1807 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1807 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

* Monarch – George III
* Prime Minister – William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (Coalition) (until 31 March); William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (Tory) (starting 31 March)
* Foreign Secretary – Charles Grey, Viscount Howick (until 25 March) George Canning (from 25 March)
* Home Secretary – Earl Spencer (until 25 March) Lord Liverpool (from 25 March)
* Parliament – 3rd (until 29 April), 4th (starting 22 June)

Events

* 1 January – the island of Curaçao is captured by Admiral Charles Brisbane.
* 7 January – the United Kingdom issues an Order in Council prohibiting British ships from trading with France or its allies.
* 28 January – Pall Mall, London becomes the first street with gas lighting in a demonstration by Frederick Albert Winsor.
* 3 February – Napoleonic Wars and Anglo-Spanish War – Battle of Montevideo: the British Army captures Montevideo from the Spanish Empire as part of the British invasions of the River Plate.
* 18 February – the Royal Navy gun-brig ''Snipe'' runs aground 60 yards (55 m) off Great Yarmouth in a storm, with around 200 people drowned, inspiring Captain Manby to invent the Manby Mortar.
* 23 February
** Around forty people are killed in a crush attending a public hanging in London.
** The Slave Trade Act is passed in the House of Commons by an overwhelming majority.
* 25 March
** The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing the slave trade throughout the British Empire with effect from 1 May (slavery itself is abolished in British colonies in 1833).
** The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, at this time known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger carrying railway in the world.
* 31 March – Duke of Portland asked to form a government following the collapse of the Ministry of all the Talents.
* 18 April – Harwich ferry disaster: 60 to 90 soldiers and their families drown when a boat capsizes off Landguard Fort.
* 4 May–9 June – the Duke of Portland wins the general election.
* 31 May – Primitive Methodism originates in an All Day of Prayer at Mow Cop in North Staffordshire.
* June – first Ascot Gold Cup held.
* 22 June – ''Chesapeake''–''Leopard'' affair: Royal Navy warship HMS ''Leopard'' attacks and boards the United States Navy frigate USS ''Chesapeake'' off Norfolk, Virginia, seeking deserters.
* 5 July – disastrous attack on Buenos Aires.
* 7–9 July – Peace of Tilsit between France, Prussia and Russia. Napoleon and Emperor Alexander I of Russia ally together against the British.
* 13 July – with the death at Frascati of Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart, the last Stuart claimant to the throne, the movement of Jacobitism comes to an effective end.
* 27 July – '' Kitty's Amelia'' sails from Liverpool on the last legal slaving voyage for a British vessel.
* 2–7 September – Battle of Copenhagen: The Royal Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent the Dano-Norwegian navy from surrendering to Napoleon. One third of the city is destroyed and two thousand citizens killed.
* 2 September – Anglo-Russian War (1807–1812): Russia declares war on the United Kingdom.
* 13 November – Geological Society founded in London.
* 20 November – sinking of the ''Rochdale'' and the ''Prince of Wales'': The British troopships ''Rochdale'' (brig) and ''Prince of Wales'' (packet ship) sink in a storm in Dublin Bay with around 400 drowned.
* 22 December – the U.S. Congress passes the Embargo Act in response to the Orders in Council.
* 29 December – the Royal Navy ship of the line HMS ''Anson'' runs aground on Loe Bar, Cornwall, with around sixty people drowned, inspiring Henry Trengrouse to invent a rocket apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks.
* Undated – Potassium and sodium isolated by Sir Humphry Davy.

Ongoing

* Anglo-Spanish War, 1796–1808
* Napoleonic Wars, 1803–1815

Publications

* Charles and Mary Lamb's children's book '' Tales from Shakespeare''.
* Benjamin Tabart's version of the fairy tale '' The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk''.
* William Wordsworth's ''Poems in Two Volumes'', including "Resolution and Independence", "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", " Ode: Intimations of Immortality" and "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802".

Births

* 8 February – Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, sculptor and natural history artist (died 1894)
* 3 April
** Mary Carpenter, educational and social reformer (died 1877)
** Jane Digby, aristocratic adventuress (died 1881 in Syria)
* 31 August – Thomas Miller, "ploughboy poet" and novelist (died 1874)
* 8 October – Harriet Taylor Mill, philosophical writer (died 1858)
* 19 October – Edward Bigge, Archdeacon of Lindisfarne (died 1844)
* 30 October – Christopher Wordsworth, Anglican bishop and Biblical commentator (died 1885)
* 30 November – William Farr, epidemiologist (died 1883)

Deaths

* 5 January – Isaac Reed, Shakespearean editor (born 1742)
* 15 April – Durham Ox, shorthorn bull (born 1796)
* 18 May – John Douglas, Anglican bishop (born 1721)
* 13 July – Henry Benedict Stuart, claimant to the throne of the United Kingdom (born 1725)
* 18 July – Thomas Jones, mathematician (born 1756)
* 14 September – George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, field marshal (born 1724)
* 21 December – John Newton, cleric and hymnist (born 1725)

See also

* 1807 in Scotland

References

{{Year in Europe, 1807

Years of the 19th century in the United Kingdom