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Matthew MILLS

Matthew MILLS

Male 1755 - 1801  (46 years)

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Timeline



 
 
 




   Date  Event(s)
1755 
  • 1755: Publication of "Dictionary of the English Language" by Dr Samuel Johnson
  • 1755: Period of canal construction began in Britain (till 1827)
  • 2 Dec 1755: Second Eddystone Lighthouse destroyed by fire
1756 
  • 15 May 1756: The Seven Years War with France (Pitt's trade war) begins
  • Jun 1756: Black Hole of Calcutta – 146 Britons imprisoned, most die according to British sources
1757 
  • 1757: The foundation laid for the Empire of India
  • 14 Mar 1757: Admiral Byng shot at Portsmouth for failing to relieve Minorca
  • 23 Jun 1757: The Nawab of Bengal tries to expel the British, but is defeated at the battle of Plassey (Palashi, June 23) – the East India Company forces are led by Robert Clive
1758 
  • 1758: India stops being merely a commercial venture – England begins dominating it politically – The East India Company retains its monopoly although it ceased to trade
1759 
  • 1759: Wesley builds 356 Methodist chapels
  • 15 Jan 1759: British Museum opens to the public in London
  • 16 Oct 1759: Third Eddystone Lighthouse (John Smeaton's) completed
1760 
  • 1760: Carron Iron Works in operation in Scotland
  • 5 May 1760: First use of hangman's drop
  • 25 Oct 1760: George II dies – George III Hanover, his grandson, becomes king. The date conventionally marks the start of the so-called "first Industrial Revolution"
1761 
  • 16 Jan 1761: British capture Pondicherry, India from the French
1762 
  • 1762: Cigars introduced into Britain from Cuba
1763 
  • 1763: Treaty of Paris – gives back to France everything Pitt fought to obtain – (Newfoundland [fishing], Guadaloupe and Martininque [sugar], Dakar [gum]) – but English displaces French as the international language
10 1764 
  • 1764: Lloyd's Register of shipping first prepared
  • 1764: Practice of numbering houses introduced to London
  • 1764: James Hargeaves invents the Spinning Jenny (but destroyed 1768)
  • 1764: Mozart produces his first symphony at age eight
11 1765 
  • 1765: The potato becomes the most popular food in Europe
  • 22 Mar 1765: Stamp Act passed – imposed a tax on publications and legal documents in the American colonies (repealed the following year)
12 1766 
  • 1766: Start of 'composite' national records on rainfall in the UK
  • 5 Dec 1766: Christie's auction house founded in London by James Christie
13 1767 
  • 1767: Newcomen's steam pumping engine perfected by James Watt
14 1768 
  • 9 Jan 1768: Philip Astley starts his circus in London
  • 6 Dec 1768: The first edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" published in Edinburgh by William Smellie
15 1769 
  • 1769: Arkwright invents water frame (textile production)
  • 1769: Capt James Cook maps the coast of New Zealand
  • 6 Sep 1769: David Garrick organises first Shakespeare festival at Stratford-upon-Avon
16 1770 
  • 1770: Clyde Trust created to convert the River Clyde, then an insignificant river, into a major thoroughfare for maritime communications
  • 28 Apr 1770: Capt James Cook lands in Australia (Botany Bay) — Aug 21: formally claims Australia for Britain
17 1771 
  • 1771: Right to report Parliamentary debates established in England
18 1772 
  • 1772: First Travellers' Cheques issued by the London Credit Exchange Company
  • 1772: "Morning Post" first published (until 1937)
  • 14 May 1772: Judge Mansfield rules that there is no legal basis for slavery in England
19 1774 
  • 13 Sep 1774: Cook arrives on Easter Island
20 1775 
  • 19 Apr 1775: Battle of Lexington: first action in American War of Independence (1775–1783)
21 1776 
  • 1776: Somerset House in London becomes the repository of records of population
  • 1776: Watt and Boulton produce their first commercial steam engine
  • 4 Jul 1776: American Declaration of Independence
  • 7 Sep 1776: First attack on a warship by a submarine – David Bushnell's "Turtle" attacked HMS Eagle in New York harbour. The attack was perhaps spectacular (a charge did detonate beneath the ship), but was nevertheless unsuccessful. "Turtle" was a one man affair, man-powered [Les Moore]
22 1777 
  • 1777: Samuel Miller of Southampton patents the circular saw.
23 1779 
  • 1779: Marc Isambard Brunel opens the first steamdriven sawmill at Chatham Dockyard in Kent
  • 1779: First iron bridge built, over the Severn by John Wilkinson
  • 1779: First Spinning Mills operational in Scotland
  • 14 Feb 1779: Capt James Cook killed on Hawaii
  • 23 Sep 1779: Naval engagement between Britain and USA off Flamborough Head
24 1780 
  • 1780: Male Servants Tax
  • 1780: The English Reform Movement – until now, only landowners and tenants (freeholders with 40 shillings per year or more) allowed to vote, and in open poll books
  • 1780: Fountain pen invented
  • 1780: About this time the word 'Quiz' entered the language, said to have been invented as a wager by Mr Daly, a Dublin theatre manager
  • 4 May 1780: First Derby run at Epsom (some say 2nd June)
  • 2 Jun 1780: Jun 2–8: The Gordon Riots – Parliament passes a Roman Catholic relief measure – for days, London is at the mercy of a mob and destruction is widespread
25 1782 
  • 1782: Gilbert's Act establishes outdoor poor relief – the way of life of the poor beginning to alter due to industrialisation – New factories in rapidly expanding towns required a workforce that would adjust to new work patterns
  • 1782: James Watt patents his steam engine
26 1783 
  • 1783: Duty payable on Parish Register entries (3d per entry – repealed 1794) – led to a fall in entries!
  • 3 Sep 1783: Treaty of Versailles (Britain/US)
  • 3 Nov 1783: Last public execution at Tyburn in London (John Austin, a highwayman)
27 1784 
  • 1784: Pitt's India Act – the Crown (as opposed to officers of the East India Company) has power to guide Indian politics
  • 1784: Wesley breaks with the Church of England
  • 1784: First golf club founded at St Andrews
  • 1784: Invention of threshing machine by Andrew Meikle
  • 2 Aug 1784: First mail coaches in England (4pm Bristol / 8am London)
28 1785 
  • 1785: Sunday School Society founded to educate poor children (by 1851, enrols more than 2 million)
  • 1 Jan 1785: John Walter publishes first edition of The Times (called The Daily Universal Register for 3 years)
29 1787 
  • 1787: MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) established at Thomas Lord's ground in London
30 1788 
  • 1788: First steamboat demonstrated in Scotland
  • 1788: Law passed requiring that chimney sweepers be a minimum of 8 years old (not enforced)
  • 1788: First slave carrying act, the Dolben Act of 1788, regulates the slave trade – stipulates more humane conditions on slave ships
  • 1788: King George III's mental illness occasions the Regency Crisis – Edmund Burke and Charles James Fox attack ministry of William Pitt – trying to obtain full regal powers for the Prince of Wales
  • 1788: Gibbon completes "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
  • 26 Jan 1788: First convicts (and free settlers) arrive in New South Wales (left Portsmouth 13 May 1787) — the 'First Fleet'; eleven ships commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip
31 1789 
  • 28 Apr 1789: Mutiny on HMS Bounty – Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew ends up on Pitcairn Island
32 1790 
  • 1790: Forth and Clyde Canal opened in Scotland
33 1791 
  • 1791: John Bell, printer, abandons the "long s" (the "s" that looks like an "f")
  • 1791: Establishment of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain
  • 4 Dec 1791: First publication of The Observer – world's oldest Sunday newspaper
34 1792 
  • 1792: Repression in Britain (restrictions on freedom of the press) – Fox gets Libel Act through Parliament, requiring a jury and not a judge to determine libel
  • 1792: Boyle's Street Directory published
  • 1792: Coal-gas lighting invented by William Murdock, an Ayrshire Scot
  • 1 Oct 1792: Introduction of Money Orders in Britain
  • 1 Dec 1792: King's Proclamation drawing out the British militia
35 1793 
  • 11 Feb 1793: Britain declares war on France (1793-1802)
  • 15 Apr 1793: £5 notes first issued by the Bank of England
36 1794 
  • 1794: Abolition of Parish Register duties
  • 6 Oct 1794: The prosecutor for Britain, Lord Justice Eyre, charges reformers with High Treason – he argued that, since reform of parliament would lead to revolution and revolution to executing the King, the desire for reform endangered the King's life and was therefore treasonous
37 1795 
  • 1795: The Famine Year
  • 1795: Foundation of the Orange Order
  • 1795: Speenhamland Act proclaims that the Parish is responsible for bringing up the labourer's wage to subsistence level – towards the end of the eighteenth century, the number of poor and unemployed increased dramatically – price increases during the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) far outstripped wage rises – many small farmers were bankrupted by the move towards enclosures and became landless labourers – their wages were often pitifully low
  • 1795: Pitt and Grenville introduce "The Gagging Acts" or "Two Bills" (the Seditious Meetings and Treasonable Practices Bills) – outlawed the mass meeting and the political lecture.
  • 1795: Consumption of lime juice made compulsory in Royal Navy
38 1796 
  • 1796: Pitt's "Reign of Terror": More treason trials – leading radicals emigrate
  • 1796: Legacy Tax on sums over £20 excluding those to wives, children, parents and grandparents
  • 14 May 1796: Dr Edward Jenner gave first vaccination for smallpox in England
39 1797 
  • 1797: England in Crisis, Bank of England suspends cash payments
  • 1797: Mutinies in the British Navy at Spithead and Nore
  • 1797: Tax on newspapers (including cheap, topical journals) increased to repress radical publications
  • 1797: The first copper pennies were produced ('cartwheels') by application of steam power to the coining press
  • 22 Feb 1797: French invade Fishguard, Wales; last time UK invaded; all captured 2 days later
  • 26 Feb 1797: First £1 (and £2) notes issued by Bank of England
40 1798 
  • 1798: First planned human experiment with vaccination, to test theories of Edward Jenner
  • Feb 1798: The Irish Rebellion; 100,000 peasants revolt; approximately 25,000 die – Irish Parliament abolished (Feb-Oct)
  • 1 Aug 1798: Battle of the Nile (won by Nelson)
41 1799 
  • 1799: Foundation of Royal Military College Sandhurst by the Duke of York
  • 1799: Foundation of the Royal Institution of Great Britain
  • 9 Jan 1799: Pitt brings in 10% income tax, as a wartime financial measure
  • 12 Jul 1799: 'Combination Laws' in Britain against political associations and combinations
  • 15 Jul 1799: "Rosetta Stone" discovered in Egypt, made possible the deciphering (in 1822) of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics
42 1800 
  • 1800: Electric light first produced by Sir Humphrey Davy
  • 1800: Use of high pressure steam pioneered by Richard Trevithick (1771-1833)
  • 1800: Royal College of Surgeons founded
  • 1800: Herschel discovers infra-red light
  • 1800: Volta makes first electrical battery
  • 2 Jul 1800: Parliamentary union of Great Britain and Ireland
43 1801 
  • 1801: Grand Union Canal opens in England
  • 1801: Elgin Marbles brought from Athens to London
  • 1 Jan 1801: Union Jack becomes the official British flag
  • 10 Mar 1801: First census puts the population of England and Wales at 9,168,000. Population of Britain nearly 11 million (75% rural)
  • 24 Dec 1801: Richard Trevithick built the first self-propelled passenger carrying road loco