John Nichols Thom

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'''John Nichols Tom''' (sometimes spelt '''Thom'''; 1799 – 31 May 1838) was a [[Cornwall|Cornish]] merchant and [[maltster]] who re-invented himself as Sir William Courtenay, stood for parliament in [[Canterbury]], was convicted of perjury in a smuggling case, spent three years in the Kent County Lunatic Asylum, and, following his release, gathered a small band of followers and paraded in the Kent countryside. He, along with several of his followers, was killed in [[Battle of Bossenden Wood|a confrontation]] with government soldiers in Bossenden Wood, in what has sometimes been called the last battle to be fought on English soil. '''John Nichols Tom''' (sometimes spelt '''Thom'''; 1799 – 31 May 1838) was a [[Cornwall|Cornish]] merchant and [[maltster]] who re-invented himself as Sir William Courtenay, stood for parliament in [[Canterbury]], was convicted of perjury in a smuggling case, spent three years in the Kent County Lunatic Asylum, and, following his release, gathered a small band of followers and paraded in the Kent countryside. He, along with several of his followers, was killed in a confrontation with government soldiers in [[Battle of Bossenden Wood|Bossenden Wood]], in what has sometimes been called the last battle to be fought on English soil.

==Early life== ==Early life==