Editing Merthyr Rising (section)

==Outcome==
[[File:Dic Penderyn Plaque (8053781082).jpg|thumb|Plaque to {{lang|cy|Dic Penderyn|italic=no}}, executed after the Merthyr Rising, outside [[Cardiff Market]]]]
By 7 June the authorities had regained control of the town through force, with up to 24 of the protesters killed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://libcom.org/library/1831-merthyr-tydfil-uprising|title=1831: Merthyr Tydfil uprising|website=libcom.org|language=en|access-date=2018-10-05}}</ref> Twenty-six people were arrested and put on [[trial (law)|trial]] for taking part in the revolt. Several were sentenced to terms of imprisonment, others sentenced to [[penal transportation]] to Australia, and two were sentenced to [[hanging|death by hanging]] – Lewis Lewis ({{lang|cy|Lewsyn yr Heliwr}}) for Robbery and Richard Lewis ({{lang|cy|[[Dic Penderyn]]}}) for stabbing a soldier (Private Donald Black of the Highland Regiment) in the leg with a seized [[bayonet]].

Lewsyn yr Heliwr's sentence was downgraded to a life sentence and [[penal transportation]] to Australia after one of the police officers who had tried to disperse the crowd testified that he had tried to shield him from the rioters.  He was transported aboard the vessel ''John'' in 1832 and died 6 September 1847 in [[Port Macquarie]], New South Wales.<ref>{{cite web |title=Convict Records |url=https://convictrecords.com.au/convicts/lewis/lewis/115663 |website=convictrecords.com.au |access-date=2 March 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

Following this reprieve, the Grey ministry was determined that at least one rebel should die as an example of what had happened. However, the people of Merthyr Tydfil were convinced that Richard Lewis (Dic Penderyn) was not responsible for the stabbing, and 11,000 signed a petition demanding his release. Nevertheless, the government refused, and Richard Lewis was hanged at [[Cardiff Market]] on August 13, 1831.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.benybont.co.uk/another/dic.htm |title=Who was Dic Penderyn? |website=www.benybont.co.uk |first=Raymond|last=Humphreys |publisher=Raymond Humphreys |access-date=7 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725203240/http://www.benybont.co.uk/another/dic.htm |archive-date=25 July 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1874, a Congregational minister, [[Evan Evans (minister)|the Rev. Evan Evans]], said that a man called Ianto Parker had given him a death-bed confession, saying that he had stabbed Donald Black and then fled to America fearing capture by the authorities.<ref name="Cardiff5">{{cite book |last=Sekar|first=Satish |title=The Cardiff Five: Innocent Beyond Any Doubt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M0Q7AwAAQBAJ |year=2012 |publisher=Waterside Press |isbn=978-1-904380-76-4 |page=182}}</ref><ref>{{cite DWB |last=Williams |first=David |authorlink=David Williams (historian) |title=Lewis, Richard ('Dic Penderyn'; 1807/8-1831) |id=s-LEWI-RIC-1807 |access-date=4 June 2018}}{{dead link |date=March 2025}}</ref> James Abbott, a hairdresser from Merthyr Tydfil who had testified at Penderyn's trial, later said that he had lied under oath, claiming that he had been instructed to do so by [[William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne|Lord Melbourne]].<ref name="Cardiff5"/>