Rebecca Hits Bolgoed, Pumpsaint, Bronvelin, Twely-bridge, and Gwarallt

From the Monmouthshire Merlin:

Destruction of Bolgoed Toll House & Bar, Glamoganshire.

At about , a party consisting of about two hundred men on foot, headed by Rebecca arrayed all in white and who rode a white horse, were seen approaching this bar from the direction of Pontardulais. The object of their visit was easily surmised, and the inhabitants of the few houses in the neighbourhood apparently apprehensive of danger, retired within doors. Rebecca advanced to the toll house and demanded admittance, which having been given, she directed a few of her troop to carry out the toll collector’s goods and chattles to the side of the road, and to protect them from injury till they had completed the object of their mission. She then gave the word of command for a total demolition of the house and bar, and actually, we are assured, within five minutes the bar was cut to pieces, the house in ruins, and the whole party in full retreat. During the time they were engaged at work a portion of their gang kept firing guns and huzzaing. They took the Carmarthenshire road and separated in various ways. The farmers of the surrounding district strongly condemn this outbreak and state their willingness to have abided by the decision of the turnpike trustees, whom they memorialized . This bar is situated near a place called Goppa Fach on the mail road within a mile of Pontardulais and eight miles of Swansea. — Swansea Journal.

The Cambrian also covered this:

Rebecca Again.

It grieves us to state, that the evil practices of toll-gate destruction, which have been so rife lately in Carmarthenshire, Cardiganshire, and Pembrokeshire, have reached the borders of this county. On the arrival of the mail-coach from Carmarthen, the coachman informed us, that the two bars near Cross-Hands were destroyed, and that the toll-bar and house at Bolcoed, near Pontardulais, were completely levelled with the ground. The furniture belonging to the house had been carried out, and placed on the side of the road. This is all the information we could obtain from our informant, whose time would not allow him to stop to make inquiries.

There were other attacks on the same night (or perhaps one week earlier; Evans uses both dates for the attacks in his book without settling on one or the other, and the newspapers are ambiguous). Here’s the account from The Cambrian:

More Gates Destroyed.

A troop of the 4th Light Dragoons, from Brecon, arrived at Llandovery on , under the command of Capt. Halket, and on a troop of Rebecca’s children entered the district, to commence a campaign against the turnpikes and toll-bars. An attack was made that night upon Pumpsaint gate, about midway between Llandovery and Lampeter; the gate, posts, and rails were completely destroyed and levelled to the ground with the usual celerity which marks the operations of Rebecca and her untoward offspring, who in many instances contrive to cast a spell or illusion over those who might naturally be expected to hear and witness them at their work of destruction, so that in the present instance none of the inhabitants of the village of Pumpsaint seem to have been aware of what was passing in their midst until they arose , saw the remains of the gate and posts. On , the troop received orders to remove to Llandilo the following morning, to the surprise and astonishment of most persons and even of the Dragoons themselves, a march being such an unusual occurrence except in cases of great emergency. Rebecca’s guerrilla troops were, however, not to be dismayed by the presence of her Majesty’s soldiers, as a small detachment of her recruits , broke down the turnpike gate and bar at Bronvelin, 5 miles from Llandovery, on the road to Llanwrtyd. The Trustees of the roads have offered large rewards for the discovery of those who were engaged in both the above cases. Other gates in the neighbourhood of Llandovery have been threatened with destruction, which has given some work to the authorities of the place to provide a sufficient force of special constables, &c., to prevent those threats being carried into execution. — On , a gang of the above description, disguised as usual, demolished the Twely-bridge gate, near the village of Llandyssil, on the Newcastle Emlyn road, and threw the fragments of it into the river Tivy. — The gate at Gwarallt, on the Carmarthen and Lampeter road, was destroyed on .

So, as I mentioned, Evans’s book gives two different dates for the Pumpsaint attack: and . He puts the Bronvelin attack at . He puts the Gwarallt attack at . I don’t see any mention of the Twely-bridge gate attack in his book.