Thame
At Thame, in 1809, Israel Eel was charged at the Oxford Quarter Sessions with assaulting Ravenau, a French prisoner on parole. To the great surprise of all, not a true bill was returned.
Some of the prisoners at Thame were lodged in a building now called the ‘Bird Cage’, once an inn. A memory of the prisoners lingers in the name of ‘Frenchman’s Oak’ still given to a large tree there, it having marked their mile boundary.
General Villaret-Joyeuse, Governor of Martinique, was one of the many prisoners of fame or rank at Thame. He brought upon himself a rebuke from the Transport Office in 1809, for having said in a letter to his brother, ‘Plusieurs Français se sont détruits ne pouvant supporter plus longtemps l’humiliation et l’abjection où ils étaient réduits.’ The Transport Office told him that he had been grossly misinformed, and that during the past war only two prisoners were known to have destroyed themselves: one was supposed to have done so in consequence of the deranged state of his account with the French Government, and the other, having robbed his brother prisoner of a large amount, when detected, dreading the consequence. ‘When you shall have better informed yourself and altered the said letter accordingly, it will be forwarded to France.’
General Privé, one of Dupont’s officers, captured at Baylen, was called to order for making false statements in a letter to the French minister of war, in an offensive manner: ‘The Board have no objection of your making representations you may think proper to your Government respecting the Capitulation of Baylen, and transmitting as many Truths as you please to France, but indecent Abuse and reproachful Terms are not to be suffered.’