1868 in Wales explained

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1868 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey – Henry Paget, 2nd Marquess of Anglesey^{[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 (from 14 September)^[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 Bishop of St Asaph – Thomas Vowler Short^{[19] [20]}
• Bishop of St Davids – Connop Thirlwall^{[21] [22]}

Events

• 13 January – The brig Albion runs aground off Whitford Point and is abandoned by her seven crew members, all of whom drown.^[23]
• 22 January – Sixteen vessels are lost in a gale off the Burry estuary, with a total of thirty lives lost.
• 1 February – At the bridge over the Severn at Caersws an approach embankment, damaged by flood water, collapses under a train. The driver and fireman are killed.^[24]
• July – Pastor Karl Herman Lunde begins fund-raising for the new Norwegian Seamen's Church in Cardiff.^[25]
• 4 August – Opening of the Bala and Dolgelly Railway,^[26] completing the Ruabon to Barmouth Line via Corwen and alongside Bala Lake.
• 20 August – Abergele rail disaster: 33 people die in a fire resulting from a collision between a mail train and a set of trucks at Llandulas station near Abergele, the greatest loss of life in a railway accident in Wales.^[27]
• October – Work begins on Nant-y-Ffrith reservoir.
• 2 December – The United Kingdom general election leaves Gladstone's Liberals the dominant party in Wales, with 21 seats.^[28]
  • Among the Conservative members who lose their seats are Crawshay Bailey and Henry Austin Bruce, the latter replaced by two MPs for the expanded constituency of Merthyr Tydfil: Richard Fothergill and Henry Richard.
  • Richard Davies becomes MP for Anglesey.
  • Love Jones-Parry wins Caernarvonshire from Douglas Pennant.
  • George Osborne Morgan is elected for the first time in Denbighshire, winning the seat from the lord lieutenant, Robert Myddelton Biddulph.^[9]
  • Farmers in Cardiganshire are evicted for returning a Liberal MP, Thomas Lloyd.
• John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, sponsors restoration work at Caerphilly Castle.
• English manufacturer Frederick Walton, the inventor of linoleum, takes up residence on his father's Cwmllecoediog Estate near Aberangell, whose development he begins.^[29]
• First publication of the Welsh-language periodical, Baner America, in the USA.^[30]
• Y Dydd is founded, with Samuel Roberts (S. R.) as editor.^[31]
• Iron Age crannog is discovered on an island in Llangorse Lake, near Brecon.

Arts and literature

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales is held at Ruthin.

New books

English language

• William Forbes Skene – The Four Ancient Books of Wales

Welsh language

• Robert Elis (Cynddelw) – Geiriadur Cymreig Cymraeg
• John Ceiriog Hughes – Oriau eraill
• Jabez Edmund Jenkins – Rhiangerdd – Gwenfron o'r Dyffryn
• Griffith Jones (Glan Menai) – Enwogion Sir Aberteifi^[32]
• Rhys Gwesyn Jones – Caru, Priodi, a Byw
• John Phillips (Tegidon) – Y Ddeilen ar y Traeth

Music

• William Lewis Barrett is appointed flautist at the Italian Opera of Lutz.
• Gŵyl Ardudwy music festival is founded by John Roberts (Ieuan Gwyllt).
• Publication of Llyfr Tonau ac Emynau, edited by Edward Stephen (Tanymarian) and Joseph David Jones.

Sport

• Cricket
  • May – A team from Cadoxton play the United South of England (including W. G. Grace) at The Gnoll, Neath.

Births

• 13 April (in Birkenhead) – Caradoc Rees, politician (d. 1924)
• 29 May – Sydney Nicholls, Wales rugby international player (d. 1946)
• 10 June
  • John Jones (Ioan Brothen), poet (d. 1940)
  • David Prosser, bishop (d. 1950)
• 2 August – Sir Alfred Edward Lewis, banker (d. 1940)
• 28 August – Thomas Charles Williams, minister (d. 1927)
• 28 November – Arthur Linton, cyclist (d. 1896)
• 30 November – Ernest Newman, English-born music critic of Welsh parentage (d. 1959)^[33]
• 29 December – William Owen Jones (Eos y Gogledd), musician (d. 1928)
• date unknown
  • Roger Doughty, English-born footballer of Welsh maternity (d. 1914)
  • David Matthews, politician (d. 1960)

Deaths

• 13 January – John Parry, Mormon convert, 79
• 25 April – Sarah Williams, English novelist of Welsh parentage, 30^[34]
• 22 June – Owain Meirion, poet, 65
• 3 August – Edward Welch, architect, 61/62
• 17 August – William Nevill, 4th Earl of Abergavenny, 76^[35]
• 11 September – Maria James, poet, 74^[36]
• 16 September – John Vaughan, English ironmaster, 68
• 24 November – Sir John Dorney Harding, lawyer, 59
• date unknown – Dafydd Jones (Dewi Dywyll), balladeer (born 1803)^[37]

See also

• 1868 in Ireland

Notes and References

1. Book: Edward Breese. Kalendars of Gwynedd; or, Chronological lists of lords-lieutenant [&c.] ... for the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth. 1873. 24.
2. Book: J.C. Sainty . John Sainty (civil servant) . List of Lieutenants of Counties of England and Wales 1660-1974 . Swift Printers (Sales) Ltd . London . 1979.
3. Book: Nicholas, Thomas . Annals and antiquities of the counties and county families of Wales . Genealogical Pub. Co . Baltimore . 1991 . 9780806313146 . 695.
4. Book: Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru. University of Wales Press. 1992. 169.
5. Web site: Morgan, Charles Morgan Robinson (1792–1875), of Ruperra, Glam. and Tredegar, Mon.. History of Parliament Online. 3 July 2013.
6. Book: Edwin Poole. 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. 1886. 378.
7. Book: Edward Breese. Kalendars of Gwynedd; or, Chronological lists of lords-lieutenant [&c.] ... for the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth. 1873. 26.
8. News: Death of Colonel Pryse. 27 February 2018. Cambrian News. 1 June 1888. 4.
9. Web site: Myddelton Biddulph, Robert (1805-1872), of Chirk Castle, Denb. and 35 Grosvenor Place, Mdx.. History of Parliament Online. 3 December 2021.
10. Web site: Glynne, Sir Stephen Richard, 9th bt. (1807-1874), of Hawarden Castle, Flint.. 3 December 2021.
11. Campbell. Thomas Methuen. C.R.M. Talbot 1803–1890. Morgannwg. 2000. 44. 66–104. 17 May 2014.
12. Book: Edward Breese. Kalendars of Gwynedd; or, Chronological lists of lords-lieutenant [&c.] ... for the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth. 1873. 29.
13. Book: James Henry Clark. History of Monmouthshire. County Observer. 1869. 375.
14. Book: Amy Audrey Locke. The Hanbury Family. Arthur L. Humphreys. 1916. 170.
15. Book: Smith, Jenny . Portraits for a King : the British military paintings of A-J Dubois Drahonet (1791-1834 . National Army Museum . London . 1990 . 9780901721211 . 15.
16. Walsh, John Benn. 59.
17. Book: Fryde, E. B. . Handbook of British chronology . New York Cambridge University Press . Cambridge England . 1996 . 9780521563505 . 292.
18. Book: Thomas Duffus Hardy. Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae: Or A Calendar of the Principal Ecclesiastical Dignitaries in England and Wales.... University Press. 1854. 266.
19. s-SHOR-VOW-1790. Short, Thomas Vowler (1790-1872), bishop of St Asaph. William Thomas Havard. 1959. 3 December 2021.
20. Book: The Apostolical Succession in the Church of England. James Parkes and Company. 1866. 15.
21. Book: Thomas Duffus Hardy. Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae: Or A Calendar of the Principal Ecclesiastical Dignitaries in England and Wales.... University Press. 1854. 307.
22. Book: Annual Report Presented by the Council to the Court of Governors. National Library of Wales. 1962. 59.
23. Web site: A Chronology of Bristol Channel Shipwrecks . Ron . Tovey . Swansea Docks . 19 December 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20141222065415/http://www.swanseadocks.co.uk/Gower%20wrecks%20Rons%20write-up%20site.pdf . 22 December 2014.
24. Web site: Impact of scour and flood risk on railway structures. Rail Safety and Standards Board. 18 May 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20060215083840/http://www.rssb.co.uk/pdf/reports/research/impact%20of%20scour%20and%20flood%20risk%20on%20railway%20structures.pdf. 15 February 2006. dead.
25. Book: Virginia Hoel. Faith, Fatherland and the Norwegian Seaman: The Work of the Norwegian Seamen's Mission in Antwerp and the Dutch Ports (1864–1920). 2016. Uitgeverij Verloren. 978-90-8704-564-7. 77.
26. Book: Lawrence Popplewell. Gazetteer of the Railway Contractors and Engineers of Wales and the Borders, 1830-1914. 1 November 1984. Melledgen Press. 978-0-906637-06-7. 1867.
27. Book: Hume, Robert. Death by Chance: The Abergele Train Disaster, 1868. 2004. Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. Llanrwst. 0-86381-900-1.
28. Book: Davies, John . A history of Wales . Allen Lane Penguin Books . London . 1993 . 9780713990980 . 432.
29. Book: Quine, Dan. Dan Quine

    . Dan Quine. The Hendre Ddu Tramway. Lydney. Lightmoor Press. 2022. 978-1-915069-15-3. 38.

30. Book: George P. Rowell. American Newspaper Directory: Containing Accurate Lists of All the Newspapers and Periodicals Published in the United States and Territories, and the Dominion of Canada and British Colonies of North America. 1872. Rowell. 165.
31. Book: Alan Conway. The Welsh in America: Letters from the Immigrants. 1 January 1961. U of Minnesota Press. 978-0-8166-5737-7. 331.
32. Book: Ceredigion. 1972. Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society. 348.
33. Book: Ernest Newman. Fanfare for Ernest Newman. A. Barker. 1955. 2. 9781404792340.
34. Queries . The Red Dragon: The National Magazine of Wales . 8 . J.J. . 1885 . Harris . James . 406.
35. Book: Cokayne, George E. . George Cokayne . Gibbs . Vicary . Vicary Gibbs (St Albans MP) . The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant . I, Ab-Adam to Basing . St. Catherine Press . London . 1910 . 44.
36. Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John (1887). Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography. Page 399.
37. Web site: Jones, David (1803–1868), ballad-writer and strolling ballad-singer. Robert Thomas Jenkins. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. 30 December 2019.