| |
Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1720 | - 1720—1720: South Sea Bubble, a stock-market crash on Exchange Alley - government assumes
control of National Debt
- 1720—1720: Manufacturing towns start to increase in population - rise of new wealth
- 1720—1720: Wallpaper becomes fashionable in England
|
| 2 | 1721 | - 2 Apr 1721—2 Apr 1721: Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)
|
| 3 | 1722 | - 1722—1722: Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland
- 1722—1722: Knatchbull's Act, poor laws
|
| 4 | 1723 | - 1723—1723: Excise tax levied for coffee, tea, and chocolate
- 1723—1723: 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sentenced to death for theft and poaching - repealed in 1827
- 1723—1723: The Workhouse Act or Test - to get relief, a poor person has to enter Workhouse
|
| 5 | 1724 | - 1724—1724: Rapid growth of gin drinking in England
- 1724—1724: Longman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)
|
| 6 | 1726 | - 1726—1726: First circulating library opened in Edinburgh
- 1726—1726: Invention of the chronometer by John Harrison
|
| 7 | 1727 | - 1727—1727: Board of Manufacturers established in Scotland
- 11 Jun 1727—11 Jun 1727: George I dies - George II Hanover becomes king
|
| 8 | 1729 | - 9 Nov 1729—9 Nov 1729: Treaty of Seville signed between Britain, France and Spain - Britain maintained
control of Port Mahon and Gibraltar
|
| 9 | 1730 | |
| 10 | 1731 | - 1731—1731: Invention of seed drill by Jethro Tull [others say 1701]
- 1731—1731: Invention of sextant by John Hadley
|
| 11 | 1732 | - 7 Dec 1732—7 Dec 1732: Covent Garden Opera House opens
|
| 12 | 1733 | - 1733—1733: Excise crisis: Sir Robert Walpole wanted to add excise tax to tobacco and wine -
Pulteney and Bolingbroke oppose the excise tax
- 1733—1733: Law forbidding the use of Latin in parish registers generally obeyed - some continued in
Latin for a few years
- 1733—1733: John Kay invents the flying shuttle, revolutionised the weaving industry
|
| 13 | 1734 | - 1734—1734: Kent's Directory published
|
| 14 | 1737 | - 1737—1737: Licensing Act restricts the number of London theatres and subects plays to censorship
of the Lord Chamberlain (till 1950s)
|
| 15 | 1738 | - 24 May 1738—24 May 1738: John Wesley has his conversion experience
|
| 16 | 1739 | - 1739—1739: Wesley and Whitefield commence great Methodist revival
- 7 Apr 1739—7 Apr 1739: Dick Turpin, highwayman, hanged at York
- 23 Oct 1739—23 Oct 1739: War of Jenkins' Ear starts: Robert Walpole reluctantly declares war on Spain
|
| 17 | 1741 | - 1741—1741: Benjamin Ingham founded the Moravian Methodists or Inghamites - Earliest Moravian
registers
|
English
Est 1720 - 1741 (21 years) 