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1787 in Great Britain

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1787 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1787 in the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Contents

Incumbents

  • Monarch - George III
  • Prime Minister - William Pitt the Younger (Tory)

    • Events

  • 1 January - George III writes his first letter to Arthur Young's Annals of Agriculture, under the name of Ralph Robinson of Windsor.
  • 11 January - William Herschel discovers the Uranian moons Titania and Oberon.
  • 19 February - William Herschel first uses the 40-foot telescope under construction for him at Slough.
  • 13 May - Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth with the eleven ships of the First Fleet carrying around 700 convicts and at least 300 crew and guards to establish a penal colony in Australia.
  • 22 May - Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade with support from John Wesley, Josiah Wedgwood and others.
  • 31 May - The original Lord's Cricket Ground holds its first cricket match; Marylebone Cricket Club founded.
  • Summer - Calton Weavers Strike in the west of Scotland. On 3 September, six of the Calton weavers are killed by troops.
  • 23 December - Captain William Bligh sets sail for Tahiti on the Bounty.
  • undated - Principal Triangulation of Great Britain completed under the direction of General William Roy.

    • Publications

  • Freed slave Ottobah Cugoano publishes Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species.
  • The Scots Musical Museum begins publication.

    • Births

  • 7 January - Patrick Nasmyth, Scottish landscape painter (died 1831)
  • 10 February - William Bradley, Britain's tallest ever man (died 1820)
  • 17 February - George Mogridge (Old Humphrey), miscellaneous writer and poet (died 1854)
  • 10 March - William Etty, painter, especially of nudes (died 1849)
  • 28 March - Claudius James Rich, archaeologist and anthropologist (died 1821)
  • 7 June - William Conybeare, geologist (died 1857)
  • 28 June - Harry Smith, military commander (died 1860)
  • 24 July - William Ward, cricketer (died 1849)
  • 13 September - John Adamson, antiquary and expert on Portuguese (died 1855)
  • 13 October - William Brockedon, painter (died 1854)
  • 4 November - Edmund Kean, actor (died 1833)
  • 21 November - Bryan Procter (Barry Cornwall), poet (died 1874)
  • 22 November - Copley Fielding, watercolour landscape painter (died 1855)
  • 16 December - Mary Russell Mitford, novelist and dramatist (died 1855)
  • Ignatius Bonomi, architect (died 1870)
  • John Dobson, architect (died 1865)
  • Harriet Gouldsmith, landscape painter and etcher (died 1863)
  • Approximate date - Ikey Solomon, receiver of stolen goods (died 1850 in Australia)

    • Deaths

  • 1 April - Floyer Sydenham, classical scholar (born 1710)
  • 2 April - Thomas Gage, General (born 1719)
  • 10 May - William Watson, physician and scientist (born 1715)
  • 3 November - Robert Lowth, bishop and grammarian (born 1710)
  • 18 December - Francis William Drake, British admiral and Governor of Newfoundland (born 1724)
  • 18 December - Soame Jenyns, English writer (born 1704)

    • References

    1787 in Great Britain Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA