1794 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1794 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

 * Monarch – George III
 * Prime Minister – William Pitt the Younger (Tory)
 * Foreign Secretary – Lord Grenville

Events

 * 12 March – rebuilt Theatre Royal, Drury Lane opens in London.
 * 23 March – British troops capture Martinique from the French.
 * 19 April – Britain signs a treaty of alliance with Prussia and the Netherlands against France.
 * 21 April – British troops seize Guadeloupe but the French regain control on 7 June.
 * 8 May – Robert Burns' song Scots Wha Hae published in the Morning Chronicle.
 * 9 May – Enlistment Act 1794 is passed, allowing Frenchmen (and other foreigners) to join the British Army.
 * 14 May – Hambletonian wins his first race. He will win every subsequent race he finishes in his career.
 * 1 June – Glorious First of June: A British victory over the French in the first major naval battle of the French Revolutionary Wars. The first official naval medals are awarded (selectively) to senior officers involved.
 * 4 June – British troops capture Port-au-Prince in Haiti from the French.
 * 17 June
 * The Anglo-Corsican Kingdom is established.
 * Battle of Mykonos: HMS Romney captures French frigate Sibylle.
 * 12 July – Horatio Nelson loses his right eye during the Siege of Calvi in Corsica.
 * 23 July – Ratcliffe Fire destroys over 400 homes in London.
 * 21 August – British troops capture Corsica following the bombardment by Nelson.
 * 29 August – the Jesuit school Stonyhurst College, founded in France by Robert Persons relocates to England.
 * September – Popgun plot: alleged conspiracy to assassinate King George III with a poisoned dart.
 * 28 September – Britain allies with Russia and Austria against France.
 * 15 October – Catholic seminarians forced to leave the English College, Douai, settle at Crook Hall, County Durham.
 * November – 1794 Treason Trials.
 * 19 November – Britain and the United States sign the Jay Treaty (coming into effect 1796), which attempts to clear up some issues left over from the American Revolutionary War and secures a decade of peaceful trade between the two nations.

Ongoing

 * French Revolutionary Wars, First Coalition

Undated

 * Erasmus Darwin's Zoönomia published, anticipating later theories of evolution.
 * Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason published.
 * Mrs Radcliffe's Gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho published.
 * Uvedale Price's Essay on the Picturesque, As Compared With The Sublime and The Beautiful published.
 * First issue of The Gallery of Fashion which becomes influential in disseminating developments in women's fashion.
 * St Mary's College is established at Old Oscott, near Birmingham, the first Roman Catholic seminary in England since the Reformation.
 * The music of the Welsh march Men of Harlech is first published (without words) as Gorhoffedd Gwŷr Harlech&mdash;March of the Men of Harlech in the second edition of The Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards.

Births

 * 17 May – Anna Brownell Jameson, writer (died 1860)
 * 24 May – William Whewell, scientist, philosopher, and historian of science (died 1866)
 * 14 July – John Gibson Lockhart, writer and editor (died 1854)
 * 28 July – Charles Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1868)
 * 30 August – John Rennie the Younger, civil engineer (died 1874)
 * Unknown date – William Forster Lloyd, economist (died 1852)
 * Approximate date – William Heath, caricaturist (died 1840)

Deaths

 * 16 January – Edward Gibbon, historian (born 1737)
 * 31 January – Mariot Arbuthnot, admiral (born 1711)
 * 18 April – Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1714)
 * 27 April – Sir William Jones, philologist (born 1746)
 * 18 May – Yemmerrawanne, Aboriginal Australian (born c. 1775)
 * 18 June – James Murray, military officer and administrator (born 1721)
 * 13 July – James Lind, pioneer of naval hygiene in the Royal Navy (born 1716)
 * 17 July – John Roebuck, inventor (born 1718)
 * 6 August – Henry Bathurst, 2nd Earl Bathurst, politician (born 1714)
 * 21 October – Francis Light, founder of the British colony of Penang (born 1740)