Georgian

  • 1709: Samuel Johnson is born in Lichfield

    Samuel Johnson was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, on 18 September 1709, to Michael and Sarah Johnson. His father was a bookseller. Johnson suffered serious illnesses as a child, which left him with impaired sight and hearing and scars on his face and neck. He attended Pembroke College, Oxford, but his family’s financial difficulties meant he…

  • 1717: Horace Walpole Is Born in London

    Horace Walpole was born on 24 September 1717 in Arlington Street, London. The youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, he became a writer, collector and antiquarian whose interests helped establish the Gothic fashion in eighteenth-century Britain. In 1747 Walpole bought a house at Twickenham which became known as Strawberry Hill. Over the following decades he…

  • 1726: Prison reformer John Howard is born

    John Howard was born on 2 September 1726 into a prosperous family in Hackney, east London. He later settled at Cardington in Bedfordshire, where an appointment to a county office led him into the work for which he became known. In 1773 Howard was appointed High Sheriff of Bedfordshire. The position made him responsible for…

  • 1737: Writer Maria Susanna Cooper is born in Norfolk

    Maria Susanna Cooper was born Maria Susanna Bransby in Shotesham, Norfolk, on 20 August 1737. She became an author of novels, children’s writing and poetry during the second half of the eighteenth century. She married the clergyman Samuel Cooper in 1761. Her earliest writing appears to have included children’s books, although these have not been…

  • 1745: Charles Edward Stuart lands on Eriskay

    On 23 July 1745, Charles Edward Stuart landed on the Hebridean island of Eriskay. He had come to begin an uprising intended to place his father on the British throne. Charles was the grandson of James II of England and VII of Scotland, who had been removed in 1688. His father, James Francis Edward Stuart,…

  • 1745: Charles Edward Stuart raises the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan

    Charles Edward Stuart raised his father’s standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August 1745, formally beginning the Jacobite rising that would take his army through Scotland and into England. Charles had arrived in the Highlands the previous month after sailing from France. He intended to restore the Stuart monarchy by securing the British throne for his…

  • 1745: Jacobites defeat Government forces at Prestonpans

    On 21 September 1745, the Jacobite army led by Charles Edward Stuart defeated Government forces under Sir John Cope at the Battle of Prestonpans, east of Edinburgh. It was the first major battle of the 1745 Jacobite Rising and gave the rebellion an early military victory. Charles had landed in Scotland in July and gathered…

  • 1746: The Earl of Kilmarnock is executed on Tower Hill

    William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock, was beheaded on Tower Hill on 18 August 1746 for his part in the Jacobite rising. Arthur Elphinstone, Lord Balmerino, was executed with him. Kilmarnock had joined the Jacobite army during the rising of 1745. He was captured following the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746, when government…

  • 1752: Britain changes to the Gregorian calendar

    On 14 September 1752, Britain began using the Gregorian calendar. The previous day had been Wednesday, 2 September. Thursday was dated 14 September, removing eleven dates from the British calendar. Nobody actually lost eleven days. Time continued normally from Wednesday to Thursday. The dates 3 to 13 September disappeared. Britain had continued to use the…

  • 1754: William Bligh is born in Plymouth

    William Bligh was born in Plymouth on 9 September 1754. The son of a customs officer, he went to sea as a child and became a highly skilled navigator. In 1776, Bligh was appointed sailing master of HMS Resolution for Captain James Cook’s final voyage to the Pacific. His surveying and navigational work established a…

  • 1758: Horatio Nelson is born in Norfolk

    Horatio Nelson was born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, on 29 September 1758. He was the son of the Reverend Edmund Nelson, rector of the parish, and his wife Catherine, and was one of eleven children. Nelson’s connection with the Royal Navy came through his mother’s family. His uncle, Maurice Suckling, a naval officer, helped him…

  • 1759: William Pitt the Younger is born at Hayes Place

    William Pitt the Younger was born at Hayes Place in Kent on 28 May 1759. He was born into politics. His father, William Pitt the Elder, had already held high office and carried a public reputation that gave the family name weight. That background helps explain why Pitt’s birth belongs in the record, but it…

  • 1759: William Wilberforce is born in Hull

    William Wilberforce was born in Hull on 24 August 1759. The son of a wealthy merchant, he entered Parliament at 21 and later became the principal parliamentary spokesman for the campaign to abolish the British slave trade. Wilberforce studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he became friends with the future prime minister William Pitt.…

  • 1759: James Wolfe dies at the Battle of Quebec

    Major-General James Wolfe died on 13 September 1759 after being mortally wounded during the Battle of Quebec. Wolfe commanded the British force sent to capture the French-held city during the Seven Years’ War. During the night of 12–13 September, his troops landed west of Quebec and climbed a steep path to reach the Heights of…

  • 1760: British forces complete victory at Restigouche

    On 8 July 1760, British forces completed their victory at the Battle of Restigouche. The battle was fought on the Restigouche River, between what is now Quebec and New Brunswick, and formed part of the Seven Years’ War. France had lost Quebec to British forces in 1759, but the war in Canada was not over.…

  • 1762: The future George IV is born

    George Augustus Frederick, the future George IV, was born on 12 August 1762, the first child of George III and Queen Charlotte. His parents had married less than a year earlier, on 8 September 1761. As the king’s eldest son, George was heir to the throne from birth. One week later, on 19 August, he…

  • 1765: The future William IV is born in London

    Prince William Henry, the future William IV, was born in London on 21 August 1765. He was the third son of George III and Queen Charlotte and was not expected to become king. William instead entered the Royal Navy as a teenager. He served as a midshipman and spent time in North America and the…

  • 1766: John Dalton is born in Cumberland

    John Dalton was probably born on 6 September 1766 in Eaglesfield, Cumberland. The date is widely accepted, although his birth was not entered in the Quaker register and some uncertainty remains. Dalton was born into a Quaker family. His father was a weaver, and Dalton received relatively little formal education. He began teaching at a…

  • 1768: James Cook leaves Plymouth aboard Endeavour

    James Cook sailed from Plymouth aboard Endeavour on 25 August 1768, beginning a voyage that combined astronomy, natural history, naval surveying and British territorial ambitions in the Pacific. Cook had recently been commissioned as a lieutenant and given command of the expedition. Its first major destination was Tahiti, where the Royal Society wanted observers to…

  • 1771: Walter Scott is born in Edinburgh

    Walter Scott was born in College Wynd, Edinburgh, on 15 August 1771. He became one of the most successful Scottish writers of his period, with historical novels that found readers across Europe and America. Scott contracted polio as a young child and was sent to stay with his paternal grandparents at Sandyknowe Farm in the…

  • 1791: The Priestley Riots Begin in Birmingham

    On 14 July 1791, political reformers and religious dissenters met at the Royal Hotel in Birmingham. Their dinner marked the second anniversary of the fall of the Bastille and expressed support for the early French Revolution. The diners had left when a crowd gathered outside the hotel. The building was attacked, and the violence soon…

  • 1791: Michael Faraday Is Born in Newington Butts

    Michael Faraday was born at Newington Butts, south of the City of London, on 22 September 1791. His father, James, was a blacksmith, and Faraday received little formal education. At 13, he began working for the bookseller and bookbinder George Riebau and later became his apprentice. Faraday read some of the books passing through the…

  • 1792: George Cruikshank is born in London

    George Cruikshank was born in London on 27 September 1792. He became one of the best-known British caricaturists and book illustrators of the nineteenth century. His father, Isaac Cruikshank, was an established caricaturist, and George began working as his apprentice and assistant. By the early nineteenth century, he was producing his own political and social…

  • 1794: The Royal Navy wins the Glorious First of June

    On 1 June 1794, the Royal Navy fought the French fleet in the Atlantic at the battle later known in Britain as the Glorious First of June. Britain and Revolutionary France were at war. The fighting at sea was not only about ships and honour. It was also about supplies. France needed food, and a…

  • 1796: Thomas Reid dies in Glasgow

    Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid died in Glasgow on 7 October 1796, aged 86. A leading figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, he founded the Scottish school of Common Sense philosophy. Reid began his working life in the Church of Scotland before moving into academic life at King’s College, Aberdeen. There, he helped found the Aberdeen Philosophical…

  • 1797: Mary Shelley is born in London

    Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, later Mary Shelley, was born in Somers Town, London, on 30 August 1797. Her parents were two prominent radical writers: Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. Wollstonecraft had published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. Godwin’s An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice followed in 1793. Both had criticised conventional marriage, but…

  • 1798: William Pitt fights George Tierney on Putney Heath

    William Pitt the Younger and George Tierney fought a pistol duel on Putney Heath on 27 May 1798. Pitt was the Prime Minister. Tierney was an opposition MP. Both men fired. Neither was hurt. The quarrel had begun in Parliament. Britain was at war with revolutionary France, and arguments over national defence carried heavy political…

  • 1803: Robert Emmet is executed in Dublin

    Robert Emmet was executed in Dublin on 20 September 1803, less than a day after being convicted of high treason for his part in an attempted rebellion against British rule in Ireland. Emmet had led an uprising in Dublin on 23 July. Poor preparation and confusion helped bring it to a rapid end, and he…

  • 1806: John Stuart Mill is born in London

    John Stuart Mill was born in London on 20 May 1806. The date points forward to one of the central arguments of nineteenth-century British politics: who should be free, who should be represented and who had the right to take part in public life. Mill became one of Victorian Britain’s clearest writers on liberty. His…

  • 1809: First prisoners arrive at Dartmoor Prison

    On 24 May 1809, around 2,500 French prisoners of war arrived at Dartmoor Prison. The prison had been built during the Napoleonic Wars, when Britain needed secure places to hold men captured in the long war with France. Dartmoor did not begin as the civilian prison it later became. Its first purpose was military: large-scale…

  • 1809: Old Price Riots Begin at Covent Garden Theatre

    On 18 September 1809, the rebuilt Covent Garden Theatre opened in London with a performance of Macbeth. Before the night was over, the audience had turned the occasion into the beginning of the Old Price Riots. A fire destroyed the previous theatre in September 1808. Rebuilding was expensive, and actor-manager John Philip Kemble attempted to…

  • 1812: Wellington enters Madrid

    Arthur Wellesley, Earl of Wellington, entered Madrid on 12 August 1812 with the Allied army. Joseph Bonaparte had abandoned the Spanish capital after the French defeat at Salamanca three weeks earlier. On 22 July, Wellington’s British, Portuguese and Spanish forces had defeated Marshal Marmont’s army at Salamanca. The victory disrupted the French position in central…

  • 1813: HMS Shannon captures USS Chesapeake

    On 1 June 1813, HMS Shannon captured USS Chesapeake off Boston during the War of 1812. The action came at a difficult point for British naval pride. The Royal Navy was still the stronger sea force, but American frigates had already won several single-ship actions. Those defeats challenged Britain’s claim to naval superiority. Shannon’s capture…

  • 1814: British forces capture Washington and burn public buildings

    British troops defeated an American force at Bladensburg on 24 August 1814 and entered Washington later that day. That evening they began burning public buildings in the United States’ capital, including the Capitol and the President’s House. Britain and the United States had been at war since 1812. For much of the conflict, Britain’s war…

  • 1815: Napoleon Surrenders Aboard HMS Bellerophon

    On 15 July 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte boarded HMS Bellerophon off Rochefort and placed himself in the hands of Captain Frederick Maitland. Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo on 18 June. He returned to Paris, abdicated for a second time and travelled towards the French Atlantic coast. He hoped to sail to the United States, beyond…

  • 1819: Queen Victoria is born at Kensington Palace

    Victoria was born at Kensington Palace, London, on 24 May 1819. She was the daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, one of George III’s sons. Her birth came at a fragile point for the Hanoverian succession. Two years earlier, Princess Charlotte had died after childbirth. Charlotte had been the only legitimate child of the Prince…

  • 1819: Cavalry attack reformers at Peterloo

    Around 60,000 people gathered at St Peter’s Field in Manchester on 16 August 1819 for a peaceful meeting demanding parliamentary reform. By the end of the afternoon, mounted troops had entered the crowd; at least 18 people had been killed, and hundreds had been injured. Manchester had grown rapidly during industrialisation but had no MP…

  • 1819: James Watt dies at Heathfield Hall

    James Watt died on 25 August 1819 at Heathfield Hall, his home near Birmingham. The Scottish engineer is often described as the inventor of the steam engine. However, steam engines were already in use in Britain before he was born. Watt’s achievement was to make them much more efficient and adaptable. Born in Greenock in…

  • 1820: James Wilson is executed on Glasgow Green

    James Wilson was hanged and beheaded on Glasgow Green on 30 August 1820 for his part in the Scottish Radical Rising earlier that year. An estimated 20,000 people gathered to watch. Wilson was a weaver from Strathaven in Lanarkshire and had been involved in demands for political reform for many years. By 1820, economic hardship…

  • 1823: Charlotte Mary Yonge is born in Otterbourne

    Charlotte Mary Yonge was born in Otterbourne, Hampshire, on 11 August 1823. She remained closely connected with the village for the rest of her life while building a long and commercially successful career as a novelist and editor. Yonge was educated largely at home under her father, William Yonge. Another important influence was John Keble,…

  • 1825: The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens

    On 27 September 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in north-east England. George Stephenson drove the steam locomotive Locomotion No. 1 on the opening journey, hauling goods and passengers. The railway ran for about 26 miles between the coalfield around Shildon and Stockton-on-Tees, through Darlington. Its main purpose was commercial. It needed to move…

  • 1827: William Blake dies in London

    William Blake died at his home in Fountain Court, London, on 12 August 1827, aged 69. The poet, painter, printmaker and engraver left work that would later reach an audience far larger than it had during his lifetime. Blake had spent much of his career combining words and images. He developed methods for producing illustrated…

  • 1830: The Liverpool and Manchester Railway Opens

    The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened on 15 September 1830, carrying invited passengers between two of Britain’s largest commercial and industrial centres. Unlike earlier lines that relied partly on horses or were built mainly to move freight, the new railway was designed to operate regular services using steam locomotives. The opening was a major public…

  • 1832: Sir Walter Scott Dies at Abbotsford

    Sir Walter Scott died at his home in Abbotsford, in the Scottish Borders, on 21 September 1832. He was 61. Scott had become one of the most successful British writers of his time through his poetry and historical novels. Financial problems dominated his final years. In 1826, the failure of publishing and printing businesses with…

  • 1833: Edward Burne-Jones is born in Birmingham

    Edward Coley Burne-Jones was born in Birmingham on 28 August 1833. He became one of the leading painters and designers associated with the later Pre-Raphaelite movement. Much of his work was for buildings and decorative objects rather than picture galleries. Burne-Jones’s father was a frame-maker and gilder. His mother died within days of his birth,…

  • 1833: The Slavery Abolition Act receives Royal Assent

    The Slavery Abolition Act received Royal Assent on 28 August 1833. It was a major change in British law, but it did not immediately free everyone enslaved across the British Empire. Parliament had prohibited the British slave trade in 1807. Slavery itself continued in British colonies, including the Caribbean, where plantation economies remained dependent on…

  • 1834: The Slavery Abolition Act comes into force

    On 1 August 1834, the Slavery Abolition Act came into force across most British colonies. Around 750,000 people ceased to be legally classified as slaves, but many did not receive immediate full freedom. Britain had abolished the British slave trade in 1807. That law prohibited British participation in the trade but did not free people…