The Dark Side of Convict Life – part 10

by Barrie Jones

Chapter VII (continued) recounts Henry’s meeting with John Lee, the “Babbacombe Murderer.” Sentenced to hang for the murder of Miss Emma Keyes at Babbacombe, Devon, Lee had escaped execution by an “accident on the gallows “when the trap door had failed to open on three attempts. After having “undergone the pangs of imminent death,” the Home Secretary had obtained the consent of the Queen to a reprieve. Throughout, Lee had protested his innocence and writing to his sister he stated that “it was the Lord’s will that I should not die yesterday at the time appointed by man.”

The Dark Side of Convict Life (Being the Account of the Career of Harry Williams, a Merthyr Man). Merthyr Express, 5th March 1910, page 11.

Chapter VII (continued)

I am not going to worry my readers with an account of the journey from Exeter. On my arrival at Portland Prison I was hurried again to the place called the separate cells, and just as I was entering the gates I happened to turn my eyes aside when I sae a rather tall, slightly built convict, and upon his arm he wore the letter L, which, of course, indicated a life sentence.

Shortly after the very same man brought me another suit of khaki and pointing to the figure nine upon the sleeve of my jacket, he said, “I wish that was my sentence, sonny.” He then said, “You tried to escape on your last lagging (sentence), did you not?”- “Yes,” I replied, “but how did you get to know that?” He then told me everything he had heard passed between the officers of Exeter and the Portland officers. They, in turn, passed it from one to the other, and I was closely watched.

Now the life sentence man, who told me all this, was a man who had  a great history, and when I first knew him he had served over fourteen years in his life sentence. Our conversation ripened into deep friendship, and before I had known him a month I had learned all his history from the first time he entered the service of Mrs Keyse, the murdered lady, to the first time I saw him at Portland, for I am speaking of none other than Jake Lee, the man they failed to hang, though they made three attempts, at Exeter Prison in the month of February, 1885.

Jack Lee was a typical convict, and quite a different chap in every respect to other convicts, and a man who was well liked by everyone he came in contact with. He as not like some of those who make it their business to inform against their fellows in misfortune in order to curry favour with an officer. During the whole time I was at Portland, and I was there over five years, not once did I hear a convict say that Jack Lee was a copper (informer). He was not a chap who had much to do or say with anyone, but if he could do no one any good he would do them no harm. This was a man who suffered over twenty-three years in prison, to say nothing of the sensation he must have gone through when placed upon the gallows face to face with death.

People may form their own opinion in regard to the case, but I firmly believe the man to be perfectly innocent of the crime, and the curious part of the case was that the day fixed for his execution he awoke and told the warders that he was not be hanged that day, and the very same gallows who failed to hang Lee had hanged many a man before him. Thus, I believe that the hand of God was in it all.

To be continued…..

The New Inn: ‘Mormon’ meeting place

by Freda Entwistle

The New Inn, Penydarren, was located at no. 307 High Street, but was demolished in the late 1970s for modernisation.

It was a typical public house: the ground floor providing an entrance to the pub itself; living accommodation for the family of the licensee at the rear of the building; and the floor above provided a sizeable hall, which was hired out for various events and activities to local groups.

One of those groups was the Latter Day Saints or ‘Mormons’ – officially members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In the early 1840s William Henshaw, a new convert to the cause, was sent to Merthyr Tydfil, to preach the gospel.

In the History of the Church, Joseph Smith recorded:

Sunday, February 19, 1843 —– Elder William Henshaw having been directed… to go to South Wales, he commenced preaching in the English language privately to several families in Pen y darren, near Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire. A number of the people believed his testimony, and this day he baptized William Rees Davis, his wife, and two of his sons, and commenced preaching publicly in Brother Davis’s house, about one-third of the people only understanding the English language.

The Davies’ home soon proved too small for the growing membership. It became necessary to look for premises to accommodate the growing membership and inquiring minds from the public. The New Inn provided such a meeting place. Penydarren thus became the first branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Glamorgan, established on 25 March 1843. The branch grew to a membership of 50 by the end of 1843.

Several other branches were established in the Merthyr area in the ensuing years, often meeting in public houses such as the New Inn. There is evidence of the Penydarren branch still in existence in the 1851 Religious Census, which confirms the New Inn as one of the meeting places the Latter-day Saints used for their services.

William Rees Davies was later assigned to the Rhymney area and became branch president there before he, his wife Rachel and their children emigrated with the first large company of Welsh converts in 1849.

Another early member of the Penydarren LDS branch was Abel Evans (left). Born in Carmarthenshire, he moved to Merthyr where he was baptised by William Henshaw, 10 February 1844, and became a stalwart member of the Penydarren branch. His six years of devoted missionary service throughout Wales brought many other converts into the Church.

Fluent in Welsh, he was often called upon to translate sermons given in English by visiting church authorities, for the benefit of those who only spoke and understood Welsh. In 1850 he emigrated to the Great Salt Lake Valley in Utah Territory, but in 1865 he returned to Wales as a missionary. Sadly he died here in November 1866, and is buried in the cemetery at Cefn Coed.

Names of the first converts baptised into the Penydarren branch, as recorded by Edward G. Roberts