CONTINUING from the Nostalgia feature of March 7, in Hampshire County Council’s archives, there are documents described as ‘letters from Napoleonic prisoners of war based in Petersfield to Henry Bonham, thanking him for his help, 1795-1796. Partly in English; but mainly in French. Accompanied by a manuscript copy of ‘The Marseillaise’.

Henry was part of the family of notable landowners who became the Bonham Carters and bought Buriton Manor estate in 1826.

At first when the officers arrived in rural Hampshire they were treated with suspicion but gradually most became involved with their English hosts. Some supplemented their incomes from the government by teaching French, although they were not supposed to make or sell anything to compete with town tradespeople.

They were often welcomed at social events and liaisons with British women were common, leading to broken hearts when peace was declared.

An authoritative book, Prisoners of War in Britain 1756 to 1815 by Francis Abell, which was published in 1914, gives one account of how a Petersfield resident treated the parole prisoner in his house.

“A disgraceful and successful plot to ruin a prisoner is told from Petersfield in 1758.

“Fifteen officers on parole appealed on behalf of one of their number named Morriset. He was in bed on December 22, at 8am, in his lodging at one ‘Schollers’, a saddler, when Mrs ‘Schollers’ came into the room on the pretext of looking for a slipper, and sat herself on the end of the bed. Suddenly, in came her husband, and, finding his wife there, attacked Morriset cruelly.

“Morriset to defend himself seized a knife from a waistcoat hanging on the bed, and ‘Schollers ‘ dropped his hold of him, but took from the waistcoat three guineas and some ‘chelins’, then called in a constable, accused Morriset of behaving improperly with his wife, and claimed a hundred pounds, or he would summons him.

“Morriset was brought up before the magistrates, and, despite his protestations of innocence, was sent to Winchester Jail. In reply to the appeal, the Commissioners said that they could not interfere in what was a private matter.”

Some officers on parole tried to escape, as described in Mr Abell’s book – “Only three men have lost everything as a result of re-capture: one was a lieutenant who had broken parole from Petersfield; the others were two sailors who defended themselves against Hambledon people who tried to capture them and killed one.”

There was peace between Britain and France from 1763 until the revolution of 1797 which then led into the Napoleonic Wars.

Then, when French prisoners were captured, Petersfield was not among the ‘parole towns’ but Hambledon, which was quite prosperous at the time, did house a number of French officers, with the Parole Agent being Mr Tribe, although the authorities complained of his poor writing skills.