1731 in Great Britain

Incumbents

• Monarch – George II
• Prime Minister – Robert Walpole (Whig)

Events

• 16 March – Treaty of Vienna signed between the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Spain.
• April – trader Robert Jenkins has his ear cut off by Spanish coast guards in Cuba, casus belli for the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739.
• 28 April – a fire at White's 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.
• 5 June – Tiverton fire of 1731, a great fire in Tiverton, Devon.
• 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, is "burned down entirely" by a fire.
• 23 October – fire at Ashburnham House in London damages the nationally owned Cotton library, housed there at this time.

Undated

• Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730: Legal proceedings in the courts to be conducted in the English language.
• William Hogarth produces his A Harlot's Progress series of paintings.
• John Bevis observes the Crab Nebula for the first time in the modern era.

Publications

• 1 January – first edition of The Gentleman's Magazine published by Edward Cave.
• 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, Bishop of London and abolitionist (died 1809)
• August – Henry Constantine Jennings, collector of antiquities and gambler (died 1819)
• 10 October – Henry Cavendish, scientist (died 1810)
• 15 November – William Cowper, poet (died 1800)
• 12 December – Erasmus Darwin, physician and scientist, grandfather of Charles Darwin (died 1802)
• date unknown – William Aiton, Scottish botanist (died 1793)

Deaths

• 10 February – George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter, Army general (born 1657)
• 24 April – Daniel Defoe, writer (born 1660)
• 11 May – Mary Astell, feminist writer (born 1666)
• 17 May – Samuel Bradford, churchman and Whig politician (born 1652)
• 20 June – Ned Ward, writer and publican (born 1667)
• 18 July – Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet, politician (born 1653)
• 24 August – William Godolphin, Marquess of Blandford, 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

References

1. "History of Sir Robert Walpole - GOV.UK".
2. Cates, William L. R.. (1863). "The Pocket Date Book". Chapman and Hall.
3. (2009). "Blandford, Dorset 1731". FireNet.
4. Dickens, Charles. (1869). "All the Year Round". Charles Dickens.
5. Selley, Peter. (2016). "William Cookesley, William Hunter and the first patient to survive removal of the appendix in 1731". Journal of Medical Biography.
6. (1876). "The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance". C. & E. Layton.
7. Friar, Stephen. (2001). "The Sutton Companion to Local History". Sutton Publishing.
8. Munsell, Joel. (1858). "The Every Day Book of History and Chronology". D. Appleton & Co.