1811 in the United Kingdom

1811 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1809 | 1810 | 1811 | 1812 | 1813

Events from the year 1811 in the United Kingdom. This is a Census year and the start of the British Regency.

Incumbents

• Monarch - George III
• Prime Minister - Spencer Perceval (Tory)

Events

• 1 February - Bell Rock Lighthouse begins operation off the coast of Scotland.^[1]
• 5 February - George, Prince of Wales becomes Regent^[1] because of the perceived insanity of his father, King George III. He is known as the Prince Regent and this is the beginning of the Regency period.^[2]
• 21 February - The John and Jane, carrying troops bound for the Peninsular War, is accidentally run down and sunk by HMS Franchise off Lizard Point, Cornwall with the loss of a majority of the 300 on board.^[3]
• 13 March - Battle of Lissa: British fleet defeats the French.
• 25–27 March - Battle of Anholt: British naval forces defeat those of Denmark.
• 4 April - Huddersfield Narrow Canal completed by opening of Standedge Tunnel under the Pennines, the longest (5,413 yards (4,950 m)), deepest and highest canal tunnel in Britain.^[4]
• 27 May - The second national Census reveals that the population of England and Wales has increased in ten years by over a million to 10.1 million.^[5]
• 18 June - The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists leave the established Church of England by ordaining their own ministers in Bala, North Wales.
• 8 September - The first known landing on Rockall is made by a party from HMS Endymion.^[6][7]
• 16 October - National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church in England and Wales established by the Church of England to promote a system of National Schools.
• November - Luddite uprisings begin in northern England and Midlands.^[8]
• 4 December - Royal Navy frigate HMS Saldanha (1809) is driven in a gale onto rocks in Lough Swilly in Ireland with no survivors from the estimated 253 aboard.^[9]
• 7–19 December - Ratcliff Highway murders in London.

Ongoing

• Napoleonic Wars, 1803–1815
• Anglo-Russian War, 1807–1812
• Anglo-Swedish War 1810–1812
• Peninsular War, 1808–1814

Undated

• Highland Clearances: The Marquess and Marchioness of Stafford begin mass expulsion of crofting tenants from their Highland estates to make way for sheep farming.^[10][11]
• Building of Regent Street begins John Nash's development of the West End of London.^[12]
• The first complete ichthyosaur fossil is found by Mary Anning at Lyme Regis.

Publications

• Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility ('by a lady').
• Francis Place's Illustrations and Proofs of the Principles of Population, including an examination of the proposed remedies of Mr. Malthus, and a reply to the objections of Mr. Godwin and others, the first significant text in English to advocate contraception.^[13]

Births

• 9 January - Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, writer (died 1856)
• 6 February - Henry Liddell, academic and cleric (died 1898)
• 24 February - Edward Dickinson Baker, United States Senator from Oregon from 1860 (died 1861 in the United States)
• 7 June - James Simpson, Scottish obstetrician and pioneer of anaesthesia (died 1870)
• 13 June - Owen Stanley, Royal Navy officer (died 1850)
• 13 July
  • George Gilbert Scott, architect (died 1878)
  • James "paraffin" Young, Scottish chemist (died 1883)
• 18 July - William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist (died 1863)
• 21 December - Archibald Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1882)

Deaths

• 9 February - Nevil Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal (born 1732)
• 14 March - Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1735)
• 7 May - Richard Cumberland, dramatist (born 1732)
• 28 May - Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, minister (born 1742)
• 27 November - Andrew Meikle, engineer (born 1719)

References

1. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
2. "George IV (1762 - 1830)". BBC History. Retrieved 2011-09-02.
3. French, Brian (2013). "Dangerous Waters". Maritime South West. 26: 93–123.
4. "Standedge Tunnel: a true wonder of the waterways". British Waterways. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
5. "1811". 2011 Census. 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-13.
6. Hall, Basil (1831). Fragments of Voyages and Travels. London.
7. Fisher, James (1957). Rockall. Country Book Club. pp. 23–35.
8. "Icons, a portrait of England 1800-1820". Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
9. Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
10. "George Granville Leveson-Gower (1st Duke of Sutherland)". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
11. Noble, Ross (15 October 2010). "The Cultural Impact of the Highland Clearances". British History in-depth. BBC. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
12. Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 244–245. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
13. "Francis Place". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 2011-10-12.