1878 in Wales

← 1877 1876 1875 1874 1873 1878 in Wales → 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s
See also:	List of years in Wales Timeline of Welsh history 1878 in The United Kingdom Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1878 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

For United Kingdom incumbents, see 1878 in the United Kingdom § Incumbents.

• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Clwydfardd ^[1]

• Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey – William Owen Stanley ^{[2] [3] [4] [5]}
• Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire – Joseph Bailey, 1st Baron Glanusk ^[6]
• Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire – Edward Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn ^[7]
• Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – Edward Pryse ^{[8] [3]}
• Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire – John Campbell, 2nd Earl Cawdor
• Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire – William Cornwallis-West
• Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire – Hugh Robert Hughes
• Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot ^[9]
• Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire – Edward Lloyd-Mostyn, 2nd Baron Mostyn ^[10]
• Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire – Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort ^[11]
• Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – Edward Herbert, 3rd Earl of Powis ^[12]
• Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – William Edwardes, 4th Baron Kensington ^[3]
• Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – Arthur Walsh, 2nd Baron Ormathwaite

• Bishop of Bangor – James Colquhoun Campbell ^{[13] [14]}
• Bishop of Llandaff – Alfred Ollivant ^[15]
• Bishop of St Asaph – Joshua Hughes ^{[16] [15]}
• Bishop of St Davids – Basil Jones ^{[15] [17]}

Events

• March
  • The 'basic' process, enabling the use of phosphoric iron ore in steelmaking, developed at the failing Blaenavon Ironworks by Percy Gilchrist and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, is first made public. ^[18]
  • The Swansea Improvements and Tramway Company SITC) opens a street tramway from Gower Street, Swansea, to join up with the Oystermouth Railway. ^[19]
• 16–17 July – Spanish seaman Joseph Garcia, just released from Usk Prison, murders all 5 members of the Watkins family at Llangybi, Monmouthshire. ^[20]
• 17 July – Swansea tramways are forced by legal action to return to horse-drawn operation after experimenting with steam locomotives. ^[21]
• 11 September – In a mining accident at the Prince of Wales Colliery, Abercarn, 268 men are killed. ^[22]
• Founding of Dr Williams School for Girls at Dolgellau with Eliza Ann Fewings as first head. ^[23]
• Opening of Marine Drive around the Great Orme at Llandudno.
• A passenger ferry service is established between Bangor and Porthaethwy on the Menai Strait.
• Industrialist John Corbett buys Ynysymaengwyn.
• Slate industry in Wales: The Oakeley quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog absorbs the previously independently-worked Upper and Middle quarries. ^[24]
• The prison system in Wales is nationalised and brought under centralised government control. ^[25]
• Nanteos Cup first exhibited.

Arts and literature

New books

• Daniel Silvan Evans (editor) – Celtic Remains ^[26]
• William Rees (Gwilym Hiraethog) – Llythyrau 'Rhen Ffarmwr

Music

• John Owen (Owain Alaw) – Jeremiah (oratorio)

Sport

• Football – The Welsh Cup competition takes place for the first time, and is won by Wrexham.

Births

• 4 January – Augustus John, painter (died 1961) ^[27]
• 30 January – Reg Skrimshire, Wales and British Lions rugby union player (died 1963)
• 24 February – Lou Phillips, Wales international rugby player (killed in action 1916)
• 3 March – Edward Thomas, poet (killed in action 1917) ^[28]
• 12 March – Mary Sophia Allen, women's rights activist (died 1964)
• 15 March – Thomas Richards, historian and librarian (died 1962) ^[29]
• 21 March – Edwin Thomas Maynard, Wales international rugby player (died 1961)
• 16 April – Owen Thomas Jones, geologist (died 1967) ^[30]
• 26 May – Abel J. Jones, writer (died 1949)
• 5 June – Billy O'Neill, Wales national rugby player (died 1955)
• 8 June – Evan Roberts, religious revivalist (died 1951) ^[31]
• 20 June – Seymour Farmer, politician in Canada (died 1951)
• 1 July – Billy Trew, rugby player and Welsh Triple Crown winning captain (died 1926)
• 27 August – Edgar Rees Jones, lawyer and politician (died 1962)
• 28 October – Charles Benjamin Redrup, aeronautical engineer (died 1961)
• 30 October – Caradog Roberts, musician (died 1935) ^[32]
• 8 November – Dorothea Bate, palaeontologist (died 1951)
• 27 November – Dick Jones, Welsh international rugby player (died 1958)
• 31 December – Caradoc Evans, writer (died 1945) ^[33]
• date unknown – Richard Hughes Williams (Dic Tryfan), Welsh language short story writer (died 1919) ^[34]

Deaths

• 3 January – Morris Williams (Nicander), writer (born 1809) ^[35]
• 16 February – Alexander Jones, footballer, 23 (accidentally shot) ^[36]
• 25 February – Townsend Harris, Welsh-descended American diplomat, 73 ^[37]
• 30 March – Peter Maurice, priest and writer, 74 ^[38]
• 4 July – William Roos, Welsh artist and engraver, 70 ^[39]
• 13 August – Francis Rice, 5th Baron Dynevor, 74 ^[40]
• 30 September – Evan James, poet, lyricist of the Welsh national anthem, 69 ^[41]
• 18 November – John Jones (Mathetes), clergyman and writer, 57 ^[42]
• 20 November – William Thomas (Islwyn), poet, 46 ^[43]
• 25 November – Llewelyn Lewellin, clergyman and academic, 80 ^[44]
• 5 December – David Price, minister, 67 ^[45]
• 13 December – David Charles, secretary of the University for Wales movement, 56

See also

• 1878 in Ireland

References

1. Daniel Williams. "GRIFFITH, DAVID (Clwydfardd; 1800–1894)". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
2. Edward Breese (1873). Kalendars of Gwynedd; or, Chronological lists of lords-lieutenant [&c.] ... for the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth. p. 24.
3. J.C. Sainty (1979). List of Lieutenants of Counties of England and Wales 1660-1974. London: Swift Printers (Sales) Ltd.
4. Nicholas, Thomas (1991). Annals and antiquities of the counties and county families of Wales. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co. p. 695. ISBN   9780806313146.
5. Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru. University of Wales Press. 1992. p. 169.
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. Campbell, Thomas Methuen (2000). "C.R.M. Talbot 1803–1890". Morgannwg. 44: 66–104. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
10. Edward Breese (1873). Kalendars of Gwynedd; or, Chronological lists of lords-lieutenant [&c.] ... for the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth. p. 29.
11. James Henry Clark (1869). History of Monmouthshire. County Observer. p. 375.
12. Evan David Jones (1959). "Herbert family (earls of Powis)". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 27 February 2022.
13. Fryde, E. B. (1996). Handbook of British chronology. Cambridge England: New York Cambridge University Press. p. 292. ISBN   9780521563505.
14. Thomas Duffus Hardy (1854). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae: Or A Calendar of the Principal Ecclesiastical Dignitaries in England and Wales... University Press. p. 266.
15. Thomas Duffus Hardy (1854). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae: Or A Calendar of the Principal Ecclesiastical Dignitaries in England and Wales... University Press. p. 307.
16. The Apostolical Succession in the Church of England. James Parkes and Company. 1866. p. 15.
17. "Jones, William Basil (Tickell) (1822–1897)". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 21 April 2011.
18. Davies, William Llewelyn (2009). "Thomas, Sidney Gilchrist". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
19. The Tramway Review. Light Railway Transport League. 1993. p. 97.
20. Williams, Roger (2004). Their Deadly Trade: Murders in Monmouthshire. Llandysul: Gomer Press. ISBN   1-84323-389-4.
21. The Tramway Review. Light Railway Transport League. 1993. p. 100.
22. United States Department of State (1897). Commercial Relations of the United States with Foreign Countries. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 593.
23. W. Gareth Evans (1 January 1990). Education and Female Emancipation: The Welsh Experience, 1847–1914. University of Wales Press. p. 75. ISBN   978-0-7083-1079-3.
24. Richards, Alun John (1995). Slate Quarrying in Wales. Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. p. 131. ISBN   0-86381-319-4.
25. Davies, John; Jenkins, Nigel (2008). The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN   978-0-7083-1953-6.
26. Richard Edmund Hughes. "Evans, Daniel Silvan (1818-1903), cleric, translator, editor, and lexicographer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 13 December 2025.
27. Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan (2001). "John, Augustus Edwin (1878-1961), artist". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 27 February 2022.
28. Longley, Edna. "Thomas, (Philip) Edward". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36480.(Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
29. Gwilym Beynon Owen. "Richards, Thomas (1878–1962), librarian and historian". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
30. Pugh, W. J. (1967). "Owen Thomas Jones 1878–1967". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society . 13: 222–226. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1967.0011. S2CID   73167085.
31. Gomer Morgan Roberts. "Roberts, Evan (1878–1951), 'Y Diwygiwr (the Revivalist)' revivalist preacher". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
32. Robert David Griffith. "Roberts, Caradog (1878–1935), musician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
33. Gwyn Jones. "Evans, Caradoc (1878-1945), author". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 13 December 2025.
34. Edward Morgan Humphreys (1959). "Williams, Richard Hughes (Dic Tryfan; 1878?-1919), journalist and short story writer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 27 February 2022.
35. Thomas Iorwerth Ellis. "Williams, Morris (Nicander; 1809-1874), cleric and man of letters". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 13 December 2025.
36. Davies, Gareth; Garland, Ian (1991). Who's Who of Welsh International Soccer Players. Bridge Books. ISBN   1-872424-11-2.
37. David Shavit (1990). The United States in Asia: A Historical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 218. ISBN   978-0-313-26788-8.
38. Thomas Mardy Rees (1908). Notable Welshmen (1700-1900): ... with Brief Notes, in Chronological Order, and Authorities. Herald Office. p. 353.
39. Thomas Mardy Rees (1912). Welsh Painters, Engravers, Sculptors (1527–1911). Welsh Publishing Company. p. 125.
40. The Illustrated London News. William Little. 1878. p. 167.
41. Watkin William Price (1959). "James, Evan (Ieuan ap Iago; 1809-1878), author of the words of 'Hen Wlad fy Nhadau'". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 29 December 2021.
42. Benjamin George Owens (1959). "Jones, John (Mathetes, 1821-1878), Baptist minister and littérateur". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 29 December 2021.
43. David Gwenallt Jones. "THOMAS, WILLIAM (Islwyn; 1832–1878), Calvinistic Methodist minister, and poet". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
44. Thomas Iorwerth. "Lewellin, Llewelyn (1798–1878), cleric". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
45. "Funeral of a Dissenting Minister at Aberdare". Cardiff Times. 14 December 1878. Retrieved 22 January 2014.