Our Family History

The Genealogy of Robert and Christina Barritt

1750 - 1790 (40 years)

	Date	Event(s)
1	1750	1750: Great Britain - The grapefruit was first described by Griffith Hughes as the 'forbidden fruit' of Barbados 1750: Scotland - Royal Infirmaries are founded in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen 1750: Great Britain - Tea-drinking begins to rival alcohol-drinking 1750: Great Britain - Population of England and Wales estimated at 6.5 million 1750: Great Britain - During period to 1780 English countryside takes on today's familiar apearance as accelerated enclosure produces small fields surrounded by hedges, fences and walls
2	1751	1751: British North America - Benjamin Franklin published Experiments and Observations on Electricity after several years of experiments done with several friends. In this book Franklin suggested an experiment to prove that lightning is a large-scale electrical discharge, a task which later he took upon himself, using a kite. This led to the invention of the lightning rod. 1751: Great Britain - Death of Frederick, Prince of Wales. His son, Prince George, becomes heir to the throne
3	1752	1752: Great Britain - Sir John Pringle (1707-1782), Scottish Army physician, publishes Observations on Diseases of the Army, institutes rules for camp hygiene, clothing and diet, shows how dysentery and malaria spread, identifies hospital / camp / gaol (jail) / ship fever as typhus 1 Jan 1752: Great Britain - Adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in Britain
4	1753	1753: Great Britain - Parliament passes the Naturalization of Jews Act 1753: Great Britain - James Lind (1716-1794) Scottish Navy physician, publishes Treatise on Scurvy; Sir Gilbert Blane, Scottish Naval surgeon, enforces strict rules regarding cleanliness, improves health, lifespan of sailors
5	1754	1754: Great Britain - First royal troops disembark in India; Takes 4.5 days to travel London to Manchester 1754: France - Antoine Beauvilliers was born. He was a French chef who founded the first luxury restaurant, La Grande Taverne de Londres.
6	1755	1755: Great Britain - Samuel Johnson publishes the first English language dictionary. 23 Mar 1755: Great Britain - Josiah Spode was born; the inventor of Fine Bone China.
7	1756	1756: Great Britain - Mayonnaise invented to commemorate a victory at the start of the Seven Years War, the successful seige of English-held St. Philip's Castle 1756: Europe - Britain, allied with Prussia, declares war against France and her allies, Austria and Russia. The Seven Years' War begins 20 Jun 1756: Calcutta, India - M
8	1757	1757: Great Britain - William Pitt the elder becomes Prime Minister 1757: India - Robert Clive wins the Battle of Plassey and secures the Indian province of Bengal for Britain 1757: Great Britain - John Campbell invents the sextant.
9	1758	1758: Great Britain - Dolland invents the achromatic lens. 1758: Great Britain - Ribbing machine developed in England to make Jedediah Strutt stockings.
10	1759	1759: Canada - Wolfe captures Quebec and expels the French 1759: Great Britain - Battle of Quiberon (Brest fleet) and Battle of Lagos (Toulon fleet), Admirals Sir Edward Hawke and Boscawen, respectively, victorious for Britain; Dakar captured 1759: British North America - Cherokee War: English Colonists vs Cherokee Indians 1759-1761.
11	1760	1760: Great Britain - Death of George II 1760: Great Britain - George III, ruler of England to 1820. House of Hanover: Grandson of George II, married Charlotte of Mecklenburg.
12	1761	1761: Great Britain - Laurence Sterne publishes the enigmatic Tristram Shandy 1761: Great Britain - Jonas Hanway and David Porter begin campaign on behalf of child chimney sweeps, achieve protective legislation in 1788 1761: Pondicherry, India - Pondicherry captured, French power destroyed 1761: Great Britain - William Pitt the elder resigns over King and advisors not permitting further conflict with France and ally Spain 1761: Great Britain - River power reaches saturation point, Duke of Bridgewater cuts Worsley Canal, thereby halving price of coal in Manchester 1761: Great Britain - Englishman John Harrison invents the navigational clock or marine chronometer for measuring longitude. 1761: Great Britain - Various municipalities secure Private Acts by which money can be raised ('rates') to pay for public improvements, such as paving and lighting in period to 1765
13	1762	1762: Great Britain - John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, 'created' the Sandwich. This Englishman was said to have been fond of gambling and, during a 24 hour gambling streak, he instructed a cook to prepare his food in such a way that it would not interfere with his game. The cook presented him with sliced meat between two pieces of toast. Perfect! This meal required no utensils and could be eaten with one hand, leaving the other free to continue the game. 1762: Great Britain - The Earl of Bute is appointed Prime Minister. He becomes very unpopular and employs a bodyguard 1762: France - Spain declares war on Britain; Britain gains West Indian islands from French, Cuba and Manila from Spanish
14	1763	1763: Americas - Treaty of Paris returns Cuba and Manila to Spain, keeps Florida, recovers Minorca; returns West Indian islands and trading stations in India to French, keeps Canada
15	1764	1764: Great Britain - James Hargreaves in England invents the spinning jenny which can produce 8 threads at one time.
16	1765	1765: Great Britain - Rockingham ministry. The American Stamp Act raises taxes in the colonies in an attempt to make their defence self-financing 1765: Great Britain - Earliest known children's pop-up book 1765: France - The very first restaurant, by that name
17	1766	1766: Great Britain - Chatham ministry. Repeal of the American Stamp Act 1766: Great Britain - Priestley discovers Law of Inverse Squares (electricity), Louis XV convulses with laughter when line of monks leap into air as electric shock is administered 1766: France - Louis, Marquis de Cussy was born. French gastronome, a friend of Grimod de la Reyniere, who stated that Cussy had invented 366 different ways to prepare chicken. Cussy wrote Les Classiques de la table.
18	1767	1767: Great Britain - John Wilkinson, ironmaster, produces railways for mines; Manchester and Liverpool joined by canal 1767: Great Britain - Joseph Priestley invents carbonated water - soda water.
19	1768	1768: Great Britain - Grafton ministry. The Middlesex Election Crisis occurs. 1768: Great Britain - General election, reformer Wilkes elected as member for Middlesex amid scenes of jubilation; Royal Academy (painting) founded
20	1769	1769: Great Britain - James Watt patented a new type of steam engine with a separate condensing chamber and an air pump to bring steam into the chamber and equipped it with a simple 'governor' for safety: if the engine started to go too fast, the power would be automatically cut back. He coined the term horsepower and later loaned his name to the unit of power, or work done per unit of time 1769: Great Britain - Captain James Cook's first voyage to explore the Pacific begins 1769: Great Britain - Richard Arkwright develops the water-powered spinning frame
21	1770	1770: Great Britain - Lord North begins service as Prime Minister. The Falkland Island Crisis occurs. Edmund Burke publishes his Thoughts on the Present Discontents 1770: Australia - James Cook documents the location of Australia 1770: Great Britain - Gum pencil eraser invented 1770: Great Britain - Early skeleton suits begin to appear - the first specialized children's clothing. The earliest were still worn with knee breeches, but by the 1780s they were warn with long trousers.
22	1771	1771: Great Britain - The Encyclopedia Britannica is first published 1771: Great Britain - Richard Arkwright builds the first spinning mill
23	1772	1772: Great Britain - Lord Mansfield makes slavery illegal 1772: Great Britain - James Burgh publishes Political Disquisitions, advocates universal male suffrage
24	1773	1773: British North America - Colonists protest at the East India Company's monopoly over tea exports to the colonies, at the so-called Boston Tea Party 1773: Coalbrookedale, England - The world's first Cast Iron bridge is constructed over the River Severn 1773: Great Britain - Benjamin Delessert was born. French industrialist who developed the first successful process to extract sugar from sugar beets.
25	1774	1774: Great Britain - Franz Anton Mesmer began the psychotherapeutic practice of hypnotism, which he called 'animal magnetism' and conceived it to be an actual fluid. Apparently he had some success with psychosomatic illnesses. Part of his technique seems to have been used earlier by exorcists. 1774: Great Britain - Parliament passes the Coercive Acts in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party 1774: Great Britain - Joseph Priestley isolates oxygen 1774: Great Britain - Georges-Louis Le Sage patents the electric telegraph.
26	1775	1775: British North America - American War of Independence begins when colonists fight British troops at Lexington. 1775: Great Britain - Alexander Cummings invents the flush toilet. 1775: Great Britain - Jacques Perrier invents a steamship.
27	1776	1776: England - Common Sense published by Tom Paine 1776: Great Britain - Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, advanced the idea that businesses survive through successful trading in pursuit of their self-interest, and that the resulting equilibrium was not by design. 1776: Great Britain - Wilkes introduces bill for universal male suffrage 1776: Great Britain - David Bushnell invents a submarine. 1776: Great Britain - Edward Gibbon authors Decline and Fall of Roman Empire in period to 1788 4 Jul 1776: USA - The American Congress passes their Declaration of Independence from Britain.
28	1777	1777: Great Britain - Samuel Crompton in England invents the spinning mule capable of spinning cloth in great quantity.
29	1778	1778: Great Britain - James Cook explores Hawaiian Islands. He fails to locate Northwest Passage from Alaskan side and is killed in Hawaii the following year 1778: Europe - Naval war with France, Spain and Holland ally with France during period to 1783
30	1779	1779: Great Britain - The rise of Wyvill's Christopher Wyvill's radical Yorkshire Association Movement
31	1780	1780: Great Britain - The Gordon Riots develop from a procession to petition parliament against the Catholic Relief Act (1778) 1780: Southampton, England - Gervinus invents the circular saw. 1780: Great Britain - Country banks rise in number from less than 300 to over 700 in period to 1815 1780: Great Britain - The Bowler Hat appears in England.
32	1781	1781: Great Britain - Frederick William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus by its movement, although at the time he supposed it to be a comet 1781: Great Britain - Matthew Boulton and James Watt produce an improved steam engine with rotary motion achieving significant impact - it means that manufacturers are no longer restricted to site with natural power (i.e., water, wood for charcoal) 17 Oct 1781: USA - The Americans obtain a great victory of British troops at the Siege of Yorktown
33	1782	1782: Ireland - Ireland obtains short-lived parliament 22 Mar 1782: Great Britain - Lord North's government collapses
34	1783	1783: Great Britain - Joseph Michel and Jacques 1783: Great Britain - Fox-North coalition established 1783: Great Britain - Britain recognises American independence at the Treaty of Paris. 1783: Ireland - Act of Renunciation gives Ireland rights in legislation and judication 1783: Great Britain - William Pitt the Younger becomes Prime Minister, simplifies taxes and customs duties, tries to pacify Ireland, abolish slave-trading and laws preventing Catholics holding office; returns Florida and Minorca to Spain and Senegal to France 1783: Great Britain - Englishman Henry Cort invents the Rolling Mill for steel production. 1783: Great Britain - S 1783: Great Britain - Benjamin Hanks patents the self-winding clock. 2 Apr 1783: Great Britain - William Bentinck, Duke of Portland Prime minister (Whig)
35	1784	1784: Great Britain - First edition of The Times newspaper 1784: Great Britain - Introduction of mail coach 1784: Great Britain - Andrew Meikle invents the threshing machine. 1784: Great Britain - Joseph Bramah invents the safety lock. 1784: USA - Benjamin Franklin develops bifocal eyeglasses.
36	1785	1785: Great Britain - William Pitt's motion for Parliamentary Reform is defeated 1785: Great Britain - Charles-Augustin de Coulomb invents the torsion balance. 1785: Great Britain - Blanchard invents a working parachute. 1785: Great Britain - Edmund Cartwright invents the power loom. 1785: France - Claude Berthollet invents chemical bleaching. 1785: Scotland - Glasgow triples in size, has 54 cotton mills in full work during period to 1818 1785: USA - Oliver Evans of Newport, Delaware invented the automatic flour-milling machinery that revolutionized the industry.
37	1786	1786: Great Britain - The Eden commercial treaty with France is drawn up 1786: Pennsylvania, USA - John Fitch invents a steamboat.
38	1787	1787: Windsor, Great Britain - In Windsor Great Park, King George III alights from carriage and addresses oak tree as King of Prussia, but eventually recovers from this attack of dementia; first colonies in Australia, first iron boat launched
39	1788	1788: Great Britain - Time to travel from London to Manchester reduced from 4.5 days to 28 hours 22 Jan 1788: Great Britain - Birth of Lord Byron (died 1824)
40	1789	1789: France - French Revolution, Louis XVI, many aristocrats and others executed, France declares war on European monarchies 1789: France - The guillotine is invented. 1789: Great Britain - The French Revolution sounded the death knoll toward elaborate and affected dress and hairdos. The powdered wig and towering women's hair styles passed from fashion. Simpler, more practical clothes emerged. Boys wore the skeleton suit, often with a comfortable open collar, and by the end of the century with plebian long trousers. 1789: USA - Thomas Jefferson brought a pasta making machine back with him when he returned to America after serving as ambassador to France. 1789: Switzerland - Dr. Pierre Ordinaire creates an absinthe elixir 30 Apr 1789: USA - George Washington first president of the United States 1789-1797.
41	1790	1790: Great Britain - Edmund Burke publishes his Reflections on the Revolution in France 1790: Great Britain - Lower-class radicalism increases, Habeas Corpus Act temporarily suspended 1790: USA - The United States issued its first patent to William Pollard of Philadelphia for a machine that roves and spins cotton. 1790: USA - Samuel Slater opens the first U.S. cotton mill in Rhode Island. Thomas Saint in England invents the first cloth-stitching machine. 1790: Great Britain - Marie, Vicomte de Botherel, born. He installed kitchens on buses in Paris suburbs in 1839, the first restaurant cars. 1790: Great Britain - Marie Harel is said to have developed Camembert cheese in Normandy.

Our Family History

The Genealogy of Robert and Christina Barritt

Anna LEUGER