1724 in Great Britain:

Other years

1722 | 1723 | 1724 | 1725 | 1726

Sport

1724 English cricket season

Events from the year 1724 in the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch - George I of Great Britain
• Prime Minister - Robert Walpole, Whig

Events

• 20 February - premiere of Julius Caesar in Egypt, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London.^[1]
• 6 April - Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne becomes Secretary of State for the Southern Department; Henry Pelham becomes Secretary at War.^[2]
• 16 November - Jack Sheppard is hanged in London. (His partner-in-crime, highwayman Joseph "Blueskin" Blake, was similarly executed five days earlier.)

Unknown dates

• Blenheim Palace construction is completed. It is presented as a gift to the Duke of Marlborough for his involvement in the Battle of Blenheim in 1704.
• Longman, the oldest publishing house in England, is founded.

Publications

• Jonathan Swift's The Drapier's Letters.^[2]
• Daniel Defoe's A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain.^[2]

Births

• 24 January - Frances Brooke, writer (died 1789)
• 28 February - George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, field marshal (died 1807)
• 29 April - John Michell, scientist and geologist (died 1793)
• 19 May - Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, admiral and politician (died 1779)
• 3 June - John Gregory, physician, medical writer and moralist (died 1773)
• 8 June - John Smeaton, civil engineer (died 1792)
• 25 August - George Stubbs, painter (died 1806)
• 3 September - Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, soldier and Governor of Quebec (died 1808)
• 31 October - Christopher Anstey, writer (died 1805)
• 12 December - Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, admiral (died 1816)

Deaths

• 12 February - Elkanah Settle, writer (born 1648)
• 21 May - Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, statesman (born 1661)
• 15 June - Henry Sacheverell, churchman and politician (born 1674)
• 29 October - William Wollaston, philosophical writer (born 1659)
• 11 November - Joseph Blake (alias Blueskin), highwayman (executed) (born c. 1700)
• 16 November - Jack Sheppard, criminal (executed) (born 1702)
• 27 December - Thomas Guy, philanthropist (born 1644)

References

See also