|
Date |
Event(s) |
1 | 1597 | - 1597: Poor Law Act for erection of parish workhouses for the Poor – Poor Rate collection
allowed
|
2 | 1598 | - 1598: Bishop's transcripts of English and Welsh parish registers start – parish records were to
be kept in 'great decent books of parchment' and copies or 'Bishop's Transcripts' of new entries
were to be sent each month to the diocesan centre
|
3 | 1600 | - 1 Jan 1600: Scotland adopts New Year beginning 1st January (previously 25th March)
- 31 Dec 1600: British East India Company founded
|
4 | 1601 | - 1601: Great English Poor Law Act passed
- 1601: First use of fruit juice as a preventative for scurvy by James Lancaster
|
5 | 1602 | - 20 Mar 1602: Dutch East India Company founded
- 8 Nov 1602: Bodleian Library at Oxford University opened to the public
|
6 | 1603 | - 24 Mar 1603: Death of Elizabeth I: union of Scottish and English crowns – under King James
VI of Scots and I of England (d. 1625)
- 25 Jul 1603: Coronation – James VI of Scotland is crowned first king of Great Britain
|
7 | 1604 | - 1 Nov 1604: Shakespeare: "Othello" first presented
|
8 | 1605 | - 5 Nov 1605: Gunpowder plot at Westminster (Guy Fawkes, etc)
|
9 | 1606 | - 1606: The London Company chartered to colonise Virginia: the Susan Constant, Godspeed,
and Discovery leave England on 19th De c taking 144 days to reach America
- 1606: Episcopacy established in Scotland (against wishes of the Scots)
- 31 Jan 1606: Guy Fawkes and co-conspirators executed
- 12 Mar 1606: Adoption of Union Flag as the flag of "Great Britain" (the term Union Jack is
used officially only when the Union Flag is flown from the Jack Mast of a Royal Naval vessel)
|
10 | 1607 | - 14 May 1607: Jamestown, Virginia settled – to become the first permanent British colony in
North America
|
11 | 1608 | - 1608: First use of telescope by Galileo – he observed the moons of Jupiter two years later in
Jan 1610
|
12 | 1610 | - 1610: James VI & I established the Episcopal Church in Scotland – Prebyterians persecuted
and many of their records lost
|
13 | 1611 | - 1611: Authorised (King James) Version of Bible in Britain
- 22 May 1611: James VI & I created the title of baronet
|
14 | 1613 | - 1613: A copper farthing was produced, as a silver coin would be too small
- 29 Jun 1613: The Globe Theatre in London burns during a performance of Henry the Eighth
(finally pulled down in 1644)
|
15 | 1616 | - 23 Apr 1616: Tuesday Apr 23 (Julian calendar): Death of Shakespeare
|
16 | 1618 | - 1618: Sir Walter Raleigh beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I
|
17 | 1619 | - 4 Dec 1619: (Nov 24 old style): Colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in
Virginia and give thanks to God (considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the
Americas)
|
18 | 1620 | - 1620: Manufacture of coke (the fuel, not the drink!) patented by Dud Dudley
- 21 Dec 1620: (Dec 16 old style): The Mayflower reaches America – founds Plymouth, New
England (had initially set sail from Southampton on Aug 5)
|
19 | 1621 | - 1621: Chimneys to be made of brick and to be four and a half feet above the roof
|
20 | 1622 | - 1622: First English newspaper appeared - "Weekly News"
|
21 | 1624 | - 1624: Monopoly Act in England: patents protected
- 1624: Edmund Gunter introduces the surveyor's chain (measurement of length)
|
22 | 1625 | - 1625: The size of bricks standardised in England around this time
- 27 Mar 1625: Death of King James VI & I
|
23 | 1628 | - 1 Mar 1628: Writs issued by Charles I that every county in England (not just seaport towns)
pay ship tax by this date
|
24 | 1629 | - 10 Mar 1629: Parliament dissolved by King Charles I – did not meet for another 11 yea
|
25 | 1633 | - Jun 1633: Galileo summoned by Inquisition for publishing in favour of Copernican theory
|
26 | 1635 | - 1635: Letter Office of England & Scotland started
- 1635: Flintlock small arms invented around this time (replaces matchlock)
|
27 | 1636 | - 1636: Hackney Carriages in use by now in London
|
28 | 1638 | - 1638: King Charles regarded protests against the prayerbook as treason – forced Scots to choose
between their church and the King – a "Covenant", swearing to resist these changes to the
death, was signed in Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh and was accepted by hundreds of
thousands of Scots (revival of Presbyterian Church)
|
29 | 1639 | - 1639: Act of Toleration in England established religious toleration
|
30 | 1640 | - 3 Nov 1640: Charles I forced to recall Parliament (the 'Long Parliament') due to Scottish
invasion
|
31 | 1641 | - 1641: Charles I's policies cause insurrection in Ulster and Civil War in England
- 1641: Charles I and the English Parliament acknowledge the Prebyterian Church in Scotland
- 23 Oct 1641: 50,000 Irish killed in an uprising in Ulster
|
32 | 1642 | - 1642: The Civil War interrupted the keeping of parish registers
- 1642: English theatres closed by Puritans (till 1660)
- 22 Aug 1642: Charles I raises his standard at Nottingham – First Civil War in England (to
1649)
- 13 Nov 1642: Battle of Turnham Green – Royalist forces withdraw in face of the
Parliamentarian army and fail to take London
- 24 Nov 1642: Abel Janszoon Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania)
- 18 Dec 1642: Abel Janszoon Tasman first European to set foot in New Zealand
|
33 | 1643 | - 13 Dec 1643: Battle of Alton – victory for Parliamentarians – Sir Richard Bolle killed in St
Lawrence's church
|
34 | 1644 | - 29 Jun 1644: Battle of Cropredy Bridge – Royalists beat the Parliamentarian forces
- 2 Jul 1644: Battle of Marston Moor, near York – Parliamentarian forces beat the Royalists
|
35 | 1645 | - 1645: Battle of Philiphaugh in Scotland
- 1645: Scotland: Each county and burgh ordered to raise and maintain a number of foot
soldiers, according to population, to serve as militia – population of Scotland estimated at
420,000
- 1645: Plague made its last appearance in Scotland
- 14 Jun 1645: Battle of Naseby: Parliament's New Model Army crushes the Royalist forces
|
36 | 1646 | - 5 May 1646: Charles I surrenders to the Scottish Army at Newark
- 20 Jun 1646: Royalists sign articles of surrender at Oxford
|
37 | 1648 | - 1648: Society of Friends (Quakers) founded by George Fox
- 1648: First practical thermometers made
|
38 | 1649 | - 1649: Cromwell's Irish campaign starts
- 1649: King Charles II proclaimed King of Scots and England in Scotland
- 6 Jan 1649: 'Rump' Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial
- 30 Jan 1649: King Charles I executed
- 19 May 1649: Commonwealth declared
- 20 Dec 1649: Theatres banned by Cromwell
- 20 Dec 1649: Christmas banned by Cromwell
|
39 | 1650 | - 1650: Coffee brought to England about this time
|
40 | 1651 | - 1651: The second English Civil War (1651-1652)
- 1651: Scottish prisoners transported to the British settlements in America
- 3 Sep 1651: Battle of Worcester
|
41 | 1653 | - 1653: Commonwealth registers start
- 1653: Under the Act of Settlement Cromwell's opponents stripped of land
- 1653: Provincial probate courts abolished – probates granted only in London
- 20 Apr 1653: Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament
- 16 Dec 1653: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England,
Scotland and Ireland
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