The Newport Rising of 1839
A Newport Declamation:
These are the women and men of Newport,
The charged and imprisoned;
We shall remember them.
Saint Leonard of Noblac,
Patron saint of prisoners,
Hear our roll call:
James Aust, Thomas Ball, John Batten, Richard Benfield, Thomas Bolton, Solomon Briton, John Britton, Charles Bucknell, Joseph Coales, John Charles, Dai ‘the Tinker’,
Thomas Davies, Thomas Davies, Thomas Davies, William Davies,
Isaac Davies, Edmund Edmunds, Samuel Etheridge, Evan Edwards,
Thomas Edwards, John Fisher; Edward Frost, John Frost, George George,
John Gibby, John (Job) Harries; Henry Harris, William Havard, Moses Horner, William Horner, Thomas Keys, William Jones, Thomas Lewis,
John Lewis Llewellin,
Thomas Llewellin, William Llewellin, John Lovell, Jack ‘the Fifer’,
Amy Meredith, James Meredith, James Moore,
Jenkin Morgan, Thomas Morgan, John Owen, John Partridge, Isaac Phillips, John Rees,
Benjamin Richards, Edmund Richards, Lewis Rowland,
William Shellard, George Tomlins (Thompson),
George Turner (also known as George Cole), Frederick Turner,
Charles Waters, David Williams, Ebenezer Williams, William Williams, Zephania Williams.
And at the going down of the sun,
And in the business of a Newport morning,
We shall also hear an echo
From the roll call of the dead:
Collier-men, Evan Davies and William Farraday
And Abraham Thomas,
Miners such as William Evans and John Morris,
Men of stout heart such as John Codd and David Davies,
And John Jonathan and William Griffiths,
Robert Lansdowne and Reece Meredith and William Williams,
And Isaac Thomas of Nantyglo,
And John, ‘the Roller’, of Nantyglo,
The tinker, David Morgan,
William, Aberdare,
Private Williams, deserter from the 29th Regiment of Foot,
And the carpenter,
John Davis, of Pontnewynydd,
And the cabinet-maker, young George Shell of Pontypool.
The crimes of these men and women as defined
By the time in which they lived included:
High Treason, Burglary, High Treason & Sedition, Being Illegally Armed, Making Bullets, Being Armed with Guns, Spears and Other Offensive Weapons, Unlawful Combination and Confederacy, Assault, Conspiracy and Riot, and Riotous Assembly.
The causes for which these men and women
Suffered imprisonment, now constitute the law of the land.
The causes for which these men and women
Were imprisoned, transported,
Sentenced to death by hanging, drawing and quartering,
Also, now, constitute the law of the land –
Let the living answer the roll call of the dead.