1822 in the United Kingdom
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Events from the year 1822 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch â George IV
- Prime Minister â Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (Tory)
- Foreign Secretary â Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry (until 18 August) George Canning (from 13 September)
- Home Secretary â Lord Sidmouth (until 17 January) Robert Peel (from 17 January)
- Secretary of War â Lord Bathurst
Events
- 3 January â Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland is gutted by fire.[1]
- 15 January â HM Treasury directs that the Preventive Water Guard, Revenue cruisers and Riding officers should all be placed under the authority of the Board of Customs as HM Coast Guard.[2]
- 6 May â The Royal Academy Exhibition of 1822 opens at Somerset House. The exhibition is noted for portraits by Thomas Lawrence and David Wilkie's Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloo Dispatch
- 23 May â HMS Comet launched at Deptford Dockyard, the first steamboat commissioned by the Royal Navy.
- 18 June â The Wellington Monument is inaugurated close to the Duke's London residence Apsley House on the seventh anniversary of his victory at Waterloo.
- 3 July â Charles Babbage publishes a proposal for a "difference engine", a mechanical forerunner of the modern computer for calculating logarithms and trigonometric functions. Construction of an operational version will proceed under Government sponsorship 1823â32 but it will never be completed.[3]
- 8 July â The Chippewa turn over a huge tract of land in Ontario to the British.[4]
- 19 July â Percy Jocelyn, Anglican Bishop of Clogher, is caught in a compromising position with a young Grenadier Guardsman at a public house in London. He breaks bail and flees England. In October, an ecclesiastical court deprives him of office.[5]
- 22 July â An Act to Prevent the Cruel and Improper Treatment of Cattle ("Martin's Act"), one of the first pieces of animal rights legislation,[6] is passed to regulate treatment of cows, horses and sheep.
- 31 July â Last public whipping in Edinburgh.
- 12 August
- The Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh cuts his own throat at his house in Kent.
- St David's College (the modern-day University of Wales, Lampeter) is founded by Thomas Burgess, Bishop of St David's.
- 15â29 August â Visit of King George IV to Scotland,[7] first appearance of the monarch there since 1651.
- 22 August â English ship Orion lands at Yerba Buena, later named San Francisco, under the command of William A. Richardson
- 16 September â George Canning is appointed Foreign Secretary to replace Castlereagh.
- 21 September â HMS Confiance, a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop of 1813, is wrecked off Mizen Head in Ireland with the loss of all 100 aboard.[8]
- 24 September â The Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, marries, as his second wife, Mary Chester, at Hampton Court.[9]
- 20 October
- The New Observer newspaper becomes The Sunday Times.[10]
- The Duke of Wellington represents Britain at the Congress of Verona.
- 23â24 October â The Caledonian Canal, engineered by Thomas Telford, is opened throughout, linking the east and west coasts of Scotland through the Great Glen.[11]
- 27 November â Outside Newgate Prison in London, William Reading becomes the last person to be hanged for shoplifting.[12]
Undated
- Egyptian hieroglyphs are deciphered by Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion using the Rosetta Stone.
- A fossil Iguanodon tooth is discovered by Gideon Mantell and his wife Mary in West Sussex; in 1825 it will be the first fossil to be recognised as that of a dinosaur.[13]
- The Royal Academy of Music is founded in London. It opens in March 1823 before the Royal charter is granted in June 1830.
- Construction of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton is completed.
- Stonemason John Mowlem establishes the contracting firm Mowlem.
Publications
- Alexander Jamieson's A Celestial Atlas.
- John C. Loudon's The Encyclopædia of Gardening.
- Sir Walter Scott's novels The Pirate and The Fortunes of Nigel.
Births
- 10 February â Eliza Lynn Linton, English novelist and journalist (died 1898)
- 13 February â James B. Beck, Scottish-born United States Senator from Kentucky from 1877 to 1890 (died 1890 in the United States)
- 16 February â Sir Francis Galton, English explorer and biologist (died 1911)
- 8 April â Stillborn twin sons to the Duke of Clarence and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen[14]
- 19 April â Edward Oxford, English attempted assassin of Queen Victoria (died 1900)
- 18 July â Augusta of Cambridge, Hanoverian princess (died 1916)
- 1 November â Sir Sydney Waterlow, English businessman, politician and philanthropist (died 1906)
- 6 December â Mary Colton, Australian philanthropist and suffragist (died 1898)[15]
- 24 December â Matthew Arnold, English poet (died 1888)
Deaths
- 15 January â John Aikin, physician and writer (born 1747)
- 24 February â Thomas Coutts, banker (born 1735)
- 8 March â Christopher Wyvill, cleric, landowner and political reformer (born 1740)
- 17 June â Marquess of Hertford, politician and courtier (born 1743)
- 8 July â Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet (born 1792)
- 23 July â Peter Durand, merchant (born 1766)
- 12 August â Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Foreign Secretary (suicide) (born 1769)
- 25 August â William Herschel, astronomer (born 1738 in Hanover)