Chronology of Poetic Landmarks (1660-1800)

1660

Daniel Defoe born (d. 1731)
Dryden, Astraea Redux

1661

Anne Finch (née Kingsmill), countess of Winchilsea born (d. 1720)

1662

Richard Bentley born (d. 1742)
Rev. Samuel Wesley born (d. 1735)
Samuel Butler, Hudibras (part 1)

1663

Joseph Stennett born (d. 1713)
Butler, Hudibras (part 2)

1664

Matthew Prior born (d. 1721)

1666

Mary Pix (née Griffith) born (d. 1709)
George Granville, Baron Lansdowne born (d. 1735)

1667

Jonathan Swift born (d. 1745)
John Pomfret born (d. 1702)
John Arbuthnot born (d. 1735)
Dryden, Annus Mirabilis
Milton, Paradise Lost (10-book version)
Abraham Cowley dies (b. 1618)

1668

Sarah Fyge Egerton born (d. 1723)
John Dryden made Poet Laureate

1669

Susanna Centlivre (née Freeman) born (d. 1723)

1670

William Congreve born (d. 1729)
Anthony Alsop born (d. 1726)

1671

Colley Cibber born (d. 1757)
Milton, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes

1672

Joseph Addison born (d. 1719)
Sir Richard Steele born (d. 1729)
Stephen Clay born

1673

Jabez Earle born (?) (d. 1768)
William Taylor born (d. 1750)

1674

Ambrose Philips born (d. 1749)
Isaac Watts born (d. 1748)
Elizabeth Rowe (née Singer) born (d. 1737)
Nicholas Rowe born (d. 1718)
John Milton dies (b. 1608)
Milton, Paradise Lost (12-book version)

1675

Samuel Cobb born (d. 1713)
William Somervile born (d. 1742)
Abel Evans born (d. 1737)

1676

John Philips born (d. 1709)

1677

John Winstanley born (?) (d. 1750)
Mary Monck (née Molesworth) born (?) (d. 1715)

1678

Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke born (d. 1751)
Andrew Marvell dies (b. 1621)
Butler, Hudibras (part 3)

1679

Thomas Parnell born (d. 1718)
Jacob Tonson begins business relationship with Dryden

1680

Benjamin Ibbot born (d. 1725)
Samuel Butler dies (b. 1613)
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, dies (b. 1647)

1681

Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel (part 1)

1682

Thomas Newcomb born (?) (d. 1765)
Dryden, The Medal, Religio Laid, and Mac Flecknoe

1683

Edward Young born (d. 1765)

1684

Allan Ramsay born (d. 1758)
William Pulteney, Earl of Bath born (d. 1764)
Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress (part 2)
Dryden's poem on the death of John Oldham
Series of Dryden-Tonson Miscellanies begins

1685

John Gay born (d. 1732)
Aaron Hill born (d. 1750)
Thomas Tickell born (d. 1740)
William Diaper born (d. 1717)
Patrick Delany born (?) (d. 1768)
George Berkeley born (d. 1753)
Mary Barber born (?) (d. 1755)
William Harrison born (d. 1713)
Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis

1686

Anne Killigrew, Poems, includes Dryden's ode

1687

Mary Chandler born (d. 1745)
Henry Carey born (d. 1743)
John Straight born (d. 1736)
Dryden, The Hind and the Panther

1688

Mary Collier born (?) (d. 1762)
Alexander Pope born (d. 1744)
Leonard Welsted born (d. 1747)
Bunyan dies (b. 1628)

1689

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont) born (d. 1762)
Shadwell made Poet Laureate

1690

Moses Mendez born (?) (d. 1758)

1691

George Bubb Dodington, Baron Melcombe born (?) (d. 1762)

1692

Nathaniel Lee dies (b. 1650?)
John Byrom born (d. 1763)
Dryden, Satires of Juvenal and Persius
Tate made Poet Laureate

1693

Hildebrand Jacob born (?) (d. 1739)
Sir William Yonge born (?) (d. 1755)

1694

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield born (d. 1773)
Thomas Fitzgerald born (d. 1752)
François Marie Arouet de Voltaire born (d. 1778)
James Bramston born (?) (d. 1743)

1695

Thomas Purney born (d. 1730?)
Blackmore, Prince Arthur

1696

Matthew Green born (d. 1737)
John Hervey, Baron of Ickworth born (d. 1743)

1697

Richard Savage born (?) (d. 1743)
Nicholas Amhurst born (d. 1742)
Dryden, The Works of Virgil
Blackmore, King Arthur

1698

John Ellis born (d. 1791)
Edward Littleton born (d. 1733)
Walter Titley born (d. 1768)

1699

Thomas Edwards born (d. 1757)
Christopher Pitt born (d. 1748)
Joseph Spence born (d. 1768)
John Dyer born (d. 1757)
Robert Blair born (d. 1746)
Frances Thynne Seymour, Countess of Hertford, Duchess of Somerset born (d. 1754)
Henrietta St. John Knight, Lady Luxborough born (d. 1756)
Garth, The Dispensary

1700

James Thomson born (d. 1748)
Robert Shiels born (?) (d. 1753)
Dryden, Fables
John Pomfret, The Choice
John Dryden dies (b. 1631)
Blackmore, A Satire upon Wit

1701

David Mallet born (?) (d. 1765)
Henry Hervey Aston born (d. 1748)
John Philips, The Splendid Shilling
Chudleigh, The Ladies Defence
Anne Finch, The Spleen

1702

Judith Cowper Madan born (d. 1781)
Glocester Ridley born (d. 1774)
John Pomfret dies (b. 1667)
Benjamin Stillingfleet born (d. 1771)

1703

Rev. John Wesley born (d. 1791)
Gilbert West born (d. 1756)
Edward Rolle born (d. 1791)
Egerton, Poems on Several Occasions
Chudleigh, Poems On Several Occasions

1704

Robert Dodsley born (d. 1764)
Constantia Grierson (née Crawley) born (?) (d. 1732)
Soame Jenyns born (d. 1787)
Pix, Violenta; or, The Rewards of Virtue

1705

Nathaniel Cotton born (?) (d. 1788)
Henry Pitt born (?) (d. 1733)
Stephen Duck born (?) (d. 1756)
Thomas Scott born (d. 1775)
William Hall born (d. 1767)
John Philips, Blenheim
Mandeville, The Grumbling Hive
Addison, The Campaign

1706

Isaac Hawkins Browne born (d. 1760)
William Dunkin born (?) (d. 1765)
Philip Fletcher born (d. 1765)
Nicholas Herbert born (?) (d. 1775)
Benjamin Hoadly born (d. 1757)
Watts, Horae Lyricae
James Miller born (d. 1744)
William Pattison born (d. 1727)

1707

Mary Jones born (d. 1778)
Rev. Charles Wesley born (d. 1788)
Henry Fielding born (d. 1754)
John Boyle, Fifth Earl of Orrery, Fifth Earl of Cork born (d. 1762)
Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

1708

Sir Charles Hanbury Williams born (d. 1759)
William Ward born (?) (d. 1772)
Thomas Seward born (d. 1790)
John Philips, Cyder
Ozell, Boileau's Lutrin
Samuel Boyse born (d. 1749)

1709

James Harris born (d. 1780)
John Philips dies (b. 1676)
John Dalton born (d. 1763)
Sneyd Davies born (d. 1769)
Walter Harte born (?) (d. 1774)
Samuel Johnson born (d. 1784)
George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton born (d. 1773)
Mary Pix (née Griffith) dies (b. 1666)
Thomas Lisle born (d. 1767)
Robert Craggs Nugent, Earl Nugent born (d. 1788)
Laetitia Pilkington (née van Lewen) born (?) (d. 1750)
Thomas Hudson born (d. 1784)
Poetical Miscellanies (includes Pastorals by Pope and Ambrose Philips)
Ambrose Philips, A Winter-Piece
Swift, A Description of the Morning and Baucis and Philemon
John Armstrong born (d. 1779)

1710

Robert Lowth born (d. 1787)
William Melmoth born (d. 1799)
George Alexander Stevens born (?) (d. 1784)
James Hammond born (d. 1742)
Richard Roderick born (d. 1756)
Swift, A Description of a City Shower
Mary Chudleigh dies (b. 1656)
Edmund Smith dies (b. 1672)

1711

Rev. John Gambold born (d. 1771)
John Hoadly born (d. 1776)
Henry Taylor born (d. 1785)
Charles Sackville born (d. 1769)
Pope, Essay on Criticism

1712

William Thompson born (d. 1766?)
Richard Glover born (d. 1785)
John Sican born (d. 1753)
Edward Moore born (d. 1757)
Pope, Rape of the Lock (two cantos)
Diaper, Nereides
Blackmore, The Creation

1713

Charles Parrott born (d. 1787)
Samuel Cobb dies (b. 1675)
William Harrison dies (b. 1685)
John Perry born (d. 1780)
Jonathan Shipley born (d. 1788)
Joseph Stennett dies (b. 1663)
Lewis Thomas born (d. 1762)
Diaper, Dryades
Pope, Windsor-Forest
Finch, Miscellany Poems
Gay, The Fan

1714

William Shenstone born (d. 1763)
Constantine Barber born (d. 1783)
Ralph Schomberg born (d. 1792)
Elizabeth Thomas born (d. 1779)
Anthony Whistler born (d. 1754)
Joseph Giles born (d. 1777?)
Gay, The Shepherd's Week
Pope, Rape of the Lock (five cantos)
Edmund Smith, Works

1715

Nahum Tate dies (b. 1652?)
John Brown born (d. 1766)
Richard Jago born (d. 1781)
William Whitehead born (d. 1785)
Mary Monck (née Molesworth) dies (b. 1677?)
Richard Graves born (d. 1804)
Pope's translation of the Iliad (completed 1720), Temple of Fame
Watts, Divine Songs for the Use of Children
Nicholas Rowe made Poet Laureate

1716

Thomas Gray born (d. 1771)
Richard West born (d. 1742)
Joseph Trapp born (?) (d. 1769)
Gay, Trivia
Montagu, Court Poems

1717

William Diaper dies (b. 1685)
Richard Owen Cambridge born (d. 1802)
Horace Walpole born (d. 1797)
Fulke Greville born (d. 1806)
Elizabeth Carter born (d. 1806)
David Garrick born (d. 1779)
Pope, Works
Giles Jacob, The Rape of the Smock

1718

Thomas Parnell dies (b. 1679)
Prior, Poems on Several Occasions
Blackmore, The Kit-Cats
Nicholas Rowe dies (b. 1674)
Eusden becomes Poet Laureate

1719

Joseph Addison dies (b. 1672)
Robert Glynn (later Clobery) born (d. 1800)
James Cawthorn born (d. 1761)
Mrs Bennet (née Bridgen) born (d. 1792)
Richard Berenger born (d. 1782)
William Markham born (d. 1807)
Watts, The Psalms of David Imitated
Arbuckle, Snuff Hardyknute
Samuel Garth dies (b. 1661)

1720

James Fordyce born (d. 1796)
Francis Fawkes born (d. 1777)
John Hawkesworth born (d. 1773)
Richard Hurd born (d. 1808)
James Merrick born (d. 1769)
Robert Bedingfield born (?) (d. 1768)
Anne Finch (née Kingsmill), countess of Winchilsea dies (b. 1661)
Gay, Poems on Several Occasions
Hughes, The Ecstasy
John Hughes dies (b. 1677)

1721

Matthew Prior dies (b. 1664)
Mark Akenside born (d. 1770)
Thomas Blacklock born (d. 1791)
William Collins born (d. 1759)
Robert Potter born (d. 1804)
Tobias Smollett born (d. 1771)
Isabella Howard (née Byron), Countess of Carlisle born (d. 1795)
Samuel Foote born (d. 1777)
James Grainger born (?) (d. 1766)
Thomas Parnell, A Night Piece on Death
Hill, The Judgment-Day
Arbuckle, Glotta
Tickell (ed.), Works of Addison
Montagu, Epistle from Arthur Gray

1722

Mary Leapor born (d. 1746)
Christopher Smart born (d. 1771)
Joseph Warton born (d. 1800)
John Gilbert Cooper born (d. 1769)
John Nourse born (d. 1757)
Parnell, Poems on Several Occasions (ed. Pope)
W. Thomson, Orpheus Caledonius

1723

Sarah Fyge Egerton dies (b. 1668)
Thomas Denton born (d. 1777)
Susanna Centlivre (née Freeman) dies (b. 1669)
Richard Onely born (d. 1787)
Sir William Blackstone born (d. 1780)
Edward Lovibond born (d. 1775)
A Collection of Old Ballads

1724

Christopher Anstey born (d. 1805)
Frances Brooke (née Moore) born (d. 1789)
Ramsay, The Ever Green
Haywood, Poems

1725

Bonnell Thornton born (d. 1768)
John Delap born (?) (d. 1812)
William Mason born (d. 1797)
Francis Coventry born (d. 1754)
Benjamin Ibbot dies (b. 1680)
John Prynne Parkes Pixell born (d. 1784)
Pope's translation of the Odyssey (completed 1726)
Young, The Universal Passion (completed 1727)

1726

Anthony Alsop dies (b. 1670)
Thomas Cole born (d. 1796)
John Scott Hylton born (?) (d. 1793)
Dyer, Grongar Hill
Thomson, Winter
Savage, Miscellaneous Poems

1727

Hester Mulso Chapone born (d. 1801)
Dr Henry Harington born (d. 1816)
John Hoole born (d. 1803)
Jerome Stone born (d. 1756)
Elizabeth Griffith born (d. 1793)
Arthur Murphy born (d. 1805)
Frances Greville (née Macartney) born (?) (d. 1789)
Gay, Fables
Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, Miscellanies (till 1735)
Thomson, Summer and To the Memory of Newton
Broome, Poems
William Pattison dies (b. 1706)
Swift, Stella's Birthday (last poem)

1728

Robert Vansittart born (d. 1789)
Thomas Warton born (d. 1790)
Oliver Goldsmith born (?) (d. 1774)
Pope, Dunciad (three books)
Thomson, Spring
Savage, The Bastard

1729

Sir Richard Blackmore dies (b. 1654)
William Congreve dies (b. 1670)
Sir Richard Steele dies (b. 1672)
William Dodd born (d. 1777)
John Duncombe born (d. 1786)
George Keate born (d. 1797)
Thomas Percy born (d. 1811)
Philip Parsons born (d. 1812)
Martha Ferrar (later Peckard) born (d. 1805)
John Cunningham born (?) (d. 1773)
William Gerard Hamilton born (d. 1796)
Pope, Dunciad Variorum
Savage, The Wanderer
Thomson, Britannia
Wesley brothers found Methodist Society

1730

Charlotte Lennox (née Ramsay) born (?) (d. 1804)
Thomas Purney dies (?) (b. 1695)
John Scott born (d. 1783)
Sir James Marriott born (d. 1803)
Thomson, The Seasons (includes Autumn)
Duck, Poems on Several Subjects
George Woodward, Poems
Young, Imperium Pelagi
Laurence Eusden dies (b. 1688)
Colley Cibber appointed Poet Laureate

1731

William Cowper born (d. 1800)
Erasmus Darwin born (d. 1802)
Beilby Porteus born (d. 1809)
Pope, Epistle to Burlington
Isaac Thompson, Poems
Charles Beckingham dies (b. 1699)
Daniel Defoe dies (b. 1660)

1732

John Gay dies (b. 1685)
Charles Churchill born (d. 1764)
William Woty born (d. 1791)
Richard Shepherd born (d. 1809)
John Ogilvie born (d. 1813)
Constantia Grierson (née Crawley) dies (b. 1704?)
William Falconer born (d. 1770)
Elizabeth Pennington born (d. 1759)
Pope, Epistle to Bathurst
Swift, The Lady's Dressing Room

1733

Robert Lloyd born (d. 1764)
James Scott born (d. 1814)
Samuel Whyte born (d. 1811)
Benjamin Hutchinson born (d. 1804)
Henry Pitt dies (b. 1705?)
Edward Littleton dies (b. 1698)
Pope, Essay on Man (completed 1734) and Imitation of Horace Satire II.1
Montagu, Verses to the Imitator of Horace

1734

John Dennis dies (b. 1658)
Charles Emily born (d. 1762)
William Hayward Roberts born (d. 1791)
Eliza Day born (?)
Mary Barber, Poems on Several Occasions
James Arbuckle dies (?) (b. 1700)
Swift, A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed

1735

Rev. Samuel Wesley dies (b. 1662)
James Beattie born (d. 1803)
John Langhorne born (d. 1779)
William Julius Mickle born (?) (d. 1788)
John Arbuthnot dies (b. 1667)
George Granville, Baron Lansdowne dies (b. 1666)
Pope, Epistle to Arbuthnot and Epistle to a Lady
Thomson, Liberty (completed 1736)

1736

Thomas Powys born (d. 1809)
George Canning born (d. 1771)
James Macpherson born (d. 1796)
John Straight dies (b. 1687)
Wesley, Psalms and Hymns
Duck, Poems on Several Occasions
Armstrong, Oeconomy of Love
Harte, Essay on Reason
Elizabeth Rowe, The History of Joseph

1737

Abel Evans dies (b. 1675)
Myles Cooper born (d. 1785)
Elizabeth Rowe (née Singer) dies (b. 1674)
Jael Henrietta Pye (née Mendez) born (?) (d. 1782)
Matthew Green dies (b. 1696)
Edward Jerningham born (d. 1812)
Pope, Horace's Epistles, I. i, vi, II. i, ii
Shenstone, Poems

1738

Mary Darwall (née Whateley) born (d. 1825)
Catherine Gilpin born (d. 1811)
Johnson, London
Pope, Epilogue to Satires

1739

Cuthbert Shaw born (?) (d. 1771)
Hildebrand Jacob dies (b. 1693?)
Swift, Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift
Collier, The Woman's Labour
Wesley brothers, Hymns and Sacred Poems

1740

Thomas Tickell dies (b. 1685)
James Boswell born (d. 1795)
Samuel Henley born (d. 1815)
Michael Wodhull born (d. 1816)
Hew Dalrymple born (?) (d. 1774)
Joseph Cockfield born (?) (d. 1816)
Thomson and Mallet, Alfred. A Masque
Sarah Dixon, Poems

1741

Mary Alcock (née Cumberland) born (?) (d. 1798)
Anne Hunter (née Home) born (d. 1821)
Hester Lynch Piozzi (née Salusbury; other married name Thrale) born (d. 1821)
Arbuthnot and others, Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus (first published in the 1741 edition of Pope’s works, but largely written as early as 1714)
James Miller, Of Politeness

1742

Richard Bentley dies (b. 1662)
William Somervile dies (b. 1675)
Richard West dies (b. 1716)
Nicholas Amhurst dies (b. 1697)
James Hammond dies (b. 1710)
Anna Seward born (d. 1809)
Collins, Persian Eclogues
Pope, New Dunciad (i.e. Book IV)
Young, The Complaint, or Night Thoughts (completed 1746)
Shenstone, The School-mistress
Gray, Ode on the Spring (published 1748)

1743

Richard Savage dies (b. 1697?)
Henry Carey dies (b. 1687)
John Hervey, Baron of Ickworth dies (b. 1696)
Anna Laetitia Barbauld (née Aikin) born (d. 1825)
Hannah Cowley (née Parkhouse) born (d. 1809)
James Bramston dies (b. 1694?)
Blair, The Grave
Pope, Dunciad (four books)

1744

Alexander Pope dies (b. 1688)
Akenside, The Pleasures of Imagination
Armstrong, The Art of Preserving Health
Thomson, The Seasons (rev.)
Joseph Warton, The Enthusiast
James Miller dies (b. 1706)

1745

Jonathan Swift dies (b. 1667)
Mary Chandler dies (b. 1687)
Thomas Holcroft born (d. 1809)
Hannah More born (d. 1833)
Akenside, Odes on Several Subjects
Thomas Warton, Five Pastoral Eclogues
John Brown, An Essay on Satire
William Broome dies (b. 1689)
Henry James Pye born (d. 1813)
William Crowe born (d. 1829)

1746

Elizabeth Hands (née Herbert) born (d. 1815)
Mary Leapor dies (b. 1722)
Robert Blair dies (b. 1699)
Collins, Odes (imprint 1747)
Joseph Warton, Odes
William Thompson, Hymn to May

1747

Leonard Welsted dies (b. 1688)
James Barclay born (?) (d. 1774)
John O'Keeffe born (d. 1833)
Susanna Blamire born (d. 1794)
Gray, Eton College Ode
Montagu, Six Town Eclogues
Mason, Musaeus
Thomas Warton, The Pleasures of Melancholy
Bedingfield, The Education of Achilles

1748

Isaac Watts dies (b. 1674)
Christopher Pitt dies (b. 1699)
James Thomson dies (b. 1700)
Henry Hervey Aston dies (b. 1701)
Thomas Brerewood dies (b. )
Gray, Ode on the Spring
Leapor, Poems
Thomson, Castle of Indolence
Dodsley (ed.), Collection of Poems (completed 1758)
Laetitia Pilkington, Memoirs

1749

Ambrose Philips dies (b. 1674)
Charlotte Smith (née Turner) born (d. 1806)
Johnson, Vanity of Human Wishes
Collins, Ode Occasion'd by the Death of Mr. Thomson
Gilbert West, Odes of Pindar
Samuel Boyse dies (b. 1708)

1750

John Winstanley dies (b. 1677?)
Aaron Hill dies (b. 1685)
Sophia Lee born (d. 1824)
Elizabeth Craven (née Berkeley) born (d. 1828)
Laetitia Pilkington (née van Lewen) dies (b. 1709?)
William Taylor dies (b. 1673)
Peter Cunningham born (?) (d. 1805)
Mary Jones, Miscellanies in Prose and Verse

1751

Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke dies (b. 1678)
Thomas Cary born (d. 1823)
Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard
Leapor, Poems (2nd volume)
Gilbert West, Education

1752

Thomas Fitzgerald dies (b. 1694)
Thomas Chatterton born (d. 1770)
Smart, Poems on Several Occasions
Frances Burney born (d. 1840)

1753

Elizabeth Inchbald (née Simpson) born (d. 1821)
George Berkeley dies (b. 1685)
John Sican dies (b. 1712)
Robert Shiels dies (b. 1700?)
Ann Yearsley (née Cromartie) born (d. 1806)
Aaron Hill, Works (4 vols.)
Gray, Designs by Mr. R. Bentley for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray
Dodsley, Agriculture

1754

Henry Fielding dies (b. 1707)
Francis Coventry dies (b. 1725)
Frances Thynne Seymour, Countess of Hertford, Duchess of Somerset dies (b. 1699)
Anthony Whistler dies (b. 1714)
George Crabbe born (d. 1832)
Hannah Brand born (d. 1821)
Elizabeth Tollet, Poems
Samuel Bowden, Poems
Elizabeth Tollet dies (b. 1694)

1755

Mary Barber dies (b. 1685?)
Sir William Yonge dies (b. 1693?)
Rev Henry Harington the Younger born (d. 1791)
Robert Merry born (d. 1798)
George Colman and Bonnell Thornton, eds. Poems by Eminent Ladies
Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language

1756

Gilbert West dies (b. 1703)
Jerome Stone dies (b. 1727)
Stephen Duck dies (b. 1705?)
Henrietta St. John Knight, Lady Luxborough dies (b. 1699)
Richard Roderick dies (b. 1710)
Lloyd, The Cit's Country Box

1757

Thomas Edwards dies (b. 1699)
John Dyer dies (b. 1699)
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire born (d. 1806)
Benjamin Hoadly dies (b. 1706)
John Nourse dies (b. 1722)
Colley Cibber dies (b. 1671)
Mary Robinson (née Darby) born (?) (d. 1800)
Edward Moore dies (b. 1712)
Collins, Oriental Eclogues
Dyer, The Fleece
Gray, Odes
William Blake born (d. 1827)
William Whitehead appointed Poet Laureate

1758

Allan Ramsay dies (b. 1684)
Moses Mendez dies (b. 1690?)
Dodsley (ed.), Collection of Poems (6 vols.: vol. i., ii., iii., iv., v., vi.)

1759

Sir Charles Hanbury Williams dies (b. 1708)
William Collins dies (b. 1721)
Janet Little (later Richmond) born (d. 1813)
Isabella Kelly (née Fordyce) born (d. 1857)
Robert Burns born (d. 1796)
Bertie Greatheed born (d. 1826)
Helen Maria Williams born (d. 1827)
Elizabeth Pennington dies (b. 1732)

1760

Isaac Hawkins Browne dies (b. 1706)
Lloyd, Shakespeare. An Epistle
Macpherson, Fragments of Ancient Poetry

1761

James Cawthorn dies (b. 1719)
Macpherson, Fingal (imprint 1762)
Churchill, The Rosciad, The Apology, and Night

1762

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont) dies (b. 1689)
Mary Collier dies (b. 1688?)
Charles Emily dies (b. 1734)
John Boyle, Fifth Earl of Orrery, Fifth Earl of Cork dies (b. 1707)
George Bubb Dodington, Baron Melcombe dies (b. 1691?)
Lewis Thomas dies (b. 1713)
Joanna Baillie born (d. 1851)
Lloyd, Poems
Churchill, The Ghost
Collier, Poems, on several occasions
Elizabeth Carter, Poems
William Lisle Bowles born (d. 1850)

1763

John Dalton dies (b. 1709)
William Shenstone dies (b. 1714)
John Byrom dies (b. 1692)
George Monck Berkeley born (d. 1793)
Churchill, Prophecy of Famine
Macpherson, Temora
Smart, Song to David
Percy, Five Pieces of Runic Poetry

1764

Robert Dodsley dies (b. 1704)
Charles Churchill dies (b. 1732)
Robert Lloyd dies (b. 1733)
William Pulteney, Earl of Bath dies (b. 1684)
Evans, Specimens of Ancient Welsh Bards
Goldsmith, The Traveller
Churchill, Gotham (book I, II, III)
Grainger, The Sugar-Cane

1765

Thomas Newcomb dies (b. 1682?)
David Mallet dies (b. 1701?)
Edward Young dies (b. 1683)
William Dunkin dies (b. 1706?)
Philip Fletcher dies (b. 1706)
Macpherson, The Works of Ossian
Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
Smart, The Psalms of David
Sarah Dixon dies (b. 1672)

1766

William Thompson dies (?) (b. 1712)
John Brown dies (b. 1715)
Robert Bloomfield born (d. 1823)
James Grainger dies (b. 1721?)
Catherine Rebecca Grey, Lady Manners born (?) (d. 1852)
Anstey, The New Bath Guide

1767

Thomas Lisle dies (b. 1709)
William Hall dies (b. 1705)
Jago, Edge-Hill

1768

Bonnell Thornton dies (b. 1725)
Joseph Spence dies (b. 1699)
Robert Bedingfield dies (b. 1720?)
Patrick Delany dies (b. 1685?)
Jabez Earle dies (b. 1673?)
Walter Titley dies (b. 1698)
Gray, Poems

1769

Sneyd Davies dies (b. 1709)
James Merrick dies (b. 1720)
John Gilbert Cooper dies (b. 1722)
Joseph Trapp dies (b. 1716?)
Charles Sackville dies (b. 1711)
Amelia Opie (née Alderson) born (d. 1853)
Ann Batten Cristall born (d. 1848)
Barbauld, Corsica (published 1773)
Gray, Ode for Music

1770

Mark Akenside dies (b. 1721)
William Falconer dies (b. 1732)
Thomas Chatterton dies (b. 1752)
Goldsmith, The Deserted Village
William Wordsworth born (d. 1850)

1771

Thomas Gray dies (b. 1716)
Tobias Smollett dies (b. 1721)
Christopher Smart dies (b. 1722)
Maria Falconar born (?)
Cuthbert Shaw dies (b. 1739?)
George Canning dies (b. 1736)
Rev. John Gambold dies (b. 1711)
Benjamin Stillingfleet dies (b. 1702)
Beattie, The Minstrel (completed 1774)
Cawthorn, Poems
King, The Frequented Village
Walter Scott born (d. 1833)
Dorothy Wordsworth born (d. 1855)

1772

William Ward dies (b. 1708?)
Mary Tighe (née Blachford) born (d. 1810)
Mason, The English Garden (completed 1781)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge born (d. 1834)

1773

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield dies (b. 1694)
George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton dies (b. 1709)
John Hawkesworth dies (b. 1720)
John Cunningham dies (b. 1729?)
Barbauld, Poems

1774

Glocester Ridley dies (b. 1702)
Walter Harte dies (b. 1709?)
Oliver Goldsmith dies (b. 1728?)
Harriet Falconar born (?)
James Barclay dies (b. 1747?)
Hew Dalrymple dies (b. 1740?)
Pye, Faringdon Hill
Lloyd, Poetical Works
Robert Southey born (d. 1843)

1775

Matthew Gregory Lewis born (d. 1818)
Nicholas Herbert dies (b. 1706?)
Edward Lovibond dies (b. 1723)
Thomas Scott dies (b. 1705)
Mary Robinson, Poems
Jane Austen born (d. 1817)
Charles Lamb born (d. 1834)

1776

(Mary) Matilda Betham born (d. 1852)
John Hoadly dies (b. 1711)
Hannah More, Sir Eldred of the Bower

1777

Francis Fawkes dies (b. 1720)
Thomas Denton dies (b. 1723)
William Dodd dies (b. 1729)
Samuel Foote dies (b. 1721)
Thomas Campbell born (d. 1844)
Joseph Giles dies (?) (b. 1714)
Chatterton, Poems, supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and others (posthumous)
Thomas Warton, Poems

1778

Mary Jones dies (b. 1707)
François Marie Arouet de Voltaire dies (b. 1694)
Anne Wilson, Teisa
William Hazlitt born (d. 1830)

1779

John Langhorne dies (b. 1735)
Elizabeth Thomas dies (b. 1714)
David Garrick dies (b. 1717)
Cowper, Olney Hymns
John Armstrong dies (b. 1709)
Samuel Johnson, “Prefaces” to The Works of the English Poets (1779–81)
Thomas Moore born (d. 1852)

1780

James Harris dies (b. 1709)
Sir William Blackstone dies (b. 1723)
John Perry dies (b. 1713)
Anna Seward, Elegy on Captain Cook

1781

Judith Cowper Madan dies (b. 1702)
Richard Jago dies (b. 1715)
Crabbe, The Library

1782

Jael Henrietta Pye (née Mendez) dies (b. 1737?)
Richard Berenger dies (b. 1719)
Cowper, Poems
Thomas Warton, Verses on Reynolds's Window

1783

John Scott dies (b. 1730)
Constantine Barber dies (b. 1714)
Crabbe, The Village
Blake, Poetical Sketches

1784

Samuel Johnson dies (b. 1709)
George Alexander Stevens dies (b. 1710?)
John Prynne Parkes Pixell dies (b. 1725)
Thomas Hudson dies (b. 1709)
Charlotte Smith, Elegiac Sonnets (frequently reprinted)
Leigh Hunt born (d. 1859)
Hannah More, The Bas Bleu; or, Conversation

1785

William Whitehead dies (b. 1715)
Myles Cooper dies (b. 1737)
Richard Glover dies (b. 1712)
Henry Taylor dies (b. 1711)
Cowper, The Task
Yearsley, Poems on Several Occasions
Thomas Warton the younger becomes Poet Laureate on the death of Whitehead

1786

John Duncombe dies (b. 1729)
Burns, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
Helen Maria Williams, Poems

1787

Charles Parrott dies (b. 1713)
Robert Lowth dies (b. 1710)
Richard Onely dies (b. 1723)
Soame Jenyns dies (b. 1704)
Yearsley, Poems on Various Subjects
James Johnson (ed.), Scots Musical Museum (till 1803)

1788

Rev. Charles Wesley dies (b. 1707)
Nathaniel Cotton dies (b. 1705?)
William Julius Mickle dies (b. 1735?)
Robert Craggs Nugent, Earl Nugent dies (b. 1709)
Jonathan Shipley dies (b. 1713)
Crowe, Lewesdon Hill
Yearsley, A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade
Hannah More, Slavery, a Poem
George Gordon Noel Byron born (d. 1824)

1789

Frances Brooke (née Moore) dies (b. 1724)
Robert Vansittart dies (b. 1728)
Frances Greville (née Macartney) dies (b. 1727?)
Blake, Songs of Innocence and The Book of Thel
Charlotte Smith, Elegiac Sonnets (5th ed.)
Charlotte Brooke, Reliques of Irish Poetry
William Lisle Bowles, Fourteen Sonnets, Elegiac and Descriptive

1790

Thomas Warton dies (b. 1728)
Thomas Seward dies (b. 1708)
Henry James Pye becomes Poet Laureate on the death of Thomas Warton the younger

1791

Rev. John Wesley dies (b. 1703)
Thomas Blacklock dies (b. 1721)
William Woty dies (b. 1732)
William Hayward Roberts dies (b. 1734)
John Ellis dies (b. 1698)
Edward Rolle dies (b. 1703)
Rev Henry Harington the Younger dies (b. 1755)
Burns, Tam o' Shanter

1792

Ralph Schomberg dies (b. 1714)
Mrs Bennet (née Bridgen) dies (b. 1719)
Cowper, Yardley Oak
Percy Bysshe Shelley born (d. 1822)

1793

Elizabeth Griffith dies (b. 1727)
John Scott Hylton dies (b. 1726?)
George Monck Berkeley dies (b. 1763)
Blake, Visions of the Daughters of Albion and America: A Prophecy
Wordsworth, An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches
John Clare born (d. 1864)
Felicia Hemans (née Browne) born (d. 1835)

1794

‘Christian Carstairs’ dies
Susanna Blamire dies (b. 1747)
Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience, Europe: A Prophecy, and The Book of Urizen
Coleridge, “Monody on the Death of Chatterton”

1795

James Boswell dies (b. 1740)
Isabella Howard (née Byron), Countess of Carlisle dies (b. 1721)
John Keats born (d. 1821)
Southey, Poems

1796

James Fordyce dies (b. 1720)
James Macpherson dies (b. 1736)
Thomas Cole dies (b. 1726)
Robert Burns dies (b. 1759)
William Gerard Hamilton dies (b. 1729)
Coleridge, Poems on Various Subjects

1797

Horace Walpole dies (b. 1717)
William Mason dies (b. 1725)
George Keate dies (b. 1729)
Wordsworth and Coleridge become neighbours in Somerset, begin their collaboration
Coleridge, Poems (2nd edition)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin) born (d. 1851)

1798

Mary Alcock (née Cumberland) dies (b. 1741?)
Robert Merry dies (b. 1755)
Wordsworth and Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads (published anonymously)

1799

William Melmoth dies (b. 1710)
Barbauld, To Mr Coleridge
Cowper's last poems
Thomas Campbell, The Pleasures of Hope

1800

Joseph Warton dies (b. 1722)
William Cowper dies (b. 1731)
Robert Glynn (later Clobery) dies (b. 1719)
Mary Robinson (née Darby) dies (b. 1757?)
Mary Robinson, Lyrical Tales
Wordsworth and Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads (second edition, published under Wordsworth's name)

Bibliography

  • Baines, Paul, Julian Ferraro, Pat Rogers, eds. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Eighteenth-Century Writers and Writing, 1660-1789. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print.
  • Chandler, James, ed. The Cambridge History of English Romantic Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. Print.
  • Chandler, James and Maureen N. McLane, eds. The Cambridge Companion to British Romantic Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008. Print.
  • Fairer, David. English Poetry of the Eighteenth Century 1700-1789. Longman Literature in English Series. Harlow: Longman, 2003. Print.
  • Fairer, David and Christine Gerrard, eds. Eighteenth-Centur Poetry: An Annotated Anthology. Blackwell Annotated Anthologies. 2nd edition Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004 [1st ed. 1999]. Print.
  • Richetti, John, ed. The Cambridge History of English Literature, 1660-1780. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print.
  • Sitter, John, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print.
  • Wikipedia contributors. "18th century." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 9 Nov. 2016. Web. 9 Nov. 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_century