27 November – an observer in New York City reports to the Pennsylvania Gazette that a British Sloop of War is searching all vessels passing near Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and that some vessels have been seized. 5 December – James Christie holds the first sale at Christie's auction house in London. Undated Lord Mansfield decides the landmark case of Carter v Boehm in English contract law, establishing the duty of utmost good faith (uberrima fides) in insurance contracts. The first golf club in England opens, at Blackheath in Kent. Publications James Fordyce's collected Sermons to Young Women. Oliver Goldsmith's novel The Vicar of Wakefield. John Gwynn's proposals London and Westminster Improved. George Stubbs' study The Anatomy of the Horse. Births 15 January – Nathan Drake, essayist and physician (died 1836) 12 February – William Howley, archbishop of Canterbury (died 1848) 14 February – Thomas Malthus, demographer and economist (died 1834) 11 May – Isaac D'Israeli, author (died 1848) 3 August – Jeffry Wyattville, architect and garden designer (died 1840) 6 August – William Hyde Wollaston, chemist (died 1828) 6 September – John Dalton, chemist and physicist (died 1844) 21 October – Peter Durand, merchant (died 1822) 29 December – Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist (died 1843) Deaths 1 January – James Francis Edward Stuart, "The Old Pretender" (born 1688) 9 January – Thomas Birch, English historian (born 1705) 21 January – James Quin, English actor (born 1693) 4 April – John Taylor, English classical scholar (born 1704) 8 May – Samuel Chandler, English non-conformist minister (born 1693) 13 August – Margaret Fownes-Luttrell, English heiress and painter (born 1726) 3 September – Archibald Bower, Scottish historian (born 1686) 13 September – Benjamin Heath, English classical scholar (born 1704) 23 September – John Brown, English essayist (born 1715) 29 November – John Wyatt, English inventor (born 1700) References Years in Great Britain