Welsh UFO sightings from 1852. For sightings from other years please click HERE.
PRESS
1852
Brecon
Multiple newspapers carried coverage of a murder charge against a Brecon farmer, Thomas Phillips of Pentrenaboth, who was accused by one of his servants of feeding a newborn baby to a pig in 1850. I'm including it here though because of some of 24 year old Hugh Williams' (the accuser) testimony on the stand. He was cross-examined 'at considerable length' about his belief that a ghost had recently carried him away many miles across the country.
Rather than deny it, Williams 'gravely admitted [it] to have been the fact, much to the surprise and astonishment of all present.'
The Welshman of April 3rd 1852 reported:
BRECON - SERIOUS CHARGE OF MURDER AGAINST A FARMER.
On Saturday last, the 28th ult., several of the county magistrates were engaged for some hours, in investigating a charge preferred against a Mr. Thomas Phillips, of Pentrenaboth, in the hamlet of Senny, in this county, by a discharged servant of his, named Hugh Williams. It appeared that upon Williams demanding an arrear of wages due to him about three weeks since, a quarrel ensued, when Williams accused his master Phillips of having murdered his illegitimate child, by throwing it alive to a sow, which instantly devoured the infant.
This report having got into circulation, Phillips felt anxious to retrieve his character, and caused an attorney in Brecon to demand a retraction of the charge, when instead of doing so Hugh Williams at once denounced his master before the magistrates as a murderer, and brought a lad, who with himself, was in Phillips's employ at the time alluded to, to prove the truth of his statements.
Mr. Phillips voluntarily appeared before the Justices, and declared his wish to meet the charge at once.
Hugh Williams was then sworn, and stated that he was twenty-four years of age; that in the month of March, 1850, he was in the service of Thomas Phillips. One day as he was coming up towards the fold he saw Phillips, with an infant lay on the ground before him in the act of being devoured by a sow. Witness saw the child in the sow's mouth, and heard it cry; the sow was eating the lower portion of the body. Had never seen the child at Phillips's before. There was a female servant in the house, and he had heard people say there was something the matter with her. The previous night she was fainting. There was a boy in Phillips's service then of the name of Thomas Davies. The girl's name was Margaret Morgan. When the sow was eating the child witness attempted to stop her. She ran off and had devoured it all before he again got up to the sow. Witness told his master of it then, and he said if he dared to say anything about it he would kill him directly.
Cross-examined by Mr. S. B. Evans: I mentioned it to "Peggy the Felin" immediately afterwards. Thomas Phillips turned the sow into the pigstye immediately afterwards. Margaret Morgan stood at the door, looking at the sow eating the child. She did not work for two or three days about that time. She is now at Dowlais. [Here some person stated that Margaret Morgan was in Court, she having it appeared, been summoned as a witness on behalf of Phillips; she was however brought forward and placed in the dock as a prisoner.] Witness continued; she complained of being unwell. She said after witness went to her "Oh!" and clasped her hands together. Witness first ran after the sow, and then returned, and asked Phillips and the girl, what they had been doing. Thomas Davies was on the fold then. He wanted to go home. He was afraid of the sow which was used to be very savage.
The witness was further cross-examined at considerable length as to some illusion he had been labouring under, of having been carried away by a ghost, many miles across the country, which he gravely admitted to have been the fact, much to the surprise and astonishment of all present.
Thomas Davies was then called and sworn. He said that he was 14 years of age. Last march twelvemonth he was in service with Phillips. One day about dinner time, witness saw Phillips bring a little child out of the house on a tile stone, and throw it down before the sow. Phillips fetched the sow from the cot. Witness heard the child cry. Hugh Williams came up when the child was half devoured. Margaret Morgan came to the door. Witness was afraid of the sow and ran away. Told his mother and one Peggy, the Post, of it immediately he reached home. His mother told him not to say anything about it. Witness's mother's name is Ana Davies. The prisoner, Margaret Morgan, is the girl who was looking at the sow eating the child.
The witness, who appeared to be an intelligent lad, gave his evidence in a straightforward manner, after hearing which the magistrates stated their intention of committing the prisoner for further examination to Saturday next, when the mother of the last witness, together with other witnesses, will be summoned to attend.
Bail to a considerable amount was tendered for the appearance of Phillips, but refused.
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The Brecon Gazette (03/04/1852) went into the most detail. This ghost, in addition to frequently carrying him off, apparently haunted Williams in various forms 'until he had obeyed a mandate given him to throw a pair of pistols, taken from an old mansion-house, into the river Usk.' The story likely played its part in the jury acquitting the prisoners without hearing any of the defence witnesses.
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BRECONSHIRE ASSIZES. (Before Mr. Baron Martin) Thomas Phillips and Margaret Morgan were placed at the bar on Monday week, charged with having murdered a new-born infant by casting it to a sow, by which it was torn to pieces and devoured. Mr. Davison (in the absence of Mr. Chilton, Q.C.) opened the details of this unparalleled charge in a speech which evinced great ability, and was conceived in a spirit of great fairness towards the accused.
The first and principal witness in the case was a young man named Hugh Williams, almost 24 years of age, who lived in the service of the male prisoner, at a farm called Pentrenaboth, near Devynnock, in the county of Brecon. The witness stated, that on some day in the middle of March, 1850, an older servant of the prisoner was obliged to leave the farm for a few days in consequence of an injury accidentally received in his foot, and that on the night previous a boy named Thomas Davies, who stood in the relation of a nephew to the witness, and was at that time from 11 to 12 years of age, came to the house with some clothes for him, and remained there to assist about the stable and fold-yard. He then proceeded to state, that after feeding and cleaning the horses early in the morning, they tried to enter the farmhouse for their breakfast, but found the door fastened, and that the prisoner Phillips spoke through the window, ordering the young man Williams to go to a wood at a short distance for a load of sticks.
The younger witness said that he then went to the garden to bring a hen, as he had been ordered by the female prisoner, and that while so engaged, he saw Phillips come out of the house bearing a new-born infant on a flat tile-stone, which, after looking carefully around, he deposited on the ground in the corner of the fold-yard; that he then went through a beast-house to the pigsty, and drove a sow to the spot where the child lay; that he then retired, while the sow caught hold of the child's thigh and bit it off. The boy positively swore that he then heard the child utter a cry, and that, on his getting over the hedge to drive the sow away, she ran at him furiously, and that he ran back; that she then caught hold of the child in her mouth, and commenced tearing and eating it, when he again heard it cry distinctly.
Both witnesses then said that at that moment the elder lad (Hugh Williams) came up from the meadow on his way from the wood, and caught hold of the child's arm, when the sow caught him by the arm, which frightened him so much that he let go his hold. They further stated, that by the time the sow had completed her horrid meal the prisoner Phillips came forward and, threatening that he would kill them if they mentioned what they had seen, drove the animal into the beasthouse; that they climed up to a kind of hole in the wall, through which they saw him tie the sow to a post, and wash the jaws and head from the blood with which they were covered with a scrubbing-brush and a bucket full of water, after which he released her and returned into the house.
The only part of their evidence which implicated the female prisoner in the alleged transaction was a statement that while the sow was eating the child she stood at the door of the house lifting her hands and groaning; and they further deposed that the door of the house was kept fastened the whole of the day and night, and that the prisoner Phillips said they could not get food because the servant girl was poorly; that they were therefore fasting all that day with the exception of some bread and cheese brought to them by Phillips at dusk, and that they slept in the barn that night. Notwithstanding the horrible nature of the alleged occurrence, Hugh Williams said that he had continued in the prisoner's service until the following November, and after a few months' absence returned and remained with him until some time in February last, when on his leaving a quarrel occurred and the accusation was first made public. It also appeared that the boy had been occasionally in the service of the prisoner at periods before and after the date of the commission of the crime, and had left about the same time as his uncle. The evidence of both witnesses was given very circumstantially, but was unsupported by any other testimony, and it was not shown at all that the woman had appeared to have been pregnant near that time.
On cross-examination the younger witness fenced a good deal with the questions put to him by the defendants' counsel, and denied statements which it was alleged he had made to various persons respecting the case. The elder (Hugh Williams), on cross-examination, gave a most extraordinary statement of his adventures with a ghost, who had frequently carried him through the air and had haunted him in various shapes, until he had obeyed a mandate given him to throw a pair of pistols, taken from an old mansion-house, into the river Usk. He further deposed most positively to his power of seeing in the darkest night as well as by day. On some points of detail his statements in the witness-box varied from his depositions before the committing magistrates, and on one or two points he contradicted his testimony given on examination in chief. The only other witnesses called were two women, who deposed to statements made by the lads; but, on the whole, their evidence told to favour of the accused.
In reply to a question from the learned counsel for the prisoners, His Lordship said that, although he entertained a strong opinion with regard to the case, he did not think proper to take it out of the hands of the jury in any way. The jury expressed a wish to hear Mr. Grove's address for the defence; after which they stated their opinion that it was unnecessary to call any witnesses for the defence, and Acquitted both prisoners. The trial of the case (which had created intense excitement throughout a very wide district) occupied nearly the whole of Monday and Tuesday.
PRESS
September 1852
Sennybridge
The Welshman (24/09/1852) told readers that they had heard reports of the the return of the Sennybridge ghost. Sadly that is all we'll ever know of the affair as, the paper haughtily stated, they were not about to insult their audience's common sense 'by inserting a farrago of nonsense concocted and promalgated probably by some idle dreamer, or intoxicated idiot.'
We have received an account of the re-appearance of the Senny Bridge Ghost this week, but the affair is too absurd to be alluded to seriously and we should only insult the common sense of our readers by inserting a farrago of nonsense concocted and promalgated probably be some idle dreamer, or intoxicated idiot.
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