Crime & Justice in the 18th century

500 sourced entries, 1700 CE to 1799 CE, oldest first. Also see Crime & Justice across every century or everything else in the 18th century.

17005 January – Moffat schoolteacher Robert Carmichael is scourged through the streets of Edinburgh and banished for killing a pupil during punishment for misbehaviour.Scotland source
1700April 18 – Hungarian freedom activist Ferenc Rákóczi is arrested by Austrian authorities and charged with sedition. Imprisoned near Vienna and facing a death sentence, he escapes and later leads the overthrow of the Habsburg control of Hungary.source
170024 June – Responsibility for vagrants passes from churchwardens to parish constables under terms of the Vagrant Removal Costs Act (1698).England source
1700An edition of the late 16th-century Scots poet Alexander Montgomerie's The Cherrie and the Slae is printed in Ulster.Ireland source
1700Possible approximate date at which the last wolf in Scotland is shot, north of Brora in Sutherland.Scotland source
1701May 23 – Scottish-born Captain William Kidd, having been imprisoned in Boston Gaol (Massachusetts) and Newgate Prison (London) and convicted by the High Court of Admiralty of piracy and the murder of one of his crew, is hanged at Execution Dock in Wapping (London). His body suffers gibbeting over the River Thames at Tilbury Point; ballads are already spreading the legend that he has left buried treasure in the Americas.source
170123 May — Scottish-born Captain William Kidd, having been imprisoned in Boston Gaol (Massachusetts) and Newgate Prison (London) and convicted by the High Court of Admiralty of piracy and the murder of one of his crew, is hanged at Execution Dock in Wapping. His body suffers gibbeting over the River Thames at Tilbury Point; ballads are already spreading the legend that he has left buried treasure in the Americas.England source
1701Act "for preventing wrongous Imprisonments and against undue delayes in Tryals" gives effect to habeas corpus in Scotland and confirms the power of procurators fiscal to prosecute criminal cases on behalf of the Crown.Scotland source
1702Richard Bulkeley, 4th Viscount Bulkeley, succeeds his father, the 3rd Viscount, as Constable of Beaumaris Castle.Wales source
1703March 21 – Jeanne Guyon is freed from the Bastille in Paris after more than seven years imprisonment for heresy.source
170321 March – Jeanne Guyon is freed in Paris after more than seven years imprisonment for heresy in the Bastille.France source
1703July 29–31 – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory in London, then imprisoned until mid-November for the crime of seditious libel after publishing his satirical political pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702).source
1703October 23 – Hannah Twynnoy, a 24-year-old barmaid in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, becomes the first person to be killed in Great Britain by a tiger. While working at the White Lion Inn, where a group of wild animals is on exhibit, she is mauled after bothering the tiger.source
170323 October – Hannah Twynnoy, a 33-year-old barmaid in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, becomes the first person to be killed in Great Britain by a tiger. While working at the White Lion Inn, where a group of wild animals is on exhibit, she is mauled after bothering the tiger.England source
1703French-born imposter George Psalmanazar arrives in London.source
1703The case of Coggs v Bernard is decided in the Court of King's Bench. Concerning the duties of a bailee, it is a landmark case in English contract law and property law.England source
170329–31 July – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory (at Temple Bar, London) as part of his punishment for the crime of seditious libel after publishing his politically satirical pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702) (he is released from Newgate Prison in mid-November).England source
1703Sir Robert Doyne is appointed as Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.Ireland source
170415 June – The last execution for witchcraft in Sweden: Anna Eriksdotter is decapitated.Sweden source
1704The enslavement of Lovisa von Burghausen.Sweden source
1705The Shogunate confiscates the property of a merchant in Osaka "for conduct unbecoming a member of the commercial class". The government seizes 50 pairs of gold screens, 360 carpets, several mansions, 48 granaries and warehouses scattered around the country, and hundreds of thousands of gold pieces.source
1705Walter Morgan - The Parson's JewelWales source
1706June 11 – In Tibet, Lha-bzang Khan, khan of the Khoshut, kills the regent and kidnaps the 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, and kills the Lama's regent.source
17066 November – a Glasgow mob opposed to the Union threatens the Lord Provost.Scotland source
1706November 15 – Five months after having been deposed from his position as the Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso disappears while in exile in Qinghai and is presumed to have been murdered.source
1706Literacy test for Benefit of clergy abolished, making the benefit available to all first-time offenders of lesser felonies.England source
1707December – Richard Bulkeley, 4th Viscount Bulkeley, is accused of having appropriated building materials from Beaumaris Castle for use on his own estates.Wales source
1707Ormacleit Castle on South Uist is first occupied by Allan Macdonald, chief of Clanranald, and his family.Scotland source
1707Thomas Brown, The Works of Mr. Thomas BrownUnited Kingdom source
1707Richard Baxter, The Poetical Works of the Late Richard BaxterUnited Kingdom source
1707John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, The Miscellaneous Works of the Late Earls of Rochester and RoscommonUnited Kingdom source
1707Laurence Echard, The History of England vol. 1United Kingdom source
1707Nahum Tate, Injur'd Love, adaptation of Webster's The White DevilUnited Kingdom source
1707Delarivière Manley, The Lady's Pacquet of Letters (fiction)United Kingdom source
1709April 21 – Mirwais Hotak takes control of Kandahar (in Afghanistan) by murdering the Persian governor, Gurgin Khan, known also as George XI.source
17093 May – Elspeth Rule becomes the last person in Scotland to be tried before the High Court of Justiciary for witchcraft; the judge, sitting at Dumfries, orders her to be burned on the cheek and banished from Scotland for life.Scotland source
1709Griffith Jones (Llanddowror) takes charge of a school at Laugharne.Wales source
1710January 4 – Robert Balfour, 5th Lord Balfour of Burleigh, two days before he is due to be executed for murder, escapes from the Edinburgh Tolbooth by exchanging clothes with his sister.source
171027 February–21 March – trial of Henry Sacheverell for preaching criticism of the Glorious Revolution which is considered subversive by the Whig government.United Kingdom source
171021 March – A verdict is given in the trial of High Church clergyman Henry Sacheverell, leading to riots breaking out in a number of places, including Wrexham, where a rabble breaks the windows of dissenters' homes and their meeting house.Wales source
1710June 24 – In the Isle of Man, Manx coins become legal tender.source
1710August 1 – Woldemar Løvendal was appointed Steward of Norway.Norway source
1710A committee of the House of Commons declares Sir Humphrey Mackworth guilty of "many notorious and scandalous frauds". These included secretly diverting shares into his own account and using the proceeds to pay his own expenses.Wales source
1711September 16 (approximate date) – Tuscarora natives kill Lawson. Von Graffenried and one African American slave are known to have been set free.source
1711October 14 – Woodes Rogers returns to England after a successful round-the-world privateering cruise against Spain, carrying loot worth £150,000.source
171114 October – Woodes Rogers returns to England after a successful round-the-world privateering cruise against Spain, carrying loot worth £150,000.United Kingdom source
1711Conclusion of Islandmagee witch trials: Eight women from Islandmagee are convicted in the last known witch trial in Ireland.Ireland source
1711Price Devereux, 9th Viscount Hereford, becomes Custos Rotulorum of Montgomeryshire.Wales source
171217 January – Robert Walpole imprisoned in the Tower of London following charges of corruption.United Kingdom source
1712June 10 – Kurtkulağı Caravanserai in Adana Province, Turkey, is restored and 50 soldiers are appointed to guard it.source
1712October 3 – In Scotland a warrant is issued for the arrest of outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor by Advocate Sir James Stewart.source
17123 October – warrant issued for the arrest of outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor by Sir James Stewart (Lord Advocate) at the instigation of James Graham, 1st Duke of Montrose.Scotland source
17123 October – In Scotland a warrant is issued for the arrest of outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor by Sir James Stewart (Lord Advocate).United Kingdom source
1712November 4 – The Bandbox Plot aims to kill British Lord Treasurer Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford but is foiled by Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver’s Travels).source
17124 November – Bandbox Plot: Jonathan Swift foils an attempted murder of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.United Kingdom source
1712The queen dowager's favorite Anna Catharina von Bärfelt is arrested and tried.Sweden source
1713La Foire de Guibray, farce by Alain-René LesageFrance source
1713Arlequin Mahomet, farce by Alain-René LesageFrance source
1713Undated – John Rowley of London produces an orrery to a commission by Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery.United Kingdom source
171427 July – Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, is dismissed as Lord High Treasurer.United Kingdom source
1714Kirkcaldy Brick and Tile Works established on the Links.Scotland source
1714Commissioners of Police for Scotland appointed.Scotland source
1714Following the death of Robert Jeffreys, a descendant of George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, the last member of the Jeffreys family to reside at Acton Hall, Wrexham, the estate passes into the hands of a brother-in-law, Philip Egerton.Wales source
171510 March - Birgitte Haldorsdatter was judged guilty of witchcraft in Sørum and sentenced to life imprisonment. She is the last person confirmed to have been sentenced guilty of witchcraft in Norway.Norway source
1715June 29 – Britain's Treason Act 1714 takes effect, providing for forfeiture to the British Crown of property owned by any person convicted of treason in the Kingdom. The Act remains in effect until June 24, 1718.source
171520 August – The Duke of Ormonde who has fled to join the Jacobites is attainted and his estates confiscated.United Kingdom source
1716September 15 – "Maria", an African slave of the Dutch West India Company on the Caribbean island of Curaçao, murders the plantation overseer, Christiaan Muller, then leads a rebellion, killing Muller's family and much of the white staff on the company's plantation. The uprising is suppressed after 10 days, and Maria is executed by burning at the stake on November 9.source
1716September 26 – Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, eldest son of the Tsar Peter the Great and heir to the throne, flees from Saint Petersburg with his mistress, Efrosinya Fedorova, along with her brother and three servants. After spending more than a year in Austria, he returns to Russia where he is arrested and dies in prison in 1718.source
1716English pirate Edward Teach (Blackbeard) is given command of a sloop in the Bahamas.source
17165–10 February – The pretender James Francis Edward Stuart flees from Montrose to France. He dismisses Lord Bolingbroke as his secretary of state.Scotland source
1716The Jacobite John Erskine, Earl of Mar, is attainted for treason by the Parliament of Great Britain.Scotland source
1717January 1 – Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador to Great Britain, was arrested in London for a plot to assist the Pretender to the British throne, James Francis Edward Stuart.source
17171 January – Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador to Great Britain, is arrested in London over a plot to assist the Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart.Scotland source
17171 January – Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador, is arrested in London over a plot to assist the Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart.United Kingdom source
17171 July – Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, is acquitted of conspiracy with the French to put the Pretender on the throne.United Kingdom source
1717August – Handel becomes house composer at Cannons.United Kingdom source
1717October 18 – Trial begins in Boston for six pirates who had survived the April 26 wreck of Samuel Bellamy's ships Whydah and the Mary Anne. Five of them (John Brown, Hendrick Quintor, Thomas Baker, Peter Cornelius Hoof and John Shuan) are convicted on October 22 of piracy and robbery and hanged on November 15.source
1717November 28 – Pirates led by Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and Benjamin Hornigold capture the French slave transport Concorde near island of Saint Vincent the West Indies. Blackbeard renames the vessel Queen Anne's Revenge, adds to its armaments, and makes it his flagship. Hornigold soon accepts a British amnesty for all pirates, and Blackbeard teams up with Stede Bonnet and begins plundering ships approaching North American ports.source
1717François-Marie Arouet is sentenced to imprisonment in the Bastille for eleven months, because of a satirical verse against the Régent of France and his infamous daughter Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, who is hiding an illegitimate pregnancy and soon to give birth; Arouet will emerge with the pseudonym Voltaire and the completed text of his first play, Œdipe.source
1717Meddylieu Neillduol ar GrefyddWales source
1717Welsh-born David Lloyd is appointed Chief Justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania.Wales source
171821 March – Piracy Act 1717 receives royal assent, providing the punishment of penal transportation (to British North America) as an alternative to a death sentence for lesser crimes.United Kingdom source
171811 July - Howell Davis, mate of the Cadogan, is captured by Edward England and decides join the pirates. Davis would subsequently capture another Welsh sailor, Bartholomew Roberts, and turn him to piracy.Wales source
1718October 3 – Stede Bonnet and his crew are captured near the mouth of the Cape Fear River and taken to Charleston, South Carolina, where they are tried for piracy. All but four are found guilty and sentenced to death (with 22 hanged on November 8), but Bonnet escapes from prison on October 24.source
1718December 2 – Georg Heinrich von Görtz is arrested by Frederick of Hesse for supporting Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, the rival of Ulrika Eleonora to the throne.Sweden source
1718December 10 – Pirate Stede Bonnet is hanged at Charleston, after being recaptured.source
1718Alban Thomas - Cân o Senn i'w hen Feistr TobaccoWales source
171919 February - The execution of Georg Heinrich von Görtz.Sweden source
171919 September — Frans Anneessens beheaded in Brussels.Belgium source
1720November 16 – Pirate John Rackham (captured on October 22) is brought to trial at Spanish Town in Jamaica; he is hanged at Port Royal two days later. Most of his crew is also hanged but female pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny are spared.source
172016 November – Pirate captain John Rackham (captured on 22 October) is brought to trial at Spanish Town in Jamaica; he is hanged at Port Royal two days later. Most of his crew is also hanged but female pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny are spared.United Kingdom source
1720The wrought-iron gates of St Giles' Church, Wrexham, made by the Davies brothers of Bersham, are erected.Wales source
17219 March – John Aislabie imprisoned in the Tower of London, found guilty of corruption for his part in the collapse of the South Sea Company as Chancellor of the Exchequer.United Kingdom source
1721April 26 – Pirates John Taylor and Olivier Levasseur capture the 700-ton Portuguese galleon Nossa Senhora do Cabo at Réunion. The total value of treasure on board (from Goa) is estimated as between £100,000 and £875,000, one of the largest pirate hauls ever.source
1722June 15 – Pirate Edward Low and his men sail the stolen ship Rebecca into Port Roseway near modern Shelburne, Nova Scotia, where 13 fishing boats from Massachusetts are anchored. Over the next few days, the pirates board the boats and lay siege to them. On June 19, Low confiscates the schooner Mary from its owner, Joseph Dolliber, outfits it with cannons and renames it the Fancy. Eight of the fishermen are taken hostage as the stolen vessel departs, including Philip Ashton.source
172231 July – Property law case of Armory v Delamirie decided in the Court of King's Bench (England), determining that a finder has better title to lost property that they find over everyone except the true owner.United Kingdom source
1722August 24 – Francis Atterbury, Anglican Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, is arrested in his deanery and confined in the Tower of London for treason, accused of leading the Jacobite "Atterbury Plot" in support of the pretender James Francis Edward Stuart with the aim of overthrowing the House of Hanover and King George I of Great Britain and restoring the House of Stuart by installing Prince James as "King James III".source
172224 August – Francis Atterbury, Anglican Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, is arrested in his deanery and confined in the Tower of London for treason, accused of leading the Jacobite "Atterbury Plot" in support of the pretender James Francis Edward Stuart.United Kingdom source
172217 October – Habeas Corpus Suspension Act passed following the discovery of the Atterbury Plot, allowing the Crown to detain suspected conspirators against the State without trial for up to six months.United Kingdom source
172227 November – Jacobite barrister Christopher Layer is sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered for his part in the Atterbury Plot.United Kingdom source
1722Dwysfawr Rym Buchedd GrefyddolWales source
1723January 25 – English-born pirate Edward Low intercepts the Portuguese ship Nostra Signiora de Victoria. After the Portuguese captain throws his treasure of 11,000 gold coins into the sea rather than surrendering it, Low orders the captain's brutal torture and execution, then has the rest of the Victoria crew murdered. Low commits more atrocities this year, but is not certainly heard of after the end of the year.source
1723April 1 – In Switzerland, the attempt by Major Abraham Davel to make the canton of Vaud independent of the Swiss government, is put down, one day after he and 500 men had taken control of the Vaudois capital, Lausanne. Davel is arrested, tortured and tried for treason; he is beheaded on April 24.source
172317 May – Christopher Layer is hanged, drawn and quartered for his part in the Jacobite Atterbury PlotUnited Kingdom source
1723May 27 – The Black Act 1723, intended to combat illegal hunting in Great Britain, comes into force and expands the number of crimes that are punishable by death, and remains in effect for 100 years.source
1723Avoca Handweavers, Ireland's oldest surviving business, is established in County Wicklow.Ireland source
1723Henry Rowlands - Mona Antiqua RestaurataWales source
1724July 27 – "Peter the Wild Boy" is captured near Helpensen in Hanover.source
1724November 11 – Joseph Blake (alias "Blueskin"), English highwayman, is hanged in London.source
1724November 16 – Highwayman Jack Sheppard is hanged in London.source
172416 November – Thief Jack Sheppard is hanged in London. (His partner-in-crime, highwayman Joseph Blake, alias "Blueskin", was similarly executed five days earlier.)United Kingdom source
1724Shah Mahmud Hotaki of Afghanistan goes insane.source
1724Frederik Rostgaard is banished from the Royal Court in Copenhagen after accusations of corruption and withdraws to Krogerup Manor north of the city.Denmark source
1724The Royal Greenland Trading Department charges Bernhard Grodtschilling with painting a double portrait of Pooq and Qiperoq. It is the following year handed over to the Kunstkammeret.Denmark source
1724c. March–November – Galloway "Levellers" dykebreaking in opposition to enclosures.Scotland source
17252 March – in London, a night watchman finds a severed head by the Thames; it is later recognized to be that of the husband of Catherine Hayes. She and an accomplice are executed the following year.United Kingdom source
1725May 24 – Jonathan Wild, fraudulent 'Thief-Taker General', is hanged at Tyburn in London, for actually aiding criminals.source
172524 May – Jonathan Wild, fraudulent "Thief Taker General", is hanged in Tyburn, for actually aiding criminals.United Kingdom source
1725October 19 – Joan Paul Schaghen is appointed by the Dutch East India Company to serve as the Governor of Ceylon after the death of Johannes Hertenberg.source
172611 January - Thomas Lloyd of Halton becomes High Sheriff of Flintshire.Wales source
17269 May – Catherine Hayes, convicted with two lovers for the brutal murder and dismemberment of her husband in London the previous year, becomes the last woman burned to death at the stake in England, at Tyburn (by this date it is usual for the condemned to be strangled before burning, but the process is botched in this case).United Kingdom source
172611 July – André-Hercule Cardinal de Fleury, recalled from exile by King Louis XV, banishes Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, and Madame de Prie from court.France source
1726August 7 – English-born pirate Nicholas Brown is captured near Xtabi, Jamaica.source
1726September 6 – An explosion kills all but seven of the 700 passengers and crew on the Portuguese Navy galleon HMFMS Santa Rosa as its cargo of gunpowder blows up. Historians speculate that of the 693 people on the ship, those who weren't killed by the explosion drowned or were killed by sharks as the ship went down off of the coast of Recife.source
1726Broughton Whitehall of Broughton (Flintshire).Wales source
1726Humphrey Roberts, Brynneuadd, (Caernarvonshire).Wales source
1726John Lloyd of Danyrallt (Carmarthenshire).Wales source
1726Edward Salusbury of Galltfaenan (Denbighshire).Wales source
1726Richard Wellington of Hay Castle (Brecknockshire).Wales source
1727July - The Mauritz Vellingk affair: he is sentenced to death for contact with Russia, but the sentence is commuted.Sweden source
1727The Piercefield estate is sold for £3,366, 5.6d to Thomas Rous of Wotton-under-Edge.Wales source
1728May 31 – The Royal Bank of Scotland invents the overdraft, allowing Edinburgh merchant William Hogg cash credit (in the amount of £1,000) for his creditors to be paid by the bank until Hogg receives expected revenue to repay the amount owed, plus interest.source
1728Richard Lewis, Muscipula, a translation of Edward Holdsworth's Latin satire on the WelshWales source
1728The Coronet of Frederick, Prince of Wales, is made, probably by royal goldsmith Samuel Shales, at a cost of £140 5/- (one hundred and forty pounds and five shillings)Wales source
17298 January – two women arrested in Edinburgh for wearing men's clothing.Scotland source
1729February 25 – James Oglethorpe, a member of the British House of Commons, begins service as the Chairman of the Gaols Committee to investigate the conditions of Britain's jails and prisons after the death in Fleet Prison of his friend, Robert Castell. The Oglethorpe Committee's report propels Oglethorpe to fame and leads to the beginning of British penal reforms.source
17299 August - Brita Alverns witch trail, one of the last witch trials in Scandinavia.Norway source
172928 November – theologian Thomas Woolston is convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to prison for the remaining four years of his life on account of his published Discourses on Biblical literalism.United Kingdom source
1729Chiswick House in London, a pioneering example of English Palladian revival architecture, is designed by its owner Richard Boyle with William Kent.United Kingdom source
1730June 1 – Enslaved woman Sally Basset is put on trial for murder in Bermuda; she will eventually be convicted and burned at the stake.source
1730August 25 – French Protestant Marie Durand is imprisoned in the Tower of Constance at Aigues-Mortes for her defiance of the Roman Catholic government, and is kept captive for the next 38 years. During her incarceration, she continues to resist converting to Catholicism as a condition of release. She is finally set free on April 14, 1768 and lives 8 more years.source
1730Siri Jørgensdatters witch trail, one of the last witch trials in Scandinavia.Norway source
1730William Hogarth is commissioned by Robert Jones of Fonmon Castle to paint The Jones Family Conversation Piece.Wales source
1732The Netherlands abolishes property confiscation for treason.South Africa source
1732Act provides that any man after 24 June 1733 charged on oath with being the father of an illegitimate child should be imprisoned until he provides a financial bond to indemnify the parish from liability for it under the Poor Law.United Kingdom source
1732Artist Edward Owen is robbed and beaten in London, receiving serious injuries that contribute to his death some years later.Wales source
1732David Rees - Adnodau or rai Lleoedd Cableddus a Sarhaus o Lyfrau ... ar Fedydd PlantWales source
1732John Wynne buys the Soughton Hall estate in Northop, Flintshire.Wales source
1733"Gwinfrid Shones" (popular ballad)Wales source
1734A Montreal slave named Marie-Joseph Angelique learns that she is to be sold to someone else. Possibly, to obscure her attempt to escape, she may have set fire to the house of her mistress, Thérèse de Couagne. The fire could not be contained, causing damage to half of Old Montreal. She was charged, tried and hanged, bringing attention to the conditions of the slaves.Canada source
1734The Bank of England moves to its continuing location in Threadneedle Street in London.United Kingdom source
173525 June – Engraving Copyright Act ('Hogarth's Act') takes effect on being given royal assent, the first of a series of copyright protection laws, to protect original engravings against unauthorized copies.United Kingdom source
1735August 16 (August 5 old style) – John Peter Zenger of The New York Weekly Journal becomes a symbol of freedom of the press when he is acquitted of seditious libel against William Cosby, the British Governor of the Province of New York. A jury concludes that what Zenger published was true.source
1735The Speigelberg Company tour Sweden and is confirmed to have performed in Norrköping this year.Sweden source
1735William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress series of paintings are published as engraved prints in London.United Kingdom source
1735Lewis Morris – Tlysau yr Hen OesoeddWales source
1736April 14 – The Porteous Riots erupt in Edinburgh (Scotland), after the execution of smuggler Andrew Wilson, when town guard Captain John Porteous orders his men to fire at the crowd. Porteous is arrested later.source
1736June 24 – Witchcraft Act 1735 (9 Geo. 2. c. 5) in Great Britain comes into effect, criminalizing claimants accusing people of practising witchcraft or of possessing magical powers, intended to end legal witch trials in the early modern period in the country.source
173624 June – Witchcraft Act 1735 comes into effect, introducing penalties for pretending to practice or accusing others of practising witchcraft and repealing those against its supposed actual practice, intended to end legal witch trials in the early modern period in Britain.United Kingdom source
17365 July – Captain Porteous found guilty of murder by the High Court of Justiciary.Scotland source
1736September 7 – An Edinburgh crowd drags John Porteous out of his cell in Tolbooth Prison, and lynches him.source
17367 September – the Edinburgh mob drags Captain Porteous out of his cell in Tolbooth prison and lynches him, beats him and hangs him to death.Scotland source
17367 September – Edinburgh crowd drags Captain Porteous out of his cell in Tolbooth prison and lynches him. The mob beats and hangs him to death.United Kingdom source
1736John Reynolds - Heraldry DisplayedWales source
1737The Lord Provost of Edinburgh is debarred from office following the previous year's Porteous Riots.Scotland source
1737Thomas Jones of Abermarles is High Sheriff of Cardiganshire.Wales source
1738Esther Brandeau, in the guise of a cabin boy, is the first known Jewish woman to arrive in Canada. Eventually she is deported to France for failing to embrace the Roman Catholic religion.Canada source
1738Roxborough Castle in Moy, County Tyrone, built by James Caulfeild, 4th Viscount Charlemont.Ireland source
1738Tiverton riot: wool trade workers riot over prices in Tiverton, Devon.United Kingdom source
1738William Williams Pantycelyn – Caniadau ... y Môr o WydrWales source
173927 April – the trial of Henry Barry, 4th Baron Barry of Santry, before the Irish House of Lords for the drunken murder of a tavern servant in Palmerstown the previous summer opens; he is convicted but later pardoned.Ireland source
1739Etienne Barbier and his men refuse to pay taxes and accuse the government of tyranny, exploiting the governor's amnesty. Barbier remains in hiding but is eventually caught.South Africa source
1739The Khoikhoi accuse Olifants River farmers of cattle theft. They are proven right, the cattle are returned, but the farmers defy their summons.South Africa source
174020 November - Biron was arrested by the guards led by Burkhard Christoph von MünnichRussia source
1740The 43rd Highland Regiment of Foot (the 'Black Watch') first musters, at Aberfeldy.Scotland source
1740Henry Hindley invents a device to cut the teeth of clock wheels.United Kingdom source
1740Griffith Jones (Llanddowror) - Welsh PietyWales source
174147th (Lancashire) Regiment of Foot raised in Scotland as General John Mordaunt's Regiment of Foot.Scotland source
174230 March: Sveinn Sölvason became deputy attorney general for the north and west of the country.Iceland source
174213 April – first performance of Handel's Messiah staged at Neal's Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin in aid of local charities. Matthew Dubourg leads the orchestra. Handel leaves Ireland on 13 August.Ireland source
1742The Lopukhina Conspiracy arises at the Russian court.source
1742Adelriks och Giöthildas äfwentyr by Jacob Henrik Mörk.Sweden source
1743July 20 – Lord Anson captures the Philippine galleon Nuestra Señora de Covadonga and its treasure of 1,313,843 Spanish dollars at Manila along with a treasure of 2 1/2 million dollars, and proceeds back toward Mexico, then returns to Britain in 1744source
174320 July – Lord Anson captures the Philippine galleon Nuestra Señora de Covadonga and its treasure of 1,313,843 Spanish dollars at Manila.United Kingdom source
1743July - Execution of Henrik Magnus von Buddenbrock.Sweden source
1743Probable date – The last wolf in Scotland is shot, in Killiecrankie.source
1743Leaders of the free church, Zionittene, is arrested, four leaders was banished to Altona, and others was imprisoned in labor camps.Norway source
1743William Hogarth begins painting his Marriage à-la-mode series.United Kingdom source
1743Last wolf said to be killed in Scotland.United Kingdom source
174430 January - Execution of Skinnar Per Andersson.Sweden source
1744The first Chief of police is hired in Christiania.Norway source
1744By royal letter, the right to sell Tobacco in the Swedish cities is reserved for women in need of support, ruined male burghers and war invalids: this is confirmed a second time in 1772, then with the addition that the tobacco sellers are only permitted to employ females or non-adult males.Sweden source
1745The town walls of Youghal are repaired.Ireland source
174620 September – Charles Edward Stuart escapes to France with the aid of Flora MacDonald.United Kingdom source
1747March 19 – Simon Fraser, the 79-year old Scottish Lord Lovat, is convicted of high treason for being one of the leaders of the Jacobite rising of 1745 against King George II of Great Britain and attempting to place the pretender Charles Edward Stuart on the throne.source
1747Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747 provides that trials for treason in Scotland can take place outside the shire in which the crime is committed.Scotland source
17481 April – under the Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747, trials for treason in Scotland can take place outside the shire in which the crime is committed.Scotland source
1748The ruins of Pompeii are rediscovered.source
1748Leinster House (at this time called Kildare House) in the unfashionable south side of Dublin is completed as a residence for James FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare by Richard Cassels.Ireland source
1748A window tax is levied in Scotland.Scotland source
1748The Treason Outlawries (Scotland) Act 1748 comes into effect retrospectively.Scotland source
1748Richard Wilson paints the two eldest sons of Frederick, Prince of Wales.Wales source
1749July 30 - Great Gypsy Round-upSpain source
174923 September - Harris finds "Madam Griffith" awaiting him at Trevecka, with the news that her husband, now bankrupt, has beaten her and thrown her out of the house for refusing to give him any more money.Wales source
1749October 2 – Edward Cornwallis, the British Governor of Nova Scotia, commands his militia and local citizens "to annoy, distress, take or destroy the Savage commonly called Micmac, wherever they are found" and promises a reward of ten guineas (21 British shillings) for every Mi'kmaq scalp brought in.source
174916 October – the Irish House of Commons threatens Charles Lucas with prosecution and he is forced to flee.Ireland source
1749Sheriff Kristján Drese dismissed due to drunkenness and disorder.Iceland source
1749The Treason Outlawries (Scotland) Act is passed.Scotland source
1749Undated – Henry Fielding, newly appointed as a magistrate at Bow Street in London first enlists the help of the "Bow Street Runners", an early police force.United Kingdom source
1749John Jones - Free and Candid DisquisitionsWales source
1750May 16 – Two weeks after police in Paris arrest six teenagers for gambling in the suburb of Saint-Laurent, rioting breaks out when a rumor spreads that plainclothes policemen are hauling off small children between the ages of five and ten years old, in order to provide blood to an ailing aristocrat. Over the next two weeks, rioting breaks out in other sections of Paris. Police are attacked, including one who is beaten to death by the mob, until order is restored and police reforms are announced.source
175016 May – Two weeks after police in Paris arrest six teenagers for gambling in the suburb of Saint-Laurent, rioting breaks out when a rumor spreads that plainclothes policemen are hauling off small children between the ages of five and ten years old, in order to provide blood to an ailing aristocrat. Over the next two weeks, rioting breaks out in other sections of the city. Police are attacked, including one who is beaten to death by the mob, until order is restored and police reforms are announced.France source
1750November 11 – A riot breaks out in Lhasa after the murder of the regent of Tibet.source
1750Thomas Gainsborough's painting Mr and Mrs Andrews.United Kingdom source
1751February 18 – As the Governor of French Louisiana, Pierre de Rigaud, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, issues the first police regulations for New Orleans in an attempt to combat crime in that city.source
1751Robert Louis Stevenson's book "Kidnapped" is based in 1751.Scotland source
1751William Hogarth engraves the prints Gin Lane, Beer Street and The Four Stages of Cruelty.United Kingdom source
1751William Williams (Pantycelyn) – Hosanna i Fab Dafydd, part 1Wales source
1752February 27 – The Virginia Assembly passes a law making maiming a felony, in response to the practice of gouging.source
175214 May – Appin Murder: Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure ("The Red Fox"), 44, who has recently been dispossessing members of the Jacobite Clan Stewart of Appin, is shot in the back in the wood of Lettermore between Ballachulish and Kentallen. The chief suspect, Alan Breck Stewart, having fled to France, James Stewart of the Glen is found guilty "in art and part" (as an accessory to the crime) at Inveraray by a judge and jury entirely from Clan Campbell and hanged on 8 November at Cnap a' Chaolais above the narrows at Ballachulish.Scotland source
17521 June – Murder Act 1751 comes into effect, providing that the bodies of hanged murderers should suffer public dissection or (for men) hanging in the gibbet.United Kingdom source
1752Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novel Kidnapped is inspired by the Appin Murder case.Scotland source
1753January 29 – After a month's absence, Elizabeth Canning returns to her mother's home in London and claims that she was abducted; the following criminal trial causes an uproar.source
175329 January – after a month's absence, Elizabeth Canning returns to her mother's home in London and claims that she was abducted. The following criminal trial causes uproar.United Kingdom source
1753Lewis Morris is briefly imprisoned at Cardigan when the local squires challenge his rights as the Crown's local representative to mine for lead. As a result of the controversy, Morris visits London for the first time.Wales source
1753William Thomas, former Sheriff of Caernarvonshire, unsuccessfully brings an action in Chancery against Thomas James, Lord Bulkeley, claiming the advowson of Aber.Wales source
1754Susanne Monsdatter witch trail in Hordaland, one of the last witch trials in Scandinavia.Norway source
1754William Williams (Pantycelyn) – Hosanna i Fab Dafydd, part 2Wales source
175525 February – 11-year-old David Allan begins to study painting at the new Foulis Academy in Glasgow.Scotland source
175524 June – Thomas Whitty originates Axminster Carpets.United Kingdom source
1755September 18 – Two slaves, Mark and Phyllis, are publicly executed for the poisoning murder of their master, John Codman in front of a large crowd outside the Middlesex County Courthouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Phyllis is burned to death. Mark's execution by hanging is made as an example to other African slaves in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. His body is transported to Charlestown Common in what is now Somerville and displayed on a gibbet for more than 20 years. In 1798, Paul Revere mentions in his memoir that his famous ride of April 18, 1775, started when he first spotted British Army officers at a site "nearly opposite where Mark was hung in chains", I saw two men on Horse back, under a Tree".source
1755The Wolsey hosiery business is established in Leicester by Henry Wood; it will still be trading in the 21st century.United Kingdom source
175621 April – James Montgomery, a slave, escapes from a ship bound for Virginia at Port Glasgow and flees to Edinburgh where he is recaptured and begins the legal case of Montgomery v Sheddan in an attempt to gain his freedom.Scotland source
1756François Boucher paints portraits of Madame de Pompadour.France source
1756Charles Bingham was appointed High Sheriff of MayoIreland source
1756A decision of the Court of Session (in Edinburgh) establishes that tenants may easily be removed by the local sheriff.Scotland source
1757February 3 – French artist Robert Picault begins the rescue of the frescoes at the King's Chamber of the Palace of Fontainebleau before architect Ange-Jacques Gabrel begins renovations.source
17573 February – Artist Robert Picault begins the rescue of the frescoes at the King's Chamber of the Palace of Fontainebleau before architect Ange-Jacques Gabrel begins renovations.France source
1757October 14 – Of the 478 people arrested, and 442 (including 50 women and young boys) convicted, for their roles in the Porto riot in February, 13 men and one woman are hanged; afterwards, their bodies are then quartered, and the severed limbs are publicly displayed on spikes. Another 49 men and 10 women are exiled to Portuguese colonies in Africa and India, and the other convicts are either flogged, imprisoned, or pressed into service rowing galley ships.source
1757October 16 – Seven Years' War: Raid on Berlin – Hungarian raiders (3,400 horseman) under Count András Hadik plunder Berlin. He demands that the city council pay a ransom of 200,000 thalers and a dozen pairs of gloves for Empress Maria Theresa. The Hungarians leave the Prussian capital after they received messages about a Prussian relief force under Prince Dietrich von Anhalt-Dessau, marching towards Berlin.source
1757Ossian's Hall of Mirrors, a folly at Dunkeld, is built.Scotland source
1757Daines Barrington is appointed judge of the Merioneth, Caernarvonshire and Anglesey circuit (Court of Great Sessions).Wales source
1757Joshua Thomas – Tystiolaeth y CredadynWales source
1758March 16 – Members of the Comanche Nation loot and destroy the Spanish Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá (near modern-day Menard, Texas) and kill eight of the people there, including the mission leader, Father Alonso Giraldo de Terreros.source
175827 October – the ship Dublin Trader (Captain White) leaves Parkgate, Cheshire, for Dublin, and founders in the Irish Sea; she carries 70,000 Irish pounds in money and £80,000 in goods, while among the 60 passengers lost are Edward, fifth Earl of Drogheda, Theophilus Cibber (the English actor, bound for a season at the Smock Alley Theatre), and (probably) the mezzotint engraver Michael Ford.Ireland source
1758Le Père de famille, play by Denis DiderotFrance source
1758Kristen Paulsen is condemned to be executed by burning. He was the last person to be burned for sodomy (sex with animals) in Denmark-Norway. He was burned in Kristiansand.Norway source
1759Churton Town, the Orange County, North Carolina county seat laid out in 1754, is renamed Childsburgh, in honor of North Carolina attorney general Thomas Child. It is later renamed Hillsborough in 1766.source
1759Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, created.United Kingdom source
1760April 22 – Belgian entertainer Joseph Mervin is said to have given the first demonstration of roller skates, in a performance at the Carlisle House in London, but the stunt ends in disaster.source
1762January – the "Cock Lane ghost" appears in London.United Kingdom source
1762March 10 – Jean Calas, a 68 year old French merchant convicted unjustly of murdering his son because of religious differences, is brutally executed on orders of the Parlement of Toulouse. After his legs and hips are broken and crushed, Calas is tortured on the breaking wheel (la roue), to remain "in pain and repentance for his crimes and misdeeds, for as long as it shall please God to keep him alive."source
176210 March – Jean Calas, a 68 year old merchant convicted unjustly of murdering his son because of religious differences, is brutally executed on orders of the Parlement of Toulouse: after his legs and hips are broken and crushed, he is tortured on the breaking wheel (la roue) to remain "in pain and repentance for his crimes and misdeeds, for as long as it shall please God to keep him alive"France source
176217 May – The Exhibition of 1762 is staged by the Society of Artists of Great Britain at Pall Mall in LondonUnited Kingdom source
176220 June – In Paris, the Comédie-Italienne, having merged with the Opéra-Comique, performs at the Hôtel de BourgogneFrance source
1762Menniskans elände, by Gustaf Fredrik GyllenborgSweden source
1762Maling pottery is founded, initially at North Hylton on Wearside.United Kingdom source
1762Oliver Goldsmith – The Life of Richard NashWales source
1763April 18 – Marie-Josephte Corriveau is hanged near her home at Saint-Vallier, Quebec before being gibbeted after being found guilty by a military tribunal of twelve officers of murdering her husband. She becomes famous in French Canadian folklore as "la Corriveau".source
1763April 18 – The folk hero Marie-Josephte Corriveau was sentenced to death by a British court martial for murdering her second husband, and was hanged in Quebec City.Canada source
1763Josiah Wedgwood receives orders for his pottery from Queen Charlotte. He names his range of pottery "Queen's Ware" after her.United Kingdom source
1764Canada is divided into two chief judicial districts (Quebec and Montreal). Martial law, in Canada, terminates.Canada source
1764Beast of Gévaudan first appears.France source
1764Pompeo Batoni paints portraits of Thomas Dundas and Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon in Rome.Scotland source
1764The rock pillar called "Lot's Wife" amongst The Needles off the Isle of Wight collapses into the sea during a storm.United Kingdom source
1765March 9 – After a public campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have committed suicide.source
1765August 14 – In protest of the Stamp Act, Bostonians attack the home of official Andrew Oliver.source
1765August 26 – In protest of the Stamp Act, Bostonians destroy the home of lieutenant governor Thomas Hutchinson.source
1765September 6 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau's house in Switzerland is stoned by a mob.source
1765September 21 – François Antoine announces he has killed the Beast of Gévaudan.source
1765Coercion Act against the Whiteboys.Ireland source
1765Lord Mansfield decides the landmark case of Pillans v Van Mierop in English contract law in relation to the doctrine of consideration.United Kingdom source
1766February 20 – The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a British sloop off Wilmington, North Carolina, has seized a sloop sailing from Philadelphia, and another sailing from Saint Christopher, on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. In response, local residents threaten to burn a Royal Man-of-War attempting to deliver stamps to Wilmington, forcing the ship to return to the mouth of the Cape Fear River.source
176620 February – the Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a British sloop outside of Wilmington, North Carolina seized one sloop sailing from Philadelphia and one sloop sailing from Saint Christopher on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. In response, local residents threaten to burn a Royal Man of War attempting to deliver stamps to Wilmington, forcing the ship to return to the mouth of the Cape Fear River.United Kingdom source
176615 March – Nicholas Sheehy, the Roman Catholic priest of Clogheen, County Tipperary, and an open opponent of the Penal Laws against Catholics, having been tried on dubious evidence as an accessory to murder, is hanged, drawn and quartered at Clonmel.Ireland source
176613 June – two soldiers and a civilian found guilty in Aberdeen of theft during an earlier meal riot in Banff are rescued from custody by a mob.Scotland source
1766July 1 – François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded, before his body is burnt on a pyre, along with a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso, supposedly for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, and for other sacrileges, including desecrating a crucifix.source
1766August 10 – During the occupation of New York, members of the 28th Foot Regiment of the British Army chop down the liberty pole that was erected by the Sons of Liberty on June 4. The Sons of Liberty put up a second pole the next day, and that pole is cut down on August 22.source
1766Klodskov (Estate No. 7, later Vennerslund) is sold to Peter Thestrup for 59724 rigsdale.Denmark source
1766December 5 – James Christie holds the first sale at Christie's auction house in London.source
1766Saint Peter Attempting to Walk on Water, oil painting by François BoucherFrance source
1766Lord Mansfield decides the landmark case of Carter v Boehm in English contract law, establishing the duty of utmost good faith (uberrima fides) in insurance contracts.United Kingdom source
1766Richard Wilson - Meleager and AtalantaWales source
1766William Williams Pantycelyn - Ffarwel Weledig, part 2Wales source
176719 June – The last of several animals (probably wolves) to be known over the past 3 years as the Beast of Gévaudan is shot.France source
1767Nykøbing Castle is sold at auction and demolished. The bricks were used to build numerous estates and rectories in different parts of Falster. All that remains of the castle is a stump of wall from the Medieval prison tower known as Fars Hat (Father's Hat).Denmark source
1767All spinning for both household needs as well as for selling is freely permitted in all Sweden.Sweden source
1767Thomas Jones is awarded a premium for landscape painting by the Society of Arts.Wales source
176816 May - Evan Lloyd is fined £50 after being found guilty of libel against William Price.Wales source
1769Estate No. 2 (Fanegjord) is sold to the local farmers for 42,750 rigsdaler.Denmark source
1769Estate No. 3 (Sønderskov) is sold to the local farmers for 30,450 rigsdaler.Denmark source
1769Estate No. 1 (Nygård, later Marienborg) is sold to quartermaster Esaias Fleischer for r 40,550 rigsdaler.Denmark source
176925 October – Murder of Alexander Montgomerie at Ardrossan.Scotland source
1769Work on Syon House, Middlesex, to the design of Robert Adam, ceases.United Kingdom source
1769Elizabeth Griffith - The School for Rakes (play)Wales source
1769Wesley speaks at Newtown, Montgomeryshire, and Llanidloes.Wales source
1769John Wesley is turned away from Welshpool Town Hall by the bailiff when he attempts to preach there during his tour of Wales.Wales source
1770February 22 – Christopher Seider, an 11-year-old boy in Boston in the British Province of Massachusetts Bay, is shot and killed by a colonial official, Ebenezer Richardson. The funeral sets off anti-British protests that lead to the massacre days later.source
177028 April – David Hartley, leader of the Cragg Vale Coiners, is hanged near York.United Kingdom source
1770July – A civil action is brought against Owen Coffee, an attorney from Clonkeen, County Westmeath by Captain Andrew Armstrong of Castle Armstrong, King's County, for having employed Armstrong's runaway East Indian slave, Peter Kent, while he was still his property. Armstrong is awarded £100 damages.Ireland source
1770Joseph Priestley, English chemist, recommends the use of a rubber eraser to remove pencil marks.source
1770The chemist Joseph Priestley recommends the use of a rubber eraser to remove pencil marks.United Kingdom source
1771October – Achmet Borumborad, con-artist, opens a Turkish Baths on Bachelor's Quay (modern day Bachelor's Walk), Dublin.Ireland source
1771December 3 – The cause of action in Sommersett's Case, which eventually leads to the end of slavery in Great Britain, begins when escaped slave James Somerset is found imprisoned on the ship Ann and Mary.source
1771David Williams - The Philosopher, in Three ConversationsWales source
1772January 17 – Johann Friedrich Struensee and Queen Caroline Matilda are arrested, leading to his execution and her banishment from Denmark.source
1772February 12 – The Virginia Assembly amends an act to describe the punishments for the practice of gouging.source
177226 August – King Gustav III formally abolish torture, and the Rose Chamber in Nya smedjegården and the Thief Cellar in the Town Hall, is closed.Sweden source
1772Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, demands that all bodies remain unburied for three days to ensure that death has actually taken place.source
1773De nymodiga fruntimren by Catharina Ahlgren.Sweden source
1773The Royal Swedish Academy of Arts is formally organized. Fifteen artists are accepted as members the same year, among them being Lorens Pasch the Younger and Ulrika Pasch.Sweden source
1773John Roberts (Siôn Robert Lewis) - Geirlyfr YsgrythurolWales source
1774January 27 – An angry crowd in Boston, Massachusetts seizes, tars, and feathers British customs collector and Loyalist John Malcolm, for striking a boy and a shoemaker, George Hewes, with his cane.source
177417 September – Clifton House, Belfast, the Belfast Charitable Society's poorhouse, is opened.Ireland source
1774Beldringe (48 000 rigsdaler) and Lekkende ( 40,000 rigsdaler) are sold to Frederik Sophus Raben.Denmark source
177426 Seåtember – Vordingborg Cacalry District is divided into 12 manors and sold at auction.Denmark source
1774Skovbygård is sold for 30,120 rigsdaler tp Hans Pedersen.Denmark source
17744 October – a highwayman robs Prime Minister Lord North near Chiswick.United Kingdom source
1774Jón Benjamínsson, first Icelandic police officer.Iceland source
1774During this year's harvest, 15-year-old farm labourer Robert Burns is assisted by his contemporary Nelly Kilpatrick who inspires his first attempt at poetry, "O, Once I Lov'd A Bonnie Lass".Scotland source
1774Richard Wilson - Llyn y Cau, Cadair IdrisWales source
1775June 9 – Martial law is proclaimed in Canada.Canada source
1775September 25 – Attempting to take Montreal, Ethan Allen and many of his 150 followers are captured, at Longue Pointe, and are sent to England.Canada source
1775October – The Sayre Plotters attempt to kidnap George III of the United Kingdom.source
1775Afhandling om Bitter-, Selzer-, Spa- och Pyrmonter-Vatten samt deras tillredande genom konst by Torbern Bergman.Sweden source
1775By royal letter, all women in need of support are allowed to sell used items freely, such as used clothes, used furniture and other items which they had not made themselves and which were not recently manufactures and thereby would not disturb the privilege of the guild.Sweden source
1775Josiah Wedgwood introduces jasperware pottery.United Kingdom source
1776July 14 – Capture and rescue of Jemima Boone.United States source
1776The first Chief of police is hired in Christianssand.Norway source
1776David Powell (Dewi Nantbrân) – Allwydd y Nef. O gasgliad D.P. Off.Wales source
17771 May – legal case of Goodright v. Stevens decides that the declaration of either parent cannot be accepted to prove that a child born in wedlock is a bastard.United Kingdom source
1777The code duello is adopted at the Clonmel Summer Assizes as the form for pistol duels by gentlemen in Ireland. It is quickly denounced, but nevertheless widely adopted throughout the English-speaking world.source
177773rd (Highland) Regiment of Foot (MacLeod's Highlanders) raised.Scotland source
1777Waightstill Avery becomes the first North Carolina Attorney General.United States source
1777Nicholas Owen - British RemainsWales source
1778September – The Massachusetts Banishment Act, providing punishment for Loyalists, is passed.source
1778Joachim van Plettenberg finds farmers in grassy plains, and notes the Khoikhoi are living on farms. He records the farmers' complaints about livestock theft by "Bushmen-Hottentots."South Africa source
1778Capital punishment in Sweden is abolished for infanticide, rape, adultery, bigamy, witchcraft and repeated theft.Sweden source
1778Lord Mansfield decides the landmark case of Da Costa v Jones in English contract law, in relation to the presumption of good faith.United Kingdom source
1778Thomas Pennant - Tour in WalesWales source
177911 February – Admiral Keppel acquitted of charges of misconduct brought against him by Sir Hugh Palliser.United Kingdom source
17796 October - Action of 6 October 1779France source
177923 November - Magnus Theiste was sentenced by the Supreme Court to be removed from his office as County Governor of Nordre Bergenhus amt, because of his involvement with corruption.Norway source
1779Robert Adam completes his remodelling of Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath.United Kingdom source
1779South façade of Stowe House, Buckinghamshire, completed in the neoclassical style based on a design by Robert Adam.United Kingdom source
1779Richard Morris creates a list of "Henwau Mesurau Cerdd Dafod a Thant a arferir yn gyffredinol gan y Prydyddion a'r Telynorion yng Nghymru".Wales source
1780August 24 – King Louis XVI abolishes the use of torture in extracting confessions in French law courts.source
17802 October – American Revolutionary War: British spy John André is hanged by American forces.United Kingdom source
1780In Ireland, Lady Berry, who is sentenced to death for the murder of her son, is released when she agrees to become an executioner (she retires in 1810).source
1780National income - ₹9,900 millionIndia source
1780Lady Berry, sentenced to death for the murder of her son, is released when she agrees to become an executioner (retires 1810).Ireland source
1780Cherhill White Horse cut in Wiltshire.United Kingdom source
1781July 27 – French spy François Henri de la Motte is hanged and drawn before a large crowd at Tyburn, London in England for high treason.source
178127 July – French spy François Henri de la Motte executed at Tyburn (London) for high treason.United Kingdom source
1781Thomas Pennant - Tours in Wales, volume 2Wales source
1782January 23 – The Laird of Johnstone (George Ludovic Houston) invites people to buy marked plots of land which, when built upon, form the planned town of Johnstone, Scotland, to provide employment for his thread and cotton mills.source
1782February 6 – Singu Min is overthrown as king of Myanmar by his cousin Phaungka Min and would be executed eight days later by his uncle Bodawpayar.source
1782March - Lloyd Kenyon is appointed Attorney-General.Wales source
1782June 18 – In Switzerland, Anna Göldi is sentenced to death for witchcraft (the last legal witchcraft sentence).source
1782London creates the Foot Patrol for public security.source
1782William Cowper's comic ballad The Diverting History of John Gilpin (anonymously in the Public Advertiser).United Kingdom source
17837 November – the last public execution at Tyburn, London, is held, of highwayman John Austin for murder.United Kingdom source
1783Jacob Juel is put in house arrest for embezzlement of the state. It would later turn out to be 556,000 Rdlr, the largest embezzlement in Norwegian history.Norway source
1783Vladimir Central Prison foundedRussia source
1783Julia Ann Hatton - Poems on Miscellaneous SubjectsWales source
17848 March – Mary Bailey, a mariticide, becomes one of the last persons in Britain, convicted of murder, to be sentenced to be hanged, and their body burned. She and John Quin, accused of murdering Cornelius Bailey at Portsmouth, are both convicted and hanged at Winchester; Bailey claims her innocence to the end. After execution, Quin's body is handed to the surgeons for dissection, and Mary Bailey's body burned.United Kingdom source
178430 March - Lloyd Kenyon becomes Master of the Rolls.Wales source
1784Ward Chipman the Elder, a Massachusetts lawyer, settled in New Brunswick, where he served as solicitor general until 1808.Canada source
1784The satirist John Williams is prosecuted for an attack on the Duke of Rutland's administration in the Volunteers' Journal and flees the countryIreland source
1784Jacob Juel escapes imprisonment at Akershus Castle, and flees to Sweden.Norway source
1784unknown date – Samuel Homfray and his brother quarrel with Anthony Bacon and take out a lease of one of the richest iron-ore deposits in the district (which develops into the Penydarren ironworks).Wales source
1785August 15 – Cardinal de Rohan is arrested in Paris; the Affair of the Diamond Necklace comes into the open.source
178515 August - Cardinal de Rohan is arrested in Paris; the Necklace Affair comes into the open.France source
1785October 13 – France mints new Louis d'or coins, with the image of King Louis XVI on the obverse, and one-sixth less gold than the coins with King Louis XV's image.source
1785Charles Adams, John Adams’ son and John Quincy Adams's brother, enters Harvard in August at age 15. A few months later, he starts to drink often and to get into trouble, and is almost expelled when he is caught running naked through the Campus while drunk with other boys.source
1785Governor-General of India Warren Hastings charged with maladministration and returns to Britain.United Kingdom source
1785Sir Joshua Reynolds paints George, Prince of Wales.Wales source
1786May 21 – The trial in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace ends in Paris.source
178621 June – first woman to be burnt at the stake at Newgate Prison in London (as distinct from Tyburn or Smithfield), Phoebe Harris for coin counterfeiting. She is led to the stake past the hanged bodies of her accomplices but is allowed to be strangled before the flames are lit.United Kingdom source
1786The last reliably recorded wolf in Ireland is hunted down and killed near Mount Leinster, County Carlow, for killing sheep.source
1786Gerassin Pribilof discovers the rookeries on the islands now known as the Pribilofs.Canada source
178715 March - Lofthusreisingen ends with the arrest of Christian Jensen Lofthuus.Norway source
1787December - Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd), shortly before his death, sells his manuscript collection.Wales source
1787At an investigation into judicial abuses, it is stated that one judge takes wine to excess, before taking his seat on the Bench; and that another habitually disregards the pertinent French law and applies the law of England.Canada source
1787English: A controversy between the historian Jens Kragh Høst (1772-1844) and Jacob Baden (1735-1840) and art historian Torkel Baden (1765-1849) attracts attention..Denmark source
1787Summer – Calton weavers' strike in the west of Scotland. On 3 September, six of the Calton weavers are killed by troops.United Kingdom source
1787Iolo Morganwg spends time as a prisoner in Cardiff jail.Wales source
1787Elis Roberts - Pedwar Chwarter y FlwyddynWales source
17886 February – The first female convicts disembark at Port Jackson.Australia source
1788March 14 – The Edinburgh Evening Courant carries a notice of £200 reward for the capture of William Brodie, a town councilor doubling as a burglar.source
1788April 13 – A riot, the Doctors' Mob, begins. Residents of Manhattan are angry about grave robbers stealing bodies for doctors to dissect. The rioting is suppressed on the 15th.United States source
17887 June - Riots broke out in Grenoble, the Day of the Tiles.France source
178825 June – Margaret Sullivan, a counterfeiter, becomes the penultimate woman in Britain to suffer a sentence of death by burning, in London (although she is in practice strangled before being burnt).United Kingdom source
1788August 27 – The trial of Deacon William Brodie for burglary begins in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is sentenced to death by hanging.source
178827 August – trial of William Brodie begins in Edinburgh. He is sentenced to death by hanging.Scotland source
1788October 1 – William Brodie is hanged at the Tolbooth in Edinburgh.source
1788December 6 – Russo-Turkish War (1787–92): The Ottoman fortress of Ochakiv falls to the Russians after a prolonged siege, and a murderous storm with a temperature of -23 °C.source
1788Trial of Warren Hastings, Governor-General of India, before the House of Lords, 12 Feb. 1788 – 23 Apr. 1795.India source
1788Nicholas Owen – British Remains.Wales source
17897 January – Johan Henrik Hästesko is arrested for involvement in the Anjala conspiracy.Sweden source
178920 February – Hanging as a capital punishment was abolished.Norway source
178918 March – Catherine Murphy, a counterfeiter, becomes the last woman in Britain to suffer a sentence of death by burning, at Newgate Prison in London (although she is in practice strangled before being burnt).United Kingdom source
1789July 1 – The comic ballet La fille mal gardée, choreographed by Jean Dauberval, is first presented under the title Le ballet de la paille, at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, at Bordeaux, France.source
1789The governor of the Bastille, Launay, three officers and three disabled are arrested and escorted to the city hall and massacred by the crowd.France source
1789Riot in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine suburb of Paris against the manufacturer of Réveillon wallpapers.France source
1789Jacques de Flesselles, provost of the merchants of Paris, is accused of treason and killed with a pistol shot.France source
1789Summer - The Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte Conspiracy to depose the king is instigated, but discontinued, at court.Sweden source
1789Iolo Morganwg - Barddoniaeth Dafydd ab Gwilym, incorporating probable forgeries by MorganwgWales source
1790April - Ten death sentences is given for participants in the Anjala conspiracy.Sweden source
17905 June – Treason Act 1790 comes into effect, abolishing burning at the stake as the penalty for women convicted of offences of treason (which include coining and mariticide): they are to suffer hanging, bringing the punishment in line with that for men. As a consequence of the change of law, the sentence on Sophia Girton, convicted in April of coining, is delayed and she is in fact transported to the new penal Colony of New South Wales.United Kingdom source
1790June 23 – The alleged London Monster is arrested in London; he later receives 40 years for 10 assaults.source
179023 June – alleged London Monster arrested in London: he later receives two years for three assaults.United Kingdom source
17908 September - Execution of Johan Henrik Hästesko, the only death sentence of the Anjala conspiracy which is actually performed.Sweden source
1790Emo Court, near Emo, County Laois, is designed by James Gandon for John Dawson, 1st Earl of Portarlington.Ireland source
1790Approximate date – Whaligoe steps cut.Scotland source
1790First organised otter hunt established, at Culmstock, Devon.United Kingdom source
1790Thomas Edwards (Twm o'r Nant) - Gardd o GerddiWales source
179130 May – Robespierre delivers a speech on the abolition of the death penalty but without success.France source
17916 October – The French Penal Code of 1791 is adopted.France source
1791Jens Juel paints The Artist and his Wife Rosine, née DørschelDenmark source
1791Creation of the court-martial of appeal in Stockholm.Sweden source
1791Dumboms lefverne by Johan Henric Kellgren.Sweden source
1791En critik öfver critiker by Thomas Thorild.Sweden source
1791Thomas Jones becomes High Sheriff of Radnorshire.Wales source
1791Peter Williams - Llythyr at Hen GydymaithWales source
1792April 25 – Highwayman Nicolas Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine in France.source
179225 April – Highwayman Nicolas Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine in France, in what becomes the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville in Paris.France source
1792August 10 – French Revolution: Insurrection of 10 August 1792 – The Tuileries Palace is stormed and Louis XVI is arrested and taken into custody.source
179210 August – French Revolution: Insurrection of 10 August 1792 – The Tuileries Palace is stormed and Louis XVI is arrested and taken into custody.France source
1792September 11 – Six men steal some of the former French Crown Jewels from a warehouse where the revolutionary government has stored them.source
179211 September – Six men steal some of the former French Crown Jewels from a warehouse, where the revolutionary government has stored them.France source
1792December 26 – The trial of Louis XVI of France begins.source
1792Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir, a single 32-year-old woman is publicly executed by beheading for concealment.Iceland source
1792Fox's Libel Act restores to juries the right to determine what constitutes libel; it remains in force until abolition of criminal libel in 2010.United Kingdom source
1792David Davis (Castellhywel) - Cri Carcharor dan farn MarwolaethWales source
1792Nicholas Owen - Carnarvonshire, a Sketch of its History, etc.Wales source
1792Hester Thrale - The Three WarningsWales source
1793January 13 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, a representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome.source
179316 February – John Macarthur is appointed by Grose as inspector of public works.Australia source
1793July 13 – French Revolution: Charlotte Corday kills Jean-Paul Marat in his bath.source
179313 July – French Revolution: Charlotte Corday kills Jean-Paul Marat in his bath.France source
179324 August – Thomas Muir arrested at Portpatrick on his return from France.Scotland source
179331 August – Thomas Muir sentenced to penal transportation for 14 years.Scotland source
179312 November – French Revolution: Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris, is guillotined.France source
1793December 18 – French forces under Dugommier capture Toulon from royalists and British forces under Vice Admiral Lord Hood. The British fire the dockyards and take 16 ships, one of which, the Lutine, becomes a famous treasure ship.source
179318 December - Magdalena Rudenschöld is the first to be arrested when the Armfelt Conspiracy of the Gustavian Party against the guardian government is exposed.Sweden source
1793Acting Governor of New South Wales – Lieutenant-Governor Francis GroseAustralia source
179427 March – The Marquis de Condorcet is arrested (while in disguise) in Clamart and imprisoned in Bourg-l'Égalité; two days later he is found dead in his cell.France source
1794April 28 – Sardinian Vespers: The people of Cagliari in Sardinia oust the viceroy and his Piedmontese functionaries.source
1794May 8 – Reign of Terror: chemist Antoine Lavoisier is tried, convicted and executed in Paris with 27 co-defendants also associated with the former ferme générale.source
179429 June – physician and poet William Drennan, a leading figure in the Dublin Society of United Irishmen, is tried for seditious libel for circulating a pamphlet Address to the Volunteers in 1792; he is acquitted but withdraws from further direct political commitment.Ireland source
1794July–August – A large strike among carpenters and later some 2,000 other craftsmen hits Copenhagen, resulting in the arrest of more than 200 carpenters. It is met with a general strike involving more than 2,000 craftsmen.Denmark source
1794August 9 – Napoleon is arrested and put under house arrest at Nice for his association with the Robespierres during their fall in the Thermidorian Reaction. He is later taken to Antibes and detained in a military fort.source
179421 September – Artworks confiscated from castles, churches and religious houses shipped to France.Belgium source
179423 September - Magdalena Rudenschöld is pilloried in Stockholm for her part in the Armfelt Conspiracy.Sweden source
1794November – 1794 Treason Trials.United Kingdom source
1794Inspector of Public Works – John MacarthurAustralia source
1794Peter Williams - Gwreiddyn y MaterWales source
1795April 23 – Former Governor-General of India Warren Hastings is acquitted by the British House of Lords of misconduct.source
179523 April – former Governor-General of India Warren Hastings acquitted by the House of Lords of misconduct.United Kingdom source
179515 September – a group of workers felling timber on the estate of Lord Carysfort in County Wicklow discover gold, leading to the Wicklow gold rush.Ireland source
1795Governor of New South Wales – John HunterAustralia source
1795Inspector of Public Works – John MacarthurAustralia source
1795Trial of Warren Hastings, Governor-General of India, before the House of Lords, 12 Feb. 1788 – 23 Apr. 1795.India source
179610 February – Magistrate William Balmain challenges Macarthur over the house-wrecking incident.Australia source
179629 February – Macarthur resigns as Inspector of the Public Works and is replaced by Richard Atkins.Australia source
1796April 2 – The only night of the supposed Shakespearean play Vortigern and Rowena (actually written by William Henry Ireland) ends in the audience's laughter.source
1796April 27 – Case of the Lyons Mail: During the night, five highwaymen attack the mail between Paris and Lyon, kill the postmen and steal the funds sent to the armies in Italy.source
1796August 10 – A mob of peasants overtakes the Convent of St. Peter (Bludenz, Austria) and murders Ignaz Anton von Indermauer.source
179622 September – Mary Lamb commits matricide in London.United Kingdom source
1796Rizla rolling papers established.source
1796Governor of New South Wales – John HunterAustralia source
1796Inspector of Public Works – John Macarthur/Richard AtkinsAustralia source
1796Summer – Ribchester Hoard and helmet found in Lancashire.United Kingdom source
1796Panic of 1796–1797 (1796–1797)United States source
1796David Williams - The History of MonmouthshireWales source
179715 January – London haberdasher John Hetherington wears the first top hat in public and attracts a large crowd of onlookers. He is later fined £50 for causing public nuisance.United Kingdom source
1797July 21 – American David McLane, being convicted of high treason, is hanged on a gibbet on the glacis of the fortifications at Quebec.Canada source
1797August – The Home Office sends an agent to Nether Stowey in Somerset to investigate the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth who are suspected of being French spies.United Kingdom source
1797Governor of New South Wales – John HunterAustralia source
1797Inspector of Public Works – Richard AtkinsAustralia source
1797William Drennan writes the ballad The Wake of William Orr.Ireland source
1797Panic of 1796–1797 (1796–1797)United States source
1797John Jones (Jac Glan-y-gors) - Toriad y DyddWales source
1798February 15 – U.S. Representative Roger Griswold (Fed-CT) beats Congressman Matthew Lyon (Dem-Rep-VT) with a cane, after the House declines to censure Lyon for earlier spitting in Griswold's face; the House declines to discipline either man.source
1798February 17 – Federalist Congressman Roger Griswold of Connecticut attacks Vermont Representative Matthew Lyon with a walking stick in the chambers of the United States House of Representatives.United States source
179819 May – rebel leader Lord Edward FitzGerald is arrested in Dublin, later dying of wounds received.Ireland source
17982 July – the Marine Police Force is formed on the River Thames by magistrate Patrick Colquhoun to prevent pilfering in the Port of London and West India Docks; it is the first organised police force in Britain.United Kingdom source
1798Governor of New South Wales – John HunterAustralia source
1798Inspector of Public Works – Richard AtkinsAustralia source
1798Over the course of the year Lieven Bauwens made numerous trips to England, smuggling out spinning machinery a piece at a time.Belgium source
1798Francis Lathom – The Midnight Bell: a German story, founded on incidents in real lifeGermany source
1798Thomas Roberts of Llwyn'rhudol - Cwyn yn erbyn GorthrymderWales source
179912 March – Isaac Nichols is accused of stealing stolen goods and sentenced to 14 years on Norfolk Island; his sentence is suspended by Governor Hunter on 1 AprilAustralia source
1799October 16 – War of the Second Coalition: Action of 16 October 1799 – A Spanish treasure convoy worth more than £54,000,000 is captured by the British Royal Navy off Vigo.source
179916 October – Action of 16 October 1799: A Spanish treasure convoy worth more than £600,000 is captured by the Royal Navy off Vigo.United Kingdom source
1799Governor of New South Wales – John HunterAustralia source
1799Inspector of Public Works – Richard AtkinsAustralia source
1799John Sevier, governor of Tennessee, writes of the alleged discovery of six skeletons in brass armour bearing the Welsh coat-of-arms.Wales source
1799Ann Hatton and her husband take a lease on Swansea Bathing House.Wales source