1793 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1793 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III
• Prime Minister – William Pitt the Younger (Tory)
• Foreign Secretary – Lord Grenville

Events

• 1 February – French Revolutionary Wars: The French First Republic declares war on Britain, the Dutch Republic and (soon afterwards) Spain.
• 8 April – Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793: From this date, Acts are to be endorsed with the date of royal assent and will come into force on that date unless otherwise specified within; this overturns the previous convention that Acts come into force retrospectively at the date of commencement of the current Parliamentary session.
• 13 April
• The Bank of England issues the first £5 note.
• Manchester Penny Post launched, the first such service in the English provinces.
• May – Bennelong and Yemmerrawanne become the first Aboriginal Australians to visit Britain, landing at Falmouth, Cornwall, with Arthur Phillip.
• June – the Macartney Embassy, a diplomatic mission to China led by George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, reaches Canton, but will be rebuffed by the Qianlong Emperor.
• 20 July – Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie's 1792–1793 Peace River expedition to the Pacific Ocean reaches its goal at Bella Coola, British Columbia, making him the first known person to complete a transcontinental crossing of northern North America.
• 23 August – the Board of Agriculture founded.
• 12 September – Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson meets Emma, Lady Hamilton in Naples.
• 18 September–18 December – French Revolutionary Wars: Siege of Toulon – Admiral Hood's squadron of Royal Navy ships supporting French Royalists is forced to withdraw from Toulon after a successful siege by Napoleon, taking a number of French ships – including the Lutine – with them.
• 20 September – British troops from Jamaica land on the island of Saint-Domingue to join the Haitian Revolution in opposition to the French Republic and its newly freed slaves; on 22 September the main French naval base on the island surrenders peacefully to the Royal Navy.
• 30 September – Bristol Bridge Riot against tolls: 11 people killed and 45 injured.
• 5 October – French Revolutionary Wars: Raid on Genoa – the Royal Navy boards and captures French warships sheltering in the neutral port of Genoa.
• 16 November – Catholic seminarians forced to leave the English College, Douai, settle at St Edmund's College, Ware, Hertfordshire.

Undated

• Westminster Quarters first written, for the bells of a new clock at the Church of St Mary the Great, Cambridge, by Prof. Joseph Jowett, probably with Prof. John Randall or William Crotch.
• Lansdown Crescent, Bath, designed by John Palmer, is completed.
• Physician Matthew Baillie publishes The Morbid Anatomy of Some of the Most Important Parts of the Human Body, a key text on pathology.
• Fritchley Tunnel, the world's oldest surviving railway tunnel is constructed at Fritchley in Derbyshire.
• Thomas Minton establishes his ceramics manufactory, Thomas Minton and Sons, in Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire.
• Plymouth Gin Distillery begins production.

Births

• 22 February – Mary Elizabeth Mohl, née Clarke, saloniste (died 1883 in France)
• 3 March – William Macready, actor (died 1873)
• 6 March – William Dick, founder of Edinburgh Veterinary College (died 1866)
• April – Thomas Addison, physician (died 1860)
• 1 June
• Augustus Earle, painter (died 1838)
• Henry Francis Lyte, hymn-writer (died 1847)
• 13 July
• John Clare, "peasant poet" (died 1864)
• George Green, mathematician (died 1841)
• 21 July – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, politician (d. 1768)
• 10 August – John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, industrialist (died 1848)
• 25 September – Felicia Hemans, poet (died 1835)
• 17 November – Charles Lock Eastlake, painter (died 1865)
• 3 December – Clarkson Frederick Stanfield, marine painter (died 1867)
• 7 December – Joseph Severn, portrait and subject painter (died 1879)
• Sarah Booth, actress (died 1867)

Deaths

• 5 January – John Howie, biographer (born 1735)
• 1 February – William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, statesman (born 1717)
• 2 February – William Aiton, botanist (born 1731)
• 6 February – Thomas Turner, diarist (born 1729)
• 20 March – William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, judge and politician (born 1705)
• 26 March – John Mudge, physician and inventor (born 1721)
• 29 April – John Michell, scientist (born 1724)
• 31 May – Giambattista Tocco, Duke de Sicignano, ambassador of the Kingdom of Naples to London (suicide) (born c. 1760)
• 11 June – William Robertson, historian (born 1721)
• 26 June – Gilbert White, ornithologist (born 1720)
• 7 October – Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, politician (born 1718)
• 16 October – John Hunter, surgeon (born 1728)
• 18 October – Highflyer, racehorse (born 1774)

See also

• 1793 in Wales

References