Charles Grey, Portsmouth 384
MSA SC 5496-51706
War of 1812 Prisoner of War, Prince George's County, Maryland, 1813
Biography:
Charles Grey was an African-American sailor from Maryland who was impressed in the Royal Navy during the War of 1812. In the years preceeding the War of 1812, British press gangs would routinely impress American sailors into service for the Royal Navy to offset the loss of British sailors to the Napoleonic Wars. The Royal Navy impressed thousands of American sailors, and the issue became one of the leading causes of the War of 1812.
On occasion, press gangs would give sailors the option of either serving on board a British vessel, or entering into a British prison. Many African-American sailors chose incarceration over service with the Royal Navy partially because they did not want to be labled as traitors by white American sailors, but also because they had closer familial and cultural connections to America than Britain.1
Charles Grey was received at Portsmouth Prison on January 10, 1813 from H.M.S. Royal William. The prison register indicates he "gave himself up on board His Majesty's Ship Salvador Del Mundo". The record suggests he surrendered himself up for imprisonment, and was not taken from an American prize ship. The register describes Grey as a mulatto seaman, age 38, with a 5"9 stature and a scar on his right cheek. It specifies his place of nativity as Prince George's County, Maryland. Grey spent two months at Portsmouth until he was discharged on March 1, 1813 to Chatham via H.M.S. Queen.2
On August 31, a Philadelphia based newspaper published a list of American seamen imprisoned on the prison ship San Antonio at Chatham, which included Charles Grey. The list indicated that Grey had been impressed in the British service for 15 years.3 If reliable, the list suggests Grey had been impressed in the Royal Navy for over a decade before the War of 1812 began. It is uncertain what became of Grey after he left Chatham. Most of the prisoners at Chatham were either sent back to America on cartel ships, or sent to Dartmoor Prison. Grey does not appear in any of the prison registers for Dartmoor so it is probable he was discharged on a cartel ship, and sent home after over a decade impressed to the crown.
Citations:
1. Bolster, W. Jeffrey, Black Jacks: African-American Seamen in the Age of Sail (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1997) 113-115.
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