1834 in the United Kingdom explained

Events from the year 1834 in the United Kingdom. Uniquely, four Prime Ministers serve during the year.

Incumbents

• Monarch – William IV
• Prime Minister – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (Whig) (until 16 July); William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (Whig) (starting 16 July, until 14 November); Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (Tory) (starting 14 November, until 10 December); Robert Peel (Conservative) (starting 10 December)
• Foreign Secretary – Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (until 14 November) Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (starting 14 November)

Events

• February – Robert Owen organises the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union.^[1]
• March – William Whewell (anonymously) first publishes the term scientist in the Quarterly Review (but notes it as "not generally palatable").^[2]
• 18 March – the Tolpuddle Martyrs, six Dorset farm labourers, are sentenced to be transported to a penal colony for forming a trade union.^[3]
• 23 May – The Exchequer is abolished as a revenue collecting department of the British government by the Office of Receipt of Exchequer Act.
• 23 June – HMS Tartarus is launched at Pembroke Dock. It is the Royal Navy's first steam-powered man-of-war (a paddle gunvessel).^[4]
• 16 July – Lord Melbourne succeeds Earl Grey as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 25 July – hanging in chains upon a gibbet after execution is abolished in England by the Hanging-in-Chains Abolition Act.
• 1 August – slavery abolished in most of the British Empire by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.^[3]
• 14 August – Poor Law Amendment Act states the able-bodied cannot receive assistance unless they enter a workhouse; poor-law authorities should no longer attempt to identify the fathers of illegitimate children to recover support from them.
• 15 August – Parliament approves the creation of the colony of South Australia.^[5]
• August – Foresters Friendly Society formed as the Ancient Order of Foresters in Rochdale.
• 22 September – the Leeds and Selby Railway in Yorkshire is officially opened; at 700yd long, its Marsh Lane tunnel through Richmond Hill, Leeds, is the world's longest railway tunnel at this date and the first through which passengers are hauled by steam locomotives.^[6]
• 7 October – Birmingham Town Hall, designed by Joseph Hansom and Edward Welch, is opened for the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival.
• 16 October – burning of Parliament: Much of the Palace of Westminster is destroyed by fire.
• 14 November – William IV dismisses the government of Melbourne, after proposals for Church reform are made. The Duke of Wellington forms a caretaker government. This will be the last time a British sovereign chooses a Prime Minister contrary to the will of Parliament.
• 24 November – opening of first purpose-built Temperance Hall in Britain, at Garstang in Lancashire.^[7]
• 10 December – Sir Robert Peel forms his first government.
• 17 December – the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first public railway in Ireland, opens between Dublin and Kingstown.
• 18 December
  • Tamworth Manifesto published: Peel outlines his guiding principles of government, regarded as the basis of the modern Conservative Party.^[8]
  • Tithe War in Ireland: "Rathcormac massacre": At Gortroe, near Rathcormac, County Cork, armed Constabulary reinforced by the regular British Army kill at least nine and wound thirty protesters against tithes.^[9]
• 23 December – architect and inventor Joseph Hansom patents the Hansom cab.^{[3] [5]}
• 26 December – Ursulines of Jesus take up residence at St Margaret's Convent in the Whitehouse in Edinburgh, the first Roman Catholic convent established in Scotland since the Reformation;^[10] it will be another 5 years before the first such modern establishment in England.

Undated

• The government begins to make grants of 50% towards the erection of new elementary schools in England and Wales.^[11]
• British East India Company monopoly on China trade ended.
• The Institute of British Architects in London, predecessor of the Royal Institute of British Architects, is formed.
• Harrods founded as a wholesale tea dealer in Stepney in the East End of London.^[12]
• Augustus Smith acquires the lease on the Isles of Scilly from the Duchy of Cornwall.
• History of computing hardware: Charles Babbage begins the conceptual design of an "analytical engine", a mechanical forerunner of the modern computer. It will not be built in his lifetime.^{[5] [13] [14]}
• A "Fancy Toy Dog Show" is held at Elephant and Castle in London.^[15]
• With an average Central England temperature of 10.51C, this narrowly overtakes 1733 as the hottest calendar year in the CET record until equalled in 1921 and beaten in 1949.^[16]

Publications

• W. Harrison Ainsworth's (anonymous) first novel Rookwood, an historical romance featuring the highwayman Dick Turpin.
• Edward Bulwer's (anonymous) novel The Last Days of Pompeii.
• Cuthbert Sharp's collection The Bishoprick Garland.

Births

• 28 January – Sabine Baring-Gould, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, Anglican rector and eclectic scholar (died 1924)
• 17 February – John Thelwall, radical (born 1764)
• 15 February – William Henry Preece, electrical engineer and inventor (died 1913)
• 19 February – Charles Davis Lucas, Irish Victoria Cross recipient (died 1914)
• 28 February – Charles Santley, baritone (died 1922)
• 6 March – George du Maurier, cartoonist and novelist (died 1896)
• 16 March – James Hector, geologist (died 1907)^[17]
• 24 March – William Morris, artist, writer, socialist and activist (died 1896)
• 30 April – John Lubbock, banker, archaeologist, Liberal politician, philanthropist and polymath (died 1913)
• 19 June – Charles Spurgeon, Baptist preacher (died 1892)
• 28 June – Samuel Pasco, United States Senator from Florida from 1887 to 1899 (died 1917)
• 4 July – Christopher Dresser, designer influential in the Anglo-Japanese style (died 1904)
• 4 August – John Venn, mathematician (died 1923)
• 23 August – Hugh Owen Thomas, Welsh-born orthopaedic surgeon (died 1891)
• 9 September – Joseph Henry Shorthouse, novelist (died 1903)
• 23 November – James Thomson ("B.V."), Scottish-born poet (died 1882)
• 24 December – Augustus George Vernon Harcourt, chemist (died 1919)

Deaths

• 12 January – William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1759)
• 11 April – John 'Mad Jack' Fuller, philanthropist and patron of the arts and sciences (born 1757)
• 12 July – David Douglas, botanist (born 1799)
• 25 July – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, critic, and philosopher (born 1772)
• 1 August – Robert Morrison, Protestant missionary to China (born 1782)
• 2 September – Thomas Telford, engineer (born 1757)
• 16 September – William Blackwood, writer (born 1776)
• 11 October – William John Napier, 9th Lord Napier, Navy officer, politician and diplomat (born 1786)
• 5 December – Thomas Pringle, poet (born 1789)
• 23 December – Thomas Malthus, demographer and economist (born 1766)
• 27 December – Charles Lamb, essayist (born 1775)

Notes and References

1. Book: Marsh, Arthur. Historical Directory of Trade Unions. 458. etal.
2. Web site: scientist, n.. Oxford English Dictionary online version. Oxford University Press . 2012-03-28 . March 2011.
3. Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
4. Web site: History of Pembroke Dockyard. John. Guard. 5 January 2004. 2012-01-10.
5. Book: Palmer, Alan. Palmer . Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd. London. 259–260. 0-7126-5616-2.
6. Book: Dawson, Anthony. Yorkshire's First Main Line: The Leeds & Selby Railway. Market Drayton. Railway and Canal Historical Society. 2020. 978-0-901461-67-4. 21, 25, 65.
7. Andrew. Davison. 'Try the alternative': the built heritage of the temperance movement. Brewery History. Brewery History Society. 123. Summer 2006. 92–109.
8. Web site: Marjorie. Bloy. The Peel Web. A Web of English History. 2011. 2011-02-02.
9. Book: Rathcormac Tithe Commemoration Committee. A souvenir programme commemorating the Rathmore-Gortroe massacre which took place during the Tithe War on the 18 December, 1834. 1984.
10. Web site: Introduction. The Gillis Centre. Edinburgh. 2014-04-28.
11. Book: Berry, George. Discovering Schools. Tring. Shire Publications. 1970. 0-85263-091-3.
12. Web site: A Brief History of Harrods. 2007-09-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20070919145618/http://www.harrods.com/Cultures/en-GB/History/. 19 September 2007. live.
13. Web site: Babbage's Analytical Engine, 1834–1871 (Trial model). Science Museum (London). 2010-10-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20100920230519/http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/computing_and_data_processing/1878-3.aspx. 20 September 2010. dead.
14. Book: Hyman, Anthony. R. Anthony Hyman. . Oxford University Press. 1982. 0-19-858170-X.
15. Book: Bengtson, Bo. The World of Show Dogs and Dog Shows. 2012. 978-1620080535. 2019-01-22.
16. http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/mly_cet_mean_sort.txt Hadley Centre Central England Temperature.
17. Book: Dell, R. K.. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . 1990 . Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . 13 October 2021 . Hector, James.