1774 in Great Britain
Great Britain-related events during the year of 1774
Events from the year 1774 in Great Britain .
Incumbents
Events
27 January – John Wilkinson patents a method for boring cannon from the solid, subsequently utilised for accurate boring of steam engine cylinders.[ 2]
19 February – Calico Acts repealed, leading to the development and mechanisation of the British cotton industry.[ 3]
22 February – the legal case of Donaldson v Beckett House of Lords , denying the continued existence of a perpetual common law copyright and holding that copyright is a creation of statute and can be limited in its duration.[ 4]
31 March – American Revolutionary War : Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed in the Boston Port Act .[ 5]
17 April – the first avowedly Unitarian congregation, Essex Street Chapel in London , is founded by Theophilus Lindsey .
20 April – Life Assurance Act stipulates that people taking out life assurance must have an interest in the life of the insured person, with the intention of eliminating the use of policies as a form of gambling.
2 May – the Society of Antiquaries of London open the coffin of King Edward I and discover that his body has been perfectly preserved for 467 years.[ 6]
19 May – Shakers Ann Lee and eight followers sail from Liverpool for colonial America .
2 June – Intolerable Acts : The Quartering Act , requiring American colonists to let British soldiers into their homes, is re-enacted.
22 June – Quebec Act passed setting out rules of governance for the colony of Quebec in British North America .[ 5]
1 August – Joseph Priestley , working independently at Bowood House , Wiltshire , isolates oxygen in the form of a gas .[ 7]
4 October – a highwayman robs Prime Minister Lord North near Chiswick .[ 8]
5 October–10 November – 1774 British general election . Lord North continues as prime minister. (In Westminster, Ignatius Sancho becomes the first person of African origin eligible to vote in Britain.)
Undated
Publications
Births
Deaths
See also
References
^ "History of Lord Frederick North - GOV.UK" . www.gov.uk . Retrieved 1 July 2023 .^ Harris, J. R. (2004). "Wilkinson, John (1728–1808)" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Retrieved 14 January 2011 . (subscription or UK public library membership required) ^ Gupta, Bishnupriya. "Cotton textiles and the great divergence: Lancashare, India and shifting of competitive advantage, 1600-1850" (PDF) . International Institute of Social History . Department of Economics, University of Warwick. Retrieved 5 December 2016 . ^ 2 Brown's Parl. Cases 129, 1 Eng. Rep. 837; 4 Burr. 2408, 98 Eng. Rep. 257; 17 Cobbett's Parl. Hist. 953 (1813).
^ a b c Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History 328 . ISBN 978-0-304-35730-7 ^ Forsyth, J.S. (1825). The Antiquary's Portfolio 150 . ^ Priestley, Joseph (1775). "An Account of Further Discoveries in Air". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 65 : 384–94. doi :10.1098/rstl.1775.0039 . JSTOR 106209 . ^ Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 226–227. ISBN 978-0-7126-5616-0 ^ "Royal Crescent" . Images of England . Archived from the original on 3 November 2007. Retrieved 14 November 2006 .^ "BBC History British History Timeline" . Archived from the original on 9 September 2007. Retrieved 3 September 2007 .
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