Kingsbridge, Salcombe and the South Hams during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars 1793-1815
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Kingsbridge, Salcombe and the South Hams during
the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
1793-1815
Roger Barrett
Kingsbridge Estuary U3A History Group, April 2021
Revolutionary France’s declaration of war against Britain in 1793 ushered in a generation
of global conflict that finally ended with the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s exile to St
Helena in 1815. The South Hams played a small but not insignificant part in these long
wars. The area provided grain to feed a hungry nation, men to defend its shores and was
the scene of both first and the last naval events in home waters: the Battle of Prawle Point
in 1793 and, in 1815, the transfer of Napoleon to the ship that would take him into exile.
Kingsbridge, Salcombe and Dartmouth in the late 1790s
At the close of the eighteenth century, Kingsbridge was a thriving market town at the
centre of a rich grain-growing district. According to Richard Polwhele in 1793, Kingsbridge
was one of the chief corn markets of the county and more corn was shipped from there
than ‘from any other port in Devon Shire’.1 In 1801, the town (with its neighbour
Dodbrooke) had a population of 1700 and was noted for its production of woollen cloth
used in the manufacture of army uniforms, as well as rope for naval use. The Quaker’s,
Walter Prideaux & John Roope, began the manufacture of serge cloth in 1798 when they
converted Town Mill, formerly the corn mill, in Mill Street. Cloth was also weaved in Lavers’
mill in Duncombe Street.2 Rope for ships was made in Bonker’s ropewalk in Western
backway and, in 1804, Kingsbridge made a further contribution to the war effort when an
army barracks for over 600 men was built on the Warren to the south of the town.
Salcombe’s contribution was on a smaller scale. Its population in 1791 only amounted
to 271 and, according to the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, the town ‘at the commencement
of the French Revolutionary Wars consisted of only a few scattered sheds for the habitation
of fishermen’.3 Abraham Hawkins, writing in 1818, described the town as ‘a little seaport
consisting of a few narrow streets, irregularly built, the fifty or so houses being low mean
structures in general’.4
Although fishing and shipbuilding were the principal legitimate activities, far more
profitable was the ‘free trade’ in contraband from Guernsey and Brittany – so much so that
Abraham Hawkins complained that the fishermen at Salcombe ‘are too fond of following
1
contraband communications with the opposite shores of Brittany, and unfortunately prefer
visits to Roscoff to the task of enclosing productive shoals’.5
The boats built in the town’s three small yards for the smuggling trade often rivalled
the Revenue cutters for speed and by the end of the eighteenth century local shipwrights
were well known for building fast, weatherly vessels. In 1805 one of them, John Ball,
launched the 179 ton Falmouth Post office packet brig Lord Hobart. The packet brigs,
which were said to be capable of out-sailing most things afloat, carried despatches, VIPs
and bullion to the outposts of empire.
A Falmouth Post Office Packet brig similar to the 179 ton Lord Hobart built by John Ball of Salcombe
in 1805 (National Maritime Museum Falmouth)
Salcombe never built ships for the Royal Navy, unlike Dartmouth which launched 11
sloops, 3 gun brigs and the 36 gun, 952ton frigate Dartmouth between 1804-1813.6
However, although Admiralty contracts helped to offset the wartime decline in building
ships for Dartmouth’s longstanding Newfoundland trade, they failed to revive the
2
prosperity of the town. As many as 150 vessels had sailed in the pre-war Dartmouth fleet
but, by 1808, three-quarters of these had been lost, primarily through enemy action.7,8
These losses led to a period of stagnation in the town’s economic fortunes which lasted
well into the nineteenth century.
Admiralty Signal Stations
When war broke out in 1793, the threat of invasion and of commerce raiding by enemy
privateers prompted the Admiralty to set up a series of ‘early warning’ signal stations in
prominent coastal locations. West Sewer Signal Station, which was established in 1795
between Bolt Head and Bolt Tail at a cost of £120, had visual contact with the Prawle
station to the east and South Ground station near Kingston, to the west.9 It is thought that
the station’s stone tower, which is still standing at its full height in a field east of Soar Mill
Cove, was topped by a fifty-foot topmast and two flanking thirty-foot flagstaffs. To the
east, the rectangular stone base of the signal station at Prawle can still be seen on what
was then known as Hurter's Top, but is now Signalhouse Point. Further east, Start Point
station was sited on the 394 feet (120m) hill above Start and Peartree Points. (Many years
later a radar station was erected on the same spot above the modern car park).
(Author)
Coded messages were sent between stations and to naval ships in the offing by various
combinations of pennant, flag, or ball. For example, a flag flying on the mast while three
balls hung from the gaff, signified ‘enemy landing to the westward’. For night signals furze
faggots or tar barrels were burnt in a beacon. Suspicious coastal shipping was then
investigated by fast naval cutters, after warnings had been passed along the chain to Maker
Heights above Plymouth.10
3
(South Hams Newspapers)
(Author)
4
A typical Napoleonic War Coastal Signal Station (John Goodwin)
At times of greatest threat of invasion, a mounted trooper would also be on hand to
carry messages to the local army commanders. The stations were commanded by a half-
pay naval lieutenant, assisted by a petty officer or midshipman and two men – generally
sailors who were considered too old or unfit for service at sea.
Salcombe Sea Fencibles
After 1798 the men serving in the signal stations were drawn from the local corps of
Sea Fencibles. This was a naval ‘home guard’ largely made up of fishermen and local
mariners who, by volunteering, gained immunity from impressment into the Navy and from
the ballot for the militia. This was a boon for local smugglers as impressment was often
used as a punishment for smuggling.
Formed in 1798, the Corps of Sea Fencibles continued to operate until 1810, with a
break of a few years after the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. The Salcombe force numbered
about 140 in 1799 but the strength was reduced in later years as the threat of invasion
diminished – 104 men in 1805 and 42 in 1808. Salcombe was part of the Teignmouth to
Rame Head District and, with Beesands (Start Bay) and Thurlestone (Bigbury Bay), formed
a sub-district under the command of a naval captain with a lieutenant as second–in–
command. In 1805 the Beesands force had 59 men and Thurlestone 48, making a total,
with Salcombe’s 104, of 211 men.11, 12
5
The roles of the Corps were ‘to use the pike and, where appropriate, the cannon; to
assist with coastal signal stations; help the revenue services and eventually to man small
boats and gunboats in coastal defence’.13 The men initially attended drill once a week, but
in later years this was reduced to once a month. Payment for attendance was a shilling a
day. The bosun’s mate received four shillings. In 1804 the captain’s pay was £42 whilst the
lieutenant received £11 18s. per month.14 The names of 85 men receiving payment for
training in 1805 are listed below.
The 85 Salcombe Sea Fencibles
receiving payment for training in January 1805
Source: Salcombe Maritime Museum
6
The Sea Fencibles (John Thomson)
The Battle of Prawle Point 1793
In June 1793, the first naval action of the war in home waters took place off Salcombe.
The Battle of Prawle Point, as it was later dubbed, was between HMS Nymphe, commanded
by Captain Edward Pellew, and the French National Frigate Cleopatre. According to the
Naval Chronicle, ‘the capture of the Cleopatre, 40 guns, 320 men, by the Nymphe, 36 guns,
250 men, on the 18th of June 1793, was accomplished with a gallantry not to be paralleled
in any country but our own, and vindicated the superiority of the British navy’ 15, 16
Equally jingoistic in its tone is this stirring account of the action recounted by Ellen
Luscombe of Salcombe in 1861:
Mr. Edwards, now resident at Addlehole, saw this battle from Prawle Point; and
doubtless, as his eye kindled, and his blood swept through his veins in quickened
rout, he longed, as any Englishman would long, to be in the midst of the fury of the
fray. He saw the Nymphe, commanded by Pellew beating up channel, on the morning
of 18th June 1793, a few miles to the south-west of the Start. At 6am she fell in with
a French ship of war, the Cleopatre. A furious cannonade followed, which was kept
up until seven o'clock by both vessels, when the Nymphe was skilfully laid alongside
of her opponent; and in ten minutes every Frenchman was driven from the decks of
the Cleopatre by the irresistible rush of the sailors of Pellew, who had thus gallantly
won the first-fruits of the long series of naval engagements which immediately
followed. 17
7
The Battle of Prawle Point, 18 June 1793
(Author)
Fighting their way aft, the British sailors
reached the Cleopatre's quarterdeck and
hauled down her colours. The French
captain, Captain Mullon, who was lying
mortally wounded on the deck, pulled a
paper from his pocket, tore it to pieces
and, whilst attempting to swallow it, died.
The poor man had believed he was
destroying the secret French signals, but in
fact he had eaten his own commission, and
so the signals fell into British hands.
Pellew put a prize crew aboard the
Cleopatre, and Nymphe headed down
wind to Portsmouth with the battered
Cleopatre in her wake. When Pellew arrived
on 21st June it was to a hero's welcome.
Sir Edward Pellew, later Viscount Exmouth.
Rewarded with a knighthood, he did not Painting by Thomas Lawrence, 1797
forget the widow of his gallant opponent, (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)
sending her her husband's belongings and
a sum of money to 'ease her grief '.18
8
The Nymphe and Cleopatre (Derek G.M. Gardner)
Coastal defences
During the wars of 1793-1815, Salcombe was used as a haven for prizes taken by British
ships or as a port of refuge for vessels chased in by French privateers. In order to deter
privateers from attempting to enter the harbour, Richard Valentine, the Custom House
officer at Salcombe wrote to his superiors on 5 April 1794 suggesting that a battery of six
guns be erected over the Old Castle (Fort Charles). Valentine was sure that, ‘if the attention
of government were drawn to the very great coasting trade in grain carried on from the
port, they would protect it.’19 Valentine’s advice went unheeded at the time but half a
century later a battery was erected above Fort Charles at a time of renewed tensions with
France.
Later in the 1790s some rather half-hearted attempts were made to defend the harbour
by building a little fort on Limpyer Rocks upstream from Fort Charles. Little more than a
mock defence, its purpose was to convince the French that the harbour was well–fortified.
Known as ‘the battery’ it was manned by local militia in 1802. (In 1900 it was used as a
saluting platform when news reached Salcombe of the relief of Mafeking). Three small
buildings nearby have been identified as possible lookout towers dating to around 1795.
9
The mock fort on Lymper Rocks below Woodcot The mock tower in Newton Road
(Salcombe Maritime Museum) (Brian Hucker)
They are the Tower House in Newton Road, the Tower House in the grounds of
Stonehanger Court, Devon Road and the tower adjacent to the car park at Salcombe
Harbour Hotel. The Salcombe Conservation Area Appraisal refers to all three as defensive
structures, but one expert considers it to be ‘unlikely that all three would have been built
for the same purpose during a similar period, located so close together’.20
Another possible lookout was a small turret or guèrite on the old battery at Fort Charles,
which may have been added in the late 18th or early 19th centuries.21.
The Army in the South Hams: Regulars, Militia and Volunteers
1. Regular Army Regiments
Enlistment in the regular army was voluntary and, up to 1806, was for life. Recruiting
parties from various regiments toured the area promising generous bounties and a life of
glory and adventure. Listed below are the names of local men who are known to have
‘taken the King’s Shilling’, some no doubt having first been tricked into signing up after
being plied with drink by the recruiting sergeant. No one regiment dominates – the most
commonly listed are the 28th (North Gloucestershire), the 20th (East Devonshire), the 40th
(2nd Somersetshire) Foot and the 2nd Foot Guards.
10Some Local Men who took the King’s Shilling
Source: National Archives references WO97 and WO121: Chelsea Pensioner entries.
2. The Militia
Soldiers serving in the wartime militia regiments were conscripted by ballot for five years
with ballot lists of able bodied men drawn up in each parish. One in ten men aged between
18 and 45 might be called up, but those who could afford it usually paid a substitute to
enlist in their place. Although service was confined to Great Britain and Ireland, militia
regiments were usually based away from their home area in order to avoid local sympathies
if required to quell riots and civil disturbance.
Most of the local men who were conscripted joined the South Devon Militia which was
stationed in the following locations between 1794 and 1814:
1794-5 ~ Basingstoke (3 of 8 companies)
1795 ~ Canterbury (700 men all ranks)
1795-6 ~ Plymouth
1798-9 ~ Ireland (Irish Rebellion)
111803 ~ Falmouth
1806 ~ Liverpool
1807 ~ Portsmouth
1808 ~ Ottery St Mary, Weymouth
1810 ~ Petworth, Hampshire
1811 - Chatham
1812 ~ Huddersfield and Sheffield (Luddite riots)
1813-14 ~ Plymouth
In Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice the anonymous regiment of ‘…......shires’, which
so excited the Bennet sisters on its arrival in the small town of Meryton, is believed to have
been based on the South Devon Militia:
From about the age of sixteen Jane began to attend the monthly assembly at the
town of Basingstoke, about seven miles distant from her home village of Steventon.
Here, during the winter of 1794-95, the assemblies would have been graced by officers
of the South Devon Militia: three of their eight companies were quartered in
Basingstoke.22
For its service in helping to quash the Irish Rebellion in 1798-9 the regiment was
awarded a Testimony of Merit medal.
Testimony of Merit medal awarded to the South Devon Militia for their services during
the Irish Rebellion 1798-9 (unknown internet source)
123. Volunteer Corps
The Volunteers were an early ‘Dad’s Army’. In rural areas, volunteer corps were often
formed by the local gentry who had elaborate uniforms designed for themselves and their
fellow officers. For the rank and file, the main incentive for joining was exemption from
the militia ballot, but there was also the advantage that service, other than at the time of
actual invasion, was confined to the home area. The Volunteers were much lampooned
by the caricaturists but over 380,000 were under training in 1804. There were two arms –
the yeomanry cavalry and the infantry. The yeomanry was often made up of squires and
farmer’s sons, whilst the infantry rank and file were more often artisans and working men.
They were drilled by old soldiers at weekly parades, often held before or after Sunday
service. Payment for attendance was one shilling. Thomas Hardy’s novel Trumpet Major,
set at the time of the 1803-5 invasion scare, is worth reading for its colourful accounts of
false alarms, of the volunteers’ shambolic drill parades and the antics of the local yeomanry.
In the South Hams, the two local volunteer corps were the Kingsbridge Volunteers and
the South Devon Volunteers. The year in which the Kingsbridge Volunteers was formed
has not been established but in March 1801 its strength was 76 officers & men. The
commanding officer was Captain Richard Hawkins and the second-in-command, Lt. Roger
Ilbert Prideaux. It is probably this ‘Prideaux’ who was referred to as "Cappen Pridgeon," in
the following amusing account by Francis Young in the Kingsbridge section of Ellen
Luscombe’s book ‘Myrtles and Alloes’:
There were strange old fellows in authority among the Volunteers, and not the least
singular amongst them was “Cappen Pridgeon” who commanded a company raised in
these parts. One day, while at a sham fight near Stanborough, the gallant captain's
company was ordered to retreat. "Retreat," cried the indignant captain, "it shall never
be said in Dodbrooke market that Cappen Pridgeon retreated. Charge bayonets, my
men!" and his men did "charge bayonets," to the utter discomfiture of the advancing
foe, who fled in broken ranks before the determined onslaught of Pridgeon's
invincibles.23
‘Sham fights’ or field exercises were often held at Stanborough Camp near Moreleigh and,
in 1798, the North Devon and Wiltshire Militias made their encampment there.
With less than a hundred men in its ranks, the Kingsbridge Volunteer Corps was much
smaller than the South Devon Volunteers, the five battalions of which had a combined
strength of 2,500 men when they were mustered for inspection in 1804 (only 123 men
were absent).24 All were judged to be ‘fit for duty and qualified to act with troops of the
line.’ Fortunately, this was never put to the test for, although the volunteers were well
13drilled at company, and on occasion at battalion level, their lack of experience of
manoeuvring or co-ordinating with other units would have greatly reduced their
effectiveness in battle.
Modbury and Totnes Cavalry Barracks
At the start of the war cavalry barracks were built near potential invasion coasts. Those
at Modbury and Totnes were built in 1794 for about 64 officers and men. The outer walls
of the Modbury barracks in Barrack Street are still standing at their full height. Squadrons
stationed there include the Greys (North British Dragoons), the East Devon Militia, the
Surrey Fencibles and the North Gloucesters. Totnes Barracks were at Longcause House,
Barracks Hill, Dartington. Scobell, the builder of both barracks, is believed to have been
John Scobell of Nancealverne near Penzance. He had ancestral links with the manor of
Scobahull (Scoble) near South Pool and had purchased the manor of Kingsbridge in 1793.25
Modbury Barracks in Barrack Street. (author)
14Kingsbridge Barracks
The late 1790s were perilous years for Britain. With the collapse of continental alliances,
the country stood alone as it did in 1940. The invasion threat was particularly acute
between 1796–98 and 1800–1 and during the ‘Great Invasion Scare’ of 1803–5. It was in
response to the latter that barracks to accommodate 600 officers and men were erected,
again by John Scobell, in 1804 on the Warren to the south of Kingsbridge.
The buildings were of timber, designed for rapid construction, and built on land
compulsorily obtained under the Defence Act. They were built by Scobell, probably to
the same design as Woodbridge, Suffolk and Berry Head. If so, there would have been
4 'C'-shaped quadrangles with a small house between the two points of the 'C'. The
officers' rooms were at the points of the 'C' and in the free standing house in between,
infantrymen in five large barrack rooms in the long end and arms of the 'C'. Also
included in each quadrangle were rooms for staff sergeants and officers' servants.
Rows of quadrangles were interrupted by 'field officers' quarters' and mess rooms. In
1805, at the height of the invasion scare, Kingsbridge held 810 men.26
The barracks were occupied by various regiments during the war:
1804 & 1809: 1st (East) Devon Militia
1805: Montgomery Militia
1807: Dorset Regt. of Militia & Royal Lancashire Regt. of Militia
1809: 3rd Regt. Buffs (East Kent) & 51st Regt. (Yorks. West Riding)
1810: South & North Hants Militia & 18th Royal Irish Regt.
1811: Royal Cornwall Regt. & South Hants Militia
1811-12: 46th Regt. (South Devonshire)
1812: 5th Regt. of Foot
The Montgomery Militia, a Welsh regiment, are said to have brought Methodism to
Kingsbridge but many of the men posted there would have been more interested in more
worldly pleasures. A tavern called the Military Arms was opened and here, and in other
local taverns, off duty men would have drunk Kingsbridge’s famous white ale.27 Local girls
would have been courted, with some carried off with their man to ‘follow the drum’.
Discipline in the Militia was often harsher than in the regular army. When two men in
the East Devon Militia were caught fishing in Bowcombe Creek in 1804 they were reported
for poaching and sentenced to be flogged – a much harsher penalty than would have
been handed down in a civil court. Hearing this, the owner of the Creek, the Quaker Walter
Prideaux, stepped in and had the charges withdrawn.28
15(Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 County Series Map of 1905
superimposed over the O.S. Explorer Map, 2004 edition)
16Kingsbridge Barracks in 1812, painting by Walter Lethbridge with an enlargement below.
(Kingsbridge Cookworthy Museum)
Note: the artist, Walter Lethbridge was a local man. He was born in Goveton in 1772 and
was an annual exhibitor at the Royal Academy between 1802 and 1829 29a
17Materials from the buildings on the site were sold by auction in the spring of 1815,
although the hospital and bakehouse were converted to private use. Francis Young in Ellen
Luscombe’s book Myrtles and Alloes published in in 1861 noted that:
The part which formed the officer’s mess room and hospital still remains, a black
weather-boarded building looking towards the river and the shipwrights’ yard
[William Date’s yard]. Three stone walls, capped with a slate roof, away to the north
of this fragment of the old barracks, formed a retreat for a piece of ordnance, which
used to fling its iron food across the water with an angry roar at a mark in the quarry
opposite, before which a small cluster of houses now stand, called Tacket Wood.
Young was told by one old gentleman that the barracks were famous for fleas when he
served there as a youth. 29, 30, 31
Food Shortages & Riots
Food shortages occurred throughout the war and gave rise to local food riots in 1795
and 1801. The causes were many: harsh winters and bad harvests, trade embargoes with
Continental Europe, diversion of supplies to both the army and navy (with large amounts
needed to supply warships in Plymouth and Torbay), the export of grain to parts of the
country which commanded higher prices and, not least, the speculative hoarding of grain
and other foodstuffs by farmers and merchants.
In March 1801, after a succession of harsh winters and poor harvests, food riots broke
out throughout South Devon, notably at Brixham, Dartmouth, Totnes, Modbury, Ashburton
and Plymouth. From these towns large crowds went round neighbouring farms demanding
that farmers sell their grain more cheaply. A notable feature of the South Devon riots was
that the rioters almost never seized food without paying for it. ‘At Totnes, Dartmouth, and
Brixham in 1801, the leadership of tradesmen was believed to have restrained the crowds.
Price-fixing crowds would sometimes seal a farmer's contract with a triumphant shower of
stones against his windows, but their leaders prevented more serious damage or abuse. 32
Nevertheless, to reinforce their demands, the rioters sometimes threatened to put a halter
around the neck of those they suspected of speculating or ‘forestalling’, implying that they
would be hanged if they did not concede. According to one report:
On the evening of Tuesday, March 31, 1801 a clamouring mob of hundreds of people
descended on the house of farmer Henry Penney, in the parish of Harbeton, just
outside Totnes. They pounded on his door and demanded that he sign a paper
agreeing to market his produce at fixed prices: Penney hesitated to come to the door
18‘Hints to Forestallers of a Sure Way to Reduce the Price of Grain’
but when one of the mob cried out, "Bring the halter! Bring the halter!" Penney
yielded and came to a kitchen window to sign. When their leader called out,
"All signed, all well, move on, my lads" a shower of stones cascaded against
the windows as the crowd moved off to make similar demands on other
farmers.’33
A similar case occurred at Modbury when ‘a mob of near 700 people, came to the
homes of Henry Legassicke and the Rev. Mr. Stackhouse, with a halter in one hand and a
written paper in the other for signature, limiting the price of corn, butter, and
potatoes.’34 The riots were to severely test the loyalties of the local volunteer corps. The
Dartmouth Volunteer Artillery Company, for example, warned their commander they
would act against invasion, but not against riot: ‘No, not to starve our own families . . .
We have committed no outrage. We only mean to compel the farmers to sell their
articles at a moderate price.’ Some of the Totnes Volunteers gave up their arms before
going off ‘to obtain corn’ and at Brixham, the local volunteer corps was disarmed and
disbanded after its officers and men accompanied the rioters.35,36
Other Volunteer units were mustered and required to swear on oath that they would
serve against rioters or face expulsion. When the Kingsbridge Volunteers were mustered
over half refused to take the oath. Following their dismissal, they were publicly named and
shamed. Their names, as well as those of the men who remained loyal, are listed below.
19Above: The Kingsbridge Volunteers that took the oath of allegiance in March 1801
Below: The re-instated men who finally swore and those dismissed for refusing
Source: Trewman's Exeter Flying Post Thursday, May 21, 1801
20French Privateers
Unable to compete effectively with the Royal Navy in conventional fleet battles, the
French sought to damage English trade and supply lines by granting letters of marque to
privateers (privately owned armed vessels commissioned to attack enemy shipping).
Incidents involving privateers in the sea off Salcombe included:
4 July 1793: a sloop from Dartmouth, with baggage and a few sick men belonging to
the North Gloucestershire Militia was chased into Salcombe by a French privateer.37
27 November 1797: Esther, from Poole to Newfoundland, which had been taken by the
Buonaparte privateer, was retaken, and sent into Salcombe. 38
27 March 1798: Air Balloon, from Blakeney to Salcombe, was taken and carried to
France.39
28 March 1801: Dart, from Guernsey to Salcombe, was taken.40
1 March 1801: a large French cutter privateer fell in with a fleet of ships sailing from
Plymouth to London off the Bolt, and captured nine of them and sent them to France.
Among them was the Grace brig of Plymouth, the crew of which, except the master and a
boy, took to their boat and got ashore near Salcombe.41
30 August 1794: the crew of Salcombe customs boat, under the command of Richard
Valentine, boarded a brig, the Two Friends, of London, in Salcombe Range, and found her
to be in the possession of a French prize crew. She had been taken by a French privateer
nine days before, and had been drifting about in the Channel, the crew not knowing how
to manage her. She was later towed into Salcombe.42
22 November 1799 : the schooner John and Grace of Plymouth, was captured off the Bolt
by a French brig privateer. After being informed by the officer of the signal house at West
Sewer, the Salcombe Customs Officer, Richard Valentine, immediately manned the Custom
House boat, pursued the schooner, recaptured her, and brought her into Salcombe’.43
The War Against Smugglers
The smuggling of contraband from the Channel Islands and France continued
unabated throughout the wars. In July 1793 a Salcombe sloop named Fly, laden with
78 casks of spirits from Guernsey, was taken after a smart chase by His Majesty's cutter
Ranger, of 14 guns, off the Start.44
Other successful seizures involved the Jane, smuggling cutter, with 200 ankers of
spirits, taken off Salcombe on 15th December 1800 by the Mary and Betsy gun-boat of
Plymouth and the smuggling lugger Phoenix of Salcombe, laden with 190 casks of spirits
taken, on 7 October 1802, by the Atalante, a 16 gun sloop of war. 45,46
An intriguing episode took place in January 1799 when fourteen smugglers, who had
fired into the customs boat off Salcombe, were captured and taken to Plymouth.
21Escorted by a party of the Surrey cavalry, they were put on board the Cambridge flag
ship in Hamoaze, and later taken for trial in London.47,48
‘Smugglers: To Save Their Necks’, painting by Charles Napier Hemy RA
(Art Gallery of New South Wales)
When smuggling boats were seized by revenue officers the most seaworthy were
often taken into service. Others were either put up for auction by HM Customs
Commissioners, or broken up. In September 1803 the auction took place at the Turks
Head [later the Victoria Inn], Salcombe of the 33 ton captured smuggling sloop
Endeavour and in April 1809, the Commissioners put up for auction the broken-up hull
of a 7ton boat called the Mary of Salcombe, at the Custom House in Topsham together
with 61 gallons of brandy, 10 gallons of rum, 28 gallons of Geneva‘.49, 50
Secret Intelligence
British agents and messengers carrying important intelligence occasionally put into
Salcombe. On 14 September 1795, dispatches for the Home Secretary arrived on
HMS Thames, Captain Gillespie, from New Providence in the Bahamas. It fell to Richard
Valentine to take them to the post at Totnes. In yet another letter to his superiors Valentine
pointed out that Salcombe harbour was the first landfall for many foreign ships. A great
many letters came to Kingsbridge and the people would like to see the post regularly
established there. He often incurred expenses in carrying letters to Totnes and on this
occasion it had cost him eleven shillings (55p) which, having a salary of just £30 per year,
he hoped would be reimbursed.51
Hopefully Valentine was spared a similar expense when letters from HMS Renown, 74
guns, at Malta were landed at Salcombe on 7 June 1802, from a frigate as she passed up
Channel. They brought news from Lord Keith’s Mediterranean fleet.52
22Cartel Ships and Prisoners of War
Four months after France declared on war on Britain in 1793, two French prisoners
escaped from the Mill prison at Plymouth. On 24 May they were caught at Salcombe where
they had hoped to take a boat and make off for the coast of France.53 A similar event took
place some years later when, on 8 December 1806, Salcombe Sea Fencibles apprehended
two French prisoners of war who had escaped from Mill Prison and escorted them back
to Plymouth.54
During the many wars with France in the eighteenth and nineteenth century prisoners
were often exchanged by means of specially commissioned ships known as cartels. These
sailed between cartel ports such as St. Malo and Morlaix in France and Plymouth and
Falmouth. In both the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence, sailors
returning from captivity in France had forced their ship into Salcombe to avoid being
pressed back into service. A similar incident occurred on 9 January 1800 when the brig
Active, a cartel from Morlaix, was run into Salcombe by the nineteen British seamen aboard
her.
Not all the repatriated prisoners who landed at Salcombe were sailors in danger of
being pressed for in June 1806 the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, Lady Charlotte Pelham
Clinton and her children, with General Crawford, from Morlaix in the Jupiter cartel, landed
at Salcombe.55,56
When the war finally ended in 1815, French prisoners-of-war held in Dartmoor were
progressively repatriated in cartel ships. On 6 January 1816, a small transport ship, the
Betsey, sailed from Plymouth for France with 65 cavalry officers from the 20th Regiment of
Cuirassiers, the 4th Regiment of Chasseurs and the Young Guard of the Horse Chasseurs.
Caught in a storm, the Betsey was driven on shore near Yarmer Sands, Thurlestone where
she was smashed to pieces. Twenty-eight of the French prisoners were drowned and many
of the survivors were injured on the rocks. Nineteen bodies were recovered and buried in
Thurlestone churchyard.57.
Napoleon Bonaparte and The Great Invasion Scare 1803-5
In 1797, following his successful Italian campaign, the 28 year-old General Bonaparte
was given command of the Armée d’Angleterre assembled at Boulogne for the invasion of
England. Realising that France’s navy was not strong enough to take on the Royal Navy
he decided instead to lead a military expedition to Egypt. Returning to France in 1799,
Napoleon seized power as First Consul. He further cemented his control in 1802, when he
was made consul for life, and in 1804 when he was proclaimed Emperor.
The signing of the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802 ended hostilities between France and
Britain, but when war resumed in May 1803, Napoleon once again turned his attention to
23invading England. By July 1805 he had assembled an army of 93,000 men in six camps
around Boulogne and a flotilla of 1750 invasion craft. A further 70,000 men were within 2
to 4 day’s march.
Seriously alarmed by the invasion threat, the British government mobilised a combined
military force of regulars, militias and volunteers totalling 615,000 men, fortified much of
the southern English coast and drew up plans to evacuate civilians and move livestock,
grain and goods inland in the event of a French landing. In the South-East the elaborate
fortifications, which included the 73 Martello towers erected between Suffolk and Sussex,
led to fears that Napoleon would attempt a landing on the relatively undefended coast
further west and so between 1803-5, six new barracks were built in South Devon, including
the Kingsbridge Barracks. (The others were at Plymouth, Exeter, Honiton, Ottery St Mary
and Berry Head).58
A cartoon depicting the French invading by air, sea and through a tunnel
(internet image, source unknown)
Napoleon’s invasion plans depended on the French fleet, commanded by Admiral
Villeneuve, evading the Royal Navy and gaining control over Channel waters. He needed
control for about 3 days (6 high tides) for his invasion force to cross. However, the First
Lord of the Admiralty, Lord St. Vincent – confident that the Channel fleet under Cornwallis
would keep the French invasion fleet bottled up – famously remarked "I do not say
the French cannot come, I only say they cannot come by sea". This may have calmed the
fears of many but, as the cartoon above suggests, others may well have wondered whether
‘Boney’ might come by some other means!
24The Battle of Trafalgar 1805
In August 1805 Napoleon learnt that Admiral Villeneuve had failed in his attempt to
draw off the Channel fleet and was back in Cadiz. It was then that he abandoned his
invasion plans and marched east with the Grande Armée to defeat the Austrians at Ulm
the day before Nelson’s defeat of the combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar.
Many mariners from Salcombe and the Kingsbridge Estuary served in the Royal Navy
during the Napoleonic Wars, either as volunteers or pressed men and at least eleven local
men served in the British fleet at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.59
Battle of Trafalgar 1805, painting by Nicholas Pocock
Name Age Birthplace Ship Rank/rating
Richard Weeks 33 Salcombe HMS Royal Sovereign Boatswain’s Mate
William Pope 30 Salcombe HMS Dreadnought Ordinary Seaman
Ian Goslin 27 Salcombe HMS Leviathan Ordinary Seaman
John Distin 23 Kingsbridge HMS Belleisle Ordinary Seaman
John Muchmore 27 Kingsbridge HMS Belleisle Ordinary Seaman
Thomas Rowe 20 Kingsbridge HMS Prince Landsman
Edward Stephens 28 Kingsbridge HMS Euryalus Able Seaman
John Prickard 20 Kingsbridge HMS Dreadnought Ordinary Seaman
Gilbert Kennicott 18 Dodbrooke HMS Royal Sovereign Midshipman
Thomas Marsh 26 Charleton HMS Agamemnon Able Seaman
William Stone 27 Chivelstone HMS Colossus Ordinary Seaman
Local Men who Served at Trafalgar. Source: TNA
25Although Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar confirmed Britain’s dominance at sea, Napoleon’s
mastery of Europe led to a general stalemate with both sides seeking to strangle each
other’s trade by blockade. In the South Hams, Napoleon’s embargo on trade with Britain
through the Continental System, and the food shortages and unemployment it gave rise
to, would have caused hardship for many but for those engaged in the smuggling trade,
there were rich profits to be made
Napoleon Contemplates Suicide off Salcombe
Napoleon on board the Bellerophon. Oil painting by Sir William Quiller Orchardson
(Tate Gallery, London)
Napoleon’s disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812 and the Duke of Wellington’s
victories in Spain in 1812-13, finally tipped the scales in favour of Britain and her allies.
Following defeats in Germany and France, Napoleon was forced to abdicate in April 1814
and submit to exile in the Island of Elba. Escaping from there in February 1815, he arrived
in Paris in March and regained power as Emperor. In ‘The Hundred Days’ that followed
Napoleon re-built his army and invaded Belgium where he was finally defeated by
Wellington and the Prussian, General Blucher, at Waterloo on 18 June.
26Forced to abdicate again, Napoleon made for Rochefort on France’s Atlantic coast hoping
to make passage for America but, with British ships blockading the port, he surrendered
to Captain Maitland on HMS Bellerophon on 15 July 1815. Maitland sailed for Torbay and
from there to Plymouth. Napoleon was delighted with the coastal scenery and, pointing
out the charming houses nestling among wooded bays and rocky inlets, said that he would
be pleased to live in one in solitude. On arrival at Plymouth, his hopes of living the life of
a country gentleman in exile in England were dashed when he learnt from Admiral Keith
that he was to be sent to St. Helena, a rocky island in the South Atlantic.
With huge crowds gathering in boats in Plymouth Sound to catch a sight of the ‘Great
Ogre’ Maitland was ordered to cruise off Start Point and await the arrival of HMS
Northumberland, which was to transport ‘Boney’ into exile. For two days the ‘Billy Ruffian’,
as the Bellerophon was affectionately known, sailed up and down the short stretch of coast
between Start Point and Bolt Head near the entrance to Salcombe Harbour. ‘The grey sea
under the louring, grey sky seemed to reflect the air of gloom which had settled over the
passengers on the Bellerophon. Napoleon became increasingly depressed. He no longer
appeared on deck but remained shut in his cabin … at one stage he talked about ending
his life. On 8 August he and his followers transferred to HMS Northumberland and then
vanished into exile over the horizon’.60
And, so it was that the seas off Salcombe – the scene of the first naval episode in
home waters in 1793 – became the stage for the very last event in the long struggle
between Britain and France.
Sources
1. Polwhele, Richard, The History of Devonshire, 3 vols., 1793–1806
2. Fox, Sarah Prideaux, Kingsbridge Estuary, With Rambles in the Neighbourhood, G.P.
Friend, Kingsbridge,1874, p30
3. Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 9th July 1835
4. Hawkins, Abraham, Kingsbridge and Salcombe, with the Intermediate Estuary, Historically
and Topographically Depicted, D. Southwood, 1819, Kingsbridge, p73
5. Hawkins, op cit, p63
6. Oppenheim, M. The Maritime History of Devon, Appendix 1, Univ. of Exeter, 1968
7. Smart, I., Dartmouth Industry and Banking. The Story from 1795 to 1925, Dartmouth
History Research Group, Paper 18, 1995, p4
8. Freeman, Ray, Dartmouth and Its Neighbours, Dart Books, 1990, p141
9 Kitchen, Frank, The Napoleonic War Coast Signal Stations, Mariner’s Mirror 1990, Vol
LXXVI, pp337-344
2710. Barrett, Roger, Prawle Point and the Coast between Start Point and Salcombe Bar,
National Coastwatch Institution, 2011, p19
11. Harding, Brian, The Corps of Sea Fencibles, Teignmouth to Rame Head District, Devon
Family Historian, No. 95, August 2000, p8
12. TNA Adm/28/71 Navy Board, Sea Fencible Pay Lists, Teignmouth to the Rame Head
13 Harding, Brian, op cit, p7
14 Harding, Brian, op cit, p8-9
15.Naval Chronicle, Vol 1, 1793-8, Ed. Nicholas Tracy, Chatham Publishing, 1998, p12.
16. Barrett, Roger, op. cit.
17. Young, Francis in Ellen Luscombe’s Myrtles and Alloes, published by G.P. Friend,
Kingsbridge, 1861, p148
18. Woodman, Richard, The Sea Warriors, Constable, London, 2001, pp23-28
19 TNA HO 42/29/121
20. Brown, Josephine, The Tower, Devon Road, Historic Building Assessment, 2010
21. Fort Charles, Salcombe, Report by Exeter Archaeology, 1998
22. Breihan, John, Jane Austen and the Militia, Journal of Jane Austen Society of North
America, 1992, p17
23. Young, Francis, op cit., p148
24. Star, London, Friday 23 March 1804
25. Breihan, John, Army Barracks in Devon During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic
Wars, Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 122, p133-158, Dec 1990
26. Breihan, John, op cit, pp 143, 149, 153, 155
27. Tanner, Kathy, Around Kingsbridge in Old Photographs, Alan Sutton, 1988, p141
28. Walrond, Henry, Historical Records of the 1st Devon Militia, Longman, Green & Co,
1897, p223
29a. Cove, Patricia, Buckland Tout Saints, A Parish History, Cove, 1984
29. Young, Francis, op cit, p147,
30. Abraham Hawkins, op cit, p63
31. Fox, Sarah Prideaux, Kingsbridge and Its Surroundings, G.P. Friend, Second Edition,
1874, p114
32. Bohstedt, John, Riots and Community Politics in England and Wales 1790-1810, Harvard
College, USA, 1983 p34.
33. Bohstedt, John, op cit, p30
34. Chester Courant, Tuesday 05 May 1801
35. Bohstedt, John, op cit., p63
36. Morning Post, Wednesday, 29 April 1801
37. Bath Chronicle, July 4 1793
2838. Lloyd’s Evening Post, Nov 27 1797
39. Aberdeen Journal, March 27 1798
40. Caledonian Mercury, March 28 1801
41. Caledonian Mercury, March 7 1801
42. The Times, September 5 1794
43. Sherbourne Mercury, Dec 2 1799
44. Morning Chronicle, July 2 1793
45. The Naval Chronicle Vol 4, p522
46. Hampshire Telegraph, Oct 14 1802
47. The Naval Chronicle, Vol 1, op. cit. Plymouth Report, Jan 13-Feb 13, p257.
48. Waugh, Mary, Smuggling in Devon & Cornwall, 1700-1850, Countryside Books, 1991,
p88
49. Exeter Flying Post, Sept 8 1803
50. Exeter Flying Post, March 23 1809
51. TNA HO 42/36/98
52. Caledonian Mercury, June 10 1802
53. London Star, May 29 1793
54 Harding, Brian, op cit, p9
55. The Naval Chronicle: Vol 3, p78
56. Bury and Norwich Post, June 11 1806
57. Mcdonald, Kendall, Thurlestone Parish Village Voice, No. 10 Jan-Feb 1984
58. Breihan, John, op cit, p143
59. TNA, Nelson, Trafalgar and Those Who Served
60. Cordingly, David, Billy Ruffian, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2003, pp273-8
Expanded version of a talk given to Kingsbridge Estuary U3A History Group on
17th March 2021 by Roger Barrett, group member and Curator of
Salcombe Maritime Museum. Copyright: Roger Barrett
29You can also read
