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 alexander, 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 condensing 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 number, confessed they had received eight guineas each for their help, and two of them were condemned to be shot.
236
dartmoor war-prison, in 1812.
from a sketch signed ‘john wethems’ in the public record office.
(reproduced by kind permission of mr. basil thomson and col. winn.)
key to the plan.
1a
prison.
2a
prison.
3a
prison.
4a
prison.
5a
prison.
6a
prison. (new building).
7a
prison. (new building).
b
cookeries.
c
cachot or dungeon.
d
watch-houses.
e
basins.
f
petty officers’ prison.
g
market-place.
h
hospital.
i
receiving-house.
j
pharmacy.
k
bathing-place.
l
matron’s house.
m
washing-house.
n
storage.
n
store-houses.
o
storage.
p
jailor’s lodgings
q
jailor’s lodge.
r1
mr. holmden’s (clerk) house.
r2
mr. bennet’s house.
r3
mr. winkworth’s house.
s
captain cotgrave’s house.
t
agent’s office.
u
agent’s garden.
v
doctor’s house.
w
doctor’s garden.
x
stables.
y
reservoir.
z
barracks.
1
mr. carpenter’s house.
2
bakehouse.
3
bell.
4
miller’s house.
5
burial-ground.
6
dead-house.
7
military walk.
8
ramparts.
9
iron rails, inside of which prisoners are confined.
10
streams of water running from the reservoir.
11
tavistock road.
12
princetown road.
13
morton road.
14
prison where mr. v. made his first entry on december 12, 1811, with the track.
15
prison where mr. v. lives now, and track of walk allowed.
16
mr. v. has liberty to go as far as 5th gate.
17
new latter wall, is a mile in circumference.
237thirty acres were enclosed by stone walls, the outer of which was sixteen feet high,[10] 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 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 converging 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 valleyfield, 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 snowstorm 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 sympathetic 238public 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 manufactures. 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-office 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 government 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:
239
‘to foreigners, bred for the most part in a region the temperature 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 individuals 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 whitbread’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 gentlemen 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 prosecuting 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, 240as 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 epidemic 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 1s. 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 241complete stagnation, seems to have treated with avaricious parsimony 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 3d. 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 ma?tre 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 métier 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 stooping 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 242prisoners 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 243fortunate, 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 244that 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 1st 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, industrious 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 ‘respectable prisoners’. after the labourers came the ‘indifférents’—loafers and idlers, but not mischief-makers or harm-workers; the ‘misérables’, 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 privateersmen, the scum and sweepings of sea-port 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 245a 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 prepared, 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. theatricals 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 246local 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 supposed 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 247with 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 1, 1813, cotgrave, the governor, ordered all the american prisoners to be transferred to no. 4 caserne, where were already 900 french ‘romans’.
dartmoor. the original main entrance.
(from a sketch by the author.)
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-prisons 248for 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 falsehood 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 1, 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 249evening the disturbance was renewed, an attempt was made to 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 americans 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 not until forty on both sides had been badly wounded. after this a wall fifteen feet high was built to divide the airing ground 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 smallest man, although most of the prisoners were reduced by low living to skeletons—with the sleeves half-way up the arms, a short waistcoat, pants tight to the middle of the shin, shoes of list with wooden soles one and a half inches thick.
an epidemic of small-pox broke out; complaints poured in 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 remonstrances 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 to every 200 at fourpence halfpenny; barber at threepence; nurses in the hospital at sixpence—all without avail. as a rule the americans were glad to sell their ration of bad beef to frenchmen, who could juggle it into fancy dishes, and with the 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, and 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 in the science of forging not only bank-notes, but shillings out of spanish dollars which they collected from the outside of the market, making eight full-weight shillings out of every four dollars. the performers were chiefly officers who had broken 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.
250
wooden working model of a french trial scene
made by prisoners of war at dartmoor
251isaac 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 intercourse 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 professors 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. 8d. 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 252officers 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 examination 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 largely 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 253in 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 authorities 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 subterranean 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 débris, and are now in the prison museum.’
254at 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 1.
peace, which had been signed at ghent on december 24, 1814, was declared at dartmoor, and occasioned general jubilation. 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 prisoners. 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.
255on 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 entertainments 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 256coining, 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.’
bone model of guillotine
made by prisoners of war at dartmoor
257he speaks very highly of the tall, thin, one-eyed dr. magrath, the prison doctor, but of his scots assistant, mcfarlane, as 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. 1: 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 subjected 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 4d. 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 258and 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 bête 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 complaints, 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 5,000 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 259returned, he was very angry at what he deemed the pusillanimous 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 260repeat 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 conducted 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.
dartmoor prison
illustrating the ‘massacre’ of 1815
a. surgeon’s house. b. captain shortland’s house. c. hospital. d. barracks. e. cachot, or black hole. f. guard houses. g. store houses.
261the last war-prisoners left dartmoor in december, 1815, and from this time until 1850 it was unoccupied, which partially 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 frenchmen, 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.’
