Many of the immigrants were too poor to pay for the journey and therefore indentured themselves to wealthier colonialists - selling their services for a period of years in return for the price of the passage. Crammed into a small wooden ship, rolling and rocking at the mercy of the sea, the voyagers - men, women and children - endured hardships unimaginable to us today.
Misery was the most common description of a journey that typically lasted seven weeks. He arrived at the port of Philadelphia on October Go to Trollope, Anthony —82 in World Encyclopedia 1 ed. Victoria and Albert complete their fairy-tale castle at Balmoral, adding greatly to the nation's romantic view of Scotland.
English chemist William Henry Perkin accidentally creates the first synthetic die, aniline purple now known as mauve. David Livingstone urges upon a Cambridge audience the high ideal of taking 'commerce and Christianity' into Africa.
Go to Hughes, Thomas —96 in World Encyclopedia 1 ed. Acts of exceptional valour in the Crimean War are rewarded with a new medal, the Victoria Cross, made from the metal of captured Russian guns.
Palmerston's government collapses and Lord Derby heads another Conservative minority administration. Burton and Speke reach Lake Tanganyika at Ujiji, a place later famous for the meeting between Livingstone and Stanley. Brunel dies just before the maiden voyage of his gigantic final project, the luxury liner The Great Eastern. Charles Darwin is alarmed to receive in his morning post a paper by Alfred Russell Wallace, outlining very much his own theory of evolution.
The stench in central London, rising from the polluted Thames in a hot summer, creates what becomes known as the Great Stink. US entrepreneur Cyrus W. Field succeeds in laying a telegraph cable across the Atlantic, but it fails after only a month. Go to Atlantic Cable. Go to Fenian movement in World Encyclopedia 1 ed.
Speke reaches Lake Victoria and guesses that it is probably the source of the Nile. Joseph Bazalgette is given the task of providing London with a desperately needed new system of sewers. Charles Darwin puts forward the theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species , the result of 20 years' research.
Liberal leader Lord Palmerston returns to office as the British prime minister after the collapse of Derby's coalition government. A ton bell is installed above London's Houses of Parliament, soon giving its name Big Ben to both the clock and the clock-tower. In On Liberty John Stuart Mill makes the classic liberal case for the priority of the freedom of the individual. Samuel Smiles provides an inspiring ideal of Victorian enterprise in Self-Help , a manual for ambitious young men.
Tennyson publishes the first part of Idylls of the King , a series of linked poems about Britain's mythical king Arthur. English author George Eliot wins fame with her first full-length novel, Adam Bede. Florence Nightingale opens a training school for nurses in St Thomas's Hospital, establishing nursing as a profession.
Charles Dickens begins serial publication of his novel "Great Expectations" in book form English chemist and physicist William Crookes isolates a new element, thallium. An official National Eisteddfod is held for the first time in Wales, in Aberdare. Prince Albert dies of typhoid, plunging Victoria into forty years of widowhood and deep mourning.
Mrs Henry Wood publishes her first novel, East Lynne , which becomes the basis of the most popular of all Victorian melodramas. Oxford mathematician Lewis Carroll tells year-old Alice Liddell, on a boat trip, a story about her own adventures in Wonderland. The Metropolitan Railway, the world's first to go underground, opens in London using steam trains between Paddington and Farringdon Street. The Marylebone Cricket Club, arbiter of cricket, finally rules that overarm bowling is legitimate.
The First International is established in London, with Karl Marx soon emerging as the association's leader. Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell presents to the Royal Society his discoveries in the field of electromagnetics, now known collectively as Maxwell's Equations.
English surgeon Joseph Lister introduces the era of antiseptic surgery, with the use of carbolic acid in the operating theatre. Lewis Carroll publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , a development of the story he had told Alice Liddell three years earlier.
A committee to campaign for women's suffrage is formed in Manchester, the first of many in Britain. Go to women's suffrage in A Dictionary of World History 2 ed. Palmerston dies in office, and is succeeded as leader of the Liberal government in Britain by his foreign secretary, Earl Russell. A pressure group for penal reform in Britain is named after the great prison reformer John Howard. Go to Howard, John c. Russell's government falls, and Lord Derby returns for the third time, but again briefly, as Britain's prime minister.
Britain's new Reform Act extends the franchise to working men in British towns. The world's first croquet tournament takes place in Evesham and is won by Walter Jones-Whitmore.
Go to croquet in A Dictionary of British History 1 rev ed. The Queensberry rules, named after the Marquess of Queensberry, introduce padded gloves in boxing, and rounds of three minutes. Benjamin Disraeli becomes British prime minister for the first time, at the head of a Conservative government, but only for a few months.
Executions take place in public for the last time in London, being moved from outside Newgate Gaol to inside the prison. Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone becomes British prime minister, for the first of four times, and remains in office for six years.
English author Matthew Arnold publishes Culture and Anarchy , an influential collection of essays about contemporary society. British prime minister William Gladstone introduces a bill to disestablish the Anglican church in Ireland. The most famous of the three-masted tea-clippers, the Cutty Sark is launched at Dumbarton for service to and from China.
Go to Monet, Claude 14 Nov. The all-round English cricketer W. Grace begins a year career as captain of Gloucestershire. Go to Grace, W. Whistler paints his mother and calls the picture Arrangement in Grey and Black. English actor Henry Irving plays what becomes one of his most famous parts, that of Mathias in the melodrama The Bells. Stanley, finding Livingstone at Ujiji, greets him with four words which become famous — 'Dr Livingstone, I presume'. George Eliot publishes Middlemarch , in which Dorothea makes a disastrous marriage to the pedantic Edward Casaubon.
Whistler begins to paint his Nocturnes , a revolutionary series of night-time images on the river Thames. The Ballot Act adds to the British electoral system the essential element of secrecy in voting.
Go to secret ballot in A Dictionary of British History 1 rev ed. Conservative leader Benjamin Disraeli, at the age of 70, begins a 6-year term of office as Britain's prime minister. Major Walter Wingfield secures a patent for Sphairistike, a game he has developed at his home in Wales, from which lawn tennis evolves. Go to lawn tennis in A Dictionary of British History 1 rev ed. William Crookes invents the radiometer, in which light causes four vanes to rotate in a bulb containing gas at low pressure.
After spending much time in Europe in recent years, Henry James moves there permanently and settles first in Paris. An agreement is signed between France and Britain to cooperate in the construction of a tunnel beneath the Channel. Henry James's early novel Roderick Hudson is serialized in the Atlantic Monthly and is published in book form in The chaotic government finances of Egypt are placed under joint French and British control. William Gladstone's pamphlet Bulgarian Horrors , protesting at massacre by the Turks, sells , copies within a month.
Henry James moves to London, which remains his home for the next 22 years. Go to James, Henry — in World Encyclopedia 1 ed. India becomes the 'jewel in the crown' of Queen Victoria when Benjamin Disraeli secures for her the title Empress of India. English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins develops a new verse form that he calls 'sprung rhythm'. English cricketer W. Lewis Carroll publishes The Hunting of the Snark , a poem about a voyage in search of an elusive mythical creature.
The first Test match is played in Melbourne between English and Australian cricket teams, with victory going to Australia. Go to cricket in World Encyclopedia 1 ed. On a wave of jingoism Benjamin Disraeli sends six British ironclads, in support of Turkey, to confront the Russians near Istanbul. Go to jingoism in A Dictionary of World History 2 ed. William Crookes develops a special tube, now known as the Crookes tube, for the study of cathode rays. English-born US photographer Eadweard Muybridge publishes closely linked photographs revealing how a horse goes through its paces.
Go to Muybridge, Eadweard 9 Apr. Stanley agrees to work for Leopold II in opening up the Congo river to commerce.
English physicist Joseph Swan demonstrates a practical electric light bulb, using an incandescent carbon filament in a vacuum. The ancient Irish game of hurling is formalized by the newly founded Irish Hurling Union. English physicist Joseph Swan receives a patent for bromide paper, which becomes the standard material for printing photographs.
An entire train, full of passengers, falls into the river Tay in Scotland when a bridge collapses in a winter gale. Henry James's story Daisy Miller , about an American girl abroad, brings him a new readership.
For the second time Gladstone replaces Disraeli as Britain's prime minister, following a Liberal election victory over the Conservatives. The Tynwald in the Isle of Man becomes the first parliament to give women the vote. London's new Savoy Theatre is the first public building in the world to be lit throughout by electricity. The Aesthetic Movement and 'art for art's sake', attitudes personified above all by Whistler and Wilde, are widely mocked and satirized in Britain.
Eadweard Muybridge projects slow-motion images of a trotting horse as a demonstration at London's Royal Institution. When Australia win the second Test match, in London, the Sporting Times declares that they will take home with them 'the ashes of English cricket'.
English polymath Francis Galton publishes Inquiries in Human Faculty , developing the theme of eugenics and coining the term. Go to eugenics in World Encyclopedia 1 ed. English socialists, including Bernard Shaw and Sidney Webb, found the Fabian Society as part of a long-term political strategy.
A new Reform Act in Britain further reduces the financial threshold for voters in Britain, in effect extending the franchise to male workers in rural areas. The Gaelic Athletic Association is founded in Ireland to promote indigenous games such as hurling. Explorer and orientalist Richard Burton begins publication of his multi-volume translation from the Arabic of The Arabian Nights. Gladstone resigns as British prime minister, after a defeat on the budget, and is followed by a minority government headed by Conservative leader Lord Salisbury.
The American portrait-painter John Singer Sargent makes London his home and begins an immensely successful career. Gladstone becomes Britain's prime minister again, after joining forces with the Irish Nationalists to defeat Lord Salisbury's government. The split in the Liberal party over Home Rule results in a defeat for Gladstone and the return of Lord Salisbury as Britain's prime minister. The Crofters' Holdings Act provides security of tenure and other safeguards for Highland crofters in Scotland.
Thomas Hardy publishes his novel The Mayor of Casterbridge , which begins with the future mayor, Michael Henchard selling his wife and child at a fair.
Joseph Conrad becomes naturalized as a British subject and continues his career at sea in the far East. Queen Victoria's golden jubilee brings her back into the public's affection. A gathering of leaders from the British empire holds a colonial conference in London to coincide with Queen Victoria's jubilee.
Eadweard Muybridge publishes Animal Locomotion , a folio volume containing pages of photographs. An undetected murderer, slitting the throats of seven London prostitutes, becomes known by the public as Jack the Ripper.
English musicologist George Grove completes publication of his four-volume Dictionary of Music and Musicians. A vast cantilever bridge, spanning a mile of water, carries the railway across the Firth of Forth in Scotland. The world's first electric underground railway passes under the Thames, linking the City of London and Stockwell. Scottish anthropologist James Frazer publishes The Golden Bough , a massive compilation of contemporary knowledge about ritual and religious custom. Britain cedes the tiny island of Heligoland to Germany in return for vast areas of Africa.
A Gaelic pressure group, the Highland Association, is founded to preserve the indigenous poetry and music of Scotland. Oscar Wilde publishes his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray in which the ever-youthful hero's portrait grows old and ugly.
Thomas Hardy publishes his novel Tess of the Durbervilles , with a dramatic finale at Stonehenge. James Theatre. Yeats publishes a short play The Countess Cathleen , his first contribution to Irish poetic drama. Bernard Shaw's first play, Widowers' Houses , deals with the serious social problem of slum landlords. Go to Hardie, Keir b. Gladstone, becoming prime minister for the fourth time, is described by the queen as 'an old, wild and incomprehensible man of eighty two and a half'. The Falkland Islands, by now occupied by some settlers, become a British colony.
Go to Falkland Islands in World Encyclopedia 1 ed. Gladstone finally gets a Home Rule bill through the Commons, only to have it rejected in the Lords.
Frank Hornby patents in Liverpool his Meccano construction system for children. The Gaelic League is founded to restore the use of Gaelic as Ireland's spoken language. The Scottish game of shinty is provided with a standardized set of rules. Go to shinty in A Dictionary of Sports Studies 1 ed. Gladstone retires as Britain's prime minister and his place is taken by his foreign secretary, Lord Rosebery. French-born artist and author George du Maurier publishes his novel Trilby. Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book surrounds the child Mowgli with a collection of vivid animal guardians.
London's Tower Bridge raises its roadway for the first time to let a ship pass up the Thames. Scottish physicist William Ramsay isolates argon, following Rayleigh's discovery that an undiscovered gas combines with nitrogen in the air. Go to argon in A Dictionary of Chemistry 6 ed. Scottish chemist William Ramsay isolates the element helium. Oscar Wilde loses a libel case that he has brought against the marquess of Queensberry for describing him as a sodomite.
Oscar Wilde is sent to Reading Gaol to serve a two-year sentence with hard labour after being convicted of homosexuality. Wells publishes The Time Machine , a story about a Time Traveller whose first stop on his journey is the year Go to Wells, H. Gwen John persuades a reluctant father to allow her to follow her younger brother to the Slade School of Art in London. A promenade concert, presented by Henry Wood in London's Queen's Hall, turns out to be the beginning of a very long tradition.
English poet A. Housman publishes his first collection, A Shropshire Lad. Go to Housman, A. English physicist Joseph John Thomson, working at the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge, discovers the existence of the electron.
Diamond Jubilee bonfires and fireworks all round Britain celebrate Victoria's sixty years on the throne. Turbinia , powered by the newly invented Parsons steam turbine, breaks the speed record when Queen Victoria reviews her fleet.
Somerset Maugham publishes his first novel, Liza of Lambeth , based on the London life he has observed as a medical student. Go to Maugham, W. English author Bram Stoker publishes Dracula , his gothic tale of vampirism in Transylvania. British physician Ronald Ross identifies the Anopheles mosquito as the carrier of malaria. Go to krypton in A Dictionary of Chemistry 6 ed. British chemists William Ramsay and Morris Travers isolate the element neon.
Go to neon in A Dictionary of Chemistry 6 ed. British chemists William Ramsay and Morris Travers isolate the element xenon. Go to xenon in A Dictionary of Chemistry 6 ed. Wells publishes his science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds , in which Martians arrive in a rocket to invade earth.
Marconi launches a factory in Chelmsford, England, for the purpose of manufacturing radios 'wirelesses' in the language of the time. Henry James publishes The Turn of the Screw in a collection of short stories. Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in transmitting a wireless telegraph message across the English Channel. Go to Marconi, Guglielmo — in World Encyclopedia 1 ed.
The Boer War breaks out, ostensibly over the rights of British settlers in the Transvaal. Edward Elgar teases with the word 'enigma' printed at the head of his orchestral Variations on an Original Theme. Ranjitsinhji becomes the first cricketer to score runs in a single season. Nesbit publishes The Story of the Treasure Seekers , introducing the Bastable family who feature in several of her books for children.
Go to Nesbit, E. Scottish music-hall artist Harry Lauder makes his first London appearance at Gatti's music hall in Westminster. The Conservatives win an increased majority during the Boer War, in what becomes known as the 'khaki election'.
Keir Hardie is returned to parliament for Merthyr Tydfil, beginning a long and close link between the Labour party and Wales. The Irish Parliamentary Party, which split after the Parnell divorce case, reunites under the leadership of John Redmond. Go to Redmond, John Edward b.
Edward Elgar writes the oratorio Dream of Gerontius , setting Cardinal Newman's poem of the same title. Joseph Conrad publishes his novel Lord Jim about a life of failure and redemption in the far East.
The Welsh painter Augustus John becomes Britain's most famous bohemian. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice. Oxford Reference. Publications Pages Publications Pages. Recently viewed 0 Save Search.
Perhaps a third of the population was directly involved in manufacturing, and the capital formed the centre of many trades perhaps most notably the silk industries.
The numbers of medical and legal professionals, in particular, grew strongly from the last quarter of the seventeenth century through the s when the number of professionals began to level off. Employed in an ever growing number of hospitals and institutions, in the plethora of courts both civil and criminal and in the army and navy, by around there were perhaps 15, men employed in the law, medicine, the church and the military; while during the same period around one in nine Londoners kept a shop; and a further ten percent worked in the transport sector.
For the increasing role of lawyers in the Proceedings , see Trial Procedures. This employment and economic pattern, however, was substantially skewed both in terms of gender and class. Female employment, for instance, was largely restricted to a small number of occupations, of which domestic service was overwhelmingly dominant, with perhaps half of all employed women working in service in this period compared to perhaps five percent of men. Beyond this, women were largely restricted to needlework and laundry, and the large numbers of unskilled and poorly paid employments associated with street selling and casual labour.
But if employment was sharply divided between men and women, wealth was equally mal-distributed. The elite, the wealthy and aristocratic, made up between two and three percent of Londoners, while the "middling sort" — the professionals, large shop-keepers and manufacturers, bankers and traders — formed around a fifth of the population.
Of the rest, some twenty per cent, skilled artisans and the simply lucky, might avoid poverty and dependence throughout their lives, but a full sixty per cent were likely to find themselves in receipt of charity, or parish relief during periods of unemployment, illness or old age.
The s witnessed the creation of a large number of parish workhouses, and by approximately 2 per cent of the population of London was housed in these institutions. For an example of a trial reflecting on the conditions in a parish workhouse, see the murder trial of Mabell Hughes.
You can search for particular occupations using both the personal details search page for victim and defendant occupations and keyword searching. Perhaps more than any other period or place, London between and is associated with the creation of many of the characteristics of a "modern" culture.
The coffee houses of the late seventeenth century had, by , matured into a network of venues for open political debate. The newspapers which flourished following the lapsing of the Licensing Act in , had, by the same time, become an unstoppable stream of daily, bi-weekly, weekly and monthly publications to suit every pocket and political inclination.
And in the shadow of this torrent of newsprint, new genres and forms of literature seemed to emerge every decade. The novel grew to a new centrality with the publications of Defoe, Richardson and Fielding many of which were inspired by the published trial accounts in the Proceedings.
Scientific literature, humour, popular medicine, travel accounts, biography and autobiography all took a newly sophisticated or at least variegated format. This was not, however, a London without its problems. During the second half of the s and s, Londoners were sharply divided over the legitimacy of the new Hanoverian regime, and infected with corrosive religious bigotries that regularly erupted in riots and assaults against both Protestant non-conformists and Catholics.
See for example the trials associated with the "Mug-house Riots" of
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