Trial
Along with Lewis Lewis (or Lewsyn yr Heliwr), the main leader of the Merthyr rising, Dic Penderyn was arrested for stabbing Private Donald Black of the Highland Regiment, using a bayonet attached to a gun. This incident was alleged to have happened outside the Castle Inn. Private Black's injuries were not fatal, and he did not identify either Lewis Lewis or Richard Lewis; nevertheless, both were convicted and sentenced to death. There is no evidence that Dic played any substantial part in the rising at all unlike Lewis who was definitely involved. Both were held in Cardiff gaol.
Lewis Lewis had his sentence commuted to transportation, largely thanks to the testimony of a Special Constable, John Thomas, whom Lewis had shielded from the rioters. The people of Merthyr Tydfil were convinced that Dic Penderyn was not responsible for the stabbing, and 11,000 signed a petition demanding his release, even the conservative Cambrian newspaper objected. Joseph Tregelles Price, a Quaker ironmaster from Neath, who went to console the two condemned men, was immediately convinced of Penderyn's innocence and went to Merthyr to gather evidence for this. He persuaded the trial judge that the sentence was unsafe. The Home Secretary Lord Melbourne, well known for his severity, delayed the execution for two weeks, but refused to reduce the sentence despite pleas not only from workers but the Welsh establishment. It seems the execution occurred solely because Lord Melbourne wanted a scapegoat to blame for the Rising and to set a deterrent example to others.
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“A trial cannot be conducted by announcing the general culpability of a civilization. Only the actual deeds which, at least, stank in the nostrils of the entire world were brought to judgment.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
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