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Great Britain-related events during the year of 1797
Events from the year 1797 in Great Britain .
Incumbents
Events
3 January – three of the stones making up
Stonehenge fall due to heavy frosts.
[2]
15 January – London
haberdasher
John Hetherington wears the first
top hat in public and attracts a large crowd of onlookers. He is later fined £50 for causing
public nuisance .
[3]
14 February –
Battle of Cape St Vincent : The
Royal Navy under Admiral Sir
John Jervis defeats a larger Spanish fleet off
Cape St. Vincent , Portugal. On 23 May, Jervis is made Earl of St Vincent, and
Horatio Nelson made a
Knight of the Bath , for their part in the victory.
[4]
18 February – Spanish Governor
José María Chacón peacefully surrenders the colony of
Trinidad and Tobago to a British naval force commanded by Sir
Ralph Abercromby .
22 February – the
last invasion of Britain begins: French forces under the command of American Colonel
William Tate land near
Fishguard in Wales.
24 February – Tate surrenders at Fishguard.
26 February – start of "
restriction period " during which, by Government order,
Bank of England notes are inconvertible to gold. The Bank issues the first one-pound and two-pound notes (the former denomination remains in issue until 11 March 1988).
[5]
16 April–30 June –
Spithead and Nore mutinies : two mutinies in the Royal Navy spark fears of a revolution.
[6]
17 April – Sir
Ralph Abercromby unsuccessfully invades
San Juan, Puerto Rico , in what would be one of the largest British attacks on Spanish territories in the western hemisphere and one of the worst defeats of the navy for years to come.
April – prisoners taken in the
French Revolutionary Wars are first moved to the world's first purpose-built
prisoner-of-war camp , located at
Norman Cross in
Huntingdonshire .
[7]
30 May – Abolitionist
William Wilberforce marries
Barbara Ann Spooner in Bath about six weeks after their first meeting.
July –
Duties on Clocks and Watches Act 1797 imposed; it is repealed the following year.
[8]
24 July –
Horatio Nelson is wounded at the
Battle of Santa Cruz , causing the loss of his right arm.
[3]
August – The
Home Office sends an agent to
Nether Stowey in Somerset to investigate the poets
Samuel Taylor Coleridge and
William Wordsworth who are suspected of being French spies.
[9]
29 August –
Massacre of Tranent : British troops attack protestors against enforced recruitment into the
militia at
Tranent in
Scotland , killing 12.
October – Coleridge composes the poem
Kubla Khan in an
opium -induced dream, writing down only a fragment of it on waking.
11 October
[10] –
Battle of Camperdown : Royal Navy defeats the fleet of the
Batavian Republic off the coast of
Holland .
[11]
18 October –
Treaty of Campo Formio ends the
First Coalition , leaving Britain fighting alone against
France .
November –
1797 Rugby School rebellion : The pupils at
Rugby School rebel against the headmaster, Henry Ingles, after he decrees that the damage to a tradesman's windows should be paid for by the students.
[12]
16 November (or 23 November?) –
Royal Navy
frigate
HMS Tribune (1796) is wrecked on the approaches to
Halifax, Nova Scotia ; of the 240 on board, all but 12 are lost.
[13]
Undated –
"Cartwheel" twopence
coins pressed, for the only time, at
Boulton and
Watt 's
Soho Mint in copper.
[14]
Ongoing
Publications
Births
3 January –
Frederick William Hope , entomologist (died 1862)
6 January –
Edward Turner Bennett , zoologist and writer (died 1836)
[15]
7 January –
Henry Piddington , merchant captain in the East (died 1858)
14 January –
George Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover , politician and man of letters (died 1833)
24 January –
John Shaw-Lefevre , barrister, Whig politician and civil servant (died 1879)
28 January –
Charles Gray Round , barrister, Conservative Member of Parliament for North Essex 1837–47 (died 1867)
1 February –
Frederick Sullivan , cricketer (died 1873)
2 February –
Lambert Blackwell Larking , clergyman (died 1868)
4 February
5 February –
Robert Benson , barrister and author, recorder of Salisbury (died 1844)
10 February –
George Chichester, 3rd Marquess of Donegall , Anglo-Irish landowner, courtier and politician (died 1883)
11 February –
Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos , Conservative politician (died 1861)
13 February –
Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar , Scottish art collector (died 1864)
25 February –
Maria Abdy , poet (died 1867)
27 February –
Henry George Ward , diplomat, politician and colonial administrator (died 1860)
3 March –
Emily Eden , poet and novelist (died 1869)
4 March –
Thomas Thorp , Anglican priest (died 1877)
10 March
12 March –
Benjamin Caesar , cricketer (died 1867)
16 March
19 March –
John Braithwaite , engineer, inventor of the first steam fire engine (died 1870)
20 March –
John Roberton , Scottish physician and social reformer (died 1876)
23 March –
Ernest Edgcumbe, 3rd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe , politician (died 1861)
24 March –
Sackville Lane-Fox , Conservative politician (died 1874)
26 March –
Hedworth Lambton , Liberal Member of Parliament (died 1876)
27 March –
George Glyn, 1st Baron Wolverton , banker (died 1873)
31 March –
Walter Calverley Trevelyan , naturalist and geologist (died 1879)
2 April
17 April
William Beresford , Conservative politician (died 1883)
John Ogilvie , Scottish lexicographer, editor of Imperial Dictionary of the Language (died 1867)
18 April –
Richard Ryan , biographer (died 1849)
29 April –
George Don , botanist (died 1856)
3 May –
George Webster , architect (died 1864)
7 May
13 May
15 May –
Lydia Irving , philanthropist, prison visitor (died 1893)
19 May –
Richard Pakenham , diplomat, Ambassador to the United States (died 1868)
24 May –
Henry Thynne, 3rd Marquess of Bath , naval officer and politician (died 1837)
27 May –
Sir Thomas Bazley, 1st Baronet , industrialist and politician (died 1883)
8 June –
Henry William-Powlett, 3rd Baron Bayning , peer and clergyman (died 1866)
11 June
24 June
27 June –
Henry Noble Shipton , military officer (died 1821)
6 July –
Henry Paget, 2nd Marquess of Anglesey , peer, Whig politician, courtier and cricketer (died 1869)
7 July –
George Meads , cricketer (died 1881)
11 July –
Francis Close , rector of Cheltenham (1826–1856) and Dean of Carlisle (1856–1881) (died 1882)
14 July –
James Scott Bowerbank , naturalist, palaeontologist (died 1877)
17 July –
John Hodgetts-Foley , Member of Parliament (died 1861)
18 July –
Robert Christison , Scottish toxicologist and physician (died 1882)
24 July –
Maria Foote , actress (died 1867)
26 July
30 July –
Harriet Windsor-Clive, 13th Baroness Windsor , landowner and philanthropist in Wales (died 1869)
1 August –
William Knollys , general (died 1883)
2 August
9 August –
Charles Robert Malden , explorer (died 1855)
11 August –
George Shillibeer , coachbuilder (died 1866)
14 August –
Robert Radcliffe , cricketer (died 1832)
20 August –
John Sinclair , Archdeacon of Middlesex (died 1875)
21 August –
John Iltyd Nicholl , Welsh Member of Parliament (died 1853)
22 August –
Thomas Dale , Dean of Rochester (died 1870)
24 August –
John Cobbold , brewer, railway developer and Conservative politician (died 1882)
27 August –
Henry Wilson , Suffolk politician (died 1866)
30 August –
Mary Shelley , writer (died 1851)
31 August –
James Ferguson , Scottish-born astronomer and engineer (died 1867 in the United States)
2 September –
William Stephenson , Geordie printer, publisher, auctioneer, poet and songwriter (died 1838)
3 September –
Benjamin Nottingham Webster , actor-manager and dramatist (died 1882)
13 September –
Joseph Stannard , marine and landscape painter (died 1830)
21 September –
George Hamilton Seymour , diplomat (died 1880)
5 October –
John Gardner Wilkinson , traveller, writer and pioneer Egyptologist (died 1875)
[16]
7 October –
John Wedderburn Dunbar Moodie , Scottish-born army officer (died 1869)
9 October –
Henry Collen , royal miniature portrait painter (died 1879)
10 October –
Thomas Drummond , army officer, civil engineer and public official (died 1840)
13 October
15 October –
William Siborne , Army officer and military historian (died 1849)
16 October –
James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan , military commander (died 1868)
21 October –
William Hale , inventor (died 1870)
1 November
13 November –
Jacob Astley, 16th Baron Hastings (died 1859)
14 November –
Charles Lyell , Scottish geologist (died 1875)
20 November –
Mary Buckland , palaeontologist and marine biologist (died 1857)
22 November –
David Salomons , banker and campaigner for
emancipation of the Jews in England (died 1873)
12 December –
Lucy Anderson , pianist (died 1878)
17 December –
Richard Cheslyn , cricketer (died 1858)
22 December
24 December –
Lewis Jones , Royal Navy officer (died 1895)
28 December –
John Marshall , Member of Parliament for Leeds (died 1836)
Tommaso Benedetti , painter (died 1863 in Austria)
Approximate date –
Thomas Cautley Newby , publisher (died 1882)
Deaths
21 February –
John Parkhurst , lexicographer (born 1728)
2 March –
Horace Walpole , politician and writer (born 1717)
6 March –
William Hodges , landscape painter (born 1744)
7 March –
John Gabriel Stedman , colonial soldier and author (born 1744 in the Netherlands)
19 March –
Philip Hayes , composer, organist, singer and conductor (born 1738)
26 March –
James Hutton , Scottish geologist (born 1726)
31 March –
Olaudah Equiano , ex-slave and slavery abolitionist (born 1745 in Nigeria)
7 April –
William Mason , cleric, poet, editor and gardener (born 1724)
29 April –
Elizabeth Ryves , Irish-born writer (born 1750)
7 May –
Jedediah Strutt , cotton spinner (born 1726)
25 May –
John Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden , field marshal (born 1719)
28 June –
George Keate , poet (born 1729)
30 June –
Richard Parker , sailor and mutineer, executed (born 1767)
9 July –
Edmund Burke , Irish-born philosopher (born 1723)
25 July – killed at
Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
29 July –
John Weatherhead , Royal Navy officer, died of wounds received at Battle of Santa Cruz (born 1775)
3 August –
Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst , field-marshal and Commander-in-Chief (born 1717)
6 August –
James Pettit Andrews , historian and antiquary (born 1737)
18 August –
Josiah Spode , potter (born 1733)
29 August –
Joseph Wright of Derby , painter (born 1734)
4 September –
Sir William Ashburnham, 4th Baronet , cleric (born 1710)
10 September –
Mary Wollstonecraft , feminist writer and philosopher (born 1759)
21 September –
Hugh Pigot , Royal Navy officer, murdered (born 1769)
25 September –
John Baughan , carpenter, thief and transportee to Australia (born 1754)
29 September –
George Raper , nature artist (born 1769)
4 October –
Anthony Keck , architect (born 1726)
20 October –
William Cooke , cleric and academic (born 1711)
11 December –
Richard Brocklesby , physician (born 1722)
14 December –
John Robert Cozens , romantic watercolour landscape painter and draughtsman, insane (born 1752)
26 December –
John Wilkes , radical politician and journalist (born 1725)
30 December –
David Martin , Scottish portrait painter and engraver (born 1737)
Thomas Kirk , painter, illustrator and engraver, consumption (born 1765)
See also
References
^
"History of William Pitt 'The Younger' - GOV.UK" . www.gov.uk . Retrieved 1 July 2023 .
^ Munsell, Joel (1858).
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology . D. Appleton & Co. p.
14 .
^
a
b Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library. 2006.
ISBN
0-14-102715-0 .
^
"No. 14012" .
The London Gazette . 23 May 1797. p. 474.
^ Williams, Hywel (2005).
Cassell's Chronology of World History . London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp.
346–347 .
ISBN
0-304-35730-8 .
^
"BBC History British History Timeline" . Archived from
the original on 9 September 2007. Retrieved 4 September 2007 .
^
"Site of the Norman Cross Depot for Prisoners of War, Non Civil Parish - 1006782 | Historic England" . historicengland.org.uk . Retrieved 16 January 2021 .
^
Dowell, Stephen (1888). A History of Taxation and Taxes in England . Vol. III. London: Longmans, Green. pp. 272–275.
^ Kellett, Keith.
"Wordsworth's Lakes" . Retrieved 25 February 2008 .
^ Naval reckoning; began on morning of 12 October by shore reckoning.
Lloyd, Christopher (1963). St. Vincent & Camperdown . British battles. London: Batsford. p. 139.
^ Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 236–237.
ISBN
0-7126-5616-2 .
^
A History of Rugby School . pp. 182–185.
^ Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859 . Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot Publications. p. 85.
ISBN
0-948864-30-3 .
^ Perkins, Chris Henry (2008). Collectors' Coins GB 2008 (35th ed.). Torquay: Rotographic. p. 41.
ISBN
0-948964-76-6 .
^
Bennett, Edward Turner (1797-1836), zoologist by J. C. Edwards in
Dictionary of National Biography online (accessed 21 July 2008)
^ Jason Thompson (2010). Sir Gardner Wilkinson and His Circle . University of Texas Press. p. 1.
ISBN
9780292785694 .