ent was very great, and a
messenger was despatched to fetch some soldiers from Canterbury. A
military party soon arrived, but their approach had been heralded to
Thom and his strolling vagrants, who had betaken themselves to the
recesses of Bossenden wood, where the _soi-disant_ Sir William, by his
wild gesticulations and harangues, roused his adherents to a pitch of
desperate fury. To show his own valour, as soon as the soldiers, who
were intended rather to overawe than injure the mob appeared, he
strode out from among his ignorant attendants, and deliberately shot
Lieutenant Bennett of the 45th regiment, who was in advance of his
party. The lieutenant fell dead on the spot. The soldiers, excited by
the murder of their leader, immediately returned the fire, and Thom
was one of the first killed. As he fell, he exclaimed, "I have Jesus
in my heart!" Ten of his adherents shared his fate, and many were
severely wounded. Some of the more prominent among his followers were
subsequently arrested, tried, and found guilty of participating in
Bennett's murder. Two of them were sentenced to transportation for
life; one had ten years' transportation, while six expiated their
offences by a year's imprisonment in the House of Correction.

JAMES ANNESLEY--CALLING HIMSELF EARL OF ANGLESEA.

Arthur Annesley, Viscount Valencia, who founded the families both of
Anglesea and Altham, was one of the staunchest adherents of Charles
II., and had a considerable hand in bringing about his restoration to
the throne. Immediately after that event his efforts were rewarded by
an English peerage--his title being Baron Annesley of Newport-Pagnel,
in the county of Buckingham and Earl of Angelsea. Besides this honour
he obtained the more substantial gift of large tracts of land in
Ireland. The first peer had five sons. James Annesley, the eldest son,
having married the daughter of the Earl of Rutland, and having been
constituted heir of all his father's English real property, and a
great part of his Irish estates, the old earl became desirous of
establishing a second noble family in the sister kingdom, and
succeeded in procuring the elevation of his second son Altham to the
Irish peerage as Baron Altham of Altham, with remainder, on failure of
male issue, to Richard his third son.

Altham, Lord Altham, died without issue, and the title and estates
accordingly devolved upon Richard, who, dying in 1701, left two sons,
named respectively Arthur