Dic Penderyn

Biography of Dic Penderyn, an innocent man hanged as an example after the 1831 Merthyr Rising workers’ revolt, and held as a Welsh Martyr. After troops killed at least 20 people during protests at wage cuts in the Merthyr area, miner Richard Lewis – known as Dic Penderyn – was found guilty of wounding a soldier and hanged on 13 August 1831. Evidence suggesting his innocence, a petition from 11,000 Merthyr citizens and pleas from the Welsh establishment were all ignored. A key prosecution witness later admitted lying and in 1874 the crime was confessed to by a man who had fled Wales to go to the United States. This book examines Dic Penderyn’s life and background as far as we can now know it, the causes and events of the Merthyr Rising, Dic’s trial, his long-term legacy and his role as the first martyr of the labor movement in Britain.