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Archaeologia Cantiana - Vol. 58 1945 page 79
"Mad Thom's" Pardon Continued
madness, a swindler and imposter. He wore a beard and side-whiskers, with long mustaches, and dressed in a crimson velvet costume said to have cost £200, with gold tassels, epauletts, and a sword. A trial for perjury resulted in his being detained for several years in Barming Asylum, from which he was released by the above-mentioned pardon, although sentenced to transportation for seven years. Had this pardon not been granted, the tragedy of 1838 would have been averted.
After asserting to some dissatisfied peasants near Canterbury that he was their Saviour (indicating the marks of the nails made on his hands when he was put upon the Cross) he prepared a demonstration, possessed himself of pistols, a cavalry sword, and a white and blue standard with a rampant lion thereon, and then anointed some of his followers to make them invulnerable. He then headed a procession which wandered aimlessly for some days around Goodnestone, Newnham, Throwley, Selling andSittingbourne, but after a time a Hernhill farmer applied to the Authorities to arrest the men who had left his employment to follow Courtenay. A constable with a warrant for his arrest was shot and thrown into a ditch by Courtenay. After this murder, Courtenay administered a sacrament in bread and water to his followers. The ignorant peasants reacted emotionally to all his extraordinary statements, including his promises of 40 or 50 acres of land to each, taken from the estates of the gentry. They were parading one day with firearms and clubs, when 100 men of the 45th Foot appeared from Canterbury, and eight persons, including Courtenay, were killed in a fight which followed, the bodies afterwards being taken to the Red Lion Inn on Dunkirk Hill. Courtenay was buried at Hernhill, and his grave was watched to prevent exhumation by his followers, and for this reason no mound has ever marked its position.
JOHN W. BRIDGE.
Some Structural or Ornamental Architectural Discoveries at Dover
THE four photographs reproduced record details of some interest which have been exposed through enemy action. Thanks are due to the kindness of the Borough Surveyer, P. V. Marchant, Esq.
Pl. I. 1. Section of early brick walling (15th-16th c.) in a passage by 35 Clarence Street. Similar bricks are used in the walls of No. 35. Size 7" x 3 1/2 x 1 3/4". These walls have since been destroyed.Pl. I. 2. Sixteenth century fireplace on the first floor of Guildhall Vaults, Bench Street.
Pl. II. Panel of puce Delf tiles (scriptural subjects) found behind a cupboard at Milestone Cafe, Snargate Street.
Pl. III. Stoop in wall lined with Delf tiles exposed at Milestone Cafe, Snargate Street.
W. P. D. S.
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