1700-1799
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Great Britons: 250 Lives

Britain Unlimited "Timelines" show the birth and deaths of the 250 famous British people covered in this site, together with the works they were associated with as well as other significant historical events of the time.

Information associated with the 250 figures is written in normal text and other events are written in italics.

Historical Event

Time Zones by Period
or Kings and
Queens of England

1700: Death of John Dryden on the 1st May.

1701: Act of Settlement.
Jethro Tull invents the seed drill.

1702: Daniel Defoe's tract "The Shortest Way with Dissenters" gets him imprisoned in Newgate but he continued as a secret Government Agent.
1702-13: War of the Spanish Succession.
The first English Newspaper is published entitled the "Daily Courant"

William and Mary: 1688-1702


1703: Death of Robert Hooke on the 3rd March.
Death of Samuel Pepys on the 26th May.
Birth of John Wesley
on the 17th June.

1704: Isaac Newton writes "Opticks".
13th August: The Duke of Marlborough is the victor at the Battle of Blenheim and is given land and money to build Blenheim Palace
.
Death of John Locke on the 28th October.

1705: Nicholas Hawksmoor begins working jointly on Blenheim Palace.

1706: Birth of John Baskerville on the 28th January.
23rd May: The Duke of Marlborough is victor at the Battle of Ramillies.

1707: Union of England and Scotland.
Birth of Henry Fielding on the 22nd April.
Isaac Newton writes "Arithmetica Universalis".

1708: Abraham Darby founded the Bristol Iron Company.
11th July: The Duke of Marlborough is the victor at the Battle of Oudenarde.
Birth of William Pitt, The Elder
on the 15th November.

1709: Abraham Darby successfully manufactures iron in furnaces fired with Coke Coalbrookdale.
11th September: The Duke of Marlborough is victor at the Battle of Malplaquet.

Birth of Samuel Johnson on the 18th September.
First edition of "The Tatler" magazine is published.

1710: George Berkeley is ordained as a Priest.
Birth of Thomas Arne on the 12th March.
George Berkeley writes “A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge”.

1711: Birth of David Hume on the 26th April.
First edition of "The Spectator" magazine is published.

1712: Nicholas Hawksmoor designs King's College, Cambridge.

1713: John Harrison and his brother James make a longcase clock entirely out of wood.
Birth of Lawrence Sterne on the 24th November.

Anne: 1702-1714

1714: The Admiralty put up a £20,000 reward for anyone who can accurately chart longitude.

1715: Birth of "Capability" Brown.
Jacobite Rebellion (known as the '15) to install , James Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender onto the throne.
13th November: Battle of Sherifmuir is indecisive but the Earl of Mar surrenders at Preston due to lack of support.

1716: Birth of Thomas Gray on the 26th December.

1717: Birth of David Garrick on the 19th February.
Death of Abraham Darby on the 8th March.

1718: Birth of Thomas Chippendale on the 5th June.

1719: Daniel Defoe publishes "Robinson Crusoe".

1720: The South Sea Bubble.
Opening of the Haymarket Theatre in London.
Birth of Gilbert White on the 18th July.
Edmond Halley appointed Astronomer Royal.
Birth of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" on the 31st December.

1721: Robert Walpole becomes first "Prime Minister".

1722: Death of the Duke of Marlborough on the 16th June.
Daniel Defoe publishes "Moll Flanders".
Francis Atterbury's Plot to restore the Old Pretender is discovered and quashed.

1723: Nicholas Hawksmoor appointed Surveyor General at Westminster Abbey.
Death of Sir Christopher Wren on the 25th February.
Birth of Adam Smith on the 5th June.
Birth of Joshua Reynolds on the 16th July.

1724: Birth of George Stubbs on the 24th August.

1725: Birth of Robert Clive on the 29th September.
John Harrison finishes the first of his precision clocks.
Building of Richard Boyle's Chiswick House in the Palladian style.
Guy's Hospital in London is founded.

1726: Death of John Vanbrugh on the 26th March.
Jonathan Swift publishes "Gulliver's Travels".

1727: Birth of James Wolfe on the 2nd January.
Death of Sir Isaac Newton on the 20th March.
Birth of Thomas Gainsborough on the 14th May.
"Zadok the Priest" is written by Georg Friedrich Handel.

George the First: 1714-1727

1728: John Wesley ordained as a priest and leads the Oxford Group of Methodists with his brother Charles.
Birth of Robert Adam on the 3rd July.
Birth of Matthew Boulton on the 3rd September.
Birth of Captain Cook on the 27th October.
"The Beggar's Opera is written by John Gay.

1729: Birth of Edmund Burke on the 1st January.
Start of the Methodist Movement in Oxford.

1730: Birth of Josiah Wedgewood on the 12th July.
Birth of Oliver Goldsmith on the 12th November
Henry Fielding writes “Tom Thumb”.

1731: Death of Daniel Defoe on the 24th April.
Number 10 Downing Street becomes the Prime Minster's official residence for the first time.

1732: 10 Downing Street becomes the residence of the First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister.
Birth of Richard Arkwright on the 23rd December.
William Hogarth completes his paintings "The Harlot's Progress".
Opening of Covent Garden Opera House.

1733: Jethro Tull writes “Horse Hoing Husbandry”.
Birth of Joseph Priestley on the 13th March.

1734: Death of Rob Roy MacGregor on the 28th December.

1735: William Hogarth completes his paintings "The Rake's Progress".

1736: Birth of James Watt on the 19th January.
John Harrison demonstrated the H1 chronometer.
Nicholas Hawksmoor designs Westminster Bridge.
Death of Nicholas Hawksmoor on the 24th March.

1737: Birth of Tom Paine on the 29th January.
Birth of Edward Gibbon on the 8th May.

1739: David Hume publishes "A Treatise of Human Nature".
John Wesley founded his first Methodist Chapel at Bristol.
Highwayman Dick Turpin hanged for murder at York.
1739-48: The War of Jenkin's ear.

1740: William Hogarth paints"The Shrimp Girl".
Thomas Arne wrote "The Masque of Althred" which includes "Rule Britannia".
1740-48: War of the Austrian Succession.

1741: Foundation of the Foundling Hospital by Captain Thomas Coram.
John Harrison has the H2 chronometer ready.
Death of Jethro Tull on the 21st February.
Handel writes "The Messiah" in his home near Oxford Street, London.

1742: Death of Edmond Halley on the 14th January.
Henry Fielding writes "The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews.
Opening of the first cotton factories in Birmingham and Northampton.

1743: William Hogarth completes his paintings called "Marriage a la Mode.

1745: Bonnie Prince Charlie left France and lands on the Hebridean Island of Eriskay and then raises his standard at Glenfinnan.
21st September: Battle of Prestonpans
.
Death of Jonathan Swift on the 19th October
Thomas Arne performs "God Save the King" for the first time.

1746: Bonnie Prince Charlie is defeated at the Battle of Culloden on 16th April.

1747: David Garrick becomes a co-manager at Drury Lane Theatre with James Lacy.

1748: Birth of Jeremy Bentham on the 15th February.
Thomas Gainsborough painted "Mr and Mrs. Andrews".
David Hume writes "Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding".
First Mail Coach service.

1749: Henry Fielding publishes "The History of Tom Jones".
Birth of Charles James Fox on the 24th January.
Henry Fielding forms the "Bow Street Runners" an early police force.
Birth of Edmund Jenner on the 17th May.

1750: Foundation of the Jockey Club.
John Baskerville began to experiment with papermaking and type founding.
Thomas Gray completes the "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard".

1751: Birth of Richard Brinsley Sheridan on the 4th November.
"Capability" Brown sets up his gardening. business and begins work at Croome Park, Worcestershire.
William Hogarth paints "Beer Street" and "Gin Lane.
Passing of the Gin Act.
David Hume writes "Enquiry Concerning Principles of Morals".

1752: Birth of Humphry Repton on the 21st April.
Birth of Fanney Burney on the13th June.
Britain adopts the Cabinet Government system for the first time.
The Gregorian Calendar is brought in officially and January 1st becomes New Year's Day.

1753: Foundation of the British Museum Library
Death of George Berkeley on the 14th January.

1754: Foundation of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club.
Birth of William Bligh on the 9th September.
Death of Henry Fielding on the 8th October.
Birth of George Crabbe on the 24th December.
Thomas Chippendale published "Gentleman and Cabinet-Makers Director".
Invention of the Baskerville typeface.

1755: Birth of Josiah Spode on the 8th May.
Birth of Sarah Siddons on the 5th July.
Samuel Johnson publishes the Dictionary of the English Language.

1756: Birth of William Godwin on the 3rd March.
1756-63: Seven Years War.
20th July:
122 Britons die in "The Black Hole of Calcutta".
Birth of John Loudon McAdam on the 21st September.

1757: The Battle of Plassey on the 23rd June.
Edmund Burke writes "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful".
Birth of Thomas Telford on the 9th August.
Birth of William Blake on the 28th November.

1758: Birth of Lord Nelson on the 29th September.
Laurence Sterne writes "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman".
David Hume republishes "The "Philosophical Essays" as "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding".

1759: Birth of Robert Burns on the 25th January.
Birth of Mary Wollstonecraft on the 27th April.
Birth of William Pitt the Younger on the 28th May.
Birth of William Wilberforce on the 24th August.
Death of James Wolfe at Quebec on the 13th September.
James Brindley begins the construction of the Bridgewater Canal.

George the Second: 1727-1760

1760: Turnpikes established on British roads
Matthew Boulton began manufacturing Sheffield silver plate.
Opening of Kew Gardens.

1761: Matthew Boulton began building the Soho Manufactory.
John Harrison's H4 model proved to be the most accurate chronometer.

1763: Birth of William Cobbett on the 9th March
Josiah Wedgwood patented his cream ware which became known as Queen's Ware.
At the Treaty of Paris France agreed to move out of Canada.

1764: Birth of Fletcher Christian.
Death of William Hogarth on the 26th October.
"Capability" Brown becomes Surveyor to His Majesty's Gardens and Waters at Hampton Court Palace.
Edward Gibbon tours Italy and conceives"History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".

1765: James Watt fits the Newcomen Engine with a separate condenser to increase its power.

1766: Foundation of the Lunar Society which meets at Matthew Boulton's house.
Joseph Priestley writes the “History and Present State of Electricity”.
Oliver Goldsmith publishes "The Vicar of Wakefield".
Birth of Thomas Malthus
on the 17th February.
Birth of John Dalton on the 6th September.
Henry Cavendish discovers the properties of Hydrogen, then known as "dephlogisticated air".

1768: Foundation of the Royal Academy of Arts by Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough.
Joseph Priestley's work "Essay on Government" published which inspired Thomas Jefferson with ideas for the American Declaration of Independence.
Death of Lawrence Sterne on the 18th March.

1769: First patent between Matthew Boulton and James Watt for a steam engine.
Josiah Wedgwood opens the Etruria factory.
1769-70: Charting of New Zealand by Captain Cook.
Birth of the Duke of Wellington on the 1st May.

1770: Birth of William Wordsworth on the 7th April.
Edmund Burke writes "Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents".

1771: Richard Arkwright set up a factory powered by water at Cromford in Derbyshire.
Birth of Richard Trevithick on the 13th April.
Death of Thomas Gray on the 30th July.
Birth of Walter Scott on the 15th August.
The Falkland Islands are given to Britain by Spain.

1772: Birth of Samuel Taylor Coleridge on the 21st October.
Charles James Fox promoted to become Lord of the Treasury.
King George the Third tested John Harrison's H5 chronometer.
Warren Hastings is appointed the first Governor General of India.

1773: 16th December: At The Boston Tea Party radical colonists disguised as Native Americans board British Ships and throw the cargo into the sea as a protest against taxation.
Opening of the Birmingham Assay Office aids Matthew Boulton.

David Garrick plays Hamlet at Drury Lane.
Samuel Johnson makes a journey with Boswell through the Scottish Highlands.
Oliver Goldsmith writes"She Stoops to Conquer".

1774: Death of Oliver Goldsmith on the 4th April.
Birth of Robert Southey on the 12th August.
Death of Robert Clive on the 22nd November.
Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen.

1775: Death of John Baskerville on the 8th January.
Richard Arkwright patents his carding engine machinery.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan first production of "The Rivals".
Birth of Walter Savage Landor on the 30th January.
Birth of
J.M.W. Turner on the 23rd April.
Birth of Charles Lamb on the 12th February.
Birth of Jane Austen
on the 16th December
1775-1783: Wars of the American Revolution against Britain.

1776: Death of John Harrison on the 24th March.
Adam Smith writes "The Wealth of Nations”.
Birth of John Constable on the 11th June.
Death of David Hume on the 25th August .
Edward Gibbon publishes “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”.

1777: Richard Brinsley Sheridan writes "The School for Scandal".
Josiah Wedgwood introduces jaspar ware.
In America British forces win the Battle of Brandywine Creek allowing Washington's colonial army to escape.

1778: Fanney Burney publishes her first novel "Evelina".
Death of Thomas Arne on the 5th March.
Birth of William Hazlitt on the 12th April.
Birth of Humphrey Davy
on the 17th December.
Passing of the Catholic Relief Act.

1779: Death of David Garrick on the 20th January.
Building of the world's first Ironbridge.
Death of Captain Cook on the 14th February.
Death of Thomas Chippendale in November.

1780: Birth of Elizabeth Fry on the 21st May.
George Crabbe writes "The Candidate".
2-9th June 1780: The Gordon Riots.
The Derby is run for the first time.

1781: Birth of George Stephenson on the 9th June.
George Stubbs elected a member of the Royal Academy.
9th October: Battle of Yorktown in America.

1784: Invention of shrapnel by British Lieutenant Henry Shrapnel.

1789: French Revolution.

1782: Birth of John Sell Cotman on the 16th May.
Sarah Siddons achieves recognition playing Isabella in a"Fatal Marriage".

1783: Tyburn Hill last used as a place of execution in London.
James Watt calculates the unit of Horse Power.
Death of "Capability" Brown on the 6th February.

1784: First Mail coach runs from Bristol to Death of Samuel Johnson on the 13th December.

1785: Birth of Thomas De Quincey on the 15th August.

1786: First appearance of the "Kilmarnock Edition" of Robert Burn's poems.
Edmund Burke attacks Warren Hastings the Governor of Bengal for the East India Company.

1787: Thomas Telford is made the Surveyor of Shropshire.
Foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club.

1788: Birth of Lord Byron on the 22nd January.
Death of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" on the 31st January.
Birth of Robert Peel on the 5th February.
Death of William Pitt, The Elder
on the 11th May.
Death of Thomas Gainsborough on the 2nd August.

1789: Birth of Edmund Kean on the 17th March.
Jeremy Bentham writes ”An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation”.
William Blake publishes the "Songs of Innocence".
The Mutiny on the Bounty.
Gilbert White's "Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne" is finally published.

1790: Death of Adam Smith on the 17th July.
Edmund Burke writes “Reflections on the Revolution in France”.

1791: Death of John Wesley on the 2nd March
Foundation of the Ordnance Survey.
14-17th July: Birmingham Riots against the dissenting Joseph Priestley.
Thomas Paine writes “The Rights of Man”.
Birth of Michael Faraday on the 22nd September.

1792: Death of Joshua Reynolds on the 23rd February.
Mary Wollstonecraft writes “A Vindication of the Rights of Women”.
Death of Robert Adam on the 3rd March.
Birth of Frederick Marryat on the 12th July.
Death of Richard Arkwright on the 3rd August.
Birth of Percy Shelley on the 4th August.
Birth of Charles Babbage on the 26th December.
Coal gas is used for the first time in lighting.

1793: William Blake publishes "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell".
Death of Gilbert White
on the 26th June.
John Dalton wrote "Meteorological Observations and Essays".
October 1793: Death of Fletcher Christian on the
William Godwin wrote ”An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice”.
The French Republic declares war on Britain.

1794: Death of Edward Gibbon on the 16th June.
William Blake publishes "Songs of Experience".
Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge meet in Bristol.
Joseph Priestley emigrates to America and founds the first Unitarian church there.
Tom Paine writes "The Age of Reason".

1795: Formation of the Poor Law.
Death of Josiah Wedgewood on the 3rd January.
Birth of Charles Barry on the 23rd May.
Birth of John Keats on the 31st October.
Robert Burns writes "For a' That and a' That".
Jane Austen writes the first versions of "Northanger Abbey", "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice".
Birth of Thomas Carlyle on the 4th December.

1796: Death of Robert Burns on the 21st July.
Charles Lamb's sister Mary killed his mother in a fit of madness.

1797: Death of Edmund Burke on the 9th July.
15th April: Mutiny in the Navy at Spithead.
Matthew Boulton is given a contract to make copper coinage at Soho Manufactory by the Royal Mint.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge begins writing "The Ancient Mariner".
Birth of Mary Shelley on the 30th August.
Death of Mary Wollstonecraft on the 10th September.
Birth of Charles Lyell
on the 14th November.

1798: William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge complete the "Lyrical Ballads" and Coleridge writes "Kubla Khan".
1798: William Pitt the Younger brings in Income Tax.
1st August: The Battle of the Nile
.
Thomas Malthus writes “Essays on the Principle of Population”.

1799: Humphrey Davy writes "Researches Chemical and Physical".

George the Third: 1760-1820

 

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