1811 in the United Kingdom
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Events from the year 1811 in the United Kingdom. This is a census year and the start of the British Regency.
Incumbents
- Monarch â George III
- Regent â George, Prince Regent (starting 5 February)
- Prime Minister â Spencer Perceval (Tory)
- Foreign Secretary â Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley
- Home Secretary â Richard Ryder
- Secretary of War â Earl of Liverpool
Events
- 1 February â Bell Rock Lighthouse begins operation off the coast of Scotland.[1]
- 5 February â George, Prince of Wales becomes Regent[1] under terms of the Regency Act because of the perceived insanity of his father, King George III.[2] He is known as the prince regent and this is the beginning of the Regency period.[3]
- 21 February â The John and Jane, carrying troops bound for the Peninsular War, is accidentally run down and sunk by HMS Franchise off Lizard Point, Cornwall with the loss of a majority of the 300 on board.[4]
- 22 February â Editor Leigh Hunt and his publisher brother John, defended by Henry Brougham, are cleared of seditious libel over a September 1810 article in their newspaper, The Examiner, criticising flogging in the Army.[5]
- 13 March â Battle of Lissa: British fleet defeats the French.
- 25â27 March â Battle of Anholt: British naval forces defeat those of Denmark.
- 4 April â Huddersfield Narrow Canal completed by opening of Standedge Tunnel under the Pennines, the longest (5,413 yards (4,950 m)), deepest and highest canal tunnel in Britain.[6]
- 27 May â The second national Census reveals that the population of England and Wales has increased in ten years by over a million to 10.1 million.[7]
- 10 June â A volcanic eruption, observed from Royal Navy sloop HMS Sabrina (1806), creates Sabrina Island (Azores) which on 4 July is claimed for Britain; a few months later it sinks beneath the sea.
- 18 June â The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists leave the established Church of England by ordaining their own ministers in Bala, North Wales.
- 19 June â The Carlton House Fête is held at Carlton House in London. A costly and extravagant event it celebrated the beginning of the Regency era.
- 8 September â The first known landing on Rockall is made by a party from HMS Endymion.[8][9]
- 16 October â National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church in England and Wales established by the Church of England to promote a system of National Schools.
- November â Luddite uprisings begin in Northern England and Midlands.[10]
- 4 December â Royal Navy frigate HMS Saldanha (1809) is driven in a gale onto rocks in Lough Swilly in Ireland with no survivors from the estimated 253 aboard.[11]
- 7â19 December â Ratcliff Highway murders in London.
- 24 December â Christmas Eve storm in the North Sea leads to wreck of HMS St George, Defence and Fancy off Jutland; and HMS Hero and the transport Archimedes off Texel with the loss of nearly 2,000 men.[12]
Ongoing
- Napoleonic Wars, 1803â1815
- Anglo-Russian War, 1807â1812
- Anglo-Swedish War 1810â1812
- Peninsular War, 1808â1814
Undated
- Highland Clearances: The Marquess and Marchioness of Stafford begin mass expulsion of crofting tenants from their Highland estates to make way for sheep farming.[13][14]
- Building of Regent Street begins John Nash's development of the West End of London.[15]
- The first complete ichthyosaur fossil is found by Mary Anning at Lyme Regis.
Publications
- Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility ('by a lady').
- Francis Place's Illustrations and Proofs of the Principles of Population, including an examination of the proposed remedies of Mr. Malthus, and a reply to the objections of Mr. Godwin and others, the first significant text in English to advocate contraception.[16]
Births
- 9 January â Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, writer (died 1856)
- 1 February â Arthur Hallam, poet (died 1833)[17]
- 6 February â Henry Liddell, academic and cleric (died 1898)
- 24 February â Edward Dickinson Baker, United States Senator from Oregon from 1860 (died 1861 in the United States)
- 21 March â Nathaniel Woodard, educationalist (died 1891)[18]
- 7 June â James Simpson, Scottish obstetrician and pioneer of anaesthesia (died 1870)
- 13 June â Owen Stanley, Royal Navy officer (died 1850)
- 11 July â William Robert Grove, Welsh chemist, inventor (died 1896)[19]
- 13 July
- George Gilbert Scott, architect (died 1878)
- James "paraffin" Young, Scottish chemist (died 1883)[20]
- 18 July â William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist (died 1863)
- 14 September â William Budd, physician and epidemiologist (died 1880)[21]
- 31 October â William Loring, admiral (died 1895)[22]
- 8 November â John Tarleton, admiral (died 1880)[23]
- 21 December â Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1882)
Deaths
- 9 February â Nevil Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal (born 1732)
- 24 February â James Brudenell, 5th Earl of Cardigan, politician (born 1715)[24]
- 14 March â Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, Prime Minister of Great Britain (born 1735)[25]
- 4 April â Mary Woffington, Irish socialite (b. 1729)[26]
- 5 May â Robert Mylne, architect (born 1734)[27]
- 7 May â Richard Cumberland, dramatist (born 1732)
- 28 May â Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, Scottish politician, Home Secretary for Great Britain (born 1742)[28]
- 29 July â William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire (born 1748)[29]
- 30 September â Thomas Percy, poet, ballad collector and bishop (born 1729)[30]
- 15 October â Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, portrait painter and politician (born 1735)
- 27 November â Andrew Meikle, Scottish mechanical engineer (born 1719)[31]
- 21 December â Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet, Admiral of the Fleet (born 1721 in Ireland)
- 31 December â Benjamin Vulliamy, clockmaker (born 1747)