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Great Britain-related events during the year of 1717
1717 in Great Britain
Other years
Sport
Events from the year
1717 in
Great Britain .
Incumbents
Events
1 January – Count
Carl Gyllenborg , the
Swedish ambassador, is arrested in
London over a plot to assist the
Pretender
James Francis Edward Stuart .
[2]
4 January – the
Dutch Republic , Britain and
France sign the
Triple Alliance .
[2]
24 January –
William Thompson becomes
Solicitor General .
February – as part of the treaty between France and Britain, James Stuart leaves France and seeks refuge with the
Pope .
[2]
2 March – dancer
John Weaver performs in the first
ballet in Britain, shown at the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane ,
The Loves of Mars and Venus .
31 March –
Benjamin Hoadly ,
Bishop of Bangor , extends the
Bangorian Controversy by delivering a sermon to, and supposedly at the request of,
King George on The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ with the text "My kingdom is not of this world" (
John 18:36), concluding there is no
Biblical justification for church government.
[3]
10 April – following the dismissal of his ally
Lord Townshend ,
Robert Walpole resigns from the government. This begins the
Whig Split which lasts until 1720.
[4]
12 April – writer and politician
Joseph Addison is appointed
Southern Secretary in the remodelled government now dominated by
James Stanhoe
24 June –
Grand Lodge of London and Westminster , the first
Freemasonic
Grand Lodge (now the
United Grand Lodge of England ), is founded.
[5]
1 July –
Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford , is
acquitted of conspiracy with the French to put the Pretender on the throne.
[2]
17 July –
George Frideric Handel 's
Water Music performed on a barge on the
River Thames for
King George I .
[2]
July –
Indemnity Act frees most
Jacobites from imprisonment.
August –
Handel becomes house composer at Cannons .
21 September – the first known Druid revival ceremony is held by
John Toland at
Primrose Hill , in London, at the
Autumnal Equinox , to found the Mother Grove, which is later to become the
Ancient Order of Druids .
November – a rift between the King and his son the
Prince of Wales leads to the latter being banished from the royal household. The Prince now sides with the
Opposition Whigs .
6 December –
Colley Cibber 's play
The Non-Juror premieres at Drury Lane. Strongly anti-
Jacobite , it is a popular success.
The King ceases to attend meetings of the
Cabinet regularly.
[6]
Thomas Fairchild , a
nurseryman at
Hoxton in the
East End of London , becomes the first person to produce a successful scientific plant
hybrid , Dianthus Caryophyllus barbatus , known as "Fairchild's Mule".
[7]
The
Board of Ordnance establishes an Officer Corps of Engineers within the
British Army , the immediate predecessor of the
Royal Engineers .
Kentish Post newspaper begins publication in
Canterbury .
Births
2 January –
Edward Seymour, 9th Duke of Somerset , son of Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset and Mary Webb (died
1792 )
5 January –
William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington , statesman (died
1793 )
23 January –
Benjamin Beddome , Baptist minister and hymnist (died
1795 )
29 January –
Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst , soldier and conqueror of Quebec (died
1797 )
c. 11 February –
William Williams Pantycelyn , Welsh hymn writer (died
1791 )
19 February –
David Garrick , actor (died
1779 )
5 June –
Emanuel Mendes da Costa , botanist (died
1791 )
28 June –
Matthew Stewart , Scottish mathematician (died
1785 )
15 August –
John Metcalf , roadbuilder (died
1810 )
4 September –
Job Orton , dissenting minister (died
1783 )
24 September –
Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford , writer (died
1797 )
28 September –
William Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford , diplomat and statesman (died
1781 )
c. October –
James Paine , architect (died
1789 )
30 October –
Jonathan Hornblower , pioneer of steam power (died
1780 )
13 November –
Prince George William , member of the Royal Family (died
1718 )
17 November –
Caroline Townshend, 1st Baroness Greenwich , peeress (died
1794 )
16 December –
Elizabeth Carter , writer (died
1806 )
25 December –
George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield (died
1790 )
Deaths
8 March –
Abraham Darby I , first of that name of three generations of a Quaker family that was key to the development of the Industrial Revolution (born
1678 )
19 March –
John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland , royalist (born
1636 )
20 May –
John Trevor , Speaker of the House of Commons (born
1637 )
August
30 August –
William Lloyd , bishop (born
1627 )
17 September –
Robert Cotton , politician (born
1644 )
26 October –
Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester , mistress of
James II of England (born
1657 )
26 November –
Daniel Purcell , English composer (born 1664)
4 December –
William Hamilton , surgeon in the British East India Company (year of birth unknown)
5 December –
Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow , politician (born
1654 )
Unknown dates
See also
References