• 1807/08: He was born in Penderyn cottage to Margaret and Lewis Lewis, a cobbler and miner. • He received his education at the Sunday school of his Methodist Chapel. • 1819: He moved to Merthyr Tydfil with his family and worked in the mines with his father. • 1831: 2 June – There is no firm evidence of Dic Penderyn’s movements until the outbreak of the Merthyr Tydfil riots, which began with an attack on the house of a court clerk. • Troops were sent into the Castle Inn; others were left outside and were hemmed in by a crowd, among whom was Dic Penderyn. • A scuffle ensued, until soldiers within the Castle Inn fired through the windows into the crowd. A number of people were killed, and others wounded; and several soldiers were injured. • It is not known if Dic Penderyn took any part in the events that followed – including the ambush of an ammunition party from Brecon, and the Swansea Yeomanry. • Dic was arrested for attacking soldier Donald Black and was condemned to death by hanging. However, there was doubt whether it was Dic Penderyn who had attacked him. • A petition, said to have been signed by 11,000 people, was drawn up asking for Dic to be reprieved from execution. • Joseph Tregelles Price arranged for the date of hanging to be extended by two weeks. When this elapsed, the Home Secretary insisted that he saw no reason to change the verdict. • 1831: 13 August – Dic was hanged at the age of 23.
‘There was considerable doubt as to whether it was Dic Penderyn who had, in fact, wounded Donald Black. The soldier, who had seen Dic in the crowd, freely admitted that he did not know who had wounded him.’ – David Williams, Dictionary of Welsh Biography