1848 in Wales
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 ; Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot
- 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 ; 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 – 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 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, to train teachers for Church of England schools.
- 14 November – Opening of the North Wales County Pauper Lunatic Asylum, 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''
Births
- 12 February – Beriah Gwynfe Evans, journalist and dramatist
- 18 September – Robert Harris, painter
- 5 October – Sir John Purser Griffiths, civil engineer
- 2 November – A. G. Edwards, first Archbishop of Wales
- 30 December – David Jenkins, composer
- Charles Ashton police officer, literary historian and bibliophile
Deaths
- 17 January – Edward Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis, 63
- 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
- 23 December – James Cowles Prichard, physician and ethnologist of Welsh parentage, 62