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Benadam Denison

Male 1720 - Abt 1757  (36 years)


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Timeline



 
 
 




   Date  Event(s)
1720 
  • 1720: South Sea Bubble, a stock-market crash on Exchange Alley – government assumes control of National Debt
  • 1720: Manufacturing towns start to increase in population – rise of new wealth
  • 1720: Wallpaper becomes fashionable in England
1721 
  • 2 Apr 1721: Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)
1722 
  • 1722: Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland
  • 1722: Knatchbull's Act, poor laws
1723 
  • 1723: Excise tax levied for coffee, tea, and chocolate
  • 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Black Acts add 50 capital offences to the penal code – people could be sentenced to death for theft and poaching – repealed in 1827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: The Workhouse Act or Test – to get relief, a poor person has to enter Workhouse
1724 
  • 1724: Rapid growth of gin drinking in England
  • 1724: Longman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)
1726 
  • 1726: First circulating library opened in Edinburgh
  • 1726: Invention of the chronometer by John Harrison
1727 
  • 1727: Board of Manufacturers established in Scotland
  • 11 Jun 1727: George I dies – George II Hanover becomes king
1729 
  • 9 Nov 1729: Treaty of Seville signed between Britain, France and Spain – Britain maintained control of Port Mahon and Gibraltar
1730 
  • 1730: Irish famine
10 1731 
  • 1731: Invention of seed drill by Jethro Tull [others say 1701]
  • 1731: Invention of sextant by John Hadley
11 1732 
  • 7 Dec 1732: Covent Garden Opera House opens
12 1733 
  • 1733: Excise crisis: Sir Robert Walpole wanted to add excise tax to tobacco and wine – Pulteney and Bolingbroke oppose the excise tax
  • 1733: Law forbidding the use of Latin in parish registers generally obeyed – some continued in Latin for a few years
  • 1733: John Kay invents the flying shuttle, revolutionised the weaving industry
13 1734 
  • 1734: Kent's Directory published
14 1737 
  • 1737: Licensing Act restricts the number of London theatres and subects plays to censorship of the Lord Chamberlain (till 1950s)
15 1738 
  • 24 May 1738: John Wesley has his conversion experience
16 1739 
  • 1739: Wesley and Whitefield commence great Methodist revival
  • 7 Apr 1739: Dick Turpin, highwayman, hanged at York
  • 23 Oct 1739: War of Jenkins' Ear starts: Robert Walpole reluctantly declares war on Spain
17 1741 
  • 1741: Benjamin Ingham founded the Moravian Methodists or Inghamites – Earliest Moravian registers
18 1742 
  • 1742: England goes to war with Spain – incited by William Pitt the Elder (Earl of Chatham) for the sake of trade
19 1743 
  • 16 Jun 1743: (June 27 in Gregorian calendar): Battle of Dettingen – last time a British sovereign (George II) led troops in battle
20 1744 
  • 1744: Tune 'God Save the King' makes its appearance
21 1745 
  • 1745: Jacobite rebellion in Scotland ('The Forty-five')
  • 19 Aug 1745: Bonnie Prince Charlie (The Young Pretender) lands in the western Highlands – raises support among Episcopalian and Catholic clans – The Pretender's army invades Perth, Edinburgh, and England as far as Derby
22 1746 
  • 16 Apr 1746: Battle of Culloden – last battle fought in Britain – 5,000 Highlanders routed by the Duke of Cumberland and 9,000 loyalists Scots – Young Pretender Charles flees to Continent, ending Jacobite hopes forever – the wearing of the kilt prohibited
23 1747 
  • 1747: Abolition of Heritable Jurisdictions in Scotland
  • 1747: Act for Pacification of the Highlands
24 1749 
  • 27 Apr 1749: First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks (in Green Park, London)
25 1750 
  • Feb 1750: Series of earthquakes in London and the Home Counties cause panic with predictions of an apocalypse (Feb/Mar)
  • 16 Nov 1750: Original Westminster Bridge opened (replaced in 1862 due to subsidence)
26 1751 
  • Mar 1751: Chesterfield's Calendar Act passed – royal assent to the bill was given on 22 May 1751 – decision to adopt Gregorian Calendar in 1752: "In and throughout all his Majesty's Dominions and Countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, belonging or subject to the Crown of Great Britain, the said Supputation, according to which the Year of Useful dates in British history 03/01/2009 12:12 our Lord beginneth on the 25th Day of March, shall not be made use of from and after the last Day of December 1751; and that the first Day of January next following the said last Day of December shall be reckoned, taken, deemed and accounted to be the first Day of the Year of our Lord 1752"
27 1752 
  • 1752: Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning conductor
  • 1 Jan 1752: Beginning of the year 1752 [Scotland had adopted January as the start of the year in 1600, and some other countries in Europe had adopted the Gregorian calendar as early as 1582]
  • 3 Sep 1752: Julian Calendar dropped and Gregorian Calendar adopted in England and Scotland, making this Sep 14
28 1753 
  • 1753: Private collection of Sir Hans Sloane forms the basis of the British Museum
  • 1 May 1753: Publication of "Species Plantarum" by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy
29 1754 
  • 1754: Hardwicke Act (1753): Banns to be called, and Printed Marriage Register forms to be used – Quakers & Jews exempt
  • 1754: In the General Election, the Cow Inn at Haslemere, Surrey caused a national scandal by subdividing the freehold to create eight votes instead of one
  • 1754: First British troops not belonging to the East India Company despatched to India
30 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
31 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
32 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