Events from the year 1731 in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

Incumbents

Monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power i ...

–

George II George II or 2 may refer to: People * George II of Antioch (seventh century AD) * George II of Armenia (late ninth century) * George II of Abkhazia (916–960) * Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051) * George II of Georgia (1072–1089) ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

– Robert Walpole ( Whig) *

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

–

7th 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

Events

* 16 March – Treaty of Vienna signed between the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

, Great Britain, the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. * April – trader Robert Jenkins has his ear cut off by

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

coast guards in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, '' casus belli'' for the

War of Jenkins' Ear The War of Jenkins' Ear, or , was a conflict lasting from 1739 to 1748 between Britain and the Spanish Empire. The majority of the fighting took place in New Granada and the Caribbean Sea, with major operations largely ended by 1742. It is con ...

in 1739. * 28 April – a fire at

White's White's is a gentlemen's club in St James's, London. Founded in 1693 as a hot chocolate shop in Mayfair, it is the oldest gentleman's club in London. It moved to its current premises on St James's Street in 1778. Status White's is the oldes ...

Chocolate House, near St. James's Palace in London, destroys the historic club and the paintings therein, but is kept from spreading by the fast response of firemen. * 4 June – great fire destroys much of the centre of Blandford Forum,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

. * 5 June – Tiverton fire of 1731, a great fire in

Tiverton, Devon Tiverton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Devon, England, and the commercial and administrative centre of the Mid Devon district. The population in 2019 was 20,587. History Early history The town's name is conjectured to derive from "Twy-fo ...

. * 23 August – the oldest known sports score in history is recorded in the description of a cricket match at Richmond Green, when the team of Thomas Chambers of Middlesex defeats the Duke of Richmond's team by 119 to 79. * September – the first successful appendectomy is performed by surgeon William Cookesley. * 30 September – the village of

Barnwell, Cambridgeshire Barnwell is a suburb of Cambridge in England. The population of the Barnwell ward of Cambridge City Council at the 2011 Census was 1,967. It lies northeast of the city, with Cambridge Airport located immediately to the east. It forms part of the ...

, is "burned down entirely" by a fire. * 23 October – fire at

Ashburnham House Ashburnham House is an extended seventeenth-century house on Little Dean's Yard in Westminster, London, United Kingdom, which since 1882 has been part of Westminster School. It is occasionally open to the public, when its staircase and first fl ...

in London damages the nationally owned

Cotton library The Cotton or Cottonian library is a collection of manuscripts once owned by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton MP (1571–1631), an antiquarian and bibliophile. It later became the basis of what is now the British Library, which still holds the collection ...

, housed there at this time.

Undated

Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730 The Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730 (''4 Geo II. c. 26'') was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which made English (instead of Law French and Latin) the obligatory language for use in the courts of England and in the court of e ...

: Legal proceedings in the

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...

s to be conducted in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

. *

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like ...

produces his ''

A Harlot's Progress ''A Harlot's Progress'' (also known as ''The Harlot's Progress'') is a series of six paintings (1731, now destroyed) and engravings (1732) by the English artist William Hogarth. The series shows the story of a young woman, M. (Moll or Mary) H ...

'' series of paintings. *

John Bevis John Bevis (10 November 1695 in Salisbury, Wiltshire – 6 November 1771) was an English doctor, electrical researcher and astronomer. He is best known for discovering the Crab Nebula in 1731. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, bein ...

observes the Crab Nebula for the first time in the modern era.

Publications

* 1 January – first edition of ''

The Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term '' magazine'' (from the French ''magazine ...

'' published by

Edward Cave Edward Cave (27 February 1691 – 10 January 1754) was an English printer, editor and publisher. He coined the term "magazine" for a periodical, founding ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' in 1731, and was the first publisher to successfully fashio ...

. * Jethro Tull's treatise ''The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry; or, an essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation''.

Births

* 4 February – Mary Deverell, religious writer, essayist and poet (died 1805) * 10 February – Thomas Beckwith, English painter, genealogist and antiquary (died 1786) * 8 May –

Beilby Porteus Beilby Porteus (or Porteous; 8 May 1731 – 13 May 1809), successively Bishop of Chester and of London, was a Church of England reformer and a leading abolitionist in England. He was the first Anglican in a position of authority to seriously c ...

, Bishop of London and abolitionist (died 1809) * August –

Henry Constantine Jennings Henry Constantine Jennings (August 1731 – 17 February 1819) was an antiquarian, collector and gambler, best known for the Ancient Rome, Roman sculpture – known as ''Jennings Dog, The Jennings Dog'' – which he acquired and which is now in the ...

, collector of antiquities and gambler (died 1819) * 10 October –

Henry Cavendish Henry Cavendish ( ; 10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was an English natural philosopher and scientist who was an important experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. He is noted for his discovery of hydrogen, which he termed "infl ...

, scientist (died 1810) * 15 November –

William Cowper William Cowper ( ; 26 November 1731 – 25 April 1800) was an English poet and Anglican hymnwriter. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and sce ...

, poet (died 1800) * 12 December – Erasmus Darwin, physician and scientist, grandfather of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

(died 1802) * ''date unknown'' –

William Aiton William Aiton (17312 February 1793) was a Scottish botanist. Aiton was born near Hamilton. Having been regularly trained to the profession of a gardener, he travelled to London in 1754, and became assistant to Philip Miller, then superinten ...

, Scottish botanist (died 1793)

Deaths

* 10 February –

George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter Lieutenant-General George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter of Killaghy, 10 February 1657 to 10 February 1731, was a member of the landed gentry from Herefordshire and career soldier in the British Army. He served as Commander-in-Chief, Scotland fr ...

, Army general (born 1657) * 24 April – Daniel Defoe, writer (born 1660) * 11 May –

Mary Astell Mary Astell (12 November 1666 – 11 May 1731) was an English protofeminist writer, philosopher, and rhetorician. Her advocacy of equal educational opportunities for women has earned her the title "the first English feminist."Batchelor, Jenni ...

, feminist writer (born 1666) * 17 May –

Samuel Bradford Samuel Bradford (20 December 1652 – 17 May 1731) was an English churchman and whig, bishop successively of Carlisle and Rochester. Life He was the son of William Bradford of London and was born in St. Anne's, Blackfriars. He was educated at ...

, churchman and Whig politician (born 1652) * 20 June –

Ned Ward Ned Ward (1667 – 20 June 1731), also known as Edward Ward, was a satirical writer and publican in the late 17th and early 18th century in London. His most famous work, ''The London Spy'', appeared in 18 monthly instalments from November 1698. ...

, writer and

publican In antiquity, publicans ( Greek τελώνης ''telōnēs'' (singular); Latin ''publicanus'' (singular); ''publicani'' (plural)) were public contractors, in whose official capacity they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed th ...

(born 1667) * 18 July –

Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet (1653 – 18 July 1731) of Escot in the parish of Talaton, Devon, was an English landowner and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1679 and 1710. Early life Yonge was bapti ...

, politician (born 1653) * 24 August –

William Godolphin, Marquess of Blandford William Godolphin, Marquess of Blandford ( 1699 – 24 August 1731) was an English nobleman and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1720 and 1731 . Godolphin was the eldest son of Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin and his ...

, nobleman (born c. 1699) * 17 December – George Lockhart, Scottish writer, spy and politician, killed in duel (born 1673) * 29 December – Brook Taylor, mathematician (born 1685)

References

{{Year in Europe, 1731 Years in Great Britain