1773 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1773 in Great Britain.

1773 in Great Britain:

Other years

1771 | 1772 | 1773 | 1774 | 1775

Countries of the United Kingdom

Scotland

Sport

1773 English cricket season

Incumbents

• Monarch – George III
• Prime Minister – Frederick North, Lord North (Tory)^[1]
• Parliament – 13th

Events

• 1 January – the words of the hymn "Amazing Grace" (written by the curate John Newton) are probably first used in a prayer meeting at Olney, Buckinghamshire.
• 17 January – second voyage of James Cook: Captain Cook in HMS Resolution (1771) becomes the first European explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle.^[2]
• March – General Turnpike Act regulates the system of road tolls.^[3]
• 15 March – first performance of Oliver Goldsmith's play She Stoops to Conquer at the Covent Garden Theatre in London.^[4]
• 27 April – Parliament passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
• 10 May – Tea Act comes into force.^[5]
• May
  • Parliament passes the Regulating Act creating the office of governor general, with an advising council, to exercise political authority over the territory under British East India Company rule in India.^[5]
  • With an EWP total of 151.8 millimetres or 5.98 inches, this is the wettest May on record and the solitary still-standing record wet month from the eighteenth century.^[6]
• 27 May
  • Parliament passes an Act permitting assay offices in Birmingham and Sheffield.
  • Major landslip at Buildwas in the valley of the River Severn.
• 4 June – 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole sets out from the Nore.
• June – John Harrison receives the Longitude prize for his invention of the first marine chronometer.^[7]
• 1 July – Parliament passes the Inclosure Act.
• 16 December – a group of American colonists, dressed as Mohawk Indians, steal aboard ships of the East India Company and dump their cargo of tea into Boston Harbor in a protest against British tax policies that became known as the Boston Tea Party.^[5]

Undated

• An informal Stock Exchange opens at Threadneedle Street in London.^[3]
• First London catering establishment to offer curry, Norrish Street Coffee House.^[8]
• Penny Post introduced in Edinburgh.^[9]

Publications

• Scottish judge James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, begins publication of Of the Origin and Progress of Language, a contribution to evolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment.
• Hester Chapone publishes the conduct book for young women Letters on the Improvement of the Mind.
• The Jockey Club's first Race calendar, edited by James Weatherby.^[3]

Births

• 14 January – William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, ambassador to China and Governor-General of India (died 1857)
• 27 January – Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (died 1843)
• 6 April – James Mill, historian, economist, political theorist and philosopher (died 1836)
• 19 May – Arthur Aikin, chemist and mineralogist (died 1854)
• 13 June – Thomas Young, physicist (died 1829)
• 23 July – Thomas Brisbane, Scottish astronomer and Governor of New South Wales (died 1860)
• 23 October – Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey, judge and literary critic (died 1850)
• 28 October – Simon Goodrich, mechanical engineer (died 1847)
• 6 November – Henry Hunt, politician (died 1835)
• 21 December – Robert Brown, botanist (died 1858)
• 27 December – George Cayley, aviation pioneer (died 1857)

Deaths

• 9 February – John Gregory, physician, medical writer and moralist (born 1724)
• 24 March – Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, statesman and man of letters (born 1694)
• 15 May – Alban Butler, Catholic priest and writer (born 1710)
• 23 July – George Edwards, naturalist (born 1693)
• 24 August – George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton, politician (born 1709)
• 16 November – John Hawkesworth, writer (born c. 1715)
• 20 November – Charles Jennens, landowner (born c. 1700)

See also

• 1773 in Wales

References

1. "History of Lord Frederick North - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
2. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
3. Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 226–227. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
4. . theatrehistory.com. Archived from the original on 2007-08-14. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
5. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 327–328. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
6. Hadley Center Ranked EWP
7. . Archived from the original on 2007-08-17. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
8. Jenner, Greg (2022) [2021]. Ask A Historian. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-4746-1862-5.
9. "Provincial Penny Posts". British Postal Museum & Archive. Retrieved 2010-02-18.^{[dead link]}