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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1694 | - 1694: National Debt
National Debt came into effect in England
- 1694: Stamp Duties
Stamp Duties introduced into Britain from Holland
- 1694: Mary II
Mary II death leaves William III as sole ruler
- 1694: Triennial Act
Triennial Act, new Parliamentary elections every three years
- 1694: Poll Tax
Scotland: Poll Tax imposed on all over sixteen, except the destitute and insane (-1699)
- 27 Jul 1694: Bank of England founded
Bank of England founded by William Paterson (a Scot)
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| 2 | 1695 | - 1695: Freedom of Press
Freedom of Press in England granted
- 1695: Bank of Scotland
Bank of Scotland founded
- 1695: Act of Parliament
Act of Parliament imposes a fine on all who fail to inform the parish minister of the birth of a child (repealed 1706)
- 1695: Start of Dissenters' lists
Start of Dissenters' lists in parish registers - children born but not christened in the parish church - some were named 'Papist' and others 'Protestants'
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| 3 | 1697 | - 2 Dec 1697: Opening of St Paul's Cathedral
Official opening of St Paul's Cathedral
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| 4 | 1698 | - 1698: Steam Engine
Invention of steam engine by Capt Thomas Savery
- 1698: Darien Expedition
Darien Expedition: a disastrous attempt to establish a Scots settlement in Panama
- 1698: Duties (taxes) on entries in parish registers
Duties (taxes) on entries in parish registers - repealed after five years
- 4 Jan 1698: Palace of Whitehall
Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London destroyed by fire
- 14 Nov 1698: Eddystone Lighthouse first lit
Eddystone Lighthouse (Henry Winstanley's) first lit; completed 10 days earlier
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| 5 | 1700 | - 1700: Population
Population in England and Scotland approx 7.5 million
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| 6 | 1701 | - 1701: Act of Settlement
Act of Settlement bars Catholics from the British throne
- 23 May 1701: Captain Kidd hanged
After being convicted of piracy and murdering William Moore, Captain
William Kidd hanged in London
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| 7 | 1702 | - 8 Mar 1702: Queen Anne
Anne Stuart becomes Queen
- 11 Mar 1702: The Daily Courant
First English daily newspaper The Daily Courant (till 1735)
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| 8 | 1703 | - 4 Aug 1703: British take Gibraltar
British take Gibraltar
- 24 Nov 1703—2 Dec 1703: Most violent storms of the millennium
Climate: Most violent storms of the millennium cause vast damage across southern England - about a third of Britain's merchant fleet lost, and Eddystone lighthouse destroyed on 27 November (Nov 24 - Dec 2)
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| 9 | 1704 | - 1704: Penal Code enacted
Penal Code enacted - Catholics barred from voting, education and the military
- 13 Aug 1704: Battle of Blenheim
The Battle of Blenheim (referred to in some countries as the Second Battle of Höchstädt), fought on 13 August 1704, was a major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession.[1] Louis XIV of France sought to knock Emperor Leopold out of the war by seizing Vienna, the Habsburg capital, and gain a favourable peace settlement.
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| 10 | 1705 | - 1705: Thomas Newcomen
First workable steam pumping engine devised by Thomas Newcomen (some say c1710
or 1711)
- 1705: Isaac Newton knighted
Isaac Newton knighted (for his work at the Royal Mint)
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| 11 | 1706 | - 1706: First evening newspaper
First evening newspaper The Evening Post' issued in London
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| 12 | 1707 | - 16 Jan 1707: Union with Scotland
Union with Scotland - Scots agree to send 16 peers and 45 MPs to English
Parliament in return for full trading privileges - Scottish Parliament meets for the last time in March
- 1 May 1707: The Kingdom of Great Britain established
English and Scottish Parliaments united by an Act of the English Parliament -
The Kingdom of Great Britain established - largest free-trade area in Europe at the time
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| 13 | 1708 | - 1708: First Jacobite rising
First Jacobite rising in Scotland
- 1708: Earliest Artillery Muster Rolls
Earliest Artillery Muster Rolls
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| 14 | 1709 | - 1709: Second Eddystone lighthouse completed
Second Eddystone lighthouse completed
- 1709: First Copyright Act passed
First Copyright Act passed
- 1709: bread riots in Britain
Bad harvests throughout Europe - bread riots in Britain
- 2 Feb 1709: Alexander Selkirk rescued
Alexander Selkirk rescued from shipwreck on a desert island, inspiring the book
Robinson Crusoe (published in 1719) by Daniel Defoe
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| 15 | 1710 | - 1710: Tax on Apprentice Indentures
Tax on Apprentice Indentures introduced
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| 16 | 1711 | - 1711: Incorporation of South Sea Company
Incorporation of South Sea Company, in London.
The South Sea Company was a British joint-stock company founded in 1711, created as a public-private partnership to consolidate and reduce the cost of national debt. The company was also granted a monopoly to trade with South America, hence its name.
- 11 Aug 1711: First meeting at Ascot
First race meeting at Ascot
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| 17 | 1712 | - 1712: Soap Tax
Imposition of Soap Tax (abolished 1853)
- 1712: Last trial for witchcraft
Last trial for witchcraft in England (Jane Wenham)
- 1712: Toleration Act passed
Toleration Act passed - first relief to non-Anglicans
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| 18 | 1713 | - 1713: 3,000 coffee houses in London
By this year there are some 3,000 coffee houses in London
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| 19 | 1714 | - 1714: Longitude Act
Longitude Act: prize of £20,000 offered to the inventor of a workable method of
determining a ship's longitude (won by John Harrison in 1773 for his chronometer).
- 1714: Schism Act
Schism Act, prevents Dissenters from being schoolmasters in England
- 1714: Oath of Allegiance
Landholders forced to take the Oath of Allegiance and renounce Roman Catholicism
- 1 Aug 1714: Queen Anne Stuart dies
Queen Anne Stuart dies - George I Hanover becomes king (1714-1727).
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| 20 | 1715 | - 1715: Second Jacobite rebellion
Second Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, under the Old Pretender ('The Fifteen')
- 1 Aug 1715: Riot Act passed
Riot Act passed
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| 21 | 1716 | - 1716: Septennial Act
The Septennial Act of Britain leads to greater electoral corruption - general elections now to be held once every 7 years instead of every 3 (until 1911)
- 1716: Frost Fair
Climate: Thames frozen so solid that a spring tide lifted the ice bodily 13ft without interrupting the frost fair
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| 22 | 1717 | - 1717: First Masonic Lodge
First Masonic Lodge opens in London
- 1717: Golden Guinea
Value of the golden guinea fixed at 21 shillings
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| 23 | 1719 | - 1719: Third Jacobite rising
Third abortive Jacobite rising
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| 24 | 1720 | - 1720: South Sea Bubble
South Sea Bubble, a stock-market crash on Exchange Alley - government assumes
control of National Debt
- 1720: Manufacturing towns
Manufacturing towns start to increase in population - rise of new wealth
- 1720: Wallpaper
Wallpaper becomes fashionable in England
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| 25 | 1721 | - 2 Apr 1721: Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)
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| 26 | 1722 | - 1722: Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland
Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland
- 1722: Knatchbull's Act
The Workhouse Test Act also known as the General Act or Knatchbull's Act was poor relief legislation passed by the British government by Sir Edward Knatchbull in 1723. The "workhouse test" was that a person who wanted to receive poor relief had to enter a workhouse and undertake a set amount of work. The test was intended to prevent irresponsible claims on a parish's poor rate.
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| 27 | 1723 | - 1723: Excise tax
Excise tax levied for coffee, tea, and chocolate
- 1723: Waltham Black Acts
The Waltham Black Acts add 50 capital offences to the penal code - people could be sentenced to death for theft and poaching - repealed in 1827
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| 28 | 1724 | - 1724: Gin drinking
Rapid growth of gin drinking in England
- 1724: Longman's founded
Longman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)
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| 29 | 1726 | - 1726: First circulating library
First circulating library opened in Edinburgh
- 1726: Invention of the chronometer
A marine chronometer is a clock that is precise and accurate enough to be used as a portable time standard; it can therefore be used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation. When first developed in the 18th century, it was a major technical achievement, as accurate knowledge of the time over a long sea voyage is necessary for navigation, lacking electronic or communications aids. The first true chronometer was the life work of one man, John Harrison, spanning 31 years of persistent experimentation and test that revolutionized naval navigation enabling the Age of Discovery and Colonialism to accelerate
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| 30 | 1727 | - 1727: Board of Manufacturers established
Board of Manufacturers established in Scotland
- 11 Jun 1727: George I dies
George I dies - George II Hanover becomes king
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| 31 | 1729 | - 9 Nov 1729: Treaty of Seville
Treaty of Seville signed between Britain, France and Spain - Britain maintained control of Port Mahon and Gibraltar
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| 32 | 1730 | - 1730: Irish famine
Irish famine
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| 33 | 1731 | - 1731: Invention of seed drill
Invention of seed drill by Jethro Tull [others say 1701]
- 1731: Invention of sextant
Invention of sextant by John Hadley
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| 34 | 1732 | - 7 Dec 1732: Opera House opens
Covent Garden Opera House opens
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| 35 | 1733 | - 1733: Excise crisis
Excise crisis: Sir Robert Walpole wanted to add excise tax to tobacco and wine - Pulteney and Bolingbroke oppose the excise tax
- 1733: Latin in parish registers
Law forbidding the use of Latin in parish registers generally obeyed - some continued in Latin for a few years
- 1733: John Kay invents the flying shuttle
John Kay invents the flying shuttle, revolutionised the weaving industry
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| 36 | 1734 | - 1734: Kent's Directory
Kent's Directory published
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| 37 | 1737 | - 1737: Licensing Act
Licensing Act restricts the number of London theatres and subects plays to censorship of the Lord Chamberlain (till 1950s)
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| 38 | 1738 | - 24 May 1738: John Wesley
John Wesley has his conversion experience
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| 39 | 1739 | - 1739: Methodist revival
Wesley and Whitefield commence great Methodist revival
- 7 Apr 1739: Dick Turpin
Dick Turpin, highwayman, hanged at York
- 23 Oct 1739: War of Jenkins' Ear
War of Jenkins' Ear starts: Robert Walpole reluctantly declares war on Spain
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| 40 | 1741 | - 1741: Benjamin Ingham
Benjamin Ingham founded the Moravian Methodists or Inghamites - Earliest Moravian registers
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| 41 | 1742 | - 1742: England goes to war with Spain
England goes to war with Spain - incited by William Pitt the Elder (Earl of Chatham) for the sake of trade
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Abt 1694 - 1742 (~ 48 years)