Alberto Bioletti

1778-1869 Wincanton’s Forgotten Hero.

Start at the beginning and go on to the end? No. Start and end in Wincanton.

For 22 years

The Napoleonic Wars ran from1793 until 1815 except for the Peace of Amiens

March 1802 – May 1803

Total Estimates vary. Between 3.25 million and 6.5 million.

French and allies 1,800,000Britain and allies 2,015,000

Royal Navy92,386British Army 219,420

English Political Background 1780-1830

Thomas Paine. The Rights of Man.(1) Men are born, and always continue,

free and equal in respect of their rights. Civil distinctions, therefore, can be founded only on public utility*;

(2) (2) The end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression; and

(3) (3) The nation is essentially the source of all sovereignty; neither can any individual, nor any body of men, be entitled to any authority, which is not expressly derived from it.

William Pitt PMConservative

George 3Popular constitutional

monarch

MP Fox (Charles James) Whig Radical

Jeremy BenthamUtilitarian Philosopher. Good is what brings greatest happiness to greatest number. Influences French.

*Utility. The well-being of sentient entities-

Whig Edmund Burke. MP promoter of Conservatism. Harmonious hierarchy

Tom PaineNorfolk Radical influences both the Americans and the French.

Agitator for political and social reform – loyal opposition

William WilberforceAbolish Slavery

21st March 1806 Four arrive from Norman Cross via Peterborough by coach..

General Donatien

RochambeauPierre Courpon

General Jacques Boye 40yrs 1766-1838

Ordonnance Alberto BiolettiItalian

General Rochambeau as a young man

Agent Messiter warned. Accomodation prepared. Coach via Oxford 200 miles? Under guard. Accumulated possessions. Uniforms. Comfortable accommodation provided.

Ordonnance delivering orders

uniform valet

bodyguard

The Norman Cross Barracks were built in record time to house POWs in a humane manner.Around 5,000 there on average ¼ officers

March 1806 (after 1yr 5 mnth) Rochambeau and Boyer sign new parole papers and are sent to WINCANTON.

Arrived Portsmouth 3-2-1804

7-15-Feb. Large party marched to Ashbourne in Derbyshire.As senior officers they are set up in comfortable style. House fitted out for them.Rochambeau and Boye are consistently –disruptive, rude and badly behaved.

October 1804 sent to Norman Cross nrPeterborough. The four confined to a special interior prison. Six months under tight control.

Life on Parole for Bioletti before Wincanton with Boye, Rochambeau and Courpon.

Norman Cross Barracks

BoredomLack of WomenGamblingCarving, crafts, business etcencouragedWeekly MarketsSmuggling infoDisease. Typhus.Reading,EnglishMilitary and political discussionCatholic chaplain

Norman Cross. What was life like?Guarded by soldiers lead by a RN Captain. Under Navy Transport Office.

Automata clock with 11 moving figures. Bone

Who was Gen. Donatien Marie Joseph de Vimeur, vicompte de Rochambeau?Noble marriage, son and Illegitimate American son.

Joined the Revolutionary Army. Fought in Italy under Napoleon. Governor-General Leeward Islands and San Domingo. (Haiti1802 lead unsuccesful expeditionary force in San Domingue (Haiti) after death of General de Clerc.1803 surrenders to Captain John LoringOf HMS Bellerephon. The held in England.

General Jacques Boye

Adjutant General to RochambeauCaptured and held with him. Ashford and Norman Cross. Middle-class professional.

A professional soldier General Jean Baptiste Rochambeau was sent by Louis 16 to help the Americans and fought with Washington bringing 4,000 well trained and equipped French troops essential for the defeat of Gen Cornwallis at Yorktown 1782. His son Donatien was his aid de camp (seen standing behind his father)

Hiis father was a very distinguished, aristocrat, family chateau and governor of Vendome

Wincanton 1793 – 1815

Population 1,800, 600 in Agriculture 1100 in trade and manufacture140 not described.

Flax and ticking. Handlooms. A poor living. Undercut by Cotton Mills of North.

Food riots in 1800. Rice handouts. Paupers.Workhouse filled.

Coach trade large. Inns, butchers, bakers markets.

Fear of French Invasion.

Anglicans, Catholics, Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, Quakers

Napoleonic Parole Prisoners in Wincanton from1804 – 1812. Boost economy.

9 Inns in WincantonDolphinSwanWhite HorseBearGreyhoundNew InnRed LionTrooper InnGeorge

Solicitor, Banker, Agent Commissary, CO of three companies of Volunteers, Horwood Well spa owner. From George Sweetman’s The French in Wincanton 1904

Wincanton c. 1800

b.1776 –d.1834

A bright example of God’s noblest work

With 17 coaches coming and going 6 days a week, Hay to feed, Manure to use, butchers, bakers, hostelries, chambermaids, cooks, grooms, coachmen and riders, the coaches were central to the economy of the town.

The Social Order. Gentry – landed, professional, officers.TradesmenLabourers. Common People.Restricted vote but common lawHuge social differences Great poverty and wealth.

Churcheys, The Dogs Manor House,Tout Hill House, Balsam House, Dial House, Rectory,Ireson House.

10 public houses

Two Years before Bioletti arrived in 1804 350 Officers on Parole settled

Note The lovely French uniforms. Keeping smart took much time and effort. Seen as key to morale

1805 also saw huge French victory at Austerlitz.

Napoleons’s dashing swagger cavalry and army uniforms. Life expectancy for all combatantsWas low.

Life On Parole in Wincanton.Restrictions on movementRoll call morning, 5 pm, evening curfew.HousingFoodSocialisingLadies and WomenTheatre and EntertainmentSport. Fives, Athletics.MusiciansRelations with the localsFree Masons. Alberto invited to join the French LodgeMeets Mary FelthamHorwell Well Spa.

Rochambeau spoils the party.After 4 months Rochambeau is again revolting.

“Hunting party” incident. Takes Boye, orderlies, horses and dogs. Beats up local farmer. Violent incident in the town. Messiter and Yeomen called out.

16th July 1807 Bioletti 29 marries Mary Feltham 21 daughter of David and Sarah Feltham of Crediton.

Boye and is moved to Crediton immediately with Bioletti and Mary by Messiter. She is pregnant.

Rochambeau sent to Moreton Hampstead. Struts his stuff there and Pierre Courpon marries Susanna Parker there.

Bioletti able to live in Crediton with his family and General Boye from July 1807 – March 1811 (3yrs

8mnths)

Parish church pre 1883 and clergy.John Radford incumbent

Certificate and translations showing Bioletti, backed by Rochambeau and Boye (presumably) admitted into the French lodge Degree 2 and of the English Lodge in Crediton to Degree 3.

Recommendations from generals Boye and Rochembeau of the healing properties of HorwoodWell - owned by George Messiter

In Crediton his first son Jacques born Feb 1808 and daughter Cecillia Feb 1810.

Supports his family as a bagatelle table maker. Attends Boye. Every pub had one.

Cecillia. Only Surviving photo

Prisoner exchange arranged and March 1811 is returned with family and 115 others to France. Plymouth, Morlaix, Paris.

Bioletti on parole in Crediton A decent living. Family, friends,

masons, work.

Sampler owned by Jo Stevens

Feb 1811 Bioletti and Boye returned to France. He takes Mary and children Jacques and Cecilia to Paris.

Napoleon has just become Emperor of the French and after divorcing Josephine has married Princess Marie Louise of Austria. Europe lies at his feet. Rochambeau returns to his chateau and wife to work on his father’s American maps. Brigadier General Boye appointed chief of staff of the 12th Division of the 9th Corps. Bioletti prepares for war service as Boye’s orderly.

Before we go on with what happened next to Alberto, we look into his background and what happened to him before he became a parole prisoner.

Napoleon’s second Wedding

Alberto Bioletti’s Background. The Boy from Turin.Family and Education. Likely his father a Clockmaker? School? Waldensians?Kingdom of Savoy Piedmont ruled by Victor Amadeus 3 1791 University Students revolt including Collegio delle Province (Halls of Residence for the Provinces), which housed one hundred young people of low social extraction to aid them in completing their studies at the State's expense. Bioletti may have been one of them. 1792 Turin overrun by French revolutionary forces93-94 Reign of Terror in France1796 Napoleon takes command of Army of Italy

The Ideology of the Revolution

Pro Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.Down with aristocratic hereditary privilege.Down with monarchy.Down with the Church. Confiscate its property and grip on Education

The Reign of Terror and the guillotining of Louis XVI in1793 turns all ruling houses against France.

Joining the Grande Armee. With Napoleon in Italy

1797 Alberto joins the Grande Armee.

Takes part in or hears of Napoleon’s string of victoriesLodi, Siege of Mantua, Castiglione, Rovereto and the Venetian Republic, Austria defeated. Napoleon the master of tactics and planning and of self-serving self-promoting propaganda.

Florence, Rome, Venice etc. looted for Art for the Louvre. Italians charged huge fees for being “liberated.”

Napoleon returns in triumph to Paris. He is 28.Bioletti sees Paris for the first time as a victorious soldier of 19.

Turin

Victor Emmanuel 3

Bioletti involved in Napoleon’s First Italian Campaign as an. Infantryman. No details.

Napoleon drives Austria out of Italy and sets up client “liberated” republics under French rule. The French army lives off the land and the cities are heavily taxed and their art looted for Paris. Was Alberto as an Italian impressed?

Adjutant-General in full uniform

England Under Threat 1797 Napoleon given command of the

Armee d’Angleterre. Huge conscript invasion force assembled and trained in sight of the coast. Barges. Balloons.. All England expects and plans for a French invasion. Messiter in Wincanton trains Yeomen.

Problems for Napoleon. The French Navy. The Royal Navy Blockade. Nelson and Collingwood. After two months Napoleon decides a successful invasion is not possible.

Instead Napoleon plans to invade Egypt! Why? INDIA!!

Bioletti embarks with the French fleet.

Overthrows the Knights of St John - HospitallersLeaves 4,000 troopsReplenishes his supplies.Maltese revolt against “liberation” as soon as he is gone.

Bioletti sees more “liberation.”