1731 in Great Britain
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{{Year in Great Britain|1731|cricket=yes}}
Events from the year 1731 in Great Britain.
Incumbents
Events
- 16 March – Treaty of Vienna signed between the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Spain.{{cite book|title=The Pocket Date Book|url=https://archive.org/details/pocketdatebooko00categoog|publisher=Chapman and Hall|first=William L. R.|last=Cates|authorlink=William Leist Readwin Cates|year=1863}}
- April – trader Robert Jenkins has his ear cut off by Spanish coast guards in Cuba, casus belli for the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739.{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|url=https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will|url-access=registration|location=London|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/303 303]}}
- 28 April – a fire at White's Chocolate House, near St. James's Palace in London, destroys the historic club and the paintings therein, but is kept from spreading by the fast response of firemen.
- 4 June – great fire destroys much of the centre of Blandford Forum, Dorset.{{cite web|title=Blandford, Dorset 1731|url=http://www.fire.org.uk/blandford-dorset-1731.html|work=FireNet|year=2009|accessdate=2011-01-19|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101216044057/http://fire.org.uk/blandford-dorset-1731.html|archivedate=16 December 2010}}
- 5 June – Tiverton fire of 1731, a great fire in Tiverton, Devon.{{cite book|last=Dickens|first=Charles|title=All the Year Round|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x_jVAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA258|accessdate=12 July 2012|year=1869|publisher=Charles Dickens|page=258}}
- 23 August – the oldest known sports score in history is recorded in the description of a cricket match at Richmond Green, when the team of Thomas Chambers of Middlesex defeats the Duke of Richmond's team by 119 to 79.
- September – the first successful appendectomy is performed by surgeon William Cookesley.{{cite journal|first=Peter|last=Selley|title=William Cookesley, William Hunter and the first patient to survive removal of the appendix in 1731|journal=Journal of Medical Biography|volume=24|year=2016|pages=180-3}}
- 30 September – the village of Barnwell, Cambridgeshire, is "burned down entirely" by a fire.{{cite book|chapter=Fires, Great|title=The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance|editor=Walford, Cornelius|publisher=C. & E. Layton|year=1876|page=49}}
- 23 October – fire at Ashburnham House in London damages the nationally owned Cotton library, housed there at this time.
=Undated=
- Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730: Legal proceedings in the courts to be conducted in the English language.{{cite book|first=Stephen|last=Friar|title=The Sutton Companion to Local History|edition=rev.|location=Stroud|publisher=Sutton Publishing|year=2001|isbn=0-7509-2723-2|page=241}}
- William Hogarth produces his A Harlot's Progress series of paintings.
- John Bevis observes the Crab Nebula for the first time in the modern era.
Publications
- 1 January – first edition of The Gentleman's Magazine published by Edward Cave.{{cite book|title=The Every Day Book of History and Chronology|url=https://archive.org/details/everydaybookhis00munsgoog|publisher=D. Appleton & Co|first=Joel|last=Munsell|year=1858}}
- Jethro Tull's treatise The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry; or, an essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation.
Births
- 4 February – Mary Deverell, religious writer, essayist and poet (died 1805)
- 10 February – Thomas Beckwith, English painter, genealogist and antiquary (died 1786)
- 8 May – Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London and abolitionist (died 1809)
- August – Henry Constantine Jennings, collector of antiquities and gambler (died 1819)
- 10 October – Henry Cavendish, scientist (died 1810)
- 15 November – William Cowper, poet (died 1800)
- 12 December – Erasmus Darwin, physician and scientist, grandfather of Charles Darwin (died 1802)
- date unknown – William Aiton, Scottish botanist (died 1793)
Deaths
- 10 February – George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter, Army general (born 1657)
- 24 April – Daniel Defoe, writer (born 1660)
- 11 May – Mary Astell, feminist writer (born 1666)
- 17 May – Samuel Bradford, churchman and Whig politician (born 1652)
- 20 June – Ned Ward, writer and publican (born 1667)
- 18 July – Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet, politician (born 1653)
- 24 August – William Godolphin, Marquess of Blandford, nobleman (born c. 1699)
- 17 December – George Lockhart, Scottish writer, spy and politician, killed in duel (born 1673)
- 29 December – Brook Taylor, mathematician (born 1685)