The Rebecca Riots – 1843
Whilst the 4th (Queen’s Own) Light Dragoons was stationed in Exeter, five troops were suddenly ordered to march into South Wales, to assist the civil authorities to control riots caused by “Rebecca and her Daughters.
The members of the organisation wore women’s clothes, and hoped to obtain the abolition of turnpike gates on the biblical authority that they were the “daughters of Rebecca about to possess the gates of their enemies.”
Unfortunately, their methods seriously endangered the peace. They preached violence, and agitated mobs to set fire to public buildings, break down turnpikes and generally create disorder.
The five troops marched to Carmarthen, Cardiff, Newcastle Emlyn, Llandovery and Llandilo, swiftly put down the rioters and received formal thanks from majors and magistrates. Major Parlby, commanding one troop, was thanked by the Duke of Wellington for saving the workhouse at Carmarthen.
The troops were in Wales for nine months, until April 1844, when they went to quarters at Ipswich and Norwich.
