1720 in Great Britain
Great Britain-related events during the year of 1720
1720 in Great Britain: |
Other years |
1718 | 1719 | 1720 | 1721 | 1722 |
Sport |
Events from the year 1720 in Great Britain.
Incumbents
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.[1]
- 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.[1]
- 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.[2][3]
- 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.[4]
- September – "South Sea Bubble": share prices, led by those of the South Sea Company, collapse.[1][5]
- 16 November – English-born pirate captain "Calico Jack" Rackham (captured around 31 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 (his Irish-born wife) 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)[6]
- 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 – Calico Jack, pirate (born c. 1682)
See also
References
- ^ a b c Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 297–298. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- ^ Blake, Richard. The Book of Postal Dates, 1635–1985. Caterham: Marden. p. 3.
- ^ "Ralph Allen Biography". Bath Postal Museum. Archived from the original on 2009-06-07. Retrieved 2009-08-21.
- ^ MacKay, Charles (2003). Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Harriman House Classics.
- ^ "Commerce", in A Cyclopedia of Commerce and Commercial Navigation, vol. 1, ed. by J. Smith Homans (Harper & Brothers, 1859) p391.
- ^ "History of William Cavendish Duke of Devonshire - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- v
- t
- e
Years in Great Britain (1707–1800) → 1801–present
- 1707
- 1708
- 1709
- 1710
- 1711
- 1712
- 1713
- 1714
- 1715
- 1716
- 1717
- 1718
- 1719
- 1720
- 1721
- 1722
- 1723
- 1724
- 1725
- 1726
- 1727
- 1728
- 1729
- 1730
- 1731
- 1732
- 1733
- 1734
- 1735
- 1736
- 1737
- 1738
- 1739
- 1740
- 1741
- 1742
- 1743
- 1744
- 1745
- 1746
- 1747
- 1748
- 1749
- 1750
- 1751
- 1752
- 1753
- 1754
- 1755
- 1756
- 1757
- 1758
- 1759
- 1760
- 1761
- 1762
- 1763
- 1764
- 1765
- 1766
- 1767
- 1768
- 1769
- 1770
- 1771
- 1772
- 1773
- 1774
- 1775
- 1776
- 1777
- 1778
- 1779
- 1780
- 1781
- 1782
- 1783
- 1784
- 1785
- 1786
- 1787
- 1788
- 1789
- 1790
- 1791
- 1792
- 1793
- 1794
- 1795
- 1796
- 1797
- 1798
- 1799
- 1800