1785 in Wales

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

Incumbents

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


 * Bishop of Bangor – John Warren
 * Bishop of Llandaff – Richard Watson
 * Bishop of St Asaph – Jonathan Shipley
 * Bishop of St Davids – Edward Smallwell

Events

 * October - The Mona Mine Company is formed by Thomas Williams of Llanidan and Henry Bayly Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge.
 * 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.

New books

 * Anna Maria Bennett - Anna: or Memoirs of a Welch Heiress
 * Florence Miscellany (including poems by Hester Thrale)
 * Nathaniel Williams - Darllen Dwfr a Meddyginiaeth

Births

 * 2 February - John Josiah Guest, engineer and industrialist (died 1852)
 * 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)
 * William Owen, historian (died 1864)

Deaths

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