.svg){kind=small} 1722 in Great Britain:
|
Other years
|
Sport
|
Events from the year 1722 in Great Britain.
Incumbents
Events
- 27 January – Daniel Defoe's novel Moll Flanders is published anonymously in London. [2]
- 19 March – 1722 British general election begins, the second during the reign of George I.
- 7 May – Construction begins for Tranent to Cockenzie Waggonway, Scotland's first railway. [3]
- 9 May – General election ends, resulting in a landslide victory for the Whig government of Robert Walpole which increases its majority in the House of Commons to 220.
- 9 August – State funeral of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, takes place in London.
- 24 August – Francis Atterbury, Anglican Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, is arrested in his deanery and confined in the Tower of London for treason, accused of leading the Jacobite " Atterbury Plot" in support of the pretender James Francis Edward Stuart. [4]
- 17 October – Habeas Corpus Act suspended following the discovery of the Atterbury Plot. [2]
Undated
- Construction begins of Senate House at the University of Cambridge, designed by James Gibbs. [2]
- The " Brown Bess" muzzle-loading smoothbore musket becomes the British Army's standard infantry firearm for land combat for more than a century.
- First known Caslon serif typeface designed by William Caslon in London, the first original typeface of English origin.
Births
- 26 January – Alexander Carlyle, Church of Scotland leader (died 1805)
- 11 April – Christopher Smart, poet (died 1771)
- 22 April (bapt.) – Joseph Warton, poet and critic (died 1800)
- 16 July – Joseph Wilton, sculptor (died 1803)
- 11 August – Richard Brocklesby, physician (died 1797)
- 16 September – Gabriel Christie, general (died 1799)
- 22 September – John Home, dramatist (died 1808)
- 5 November – William Byron, 5th Baron Byron, dueler (died 1798)
- 30 December – Charles Yorke, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (died 1770)
- Flora MacDonald, Jacobite (died 1790)
Deaths
- 20 January – Charles Montagu, 1st Duke of Manchester (born c. 1662)
- 21 January – Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton, supporter of William III of England (born 1661)
- 10 February – Bartholomew Roberts, pirate (born 1682)
- 5 April – Christopher Bullock, actor and playwright (born 1690)
- 19 April – Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, statesman (born c. 1674)
- 16 June – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, general (born 1650)
- date unknown – John Cecil, 7th Earl of Exeter, peer (born 1700)
See also
References
- ^ "History of Sir Robert Walpole - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
- ^ a b c Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 298. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- ^ Journals of William Dickson 1720-1745 (not transcribed) - National Records of Scotland.
- ^ Hayton, D. W. (2004). "Atterbury, Francis (1663–1732)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/871. Retrieved 2012-11-22. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)