Rebecca Riots

Rebecca Riots, a series of popular outbreaks which originated in Carnarvenshire in 1843-44, and quickly spread over Pembroke, Cardigan, and Brecon. They grew out of the impatience of the people at the great increase of toll-gates on public roads, and owed their singular name to their adopting as a motto Genesis, xxiv. 60. Bands of men five hundred strong, their leaders disguised in women's clothes, scoured the country by night, threw down the toll-bars, and then dispersed. A strong force of soldiers was poured into the country, but the rioters offered an obstinate resistance, and were not put down without great difficulty and considerable bloodshed. The commission appointed by government to inquire into the causes of the outbreak found that it grew out of a genuine public grievance, whereupon measures of relief were introduced, and those rioters seized were punished lightly.