1711 - 1720

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1711

Incorporation of South Sea Company, in London

1712

Imposition of Soap Tax (abolished 1853)

Last trial for witchcraft in England (Jane Wenham)

Toleration Act passed – first relief to non-Anglicans

Patronage Act – patronage of ministers restored

1713

Treaty of Utrecht concludes the War of the Spanish Succession

1714

Aug 1: Queen Anne Stuart dies – George I Hanover becomes king (1714-1727)

Chancery Proceedings filed under Six Clerks

Schism Act

Landholders forced to take the Oath of Allegiance and renounce Roman Catholicism

Quarter Sessions Records from this date often mention Protestant dissenters and Roman Catholic recusants 

Henry Mill receives patent in England for a typewriter.

1715

Second Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, under the Old Pretender ('The Fifteen')

1716

The Septennial Act of Britain leads to greater electoral corruption – general elections now to be held once every 7 years instead of every 3

Climate: Thames frozen so solid that a spring tide lifted the ice bodily 13ft without interrupting the frost fair

1717

First Masonic Lodge opens in London

1719

Third abortive Jacobite rising

1720

South Sea Bubble, a stock-market crash on Exchange Alley

Manufacturing towns start to increase in population – rise of new wealth

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