A memorial: Erected to Dic Penderyn

NEARLY two centuries after he went to the gallows protesting his innocence, a campaign seeking a posthumous pardon for one of south Wales’ best-known martyrs is under way.

Richard Lewis, more commonly known as Dic Penderyn, was a miner working in Merthyr Tydfil at the time of the Merthyr Uprising of 1831. Along with another man, Lewis Lewis, he was convicted of wounding a Scottish Dragoon who was part of the force brought in to quell the disturbance. At least sixteen of the protesters were killed, and it is considered that this figure represented a deliberate underestimation.

Although the soldier was unable to identify either of his ‘assailants,’ the pair were convicted. Lewis Lewis had his sentence commuted to Transportation after the testimony of a special constable, who Lewis shielded from rioters, was heard.

The case caused outrage across south Wales and further afield. A petition demanding a pardon for Richard Lewis received 11,000 signatures, and it was widely believed that he had been targeted for his involvement with workers’ rights groups. A Quaker ironmaster who initially went to comfort Lewis during his incarceration, became so convinced of his innocence that he convinced the trial judge that the conviction was unsafe.

However, the Home Secretary at the time, Viscount Melbourne, who had described south Wales in Parliament as ‘the worst and most formidable district in the kingdom’, granted a two-week stay of execution but refused to review the sentence. It has been subsequently claimed that his refusal to review Lewis’ sentence was motivated more by the desire to make an example of someone than through any legal motivation.

Richard Lewis was hanged at the old Cardiff Jail on August 13 1831. He was just 23 years-old. His last words were “O Arglwydd, dyma gamwedd” (“Oh Lord, here is iniquity”). He was buried in Aberavon.

The Merthyr Uprising is considered to be one of the touchstones of industrial action in south Wales, and Richard Lewis has long been considered a martyr by workers and Unions alike. One of the solicitors campaigning for his pardon, Bernard de Maid, has said that ‘the irony of this is if he had not gone to the gallows, Wales would have had one hero less’.

Richard Lewis has been the subject of many songs, poems, and works of fiction. Gwyn Thomas’ All Things Betray Thee was a thinly fictionalised treatment of the Merthyr Uprising, and when researching his novel The Fire People, Alexander Cordell claimed to have found new evidence that proved Lewis’ innocence.

In 2000, Mr de Maid began proceedings to challenge the original decision, pointing out that the testimony of 12 witnesses who stated that Lewis was innocent was not heard at the original trial.

Jane Hall, a descendant of Lewis, who lives in St Dogmaels, has been involved in the campaign, which was started by her late mother, since 2000, along with her four sisters. At present, the National Assembly is joining in calls to the Secretary of State for Justice Michael Gove to ‘grant Richard Lewis a pardon at the earliest possible opportunity’.

The petition has received cross-party support, and has been signed by Labour AM Joyce Watson, and Preseli Pembrokeshire’s Paul Davies, among others. Eighteen AMs have already signed.

Speaking to the Herald, Mrs Hall said that the original conviction had been a ‘major injustice’. “I know there have been many injustices in the world since, but in this case 16 people were killed by soldiers that night and that wasn’t enough. They had to make an example. The family has always considered that a great wrong was done to an innocent man. It would be rather nice if history could be righted.”

When we asked Mrs Hall how the appeal was progressing, she told us that it was ‘a wait and see game’.

“It’s in the lap of Michael Gove now,” she added.