1796 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1796 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey - Henry Paget
• Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire – Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort
• Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire - Thomas Bulkeley, 7th Viscount Bulkeley
• Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne
• Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire – John Vaughan
• Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire – Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th Baronet (from 4 April)
• Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire – Sir Roger Mostyn, 5th Baronet (until 26 July); Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon (from 9 September)
• Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute
• Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire - Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th Baronet
• Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis
• Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – Richard Philipps, 1st Baron Milford
• Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – Thomas Harley

• Bishop of Bangor – John Warren
• Bishop of Llandaff – Richard Watson
• Bishop of St Asaph – Lewis Bagot
• Bishop of St Davids – William Stuart

Events

• February - The main line of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal opens; it is long, and runs from Newport to Pontnewynydd, via Pontymoile, rising by 447 feet (136.3m) through 42 locks.
• 27 February - John Stuart is created Marquess of Bute.
• June - At the British general election, Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn, backed by Bishop John Warren, challenges sitting MP Sir Robert Williams, the sitting member for Caernarvonshire; Sir Robert is easily re-elected.
• John Wilkinson blows in blast furnace No. 1 on the site that becomes Brymbo Steelworks.

Arts and literature

New books

• Charles Heath - The Excursion Down the Wye
• Thomas Pennant - Whiteford and Holywell
• Uvedale Price - An Essay on the Picturesque
• Anna Seward - Llangollen Vale and Other Poems
• David Williams - The History of Monmouthshire

Births

• 7 January - Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, only child of the Prince and Princess of Wales (died 1817)
• 8 January - Eliza Constantia Campbell, author (died 1864)
• 1 March - John Jones, Talysarn, preacher (died 1857)
• 30 September - John Mytton, sportsman (died 1834)
• December - David Owen (Brutus), writer (died 1866)

Deaths

• February - John Jones, organist, 70?
• 26 July - Sir Roger Mostyn, 5th Baronet, landowner and politician, 61
• 8 August - Peter Williams, Methodist writer, 63
• date unknown - Ioan Siencyn, poet

References