1869 in Wales

← 1868 1867 1866 1865 1864 1869 in Wales → 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s
See also:	List of years in Wales Timeline of Welsh history 1869 in The United Kingdom Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1869 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

For United Kingdom incumbents, see 1869 in the United Kingdom § Incumbents.

• Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey – Henry Paget, 2nd Marquess of Anglesey (until 7 February); William Owen Stanley (from 2 March) ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}
• Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire – Charles Morgan, 1st Baron Tredegar ^{[5] [6]}
• Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire – Edward Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn ^[7]
• Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – Edward Pryse ^{[8] [2]}
• Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire – John Campbell, 2nd Earl Cawdor
• Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire – Robert Myddelton Biddulph ^[9]
• Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire – Sir Stephen Glynne, 9th Baronet ^[10]
• Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot ^[11]
• Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire – Edward Lloyd-Mostyn, 2nd Baron Mostyn ^[12]
• Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire – Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort ^[13]
• Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – Sudeley Hanbury-Tracy, 3rd Baron Sudeley ^[14]
• Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – William Edwardes, 3rd Baron Kensington ^[15]
• Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – John Walsh, 1st Baron Ormathwaite ^{[16] [2]}
• Bishop of Bangor – James Colquhoun Campbell ^{[17] [18]}
• Bishop of Llandaff – Alfred Ollivant ^[19]
• Bishop of St Asaph – Thomas Vowler Short ^{[20] [21] [19]}
• Bishop of St Davids – Connop Thirlwall ^{[19] [22]}

Events

• January
  • Henry Austin Bruce becomes MP for Renfrewshire.
  • Timothy Richards Lewis goes to India to study cholera.
• 1 May – The Western Mail is published for the first time. ^[23]
• 19 May – Two days after John Young, the English manager of the Leeswood Green colliery, announces a pay cut, he is attacked by some of his workers. ^[24]
• 2 June – Seven men are tried at Mold for attacking John Young. A riot breaks out as those convicted are being transported to the railway station; soldiers fire on the crowd, killing four people. ^[25]
• 10 June
  • 53 men and boys are killed in the second underground explosion within two years at Ferndale Colliery in the Rhondda.
  • Three people are killed in a train derailment at Maesycwmmer in Glamorgan.
• August – Anti-Irish riots at Pontlottyn in the Rhymney Valley result in one death. ^[26]
• 1 September – The Dyserth branch line is opened for goods traffic.
• 30 October – The first edition of the Welsh-language periodical Y Goleuad is published. ^[27]
• unknown date
  • Landore steelworks at Swansea established by Carl Wilhelm Siemens. ^[28]
  • John Hughes of Merthyr Tydfil buys land near the Sea of Azov, where he develops an ironworks and founds the city of Yuzovka (later Donetsk).
  • Joseph Leycester Lyne (Father Ignatius of Jesus) acquires land at Capel-y-ffin and begins construction of an Anglican Benedictine community, Llanthony Abbey. ^[29]
  • Construction of the fort at St Catherine's Island, off Tenby.
  • Prehistoric burial remains are discovered at Parc le Breos on the Gower Peninsula.
  • John Owen of Tyn-llwyn is evicted from his farm for voting Tory.^{[ citation needed ]}

Arts and literature

Awards

• The first official National Eisteddfod of Wales takes place at Holywell.

New books

• J. H. Clark – History of Monmouthshire
• John Hugh Evans – Pryddest Goffa i Thomas Aubrey
• Jane Hughes – Galargan am y diweddar Barch. Henry Rees, Liverpool
• David Watkin Jones (Dafydd Morgannwg) – Yr Ysgol Farddol
• Nathaniel Jones (Cynhafal) – Elias y Thesbiad
• John Petherick – Travels in Central Africa and Explorations of the Western Nile Tributaries
• William Rowlands – Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry(Bibliography of the Welsh) (posthumous; ed. Daniel Silvan Evans)
• Jane Williams (Ysgafell) – A History of Wales derived from Authentic Sources ^[30]
• Robert Williams (Trebor Mai) – Y Geninen

Music

• Owen Jones – Hymnau Hen a Diweddar (collection of hymns) ^[31]

Sport

• Football – Ruabon footballers set up a club at Plas Madoc.
• Mountaineering – Emmeline Lewis Lloyd attempts an ascent of the Matterhorn.

Births

• 11 January – Ralph Sweet-Escott, English born, Wales rugby international (died 1907)
• 9 April – John Hugh Edwards, politician (died 1945) ^[32]
• 19 May – John Henry Williams, Welsh politician (died 1936)
• 20 May – Robert Griffith Berry, minister and writer (died 1945)
• 30 May – Thomas Rees, theologian (died 1926) ^[33]
• 12 August – Fred Parfitt, Wales international rugby player (died 1953)
• 6 September – Walford Davies, composer (died 1944) ^[34]
• 24 September – Maud Cunnington, archaeologist (died 1951)
• 29 October – Bill Morris, Wales international rugby player (died 1946)
• 9 November – Osbert Fynes-Clinton, dialectologist (died 1941) ^[35]
• 15 November – Percy Bennett, Wales international rugby player (died 1936)
• 20 November – Herbert Tudor Buckland, architect working in Birmingham (died 1951)

Deaths

• 23 March – William Williams (Caledfryn), poet, 68
• 31 March – David Rees (Y Cynhyrfwr), Nonconformist leader and author, 67 ^[36]
• 16 April – James Davies (Iago ap Dewi), poet, 68
• 1 July – David Jones, banker and politician, 58
• 14 July – Lloyd Kenyon, 3rd Baron Kenyon, 64
• 26 August – William Williams (Creuddynfab), 55 ^[37]
• October – John Jones (Talhaiarn), poet, 59 (suicide) ^[38]
• 7 October – George Rice-Trevor, 4th Baron Dynevor, politician, 74 ^[39]
• 9 November – Harriet Windsor-Clive, 13th Baroness Windsor, philanthropist, ^[40]
• 15 December – David Williams, politician, 70
• 17 December – Sarah Jacob, "the fasting girl", 12

See also

• 1869 in Ireland

References

1. Edward Breese (1873). Kalendars of Gwynedd; or, Chronological lists of lords-lieutenant [&c.] ... for the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth. p. 24.
2. J.C. Sainty (1979). List of Lieutenants of Counties of England and Wales 1660-1974. London: Swift Printers (Sales) Ltd.
3. Nicholas, Thomas (1991). Annals and antiquities of the counties and county families of Wales. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co. p. 695. ISBN   9780806313146.
4. Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru. University of Wales Press. 1992. p. 169.
5. "Morgan, Charles Morgan Robinson (1792–1875), of Ruperra, Glam. and Tredegar, Mon". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 3 July 2013.
6. Edwin Poole (1886). The Illustrated History and Biography of Brecknockshire from the Earliest Times to the Present Day: Containing the General History, Antiquities, Sepulchral Monuments and Inscriptions. Edwin Poole. p. 378.
7. Edward Breese (1873). Kalendars of Gwynedd; or, Chronological lists of lords-lieutenant [&c.] ... for the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth. p. 26.
8. "Death of Colonel Pryse". Cambrian News. 1 June 1888. p. 4. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
9. "Myddelton Biddulph, Robert (1805-1872), of Chirk Castle, Denb. and 35 Grosvenor Place, Mdx". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
10. "Glynne, Sir Stephen Richard, 9th bt. (1807-1874), of Hawarden Castle, Flint" . Retrieved 3 December 2021.
11. Campbell, Thomas Methuen (2000). "C.R.M. Talbot 1803–1890". Morgannwg. 44: 66–104. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
12. Edward Breese (1873). Kalendars of Gwynedd; or, Chronological lists of lords-lieutenant [&c.] ... for the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth. p. 29.
13. James Henry Clark (1869). History of Monmouthshire. County Observer. p. 375.
14. Amy Audrey Locke (1916). The Hanbury Family. Arthur L. Humphreys. p.  170.
15. Smith, Jenny (1990). Portraits for a King : the British military paintings of A-J Dubois Drahonet (1791-1834. London: National Army Museum. p. 15. ISBN   9780901721211.
16. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Walsh, John Benn"  . Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 59. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
17. Fryde, E. B. (1996). Handbook of British chronology. Cambridge England: New York Cambridge University Press. p. 292. ISBN   9780521563505.
18. Thomas Duffus Hardy (1854). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae: Or A Calendar of the Principal Ecclesiastical Dignitaries in England and Wales... University Press. p.  266.
19. Thomas Duffus Hardy (1854). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae: Or A Calendar of the Principal Ecclesiastical Dignitaries in England and Wales... University Press. p.  307.
20. William Thomas Havard (1959). "Short, Thomas Vowler (1790-1872), bishop of St Asaph". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 3 December 2021.
21. The Apostolical Succession in the Church of England. James Parkes and Company. 1866. p. 15.
22. Annual Report Presented by the Council to the Court of Governors. National Library of Wales. 1962. p. 59.
23. Wales Online, "First ever Western Mail edition: May 1, 1869". Accessed 12 December 2013
24. Radford, Ken (1982). Tales of North Wales. Edinburgh: Skilton & Shaw. p. 37. ISBN   9780284986146.
25. "The Riot in Wales". The Times . No. 26455. London. 4 June 1869. p. 12.
26. Leary, Paul (2004). Irish migrants in modern Wales. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. p. 105. ISBN   9780853238485.
27. Ifano Jones (1925). A History of Printing and Printers in Wales to 1810, and of Successive and Related Printers to 1923: Also, A History of Printing and Printers in Monmouthshire to 1923. W. Lewis (printers) Limited. p. 180.
28. The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. 2008.
29. Barton, John (1994). Off the beaten track. Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England Old Saybrook, Conn: Mooreland Pub. Globe Pequot Press. p. 123. ISBN   9781564402943.
30. Roberts, Gwyneth (2020). Jane Williams (Ysgafell. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 152. ISBN   9781786835642.
31. Robert Thomas Jenkins. "Jones, Owen (1825-1900), cleric and musician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 12 December 2025.
32. Davies, William Llewelyn (2001). "Edwards, John Hugh (1869-1945)". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales.
33. Richard Griffith Owen. "REES, THOMAS (1869-1926), principal of Bala-Bangor Independent College". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 12 December 2025.
34. John Charles McLean (2001). "Davies, Sir Henry Walford (1869-1941), musician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 4 December 2021.
35. Emyr Gwynne Jones (2001). "FYNES-CLINTON, OSBERT HENRY (1869 - 1941), Professor of French and Romance Philology at the University College of North Wales, Bangor". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 12 December 2025.
36. John Dyfnallt Owen (1959). "Rees, David (1801-1869), Congregational minister, and editor". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 4 December 2021.
37. Margaret Beatrice Davies (1959). "Williams, William (Creuddynfab; 1814-1869), poet and literary critic". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 4 December 2021.
38. David Gwenallt Jones (1959). "Jones, John (Talhaiarn; 1810-1869), architect and poet". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 4 December 2021.
39. "The Death of Lord Dynevor (editorial)". Welshman. 15 October 1869. p. 5. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
40. "Death of the Baroness Windsor", The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, 13 November 1869, p.5