1801 in the United Kingdom

Constituent countries of the United Kingdom

England |Ireland |Scotland |Wales

Other years

1799 |1800 |1801 |1802 |1803

Sport

1801 English cricket season

The following events occurred in theUnited Kingdom in the year1801. TheActs of Union 1800 came into force this year.

• Monarch –George III
• Prime Minister –William Pitt the Younger (Tory) (until 14 March),Henry Addington (Tory) (starting 14 March)
• Foreign Secretary –Lord Grenville (until 20 February)Lord Hawkesbury (starting 20 February)
• Secretary of War –Lord Hobart (from 17 March)

• 1 January
  • Legislative union ofGreat Britain andIreland completed under theAct of Union 1800, bringing about theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and abolition of theParliament of Ireland.^[1] A revisedflag of the United Kingdom is adopted from this date.^[2]
  • First one-inch-to-the-mile (1:63,360 scale) map based on the work of theOrdnance Survey is published, covering the county ofKent.
• 14 January – Britain places embargoes on vessels of theSecond League of Armed Neutrality of the North.
• 2 February –Parliament of the United Kingdom meets for the first time.^[3]
• 5 February –William Pitt the Younger tenders his resignation asPrime Minister of the United Kingdom.^[1]
• 1 March –London Stock Exchange founded^[1] as a regulated institution; its new building is completed on 30 December.
• 8 March – SecondBattle of Abukir: a British Army underRalph Abercromby defeats the French troops.^[1]
• 10 March – The first British census is carried out. The count is conducted by clergy, overseers of the poor and schoolmasters. The population ofEngland and Wales is determined to be 8.9 million,^[4] withLondon revealed to have 860,035 residents.
• 14 March –William Pitt the Younger resigns over the failure to introduceCatholic emancipation, having first tendered his resignation on 5 February.
• 16 March – Edinburgh music teacherAnne Gunn is granted the first Britishpatent for aboard game, designed as a music teaching aid.^[5]
• 17 March –Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth becomesPrime Minister.^[1]
• 21 March –Battle of Alexandria: Abercromby's forces defeat those of the French in theEgyptian city ofAlexandria.^[1]
• 2 April –Battle of Copenhagen in theWar of the Second Coalition: TheRoyal Navy underAdmiral Sir Hyde Parker forces theRoyal Dano-Norwegian Navy to accept anarmistice. Vice-AdmiralHoratio Nelson leads the main attack, deliberately disregarding his commander's signal to withdraw.^[1]
• 19 May –Nelson is created Viscount Nelson of the Nile, and of Burnham Thorpe in the County of Norfolk, for his part in the strategic victory atCopenhagen.^[6]
• 18 June –Cairo falls to British troops.^[1]
• 6 July –Battle of Algeciras: The French fleet achieves victory over the British.
• 12 July –Second Battle of Algeciras: The British fleet defeats the French and Spanish.
• 18 July –Matthew Flinders sets out on a voyage to produce a detailed survey of the coastline of Australia, the southern coast of which is still unknown.^[7]
• 30 September – The Treaty of London is signed for peace between theFirst French Republic and the United Kingdom as a preliminary to theTreaty of Amiens.
• 24 November – TheDuke of Sussex first conferred, onPrince Augustus Frederick.
• 26 November –Charles Hatchett announces his discovery of the chemical elementniobium to theRoyal Society.^[1]
• 24 December –Richard Trevithick demonstrates the first steam-powered vehicle to carry passengers atCamborne.^[1]

• Anglo-Spanish War, 1796–1808
• French Revolutionary Wars,War of the Second Coalition

• Dalton's law:John Dalton observes that the totalpressure exerted by agaseous mixture is equal to the sum of thepartial pressures of each individual component in a gas mixture.
• Thomas Youngdiscovers the interference of light.^[8]
• Maria Edgeworth's novelBelinda is published.^[9]
• Henry James Pye's epic poemAlfred is published.^[10]
• 219 people are hanged this year in England and Wales, a record for any year after 1785.^[11]
• ArtistThomas Lawrence paints aportrait of the Princess of Wales and her daughter which in 1806 involves him in the "Delicate Investigation".^[12]

• 4 January –James Giles, painter (died 1870)
• 14 January –Jane Welsh Carlyle, letter–writer (died 1866)
• 2 February
  • Manton Eastburn, bishop in the Episcopal Church (United States) (died 1872)
  • George Maclean, Governor ofCape Coast (died 1847)
• 7 February –John Rylands, weaver, entrepreneur and philanthropist (died 1888)
• 13 February –Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer, politician, diplomat and writer (died 1872)
• 21 February –John Henry Newman, Roman Catholic Cardinal, canonised (died 1890)
• 24 April –Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury, politician (died 1893)
• 28 April –Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, politician and philanthropist (died 1885)
• 9 May –Samuel Cousins, engraver (died 1887)
• 4 June –James Pennethorne, architect (died 1871)
• 10 June –Joseph Rowntree, educationist (died 1859)
• 24 June –Caroline Clive, author (died 1873)
• 15 August –Charles Elliot, naval officer, diplomat and colonial administrator (died 1875)
• 27 December –Charles Clay, surgeon (died 1893)
• date unknown –Charles George James Arbuthnot, general, born at sea (died 1870)

• 28 March –Ralph Abercromby, general (born 1734)
• 2 April –Thomas Dadford, Jr., engineer (year of birth unknown)
• 3 May(bur.) –Mary Lacy, shipwright and naval pensioner (born c.1740)
• 17 May –William Heberden, physician (born 1710)
• 14 June –Benedict Arnold, spy and Army officer (born 1741 inConnecticut Colony)
• 7 July –William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, statesman (born 1731)
• 9 September –Gilbert Wakefield, scholar (born 1756)
• Autumn –David Levi, scholar (born 1742)

• 1801 in the United Kingdom
• Years of the 19th century in the United Kingdom
• 1801 by country
• 1801 in Europe
• 1800s in the United Kingdom

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• Use British English from December 2012