1790s in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the decade 1790 - 1799 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

*Prince of Wales - George, Prince Regent
*Princess of Wales - Caroline of Brunswick (from 1795)

Events

*1790
**Richard Griffiths opens a coal mine at Gyfeillon in the Rhondda Valley, becoming the first to exploit the coal-seams of the region.
**Herbert Mackworth gives up the Parliamentary seat of Cardiff when John Stuart, Lord Mount Stuart, comes of age.
**The world's first railway viaduct (used by horse drawn wagons to carry coal from the mines) is built at Blaenavon.
**Construction of the Glamorganshire Canal begins.
*1791
**Richard Phillips builds Clyne Castle.
*1792
**Bodnant House is built.
**Completion of the Merthyr to Pontypridd section of the Glamorganshire Canal.
**Monmouthshire Canal receives its Act of Parliament.
*1793
**A clipper, the "Pennsylvania", is wrecked on The Smalls with the loss of 75 lives.
**A group of Quakers from Nantucket Island settle at Milford Haven, where they attempt to set up a whaling industry.
**"Y Cylchgrawn Cymraeg" is the first political journal to be published in the Welsh language.
*1794
**April 21 - Charles Kemble, Brecon-born brother of Sarah Siddons, makes his first appearance on the London stage as Malcolm in "Macbeth".
**Richard Crawshay buys out Anthony Bacon to become sole proprietor of Cyfarthfa ironworks.
**Completion of the Pontypridd to Cardiff section of the Glamorganshire Canal.
**Richard Hill is accused by the owners of the Glamorganshire Canal of improperly taking water from the Taff river which for his Plymouth ironworks.
**Mumbles Lighthouse is built.
**Henry Paget commands the 80th Foot in Flanders.
*1795
**April 8 - The Prince of Wales marries his first cousin, Princess Caroline of Brunswick.
**July - Ezekiel Hughes, Edward Bebb and others leave Llanbryn-mair on foot, bound for Philadelphia.
**Samuel Homfray brings an unsuccessful suit, at Hereford Assizes, of the commoners against the Dowlais Company.
*1796
**John Stuart is created Marquess of Bute.
*1797
**February 22 - Last invasion of Britain: a joint French-American force lands near Fishguard.
**February 25 - The would-be invaders surrender to the local militia.
*1798
**First recorded use of the word "tramroad", in the minutes of the Brecon and Abergavenny Canal Company.
**"Great Debate" held at Ramoth Chapel in Llanfrothen, Merionethshire, as a result of which John Richard Jones forms the "Scottish Baptist" connexion.
**The Gwyneddigion Society launches its project of publishing ancient Welsh manuscripts.
**William Lort Mansel becomes Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
**Morgan John Rhys buys a tract of land in the Allegheny mountains of North America for the purpose of founding a Welsh colony, which he names Cambria.
*1799
**Following the failure of the Pembrokeshire fish harvest, Richard Fenton imports grain from the Mediterranean to relieve the plight of local people.
**Peter Price becomes manager of Neath ironworks, and brings his family, including his wife Anna and his son Joseph Tregelles Price.
**Japanner John Pyrke relocates to Usk from London.
**Iolo Morganwg travels to North Wales to collect material for the "Myvyrian Archaiology".
**Launch of the quarterly periodical "Trysorfa Ysprydol" by Thomas Charles.

Arts and literature

New books

*1790
**Thomas Edwards (Twm o'r Nant) - "Gardd o Gerddi"
**Thomas Pennant - "Indian Zoology"
**Peter Williams - "Tafol i Bwyso Sosiniaeth"
*1792
**Hester Thrale - "The Three Warnings"
**Nicholas Owen - "Carnarvonshire, a Sketch of its History, etc."
*1793
**Edward Daniel Clarke - "A Tour Through the South of England, Wales, and Part of Ireland, Made During the Summer of 1791"
*1794
**Iolo Morganwg - "Poems Lyric and Pastoral"
**Peter Williams -"Gwreiddyn y Mater"
*1795
**Thomas Evans (Tomos Glyn Cothi) - "The Miscellaneous Repository neu Y Drysorfa Gymysgedig"
**John Jones (Jac Glan-y-gors) - "Seren Tan Gwmmwl"
*1797
**Edward Charles - "Epistolau Cymraeg at y Cymry"
**John Jones (Jac Glan-y-gors) - "Toriad y Dydd"
**Nathaniel Williams - "Pregeth a Bregethwyd yn Llangloffan ar Neilltuad … Joseph James a James Davies"
*1798
**Thomas Roberts of Llwyn'rhudol - "Cwyn yn erbyn Gorthrymder"
**Hester Thrale - "Three Warnings to John Bull before he dies. By an Old Acquaintance of the Public"
*1799
**Philip Yorke - "The Royal Tribes of Wales"

Music

*1798
**Edward Jones (Bardd y Brenin) - "Popular Cheshire Melodies"

Births

*1790
**January 27 - William Davies Evans, chess player (d. 1872)
**August 11 - William Probert, minister and author (d. 1870)
**September 16 - William Vowler Short, Bishop of St Asaph
**September 29 - John Jones (printer) (d. 1855)
*1791
**"date unknown" - Robert Everett, Independent minister and writer (d. 1875)
*1792
**July 23 - Aneurin Owen, scholar (d. 1851)
**September 5 - Sir David Davies, royal physician (d. 1865)
**December 20 - David Griffiths, missionary (d. 1863)
**"date unknown" - Sir Charles John Salusbury, Baronet (d. 1868)
*1793
**January 17 - Owen Owen Roberts, physician (d. 1866)
**March - Lewis Lewis (Lewsyn yr Heliwr), political activist (date of death unknown)
**July 19 - John Propert, physician (d. 1867)
**August 10 - John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute (d. 1848)
**September 25 - Felicia Hemans, poet (d. 1835)
*1794
**May 7 - Rees Howell Gronow, memoirist (d. 1865)
**November 3 - David Thomas, industrialist (d. 1882)
**"date unknown"
**Evan Davies (Eta Delta), Independent minister (d. 1855)
**Thomas Jenkyn, theologian (d. 1858)
*1795
**January 13 - Edward Lloyd-Mostyn, 2nd Baron Mostyn, politician (d. 1884)
**August 5 - George Rice-Trevor, 4th Baron Dynevor, politician (d. 1869)
**December - John Davies, philosopher (d. 1861)
**December 7 - Samuel George Homfray, industrialist (d. 1882)
**December 11 - Thomas Taylor Griffith, surgeon (d. 1876)
*1796
**March 1 - John Jones (Talysarn), preacher (d. 1857)
*1797
**January 11 - Connop Thirlwall, Bishop of St David's (d. 1875)
*1798
**August 16 - Alfred Ollivant, Bishop of Llandaff (d. 1882)
*1799
**June 30 - David Williams, politician (d. 1869)

Deaths

*1790
**March 20 - Thomas Richards (lexicographer), 80
**October 16 - Daniel Rowland, Methodist leader, 77
*1791
**January 11 - William Williams (Pantycelyn), poet and hymn-writer, 73
**February 13 - William Parry, artist, 48
**April 19 - Richard Price, philosopher, 68
**September 17 - David Morris (hymn writer), 47
*1792
**March 10 - John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, friend of Augusta, Princess of Wales and ancestor of the Marquesses of Bute, 78
**May 17 - Sir Noah Thomas, royal physician, 72?
*1793
**January 5 - Elizabeth Griffith, actress and writer, 73?
*1794
**January 22 - John Stuart, Lord Mount Stuart, MP and heir of the Marquess of Bute, 26
**?August - Sackville Gwynne, landowner, 43?
**August 19 - Sir Hugh Williams, 8th Baronet, soldier and politician, 76
**Hon. William Paget, MP for Anglesey, 25?
*1795
**January 25 - Morgan Edwards, Baptist historian, 72
**October 14 - Henry Owen, theologian, 79
*1796
**February - John Jones, organist, 70?
**August 8 - Peter Williams, Methodist writer, 63
*1797
**June 1 - John Walters, lexicographer, 75
*1798
**July 6 - Joshua Evans, Quaker minister of Welsh descent, 66
**December 16 - Thomas Pennant, naturalist and travel writer, 72
*1799
**May - John Evans, explorer, 29
**November 4 - Josiah Tucker, economist, 87