1838 in the United Kingdom

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United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1838 in the United Kingdom United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Other years
1836 | 1837 | 1838 | 1839 | 1840
Sport
1838 English cricket season

Events from the year 1838 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents[]

  • Monarch – Victoria
  • Prime Minister – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (Whig)
  • Parliament –

Events[]

  • 10 January – a fire destroys Lloyd's Coffee House and the Royal Exchange in London.[1]
  • 20 January – with a daily average of −11.9 °C (10.6 °F), this day sees the coldest daily Central England temperature value on record.[2]
  • 4–22 April – the paddle steamer SS Sirius (1837) makes the Transatlantic Crossing to New York from Cork in eighteen days, though not using steam continuously.[3]
  • 8–23 April – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's paddle steamer SS Great Western (completed on 31 March) makes the Transatlantic Crossing to New York from Avonmouth in fifteen days, inaugurating a regular steamship service.[4]
  • 8 April – the National Gallery first opens to the public in the building purpose-designed for it by William Wilkins in Trafalgar Square, London.
  • 9 May – Royal Agricultural Society of England founded.
  • 21 May – Chartism: The People's Charter is launched by members of the London Working Men's Association at a mass meeting on Glasgow Green calling for universal suffrage for male voters.[4][5]
  • 31 May – Battle of Bossenden Wood: In Kent, self-declared Messiah John N. Thom, calling himself "Sir William Courtenay", and a band of around 35 agricultural labourers are surrounded by soldiers of the 45th Regiment of Foot sent to arrest them following the earlier murder of a policeman. Thom and ten followers, together with an officer and a constable, are killed in what is sometimes described as the last battle on English soil.[6]
  • 4 June – first section of the Great Western Railway, engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, opens from London Paddington station to Maidenhead.[7]
  • 18 June – the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway opens, the first line across England.[8]
  • 28 June – the coronation of Queen Victoria takes place at Westminster Abbey.[9] Lord Melbourne denies her the traditional medieval banquet due to budget constraints, and critics refer to it as "The Penny Crowning".[10]
  • July – Chichester Theological College is founded by Bishop William Otter in West Sussex as the first such college of the Anglican Communion in England.
  • 4 August – the Court Journal prints a rumour that Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton is going to host a great jousting tournament at his castle in Scotland. A few weeks later he confirms this.[11]
  • 6 August – the Polytechnic Institution, Britain's first polytechnic, opens in Regent Street, London.[12]
  • September – the Tolpuddle Martyrs return to England.[13]
  • 7 September – Grace Darling rescues nine survivors from the wreck of the paddle steamer SS Forfarshire (1834) off the Farne Islands.[9]
  • 17 September – opening of the London and Birmingham Railway throughout, the first trunk line in England.[13][14]
  • 18 September – Anti-Corn Law League founded by Richard Cobden and John Bright in Manchester.[9]
  • 24 September – "Monster meeting" on Kersal Moor, Salford, in support of Chartism.
  • 1 October – First Anglo-Afghan War begins when Lord Auckland, Governor-General of India, issues a manifesto from Simla giving Britain's reasons for intervening in Afghanistan.[13]

Undated[]

  • The Tin Duties Act ends taxation of the mines of Devon and Cornwall.
  • The Peculiar People, a nonconformist Christian movement, is established in Rochford, Essex, by preacher James Banyard.[15]
  • Jenners department store established in Princes Street, Edinburgh.
  • Probable date – Hackpen White Horse cut in Wiltshire.

Ongoing[]

  • Smallpox epidemic of 1837–40.[16]

Publications[]

  • Charles Dickens' novels Oliver Twist (in book form) and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (serialisation begins).
  • Lady Charlotte Guest begins publication of her translation into English of the Welsh traditional tales known as the Mabinogion.
  • Robert Smith Surtees' collected sporting stories Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities.

Births[]

  • 6 February – Henry Irving, actor (died 1905)
  • 9 February – Evelyn Wood, field marshal, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1919)
  • 12 March – William Henry Perkin, chemist (died 1907)
  • 13 April – J. D. Sedding, ecclesiastical architect (died 1891)
  • 14 April – John Thomas, Welsh photographer (died 1905)
  • 20 July – Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, statesman and historian (died 1928)
  • 25 October – Annie Hall Cudlip, novelist, journalist and editor (died 1918)
  • 3 December – Octavia Hill, social reformer (died 1912)
  • 20 December – Edwin Abbott Abbott, theologian and author (died 1926)

Deaths[]

  • 13 January – John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1751)
  • 5 February – Thomas Creevey, politician (born 1768)
  • 17 February – John Bonham-Carter, politician and barrister (born 1788)
  • 4 March
    • William Fennex, cricketer (born 1763)
    • Sir James Carmichael Smyth, colonial administrator (born 1779)
  • 19 March – Sir Edward Barnes, British Army officer and governor of Ceylon (born 1776)
  • 21 March – George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie, colonial Governor (born 1770)
  • 24 March – Thomas Attwood, composer (born 1765)
  • 19 May – Richard Colt Hoare, antiquarian, artist, traveller and archaeologist (born 1758)
  • 20 May – William Stephenson, Geordie printer, publisher, auctioneer, poet and songwriter (born 1797)
  • 19 July – Christmas Evans, Welsh Nonconformist minister (born 1766)
  • 25 August – William Annesley, 3rd Earl Annesley, noble and Member of Parliament (born 1772)
  • 18 September – Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington, Member of Parliament (born 1752)
  • 15 October – Letitia Elizabeth Landon, poet and novelist (born 1802)
  • 7 November – Anne Grant, Scottish poet and author (born 1755)
  • 16 November – Robert Cutlar Fergusson, lawyer and politician (born 1768)
  • 10 December – Augustus Earle, painter (born 1793)
  • 22 December – John Villiers, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, Member of Parliament (born 1757)

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher (1995). The London Encyclopaedia. Macmillan. p. 287. ISBN 0-333-57688-8.
  2. ^ CET Record-Breakers.
  3. ^ "Steamship Curaçao". Archived from the original on 24 December 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  4. ^ a b "Icons, a portrait of England 1820–1840". Archived from the original on 22 September 2007. Retrieved 12 September 2007.
  5. ^ "Where History Happened: Chartism". History Extra. BBC. 12 May 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  6. ^ "Battle of Bosenden Wood". Hernhill Parish. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
  7. ^ MacDermot, E. T. (1964). History of the Great Western Railway. London: Ian Allan.
  8. ^ Whittle, G. (1979). The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-7855-4.
  9. ^ a b c Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  10. ^ Anstruther, Ian (1963). The Knight and the Umbrella: an Account of the Eglinton Tournament – 1839. London: Geoffrey Bles Ltd. p. 1.
  11. ^ Girouard, Mark (1981). The Return to Camelot: Chivalry and the English Gentleman. Yale University Press. p. 92.
  12. ^ "University of Westminster". London: Beginnings Project. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
  13. ^ a b c Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 262–263. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
  14. ^ Reed, M. C. (1996). The London & North Western Railway: a history. Penryn: Atlantic. ISBN 0-906899-66-4.
  15. ^ "A Very Peculiar Preacher: James Banyard". Rochford District Community Archive. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  16. ^ Creighton, Charles (1894). A History of Epidemics in Britain. Vol. II. Cambridge University Press.
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