1751 in Great Britain

1751 in Great Britain:

Other years

1749 | 1750 | 1751 | 1752 | 1753

Sport

1751 English cricket season

Events from the year 1751 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George II
• Prime Minister – Henry Pelham (Whig)
• Parliament – 10th

Events

• 25 March – legally New Year's Day for the last time in England and Wales.
• 31 March – Frederick, Prince of Wales dies at Leicester House, London from a lung injury and is succeeded by his son the future George III of the United Kingdom as heir apparent to the throne and Duke of Cornwall; three weeks later George is made Prince of Wales.[1] George's mother, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, becomes Dowager Princess of Wales.
• April – the Gin Act requires government inspection of distilleries and restricts sale to licensed premises.[2]
• 27 May – adoption of the Gregorian calendar: royal assent is given to An Act for Regulating the Commencement of the Year; and for Correcting the Calendar now in Use (the "Calendar Act") passed by Parliament, introducing the Gregorian Calendar, correcting the eleven-day difference between Old Style and New Style dates and making 1 January legally New Year's Day from 1752 in the British Empire.[1][3] It is largely promoted by George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield.
• 4 June – Dr John Wall and partners establish a porcelain factory in Worcester, "The Worcester Tonquin Manufactory", the origin of Royal Worcester.[4][5]
• 31 August – Robert Clive takes the Indian town of Arcot from the French.[1]
• 20 October – Charles, Duke of Bolton, marries celebrated actress Lavinia Fenton, already the mother of his three children.
• 3 December – Battle of Arnee: Robert Clive defeats a Franco-Indian force.

Undated

• A British settlement is founded in Georgetown in North America.[1]
• Newcastle Infirmary founded in Newcastle upon Tyne.
• William Hogarth engraves the prints Gin Lane, Beer Street and The Four Stages of Cruelty.[2]

Publications

• 15 February – Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard (anonymously).[6]
• Henry Fielding's novel Amelia.[1]
• Eliza Haywood's novel The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless.[7]
• David Hume's book An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals.[1]
• Tobias Smollett's novel The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle.[1]

Births

• 31 January – Priscilla Wakefield (née Bell), Quaker writer and philanthropist (died 1832)
• 2 May – John André, soldier (died 1780)
• 4 June – John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, Lord Chancellor (died 1838)
• 11 July – Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, posthumously-born daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales and later queen consort of Denmark (died 1775)
• 30 October – Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish-born dramatist and politician (died 1816)
• 14 November – Capel Lofft, lawyer, writer and astronomer (died 1824 in France)
• date unknown
  • John Bowles, political writer and lawyer (died 1819)
  • Helen Craik, Scottish novelist and poet (died 1825) (probable year)
  • Thomas Sheraton, furniture designer (died 1806)

Deaths

• 20 January – John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, politician (born 1665)
• 29 March – Thomas Coram, sea captain and philanthropist (born c.1668)
• 31 March
  • Frederick, Prince of Wales (born 1707)
  • Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford (born 1701)
• 9 June – John Machin, mathematician and astronomer (b. c.1686)
• 22 August – Andrew Gordon, Scottish-born Benedictine monk, physicist and inventor (born 1712)
• 2 October – Thomas Mathews, Welsh admiral (born 1676)
• 26 October – Philip Doddridge, nonconformist religious leader (born 1702)
• 12 December – Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, statesman and philosopher (born 1678)
• 17 December – Sir William Gooch, 1st Baronet, Governor of Virginia (born 1681)
• 19 December – Louise of Great Britain, English-born queen of Frederick V of Denmark (born 1724)

References

1. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 314–315. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
2. Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 220–221. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
3. Dagnall, H. (1991). Give us back our eleven days. Edgware: author. p. 19. ISBN 0-9515497-2-3.
4. "Dr. Wall and the first Worcester factory" (PDF). Worcester Porcelain Museum. 2010-12-31. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-28.
5. Jervis, William Percival (1911). A Pottery Primer. New York: The O'Gorman Publishing Co. pp. 104–6.
6. Cox, Michael, ed. (2004). The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860634-6.
7. Leavis, Q.D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (rev. ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.

See also