RECENTLY, we looked at the story of a fatal Rebecca Riots attack on Hendy Bridge in Pontarddulais in 1843.

This week, we will take a look at the court case of three men and a boy who were accused of taking part in the September 15, 1843, Rebecca Riots at Pontarddulais Gate.

The Rebecca Riots took place throughout South Wales between 1839 and 1844 where men were seen dressed in women’s clothes and with blacked faces and would attack the various toll gates across the region in protest of the tolls in place to use the roads. Most of the protesters were farmers.

On Saturday, September 16, 1843, the Silurian ran an article about the court case which was heard in Llanelli of four people who were said to have been involved in the Rebecca Riots which provides an insight into the event.

The article states that magistrates R. J. Nevill, J. H. Rees and Wm. Chambers Esq met at Union House in Llanelli on the Thursday prior where they were to hear the case of the four prisoners – 15-year-old William Hugh, Thomas Williams, Henry Rogers and Lewis Davies.

All were told in Welsh the reason why they were there.

In what may today be seen as an unusual twist, magistrate Wm. Chambers was sworn in to give his own evidence.

Mr Chambers had been involved in the riots himself after he received information about a possible attack and attended with a number of military personnel.

He told the court: “I received information that there was to be an attack made last night on the Pontarddulais and Hendy Bridge gates, and in consequence of such information, I applied to Capt. Scott of the 76th Regiment of Foot, stationed here, to furnish me with a sufficient number of soldiers to protect the Hendy Gate; he did so.”

He explained that around 12.30 that night they saw a rocket fired when they were at the wooden bridge over the Gwilly on the railway.

He told the court that prior to this, the 20-30 soldiers had been hidden.

When they were on the bridge, they heard the sounding of horns, which came in the form of one note and was repeated several times.

He said that within seconds of the last horn being heard, they heard reports of fire arms in the direction of the Pontarddulais gate.

Mr Chambers was ahead of the hidden soldiers and returned to them following the reports of gunfire and moved the soldiers into the nearby field.

The captain ordered his men to load and they fixed bayonets and got into formations, splitting into two groups – one led by Capt. Scott and Mr Chambers and the other by Mr Payne.

Both groups proceeded under the cover of the hedges with the aim of cutting off the retreat of the attackers leaving Hendy Bridge.

“The firing which we heard continued for about seven to ten minutes, pretty rapidly for during that time I should say that there were from seventy to eighty shots fired,” Mr Chambers told the court.

“Not being aware that any of the police were near the Pontarddulais gate, I thought the firing to be a sort of feu-de-joie, which such persons do according to their usual practice when they have destroyed a gate; after they destroyed the Pontarddulais gate, I fully expected an attack would be made on the Hendy Bridge gate, my information leading me to suppose that they were both to be attacked.”

It is after this that he first came into contact with one of the defendants. He described how he saw a man ‘coming down the railway’ who was walking very fast but not running.

He and Capt. Scott caught hold of the man – Lewis Davies, who was a farmer at Seybor Ucha, near Pontarddulais – by the collar.

“He was dressed in his usual dress, but he had the upper part of his face blacked, and the lower part done with red ochre; he had a straw hat on,” he said. Mr Chambers told how Davies put his head down and put something inside his coat, which was found to be a women’s cap when Mr Chambers pulled it out.

He left Davies in the care of Sergeant Gibb and ran towards the turnpike road between Pontarddulais and Llanelli and set the soldiers up in position under the hedge separating the road and the field.

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He told the court that after doing this, he heard men coming along the road and so he moved past the soldiers to look over the hedge and see who it was. He saw three or four of them but they caught sight of part of his hat peering over the hedge due to the bright moonlight and whispered to each other and began to turn back.

It was here that the 15-year-old Hugh was caught as he tried to go over the fence into the field where the soldiers were. He was wearing womens clothes and tried to turn back after seeing the soldiers and ran towards Hendy Gate bridge. Some of the soldiers followed the boy and caught him.

Two of the others in the group of rioters went towards Pontarddulais and another went over the hedge into a farm. Mr Chambers was chasing these but turned back when he heard Hugh shrieking. He approached him and told him he would not be hurt and to not shriek.

Hugh – a farmhand - then told him his name and that his father had gone over the hedge with a servant boy. Hugh also had his face blacked. He had also told Mr Chambers that he threw his horn into the hedge and it was later found. He asked the boy to blow it, which he did.

The Cavalry arrived from the direction of Swansea and Mr Chambers said he told Capt. Scott he was going to make an advance to Pontarddulais, leaving Hugh as a prisoner with Sergeant Gibb.

On arriving at Pontarddulais, he said: “I saw the dragoons gallop up just as we turned the corner.” He explained how the dragoons initially thought they were rioters.

Following this, they went to Pontarddulais gate where they saw the destruction. He described the scene as “the gate was entirely destroyed, the toll-board destroyed, shot marks on the top of the windows, and the inside gutted.”

Three men were lying handcuffed on the floor. He was then asked to go search some homes nearby as a number of people had escaped but were wounded. He said he was not able to find any.

Sergeant Gibb told the court how, while he had one of the prisoners with him, he heard shrieking and came across Rogers and Williams walking quickly up the railroad and he immediately took them into custody.

The pair initially told Sergeant Gibb that they had done nothing wrong and had only gone to look at the scene.

In a statement, Davies said how he was coerced to go after threats from 10 or 12 men who called for him with guns.

Farm servant Rogers said he went to see the mob and fellow farm servant Williams said he accompanied him. Hugh told them that he was in bed and was coerced to go after a crowd of people came to his house. He said he put on his clothes and they dressed him in women’s clothes and gave him the horn.

He said that when the first opportunity arose, he turned back and that is when he was apprehended.

Next week, we will continue with the trial.