Timeline: Thomas MILLS: Mills/Rushton Family History

Print Bookmark

1705 - Yes, date unknown

Chart width: Refresh

Timeline

Thomas MILLS (1705 - )

	Date	Event(s)
1	1705	1705: First workable steam pumping engine devised by Thomas Newcomen (some say c1710 or 1711) 1705: Isaac Newton knighted (for his work at the Royal Mint)
2	1706	1706: First evening newspaper "The Evening Post" issued in London
3	1707	16 Jan 1707: Union with Scotland – Scots agree to send 16 peers and 45 MPs to English Parliament in return for full trading privileges – Scottish Parliament meets for the last time in March 1 May 1707: English and Scottish Parliaments united by an Act of the English Parliament – The Kingdom of Great Britain established – largest free-trade area in Europe at the time
4	1708	1708: First Jacobite rising in Scotland 1708: Earliest Artillery Muster Rolls
5	1709	1709: Second Eddystone lighthouse completed 1709: First Copyright Act pass 1709: Bad harvests throughout Europe – bread riots in Britain 2 Feb 1709: Alexander Selkirk rescued from shipwreck on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe (published in 1719) by Daniel Defoe
6	1710	1710: Tax on Apprentice Indentures introduced
7	1711	1711: Incorporation of South Sea Company, in London 11 Aug 1711: First race meeting at Ascot
8	1712	1712: Imposition of Soap Tax (abolished 1853) 1712: Last trial for witchcraft in England (Jane Wenham) 1712: Toleration Act passed – first relief to non-Anglicans
9	1713	1713: By this year there are some 3,000 coffee houses in London
10	1714	1714: Longitude Act: prize of £20,000 offered to the inventor of a workable method of determining a ship's longitude (won by John Harrison in 1773 for his chronometer). 1714: Schism Act, prevents Dissenters from being schoolmasters in England 1714: Landholders forced to take the Oath of Allegiance and renounce Roman Catholicism 1 Aug 1714: Queen Anne Stuart dies – George I Hanover becomes king (1714-1727).
11	1715	1715: Second Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, under the Old Pretender ('The Fifteen') 1 Aug 1715: Riot Act passed
12	1716	1716: The Septennial Act of Britain leads to greater electoral corruption – general elections now to be held once every 7 years instead of every 3 (until 1911) 1716: Climate: Thames frozen so solid that a spring tide lifted the ice bodily 13ft without interrupting the frost fair
13	1717	1717: First Masonic Lodge opens in London 1717: Value of the golden guinea fixed at 21 shillings
14	1719	1719: Third abortive Jacobite rising
15	1720	1720: South Sea Bubble, a stock-market crash on Exchange Alley – government assumes control of National Debt 1720: Manufacturing towns start to increase in population – rise of new wealth 1720: Wallpaper becomes fashionable in England
16	1721	2 Apr 1721: Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)
17	1722	1722: Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland 1722: Knatchbull's Act, poor laws
18	1723	1723: Excise tax levied for coffee, tea, and chocolate 1723: The Waltham Black Acts add 50 capital offences to the penal code – people could be sentenced to death for theft and poaching – repealed in 1827 1723: The Workhouse Act or Test – to get relief, a poor person has to enter Workhouse
19	1724	1724: Rapid growth of gin drinking in England 1724: Longman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)
20	1726	1726: First circulating library opened in Edinburgh 1726: Invention of the chronometer by John Harrison
21	1727	1727: Board of Manufacturers established in Scotland 11 Jun 1727: George I dies – George II Hanover becomes king
22	1729	9 Nov 1729: Treaty of Seville signed between Britain, France and Spain – Britain maintained control of Port Mahon and Gibraltar
23	1730	1730: Irish famine
24	1731	1731: Invention of seed drill by Jethro Tull [others say 1701] 1731: Invention of sextant by John Hadley
25	1732	7 Dec 1732: Covent Garden Opera House opens
26	1733	1733: Excise crisis: Sir Robert Walpole wanted to add excise tax to tobacco and wine – Pulteney and Bolingbroke oppose the excise tax 1733: Law forbidding the use of Latin in parish registers generally obeyed – some continued in Latin for a few years 1733: John Kay invents the flying shuttle, revolutionised the weaving industry
27	1734	1734: Kent's Directory published
28	1737	1737: Licensing Act restricts the number of London theatres and subects plays to censorship of the Lord Chamberlain (till 1950s)
29	1738	24 May 1738: John Wesley has his conversion experience
30	1739	1739: Wesley and Whitefield commence great Methodist revival 7 Apr 1739: Dick Turpin, highwayman, hanged at York 23 Oct 1739: War of Jenkins' Ear starts: Robert Walpole reluctantly declares war on Spain
31	1741	1741: Benjamin Ingham founded the Moravian Methodists or Inghamites – Earliest Moravian registers
32	1742	1742: England goes to war with Spain – incited by William Pitt the Elder (Earl of Chatham) for the sake of trade
33	1743	16 Jun 1743: (June 27 in Gregorian calendar): Battle of Dettingen – last time a British sovereign (George II) led troops in battle
34	1744	1744: Tune 'God Save the King' makes its appearance
35	1745	1745: Jacobite rebellion in Scotland ('The Forty-five') 19 Aug 1745: Bonnie Prince Charlie (The Young Pretender) lands in the western Highlands – raises support among Episcopalian and Catholic clans – The Pretender's army invades Perth, Edinburgh, and England as far as Derby
36	1746	16 Apr 1746: Battle of Culloden – last battle fought in Britain – 5,000 Highlanders routed by the Duke of Cumberland and 9,000 loyalists Scots – Young Pretender Charles flees to Continent, ending Jacobite hopes forever – the wearing of the kilt prohibited
37	1747	1747: Abolition of Heritable Jurisdictions in Scotland 1747: Act for Pacification of the Highlands
38	1749	27 Apr 1749: First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks (in Green Park, London)
39	1750	Feb 1750: Series of earthquakes in London and the Home Counties cause panic with predictions of an apocalypse (Feb/Mar) 16 Nov 1750: Original Westminster Bridge opened (replaced in 1862 due to subsidence)
40	1751	Mar 1751: Chesterfield's Calendar Act passed – royal assent to the bill was given on 22 May 1751 – decision to adopt Gregorian Calendar in 1752: "In and throughout all his Majesty's Dominions and Countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, belonging or subject to the Crown of Great Britain, the said Supputation, according to which the Year of Useful dates in British history 03/01/2009 12:12 our Lord beginneth on the 25th Day of March, shall not be made use of from and after the last Day of December 1751; and that the first Day of January next following the said last Day of December shall be reckoned, taken, deemed and accounted to be the first Day of the Year of our Lord 1752"
41	1752	1752: Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning conductor 1 Jan 1752: Beginning of the year 1752 [Scotland had adopted January as the start of the year in 1600, and some other countries in Europe had adopted the Gregorian calendar as early as 1582] 3 Sep 1752: Julian Calendar dropped and Gregorian Calendar adopted in England and Scotland, making this Sep 14
42	1753	1753: Private collection of Sir Hans Sloane forms the basis of the British Museum 1 May 1753: Publication of "Species Plantarum" by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy
43	1754	1754: Hardwicke Act (1753): Banns to be called, and Printed Marriage Register forms to be used – Quakers & Jews exempt 1754: In the General Election, the Cow Inn at Haslemere, Surrey caused a national scandal by subdividing the freehold to create eight votes instead of one 1754: First British troops not belonging to the East India Company despatched to India
44	1755	1755: Publication of "Dictionary of the English Language" by Dr Samuel Johnson 1755: Period of canal construction began in Britain (till 1827) 2 Dec 1755: Second Eddystone Lighthouse destroyed by fire
45	1756	15 May 1756: The Seven Years War with France (Pitt's trade war) begins Jun 1756: Black Hole of Calcutta – 146 Britons imprisoned, most die according to British sources
46	1757	1757: The foundation laid for the Empire of India 14 Mar 1757: Admiral Byng shot at Portsmouth for failing to relieve Minorca 23 Jun 1757: The Nawab of Bengal tries to expel the British, but is defeated at the battle of Plassey (Palashi, June 23) – the East India Company forces are led by Robert Clive
47	1758	1758: India stops being merely a commercial venture – England begins dominating it politically – The East India Company retains its monopoly although it ceased to trade
48	1759	1759: Wesley builds 356 Methodist chapels 15 Jan 1759: British Museum opens to the public in London 16 Oct 1759: Third Eddystone Lighthouse (John Smeaton's) completed
49	1760	1760: Carron Iron Works in operation in Scotland 5 May 1760: First use of hangman's drop 25 Oct 1760: George II dies – George III Hanover, his grandson, becomes king. The date conventionally marks the start of the so-called "first Industrial Revolution"
50	1761	16 Jan 1761: British capture Pondicherry, India from the French
51	1762	1762: Cigars introduced into Britain from Cuba
52	1763	1763: Treaty of Paris – gives back to France everything Pitt fought to obtain – (Newfoundland [fishing], Guadaloupe and Martininque [sugar], Dakar [gum]) – but English displaces French as the international language
53	1764	1764: Lloyd's Register of shipping first prepared 1764: Practice of numbering houses introduced to London 1764: James Hargeaves invents the Spinning Jenny (but destroyed 1768) 1764: Mozart produces his first symphony at age eight
54	1765	1765: The potato becomes the most popular food in Europe 22 Mar 1765: Stamp Act passed – imposed a tax on publications and legal documents in the American colonies (repealed the following year)
55	1766	1766: Start of 'composite' national records on rainfall in the UK 5 Dec 1766: Christie's auction house founded in London by James Christie
56	1767	1767: Newcomen's steam pumping engine perfected by James Watt
57	1768	9 Jan 1768: Philip Astley starts his circus in London 6 Dec 1768: The first edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" published in Edinburgh by William Smellie
58	1769	1769: Arkwright invents water frame (textile production) 1769: Capt James Cook maps the coast of New Zealand 6 Sep 1769: David Garrick organises first Shakespeare festival at Stratford-upon-Avon
59	1770	1770: Clyde Trust created to convert the River Clyde, then an insignificant river, into a major thoroughfare for maritime communications 28 Apr 1770: Capt James Cook lands in Australia (Botany Bay) — Aug 21: formally claims Australia for Britain
60	1771	1771: Right to report Parliamentary debates established in England
61	1772	1772: First Travellers' Cheques issued by the London Credit Exchange Company 1772: "Morning Post" first published (until 1937) 14 May 1772: Judge Mansfield rules that there is no legal basis for slavery in England
62	1774	13 Sep 1774: Cook arrives on Easter Island
63	1775	19 Apr 1775: Battle of Lexington: first action in American War of Independence (1775–1783)
64	1776	1776: Somerset House in London becomes the repository of records of population 1776: Watt and Boulton produce their first commercial steam engine 4 Jul 1776: American Declaration of Independence 7 Sep 1776: First attack on a warship by a submarine – David Bushnell's "Turtle" attacked HMS Eagle in New York harbour. The attack was perhaps spectacular (a charge did detonate beneath the ship), but was nevertheless unsuccessful. "Turtle" was a one man affair, man-powered [Les Moore]
65	1777	1777: Samuel Miller of Southampton patents the circular saw.
66	1779	1779: Marc Isambard Brunel opens the first steamdriven sawmill at Chatham Dockyard in Kent 1779: First iron bridge built, over the Severn by John Wilkinson 1779: First Spinning Mills operational in Scotland 14 Feb 1779: Capt James Cook killed on Hawaii 23 Sep 1779: Naval engagement between Britain and USA off Flamborough Head
67	1780	1780: Male Servants Tax 1780: The English Reform Movement – until now, only landowners and tenants (freeholders with 40 shillings per year or more) allowed to vote, and in open poll books 1780: Fountain pen invented 1780: About this time the word 'Quiz' entered the language, said to have been invented as a wager by Mr Daly, a Dublin theatre manager 4 May 1780: First Derby run at Epsom (some say 2nd June) 2 Jun 1780: Jun 2–8: The Gordon Riots – Parliament passes a Roman Catholic relief measure – for days, London is at the mercy of a mob and destruction is widespread
68	1782	1782: Gilbert's Act establishes outdoor poor relief – the way of life of the poor beginning to alter due to industrialisation – New factories in rapidly expanding towns required a workforce that would adjust to new work patterns 1782: James Watt patents his steam engine
69	1783	1783: Duty payable on Parish Register entries (3d per entry – repealed 1794) – led to a fall in entries! 3 Sep 1783: Treaty of Versailles (Britain/US) 3 Nov 1783: Last public execution at Tyburn in London (John Austin, a highwayman)
70	1784	1784: Pitt's India Act – the Crown (as opposed to officers of the East India Company) has power to guide Indian politics 1784: Wesley breaks with the Church of England 1784: First golf club founded at St Andrews 1784: Invention of threshing machine by Andrew Meikle 2 Aug 1784: First mail coaches in England (4pm Bristol / 8am London)
71	1785	1785: Sunday School Society founded to educate poor children (by 1851, enrols more than 2 million) 1 Jan 1785: John Walter publishes first edition of The Times (called The Daily Universal Register for 3 years)
72	1787	1787: MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) established at Thomas Lord's ground in London
73	1788	1788: First steamboat demonstrated in Scotland 1788: Law passed requiring that chimney sweepers be a minimum of 8 years old (not enforced) 1788: First slave carrying act, the Dolben Act of 1788, regulates the slave trade – stipulates more humane conditions on slave ships 1788: King George III's mental illness occasions the Regency Crisis – Edmund Burke and Charles James Fox attack ministry of William Pitt – trying to obtain full regal powers for the Prince of Wales 1788: Gibbon completes "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" 26 Jan 1788: First convicts (and free settlers) arrive in New South Wales (left Portsmouth 13 May 1787) — the 'First Fleet'; eleven ships commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip
74	1789	28 Apr 1789: Mutiny on HMS Bounty – Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew ends up on Pitcairn Island
75	1790	1790: Forth and Clyde Canal opened in Scotland
76	1791	1791: John Bell, printer, abandons the "long s" (the "s" that looks like an "f") 1791: Establishment of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain 4 Dec 1791: First publication of The Observer – world's oldest Sunday newspaper
77	1792	1792: Repression in Britain (restrictions on freedom of the press) – Fox gets Libel Act through Parliament, requiring a jury and not a judge to determine libel 1792: Boyle's Street Directory published 1792: Coal-gas lighting invented by William Murdock, an Ayrshire Scot 1 Oct 1792: Introduction of Money Orders in Britain 1 Dec 1792: King's Proclamation drawing out the British militia
78	1793	11 Feb 1793: Britain declares war on France (1793-1802) 15 Apr 1793: £5 notes first issued by the Bank of England
79	1794	1794: Abolition of Parish Register duties 6 Oct 1794: The prosecutor for Britain, Lord Justice Eyre, charges reformers with High Treason – he argued that, since reform of parliament would lead to revolution and revolution to executing the King, the desire for reform endangered the King's life and was therefore treasonous
80	1795	1795: The Famine Year 1795: Foundation of the Orange Order 1795: Speenhamland Act proclaims that the Parish is responsible for bringing up the labourer's wage to subsistence level – towards the end of the eighteenth century, the number of poor and unemployed increased dramatically – price increases during the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) far outstripped wage rises – many small farmers were bankrupted by the move towards enclosures and became landless labourers – their wages were often pitifully low 1795: Pitt and Grenville introduce "The Gagging Acts" or "Two Bills" (the Seditious Meetings and Treasonable Practices Bills) – outlawed the mass meeting and the political lecture. 1795: Consumption of lime juice made compulsory in Royal Navy
81	1796	1796: Pitt's "Reign of Terror": More treason trials – leading radicals emigrate 1796: Legacy Tax on sums over £20 excluding those to wives, children, parents and grandparents 14 May 1796: Dr Edward Jenner gave first vaccination for smallpox in England
82	1797	1797: England in Crisis, Bank of England suspends cash payments 1797: Mutinies in the British Navy at Spithead and Nore 1797: Tax on newspapers (including cheap, topical journals) increased to repress radical publications 1797: The first copper pennies were produced ('cartwheels') by application of steam power to the coining press 22 Feb 1797: French invade Fishguard, Wales; last time UK invaded; all captured 2 days later 26 Feb 1797: First £1 (and £2) notes issued by Bank of England
83	1798	1798: First planned human experiment with vaccination, to test theories of Edward Jenner Feb 1798: The Irish Rebellion; 100,000 peasants revolt; approximately 25,000 die – Irish Parliament abolished (Feb-Oct) 1 Aug 1798: Battle of the Nile (won by Nelson)
84	1799	1799: Foundation of Royal Military College Sandhurst by the Duke of York 1799: Foundation of the Royal Institution of Great Britain 9 Jan 1799: Pitt brings in 10% income tax, as a wartime financial measure 12 Jul 1799: 'Combination Laws' in Britain against political associations and combinations 15 Jul 1799: "Rosetta Stone" discovered in Egypt, made possible the deciphering (in 1822) of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics
85	1800	1800: Electric light first produced by Sir Humphrey Davy 1800: Use of high pressure steam pioneered by Richard Trevithick (1771-1833) 1800: Royal College of Surgeons founded 1800: Herschel discovers infra-red light 1800: Volta makes first electrical battery 2 Jul 1800: Parliamentary union of Great Britain and Ireland
86	1801	1801: Grand Union Canal opens in England 1801: Elgin Marbles brought from Athens to London 1 Jan 1801: Union Jack becomes the official British flag 10 Mar 1801: First census puts the population of England and Wales at 9,168,000. Population of Britain nearly 11 million (75% rural) 24 Dec 1801: Richard Trevithick built the first self-propelled passenger carrying road loco
87	1802	25 Mar 1802: Treaty of Amiens signed by Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands – the "Peace of Amiens," as it was known, brought a temporary peace of 14 months during the Napoleonic Wars – one of its most important cultural effects was that travel and correspondence across the English Channel became possible again
88	1803	1803: Poaching made a Capital offence in England if capture resisted 1803: Richard Trevithick built another steam carriage and ran it in London as the first self-propelled vehicle in the capital and the first London bus 1803: Semaphore signalling perfected by Admiral Popham 30 Apr 1803: Louisiana Purchase: Napoleon sells French possessions in America to United States 12 May 1803: Peace of Amiens ends – resumption of war with France – The Napoleonic Wars (1803-18l5) 23 Jul 1803: First public railway opens (Surrey Iron Railway, 9 miles from Wandsworth to Croydon, horse-drawn)
89	1804	1804: Matthew Flinders recommends that the newly discovered country, New Holland, be renamed "Australia" 21 Feb 1804: Richard Trevithick runs his railway engine on the Penydarren Railway (9.5 miles from Pen-y-Darren to Abercynon in South Wales) – this hauled a train with 10 tons of iron and 70 passengers. It was commemorated by the Royal Mint in 2004 in the form of a £2.00 coin. 3 Mar 1804: John Wedgwood (eldest son of the potter Josiah Wedgwood) founds The Royal Horticultural Society 2 Dec 1804: Napoleon declares himself Emperor of the French 12 Dec 1804: Spain declares war on Britain
90	1805	1805: London docks opened 21 Oct 1805: Admiral Nelson's victory at Trafalgar 2 Dec 1805: Battle of Austerlitz; Napoleon defeats Austrians and Russians
91	1806	1806: Dartmoor Prison opened (built by French prisoners) 9 Jan 1806: Nelson buried in St Paul's cathedral, London
92	1807	25 Mar 1807: Parliament passes Act prohibiting slavery and the importation of slaves from 1808 – but does not prohibit colonial slavery
93	1808	1808: Gas lighting in London streets 13 Jul 1808: 'Hot Wednesday' – temperature of 101°F in the shade recorded in London 20 Dec 1808: Beethoven premieres his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy together in Vienna
94	1809	12 Feb 1809: Birth of Charles Darwin 18 Sep 1809: Royal Opera House opens in London
95	1810	1810: John McAdam begins road construction in England, giving his name to the process of road metalling
96	1811	5 Feb 1811: Prince of Wales (future George IV) made Regent after George III deemed insane
97	1812	11 May 1812: Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, assassinated – shot as he entered the House of Commons by a bankrupt Liverpool broker, John Bellingham, who was subsequently hanged 18 Jun 1812: Start of American "War of 1812" (to 1814) against England and Canada Oct 1812: Napoleon retreats from Moscow with catastrophic losses
98	1813	1813: Ireland: First recorded "12th of July" sectarian riots in Belfast 1813: Jane Austen wrote "Pride and Prejudice"
99	1814	1 Jan 1814: Invasion of France by Allies 6 Apr 1814: Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba 13 Aug 1814: Convention of London signed, a treaty between the UK and the Dutch 24 Aug 1814: The British burn the White House 29 Nov 1814: "The Times" first printed by a 'mechanical apparatus' (at 1,100 sheets per hour) 24 Dec 1814: Treaty of Ghent signed ending the 1812 war between Britain and the US
100	1815	1815: Trial by Jury established in Scotland 1815: Davy develops the safety lamp for miners 18 Jun 1815: The Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon defeated and exiled to St. Helena