1787 in Great Britain explained

Events from the year 1787 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

1 January – George III writes his first letter to Arthur Young's Annals of Agriculture, under the name of Ralph Robinson of Windsor.
11 January – William Herschel discovers the Uranian moons Titania and Oberon.^[2]
19 February – William Herschel first uses the 40-foot telescope under construction for him at Slough.
13 May – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth with the eleven ships of the First Fleet carrying around 700 convicts and at least 300 crew and guards to establish a penal colony in Australia.^[3]
22 May – Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade with support from John Wesley, Josiah Wedgwood and others.^[3]
31 May – the original Lord's Cricket Ground holds its first cricket match;^[4] Marylebone Cricket Club founded.^[5]
July – Principal Triangulation of Great Britain begun under the direction of General William Roy from Hounslow Heath; in the autumn it is extended to France.^[6]
Summer – Calton weavers' strike in the west of Scotland. On 3 September, six of the Calton weavers are killed by troops.
23 December – Captain William Bligh sets sail from Spithead for Tahiti on .^[4]

Freed slave Ottobah Cugoano publishes Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species.
The Scots Musical Museum begins publication.

7 January – Patrick Nasmyth, Scottish landscape painter (died 1831)
10 February – William Bradley, Britain's tallest ever man (died 1820)
17 February – George Mogridge (Old Humphrey), miscellaneous writer and poet (died 1854)
10 March – William Etty, painter, especially of nudes (died 1849)
28 March – Claudius Rich, archaeologist and anthropologist (died 1821)
7 June – William Conybeare, geologist (died 1857)
28 June – Harry Smith, military commander (died 1860)
24 July – William Ward, cricketer (died 1849)
13 September – John Adamson, antiquary and expert on Portuguese (died 1855)
13 October – William Brockedon, painter (died 1854)
4 November – Edmund Kean, actor (died 1833)
21 November – Bryan Procter (Barry Cornwall), poet (died 1874)
22 November – Copley Fielding, watercolour landscape painter (died 1855)
16 December – Mary Russell Mitford, novelist and dramatist (died 1855)
Ignatius Bonomi, architect (died 1870)
John Dobson, architect (died 1865)
Harriet Gouldsmith, landscape painter and etcher (died 1863)
Approximate date – Ikey Solomon, receiver of stolen goods (died 1850 in Australia)

1 April – Floyer Sydenham, classical scholar (born 1710)
2 April – Thomas Gage, General (born 1719)
10 May – William Watson, physician and scientist (born 1715)
25 July – Arthur Devis, portrait painter (born 1712)
3 November – Robert Lowth, bishop and grammarian (born 1710)
18 December
- Francis William Drake, British admiral and Governor of Newfoundland (born 1724)
- Soame Jenyns, English writer (born 1704)

Web site: History of William Pitt 'The Younger' - GOV.UK . www.gov.uk . 1 July 2023 . en.
Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
Web site: BBC History British History Timeline. 2007-09-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20070909012414/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/launch_tl_british.shtml. 9 September 2007 .
Book: Williams, Hywel. Cassell's Chronology of World History. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2005. 0-304-35730-8. 339–340.
Book: Palmer, Alan. Palmer. Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd. London. 230–231. 0-7126-5616-2.
Book: Hewitt, Rachel. Rachel Hewitt
. Rachel Hewitt. Map of a Nation: a biography of the Ordnance Survey. London. Granta. 2010. 2011. 978-1-84708-254-1. 84-6.