Extract
All Men are Brethren: Prisoners of War in Scotland, 1803–1814
By Ian MacDougall
From Chapter 21 - Escapes
Only two recorded escapes by prisoners being transferred between depots within Scotland have been found. One was that by Philip Lefebvre, a seaman, aged 20 and born at Calais, who had been captured on the merchant vessel Providence in 1807. Lefebvre got away from his escort on the way from Valleyfield to Perth in July 1813, but he was recaptured a few days later at Dalkeith and had to resume his trudge to Perth, where he remained until the end of the war. The other escaper was Felix Delille, aged 24, captured in 1808 as a midshipman on the man-of-war Le Héros, and who had been sent in November 1810 from Greenlaw on parole to Peebles. When midshipmen on parole were sent a year later into confined depots as a measure of retaliation against the treatment of captured British midshipmen in France, Delille escaped from his escort en route from Peebles to Valleyfield. But he soon gave himself up and was duly sent into Valleyfield. Like all the other midshipmen so dealt with, he was restored to parole in December 1811 – though not at Peebles but at Lauder.
Hummel’s escape on the way to Esk Mills, one of only three recorded examples as it was of an escape by a prisoner en route for the first time to a depot in Scotland, and unique as some of its other aspects appear to have been, nonetheless illustrated several, although by no means all, of the obvious problems confronting any escaper or intending escaper from the Scots depots. The most obvious problem of all was, of course, one that had not confronted Hummel, Lefebvre, or the two unnamed prisoners who had made off en voyage from the Mathilda: how to get out of the depot itself. Even once that problem had been resolved there remained innumerable others confronting escapers. They included the need to have at least some money, some iron rations of food, and suitable clothing. Then there was the desirability of being able to understand and speak at least some English. Possession of a relevant map or at least sketch of the chosen route was also clearly desirable, as was a watch and more so a compass, although many or most seamen escapers might doubtless be able to find their directions, at any rate on clear nights, by the stars. Names and addresses of any civilians, whether sympathetic or merely mercenary but at least trustworthy, whether native Scots, English or aliens, able and willing to provide overnight lodging, concealment or guidance en route, or other practical help, were no doubt also invaluable to any escaper. Not least, too, among the problems were the hazards arising from the distances to be covered in Scotland or England before the intended coast or harbour of embarkation could be reached. Above all there was the problem of finding eventually on whatever coast in Britain or Ireland to which escape was directed a boat or ship which would carry the escaper safely at last to the continent. Yet another issue to be considered was whether it was best to escape and travel alone or with a companion or companions and, if the latter, how many. All escapes had obviously to be undertaken in the knowledge that they involved hazards to life and limb, including the possibility of being fired on by the depot sentries, that descriptions of the escapers would be circulated or advertised by the depot authorities within hours or days, rewards would be offered for recapture, and in the event of recapture punishment would have to be endured – normally by confinement for a period in the cachot and by reduced rations of food, but in some cases by confinement in the particularly unpleasant cachot at Edinburgh Castle or even transfer to the hulks in the south of England. Clearly then, escape was more likely to be successful if the escaper was audacious but also cautious, determined and resourceful, well equipped for his journey, well informed about his route, able to speak English well, with sufficient money and with some sympathetic civilian contacts to call upon en route. Getting out of the depot was difficult enough. The realistic escaper, however, had to expect to encounter thereafter many other difficulties, some of them unforeseen or even unforeseeable, before he could hope to set foot again on the continent of Europe. Perhaps, above all, the escaper had to have as his companion sheer luck.
Two of the many categories into which escapes might be separated were the planned and the unplanned – either the culmination of days, weeks or even months of preparation and sometimes hard physical toil, or the apparently spontaneous seizure of some unforeseen opportunity.
It was almost axiomatic that mass, or attempted mass, escapes by a score or more of prisoners from the Scots depots were the outcome of at least some degree of planning and preparation. Several such escapes, from Esk Mills in February and March 1811 and from Edinburgh Castle in April and July that year, have already been discussed in some detail.It was possible, however, that one aspect of the crisis of 9-11 March at Esk Mills was in fact an unplanned attempt at mass escape arising from the panic caused by the apparent collapse of the depot buildings, when, according to the clerk Andrew Johnston, ‘several attempts were made to level the Stockade by the Prisoners rushing in large bodies against it.’ At any rate, the limited evidence clearly indicates that the mass escape in 1811 from the Castle on 11-12 April and from Esk Mills on 19 February were both preceded by planning and preparation, even if four of the 23 escapers from Esk Mills had arrived at the depot only on the day before the escape. The escape from the Castle by the 49 prisoners had been planned, according to press reports of statements made by some of the recaptured escapers, for a month beforehand. It is also clear that at Perth an attempted mass escape by tunnel-digging in mid-September 1813, in which Lieutenant Marote-Carrier himself took part and which will be more fully discussed below, was planned and toiled for during a period of about two months.
Little evidence, however, survives concerning planning and preparation of other mass, or attempted mass, escapes at the two other depots, Greenlaw and Valleyfield. Nor is it even certain that any mass escape actually took place at Greenlaw. There, according to Andrew Johnston, depot clerk successively at Esk Mills, Valleyfield and Perth, ‘Early in a morning of June 1810 about 30 prisoners got out by a mine. The Pennycuick Volunteers were beat to arms to assist the military. They were all retaken in the course of the day. Three were severely wounded, one a Russian by a bayonet in the breast, and two shot by an Aberdeen soldier while secreting themselves … under a tree. The ball went through the thigh of one and lodged in the hip of the other. They all recovered from their wounds.Although Johnston provides these circumstantial details there is unfortunately no confirmation in any other source of any such mass escape from Greenlaw. Captain Paul Andreas Kaald, a prisoner at Greenlaw at that time, makes no mention of it in his diary, and it is difficult to believe he would have failed to do so had there been such an escape from his depot. Nor is there any relevant reference in the surviving official archives or in the contemporary press. So did Johnston err in stating that it was from Greenlaw in June 1810 that the mass escape took place? Johnston himself was not appointed as a depot clerk until early in 1811 – and his appointment was to Esk Mills, not Greenlaw. It may be Johnston misstated either the place or the date, or both, of the escape he mentions. If such a mass escape indeed took place at Penicuik (other than those at Esk Mills in February-March 1811 – and Johnston is clearly not referring to those escapes or attempted escapes) then it must have been from Valleyfield – but Valleyfield of course did not become a depot until March 1811.
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