1853 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1853 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey – Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey
• Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire – John Lloyd Vaughan Watkins
• Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire – Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley, 10th Baronet
• Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – William Edward Powell
• Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire – John Campbell, 1st Earl Cawdor
• Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire – Robert Myddelton Biddulph
• Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire – Sir Stephen Glynne, 9th Baronet
• Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (from 4 May)
• Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire – Edward Lloyd-Mostyn, 2nd Baron Mostyn
• Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire – Capel Hanbury Leigh
• Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 1st Baron Sudeley
• Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – Sir John Owen, 1st Baronet
• Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – John Walsh, 1st Baron Ormathwaite
• Bishop of Bangor – Christopher Bethell
• Bishop of Llandaff – Alfred Ollivant
• Bishop of St Asaph – Thomas Vowler Short
• Bishop of St Davids – Connop Thirlwall

Events

• 23 January — Six members of the Rhyl lifeboat crew are drowned when the boat overturns.
• 11 November — Approval is given for the opening of the Vale of Neath Railway line from Gelli Tarw to Merthyr Tydfil, which had been postponed on safety grounds.
• date unknown
• David Williams (Alaw Goch) opens a new colliery at Cwmdare.
• Blaenavon Ironworks adopts the hot blast process.
• John Williams (Ab Ithel) quarrels with his friend and co-editor Harry Longueville Jones and resigns the editorship of Archaeologia Cambrensis.
• Two Welsh translations of Uncle Tom's Cabin are published: Caban F'Ewyrth Twm by Hugh Williams (Cadfan) and (an abridged version) Crynodeb o Gaban ‘Newyrth Tom by (probably) Thomas Levi (or William Williams) under the pen-name Y Lefiad.
• William Roberts (Nefydd) is appointed South Wales agent for the British and Foreign Schools Society.
• Hugh Owen becomes Chief Clerk of the Poor Law Commission.
• Robert Fulke Greville the younger returns to his family estate at Milford Haven.

Arts and literature

Awards

• William Thomas (Islwyn) wins his first major eisteddfod prize at Cefn-Coed-y-Cymer.

New books

• B. B. Woodward — The History of Wales
• W. Downing Evans — The Gwyddonwyson Wreath
• John Mills (Ieuan Glan Alarch) — British Jews
• Richard Williams Morgan — Raymonde de Monthault, The Lord Marcher
• Thomas Rowland — Welsh Grammar
• William Spurrell — English-Welsh Dictionary
• Isaac Williams — Sermons on the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays and Holy Days
• Benjamin Thomas Williams — Desirableness of a University for Wales

Music

• Robert James (Jeduthyn) marries the sister of fellow musician Joseph Parry.

Visual arts

• John Evan Thomas — ' (bronze casting, Cardiff)

Births

• 31 March — John Roberts, missionary (d. 1949 in Wales)
• 20 May — John Owen Williams, Congregational minister, poet and Archdruid (died 1932)
• 20 August — Charles Lewis, rugby player (d. 1923)
• 26 September — Godfrey Darbishire, Wales rugby international player (d. 1889)
• 5 October — Garrod Thomas, physician, philanthropist, magistrate, politician (d. 1889)

Deaths

• 23 January — Sir Love Jones-Parry, army officer and politician, 71
• 27 January — John Iltyd Nicholl, MP and judge, 55
• 18 February — , preacher, 72/73
• 6 April — John Jones, Anglican priest, scholar and literary patron, 70
• 24 April — Thomas Prothero, coal-owner, 73
• 17 November — Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort, 61
• 18 November — David Bowen, Felinfoel, Baptist minister, 78

See also

• 1853 in Ireland

References