1856 in Wales

Centuries:	17th; 18th; 19th; 20th; 21st;
Decades:	1830s; 1840s; 1850s; 1860s; 1870s;
See also:	List of years in Wales; Timeline of Welsh history 1856 in The United Kingdom Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1856 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

6 February — The sailing ship Grand Duke is wrecked off St Govan's Head, with the loss of 29 lives.
10 March — John Jones (Shoni Sguborfawr) is sentenced to three months hard labour for drunkenness.
May — John Frost is given an unconditional pardon for his role in the Newport Chartist demonstrations of 1839.
3 July — 11 men are killed in a mining accident at Coalbrookdale, Nantyglo.
15 July — 114 men are killed in a mining accident at New Cymmer Pit, Porth, Rhondda.
16 September — The Festiniog Railway publishes its first printed timetable.
Troops are sent into Talargoch in Flintshire to deal with an industrial dispute involving lead miners.
Fishguard becomes the first county court in Wales to close.
Halkyn-born Mormon missionary Dan Jones returns to the United States on conclusion of his second (4-year) mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with between 550 and 700 Welsh saints bound for Salt Lake City.^[1]
Richard Cory sells his provision business and begins to trade as "Richard Cory and Sons" in the coal and shipping business.
Pryce Pryce-Jones takes over a drapery business in Newtown and begins to trade as the "Royal Welsh Warehouse", a mail order business.
Jane Williams (Ysgafell) returns to her native London, where she remains until her death nearly thirty years later.

Summer — Marian Evans (who has not yet adopted the pseudonym George Eliot) drafts "The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton", the first of her Scenes of Clerical Life (1857) and her first work of fiction, while holidaying at Tenby.

John Ceiriog Hughes — Gohebiaethau Syr Meurig Crynswth (vol. 1)
Erasmus Jones — The Higher Law Triumphant: The Captive Youths of Judah
John Jones (Ioan Emlyn) — Tiriad y Ffrancodym Mhencaer
Samuel Prideaux Tregelles — An Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament
Jane Williams (Ysgafell) — The Origin, Rise, and Progress of the Paper People

January — The Welsh national anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, is composed by James James with lyrics by his father Evan James.

2 January — John Viriamu Jones, academic (died 1901)
26 March — David Alfred Thomas, 1st Viscount Rhondda, politician (died 1918)
1 April — Walter Jenkin Evans, academic (died 1927)
15 April — James Bevan, first Wales rugby union captain (died 1938)
15 June — Richard Garnons Williams, soldier and Wales international rugby union player (died 1915)
11 October — Sir Harry Reichel, academic (died 1931)
20 December — Egerton Phillimore, scholar (died 1937)

18 February — James Morgan, engineer, 80?
28 March — Henry Watkins William-Wynn, politician, 73
May — Thomas Robert Jones, founder of the "True Ivorites", 54
29 June — Peter Jones, Welsh-descended missionary, 54
14 August — Rev William Buckland, palaeontologist and discoverer of the "Red Lady of Paviland", 72

^ Williams, David (2009). "Jones, Daniel". Welsh Biography Online. Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru. Retrieved 10 June 2014.