From Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal  2 January 1813:

A list of Prisoners from the Port of Bristol confined in Depots in France, October last, 1812, by a gentleman who has been so active in procuring subscriptions for their relief.

LONGWY:

George COOPER, John LEE, John JONES, Stephen LEY, William OKE, Joseph SILCOCK, Thomas OSWALD, Edward ESCOTT, Samuel GRAVES, John ROWLES, John RYAN, William SMITH, Francis MINNITT, John SUMMERS. John Pardo KING,  William STOREY, William GARDNER.

GIVET

John WOOD, John BROCK,  John OWEN, Abraham NICHOLAS, James SULLIVAN, William PRUST, Joseph HERANS

SAIRE LOUIS

John GARDNER, William DAVIS, Edward COGGIN, William COGGIN,  William CROWSHAW, John ROBSON, John EVANS, John BAKER, John EDFORD,  David SMITH, Thomas ANMORE.

ARRAS

Charles HARRIS, John BOSHER, Thomas BROOKES, George MORGAN, Charles BENNETT, William JENKINS, William RICHARDS, Henry LAWRENCE

SEDAN

Thomas ALLEN

CAMBRAI

James JENKINS, John QUARMAN, Thomas HUNT, John ROBINSON, William BURGES, Michael HAYES, Thomas DENDALL,  Henry NICHOLAS, Stephen READ, William WILLIAMS.

In 1809 there was great rejoicing when Mr Midshipman MANSEL, RN, aged 19, a son of the Bishop of Bristol was reunited with his father after being a POW in France for more than five years. Church bells were rung and cannons discharged. (Bury & Norwich Post 22.3.1809)

It is believed that the total number of English prisoners in France was possibly between 20,000 and 25,000, of whom many were travellers and temporary residents detained on the outbreak of war. Presumably this was for the duration of the wars as in 1806 it was estimated that there were some 18,000 French prisoners in this country (of whom not a few were kept in abject conditions at Stapleton) whilst there were under 7,000 English prisoners in France. Officers of the Army and Navy, masters and mates of merchant-men, passengers and others, were all admitted to parole in France under certain restrictions. In some cases those on parole were allowed to return to England: for instance, Rev Mr Crawford, sometime a POW in France arrived Portsmouth in order to carry out some business with regards to his church “living” (Morning Post 26.11.1803). Likewise Lord Barrington was granted permission to return to England (Ipswich Journal 12.5.1804); Capt Leveson Gower, MP for Truro was exchanged for a French officer, General Boyer. (Morning Post 21.11.1804).

English prisoners, both those admitted to parole and those doomed to personal confinement, were sent to fortified towns far in the interior, in some cases even under the shadow of the Pyrenees, in order that the distance from the coast might reduce to the minimum their opportunities of escape. Yet, in spite of this, not a few did contrive to reach England after many hardships and dangers. One such was Captain Goodall who made his escape by swimming across the Rhine and took 30 days to travel from Parish to England. (Bury & Norwich Post, 9.11.1803)

This is a fascinating topic and one to which I intend to return. If you have come across any Napoleonic POWs in your family research please contact me.

Every cloud has one they say. Following the “demo” on 18th August my granddaughter and I went to the meeting at The Pilgrim. En route I met Heidi of Milbanke Close, with her children. She is one of the organisers and I thanked her and promised support to Protect Brislington’s Green Spaces.  At the pub we signed the petitions. Not that petitions do much good from my experience of working for a Member of Parliament.

The Pilgrim has Pillinger connections – the widowed Maria Pillinger (her husband was accidentally killed on Brislington Hill) was landlady there in the middle of the 19th century.

In the pub, I struck up a conversation with a kindred spirit, Jill Jacobs. Much to my surprise, after such a brief acquaintance, Jill thrust a sheaf of old photos into my hand and said she would trust them with me, until we should meet again.  I must have an honest face.

The photos were of the Burt family who lived in Brislington at the turn of the 20th century. I scanned the photos – see below. The family groups, Bob & Agnes Burt and their children were dated 1914 and 1905, making them ideal for census investigation.

In 1911, the family is listed as follows:

Robert Burt, head, married 36, bricklayer, born Bristol

Agnes Burt, wife, 37, born Wellington, Somerset, and their children:

Elsie, 14, scholar, born Taunton, Clifford, 13, scholar, born Taunton, Hilda, 11, scholar, born Taunton, Gladys, 10, scholar, born Bristol and Ivy, 8, born Bristol.

And here’s the surprise. They were living at Nelson’s Glory, Brislington. So what, you may say. Readers of The History of the Pillinger Family, Part 2, will know that Nelson’s Glory, in the 1820s was the abode of Henry Pillinger and his family! Synchronicity, or what?

So there we have Maria, the landlady of the Pilgrim and Henry at Nelson’s Glory, not to forget Julia from Bath in a previous post, I can’t help thinking that they’re all upstairs holding a Pillinger symposium to which they are trying to invite me. Not yet, I earnestly hope.

The following are the photographs of the Burt family:

In 1905: Mother : Agnes Burt. Father: Bob Burt

children from left to right Hilda, Ivy, Elsie, Gladys, Clifford.

In September, 1914:

Mother: Agnes Burt; Father Bob Burt and in between, Lena, the latest arrival.

adult children, from left to right: Hilda, Elsie, Cliff, Gladys, Ivy

Gladys Burt in 1922, with unnamed boy friend at Poplar House, School Road,  Brislington.

Bob Burt, 1935 at Poplar House.

Agnes Burt, with “Bob” – a grandson? and John Evans also at Poplar House

Agnes & the family dog, what a shame we don’t know its name.

Robert Burt married Agnes Thorne in 1897 at Wellington and by 1901 they were living at 34 Sandgate Road, Brislington. As a bricklayer, perhaps Bob had a hand in the building of these new houses. It must have been a recent move for as we have seen their children, aged 3, 2 & 1, Elsie, Clifford and Hilda, had all been born in Taunton.

In 1891 Robert, then about 14, was living at Road, Stoke St Mary, Taunton with his elder brother Albert (18) and widowed mother Sarah, aged 44. Though the two boys had been born in Bristol, Sarah’s birthplace was Old Cleeve in Somerset. Robert and Albert were the sons of Sarah’s marriage to Robert Burt and she had a previous son, William Tarr, born 1863.  Robert senior died in 1876, the same year that his son and namesake was born.  In 1881, Sarah, then 36, was living at 14 Kenilworth Terrace, St Philips, and working as a charwoman. Two of her sons were with her, William Tarr, aged 18, (a porter in a printing office who was born at Washford in Somerset) and young Robert, a scholar of five. Brother Albert, aged seven was staying at the time of the census with his paternal grandmother, Mary Ann Burt, aged 60, a widow, who was farming at Thurlbear in Somerset, assisted by her son, Andrew Burt.

In 1871, young William Tarr, aged seven, was a boarder at a house at St Decumans, Highbridge, belonging to a Sarah Sully, aged 68. Among other boarders was a John Burt, a freestone sawyer, born Montacute, but without further research I cannot say whether John Burt and Robert Burt senior were related or if this was simply coincidence.  Meanwhile, Robert, senior, 21, was living on his father’s farm, Netherclay, Thurlbear with six brothers and sisters. His father, Worthy Burt, born about 1823 married Mary Ann Williams at Taunton in 1847. Her father, Robert Williams, an “Ag lab” born 1789 was living with the family in 1871.  I have yet to establish with any certainty the whereabouts of Sarah Burt, formerly Tarr in 1871.  

In order to find more about Agnes Thorne, I would need her marriage certificate to discover her father’s name. So far, census searches have proved inconclusive.