1748 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1748 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George II
• Prime Minister – Henry Pelham (Whig)

Events

• 28 March – a fire in the City of London causes over a million pounds worth of damage.
• April – first uniforms of the Royal Navy introduced for commissioned officers and midshipmen.
• August – Admiral Edward Boscawen commands a Royal Navy siege of Pondicherry.
• 18 October – the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession, by which Madras in India is restored to British rule in exchange for the fortress of Louisbourg in Canada with France.

Undated

• Adam Smith begins to deliver public lectures in Edinburgh.
• Henry Fielding organises the forerunner of the Bow Street Runners, with eight men at first.
• John Fothergill's pamphlet Account of the Sore Throat attended with Ulcers contains the first description of diphtheria.
• Holywell Music Room, Oxford, the first purpose-built concert hall in Europe, is opened.

Publications

• While in debtor's prison, John Cleland writes the erotic novel Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure), the first part of which is published anonymously on 21 November.
• David Hume's philosophical treatise An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding.
• Samuel Richardson's anonymous epistolary novel Clarissa.
• Tobias Smollett's anonymous picaresque novel The Adventures of Roderick Random.
• James Thomson's poem The Castle of Indolence, shortly before his death.

Births

• 15 February – Jeremy Bentham, philosopher and writer (died 1832)
• 5 March – William Shield, violinist and composer (died 1829)
• 10 March – John Playfair, scientist (died 1819)
• 13 April – Joseph Bramah, inventor and locksmith (died 1814)
• 28 May – Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle (died 1825)
• August – James Sayers, caricaturist (died 1823)
• 14 December – William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire (died 1811)

Unknown date

• George Dixon, sea captain and explorer (died 1796)
• Matchem, racehorse (died 1781)

Deaths

• 14 March – George Wade, military leader (born 1673 in Ireland)
• 12 April – William Kent, architect, landscape architect and furniture designer (born c. 1685)
• 12 May – Thomas Lowndes, astronomer (born 1692)
• 27 August – James Thomson, poet (born 1700 in Scotland)
• 6 September – Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London and scholar (born 1669)
• 12 September – Anne Bracegirdle, actress (born c.1671)
• 21 September – John Balguy, philosopher (born 1686)
• 26 October – Donald Cameron of Lochiel, exiled Jacobite clan chief (born 1700 in Scotland)
• 25 November – Isaac Watts, hymn writer (born 1674)
• 2 December – Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, politician (born 1662)

See also

• 1748 in Wales

References