1785 in Great Britain
Encyclopedia
.svg.png) 1785 in Great Britain: |
| Other years |
| 1783 1783 in Great Britain Events from the year 1783 in the Kingdom of Great Britain.-Incumbents:*Monarch - King George III*Prime Minister - Lord Shelburne, Whig , Duke of Portland, Coalition , William Pitt the Younger, Tory-Events:... | 1784 1784 in Great Britain Events from the year 1784 in the Kingdom of Great Britain.-Incumbents:*Monarch - King George III*Prime Minister - William Pitt the Younger, Tory-Events:... | 1785 | 1786 1786 in Great Britain Events from the year 1786 in the Kingdom of Great Britain.-Incumbents:*Monarch - King George III*Prime Minister - William Pitt the Younger, Tory-Events:... | 1787 1787 in Great Britain Events from the year 1787 in the Kingdom of Great Britain.-Incumbents:*Monarch - King George III*Prime Minister - William Pitt the Younger, Tory-Events:... |
| Sport |
| 1785 English cricket season 1785 English cricket season Scores & Biographies bemoans the lack of fixtures in the 1785 English cricket season but there is a historical significance in that state of affairs because it reflected the decline of Hambledon’s influence while the emergence of WCC foreshadowed a shift in focus to London.- Matches :-First... |
Events from the year 1785 in the Kingdom of Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
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Incumbents
- Monarch - George III of the United KingdomGeorge III of the United KingdomGeorge III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
- Prime Minister - William Pitt the YoungerWilliam Pitt the YoungerWilliam Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
, ToryToryToryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
Events
- 1 January The first issue of the Daily Universal Register, later known as The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, is published in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. - 7 January - FrenchmanFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Jean-Pierre BlanchardJean-Pierre BlanchardJean-Pierre Blanchard , aka Jean Pierre François Blanchard, was a French inventor, most remembered as a pioneer in aviation and ballooning....
and AmericaUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
n John JeffriesJohn JeffriesJohn Jeffries was a Boston physician, scientist, and a military surgeon with the British Army in Nova Scotia and New York during the American Revolution. Born in Boston, Jeffries graduated from Harvard College and obtained his medical degree at the University of Aberdeen...
travel from DoverDoverDover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
to CalaisCalaisCalais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
, FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in a hydrogen gas balloonBalloonA balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig...
, becoming the first to cross the English ChannelEnglish ChannelThe English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
by air. - 7 March - James HuttonJames HuttonJames Hutton was a Scottish physician, geologist, naturalist, chemical manufacturer and experimental agriculturalist. He is considered the father of modern geology...
proposes the theory of uniformitarianismUniformitarianism (science)In the philosophy of naturalism, the uniformitarianism assumption is that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now, have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe. It has included the gradualistic concept that "the present is the...
to the Royal Society of EdinburghRoyal Society of EdinburghThe Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
. - 21 December - Prince of Wales marries Catholic Maria Fitzherbert, secretly, and in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772Royal Marriages Act 1772The Royal Marriages Act 1772 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which prescribes the conditions under which members of the British Royal Family may contract a valid marriage, in order to guard against marriages that could diminish the status of the Royal House...
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Undated
- British government establishes a permanent land force in the Eastern CaribbeanCaribbeanThe Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, based in BarbadosBarbadosBarbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint... - William Pitt the YoungerWilliam Pitt the YoungerWilliam Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
introduces a Reform Bill to ParliamentParliament of Great BritainThe Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland...
to abolish the rotten boroughs, but it is defeated. - Governor-General of IndiaGovernor-General of IndiaThe Governor-General of India was the head of the British administration in India, and later, after Indian independence, the representative of the monarch and de facto head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William...
Warren HastingsWarren HastingsWarren Hastings PC was the first Governor-General of India, from 1773 to 1785. He was famously accused of corruption in an impeachment in 1787, but was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1814.-Early life:...
charged with maladministration and returns to Britain.
Publications
- James BoswellJames BoswellJames Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
's The Journal of a Tour to the HebridesThe Journal of a Tour to the HebridesThe Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. is a travel journal by Scotsman James Boswell first published in 1785. In 1773, Boswell enticed his English friend Samuel Johnson to accompany him on a tour through the highlands and western islands of Scotland. Johnson was then in...
. - William WitheringWilliam WitheringWilliam Withering was an English botanist, geologist, chemist, physician and the discoverer of digitalis.-Introduction:...
's An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses, demonstrating the effects of digitalisDigitalisDigitalis is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and biennials that are commonly called foxgloves. This genus was traditionally placed in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae, but recent reviews of phylogenetic research have placed it in the much enlarged family...
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Births
- 30 January - Charles Metcalfe, 1st Baron MetcalfeCharles Metcalfe, 1st Baron MetcalfeCharles Theophilus Metcalfe, 1st Baron Metcalfe, Bt, KCB, PC , known as Sir Charles Metcalfe, Bt between 1822 and 1845, was a British colonial administrator...
, colonial administrator (died 18461846 in the United KingdomEvents from the year 1846 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Robert Peel, Conservative , Lord John Russell, Liberal-Events:...
) - 18 May - John WilsonJohn Wilson (Scottish writer)John Wilson of Ellerey FRSE was a Scottish advocate, literary critic and author, the writer most frequently identified with the pseudonym Christopher North of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine....
, writer (died 18541854 in the United KingdomEvents from the year 1854 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Lord Aberdeen, Peelite-Events:* 21 January — Loss of the RMS Tayleur — 380 drowned, later dubbed "the first Titanic"....
) - 6 July - William Jackson HookerWilliam Jackson HookerSir William Jackson Hooker, FRS was an English systematic botanist and organiser. He held the post of Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University, and was the first Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He enjoyed the friendship and support of Sir Joseph Banks for his exploring,...
, botanist (died 18651865 in the United KingdomEvents from the year 1865 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Viscount Palmerston, Liberal , Lord John Russell, Liberal-Events:...
) - 15 August - Thomas de QuinceyThomas de QuinceyThomas Penson de Quincey was an English esssayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater .-Child and student:...
, writer (died 18591859 in the United KingdomEvents from the year 1859 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Earl of Derby, Conservative , Viscount Palmerston, Liberal-Events:...
) - 18 October - Thomas Love PeacockThomas Love PeacockThomas Love Peacock was an English satirist and author.Peacock was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each other's work...
, satirist (died 18661866 in the United KingdomEvents from the year 1866 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Lord John Russell, Liberal , Earl of Derby, Conservative-Events:...
) - 25 September - George PintoGeorge PintoGeorge Pinto was an English composer and keyboard virtuoso.-Family:He was baptized at St. Mary's, Lambeth on February 11, 1786 as George Sanders. Accounts of Pinto's life and character are tenuous. There seems to be no surviving correspondence, nor did he have any descendants preserving a family...
, composer and keyboard virtuoso (died 18061806 in the United KingdomEvents from the year 1806 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.-Incumbents:*Monarch - George III*Prime Minister - William Pitt the Younger, Tory , Lord Grenville coalition-Events:...
) - 18 November - David WilkieDavid Wilkie (artist)Sir David Wilkie was a Scottish painter.- Early life :Wilkie was the son of the parish minister of Cults in Fife. He developed a love for art at an early age. In 1799, after he had attended school at Pitlessie, Kettle and Cupar, his father reluctantly agreed to his becoming a painter...
, artist (died 18411841 in the United KingdomEvents from the year 1841 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Lord Melbourne, Whig , Robert Peel, Conservative-Events:...
)
Deaths
- 19 January - Jonathan ToupJonathan ToupJonathan Oannes Toup , was an English philologist, classical scholar and critic.- Early life and education :Toup was born at St Ives, Cornwall in December 1713 and baptized on January 5, 1714...
, classical scholar and critic (born 17131713 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1713 in Great Britain.-Events:* 27 March - First Treaty of Utrecht between Britain and Spain. Spain cedes Gibraltar and Minorca....
) - 23 January - Matthew Stewart, mathematician (born 17171717 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1717 in Great Britain.-Events:* 1 January - Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador, is arrested in London over a plot to assist the Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart....
) - 14 April - William WhiteheadWilliam Whitehead__FORCETOC__William Whitehead was an English poet and playwright. He became Poet Laureate in 1757 after Thomas Gray declined the position.-Life:...
, writer (born 17151715 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1715 in Great Britain.-Events:* February to March - General election results in victory for the Whigs.* 27 March - Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke flees to France. His part in secret negotiations with France leading to the Treaty of Utrecht has cast suspicion on him in...
) - 30 June - James OglethorpeJames OglethorpeJames Edward Oglethorpe was a British general, member of Parliament, philanthropist, and founder of the colony of Georgia...
, English general and founder of the state of Georgia (born 16961696 in EnglandEvents from the year 1696 in the Kingdom of England.-Events:* 27 January - The ship HMS Royal Sovereign catches fire and burns at Chatham, after 57 years of service....
) - 26 August - George Germain, 1st Viscount SackvilleGeorge Germain, 1st Viscount SackvilleGeorge Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville PC , known as the Hon. George Sackville to 1720, as Lord George Sackville from 1720 to 1770, and as Lord George Germain from 1770 to 1782, was a British soldier and politician who was Secretary of State for America in Lord North's cabinet during the American...
, soldier and politician (born 17161716 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1716 in Great Britain.-Events:* January - The Duke of Argyll disperses the remainder of the Jacobite troops.* 10 February - The pretender James Francis Edward Stuart flees to France...
) - 25 November - Richard Glover, poet (born 17121712 in Great BritainEvents from the year 1712 in Great Britain.-Events:* 1 January - War of the Spanish Succession: Peace congress opens at Utrecht.* 17 January - Robert Walpole imprisoned in the Tower of London following charges of corruption....
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