1739 in Great Britain

Incumbents

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

Events

• 14 January – Britain and Spain sign the Convention of Pardo.
• 16 January – first performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio Saul at the His Majesty's Theatre, London.
• February – George Whitefield first preaches in the open air, to miners at Kingswood, South Gloucestershire.
• April – John Wesley first preaches in the open air, at Whitefield's invitation.
• 4 April – first performance of Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt at the King's Theatre, London.
• 12 May – John Wesley lays the foundation stone of the New Room, Bristol, the world's first Methodist meeting house.
• 17 October – the Foundling Hospital in London, established by Thomas Coram, is granted its royal charter.
• 23 October – "War of Jenkins' Ear" (1739–1742) begins when Britain declares war on Spain.
• 20–22 November – War of Jenkins' Ear: Battle of Porto Bello: British marine forces capture the Panamanian silver exporting town of Porto Bello from the Spanish.
• 25 December–February 1740 – the 'Great Frost': unusually harsh winter in southern England and Ireland.

Publications

• January (dated 9 February) – The Scots Magazine first published.
• David Hume's anonymous A Treatise of Human Nature (issued late 1738 but dated this year).
• John Mottley's pseudonymous Joe Miller's Jests, or the Wits Vade-Mecum.
• John and Charles Wesley's Hymns and Sacred Poems, including the first publication of Charles's "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", anonymously as "Hymn for Christmas-Day", opening "Hark how all the welkin rings".

Births

• 6 January – David Dale, philanthropist (died 1806)
• 26 January – George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough (died 1817)
• 4 February – John Robison, physicist (died 1805)
• 25 March – Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany (died 1767)
• 16 May – Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk, peer and politician (died 1779)
• 5 November – Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton, peer (died 1819)
• 4 December – Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston, politician (died 1802)

Deaths

• 7 April – Dick Turpin, highwayman (hanged) (born 1705)
• 19 April – Nicholas Saunderson, scientist and mathematician (born 1682)
• 10 August – William Craven, 3rd Baron Craven, nobleman. (born 1700)
• 4 September – George Lillo, playwright (born 1693)
• 21 October – William Montagu, 2nd Duke of Manchester (born 1700)

References

References

1. "History of Sir Robert Walpole - GOV.UK".
2. "History of The New Room". The New Room.
3. (1992). "The Chronology of British History". Century Ltd.
4. Ward, A. W.. (2009). "The Cambridge History of English Literature".
5. (2004). "The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature". Oxford University Press.
6. Watson, J. R.. (1997). "The English Hymn: A Critical and Historical Study". Clarendon Press.