1829 in the United Kingdom
| 1829 in the United Kingdom |
| Other years |
| 1827 | 1828 | 1829 | 1830 | 1831 |
| Constituent countries of the United Kingdom |
| England | Ireland | Scotland | Wales |
| Sport |
| 1829 English cricket season |
Events from the year 1829 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents[edit]
- Monarch – George IV
- Prime Minister – Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (Tory)
- Foreign Secretary – George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen
- Home Secretary – Robert Peel
Events[edit]
- 8 January – hanging of body-selling murderer William Burke in Edinburgh. His associate William Hare, who has testified against him, is released.
- 26 January – first performance of Douglas Jerrold's comic nautical melodrama Black-Eyed Susan; or, All in the Downs at the Surrey Theatre in Lambeth; it will run for a new record of well over 150 performances.[1]
- 1–2 February – York Minster is extensively damaged in a fire started by Jonathan Martin (who is subsequently acquitted of arson on the grounds of insanity).[2]
- March 5 – Jack Adams, last of the Bounty mutineers, dies on Pitcairn Island.
- 21 March – a duel is fought between the Prime Minister (the Duke of Wellington) and George Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea, in Battersea Fields, provoked by the Duke's support for Catholic emancipation and foundation of the secular King's College London. Deliberately off-target shots are fired by both and honour is satisfied without injury.
- 27 March – Zoological Society of London receives its royal charter.
- April–September – the composer Felix Mendelssohn pays his first visit to Britain. This includes (June) the first London performance of his concert overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream and (August) his trip to Fingal's Cave.[3]
- 13 April – passage of the Roman Catholic Relief Act by Parliament of the United Kingdom granting Catholic Emancipation.[4]
- 5 June – slave trade: HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.
- 10 June – the Oxford University Boat Club wins the first inter-university Boat Race,[4] rowed at Henley-on-Thames.[5]
- 19 June – Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Act establishes the Metropolitan Police Service.[4]
- 30 June – Henry Robinson Palmer files a patent application for corrugated iron for use in buildings.[6]
- 4 July – George Shillibeer begins operating the first bus service in London.[7]
- 2–3 August – the "Muckle Spate", a great flood of the River Findhorn which devastates much of Strathspey, Scotland, washing away many bridges.[8]
- 14 August – King's College London founded by Royal Charter
- 29 September – the first police officers of the Metropolitan Police Service, known by the nicknames "bobbies" or "peelers", go on patrol in London.[4]
- 8 October – Robert Stephenson's steam locomotive Rocket defeats John Ericsson's Novelty and other competitors and thus wins the Rainhill Trials held on the under-construction Liverpool and Manchester Railway.[7]
- 4 December – in the face of fierce opposition, British Lord William Bentinck carries a regulation declaring that all who abet suttee in India are guilty of culpable homicide.
- 31 December – last British hanging for forgery – Thomas Maynard at Newgate Prison, London.[9]
Ongoing events[edit]
- Anglo-Ashanti war (1823–1831)
Publications[edit]
- Thomas Carlyle's essay Signs of the Times.
- Thomas Love Peacock's historical romance The Misfortunes of Elphin (as "by the author of Headlong Hall").
- Sir Walter Scott's historical novel Anne of Geierstein (as "by the author of Waverley").
Births[edit]
- 17 January – Catherine Booth, Mother of The Salvation Army (died 1890)
- 2 February – William Stanley, inventor (died 1909)
- 6 March – Arthur Blomfield, architect (died 1899)
- 10 April – William Booth, founder of The Salvation Army (died 1912)
- 4 June – Allan Octavian Hume, member of the Indian civil service and "the Father of Indian Ornithology" (died 1912)
- 5 June – George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen, Scottish-born businessman in Canada and philanthropist (died 1921)
- 8 June – John Everett Millais, Pre-Raphaelite painter (died 1896)
- 16 June – Bessie Rayner Parkes, journalist and feminist (died 1925)
- 14 July – Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1896)
- 25 July – Elizabeth Siddal, Pre-Raphaelite artists' model, painter and poet (died 1862)
- 25 September – William Michael Rossetti, critic (died 1919)
- 9 November – Sir Peter Lumsden, Scottish general in the Indian army (died 1918)
- John Lowther du Plat Taylor, founder of the Army Post Office Corps (died 1904)
Deaths[edit]
- 15 January – John Mastin, local historian, memoirist and clergyman (born 1747)
- 25 January – William Shield, composer, violinist and violist (born 1748)
- 28 January – William Burke, murderer and grave robber, executed (born 1792 in Ireland)
- 1 March – Thomas Earnshaw, watchmaker (born 1749)
- 8 May – Charles Abbot, 1st Baron Colchester, barrister, statesman, Speaker of the House of Commons (born 1759)
- 10 May – Thomas Young, physician and linguist (born 1773)
- 29 May – Sir Humphry Davy, chemist (born 1778)
- 27 June – James Smithson, mineralogist, chemist and sponsor of the Smithsonian Institution (born 1765)
- 7 August – John Reeves, conservative activist, public servant and legal historian (born 1752)
- 10 October – Maria Elizabetha Jacson, botanist (born 1755)
- 28 December – Bill Richmond, bare-knuckle welterweight boxer (born 1763 in British America)
References[edit]
- ^ Gillan, Don (2007). "Longest Running Plays in London and New York". Retrieved 15 February 2011.
- ^ Balston, Thomas (1945). The Life of Jonathan Martin.
- ^ Grove, George (1 October 1904). "Mendelssohn's Scotch Symphony". The Musical Times. 45 (740): 644. JSTOR 904111.
- ^ a b c d Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ^ "Foundations of The Boat Race". The Xchanging Boat Race. Theboatrace.org. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ Thomson, Nick (2011). Corrugated Iron Buildings. Oxford: Shire Publications. pp. 7–8. ISBN 978-0-7478-0783-4.
- ^ a b "Icons, a portrait of England 1820–1840". Archived from the original on 22 September 2007. Retrieved 12 September 2007.
- ^ Mcewen, Lindsey J.; Werritty, Alan (2007). "The Muckle Spate of 1829: the physical and societal impact of a catastrophic flood on the River Findhorn, Scottish Highlands". Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 32: 66–89. doi:10.1111/j.1475-5661.2007.00232.x.
- ^ "Thomas Maynard". British Executions. Retrieved 7 January 2024.