 Richard
Lewis, better known as Dic Penderyn, was born in Aberavon, Glamorgan in
1808. He had some schooling, in chapel and elsewhere and learned to read
and write, butin 1819 the family moved to Merthyr Tydfil where he joined
his father at work as a miner. Dic was still only fifteen when he began
to earn a reputation as a fighter for workers' rights, and he lost his job
for this, but by May 1831 he was back in Merthyr working as a miner and
was now married, with a baby on the way. At that time Merthyr was in a state
of unrest. Living conditions were relatively good, but they could - and
did - change overnight, and there was no certainty of steady employment
or adequate wages. Equally, there was a great deal of interest in political
reform and in the various Reform Bills then being put to Parliament. Not
surprisingly, Dic Penderyn was involved in all this. He was an outstanding
figure, both physically and intellectually - tall, powerful, knowledgeable,
literate and an eloquent speaker. Whether he was actively involved in promoting
the new unions, or whether his concern for his fellow workers was shown
in other ways, we do not know, but he was clearly recognised as a leader,
chosen for instance, as one of a deputation sent to negotiate with the ironmasters.
On 30th May 1831, a public meeting on the subject of Parliamentary reform
was held at Twyn-y-Waun common. After a while the political agenda was forgotten
and the meeting began to discuss the grievances caused by the Court of Requests
- a court for the recovery of small debts. Later, while part of the crowd
marched to Aberdare to seek support from their fellow workers, the rest
- mostly women and young unemployed men and boys - paraded through Merthyr,
forcibly repossessing goods seized by the bailiffs and sold to cover their
owners' debts. There was no police force in 1831, and so soldiers were sent
for to control the rioters (the Aberdare marchers had gone back to work).
Finally, on the morning of Friday June 3rd, soldiers and the crowd confronted
each other outside the Castle Inn. The crowd attacked the soldiers, who
fired and killed at least sixteen people, and for the next few days Merthyr
was in a state of siege. Eventually the authorities gained control and began
to arrest the supposed ringleaders, including Dic Penderyn. He and another
man, Lewis Lewis, were tried in Cardiff a month later on a charge of stabbing
(not killing) a soldier named Donald Black. Black did not identify either
Penderyn or Lewis, but they were found guilty and sentenced to death. Various
efforts were made to save the condemned men. In Merthyr, a petition calling
for mercy collected more than 11,000 signatures and a Quaker ironmaster
from the Vale of Neath named Joseph Tregelles Price, became convinced of
Dic Penderyn's innocence and began a campaign to establish this and earn
a reprieve. Lewis Lewis, meanwhile, had his sentence commuted to transportation
for life. Ultimately, Tregelles Price even convinced the trial judge that
Penderyn should be reprieved, but the Home Secretary, Lord Melbourne refused
to listen. Dic Penderyn's execution was set for Saturday, August 13th and
the sentence duly carried out. He died proclaiming the injustice of his
death and forgiving those who had caused it. His body was later carried
back to Aberavon to be buried. Dic Penderyn was not the only man to die
in such a way in early nineteenth century Wales - or even in Merthyr - but
Tregelles Price's efforts and Lord Melbourne's refusal to listen to the
claims of either justice or mercy made this execution so blatantly a matter
of policy, that even the conservative Cambrian newspaper objected. As for
Dic Penderyn himself, he was twenty three years old when he died. He was
an ordinary working man, and yet, for generations afterwards, men and women
remembered where they or their parents had been when Penderyn's funeral
procession passed by. Clearly he was a remarkable man, and one has to wonder
what he might have achieved if he had lived. Even now he has much to teach
us about the unity in diversity of the Welsh tradition: a Welsh speaker,
but from the industrial multicultural South; a man of the people, yet eager
for knowledge and an understanding of the wider world. If Wales is looking
for new heroes, it could do worse than include Richard Lewis of Aberavon
among them. |