1794 in Great Britain explained

Events from the year 1794 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III
• Prime Minister – William Pitt the Younger (Tory)^[1]
• Foreign Secretary – Lord Grenville

Events

• 12 March – rebuilt Theatre Royal, Drury Lane opens in London.
• 23 March – British troops capture Martinique from the French.^[2]
• 19 April – Britain signs a treaty of alliance with Prussia and the Netherlands against France.^[2]
• 21 April – British troops seize Guadeloupe but the French regain control on 7 June.^[2]
• 8 May – Robert Burns' song Scots Wha Hae published in the Morning Chronicle.^[2]
• 9 May – Enlistment Act 1794 is passed, allowing Frenchmen (and other foreigners) to join the British Army.
• 14 May – Hambletonian wins his first race. He will win every subsequent race he finishes in his career.
• 1 June – Glorious First of June: A British victory over the French in the first major naval battle of the French Revolutionary Wars.^[2] The first official naval medals are awarded (selectively) to senior officers involved.
• 4 June – British troops capture Port-au-Prince in Haiti from the French.^[2]
• 17 June
  • The Anglo-Corsican Kingdom is established.
  • Battle of Mykonos: HMS Romney captures French frigate Sibylle.
• 12 July – Horatio Nelson loses his right eye during the Siege of Calvi in Corsica.^[3]
• 23 July – Ratcliffe Fire destroys over 400 homes in London.
• 21 August – British troops capture Corsica following the bombardment by Nelson.^[2]
• 29 August – the Jesuit school Stonyhurst College, founded in France by Robert Persons relocates to England.^{[4] [5]}
• September – Popgun plot: alleged conspiracy to assassinate King George III with a poisoned dart.^{[6] [7]}
• 28 September – Britain allies with Russia and Austria against France.^[2]
• 15 October – Catholic seminarians forced to leave the English College, Douai, settle at Crook Hall, County Durham.
• November – 1794 Treason Trials.
• 19 November – Britain and the United States sign the Jay Treaty (coming into effect 1796), which attempts to clear up some issues left over from the American Revolutionary War^[2] and secures a decade of peaceful trade between the two nations.^[8]

Ongoing

• French Revolutionary Wars, First Coalition

Undated

• Erasmus Darwin's Zoönomia published, anticipating later theories of evolution.
• Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason published.^[2]
• Mrs Radcliffe's Gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho published.
• Uvedale Price's Essay on the Picturesque, As Compared With The Sublime and The Beautiful published.
• First issue of The Gallery of Fashion which becomes influential in disseminating developments in women's fashion.^[9]
• St Mary's College is established at Old Oscott, near Birmingham, the first Roman Catholic seminary in England since the Reformation.
• The music of the Welsh march Men of Harlech is first published (without words) as Gorhoffedd Gwŷr Harlech - March of the Men of Harlech in the second edition of The Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards.^[10]

Births

• 17 May – Anna Brownell Jameson, writer (died 1860)
• 24 May – William Whewell, scientist, philosopher, and historian of science (died 1866)
• 14 July – John Gibson Lockhart, writer and editor (died 1854)
• 28 July – Charles Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1868)
• 30 August – John Rennie the Younger, civil engineer (died 1874)
• Unknown date – William Forster Lloyd, economist (died 1852)
• Approximate date – William Heath, caricaturist (died 1840)

Deaths

• 16 January – Edward Gibbon, historian (born 1737)
• 31 January – Mariot Arbuthnot, admiral (born 1711)
• 18 April – Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1714)
• 27 April – Sir William Jones, philologist (born 1746)
• 18 May – Yemmerrawanne, Aboriginal Australian (born c. 1775)
• 18 June – James Murray, military officer and administrator (born 1721)
• 13 July – James Lind, pioneer of naval hygiene in the Royal Navy (born 1716)
• 17 July – John Roebuck, inventor (born 1718)
• 6 August – Henry Bathurst, 2nd Earl Bathurst, politician (born 1714)
• 21 October – Francis Light, founder of the British colony of Penang (born 1740)

See also

• 1794 in Wales

Notes and References

1. Web site: History of William Pitt 'The Younger' - GOV.UK . www.gov.uk . 1 July 2023 . en.
2. Book: 1794. The People's Chronology. Everett, Jason M.. Thomson Gale. 2006. 2007-06-05. 2007-08-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20070822205439/http://www.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/. dead.
3. Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
4. Web site: Stonyhurst College. Encyclopædia Britannica.
5. Robert Persons . 11 . Pollen . John Hungerford . 1.
6. Book: Emsley, Clive. Clive Emsley

   . Clive Emsley. 2000. The Pop-Gun Plot, 1794. Davis, Michael T.. Radicalism and Revolution in Britain, 1775–1848: essays in honour of Malcolm I. Thomis. Basingstoke. Macmillan. 56–68. 0-333-74309-1.

7. Web site: James Parkinson. Whonamedit?. 2011-04-09.
8. Book: Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A.D. to 1909. Benson John. Lossing. Woodrow. Wilson. Harper & Brothers. 1910. 170.
9. Book: Downing, Sarah Jane. Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen. Oxford. Shire Publications. 2010. 978-0-7478-0767-4.
10. Book: Fuld, James J.. The Book of World-famous Music: classical, popular, and folk. Dover. 5th. 2000. 394.