1834 in the United Kingdom

1834 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1832 | 1833 | 1834 | 1835 | 1836

Sport

1834 English cricket season

Events from the year 1834 in the United Kingdom. Uniquely, four Prime Ministers serve during the year.

Incumbents

• Monarch - William IV
• Prime Minister -
  • until 16 July: Earl Grey (Whig)
  • 16 July-14 November: Lord Melbourne (Whig)
  • 14 November-10 December: Duke of Wellington (Tory)
  • starting 10 December: Robert Peel (Tory)

Events

The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons by J. M. W. Turner (1835). Turner witnessed the fire (16 October 1834), and painted the subject several times.

• February - Robert Owen organises the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union.^[1]
• March - William Whewell (anonymously) first publishes the term scientist in the Quarterly Review (but notes it as "not generally palatable").^[2]
• 18 March - The Tolpuddle Martyrs, six Dorset farm labourers, are sentenced to be transported to a penal colony for forming a trade union.^[3]
• 23 June - HMS Tartarus is launched at Pembroke Dock. It is the Royal Navy's first steam-powered man-of-war (a paddle gunvessel).^[4]
• 16 July - Lord Melbourne succeeds Earl Grey as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1 August - Slavery abolished in most of the British Empire by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.^[3]
• 14 August - Poor Law Amendment Act states the able-bodied cannot receive assistance unless they enter a workhouse.
• 15 August - Parliament approves the creation of the colony of South Australia.^[5]
• 7 October - Birmingham Town Hall, designed by Joseph Hansom and Edward Welch, is opened for the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival.
• 16 October - Burning of Parliament: Much of the Palace of Westminster is destroyed by fire.
• 14 November - William IV dismisses the government of Melbourne, after proposals for Church reform are made. The Duke of Wellington forms a caretaker government. This will be the last time a British sovereign chooses a Prime Minister contrary to the will of Parliament.
• 10 December - Sir Robert Peel forms his first government.
• 17 December - The Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first public railway in Ireland, opens between Dublin and Kingstown.
• 18 December
  • Tamworth Manifesto published: Peel outlines his guiding principles of government, regarded as the basis of the modern Conservative Party.^[6]
  • Tithe War in Ireland: "Rathcormac massacre": At Gortroe, County Cork, armed Constabulary reinforced by the regular British Army kill at least nine and wound thirty protesters against tithes.^[7][8]
• 23 December - Architect and inventor Joseph Hansom patents the Hansom cab.^[3][5]
• 26 December - Ursulines of Jesus take up residence at St Margaret’s Convent in the Whitehouse in Edinburgh, the first Roman Catholic convent established in Scotland since the Reformation;^[9] it will be another 5 years before the first such modern establishment in England.

Undated

• The government begins to make grants of 50% towards the erection of new elementary schools in England and Wales.^[10]
• Hanging in chains upon a gibbet after execution is abolished in England.
• British East India Company monopoly on China trade ended.
• The Exchequer is abolished as a revenue collecting department of the British government.
• The Institute of British Architects in London, predecessor of the Royal Institute of British Architects, is formed.
• Harrods founded as a grocer in Stepney in the East End of London.^[11]
• Augustus Smith acquires the lease on the Isles of Scilly from the Duchy of Cornwall.
• History of computing hardware: Charles Babbage begins the conceptual design of an "analytical engine", a mechanical forerunner of the modern computer. It will not be built in his lifetime.^[5][12][13]
• With an average Central England temperature of 10.51 °C or 50.92 °F, this narrowly overtakes 1733 as the hottest calendar year in the CET record until equalled in 1921 and beaten in 1949.^[14]

Publications

• W. Harrison Ainsworth's (anonymous) first novel Rookwood, an historical romance featuring the highwayman Dick Turpin.
• Edward Bulwer's (anonymous) novel The Last Days of Pompeii.

Births

• 28 January - Sabine Baring-Gould, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist and eclectic scholar (died 1924)
• 15 February - William Henry Preece, electrical engineer and inventor (died 1913)
• 19 February - Charles Davis Lucas, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1914)
• 16 March - James Hector, geologist (died 1907)
• 24 March - William Morris, artist, writer, socialist and activist (died 1896)
• 19 June - Charles Spurgeon, Baptist preacher (died 1892)
• 28 June - Samuel Pasco, United States Senator from Florida from 1887 till 1899. (died 1917)
• 4 August - John Venn, mathematician (died 1923)
• 9 September - Joseph Henry Shorthouse, novelist (died 1903)

Deaths

• 12 January - William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1759)
• 11 April - John 'Mad Jack' Fuller, philanthropist and patron of the arts and sciences (born 1757)
• 12 July - David Douglas, botanist (born 1799)
• 25 July - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, critic, and philosopher (born 1772)
• 1 August - Robert Morrison, Protestant missionary to China (born 1782)
• 2 September - Thomas Telford, engineer (born 1757)
• 16 September - William Blackwood, writer (born 1776)
• 11 October - William John Napier, 9th Lord Napier, Navy officer, politician and diplomat (born 1786)
• 5 December - Thomas Pringle, poet (born 1789)
• 23 December - Thomas Malthus, demographer and economist (born 1766)
• 27 December - Charles Lamb, essayist (born 1775)

References

1. Marsh, Arthur; et al. Historical Directory of Trade Unions. p. 458.
2. "scientist, n.". Oxford English Dictionary online version. Oxford University Press. March 2011. Retrieved 2012-03-28. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
3. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
4. Guard, John (5 January 2004). "History of Pembroke Dockyard". Retrieved 2012-01-10.
5. Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 259–260. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
6. Bloy, Marjorie (2011). "The Peel Web". A Web of English History. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
7. "The Rathcormac Inquest", House of Commons Debates, 26, pp. 523–4, 3 March 1835, retrieved 2012-10-17
8. Rathcormac Tithe Commemoration Committee (1984). A souvenir programme commemorating the Rathmore-Gortroe massacre which took place during the Tithe War on the 18 December, 1834.
9. "Introduction" (pdf). Edinburgh: The Gillis Centre. Retrieved 2014-04-28.
10. Berry, George (1970). Discovering Schools. Tring: Shire Publications. ISBN 0-85263-091-3.
11. "A Brief History of Harrods". Archived from the original on 19 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
12. "Babbage's Analytical Engine, 1834-1871 (Trial model)". Science Museum (London). Archived from the original on 20 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
13. Hyman, Anthony (1982). Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-858170-X.
14. Hadley Centre Central England Temperature.

See also