1744 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1744 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George II
• Prime Minister – Henry Pelham (Whig)

Events

• 10–11 February (22–23 February New Style) – War of the Austrian Succession: British fleet defeated by a Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Toulon with loss of the fire ship HMS Anne Galley and all her crew.
• 27 February – a planned French invasion of Britain fails when a violent storm partially wrecks the French invasion force attempting to cross from Dunkirk to Maldon.
• 4–15 March – War of the Austrian Succession: France declares war on Britain.
• 3 October – HMS Victory (1737) is wrecked on the Casquets in the Channel Islands with the loss of around 900 lives.
• 28 December–8 January 1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Quadruple Alliance of Britain, Austria, Saxony-Poland and the United Netherlands is formed against Prussia.
• Undated
  • Northampton General Hospital established as Northampton Infirmary.
  • Mineral springs discovered at Thorp Spa in the West Riding of Yorkshire by John Shires.

Publications

• April – Eliza Haywood's monthly The Female Spectator begins publication, the first periodical written for women by a woman.
• Samuel Johnson's biography of Richard Savage.
• John Newbery's children's book A Little Pretty Pocket-Book.
• Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, containing the earliest known printed versions of many nursery rhymes.
• William Williams Pantycelyn's first collection of Welsh hymns Aleluia (first part).
• The first known Laws of cricket.
• First definitive version of the national anthem God Save the King in Thesaurus Musicus.

Births

• 13 February – David Allan, painter (died 1796)
• 19 May – Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen of George III of Great Britain (died 1818)
• 21 May – Samuel Ireland, author and engraver (died 1800)
• 31 May – Richard Lovell Edgeworth, politician, writer and inventor (died 1817)

Deaths

• 14 February – John Hadley, mathematician and inventor (born 1682)
• 4 March – John Anstis, herald (born 1669)
• 30 May – Alexander Pope, writer (born 1688)
• 29 June – John Eames, dissenting tutor (born 1686)
• 9 August – James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, patron of the arts (born 1673)
• 18 October – Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, friend of Queen Anne (born 1660)

See also

• 1744 in Wales