1745 in Great Britain

Incumbents

• Monarch – George II
• Prime Minister – Henry Pelham

Events

• 30 April–11 May – War of the Austrian Succession: British forces defeated at the Battle of Fontenoy.
• 16 June – King George's War: British capture Cape Breton Island in North America from the French.
• 26 June – the earliest known women's cricket match, at Gosden Common in Surrey.
• 9 July – Jacobite rising: The Du Teillay, carrying the Young Pretender Charles Edward Stuart from France to Scotland, and her escort L'Elisabeth engage with HMS Lion in the English Channel.
• 23 July – Jacobite rising: Charles Stuart lands on Eriskay in the Hebrides in Scotland.
• 15–26 August – War of the Austrian Succession: By the Convention of Hanover, King George II makes peace overtures to Prussia and ends support for Austria.
• 16 August – Jacobite rising: A Jacobite victory at Highbridge Skirmish.
• 19 August – Jacobite rising: Charles Stuart raises his standard at Glenfinnan.
• 11 September – Jacobite rising: Jacobites enter Edinburgh.
• 16 September – Jacobite rising: "Canter of Coltbrigg": The 13th and 14th Dragoons flee Jacobites near Edinburgh.
• 17 September – Jacobite rising: in Edinburgh, Charles Stuart proclaims his father James Francis Edward Stuart as James VIII of Scotland.
• 21 September – Jacobite rising: Government forces are defeated at the Battle of Prestonpans.
• 28 September – the song later to become the British national anthem "God Save the King" is first performed at the Drury Lane Theatre in London in a setting by Thomas Arne.
• 13–15 November – Jacobite rising: Jacobites [Siege of Carlisle, Cumbria|Carlisle (November 1745)|besiege and capture] Carlisle.
• December – Jacobite rising: Jacobite garrison in Carlisle surrenders to Hanoverian forces under Prince William, Duke of Cumberland.
• 4 December – Jacobite rising: Jacobite forces reach Derby causing panic in London.
• 6 December – Jacobite rising: Jacobite forces decide to retreat to Scotland.
• 18 December – Jacobite rising: A Jacobite victory at the Clifton Moor Skirmish, the last action between two military forces on English soil.
• 23 December – Jacobite rising: A Jacobite victory at the Battle of Inverurie.

Undated

• West towers of Westminster Abbey completed.
• The term "middle class" is first used.

Publications

• Henry Fielding edits the pro-government publication The True Patriot.

Births

• 23 January – William Jessop, civil engineer
• February – Samuel Hearne, explorer, fur-trader, author and naturalist
• 2 February
• * Hannah More, religious writer, Romantic poet and philanthropist
• * John Nichols, printer and antiquary
• 14 February – Lady Sarah Lennox, courtier
• 20 February – Henry James Pye, poet laureate
• 4 March – Charles Dibdin, composer
• 12 May – William Creech, Scottish bookseller and Lord Provost of Edinburgh
• 13 July – Robert Calder, admiral
• 20 July – Henry Holland, architect
• 20 or 21 August – Francis Asbury, bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church
• 17 October – William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell, judge and jurist
• 7 November – Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn, member of the royal family
• 10 December – Thomas Holcroft, writer

Deaths

• 26 February – Henry Scudamore, 3rd Duke of Beaufort
• 18 March – Robert Walpole, first Prime Minister of Great Britain
• 28 May – Jonathan Richardson, portrait painter, writer on art and collector
• 30 September – Sir John Baird, 2nd Baronet, Scottish politician
• 19 October – Jonathan Swift, Irish satirist
• 16 November – James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, exiled Irish-born statesman and soldier
• John Freame, banker