Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and around Swansea

244 Pages·2009·15.93 MB·English

by  Bernard Lewis

TRUE CRIME FROM WHARNCLIFFE
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter Swansea Crime: From Medieval Times to the Reign of Queen
1 Victoria
Chapter
The Baron Spolasco and his Miraculous Cures, 1838-1858
2
Chapter
The Fighting Welsh and the Killing of John Bowling, 1842
3
Chapter
The Rebecca Rioters at Pontarddulais, 1843
4
Chapter
The Fighting Irish and Two Dead Welshmen, 1848
5
Chapter
A Greek Tragedy: The Canal Bank Killing, 1858
6
Chapter
The Deadly Stowaways: The Hecla and Yellow Fever, 1865
7
Chapter
An Intemperate Woman: The Death of Mrs Lake, 1868
8
Chapter
The Jealous Husband: The Killing of Mrs Duncan, 1872
9
Chapter
Those in Peril on the Sea: The Caswell Mutiny, 1876
10
Chapter
Suffer Little Children: Thomas Nash and his Daughter, 1885
11
Chapter
Murder at the Gloucester Hotel, 1889
12
Chapter
An Anguished Mind: The Murder of Mrs O’Neill, 1898
13
Chapter
The Case of Sergeant Hopper, 1914
14
Bibliography and Other Sources
Acknowledgments
Much of the research for this book has been by way of the original
press coverage in the Cambrian newspaper. In that respect I am
very grateful to Mrs Marilyn Jones, Local Studies Librarian,
Swansea City Council, and her team at the Cambrian Newspaper Index, an
absolutely invaluable resource for any historian of nineteenth-century
Swansea. Indeed, I would not have accepted the commission to write this
book had I not known of the existence of the index.
I am also grateful to Mr Kim Collis and his colleagues at the West
Glamorgan Archive Service, Swansea, for their assistance in producing
microfilm rolls, documents and photographs and for giving advice with
their usual efficiency. Similarly, the staff at the Glamorgan Record Office,
Cardiff, and the staff at Swansea’s superb new library also provided
assistance and guidance.
Friends and colleagues rallied around in various ways to help me. A
great friend of long standing, Jim Knight and his wife Pat, kindly gave me
the ‘Grand Tour’ of Pontarddulais and pointed out several memorials with
Rebecca Riot connections. Dave Westron allowed me to use images from
his photographic postcard collection of Swansea views. Noel Evans,
Registrar of Cemeteries and Crematoria at Swansea City Council kindly
granted me access to burial records relevant to the yellow fever outbreak
at Swansea. Mrs Edith Morgan, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages
at Swansea, also provided advice and guidance in my researches.
At the South Wales Police Museum, Bridgend, Ms Terina Shaw of the
Visitor Centre kindly gave me permission to use images of numerous
items relating to the Victorian police force that are held at the museum.
Mr Mark Vivian, at the Mary Evans Picture Library allowed me to use
two illustrations from the Illustrated London News.
The Penllergare Trust at Swansea - dedicated to restoring the estate
grounds of the Llewelyn family - kindly gave me permission to use
images that are held by trust member Richard Morris. Richard is a
descendant of the Llewelyn family and was very helpful, producing one
photograph from as far back as around 1846.
Mr Simon Lee of Cardiff provided me with information on the 1914
case of Sergeant Hopper, a by-product of his ongoing research into the 6th
Battalion, the Welsh Regiment, in the Great War. Simon also contributed
information to my earlier book on the Swansea Battalion.
Mr Spencer Feeney, editor of the South Wales Evening Post granted
me permission to use material from its predecessor newspapers, the South
Wales Daily Post and the Cambrian, and similarly the editor of the
Western Mail granted permission for material from early editions of that
newspaper.
Mr Rupert Harding at Pen and Sword Books, who asked me to
contribute this volume to Wharncliffe’s Foul Deeds series, also deserves a
mention. He has been a wise counsel and a source of ready
encouragement. The production team at Pen and Sword Books have also
produced this book to their usual high standards.
I am grateful to all of the above and extend my warm thanks to them.
Lastly, I must thank my wife, Elizabeth (Lib), for her willing support
and cheery forbearance of a house and dining table once again all too
often strewn with research papers, and a list of domestic chores that had
temporarily been put on hold.
Introduction
Swansea is a city that has undergone a transformation in the last
quarter century. Much of the industrial dereliction that blighted so
much of the city has been swept away to be replaced by an
enterprise zone, a marina and modern housing. The city centre is also
undergoing major change while the impressive SA1 development is
bringing back into use a previously long deserted and derelict docks
hinterland.
But while Swansea can look forward to a bright future it cannot
escape its darker past. This book seeks to bring back into the spotlight
some of the murkier deeds of its long and turbulent history. It covers the
often violent actions of the Marcher lords and their enemies, as well as
those of the sometimes grasping Tudor gentry. There is a quack doctor
charged with manslaughter, a murderous mutiny on a Swansea ship,
dangerous foreign sailors at loose in the Strand, and an unprecedented
outbreak of deadly tropical disease in the town. Mixed in with these sordid
episodes are those of the men who killed their own wives or children, as
well as true tales of Rebecca Rioters, common murderers and vicious
Victorian street gangs. All have their entrances and exits in Swansea’s
rich and sometimes brutal history.
Swansea may now be a vibrant and modern city that knows where it is
going, but it has not always been so. This book looks back to times when
things were not quite so certain and fear frequently roamed the streets.
Swansea’s iconic poet, Dylan Thomas, famously called it an ‘ugly, lovely
town’ and this book inevitably, given its subject matter, focuses on the
ugly side of a lovely town that became a great city.