1785 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1785 to Wales and its people.

← 1784 1783 1782 1781 1780 1785 in Wales → 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790
Centuries:	16th 17th 18th 19th 20th
Decades:	1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s 1800s
See also:	List of years in Wales Timeline of Welsh history 1785 in Great Britain Scotland Elsewhere

Incumbents

• Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey - Henry Paget^[1][2][3][4]
• Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire – Charles Morgan of Dderw^[5]
• Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire - Thomas Bulkeley, 7th Viscount Bulkeley^[6]
• Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne^[2]
• 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^[7]
• Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire - Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet^[8]
• Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis^[2]
• Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – Sir Hugh Owen, 5th Baronet^[2]
• Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – Edward Harley, 4th Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer^[9][2]

• Bishop of Bangor – John Warren^[10][11]
• Bishop of Llandaff – Richard Watson^[12]
• Bishop of St Asaph – Jonathan Shipley^[13]
• Bishop of St Davids – Edward Smallwell^[14]

Events

Joshua Reynolds' 1785 portrait of George, Prince of Wales

• October - The Mona Mine Company is formed by Thomas Williams of Llanidan and Henry Bayly Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge.^[15]
• date unknown
  • Richard Pennant buys out the Yonge family of Devon and comes into possession of the whole of the Penrhyn estate.
  • Griffith Rowlands becomes surgeon to Chester city hospital.
  • Sir Joshua Reynolds paints George, Prince of Wales.

Arts and literature

New books

• Anna Maria Bennett - Anna: or Memoirs of a Welch Heiress^[16]
• Florence Miscellany (including poems by Hester Thrale)
• Nathaniel Williams - Darllen Dwfr a Meddyginiaeth^[17]

Births

• 2 February - John Josiah Guest, engineer and industrialist (died 1852)^[18]
• 9 August - John Henry Vivian, industrialist and politician (died 1855)
• December - Richard Jones (Gwyndaf Eryri), poet (died 1848)
• 24 December - William Bruce Knight, clergyman and scholar (died 1845)
• date unknown
  • David Hughes, Anglican priest and writer (died 1850)^[19]
  • William Owen, historian (died 1864)

Deaths

• 27 February - Robert Hughes, poet (Robin Ddu o Fôn)^[20]
• 25 April - Sir Charles Tynte, 5th Baronet, politician, 74^[21]
• June - Siôn Bradford, poet, 78?
• 20 October - David Jones of Trefriw, poet, 77?^[22]
• November (probable) - John Guest, industrialist, 72/73^[18]

References

1. Edward Breese (1873). Kalendars of Gwynedd; or, Chronological lists of lords-lieutenant [&c.] ... for the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth. p. 24.
2. J.C. Sainty (1979). List of Lieutenants of Counties of England and Wales 1660-1974. London: Swift Printers (Sales) Ltd.
3. Nicholas, Thomas (1991). Annals and antiquities of the counties and county families of Wales. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co. p. 695. ISBN 9780806313146.
4. Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru. University of Wales Press. 1992. p. 169.
5. Edwin Poole (1886). The Illustrated History and Biography of Brecknockshire from the Earliest Times to the Present Day: Containing the General History, Antiquities, Sepulchral Monuments and Inscriptions. Edwin Poole. p. 378.
6. Edward Breese (1873). Kalendars of Gwynedd; or, Chronological lists of lords-lieutenant [&c.] ... for the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth. p. 26.
7. Nicholas, Thomas (1991). Annals and antiquities of the counties and county families of Wales. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co. p. 612. ISBN 9780806313146.
8. Edward Breese (1873). Kalendars of Gwynedd; or, Chronological lists of lords-lieutenant [&c.] ... for the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth. p. 29.
9. Jonathan Williams (1859). The History of Radnorshire. R. Mason. p. 115.
10. Thomas Duffus Hardy (1854). Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae: Or A Calendar of the Principal Ecclesiastical Dignitaries in England and Wales... University Press. p. 305.
11. The Monthly Review Or Literary Journal Enlarged. Porter. 1780. p. 95.
12. John Henry James (1898). A History and Survey of the Cathedral Church of SS. Peter, Paul, Dubritius, Teilo, and Oudoceus, Llandaff. Western Mail. p. 16.
13. The Apostolical Succession in the Church of England. James Parkes and Company. 1866. p. 15.
14. Guides and Handbooks. Royal Historical Society (Great Britain). 1939. p. 163.
15. William Henry Chaloner (1 January 1992). Palatinate Studies: Chapters in the Social and Industrial History of Lancashire and Cheshire. Carnegie Publishing. ISBN 978-0-948789-85-4.
16. Darby Lewis (2012). "Anna Maria Bennett". In Diane Long Hoeveler; Frederick Burwick; Nancy Moore Goslee (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Romantic Literature. Wiley. p. 120.
17. William Rowlands (1869). Cambrian Bibliography: Containing an Account of the Books Printed in the Welsh Language, Or Relating to Wales, from the Year 1546 to the End of the Eighteenth Century. With Biographical Notices. John Pryse. pp. 624–.
18. Price, W. W. (2007). "Josiah John Guest". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
19. Ellis, Thomas Iorwerth (1959). "Hughes, David (1785–1850), cleric and author". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
20. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1891). "Hughes, Robert (1744?-1785)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 28. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
21. "KEMYS TYNTE, Sir Charles, 5th Bt. (1710-85), of Halswell, Som. and Cefn Mably, Glam". History of Parliament Online (1754-1790). Retrieved 12 November 2018.
22. Griffith Milwyn Griffiths (1959). "Jones, David (1708?-1785), 'of Trefriw ', poet, collector of manuscripts, publisher, and printer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 28 October 2021.