Information was received at the Newport station-house this week, brought by a Somerset constable, that a sheepstealer, named Sweeting, from West Hatch and having eluded their vigilance for some time, was supposed to be working on the South Wales line, near Magor ; and sheep having been stolen from the neighbourhood very recently, the superintendent deemed it advisable to send PC Williams off at once, with the Somerset constable, in search of Sweeting, who was captured on Tuesday, by the Newport officer, in the midst of a large gang of his fellow navvies, drinking in a beer-house, in Magor. Some little “pluck”, was required, and evinced, too, in the capture of a man so surrounded; the gang having threatened to keep their comrades at all hazards ; but the power of the law, especially as exhibited in the towering person of PC Williams, overawed the lawless fellows, and the sheepstealer was brought off in triumph.
Monmouthshire Merlin, Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, April 20, 1850