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United Kingdom-related events during the year of 1809
Events from the year
1809 in the
United Kingdom .
Incumbents
Events
The Theatre Royal, Covent Garden as drawn by Augustus Pugin. This building opened in 1809 to replace its predecessor, which had burned down in 1808.
5 January – The
Treaty of the Dardanelles between the United Kingdom and the
Ottoman Empire is concluded.
16 January –
Peninsular War :
Battle of Corunna in
Galicia (Spain) : The British (under General Sir
John Moore , who is killed) resist an attempt by the French (under
Marshal Soult ) to prevent them embarking.
22 January –
Royal Navy
brig-sloop
HMS Primrose (1807) (bound for the Peninsular War) is wrecked in a snowstorm on
The Manacles reef off
The Lizard peninsula in
Cornwall with only a
drummer boy surviving and the transport Dispatch is wrecked on Black Head nearby with 104 homeward bound soldiers lost and only seven survivors.
24 February – The
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London is destroyed by fire.
1 March – The literary and political periodical
The Quarterly Review is first published by
John Murray .
[1]
11–15 April –
Napoleonic Wars :
Battle of the Basque Roads – Royal Navy victory over the French fleet in the mouth of the
Charente , although officers on both sides face subsequent
courts-martial .
18 April – First running of the
2,000 Guineas Stakes horse race
[2] at
Newmarket , won by
Wizard .
22 April – General
Sir Arthur Wellesley arrives at
Lisbon on board
HMS Surveillante to take command of the British troops in
Portugal .
[3]
10–11 May – Peninsular War:
Battle of Grijó : the
Anglo-Portuguese Army commanded by Sir Arthur Wellesley defeats the French army commanded by
Marshal Soult in Portugal.
12 May – Peninsular War:
Second Battle of Porto : the Anglo-Portuguese Army commanded by Wellesley crosses the
Douro , drives the French army commanded by Marshal Soult out of
Porto and forces them to retreat into Spain.
[4]
24 May –
Dartmoor Prison opens, to house French prisoners of war.
[5]
25 May –
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany , the king's second son, is forced to resign as
Commander-in-Chief of the Forces following a scandal in which his ex-mistress
Mary Anne Clarke admits before the House of Commons to having sold army commissions with his knowledge (first raised in the House on 27 January by
Gwyllym Lloyd Wardle ).
[6] Clarke publishes her memoirs this year.
7 June –
Shoja Shah of
Afghanistan signs a treaty with the British. Only weeks later, he is succeeded by
Mahmud Shah .
19 June – Law passed to prevent blatant sale of seats in the
House of Commons to supporters.
[2]
June – Members of the
militia at
Ely, Cambridgeshire , mutiny over pay. They are surrounded by a squadron of cavalry from the
King's German Legion , a summary
court-martial is held and the ringleaders are sentenced to
flogging .
[7]
26 July–4 August –
Court-martial of James, Lord Gambier , at Portsmouth harbour over his conduct at the
Battle of the Basque Roads ; he is honourably acquitted.
[8]
27–28 July –
Wellesley 's British, Portuguese, and Spanish army defeats a much larger French force at the
Battle of Talavera in Spain.
[2]
30 July –
Walcheren Campaign against the French puppet state of the
Kingdom of Holland : The British begin to land a 40,000-strong invasion army on the swampy island of
Walcheren at the mouth of the
Scheldt .
[9]
4 September –
Wellesley is appointed Baron Douro and Viscount Wellington in the
peerage of the United Kingdom .
[10]
18 September – A new
Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (pictured) opens in
London to replace the first burnt down in 1808. An increase in ticket prices causes the
Old Price Riots which last for 64 days.
21 September – Cabinet ministers
Viscount Castlereagh (
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies ) and
George Canning (
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ) fight a
duel with pistols on
Putney Heath over policy in the Walcheren Campaign.
4 October –
Portland resigns as Prime Minister due to ill health;
Spencer Perceval takes over,
[2]
21 October –
Nelson's Pillar in
Dublin is completed.
25 October –
Statue of Horatio Nelson by
Richard Westmacott , erected by public subscription, is unveiled in
Birmingham , the first statue of
Admiral Lord Nelson in the country.
10 November – The
Berners Street Hoax :
Theodore Hook manages to attract dozens of people to 54
Berners Street in London.
25 November –
Benjamin Bathurst , a British
diplomat , mysteriously disappears (having possibly been murdered) in
Perleberg , west of
Berlin .
9 December –
Walcheren Campaign : The last British forces withdraw from
Vlissingen . The unsuccessful campaign has cost the British 4,000 dead, wounded or captured (but only 106 through combat) and at least 12,000 sick.
[9]
Ongoing
Undated
Births
18 January –
Evan James , lyricist of the Welsh national anthem (died 1878)
12 February –
Charles Darwin , naturalist (died 1882)
15 February –
Owen Jones , interior designer (died 1874)
31 March –
Edward Fitzgerald , poet (died 1883)
7 April –
James Glaisher , meteorologist and aeronaut (died 1903)
4 June –
John Henry Pratt , clergyman and mathematician (died 1871)
19 June –
Richard Monckton Milnes , man of letters and politician (died 1885)
6 August –
Alfred Tennyson , poet (died 1892)
27 August –
John West , Scottish-born American pioneer of food canning (died 1888)
12 October –
John Liptrot Hatton , composer, conductor, pianist and singer (died 1886)
31 October -
Edmund Sharpe , architect, architectural historian, railway engineer and sanitary reformer (died 1877)
27 November –
Fanny Kemble , British-born American actress and writer (died 1893)
29 December –
William Ewart Gladstone ,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1898)
Deaths
16 January –
John Moore , general (killed in battle) (born 1761)
20 February –
Richard Gough , antiquary (born 1735)
25 February –
John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore , Scottish peer, colonial governor in British North America (born 1730)
11 March –
Hannah Cowley , dramatist, poet and social reformer (born 1743)
25 March –
Anna Seward , novelist (born 1747)
23 April –
Charles Francis Greville , antiquary, collector, politician, protector of Emma Hart and founder of Milford Haven (born 1749)
13 May –
Beilby Porteus , bishop and abolitionist (born 1731)
21 June –
Daniel Lambert , fattest man in Britain, weighing 52 stones 11 pounds, dies in Stamford, Lincolnshire (born 1770)
18 August –
Matthew Boulton , manufacturer and engineer (born 1728)
8 October –
James Elphinston , philologist (born 1721)
30 October –
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland ,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1738)
[13]
9 November –
Paul Sandby , cartographer and painter (born 1725)
References
^ Courier (London newspaper), 1 March 1809, "Published this day". The first issue, however, carries a title page date of February.
^
a
b
c
d Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 243–244.
ISBN
0-7126-5616-2 .
^
Longford, Elizabeth (1969). Wellington: The Years of The Sword (1971 ed.). London: HarperCollins. p. 117.
ISBN
978-0-586-03548-1 .
^ Longford, Elizabeth (1992). Wellington (2012 ed.). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 118.
ISBN
978-0-349-12350-9 .
^ Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library. 2006.
ISBN
0-14-102715-0 .
^
Lee, Sidney , ed. (1899).
"Wardle, Gwyllym Lloyd" .
Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 59. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
^ Renwick, Aly (30 September 2015).
"The Radical Sergeant Major" . Veterans for Peace UK. Retrieved 4 April 2021 .
^ Gurney, W. B. (1809).
Minutes of a court-martial... on the trial of James Lord Gambier . London: Mottey, Harrison & Miller.
^
a
b
Brett-James, Antony . "The Walcheren Failure." History Today (Dec 1963) 13#12 pp 811-820 and (Jan 1964) 14#12 pp 60-68.
^
Gash, Norman (2004).
"Wellesley, Arthur, first duke of Wellington (1769–1852)" .
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press.
doi :
10.1093/ref:odnb/29001 . (subscription or
UK public library membership required)
^
Paxman, Jeremy (1998). The English: a portrait of a people . London: Michael Joseph. p. 217.
^
"Brailsford, Mary Ann (bap. 1791, d. 1852), originator of the Bramley's Seedling apple" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press.
doi :
10.1093/ref:odnb/57264 . Retrieved 22 November 2020 . (subscription or
UK public library membership required)
^
"History of William Cavendish-Bentinck Duke of Portland - GOV.UK" . www.gov.uk . Retrieved 1 July 2023 .