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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Summer 1779: A combined French and Spanish fleet, massed...

National or international item

Summer 1779

A combined French and Spanish fleet, massed in the English Channel for invasion of southern England, retired in disarray after smallpox broke out on one of the ships and spread rapidly.
Williams, Gareth. Angel of Death. The Story of Smallpox. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
50

Hannah Cowley: 31 July 1779

Women writers item
Author event in Hannah Cowley

31 July 1779

HC 's second full-length play, the tragedy Albina, Countess Raimond, opened at the summer Haymarket Theatre (managed by George Colman ), which did not usually perform tragedy.
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
5: 268
Link, Frederick M., and Hannah Cowley. “Introduction”. The Plays of Hannah Cowley, Vol.
1
, Garland, 1979, p. v - xlxx.
xvi
Escott, Angela, and Isobel Grundy. Email about supposed quarrel between Hannah Cowley and Hannah More to Isobel Grundy. 24 Oct. 2002.

August 1779-1783: Gibraltar sustained its longest blockade...

National or international item

August 1779-1783

Gibraltar sustained its longest blockade during its years as a British possession; writers like Mary Darwall and Catharine Upton chronicled this siege's acts of heroism, while Susanna Blamire gave voice to an ordinary soldier.
Messenger, Ann. Woman and Poet in the Eighteenth Century: The Life of Mary Whateley Darwall (1738-1825). AMS Press, 1999.
143-4

Hannah Cowley: 7 August 1779

Women writers item
Author event in Hannah Cowley

7 August 1779

The St James's Chronicle printed HC 's letter defending herself from the charge of plagiarism, and claiming that her Albina had been pillaged, before its staging, in both Percy and Fatal Falsehood by Hannah More

Hannah More: 13 August 1779

Women writers item
Author event in Hannah More

13 August 1779

HM replied to the letter in the St James's Chronicle in which Hannah Cowley accused her of plagiarising, in both Percy and Fatal Falsehood, from Cowley's then still unperformed Albina, Countess Raimond.
Mahotière, Mary de la. Hannah Cowley, Tiverton’s Playwright and Pioneer Feminist (1743-1809). Devon Books, 1997.
27-8

Hester Lynch Piozzi: By late August 1779

Women writers item
Author event in Hester Lynch Piozzi

By late August 1779

Hester Thrale suffered an agonising miscarriage, requiring serious convalescence; the child would have been the longed-for boy.
Ribeiro, Alvaro. “The Chit-Chat way: The Letters of Mrs Thrale and Dr Burney”. Tradition in Transition: Women Writers, Marginal Texts, and the Eighteenth-Century Canon, edited by Alvaro Ribeiro et al., Clarendon Press, 1996, pp. 25-40.
33

Catharine Macaulay: September 1779

Women writers item
Author event in Catharine Macaulay

September 1779

CM 's Bath printer, Cruttwell , was said (by John Wilkes ) to be printing her personal letters to Thomas Wilson and William Graham ; Wilkes and Wilson meant these to ruin her reputation.
Hill, Bridget. The Republican Virago: The Life and Times of Catharine Macaulay, Historian. Clarendon Press, 1992.
112

By September 1779: John Birch published Considerations on the...

Building item

By September 1779

John Birch published Considerations on the Efficacy of Electricity, in removing Female Obstructions. To which are annexed, Cases with Remarks.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
48 (1779): 237

By September 1779: The supposed nature of women, and the mere...

Building item

By September 1779

The supposed nature of women, and the mere idea of having them in parliament , were mocked in a pamphlet: The House of Peeresses: or, Female Oratory.
Clark, Anna. “The Chevalier d’Eon and Wilkes: Masculinity and Politics in the Eighteenth Century”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
32
, No. 1, 1998, pp. 19-48.
48n158
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
48 (1779): 234

21 September 1779: The Spanish Governor of Louisiana attacked...

National or international item

21 September 1779

The Spanish Governor of Louisiana attacked and captured a British garrison at Baton Rouge; British posts along the Mississippi River then surrendered.
Coakley, Robert, and Stetson Conn. The War of the American Revolution. Center of Military History, 1975.
118-9

Elizabeth Inchbald: October 1779

Women writers item
Author event in Elizabeth Inchbald

October 1779

The recently widowed EI submitted her novel A Simple Story (in its earliest completed form) to the publisher Stockdale through Dr Brodie , her physician; it was rejected.
Her use of Brodie suggests that at...

By October 1779: William Alexander argued strongly in his...

Building item

By October 1779

William Alexander argued strongly in his History of Women that an index to the place of any culture in the scale of civil society is its treatment of its women.
Alexander, William, 1742 - 1788, and Jane Rendall. History of Women, from the Earliest Antiquity to the Present Time. Thoemmes Press, 1995, 2 vols., http://U of A Ruth N .
1: 151
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
48 (1779): 255-61
O’Brien, Karen. Women and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
104-6

Phillis Wheatley: 30 October 1779

Writing climate item
Author event in Phillis Wheatley

30 October 1779

Phillis Peters (formerly PW ) issued proposals for a second volume of poems, but was unable to generate sufficient interest.
Wheatley, Phillis, and Henry Louis, Jr Gates. The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley. Editor Shields, John C., Oxford University Press, 1988.
190-2

30 October 1779: The Critic; or, A Tragedy Rehears'd by Richard...

Writing climate item

30 October 1779

The Critic; or, A Tragedy Rehears'd by Richard Brinsley Sheridan opened at Drury Lane Theatre .
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
5: 292

11 November 1779: One of Arkwright's new, highly-mechanized...

Building item

11 November 1779

One of Arkwright 's new, highly-mechanized mills for cotton production, at Chorley, Lancashire, was sacked by rioters.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
49 (1779): 609

Jane Cave: 13 November 1779

Women writers item
Author event in Jane Cave

13 November 1779

JC left Bath, where she may perhaps have moved after her mother's death, for Winchester.
Cave, Jane. Poems on Various Subjects. J. Sadler, 1783.
53

Eliza Fay: 14 November 1779-April 1780

Women writers item
Author event in Eliza Fay

14 November 1779-April 1780

EF transcribed the travel journal into which her letters had grown.
Fay, Eliza, and E. M. Forster. Original Letters from India. Hogarth Press, 1925.
132-69

Elizabeth, Margravine of Anspach: Late 1779

Women writers item

Late 1779

Lady Craven published for the Author her Modern Anecdote of the Family of Kinkvervankotsdarsprakengotschderns, A Tale for Christmas 1779, a little book no bigger than a silver penny,
Walpole, Horace. The Letters of Horace Walpole. Editor Toynbee, Mrs Paget, Clarendon, 1903–1925, 16 vols.
11: 108
dedicating it to Horace Walpole .
Anspach, Elizabeth, Margravine of. Modern Anecdote of the Ancient Family of the Kinkvervankotsdarsprakengotchderns. 1779.
title-page, prelims

December 1779: By the Act for Further Relief of Protestant...

Building item

December 1779

By the Act for Further Relief of Protestant Dissenting Ministers, the Countess of Huntingdon 's chapels were registered as Dissenting meeting houses.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
49 (1779): 630

December 1779: The Critical Review condemned an anonymous,...

Building item

December 1779

The Critical Review condemned an anonymous, harshly misogynist work entitled Female Government! Or Letters from a Gentleman to his Friend on the Education of the Fair Sex.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
48 (1779): 479

Elizabeth Griffith: 2 December 1779

Women writers item
Author event in Elizabeth Griffith

2 December 1779

EG 's last comedy, The Times (a sentimental piece adapted from Goldoni ), opened at Drury Lane .
Griffith, Elizabeth. “Introduction”. The Delicate Distress, edited by Cynthia Booth Ricciardi and Susan Staves, University Press of Kentucky, 1997, p. vii - xviii.
xxxii

Mary Robinson: 3 December 1779

Women writers item
Author event in Mary Robinson

3 December 1779

MR caught the eye of the young Prince of Wales as she acted Perdita in a royal command performance of Shakespeare 's The Winter's Tale; she was twenty-two (or twenty-three) to his seventeen.
Robinson, Mary. “Introduction”. Perdita: The Memoirs of Mary Robinson, edited by Moses Joseph Levy, Peter Owen, 1994.
xii
Robinson, Mary. Perdita: The Memoirs of Mary Robinson. Editor Levy, Moses Joseph, Peter Owen, 1994.
101
Nathan, Alix. “Mistaken or Misled? Mary Robinson’s Birth Date”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
9
, No. 1, 2002, pp. 139-42.
139

Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson: 14 December 1779

Women writers item
Author event in Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson

14 December 1779

SSW was born, according to her own account; she seems to have been baptised Sarah Carr Wilkinson.
Potter, Franz. “Writing for the Spectre of Poverty”. Cardiff Corvey: Reading the Romantic Text, No. 11, 11 Dec. 2003.

17 December 1779: It was disapprovingly noted what immense...

National or international item

17 December 1779

It was disapprovingly noted what immense sums of public money Marie-Antoinette was paying to her personal friend the comtesse de Polignac .
Roulston, Christine. “Separating the Inseparables: Female Friendship and its Discontents in Eighteenth-Century France”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
32
, No. 2, 1998–1989, pp. 215-31.
225 and n45

30 December 1779: Christopher Wyvill, a conservative supporter...

National or international item

30 December 1779

Christopher Wyvill , a conservative supporter of parliamentary reform fuelled by a sense of the interests of the propertied gentry, held a meeting of about six hundred men at York assembly rooms, which resolved to...