CARMARTHENSHIRE-L Archives

From: "Richard James" <>
Subject: Snippets
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 10:06:20 +0100

The Sacking of Carmarthen Workhouse
Monday proved to be a glorious June day. In the early hours small groups
were to be seen coming from the hill farms and the villages and merging on
Newchurch, at a spot where the roads from Tre-lech, Talog, Blaen-y-coed and
Conwil joined. Soon the narrow lanes were thick with people. The magistrates
were now aware of what was going on, and J. Lloyd Davies, to give him his
due, had the courage td ride out to Newchurch accompanied by Captain Evans
of Pantycendy, the blustering opponent of the tithe and the poor law, but
they failed to dissuade the crowd from proceeding. They had to listen to a
list of grievances regarding the tolls, the tithe, the poor law and church
rates, which the Rebeccaites were determined to lay before the magistrates.
The two men did succeed in persuading them to leave their firearms behind,
and these were stacked up in a house in Newchurch. Then, having formed up in
some sort of order, the vast concourse moved on, and entered Carmarthen
appropriately by the Water Street gate. First came the band; then the men on
foot, one of them bearing a placard with the words: 'Cyfiawnder a charwyr
cyfiawnder ydym ni oill' (Justice, and lovers of justice are we all); then
the horsemen. As is usually the case, it is difficult to determine the
numbers present, but a conservative estimate would place them at three
hundred on horseback and two thousand on foot. Among the former, John
Harries was conspicuous. Contrary to popular tradition, only one rider was
disguised; possibly he symbolised Rebecca. He wore a woman's clothes and had
long ringlets of horsehair. The future historian, Alcwyn Evans, was present,
as a boy of fiff een, watching the procession. As the fantastic horseman
passed he winked at the boy, who recognised him as Mike Bowen of Tre-lech.
The behaviour of the crowd was quite orderly, and the route taken entirely
discounts the theory that an attack on the workhouse was intended. For the
procession turned westwards towards Picton's Monument, where it was joined
by a contingent from St. Clears, then went down to the Quay, came back up
Castle Hill, went along Spilman Street and around St. Peter's Church, on to
the Cross (Nott's Square), and into the Guildhall Square. It had thus
perambulated the whole town before reaching the Guildhall, where the
resolutions were to be presented to the magistrates.
But here things got out of hand. The procession had been joined by unruly
elements from the town who poured out of the congested back alleys and the
slum houses along the quay. Many of them were fishermen who, on occasion,
had had a taste of workhouse fare. These linked arms at the head of the
procession and led it on to the workhouse. There they called on the
frightened master tQ surrender his keys in order to let all the paupers out,
and he complied. The mob then rushed into the courtyard and broke into the
house. Frances Evans, a farm servant from the parish of Newchurch, who had
recently given birth to her illegitimate child in the workhouse, led them
in. She did a wild dance on a table in the hall as she urged the men
upstairs. The noise was deafening as they shouted and smashed the furniture
and threw the bedding out of the windows, while the children screamed in
terror in the schoolroom. Suddenly there came a cry: 'the soldiers are
here'. For the dragoons were on their way to Carmarthen under the command of
Major Pariby. They had been misdirected at Pontardulais (possibly
intentionally) and this had caused them some delay. But a despatch from
William Chambers, senior, informed them of what was taking place, and they
rode on furiously through the broiling sunshine. They galloped over the
bridge and up into the town, scattering the amazed bystanders. A local
magistrate had joined them. It was long remembered against him that he had
shouted to the dragoons to 'slash away' and that Major Parlby had told them
to take their orders only from him. Their arrival at the workhouse led to a
scene of indescribable confusion. The mounted rioters stampeded wildly up
Pen-lan Hill behind the workhouse. Others, including John Harries, were
trapped in the courtyard. Some scrambled over the walls, abandoning their
horses, which they were afterwards afraid to claim, and among these was Mike
Bowen, with his curls in his pocket. The board, with its noble device
'Cyfiawnder', lay symbolically trodden underfoot by the dragoons. Hundreds
of demonstrators scattered in all directions, over hedges and ditches,
through fields and woods. Fifty years later, the widow of Michael Bowen had
not forgotten her husband's ashen face when he returned home.
In the workhouse yard the horse of one of the dragoons fell dead from
exhaustion, and another died the following day, for they had covered the
last fourteen miles in an hour and ten minutes. While the soldiers rested,
the magistrates immediately began the examination of some sixty prisoners
taken in the workhouse. They committed a number to gaol while others were
bound over to appear if required. At the Summer Assizes a true bill was
found against twelve men, but their trial was deferred and they were
remanded on bail. Among them was John Harries, and it is noticeable that his
bail (200 with two sureties of 100) was twice that of the others. It was
not until the following Spring As sizes that they were brought up for trial
with the other Talog rioters, when Lloyd Hall and Hugh Williams appeared for
their defence. Harries was then sentenced to a year's hard labour, and five
other men to eight months' hard labour, but the remainder were discharged.
For by that time the authorities were taking a very lenient view of the
disturbances.
David Williams, The Rebecca Riots
'A Carmarthenshire Anthology' by Lynn Hughes
Carmarthenshire FHS 12 October 1999

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