The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1876-09-01 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

THE TRAGEDY IN CARMARTEIENSHIRE.  A c3rrespondent sends the following to the Staadord —" At the foot of your notice of the `Tragedy in Car. marthenshire ' in your paper of the 22nd instant, you refer to the murder of Mr Powell, the maternal grandfather of the late Mr Jolines. A brief account of this crime may, in its il tails, prove of interest to your readers, as illustrative of the char.cter of the times. It is related that. on January 8, 1770, William Williams, of Llaudovery, mercer, together with twelve other persons, disi,uised in waggoners' frocks, and armed with pistols, swords, cutlasses and cased tucks (rapiers), came to the dwelling-house of William Powell, of Olanareth, near Llandovery, in the county of Carmarthen, Esq., and knocked at the back door. Upon its being opened W. Williams and two other villains rushed into the parlour (whilet others stmid sentry; where Mr Powell was sitting wi.h three of his neighbours, and immediately stabbed him in nine different parts of his body, till his bowels came out, cut off his nose, and &linnet one of his hands. The people who were with him were so frightened that they made no resistance, but immediately ran out; the assassins then retreated, without attempting to hurt any other person. The following day several persons followed their footsteps in the snow, and took particular notice of the impremeion and size of their shoes. The villains avoided all houses and paths, and went over bogs, morasses and mountains for about four miles, till they came to the house of one Charles David Morgan, but being tracked no further he was taken up and brought before the coroner, when he gave a fair account of himself; but one of his.shoes being taken off, and agreeing in size with one of the impressions taken notice of in the snow, he was committed on suspicion, and soon after confessed the fact, and discovered six of his accomplices whereupon Sir William Manse!, and other gentlemen, immediately armed, and went with their :servants in pursuit, and took five of them. Qne of the villains confessed that they were thirteen in 1.1111)ber, and they were all hired by Williams to murder Powell, and not to rob the house. This Williams, in August, 1768, went with Mr. Powell's wife, and took her and her children from the boarding school to London ; and Mr Powell was obliged to apply to the Court it King's Bench for a habeas corpus to get at his children; and, by the recommendstion of the Court, allowed his wife £lOO a year for a separate maintenance. Williams laid several schemes in order to take away Mr Powell's life, and attempted to shoot him several times. The villains met on the day before the murder in Charles David Morgan's house, and continued there until they weut the following evening to Glanareth. One of the men was despatched by Willisme that very night to inform Mr Powell's brother with what was done, and ordering him to come and take possession of the estate. But Mr Powell having made a will, and appointed guardians over his children, their scheme WAS defeated. At the Spring Assizes at Hereford nine prisoners were tried for the murder, six of whom received sentence of death, and were ordered for execution, and their bodies to be dissected (two were afterwards milered to be hung in chains near the place where the murder was committed, and three were acquitted). The trial occupied from seven in ,the morning till eight at night. On the morning of April 12, Captain Bowen, of Killy-Own, who was said to be concerned in the murder, was apprehended at the Cock Eating-house, behind the Royal Exchange, by two Welsh gentlemen, named Price and Williams, who knew him. He was carried before the Lord Mayor, who committed him to the Poultry Compter. He was Mrs. Powell's brother, and had been staying at Lambeth. He stated that Williams had escaped to France in an open boat. The trial of Bowen, his son, and John Williams, as accessories, took place at Hereford in the following year, when they were acquitted.