1720 in Great Britain

1720 in Great Britain:

Other years

1718 | 1719 | 1720 | 1721 | 1722

Sport

1720 English cricket season

Events from the year 1720 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch - George I

Events

• 17 February - Treaty of The Hague signed between Britain, France, Austria, the Dutch Republic and Spain ending the War of the Quadruple Alliance.^[1]
• April - "South Sea Bubble": A scheme for the South Sea Company to take over most of Britain's unconsolidated government debt massively inflates share prices;^[1] they rise to a peak in August.
• 15 April - Ralph Allen of Bath is appointed to farm Cross and Bye Posts (i.e. to manage mail not going via London), leading to his reform of the system.^[2][3]
• September - "South Sea Bubble": share prices, led by those of the South Sea Company, collapse.^[1]
• 16 November - Pirate captain "Calico Jack" Rackham is brought to trial at Spanish Town in Jamaica; he is hanged at Port Royal two days later.
• 29 December - Haymarket Theatre opens in London.

Births

• 13 January - Richard Hurd, bishop and writer (died 1808)
• 27 January (bapt.) - Samuel Foote, dramatist and actor (died 1777)
• 9 March - Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, politician (died 1790)
• 18 July - Gilbert White, naturalist and cleric (died 1793)
• 18 August - Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, murderer (died 1760)
• 30 August - Samuel Whitbread, brewer and politician (died 1796)
• 31 December - Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (died 1788)

Deaths

• 31 January - Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, privy councillor (born c. 1645)
• 20 April - George Gordon, 1st Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (born 1637)
• 5 August - Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, English poet (born 1661)
• 9 August - Simon Ockley, orientalist (born 1678)
• 18 August - Matthew Aylmer, 1st Baron Aylmer, admiral (born c. 1650)
• 18 November - Calico Jack, pirate (born c. 1682)

References

See also