Transcribed from the 1913 Constable & Company Ltd edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

THE DEPOT FOR PRISONERS
OF WAR AT NORMAN CROSS
HUNTINGDONSHIRE. 1796 to 1816

BY
THOMAS JAMES WALKER, M.D., F.R.C.S.

Fellow (Member of Council 1908–9) of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Associate of the British Archæological Association. Past President of
the Peterborough Natural History Antiquarian and Scientific Society.

“I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice.”

Shakespeare’s “Othello.”

LONDON
CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD
1913

PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Forewords

[ix]

CHAPTER I

The Urgent Need for PrisonAccommodation, Norman Cross,Hunts, selected asthe Site, and the Prisonbuilt

[1]

CHAPTER II

The Prison and itsEstablishment

[17]

CHAPTER III

Arrival and Registration of thePrisoners

[47]

CHAPTER IV

Administration andDiscipline

[58]

CHAPTER V

Prison Life

[89]

CHAPTER VI

“LesMisérables” of NormanCross and the “Romans” ofDartmoor

[112]

CHAPTER VII

Employments of theCaptives—Straw PlaitControversy—Conduct—Escapes

[124]

CHAPTER VIII

The Sick and the Hospital

[163]

CHAPTER IX

The Cemetery—Religious Ministrations—Bishop of Moulins

[173]

CHAPTER X

Prisoners on Parole—Social Habits—Marriages—Exchangeof Prisoners

[190]

CHAPTER XI

British Prisoners inFrance—Verdun—Narrative of the Rev. J. Hopkinson

[223]

CHAPTER XII

The Truce and thePeace—Prison Evacuated,1802—Finally Cleared,1814—Demolished, 1816

[239]

Appendices

[257]

Index

[343]