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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.
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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.