Events from the year 1789 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

* Monarch – George III * Prime Minister – William Pitt the Younger ( Tory)

Events

* 3 February – Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces a Regency Bill to Parliament so that the Prince of Wales may act as regent for his father George III during a period of mental illness, but the King recovers before the Bill becomes law. * March – first version of a graphic description of a slave ship (the ''

Brookes Brookes is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Barbara Brookes, New Zealand historian * Bruno Brookes, English broadcaster * Dennis Brookes, English cricketer * Ed Brookes (1881–1958), Irish international soccer player * ...

'') issued on behalf of the English Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. * 18 March – Catherine Murphy, a

counterfeit To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

er, becomes the last woman in Britain to suffer a sentence of death by burning, at

Newgate Prison Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey Street just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, t ...

in London (although she is in practice strangled before being burnt). * April –

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

report on the slave trade published. * 20 April – first boat passes through the Thames and Severn Canal's Sapperton Tunnel near Cirencester in Gloucestershire. At it is the longest tunnel of any kind in England at this date. * 28 April – Fletcher Christian leads a

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among member ...

on HMS ''Bounty'' against Captain William Bligh in Polynesia. * 12 May – William Wilberforce makes his first major speech in the House of Commons on the

abolition Abolition refers to the act of putting an end to something by law, and may refer to: * Abolitionism, abolition of slavery * Abolition of the death penalty, also called capital punishment * Abolition of monarchy *Abolition of nuclear weapons *Abol ...

of the slave trade. * 14 June – Mutiny on the ''Bounty'' survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 4,000-mile journey in an open boat. * 28 August – William Herschel discovers Enceladus, one of

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

's moons. * 17 September – William Herschel discovers

Mimas Mimas may refer to: *Mimas (Giant), son of Gaia in Greek mythology, one of the Gigantes * Mimas (''Aeneid''), a son of Amycus and Theono, born the same night as Paris, who escorted Aeneas to Italy *Karaburun, a town and district in Turkey, formerl ...

, another of Saturn's moons. * 4 November – Richard Price preaches a sermon in London, ''

A Discourse on the Love of Our Country ''A Discourse on the Love of Our Country'' is a speech and pamphlet delivered by Richard Price in England in 1789, in support of the French Revolution, equating it with the Glorious Revolution a century earlier in England. This set off the Revol ...

'', igniting the Revolution Controversy. * 19 November – Thames and Severn Canal opened throughout, giving through navigation between the Thames and Severn.

Undated

* Charles Dibdin introduces the nautical song ''Tom Bowling'' in his London entertainment ''The Oddities''. * The song ''

The Lass of Richmond Hill "The Lass of Richmond Hill", also known as "The Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill", is a song written by Leonard McNally with music composed by James Hook, and was first publicly performed in 1789. It was said to be a favourite of George III and, at one ...

'', with music by James Hook to words by

Leonard McNally Leonard Patrick McNally (1752–1820) was an Irish barrister, playwright, lyricist, founding member of the United Irishmen and spy for the British Government within Irish republican circles. He was a successful lawyer in late 18th and early 19th ...

, is first performed publicly by Charles Incledon at Vauxhall Gardens in London. * Rev. Dr. Edmund Cartwright patents his first practical

power loom A power loom is a mechanized loom, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. The first power loom was designed in 1786 by Edmund Cartwright and first built that same year. ...

and designs a

wool combing machine The wool combing machine was invented by Edmund Cartwright, the inventor of the power loom, in Doncaster. The machine was used to arrange and lay parallel by length the fibers of wool, prior to further treatment. Cartwright's invention, nickname ...

. * Andrew Pears introduces Pears soap in London.

Publications

* William Blake's book of poetry '' Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' and his first published prophetic book '' The Book of Thel''. *

Erasmus Darwin Erasmus Robert Darwin (12 December 173118 April 1802) was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor, and poet. His poems ...

's poem ''

The Loves of the Plants ''The Botanic Garden'' (1791) is a set of two poems, ''The Economy of Vegetation'' and ''The Loves of the Plants'', by the British poet and naturalist Erasmus Darwin. ''The Economy of Vegetation'' celebrates technological innovation and scien ...

'', a popular rendering of Linnaeus' works. * Former slave Olaudah Equiano's autobiography '' The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano'', one of the earliest published works by a black writer.

Births

* 5 January – Thomas Pringle, poet (died 1834) * 14 July – Timothy Yeats Brown, consul to Genoa (died 1858) * 19 July –

John Martin John Martin may refer to: Business *John Martin (businessman) (1820–1905), American lumberman and flour miller *John Charles Martin (fl. 1913–1931), American newspaper publisher *John Martin (publisher) (born 1930), American founder of Black ...

, painter (died 1854) * 28 September – Richard Bright, physician, "Father of Nephrology" (died 1858) * 25 December –

Elizabeth Jesser Reid Elizabeth Jesser Reid (; 25 December 1789 – 1 April 1866) was an English social reformer, anti-slavery activist and philanthropist. She is best remembered as the founder of Bedford College. Biography Early life Elisabeth Jesser Sturch was ...

, social reformer (died 1866) * James Morrison, millionaire retail draper and politician (died 1857)

Deaths

*1 January – Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, politician (born 1716) *8 January – Jack Broughton, English boxer (born 1703) *23 January – Frances Brooke, writer (born 1724) *23 January – John Cleland, novelist (born 1709) *26 February –

Eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...

, racehorse (born 1764) *20 July – David Nelson, botanist on (birth date unknown) *26 November – John Elwes, miser and politician (born 1714)

References

{{Year in Europe, 1789 Years in the Kingdom of Great Britain 1789 by country 1789 in Europe 1780s in Great Britain