Battle of Bossenden Wood

The Battle of Bossenden Wood took place on 31 May 1838 near Hernhill in Kent; it has been called the last battle on English soil. The battle was fought between a small group of labourers from the Hernhill, Dunkirk, and Boughton area and a detachment of soldiers sent from Canterbury to arrest the marchers' leader, the self-styled Sir William Courtenay, who was actually John Nichols Tom, a Truro maltster who had spent four years in Kent County Lunatic Asylum. Eleven men died in the brief confrontation: Courtenay, eight of his followers and two of those sent to apprehend them.

Courtenay had appeared in Canterbury in 1832, standing unsuccessfully in the December 1832 general election and, although suspected of being an imposter, becoming a popular local figure. He had been convicted of perjury in 1833 after giving evidence in defence of some smugglers. Originally sentenced to transportation, he had been transferred to Barming Heath Asylum after a woman from Cornwall, Catherine Tom, identified him as her missing husband and said he had previously been treated for insanity. On his release from the asylum in October 1837, instead of returning to his family in Cornwall, he stayed in Kent and built up a following in the area of Boughton under Blean, Hernhill and the Ville of Dunkirk. The area had already experienced agrarian discontent and protest against the New Poor Law of 1834 and the farm labourers, and a few of the smallholders and trades people, were receptive to Courtenay’s millenarian preaching and promises of a better life.

On 29 May, Oak Apple Day, Courtenay and a band of followers began to march around the nearby countryside with a flag and a loaf of bread on a pole (a traditional symbol of protest). Courtenay rode a grey horse; his followers were on foot. Although at this stage the protesters were acting peacefully some wealthier landowners were becoming alarmed, and on 31 May 1838, a local magistrate, Dr Poore, issued a warrant for Tom's arrest. It is not clear exactly what the warrant was for – to arrest Courtenay or to arrest workers who were in breach of contract with their employers. A parish constable, together with his brother, Nicholas Mears, and an assistant, went to find Courtenay at Bossenden Farm, where he was staying with his followers. Courtenay shot and killed the constable.

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