by Keith Lewis-Jones
Dic Penderyn
Plaque sited at Merthyr Library, CF47 1AF
Richard Lewis (1807/8-1831), better known as Dic Penderyn, was a native of Aberavon.
At the time of the 1831 Merthyr Rising he was a miner in Merthyr Tydfil. He was charged with feloniously wounding Donald Black of the 93rd (Highland) Regiment. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Despite a petition of 11,000 names for his reprieve, he was hanged at Cardiff on 13th August, 1831. His last words on the scaffold were reported to be ‘O Arglwydd, dyma gamwedd’ – ‘O Lord, what injustice’. He is buried in Aberavon.
Later in the century another man confessed to the crime for which Lewis had been hanged.
