Catalogue description Folio(s) 58-60B. Examination of Charles Francis Guillemand, formerly of Brentford,...

Folio(s) 58-60B. Examination of Charles Francis Guillemand, formerly of Brentford, Middlesex, prisoner in the King's Bench prison, taken before Richard Ford [police magistrate].

Guillemand became acquainted with Henry Brochard about four years earlier at the house of Mrs Smith [Mary Smith] in Garden Row, Chelsea, opposite Chelsea College, Mr Smith being in America. He also met Mrs Brochard, a jewess born in Holland. He had frequently discussed politics with Brochard who had been 'violent in his censure of the French Court' but had not commented on the politics of this country.

After his confinement for debt on 17 May 1798, Guillemand had not seen Brochard again until last August, about ten days after the fire in the prison. Brochard then told him that, although he had once admired British laws, they had become oppressive. He added that the French had many friends here and that he should not hesitate, if the French came over, as to which side he would take. He had been to Margate [Kent] and Brighton [Sussex] to see French residents but did not elaborate on the object of these discussions.

Brochard had complimented Guillemand on his fluency in French and his knowledge of both countries, and had offered to introduce him to people whom he could serve to his own advantage. Guillemand encouraged him to talk more to draw him out. On his departure Brochard had given him a paper which on inspection was a £10 banknote. Guillemand had put this in a letter to Mrs Smith asking her to return it to Brochard and warning her against introducing Brochard to anyone else as she was not aware of his principles.

Brochard had told Guillemand that he had worked in the house of Messrs Coomb and Company who had responsibility for paying some of the Emigrant Troops, that he had often been to the War Office where he had learnt a great deal, and that he had been introduced to the family of Colonel Charmilly. Guillemand had not seen Brochard since.

Guillemand had known Mrs Smith seven or eight years. She had two children, a girl about nine or ten and a boy of five. He had become acquainted with her in a lodging house in Huckle's Buildings, Lambeth [Surrey]. At her house in Chelsea he had met Justice Ried of Chelsea [George Reid] and a Mrs Reynolds of Brompton. He had never heard of any child of Smith's from a former marriage.

Mrs Smith had visited Guillemand's wife and family in prison but had never mentioned Brochard's conduct to her. Guillemand had refused to elaborate on the return of Brochard's £10 note.

Guillemand was in France about four or five years before the revolution. Subsequently he had given information to [Earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty,] about Mrs Graham, on the point of receiving a pension as widow of an admiral, after her second marriage to a Mr St George.