.

"Billy" was born at Bettws-y-Crwyn, Shropshire, in June 1803, and was twelve years old when Waterloo was fought. He well remembered the rejoicings following that great victory. For many years he roamed about from place to place as a cattle-drover, roughing it at nights in sheds and behind hedges, and, until he went into the workhouse, scarcely knew what it was to lie in a bed. His last "outing" was to Brampton Bryan (Bron) Fair in 1905. where he met with many kind friends. He was then very old and feeble, and it was a marvel how he kept body and soul together during the last two years of his wanderings. His faculties seemed keen to the last, excepting that he became very deaf.

 

The picture was taken by the Rev. H. C. Green Price, rector of Brampton Bryan, who took the portrait personally in 1905.

 

The quote " For many years he roamed about from place to place as a cattle-drover, roughing it at nights in sheds and behind hedges, and, until he went into the workhouse, scarcely knew what it was to lie in a bed" is a slight exageration, as in the following court case it is said that he had spent time in the local goal and had, at one time, taken a room at the premosis of William Lowe, rag and bone merchant of Knighton.

 

Here we see yet another surname for Cider Billy.

 

Hereford Times - 14th January 1860

KNIGHTON - CHARGE OF STEALING HORSE HAIR.

William Marsh alias Cider Bill, and Adam Dougall, alias Scotter, were brought up in the custody of P.C.  John Rogers, before the Rev. J. N. Kinchant, charged with stealing some horse-hair from the warehouse of Mr Lowe, rag and bone merchant, of this town. The house from which the property was stolen is at some distance from the prosecutors dwelling. Two of the rooms he lets out  to lodgers, and the prisoners had a room there. Both of them had been out drinking on Sunday, and when they went home they sent two women lodgers out of the house on some pretext, and to a little boy. they gave a penny to get a cake. A neighbour seamed  to have suspected that all was not right, and told the two women on their return as to her suspicions. She then went up-stairs and found that one of the prisoners was there, the other was down in the kitchen. On the prosecutor being informed of the circumstance, be took the constable with him, but, in the meantime, the prisoners had left the house. P.C. Rogers, after some search, succeeded in apprehending the prisoners in a public-house in the town where he found two lots of hair, which were identified by the prosecutor, and the two prisoners wore fully committed to take their trial on the above charge.

 

Hereford Journal - 4th April 1860

TRIALS OF PRISONERS.

Knighton. - ROBBERY FROM A WAREHOUSE.

William Marsh, 55, and Adam McDougal, 50, rag gatherers, were indicted for breaking into a warehouse, at Knighton, and stealing 2lbs of horse hair, and 2lbs. of horse and cow hair mixed, the property of Wm. Lowe.— Mr. Giffard conducted the prosecution ; the prisoners were undefended. The prosecutor is a general dealer, residing, at Knighton, and has a house containing four rooms, one of which is occupied by the prisoner, Marsh, two by a woman named Ann Morgan, and the fourth occupied by the prosecutor as a warehouse.

          On the night of the 7th of Jan., a woman named Hannah Harley heard the voices of two men in the prosecutor's store room, on which she communicated with his wife. The woman Morgan, who is deformed, proved that she went out in the afternoon, and when she returned she found Marsh at the outer door and McDougal upstairs; she told McDougal he had no business up there, and when he came down he gave her 1s. 6d. not to "make a noise about it," saying that he gave her the money as ''a treat." She afterwards found that the lock and staple on Lowe's store-room door were not all right, and she told Marsh that they had been trying to get into the room; Marsh said they had not, and then Morgan asked for a hatchet, and put the staple right again. McDougal, who was sitting at the fire in the witness's room, asked her to fetch a bag downstairs, and after some conversation as to when he had placed it there, she gave it him, and he put it in Marsh's room. Subsequently, after Lowe had arrived at the house, she returned the 1s. 6d. to McDougal. In answer to the Judge, the witness said she never suggested to the prisoners that, as they had been drinking, they might as well have some of old Lowe's horsehair.

          P.C. Rogers produced a bundle of horse-hair and some lots of long hair tied up, which he had found in Marsh's premises. The long hair was sworn to by the prosecutor, who said that he had  tied it up himself. Statements made by the prisoners on committal were put in, but they contained nothing material, beyond a denial of the robbery. They now declined to say anything in their defence.

The Judge summed up, and said that the conduct of the witness Morgan, in receiving Is. 6d. from McDougal and then fastening the staple in the prosecutor's door, was open to great suspicion; and if the case depended solely on her testimony, the jury would probably be slow to convict the prisoners. With the exception of Ann Morgan's evidence, there was nothing to show that, McDougal was there; but the evidence of even a notorious accomplice might be received, if it were corroborated in its material parts by other testimony. The jury, after considerable consultation, returned a verdict of guilty.

          The police constable was recalled, and said he had known McDougal for eight months and never heard anything against him; but Marsh, he believed, did not bear a very good character. The prisoners had been nearly three months in gaol, and the Judge taking that imprisonment into consideration, sentencing Marsh to six months' and McDougal to three months' hard labour.

 

Eddowes's Journal - 8th August 1888

Wm. Hughes, a drover, of no fixed residence. was charged with being drunk in Bridge and Broad Street, Knighton, on the 14th of July.—Defendant, who did not appear, was fined 10s. and costs, or 14 days in default.