1724 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1724 in Great Britain.

1724 in Great Britain:
Other years
1722 | 1723 | 1724 | 1725 | 1726
Sport
1724 English cricket season

Incumbents
  • Monarch – George I
  • Prime Minister – Robert Walpole (Whig)[1]

Events
Blenheim Palace completed.
  • 20 February – Giulio Cesare in Egitto, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, is premiered in London.[2]
  • 6 April – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne becomes Secretary of State for the Southern Department; Henry Pelham becomes Secretary at War.[3]
  • August – Longman, the oldest surviving publishing house in England, is founded in London by Thomas Longman.
  • 31 October – Handel's opera Tamerlano is premiered in London
  • 16 November – Thief Jack Sheppard is hanged in London. (His partner-in-crime, highwayman Joseph Blake, alias "Blueskin", was similarly executed five days earlier.)
  • Undated – Blenheim Palace construction is completed. It has been built as a gift from the nation to the Duke of Marlborough (died 1722) for his involvement in the Battle of Blenheim in 1704.

Publications
  • Daniel Defoe's A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain begins publication.[3]
  • Jonathan Swift's Drapier's Letters begin publication.[3]
  • Isaac Watts' textbook Logic.

Births
  • 24 January – Frances Brooke, writer (died 1789)
  • 28 February – George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, field marshal (died 1807)
  • 19 May – Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, admiral and politician (died 1779)
  • 3 June – John Gregory, physician, medical writer and moralist (died 1773)
  • 8 June – John Smeaton, civil engineer (died 1792)
  • 25 August – George Stubbs, painter (died 1806)
  • 3 September – Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, soldier and Governor of Quebec (died 1808)
  • 31 October – Christopher Anstey, writer (died 1805)[4]
  • 12 December – Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, admiral (died 1816)
  • 25 December – John Michell, scientist and geologist (died 1793)

Deaths
  • 1 January – Charles Gildon, critic and dramatist (born c. 1665)
  • 12 February – Elkanah Settle, writer (born 1648)[5]
  • 21 May – Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, statesman (born 1661)
  • 15 June – Henry Sacheverell, churchman and politician (born 1674)
  • 29 October – William Wollaston, philosophical writer (born 1659)[6]
  • 11 November – Joseph Blake (alias Blueskin), highwayman (executed) (born 1700)
  • 16 November – Jack Sheppard, criminal (executed) (born 1702)
  • 29 November – Laurence Braddon, writer and politician (year of birth not known)
  • 27 December – Thomas Guy, philanthropist (born 1644)

See also
  • 1724 in Wales

References
  1. "History of Sir Robert Walpole - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  2. The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
  3. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
  4. Merrett, Robert James. "Anstey, Christopher". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/579. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Settle, Elkanah". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  6. Young, B. W. "Wollaston, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29841. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
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