THE ADVENTURES OF ANDREW SHERBURNE
While we are on the subject of the treatment of American prisoners
in England, which forms a most grateful contrast to that which they
received in New York, Philadelphia, and other parts of America, we will
give an abstract of the adventures of another young man who was confined
in the Old Mill Prison at Plymouth, England. This young man was named
Andrew Sherburne. He was born at Rye, New Hampshire, on the 3oth of
September, 1765.
He first served on the continental ship of war, Ranger, which shipped
a crew at Portsmouth, N. H. His father consented that he should go with
her, and his two half uncles, Timothy and James Weymouth, were on
board. There were about forty boys in the crew. Andrew was then in his
fourteenth year, and was employed as waiter to the boatswain. The vessel
sailed in the month of June, 1779. She took ten prizes and sailed for
home, where she arrived in August, 1779. Next year she sailed again on
another cruise, but was taken prisoner by the British at Charleston, S.
C., on the 12th of May, 1780.
“Our officers,” says Sherburne, “were paroled and allowed to retain
their waiters. We were for several days entirely destitute of provisions
except muscles, which we gathered from the muscle beds. I was at this
time waiter to Captain Pierce Powers, master’s mate of the Ranger. He
treated me with the kindness of a father.”
“At this time,” he continues, “Captain Simpson and the other officers
procured a small vessel which was employed as a cartel, to transport
the officers, their boys and baggage, agreeably to the terms of
capitulation, to Newport, R. I. It being difficult to obtain suitable
casks for water they procured such as they could. These proved to be
foul, and after we got to sea our water became filthy and extremely
noxious. Very few if any on board escaped an attack of the diarrhoea.”
After his return he next shipped under Captain Wilds on the Greyhound,
from Portsmouth, N. H., and at last, after many adventures, was taken
prisoner by Newfoundlanders, off Newfoundland. He was then put on board
the Fairy, a British sloop of war, commanded by Captain Yeo, “a complete
tyrant” “Wilds and myself,” he continues, “were called to the quarter
deck, and after having been asked a few questions by Captain Yeo, he
turned to his officers and said: ‘They are a couple of fine lads for his
Majesty’s service. Mr. Gray, see that they do their duty.’”
When the sloop arrived in England the boys complained that they were
prisoners of war, in consequence of which they were sent to the Old Mill
Prison at Plymouth, accused of “rebellion, piracy, and high treason.”
Here they found acquaintances from Portsmouth, N. H. The other prisoners
were very kind to young Sherburne, gave him clothing and sent him to a
school which was kept in the prison. Ship building and other arts were
carried on in this place, and he learned navigation, which was of great
service to him in after life.
The fare, he declared, was tolerably good, but there was not enough
of it. He amused himself by making little toy ships. He became ill and
delirious, but recovered in time to be sent to America when a general
exchange of prisoners was effected in 1781. The rest of his adventures
has nothing to do with prisons, in England, and shall not now be
detailed.
Although the accounts of the English prisons left by Herbert, Sherburne
and others are so favorable, yet it seems that, after the year 1780,
there was some cause of complaint even there. We will quote a passage
from the British Annual Register to prove this statement. This passage
we take from the Register for 1781, page 152.
“A petition was presented to the House the same day (June 20th) by Mr.
Fox, from the American prisoners in Mill Prison, Plymouth, setting forth
that they were treated with less humanity than the French and Spanish,
though by reason that they had no Agent established in this country
for their protection, they were entitled to expect a larger share of
indulgence than others. They had not a sufficient allowance of _bread_,
and were very scantily furnished with clothing.
“A similar petition was presented to the House of Peers by the Duke of
Richmond, and these petitions occasioned considerable debate in both
Houses. Several motions were grounded on these petitions, but to those
proposed by the Lords and gentlemen in the opposition, were determined
in the negative, and others to _exculpate_ the Government in this
business were resolved in the affirmative. It appeared upon inquiry,
that the American prisoners were allowed a half pound of bread less
per day than the French and Spanish prisoners. But the petitions of the
Americans produced no alterations in their favor, and the conduct of
the Administration was equally unpolitic and illiberal. The additional
allowance, which was solicited on behalf of the prisoners, could be
no object, either to Government or to the Nation, and it was certainly
unwise, by treating American prisoners worse than those of France or
Spain, to increase the fatal animosity which had unhappily taken place
between the mother country and the Colonies, and this, too, at a period
when the subjugation of the latter had become hopeless.”