1831 in the United Kingdom

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United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1831 in the United Kingdom United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Other years
1829 | 1830 | 1831 | 1832 | 1833
Sport
1831 English cricket season

Events from the year 1831 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents[]

  • Monarch – William IV
  • Prime Minister – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (Whig)
  • Parliament – 9th (until 23 April), 10th (starting 14 June)

Events[]

  • 3 March – Tithe War breaks out in Ireland.
  • 7 March – Royal Astronomical Society receives its Royal Charter.[1]
  • 12 April – Broughton Suspension Bridge over the River Irwell collapses under marching troops.[2]
  • 27 April – ending of the First Anglo-Ashanti War (1823–1831).
  • 28 April–1 June – general election results in a Whig victory, and a mandate for electoral reform.[3]
  • May–June – Merthyr Rising in Merthyr Tydfil.
  • 30 May – census in the United Kingdom.
  • 1 June – Royal Navy officer and explorer James Clark Ross leads the first expedition to reach the Magnetic North Pole.
  • 8 June – Freeminers in the Forest of Dean, led by Warren James, break down enclosures in the Forest.[4]
  • 1 August – the new London Bridge is officially opened.[5]
  • 17 August – the paddle steamer Rothsay Castle is wrecked at the eastern end of the Menai Strait with the loss of 93 lives.
  • 29 August – Michael Faraday demonstrates electromagnetic induction.[6]
  • 8 September – coronation of King William IV.[5]
  • 22 September – the House of Commons passes the Great Reform Bill to expand the franchise, but this is later defeated in the Lords.
  • 27 September – British Association for the Advancement of Science first meets, in York.[3]
  • October – King's College London opens.
  • 9–11 October – riots in Nottingham: Nottingham Castle and a silk mill at Beeston are gutted by fire.[7]
  • 15 October – Truck Act prohibits payment of wages other than in cash.[8]
  • 26 October – cholera epidemic begins in Sunderland.
  • 28 October – Michael Faraday constructs the first dynamo.[5]
  • 29–31 October – 1831 Bristol riots ("Queen Square riots") in Bristol (England), in connection with the Great Reform Act controversy: 100 city centre properties are destroyed (including the Bishop's palace), at least 120 are estimated to have been killed, 31 of the rioters will be sentenced to death and a colonel facing court-martial for failure to control the riot commits suicide.[9]
  • December – first meeting in England of the Plymouth Brethren, organised primarily by George Wigram, Benjamin Wills Newton and John Nelson Darby.[10][11]
  • 27 December – Charles Darwin embarks on his historic voyage aboard HMS Beagle[5] from Plymouth.
  • Undated – The house which will eventually contain Abbey Road Studios is built in the St John's Wood district of London.

Publications[]

  • January – Joseph Livesey begins publishing The Moral Reformer in Preston, Lancashire, the first publication of the temperance movement in England.
  • Mrs Gore's novels Pin Money, Mothers and Daughters,[12] The School for Coquettes and The Tuileries.
  • Thomas Hood's poem The Dream of Eugene Aram, the Murderer.
  • Thomas Love Peacock's anonymous novel Crotchet Castle.
  • Mary Prince's slave narrative The History of Mary Prince.

Births[]

  • 21 March – Dorothea Beale, proponent of women's education (died 1906)
  • 7 May – Richard Norman Shaw, architect (died 1912)
  • 16 May – David Edward Hughes, musician and professor of music (died 1900)
  • 13 June – James Clerk Maxwell, physicist (died 1879)
  • 14 October – Samuel Waite Johnson, railway locomotive engineer (died 1912)
  • 15 October – Isabella Bird, explorer, writer, photographer and naturalist (died 1904)

Deaths[]

  • 14 February – Henry Maudslay, mechanical engineer (born 1771)
  • 21 February – Robert Hall, Baptist minister (born 1764)
  • 20 April – John Abernethy, surgeon (born 1764)
  • 8 June – Sarah Siddons, actress (born 1755 in Wales)
  • 17 August – Patrick Nasmyth, Scottish landscape painter (born 1787)

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "A brief history of the RAS". Royal Astronomical Society. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  2. ^ Bishop, R. E. D. (1979). Vibration (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-22779-8.
  3. ^ a b Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 257–258. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
  4. ^ Anstis, Ralph (1986). Warren James and the Dean Forest Riots. Coalway: Albion House. ISBN 978-0-9511371-0-9.
  5. ^ a b c d Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  6. ^ "Icons, a portrait of England 1820–1840". Archived from the original on 22 September 2007. Retrieved 12 September 2007.
  7. ^ Beckett, John (20 July 2008). "Riot and rebellion". The Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  8. ^ The History Today Companion to British History. London: Collins & Brown. 1995. p. 762. ISBN 1-85585-178-4.
  9. ^ "Revolting riots in Queen Square". Made in Bristol. BBC. 2004. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
  10. ^ Burnham, Jonathan D. (2004). "The Emergence of the Plymouth Brethren". A Story of Conflict: the Controversial Relationship Between Benjamin Wills Newton and John Nelson Darby. Carlisle: Paternoster Press. ISBN 978-1-84227-191-9. OCLC 56336926.
  11. ^ Livingstone, Elizabeth A. (2000). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280057-2. OCLC 46858944.
  12. ^ Leavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (2nd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.
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