Whilst devouring the diaries of Peter Edes and Master John Leach as they record the unpleasant experience that was being imprisoned in Boston’s gaol during the summer and autumn of 1775, two people caught my attention that I haven’t seen anyone talk about.
On August 22, 23, and 24, both Edes and Leach remark that the days are “exceedingly hot,” so it seems there was one of Boston’s lovely heat waves. Perhaps the kind where you feel like you’re being boiled alive in the humid air.
Edes’ August 23 entry reads:
In the afternoon Serjeant Neil and Corporal Royal, were confin’d prisoners by the provost for giving us air, and fresh water in his absence. They told him we were almost Suffocated with heat; he replied, God damn them, let them die, you have no discretion to let them out.
Leach’s entry reads pretty much the same, except he spells Sergeant Neil as Neal (huzza, 18th Century spellings).
This has always fascinated me. In the midst of a war where, to be frank, neither side were particularly compassionate to prisoners, Sergeant Neil and Corporal Royal were punished for the terrible crime of… treating prisoners like people.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a first name for either, nor a regiment, so tracking them down would be pretty tricky.*
We can presume they were appointed around June 15 (shortly before Bunker Hill). That’s when John Barker records in his diary that:
15th . Genl. Order. Mr. Wm. Cunninghame is appointed Provost Marshall to the Army, and to have a Guard of 1 Ser: 1 Cor: 12 Private under his command.
From then on, the guards probably bore witness to the many abuses of Provost William Cunningham and his deputy Samuel Dyer. In fact, Edes and Leach mention they bribed the guards with liquor to give items to the dying Bunker Hill prisoners. None of these guards are named, but given that Neil and Royal were clearly compassionate, I wouldn’t be surprised if these were among the guards who agreed to this.
If there was only one sergeant assigned to be under Cunningham’s command, then Neil appears briefly twice more in August. He must be the sergeant Edes mentions on August 11, who was ordered to observe the conversation between Master Leach and his wife. On August 16, Edes also mentions that the sergeant was ordered to confine the prisoners close, such that “We took our victuals thro’ the bars.“
As for what happened after Neil and Royal’s arrest, we don’t know. Neither Edes nor Leach mention an outcome and most likely, they weren’t in a position to know. But I think more people should know about Sergeant Neil and Corporal Royal.
Next week we’ll return to pre-Massacre Boston and discuss how an attempt to evict a bunch of impoverished people went sideways as hell.
*Given the date of Cunningham’s appointment, we’re left us with a grand total of fourteen regiments (counting the marines) to find muster rolls for. God help me, but I am nothing if not pedantic.
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