Letter from Portsmouth—Debate in Parliament—Cost of the War—Petition for
a Trial—Traitors Detected—Traitors Punished—Attempt to Escape—Sickness
in Prison—Paul Jones at Whitehaven—Letter from Portsmouth—Death of
John Foster—Prison Wrangle—Commissioners Sailed—Another Hole—It
Founders—Joseph Kensington Died—Sick Prisoners Neglected.
APRIL 17. To-day one of the prisoners received a letter from Captain
Harris, of Portsmouth. He writes that we may rely upon it, that he had
it from good authority, that the vessels were taken up, and were under
repairs, to carry us home; and according to his letter, he expects to be
on his passage in a month’s time. There are many in prison who gather
some encouragement from this.
18. According to the best accounts, there has been a great debate in the
House of Commons.—The Duke of Richmond is for giving the Commissioners
full power, before they return, even to declare the States independent,
if nothing short will answer; Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke are of the same
mind. But Lord Chatham declares that he had rather be in his grave than
see the day that America is declared to be independent. According to
their own account, this American war has cost Great Britain,
£30,000,000, and thirty thousand of their best disciplined troops—eleven
thousand eight hundred the last campaign.
19. We are informed that a packet has lately arrived from America, but
as yet we know not what news she has brought.
20. We have a paper in which is an account of twenty-eight sail of
vessels, laden with English goods, laying in some port of England, bound
to America.
21. We have accounts in the paper of the Boston frigate, and another
frigate out of Boston, having taken a number of valuable prizes.
22. There was one man came from the Black-hole, his time being up. There
are four more left therein, but we find means to help them, as we have
others before them; we having a plenty of provisions, can help them, and
not injure ourselves. To-day I went out to buy a small pocket Bible, the
price of which was three shillings and sixpence.
24. Three more came out of the Black-hole; there is but one left, and he
will be out in a few days.
25. Captain Lee received a letter from Captain Trott, a prisoner in
Bristol. He wrote that those of us who have a mind to write to America,
can do so, by immediately sending the letters to him. He will send them
to France by a man bound there. Several, therefore, wrote, and sent them
to him. He also informed us, that by his own desire, he is going to
London to receive his trial, which put us in mind of petitioning for a
trial, also. Accordingly, a petition was drawn up, and about one half in
prison signed it. The contents of the petition were as follows:
“To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty: the petition of sundry of the
subjects of the United States of America, showeth, that your petitioners
were at several respective periods, in the year of our Lord 1777,
committed to Old Mill Prison, in the County of Devonshire, for the
suspected crime of high treason; your petitioners are unable to be
exactly positive as to the particular style or wording of the crime
represented, in whole or either of their commitments, but as their
bodily health is at present much impaired, and they fear it will be more
so, so that their lives may be endangered by a longer confinement in
prison, they humbly request that your Majesty will be pleased to order
them to be brought to trial with all possible speed, for the crime or
crimes of which they may be supposed guilty. And your petitioners,” &c.
26. For some months past we have thought it presumption to try to make
our escape from prison by digging out, on account of there being
traitors amongst us. An innocent man has borne the scandal of this a
good while, but upon being told of it by a friend, he took no rest day
or night until he had found the traitors, and upon examination we
discovered them to be two negroes, a man and a boy. Accordingly, they
were tied up and whipped—the boy was whipped by a boy, two dozen and a
half lashes, on his bare back; and we thought it the man’s prerogative
who had borne the blame of being a traitor and was innocent, to lay the
stripes upon the negro man. Accordingly, he gave him three dozen upon
his bare back, and spared not; had the negro stayed till night he would
have left his ears; but I suppose that he was suspicious of that, so he
went and jumped over the gate and delivered himself up to the guard and
told his story. The negro boy was sent for so now they are both
separated from us in another yard, and it is well for them that they are
so.
27. A man came out of the Black-hole, his time being up, and Mr.
Boardman and Deal, who have been only seventeen days on half allowance
in the prison hospital, were sent into this yard. They are the only
persons who have broke out and been taken, who have not suffered forty
days on half allowance in the Black-hole.
28. Last evening being somewhat dark, two young men had a mind to try to
make their escape; one of whom cut his hammock and blanket into strips
and tied them together; got over the wall at the end of the prison into
the yard, and was there caught and sent to the Black-hole. Today all the
negroes were taken out of this prison, and put into a separate building,
called the itchy yard.
29. To-day is Wednesday, which is our pay day, and each man received
sixpence; and as we have received it regularly for some weeks past, we
are told that we are to have it weekly; so in future, I shall only
mention when we do not have it.
30. There is a number sick now, more than has been since we came to
prison, except in time of small-pox. There are three or four in the
prison hospital who are very sick with fever, and several more in this
prison who are very ill. For a few weeks past, the agent has indulged us
with the liberty of pens, ink and paper, so that we have an opportunity
for writing and cyphering.
May 1. To-day the Tarbay, a ship of seventy-four guns, as she lay at her
moorings, accidentally took fire, and we are told that her upper works
are burned to a coal, and being old, she is not worth repairing; she has
been but a few days out of dock.
3. We have a newspaper, from which we learn that an American privateer,
commanded by Captain John Paul Jones, from Portsmouth, went into
Whitehaven, sent her boat on shore, and spiked up the cannon, and set
fire to a ship, and had it not been for a man that deserted the boat and
alarmed the town, the boat’s crew would have set fire to all the
shipping in the harbor. They then set off and went to Scotland, where
they went on shore and plundered Lord Selkirk’s house of £5000 worth of
plate, and took several cattle. To-day a large ship arrived in the
Sound, which we took to be an East Indiaman, but have since heard that
she is a transport from New York.
3. Sunday. To-day we received two letters from the prisoners in
Portsmouth. They inform us that there are one hundred and eighty
prisoners there. They also inform us that Captain Weeks, in a privateer
of sixteen guns, bound from France to America, foundered upon the Banks
of Newfoundland, and all were lost but one.
4. To-day, Captain Lee, taken in a merchantman belonging to Manchester,
came to see us. He informed us of Captain Tracy’s arrival, and that he
had taken an East Indiaman; but we do not hear of any homeward bound
East Indiamen missing.
5. To-day several of us had an opportunity of writing letters to send by
Captain Lee, who came to see us yesterday, as he is bound directly home.
6. This morning about eight o’clock, Mr. John Fowler, a prisoner, died
in the prison hospital, with a pleurisy fever. He was only a few days
sick, and in the afternoon there was a jury over him. They will not tell
us the occasion of a jury’s being called, but it appears that the public
were jealous that there had been bad usage. This man is the fourth that
has died since I came to prison. He is the first of Captain Lee’s men
that has died since they were imprisoned.
7. To-day there have been several men drunk in prison, as there often is
when they can get money to buy beer; and there has been a wrangle
between the old countrymen and the Americans. The Americans unanimously
hang together, and endeavor to keep peace in prison, but if the former
party were stronger than the latter, we should have a hell upon earth.
8. This afternoon there were three prisoners brought to prison, who were
taken in a prize upon the Grand Bank, bound to America, by a large old
East Indiaman, which has been made a transport. She was bound from New
York to England, with a few of Burgoyne’s officers on board, wounded and
exchanged. The three who came to prison tell us that they had the offer
of entering the English service, yet they chose to come to prison. The
prize-master’s mate entered the service; of those who came to prison,
there was one Newbury man, one Casco Bay man, and one Philadelphia man.
9. To-day three large two deckers dropped down into the Sound, from
Ammoors, bound to Spithead, to join the fleet that is bound to sea, for
the purpose of watching the motions of the French.
10. The commissioners sailed from Portsmouth in the Trydant man-of-war,
of sixty-four guns, bound for America, April 22d.
11. We have a hole now in hand, and as we have not convenient places in
prison to conceal all the dirt, for many days past many of us have been
employed in the smuggling way, by carrying it out in our pockets and
under our great coats, and emptying it into the vaults; but this
afternoon we met with a misfortune, for a hole which we had been digging
for ten days past, by times, foundered.
12. This morning after we were turned out, we so contrived it that the
officer should enter into conversation with the turnkey and sentry on
guard, and draw their attention, and in the meantime we stopped the
hole, so that it was not discovered.
13. We are resolved to be in the way of our duty, by embracing every
opportunity to make our escape.
14. To-day about one o’clock, another prisoner died in the prison
hospital. It is thought that he died of consumption. His name was Joseph
Kensington; he was taken in the Lexington privateer, with Captain Henry
Johnson. He is the fifth man that has died since we came to prison. If a
man is ever so sick in prison, he has nothing allowed him by the doctor
that is nourishing, but a little barley-water and milk broth; but we
have reason to think that all necessary things are allowed by
government, but it is left to the doctor’s option; so the sick do not
have them at all.
15. It is eighteen months to-day since we sailed from Newbury, but I
hope in a few months to be exchanged; and I expect that matters will be
settled amicably, for it is the opinion of many people that come to the
gate to see us, and of a great part in prison, that the commissioners
are invested with full power to settle the difficulties before they
return, upon the best terms; even to declare the States independent, if
necessary.