Thomas Walker - The Depot for Prisoners of War at Norman Cross, Huntingdonshire. 1796 to 1816

“8. The Prisoners in each Prison are to appoint Three or Five, from among their own number, as a Committee for examining the Quality of the Provisions supplied by the Contractor; for seeing that their full Rations, as to Weight and Measure, are conformable to the Scheme of Victualling at the Foot hereof: and if there should be any cause of Complaint they are to inform the Agent thereof; and should he find the Complaint well-founded, he is immediately to remedy the same. If the Agent should neglect this part of his Duty, the Prisoners are to give information thereof to the Commissioners, who will not fail to do them justice in every respect.

“9. All Dealers (excepting such as Trade in Articles not proper to be admitted into the Prison) are to be allowed to remain at the principal Gate of the Prison from six o’clock in the morning until three in the Afternoon, to dispose of the Merchandize to the Prisoners; but any of the Prisoners who shall be detected in attempting to introduce into the Prison Spirituous Liquors, or other improper Articles, or in receiving or delivering any Letter, shall be punished for the Abuse of this Indulgence, in such Manner as the Commissioners may direct.”

The punishments inflicted for breach of the regulations and for other offences, were:

1st. Reducing the ration of the offender, and should his messmates condone his offence, the rations of the whole mess of twelve men, to which he belonged, were reduced. Thus it became the interest of the whole mess to prevent any breach of discipline or misconduct by a member. If a whole mess were insubordinate, and the larger body into which the messes were grouped condoned the offence, the penalty was extended to them.

2nd. A more severe punishment was depriving a man of his chance of exchange by putting him at the bottom of the list; this was a fearful sentence, for although the actual chance of exchange was small, each man was daily longing and hoping for the arrival of the day when his cartel should come.

3rd. Imprisonment in the Black Hole, a veritable abode of misery, where solitude was added to the ills of imprisonment, was the penalty for serious offences, such as assaults on the staff, violent assaults on other prisoners, attempts to escape, and more heinous offences.

4th. Incorrigible prisoners, and those guilty of crimes which were considered as warranting even more severe punishment than imprisonment, in the Black Hole, were removed to the hulks, where, in addition to the discomfort of the crowded ships, they suffered all the other hardships experienced at that date by all criminals imprisoned in a gaol civil or military.

In case of heinous offences and obdurate insubordination, these punishments were combined—a man might not only be put into the Black Hole, but also be put on to reduced rations.

Closing the market at the east gate of the prison, either against the whole body of the prisoners or against those of one only of the four courts, was a punishment inflicted for some general malpractice, or in order to compel their fellow prisoners to disclose the names of some miscreants among them.

No record exists of those who were sentenced to confinement in the Black Hole at Norman Cross, but to show the character of the delinquencies for which this punishment was inflicted, we quote from Basil Thomson’s Story of Dartmoor Prison 32the following selections from the records of the “Cachot” at that Depot:

“ February 24 th .—Louis Constant and Olivier de Camp, for striking a sentinel on duty.”

“ May 20 th .—Jean Delchambre, for throwing a stone at a sentinel and severely cutting his head.”

“ June 14 th .—F. Rousseau, for striking Mr. Bennet, the store-keeper, when visiting the prisoners.”

“ June 14 th .—C. Lambourg, for striking and cutting open the head of a sentinel, and causing him dangerous injuries.”

“ August 19 th .—F. Lebot, for throwing a stone at the postman, as he was returning from Tavistock.”

“ August 15 th .—A. Creville, for drawing a knife on the hospital turnkey.”

“ August 25 th .—A. Hourra, for attempting to stab William Norris, one of the turnkeys, with a knife.”

“ September 4 th .—Jean Swan, for drawing a knife on the hospital turnkey.”

“ September 4 th .—F. Champs, for striking R. Arnold, one of the turnkeys, with a stone and cutting his head.”

“ September 24 th .—S. Schamond, for throwing down a sentinel and attempting to take away his bayonet.”

“ September 30 th .—A. Normand, for striking Mr. Arnold, the steward.”

“ October 16 th .—G. Massieu, for attempting to stab one of the turnkeys.”

“ October 16 th .—Pierre Fabre, for throwing a stone at a sentinel and cutting his face.”

“ October 20 th .—W. Johnson, for throwing stones at a sentinel.”

“ October 23 rd .—B. Marie, for knocking down a turnkey and attempting to seize the arms of a sentinel.” (See March 23rd, below.)

“ November 30 th .—N. Moulle and B. Saluberry, for having daggers concealed on their persons.”

The cachot records for March and April, 1813, are even more significant:

“ March 13 th .—P. Boissard, for striking a turnkey and threatening to murder him on the first opportunity.”

“ March 23 rd .—F. Bilat, for striking a prisoner named B. Marie, who died shortly afterwards, and taking away his provisions by force.”

“ March 28 th .—J. Beauclere, for threatening to stab Mr. Moore, because he could not procure employment for him on the Buildings.”

“ April 6 th .—F. Le Jeune, for being one of the principal provision buyers in the prison, and for repeatedly writing blood-thirsty and threatening letters.”

“ April 10 th .—M. Girandi and A. Moine, for being guilty of infamous vices.”

For offences against the laws of the land, more grave than those which could be dealt with by the authorities of the various depots, the prisoners, like British subjects, were liable to be tried at the assizes—thus Nicholas Deschamps and Jean Roubillard were tried at Huntingdon Assizes for forging £1 bank-notes (which they had done most skilfully). This was at that time a capital offence, and they were sentenced to death, but were respited during His Majesty’s pleasure, and remained in Huntingdon Gaol under sentence of death for nine terrible years, until Buonaparte was sent to Elba in 1814; they were then pardoned, and sent back to France with the rest of the liberated prisoners.

On the 9th September 1808, Charles François Marie Bourchier, who had been convicted at Huntingdon Assizes of having, in an attempt to escape, stabbed Alexander Halliday with a knife, was hanged at the prison in the sight of the whole garrison, who were under arms, and of all the prisoners. This is the only recorded civil execution at Norman Cross; there are several recorded instances of summary military justice, prisoners being shot dead in attempts to escape. It must be borne in mind that the prisoners were still our foes, who would, if they could escape, be at once in the ranks of the enemy’s army fighting against us; and to prevent their escape, there was, at Norman Cross, little beyond the muskets and bayonets of the Norman Cross sentries—sixty of them posted round and about the prison.

The cleanliness, sanitary and domestic, of the prison, the inhabitants of which averaged probably about 5,500 men (6,270 being the highest number of prisoners recorded in any official document as confined in Norman Cross on a specified day), was provided for by systematic fatigue parties from the prisoners themselves, one out of each mess of twelve being told off in regular rotation for the duty of sweeping, washing, scraping, and disinfecting the prisons; probably under this system the prison and courts were kept as clean as a man-of-war. Each man on leaving his hammock, doubled it over so that both clews hung on one hook, leaving the floor space clear.