1816 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1816 to Wales and its people.

← 1815 1814 1813 1812 1811 1816 in Wales → 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s
See also:	List of years in Wales 1816 in The United Kingdom Ireland Scotland

Incumbents

• Prince of Wales - George (later George IV)
• Princess of Wales - Caroline of Brunswick

Events

• 10 February - Pembroke Dock's first Royal Navy ships are launched: HMS Ariadne and HMS Valorous.[1]
• 7 May - Hay Railway opens throughout.[2]
• 24 July - Old Wye Bridge, Chepstow (rebuilt in cast iron), is opened across the River Wye.[3]
• 9 October - Fanny Imlay, half-sister of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, takes a room at the Mackworth Arms in Swansea, and instructs the maid not to disturb her. The following day she is found dead, having taken a fatal dose of laudanum.[4]
• Nantyglo Round Towers built.[5]
• Taliesin Williams, son of Iolo Morganwg, opens a school at Merthyr Tydfil.

Arts and literature

New books

• Jane Ellis - Cerddi (first published Welsh language book by a woman)
• Joseph Harris (Gomer) - Traethawd ar Briodol Dduwdod ein Harglwydd Iesu Grist
• Ann Hatton - Chronicles of an Illustrious House
• Samuel Johnson - A Diary of a Journey Into North Wales, in the Year 1774

Music

• John Ellis - Mawl yr Arglwydd (collection of hymns)[6]

Births

• 11 January - Henry Robertson, Scots engineer responsible for building the North Wales Mineral Railway (d. 1888)
• 7 March - Huw Derfel Hughes, poet and historian (d. 1890)
• 3 June - John Ormsby-Gore, 1st Baron Harlech, politician (d. 1876)
• 11 June - Thomas William Davids, ecclesiastical historian (d. 1884)
• 16 August - Charles John Vaughan, dean of Llandaff and co-founder of University of Wales, Cardiff[7]
• date unknown
  • Edward Edwards (Pencerdd Ceredigion), musician (d. 1897)
  • Edward Meredith Price, composer (d. 1898)[8]

Deaths

• 23 April - Thomas Johnes, landowner and politician, 67[9]
• 18 June - Thomas Henry, apothecary, 81
• 29 June - David Williams, Enlightenment philosopher, 78[10]
• 17 July - John Lewis, missionary, about 24 (fever)[11]
• 10 October - Fanny Imlay, half-sister of Mary Shelley, 22 (committed suicide at the Mackworth Arms in Swansea)[12]
• date unknown
  • Benjamin Davies, first Baptist minister at Haverfordwest (age unknown)[13]
  • David Jones, barrister ("the Welsh Freeholder"), c.51[14]

References

1. Alan Phillips (15 May 2010). Defending Wales: The Coast and Sea Lanes in Wartime. Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-4456-2032-9.
2. Ernest Frank Carter (1952). Britain's Railway Liveries: Colours, Crests and Linings, 1825-1948. Burke.
3. Rough Guides (2 March 2015). The Rough Guide to Wales. Apa Publications. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-241-20625-6.
4. Pollin, B. R. (1965). "Fanny Godwin's Suicide Re-examined". Études Anglaises. 18 (3): 258–68.
5. Thomas, Jeffrey L. (2004). "Nantyglo Round Towers". Retrieved 9 July 2014.
6. Phyllis Kinney (15 April 2011). Welsh Traditional Music. University of Wales Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-7083-2358-8.
7. Roach, John. "Vaughan, Charles John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28124. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
8. Maggie Humphreys; Robert Evans (1 January 1997). Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland. A&C Black. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-7201-2330-2.
9. Lewis Namier; John Brooke (1985). The House of Commons 1754-1790. Boydell & Brewer. p. 683. ISBN 978-0-436-30420-0.
10. David Williams. "Williams, David (1738-1816), littérateur and political pamphleteer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
11. Evan Lewis Evans. "Davies, David (1792?-1816), Wesleyan missionary". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
12. John Cordy Jeaffreson (20 September 2018). The Real Shelley. BoD – Books on Demand. p. 271. ISBN 978-3-7340-1053-8.
13. Robert Thomas Jenkins. "Davies, David (1800-1856), Baptist minister and college tutor". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
14. "Jones, David (1765-1816)" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.