'Rebecca' was Established

At the time of Rebecca the farmers in West Wales had suffered a number of bad harvests. They were very poor and felt desperate at the news of toll charges. A barn in the farmyard of Glyn Saith Maen, Llangolman is said to have been the meeting place of the first activists.

There are a number of theories as to why the name Rebecca was chosen for the leader of the disturbances. According to local tradition the Efailwen leader known as Rebecca was identified as Thomas Rees, who farmed the homestead of Carnabwth in the Parish of Mynachlogddu. It is said that he borrowed clothes from Rebecca Fawr of Llangolman and the movement may have derived its name from this simple chance.

In such a devout religious time it is possible that the name comes from a passage in the Bible, the book of Genesis, xxiv, 60, which reads “And they blessed Rebekah and said unto her, let thy seed possess the gates of those which hate them.”

The activists decided to act in the only way they felt open to them. On the night of the 13th May 1839, only one week after it had been erected, the gate at Efailwen was destroyed and the tollhouse set on fire.

At 10.30pm on the 6th June a crowd of 300 people disguised in women’s clothing with their faces blackened arrived at the Efailwen gate and destroyed it for the second time.