AREA HISTORY:  Prison for Soldiers, Windsor Township, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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A PRISON FOR BRITISH AND HESSIAN SOLDIERS – Page 728

A short distance north of the York and East Prospect road and in the northeastern part of 
Windsor, is the site of the Revolutionary prison.  This land is now owned by Isaac Kauffman.  
For nearly three-fourths of a century it was owned by Jacob Holtzinger.  The prison “pen,” as 
it was called, was built in the form of a circle.  Posts, fifteen feet in length, were erected 
in close proximity, so that the entire prison resembled an Indian fort; within this enclosure 
the prisoners built huts.  One-fourth of a mile distant from the large pen, was a smaller one.  
Farmers afterward used these posts for fence rails and an occasional one can yet be seen.  This 
historic spot, though very rugged, is now nearly all farmed over, so that it is difficult to 
identify it unless pointed out by some old citizen of the neighborhood.  There were a great 
many British and Hessian prisoners at different times kept in Lancaster, York, Carlisle, 
Reading and Lebanon, and eventually a number were sent to western Maryland and Virginia.  A few 
were imprisoned in the town of York.  The object in locating this prison four and one-half 
miles southeast of the town doubtless was to avoid the prevalence of contagious diseases and to 
obtain a secure place.  The first prisoners sent into central Pennsylvania arrived December, 
1775.  Some of them were captured from British vessels along the coast of New Jersey, and some 
by Gen. Montgomery on his Canada expedition.  Of the last were eight officers and 200 men of 
the Seventh Royal Fusiliers.  Dr. John Kearsley was brought to York a prisoner, October 25, 
1775, and delivered to the Committee of Safety for endeavoring to procure British troops to 
invade the colonies.  He was a man of ability and was allowed a clerk and a servant to attend 
him during his imprisonment.  March 14, 1776, it was decided to remove British officers and 
other prisoners of war from Lancaster to York and Carlisle.  On account of sickness in York, 
many who were to have been sent here, were taken to Lebanon, where some of them escaped.

The following is a copy of a letter form the Committee of Safety, of Philadelphia, to the 
Committee of Safety of York:

                Committee of Safety,
            Philadelphia, January 14, 1776}

Gentleman:  From every appearance of the enemy’s motions we have reasons to apprehend an attack 
upon this city, which has determined the board to form a magazine of stores at Germantown, the 
present place of residence of Lieut. Boger, S. Ball, two navy officers, who have been made 
prisoners; from that circumstance it is thought not advisable to remove them.  Your town is 
fixed upon as the most suitable place, as it is likely to be remote from the scene of action, 
and of course not a ready channel either to convey or receive intelligence that may be 
injurious to us, but more especially on account of the virtuous and determined attachment of 
your good people to the cause of American liberty.  They will be escorted by an officer of Col. 
Atlee’s battalion, who will hand you this communication.  They are to remain on the same 
footing and to have the same allowance as the other British officers at York, who are upon 
parole.

When Gen. Burgoyne surrendered to Gen. Gates at Saratoga in October, 1777, his soldiers were 
imprisoned at different places.  Many of them were sent to Lancaster, and in February, 1778, 
they were brought to York County.  At a session of the Executive Council at Lacaster, February 
12, 1778, W. A. Atlee, commissary of prisoners, informed the council “that there were a number 
of British prisoners now to be removed to York, and that Capt. Long, with a company of York 
County militia on their way home, their term of service having expired that day; but they would 
conduct the prisoners to York if they were allowed rations and pay for the time.”  A number of 
“convention prisoners” were sent south from York and Lancaster in 1778.  December 6, 1778, the 
Executive Council directed the Board of War to have William Scott, lieutenant of York County, 
call out one class of the militia to meet British prisoners at Wright’s Ferry, on Susquehanna.  
A letter written by Edward Shippen to Col. Burd, dated Lancaster, January 2, 1779, says:  “All 
the prisoners of Gen. Burgoyne’s army are gone over the Susquehanna.  Happy for this borough, 
they were not detained by the weather here all winter.”  Some of them were imprisoned here and 
some were sent to Hagerstown, Md., and to Virginia. 

The Continental Congress passed a resolution March 3, 1781, directing that all “convention 
prisoners” (Burgoyne’s soldiers) should be removed back from Virginia and Maryland to 
Pennsylvania – the British to York and the Hessians to Lancaster.  Some citizens of York County 
had petitioned the council that no more Hessians be sent here.  There were some Hessians sent 
after their petition, however.  The York County militia guarded the prisoners most of the time.  
In January 2, 1782, the Supreme Executive Council ordered Gen. Lincoln, minister of war, to 
sent Gen. Hazen’s regiment, the “Congress’ Own,” to guard the prisoners in York, Lancaster and 
Berks counties.  The county militia, who had been guarding them, were then discharged, but in 
the fall of 1782 Hazen’s regiment was sent to Fort Pitt.  In 1781 a malignant fever broke out 
among the convention and Hessian prisoners at York and in Lancaster.  It was called “jail 
fever” or “camp fever.”  At the Windsor prison number of them, mostly Hessians, died.  (See 
page 156.)