Events from the year 1762 in Great Britain.
Incumbents
- Monarch – George III
- Prime Minister – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (Whig) (until 26 May); John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (Tory) (starting 26 May)[1]
Events
- January – the "Cock Lane ghost" appears in London.
- 4 January – Britain declares war on Spain and Naples.[2]
- February – 12 sperm whales strand on the east coast of England.[3]
- 10 March – Seven Years' War – Britain captures Grenada from France.[4]
- 20 March – debut performance of David Garrick's The Farmer's Return from London at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane.[5][6]
- 23 March – first legitimately constituted Sandemanian congregation in England, at Glover's Hall in London, as an offshoot of the Scottish Glasite sect.[7]
- May – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne resigns and is succeeded as Prime Minister by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute,[2] the first Scottish Prime Minister of Great Britain; a large number of Newcastle's 'Old Corps Whig' followers are dismissed from public office in the following months in what is known facetiously as the "Massacre of the Pelhamite Innocents".[8]
- 22 May – royal family first takes up residence at Buckingham House.[4]
- 5 June – John Wilkes founds the radical newspaper The North Briton.
- 24 June – Seven Years' War: At the Battle of Wilhelmsthal, the Anglo-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick defeats the French forces in Westphalia. The British commander Lord Granby distinguishes himself.
- mid-July–24 November – Seven Years' War: British troops reinforce the Portuguese to resist the Invasion of Portugal by Spain.[9]
- 13 August – Seven Years' War: The Battle of Havana concludes after more than two months with the surrender of Havana to Britain by Spain.[2]
- September – Society for Equitable Assurances on Lives and Survivorships is founded in London. The world's oldest mutual insurer, it pioneers age-based premiums based on the mortality rate.[2][10]
- 15 September – French and Indian War – Battle of Signal Hill – British troops defeat the French in the last battle of the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War, fought in the Newfoundland Colony.
- 24 September–6 October – Seven Years' War: Battle of Manila fought between Great Britain and Spain resulting in the British occupation of the Philippines until 1764. The British take Manila and make it an Open Port.[2]
- November – first recorded mention of the sandwich.[11]
Undated
- Admiral John Ross of Balnagowan Castle initiates land tenure reform in the Scottish Highlands which will evolve into the Highland Clearances.[12]
- Building of the Plymouth Synagogue, the oldest built by Ashkenazi Jews in the English-speaking world.[13]
- The last remaining buildings are cleared from London Bridge.[14]
- Composer Johann Christian Bach arrives in London where he will spend the remaining 20 years of his life.
Publications
- William Williams Pantycelyn's Mor o Wydr (including "Gweddi am Nerth i fyned trwy anialwch y Byd", the Welsh original of the hymn "Cwm Rhondda").
- Laurence Sterne's collected sermons The Sermons of Mr. Yorick.
- James Stuart and Nicholas Revett's architectural treatise Antiquities of Athens.
Births
- 31 January – Lachlan Macquarie, Scottish-born British Army officer and Governor of New South Wales (died 1824)
- 12 February – Solomon Hirschell, chief rabbi of the United Kingdom (died 1842)
- 17 March (bapt.) – William Dawes, Royal Marines officer and colonial administrator (died 1836)
- 12 August – King George IV of the United Kingdom (died 1830)
- 11 September – Joanna Baillie, Scottish-born poet and dramatist (died 1851)
- 24 September – William Lisle Bowles, poet and critic (died 1850)
- 21 October – George Colman the Younger, dramatist and miscellaneous writer (died 1836)
- 1 November – Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (assassinated 1812)
Deaths
- 3 February – Beau Nash, dandy (born 1674)
- 23 June – Charles Cornwallis, 1st Earl Cornwallis (born 1700)
- 13 July – James Bradley, English Astronomer Royal (born 1693)
- 28 July – George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe, English politician (born 1691)
- 21 August – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English writer (born 1689)
See also
References
- ^ Bryant, Christopher (2014). Parliament: The Biography. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-85752-224-5.
- ^ a b c d e Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 321–322. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- ^ Smeenk, C. (1997). "Strandings of sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus in the North Sea: history and patterns" (PDF). Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- ^ a b Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 223–224. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ "Painting the Theatre: Garrick in Action" (PDF). Bowes Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
- ^ Ritchie, Leslie (2019). David Garrick and the mediation of celebrity. Cambridge University Press. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-108-47587-7. OCLC 1047804999.
- ^ Elmes, James (1831). A Topographical Dictionary of London and its Environs. London: Whittaker, Treacher & Arnot. p. 213.
- ^ The History Today Companion to British History. London: Collins & Brown. 1995. p. 591. ISBN 1-85585-178-4.
- ^ Simms, Brendan (2007). Three Victories and a Defeat: the Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, 1714–1783. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9426-1.
- ^ "Today & History". Equitable Life. 26 June 2009. Archived from the original on 29 June 2009. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
- ^ In Edward Gibbon's journal – Oxford English Dictionary.
- ^ Richards, Eric (1982). A History of the Highland Clearances. Vol. 1. London: Croom Helm. p. 249. ISBN 0-7099-2249-3.
- ^ "Synagogue, Catherine Street, Plymouth". English Heritage. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
- ^ Latham, Mark (2010). "The death of London's 'living bridge'". The London Journal. 35: 164–84. doi:10.1179/174963210x12729493038379. S2CID 144163241.