Prisoners of War in Britain 1756 to 1815 / A record of their lives, their romance and their sufferings

by Francis Abell

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 Dépôt, and is nearly five months old.’