This article is about the particular significance of the year 1781 to Wales and its people.
Incumbents Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey - Sir Nicholas Bayly, 2nd Baronet Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire – Charles Morgan of Dderw Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire - Thomas Wynn (until 27 December); Thomas Bulkeley, 7th Viscount Bulkeley (from 27 December) Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire – John Vaughan Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire - Richard Myddelton Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire - Sir Roger Mostyn, 5th Baronet Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – John Stuart, Lord Mountstuart Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire - Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – Sir Hugh Owen, 5th Baronet Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – Edward Harley, 4th Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer
Bishop of Bangor – John Moore Bishop of Llandaff – Shute Barrington Bishop of St Asaph – Jonathan Shipley Bishop of St Davids – John Warren
Events June - The Chancery court agrees the sale of the Kinmel estate to a London buyer. Richard Price is made an honorary LL.D. by Yale University, in the company of George Washington.
Arts and literature New books Thomas Pennant - Tours in Wales, volume 2
Music John Parry (harpist) - British Harmony, being a Collection of Antient Welsh Airs
Births 11 March (baptised) – Lucy Thomas, colliery owner ('The Mother of the Welsh Steam Coal Trade') (d. 1847) ?November - William Williams of Wern, Independent minister (d. 1840) 1 November – Robert Thomas, newspaper proprietor (died 1860 in Australia) 28 November – Love Jones-Parry, soldier, politician and High Sheriff of Anglesey (d. 1853)
Deaths 4 April – Henry Thrale, brewer, 556-57 7 May – Sir William Owen, 4th Baronet of Orielton, politician, 84 30 June – John Pettingall, Anglican clergyman and antiquarian, about 73 12 October – David Powell (Dewi Nantbrân), Franciscan friar and author
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