Events from the year 1757 in Great Britain. Incumbents Monarch – George II Prime Minister – William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire (Whig) (until 25 June); Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (Whig) (starting 2 July) Parliament – 11th Events 2 January – Robert Clive captures Calcutta in India. 14 March – Seven Years' War: Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard in The Solent after his court martial conviction for breach of the Articles of War in failing in the Battle of Minorca (1756) to save British troops who had been besieged by a numerically superior French force in the Siege of Fort St Philip (1756). The execution is largely opposed by the Admiralty and the House of Commons. General Edward Cornwallis, the ranking British Army officer at the battle, is exonerated of charges of dereliction of duty, but his career is ruined. 29 March – Matthew Hutton is nominated as Archbishop of Canterbury, being translated from York. 6 April – William Pitt the Elder resigns from the government after Prince William, Duke of Cumberland refuses to command the British forces in Germany in the Seven Years' War. April–July – Caretaker Ministry takes power led by William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire following the resignation of Pitt. 6 May – asylum confinement of Christopher Smart: poet Christopher Smart is confined to St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London. May – the Baskerville typeface, designed by John Baskerville of Birmingham, is first used in a wove paper quarto edition of Virgil. June – Pitt recalled to government in a coalition with Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 23 June – Battle of Plassey: 3000 British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah at Plassey. 2 July – the Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne forms a new government. 26 July – Seven Years' War: Battle of Hastenbeck: An Anglo-Hanoverian army under the Duke of Cumberland is defeated by the French under Louis d'Estrées and forced out of Hanover. 3–9 August – French and Indian War: At the Battle of Fort William Henry a French army under Louis-Joseph de Montcalm forces the British to surrender Fort William Henry. The French army's Indian allies slaughter the survivors, not understanding the terms of the surrender. 24 December – the Pratt-Yorke opinion distinguishes overseas territories acquired by conquest from those acquired by private treaty: while the Crown of