Timeline: Past and Present Company

Home Search Search Print Print Login - User: anonymous Login Bookmark

	Date	Event(s)
1	1675	Rebuilding of St Paul's started by Wren
2	1694	National Debt came into effect in England Stamp Duties introduced into Britain from Holland Mary II death leaves William III as sole ruler Triennial Act, new Parliamentary elections every three years Scotland: Poll Tax imposed on all over sixteen, except the destitute and insane (-1699) 27 Jul 1694: Bank of England founded by William Paterson (a Scot)
3	1695	Freedom of Press in England granted Bank of Scotland founded Act of Parliament imposes a fine on all who fail to inform the parish minister of the birth of a child (repealed 1706) Start of "Dissenters" lists in parish registers children born but not christened in the parish church some were named "Papist" and others "Protestants"
4	1697	2 Dec 1697: Official opening of St Paul's Cathedral
5	1698	Invention of steam engine by Capt Thomas Savery Darien Expedition: a disastrous attempt to establish a Scots settlement in Panama Duties (taxes) on entries in parish registers repealed after five years 4 Jan 1698: Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London destroyed by fire 14 Nov 1698: Eddystone Lighthouse (Henry Winstanley's) first lit; completed 10 days earlier
6	1700	Population in England and Scotland approx 7.5 million
7	1701	Act of Settlement bars Catholics from the British throne 23 May 1701: After being convicted of piracy and murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd hanged in London
8	1702	8 Mar 1702: Anne Stuart becomes Queen 11 Mar 1702: First English daily newspaper The Daily Courant (till 1735)
9	1703	4 Aug 1703: British take Gibraltar 24 Nov 1703—2 Dec 1703: Climate: Most violent storms of the millennium cause vast damage across southern England about a third of Britain's merchant fleet lost, and Eddystone lighthouse destroyed on 27 November
10	1704	Penal Code enacted Catholics barred from voting, education and the military 13 Aug 1704: Battle of Blenheim
11	1705	First workable steam pumping engine devised by Thomas Newcomen (some say c1710 or 1711) Isaac Newton knighted (for his work at the Royal Mint)
12	1706	First evening newspaper "The Evening Post" issued in London
13	1707	16 Jan 1707: Union with Scotland Scots agree to send 16 peers and 45 MPs to English Parliament in return for full trading privileges Scottish Parliament meets for the last time in March 1 May 1707: English and Scottish Parliaments united by an Act of the English Parliament The Kingdom of Great Britain established - largest free-trade area in Europe at the time
14	1708	First Jacobite rising in Scotland Earliest Artillery Muster Rolls
15	1709	Second Eddystone lighthouse completed First Copyright Act pass Bad harvests throughout Europe bread riots in Britain 2 Feb 1709: Alexander Selkirk rescued from shipwreck on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe (published in 1719) by Daniel Defoe
16	1710	Tax on Apprentice Indentures introduced
17	1711	Incorporation of South Sea Company, in London 11 Aug 1711: First race meeting at Ascot
18	1712	Imposition of Soap Tax (abolished 1853) Last trial for witchcraft in England (Jane Wenham) Toleration Act passed first relief to non-Anglicans
19	1713	By this year there are some 3,000 coffee houses in London
20	1714	Longitude Act: prize of Â£20,000 offered to the inventor of a workable method of determining a ship's longitude (won by John Harrison in 1773 for his chronometer). Schism Act, prevents Dissenters from being schoolmasters in England Landholders forced to take the Oath of Allegiance and renounce Roman Catholicism 1 Aug 1714: Queen Anne Stuart dies George I Hanover becomes king (1714-1727).
21	1715	Second Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, under the Old Pretender ('The Fifteen') 1 Aug 1715: Riot Act passed
22	1716	The Septennial Act of Britain leads to greater electoral corruption general elections now to be held once every 7 years instead of every 3 (until 1911) Climate: Thames frozen so solid that a spring tide lifted the ice bodily 13ft without interrupting the frost fair
23	1717	First Masonic Lodge opens in London Value of the golden guinea fixed at 21 shillings
24	1719	Third abortive Jacobite rising
25	1720	South Sea Bubble, a stock-market crash on Exchange Alley government assumes control of National Debt Manufacturing towns start to increase in population rise of new wealth Wallpaper becomes fashionable in England
26	1721	2 Apr 1721: Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)
27	1722	Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland Knatchbull's Act, poor laws
28	1723	Excise tax levied for coffee, tea, and chocolate The Waltham Black Acts add 50 capital offences to the penal code - people could be sentenced to death for theft and poaching - repealed in 1827 The Workhouse Act or Test - to get relief, a poor person has to enter Workhouse
29	1724	Rapid growth of gin drinking in England Longman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)
30	1726	First circulating library opened in Edinburgh Invention of the chronometer by John Harrison
31	1727	Board of Manufacturers established in Scotland 11 Jun 1727: George I dies - George II Hanover becomes king
32	1729	9 Nov 1729: Treaty of Seville signed between Britain, France and Spain - Britain maintained control of Port Mahon and Gibraltar
33	1730	Irish famine
34	1731	Invention of seed drill by Jethro Tull [others say 1701] Invention of sextant by John Hadley

Robert PINCHBECK 1694 - 1731

Robert PINCHBECK
1694 - 1731