‘From Motives of Public Duty the Commissioners, when they first heard of the intended connexion between General Pageot and Miss Bainbrigge, they caused such suspicious circumstances respecting the General as came to their knowledge to be communicated to the young lady’s mother, and that it affords them very much satisfaction now to find that her Friends are disposed to prevent an union which could promise very little comfort to her or Honour to her Family.’
Chesterfield
My best thanks are due to Mr. W. Hawkesly Edmunds, Scarsdale House, Chesterfield, for these notes:
‘Mrs. Roberts, widow of Lieutenant Roberts, R.N., left some interesting reminiscences among her papers. She says:
‘Different indeed was the aspect of the town from what one sees to-day. Grim visages and whiskered faces met one at every turn, to say nothing of moustaches, faded uniforms, and rusty cocked hats. At certain hours of the day it was difficult to walk along the High Street or the middle Causeway, for these were the favourite promenades of the officers on parole. When the weather permitted, they assembled each morning and evening to the number of 200 to exchange friendly greetings with all the extravagance of gesture and high-pitched voice for which the Frenchman is remarkable.’
The French prisoners in Chesterfield in the years around 1806 were for the most part, if not wholly, officers and their servants, and their treatment by the English Government was liberal and mild. All officers down to the rank of Captain, inclusive, were allowed ten shillings per week, and all below that rank, seven shillings each. On giving their parole they were allowed the greatest freedom; had permission to walk one mile from the town in any direction, but had to be in their lodgings at 8 each evening. At that hour a bell rang, known as the Frenchman’s Bell. It was, in fact, the very bell in the tower of the church formerly used as the curfew bell. It was in connexion with this mile regulation that a little fraud was perpetrated by Sir Windsor Hunloke, Bart., which was winked at by the authorities. Wingerworth Hall, the residence of Sir Windsor, was just outside the mile limit, but with the desire that many of the prisoners, who, like himself, were Roman Catholics, should visit him, he caused the milestone to be removed along the road to the other side of the hall, and so brought his residence within the mile limit. This old milestone is still to be seen.
The prisoners were first in charge of a Commissary, a local solicitor, Mr. John Bower, of Spital Lodge, but later the Government appointed superannuated lieutenants in the Navy. The first of these, Lieutenant Gawen, found that there had been so many escapes during Mr. Bower’s kindly but lax régime that he instituted more stringent regulations, and mustered the men twice a week instead of once, and he inspected all correspondence both to and from the prisoners. The first detachment of prisoners arrived in 1803, officers both of the Army and Navy; most of them had undergone the greatest privations. These were the prisoners from San Domingo, whose sufferings during the sieges of the blacks, and from sickness, famine, and sword, are matters of history. Indeed, had not the British squadron arrived, it is certain all their lives would have been sacrificed by the infuriated blacks in revenge for the barbarities practised on them by the French Commander-in-Chief General Rochambeau, who, with Generals D’Henin, Boyer, and Lapoype, Commodore Barré, and the other naval officers, with the staffs of the generals, were all at Chesterfield.
The successes of Wellington in Spain brought many more prisoners to Chesterfield, and a great number captured at San Sebastian and Pampeluna.
Most of the prisoners in the town managed to add to the Government allowance by teaching languages, drawing, and music. Others produced various articles for sale. Many of them were excellent ornamental workers in hair and bone, and there were not a few who were adept wood-carvers. Making bone models of men-of-war was a favourite occupation, and the more elaborate of these models were disposed of by means of lotteries. Another of their industries was the working of straw, which they dyed in gay colours, or plaited. Silk-hat making and silk-weaving they are said to have introduced into the town. They were also experts at making woollen gloves, &c., with a bone crook. One Bourlemont opened a dépôt for British wines. One prisoner got employment as a painter, but another had to seek work as a banksman at the Hady coal-pits.
Several of the prisoners were surgeons, and practised in the town, and it is reported that so great were the services some of these gentlemen rendered the poor of the town gratuitously, that representations were made to the Government, and they were given free pardons and safe-conducts back to France.
Some prisoners married, one the daughter of Turner the Parish Clerk, but generally beneath them.