1724 in Great Britain
The following events occurred in Great Britain in the year 1724.
Incumbents
Events
- 20 February – Giulio Cesare in Egitto, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, is premiered in London.
- 6 April – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne becomes Secretary of State for the Southern Department; Henry Pelham becomes Secretary at War.
- August – Longman, the oldest surviving publishing house in England, is founded in London by Thomas Longman.
- 31 October – Handel's opera Tamerlano is premiered in London
- 16 November – Thief Jack Sheppard is hanged in London.
- Undated – Blenheim Palace construction is completed. It has been built as a gift from the nation to the Duke of Marlborough for his involvement in the Battle of Blenheim in 1704.
Publications
- Daniel Defoe's A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain begins publication.
- Jonathan Swift's Drapier's Letters begin publication.
- Isaac Watts' textbook Logic.
Births
- 24 January – Frances Brooke, writer
- 28 February – George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, field marshal
- 19 May – Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, admiral and politician
- 3 June – John Gregory, physician, medical writer and moralist
- 8 June – John Smeaton, civil engineer
- 25 August – George Stubbs, painter
- 3 September – Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, soldier and Governor of Quebec
- 31 October – Christopher Anstey, writer
- 12 December – Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, admiral
- 25 December – John Michell, scientist and geologist
Deaths
- 1 January – Charles Gildon, critic and dramatist
- 12 February – Elkanah Settle, writer
- 21 May – Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, statesman
- 15 June – Henry Sacheverell, churchman and politician
- 29 October – William Wollaston, philosophical writer
- 11 November – Joseph Blake, highwayman
- 16 November – Jack Sheppard, criminal
- 29 November – Laurence Braddon, writer and politician
- 27 December – Thomas Guy, philanthropist