Qualla: Battle of Bossenden Wood https://qualla.com/battle-of-bossenden-wood en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 27 Jul 2026 10:40:43 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/e/battle-of-bossenden-wood-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Bossenden Wood https://qualla.com/battle-of-bossenden-wood Battle of Bossenden Wood: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-bossenden-wood/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Eleven men died in a Kent wood on 31 May 1838 in what historians have called the last battle on English soil. Eight of them were farm labourers - men named Stephen Baker, William Foster, William Rye, Edward Wraight, Phineas Harvey, William Burford, George Griggs, George Branchett, the youngest 22 and the oldest 62 - who had marched with sticks behind a charismatic stranger they believed was their saviour. The stranger was John Nichols Thom, a Truro maltster who had spent four years in the Kent County Lunatic Asylum. Lieutenant Henry Bennett of the 45th Foot was shot dead by Thom moments before Thom himself was killed. A young man from Faversham named George Catt, helping the magistrates, was caught in the crossfire. The verdict at the inquest was justifiable homicide. The men were buried in Hernhill churchyard.

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/e/battle-of-bossenden-wood-wp/u10e-battle-of-bossenden-wood-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Bossenden Wood: Hunger in a Year of Reform https://qualla.com/battle-of-bossenden-wood/ Photo credit Public domain. To understand why a group of rural workers in their twenties and thirties would follow a stranger into a fight against trained infantry, you have to understand the New Poor Law of 1834. It abolished the older parish-based system of relief and replaced it with workhouses - deliber...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/e/battle-of-bossenden-wood-wp/u10e-battle-of-bossenden-wood-hunger-in-a-year-of-reform.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Bossenden Wood: A Man Who Said He Was Coming Back https://qualla.com/battle-of-bossenden-wood/ Photo credit Public domain. John Nichols Thom, a maltster from Truro, had drifted into Canterbury in 1832, contested the December general election unsuccessfully, and become a popular local figure despite suspicions that he was an impostor. In 1833 he was convicted of perjury after testifying for some smugg...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/e/battle-of-bossenden-wood-wp/u10e-battle-of-bossenden-wood-a-man-who-said-he-was-coming-back.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Bossenden Wood: Oak Apple Day https://qualla.com/battle-of-bossenden-wood/ Photo credit Public domain. On 29 May 1838, Oak Apple Day - the traditional anniversary of Charles II's restoration - Courtenay and a band of followers began to march around the countryside. The symbolism was layered: a loaf of bread on a pole, the old protest emblem of the hungry; a flag; a march that was ...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/e/battle-of-bossenden-wood-wp/u10e-battle-of-bossenden-wood-oak-apple-day.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Bossenden Wood: Pincer in the Wood https://qualla.com/battle-of-bossenden-wood/ Photo credit Public domain. Word reached the magistrates. A detachment of the 45th Foot was dispatched from the Canterbury barracks - about a hundred regular soldiers under Major Armstrong, with three junior officers. The regiment had recently come back from India; the following year these same soldiers wou...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/e/battle-of-bossenden-wood-wp/u10e-battle-of-bossenden-wood-pincer-in-the-wood.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Bossenden Wood: Justifiable Homicide https://qualla.com/battle-of-bossenden-wood/ Photo credit Public domain. Lieutenant Bennett was buried on 2 June in Canterbury Cathedral precincts with full military honours. On the same day the inquest at the White Horse, Boughton, returned a verdict of justifiable homicide on Courtenay and his followers. Stephen Baker (22), William Foster (33), Will...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/0/e/battle-of-bossenden-wood-wp/u10e-battle-of-bossenden-wood-justifiable-homicide.mp3 0:06 6 full