Events Timeline

Orlando includes short event entries, freestanding and embedded in author profiles, about moments and processes relevant to literary history and organized into four categories: Women writers, Writing Climate, Political Climate, and Social Climate. Explore the timelines by searching for date(s) and/or words or phrases associated with them.

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1759-67: The British Magazine; or, Monthly Repository...

Writing climate item

1759-67

The British Magazine; or, Monthly Repository for Gentlemen and Ladies was published in London, edited by Tobias Smollett .
Italia, Iona. Philosophers, Knights-Errant, Coquettes and Old Maids. Cambridge University, 1997.
142n64

15 January 1759: The first reading room of the British Museum...

National or international item

15 January 1759

The first reading room of the British Museum was opened.
Caygill, Marjorie. The Story of the British Museum. British Museum Publications, 1981.
4, 6
Wilson, David M. The British Museum: Purpose and Politics. British Museum Publications, 1989.
13-14
Barwick, George. The Reading Room of the British Museum. Ernest Benn, 1929.
34

Early 1759: Voltaire published his most famous single...

Writing climate item

Early 1759

Voltaire published his most famous single work, the philosophical tale Candide; ou, L'Optimisme, simultaneously in several different countries; three English translations appeared that same year.
Wade, Ira O. “The First Edition of Candide: A Problem of Identification”. Princeton University Library Chronicle, Vol.
20
, 1959, pp. 63-88.
Wade

15 January 1759: The British Museum (including what had formerly...

Building item

15 January 1759

The British Museum (including what had formerly been known as the King's Library ), established six years earlier, was first opened to the public.
Gray, Thomas, and Herbert Willmarth Starr. Correspondence. Editors Toynbee, Paget and Leonard Whibley, Clarendon Press, 1971, 3 vols.
2: 620 and n14

Robert Burns: 25 January 1759

Writing climate item
Author event in Robert Burns

25 January 1759

RB , Scottish farmer and poet, was born at Alloway in Ayrshire, in a two-room cottage built of clay. He was the eldest of seven children.
Burns, Robert. “Introduction and Chronology”. Complete Works, edited by James A. Mackay, Official Bicentenary Edition, Alloway Publishing, 1986, pp. 9-34.
27
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1 February 1759: William Robertson published at London his...

Building item

1 February 1759

William Robertson published at London his History of Scotland (which became a source for The Recess by Sophia Lee ).
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Jane Johnson : 9 February 1759

Women writers item
Author event in Jane Johnson

9 February 1759

JJ died in her early fifties, after less than a week's illness, of an inflamation in her Bowels.
qtd. in
Arizpe, Evelyn et al. Reading Lessons from the Eighteenth Century: Mothers, Children and Texts. Pied Piper Publishing, 2006.
43
She had made her will in 1758.
A Piece of the Puzzle: The Journey of a Village through History. Witham-on-the-Hill Historical Society, 2000.
79
Arizpe, Evelyn et al. Reading Lessons from the Eighteenth Century: Mothers, Children and Texts. Pied Piper Publishing, 2006.
43
“Catalogue of the papers of Jane Johnson of Olney, Buckinghamshire (1706-59) and of her family, 17th-19th cent”. Bodleian Library. Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts, 2003.

Susannah Dobson: 15 February 1759

Women writers item
Author event in Susannah Dobson

15 February 1759

Susannah Dawson married Matthew Dobson , physician, research scientist, and medical writer, who came originally from Lancashire and had studied at both Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Matthew Dobson

Mary Masters: March 1759

Women writers item
Author event in Mary Masters

March 1759

MM published, as Maria, Verses by a Lady, her last known contribution to the Gentleman's Magazine.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
29 (1759): 131

Sarah Fielding: 28 March 1759

Women writers item
Author event in Sarah Fielding

28 March 1759

SF 's The History of the Countess of Dellwyn was published in an edition of a thousand copies by Andrew Millar , and printed by Samuel Richardson .
Sabor, Peter, and Sarah Fielding. “Introduction”. The Adventures of David Simple and Volume the Last, University Press of Kentucky, 1998, p. vii - xli.
xl

April 1759: London publishers launched an expensive campaign...

Writing climate item

April 1759

London publishers launched an expensive campaign to curb pirated reprints from Dublin, Edinburgh, and English provincial centres.
Nichol, Donald W. “Warburton (Not!) on copyright: Clearing up the Misattribution of An Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Literary Property”. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
19
, No. 2, 1996, pp. 171-82.
173

April 1759: Halley's comet appeared over England, confirming...

Building item

April 1759

Halley's comet appeared over England, confirming the prediction of Edmond Halley in 1682.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
29 (1759): 154-9
The old DNB (under Halley) was mistaken in saying the comet appeared on Christmas Day 1758.

Samuel Johnson: 20 April 1759

Writing climate item
Author event in Samuel Johnson

20 April 1759

SJ published his moral tale, Prince of Abissinia, better known as Rasselas.
Johnson, Samuel. The Letters of Samuel Johnson. Editor Redford, Bruce, The Hyde Edition, Princeton University Press, 1992–1994, 5 vols.
1: 178n2

Shortly before 20 April 1759: George Frederick Handel died after spending...

Building item

Shortly before 20 April 1759

George Frederick Handel died after spending the best years of his career in England, specialising first in Italian opera, then in oratorio.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
29 (1759): 191, 194

Mary Wollstonecraft: 27 April 1759

Women writers item
Author event in Mary Wollstonecraft

27 April 1759

MW was born in Primrose Street, Spitalfields, centre of the London weaving trade.
Tomalin, Claire. The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft. Revised, Penguin, 1992.
13

Sarah Scott: 30 April 1759

Building item
Author event in Sarah Scott

30 April 1759

SS and Lady Barbara Montagu published through Samuel Richardson a set of educational cards for teaching history and geography.
Rizzo, Betty, and Sarah Scott. “Introduction”. The History of Sir George Ellison, University Press of Kentucky, 1996, p. ix - xlv.
xxii-xxiii, xliv

Mary Hays: 4 May 1759

Women writers item
Author event in Mary Hays

4 May 1759

MH was born in Southwark, London, into a family that in the end numbered at least six children.
Hays, Mary. “Chronology and Introduction”. The Correspondence (1779-1843) of Mary Hays, British Novelist, edited by Marilyn Brooks, Edwin Mellen, 2004, pp. xv - xx; 1.
xv
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Isabella Kelly: Shortly before 4 May 1759

Women writers item
Author event in Isabella Kelly

Shortly before 4 May 1759

Isabella Fordyce (later IK ) was born in (she said) the ruined castle of Cairnburgh in the Hebrides.
She suggested to the Royal Literary Fund that she was born in 1758, then in 1848...

12 May 1759: Edward Young published Conjectures on Original...

Writing climate item

12 May 1759

Edward Young published Conjectures on Original Composition. In a letter to the author of Sir Charles Grandison; a second volume followed the next month.
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.

Grisell Murray: June 1759

Women writers item
Author event in Grisell Murray

June 1759

GM died at sixty-seven. Her friend Lady Hervey reported that she had every sense and faculty as perfect as at twenty-seven (indignantly rejecting the would-be consoling idea that her friend had lived long enough).
Murray, Grisell. Memoirs of the Lives and Characters of the Right Honourable George Baillie of Jerviswood and of Lady Grisell Baillie. 1822.
164, 167

Helen Maria Williams: Probably 17 June 1759

Women writers item
Author event in Helen Maria Williams

Probably 17 June 1759

HMW was born in London, the elder of two sisters (she also had an elder half-sister). She was baptised on 5 July at St James's, Piccadilly.
Her French naturalization papers give her date of...

Mary Whateley Darwall: 21 June 1759

Women writers item
Author event in Mary Whateley Darwall

21 June 1759

Mary Whateley (later Darwall) dated her earliest poem to be published: To my Garden.
Messenger, Ann. Woman and Poet in the Eighteenth Century: The Life of Mary Whateley Darwall (1738-1825). AMS Press, 1999.
19-22

Mary Latter: By August 1759

Women writers item
Author event in Mary Latter

By August 1759

ML took the bold step for an unknown of issuing at Reading, with her name: The Miscellaneous Works, in Prose and Verse, of Mrs. Mary Latter, of Reading, Berks..
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
8 (1759): 171
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.

August 1759: Russia's victory over Frederick the Great...

National or international item

August 1759

Russia's victory over Frederick the Great at Kunersdorff gave it a new status in European politics.
Levitt, Marcus C. “An Antidote to Nervous Juice: Catherine the Great’s Debate with Chappe d’Auteroche over Russian Culture”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
32
, No. 1, 1998, pp. 49-63.
51

1 August 1759: British troops fought their only pitched...

National or international item

1 August 1759

British troops fought their only pitched battle in Europe during the Seven Years' War: at Minden, near Hanover.
Furneaux, Rupert. The Seven Years War. Hart-Davis MacGibbon, 1973.
159-65