1781 - 1790

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1782

Gilbert's Act establishes outdoor poor relief – the way of life of the poor beginning to alter due to industrialisation – New factories in rapidly expanding towns required a workforce that would adjust to new work patterns

James Watt patents his steam engine

1783

Duty on Parish Register entries (3d per entry – repealed 1794)

Montgolfier brothers launch first hot-air balloon

July: Climate: hottest month on record until 1983

September 3: Treaty of Versailles (England/U.S.)

1784

Pitt's India Act – the Crown (as opposed to officers of the East India Company) has power to guide Indian politics

Wesley breaks with the Church of England

First edition of The Times (called The Daily Universal Register for 3 years)

Aug 2: First mail coaches in England (4pm Bristol/8am London)

First golf club founded at St Andrews

Invention of threshing machine by Andrew Meikle

1785

Sunday School Society founded to educate poor children (by 1851, enrols more than 2 million)

1787

Earliest known Swedenborgian (Church of the New Jerusalem or Jerusalemite) registers

1788

January 26: First convicts (and free settlers) arrive in New South Wales

First steamboat demonstrated in Scotland

Law passed requiring that chimney sweepers be a minimum of 8 years old (not enforced)

First slave carrying act, the Dolben Act of 1788, regulates the slave trade – stipulates more humane conditions on slave ships

King George III's mental illness occasions the Regency Crisis – Edmund Burke and Charles James Fox attack ministry of William Pitt – trying to obtain full regal powers for the Prince of Wales

1789

July 14: The French Revolution begins – storming of the Bastille

1790

Forth and Clyde Canal opened in Scotland

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