Description:Monsieur Magnier was taken prisoner in Flushing, Holland on 15 August 1809. He came to Leek on parole on 17 September of that year and was initially imprisoned in a house in Kiln Lane. He was an educated man and signed his name in the church marriage register when he got married in September 1811: most people were illiterate at this time. He also understood both spoken and written English. His bride was Ann Thompson, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Thompson, who ran the House of Industry in Leek (the forerunner of the workhouse). All the French prisoners used to spend some of their time working at this institution in Brook Street. By trade Sergeant Magnier was a skilled draughtsman and modelled a series of replica ships, while living in Leek. He went into business as a grocer, baker and confectioner in Fountain Street, and his shop prospered for nearly one hundred years. In his lifetime the family also started farming and became corn merchants with land between Kiln Lane and the present day Hillswood Avenue.
Pierre (or Peter as he was then known) and Ann had a daughter Jane on 6 August 1813, who went on to marry John Turner, a baker from Longton. They also had a son, Peter, born on 3 August 1821, He set up his own business as a baker and later married Elizabeth Turner of Endon. In later years Peter was one of the directors of the Leek and Moorlands Building Society and the Leek United and Midlands Building Society. Ann Magnier lived to the age of 82 (died 19 January 1870). Pierre Louis Magnier died on 27 August 1874 aged 92, the last of the Napoleonic prisoners brought to the town. Both husband and wife are buried in Leek cemetery.