COBBLER’S WIFE FACED INVADERS WITH PITCHFORK
JEMIMA NICHOLAS may well be one of Wales’ most fearsome unsung heroes. It is 220 years since the 47-year-old cobbler’s wife, armed with a pitchfork, faced down the last foreign invaders to land on the shores of mainland Britain.
In 1797, during the War of the First Coalition, a French army landed on the Pembrokeshire coast.
Known as La Legion Noire – The Black Legion – these would-be conquerors were not led by a Frenchman but an Irish-American named William Tate.
Of the 1,400 troops just 600 were French regular soldiers that Napoleon had not needed in his wars. The other 800 were irregulars including deserters, convicts and Royalist prisoners.
The aim of the invasion was not actually to conquer Britain – it was instead supposed to be a distraction for an invasion of Britishoccupied Ireland.
The force was to be one of two – the other to be in Newcastle – that distracted the British forces while a 15,000-strong force took Ireland.
Tate’s army planned to attack Bristol. Unfortunately for the French, bad weather meant the other two sets of soldiers didn’t reach their destination.
Tate’s soldiers landed at night in the secluded bay of Carregwastad, three miles west of Fishguard, on February 22.
It didn’t start well. A rowing boat was lost in the waves, losing pieces of artillery in the process, but despite this they still came ashore with 47 barrels of gunpowder.
Once they were on dry land the French irregulars, many of whom had previously been locked in jail, deserted and began looking for alcohol.
Many ran off and started nearby Welsh settlements.
The British response came from the Fishguard & Newport Volunteer Infantry. At nearly 300 men it was the largest in Pembrokeshire.
Their commander was 28-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knox, a man who had bought his commission and had no combat experience.
By the morning of February 23 the French had moved two miles inland, feeling pretty comfortable on the high rocky outcrops of Garnwnda and Carngelli.
When approaching, Knox realised he was facing a force of nearly 10 times the size of his own – though many local people were rushing into Fishguard with makeshift weapons to fight the French.
Knox then met the reinforcements, led by Lord Cawdor, at 1.30pm at Treffgarne, eight miles south of Fishguard. They had a brief argument over who was in charge before looting the Cawdor took over. The army then marched on Fishguard. Unfortunately for French commander Tate many of his troops had discovered a supply of wine and were getting drunk. Some mutinied and many simply vanished.
The rest lay drunk and sick in farmhouses all over the Llanwnda Peninsula.
Cawdor got to Fishguard at 5pm with 600 men dragging three cannons. He set up his headquarters in a pub called the Royal Oak in Fishguard Square and started planning.
At 8am the following morning, February 24, the British forces lined up on Goodwick Sands and people from the town came to watch.
Cawdor had given Tate an ultimatum to surrender and he accepted unconditionally after a brief delay.
The Battle of Fishguard, as it has gone down in history, resulted in a total of 33 people killed or wounded in the skirmishes with 1,360 French captured.
Known by many as “the last invasion of Britain” the real hero was arguably Mrs Nicholas. This cobbler’s wife became a legend when she rounded up 12 French soldiers using a pitchfork and locked them in a church.
Having died at the age of 82, there is a plaque in her honour in Fishguard today.
It reads: “The Welsh Heroine who boldly marched to meet the French invaders who landed on our shores in 1797.”