1720 in Great Britain

none 1720 Events from the year 1720 in Great Britain. Incumbents Monarch – George I Events 10 February – Edmond Halley is appointed Astronomer Royal by George I 17 February – Treaty of The Hague signed between Britain, France, Austria, the Dutch Republic and Spain ending the War of the Quadruple Alliance.Williams Hywel Cassell's Chronology of World History https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/297 registration London Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2005 0-304-35730-8 297–298 April – "South Sea Bubble": A scheme for the South Sea Company to take over most of Britain's unconsolidated government debt massively inflates share prices. 15 April – Ralph Allen of Bath is appointed to farm Cross and Bye Posts (i.e. to manage mail not going via London), leading to his reform of the system.Richard Blake The Book of Postal Dates, 1635–1985 Caterham Marden 3http://www.bathpostalmuseum.co.uk/explore/biographies/ralphallen.html Ralph Allen Biography Bath Postal Museum 2009-08-21 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20090607024648/http://www.bathpostalmuseum.co.uk/explore/biographies/ralphallen.html 2009-06-07 23 April (St George's Day) – George I publicly reconciles with his son George, Prince of Wales at St James's Palace 1 June – British silversmiths are once again allowed to use sterling silver after 24 years of being limited to a purer (but softer) Britannia silver. 11 June Robert Walpole and his ally and brother-in-law Charles Townshend rejoin the government as Paymaster of the Forces and Lord President of the Council ending the Whig Split lasting since 1717. Within a year they will be Prime Minister and Northern Secretary respectively. Parliament approves the Bubble Act (formally the Royal Exchange and London Assurance Corporation Act 1719), prohibiting the formation of joint-stock companies except by royal charter. 25 June – "South Sea Bubble" reaches its peak as South Sea Company stock is priced at £1,060 a share. 12 July – Under authority of the Bubble Act, the Lords Justices attempt to curb some of the excesses of the stock markets during the "South Sea Bubble". They dissolve a number of petitions for patents and charters, and abolish more than 80 joint-stock companies of dubious merit, but this has little effect on the creation of "Bubbles", ephemeral joint-stock companies created during the hysteria of the times.Charles MacKay Charles Mackay (author) Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Harriman House Classics 2003 September – "South Sea Bubble": share prices, led by those of the South Sea Company, collapse."Commerce", in A Cyclopedia of Commerce and Commercial Navigation, vol. 1, ed. by J. Smith Homans (Harper & Brothers, 1859) p391. 16 November – Pirate captain John Rackham (captured on 22 October) is brought to trial at Spanish Town in Jamaica; he is hanged at Port Royal two days later. Most of his crew is also hanged but female pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny are spared. 29 December – Haymarket Theatre opens in London. Publications Richard Mead's treatise A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it. Births 13 January – Richard Hurd, bishop and writer (died 1808) 27 January (bapt.) – Samuel Foote, dramatist and actor (died 1777) 9 March – Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, politician (died 1790) 8 May - William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, Prime Minister (died 1764)History of William Cavendish Duke of Devonshire - GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-prime-ministers/william-cavendish-duke-of-devonshire www.gov.uk 19 June 2023 en 18 July – Gilbert White, naturalist and cleric (died 1793) 18 August – Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, murderer (died 1760) 30 August – Samuel Whitbread, brewer and politician (died 1796) 31 December – Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (died 1788) Deaths 31 January – Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, privy councillor (born c. 1645) 20 April – George Gordon, 1st Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (born 1637) 5 August – Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, English poet (born 1661) 9 August – Simon Ockley, orientalist (born 1678) 18 August – Matthew Aylmer, 1st Baron Aylmer, admiral (born c. 1650) 18 November – John Rackham, pirate See also 1720 in Wales References 1720 Category:Years in the Kingdom of Great Britain Category:1720 by country Category:1720s in Great Britain Category:1720 in Europe