1751 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1751 in Great Britain.

1751 in Great Britain:
Other years
1749 | 1750 | 1751 | 1752 | 1753
Countries of the United Kingdom
Scotland
Sport
1751 English cricket season

Incumbents
  • Monarch – George II
  • Prime Minister – Henry Pelham (Whig)[1]

Events
  • 25 March – legally New Year's Day for the last time in England and Wales.
  • 31 March – Frederick, Prince of Wales dies at Leicester House, London from a lung injury and is succeeded by his son the future George III of the United Kingdom as heir apparent to the throne; three weeks later George is made Prince of Wales.[2] George's mother, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, becomes Dowager Princess of Wales.
  • April – the Gin Act requires government inspection of distilleries and restricts sale to licensed premises.[3]
  • 27 May – adoption of the Gregorian calendar: royal assent is given to An Act for Regulating the Commencement of the Year; and for Correcting the Calendar now in Use (the "Calendar Act") passed by Parliament, introducing the Gregorian Calendar, correcting the eleven-day difference between Old Style and New Style dates and making 1 January legally New Year's Day from 1752 in the British Empire.[2][4] It is largely promoted by George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield.
  • 4 June – Dr John Wall and partners establish a porcelain factory in Worcester, "The Worcester Tonquin Manufactory", the origin of Royal Worcester.[5][6]
  • 31 August – Robert Clive takes the Indian town of Arcot from the French.[2]
  • 20 October – Charles, Duke of Bolton, marries celebrated actress Lavinia Fenton, already the mother of his three children.
  • 3 December – Battle of Arnee: Robert Clive defeats a Franco-Indian force.

Undated
  • A British settlement is founded in Georgetown in North America.[2]
  • Newcastle Infirmary founded in Newcastle upon Tyne.
  • A new Lizard Lighthouse is built in Cornwall.
  • William Hogarth engraves the prints Gin Lane, Beer Street and The Four Stages of Cruelty.[3]

Publications
  • 15 February – Thomas Gray's anonymous Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard.[7]
  • Henry Fielding's novel Amelia.[2]
  • Eliza Haywood's anonymous novel The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless.[8]
  • David Hume's book An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals.[2]
  • Tobias Smollett's anonymous picaresque novel The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle.[2]

Births
  • 31 January – Priscilla Wakefield (née Bell), Quaker writer and philanthropist (died 1832)
  • 2 May – John André, soldier (died 1780)
  • 4 June – John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, Lord Chancellor (died 1838)
  • 11 July – Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, posthumously-born daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales and later queen consort of Denmark (died 1775)
  • 30 October – Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish-born dramatist and politician (died 1816)
  • 14 November – Capel Lofft, lawyer, writer and astronomer (died 1824 in France)
  • date unknown
    • John Bowles, political writer and lawyer (died 1819)
    • Helen Craik, Scottish novelist and poet (died 1825) (probable year)
    • Thomas Sheraton, furniture designer (died 1806)

Deaths
  • 20 January – John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, politician (born 1665)
  • 29 March – Thomas Coram, sea captain and philanthropist (born c.1668)
  • 31 March
    • Frederick, Prince of Wales (born 1707)
    • Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford (born 1701)
  • 9 June – John Machin, mathematician and astronomer (b. c.1686)
  • 22 August – Andrew Gordon, Scottish-born Benedictine monk, physicist and inventor (born 1712)
  • 2 October – Thomas Mathews, Welsh admiral (born 1676)
  • 26 October – Philip Doddridge, nonconformist religious leader (born 1702)
  • 12 December – Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, statesman and philosopher (born 1678)
  • 17 December – Sir William Gooch, 1st Baronet, Governor of Virginia (born 1681)
  • 19 December – Louise of Great Britain, English-born queen of Frederick V of Denmark (born 1724)

See also
  • 1751 in Wales

References
  1. "History of Henry Pelham - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  2. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 314–315. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
  3. Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 220–221. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
  4. Dagnall, H. (1991). Give us back our eleven days. Edgware: author. p. 19. ISBN 0-9515497-2-3.
  5. "Dr. Wall and the first Worcester factory" (PDF). Worcester Porcelain Museum. 2010-12-31. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-28.
  6. Jervis, William Percival (1911). A Pottery Primer. New York: The O'Gorman Publishing Co. pp. 104–6.
  7. Cox, Michael, ed. (2004). The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860634-6.
  8. Leavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (rev. ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.
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