It started around 1839 in the small village of Efailwen in Pembrokeshire, when a local farmer had dressed up as a woman, called himself Rebecca or Beca, and demolished a tollgate. Thus began the Rebecca Riots.
Nobody knows exactly why the men dressed themselves up as women or why they called themselves 'Merched Beca' or Rebecca's daughters. Some have speculated that the name was a reference to the biblical Rebecca whose offspring were said to "possess the gates of their enemies". It's quite a convincing reason, but no confirmation about the origins of the name has been recorded. Perhaps, the most plausible one was to conceal the protesters' identities.
Although the Rebecca Riots, which was what the movement was later called, began with local farmers who protested and attacked tollgates, it wasn't just against taxes that they were battling. Rather, it was the dire situation in which Wales, specifically the western agricultural communities at the time, had found itself.
Many of these communities were in dire poverty because of poor harvests and the fluctuating prices of agricultural products, forcing farmers to use up what little capital they had just to feed their families and cattle. Later on, even non-agricultural laborers joined the protests.
In the end, due to a government inquiry into the matter as well as the emergence of criminal groups posing as Rebeccaites, the riots ceased. It didn't have an immediate effect on farmers, but it did lead to a reduction on rent levels and an improvement on the toll gates as well as an act that amended turnpike trust laws in Wales.
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