1874 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1874 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

Events

24 January – Four pilots and two apprentices are drowned in an accident off Llanddwyn on Anglesey.
17 February – In the 1874 United Kingdom general election, newly elected MPs include David Davies (Llandinam) at Cardigan.
1 April – Frances Morgan marries Dr George Hoggan. They later open the first husband-and-wife general medical practice in the UK.
1 May – Coal-owner Sir George Elliot is raised to the baronetcy by the new prime minister, Disraeli.
15 July – Laying of the foundation stone of the clock tower at Machynlleth, built to mark the coming of age in 1873 of Viscount Castlereagh, the eldest son of the 5th Marquess of Londonderry of Plas Machynlleth.
20 July – In a mining accident at Charles Colliery, Llansamlet, nineteen men are killed.
October – The Western Mail reports a deathbed confession made to a minister in the US by a man who claimed he carried out the assault for which Dic Penderyn was executed in 1831.
24 August – William Basil Jones is consecrated Bishop of St David's.
5 October – The Powysland Club holds its annual meeting at the new Powysland Museum in Welshpool.
16 October – The first issue of Yr Ymwelydd is published in Australia under the editorship of William Meirion Evans.
unknown dates
*Strike at Dinorwig slate quarry.
*The Welsh Flannel Company is established at Holywell.
*Henry Davis Pochin begins laying out Bodnant Garden.
*John Mathias Berry and his wife Mary move to Merthyr Tydfil. The three sons born to them here go on to achieve success in business and be raised to the peerage: Henry Seymour Berry, 1st Baron Buckland, William Ewart Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose and Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley.
*Rev. Richard Williams Morgan is consecrated First Patriarch of a restored Ancient British Church by Jules Ferrette, the founder of the British Orthodox Church, taking the religious name of 'Mar Pelagius I' and undertaking to revive Celtic Christianity as practised prior to the Synod of Whitby while continuing duties as an Anglican clergyman.

Arts and literature

William Goscombe John begins assisting his father, a wood-carver, in his work at Cardiff Castle.

Awards

Evan Jones (Gurnos) wins the bardic chair at the Bangor eisteddfod.
William Thomas (Islwyn) wins a bardic chair at Rhyl.

New books

Sir William Boyd Dawkins – Cave Hunting
Gwaith Thomas Edwards
Isaac Foulkes – ''Rheinallt ab Gruffydd''

Music

Joseph Parry becomes head of the new music department at University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
The London Welsh Choral Union presents Sarah Edith Wynne with a bust of herself by Joseph Edwards.

Sport

Rugby union
*The first match is played at Cardiff Arms Park, between the Wanderers Club and Glamorgan 2nd XV.
*Newport RFC and Swansea RFC are founded.

Births

4 February – Thomas Fagan Wallace, agricultural scientist
6 February – David Evans, composer
6 May – Miriam Kate Williams ("Vulcana"), strongwoman
20 May – Sir George Lewis Barstow, civil servant
2 July – George Boots, international rugby player
15 July – Gwyn Nicholls, Wales rugby captain
16 July – William Alexander, Wales international rugby player
20 July – David Bowen (Myfyr Hefin), minister and author
30 July – Billy Meredith, footballer
31 October – James Henry Thomas, politician
12 November – Rachel Barrett, editor and suffragette
1 December – Dick Hellings, Wales international rugby player
30 December – Nantlais Williams, poet and religious leader
date unknown
*William Eames, journalist
* Thomas David Edwards, composer, musician

Deaths

3 January – Morris Williams (Nicander), author, 64
19 January – John Parry, editor, 61
19 April – Owen Jones, architect, 65
8 May – Zephaniah Williams, Chartist leader, 78
17 June – Sir Stephen Glynne, 9th Baronet, 66
10 August – David Davies (Dai'r Cantwr), Rebecca rioter
19 August – Joseph Kenny Meadows, illustrator, 83
3 October – Owen Williams, poet, 84
14 November – John Ambrose Lloyd, musician, 59
19 November – Mary Pendrill Llewelyn, writer and translator, 63