1731 in Great Britain

1731 in Great Britain:

Other years

1730 | 1731 | 1732 | 1733

Sport

1731 English cricket season

Events from the year 1731 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George II
• Prime Minister – Robert Walpole (Whig)
• Parliament – 7th

Events

• 16 March – Treaty of Vienna signed between the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Spain.[1]
• April – trader Robert Jenkins has his ear cut off by Spanish coast guards in Cuba, casus belli for the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739.[2]
• 4 June – great fire destroys much of the centre of Blandford Forum, Dorset.[3]
• 5 June – Tiverton fire of 1731, a great fire in Tiverton, Devon.[4]
• 23 October – fire at Ashburnham House in London damages the nationally owned Cotton library, housed there at this time.

Undated

• Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730: Legal proceedings in the courts to be conducted in the English language.[5]
• William Hogarth produces his A Harlot's Progress series of paintings.[2]

Publications

• 1 January – first edition of The Gentleman's Magazine published by Edward Cave.[6]
• Jethro Tull's treatise The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry; or, an essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation.

Births

• February – Charles Churchill, poet (died 1764)
• 8 May – Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London and abolitionist (died 1809)
• 10 October – Henry Cavendish, scientist (died 1810)
• 15 November – William Cowper, poet (died 1800)
• 12 December – Erasmus Darwin, scientist and grandfather of Charles Darwin (died 1802)
• date unknown – William Aiton, botanist (died 1793)

Deaths

• 24 April – Daniel Defoe, writer (born 1660)
• 11 May – Mary Astell, feminist writer (born 1666)
• 24 August – William Godolphin, Marquess of Blandford, nobleman (born 1700)
• 29 December – Brook Taylor, mathematician (born 1685)

References

1. Cates, William L. R. (1863). The Pocket Date Book. Chapman and Hall.
2. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 303. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
3. "Blandford, Dorset 1731". FireNet. 2009. Archived from the original on 16 December 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
4. Dickens, Charles (1869). All the Year Round. Charles Dickens. p. 258. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
5. Friar, Stephen (2001). The Sutton Companion to Local History (rev. ed.). Stroud: Sutton Publishing. p. 241. ISBN 0-7509-2723-2.
6. Munsell, Joel (1858). The Every Day Book of History and Chronology. D. Appleton & Co.

See also