1773 in Great Britain explained

Events from the year 1773 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III
• Prime Minister – Frederick North, Lord North (Tory)^[1]

Events

• 1 January – the words of the hymn "Amazing Grace" (written by the curate John Newton) are probably first used in a prayer meeting at Olney, Buckinghamshire.
• 17 January – second voyage of James Cook: Captain Cook in becomes the first European explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle.^[2]
• March – General Turnpike Act regulates the system of road tolls.
• 15 March – first performance of Oliver Goldsmith's comedy She Stoops to Conquer at the Covent Garden Theatre in London.^[3]
• 27 April – Parliament passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
• 10 May – Tea Act comes into force.^[4]
• 27 May
  • Parliament passes an Act permitting assay offices in Birmingham and Sheffield.
  • Major landslip at Buildwas in the valley of the River Severn.
• May – England and Wales Precipitation totals 151.82NaN2, the wettest May on record and the solitary still-standing record wet month from the eighteenth century.^[5]
• 4 June – 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole sets out from the Nore.
• 21 June – Parliament passes the Regulating Act creating the office of governor general, with an advising council, to exercise political authority over the territory under British East India Company rule in India.^[4]
• June – John Harrison receives the Longitude prize for his invention of the first marine chronometer.^[6]
• 1 July – Parliament passes the Inclosure Act.
• 16 December – a group of American colonists, dressed as Mohawk Indians, steal aboard ships of the East India Company and dump their cargo of tea into Boston Harbor in a protest against British tax policies that became known as the Boston Tea Party.^[4]

Undated

• An informal Stock Exchange opens at Threadneedle Street in London.^[7]
• First London catering establishment to offer curry, Norrish Street Coffee House.^[8]
• Penny Post introduced in Edinburgh.^[9]

Publications

• Scottish judge James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, begins publication of Of the Origin and Progress of Language, a contribution to evolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment.
• Hester Chapone publishes the conduct book for young women Letters on the Improvement of the Mind.
• The Jockey Club's first Race calendar, edited by James Weatherby.^[7]

Births

• 14 January – William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, ambassador to China and Governor-General of India (died 1857)
• 27 January – Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (died 1843)
• 6 April – James Mill, historian, economist, political theorist and philosopher (died 1836)
• 19 May – Arthur Aikin, chemist and mineralogist (died 1854)
• 13 June – Thomas Young, physicist (died 1829)
• 23 July – Thomas Brisbane, Scottish astronomer and Governor of New South Wales (died 1860)
• 23 October – Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey, judge and literary critic (died 1850)
• 28 October – Simon Goodrich, mechanical engineer (died 1847)
• 6 November – Henry Hunt, politician (died 1835)
• 21 December – Robert Brown, botanist (died 1858)
• 27 December – George Cayley, aviation pioneer (died 1857)

Deaths

• 9 February – John Gregory, physician, medical writer and moralist (born 1724)
• 24 March – Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, statesman and man of letters (born 1694)
• 15 May – Alban Butler, Catholic priest and writer (born 1710)
• 23 July – George Edwards, naturalist (born 1693)
• 24 August – George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton, politician (born 1709)
• 7 November – Andrew Brice, printer and writer (born 1690)
• 15 November – Bernard Gates, composer (born 1686)
• 16 November – John Hawkesworth, writer (born c. 1715)
• 20 November – Charles Jennens, landowner (born c. 1700)

See also

• 1773 in Wales

Notes and References

1. Web site: History of Lord Frederick North - GOV.UK . www.gov.uk . 1 July 2023 . en.
2. Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
3. Web site: She Stoops to Conquer or The Mistakes of a Night. theatrehistory.com. 2007-08-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20070814142622/http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/goldsmith002.html. 2007-08-14.
4. Book: Williams, Hywel. Cassell's Chronology of World History. registration. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2005. 0-304-35730-8. 327–328.
5. http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadukp/data/ranked_monthly/HadEWP_ranked_mly.txt Hadley Center Ranked EWP
6. Web site: Icons, a portrait of England 1750–1800. 2007-08-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20070817164134/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1750-1800. 2007-08-17.
7. Book: Palmer, Alan. Palmer. Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd. London. 226–227. 0-7126-5616-2.
8. Book: Jenner, Greg. Greg Jenner

   . Greg Jenner. Ask A Historian. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2022. 2021. 978-1-4746-1862-5. 95.

9. Web site: Provincial Penny Posts. British Postal Museum & Archive. 2010-02-18.