[Mill Prison, Plymouth, 1778]
20th. of May Thursday this Day David Welch Capt. Hy Johnson’s 2d. Lieut. made his Escape.—1
D, MeHi, Jonathan Haskins Journal.
1. Henry Johnson was captain of Continental Navy brigantine Lexington. Charles Herbert writes that the escapee was assisted by one of the sentries and that his fellow prisoners, in order to cover his escape, arranged that a “small boy” should go into the prison building first and then “slip out of a window and be counted in twice” so David Welsh’s absence was not discovered. Herbert, Relic of the Revolution, p. 123.