R&I – TxPat
Welsh Heroine Jemima Fawr (1750-1832) Took on an American lead French Invasion!
Mention the last invasion of Britain, one automatically thinks of 1066 and the Norman Conquest of Engla Londe/England. Yet, not many have heard of the battle of Abergwaun (Fishguard) in 1797 when a French force led by an Irish/American colonel Tate, whose remit was to sack Bristol and move up and take Liverpool. However, things did not go to plan! The weather has lost many invaders their prize such as Julius Caesar 1,850 years before colonel Tate’s foray when severe weather turned Caesars flat bottomed fleet to tinder wood. Forty of Caesar’s ships were lost to a storm!
We tend to forget the names of heroes and solely remember the big battles or invasions of the past. Just like yesterday, some young history geek on his mobile was betting his life that the Norman conquest of 1066 was the last invasion of Britain. I was about to say “give him your money lads, he wins,” when suddenly I remembered: “Jemima Fawr” (Jemima the Great) aka “Jemima Nicholas,” the then 47-year-old the wife of an Abergwaun (Fishguard) cobbler.
A true heroine, a woman without fear in a man’s world. In 1797, Napoleon Bonaparte was busy fighting in central Europe, when the French revolutionary government hatched a cunning plan to send an invasion fleet against Britain of that year. The fleet commander Chef de brigade (Colonel) William Tate, with reputable sources stating that he was aged 70 in 1797. He was from Irish-American stock! Who was tasked to land near Bristol with 1,400 troops and destroyed the city before, crossing over to Wales and moving on to Chester and then Liverpool? They landed Carreg Wastad Point 1.5 miles as the crow flies from Fishguard on the southwest coast of Wales on February 22nd 1797. There to meet the invading French was “Jemima Nicholas” and probably hundreds of women in their national dress.
After a looting spree, many of the invaders were too drunk to fight. Within two days, the invasion or the “battle of Fishguard” had collapsed: Tate’s force surrendered to a local militia force led by Lord Cawdor on February 25th, 1797.
What is strange is that the surrender agreement drawn up by Tate’s officers referred to the British coming at them “with troops of the line to the number of several thousand.” No such troops were anywhere near Fishguard. However, hundreds, perhaps thousands of local Welsh women dressed in their traditional scarlet tunics and tall black felt hats had come to witness any fighting between the French and the local men of the militia. During their two days on British soil, the French soldiers must have shaken in their boots at the mention of the name of “Jemima Fawr” (Jemima the Great). When Jemima heard of the invasion, she marched out to Llanwnda, pitchfork in hand, and rounded up twelve Frenchmen. She ‘persuaded’ them to accompany her back into town, where she locked them inside St Mary’s Church and promptly left to look for some more! Jemima’s heroism of capturing single-handedly 12 French soldiers, is not well known outside of Wales. Sadly Jemima died in 1832 at the age of 82.
What do you think, shouldn’t Jemima and all the Welsh women in their national dress have received more acknowledgement for their heroism? Without them, who knows, perhaps the French would have accomplished their dastardly invasion of Britain, 731 years after the Norman conquest? Today I might have been bilingual in French and Cymraeg (Welsh), and not forced to speak English as my parents did, and their parents before them. However, that is another story from the annals of Wales.
The Battle of Fishguard is also remembered as the last invasion of the British mainland by foreign forces. Those that say Britain burning of the White House and Capitol in 1814 was not Justified, well, look again at history. Colonel Wm. Tate and the American’s French allies might have given the impetus for the war of 1812. The British used an Irishman (tit for tat) to do their arsonist work, General Robert Ross. One thing the French and their American alley know that you don’t mess with our Welsh gals!
What do you say?
Cofion
Jero Jones
Article URL : https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/category/off-topic/