1817 in Wales

← 1816 1815 1814 1813 1812 1817 in Wales → 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s
See also:	List of years in Wales Timeline of Welsh history 1817 in The United Kingdom Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1817 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Prince of Wales - George (later George IV)
• Princess of Wales - Caroline of Brunswick

Events

• January - Riots break out in Amlwch over food prices.
• 22 July - Windham Sadler succeeds in crossing the Irish Sea by hot air balloon, landing near Holyhead.
• October John Gibson arrives in Rome to study sculpture with help from Antonio Canova.
• 6 December - Joseph Tregelles Price advertises Neath Abbey ironworks for sale.
• Lewis Weston Dillwyn retires from managing the Cambrian Pottery at Swansea.
• Richard Fothergill retires from his role in managing the Tredegar ironworks with Samuel Homfray.
• Joseph Harris (Gomer) launches the unsuccessful periodical, Greal y Bedyddwyr.
• Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis drafts the report on the Poor Law which brings its abuses to the attention of the public.
• Construction work commences on the first chapel in Tywyn.
• Approximate date - Britain's longest tramroad tunnel is opened at Pwll du near Blaenavon. The Pwll Du Tunnel is more than a mile (2400 m) in length. Begun as a mineral adit, at this time it carries a horse-drawn double track plateway of approximately 2 ft (600 mm) gauge carrying material for Blaenavon Ironworks; next summer it will be incorporated in Thomas Hill's Tramroad, connecting to the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal.

Arts and literature

New books

• Catherine Hutton - The Welsh Mountaineer
• John Thomas (Eos Gwynedd) - Annerch Plant a Rhieni oddi ar farwolaeth William Thomas mab Lewis Thomas, Llanrwst

Music

• 14 July - Robert Williams composes the famous hymn-tune Llanfair (formerly named Bethel).

Births

• 3 March - Robert Thompson Crawshay, iron-master (died 1879)
• 6 May - John Prichard, architect (d. 1886)
• June - John Corbett, industrialist (died 1901)
• 16 June - Charles Herbert James, politician (died 1890)
• 16 August - Rowland Williams, theologian and academic (died 1870)
• 17 September - Hugh Humphreys, publisher (died 1896)
• 13 November - Henry Brinley Richards, composer (died 1885)
• 17 December - Erasmus Jones, novelist (died 1909)
• Thomas Thomas, chapel architect and minister (died 1888)

Deaths

• 16 January - General Vaughan Lloyd, commander of the Woolwich Arsenal, 80
• 27 March - Josiah Boydell, artist, 65
• 17 July - William Williams (antiquary), author, 79
• 31 July - Benjamin Hall, industrialist, 36
• date unknown - David Hughes, Principal of Jesus College, Oxford