This article is about the particular significance of the year 1839 to Wales and its people.
Incumbents Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey – Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire – Penry Williams 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 – Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th Baronet Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire – Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire – Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th Baronet Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire – Capel Hanbury Leigh Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – Edward Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – Sir John Owen, 1st Baronet Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – George Rodney, 3rd Baron Rodney
Bishop of Bangor – Christopher Bethell Bishop of Llandaff – Edward Copleston Bishop of St Asaph – William Carey Bishop of St Davids – John Jenkinson
Events March – John Frost, former mayor of Newport, is deprived of his position as a magistrate because of his Chartist sympathies. 30 April – Chartists riot in Llanidloes and seize control of the town for five days. 7 May – Henry Vincent is arrested after addressing a Chartist meeting and taken to prison at Monmouth. 13 May – Beginning of the Rebecca Riots. 25 July – William Ewart Gladstone marries Catherine Glynne of Hawarden. 28 August – Mary Anne Lewis, widow of Cardiff MP Wyndham Lewis, marries Benjamin Disraeli. 5 October – Opening of West Bute Dock. 4 November – Newport Rising: between 5,000 and 10,000 Chartist sympathisers led by John Frost, many of them coal miners, march on the Westgate Hotel in Newport, Monmouthshire, to liberate Chartist prisoners; around 22 are killed when troops, directed by Thomas Phillips, the mayor, fire on the crowd. This is the last large-scale armed civil rebellion against authority in mainland Britain and sees the most deaths. 23 November – Zephaniah Williams, one of the leaders of the Chartist march on Newport, is arrested on board ship at Cardiff. date unknown – Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis resigns 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 9 January – Sarah Jane Rees (Cranogwen), writer (d. 1916) 13 February (in England) – Robert Bird, politician (d. 1909) 7 March (in Germany) – Ludwig Mond, German-born industrialist (d. 1909) 31 March – Thomas Henry Thomas (Arlunydd Penygarn) later known as T. H. Thomas, artist (d. 1915) 24 September (in England) – John Neale Dalton, royal chaplain and tutor (d. 1931)
Deaths 27 January – Sir Charles Paget, MP for Caernarfon, 60 (yellow fever) 11 May – "Doctor" John Harries, Cwrt-y-cadno, physician, 54 16 May – Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis, 84R. G. Thorne, CLIVE, Edward, 2nd Baron Clive (1754-1839), of Walcot, Salop. in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, 1986. 20 May – Rice Rees, historian, 35 29 December – Hopkin Bevan, minister and author, 74
See also 1839 in Ireland
References