1834 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1834 in the United Kingdom. Uniquely, four Prime Ministers serve during the year.

Incumbents

* Monarch – William IV
* Prime Minister – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey ( Whig) (until 16 July); William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne ( Whig) (starting 16 July, until 14 November); Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (Tory) (starting 14 November, until 10 December); Robert Peel (Conservative) (starting 10 December)
* Foreign Secretary – Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (until 14 November) Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (starting 14 November)
* Parliament – 11th (until 29 December)

Events

* February – Robert Owen organises the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union.
* March – William Whewell (anonymously) first publishes the term ''scientist'' in the ''Quarterly Review'' (but notes it as "not generally palatable").
* 18 March – the Tolpuddle Martyrs, six Dorset farm labourers, are sentenced to be transported to a penal colony for forming a trade union.
* 23 May – The Exchequer is abolished as a revenue collecting department of the British government by the Office of Receipt of Exchequer Act.
* 23 June – HMS ''Tartarus'' is launched at Pembroke Dock. It is the Royal Navy's first steam-powered man-of-war (a paddle gunvessel).
* 16 July – Lord Melbourne succeeds Earl Grey as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
* 25 July – hanging in chains upon a gibbet after execution is abolished in England by the Hanging-in-Chains Abolition Act.
* 1 August – slavery abolished in most of the British Empire by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
* 14 August – Poor Law Amendment Act states the able-bodied cannot receive assistance unless they enter a workhouse; poor-law authorities should no longer attempt to identify the fathers of illegitimate children to recover support from them.
* 15 August – Parliament approves the creation of the colony of South Australia.
* August – Foresters Friendly Society formed as the Ancient Order of Foresters in Rochdale.
* 22 September – the Leeds and Selby Railway in Yorkshire is officially opened; at long, its Marsh Lane tunnel through Richmond Hill, Leeds, is the world's longest railway tunnel at this date and the first through which passengers are hauled by steam locomotives.
* 7 October – Birmingham Town Hall, designed by Joseph Hansom and Edward Welch, is opened for the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival.
* 16 October – burning of Parliament: Much of the Palace of Westminster is destroyed by fire.
* 14 November – William IV dismisses the government of Melbourne, after proposals for Church reform are made. The Duke of Wellington forms a caretaker government. This will be the last time a British sovereign chooses a Prime Minister contrary to the will of Parliament.
* 24 November – opening of first purpose-built Temperance Hall in Britain, at Garstang in Lancashire.
* 10 December – Sir Robert Peel forms his first government.
* 17 December – the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first public railway in Ireland, opens between Dublin and Kingstown.
* 18 December
** Tamworth Manifesto published: Peel outlines his guiding principles of government, regarded as the basis of the modern Conservative Party.
** Tithe War in Ireland: "Rathcormac massacre": At Gortroe, near Rathcormac, County Cork, armed Constabulary reinforced by the regular British Army kill at least nine and wound thirty protesters against tithes.
* 23 December – architect and inventor Joseph Hansom patents the Hansom cab.
* 26 December – Ursulines of Jesus take up residence at St Margaret's Convent in the Whitehouse in Edinburgh, the first Roman Catholic convent established in Scotland since the Reformation; it will be another 5 years before the first such modern establishment in England.

Undated

* The government begins to make grants of 50% towards the erection of new elementary schools in England and Wales.
* British East India Company monopoly on China trade ended.
* The Institute of British Architects in London, predecessor of the Royal Institute of British Architects, is formed.
* Harrods founded as a wholesale tea dealer in Stepney in the East End of London.
* Augustus Smith acquires the lease on the Isles of Scilly from the Duchy of Cornwall.
* History of computing hardware: Charles Babbage begins the conceptual design of an "analytical engine", a mechanical forerunner of the modern computer. It will not be built in his lifetime.
* A "Fancy Toy Dog Show" is held at Elephant and Castle in London.
* With an average Central England temperature of , this narrowly overtakes 1733 as the hottest calendar year in the CET record until equalled in 1921 and beaten in 1949.

Publications

* W. Harrison Ainsworth's (anonymous) first novel '' Rookwood'', an historical romance featuring the highwayman Dick Turpin.
* Edward Bulwer's (anonymous) novel ''The Last Days of Pompeii''.
* Cuthbert Sharp's collection ''The Bishoprick Garland''.

Births

* 28 January – Sabine Baring-Gould, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, Anglican rector and eclectic scholar (died 1924)
* 15 February – William Henry Preece, electrical engineer and inventor (died 1913)
* 19 February – Charles Davis Lucas, Irish Victoria Cross recipient (died 1914)
* 28 February – Charles Santley, baritone (died 1922)
* 6 March – George du Maurier, cartoonist and novelist (died 1896)
* 16 March – James Hector, geologist (died 1907)
* 24 March – William Morris, artist, writer, socialist and activist (died 1896)
* 30 April – John Lubbock, banker, archaeologist, Liberal politician, philanthropist and polymath (died 1913)
* 19 June – Charles Spurgeon, Baptist preacher (died 1892)
* 28 June – Samuel Pasco, United States Senator from Florida from 1887 to 1899 (died 1917)
* 4 July – Christopher Dresser, designer influential in the Anglo-Japanese style (died 1904)
* 4 August – John Venn, mathematician (died 1923)
* 23 August – Hugh Owen Thomas, Welsh-born orthopaedic surgeon (died 1891)
* 9 September – Joseph Henry Shorthouse, novelist (died 1903)
* 23 November – James Thomson ("B.V."), Scottish-born poet (died 1882)
* 24 December – Augustus George Vernon Harcourt, chemist (died 1919)

Deaths

* 12 January – William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1759)
* 11 April – John 'Mad Jack' Fuller, philanthropist and patron of the arts and sciences (born 1757)
* 12 July – David Douglas, botanist (born 1799)
* 25 July – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, critic, and philosopher (born 1772)
* 1 August – Robert Morrison, Protestant missionary to China (born 1782)
* 2 September – Thomas Telford, engineer (born 1757)
* 16 September – William Blackwood, writer (born 1776)
* 11 October – William John Napier, 9th Lord Napier, Navy officer, politician and diplomat (born 1786)
* 5 December – Thomas Pringle, poet (born 1789)
* 23 December – Thomas Malthus, demographer and economist (born 1766)
* 27 December – Charles Lamb, essayist (born 1775)

See also

* 1834 in Scotland

References

{{Year in Europe, 1834

Years of the 19th century in the United Kingdom