1716 - Abt 1737 (20 years)
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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1716 | - 1716—1716: 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—1716: Climate: Thames frozen so solid that a spring tide lifted the ice bodily 13ft without
interrupting the frost fair
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| 2 | 1717 | - 1717—1717: First Masonic Lodge opens in London
- 1717—1717: Value of the golden guinea fixed at 21 shillings
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| 3 | 1719 | - 1719—1719: Third abortive Jacobite rising
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| 4 | 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
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| 5 | 1721 | - 2 Apr 1721—2 Apr 1721: Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)
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| 6 | 1722 | - 1722—1722: Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland
- 1722—1722: Knatchbull's Act, poor laws
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| 7 | 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sentenced to death for theft and poaching - repealed in 1827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
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| 8 | 1724 | - 1724—1724: Rapid growth of gin drinking in England
- 1724—1724: Longman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)
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| 9 | 1726 | - 1726—1726: First circulating library opened in Edinburgh
- 1726—1726: Invention of the chronometer by John Harrison
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| 10 | 1727 | - 1727—1727: Board of Manufacturers established in Scotland
- 11 Jun 1727—11 Jun 1727: George I dies - George II Hanover becomes king
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| 11 | 1729 | - 9 Nov 1729—9 Nov 1729: Treaty of Seville signed between Britain, France and Spain - Britain maintained
control of Port Mahon and Gibraltar
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| 12 | 1730 | |
| 13 | 1731 | - 1731—1731: Invention of seed drill by Jethro Tull [others say 1701]
- 1731—1731: Invention of sextant by John Hadley
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| 14 | 1732 | - 7 Dec 1732—7 Dec 1732: Covent Garden Opera House opens
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| 15 | 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
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| 16 | 1734 | - 1734—1734: Kent's Directory published
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| 17 | 1737 | - 1737—1737: Licensing Act restricts the number of London theatres and subects plays to censorship
of the Lord Chamberlain (till 1950s)
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English
