The building as then built is described in the Notes to Risdon’s Devonshire, published in 1811, as follows:—

The outer wall encloses a circle of about 30 acres—within this is another wall which encloses the area in which the Prison stands—this area is a smaller circle with a segment cut off. The prisons are 5 large rectangular buildings each capable of containing more than 1,500 men; they have each two floors, where is arranged a double tier of Hammocks slung on cast-iron pillars, and a third floor in the roof, which is used as a promenade in wet weather. There are besides two other spacious buildings, one of which is a large hospital, and the other is appropriated to the Petty Officers. The entrance is on the western side, the gateway, built of solid blocks of granite, bearing the inscription, “Parcere subjectis.”

The total cost of the work was nearly £130,000, and it was completed somewhere about the year 1809, and the collection of houses gradually formed what is now known as Princetown.

The first set of prisoners was sent there on the 29th May, 1809, and the buildings continued to be used as a war prison from then until the 22nd April, 1814, during which time no less than 12,679 prisoners underwent confinement there. During the years 1809, 1810 and 1811, deaths at the prison were very numerous from one cause and another, so much so, that a Return was asked for in the House of Commons, by which it appears that from May, 1809, to June, 1811, no less than 622 prisoners died.

The following is a copy of such Returns:—

1809.No. in Prison.Deaths.
May2,479—
June2,4719
July3,0599
August4,0523
September6,03115
October5,99321
November5,94029
December5,87563
149
1810.No. in Prison.Deaths.
January5,741131
February5,62487
March5,39963
April5,35228
May5,28225
June5,26117
July5,24712
August5,22916
September5,20911
October5,3999
November5,37212
December5,2478
419
1811.No. in Prison.Deaths.
January5,72814
February5,0197
March5,60511
April5,59410
May6,0845
June6,5777
54

In the year 1812 no less than 6,280 prisoners of war were confined in the buildings. The total number of deaths during the whole time the buildings were used as a war prison was 1,117; of these 1,095 were French, and 22 American, prisoners.

Of the life of the prisoners inside the prison little is known. We know that Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt procured the privilege of holding a market and a fair at Princetown, and that daily markets were held within the precincts of the prison for the sale by the country people of vegetables, etc., to the prisoners. There are rumours that the prisoners gambled away their clothing and rations; but their life as prisoners on Dartmoor must have been infinitely preferable to that endured by those who were previous thereto confined in hulks and transports; but the details of the life are wanting, and even the pamphlet written by Capt. Vernon Harris, for many years Governor of Dartmoor Prison after it was re-opened, gives no great information on the subject. Many writers of fiction have founded romances on the prison and the prisoners, but for the most part on imagination. Probably the best of the kind, and most accurate in detail, is The Queen of the Moor, by the Rev. Frederick Adye, who was for many years resident in the district, and therefore well acquainted with the surrounding country and the rumours of the neighbourhood. Monsieur Jules Poulain, a Frenchman who is said to have lived at Princetown to be near a friend who was confined there, has written in the French language an interesting book entitled Dartmoor, or the Two Sisters. He, in describing Dartmoor, says:—“Think of the ocean waves changed into granite during a tempestuous storm, and you will then form an idea of what Dartmoor is like,” which indeed gives rather a vivid picture of the rolling hills and valleys.