1839 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1839 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

*Prince of Wales - "vacant"
*Princess of Wales - "vacant"

Events

*March - John Frost loses his position as a magistrate because of his Chartist sympathies.
*May 8 - Henry Vincent is arrested after addressing a Chartist meeting and taken to prison at Monmouth.
*May 13 - Beginning of the Rebecca Riots.
*July 25 - William Gladstone marries Catherine Glynne of Hawarden.
*August 27 - Mary Anne Lewis, widow of Cardiff MP Wyndham Lewis, marries Benjamin Disraeli.
*October 5 - Opening of West Bute Dock.
*November 4 - Newport Rising: several thousand coal miners march on the Westgate Hotel in Newport to liberate Chartist prisoners. [cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/lovell.htm|title=John Lovell and the People's Charter, National Archives|accessdate=2007-09-12] 28 people are shot dead by police.
*November 23 - Zephaniah Williams, one of the leaders of the Chartist march on Newport, is arrested on board ship at Cardiff.
*Chartist riot in Llanidloes.
*Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis resigns as as chairman of the Poor Law Commission, to be replaced by his son, George Cornewall Lewis.

Arts and literature

New books

*William Bingley - "Excursions in North Wales"
*Maria James - "Wales and other Poems"
*William Williams (Caledfryn) - "Drych Barddonol"

Music

*John Roberts (Ieuan Gwyllt) - "Hafilah" (hymn tune)

Births

*January 9 - Sarah Jane Rees (Cranogwen), writer (d. 1916)
*March 7 - Ludwig Mond, German-born industrialist (d. 1909)
*March 31 - Thomas Henry Thomas (Arlunydd Penygarn) , artist (d. 1915)
*September 24 - John Neale Dalton, royal chaplain and tutor (d. 1931)

Deaths

*May 16 - Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis, 84
*December 29 - Hopkin Bevan, minister and author, 74

References