John Nichols Thom
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John Nichols Thom (1799-1838) was a Cornish self-declared Messiah in the 19th century Cornwall.
John Nichols Thom was born a son of publican in 1799 in St Columb in Cornwall. When he was a child, his mother died in an insane asylum. He worked for five years with two wine merchants in Truro until the business collapsed. Thom proceeded to become a wine merchant himself. After four years, fire destroyed his store and he collected £1000 for insurance to begin anew. After two years he disappeared.
Thom came to public view in December 1832 when he tried to be nominated for parliament for Canterbury. He used a name Count Rothschild, lived in Rose Hotel and campaigned in a crimson velvet suit with gold lacings and carried a sword. When Thom received 374 votes, 1/5 of the vote, he began to call himself Sir William Percy Honeywood Courtenay of Powderham, the heir to the earl of Devon, the King of Jerusalem and Knight of Malta. He began to tour Kent and spoke against various tax laws.
In 1833 Thom begun to publish theological journal The Lion in which he stated that all the churches just wanted to hoard gold. In July 1833 he also claimed to have seen that a group of alcohol smugglers had not thrown their cargo overboard, which they certainly had done. July 24 he was sentenced to penal transportation for perjury but his friends in Cornwall petitioned to the Home Secretary, who had him declared insane. Thom was locked into the Barming Heath asylum in Kent. His father petitioned for his release.
When Thom was eventually released 1838, he again assumed the mantle of Sir William Courtenay, declared himself "savior of the world" and became a wandering preacher. He again used his colorful costume, including an embroidered Maltese Cross and his sword that he claimed was Excalibur. Later witnesses also stated that he had nail marks in his hands. He supported the cause of farm workers who resisted the effects of the 1834 Poor Law Act, who ordered all able-bodied men to workhouses if they could not find work.
Thom gathered a following of more than hundred people and convinced them that their faith would make them invulnerable to steel and bullets. He also claimed that he could slay 10.000 men by hitting his left hand with his right and if he would be shot, he would come back to life three days later.
When Thom and his followers paraded in a around the countryside near Boughton, farmer named Curling asked magistrates in Canterbury to arrest his truant workers who had left with Thom. Authorities sent three constables to arrest Thom in May 31 1838 in the farm of a farmer named Culver. Thom shot constable John Mears, mutilated the body with his blade and threw it into a ditch. He pacified his followers with a sacrament of eucharist, promised them the estates of the gentry and lead a group of 30-40 men to the Bossenden Wood.
Authorities have had enough. The same day they sent 100 soldiers of the 45th Foot regiment to village of Dunkirk to arrest Thom and his followers. Troops surrounded the woods and commanding officer Armstrong demanded their surrenders. Thom would have none of it and shot lieutenant Bennet who was leading his troops. Soldiers opened fire and killed Thom and nine of his followers. After a brief struggle, Thom's followers dispersed but the soldiers captured 25 of them. Local constable George Catt who had accompanied the troops also died in the clash.
Thom's body was taken to Hernhill. Before the inquest, Thom's remaining disciples tore his bloody shirt on his body and divided it for relics. Thom did not rise the third day. On June 5, When Thom and his dead followers were buried in an unmarked grave in Hernhill churchyard, watchmen guarded the grave for some time in case of fervent grave robbers.
Trial against 19 of the surviving followers began August 9 1838 in Maidstone and ended in August 17. Some of them were sentenced to death but all the sentences were commuted to penal transportation or hard labour.
