1731 in Great Britain
.svg){kind=small} 1731 in Great Britain: |
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Events from the year 1731 in Great Britain.
Incumbents
Events
- 16 March – Treaty of Vienna signed between the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Spain.[2]
- April – trader Robert Jenkins has his ear cut off by Spanish coast guards in Cuba, casus belli for the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739.[3]
- 28 April – a fire at White's Chocolate House, near St. James's Palace in London, destroys the historic club and the paintings therein, but is kept from spreading by the fast response of firemen.[4]
- 4 June – great fire destroys much of the centre of Blandford Forum, Dorset.[5]
- 5 June – Tiverton fire of 1731, a great fire in Tiverton, Devon.[6]
- 23 August – the oldest known sports score in history is recorded in the description of a cricket match at Richmond Green, when the team of Thomas Chambers of Middlesex defeats the Duke of Richmond's team by 119 to 79.
- September – the first successful appendectomy is performed by surgeon William Cookesley.[7]
- 30 September – the village of Barnwell, Cambridgeshire, is "burned down entirely" by a fire.[4]
- 23 October – fire at Ashburnham House in London damages the nationally owned Cotton library, housed there at this time.
Undated
- Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730: Legal proceedings in the courts to be conducted in the English language.[8]
- William Hogarth produces his A Harlot's Progress series of paintings.[3]
- John Bevis observes the Crab Nebula for the first time in the modern era.
Publications
- 1 January – first edition of The Gentleman's Magazine published by Edward Cave.[9]
- Jethro Tull's treatise The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry; or, an essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation.
Births
- 4 February – Mary Deverell, religious writer, essayist and poet (died 1805)
- 10 February – Thomas Beckwith, English painter, genealogist and antiquary (died 1786)
- 8 May – Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London and abolitionist (died 1809)
- August – Henry Constantine Jennings, collector of antiquities and gambler (died 1819)
- 10 October – Henry Cavendish, scientist (died 1810)
- 15 November – William Cowper, poet (died 1800)
- 12 December – Erasmus Darwin, physician and scientist, grandfather of Charles Darwin (died 1802)
- date unknown – William Aiton, Scottish botanist (died 1793)
Deaths
- 10 February – George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter, Army general (born 1657)
- 24 April – Daniel Defoe, writer (born 1660)
- 11 May – Mary Astell, feminist writer (born 1666)
- 17 May – Samuel Bradford, churchman and Whig politician (born 1652)
- 20 June – Ned Ward, writer and publican (born 1667)
- 18 July – Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet, politician (born 1653)
- 24 August – William Godolphin, Marquess of Blandford, nobleman (born c. 1699)
- 17 December – George Lockhart, Scottish writer, spy and politician, killed in duel (born 1673)
- 29 December – Brook Taylor, mathematician (born 1685)
See also
References
- ^ "History of Sir Robert Walpole - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
- ^ Cates, William L. R. (1863). The Pocket Date Book. Chapman and Hall.
- ^ a b Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 303. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- ^ a b Walford, Cornelius, ed. (1876). "Fires, Great". The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance. C. & E. Layton. p. 49.
- ^ "Blandford, Dorset 1731". FireNet. 2009. Archived from the original on 16 December 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
- ^ Dickens, Charles (1869). All the Year Round. Charles Dickens. p. 258. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
- ^ Selley, Peter (2016). "William Cookesley, William Hunter and the first patient to survive removal of the appendix in 1731". Journal of Medical Biography. 24: 180–3.
- ^ Friar, Stephen (2001). The Sutton Companion to Local History (rev. ed.). Stroud: Sutton Publishing. p. 241. ISBN 0-7509-2723-2.
- ^ Munsell, Joel (1858). The Every Day Book of History and Chronology. D. Appleton & Co.