1741 in Great Britain explained

Events from the year 1741 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George II
• Prime Minister – Robert Walpole (Whig)^[1]

Events

• 13 February – Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister, introduces the term "balance of power" in a speech in Parliament.^[2]
• 14 February – Irish-born actor Charles Macklin makes his London stage debut as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, pioneering a psychologically realistic style with Shakespeare's text revived, replacing George Granville's melodramatic adaptation The Jew of Venice.^{[3] [4]} Kitty Clive plays the travesti role of Portia.^[5]
• March – Lancelot "Capability" Brown joins Lord Cobham's gardening staff at Stowe, Buckinghamshire.^[6]
• 13 March – The Royal Navy brings 180 warships, frigates and transport vessels, led by Admiral Edward Vernon, to threaten Cartagena, Colombia, with more than 27,000 crew against the 3,600 defenders.^[7]
• 13 April – The Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, is established to train officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers.^[8]
• 9 May – War of Jenkins' Ear: Battle of Cartagena de Indias – Spain's defenders in New Grenada, under the command of General Blas de Lezo, defeat Vernon's Royal Navy force, leading to a British retreat to Jamaica.^[9]
• 14 May – HMS Wager, one of the vessels of George Anson's voyage around the world is wrecked on the coast of Chile, killing most of the surviving crew.^[10]
• 21 May – George II orders the British Army to prepare for an invasion of Prussia to defend his Electorate of Hanover.^[11]
• 11 June – 1741 British general election, begun on 30 April, concludes with Prime Minister Robert Walpole's Whigs retaining their majority in the House of Commons but losing control of a number of rotten and pocket boroughs^[12] with 44 seats lost to candidates who have defected to the new Patriot Whigs to oppose Walpole's policies.
• 18 July – War of Jenkins' Ear: Invasion of Cuba – Admiral Edward Vernon arrives at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.
• 4/5 August–9 December – Vernon captures Guantánamo Bay and renames it Cumberland Bay. His troops hold it but are resisted by local guerrilla forces and withdraw.
• 22 August–14 September – George Frideric Handel composes the oratorio Messiah in London to a libretto compiled by Charles Jennens, completing the "Hallelujah Chorus" on 6 September.^[13] It receives a private rehearsal in Chester in November while Handel is en route to Dublin.
• 12 October – George II, as Elector of Hanover, signs the Neustadt Protocol with France, but fails to inform his British government until after his return from Germany.^[14]
• 19 October – Actor David Garrick makes his London stage debut, in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III, having made his professional debut at Ipswich in Oroonoko earlier in the year.
• 11 December – At 11 a.m. a "fire-ball" and explosion, perhaps resulting from a meteor, is heard over southern England.^[15]
• Henry Hoare begins to lay out the landscape gardens at Stourhead, Wiltshire.

Publications

• April – Henry Fielding's anonymous An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews satirising Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela.^[16]
• Isaac Watts' The Improvement of the Mind.

Births

• 6 January – Sarah Trimmer, née Kirby, writer for children (died 1810)
• 27 January – Hester Thrale, née Salusbury, diarist (died 1821)
• 17 March – William Withering, physician (died 1799)
• c. April/May? – Henry Cort, ironmaster (died 1800)
• 11 September – Arthur Young, agriculturist and writer on social and political matters (died 1820)

Deaths

• 21 February – Jethro Tull, agriculturist (born 1674)
• 10 April – Celia Fiennes, travel writer (born 1662)
• 24 May – Lord Augustus FitzRoy, Royal Navy officer (born 1716)
• August – David Owen, Welsh harpist (born 1712)
• 31 December – Andrew Archer, politician (born 1659)

See also

• 1741 in Wales

Notes and References

1. Web site: History of Sir Robert Walpole - GOV.UK . www.gov.uk . 12 June 2023 . en.
2. Book: Cryer, Max. Common Phrases: And the Amazing Stories Behind Them. Skyhorse Publishing. 2010. 26.
3. Book: Brown, John Russell. Shakespeare's Plays in Performance. Hal Leonard Corporation. 1993. 63.
4. News: There, They Could Say, Is the Jew. 1993-04-04. Louis. Simpson. The New York Times. 2013-09-04.
5. Fiona. Ritchie. Shakespeare and the Eighteenth-Century Actress. Borrowers and Lenders. 2. 2. 2006. 2023-12-29.
6. Book: Hinde, Thomas. Capability Brown: the Story of a Master Gardener. London. Hutchinson. 1986. 0-09-163740-6. 19.
7. Book: Luna Guinot, Dolores. From Al-Andalus to Monte Sacro. Trafford Publishing. 2014.
8. Web site: Royal Engineers Museum. Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. 2008-12-24. 2008-10-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20081006072508/http://www.remuseum.org.uk/articles/rem_article_academy.htm. dead.
9. Book: Drake, James D.. Cartagena, Expedition against. The Encyclopedia of North American Colonial Conflicts to 1775. Tucker, Spencer. Harper Collins. 2008.
10. Book: Bown, Stephen R.. Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail. Macmillan. 2005.
11. Book: Brendan. Simms. Torsten. Riotte. The Hanoverian Dimension in British History, 1714–1837. Cambridge University Press. 2007. 1041.
12. Web site: Sir Robert Walpole . Prime Ministers in history . Prime Minister's Office . 2011-02-27 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080821191827/http://pm.gov.uk/output/Page174.asp . 2008-08-21 .
13. [British Library]
14. Book: Thompson, Andrew C.. George II: King and Elector. Yale University Press. 2011. 140.
15. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. "a countryman ... saw a flash of Lightning Before he heard the Noise ... The sound was double ... a Ball of Fire ... took its Course to the East ... over Westminster ... it divided into Two Heads [and] left a Train of Smoke ... which continued ascending for 20 minutes".
16. Book: Williams, Hywel. Cassell's Chronology of World History. registration. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2005. 0-304-35730-8. 308–309.