1720 in Great Britain

1720 in Great Britain:

Other years

1718 | 1719 | 1720 | 1721 | 1722

Sport

1720 English cricket season

Events from the year 1720 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George I
• Parliament – 5th

Events

• 17 February – Treaty of The Hague signed between Britain, France, Austria, the Dutch Republic and Spain ending the War of the Quadruple Alliance.
• April – "South Sea Bubble": A scheme for the South Sea Company to take over most of Britain's unconsolidated government debt massively inflates share prices; they rise to a peak in August.
• 15 April – Ralph Allen of Bath is appointed to farm Cross and Bye Posts (i.e. to manage mail not going via London), leading to his reform of the system.
• September – "South Sea Bubble": share prices, led by those of the South Sea Company, collapse.
• 16 November – pirate captain "Calico Jack" Rackham is brought to trial at Spanish Town in Jamaica; he is hanged at Port Royal two days later.
• 29 December – Haymarket Theatre opens in London.

Births

• 13 January – Richard Hurd, bishop and writer (died 1808)
• 27 January (bapt.) – Samuel Foote, dramatist and actor (died 1777)
• 9 March – Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, politician (died 1790)
• 18 July – Gilbert White, naturalist and cleric (died 1793)
• 18 August – Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, murderer (died 1760)
• 30 August – Samuel Whitbread, brewer and politician (died 1796)
• 31 December – Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (died 1788)

Deaths

• 31 January – Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, privy councillor (born c. 1645)
• 20 April – George Gordon, 1st Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (born 1637)
• 5 August – Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, English poet (born 1661)
• 9 August – Simon Ockley, orientalist (born 1678)
• 18 August – Matthew Aylmer, 1st Baron Aylmer, admiral (born c. 1650)
• 18 November – Calico Jack, pirate (born c. 1682)