1774 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1774 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

 * Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey - Sir Nicholas Bayly, 2nd Baronet
 * Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire – Charles Morgan of Dderw
 * Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire - Thomas Wynn
 * Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne
 * Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire – George Rice
 * Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire - Richard Myddelton
 * Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire - Sir Roger Mostyn, 5th Baronet
 * Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – John Stuart, Lord Mountstuart
 * Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire - William Vaughan
 * Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – Robert Clive (until 2 November)
 * Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – Sir William Owen, 4th Baronet
 * Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – Edward Harley, 4th Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer


 * Bishop of Bangor – John Ewer (until 28 October) John Moore
 * Bishop of Llandaff – Shute Barrington
 * Bishop of St Asaph – Jonathan Shipley
 * Bishop of St Davids – Charles Moss (until 2 June); James Yorke (from 26 June)

Events

 * July - Dr Samuel Johnson accompanies Hester Thrale and her husband on a visit to North Wales.
 * unknown dates
 * John Wilkinson takes out a patent for cannon-boring at his works in Bersham.
 * An Act of Parliament establishes the Improvement Commissioners, responsible for paving, cleaning streets and providing oil lamp lighting in Cardiff.
 * Construction work is completed on Morris Castle, "Wales's first block of flats".
 * Edward Jones, an "exhorter" at Whitefield's Tabernacle, Moorfields, and a lay preacher, begins holding Welsh-language services in Cock Lane, Smithfield, London.

New books

 * Hugh Hughes - Rheolau Bywyd Dynol (translation of Robert Dodsley's The Oeconomy of Human Life
 * Dafydd Jones - Marwnad Enoch Ffransis
 * Hugh Jones (Maesglasau) - Cydymaith yr Hwsmon

Music

 * William Williams Pantycelyn - Ychydig Hymnau (hymns)

Paintings

 * Thomas Jones - The Bard
 * Richard Wilson - Llyn y Cau, Cadair Idris

Births

 * 16 January - Daniel Evans, independent minister (died 1835)
 * May - John Elias, preacher (died 1841)
 * 24 June - Azariah Shadrach, writer (died 1844)
 * date unknown - Sir John Waters, military commander (died 1842)

Deaths

 * 13 January - John Pugh Pryse, politician, 34
 * 4 July - William Price, High Sheriff of Merionethshire and Caernarvonshire, 84
 * 28 October - John Ewer, Bishop of Bangor, about 70
 * date unknown
 * Rowland Jones, philologist, 57
 * Dafydd Nicolas, poet