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1787 in Great Britain
Last updated
June 16, 2025
Contents
Incumbents
Events
Publications
Births
Deaths
See also
References
1787 in Great Britain
Other years
1785
1786
1787
1788
1789
Countries of the United Kingdom
Scotland
Wales
Sport
1787 English cricket season
Events from the year
1787
in
Great Britain
.
Incumbents
Monarch
–
George III
Prime Minister
–
William Pitt the Younger
(
Tory
)
[
1
]
Events
Wedgwood anti-slavery medallion
produced for the
Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade
by
Wedgwood
, 1787
1 January –
George III
writes his first letter to
Arthur Young
's
Annals of Agriculture
, under the name of Ralph Robinson of
Windsor
.
11 January –
William Herschel
discovers the
Uranian moons
Titania
and
Oberon
.
[
2
]
19 February – William Herschel first uses the
40-foot telescope
under construction for him at
Slough
.
13 May – Captain
Arthur Phillip
leaves
Portsmouth
with the eleven ships of the
First Fleet
carrying around 700 convicts and at least 300 crew and guards to establish a
penal colony
in
Australia
.
[
3
]
22 May –
Thomas Clarkson
and
Granville Sharp
found the
Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade
with support from
John Wesley
,
Josiah Wedgwood
and others.
[
3
]
31 May – the original
Lord's Cricket Ground
holds its first
cricket
match;
[
4
]
Marylebone Cricket Club
founded.
[
5
]
July –
Principal Triangulation of Great Britain
begun under the direction of General
William Roy
from Hounslow Heath; in the autumn it is extended to France.
[
6
]
Summer –
Calton weavers' strike
in the west of Scotland. On 3 September, six of the
Calton weavers
are killed by troops.
23 December – Captain
William Bligh
sets sail from
Spithead
for
Tahiti
on
HMS
Bounty
.
[
4
]
Publications
Freed slave
Ottobah Cugoano
publishes
Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species
.
The
Scots Musical Museum
begins publication.
Births
7 January –
Patrick Nasmyth
, Scottish landscape painter (died 1831)
10 February –
William Bradley
, Britain's tallest ever man (died 1820)
17 February –
George Mogridge (Old Humphrey)
, miscellaneous writer and poet (died 1854)
10 March –
William Etty
, painter, especially of nudes (died 1849)
28 March –
Claudius Rich
, archaeologist and anthropologist (died 1821)
7 June –
William Conybeare
, geologist (died 1857)
28 June –
Sir Harry Smith
, military commander (died 1860)
24 July –
William Ward
, cricketer (died 1849)
10 September –
Justina Jeffreys
, Jamaican-born Welsh gentlewoman (died 1869)
[
7
]
13 September –
John Adamson
, antiquary and expert on Portuguese (died 1855)
13 October –
William Brockedon
, painter (died 1854)
4 November –
Edmund Kean
, actor (died 1833)
21 November –
Bryan Procter
(Barry Cornwall), poet (died 1874)
22 November –
Copley Fielding
, watercolour landscape painter (died 1855)
16 December –
Mary Russell Mitford
, novelist and dramatist (died 1855)
Ignatius Bonomi
, architect (died 1870)
John Dobson
, architect (died 1865)
Harriet Gouldsmith
, landscape painter and etcher (died 1863)
Approximate date –
Ikey Solomon
, receiver of stolen goods (died 1850 in Australia)
Deaths
1 April –
Floyer Sydenham
, classical scholar (born 1710)
2 April –
Thomas Gage
, General (born 1719)
10 May –
William Watson
, physician and scientist (born 1715)
25 July –
Arthur Devis
, portrait painter (born 1712)
3 November –
Robert Lowth
, bishop and grammarian (born 1710)
18 December
Francis William Drake
, British admiral and Governor of Newfoundland (born 1724)
Soame Jenyns
, English writer (born 1704)
See also
1787 in Wales
References
↑
"History of William Pitt 'The Younger' - GOV.UK"
.
www.gov.uk
. Retrieved
1 July
2023
.
↑
Penguin Pocket On This Day
. Penguin Reference Library. 2006.
ISBN
0-14-102715-0
.
1
2
"BBC History British History Timeline"
. Archived from
the original
on 9 September 2007
. Retrieved
2007-09-03
.
1
2
Williams, Hywel (2005).
Cassell's Chronology of World History
. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp.
339–340
.
ISBN
0-304-35730-8
.
↑
Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992).
The Chronology of British History
. London: Century Ltd. pp.
230–
231.
ISBN
0-7126-5616-2
.
↑
Hewitt, Rachel
(2011) [2010].
Map of a Nation: a biography of the Ordnance Survey
. London: Granta. pp.
84–
6.
ISBN
978-1-84708-254-1
.
↑
Palmer, Caroline (19 April 2024).
"JEFFREYS, JUSTINA (1787 - 1869), gentlewoman"
.
Dictionary of Welsh Biography
.
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v
t
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1787 in Europe
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