The War of 1812–1814 between the United States of America and Great Britain gave rise to several journals relating the sufferings of prisoners of war confined in prison ships and gaols in England. One of these is A journal of a young man of Massachusetts, said to have been written by Dr Amos G Babcock, an American ship’s surgeon, and first published in 1816. This article sets out arguments for and against the truth of this assertion.
As recorded American vessel captured by the British during the Revolution and War of 1812. Records of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Halifax, Nova Scotia, under the Halifax Prizes of War of 1812 and the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts (1911), and Marine Notes at Salem (1812–1815), Essex Institute History Collection vol 36, p.285 et seq.
The records from the National Archives at Kew. ADM 103/511 pp. B 3, 4, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 104, 105, and 106. Dartmoor prisoners references do not list Amos G Babcock, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records (accessed 11 September 2011).
13.
Appendix 2.
14.
Abell Francis. Prisoners of war in Britain: record of their lives, their romances, and their suffering. The Library of the University of California Los Angeles, 1914, London, England.
15.
Abell Francis. Prisoners of war in Britain, 1765–1815, life on the hulks, pp.82, 85–87 (accessed 7 July 2011).
16.
Prisoners of war in Britain, Dartmoor Prison, pp. 256–257, www.lib.berkeley.edu (accessed 7 July 2011).
The London Gazette Archives, first issue 16762 10 August 1813 and second issue 17268 on 15 July 1817. www.london-gazette.co.uk/research (accessed 3 September 2011).
