1750 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1750 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

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

Events

• 17 January – John Canton reads a paper in the presence of the Royal Society of London on a method of making artificial magnets.
• 8 February – an earthquake is felt in London.
• 8 March – a second more powerful earthquake is felt in London.
• 20 March – Samuel Johnson begins publication of the periodical The Rambler.
• 11 April – Jack Slack (a butcher of Norwich) defeats Jack Broughton to become bare-knuckle boxing Champion of England
• 24 June – Iron Act, passed by Parliament, comes into effect, restricting manufacture of iron products in the American colonies.
• 5 October – Treaty of Madrid, a commercial treaty with Spain, is signed.
• 18 November – Westminster Bridge is officially opened for the general public to use, the only fixed crossing of the River Thames between London Bridge and Putney.

Undated

• Establishment of the Jockey Club and the Pytchley Hunt.
• Thomas Gainsborough's painting Mr and Mrs Andrews.

Births

• 24 January – Helen Gloag, Scottish-born slave Empress of Morocco (died 1790)
• 18 February – David Bogue, nonconformist leader (died 1825)
• April – Joanna Southcott, religious fanatic (died 1814)
• 2 May – John André, British Army officer of the American Revolutionary War (died 1780)
• 6 June – William Morgan, actuary (died 1833)
• 13 June – James Burney, admiral (died 1821)
• 26 September – Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood, admiral (died 1810)

Deaths

• 7 February – Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, aristocrat (born 1684)
• 8 February – Aaron Hill, dramatist (born 1685)
• 29 March – James Jurin, physician and mathematician (born 1684)
• 7 April – George Byng, 3rd Viscount Torrington, general (born 1701)
• 28 July – Conyers Middleton, religious controversialist and classical scholar (born 1683)
• 8 August – Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, aristocrat, philanthropist and cricket patron (born 1701)
• 3 October – 'Captain' James MacLaine (or Maclean), gentleman highwayman (born 1724) (hanged at Tyburn)
• 13 December – Philemon Ewer, shipbuilder (born 1702)

See also

• 1750 in Wales

References