1721 in Great Britain
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.svg){kind=small} 1721 in Great Britain: |
| Other years |
| 1719 | 1720 | 1721 | 1722 | 1723 |
| Sport |
| 1721 English cricket season |
Events from the year 1721 in Great Britain.
Incumbents
- Monarch - George I
- Prime Minister - Robert Walpole (Whig) (starting 4 April)
Events
- 9 March - John Aislabie imprisoned in the Tower of London, found guilty of corruption for his part in the collapse of the South Sea Company as Chancellor of the Exchequer.[1]
- 4 April - Robert Walpole becomes the first Prime Minister (although this is more a term of disparagement at this time).[2]
Undated
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduces smallpox inoculation to Britain: the Princess of Wales is persuaded to test the treatment and the procedure becomes fashionable.[1]
- Thomas Guy founds Guy's Hospital in London.[3]
Publications
- Nathan Bailey publishes An Universal Etymological English Dictionary.[1]
- Thomas Parnell's A Night-Piece on Death is published, inaugurating the "Graveyard poets" movement.
Births
- 2 January - John Manners, Marquess of Granby (died 1770)
- 19 March - Tobias Smollett, physician and author (died 1771)
- 15 April - Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, military leader (died 1765)
- 14 July - John Douglas, Anglican bishop and man of letters (died 1807)
- 4 August - Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, politician (died 1803)
- 31 August - George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol, statesman (died 1775)
- 9 November - Mark Akenside, poet and physician (died 1770)
- 6 December - James Elphinston, philologist (died 1809)
Deaths
- 5 February - James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, statesman and soldier (born c. 1673)
- 16 February - James Craggs the Younger, politician (born 1686)
- 24 February - John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, statesman and poet (born 1648)
- 16 March - James Craggs the Elder, politician (born 1657)
- 8 July - Elihu Yale, educationist (born 1649, Massachusetts)
- 3 August - Grinling Gibbons, sculptor (born 1648, Rotterdam)
- 18 September - Matthew Prior, poet and diplomat (born 1664)
- 11 October - Edward Colston, merchant and philanthropist (born 1636)
- 13 December - Alexander Selkirk, sailor (born 1676)
- 17 December - Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough, statesman (born 1650)
