This article is about the particular significance of the year 1848 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 – Peter Drummond-Burrell, 22nd Baron Willoughby de Eresby Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – William Edward Powell Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire – George Rice, 3rd Baron Dynevor Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire – Robert Myddelton Biddulph Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire – Sir Stephen Glynne, 9th Baronet Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute (until 18 March); 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 – Edward Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis (until 17 January); Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 1st Baron Sudeley (from 26 February) 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 – Edward Copleston Bishop of St Asaph – Thomas Vowler Short Bishop of St Davids – Connop Thirlwall
Events 1 March – Llandovery College opens in the building known as the "Depot". 1 May – Opening for Chester and Holyhead Railway traffic of the first tube of Robert Stephenson's Conwy Railway Bridge. 1 August – Opening of an isolated section of the Chester and Holyhead Railway across Anglesey from Llanfair to Holyhead. 24 August – The American barque Ocean Monarch, loaded with would-be immigrants, catches fire off Colwyn Bay, with the loss of 178 lives. 24 October – Trinity College, Carmarthen is established (as the South Wales and Monmouthshire Training College), to train teachers for Church of England schools. 14 November – Opening of the North Wales County Pauper Lunatic Asylum (North Wales Hospital), Denbigh. The new Llandeilo Bridge is completed, with a span of over the River Towy. Merthyr Tydfil Hebrew Congregation formed. Butchers' Market in Wrexham opened. Michael D. Jones becomes a minister in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Arts and literature New books John Hughes - The Self-Searcher John Jenkins - National Education Richard Williams Morgan - Maynooth and St. Asaph Edward Parry - Railway Companion from Chester to Holyhead
Music Robert Herbert Williams - Alawydd Trefriw
Visual arts John Evan Thomas - Death of Tewdric Mawr, King of Gwent (sculpture)
Births 12 February – Beriah Gwynfe Evans, journalist and dramatist (died 1927) 18 September – Robert Harris, painter (died 1919) 5 October – Sir John Purser Griffiths, civil engineer (died 1938) 2 November – A. G. Edwards, first Archbishop of Wales (died 1917) 30 December – David Jenkins, composer (died 1915) Charles Ashton police officer, literary historian and bibliophile (suicide 1899)
Deaths 17 January – Edward Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis, 63 (accidentally shot by his son) 23 February – Lord Granville Somerset, MP for Monmouthshire, 55 18 March – John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, creator of modern Cardiff, 54 27 March – William Ellis Jones, poet, 52 2 April – Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick, antiquary, 64 7 November – Thomas Price (Carnhuanawc), poet and historian, 61 15 November – David Hiram Williams, geologist and surveyor, 36 Allen's Indian Mail Vol VII No 117 London Monday, 22 January 1849 p41 23 December – James Cowles Prichard, physician and ethnologist of Welsh parentage, 62
See also 1848 in Ireland
References