1762 in Great Britain explained

Events from the year 1762 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III
• Prime Minister – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (Whig) (until 26 May); John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (Tory) (starting 26 May)^[1]

Events

• January – the "Cock Lane ghost" appears in London.
• 4 January – Britain declares war on Spain and Naples.^[2]
• February – 12 sperm whales strand on the east coast of England.^[3]
• 10 March – Seven Years' War – Britain captures Grenada from France.^[4]
• 20 March – debut performance of David Garrick's The Farmer's Return from London at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane.^{[5] [6]}
• 23 March – first legitimately constituted Sandemanian congregation in England, at Glover's Hall in London, as an offshoot of the Scottish Glasite sect.^[7]
• May – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne resigns and is succeeded as Prime Minister by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute,^[2] the first Scottish Prime Minister of Great Britain; a large number of Newcastle's 'Old Corps Whig' followers are dismissed from public office in the following months in what is known facetiously as the "Massacre of the Pelhamite Innocents".^[8]
• 22 May – royal family first takes up residence at Buckingham House.^[4]
• 5 June – John Wilkes founds the radical newspaper The North Briton.
• 24 June – Seven Years' War: At the Battle of Wilhelmsthal, the Anglo-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick defeats the French forces in Westphalia. The British commander Lord Granby distinguishes himself.
• mid-July - 24 November – Seven Years' War: British troops reinforce the Portuguese to resist the Invasion of Portugal by Spain.^[9]
• 13 August – Seven Years' War: The Battle of Havana concludes after more than two months with the surrender of Havana to Britain by Spain.^[2]
• September – Society for Equitable Assurances on Lives and Survivorships is founded in London. The world's oldest mutual insurer, it pioneers age-based premiums based on the mortality rate.^{[2] [10]}
• 15 September – French and Indian War – Battle of Signal Hill  - British troops defeat the French in the last battle of the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War, fought in the Newfoundland Colony.
• 24 September–6 October – Seven Years' War: Battle of Manila fought between Great Britain and Spain resulting in the British occupation of the Philippines until 1764. The British take Manila and make it an Open Port.^[2]
• November – first recorded mention of the sandwich.^[11]

Undated

• Admiral John Ross of Balnagowan Castle initiates land tenure reform in the Scottish Highlands which will evolve into the Highland Clearances.^[12]
• Building of the Plymouth Synagogue, the oldest built by Ashkenazi Jews in the English-speaking world.^[13]
• The last remaining buildings are cleared from London Bridge.^[14]
• Composer Johann Christian Bach arrives in London where he will spend the remaining 20 years of his life.
• Maling pottery is founded, initially at North Hylton on Wearside.^[15]

Publications

• William Williams Pantycelyn's Mor o Wydr (including "Gweddi am Nerth i fyned trwy anialwch y Byd", the Welsh original of the hymn "Cwm Rhondda").
• Laurence Sterne's collected sermons The Sermons of Mr. Yorick.
• James Stuart and Nicholas Revett's architectural treatise Antiquities of Athens.

Births

• 31 January – Lachlan Macquarie, Scottish-born British Army officer and Governor of New South Wales (died 1824)
• 12 February – Solomon Hirschell, chief rabbi of the United Kingdom (died 1842)
• 17 March (bapt.) – William Dawes, Royal Marines officer and colonial administrator (died 1836)
• 12 August – King George IV of the United Kingdom (died 1830)
• 11 September – Joanna Baillie, Scottish-born poet and dramatist (died 1851)
• 24 September – William Lisle Bowles, poet and critic (died 1850)
• 21 October – George Colman the Younger, dramatist and miscellaneous writer (died 1836)
• 1 November – Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (assassinated 1812)

Deaths

• 3 February – Beau Nash, dandy (born 1674)
• 23 June – Charles Cornwallis, 1st Earl Cornwallis (born 1700)
• 13 July – James Bradley, English Astronomer Royal (born 1693)
• 28 July – George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe, English politician (born 1691)
• 21 August – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English writer (born 1689)

See also

• 1762 in Wales

Notes and References

1. Book: Bryant . Christopher . Parliament: The Biography . 2014 . Doubleday . 978-0-85752-224-5 . en.
2. Book: Williams, Hywel. Cassell's Chronology of World History. registration. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2005. 0-304-35730-8. 321–322.
3. Strandings of sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus in the North Sea: history and patterns. Smeenk. C.. 1997. Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique. 2014-12-12.
4. Book: Palmer. Alan. Palmer. Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd. London. 223–224. 0-7126-5616-2.
5. Web site: Painting the Theatre: Garrick in Action . . 24 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210511163242/https://www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk/Portals/0/Graphics/Whats-On/Exhibitions/2017/Garrick%20in%20Action/Garrick%20Catalogue%20Low%20Res.pdf?ver=2017-06-05-114518-103 . 11 May 2021 . dead.
6. Book: Ritchie, Leslie. David Garrick and the mediation of celebrity. Cambridge University Press. 2019. 978-1-108-47587-7. 1047804999. 203.
7. Book: Elmes, James. A Topographical Dictionary of London and its Environs. London. Whittaker, Treacher & Arnot. 1831. 213.
8. Book: The History Today Companion to British History. registration. London. Collins & Brown. 1-85585-178-4. 1995. 591.
9. Book: Simms, Brendan. Brendan Simms. Three Victories and a Defeat: the Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, 1714–1783. London. Allen Lane. 2007. 978-0-7139-9426-1.
10. Web site: Today & History. Equitable Life. 2009-06-26. 2010-10-20. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20090629202114/http://www.equitable.co.uk/content/content_7.htm. 2009-06-29.
11. In Edward Gibbon's journal – Oxford English Dictionary.
12. Book: Richards, Eric. A History of the Highland Clearances. London. Croom Helm. 1982. 1. 249. 0-7099-2249-3.
13. Web site: Synagogue, Catherine Street, Plymouth . . 2010-10-15 .
14. Latham. Mark. The death of London's 'living bridge'. The London Journal. 35. 2010. 164–84. 10.1179/174963210x12729493038379. 144163241 .
15. Web site: Maling history: 1762-1817 - The early years. Maling Collectors Society. 2015-07-13.