1739 in Great Britain:

Other years

1737 | 1738 | 1739 | 1740 | 1741

Sport

1739 English cricket season

Events from the year 1739 in the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch - George II of the United Kingdom
• Prime Minister - Robert Walpole, Whig

Events

• 14 January - Britain and Spain sign the Convention of Pardo.^[1]
• 16 January - First performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio Saul in London.^[1]
• 4 April - First performance of Handel's Israel in Egypt.^[1]
• 17 October - The Foundling Hospital is created in London by Thomas Coram.^[1]
• 23 October - Britain declares war on Spain. This becomes known as the War of Jenkins' Ear.^[1]
• 21 November - The British capture the South American silver exporting town of Porto Bello from the Spanish.^[1]
• December to February 1740 - The 'Great Frost': unusually harsh winter in southern England.^[2]

Publications

• David Hume's anonymous A Treatise on Human Nature.^[2]

Births

• 6 January - David Dale, philanthropist (died 1806)
• 26 January - George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough (died 1817)
• 4 February - John Robison, physicist (died 1805)
• 25 March - Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of York and Albany (died 1767)
• 16 May - Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk (died 1779)
• 5 November - Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton (died 1819)
• 4 December - Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston (died 1802)

Deaths

• 7 April - Dick Turpin, highwayman (hanged) (born 1705)
• 19 April - Nicholas Saunderson, scientist and mathematician (born 1682)
• 4 September - George Lillo, playwright (born 1693)
• 21 October - William Montagu, 2nd Duke of Manchester (born 1700)

References

See also