The Battle of Bossenden Wood, also known as the Battle of Bosenden Wood, took place on 31 May 1838 near Hernhill

Hernhill

Hernhill is a village and civil parish between Faversham and Canterbury in southeast England. The parish includes the hamlets of Crockham, Dargate, The Fostall, Lamberhurst, Oakwell, Staple Street, Thread, Waterham and Wey Street.-Churches:...

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

; it has been called the last battle on English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 soil.

The battle was between a small army of labourers from the Hernhill, Dunkirk

Dunkirk, Kent

Dunkirk is a village and civil parish between Faversham and Canterbury in southeast England.-Toponymy:The origin of the village's name is still not very clear, but it is understood to come from a house called "Dunkirk", lived in by a Fleming from Dunkerque on the border between France and...

, and Boughton

Boughton under Blean

For other "Boughtons" in Kent see Boughton Aluph; Boughton Malherbe; and Boughton MonchelseaBoughton under Blean is a village and civil parish between Faversham and Canterbury in southeast England...

 area and a detachment of soldiers sent from Canterbury

Canterbury

Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

 to arrest the marchers' leader, the self-styled Sir William Courtenay, who was actually John Nichols Thom

John Nichols Thom

John Nichols Thom, or Mad Tom, was a Cornishman, a self-declared messiah who, in the 19th century led the last battle to be fought on English soil.-Early life:...

, a Truro maltster with a history of mental illness

Mental illness

A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...

. Eleven men died in this battle, nine rioters and two of those sent to apprehend them.

Background

In early 1838, Courtenay began to preach to the labourers of the nearby area, claiming that he was the Messiah

Messiah

A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...

 and, if they would join him, he would lead them to a land of paradise. The local peasantry responded well to these claims; as one farm labourer later explained:

...he giv' 'em all the sacrament

Sacrament

A sacrament is a sacred rite recognized as of particular importance and significance. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites.-General definitions and terms:...

, and after that he anoints himself and all of 'em with oil, and tells 'em that then no bullet nor nothing could harm 'em; - and Sir William, he sat upon the ground with his back against a tree like, and there was all the women crying and praying to him, and they says to him, "Now do tell us if you be our blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ". And says he, "I am he"; – and then he shows 'em the mark of the nails in his hands which was made when he was put on the cross.

Such behaviour upset the local authorities; fearing reprisals, Courtenay organised his followers into an armed band on 29 May and began to travel through Kent, seeking to raise popular support for his attempted uprising. Although the local people responded favourably, Courtenay was unable to attract more than forty men, mostly armed with cudgels.

This attracted a response from the authorities, who decided that Courtenay must be apprehended. An attempt on 30 May failed when one of the party coming to arrest Courtenay was shot and stabbed to death. The magistrates of Kent responded by summoning military support.

Battle

The end of Courtenay's campaign came at Bossenden Wood, on the afternoon of 31 May. The 45th Foot surrounded Courtenay's position and the leader of the force, Lieutenant Henry Boswell Bennett

Henry Boswell Bennett

Lieutenant Henry Boswell Bennett of the 45th Regiment of Foot , on 31 May 1838 he became the first officer to die in the service of Queen Victoria when he was shot by John Nichols Thom in Kent....

approached Courtenay to ask him to surrender; Courtenay's response was to shoot him. This caused the soldiers to open fire on Courtenay's forces and, in a matter of minutes, the uprising had been crushed, with nine dead, including Courtenay and Bennett, and a number of serious injuries, which were to prove fatal for a further three combatants.

Rioters

The survivors of the riots (known as 'the Canterbury Rioters') were taken prisoner and committed for trial.

• Thomas Mears alias Tyler (the cousin of the murdered constable),
• Alexander Foad
• William Nutting
• William Price.
• James Goodwin
• William Wills
• William Spratt
• John Spratt
• John Silk
• Edward Curling
• Samnuel Edwards
• Sarah Culver
• Thomas Myers alias Edward Wraight
• Charles Hills
• Thomas Ovenden
• William Coachworth (During the battle, Coachworth was hit in the neck by a ricocheting bullet, which ended up in his mouth. He and three others were charged with complicity in the murder of Lt. Bennett. Of the fifteen accused, Coachman was one of seven discharged.)
• Thomas Griggs
• William Foad
• Richard Foreman.

Further reading

• Barry Reay The Last Rising of the Agricultural Labourers: Rural Life and Protest in Nineteenth-century England (London: Breviary Stuff Publications, 2010) ISBN 978-0-9564827-2-3.

External links

• John-Thom.com - For Courtenay History, Detailed Information and Articles
• http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/daveforeman/foreman/index.html (Bossenden wood riot)