Editing Norman Cross Prison (section)

==Insubordination and escapes==
[[File:Norman Cross building in Peterborough.jpg|thumb|left|Building removed from Norman Cross in April 1816 and converted to cottages in [[Peterborough]]; photographed in 1913]]
Insubordination was rife among prisoners. A force of [[Shropshire]] [[Militia (United Kingdom)|Militia]], a battalion of army reserve, and a volunteer force from Peterborough were required to restrain the prisoners from breaking out during a particular period of defiance. As a boy, the author [[George Borrow]] lived at the camp from July 1811 to April 1813 with his father Lieutenant Thomas Borrow of the [[Norfolk Militia|West Norfolk Militia]];<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43487/43487-h/43487-h.htm#page47 The Depot for Prisoners at Norman Cross Huntingdonshire, 1796 to 1816, page 144]</ref> he described the place in ''[[Lavengro]]''.

Six prisoners escaped in April 1801. Three of them were caught at [[Boston, England|Boston]], Lincolnshire, and the remaining three were caught in a fishing boat off the [[Norfolk]] coast. In the hat of one was found a complete map of the Lincolnshire coast.<ref>{{cite news|title= Last Week|newspaper= Morning Post|date= 27 April 1801|page= 3}}</ref> Each year the number of attempts to escape increased, as did the numbers in each escape. Three groups of 16 men each escaped in late 1801. Incomplete tunnels were discovered in 1802.

In October 1804 the press reported the prisoners created a disturbance with the intention of breaking the perimeter fencing. Assistance was sent for from Peterborough. A troop of [[Yeomanry]] galloped to support, later followed by two more troops and an infantry unit. The prisoners had cut down a part of the wood enclosure during the night, nine of them effected their escape through the aperture. At daybreak, it was discovered in another part of the prison that prisoners had undermined a distance of 34 feet towards the great South road under the [[moat|fosse]] which surrounded the prison, although the fosse was four feet deep, and no tools were discovered with them. Five escapees were taken.<ref>{{cite news|title= Norman Cross|newspaper= Hull Packet|date= 16 October 1804|page= 4}}</ref>

During the night, several prisoners escaped in February 1807.<ref>{{cite news|title= During the night|newspaper= Hereford Journal|date= 18 February 1807|page= 2}}</ref>
Three escapees were retaken near [[Ryde]] heading for Southampton in April 1807.<ref>{{cite news|title= Southampton|newspaper= Hampshire Chronicle|date= 27 April 1807|page= 4}}</ref>
The agent at the depot (camp commander), Captain Pressland RN, was inviting tenders for the building of a wall, in August 1807.<ref>{{cite news|title= Depot for Prisoners of War Norman Cross|newspaper= Stamford Mercury|date= 14 August 1807|page= 2}}</ref> This may have become known to the prisoners as a major escape attempt was made.
{{blockquote| About a fortnight ago a formidable attempt was made by the prisoners of war at Norman Cross to effect their escape from confinement. Between ten and eleven o'clock at night a force of 500 of them rushed all at once violently against the interior paling of the prison, and in an instant levelled one angle of it with the ground. They were proceeding to make a like experiment upon the next inclosure (constructed, like the former, of wood), when they were charged by the military of the barracks, and more than 40 were severely wounded with the bayonet before they were driven back to their confines. None escaped: but in consequence of this attempt a vast inclosure of brick-work is now building about the prison; is to be 14 feet high, and nearly a mile in circumference.<ref>{{cite news| title= About a fortnight ago|newspaper= Stamford Mercury |date= 25 September 1807|page= 3}}</ref>}}
After the second of these two major escape attempts in 1804 and 1807, the wooden stockade fence was soon replaced with a brick wall.<ref name="Wessex"/>

One prisoner, Charles Francois Marie Bourchier, stabbed a civilian, Alexander Halliday, while attempting to escape on 9 September 1808. He was convicted at the Huntingdon Assizes and sentenced to death by hanging.<ref>{{cite news|title= Huntingdon Assizes|newspaper= Hampshire Chronicle|date= 22 August 1808|page= 3}}</ref> He was taken from Huntingdon Gaol on Friday 16th and executed at Norman Cross in front of the prisoners and the whole garrison.<ref>{{cite news|title= On Friday Se'nnight|newspaper= Cumberland Pacquet, and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser|date= 27 September 1808|page= 3}}</ref> This was the only civil execution at Norman Cross.<ref name="Walker"/> After the stabbing, the guards, having seen two or three other knives, searched the entire prison and 700 daggers were found.<ref name="Walker"/><ref>{{cite news|title= Some Discoveries|newspaper= Hampshire Chronicle|date= 5 December 1808|page= 7}}</ref>

On 24 September 1808, an English sloop of 44 tons called the ''Margaret Anne'' (William Tempel, master, of Barton) arrived at [[Calais]], laden with 18 tons of coals. She was seized in the night of the 20th, in the [[Humber]], by three French prisoners who had escaped from Norman Cross.<ref>{{cite news|title= Paris|newspaper=Saint James's Chronicle - Thursday 13 October 1808|page= }}</ref>
In November 1809, two French Navy officers escaped by secreting themselves in the soil carts of the prison, in which they were drawn out of the confines of the depot.<ref>{{cite news|title= On Friday se'nnight|newspaper= Hull Packet|date= 5 December 1809|page= 3}}</ref>

In December 1809 an inquest took place on Jean Barthelemy Toohe, a French prisoner of war who, as he was endeavouring to make his escape over the pailing of the prison, was fired at by the sentinel on duty; the ball entered his back, and he died shortly afterwards.<ref>{{cite news|title= An inquest|newspaper= Stamford Mercury|date= 22 December 1809|page= 3}}</ref>

Duelling continued amongst prisoners. On 15 May 1811 at Norman Cross, two fought with scissors attached to sticks. One duellist wounded the survivor twice, before the latter made the thrust that proved fatal. It was reported that "On Saturday the 19th an inquisition was taken at Norman Cross Barracks, on view of the body of Julien Cheral, a French prisoner of war, who met his death by a fellow prisoner of the name of Jean Francois Pons stabbing. Verdict — Self Defence."<ref>{{cite news|title= Duels amongst the French Prisoners|newspaper= Belfast Commercial Chronicle|date= 8 June 1811|page=4}}</ref>

In January 1812, a French prisoner was shot whilst escaping after he had overpowered a guard and stolen a bayonet. The guard was committed to Huntingdon Gaol for the next assizes on a charge of manslaughter.<ref>{{cite news|title= The French prisoner|newspaper= Stamford Mercury|date= 24 January 1812|page= 3}}</ref>

In August 1812 [[Prosper Louis, 7th Duke of Arenberg]], was sent to Norman Cross after refusing to conform to the new reporting rules of his parole at [[Bridgnorth]], where he was staying with his wife, Stéphanie Tascher de La Pagerie (a niece of [[Empress Joséphine]]). After a period, he agreed to follow the reporting requirement and was paroled again.<ref>{{cite journal|last= Monger|first= Garry|title= Fort in the Fens|journal= The Fens|pages= 20–21|year=2021}}</ref>

During August 1813, escaped prisoners from Norman Cross were discovered as far away as [[Hampshire]].