Letter from Colonel Trevor (Lord Dynevor) to R. G. Nevill, 20 September 1843 [page 1 of 5]

Description

Richard Janion Nevill was a prominent member of the Llanelli community.

Transcription:

"To R. G. Nevill, Esq., etc.,
Llanelly.
Carmarthen, 20 Sept, 1843.

My dear Sir,

I am sorry you had a fruitless journey to Pontardulais with the Troops. From something I have heard I think it right to suggest that something like a rota should be established at Llanelly in regard to the Magistrates going out with Troops. You are but few, but then you have only a half circle to act in, which makes your labour something less.

I should recommend that you should each have a day assigned to you, but not in the usual way. I should recommend that if A was on duty on Monday and not called on, he should take Tuesday also. B would take Tuesday if A was out on Monday, or else Wednesday, and if he did not go out his first day take a chance in like manner of a second, and so on; or else all to take his days as the chances are the Troops would not go two days running, and considering that your military force at Llanelly is small and weak in officers, I would suggest that hey should not be called on to go out unless you have information of some anticipated outrage.

Pray let me know what number of special constables you now have, and what they are? I hope you have been able to prevail on some of your men to come forward. I understood from S. Lewis they have been hanging back.

I am endeavouring to establish an additional military force in your neighbourhood, viz., at Lanon, but have not yet succeeded. I have now some of the London Police, who are intended for duty in and near Llanelly, but as they have no arms, I have not as yet sent them to you. Pray look out for some accomodation for them.

I am glad to find there is any prospect of the Dissenting Ministers taking up the question of the nightly meetings. They may be able to do a great deal.

As regards the Tithes, surely there is a short way of settling that question by the landlords agreeing to let their farms tithe free, and taking the rent charge themselves, as is done in most parts of England, and which would at least narrow the question to one between the tithe-owner and a smaller number of more educated and enlightened persons than the common tenant farmer.

I received the official letter about the Poor House last night, and will forward it to the Secretary of State.

I am sorry to here there is again a difficulty about the billets for Cavalry at Llanelly. Will you have the goodness to look into the matter? The order is that no Troop should be in more than three, at most four billets. You have now no more than half a Troop, and in strictness they should not be in more than two billets. I have now to request of the magistrates to place their men in four billets, and no more, and I am sorry to say if that is not done Colonel Love will remove them at once from Llanelly and I own, much as I should lament it, I should not oppose his doing so, for nothing can be more unreasonably than the publicans seem to be, and I hope that I shall hear no more difficulty.

Yours very truly,
Geo. Rice Trevor."

[Source: George Eyre Evans, 'Rebecca Riots: Unpublished letters, 1843-44', The Transcations of the Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society and Field Club, vol. XXIII, pp. 66-7]