In the Annual Register we read that on Saturday, July 16, 1760, the alarm was given that a thousand prisoners had broken out of the Castle and were abroad in the country. ‘To arms’ was beaten immediately. ‘You would have been pleased to see with what readiness and alacrity the Surrey Militia here, universally, officers and men, advanced towards the place of danger’, says the correspondent, ‘I say, “towards,” because when they got as far as Milkhouse Street, the alarm was discovered to be a mistake. Many of the townspeople and countrymen joined them.’
On one Sunday morning in 1761 the good people of Cranbrook were sent flying out of church by the news that the Sissinghurst prisoners had broken out and were scouring the country fully armed, but this also was a false alarm.
It was from the top of the still standing gatehouse-tower that the deed was perpetrated which caused the following entry in the Cranbrook Register:
‘1761. William Bassuck: killed by a French prisoner.’ Bassuck was on sentry-go below, and the Frenchman dropped a pail on him.
In 1762 the misery of the prisoners at Sissinghurst culminated in a Petition to the Admiralty, signed by almost all of them, of so forcible and circumstantial a character, that in common justice it could not be overlooked, and so Dr. Maxwell was sent down to examine the charges against Cooke, the agent.
The Complaints and their replies were as follows:
(1) That the provisions were bad in quality, of short measure and badly served.
Reply: Not proved.
(2) That cheese had been stopped four ‘maigre’ days in succession to make good damage done by prisoners.
Reply: Only upon two days.