1731 in Great Britain explained
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 June – great fire destroys much of the centre of Blandford Forum, Dorset.[4]
- 5 June – Tiverton fire of 1731, a great fire in Tiverton, Devon.[5]
- 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.[6]
- 30 September – the village of Barnwell, Cambridgeshire, is "burned down entirely" by a fire.[7]
- 23 October – fire at Ashburnham House in London damages the nationally owned Cotton library, housed there at this time.
Undated
Publications
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
Notes and References
- Web site: History of Sir Robert Walpole - GOV.UK . www.gov.uk . 12 June 2023 . en.
- Book: Cates, William L. R.. William Leist Readwin Cates
. The Pocket Date Book. Chapman and Hall. William Leist Readwin Cates. 1863.
- Book: Williams, Hywel. Cassell's Chronology of World History. registration. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2005. 0-304-35730-8. 303.
- Web site: Blandford, Dorset 1731. FireNet. 2009. 2011-01-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20101216044057/http://fire.org.uk/blandford-dorset-1731.html. 16 December 2010.
- Book: Dickens, Charles. All the Year Round. 12 July 2012. 1869. Charles Dickens. 258.
- Peter. Selley. William Cookesley, William Hunter and the first patient to survive removal of the appendix in 1731. Journal of Medical Biography. 24. 2016. 180-3.
- Book: Fires, Great. The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance. Walford, Cornelius. C. & E. Layton. 1876. 49.
- Book: Friar, Stephen. The Sutton Companion to Local History. rev.. Stroud. Sutton Publishing. 2001. 0-7509-2723-2. 241.
- Book: Munsell, Joel. The Every Day Book of History and Chronology. D. Appleton & Co. 1858.