1868 in Wales

Centuries:
Decades:
See also:	List of years in Wales; 1868 in The United Kingdom Ireland Scotland

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

Incumbents

Prince of Wales – Albert Edward
Princess of Wales – Alexandra

Events

13 January – The brig Albion runs aground off Whitford Point and is abandoned by her seven crew members, all of whom drown.^[1]
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.^[2]
July – Pastor Karl Herman Lunde begins fund-raising for the new Norwegian Seamen's Church in Cardiff.^[3]
4 August – Opening of the Bala and Dolgelly Railway,^[4] completing the Ruabon to Barmouth Line via Corwen and alongside Bala Lake.
20 August – 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.^[5]
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.
- 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.
- 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.
First publication of the Welsh-language periodical, Baner America, in the USA.^[6]
- Y Dydd is founded, with Samuel Roberts (S. R.) as editor.^[7]
- 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^[8]
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)
29 December – William Owen Jones (Eos y Gogledd), musician (d. 1928)
date unknown
- Roger Doughty, footballer (d. 1914)
- David Matthews, politician

Deaths

13 January – John Parry, Mormon convert, 79
25 April – Sarah Williams, English novelist of Welsh parentage, 30^[9]
22 June – Owain Meirion, poet, 65
3 August – Edward Welch, architect (born 1806)
17 August – William Nevill, 4th Earl of Abergavenny, 76^[10]
11 September – Maria James, poet, 74^[11]
16 September – John Vaughan, ironmaster, 68^[12]
24 November – Sir John Dorney Harding, lawyer, 59
date unknown
- Dafydd Jones (Dewi Dywyll), balladeer (born 1803)^[13]
- John Vaughan, ironmaster

References

^ Tovey, Ron. "A Chronology of Bristol Channel Shipwrecks" (PDF). Swansea Docks. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
^ "Impact of scour and flood risk on railway structures" (PDF). Rail Safety and Standards Board. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2006. Retrieved 18 May 2010.
^ Virginia Hoel (2016). Faith, Fatherland and the Norwegian Seaman: The Work of the Norwegian Seamen's Mission in Antwerp and the Dutch Ports (1864–1920). Uitgeverij Verloren. p. 77. ISBN 978-90-8704-564-7.
^ Lawrence Popplewell (1 November 1984). Gazetteer of the Railway Contractors and Engineers of Wales and the Borders, 1830-1914. Melledgen Press. p. 1867. ISBN 978-0-906637-06-7.
^ Hume, Robert (2004). Death by Chance: The Abergele Train Disaster, 1868. Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. ISBN 0-86381-900-1.
^ George P. Rowell (1872). 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. Rowell. p. 165.
^ Alan Conway (1 January 1961). The Welsh in America: Letters from the Immigrants. U of Minnesota Press. p. 331. ISBN 978-0-8166-5737-7.
^ Ceredigion. Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society. 1972. p. 348.
^ J.J. Harris, James (ed.). "Queries". The Red Dragon: The National Magazine of Wales. 8: 406.
^ Cokayne, George E. (1910). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. I, Ab-Adam to Basing. London: St. Catherine Press. p. 44.
^ Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John (1887). Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography. Page 399.
^ Almond, J. K. "Vaughan, John [Jacky] (1799–1868)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38091. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ Robert Thomas Jenkins. "Jones, David (1803–1868), ballad-writer and strolling ballad-singer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 30 December 2019.

[1] Tovey, Ron. "A Chronology of Bristol Channel Shipwrecks" (PDF). Swansea Docks. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.

[RSSB-2] "Impact of scour and flood risk on railway structures" (PDF). Rail Safety and Standards Board. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2006. Retrieved 18 May 2010.

[3] Virginia Hoel (2016). Faith, Fatherland and the Norwegian Seaman: The Work of the Norwegian Seamen's Mission in Antwerp and the Dutch Ports (1864–1920). Uitgeverij Verloren. p. 77. ISBN 978-90-8704-564-7.

[4] Lawrence Popplewell (1 November 1984). Gazetteer of the Railway Contractors and Engineers of Wales and the Borders, 1830-1914. Melledgen Press. p. 1867. ISBN 978-0-906637-06-7.

[5] Hume, Robert (2004). Death by Chance: The Abergele Train Disaster, 1868. Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. ISBN 0-86381-900-1.

[6] George P. Rowell (1872). 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. Rowell. p. 165.

[7] Alan Conway (1 January 1961). The Welsh in America: Letters from the Immigrants. U of Minnesota Press. p. 331. ISBN 978-0-8166-5737-7.

[8] Ceredigion. Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society. 1972. p. 348.

[9] J.J. Harris, James (ed.). "Queries". The Red Dragon: The National Magazine of Wales. 8: 406.

[10] Cokayne, George E. (1910). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. I, Ab-Adam to Basing. London: St. Catherine Press. p. 44.

[11] Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John (1887). Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography. Page 399.

[12] Almond, J. K. "Vaughan, John [Jacky] (1799–1868)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38091. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[13] Robert Thomas Jenkins. "Jones, David (1803–1868), ballad-writer and strolling ballad-singer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 30 December 2019.

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