just as the defeat of the men of Menheniot seemed certain, a
diversion was created by the arrival of the local constables. Now
that their own villagers were on the verge of disaster, there was no
longer any reason why they should remain in the background. They
made a determined effort to arrest the leader of the Liskeard
contingent, and were promptly knocked down by him.

At that moment Mr Edmund Hambley, a much-respected maltster and the
headborough of Liskeard, was attracted to the spot. Seeing in the
person of the outrageous leader of the battle one of his own
apprentices, he stepped forward and threatened him with arrest.
Goaded to desperation by the scornful attitude of the young man, the
master-maltster laid hands upon him, and instantly shared the fate of
the constables. With great courage and determination the headborough
rose to his feet and again attempted to enforce his authority, but
with no better result. When he picked himself up for a second time,
it was to pass from the scene of his humiliation and, incidentally,
out of the life of the young man who had defied his authority.

The young apprentice was Thomas Borrow (born December 1758), eighth
and posthumous child of John Borrow and of Mary his wife, of
Trethinnick (the House on the Hill), in the neighbouring parish of St
Cleer, two and a half miles north of Liskeard. At the age of
fifteen, Thomas had begun to work upon his father's farm. At
nineteen he was apprenticed to Edmund Hambley, maltster, of Liskeard,
who five years later, in his official capacity as Constable of the
Hundred of Liskeard, was to be publicly defied and twice knocked down
by his insubordinate apprentice.

A trifling affair in itself, this village fracas was to have a