One of the commonest forms of complaint from prisoners was against the custom of punishing a whole community for the sins of a few, or even of a single man. In 1758 a round-robin signed by seventy-five prisoners at Sissinghurst protested that the whole of the inmates of the Castle were put upon half rations for the faults of a few ‘impertinents’.
At Okehampton in the same year, upon a paroled officer being sent to a local prison for some offence, and escaping therefrom, the whole of the other prisoners in the place were confined to their lodgings for some days. When set free they held an indignation meeting, during which one of the orators waved a stick, as the mayor said, threateningly at him. Whereupon he was arrested and imprisoned at ‘Coxade’, the ‘Cockside’ prison near Mill Bay, Plymouth.
We see an almost pathetic fanning and fluttering of that old French aristocratic plumage, which thirty years later was to be bedraggled in the bloody dust, in the complaints of two highborn prisoners of war in 1756 and 1758. In the former year Monsieur de Béthune strongly resented being sent on parole from Bristol into the country:
‘Ayant appris de Mr. Surgunnes (?) que vous lui mandé par votre lettre du 13 courant si Messire De Béthune, Chevalier de St. Simon, Marquis d’Arbest, Baron de Sainte Lucie, Seigneur haut, et bas justicier des paroisses de Chateauvieux, Corvilac, Lâneau, Pontmartin, Neung et autres lieux, étoit admis à la parole avec les autres officiers pour lesquels il s’intéresse, j’aurai l’avantage de vous répondre, qu’un Grand de la trempe de Messire De Béthune, qui vous adresse la présente, n’est point fait pour peupler un endroit aussi désert que la campagne, attendu qu’allié du costé paternel et maternel à un des plus puissans rois que jamais terre ait porté, Londres, comme Bristol ou autre séjour qu’il voudra choisir, est capable de contenir celui qui est tout à vous.
‘De Bristol; le 15 Xbre. 1756.’
Later he writes that he hears indirectly that this letter has given offence to the gentlemen at the ‘Sick and Hurt’ Office on Tower Hill, but maintains that it is excusable from one who is allied to several kings and sovereign princes, and he expects to have his passport for London.
The Prince de Rohan, on parole at Romsey, not adapting himself easily to life in the little Hampshire town, although he had the most rare privilege of a six-mile limit around it, wrote on July 4, 1758, requesting permission for self and three or four officers to go to Southampton once a week to make purchases, as Romsey Market is so indifferent, and to pass the night there. The six-mile limit, he says, does not enable him to avail himself of the hospitality of the people of quality, and he wants leave to go further with his suite. He adds a panegyric on the high birth and the honour of French naval officers, which made parole-breaking an impossibility, and he resents their being placed in the same category with privateer and merchant-ship captains.
However, the Commissioners reply that no exceptions can be made in his favour, and that as Southampton is a sea-port, leave to visit it cannot be thought of.
In 1756 twenty-two officers on parole at Cranbrook in Kent prayed to be sent to Maidstone, on the plea that there were no lodgings to be had in Cranbrook except at exorbitant rates; that the bakers only baked once or twice a week, and that sometimes the supply of bread ran short if it was not ordered beforehand and an extra price paid for it; that vegetables were hardly to be obtained; and that, finally, they were ill-treated by the inhabitants. No notice was taken of this petition.
In 1757 a prisoner writes from Tenterden:
‘S’il faut que je reste en Angleterre, permettez-moi encore de vous prier de vouloir bien m’envoier dans une meilleure place, n’ayant pas déjà lieu de me louer du peuple de ce village. Sur des plaintes que plusieurs Français ont portées au maire depuis que je suis ici, il a fait afficher de ne point insulter aux Français, l’affiche a été le même jour arrachée. On a remis une autre. Il est bien désagréable d’être dans une ville où l’on est obligé de défendre aux peuples d’insulter les prisonniers. J’ai ouï dire aux Français qui ont été à Maidstone que c’était très bien et qu’ils n’ont jamais été insultés ... ce qui me fait vous demander une autre place, c’est qu’on déjà faillit d’être jeté dans la boue en passant dans les chemins, ayant eu cependant l’intention de céder le pavé.’