counties of Carmarthen, Pembroke, Cardigan, and parts of Radnor, Brecon, and Glamorgan. They were headed by their leader, who was mounted; they were disguised in female attire, with blackened faces. So well did the rioters keep counsel and so secretly did they manage their forays that, in spite of the efforts of the local magistrates, assisted by large bodies of military sent into the district, no effectual check was put upon their proceedings for months.
Although the Rebecca riots are chiefly remembered in connection with Wales, it is extremely interesting to note that nearly one hundred years earlier similar disturbances took place in England, where turnpikes had been first established. In August, 1749, a great number of people in Somersetshire and Gloucestershire, some disguised in women's clothes, headed by leaders on horseback with blackened faces, had attacked the turnpike gates in those counties. They were called "Jack a Lents." The course of these disturbances was much like that of the later Rebecca riots of the nineteenth century in Wales.
But the turnpike gate extortions in South Wales were not the only cause of these riots. A Royal Commission was appointed on October 7, 1843, to make a full and diligent inquiry into the state of the laws, as administered in South Wales, which regulated the maintenance of turnpike roads and bridges. The Commission made their report on March 6, 1844, and from it we learn that there was deep-seated agrarian discontent in South Wales, not only at the exactions of the Turnpike Trusts, but also in connection with the costly administration of the poor law and the high salaries of poor law officers; the vexed question of tithes and the increased amounts payable for tithes under the Tithes Commutation Act of 1836; the permanent increase of county rates; the fees of Justices' clerks and the administration of justice by the magistrates; the cost of recovering small debts; and the position of the Established Church of England in the districts. The Commission, while calling
