Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The plan gives a good idea of what life in the prison was like. The buildings are lettered
and numbered, and explained in a key. The prisoners were kept in the compound on the left,
surrounded by iron railings and ramparts, while the guards' barracks are on the right. A note
states that the prison was lighted by 146 lamps and the barracks by 20. The prison had some
of the services of a small town, with a forge, stables, carpenter, miller and market place.
Many prisoners were in poor health, and the prison housed its own doctor and matron, phar-
macy and hospital. Outside the prisoners' compound on the left lie the dead house and burial
ground.
However, this was not a plan simply made for general reference, but in relation to the mat-
ter of an escaped prisoner. In notes at lower right there is mention of 'Mr. V'; papers among
which the map was found indicate that this was Louis Francois Vanhille, who had escaped
in 1812. The Admiralty was anxious to find out how Vanhille got out, in part to recapture
him, but also to punish any local people who had helped him, and in particular to prevent any
further escapes. These papers include reports and interviews with local people and a fellow
prisoner who knew Vanhille well.
From these we learn that Vanhille was a purser in the French navy, was five feet five inches
tall, had a fresh complexion, brown hair, light grey eyes, and was somewhat disfigured by
smallpox. He was one of a number of French prisoners who had been living in the nearby
Cornish town of Launceston on parole, but he had broken the terms of this arrangement by
going to dine with a Dr Mabyn at Camelford without leave, for which misdemeanour he was
sent to Dartmoor prison and arrived on 12 December 1811. The next summer 'a young lady
of Tavistock' had brought a 'waggoners frock' into the prison for him to escape in disguise.
He went first to Cork and thence to Jamaica in the ship
Jane
, calling himself Williams, but
was apprehended there by the authorities in February 1813, and sent back to England on the
next ship of war.
