The Depot for Prisoners of War at Norman Cross, Huntingdonshire. 1796 to 1816
TekstI have, Gentlemen, thought it prudent to mention these circumstances to you, as I am firmly of opinion, that unless some clothing is issued to the Prisoners who are now destitute many of them will die should the Winter be severe.
I have the Honour to be, &c.(Signed) D. Woodriff.
Commissioners for the Transport Service.
Translation
London
7th Brumaire 9th Year of the French Republick 29th October 1800
The Commissary of the French Republick in England, To the Commissioners of the Transport Office.
Gentlemen,
I have had the honour of making various Representations to you relative to the insufficiency of the Ration allowed by the British Government to the French Prisoners whom the Fortune of War has thrown into its hands. The fatal effects of this Diminution of Food are already but too sensibly felt. I have now before me a list of those who have died and I perceive that the Number is almost Four times greater than that of last year at the same period, for during the course of One month only, the number of deaths has amounted to One Hundred And Ten while they did not exceed twenty during the same month of the preceding year. But this comparison however afflicting it may appear is only the first outline of the Picture, I shall be obliged to lay before you in a few months unless the most effectual means are speedily adopted in order to prevent the consequences which must otherwise result from the wretched situation of the Prisoners. Indeed it is impossible to look at the state of the different depots without being convinced of the fate which infallibly awaits them.
“It would be useless to state the misery endured by the Prisoners here (writes my Correspondent at Norman Cross) many of them hasten by their own Imprudence or Misconduct the Fate which awaits them all, if things remain in the state they now are. Hunger compels them to sell everything they possess and in so doing they only add to their own wretchedness. Many are literally naked. Amongst those who by their Fortitude and good Conduct have avoided these excesses are to be perceived the melancholy and slow, but certain Effects of a ruined constitution, and if an immediate remedy is not applied, a cruel death must soon terminate their sufferings.”
These details, Gentlemen, are accompanied by bitter Reflections which I forbear to repeat. I shall also pass over in Silence the Accounts received from the other Depots which would only be an afflicting repetition of what you have just read. The Ration issued to the Prisoners proved insufficient even during the fine weather. On this Point I appeal to Persons who have seen the Prisons and experience is a sufficient Proof of it. Urged by the most pressing wants, the Prisoners have employed their small Resources in making up the Deficiency of the Ration. Those who were without pecuniary means Sold even their Clothing. They are now naked and enfeebled by Privations of every kind. The keen air of Winter will sharpen the cravings of Hunger and they must soon experience the Severity of cold Weather without possessing the means of defending themselves against it.
Such is the situation of French Prisoners in England. In France, on the contrary, the English, the Russians, and the Austrians, who have fallen into our hands, not only receive a wholesome and plentiful Subsistence, but are clothed at the expense of the Republic and enjoy a Degree of Liberty which the French Prisoners are not allowed in this Country. At every Period of the War, a great Number of Prisoners have had permission to leave the depots to carry on different trades and to earn by the Fruits of their Labour even more than would have provided them with a comfortable support.
Whatever may be the intentions of the British Government with respect to the Frenchmen now groaning in Irons I request, in the name of Humanity, and the sacred Law of Nations that you will lay before that Government this Picture of their Situation. It cannot fail to affect every feeling mind. It has already made an impression upon you, Gentlemen, and you have ordered a great number of Invalids to be sent home. The Agents entrusted with the charge of selecting the Prisoners falling under this description have discharged their duty in the most humane manner and I owe to you as well as to them my grateful Thanks for their Conduct on this Occasion.
I cannot conclude this letter without replying to two Objections which may appear at first sight to palliate the Difference of Treatment experienced by the Prisoners of the Two Nations “The Republic (it has been said) may easily provide for the subsistence of English Prisoners because there are very few in France.” But if the Chance of War has thrown a greater number of Prisoners into the Power of Great Britain the Duties of Humanity ought certainly to plead more forcibly in their favour in proportion as their numbers Increase at the respective Depots. And on the other Hand, ought not the Russians, the Austrians, the Neapolitans and the Bavarians now Prisoners in France to be taken into the account? Their number is at least equal to that of the French confined in England. Are they not subsisted at the expence of the Republic? And do not the Subsidies paid to their respective Sovereigns appear to assimilate them to British Subjects?
I have also been told “That the People here are not better fed than the Prisoners.” If the scarcity of Provisions is so notorious that Government notwithstanding its Solicitude cannot relieve the wants of the people, why should Government unnecessarily increase the Consumption by feeding more than 22,000 individuals? I have already had the Honour of laying before you two Proposals on this subject, namely that of ransoming the Prisoners, or that of sending them back to France on Parole. Either of these alternatives would afford an effectual remedy for the Evil in question; the Plan of Parole has already been adopted with respect to French Fishermen. No complaint of want of punctuality in this Arrangement has hitherto arisen. A measure of the same nature for all the other Prisoners would be held equally sacred, for no Government unquestionably would allow itself to break an Engagement of this description.
If neither of these proposals is acceded to by the British Government, there still remains another resource hitherto solicited in vain by the Prisoners themselves, but which however has never before been denied by any Government, to the Greatest Criminals. The resource of their own Industry. The ingenious but frivolous Articles manufactured by these unfortunate Persons from the Bones which are left of their Rations are admired. What advantage might they not derive from their Industry, if they were allowed to employ it upon Objects of Trade! Labour would beguile the Hours of tedious Captivity and even the Nation at whose expence they are subsisted would be benefited by their exertions.
I have the Honour to be, &c.,(Signed) Otto.
Sir,
We have received your Letter of the 29th of last month relative to the present state of the French Prisoners of War in this Country and have agreeably to your Desire, transmitted it to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, for their consideration; but, at the same time, we cannot help observing that the distressed situation which you represent the Prisoners to be in is entirely owing either to their being totally destitute of clothing or to their own Imprudence in disposing of their Provisions by Gaming and not as you assert, to an Insufficiency of the Rations of Provisions issued to them which is fully enough to keep men living without labour, in a general state of good health and certainly affords more subsistence than a great part of the labouring People of this Country is able to procure, a full pound of bread, eight ounces of fresh beef, and above a quart of soup compounded of Vegetables or Pease for each Man per diem.
We reiterated to you in our several letters of the 21st March, 24th of May, 28th of August, 11th of September, and 17th of last month the miserable situation of the Prisoners at all the Depots from the Want of Clothing and the melancholy consequences that were to be expected to ensue if the French Government did not cause them to be supplied with that necessary article previous to the commencement of the cold weather.
In giving you such timely premonition we certainly did all that was incumbent on us to do, or that Humanity dictated, and we have no hesitation in saying that if the French Government had expended a few thousand pounds in providing clothing for their People in this Country in proper time the greater part of the evils of which you now complain would not have existed.
As it is certainly the Duty of every State to provide for the support of its people while in Captivity, so whatever may have been its arrangements with respect to victualling it has been the custom in all former wars between Great Britain and France for each Country to provide Clothing for its own Subjects and agreeably to this Custom all the British Prisoners in France as well as the Russian Prisoners taken in Holland, are now actually supplied with clothing by our Agent Captain Cotes at the expence of this Country although you state as a reason for the French Government not clothing their people here that the British Prisoners in France are clothed at the expence of your Government.
Whatever may latterly have been the effects of the prisoners wanting clothing it cannot be denied, that until very lately, the prisoners at all the depots were generally in as good a state of health as at any former period even when victualled by their own Country. Some indeed had fallen victims to an incurable spirit of Gaming, by sporting away their allowance of Provisions as well as their clothing and the Bedding with which they had been amply supplied by us, but we believe that the number that has suffered has hitherto not been very considerable. In our letter of the 22nd April and 20th of May last we represented to you fully the effects of this pernicuous Practise, which had become so prevalent in the Prisons and we proposed to you a measure which if adopted we doubt not would have greatly tended to put a stop to it, but for what reason we know not, you have not hitherto taken any notice to us of our communications on that subject and from the want of your concurrence the utmost exertions of our Agents in pursuance of our orders for prohibiting Gaming have as yet proved ineffectual. While this practise continues it is evident that if the Ration of the Prisoners were tenfold what it is they would still sport it away, and the circumstance of their now disposing of the Rations issued to them is a proof that it is not on Account of the Insufficiency of those Rations, but merely from the Gambling spirit above mentioned, that they also dispose of their bedding and clothing. Indeed, so far from their being obliged to part with their clothing to purchase provisions it appears even from your own Statement respecting the Prisoners at Liverpool that they actually dispose of a part of their Subsistence to procure clothes.
With respect to your observation of the Prisoners not being permitted to increase their means of Subsistence by Labour which you say “the most severe Administration would not refuse to the greatest criminals” we think it proper to acquaint you that the prisoners at all the depots in this Country are at full liberty to exercise their Industry within the Prisons in manufacturing and selling any articles they may think proper excepting hats which would effect the Revenue in opposition to the Laws; Obscene Toys, and drawings, and articles made either from their clothing or the Prison Stores and by means of this privilege some of them have been known to earn and to carry off upon their release, more than 100 guineas each.
Upon this occasion it has become highly expedient for us once more solemnly to impress upon your mind the necessity of a speedy relief being afforded to your people with respect to the article of Clothing a supply of which would materially if not entirely remove the principal causes of their present distress.
If you or rather your Government delay to furnish this supply whatever evils may ensue and these may justly be apprehended, cannot, after such repeated notices as we have for a long time, given you, be imputed to this Country but to the state which in this instance has so entirely neglected its own people.
We are, etc.,(Signed) Rupert George.
Ambrose Serle.John Schank.
M. Otto.
Extract from a Report made by Commissioner Serle to the Transport Board dated 25th July, 1800.
The Prisoners complained of the smallness of the Ration but not of the Quality supplied. They wished for more bread and for beer instead of water. I found however that the ration by their mode of Cookery which is left to themselves is not quite so insufficient and destitute as some of them chose to represent it.
The French are generally great devourers of Bread and therefore what would be a very competent allowance to an Englishman appears a contracted one to them, while the meat which an Englishman would scarcely think enough is to them a reasonable allowance. The Ration of a pound of bread with half a pound of meat Vegetables etc. digested into a Broth or soup yielding seven quarts per diem to every six men affords a support which our labouring poor rarely have at any time, but certainly not during the present scarcity, and which to men living without labour seems enough to maintain them in a general state of good health. And I have been informed by some who are most qualified to know, that the French Prisons had never had so few sick as at the present time. 125 Some indeed who had sported away their allowance in Gambling to prevent which the Agents have taken every precaution in their Power are in fact destitute enough and so they might have been if their Ration had been ten times as great. But this is their own fault entirely and it cannot be expected that if a Prisoner be pleased to throw away his food by vice, that Government must be at the expence of supplying him again. However wherever this has been discovered particularly as it may be in the Article of Bread the whole has been seized by the agent of Officers of the Prison, from the Winners or Purchasers and distributed amongst the Prisoners at large.
Many of the Prisoners have stalls in a kind of Market within the walls in which among other articles they sell Provisions and vegetables and I am told acquire considerable sums of money. This interior market is supplied by another without where there is a free access of the Country People with all sorts of provisions Beer and Produce which they are not allowed to sell but at the fair Market Price so that Destitution is only to be found among those few who have been weak or wicked enough to lose their allowance by Gambling. I am also informed that many Thousand pounds have been already remitted, and that sums of money are now continually remitting from France, by the Friends of the Prisoners for additional comforts in their situation. This affords a considerable supply to many of their requirements.
Their clothing in general for which the French Government has ceased to provide (as well as for the victualling) is getting very bad, and to meet the winter fairly must by some means or other be supplied.
Besides the remittances from France, the Prisoners are allowed to sell any kinds of their own manufactures; Straw Hats (which would interfere with the Revenue) and Articles made from Stores excepted, by which means some have been known to earn and to carry off on their Release more than a Hundred Guineas each. This with an open Market as above mentioned operates much to their advantage and Comfort and they show their satisfaction in the Habits of Cheerfulness peculiar to themselves. The Prisoners have free access to the several Apartments from the opening of the Prison in the morning until they are shut up on the approach of night with the exception only of the times when they are fumigating or cleansing for the preservation of Health. Six Prisoners chosen by the body at large have access to the Cook rooms every morning when the Provisions are brought in that they may witness to their full weight and object to any deficiency.
In case of sickness the patients are immediately removed under the direction of the Medical people, to the Hospital and supplied with the necessary assistance.
Nothing can exceed the cleanliness and decency of the Hospitals.
Translation
London
Brumaire 9th Year of the French Republic, 4th November 1800
The Commissary of the French Republic in England, to the Commissioners of the Transport Office.
Gentlemen,
I have just received the honour of your letter of the 1st of November in answer to mine of the 29th October. I shall immediately communicate it to my Government.
In making mention of the deplorable situation to which the Prisoners are reduced you appear to think that I have given no answer to the Communications you made to me respecting the very censurable practise of such of them as risk the loss of their Rations in Gambling. I request that you will refer to my letter of the 2nd of May in which you will find the following Paragraph. “I entirely approve of the Punishment you propose to inflict upon those who according to the information you have sent me, deal in Provisions; and I beg that you will communicate to me a list of the Persons guilty of this conduct. It even appears necessary in order that the Punishment may be the more felt, to separate them from their comrades and to collect them in a Depot for this purpose.” I have written to the Secretaries at the different Depots to the above effect, and I Have procured authority from the Minister to treat with the utmost severity those who made a traffic of the Rations of their comrades. I have done in this respect every thing my situation will admit of my doing, but until I shall know, who are the guilty it will be impossible for me to punish them.
I have the honour to be, &c.,(Signed) Otto.
APPENDIX E
Transport Office,14th June 1811.
RETURN OF NUMBER OF PRISONERS IN HEALTH OR SICK IN THE VARIOUS PRISONS IN GREAT BRITAIN
Distinguishing—The Prisons in which they were confined in the Month of April 1810, and, according to the Latest Returns, Distinguishing those in Health, from the Sick and Convalescents
(Signed) R. George.
J. Douglas.J. Harners.
APPENDIX F
FULL NOMINAL RETURN OF THE HOSPITAL STAFF AT NORMAN CROSS PRISON
The Hospital accounts seem to commence in 1806; there are none extant before. The first document in the bundle of papers is a report from Captain Pressland, the Agent, to the Board, enumerating the staff and the date of appointment of each member.
George Walker, Surgeon, allowed for stationery by letter from the Sick and Hurt Board, 12th August 1803, and by warrant from the Transport Board, 11th February 1806, 15s. per diem and three guineas per annum for stationery.
Samuel Waight, Dispenser, S. & H.B. warrant, 4th July 1803, and order for stationery 24th August 1803.
Orbell Fairclough, Hospital Mate, S. & H.B. letter, 21st September 1805.
John Waller, Hospital Mate, S. & H.B. letter, 25th February 1805.
A. Munro, Clerk, 16th September 1803.
John Prethenan, Steward of Bedding, 6th July 1803, order for lodging 22nd September 1803.
Thos. Giffard, Steward of Victualling, 7th October 1803, order for lodging 15th October 1804.
Robert Hobart, Turnkey, S. & H.B. warrant, 22nd December 1803, Supert. Carpenter, order, 30th April 1804.
Thos. Allan, Turnkey, warrant, 1st January 1806.
Ann Key, Matron, warrant, 14th March 1804.
Eliza Munro, Seamstress, letter, 22nd December 1803 (N. B.). She was formerly Eliza Key, and is the daughter of Mrs. Key.
Abraham Sevan, letter, 27th October 1804, to discharge the messenger Collins, when Sevan was entered in his place, 3rd November 1804. This was the only member of the staff who made his mark on the pay-sheet.
Pierre Larfeuil, Asst.-Surgeon, S. & H.B. order, 18th May 1804.
Anty. Howard, ditto, order, 17th September 1804 and 18th April 1805.
Pierre Glize, Asst.-Dispenser, order, 6th March 1805.
P. E. Breand, Taylor.
P. Vanheekhoet, Interpreter.
Yves Gueonet, 26th October 1804.
Pierre Landean, to carry medicines, 26th October 1804.
Pierre Douvre, Washerman, order, 28th January 1805.
Pierre Avey, Carpenter, first employed to make cradles for keeping the bedclothes off injured limbs, etc., and afterwards on odd jobs, then Washerman.
Pierre Gradel, Asst.-Lamplighter, S. & H.B. order, 14th December 1804.
J. B. Anjou, Serving in Dispensary, order, 21st November 1804.
Louis Clairet, to refill beds, etc., employed by Dr. Gillespie.
Pierre Drissan, Asst. to Bedding-Steward, order 11th December 1805.
Pierre Jansen, Shoemender, order, 21st August 1805.
P. A. Daird, Stocking Mender, employed by Dr. Gillespie.
Francis Dening, ditto, 11th December 1805.
Louis Le Besse, Labourer, to clean drains, yards, etc., order, 15th October 1804.
Pierre Andierne, ditto.
Pierre Vennin, Barber to infirm and itchy men, order 29th April and 29th October 1805.
P. M. Langlais, Nurse to ditto.
John Rivet, ditto.
Jean Taste, ditto. This man was appointed at the request of Mr. Walker, on account of the increased number of patients with Fits and Mania.
The Surgeon, William Walker, quitted the Hospital in February 1806, and was succeeded by George Walker, Surgeon, by warrant, dated 11th February 1806, and entered 21st February 1806. On 1st October had an allowance of £10 10s. per annum for coals and candles. On 6th July 1809 his pay was increased to 21s. per diem.
Orbell Fairclough resigned 20th September 1809.
Daird Povle appointed in his place.
Up to 1811 each had to sign the pay-sheet; this was discontinued, and the payments certified by the Agent and two of the staff. In the absence of the Agent, the Surgeon and the Clerk certified.
Salaries and Allowances
George Walker, Surgeon, entered 21st February 1806 as Surgeon at £1 1s. per day, £3 3s. per annum for stationery, and £10 10s. per annum for coals and candles. Had an abatement of 3d. in the £ for Widows’ Pension Fund.
John Watkins, Dispenser, entered 7th May 1810, at 10s. per day, £1 1s. per annum for stationery, and £10 10s. for coals and candles.
Alexr. Gordon, 5th June 1812, Hospital Mate, 6s. 6d. per day.
John Wilkinson, Clerk, 25th December 1810 at 30s. 6d. per week.
Barnard Smith, Victualling Steward, 1st November 1806, 3s. 6d. per day.
A. E. Key, Matron, 1st March 1804, £25 per annum, 10s. 6d. per annum for stationery, 1s. 3d. per day rations.
H. Key, Seamstress, 25th April 1804, at 4s. 6d. per week, and 1s. 3d. per day rations.
After the prison was emptied in 1814 there were still sick in the Hospital, and the pay-sheets show that it was not until the 31st July in that year that the payments of the staff entirely ceased.
The Hospital Mate, Victualling Steward, Matron and Seamstress, were only paid twenty days in July 1814, the Dispenser twenty-three and the Surgeon the complete thirty-one days.