Sanquhar
The first prisoners came here in March 1812. They were chiefly some of those who had been hurried away from Wincanton and other towns in the west of England at the alarm that a general rising of war-prisoners in those parts was imminent, 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, 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 Désirée’.
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.’