Great Britain-related events during the year of 1716
1716 in Great Britain:
Other years
Countries of the United Kingdom
Scotland
Events from the year 1716 in Great Britain .
January – the Duke of Argyll disperses the remainder of the Jacobite troops.[ 2]
16 January – William Wake appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury .
10 February – the pretender James Francis Edward Stuart flees to France with the Earl of Mar . He dismisses Lord Bolingbroke as his Secretary of State replacing him with Mar.[ 3]
23 February – William Maxwell of the Jacobite leaders, escapes from the tower of London with the expert help of his wife Winifred Herbert and makes his way to France.[ 4]
24 February – execution of the Jacobite leaders James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater , and William Gordon, 6th Viscount of Kenmure ;[ 2] their titles and estates suffer attainder .
10 March – Joseph Addison 's play The Drummer premieres at Drury Lane Theatre . While not as successful at his previous work Cato , it is revived frequently during the following century.
11 April – Jacobite leader Thomas Forster escapes from Newgate Prison and goes into exile several days before he is due to stand trial.
26 April – Septennial Act 1715 comes into effect, extending the maximum duration of Parliaments from three years to seven (in effect until 2011).[ 3] [ 5] [ 6]
4 May – despite increased security measures William Mackintosh leads a mass escape of Jacobites from Newgate Prison. Amongst those to escape and evade recapture is Charles Wogan .
14 May – Irish Jacobite Henry Oxburgh is hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn for his part in the English rising of the previous year.
26 May – two regular companies of field artillery , each 100 men strong, are raised at Woolwich by Royal Warrant.
28 May – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough , suffers a paralytic stroke. He recovers and remains Captain General of the army, but his duties are increasingly taken over by subordinates
5 July – Prince Ernest Augustus , younger brother of George I, is created Duke of York and Albany in the peerage of Great Britain .
18 July – Melusine von der Schulenburg , mistress of George I, is created for life Duchess of Munster, Marchioness of Dungannon , Countess of Dungannon and Baroness Dundalk , in the Peerage of Ireland .
4 August – George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton , under sentence of death for his part in the Jacobite rising of 1715 , escapes from the Tower of London and flees into exile on the continent.
29 September – the original Portland Bill Lighthouse is first illuminated.
9 November – Caroline of Ansbach , Princess of Wales, gives birth to a stillborn son.
12 December – Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend , is demoted from his office as Secretary of State for the Northern Department in the British government and replaced by James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope a prelude to the Whig Split of the following year.
24 December (4 January 1717 New Style ) – Britain, France and the Dutch Republic sign the Triple Alliance [ 3] in an attempt to maintain the Treaty of Utrecht (1713 ), Britain having signed a preliminary alliance with France on 17 November (28 November New Style).
26 January – George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville , soldier and politician (died 1785)
23 June – Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley , politician (died 1789)
30 August (bapt.) – Lancelot "Capability" Brown , landscape architect (died 1783)
6 October – George Montague-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax , statesman (died 1771)
26 December – Thomas Gray , poet (died 1771)
James Brindley , engineer (died 1772)
c. 1716/17 – John Beard , tenor and actor-manager (died 1791)
1 January – William Wycherley , playwright (born c. 1641)
24 February – executions on Tower Hill
14 April – Arthur Herbert, 1st Earl of Torrington , admiral (born c. 1648)
26 April – John Somers, 1st Baron Somers , Lord Chancellor of England (born 1651)
5 June – Roger Cotes , mathematician and philosopher (born 1682)
28 June – George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland , general (born 1665)
8 July – Robert South , churchman (born 1634)
28 October – Stephen Fox , politician (born 1627)