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1771 in Great Britain
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none
September 2026
1771 yes
Events from the year 1771 in Great Britain.
Incumbents
Monarch – George III
Prime Minister – Frederick North, Lord North (Tory)History of Lord Frederick North - GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-prime-ministers/frederick-north gov.uk 1 July 2023 en
Events
22 January – Spain cedes the Falkland Islands to Britain.Williams Hywel Cassell's Chronology of World History https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/326 registration London Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2005 978-0-304-35730-7 326–327
15 March – Society of Civil Engineers first meets (in London), the world's oldest engineering society.Watson Garth The Smeatonians: The Society of Civil Engineers Thomas Telford 1989 London 978-0-7277-1526-5Roberts Gwilym From Kendal's Coffee House to Great George Street Thomas Telford 1995 London 978-0-7277-2022-1
12 July – first voyage of James Cook (begun 1768): Endeavour anchors in The Downs, and Captain Cook goes ashore at Deal, Kent, following his global circumnavigation.
8 August – first recorded town cricket match played at Horsham; Horsham Cricket Club formed here soon after 1806.Horsham Cricket Club History http://www.horshamcc.com/history/default.aspx Horsham Cricket Club 2011-11-01 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20120226000855/http://www.horshamcc.com/history/default.aspx 2012-02-26
17 August – Edinburgh botanist James Robertson makes the first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis.
30 September – Bath Assembly Rooms completed.
2 October – Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn, brother to the King, marries a commoner, the widow Anne Horton, in Mayfair, precipitating the Royal Marriages Act 1772.
16 November – Several rivers flood in northern England, destroying many bridges and killing several people.Newcastle Newcastle Courant 1771-11-23 2Lindsey J. McEwen Charles W. J. Withers 1989 Historical records and geomorphological events: the 1771 'eruption' of Solway Moss Scottish Geographical Magazine 105 3 149–157 10.1080/14702548908554428
Undated
Industrial Revolution: Richard Arkwright begins to develop cotton mills at Cromford in the Derwent Valley of Derbyshire, one of the earliest factory complexes.https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/launch_tl_british.shtml BBC History British History Timeline 2007-09-03 https://web.archive.org/web/20070909012414/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/launch_tl_british.shtml 9 September 2007
Harewood House, West Yorkshire, completed to the designs of John Carr and Robert Adam.
Warren Hastings of the British East India Company becomes governor of Bengal in India.P. J. Marshall Hastings, Warren (1732–1818) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography September 2004 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12587 10.1093/ref:odnb/12587 2011-11-01 subscription Henry George Keene Henry George Keene (1826–1915) Hastings, Warren 25
St George's Circus intersection built in London.
Norfolk and Norwich Hospital founded.
Edinburgh Society of Bowlers codifies the modern rules for bowls.
Publications
Sir John Dalrymple's history Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland from the dissolution of the last parliament of Charles II until the sea battle of La Hogue, first revealing the 1670 Secret Treaty of Dover.
Encyclopædia Britannica completes publication.
Henry Mackenzie's novel The Man of Feeling.
Tobias Smollett's novel The Expedition of Humphry Clinker.
Peter Williams (1722–1796)'s Hymns on Various Subjects (includes "Prayer for Strength", the first English translation of the Welsh hymn "Cwm Rhondda").
Arthur Young's The Farmer's Kalendar.
Allegri's Miserere.
Births
5 February – John Lingard, Roman Catholic priest (died 1851)
13 April – Richard Trevithick, Cornish inventor (died 1833)
3 June – Sydney Smith, writer and clergyman (died 1845)
7 July – John Britton, antiquary and topographer (died 1857)
15 August – Walter Scott, Scottish novelist and poet (died 1832)
22 August – Henry Maudslay, mechanical engineer (died 1831)
11 September – Mungo Park, Scottish explorer of West Africa (died 1806)
25 December – Dorothy Wordsworth, poet and diarist (died 1855)
Deaths
5 January – John Russell, Duke of Bedford, statesman (born 1710)
21 May – Christopher Smart, poet (born 1722)
8 June – Lord Halifax, statesman (born 1716)
30 July – Thomas Gray, writer (born 1716)
17 September – Tobias Smollett, Scottish-born novelist (born 1721)
6 November – John Bevis, physician and astronomer (born 1695)
15 December – Benjamin Stillingfleet, botanist (born 1702)
See also
1771 in Wales
References
1771
Category:Years in the Kingdom of Great Britain
Category:1771 by country
Category:1771 in Europe
Category:1770s in Great Britain