1755 in Great Britain

1755 in Great Britain:

Other years

1753 | 1754 | 1755 | 1756 | 1757

Countries of the United Kingdom

Scotland

Sport

1755 English cricket season

Events from the year 1755 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George II
• Prime Minister – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (Whig)[1]

Events

• 20 February – General Edward Braddock lands in Virginia to take command of the British forces against the French in North America.
• 25 March – Landslip at Whitestone Cliff in the Hambleton Hills of North Yorkshire.
• June – Joseph Black's discovery of carbon dioxide and magnesium is communicated in a paper to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh.[2]
• 24 June – Thomas Whitty originates Axminster Carpets.[3]
• 9 July – French and Indian War: Braddock Expedition – British troops and colonial militiamen are ambushed and suffer a devastating defeat inflicted by French and Indian forces. During the battle, British General Edward Braddock is mortally wounded. Colonel George Washington survives.[4]
• 20 November – William Pitt the Elder is dismissed from the position of Paymaster of the Forces while Henry Bilson Legge resigns as Chancellor of the Exchequer and George Grenville as Treasurer of the Navy in protest over payments made to Russia to protect Hanover.[5]
• 2 December – the second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire.
• December – formation of 23rd Regiment of Foot, predecessor of the 51st (2nd Yorkshire West Riding) Regiment of Foot and earliest constituent of The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.[6]

Unknown dates

• The Wolsey hosiery business is established in Leicester by Henry Wood; it will still be trading in the 21st century.[7]
• Building of St Ninian's Church, Tynet, Scotland, the country's oldest surviving post-Reformation Roman Catholic clandestine church.[8]

Publications

• 15 April – Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language; Johnson had begun the work in 1746.[9]

Births

• 17 February – Dorothy Kilner, children's author (died 1836)
• 21 February – Anne Grant, poet and author (died 1838)
• 5 July – Sarah Siddons, Welsh-born actress (died 1831)
• 8 September – James Graham, 3rd Duke of Montrose, nobleman and statesman (died 1836)
• 17 November – Charles Manners-Sutton, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1828)
• 23 November – Thomas Lord, cricketer and founder of Lord's Cricket Ground (died 1832)

Deaths

• 6 April – Richard Rawlinson, English minister and antiquarian (born 1690)
• 13 July – Edward Braddock, British general (born c. 1695)
• 1 December – Maurice Greene, English composer (born 1696)

See also

• 1755 in Wales

References

1. "History of Thomas Pelham-Holles 1st Duke of Newcastle - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
2. "Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, and Some Other Alcaline Substances", published 1756.
3. Long, Peter (2005). The Hidden Places of Devon (7th ed.). Aldermaston: Travel Publishing. ISBN 1-904434-30-4.
4. "The Battle of the Monongahela". World Digital Library. 1755. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
5. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 317–318. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
6. "51st (2nd Yorkshire West Riding), or The King's Own Light Infantry Regiment". regiments.org. 2006-06-04. Archived from the original on 2007-01-03. Retrieved 2022-11-26 – via Wayback Machine.
7. "Our History". Wolsey. Archived from the original on 2013-02-09. Retrieved 2012-06-06.
8. "Tynet, St Ninian's Church". ScotlandsPlaces. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2015-01-05.
9. "Icons, a portrait of England 1750–1800". Archived from the original on 17 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-24.