confined  at 
Gibraltar,  the  French,  numbering  210  officers  and  4,589  men, 
were  brought  to  England.  The  rank  and  file  who  were  landed 
at  Portsmouth  were  imprisoned  at  Fort  on,  Port  Chester,  and  in 
seven  hulks  ;  those  at  Plymouth  in  the  Millbay  Prison  and 
eight  hulks  ;  those  at  Chatham  in  four  hulks.  The  officers 
from  the  captured  ships  Fougueux,  Aigle,  Mont-Blanc,  Berwick, 
Scipion,  Formidable,  Intrepide,  Achille,  and  Duguay  Trouin, 
were  sent  to  Crediton  and  Wincanton. 

Admiral  Villeneuve  and  his  suite  were  first  at  Bishop's 
Waltham,  where  he  was  bound  by  the  ordinary  rules  of  a 
prisoner  on  parole,  except  that  his  limits  were  extended  ;  he 
was  allowed  to  visit  Lord  Clanricarde,  and  to  retain,  but  not 
to  wear,  his  arms. 

He  had  asked  to  be  sent  to  London,  but,  although  this  was 
not  granted  him,  he  was  allowed  to  choose  any  town  for  parole, 
north  or  west  of  London,  but  not  within  thirty  miles. 

He  had  leave  to  visit  any  of  the  neighbouring  nobility  and 
gentry,  and  his  lieutenants  could  go  three  miles  in  any  direction. 
He  chose  Reading,  which  was  not  then  a  regular  parole  town, 


446  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

although  it  became  one  later.  Hither  he  went  with  Majendie, 
his  captain,  whose  third  experience  it  was  of  captivity  in  Eng- 
land (he  had  been  actually  taken  prisoner  five  times,  and 
had  served  two  years,  one  month,  twenty-five  days  as  prisoner 
in  England),  Lucas  of  the  Redoutdble,  and  Infernet  of  the 
Intrepide.  Villeneuve  and  Majendie  attended  Nelson's  funeral 
in  London,  and  a  little  later  Majendie  had  permission  to  go  to 
France  to  try  to  arrange  some  definite  system  of  prisoner- 
exchange  between  the  two  countries.  In  March  1806  Villeneuve 
was  exchanged  for  four  post-captains,  and  went  to  France  with 
his  officers  and  suite  on  the  condition  that  once  in  every  two 
months  he  gave  notice  to  a  British  agent  of  his  place  of  residence, 
and  was  not  to  change  the  same  without  notifying  it. 

Upon  his  arrival  in  Paris  Villeneuve  found  that  Lucas  and 
Infernet  had  been  much  honoured  by  Bonaparte  and  made 
rear-admirals.  No  notice  was  taken  of  him  by  Bonaparte, 
who  had  always  disliked  and  despised  him,  and  one  day  he  was 
found  stabbed  at  the  Hotel  de  la  Patrie,  Rennes.  Bonaparte 
was  suspected  of  foul  play,  and  again  was  heard  the  saying, 
'  How  fortunate  Napoleon  is  !  All  his  enemies  die  of  their 
own  accord  !  '  At  St.  Helena,  however,  Bonaparte  strenuously 
denied  the  imputation. 

Lucas,  captain  of  the  Redoutable,  the  ship  whence  Nelson 
received  his  death-shot,  was  at  Tiverton.  His  heroic  defence, 
his  fight  against  the  Tem&raire  and  the  Victory  at  the  same 
time,  resulting  in  a  loss  out  of  645  men  of  300  killed  and  222 
wounded,  are  among  the  immortal  deeds  of  that  famous  day. 
Only  169  of  his  men  were  made  prisoners,  and  of  these  only 
35  came  to  England  ;  the  rest,  being  wounded,  went  down  with 
the  ship. 

Villeneuve  said  when  he  wrote  to  congratulate  Lucas  upon 
being  honoured  by  Bonaparte  : 

'  Si  tous  les  capitaines  de  vaisseaux  s'etaient  conduits  comme 
vous,  a  Trafalgar,  la  victoire  n'eut  pas  ete  un  instant  indecisive, 
certainement  personne  ne  le  sait  aussi  bien  que  moi.' 

His  conduct  was  so  much  appreciated  in  England,  that  at 
a  supper  given  him  by  Lady  Warren  his  sword  was  returned 
to  him. 

Rear-Admiral   Dumanoir   of  the   Formidable  was   also   at 


SOME  DISTINGUISHED  PRISONERS  447 

Tiverton.  Although  he  fought  at  Trafalgar,  he  was  not 
captured  there,  as  it  was  thought  in  many  quarters  he  should 
have  been  or  have  died  with  his  ship.  From  Tiverton  he 
wrote,  with  permission,  under  date  of  January  2,  1806,  to  The 
Times,  replying  to  some  rather  severe  remarks  which  had  been 
made  in  that  paper  concerning  his  behaviour  at  Trafalgar, 
tantamount  to  saying  that  during  the  greater  part  of  the  battle 
he  had  remained  a  mere  passive  spectator.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  relate  the  facts,  which  are  fully  given  by  James,  the  naval 
historian. 

In  1809  ne  nad  special  leave  to  go  on  parole  to  France  to 
defend  himself,  but  the  Transport  Office  refused  to  allow  three 
captains  and  two  adjutants  to  go  with  him,  because  of  the 
continual  refusal  of  the  French  Government  to  release  British 
prisoners.  At  first  he  was  not  allowed  to  take  even  his  secre- 
tary, a  non-combatant,  but  later  this  was  permitted.  The 
Court  Martial  in  France  acquitted  him,  and  in  1811  he  was 
made  a  vice-admiral  and  Governor  of  Danzig,  and  behaved 
with  great  credit  during  the  siege  of  that  city  by  the  Allies  in 
1814.  In  connexion  with  this,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the 
only  British  naval  flag  trophy  at  the  Invalides  in  Paris  was 
captured  by  Dumanoir  at  Danzig. 

It  is  not  out  of  place  here  to  note  that  Cartigny,  the  last 
French  survivor  of  Trafalgar,  who  died  at  Hyeres  in  1892,  aged 
101,  had  a  considerable  experience  of  war-prisoner  life,  for, 
besides  having  been  on  a  Plymouth  hulk,  he  was  at  Dartmoor 
and  at  Stapleton.  He  attended  the  Prince  Imperial's  funeral 
at  Chislehurst  in  1879. 

Marienier,  a  black  general,  captured  at  San  Domingo,  was, 
with  his  four  wives,  brought  to  Portsmouth.  The  story  is 
that,  being  entitled  to  parole  by  his  rank,  when  the  Agent 
presented  him  the  usual  form  for  signature,  he  said  :  '  Je  ne 
connais  pas  le  mystere  de  la  plume  ;  c'est  par  ceci  (touching  the 
hilt  of  his  sword)  que  je  suis  parvenu  au  grade  que  je  tiens. 
Voila  mon  aide-de-camp  ;  il  sait  ecrire,  et  il  signera  pour  moi.' 

Tallien,  Revolutionist  writer,  prominent  Jacobin,  agent  of 
the  Terror  in  Bordeaux,  and  largely  responsible  for  the  down- 
fall of  Robespierre,  was  captured  on  his  way  home  from  Egypt, 
whither  he  had  gone  with  Bonaparte's  expedition.  As  he  was 


448  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

a  non-combatant  he  was  only  a  prisoner  a  short  time,  and  went 
to  London,  where  he  was  lionized  by  the  Whig  party.  He 
married  Madame  de  Fontenai,  whose  salon  in  Paris  was  the 
most  brilliant  of  the  Directory  period,  and  where  Bonaparte 
first  met  Madame  de  Beauharnais. 

In  1809  Francois,  nephew  of  the  great  actor  Talma,  was 
taken  prisoner.  He  was  nobody  in  particular,  but  his  case  is 
interesting  inasmuch  as  his  release  on  January  I,  1812,  was 
largely  brought  about  by  the  interest  of  Talma's  great  friend, 
John  Kemble. 

Admiral  Count  Linois  was  as  worthy  a  prisoner  as  he  had 
proved  himself  many  times  a  worthy  foe.  A  French  writer 
describes  him  as  having  displayed  during  his  captivity  a  philo- 
sophic resignation ;  and  even  the  stony-hearted  Transport 
Board,  in  acceding  to  his  request  that  his  wife  should  be 
allowed  to  join  him  at  Bath,  complimented  him  on  his  be- 
haviour '  which  has  formed  a  very  satisfactory  contrast  to  that 
of  many  officers  of  high  rank,  by  whom  a  similar  indulgence 
has  been  abused.' 

Lucien,  Bonaparte's  second  brother,  was  a  prisoner  in 
England,  but  very  nominally,  from  1810  to  1814.  He  could 
not  fall  in  with  the  grand  and  ambitious  ideas  of  his  brother  so 
far  as  they  touched  family  matters.  Bonaparte,  having  made 
his  brothers  all  princes,  considered  that  they  should  marry 
accordingly.  Lucien  married  the  girl  he  loved  ;  his  brother 
resented  it,  and  passed  the  Statute  of  March  30, 1806,  by  which 
it  was  enacted  that  '  Marriages  of  the  Imperial  Family  shall  be 
null  and  void  if  contracted  without  the  permission  of  the 
Emperor,  as  the  princes  ought  to  be  devoted  without  reserve 
to  the  great  interests  of  the  country,  and  the  glory  of  our  house.' 
He  wanted  Lucien  to  marry  the  Queen  of  Etruria,  widow  of 
Louis  I,  Prince  of  Parma,  a  match  which,  when  Tuscany  should 
be  annexed  to  the  Empire,  would  mean  that  their  throne  would 
be  that  of  Spain  and  the  Indies. 

So  Lucien  sailed  for  the  United  States,  but  was  captured  by 
a  British  cruiser  carried  to  Malta,  and  thence  to  England.  He 
was  sent  on  parole  to  Ludlow,  where  he  lived  at  Dinham  House. 
Then  he  bought  Thorngrove,  near  Worcester,  where  he  lived 
until  1814,  and  where  he  wrote  Charlemagne,  ou  VEglise  sauvee. 


SOME  DISTINGUISHED  PRISONERS  449 

Cambronne,  wounded  at  the  head  of  the  Imperial  Guard  at 
Waterloo,  and  reputed  author  of  a  famous  mot  which  he  never 
uttered,  was  for  two  hours  on  a  Portsmouth  hulk,  but  was  soon 
placed  on  parole,  and  was  at  Ashburton  in  Devonshire  until 
November  1815.  The  grand-daughter  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  at  whose 
house  Cambronne  lodged,  still  preserves  at  the  Golden  Lion 
a  portrait  of  the  general,  given  by  him  to  Mrs.  Eddy.  From 
England  he  wrote  to  Louis  XVIII,  professing  loyalty,  and 
offering  his  services,  but  on  his  arrival  in  Paris  was  brought  up 
for  trial  on  these  counts  : 

(i)  Having  betrayed  the  King.  (2)  Having  made  an  armed 
attack  on  France.  (3)  Having  procured  aid  for  Bonaparte  by 
violence.  He  was  adjudged  Not  Guilty  on  all  three. 

Admiral  De  Winter,  Commander  of  the  Dutch  fleet  at 
Camperdown,  was  a  prisoner  for  a  year  in  England,  but  I 
cannot  learn  where.  It  is  gratifying  to  read  his  appreciation 
of  the  kindly  treatment  he  received,  as  expressed  in  his  speech 
at  his  public  entry  into  Amsterdam  after  his  release  in  Decem- 
ber 1798. 

'  The  fortune  of  war  previously  forced  me  to  live  abroad,  and, 
being  since  then  for  the  first  time  vanquished  by  the  enemy, 
I  have  experienced  a  second  state  of  exile.  However  mortify- 
ing to  the  feelings  of  a  man  who  loves  his  country,  the  satis- 
factory treatment  I  met  with  on  the  part  of  the  enemy,  the 
English,  and  the  humane  and  faithful  support  and  assistance 
they  evinced  towards  my  worthy  countrymen  and  fellow 
sufferers,  have  considerably  softened  the  horrors  of  my  situa- 
tion. Nay  !  Worthy  burghers  !  I  must  not  conceal  from  you 
that  the  noble  liberality  of  the  English  nation  since  this  bloody 
contest  justly  entitles  them  to  your  admiration.' 

De  Winter's  flag-ship,  the  Vryheid,  was  for  many  years 
a  hulk  at  Chatham. 

(2)  SOME  STATISTICS 

Statistics  are  wearisome,  but,  in  order  that  readers  may  form 
some  idea  of  the  burden  cast  on  the  country  by  the  presence  of 
prisoners  of  war,  I  give  a  few  figures. 

During  the  Seven  Years'  War  the  annual  average  number  of 
prisoners  of  war  in  England  was  18,800,  although  the  total  of 

ABELL  Q   g 


450  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

one  year,  1762,  was  26,137.  This,  it  must  be  remembered,  was 
before  the  regular  War  Prison  became  an  institution,  so  that 
the  burden  was  directly  upon  the  people  among  whom  the 
prisoners  were  scattered.  Of  these,  on  an  average,  about 
15,700  were  in  prisons  healthy,  and  1,200  sick  ;  1,850  were  on 
parole  healthy,  and  60  sick.  The  total  net  cost  of  these 
prisoners  was  £1,174,906.  The  total  number  of  prisoners 
brought  to  Britain  between  the  years  1803  and  1814  was 
122,440.  Of  these  10,341  died  whilst  in  captivity,  and  17,607 
were  exchanged  or  sent  home  sick  or  on  parole.  The  cost  of 
these  was  £6,800,000. 

The  greatest  number  of  prisoners  at  one  time  in  Britain  was 
about  72,000  in  1814. 

The  average  mortality  was  between  one  and  three  per  cent., 
but  epidemics  (such  as  that  which  at  Dartmoor  during  seven 
months  of  1809  and  1810  caused  422  deaths — more  than  double 
the  total  of  nineteen  ordinary  months — and  that  at  Norman 
Cross  in  1801  from  which,  it  is  said,  no  less  than  1,000  prisoners 
died)  brought  up  the  percentages  of  particular  years  very 
notably.  Thus,  during  the  six  years  and  seven  months  of 
Dartmoor's  existence  as  a  war-prison,  there  were  1,455  deaths, 
which,  taking  the  average  number  of  prisoners  as  5,600,  works 
out  at  about  four  per  cent.,  but  the  annual  average  was  not 
more  than  two  and  a  quarter  per  cent.,  except  in  the  above- 
quoted  years.  The  average  mortality  on  the  prison  ships  was 
slightly  higher,  working  out  all  round  at  about  three  per  cent., 
but  here  again  epidemics  made  the  percentages  of  particular 
years  jump,  as  at  Portsmouth  in  1812,  when  the  average  of 
deaths  rose  to  about  four  per  cent. 

Strange  to  say,  the  sickness-rate  of  officers  on  parole  was 
higher  than  that  of  prisoners  in  confinement.  Taking  at 
random  the  year  1810,  for  example,  we  find  that  at  one  time  out 
of  45,940  prisoners  on  the  hulks  and  in  prisons,  only  320  were 
in  hospital,  while  at  the  same  time  of  2,710  officers  on  parole 
no  less  than  165  were  on  the  sick-list.  Possibly  the  greater 
prevalence  of  duels  among  the  latter  may  account  for  this. 


VARIORUM  451 

(3)  EPITAPHS  OF  PRISONERS 

I  do  not  claim  completeness  for  the  following  list,  for  neglect 
has  allowed  the  obliteration  of  many  stones  in  our  churchyards 
which  traditionally  mark  the  last  resting-places  of  prisoners 
of  war. 

At  New  Alresford,  Hampshire,  on  the  west  side  of  the 
church  : 

'  Ici  repose  le  corps  de  M.  Joseph  Hypolite  Riouffe,  enseigne 
de  vaisseau  de  la  Marine  Imperiale  et  Royale  qui  mourut  le 
12  Dec.  1810,  age  28  ans.  II  emporta  les  regrets  de  tous  ses 
camarades  et  personnes  qui  le  connurent.' 

'  Ci-git  le  corps  de  M.  Pre  Gamier,  sous-lieut.  au  66me 
regiment  d'Infanterie  Frangaise,  ne  le  14  Avril  1773,  mort 
le  31  Juillet  1811.' 

'  Ci-git  le  corps  de  M.  C.  Lavau,  officier  de  commerce,  decede 
le  25  de  Xbre  loll,  et  la  29  de  son  age.' 

'  Ici  est  le  corps  de  Marie  Louise  Vve  Fournier,  epouse  de 
Francois  Bertet,  capitaine  au  Corps  Imperial  d'Artillerie 
Fran9aise,  decedee  le  nme  Avril  1812,  agee  de  44  ans.' 

'  Ci-git  Jean  de  1'Huille,  lieutenant  d'Artillerie  Frangaise, 
decede  le  6  Avril  1812,  age  de  51.' 

At  Leek,  Staffordshire : 

'  Qy-git  Jean  Marie  Claude  Decourbes,  enseigne  de  vaisseau 
de  la  Marine  Imperiale  de  France,  decede  17  Octobre  1812, 
age  de  27  ans — Fidelis  Decori  Occubuit  Patriaeque  Deoque.' 

'  Jean-Baptiste  Milloy.  Capitaine  72me  cavalerie,  decede 
2  Sept.  1811,  age  de  43  ans.' 

'  Joseph  Debec,  Capitaine  du  navire  "  La  Sophie  "  de 
Nantes.  Obiit  Sept.  2me  1811,  age  de  54  ans.' 

'  Charles  Luneaud,  Capitaine  de  la  Marine  Imperiale.  Mort 
le  4me  Mars  1812.' 

There  also  died  at  Leek,  but  no  stones  mark  their  graves, 
General  Brunet  (captured  at  San  Domingo,  with  his  A.D.C. 
Colonel  Degouillier,  and  his  Adjutant-General,  Colonel  Lefevre), 
Colonel  Felix  of  the  Artillery,  Lieut. -Col.  Granville,  Captain 
Pouget,  Captain  Dupuis  of  the  72nd  Infantry,  Captain  Frangois 
Vevelle  (1809),  Lieut.  Davoust  of  the  Navy,  son  of  the  General, 
and  Midshipmen  Meunier,  Berthot,  and  Birtin — the  last-named 
was  a  prisoner  eleven  years,  and  'behaved  extremely  well '. 
Also  there  are  registered  the  burials  of  Jean  le  Roche,  in  1810, 

Gg2 


452  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

aged  44,  J.  B.  Lahouton,  died  1806,  aged  28  ;    '  C.A.G.     A 
French  Prisoner  '  in  1812,  aged  62  ;    and  Alexander  Gay,  in 
1850. 
At  Okehampton,  Devon  : 

'  Cette  pierre  fut  elevee  par  1'amitie  a  la  memoire  d'Armand 
Bernard,  ne  au  Havre  en  Normandie,  marie  a   Calais   a  Mile 
Margot  ;    deuxieme  officier  de  commerce,   decede  Prisonnier 
de  Guerre  a  Okehampton,  le  26  Oct.  1815.     Age  33  ans. 
A  1'abri  des  vertus  qui  distinguaient  la  vie, 
Tu  reposes  en  paix,  ombre  tendre  et  cherie.' 

'  Ci-git  Adelaide  Barrin  de  Puyleanne  de  la  Commune  de 
Montravers,  Dep*  des  Deux-Sevres,  nee  le  21  Avril  1771, 
decedee  a  Okehampton  le  18  Fev.  1811.  Ici  repose  la  mere  et 
1'enfant.' 

In  the  churchyards  of  Wincanton  and  Andover  are  stones  to- 
the  memories  of  Russian  and  Polish  officers. 

In  the  churchyard  at  Tenter  den,  Kent,  there  is  a  tomb 
upon  which  is  carved  a  ship  and  a  recumbent  figure,  with  the 
epitaph : 

*  Hier  Zegt  Begraven  Schipper  Siebe  Nannes,  Van  de  Jower 
in  Vriesland,  is  in  den  Heere  Gernstden,  8  November,  1781. 
Oudt  47  Jaren.'  On  the  other  side  is  inscribed : 

'As  he  's  the  first,  the  neighbours  say,  that  lies 
First  of  War  captives  buried  in  this  place  : 
So  may  he  hope  to  be  the  first  to  rise 
And  gain  the  Mansions  of  Eternal  Peace/ 

By  the  way,  it  may  be  remarked,  in  association  with  the 
above  Dutch  burial,  that  there  are  to-day  in  Tenterden  work- 
people named  Vanlanschorten,  who  are  said  to  be  descended 
from  a  prisoner  of  war. 

At  Bishop's  Castle  church,  in  Montgomeryshire,  there  is 
a  stone  opposite  the  belfry  door  inscribed : 

'  A  la  Memoire  de  Louis  Pages,  Lieut. -Col.  des  chevaux-legers ; 
chevalier  des  ordres  militaires  des  Deux  Siciles  et  d'Espagne. 
Mort  a  Bishop's  Castle  le  ier  Mai  1814,  age  de  40  ans.' 

In  the  Register  of  the  same  church  is  recorded  the  baptism 
of  a  son  of  Antoine  Marie  Jeanne  Ary  Bandart,  Captain  of  the 
4th  Regiment  of  Light  Infantry,  Member  of  the  Legion  of 
Honour,  a  prisoner  of  war  ;  and  fifteen  months  later  the  burial 


EPITAPHS  OF  PRISONERS  453 

of  the  child.  These  are  in  1813  and  1814.  In  the  latter  year 
also  is  recorded  the  baptism  of  a  son  of  Joseph  and  Maria 
Moureux. 

In  the  churchyard  of  Moreton-Hampstead,  Devon,  are 
ranged  against  the  wall  stones  with  the  following  epitaphs  : 

*  A  la  memoire  de  Louis  Ambroise  Quanti,  Lieut,  du  44  Reg* 
du  Corps  Imperial  d'Artillerie  de  Marine.  Age  de  33  ans. 
Decede  le  29  Avril  1809.'  The  Masonic  compass  and  dividers 
follow  the  inscription. 

'  Ici  repose  le  corps  de  M.  Armand  Aubry,  Lieut,  du  7Ome  Reg* 
d'Infanterie  de  Ligne.  Age  de  42  ans.  Decede  le  10  Juin  1811. 
Priez  Dieu  pour  le  repos  de  son  ame.'  This  is  followed  by  two 
crossed  swords. 

'  A  la  memoire  de  Jean  Francois  Roil ;  Aspirant  de  la  Marine 
Imperiale,  age  de  21  ans.  Decede  le  22  Janvier  1811.'  This 
has  as  emblem  a  sword  and  anchor  crossed. 

There  are  still  in  Moreton-Hampstead  two  shops  bearing 
the  name  of  Rihll.  To  the  register-entries  of  two  of  the  above 
deaths  is  added  :  '  These  were  buried  in  Wooling,  according  to 
Act  of  Parliament/ 

In  the  churchyard  of  Ashburton,  Devon,  is  a  stone  thus 
inscribed  : 

Ici 

Repose  Frangois  Guidon  natif  de  Cambrai  en  France,  Sous- 
Lieutenant  au  46me  Reg*  de  Ligne.  Decede  le  18  7bre  1815. 
Age  de  22  ans.  Requiescat  in  Pace.' 

At  East  Dereham,  Norfolk  : 

'  In  memory  of  Jean  de  la  Narde,  son  of  a  notary  public  of 
Saint  Malo,  a  French  prisoner  of  war,  who,  having  escaped 
from  the  bell  tower  of  this  Church,  was  pursued  and  shot  by 
a  soldier  on  duty.  October  6th,  1799.  Aged  28.' 

Mr.  Webb,  of  Andover,  sends  me  the  following  registrations 
of  death  : 

J.  Alline.     Prisoner  of  War.     March  18,  1802. 
Nicholas  Ockonloff.     Prisoner  of  War.     March  19,  1808. 
Michael  Coie.    Prisoner  of  War.    November  9,  1813.    [For 
an  account  of  his  funeral  see  pp.  439-40.] 

At  Odiham,  in  Hampshire,  are  the  graves  of  two  French 
prisoners  of  war.  When  I  visited  them  in  August  1913,  the 


454  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  BRITAIN 

inscriptions  had  been  repainted  and  a  memorial  wreath  laid 
upon  each  grave.     The  inscriptions  are  as  follows  : 

'  Cy-git  Piere  Feron,  Capitaine  au  66e  Regiment  de  Ligne, 
Chevalier  de  I'Empire  Francais,  ne  a  Reims,  Depart*  de  la 
Marne,  l.e  15  Aout  1766,  decede  a  Odiham  le  8  Mai  1810.' 

'  Pierre  Julian  Jonneau,  son  of  Jean  Joseph  Jonneau, 
de  Daure,  and  of  Marie  Charlotte  Franquiny  de  Feux,  officer  in 
the  administration  of  the  French  Navy.  Born  in  the  Isle  of 
Rhe.  Died  at  Odiham,  September  4th,  1809,  in  the  2Qth  year 
of  his  age. 

"  He  was  a  Prisoner  of  War.    Death  hath  made  him  free."  ; 

During  the  Communist  trouble  in  France  in  1871,  quite 
a  large  number  of  French  people  came  over  to  Odiham  until 
order  should  be  restored,  and  it  was  during  their  stay  here,  but 
not  by  them,  that  the  above-mentioned  graves  were  put  in 
order.  The  old  houses  facing  the  Church  and  the  stocks  in 
Bury  Close,  and  those  by  the  large  chalk-pit  at  the  entrance  to 
the  town,  remain  much  as  when  they  were  the  lodgings  of  the 
prisoners  of  war. 


INDEX 


Abergavenny,  281,   298,  363-4,  383, 

393.  423. 

Admiralty,  controlling  exchange  of 
prisoners,  26,  30  ;  responsible  for 
safety  of  prisoners,  106,  no,  279, 
354,  366,  368-9,  383,  385,  392,  406; 
responsible  for  well-being  of  prison- 
ers, 5,  16,  24,  71,  75,  129,  188,  362. 

Agents,  Parole,  407-8  ;  censured 
and  dismissed,  393 ;  their  duties  and 
powers,  279,  286-7,  29i.  3*3,  335, 
341-2,  358,  370,  388,  397,  409,  418, 
442-4;  frauds  by,  312,  406;  friendly 
relations  with  prisoners,  298,  340, 
352-3,  410,  415-16,  425  ;  un- 
friendly relations,  301,  396. 

Agents,  War-Prisoner,  censured  and' 
dismissed,  192,  204;  their  duties,  18, 
21,  29,  31,  47,  58, 119-20,  132, 144, 
147,  150-1,  192,  274,  361-2,  369- 
70 ;  friendly  relations  with  prisoners, 
135,  164-5,  J8i,  263  ;  unfriendly 
relations,  12,  216,  265. 

Alresford,  75,  77,  281,  284-5,  289, 
298,  306-7,  347,  367,  410,  420,  451. 

Amatory  relations  of  prisoners  on 
parole  (see  also  Marriages  and 
Illegitimate  children),  266,  305-7, 
325,  359,  375-  386-7,  402,  405,  414, 
429,  437- 

American  prisoners,  2,  u,  48,  82-91, 
116,  183,  186,  213,  215-16,  220-7, 
247-61,  266,  286,  361,  432-3. 

Amiens,  Peace  of,  194-5. 

Andover,  290,  298,  307,  379,  384,  391, 
437,  439-40,  452-3- 

Andrews,  Charles  (American  prisoner) , 
247-8,  250-3. 

Angling,   by  paroled  prisoners,   319, 

328-9,  333-4,  34i,  349,  437- 

Anton,  James,  A  Military  Life 
(quoted),  205—6. 

Arbroath,  162. 

Arenburg,  Prince,  418. 

Articles  made  by  prisoners  (see  also 
Paintings,  Ship -model  making),  60, 
84,  132-5,  148,  153,  158,  173,  176, 
181-2,  193,  203-5,  211,  220,  243, 
278,  3*9.  32i,  324,  347,  36o,  391, 
412,  414,  416,  430,  435. 

Ashbourne,  291,  298,  307,  375,  386, 
392,  413-14,  439- 


Ashburton,   284-5,  298,  408,  432-3, 

449,  453- 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch,    288,    291,    298, 

304,  379,  386,  390,  428-31. 
Ashford,  284,  404,  408. 
Assistance    (Portsmouth    hulk),    43, 

107. 
Auctions,  prisoners',  331-2,  348. 

Bahama  (Chatham  hulk),  54-6,  58-60, 

79,  90-1,  303- 
Barnet,   393. 

Barney,  Commodore  Joshua,  224-7. 
Basingstoke,  284,  404. 
Bath,  281,  291,  395,  403,  448. 
Bazin,  Ensign,  347. 
Beasley,  Reuben  (Agent  for  American 

prisoners),  84,  86,  249-51,  254,  258. 
Beaudouin,    Sergeant-Major,    79-82, 

202-5 . 

Beccles,  285. 
Bedale,  412. 

Belgian  prisoners,  333-4. 
Bell,  George,  agent  at  Jedburgh,  298, 

388. 
Bertaud  (Breton  privateer  prisoner), 

64-6. 

Berwick,  316,  331-2,  350. 
Bethune,  M.  de,  399,  400. 
Bibles  among  the  prisoners,  121-2, 

165,  232,   342. 
Bideford,  281,  284. 
Billeting  of  prisoners  on  parole,  335, 

348,  351,  354,  359,  418,  422,  432  ; 

of  soldiers,  206. 
Billiards,  15,  39,  83,  86,  177,  212,  304, 

319,  328,  335,  417. 
Birmingham,  304,  384. 
Bishop's  Castle,  298,  307,  359,  391, 

452. 
Bishops,  French,  and  the  prisoners, 

97, '120-1,  146. 
Bishop's  Waltham,    74,   284-5,   289, 

291,   298,    310-11,    393,    396,   403, 

444-5- 

Bitche,  36,  333  n. 

Black  Hole,  as  punishment  for 
attempted  escapes,  6,  7,  55,  58,  66, 
105-8,  158,  160,  163,  170,  200,  221, 
263,  312  ;  for  acts  of  violence,  123  ; 
for  parole  prisoners,  58,  408  ;  in 
shore  prisons,  20,  122,  130,  139-41, 


456 


INDEX 


143,  146,  204-5,  215,  217,  238,  243  ; 

on  the  hulks.  69,  103. 
Blackmailing  of  prisoners,  359,  405. 
Blyth,  350,  389. 
Boat-stealing  by  escaping  prisoners, 

27-8,  57.  92-3,  no,  161,  164,  172, 

233..  269,  273,  363,  383. 
Bodmin,  439,  442—4. 
Bonaparte,   Lucien,   448. 
Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  22,   32-6,  84, 

99,  no,  144,  153,  164-5,  J79.  314. 

330,  333.  342,  380.  382,   394.  435. 

446-8. 
Bones,  use  of,  made  by  prisoners,  135, 

176,  205,  218,  221,275-6,  347,  349- 

50,  363- 
Bonnefoux,  Baron  de,  54-60,  73,  .76, 

300-304. 
Borough  jails,  115,  117—8,  186,  192, 

194,  268,  333,  361. 
Borrow,  George,  138,  148,  152. 
Botanists  among  the  prisoners,  319, 

321,  324- 
Boulogne,  28,  56,  118,  182,  292,  304, 

381-2. 

Bounty,  French  Royal,  4,  6-7,  167. 
Bower,  John  (agent  at  Chesterfield), 

305,  4*5- 

Boycotting  by  prisoners,  222,  410. 
Boyer,  General,  32,  144,  305,  416,  425. 
Boys  among  the  prisoners,  121,  146, 

J52. 
Bread  supplied  to  prisoners,  quality 

of,  4,  5,  12,  15,  21,  42,  47,  49,  63,  79, 

85,  136,  151,  176,  191-3,  205,  208-9, 

211,  221,  258,   263,  265,   361. 

Brecon,  298,  364. 

Brest,  9,  30,  183,  332. 

Breton  prisoners,  64-6,  229. 

Bribes  from  prisoners  (see  also  Collu- 
sion), 94-5,  128, 130,  158,  160,  167, 
193,  225,  235,  244,  254,  292,  373  ; 
other  bribery,  148-9,  204,  210-11, 
294. 

Bridgnorth,  298,  312,  314,  383,  418. 

Brighton  (Brighthelmstone),  30,  106, 
no. 

Bristol,  116-7,  I86,  207-8,  210-14, 
221,281-2,284-5,289,  399-400,  411. 

Bristol  (Chatham  hulk),  79,  205. 

Brunswick  (Chatham  hulk),  23-4,  51, 
75-77,  100,  101. 

Buckingham  (Chatham  hulk),  39,  79. 

Cachot ;  see  Black  Hole. 

Calais,  25-6,  56,  103,  106,  in,  113, 

183,  276,  283,  292. 
Callington,  284,  406. 
Calshot  Castle,  102,  172. 
Cambridge,  154. 
Cambronne,  449. 


Camelford,  279-80. 
Canada  (Chatham  hulk),  75—6,  79,  94. 
Canterbury,  30,  57-8,  366-7,  370,  385. 
'  Capitalists  '    among    the    prisoners, 

177,  203  (armateurs),  228-9. 
Carlisle,  192. 

Carpenter,  Madame,  98,  213. 
Carre  (French  prisoner),  181,  185. 
Cartel  ports,   25,    150;     service   and 

cartel   ships,    10,   25-7,    29,    30-1, 

102,  140,  281,  309. 
Castlereagh,  Lord,  366. 
Catel,  241,  245-7. 
Cawdor,  Lord,  183.  362—3. 
Chambers,  William,  333-8,  340. 
Chartres,  Due  de,  385. 
Chatham,  54-6,  58,  79,  87,  118,  247, 

281  ;    hulks  at,  8,  22-4,  31,  38-9, 

41,  44,  51-2,  54,  75-9,  82,  84,  87, 

89,  93-8,   IOO-I,   Il8,    152,  2Q2;   2O5, 
247,  256,  28l,  283,   302-3,   386',   390, 

438,  445,  449. 

Cheltenham,  371,  373,  382,  403. 
Cherbourg,  93,  102,  424. 
Chester,  192. 
Chesterfield,  298,  305,  307,  309,  376-7, 

383.  392,  395.  4I5-I7.  43819- 

Chippenham,  284-5,  298,  397,  410. 

Churches,  prisoners  lodged  in,  I56«.. 
207,  426! 

Civil  law,  as  applying  to  prisoners  of 
war,  98,  123,  149,  242,  275,  301,  325, 
337.  397.  406. 

Clothing  of  prisoners  (see  also  Naked- 
ness among  prisoners),  6,  8,  14,  17- 
19,  21,  24,  32,  38,  49,  51,  54,  60,  75, 
78,  138-9,  180,  204-5,  250,  255,  361, 
378. 

Cochrane,  Lord,  24,  239. 

Coie,  Michael,  439-40,  453. 

Coining  by  prisoners,  162-3,  250,  255- 
6,  263,  275. 

Collusion  between  prisoners  and 
sentries  (and  other  undesirable  in- 
timacies), 55,  95,  105,  139-40,  146, 

178,  221,  225,  227,  245,  248-9,  273- 
5,  297,  318. 

Commandants  of  prison-ship  anchor- 
ages, 40,  41,  80. 

Commanders  of  prison-ships,  39-41, 
47.  54,  56. 

Competition ;  see  Unfair  trading  by 
prisoners. 

Complaints  and  remonstrances,  Inter- 
national, 2,  5-7,  9,  ii,  14,  15, 18, 19. 

Complaints  by  prisoners  (see  also 
Inquiries,  Petitions,  Round-robins) , 
5,  7,  n,  18,  24,  40,48-9,  126-7,  I29, 
136, 143, 151-2, 176, 192-3,  204,211, 
220-2,  251-2,  265,  311,  322-3,  361, 
406,  410. 


INDEX 


457 


Concerts  given  by  prisoners,  178,  301, 
304,  310,  328,  342,  350,  423. 

Contraband  traffic  in  prisoners  (see 
also  Straw-plaiting,  Unfair  trading), 
43,  121,  142,  147-9,  158-9,  169, 

.203-4,   211-12,   2l8,    243,   251,    288, 
294. 

Contractors,  6,  14,47-50,  119,  209-10, 
258,  270 ;  fraudulent  (see  also 
Frauds  practised  on  prisoners),  2, 
6, 15,  47-50,  63,  85,  152,  201-2,  209, 
211,  216,  227-8,  247,  250. 

Cooke,  agent  at  Sissinghurst,  127, 
129-30. 

Cooper,  Sarah,  58,  302—3. 

Cor  bi  ere,  fidouard,  228-33. 

Correspondence  of  prisoners,  26,  53, 
102,  127-8,  132,  194,  322-4,  353  ; 
clandestine,  81,  118-19,  176,  212, 
282,  291-2,  305,  309,  372  ;  of  parole 
prisoners,  to  be  submitted  to  the 
agent  and  to  Transport  Office,  286- 
8,  293,  341-2,  401,  416,  421. 

Corsaires;  see  Privateers. 

Cost  of  hulks  and  prisons,  51-2,  197, 
208,  238,  240. 

Cotgrave,  Captain  Isaac,  Governor  of 
Dartmoor  Prison,  119,  122,  248-9, 
251,  280. 

Courts  and  codes  of  justice  among 
prisoners  (see  also  Self-government 
among  prisoners),  56,  76,  83,  86, 
156,  221-2,  230. 

Coutts'  Bank,  312,  328. 

Cowan  family,  197—9,  201,  206. 

Cranbrook,  126-7,  I29»  4°°»  4°3,  410- 

Crediton,  284,  298,  370,  407-8,  445. 

Croker,  J.  W.,  75,  370. 

Crown  (Portsmouth  hulk),  43,  66-71, 

95,  103-8,  ui-12. 

Crown  Prince  (Chatham  hulk),  79,  82, 

84-90,  152,  283. 
Cupar,  298,  317. 

Danish  prisoners,  2,  25,  34,  41,  84,  90, 

96,  333-4,  396,  432  (see  also  65-6). 
Dartmoor,  34,  44,  52,  82,  89-90,  99, 

100,  118,  122-3,  *66,  212-13,  235- 
61,  276,  279-80,  283,  432,  447,  450. 

De  Winter,  Admiral,  449. 

Deal,  57,  120,  266,  268,  304,  369, 
371-2,  374. 

Debts  of  prisoners,  337-8,  356,  385, 

393,  397.  437- 

Decourbes,  Captain,  437-8,  451. 
Derby,  413. 

Derouge,  Dr.,  279-80,  283. 
Descendants  of  prisoners,  184,  307-8, 

333,  36o,  417,  424,  452. 
Directory,  French,  12-14,  16-18,  227. 
Disguise,  Escapes  in,  92,  102,  107-9, 


160-1,  169,  178,  219,  221-2,  225-6, 
232-4,  243-4,  247,  254,  280-1,  368, 
381-2,  388. 

Dismissal  of  officials,  71,  99,  140,  204, 
211-12,  217,  294,  297,  393,  398. 

Doctors,  prison,  12,  152,  191,  210,  217, 
222,  249,  265  ;  prison-ship,  51,  52, 
72-3,  81,  99,  104;  doctors  and  sur- 
geons among  the  prisoners,  30,  306, 
324,  333.  335.  341,  356,  360,  383, 
396-7,  416,  432. 

Dogs  and  prisoners,  13,  70-1,  183, 
213-14,  223,  428. 

Doisy  de  Villargennes,  Sous-lieut., 
217-18,  326-32. 

Dorchester,  117-18. 

Dover,  25-6,  28,  56-7,  103,  106,  266, 
292,  369,  37L  382. 

Draper,  Captain,  agent  at  Norman 
Cross,  36,  119,  134-5. 

Dubreuil,  prisoner  on  Portsmouth 
hulks,  112-3. 

Dubreuil,  privateer  captain,  60,  303—4. 

Duckworth,  Admiral,  260,  302. 

Duels  in  the  prisons,  172, 177, 198,  203, 
212,  241,  255  ;  between  prisoners 
on  parole,  58,  325,  338,  413,  418, 
428-9,  437-8,  450;  on  the  hulks,  59, 
93—4  ;  with  improvised  weapons, 
93,  161,  229,  242,  355. 

Dufresne,  Francis,  170,  184,  200. 

Dumanoir,  Rear-Admiral,  446—7. 

Dumbarton  Castle,  116,  372. 

Dumfries,  196,  298,  317,  339-44,  356. 

Dundas,  General,  272. 

Dundas,  Viscount,  19,  116. 

Dundee,  156—7,  161-2,  285. 

Dunkirk,  106,  153,  204  n.,  285,  306. 

Dupin,  Captain  (afterwards  Baron), 
40,  43-4,  391. 

Durand,  Felix,  his  escape  from 
Liverpool,  188-91. 

Dutch  prisoners,  2,  17,  20,  25,  31,  34, 
84,  139,  203,  208,  266-7,  272,  286, 
333-4.  390,  449,  452. 

Dyer,  agent  at  Penryn,  404. 

Dyer,  doctor  at  Dartmoor,  249. 

Dymchurch,  371. 

East  Dereham,  269,  453. 

Eborall,    parole   agent   at   Lichfield, 

297,  304. 
Edinburgh,    115,    202,    269-77,    3*6, 

328,  350,  389. 

Elphinstone,  Mountstuart,  277. 
Enchmarsh,  agent  at  Tiverton,  294, 

393- 
Epidemics,  38,  44,  86,  90,  99, 143,  217, 

241,  246,  250,  254,  263,  450. 
Epitaphs  on  prisoners,  252,  339,  344, 

419,  45!-4- 


458 


INDEX 


Escape  agents  (see  also  Smugglers), 
26,  29, 281,  304,  365-75,  38o,  382-3. 

Escape-aiders,  29,  57-8,  96,  100,  102, 
106,  in,  151, 158, 172,  221,  244,  247, 
272,  281-2,  287-8,  299,  304-5,  311- 
2,  320,  365-7,  373-7,  381,  384-5, 
418,  424,  429,  436. 

Escape  funds,  63—4,  112. 

Escapes  and  attempted  escapes,  27-8; 
from  shore  prisons,  115  ;  Sissing- 
hurst,  128-9  ,"  Norman  Cross,  139- 
40,  146-7,  150  ;  Perth,  156-8,  160- 
65  ;  Portchester,  166,  169-72,  178  ; 
Liverpool,  188-92  ;  Valleyfield, 
200-1;  Stapleton,  211;  Forton, 
215-19;  Millbay,  220-7,  230-4; 
Dartmoor,  235,  238,  243-4,  246-7, 
251-4,  280,  283 ;  other  prisons,  263, 
267,  269, 273-4, 363 ;  from  the  hulks, 
51,  55-8, 64-6, 77,81, 83,  87-8,  92-4, 
102,  104-13,  247  ;  of  prisoners  on 
parole,  54,  57,  74,  77,  242,  278-83, 
285,  289-91,  300,  302-4,  310-12, 
314,  34L  352,  365-94,  399,  415,  424, 
426-7, 435-6 ;  in  Scotland,  316,  320, 
341,  350,  354-5,  370,  389  ;  in  Wales, 
363 ;  of  prisoners  on  the  march,  136, 
142,  268,  453. 

Esk  Mills,  197,  206. 

Espinasse,  M.,  297-8,  349. 

Evacuations  of  prisons,  132,  151,  153, 
165,  179,  183,  201,  255,  260,  268, 
270-1,  277  ;  of  the  hulks,  86,  183; 
of  parole  places,  320-1,332,348,356. 

Examiner  (newspaper),  31,  240. 

Excavations  by  prisoners ;  see  Tun- 
nelling. 

Exchange  of  prisoners,  7,  10,  n,  15, 
25-36,  40,  107,  170,  171,  186,  224, 
252,  265,  267,  341,  347,  367,  372, 
377,  382,  384,  391,  394,  446  ;  at 
sea,  33  ;  turn  of  exchange  forfeited, 
20,  123,  130,  141,  143,  265  ;  bought 
and  sold,  107,  123,  141,  290. 

Executions,  for  forgery,  97,  123,  244, 
263,  276,  439  ;  for  murder  or 
attempted  murder,  92,  94,  123,  150, 
167-8,  172,  179,  219  ;  threatened 
for  attempted  escapes,  104,  146. 

Exeter,  5,  92,  97-8,  227,  252,  281-2, 
284,  373-4,  376,- 408. 

Exmouth,  370,  373. 

Falmouth,  25,  265-6,  268,  281-2,  284 

Fareham,  167,  170,  183. 

Farnell,  agent  at  Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 
288,  379-8o. 

Feeding  of  prisoners,  4—7,  14—17,47  ; 
in  the  hulks,  42,  47-8,  82  ;  in  the 
prisons,  138,  191 ;  on  the  march, 


136;  on  the  cartel-ships,  26-7 ;  com- 
plaints as  to  food,  4-7,  12,  14, 
21,  47,  49,  63,  78-9,  85,  136,  151-2,. 
176,  191-3,  204,  209,  211,  216,  221, 
258,  263,  265-6,  361. 

Fines  and  forfeitures,  295,  322,  355, 

358,  361. 

j  Fires  on  the  hulks,  95,  168  ;  in  the 
prisons,  217  ;  in  parole  places,  290, 
34i,  359-6o,  420. 

Fishguard,  156  w.,  208,  362-3. 
j   Fishing-boats  in  time  of  war,  28,  40. 
!    Fishponds  Prison,  116,  207-8. 

Floggings  in  Army  and  Navy,  55,  58, 
82,  106,  139,  148,  197,  221,  244, 
390;  of  prisoners,  6-7,  139-40. 

Folkestone,  57,  107,110-11,  113,  367, 
371,  374,  380-1. 

Forfar,  162. 

Forgery  (see  also  Coining),  123,  263, 
439  ;  of  banknotes,  97-8,  149,  160, 
162-3,  213,  233,  244,  250,  269,  273- 
6,  320  ;  documents,  291-2,  396-7  ; 
passports,  92,  97-8,  213,  263,  274, 
291-2. 

Forton  Prison,  5,  20,  78,  99,  115,  118, 
167, 182,  215-19,  229,  238,  262,  282, 

327,  379,  393,  445- 

Fournier,  Marie  Louise,  420,  451. 

Frauds  on  prisoners  by  officials  (see 
also  Contractors),  2,  6,  15,  21-4, 
47-9,  85,  146,  152,  216,  268,  294, 
296,  312,  361-2,  406. 

Freemasons  among  prisoners,  182—3, 
300,  301,  322,  326,  339,  345,  35L 
355,  363-4,  419,  423-4,  430,  433. 
44i,  453- 

French  prisoners,  passim, 

Friendly  feeling  towards  prisoners 
(see  also  Parole  prisoners — insults 
and  injuries),  20,  150,  319,  352-3, 
355-6,  387-9.  395,  4ii,  420,  424-5 , 
428-9,  432-3.  436-7,  439-40. 

Frog-  and  snail-eating  among  French 
prisoners,  221,  319,  340-1,  419. 

Fyen  (Chatham  hospital-ship),  51,  79. 

Gambling  among  prisoners,  19;  on 
hulks,  38-9,  41,  49,  59-60,  71,  83-4, 
86,  90  ;  in  shore  prisons,  100,  122, 
124, 130, 141, 159, 167, 176-7,  206-7, 

2O9-I2,  222,  245,  255-6. 

Garneray,  Louis,  54,  60-74,  183,  310- 

12,  396. 

Garnier,  Lieut.,  374,  418. 
Gamier,  Sous-lieut.  Pierre,  420,  451. 
Garrison  in  prisons  and  prison-ships 

(see  also  Floggings,  Marines,  Militia), 

61,   77,  119,  126,  136,  146,  148-9, 

152-3,  169-70,  196,  248. 
Gentz,  Major,  178,  181. 


INDEX 


459 


George,  Sir  Rupert,  19,  117,  392,  434. 
German  prisoners,  220,  339,  342,  351, 

Ghent,  Treaty  of,  254-5. 

Gibb,  Henry,  317-18. 

Gibbs,  Vicary,  241. 

Gicquel    des    Touches,    Lieut.,    299- 

300. 
Gille,  Philippe,  at  Portchester,   175, 

179-83,  185. 

Gillingham,  44,  46,  52,  84,  87,  94. 
Glory  (Chatham  hulk),  79,  283. 
Gosport,   65,    102,    104,   115,    156  n., 

262,  327/427. 
Goudhurst,  284,  408-10. 
Grades  among  prisoners,  59,  245. 
Gramont,  Comte  de,  408. 
Grand  pre  (see  also  Pare,  Pre),  176. 
'  Greenhorn,'    an   American  prisoner 

(quoted),  255-6. 
Greenlaw,  196-206,  352. 
Grenville,  Lord,  ig,  289. 
Guernsey,  264,  284. 
Guildford,  281,  302-3,  365. 

Half-rations,  and  other  short  allow- 
ances, as  punishments,  7,  8,  20,  21, 
55.  63,  93.  122-3,  128-30,  139,  141, 

151,    193,    221,    223,    254,    263,    283, 

399- 

Hambledon,  7,  294,  298. 
Hanoverian  army,  32,  35. 
'  Harman,     Captain    Richard '     (see 

Herbert,     Feast     Moore,)     escape 

agent,  281,  367-71. 
Hastings,  no,  367-8,  375. 
d'Hautpol,  Marquis,  312-15,  418. 
Havas,  Captain  (privateer),  107-11. 
Haver  ford  west,  iq6w.,  362. 
Havre,  25,  40,  93. 
Havre  de  Grace,  102. 
Hawick,  298,  317,  324,  350-4,  356. 
Hector  (Plymouth  hulk),  248-9. 
Helston,  8,  284,  404. 
d'Henin,  General,  305,  416. 
Herbert,  Charles,  American  prisoner, 

220-4. 
Herbert,  alias  of  Feast  Moore  (q.  v.), 

367.  370- 
Hesse-Darmstadt  Infantry,  354,  356- 

Hole-boring  by  prisoners  (see  also 
Tunnelling), on  the  hulks,  56,  59,  60, 
64,  66-7,  87,  92,  105,  107-8,  112  ; 
in  shore-prisons,  143,  147, 162,  177, 
189,  215,  225,  259,  273-4. 

Hospitals,  6, 18,  20,27,29,51, 122, 144, 
155,  167,  183,  191,  193",  198,  208, 
210,  220,  224,  227,  263-6,  272,  288- 
9,  361,  450;  hospital  ships,  51-2, 
72-3,  79,  86,  98-9,  262. 


;   Howard,  John,  116,  191-3,  208,  216^ 

224,  262-3,  271-2,  360-1. 
1'Huille,  Jean  de,  420,  451. 
Hulks  (see  also  Chatham,  Portsmouth, 

and  Plymouth  hulks),  r,  24,  37-1 14, 

135,185,225,276,284,313,327,384- 

5.  395.  398. 

Hxinter,  James,  388— 9. 
Huntingdon,  149-51. 
Hutchison,  Captain,  82,  88. 
Hythe,  380-81. 

Ilfracombe,  362,  393. 

Illegitimate  children  of  prisoners  on 

parole,  279,  301,  308-9,   325,  339, 

358-9,  426. 
Immorality  among  prisoners,  59,  76, 

81,  87,  91,  161,  229. 
Impressment   of   prisoners    (see    also- 

Recruiting),  n,  84,  89,  96. 
Inchbonny,  346-7. 

Independence  Day  (American)   cele- 
brated in  prisons,  89,  222,  249,  252. 
Independent  Whig  (newspaper), 31, 2 39. 
Indian  (American)  prisoner,  88. 
Informers,  92,  160,   230,  253,  263-5, 

279.  283,  302,  388. 
Inquests  on  prisoners,  142,  171,  212, 

241,  427,  438. 
Inquiries,     Official,     into    prisoners' 

complaints,  14,  15,  19,  71,  88,  129— 

30,  138,  209,  252,  260. 
Insubordination  and  mutiny  among 

prisoners,  34,  93,  115, 136, 141,  146, 

164,  171,  192,  208,  215-7,  262,  314, 

362. 
Invalided  prisoners,  25,  28-9,  31,  52, 

55-6,  81. 
Invasion  of  England,  Rumoured,  117— 

18,  144-5.  I82,  392. 
Irresistible  (Chatham  hulk),  79,  88. 
Italian   prisoners,  34,  203,  333,   335, 

339,  342,  413,  422,  425. 
Ivan,  privateer  captain,  231-3. 

Jedburgh,  298,  316-17,  345-5°.  356, 

37L  388-9. 

Jew  traders  in  the  prisons,  257-8. 
Johns,  escape-agent,  383. 
Jones,  Charles  (Admiralty  solicitor), 

282-3,  366,  368-9. 
Jones,  Paul,  privateer,  192. 

Kelso,  298,  316-7,  319-24,  332,  341, 

345.  356,  37°.  426. 
Kemble,  John,  448. 
Kergilliack,  115,  264-5. 
j   King's  Lynn,  25,   136,   139-41*  IS1* 

153,  268-9. 
.  Kinsale,  285. 
1  Kirkcaldy,  156-7. 


460 


INDEX 


Knight  and  Jones,  Admiralty  solici- 
tors (see  also  Jones,  Charles),  282. 
Knowle,  near  Bristol,  116,  207,  208. 

La  Tour  d'Auvergne,  442—5. 
Lace-manufacture     at     Portchester, 

176-7. 

Lamy,  Germain,  217-18,  327. 
Lanark,  298. 
Lane,  Captain,  inspector  of  prisons, 

227-8. 

Language  difficulties,  348,  355,  422. 
Larpent,  Commissioner,  260. 
Lauder,  297-8,  317,  354-6,  370. 
Launceston,    278,    280-4,    290,   294, 

297-8,  352,  3?6,  4* i,  439- 
Lavau,  Ciprian,  420,  451. 
Lavender,   Bow   Street    officer,   390, 

436. 

Lawson,  Dr.  George,  325-6,  345. 
Lebertre,  Colonel,  51,  75,  100,  101. 
Leek  (Staffs.),  294,  298,  308,  392,  419, 

437,  439,  444,  45 1~2- 
Lefebvre,  General,  295-6,  378. 
Lefebvre-Desnouettes,   General,   371,    | 

373,  382. 

Leicester,  306,  413,  43°-7- 
Le  Jeune,  Baron,  378-82. 
Le  Jeune,  Captain,  430—1. 
Lessons  given  by  prisoners,  on  the 

hulks,  60,  63-5,  86,  104,  108  ;    in 

shore  prisons,   176,  181,  229,  234; 

in  Dartmoor,  242,  251,  255,  257;  on 

parole,   290-1,   299,  312,  416,  418, 

432-3,   435 ;    in    Scotland,  319-20, 

342,  350  ;  after  release,  297-8,  300, 

342,  349,  440. 

L'Huille,  Jean  de,  420,  451. 
Lichfield,  60,  290,  297-8,  303-4,  382, 

384,  387,  393',  395,  439. 
'  Light  Dragoon,  The',  173—5. 
Linlithgow,  116,  273. 
Linois,  Captain  (afterwards  Admiral 

Count),  103,  448. 
Liverpool,  5,  i;,  19,  115,  117-8,  186- 

95,  269. 

Liverpool,  Lord,  142,  403. 
Llanfyllin,  298,  357-8. 
Lochmaben,  298,  341,  356. 
Lockerbie,  298,  356. 
Lodgings  of  parole  prisoners,  328,  334,    i 

338,  340,  400-1,  404-5,  418,  432-3.     ! 
Louis  XVIII,   182,  312,  314,  342-3,    ! 

353,  449- 
Lowestoft,  269. 

Lucas,  Captain,  of  the  Redontable,  446.  j 
Ludlow,  358,  448. 
Lynn  ;  see  King's  Lynn. 

Mackenzie,    representative   of   Great 
Britain,  34-5. 


Magrath,  prison  doctor  at  Dartmoor, 
252,  254-6,  260. 

Maidstone,  94,  131,  371,  374,  400,  401, 
409. 

Majendie,  Captain,  French  prisoner 
on  parole,  446. 

Malingering,  81,  105,  144. 

Manchester,  117-18. 

Mantell,  agent  at  Dover,  369—70. 

Marines  on  prison-ships,  77,  85,  88, 
90,  91,  94. 

Markets  in  the  prisons,  155,  161, 
163,  175,  201,  205,  213,  238-9,  245, 
250,  327-8;  daily  markets,  200, 
208,  242,  280,  363  ;  for  foodstuffs, 
&c.,  158-9, 173,  239,  251,256-7;  for 
prisoners'  manufactures,  135, 158—9, 
165, 173, 193,  203,  212-13,221,  242- 
3,252,270-1,363;  Sunday  markets, 
220 ;  markets  stopped  (or  prisoners 
debarred  from  market)  as  punish- 
ment, 7,  88,  122,  141,  164,  249,  257; 
market  boats,  78,  88. 

Marriages  of  prisoners,  97,  132,  150, 
170-1,  191,  266,  305,  307-9,  317, 
320,  338,  343-4,  349,  357,  36o,  363, 
374, 414, 416-1 7, 424-5 , 429-30, 434- 

Maurer,  Lieut.,  354,  356. 

Maurin,  General,  295—6,  383. 

Maxwell,  Dr.,  Admiralty  Commis- 
sioner, 129,  131. 

Meadow  (see  also  Grand  pre,  Pare, 
Pre),  9. 

Medical  attendance  (see  also  Doctors, 
Epidemics,  Hospitals,  Surgeons), 
12,  14-15,  39  ;  in  the  prisons,  5, 
122, 152, 161, 176, 191,  210,222,249; 
on  the  hulks,  39,  41,  43,  50-2,  72-3, 
98—9,  104 ;  on  cartel  ships,  26 ; 
for  parole  prisoners,  288,  352. 

Melrose,  298,  317,  326,  345. 

Memorials  to  prisoners  (see  also 
Epitaphs),  46,  134,  198-9,  261. 

Merchant  sailors  as  prisoners,  5,  29, 
84,  285-6,  373,  383,  400. 

'  Merchants  '  in  the  prisons,  63,  143. 

Mere,  Wilts.,  156^.,  426-7. 

Midshipmen,  French  and  English, 
286,  320, 333,  335,  338, 373,  444.451- 

Milestone  stories,  329,  346,  350,  415, 

434- 

Military  and  Naval  authority  in 
prisons,  Relations  of,  119,  132,  138, 
145,  148. 

Militia,  95,  192,  215,  316,  333-4,  337. 
362, 388;  as  prison-garrison,  at  Dart- 
moor, 235,  243-5,  248,  251,  258-60; 
at  Greenlaw  and  Valleyneld,  196-7, 
200,  204,  206 ;  at  Norman  Cross, 
134,  146-7,  149,  151  ;  at  Perth, 
155,  158,  160  ;  at  Portchester,  169, 


INDEX 


461 


182  ;  at  other  prisons,  129—30,  208, 
217,  223,  273-5,  350,  361,  391. 

Millbay  Prison,  5,  115,  118,  208,  214, 
220-35,238,  395,  399,445- 

Milne,  Captain,  of  the  Bahama,  56, 
58-9. 

Money-allowances  to  prisoners,  4—6, 
16,  96,  116,  143,  173,  251,  256,  270, 
361  ;  on  parole,  5,  21,  288,  292, 
299,  312,  322,  328,  335,  352,  355, 
358,  360-1,  372,  413,  415,  428,  433  ; 
on  the  march,  136,  390. 

Money  earned  or  saved  by  prisoners, 
14,  65,  123-4,  !30>  153,  165,  176, 
181,  193,  203,  205,  218-20,  229,  242, 
245,  250-1,  256;  on  parole,  350; 
on  the  hulks,  65. 

Monopoly  of  sales  to  prisoners,   78, 

127,    152,   222,   249. 

Montgomery,  32,  298,  305,  308,  358-9, 

414. 

Montrose,  156,  161. 
Moore,  Thomas  Feast  (escape  agent), 

alias  Harman,  Herbert,  q.  v.,  281, 

281  n.,  367-71. 
Moras,     De,    French   Administrator, 

5-7,  27- 

More,  Hannah,  411. 
Moreton-Hampstead,  282,  297-8,  371, 

373.  453- 

Moriarty,  Captain,  163-5,  292. 

Morlaix,  25,  27,  30,  34-5,  81,  150,  281, 
309,  314,  394. 

Mortality  among  prisoners,  12,  19,  32, 
43-4,  143,  151,  172,  184,  193,  198, 
207,  209,  217,  240-1,  246,  263,  450; 
on  parole,  450  ;  on  the  hulks,  12, 
38,  41,  43-4,  86,  90,  450. 

Motte,  Alexander  de  la,  300,  440. 

Murders  and  other  crimes  of  violence 
by  prisoners,  7,  39,  56,  71, 92—4,  123, 
129,  149,  160,  167-8,  172,  178-9, 
198,  210,  218-19,  231,  241,  252,  314. 

Nakedness  among  prisoners,  9,  10,  18, 
21,  49,  66,  77,  99,  156,  172,  201,  209, 
247,  270,  378  ;  due  to  gambling,  19, 
38, 122, 130, 205-7, 209-10, 245  ;  due 
to  improvidence,  76,  143,  177,  229. 

Napoleon ;  see  Bonaparte. 

Negro  prisoners,  75,  221-2,  251,257-8, 
267,  334,  447. 

Newburgh,  158,  165. 

Newcastle-on-Tyne,  285,  388. 

Newtown,  298,  358-60. 

Niou,  French  agent,  18,  141. 

Nivernois,  Due  de,  292. 

Nixon,  Agent  at  Hawick,  298,  352-3. 

Norman  Cross,  31,  36,  38,  77,  79,  108, 
117-18,  121,  133-54,  144,  166,  176, 
201,  209,  213,  238,  243,  268-9,  276, 
368,  390,  417,  450. 


North  Tawton,  281,  298. 
Northampton,  298. 
Norwegian  prisoners,  90,  267. 

Obscene  toys  and  pictures  made  by 

prisoners,  140,  142,  243. 
Odiham,   54,   56-8,  298,   301-3,  307, 

328,  372,  385,  395,  403,  405,  420, 

435-6,  453-4- 

Officers  and  privates  imprisoned  to- 
gether, 12,  62-3,  75-7, 140, 150,  193, 

229-30,  264,  398-9. 
Okehampton,  97,  281-2,  284-5,  298, 

374,  383,  387-8,   393,  399,  434~5> 

452. 
Oratory  of  American  prisoners,  83,. 

86,  89. 

Ormskirk,  191-2. 
Osmore,  Commodore,  85,  87-90. 
Osten,  General,  368,  382. 
Oswestry,  298,  307-8,  314,  374,  393, 

396,  401,  4i7-!9.  440. 
Otto,  French  agent  in  England,   19^ 

20,  143,  170. 
Overcrowding  in  prison-ships,  51,  63, 

77,  115,  135,  235,  379;   in  prisons, 

136,  173,  250,  252,  361. 

|   Pageot,  General,  291,  414. 
!    Paintings  by  prisoners,  126,  181,  183,. 
278,  3i9,  334,  336,  347,  350,  354> 
357,  360,  414,  424,  427. 
Paolucci,  77,  367-9. 
Pare   (see  also  Grand  pre,  Meadow, 

Pre),  9,  59,  75- 
Paris,  382;  Peace  of,  132,  271;  Treaty 

of,  74,  151,  213,  312. 
Parole,   58,  60,  74,   125-7,   J5o,  274, 
278,  284-454  ;  abuse  of  parole,  119, 
372  ;    breaches  of  parole  (see  also- 
Escapes),  7,  25-7,  29,  33,  54,  57,  74~ 

7,  98,  2OI,  212,  229,  242,  25O-I,  285, 
289-90,  301,  304,  310,  350,  365-94, 

398-9,  413-14,  435-6;  in  Scotland, 
271,  316-56;  inWales,  357-6o,  363- 
4;  insults  and  injuries  offered  to 
prisoners  on  parole,  12,  40,  287, 
299-301,  311,  313,  348-9,  359,  390. 
400—10,421,437—8,442-4;  numbers 
on  parole,  117,  118,  293,  297,  310, 
312,  314,  321,  325,  334,  343,  350, 
352,  354,  356-7,  359,  379,  388,  404, 
413,415,421,428;  parole-limits  (see 
also  Milestone-stories ,  Re  wards) ,  1 26, 
150,  286-7,  29i,  295,  310,  317,  324, 
328-9,  331-  334,  346,  349,  355-  366, 
396,  400,  412-3,  415,  42i,  423,  428- 
9,  432,  434-5,  445  '•  parole  relaxa- 
tions, 289-91,  383,  400  ;  parole  obli- 
gations refused  by  prisoners,  103, 
105,  112,  302;  parole  withdrawn, 
J3»  320,  333,  392  ;  prisoners  allowed 


462 


INDEX 


abroad  on  parole,  25,  377-8,  391; 

ranks  admitted  to  parole,  5,  37,  256, 

285-6,  271,  447. 
Patterson,  Commander  William,  178, 

180,  183. 

Peebles,  196-7,  298,  317,  332-40. 
Pembroke,  116,  271,  360-3. 
Pendennis  Castle,  266. 
Penicuik,  118,  149,  164,  196-7,  199, 

201-2,  206,  273-4,  328,  350. 
Penryn,  264,  398,  404,  445. 
Perrot,     James,    agent    at    Norman 

Cross,  136,  139-40. 
Perth,  44,  118,  121,  155-66,  176,  238, 

271,  276,  292. 
Peterborough,   117,   133,   135-6,   139, 

142,  146-7,  150-1,  154,  268-9,  298. 
Petersfield,  7,  no,  281,  284,  406. 
Petitions  from  prisoners,  for  change 

of  residence,  289^-90,  297,  341,  397, 

403,  405,  410. 

Phillipon,  General,  99,  374,  418. 
Phillpotts,  Mr.  Eden,  238-9,  249. 
Fillet,   General,   20,   22-4,   35,   76-8, 

151-2,  183,  291,  367-8. 
Pillory,  135,  374. 
Plymouth  (see  also  Millbay),  15,  25, 

27.  49,  91-2,  98,  115,  n8,  156,  180, 

220,   223-7,   23O-3»  243,  247,  258, 

283, 292  ;  hulks  at,  51,  92,  95,  97-9, 

118,  235,  246-9,  283,  314,  397,  399, 

445,  447- 

Poerio,  Colonel,  386. 
Polish  prisoners,  194,  321,  333,  335-6, 

339,  395,  423,  452. 
Portchester  Castle,  5-7,  18,  32,  34,  78, 

109,  115,  117-8,  120,  126,  136,  154, 

162,  166-85,  200,  215,  229,  262,  276, 

363,  445- 

Portchester  River,  66. 

Portsmouth  (see  also  Forton,  Gosport, 
Portchester),  6,  25,  40,  60,  74,  78, 
82,  98, 103-4, 117-18,  162, 168,  172, 
174-5,  179, 181,  217-18,  247,  288-9, 
294,  302,  311-12,  327,  396,  440, 445, 
447  ;  hulks  at,  12,  24,  43-4,  51,  60, 
75,78,92-5,97-8,  103,  118,175,  180, 
182-3,  247,  294,  302-3,  310,  312, 
314,  378-9,  445,  449-50. 

Portuguese  prisoners,  34,  36,  422. 

Pre  (see  also  Grand  pre,  Meadow, 
Pare),  229. 

Pressland,  Captain,  119,  144-6,  148, 
151-2. 

Princetown,  249,  261,  434. 

Prison-hunting,  115-17,  125,  135. 

Privateersmen,  on  the  hulks,  54,  5  6, 64, 
81 , 107, 327,  397-8 ;  in  shore  prisons, 
142,  170,  192,  231,  245,  256,  264- 
6,  269-71 ;  on  parole,  29,  60,  278, 
285-6,  303,  314,  320,  354,  373,  383, 
395,  397-8,  400, 439 ;  American,  1 1, 


186, 188  ;  English,  29,  226 ;  French, 

10,  12,  93,  98,  106-7,  IIO-I3,  186, 

188,  229,   233,    252,    269;     money 

allowances  to,  5. 
Prive,  General,  372,  421. 
Prothee   (Portsmouth  hulk),   43,    61, 

64-6. 
Public  works  by  prisoners,  252,  261, 

268,  413- 

Pugilism,  64,  68-70,  242,  255. 
Puppet  shows  in  the  prisons,  1 59,  1 73, 

176. 

Quanti,     on     parole     at     Moreton- 
Hampstead,  453. 

euantin,  prisoner  at  Portchester,  185. 
uiller-Couch,  Sir  A.,  264,  427. 

Raffales,  Les,  59,  63,  71,  76,  177,  229. 
Reading,    special   parole   town,    290, 

294,  298,  375,  390,  396,  437,  445. 
Recruiting    among    prisoners,    85-6, 

224,  267. 
Redruth,  284,  291,  410. 

!    Regilliack,  264-5. 

!  Regulations,  Prison-,  to  be  hung  in 
sight  of  prisoners,  191,  224,  271-2, 
360-1. 

!  Releases  of  prisoners,  86,  95,  98,  157, 
191,  201,  251,  255,  303,  347,  355, 
356,  402,  416,  439-40- 
Religious  ministrations  among  prison- 
ers, 96-7,  120-1,  140-1,  145,  167, 
179,  214,  224,  229,  257,  267,  411, 
417,  424,  430-1,  439. 

:  Remittances  to  prisoners,  176,  288, 
293,  3I2-i3,  335,  352. 

:  Residence  of  prisoners  in  England 
after  release,  297-8,  300,  307,  339, 
342-3,  349,  358,  360,411, 417,  424-5. 
440. 

'  Rewards  offered,  for  information  as 
to  breaches  of  parole,  287,  310,  329, 
346-7,  387,  404-5,  428  ;  as  to  es- 
cape-aiders, 363,  424;  as  to  escaped 
prisoners,  7,  263,  376,  389,  390, 435  ; 
as  to  forgeries,  274-6  ;  by  French 
Government,  387. 

I    Richmond,  Surrey,  393,  435. 

;    Riotous  proceedings  of  prisoners  on 

parole,  321-2,  330-1. 
Riouffe,  a  French  prisoner,  420,  451. 
Rochambeau,    General,    144-5,    242, 

413,  416,  425-7- 
Rochester,  79,  94,  212. 
Rohan,  Prince  de,  400. 
Roll-call  on  prison-ships,  41,  62,  65-6 ; 
roll-call  tricks,  66-7,  87, 94, 104, 139, 

225,  243  ;  in  the  prisons,  163,  175, 
251,  257;    of  parole  prisoners,  292, 
388,  416,  426. 

Romanes,  agent  at  Lauder,  297-8. 


INDEX 


463 


4  Romans  ',  52,  99,  229,  245-50,  255. 

Romsey,  284,  400. 

Roscoff,  30,  105. 

Roscrow,  115,  264-6. 

Ross,  Captain,  of  Crown  hulk,  Ports- 
mouth, I08,  III-I2. 

'  Rough  Alleys'  in  Dartmoor,  255-8. 

Round-robins,  220,  399,  404. 

Rousseau,  a  French  prisoner,  56,  59, 
302-3. 

Roxburgh,  316  ;    Duchess  of,  320. 

Royal  Bounty  (French),  4,  6-7,  167. 

Royal  Oak  (Plymouth  hulk),  92,  397. 

Royalists  among  the  French  prisoners, 
165,  179,  182,  342,  353,  418-9. 

Rufin,  General,  440. 

Russian  prisoners,  423,  452. 

Rye,  no,  304,  374-5- 

St.  Aubin,  on  parole  at  Alresford, 
420 ;  prisoner  at  Portchester,  175—9, 
181. 

St.  Budock,  Falmouth,  264,  266. 

St.  Malo,  25,  183,  233,  314,  363,  453. 

St.  Valery,  28,  355. 

Salaries  of  parole  agents,  293  ;  prison 
agents,  146 ;  prison-ship  com- 
manders, 39. 

Sale  and  purchase  ( or  loss  by  gambling) 
of  clothes  and  bedding,  8,  19,  20, 
38,  41,  60,  63,  76,  78,  122,  128, 
130,  143-4,  159.  167,  177,  206, 
210,  221,  270  ;  of  rations,  14,  16, 
20,  39,  41,  60,  63, 122, 143, 167,  177, 
209-10,  250,  256-7  ;  of  rights  to 
exchange  and  transference,  56,  107, 
123,  141,  290  ;  of  sleeping  accom- 
modation, 63,  76,  78. 

Sampson  (Gillingham  hulk),  52,  79, 
80,  93,  98. 

San  Antonio  (Portsmouth  hulk),  43, 
67,  108,  in,  379. 

San  Damaso  (Portsmouth  hulk),  43, 

94- 

San  Rafael  (Plymouth  hulk),  92,  98. 
Sands,  Mr.  W.  H.,  134. 
Sanquhar,  298,  317,  333,  337-9,  395. 
Savoy  prison,  London,  58,  115. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  116,  199,  316,  329- 

30,  335- 
Self-government  among  prisoners  (see 

also  Courts  and  codes  of  justice),  15, 

16,  60,  63,  76,  83,  86,  229,  231,  245- 

6,  256. 

Selkirk,  298,  316-17,  324-32,  345. 
Seven  Years'  War,  4,  29,   115,   167, 

1 86,  1 88,  215,  264,  268-9,  284,  365, 

398,  403,  412-3,  449. 
Sevenoaks,  284,  305-6,  367,  390,  406. 
Sheerness,  54,  205. 
Ship-model  making,  176,  211,  218,  255, 

334,416. 


!  Shooting  and  stabbing  of  prisoners, 
61,  205  ;  a  cautionary  measure,  56  ; 
a  coercive  measure,  59,  171,  250, 
259-60,  267  ;  a  punitive  measure, 
80,  204  ;  by  jailors  and  sentries, 
12-13,  130-2,  208,  361 ;  of  escaping 
prisoners,  56,  64,  88,  94,  107,  128-9, 
142,  163,  174,  198,  200,  201,  216-7, 
254,  453  ;  threatened,  71. 

i  Shortland,  Captain,  agent  at  Dart- 
moor, 253-4,  257-60. 

'    Shrewsbury,  117—8,  266—8. 

'Sick  and  Hurt'  Office,  3,  4,  16,  28, 
30-1,  117,  131,  138,  167,  216,  268, 
387-8,  400,  401,  406-7. 
Simon,  General,  116,  372,  435-6. 
Sissinghurst  Castle,  5,  8,  115,  125-32, 
306,  398-9,  401,  403-4,  406. 

;  Sleeping  accommodation  of  prisoners, 
on  the  hulks,  62-3,  76-8,  90, 100-1 ; 
in  the  prisons,  5,  12,  15,  19,  27,  138, 
173,  180,  183,  188,  191,  193,  212, 
216-8,  238,  264-5,  268,  271,  361 ;  on 
ships  of  war,  82  ;  in  French  prisons, 
9,  27  ;  in  the  hospitals,  216,  263, 
266,  272. 

'   Smith,  J.,  agent  at  Kelso,  298,  321-4. 

j  Smith,  agent  at  Thame,  294-5,  297» 
301,  378- 

i   Smith,  agent  at  Winchester,  263. 

!  Smugglers,  26 ;  as  escape-aiders,  74, 
no-ii,  233,  273,  304,  312,  366, 
368-9,  371,  373,  381-3.  385,  424. 
426-8. 

•    Sodbury,  Glos.,  284,  407. 

i   South  Molton,  a  parole  town,  298. 

j   Southampton,  115,  172,  400. 

'   Southampton  Water,  in,  262. 

I   Souville,  maitve  d'armes,  242. 

I   Souville,  Tom,  103-114. 

!  Spanish  prisoners,  2,  34,  36,  94,  166, 
171,  191-2,  203,  208,  228,  286,  342, 
390,  420,  422,  445. 

I  Spettigue,  agent  at  Launceston,  279, 
281,  294. 

|   Spies   among   the  prisoners,    76,   96, 

358- 

'  Spoon-fashion  ',  Sleeping  in,  59-60, 
155,  229,  245. 

!  Stapleton  Prison,  19,  20,  32,  98,  116- 
18,  120-1,  166,  176,  207-14,  229, 
238,  241,  252,  276,  385,  398,  401-2, 

447- 
i    Statesman  (newspaper),  21-3,  31,  35, 

85- 

j   Stevenson,  escape-agent,  304,  371. 
j   Stilton,    118,    121,    133,    139,    145-9, 

153- 

j   Stoffel,  Colonel,  380-2. 

|  Straw-plaiting  by  prisoners,  43,  65, 
158,  176,  190,  203,  205,  229,  255, 
319,  416;  a  contraband  trade,  43, 


464 


INDEX 


121,   142,   147-9,   158-9,    169,   203-4, 
211-12,  2l8,  243,   251. 

Subscriptions  in  aid  of  prisoners,  7-11, 
20,  32,  48,  99,  122,  128,  192,  206-7, 
216,  221-3,  267-70. 

Suffolk  (Portsmouth  hulk),  43,  108. 

Suicides  among  prisoners,  210,  212, 
241,  251,  254,  320-1,  421,  423,  427, 
437-3. 

Support  of  prisoners  by  their  own 
country,  8,  10,  14,  16-19,  31-2,  116- 
17,  209. 

Surgeons  as  prisoners  of  war,  29-30. 

Surveillance  of  contractors  and  offi- 
cials, 2,  8,  15,  136,  227,  263,  293, 
362. 

Swedish  prisoners,  41,  90,  267. 

Swiss  prisoners,  335,  343. 

Tallien,  447-8. 

Talma,  448. 

Tate,  General,  his  invasion  of  England, 
208,  362-3. 

Tavistock,  247,  279-80,  283-4,  297-8, 
387-8,  395,  398,  410,  434,  436. 

Tawton,  281,  298. 

Tenterden,  95,  284-5,  3°5>  400-2,  410, 
452. 

Thame,  54,  294-5,  297-8,  300,  301, 
308-9,  378,  395-6,  421. 

Theatrical  performances  by  prisoners, 
on  the  hulks,  104,  185  ;  in  Dart- 
moor, 246-7,  251,  255,  257-8  ;  at 
Liverpool,  15, 193 ;  atMillbay,  229 ; 
at  Portchester,  108-9,  J78,  180-1, 
183-5  '•  on  parole,  301,  310,  423 ;  in 
Scotland,  318-21, 326,  328,  331,  333, 
335-7.  35o-i. 

Tiverton,  33,  144,  292,  294,  298-300, 
369,  374.  39i.  393.  398,  403.  439-40, 
446-7. 

Tonbridge,  284,  404. 

Topsham,  370,  373. 

Torrington,  284,  405. 

Tothill-fields  prison,  372. 

Trades  and  professions  among  the 
prisoners  (see  also  Articles  made  by 
prisoners,  Lessons  given,  Money 
earned),  on  the  hulks,  63,  103-4  ; 
in  the  prisons,  123-4,  144,  173,  176, 
218,  251-2,  255,  271  ;  on  parole, 
333-4.  349,  396,  416. 

Transferences  of  prisoners,  38,  52,  79, 
89,  90-1,  164,  192,  213,  215,  289, 
314,  318,  337,  392-3,  395,  398,  417. 
425-8. 

Transport  Office,  passim. 

Trusty  (Chatham  hospital  ship),  52, 

79- 

Tunnelling,  &c.,  as  a  means  to  escape 
(see  also  Hole-boring),  at  Dartmoor, 
252-3,  257;  Millbay,  220-3,  23°  « 


Perth,  160-4  '•  at  other  prisons, 
126,  147,  171,  173-4,  200,  215-16, 
264-5,  269,  363. 

Unfair  trading  by  prisoners,  Com- 
plaints of,43, 142, 147-8, 177-8, 181, 
185,  203-4,  2H-I2,  218,  228,  396. 

Valleyfield,  79,  118, 149,  157,  197-206, 
238,  271,  273,  275,  292,  320,  333, 
341- 

Vanhille,  Louis,  243,  278-83. 

Veitch,  James,  346^7. 

Vengeance  (Portsmouth  hulk),  43,  71— 
4,  108,  312. 

Ventilation,  on  the  hulks,  41-2,  51, 
61-2,  76-8,  104 ;  on  ships  of  war, 
82  ;  in  the  prisons,  12,  143—4. 

Verdun,  23,  36,  333  n. 

Veteran  (Portsmouth  hulk),  43,  109. 

Vigilant  (Portsmouth  hulk),  43,  92-3, 
99- 

Villaret-Joyeuse,  General,  378,  421. 

Villeneuve,  Admiral,  445-6. 

Virion,  General,  23,  36. 

Vochez,  French  official,  12,  227-8. 

Waddell,  smuggler  and  escape-agent, 

371,  382-3. 

Wales,  Prisoners  of  War  in,  357-64. 
Wansford,  147,  150. 
Wantage,  212,  291,  295-8,  308,  383. 
WTaterhouse,   Benjamin,   82—91,   256. 
I   WTeapons,   wearing  of,  by  prisoners, 

442,  445-6. 
Weir,  Dr.,  of  the  Transport  Board, 

210,  294. 

i    Wellington,  Duke  of,  34,  184,  373,  427. 
i   Welshpool,  291,  298,  360,  383,  396. 
;    Wesley,  John,  116,  207. 
:    Whitbread,  Samuel,  M.P.,  211,  240. 
Whitchurch,  285,  298,  396. 
Whitstable,  367,  369,  371. 
i    Wigan,  192. 

!  Wincanton,  156  n.,  295,  298,  308,  338, 
351-2,  391,  393,  398,  403,  421-8, 
445,  452. 

i  Winchester,  97,  115,  167-8,  172,  179, 
219,  262-3,  281,  289,  367,  390,  406, 
410. 

Winter,  Admiral  De,  449. 
Wives  of  paroled  prisoners,  194, 373-4, 

382,  417,  434,  448,  451-3. 
;    Women  prisoners,   13,  99,   104,   156,. 

1 70-1 . 
I    Woodriff,  Captain  Daniel,  R.N.,   36,. 

78,  108,  136,  139-41,  143-4. 
Worcester,  391,  448. 
Wye,  in  Kent,  284,  397,  404. 

!    Yarmouth,  31,  268-9. 
i   Yaxley,  133-6,  150,  153.