Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, was a British Whig statesman who served continuously in government from 1715 until his death. He served as the Prime Minister from 1742 until his death in 1743. He is considered to have been Britain's second Prime Minister, after Sir Robert Walpole, but worked closely with the Secretary of State, Lord Carteret, in order to secure the support of the various factions making up the Government.
Field Marshal Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet was a British cavalry officer. As a junior officer he fought at the Battle of Schellenberg and at the Battle of Blenheim during the War of the Spanish Succession. He was then asked the raise a regiment to combat the threat from the Jacobite rising of 1715. He also served with the Pragmatic Army under the Earl of Stair at the Battle of Dettingen during the War of the Austrian Succession. As a Member of Parliament he represented three different constituencies but never attained political office.
George Dodington of Eastbury Park, Dorset was a merchant, office holder and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1705 to 1720, under the patronage of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford.
Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, styled The Honourable Peregrine Bertie between 1686 and 1704, Lord Willoughby de Eresby between 1704 and 1715 and Marquess of Lindsey between 1715 and 1723, was a British nobleman and statesman.
Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi, Count of Lizárraga and of Castillo, was a Spanish Basque conquistador in Central America during the late colonial period of New Spain. Born in Olóriz, Navarre, he is noted for leading the 1696–97 expeditionary force which resulted in the fall of the last significant independent Maya stronghold, Nojpetén, located on an island in Lake Petén Itzá in the northern Petén Basin region of present-day Guatemala. He served as governor of the Yucatán until 1708, when he was named Governor-General of the Philippines. Around the time that he was named to that post, he was made a knight of the Order of Santiago. He died in Manila in 1715.
James Murray, 2nd Duke of Atholl, styled Marquess of Tullibardine between 1715 and 1746, was a Scottish peer, and Lord Privy Seal.
John Erskine, Earl of Mar, KT was a Scottish Jacobite who was the eldest son of Charles, Earl of Mar, from whom he inherited estates that were heavily loaded with debt. He was the 23rd Earl of Mar in the first creation of the earldom. He was also the sixth earl in the seventh creation .. He was nicknamed "Bobbing John", for his tendency to shift back and forth from faction to faction, whether from Tory to Whig or Hanoverian to Jacobite. Deprived of office by the new king in 1714, Mar raised the standard of rebellion against the Hanoverians; at the battle of Sheriffmuir in November 1715, Mar's forces outnumbered those of his opponent, but victory eluded him. At Fetteresso his cause was lost, and Mar fled to France, where he would spend the remainder of his life. The parliament passed a Writ of Attainder for treason against Mar in 1716 as punishment for his disloyalty, which was not lifted until 1824. He died in 1732.
Lord James Cavendish FRS of Staveley Hall, Derbyshire was a British Whig politician who sat in the English House of Commons between 1701 and 1707 and in the British House of Commons between 1707 and 1742.
Sir Conyers Darcy or Darcey,, of Aske, near Richmond, Yorkshire, was a British Army officer, courtier and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1707 and 1758.
John Anstis was an English officer of arms, antiquarian and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1702 and 1722. He rose to the highest heraldic office in England and became Garter King of Arms in 1718 after years of political manoeuvring.
The 1715 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 5th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. In October 1714, soon after George I had arrived in London after ascending to the throne, he dismissed the Tory cabinet and replaced it with one almost entirely composed of Whigs, as they were responsible for securing his succession. The election of 1715 saw the Whigs win an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons, and afterwards virtually all Tories in central or local government were purged, leading to a period of Whig ascendancy lasting almost fifty years during which Tories were almost entirely excluded from office.
Brigadier General Thomas Stanwix was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1702 to 1725. He served as Governor of Gibraltar.
A total solar eclipse occurred on 3 May 1715. It was known as Halley's Eclipse, after Edmond Halley (1656–1742) who predicted this eclipse to within 4 minutes accuracy. Halley observed the eclipse from London where the city of London enjoyed 3 minutes 33 seconds of totality. He also drew a predictive map showing the path of totality across England. The original map was about 20 miles off the observed eclipse path, mainly due to his use of inaccurate lunar ephemeris. After the eclipse, he corrected the eclipse path, and added the path and description of the 1724 total solar eclipse.
William Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley of Stratton PC, PC (I), was a British politician and judge, of the Bruton branch of the Berkeley family. He was Master of the Rolls in Ireland between 1696 and 1731 and also held political office as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1710 to 1714 and as First Lord of Trade from 1714 to 1715.
Charles Cornwallis, 4th Baron Cornwallis was a British politician.
Alexander Brodie, 19th of that Ilk was a Scottish clan chief and politician from Moray. He sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain for 34 years from 1720 to 1754, as a government supporter. For 27 years he was Lord Lyon King of Arms, the most junior of the Scottish Great Officers of State, responsible for regulating the heraldry of Scotland.
Richard Vaughan of Derwydd, Carmarthenshire was Whig MP for Carmarthen from 1685 to his death.
Nişancı Süleyman Pasha was an 18th-century high-ranking Ottoman civil servant and grand vizier.
