THE JOURNAL OF WILLIAM RUSSELL
(1776-1783)
An attempt to portray the seafaring life of our forefathers would be
signally incomplete without some account of the misfortunes endured
when the American privateersman or man-of-war’s-man was the loser in an
encounter on blue water. During the Revolution, when privateers were
swarming from every port from Maine to the Carolinas, scores of them
were captured by superior force and their crews carried off to be laid
by the heels, often for two and three years, in British prisons of war.
Brilliant as was the record of the private armed ships of Salem, her
seamen, in large numbers, became acquainted with the grim walls of Old
Mill Prison at Plymouth and Forton Prison near Portsmouth.
They were given shorter rations than the French, Spanish and Dutch
prisoners of war with whom they were confined, and they were treated
as rebels and traitors and committed as such. Manuscript narratives
of their bitter experiences as preserved in Salem show that these
luckless seamen managed to maintain hope, courage and loyalty to a most
inspiring degree, although theirs was the hardest part to play that can
be imagined. Many of them shipped again in privateer or Continental
cruiser as soon as they were released and served their country until
the end of the war.
As recalling this prison life in a personal and intimate way, the
subjoined journal of William Russell is quoted at considerable length
although he was not a native of Salem. He sailed and was captured
in a ship commanded by Captain John Manley, of Marblehead; however,
he met many masters and seamen of Salem vessels during his years of
confinement in Old Mill Prison, and his journal came at length into
the hands of his grandson, James Kimball of Salem. What he suffered in
prison and how heartily he hated his captors and their nation can be
compactly concluded from these vitriolic verses of his:
_“Great Mars with me, come now and view, this more than Hellish crew!
Great Vulcan send your thunder forth, and all their fields bestrew!
Rain on their heads perpetual fire in one eternal flame:
Let black destruction be their doom, dishonor’d be their name:
Send mighty bolts to strike the traitors, North and Mansfield, dead:
And liquid fires to scald the crown from Royal George’s head:
Strike all their young posterity, with one eternal curse.
Nor pity them, no more than they, have ever pitied us!_
One hundred and thirty years ago William Russell was earning a humdrum
livelihood as an usher in a “public school” of Boston taught by one
Master Griffith. Whatever else he may have drilled into the laggard
minds of his scholars, it is certain that the young usher did not try,
by ferrule or precept, to inspire loyalty for their gracious sovereign,
King George and his flag. It is recorded that “he was of an ardent
temperament and entered with great zeal into the political movement
of the Colonies,” and was early enrolled among the “Sons of Liberty,”
which organization preached rebellion and resistance to England long
before the first clash of arms. At the age of twenty-three this
undignified school teacher was one of the band of lawless patriots who,
painted and garbed as red Indians, dumped a certain famous cargo of tea
into Boston Harbor.
When a British fleet and army took possession of seething Boston,
Master Griffith had to look for another usher, for William Russell had
“made himself obnoxious to the ‘authorities,’” and found it advisable
to betake himself with his family to places not so populous with red
coats.
His active service in the cause of the Revolution did not begin until
June of 1777, when the Massachusetts State’s Train of Artillery for
the defense of Boston was reorganized, and the first entry in the
regimental orderly book was in the handwriting of Sergeant Major
William Russell; a roll of the officers which included the name of
“Paul Revere, Lieutenant Colonel.”
Sergeant Major Russell was later appointed adjutant of this regiment
and served in the Rhode Island campaign until the end of the year 1778.
Thereafter that “ardent temperament” in his country’s cause led him to
seek the sea, and the artillery officer entered the naval service as a
captain’s clerk on board the Continental ship _Jason_ under the famous
Captain John Manley of Marblehead. They were sure of hard fighting who
sailed with John Manley. While in command of the frigate _Hancock_ he
had taken the British twenty-eight-gun frigate Fox after a severe and
bloody action. Later, in the privateer _Cumberland_, he had suffered
the misfortune of being carried into Barbados by the British frigate
_Pomona_, but breaking out of jail with his men at night he seized a
British government vessel, put her crew in irons, and sailed her to
the United States. Reaching Boston, Captain Manley was given the fine
Continental cruiser _Jason_, of twenty guns and a hundred and twenty
men.
It was this vessel and its dashing commander which lured young William
Russell from his military service. But the _Jason_ was captured during
Captain Manley’s first cruise in her by the swift British frigate
_Surprise_ after a hammer and tongs engagement in which the American
loss was thirty killed and wounded. Carried as prisoners to England,
the officers and some of the men of the _Jason_ were thrown into Old
Mill Prison at Plymouth where William Russell kept the journal which
is by far the most complete and entertaining account of the experience
of the Revolutionary privateersmen and naval seamen who suffered
capture that has been preserved.
After two and a half years’ confinement in a British prison, William
Russell, having left a wife and children at home, was exchanged and
sent to Boston in a cartel, or vessel under a flag of truce. He enjoyed
his homecoming no more than a few days when he re-entered the service
of his country as a privateersman and was again captured during his
first cruise, and sent to the notorious prison ship _Jersey_ in New
York harbor. He was not paroled until the spring of 1783, when with
health shattered by reason of his years of hardship as a prisoner
of war he returned to Cambridge and endeavored to resume his old
occupation of teaching. He mustered a few scholars at his home in the
“Light House Tavern,” but consumption had gripped him and he died in
the following year, on March 7, 1784, at the age of thirty-five. He had
given the best years of his life to his country and he died for its
cause with as much indomitable heroism and self-sacrificing devotion as
though musket ball or boarding pike had slain him.
The Journal of William Russell’s long captivity in Mill Prison begins
as follows:[12]
“Dec. 19, 1779. This morning the Boatswain told us to get ready to go
on shore to be examined. Went to the Fountain Inn Dock. Examined by two
Justices and committed to Mill Prison in Plymouth for Piracy, Treason
and Rebellion against His Majesty on the High Sea.[13] This evening
came to the Prison, finding 168 Americans among whom was Captain
Manley and some more of my acquaintances. Our diet is short, only ¾
pound of beef, 1 lb. of bread, 1 qt. of beer per day per man.”
[Illustration: The East India Marine Society’s hall, now the home of
the Peabody Museum]
[Illustration: Page from the records of the East India Marine Society,
written in 1799]
Much of this vivacious journal is occupied with the stories of
attempted escapes from the prison. The punishment was severe, but
nothing could daunt the high spirits of these Yankee seamen who were
continually burrowing through the walls, gnawing their way to liberty
like so many beavers, and now and then scoring a success. This appears
to have been their chief diversion, a warfare of wits waged against
their guards, with considerable good humor on both sides. Less than two
weeks after his commitment William Russell records, January 1, 1780:
“Made a breach in the wall of the Prison, with the design of escaping,
but it was discovered by the Sentinel on the other side. The masons
were sent to mend it but it being dinner time they left for dinner and
two Sentinels were placed to prevent our escape. Eight of our men put
on frocks and took mortar and daubed their clothing, going through the
hole as workmen. One of them came back into the yard undiscovered, but
the rest were taken or gave themselves up.
“Jan. 7th. Began another hole at the south end of the prison. The dirt
was put in our bread sacks which was the occasion of our being found
out. The masons were sent for and the hole stopped again. Richard Goss,
Jacob Vickary, Samuel Goss and John Stacey were put upon one half diet
and confined to the Black Hole for forty days.
“Jan. 28th. Began upon the same again and tho’ the two Sentinels were
kept with us all night, and two lamps burning, we went on with it with
great success. The weather being very rainy and frost in the ground
which thawed just as we were going through, the Sentinel marching on
his post broke into the hole that ran across the road. Immediately the
guard was alarmed and came into the prison, some with guns, some with
cutlasses. However we got to our hammocks and laughed at them. One
of the prisoners threw a bag of stones down stairs and liked to have
killed a drummer. The hole was mended next day and all hopes of our
escape is at an end. Very bad weather and very dark times.”
The attention of these energetic prisoners was diverted from more
attempts to break through the walls by the tidings of the arrival of
a cartel or vessel sent to take home exchanged Americans. The list of
“Pardons,” as the journal calls them, did not include Captain Manley
and the men of the _Jason_, and on March 5th it is related:
“One hundred embarked to-day in the cartel for France, we remained in
good spirits. I wrote a petition to the Honourable Commissioners for
taking care of Sick and Hurt Seamen at London, in Captain Manley’s
name, to obtain His Majesty’s pardon for nineteen Americans that came
after the 168 that were pardoned, that we might be ready to go in the
next draft. The cartel sailed and we are awaiting her return with great
expectation of being released from this disagreeable confinement.”
The story of their bitter disappointment is told in a letter written by
William Russell to his wife in Boston at this time. This true-hearted
patriot was much concerned about the fortunes of his fighting
countrymen, news of whom was filtering into Mill Prison in the form of
belated and distorted rumors. He wrote:
“MY DEAR:
“I transmit these few lines to you with my best love, hoping by the
blessing of God they will find you and my children, with our Mother,
Brother and Sisters, and all relations in as good state of health as
they leave me, but more composed in mind. I desire to bless Almighty
God for the measure of health I have enjoyed since this year came in,
as I have not had but one twenty-four hours’ illness, tho’ confined in
this disagreeable prison, forgotten as it seems by my Countrymen.
“My dear, in my last letter sent by Mr. Daniel Lane, I mentioned my
expectation of being at home this summer (but how soon are the hopes of
vain man disappointed), and indeed everything promised fair for it till
the return of the Cartel from France which was the 20th of last month.
We expected then to be exchanged, but to our sorrow found that she
brought no prisoners back. She lay some weeks in Stone Pool waiting for
orders, till at last orders came from the Board at London that she was
suspended until such time as they knew why the prisoners were not sent.
Then all hope of our being exchanged was and still is at an end, except
kind Providence interposes.
“It is very evident that the People here are in no wise blameable, for
they were ready and willing to exchange us, had there been anybody
sent from France. We have been informed by one of our friends that saw
a letter from Doctor Franklin which mentioned that the reason of our
not being exchanged was owing to the neglect of Monsieur Le Sardine,
Minister at France. If so I shall never love a Frenchman. However, God
only knows!
“I understand Mr. John Adams has superseded Doctor Franklin at France,
to whom I am going to write if he can’t get us exchanged this Fall. If
he don’t I think many in the yard will enter into the King’s service.
And I should myself, was it not that (by so doing) _I must sell my
Country, and that which is much more dearer to me, yourself and my
children_, but I rely wholly on God, knowing He will deliver me in His
own good time.
“I am extremely sorry to hear that Charleston is taken. Had our people
beat them there the War would have been over, for that was all their
dependence. They would have readily granted us our Independence for
they are sick of the War. It is not too late yet if the people in
America would turn out in good spirit, as they might soon drive them
off the Earth.”
The foregoing letter was written in April, 1780, and Charleston was
not captured by General Clinton’s army until May 12th. It was a false
report, therefore, which brought grief to the heart of William Russell
and his comrades, and must have been born of the fact that Clinton was
preparing to make an overland march against Charleston from his base at
Savannah. The history of two and a half years of the Revolution as it
was conveyed to the Americans in Mill Prison in piecemeal and hearsay
rumors was a singularly grotesque bundle of fiction and facts.
No sooner was the hope of exchange shattered than the industrious
Americans were again absorbed in the game of playing hide-and-seek with
the prison guard. On April 11th, William Russell goes on to say in his
matter-of-fact fashion:
“This evening Captain Manley and six others got over the sink dill
wall and went across the yard into the long prison sink and got over
the wall, except Mr. Patten who seeing somebody in the garden he was
to cross was afraid to go down the wall by the rope. He came back and
burst into the prison by the window, frightening the Sentinel who was
placed to prevent escapes. He in turn alarmed the guard, but by this
time the rest had got into Plymouth, and being late at night they took
shelter in Guildhall. The guard finding a rope over the wall knew that
somebody had made their escape. They surrounded Plymouth, made a
search and found Captain Manley, Mr. Drummond, Knight, Neagle and Pike,
and put them into the Black Hole that night.”
A more cheering item of news found its way into the journal under date
of June 27th:
“Somerset Militia mounted guard. Have just heard from a friend that
Captain Paul Jones had taken two Frigates, one Brig and a Cutter.”
There is something fine and inspiriting in the following paragraph
which speaks for itself:
“July 4, 1780. To-day being the Anniversary of American Independence,
the American prisoners wore the thirteen Stars and Stripes drawn on
pieces of paper on their hats with the motto, _Independence, Liberty
or Death_. Just before one o’clock we drew up in line in the yard and
gave Thirteen Cheers for the Thirteen United States of America and were
answered by the French prisoners. The whole was conducted in a decent
manner and the day spent in mirth.”
It is the more to be regretted that Mr. Patten and one John Adams
should have chosen this day to turn traitor and enlist on board the
British sixty-four gun ship _Dunkirk_ “after abusing Captain Manley
in a shameful manner.” To atone for their desertion of their flag,
however, there is the shining instance of one Pike as told on July 26th:
“When we were turning in at sunset some high words arose between the
soldiers and our people. An officer and two men came to the window and
asked if we were English, and began to use uncivil language. Upon which
Pike said he was an Englishman and was taken by the Americans in the
first of the war, and would fight for them as long as they had a vessel
afloat. They called him a rascal and threatened to put him in the Black
Hole. We laughed at them and told them there were more rascals outside
than in. They went out of the yard and soon returned with six or seven
more soldiers to put Pike into the Black Hole, but not knowing him they
seized on several and let them go. They searched the prison, and we
told them that if they confined one they should confine all. Whereupon
they went out again and we clapped our hands at them and gave them
three Cheers.”
Late in July the master, mate and crew of the American Letter of
Marque _Aurora_ were brought into the prison, increasing the number of
American prisoners to an even hundred. That England was fighting the
world at large during this period appears in the muster roll of Mill
Prison which included also 287 French and 400 Spanish seamen.
The capture of Henry Laurens, formerly President of the Congress of the
United States and recently appointed Minister to Holland, was a matter
of great interest to the Yankee seamen in Mill Prison, and the diarist
has this to say about it in his journal for September, 1780:
“10th. A frigate arrived last Friday at Dartmouth from New Foundland
and brought three Americans as prisoners. One was Henry Laurens, Esq.,
of South Carolina who was taken in a tobacco-laden vessel which sailed
with a fleet of twelve from Virginia.
“Mr. Laurens, Esq., late President of the Congress of the United States
but now Ambassador to Holland, and his clerk, were committed to the
Tower after a spirited speech.”
“Sept. 30, 1780. _To-day I am twelve Months a Prisoner and fourteen
Months since I left Home._”
Thus ends the chronicle of the first year of William Russell’s wearing
exile in Old Mill Prison, the story of a brave and patient man who
showed far more concern for the cause of his fellow patriots at home
than for his own hapless plight and separation from his loved ones.
Crew after crew of American privateering vessels had been brought into
the prison, and most of this unfortunate company seem to have been of
a dauntless and cheerful temper. They had tried one hazard of escape
after another, only to be flung into the “Black Hole” with the greatest
regularity. And whereas in other British jails and in their prison
ships there were scenes of barbarous oppression and suffering, these
sea-dogs behind the gray walls at Plymouth appear to have been on terms
of considerable friendliness with their guards, except for the frequent
and painful excursions to the “Black Hole.” The Americans, however,
took their punishment as a necessary evil following on the heels of
their audacious excursions over and through the prison walls.
Christmastide of 1780 brought a large addition to the prison company,
eighty-six Frenchmen from Quebec and nine Americans belonging to the
privateerships _Harlequin_ and _Jack_ of Salem and the _Terrible_ of
Marblehead. All hands found cause for rejoicing that war was declared
between Holland and England, and the journal makes mention on December
25th:
“To-day being Christmas and the happy news of the Dutch War, I drew
up the Americans in the yard at one o’clock to Huzza in the following
manner: Three times for France; three times for Spain; and seven times
for the seven states of Holland. The French in the other yard answered
us and the whole was performed in a decent manner.
“28th. Captain Samuel Gerrish made his escape over the wall into the
French prison. He remained in the French prison all night and went off
about eight o’clock this morning. We were informed that Captain Gerrish
got the French barber to dress his hair this morning in the prison. A
little while after, Mr. Cowdry with some French officers came into the
yard, and when they retired Captain Gerrish placed himself among them,
and went out bowing to the Agent who did not know him. He has not been
heard of since. The Agent ordered all the prisoners shut up at noon.
After dinner we were all called over, but no Captain Gerrish. The Agent
is pretty good-natured. Mr. Saurey brought us our money, and says he
has enough for us all winter.
“Dec. 31st. We have now 122 Dutch prisoners. The year closes at twelve
o’clock midnight; _and we still in prison_.
“1781. Jany. 1st. A Sentinel informed Captain Manley to-day that a
Minister in Cornwall had been in a trance and when he came out said
that England would be reduced and lose two Capital places or Cities,
and that in the run of a year there would be Peace.
“3d. To-day eighteen or twenty of the Americans innoculated themselves
for the Small Pox. Mr. Saurey came to-day and brought our money which
is augmented to a Shilling a week and to be continued during our
confinement. Such as are necessitated for clothes Captain Connyngham is
to make a list of and Mr. Saurey[14] will send it to Mr. Diggs[15] at
London in order to obtain them.
“Feb. 4th (Sunday). This morning Captain Manley communicated to me
that he had received a great deal of abuse from Captain Daniel Brown
and was determined to have satisfaction by giving him a challenge to
fight a duel with pistols, and desired me to load them. Accordingly
Captain Manley[16] went into the chamber and took his pistols with
ammunition and put them on the table and told Captain Brown that he had
been ill-treated and desired him to fight like a Gentleman or ask his
pardon. Brown said he would not ask his pardon and refused to accept
the challenge, upon which Captain Manley told him he was no Gentleman
but a great Coward, and bid him have a caution how he made use of his
name again.
“28th. Read the speech of Sir P. Clark in the House of Commons,
reported in the Sherbourne _Gazette_, who said that the American
refugees, _instead of a Prison ought to have a Halter_.
“An Agent from Congress with proposals is undoubtedly in London at
this time and it is whispered that his terms will be agreed to by the
English Cabinet.
“March 4th. Wrote a letter to my wife and mother.”
The letter referred to has been preserved and reads in part:
“MILL PRISON, MARCH 4, 1781.
“Notwithstanding my long confinement, I bless God that I have not
experienced the want of any of the necessaries of life in this prison,
for with my industry[17] and what I am allowed, I live comfortably for
a prisoner.
“The usage we receive, if I am any judge, is very good, for we are
allowed the liberty of the yard all day and an open market at the
gate to buy or sell, from nine o’clock in the morning to two in the
afternoon, besides we have comfortable lodgings. I have never been
in the Black Hole once, for I have made it my study to behave as a
prisoner ought and I am treated accordingly. Last year before this time
we had the pleasing prospect of an Exchange and one hundred went, but
to my inexpressible grief I see but little hope of being exchanged now
till the war is at an end. Where to lay the blame I’m at a loss, tho’
I think our People might do more than they do. However, I keep up good
spirits and still live in hopes as we are informed that something is
doing for us tho’ very slowly.”
In a letter written a week later and addressed also to his wife in
Boston, William Russell said:
“You can’t imagine the anxiety I have to hear from home, for my spirits
are depressed and I grow melancholy to think in what situation you
must be, with three young children to maintain. But I hope you will be
carried through all your trouble and remember that there is a God that
never suffers such as put their trust in Him to want.”
“May 4, 1781. Samuel Owens informed the Agent of the people’s
innoculating themselves for the Small Pox, upon which the Agent and
Doctor of the Royal Hospital came into the yard and searched the arms
of such as had been innoculated and took the names of the others to
report to the Board of Commissioners.
“May 5th. Samuel Owens, _Informer_, was cut down[18] last night upon
which he told the Agent that Mayo and Chase were the persons and that
they had threatened his life. The Agent threatened to put Mayo in
irons. However, upon Mayo’s shaking hands with Owens the matter was
settled.
“9th. An account from New York says that Connecticut and Massachusetts
are in the greatest disorder and almost starved, that their Treasuries
are exhausted and their Taxes so high that the People refuse to pay
them; that George Washington has advertised his Estate for Sale. _Thus
far for you, ye Lying Gazette!_
“Yesterday Captain Manley dressed himself with an intent to go _out_
at the Gate behind the Doctor. Just as he got past through the Gate,
the Turnkey looked him in the face, which prevented his escape. In the
afternoon Joseph Adams was dressed for the same purpose, which would
have been effected had not Captain Connyngham prevented. To-day a
lugger’s crew was brought to Prison, forty in number, mostly Americans.
Nothing more remarkable except the digging of a hole being discovered.
“May 18th. Lieutenant Joshua Barney made his escape over the gate at
noon, and has not been missed yet. Mr. James Adams got over the paling
into the little yard in order to escape but making too great a noise,
was discovered by the guard and was obliged to get back.
“19th. A tailor brought a suit of clothes to the prison for Lieutenant
Barney by which means his escape was discovered and we were mustered.
The Agent says he saw him at 12 o’clock this day, and has ordered us
to be locked in the yard all day, dinner time excepted. The way we
concealed his escape was when we were counted into the prison we put a
young boy out through the window and he was counted twice. So much for
one of our Mill Prison capers!”
This Lieutenant Joshua Barney, after whom one of the torpedo craft of
the modern American navy is named, made a brilliant sea record, both
as an officer of the naval service and as a fighting privateersman.
His escape from Mill Prison was perhaps the most picturesque incident
of his career. Although the story of his flight came back to William
Russell and his comrades only as a scanty report that he had made way
to sea, it is known from other sources that after leaving the prison
Lieutenant Barney found refuge in the home of a venerable clergyman
of Plymouth who sympathized with the American cause. There he was so
fortunate as to find two friends from New Jersey, Colonel William
Richardson, and Doctor Hindman, who had been captured as passengers in
a merchant vessel and were seeking an opportunity to return home. They
had bought a fishing smack in which they proposed sailing to France as
the first stage of their voyage.
Barney disguised himself as a fisherman and safely joined the smack
as pilot and seaman. They put to sea past the fleet of British
war vessels off Plymouth, and stood for the French coast. Alas, a
Guernsey privateer overhauled them in the Channel and insisted upon
searching the smack. Barney played a desperate game by throwing off his
fisherman’s great coat and revealing the uniform of a British officer.
He declared that he was bound for France on a secret and urgent
business of an official nature and demanded that he be suffered to
proceed on his course. The skipper of the privateer was suspicious and
stubborn, however, and the upshot of it was that the smack was ordered
back to Plymouth.
Making the best of the perilous situation, Barney insisted that he be
taken aboard the flagship of Admiral Digby, where “his captor would
find cause to repent of his rash enterprise.” Once in Plymouth harbor,
however, the American officer escaped to shore and after wandering far
and wide amid hairbreadth escapes from recapture found a haven in the
heavily wooded grounds of Lord Edgecomb’s estate. From this hiding
place he managed to return to the home of the clergyman whence he had
set out. Three days later, in another kind of disguise he took a post
chaise to Exeter, and from there fled by stage to Bristol, and so to
London, France and Holland.
In Holland Lieutenant Barney secured passage in the private armed
ship _South Carolina_, bound to Bilboa. In his diary, John Trumbull,
the famous American painter, pays a fine tribute to the seamanship of
Joshua Barney. The _South Carolina_ was caught in a terrific storm
which strewed the English Channel with shattered shipping. The vessel
was driving onto the coast of Heligoland, and almost helpless. “The
ship became unmanageable,” writes Trumbull, “the officers lost their
self-possession, and the crew all confidence in them, while for a few
moments all was confusion and dismay. Happily for us Commodore Barney
was among the passengers—he had just escaped from Mill Prison. Hearing
the increased tumult aloft, and feeling the ungoverned motion of the
ship, he flew upon deck, saw the danger, assumed command, the men
obeyed, and he soon had her again under control.”
Shortly after reaching America, Lieutenant Barney was offered
command of the _Hyder Ally_, a ship commissioned by the Pennsylvania
Legislature, mounting sixteen six-pounders and carrying one hundred and
twenty men. In this converted merchantman, hastily manned and equipped,
Barney won one of the most brilliant naval victories of the Revolution
against the _General Monk_ off the Capes of the Delaware.
FOOTNOTES:
[12] From manuscripts in the possession of the Essex Institute, Salem.
[13] The commitment proceedings in the case of William Russell were
conducted by two justices, and their findings read in part as follows:
“For as much as appears unto James Young and Ralph Mitchell, two of the
Justices of our Lord the King, assigned to keep the Peace within the
said county (of Devon) on the examination of William Russell, Mariner
late of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay in North America, a Prisoner
brought before us, charged with being found in Arms and Rebellion on
the High Seas on board the _Jason_ ship American Privateer, sailed out
of Boston in North America, and commissioned by the North American
Congress, which was taken by the _Surprise_, English Frigate;
“That the said William Russell was taken at Sea in the High Treason
Act committed on the High Seas, out of the Realm on the 29th day of
September last, being then and there found in Arms levying War, in
Rebellion and aiding the King’s Enemies, and was landed in Dartmouth in
the County of Devon, and the said William Russell now brought before
in the Parish of Stock Demereall aforesaid, charged with and to be
committed for the said offense to the Old Mill Prison in the Borough of
Plymouth.”
[14] In his “History of Prisons,” published in 1792, John Howard, the
philanthropist, mentions in an account of a visit to Forton Prison near
Portsmouth during the Revolution:
“The American prisoners there had an allowance from the States paid by
order of Dr. Franklin.”
The small payments of cash doled out to the American seamen in Mill
Prison were entrusted to this Miles Saurey, of London, by Benjamin
Franklin, at that time in France as Minister.
[15] Under date of “Passy, 25 June, 1782,” Franklin wrote his friend
Robert R. Livingston:
“I have long suffered with these poor brave men who with so much public
virtue have endured four or five years’ hard imprisonment rather than
serve against their country. I have done all I could toward making
their situation more comfortable but their numbers were so great that I
could do little for each, and that very great villain, Diggs, defrauded
them of between three and four hundred pounds, which he drew from me on
their account.”
[16] The diarist, oddly enough, fails to explain how Captain Manley
secured “his pistols with ammunition” while in prison.
[17] William Russell had organized a school among the prisoners soon
after his arrival at Plymouth. This school he taught during the two
years of his captivity and the small store of pence received as
“tuition fees” enabled him to buy many extras in the way of food and
clothing. There were many youngsters in the prison who had been taken
out of privateers as cabin-boys, powder-boys, etc., and lads of twelve
and thirteen were then shipping as full-fledged seamen to “fight the
British.” The prison schoolmaster helped keep these small firebrands
out of mischief.
[18] Meaning that the lashings of his hammock were cut.