with most of the scenery, costumes and scripts. Rebuilding begins in December. Undated George Ponsonby becomes de facto first (whig) Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. Society for Promoting the Lancasterian System for the Education of the Poor formed to develop Joseph Lancaster's system of elementary schools for nonconformists. In 1814, the Society is renamed the British and Foreign School Society for the Education of the Labouring and Manufacturing Classes of Society of Every Religious Persuasion. John Dalton begins publication of A New System of Chemical Philosophy, explaining his atomic theory of chemistry. English patents are obtained by Bryan Donkin for a steel nib pen. by John Heathcoat for a bobbinet lace machine. Osmington White Horse cut in Dorset. Ongoing Anglo-Russian War, 1807–1812 Napoleonic Wars, 1803–1815 Births 20 March – Charles Henry Cooper, antiquarian (died 1866) 22 March – Caroline Norton, campaigner for married women's rights (died 1877) 27 April – William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire, politician (died 1891) 2 May – Emma Darwin, née Wedgwood, wife of Charles Darwin (died 1896) 9 May – John Scott Russell, Scottish-born shipbuilder (died 1882) 12 May – Edwin Abbott, educator (died 1882) 30 May – Caroline Chisholm, humanitarian (died 1877) 11 June – James Ballantine, artist and author (died 1877) 12 June – George Wilshere, 1st Baron Bramwell, judge (died 1892) 19 June – Montagu Bertie, 6th Earl of Abingdon, politician (died 1884) 1 July – Henry Doubleday, entomologist and ornithologist (died 1875) 15 July – Henry Cole, civil servant (died 1882) 30 July – Frederick Nicholls Crouch, composer and cellist (died 1896) 19 August – James Nasmyth, engineer (died 1890) 24 August – William Lindsay Alexander, church leader (died 1884) 5 September – Arthur William Buller, Member of Parliament (died 1869) 15 September – John Hutton Balfour, botanist (died 1884) 6 November – Thomas Legh Claughton, academic, poet and clergyman (died 1892) 22 November – Thomas Cook, English travel entrepreneur (died 1892) 28 September – Joseph Thornton, Oxford-based bookseller (died 1891) 15 December – Henry Chorley, critic (died 1872) Undated William Cureton, Orientalist (died 1864) Charles Geach, industrialist, banker and politician (died 1854) Deaths 28 May – Richard Hurd, bishop and writer (born 1720) 5 September – John Home, writer (born 1722) 10 November – Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, soldier and governor of Quebec (born 1724) Theophilus Lindsey, theologian (born 1723) See also 1808 in Scotland