Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Timeline





Timeline



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British History Timeline 600 A.D. - 1707
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600 - Witenagemot (Anglo Saxon Royal Council);

1066-Oct-14 Battle of Hastings, Norman Conquest; Introduction of Feudal System and Great Councils much like the Witenagemot.  Led to 13th century Parliament.

1165 - Henry II's reforms legal practice in England, starting the common law tradition.  He is known as the Father of the Common Law.

1215 - Magna Carta

  • Applied to all Freemen
  • Royal Council had to approve taxes (12, 15, 
  • Royal Council composition (14) - would eventually become Parliament
  • The rule of law extended to all geographic areas which were entitled to enjoy undisturbed their "ancient liberties and free customs."  (13) 
  • No man to be punished of life, limb or property but according to the laws of the land (39)
  • Due process of law, Grand Juries (17-19, 38)
  • No cruel or unusual punishments, no excessive fines or bails (20-22)
  • Justice to be uniform.  Those appointed to enforce the law and conduct trials must know the law (24, 45)
  • Just compensation for government Takings (25, 28-31)
  • Habeus Corpus (36)
  • Jury Trials (39)
  • Justice not to be delayed, denied or sold (40)

1230 - First references to Parliament, later references refer to calling together the "Knights of the Shire" to approve taxes.

1254 -- Henry III holds first Parliament with the knights/members selected by voting

1258 - Henry III tried to rule as an absolute monarch.  Provisions of Oxford

1259 - Provisions of Westminster succeed and add to Provisions of Oxford.

1264-67 - Second Baron's War.  English Civil War pitting King against many of his barons led by Simon de Montfort, one of the father's of representative government.

1265 - Simon de Montfort's Parliament  The first elected parliament which included ordinary citizens from the boroughs.  All had a right to vote if they had sufficient land holdings.

1272 - Edward I encourages Petitioning to King and Parliament.

1341 - Parliament divides into The House of Commons and the House of Lords, collectively the Houses of Parliament.

1348 - Black Death strikes, carrying away 40% to 60% of the population of England.

1376 - Good Parliament.  Establishes Speaker of the House of Commons.  Commons assumes right to impeach Royal officials.  And at some point during this period, the House of Parliament extended it's authority, so that no law could be made, nor any tax levied, without the consent of both Houses and the Sovereign.

1381 - Peasant's Revolt

1430 - Voting Franchise extended to Forty Shilling Freeholders. 

1509 - Henry VIII crowned King, led the English Reformation

1534 - Act of Supremacy named Henry VIII head of the Anglican Church in place of the Pope.

1588 - Drake and defeat of the Spanish Armada

1603 - Elizabeth I, last of the Tudor line, dies after a reign of 44 years.

1603 - James I takes throne.  Stuart line of Kings, uniting the thrones of Scotland and England.

1606 - Plantation of Ulster.

1625 - Charles I takes throne

1628 - Petition of Right

  • lay taxes without the assent of Parliament
  • forced loans
  • imprisoning people and expropriating property without jury trial or due process of law
  • refused to comply with writs of Habeus Corpus
  • Quartering of soldiers in the homes of citizens
  • punishments meted out with no basis in the law of the land
  • refusal to hold certain people to account for violations of the law of the land

1639 - 1640 - Bishops' Wars in Scotland

1642 Oct. 23 -  English Civil War begins at Battle of Edgehill

1649 Jan. 30 -  Charles I executed

1649 - 1660 - Commonwealth of England

1649 - 1653 - Cromwell's Conquest of Ireland

1651 – Navigation Act – In order to eliminate Dutch competition, provided that most shipping into and out of the colonies had to be done on British ships

3 Sep 1651 – Battle of Worcester – Cromwell defeats royalist forces under Charles II in the last battle of the English civil war. Charles II flees to France and remains there until his Restoration.

1653 - 1659 - Cromwell serves as Lord Protector of England

29 May 1660 – Restoration: “Oak Apple Day” declared as Charles II enters London and the Monarchy restored in England

1661 - Charles II named King in '61

1661 - Navigation Act renewed under new King.  Operated to severely injure Irish trade.

1663 – Staple Act required goods bound for the colonies shipped from Africa, Asia, or Europe to first be landed in England before shipping to America.

1673 – Plantation Duty Act - Required colonial ship captains to guarantee that they would deliver enumerated goods to England or suffer financial penalties. Further established colonial arm of English customs offices

1681 - Charles II dissolves Parliament and rules his last four years without summoning them.

1685 - King James II

1688 - Glorious Revolution

1689 - English Bill of Rights
  • That the pretended power of suspending the laws or the execution of laws by regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal;
  • That the pretended power of dispensing with laws or the execution of laws by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal;
  • That the commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, and all other commissions and courts of like nature, are illegal and pernicious;
  • That levying money for or to the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament, for longer time, or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal;
  • That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal;
  • That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law;
  • That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law;
  • That election of members of Parliament ought to be free;
  • That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament;
  • That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted;
  • That jurors ought to be duly impanelled and returned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be freeholders;
  • That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before convictionare illegal and void;
  • And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening and preserving of the laws, Parliaments ought to be held frequently.
1695 - Penal Laws enacted in Ireland.

1696 – Navigation Act - Further tightened earlier Navigation Acts. Created a system of admiralty courts to enforce trade regulations and punish smugglers. Further, it gave customs officials power to issue writs of assistance to board ships and search for smuggled goods

With the Navigation Acts, Smuggling (also see here, here, and here) – and the bribery of customs officials - is made a national past time in America

1699 – Woolens Act - To prevent competition with English producers, prohibited colonial export of woolen cloth

1717 to 1775 – The great migration of the Ulster Scots, or Scots Irish, to America began following violence in Ireland and imposition of the Penal Laws disadvantaging both Catholics and Protestants not of the Church of England
  
1701 - Act of Settlement established Britain as a Constitutional Monarchy and set the right of succession solely in Protestants - and held marrying a Catholic to be disqualifying.

1707 - Acts of Union of 1707 joined the parliaments of England and Scotland, creating the United Kingdom

1746 -- Fanny Murray was the most famous and sought after prostitute in Britain. At just 17, she was famous and widely desired; one diary from the day records that "it was a vice not to be acquainted with Fanny; it was a crime not to toast her at every meal." She is even mentioned in the diaries of Giacomo Casanova as the guest of honour at a party held by the British Ambassador to Venice, John Murray (no relation) at his casino, and it has been suggested that she is at least in part an inspiration for Fanny Hill, which was published in 1749 at the height of her fame. She became mistress to a string of leading British politicians and celebrities, while her fashion sense — in particular, the broad-brimmed "Fanny Murray cap", supposedly invented to hide the imperfections of her "handsome though somewhat awry" face — became all the rage on the London scene. Her influence on the fashion of the era went so far that one essayist complained:
"If Fanny Murray chuses to vary the fashion of her apparel, immediately every Lucretia in town takes notice of the change, and modestly copies the chaste original. If Fanny shews the coral centre of her snowy orbs—miss, to outstrip her, orders the stays to be cut an inch or two lower; and kindly displays the whole lovely circumference"
1750 (circa) -- The Earl of Sandwich takes on Fanny Murry as his Mistress. He has her painted nude and has the painting hung in his apartment. He also makes her the center of his many orgies, some with the Hellfire Club, the other with the Divan Club.

1753 (circa) -- Thomas Potter and John Wilkes, both Hellfire Club members, compose a poem about Fanny Murray, "Essay on Woman," as a ribald parody of Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man." It was apparently written only to be shown to other Hellfire Club members. Wilkes inherited after Potter's death in 1759.

1757 -- Fanny Murray marries and becomes respectable for the second half of her life.

1758 (circa) -- A practical joke by Wilkes at one of the "Hellfire club" meetings greatly embarresses the EoS, resulting in a rift between the two.

1761 -- Wilkes, a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, was a follower of William Pitt, the Commoner.

1761 Oct. 5 - Pitt resigns from office after his plan for a preemptive strike on Spain was disapproved.
1762 May 26 - Lord Bute named Prime Minister, during which time he negotiated the end to the Seven Years War and proposed a Cider Tax.

1762 June 5 - John Wilkes begins publishing The North Briton to attack Bute.  Publishes it every week thereafter during the Bute ministry. 

1763 January (?)  The Cider Bill of 1763 causes rioting in British cider producing areas.  Leads in part to the downfall of the Bute ministry.

1763 April 8 - Bute forced to resign as Prime Minister 

1763 April 10 - King's Speech before the House of Commons on the closing of Parliament.

1763 23 April - John Wilkes prints North Briton no. 45 taking aim at the King's speech.

1763 30 April - King is incensed.  Has ministers issue General Warrants upon a charge of seditious libel to arrest and search.  Wilkes and 49 others, most innocent, are arrested and their properties broken into and searched.

1763 June (?) - Wilkes v Woods.  Wilkes gives speech on the importance of this case to liberty for all.  He is freed on defense of immunity as a Member of Parliament.  He is awarded damages for the search.  The people of London fete him.


1763 Oct. - A plan is hatched in government to destroy Wilkes. 1)  Govt. forces a printer to print several additional copies of Essay on Woman to give the appearance of publication for public dissemination; 2)  The additional prints contain forged stanzas are added that make the bawdy poem blasphemous.  Wrote Horace Walpole:
The plot so hopefully laid to blow up Wilkes was so gross and scandalous, so revengeful and so totally unconnected with the political conduct of Wilkes, and the instruments so despicable, odious, or in whom any pretentions to decency, sanctimony or faith were so presposterous that, losing all sight of the scandal contained in the poem, the whole world almost united in crying out against the informers.

1763 Nov. 15 -- King's Speech on the opening of Parliament;

1763 15 Nov. -- Earl of Sandwich reads Essay on Woman in House of Lords, to establish it as blasphemous.  The House of Lords eggs him on.  18th century England was amoral at best.

1763 Nov. -- Wilkes flees to France where he spends the next five years on the lamb.

1764 April 19 - King's Speech Closing Parliament

1765 10 Jan - King's Speech to Parliament

1765 25 May - King's Speech to Parliament

1766 14 Jan - King's Speech to Parliament

1766 6 Jun - King's Speech to Parliament

1766 11 Nov. - King's Speech to Parliament

1767 2 July - King's Speech to Parliament

1768 10 March - King's Speech to Parliament

1768 8 Nov. - King's Speech to Parliament

1769 9 May - King's Speech to Parliament

1770 9 Jan - King's Speech to Parliament

1770 19 May - King's Speech to Parliament

1770 13 Nov - King's Speech to Parliament

1771 8 May - King's Speech to Parliament

1772 21 Jan - King's Speech to Parliament

1772 9 Jun - King's Speech to Parliament

1772 26 Nov - King's Speech to Parliament

1773 1 July - King's Speech to Parliament

1774 13 Jan - King's Speech to Parliament

1774 22 Jun - King's Speech to Parliament

1774 30 Nov. - King's Speech to Parliament

1775 26 May - King's Speech to Parliament

1775 30 Oct. - King's Speech to Parliament (Early Session)

1776 23 May - King's Speech to Parliament

1776 31 Oct. - King's Speech to Parliament

1777 6 June - King's Speech to Parliament

1777 20 Nov. - King's Speech to Parliament

1778 June - King's Speech to Parliament

1778 25 Nov. - King's Speech to Parliament

1779 3 July - King's Speech to Parliament

1779 25 Nov. - King's Speech to Parliament

1780 June 2 - 7 The Gordon Riots

1780 July 8 - King's Speech to Parliament

1780 Nov. 1 - King's Speech to Parliament

1781 July 18 - King's Speech to Parliament

1781 Nov. 27 - King's Speech to Parliament

1782 July 11 - King's Speech to Parliament

1782 Dec. 5 - King's Speech to Parliament

1783 July 16 - King's Speech to Parliament


Period Books Timeline Prior to 1760

25 A.D. - De Medecina, Celsus

1651 - Leviathan, Hobbes

1667 - Paradise Lost, Milton

1689 - Two Treatises of Government, John Locke

1696 - The Tales of Mother Goose, as collected by Charles Perault

1720 - Memoirs of a Cavalier, Daniel Defoe

1721 - Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

(A Presbyterian. In Defoe's early life, he experienced some of the most unusual occurrences in English history: in 1665, 70,000 were killed by the Great Plague of London, and next year, the Great Fire of London left standing only Defoe's and two other houses in his neighbourhood.[10] In 1667, when he was probably about seven, a Dutch fleet sailed up the Medway via the River Thames and attacked the town of Chatham in the raid on the Medway.)

1722 - Journal of A Plague Year, Daniel Defoe

1722 - Captain Jack, Defoe (boy sold into indentured servitude in Virginia)

1722 - Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe

1724 - A History of Pyrates, Vol. II, Daniel Defoe

1740 - Holy Bible (King James Version, 1611)

1740 - Pamela or Virtue Rewarded, Samuel Richardson

1741 - Joseph Andrews Vol. I, Vol. II, Henry Fielding

1744 - A Little Pretty Pocket Book (comment), John Newbery

1755 - Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language

1759 - A Political Romance, Rev. Laurence Stern

1760 - The New England Primer (in print since 1696)

1760 - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. by Rev. Laurence Stern


;—you have all, I dare say, heard of the animal spirits, as how they are transfused from father to son, &c. &c.,—and a great deal to that purpose ;—Well, you may take my word, . . .
Pray, my dear, quoth my mother, have you not forgot to wind up the clock? Good G—l cried my father, making an exclamation, but taking care to moderate his voice at the same time, Did ever woman, since the creation of the world, interrupt a man with such a silly question? Pray, what was your father saying? Nothing.
. . . Then, let me tell you, sir, it was a very unseasonable question at least, because it scattered and dispersed the animal spirits, whose business it was to have

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American History Timeline
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1651 – Navigation Act – In order to eliminate Dutch competition, provided that most shipping into and out of the colonies had to be done on British ships.

1663 – [Navigation Acts]  Staple Act required goods bound for the colonies shipped from Africa, Asia, or Europe to first be landed in England before shipping to America.

1673 – [Navigation Acts]  Plantation Duty Act - Required colonial ship captains to guarantee that they would deliver enumerated goods to England or suffer financial penalties. Further established colonial arm of English customs offices

1696 – Navigation Act of 1696 - Further tightened earlier Navigation Acts. Created a system of admiralty courts to enforce trade regulations and punish smugglers. Further, it gave customs officials power to issue writs of assistance to board ships and search for smuggled goods

With the Navigation Acts, Smuggling (also see here, here, and here) – and the bribery of customs officials - is made a national past time in America

1699 – [Navigation Acts]  Woollens Act - To prevent competition with English producers, prohibited colonial export of woolen cloth

1704 - Queen Anne issues a Proclamation on the value of various coins in use in the colonies.  Based on a 1702 assay of foreign coins conducted by Newton.   See Relative Values of Colonial Currency

1715 – 1717 Yamasee War was a concerted attempt by Indians to drive settlers out of what is now SC.

1717 to 1775 – The great migration of the Ulster Scots, or Scots Irish, to America began following violence in Ireland and imposition of the Penal Laws disadvantaging both Catholics and Protestants not of the Church of England.

1719 – Carolina officially becomes a Crown Colony

1729 – North and South Carolina officially divide into two colonies



1732 – [Navigation Acts]  Hat Act - Prohibited export of colonial-produced hats

1733 - [Navigation Acts]  Molasses Act

1740 – Eliza Lucas Pickney, put in charge of her families 3 plantations at age 16 in 1739, begins to experiment with planting Indigo. It turns into a great cash crop by 1743, accounting for a third of SC's exports. She would marry Charles Pickney in 1744

1741 – Ben Franklin begins publishing the sermons and works of George Whitfield, founder of Methodism. Franklin, a Deist, thought very highly of Whitfield's teaching that we should praise God through good works.

1750 - Rev. Johnathan Mayhew Discourse

1751 -  The Currency Act of 1751 restricted the emission of paper money in New England. It allowed the existing bills to be used as legal tender for public debts (i.e. paying taxes), but disallowed their use for private debts (e.g. for paying merchants).

Currency Act of 1764, extended the restrictions to the colonies south of New England. Unlike the earlier act, this act did not prohibit the colonies in question from issuing paper money but it forbade them to designate their currency as legal tender for public or private debts. That prohibition created tension between the colonies and the mother country and has sometimes been seen as a contributing factor in the coming of the American Revolution. After much lobbying, Parliament amended the act in 1773, permitting the colonies to issue paper currency as legal tender for public debts.

1753 – Gouedy's trading post at Ninety Six, SC, commandeered and turned into a Fort.


1754-63: (French Indian) / Seven Years War

1754 - Mayhew Election Sermon

1754 July - Ben Franklin and the Albany Plan

1755 - Samuel Johnson publishes A Dictionary of the English Language

1759 - Annus Mirabilus

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1760
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1 Feb. 1760 - Long Canes Massacre

Feb. - Mar. 1760 - Cherokee make two failed attempts to take the Fort at Ninety-Six.

15 March 1760 -- Siege of Fort Loudoun begins; Slave Abram carries dispatch to Gov. Bull with news of the siege (probably delivered to Ft. Prince George)

March - May 1760:  Great Small Pox Epidemic in Charleston (JSTOR) (Ramsay)

1 April 1760;  Col. Montgomerie arrives in Charleston to begin the British offensive in the Anglo-Cherokee War (Here and Here)

5 April 1760 - Royal Gov. Lyttelton leaves Charleston to become Gov. of Jamaica.

28 April 1760 - Battle of Sainte Foy outside of Quebec. It was a decisive French victory but could not be exploited when Britain prevented any resupply by sea from France

15 May (est.) - Col. Montgomerie begins his attacks on the Lower Towns of the Cherokee, destroying all of them, killing 60 braves and taking 40 women and children as prisoners.  (Here)

2 June 1760 - Col. Montgomerie relieves Ft. Prince George.  He dispatches two Indians to the Middle Towns with an offer of peace.  There is no response to his offers.   (Here)

24 June 1760 -  Montgomerie resumes his march headed towards the Middle Towns

27 June 1760 - Col. Montgomerie & The 1st Battle of Echoee (Here and Here)

11 July 1760 - Bull addresses Montgomerie on the worsening situation and asks him to leave four companies of soldiers to protect the wilderness which he does.

28 July 1760 -  Francis Bernard arrives in Boston and takes over duty as the Royal Governor. Note his personal smuggling.

6 Aug. 1760 - Council of War at Ft. Loudoun decides surrender.  Final dispatch with news through the slave Abram?

8 Aug. 1760 - After negotiating a surrender of Fort Loudoun, the garrison set out for Fort Prince George.

10 Aug. 1760 -- 700 Cherokees suddenly attacked the camp. The garrison briefly returned fire before surrendering. In the melee, three officers, twenty-three privates, and three women were killed. Stuart, the only officer to survive the assault, was ransomed by Attakullakulla. The remaining garrison and their families were taken captive. Most were ransomed in the ensuing months.


Sept. 1760 -  Bernard appoints his Lt. Gov. Hutchinson to be Chief Justice of the Superior Court.

8 Sept, 1760 - Surrender of Canada – Governor General Pierre, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, surrendered the French colony known as Canada.

20 Sept 1760 (est) - Dispatch from Cpt. Stuart arrives in Chas for Gov. Bull telling him of what happened at Ft. Loudoun, his ransom by Attakullakulla, and Cherokee plans to use the cannon to attack Ft. Prince George.

25 Oct. 1760 - King George II dies after a reign of 33 years and his grandson, George III, becomes king at 22 years old

30 Oct. 1760 - Celebration of King George II's birthday . . . would have occurred in the colonies, it taking several weeks for the information of the King's death to reach SC

1760 – Mayhew and Congregationalists upset with Bernard for interfering with Harvard and the effort of Anglicans to establish an Anglican service their on campus. Congregationalist Harvard and Presbyterian Princeton were still untouched by Anglican influence. Bernard also unilaterally issued a Royal charter for an Anglican University, Queen's College, in the vicinity of Harvard. He withdrew the charter in April after protests by Harvard and by the Mass Governor's Council.

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1761
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1761 - SC Tax Bill approved by the SC House of Commons includes freedom for the slave Abram, the man who carried messages from Ft. Loudoun.

1761 – February 24: Paxton's Case – Otis challenges Writs of Assistance challenged in Massachusetts.

March 1761 - A regiment of SC militia organized under Gov. Bull and put under the command of Thomas Middleton.  Its other field officers were Henry Laurens, Lieutenant Colonel ; John Moultrie, Ma jor. William Moultrie, Francis Marion, Isaac Huger, and Andrew Pickens served as company officers.  Gadsden and his artillery battery are not included.

4 April 1761 -

1761 – Letter of 27 May 1761 addressed to the King from the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts Bay protesting against plans to make the Anglican Church the official church to be supported by tax dollars denounced plans for an American Bishop. [Add in here the refusal of Bernard to incorporate a Congregationalist missionary society, even while the Governor was required by law to support an Anglican Missionary Society]


 4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III

10 June 1761 - 2nd Battle of Echoee Pass


22 Dec. 1761 - New Royal Governor, Thomas Boone, arrives in Charleston. (McCrady, Gads v Laurens)

25 Dec. 1761 - Boone issued a proclamation announcing that his Majesty had been pleased with the advice of his Council to declare his disallowance of certain acts, one of them, that of 1759, amending the election law of 1721, — which amendments related only to the qualifications of representatives, — and that as the present Assembly had been chosen under the act of 1759, thus disallowed and repealed, he dissolved it and issued writs for a new election.

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1762
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1 Feb. 1762 (est)  New elections held in SC.

19 March 1762 - Boone convenes the Commons. He said that having had occasion lately to examine the election act of 1721 he had found it so loose and general, so little obligatory in prescribing the forms to be observed on various occasions that might happen, that he thought a new law absolutely necessary. He then went into a dissertation upon the subject, and in order that the endeavor of the Commons might not be fruitless he undertook to state to them the reason which had deter mined the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations to disallow the act of 1759.  Boone wanted a right to judge of the qualifications of these members.

April - Mayhew claimed that Bernard was deeply involved in the plot to establish an American Anglican Bishop. Bernard publicly scolded Mayhew for associating with the admirers of Oliver Cromwell. Mayhew's response: Your Excellency may be pleased to know that those persons whom I make my friends and companions are of such an irreproachable character that it would be no disgrace even to your Excellency to be sometimes or often seen in such honest company.

May 1762 -- George III arranges for his tutor, Lord Bute, a Tory, to be named Prime Minister.

 4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III

1 Aug. 1762 (est) - (McCrady) A writ of election had been issued to the church wardens of St. Paul's Parish for the special election of a member, upon which a return had been made by them that Christopher Gadsden had been duly elected.

13 Sept. 1762 - Gadsden appeared and qualified before the House.  When he attended the Gov. however, Boone refused to swear him in, instead summoning the whole Assembly to meet him in his Council Chamber. He then objected to Mr. Gadsden's election because the church wardens had not been sworn for that particular election. The Governor, however, not only refused to admit Mr. Gadsden's election, but dissolved the House of Assembly for their contumacy.





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1763
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Books:  1763 - A Fairy Tale in Two Acts taken from Shakespeare, George Colman and David Garrick

1763 January (?)  The Cider Bill of 1763 causes rioting in British cider producing areas.  Leads in part to the downfall of the Bute ministry.

1763 – Spain cedes East & West Florida to Britain

1763 – February: Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War.

Feb 1763 (est) - Bute's Cider Tax to raise revenue in the UK results in wide-spread rioting.   Some of the strongest words in favour of an individual's privacy from government intrusions into the home were made in the attacks opposing enactment and favouring repeal of this tax because excise taxes allowed warrantless searches. One of William Pitt's best known quotes comes from one of his speeches against this tax.  “ The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storm may enter; the rain may enter; but the King of England cannot enter -- all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement!

1763 April 8 - Bute forced to resign as Prime Minister 

1763 April 10 - King's Speech before the House of Commons on the closing of Parliament.

8 April 1763 - the Bute Ministry falls over the peace terms of the Treaty of Paris, particularly the return of fishing rights around Canada while the UK returned the French sugar producing Guadalupe.

8 April: George Grenville becomes First Lord of the Treasury.

1763 April 10 - King's Speech before the House of Commons on the closing of Parliament.

1763 – April 23: John Wilkes publishes the now famous “No. 45” of the North Briton, a devastating attack upon ministerial statements in the King’s speech, which Wilkes described as false. The new ministers, anxious to rid themselves of so vituperative a critic, and encouraged by the King’s personal animus against the traducer of his mother, instituted immediate proceedings against him. A general warrant (one that did not name the persons to be arrested) was issued. Forty-eight persons were seized in the search for evidence before Wilkes himself was arrested. He was thrown into the Tower of London, but a week later, to the public delight, Lord Chief Justice Pratt ordered his release on the ground that his arrest was a breach of parliamentary privilege. Wilkes and others instituted actions for trespass against the secretary of state, the Earl of Halifax, and his underlings that led to awards of damages and established the illegality of general warrants. Assuming his immunity, Wilkes prepared to continue his campaign. Asked by a French acquaintance how far liberty of the press extended in England, he said: “I cannot tell, but I am trying to find out.”

1763 23 April - John Wilkes prints North Briton no. 45 taking aim at the King's speech.

1763 30 April - King is incensed.  Has ministers issue General Warrants upon a charge of seditious libel to arrest and search.  Wilkes and 49 others, most innocent, are arrested and their properties broken into and searched.

1763 June (?) - Wilkes v Woods.  Wilkes gives speech on the importance of this case to liberty for all.  He is freed on defense of immunity as a Member of Parliament.  He is awarded damages for the search.  The people of London fete him.  

May: Brutal beginning of Pontiac's War.

4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III

Oct. 1763 – The Royal Proclamation of 1763 by King George forbade colonists from settling new lands west of the Appalachian Mountains

1763 Oct. - A plan is hatched in government to destroy Wilkes. 1)  Govt. forces a printer to print several additional copies of Essay on Woman to give the appearance of publication for public dissemination; 2)  The additional prints contain forged stanzas are added that make the bawdy poem blasphemous.  Wrote Horace Walpole:
The plot so hopefully laid to blow up Wilkes was so gross and scandalous, so revengeful and so totally unconnected with the political conduct of Wilkes, and the instruments so despicable, odious, or in whom any pretentions to decency, sanctimony or faith were so presposterous that, losing all sight of the scandal contained in the poem, the whole world almost united in crying out against the informers.

1763 Nov. 15 -- King's Speech on the opening of Parliament;

1763 15 Nov. -- Earl of Sandwich reads Essay on Woman in House of Lords, to establish it as blasphemous.  The House of Lords eggs him on.  18th century England was amoral at best.

1763 Nov. -- Wilkes flees to France where he spends the next five years on the lamb.  

1763 Nov. 15 -- King's Speech on the opening of Parliament;

1763 - The Wilkes Affair (here, here, Wilkes v. Wood)

1763 – November 15: John Montague, Earl of Sandwich, conspires to oust John Wilkes from Parliament. He reads Wilkes' raunchy Essay on Woman in Parliament. The sight of Lord Sandwich, one of the most prominent whoremongers and vulgarians of the period, abusing the poem for obscenity was so absurd that Lord Le Despenser, no longer a friend to Wilkes by this time, noted that he “never before heard the devil preach a sermon against sin”

December: Conestoga Native Americans killed by the Paxton Boys.

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1764
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Books:  1764 - Everyman his own Physician

1764 – January 19: By order of King George III, John Wilkes is dismissed from Parliament and charged with seditious libel and obscenity. He runs off to France.

Sept. 1764 - Currency Act of 1764 - [note Franklin 1766 testimony before commons that "there is not gold and silver enough in the Colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year."]


5 April 1764 – April: British Parliament passes the Sugar Act (text and analysis) and the Currency Act.  The American Revenue Act (The Sugar Act) replaced the expiring Molasses Act. Lord Grenville instituted new policies to generate revenue by combining new duties on imported goods with strict collection provisions. Tax on French West Indies molasses was actually lowered, but enforcement attempted to end bribes and smuggling.

1764 April 19 - King's Speech Closing Parliament



July 1764 - Horace Walpole writes The Castle of Otranto, (Gutenberg) the first ever story classed as a gothic horror story.

1764 – 4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III

Oct. 16 - William Hogarth dies.



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1765
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Books:
1765 - Reliques of Ancient English Poetry Vol. II, Thomas Percey
1765 - The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole
1765 - The History of Little Goody Two Shoes - John Newbery



1765 10 Jan - King's Speech to Parliament

1765 25 May - King's Speech to Parliament



1765 – March: Stamp Act is passed.

The political dilemma of taxation without representation created division between many of Charles Towne’s powerful families, as members took sides on an increasingly heated debate between England and the Colonies.  However, popular support among the common citizens was overwhelmingly on the side of the dissenters, and those who remained loyal to the King were very much the minority. Effigies were hung from the gallows on Broad Street, labeled "The Devil" and "Distributor of Stampt Paper". A procession through town attracting some two thousand people was followed by a mock funeral for American Liberty. The Loyalists sought to maintain their good reputation as more and more colonists opposed England. When the Stamp Act was finally repealed, Charles Towne was at a fever pitch of excitement, but relations with England had already deteriorated past reconciliation.

24 March 1765 – Quartering Act is passed.

1765 – 4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III

29 May 1765 – Patrick Henry “If this be treason, make the most of it” speech

30 May 1765 – Virginia House of Burgesses passes the Virginia Resolves. (important)

1765  William Blackstone published his first volume of Commentaries on the Laws of England (Guttenberg).

1765 – August 25 Mayhew delivers another rousing sermon on the virtues of liberty and the iniquity of tyranny. The essence of slavery, he announced, consists in subjection to others—“whether many, few, or but one, it matters not.

1765 – August 26 – rioters tear into Lt Gov. Hutchinson's home.

7 Oct. 1765: Stamp Act Congress held in New York City. - Charles Gadsden, Thomas Lynch, John Rutledge attend for SC


November: The Stamp Act due to come into effect.


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1766
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Books:  1766 - The Vicar of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith

1766 14 Jan - King's Speech to Parliament

1766 6 Jun - King's Speech to Parliament

1766 11 Nov. - King's Speech to Parliament

14 Jan. 1766 – William Pitt the Elder's argument in Parliament against the Stamp Act and the right of Parliament to tax the colonies if they are not incorporated into Parliament

1766 – January: The New York Assembly refuses to implement the Quartering Act.

13 Feb. 1766 - Examination of Ben Franklin before the British House of Commons (here and here)

18 March 1766 – The Declaratory Act is passed, The Stamp Act is repealed.

 4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III

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1767
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Books:  1767 - The Good Natur'd Man (Play), Oliver Goldsmith



1767 2 July - King's Speech to Parliament

1767 – March: Boston makes first attempt at a nonimportation agreement.

4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III

29 June 1767 – Townshend Acts (receives Royal assent). These include:

The Revenue Act of 1767

The Indemnity Act

The Commissioners of Customs Act

The Vice Admiralty Court Act

The New York Restraining Act


November: Publication of Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania begins.

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1768
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Books:  1768 - A Sentimental Journey Through France & Italy, Rev. Sterne




1768 10 March - King's Speech to Parliament

1768 8 Nov. - King's Speech to Parliament



1768 – John Wilkes returns from exile in France. He is elected as MP from Middlesex, but then waives his MP Privilege and is ordered jailed for two years on the prior charges. Having made this gesture he wanted a pardon and restitution, and he was ready to bully the ministers if he did not get them. In the following months he published inflammatory squibs against their use of the military against rioters, and he attempted to reopen the whole question of his conviction by a petition to the Commons complaining of illegality in the proceedings against him. The ministers once more secured his expulsion from the Commons on Feb. 3, 1769.

1768 – February: Massachusetts sends circular letter to the other colonial assemblies. March: Second nonimportation agreement is reached. June: Bostonians riot when HMS Romney seizes the Liberty. September: A convention of Massachusetts towns is held.

1768 – May 10 - When Wilkes was imprisoned in the King's Bench Prison on 10 May 1768, his supporters appeared before King's Bench, London, chanting "No liberty, no King." Troops opened fire on the unarmed men, killing seven and wounding 15, an incident that came to be known as the St George's Fields Massacre. The Irish playwright Hugh Kelly, a prominent supporter of the government, defended the right of the army to use force against rioters, which drew the anger of Wilkes' supporters and they began a riot at the Drury Lane Theatre during the performance of Kelly's new play A Word to the Wise forcing it to be abandoned

 4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III

1 Aug 1768 – Boston Non-Importation Agreement

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1769
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1769 – 3 Feb Parliament expells John Wilkes from his seat in Middlesex

1769 – 16 Feb election held for Wilkes' seat. Wilkes is reelected.

1769 – February: Parliament passes resolve calling for harsher treatment of the American colonists.

1769 – 16 March Parliament expells Wilkes again and passed a resolution saying that Wilkes was not eligible for election to Parliament

1769 – April 13 election held for Wilkes' seat. Wilkes is reelected. House intervenes and declared his defeated opponent, Henry Luttrell, the duly elected member

1769 – April Wilkes finally gives up. 1769 formed the Society for the Defence of the Bill of Rights to uphold his cause and pay his debts. During 1770 it became a political machine at his command. Shut out of Parliament he pursued his ambitions and his vendetta with the ministers in the City of London, becoming an alderman in 1769, sheriff in 1771, and lord mayor in 1774. It may be that expediency rather than principle made him embrace the radical program adopted in 1771 by the Bill of Rights men, which called for shorter Parliaments, a wider franchise, and the abolition of aristocratic “pocket boroughs.” In 1771 he successfully exploited the judicial privileges of the city to prevent the arrest for breach of privilege of printers who reported parliamentary debates. As a magistrate of the city he frequently showed himself to be conscientious and enlightened, though he remained characteristically irresponsible in financial matters.  His real achievement lay in extending the liberties of the press. His challenge led to the court findings that general warrants as hitherto used by government against the press were illegal, and he effectively destroyed the power of the Houses of Parliament to exact retribution for the reporting of parliamentary debates.

1769 9 May - King's Speech to Parliament



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1770
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Books  1770 - The Deserted Village, Oliver Goldsmith


1770 9 Jan - King's Speech to Parliament

1770 19 May - King's Speech to Parliament

1770 13 Nov - King's Speech to Parliament



30 Jan. 1770 - Gov. Bull proposes College of Charleston

1770 – March: The Boston Massacre.

April: The Townshend duties are repealed on all goods except tea.

 4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III

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1771
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Books: 1771 - The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker, Tobias Smollett; Encyclopedia Britainica


1771 8 May - King's Speech to Parliament



 4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III

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1772
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1772 21 Jan - King's Speech to Parliament

1772 9 Jun - King's Speech to Parliament

1772 26 Nov - King's Speech to Parliament



1772 – June 9 Gaspée Affair.


1772 – October: Committee of correspondence established in Boston.

 4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III

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1773
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Books:  1773: She Stoops To Conquer, Oliver Goldsmith



1773 1 July - King's Speech to Parliament



1773 – March: Virginia Intercolonial committee of correspondence established. December: The Boston Tea Party.


1773 - Founded, the first black Baptist church in America, Silver Bluff, South Carolina

 4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III



3 Dec. 1773 – Mtg at the Old Exchange Bldg about the tea - The meeting of December 3 led without a break to subsequent meetings and then to the General Committee, the Provincial Congresses, and finally the state General Assembly

16 Dec 1773 – The Boston Tea Party

22 Dec 1773 - Robert Dalway Haliday, the collector of customs for Charlestown, had the tea shipment seized, unloaded, and stored in the warehouse under the Exchange for non-payment of duties. Since the consignees refused to receive the tea, it became liable to seizure by the crown after twenty days in port. 

A second meeting of the citizens on December 17 had resolved that the tea should not be landed, and Captain Curling received several anonymous letters threatening damage to his ship unless it was moved away from the wharf. When Lieutenant Governor William Bull was informed of the threats, he called an emergency meeting of the Council at his home. The sheriff was instructed by the lieutenant governor to assist the collector of customs if necessary, and to arrest anyone who attempted to obstruct the landing of the tea. Accordingly, the customs officers began moving the chests into the Exchange warehouse at sunrise on December 22, and at noon their task was almost finished. The patriots were taken completely by surprise, but they declared themselves satisfied as long as the unpopular merchandise remained under lock and key.

The tea remained in the Exchange until the government of the province fell into the hands of the patriots, and it was sold in 1776 to provide funds for defense against the British.


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1774
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1774 13 Jan - King's Speech to Parliament

1774 22 Jun - King's Speech to Parliament

1774 30 Nov. - King's Speech to Parliament



1774 – March: Boston Port Act passed. May: Massachusetts Government Act passed. September–October: First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia.

1774 – John Wesley publishes an abolitionist tract, Thoughts Upon Slavery


 4 June Birthday Celebration of King George III

News of the Boston Tea Party reached England in January 1774. Parliament responded with a series of acts that were intended to punish Boston for this destruction of private property, restore British authority in Massachusetts, and otherwise reform colonial government in America.

31 March 1774 – Boston Port Act (Intolerable Act 1 of 5)

On April 22, 1774, Prime Minister Lord North defended the program in the House of Commons, saying:
The Americans have tarred and feathered your subjects, plundered your merchants, burnt your ships, denied all obedience to your laws and authority; yet so clement and so long forbearing has our conduct been that it is incumbent on us now to take a different course. Whatever may be the consequences, we must risk something; if we do not, all is over.[2

20 May – 1774 Administration of Justice Act (Intolerable Act 2 of 5)

20 May 1774 – Massachusetts Government Act (Intolerable Act 3 of 5)

2 June 1774 – Quartering Act of 1774 (Intolerable Act 4 of 5)

22 June 1774 – Quebec Act (Intolerable Act 5 of 5)

Effects[edit]

Many colonists saw the Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts) as a violation of their constitutional rights, their natural rights, and their colonial charters. They therefore viewed the acts as a threat to the liberties of all of British America, not just Massachusetts. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, for example, described the acts as "a most wicked System for destroying the liberty of America."[5]

The citizens of Boston not only viewed this as an act of unnecessary and cruel punishment, but the Coercive Acts drew the revolting hate against Britain even further. As a result of the Coercive Acts, even more colonists wanted to go against Britain.[6]

Great Britain hoped that the Coercive Acts would isolate radicals in Massachusetts and cause American colonists to concede the authority of Parliament over their elected assemblies. It was a calculated risk that backfired, however, because the harshness of some of the acts made it difficult for moderates in the colonies to speak in favor of Parliament.[7] The acts promoted sympathy for Massachusetts and encouraged colonists from the otherwise diverse colonies to form the First Continental Congress. The Continental Congress created the Continental Association, an agreement to boycott British goods and, if that did not get the Coercive Acts reversed after a year, to stop exporting goods to Great Britain as well. The Congress also pledged to support Massachusetts in case of attack, which meant that all of the colonies would become involved when the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord.[8]

After the passage of the Boston Port Act, Charleston merchants gave Boston its greatest support, sending them rice, produce and cash.

6 July - uly 6, 1774, 5 delegates from South Carolina were elected to the First Continental Congress, the group responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence: Henry Middleton, John and Edward Rutledge, Thomas Lynch, and Christopher Gadsden. Armed forces were organized, and Gadsden was chosen as the Colonel of the First Regiment. Moultrie was chosen as the Colonel of the Second, and William Thomson of the Third. Elections were held and several Congressmen were re-elected.
5 Sept 1774 – First Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia

20 Oct. 1774 The Association (prohibition of trade with Great Britain)

24 Oct. 1774 - Galloway's Plan rejected

26 Oct. 1774 - First Continental Congress concludes, issuing Declaration & Resolves

"The die is now cast; the colonies must either submit or triumph.... we must not retreat."
King George III, In a letter to Lord North, 1774

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Overview of the War
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Phase I of the War 1775
(Boston) Lexington and Concord, Seige of Boston, Bunker (Breed's Hill) Stalemate; Patriot invasion of Canada; Seige of Boston ends with Washington bringing up cannon to Dorcester Heights; 

Phase II of the War 1776:
  
Phase II of the war began with the first British attempt to invade and control the South. At every stage the British strategy assumed a large base of Loyalist supporters would rally to the King given some military support. In February 1776 Clinton took 2,000 men and a naval squadron to invade North Carolina, which he called off when he learned the Loyalists had been crushed at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge. In June he tried to seize Charleston, South Carolina, the leading port in the South, hoping for a simultaneous rising in South Carolina. It seemed a cheap way of waging the war but it failed as the naval force was defeated by the forts and because no local Loyalists attacked the town from behind. The Loyalists were too poorly organized to be effective, but as late as 1781 senior officials in London, misled by Loyalist exiles, placed their confidence in their rising 

Phase II in the north began with the NY and NJ campaign; NY is captured in severe defeat for Patriots. Washington attacks Brit's in their winter quarters at Trenton (2 battles) and Princeton, Brits withdraw to NY; Patriot fighting withdrawal from Canada

Phase III
1777 - Saratoga Campaign and the Philadelphia Campaign; Valley Forge winter quarters; French Alliance

Phase IV:  World War, Retreat in the North, Raiding and the (2nd) Southern Campaign

1778 – The King's war aims changed from victory at arms to punishment. In London King George III gave up all hope of subduing America by more armies, while Britain had a European war to fight. "It was a joke," he said, "to think of keeping Pennsylvania." There was no hope of recovering New England. But the King was still determined "never to acknowledge the independence of the Americans, and to punish their contumacy by the indefinite prolongation of a war which promised to be eternal."[70] His plan was to keep the 30,000 men garrisoned in New York, Rhode Island, Quebec, and Florida; other forces would attack the French and Spanish in the West Indies. To punish the Americans the King planned to destroy their coasting-trade, bombard their ports; sack and burn towns along the coast (as Benedict Arnold did to New London, Connecticut in 1781), and turn loose the Native Americans to attack civilians in frontier settlements. These operations, the King felt, would inspire the Loyalists; would splinter the Congress; and "would keep the rebels harassed, anxious, and poor, until the day when, by a natural and inevitable process, discontent and disappointment were converted into penitence and remorse" and they would beg to return to his authority. The plan meant destruction for the Loyalists and loyal Native Americans, an indefinite prolongation of a costly war, and the risk of disaster as the French and Spanish assembled an armada to invade the British Isles. The British planned to re-subjugate the rebellious colonies after dealing with the Americans' European allies. An British attempt to capture Savanah, GA was successful at the very end of the year.

1779 – The British withdrew to NY and took up a a defensive position. Punitive raids along the coast. Plans were made for a Southern campaign.

1780 – The Southern Campaign kicks off with a land approach encircling Charleston. Lincoln had expected a sea borne invasion and pulled all 5,000 of his troops into Charleston. When Charleston fell in May, Cornwallis established and manned a series of back country forts by which he hope to neutralize the patriot movement, he put Maj. Ferguson in charges of gaining Loyalist recruits. SC exploded into civil war.

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1775
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Books:  1775 - The Rivals, Richard Sheridan


11 Jan – 17 Jan. 1775 - SC popularly elected Provicial Congress meets in Charleston (in response to the Intolerable Acts?)

23 March – 1775 Patrick Henry's “Give me liberty or give me death”

18 April 1775 – The rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes

19 April 1775 – Lexingon and Concord; British forces retreat into Boston and the Seige of Boston begins. This is Phase I of the Revolutionary War. It lasted until 17 March, 1776.

8 May 1775 - Charleston received word of the confrontation in April at Lexington and Concord

10 May 1775 – Ethan Allen (W/ Benedict Arnold) takes Ft. Ticonderoga

10 May 1775 to Dec. 12, 1776 – The 2nd Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia

1775 26 May - King's Speech to Parliament

1775 30 Oct. - King's Speech to Parliament (Early Session)

1 June – 22 June 1775: Second Meeting of the SC Provicial Congress. It was originally scheduled for 20 June, but was called earlier after news of Lexingon and Concord

15 June 1775 – George Washington named CINC, Continental Army

17 June 1775 – Battle of Bunker (Breeds) Hill

18 June 1775 – Lord William Campbell replaces Lord Montagu as Governor of SC

3 July 1775 – Washinton arrives to take command of the “Continental Army”

5 July 1775 – Congress votes to authorize the sending of the Olive Branch Petition to King George III.

23 Aug 1775 – King George receives the Olive Branch Petition on 22 Aug. and sets it aside unread. The next day, he issues a proclamation declaring the colonies in open rebellion. The King's refusal to negotiate and his decision to seek submission by force strengthened the patriot cause.

15 Sep 1775 – Patriots under seize Ft. Johnson, the principal fortification overlooking Charleston Harbor.

15 Sep 1775 – SC Royal Governor dissolves the Provincial Assembly, then flees Charleston to the Royal Navy Sloop of war HMS Tamar. This left the Council of Safety in control of the city.

26 Oct. 1775– King George III speech to Parliament

Nov – Dec 1775 – The Snow Campaign in SC ends in Patriot victory, stopping any large scale loyalist activity in the SC back country until the 1779 invasion.

10 Nov. 1775 - Patriots under siege at Ninety Six, SC

10 Nov. 1775 - Lord Germain appointed Sec. Of State for America in Lord North's cabinet

13 Nov. 1775 - Patriots under Montgomery occupy Montreal

Dec. 11 1775 - Patriots rout Lyalists and burn Norfolk

Dec. 22 1775 - Col. Thomson with 1,500 rangers and militia capture Loyalists at Great Canebrake, SC
23 Dec 1775 – The Snow Campaign in SC - ends Loyalist actions in the back country until late 1778 and the fall of Savanah. Note that the loyalists who escaped, many made their way to Britain's holdings in East Florida and would later take part in the capture of Savanah

31 Dec. 1775 - Brits successfully defend Quebec against Benedict Arnold

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1776
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Books:  1776 - The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith


15 Jan 1776 - Thomas Paine's “Common Sense” is first published

27 Feb. 1776 - Patriots win at Moore's Creek Bridge, NC – ends the loyalist threat in NC – ENDS FIRST ATTEMPT AT A SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN – Clinton was sailing to meet up with the loyalists – most of whom were Scots led by a Jacobite.
3 March 1776 – Continental fleet captures New Providence Island in the Bahamas

On March 26, 1776, South Carolina seceded from Great Britain, declaring its independence on the steps of the Exchange building. John Rutledge addressed both houses of the legislature, saying, "The eyes of Europe, nay of the whole world, are on America… the eyes of every other Colony are on this… a Colony, whose reputation for generosity and magnanimity is universally acknowledged. I trust, therefore, that there will be no civil discord here, and that the only strife amongst brethren will be, who shall do most to serve, and to save, an oppressed and injured country."

17 March 1776 – Brits forced to evacuate Boston; British Navy moves to Halifax, Canada; 23 year old Benjamin Thompson moves to Britain and begins work for Lord Germain, where he is believed to have begun an affair with Germain and have been instrumental in conceiving the Southern Strategy.

1776 23 May - King's Speech to Parliament

1776 31 Oct. - King's Speech to Parliament



8 June 1776 – Patriots fail to take Three Rivers, Quebec

12 June 1776 – The Virginia Declaration of Rights

28 June 1776 – British attack on Sullivan's Island, SC fails and the British Navy is decisively defeated at Fort Moultrie

29 June 1776 – First Virginia Constitution
1 July 1776 – At the instigation of British agents, the Cherokee attack along the entire southern frontier

1 July 1776 – Brits first attempt to take Charleston ends when they are unable to reduce Ft. Moultrie.

1 July 1776 – Congress debates and revises The Declaration of Independence
1776 July 4 - Declaration of Independence

8 July 1776 – public readings of the Delararation of Independence

15 July 1776 - Lyndley's Fort, SC, Patriots fend off attack by Indians and Tories

1 Aug 1776 – Patriots drive off Cherokees who had ambushed them at Seneca, SC

10 Aug 1776 – Andrew Pickens defeats the Cherokees at Tugaloo River, SC

11 Aug 1776 – Pickens detachment surrounded by 185 Cherokee Indians forms a ring and fires outward in the Ring Fight

12 Aug 1776 – Col. Williams and Andrew Pickens burn Tamassy, a Cherokee town

27 Aug. 1776 - British defeat Washington in NY, he escapes with the army at night

15 Sep 1776 – British occupy NYC. It will be their headquarters until the end of the war

16 Sep 1776 - Generals George Washington, Nathanael Greene, and Israel Putnam triumphantly hold their ground at the Battle of Harlem Heights

19 Sep 1776 – Col. Williams patriots attacked by the Cherokee at Coweecho River, NC

11 Oct. 1776 - Benedict Arnold defeated at the Battle of Valcour Island (Lake Champlain), but delayed British advance

28 Oct 1776 – The Americans retreat from White Plains, New York. British casualties (~300) higher than American (~200)

16 Nov. 1776 - The Hessians capture Ft. Washington, NY

20 Nov. 1776 - Cornwallis captures Ft. Lee from Nathanael Greene

12 Dec. 1776 - 2nd Continental Congress ends in Philadelphia

Dec. 1776 – Ben Franklin dispatched to France

Dec 19, 1776 – Thomas Paine Summer Soldier

20 Dec. 1776 - 4 March 1777 - 2nd Continental Congress reconvenes in Baltimore

26 Dec. 1776 - Washington crosses the Delaware and captures Trenton from the Hessians
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1777
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Books:  1777 - School for Scandal, Richard Sheridan

3 Jan 1777 – Washington wins Princeton

6 Jan – 28 May 1777 – Washington winters in Morristown, NJ

4 March 1777 - 2nd Continental Congress ends its session in Baltimore

5 March – 18 Sep 1777 - 2nd Continental Congress reconvenes in Philadelphia

1777 6 June - King's Speech to Parliament

1777 20 Nov. - King's Speech to Parliament

27 April 1777 – Benedict Aronold's troops force a British retreat at Ridgefield, Connecticut

20 May 1777 - Treaty of DeWitt's Corner, SC: Cherokees lose most of their land east of the mountains

14 June 1777 – Flag Resolution

5 July 1777 – Brits retake Ft. Ticonderoga

27 July 1777 – Lafayette arrives in Philadelphia

6 Aug 1777 – Brits, with Iroquois support, force the patriots back at Oriskany, NY, but then have to evacuate

16 Aug 1777 – Patriot Militia under General Stark victorious at the Battle of Bennington, VT (actually fought in Walloomsac, New York, several miles to the west)

23 Aug 1777 - British withdraw from Fort Stanwix, NY, upon hearing of Benedict Arnold's approach

25 Aug. 1777 - Brits win Battle of Brandywine, Pennsylvania

18 Sep 1777 - 2nd Continental Congress ends it session in Philadelphia
19 Sep 1777 – Burgoyne wins a pyrich victory at Freeman's Farm, NY (Part of Battles of Saratoga)

21 Sep 1777 – Paoli Massacre,

26 Sep 1777 – British under Howe occupy Philadelphia

27 Sep 1777 - 2nd Continental Congress reconvenes for a single day in Lancaster, PA

30 Sep 1777 – June 27, 1778 - 2nd Continental Congress reconvenes in York, PA

4 Oct 1777 – Brits win the Battle of Germantown

7 Oct. 1777 - Burgoyne loses the Battle at Bemis Heights (Part of Battles of Saratoga)

17 Oct 1777 – Burgoyne surrenders to Gen. Gates at Saratoga, NY

22 Oct. 1777 - Hessian attack on Ft. Mercer, NJ repulsed

15 Nov. 1777 - 2nd Continental Congress approves the Article of Confederation and sends them to the Colonial Assemblies for approval Va ratified first on 16 Dec. 1777; Maryland was the last on 2 Feb. 1781

16 Nov. 1777 - Brits capture Ft. Mifflin, Penn.

5 Dec. 1777 - Americans defeat Brits at Whitemarsh, PA

19 Dec. 1777 - Washington moves his army to winter quarters at Valley Forge
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1778
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Books:  1778 - Evelina, Fanny Burney

Note that for much of the year, the SC militia and the “Southern Command” of the Continental Army were in Georgia, defending against Loyalist and British incurstions coming from East Florida.

13 January 1778 – huge fire in Charleston

27 Jan 78 – Attempt to drive off British blockade ends in disaster

6 Feb. 1778 - US and France sign The French Alliance

23 Feb. 1778 – Baron Friedrich von Steuben reports to Gen. Washington at Valley Forge; for the next 3+ months, he would train a cadre which then trained the rest of the army in Prussian military tactics. He also reformed the camp so that it was more orderly and, importantly, hygenic.

7 March 1778 – Gen Howe replaced by Gen. Henry Clinton

March 1778 - King George III approved the formation and dispatch of the Carlisle Peace Commission to North America

22 April 1778 - Congress resolved that any individual or group that came to an agreement with the Carlisle Commission was an enemy of the United States

20 May 1778 – Battle of Barren Hill, Pennsylvania. Lafayette with 500 men and about 50 Oneida Indians successfully evade British onslaught

18 June 1778 – British abandon Philadelphia and return to NY – loss of Burgoyne's Army, entry of the French, and a change in strategy to the South
19 June 1778 – Washington's army leaves Valley Forge

1778 June - King's Speech to Parliament

1778 25 Nov. - King's Speech to Parliament

27 June 1778 - 2nd Continental Congress ends its session in York, PA

28 June 1778 – The Battle of Monmouth Court House Ends in a draw

2 July 1778 – 1 March 1781 - 2nd Continental Congress reconvenes in Philadelphia, PA
4 July 1778 – George Rogers Clark captures Kaskaskia, a French village south of St. Louis

8 Aug 1778 – French and American forces besiege Newport, RI

29 Dec 1778 – Redcoats occupy Savannah


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1779
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3 Feb 1779 – Maj Gen. Moultrie defeats Brits at Port Royal Island, SC

14 Feb 1779 - Patriots Andrew Pickens and Elijah Clarke beat Loyalists at Kettle Creek, GA

3 March 1779 - British Lt. Col. Jacques Marcus Prevost defeats Americans under Gen. John Ashe at Brier Creek, GA

28 April 1779 – Gen. Prevost crosses with his Army into SC, looking to march on Charleston; he marches through the richest area of plantations, plundering and destroying without regard to loyalist or patriot.

11 May 1779 - Maj. General Augustin Prévost (brother of Jacques, see above) breaks his siege when American forces under Maj. Gen. Lincoln approaches

1779 3 July - King's Speech to Parliament

1779 25 Nov. - King's Speech to Parliament

20 June 1779 – Battle of Stono River, SC, Maj. Gen. Lincoln inflicts extensive British casualties in indecisive battle

21 June 1779 – Spain declares war on Great Britain

8 July 1779 – Fairfield CT buned by the British

11 July 1779 – Norwalk, CT burned by the British

15 July 1779 – Patriot Mad Anthony Wayne captures Stony Point, NY

19 Aug 1779 – Light Horse Harry Lee attacks Paulus Hook, NJ

29 Aug 1779 – Newton, NY, after two massacres, Americans burn Indian Villages

23 Sep 1779 – John Paul Jones, aboard the Bonhomme Richard, captures British man-of-war Serapis near English coast

28 Sep 1779 – The Tappan Massacre: 'No Flint' Grey kills 30 Americans by bayonet

9 Oct 1779 – American attempt to recapture Savannah, GA fails

1 Nov 1779 – 23 June 1780 - Washington's 2nd winter at Morristown, NJ, during the harshest winter of the 18th century
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1780
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1 April 1780 – Siege of Charleston begins

12 May 1780 – Siege of Charleston ends when Maj Gen Lincoln surrenders with 5,000 soldiers

Sir Henry Clinton landed a large army on John’s Island and marched up James Island to reach the mainland. Meanwhile, Admiral Arbuthnot closed on the bar with a fleet of ships. Governor Rutledge and a few key members of his council managed to get out of the city before it fell to the British, which enabled them to maintain a nucleus of government. Before leaving, Rutledge appointed Christopher Gadsden as acting Lieutenant Governor. The Siege of Charleston is widely considered the greatest American defeat of the Revolution. It began on April 13, 1780 with several days of bombardment; during this time, homes and buildings were damaged. A statue of William Pitt, a British politician who was largely responsible for the repeal of the 1765 Stamp Act, lost his right arm to a British shell during the bombardment. When Charles Towne surrendered to the British nearly a month later, chaos ensued in the city. Mansions were commandeered to house British Generals, and their owners made to be unwilling hosts. Many citizens were arrested in their homes and put on parole, including Gadsden, Edward Rutledge, John Edwards, Thomas Savage, and David Ramsay. Many of them were imprisoned in the basement of the magnificent Exchange building, described by Moultrie as a “damp unwholesome place of sickness and death.” British occupiers took what they wanted from homes and citizens including horses, valuables, and thousands of slaves. - See more at: http://www.premierecharleston.com/charleston-article-details.cfm?ArticleID=47#sthash.4gSOnTtM.dpuf

29 May 1780 – Waxhaws Massacre commanded by Banastre Tarelton

1780 June 2 - 7 The Gordon Riots

1780 July 8 - King's Speech to Parliament

1780 Nov. 1 - King's Speech to Parliament


20 June 1780 – Patriots rout Tories at Ramseur's Mill, NC

11 July 1780 – French arrive at Newport, RI to aid the Americans

12 July 1780 - Patriot militia destroys Tory militia under Huck at The Battle of Williamson's Plantation near Bratton, SC. This was battle in which Bratton's husband took part. Detailed description at Huck's Defeat

6 Aug 1780 – Patriots defeat Tories at Hanging Rock, SC

16 Aug 1780 – Battle of Camden, SC, Cornwallis routes Gen. Gates; Gen de Kalb fights and dies with honor

17 Aug 1780 – Battle of Fishing Creek, SC – Tarelton massacres Sumter's troops
19 Aug 1780 – Battle of Musgrove Mill, SC - 1st time militia defeats British regulars in SC

23 Sep 1780 - John André arrested, leading to the exposure of Benedict Arnold's plans to cede West Point to the British

7 Oct. 1780 - Battle of Kings Mountain, SC. battle lasts 65 minutes. American troops led by Isaac Shelby and John Sevier defeat Maj. Patrick Ferguson and one-third of General Cornwallis's army

14 Oct. 1780 - Washington names the reformed Quaker Nathanael Greene to command the Southern Army
2 Dec. 1780 - Greene joined the southern army at Charlotte. His force numbered 2,307 men. Of those present, 1,482 were fit for duty. Only 800 of the men were properly clothed and equipped. The core of Greene’s army was the 949 remaining Maryland and Delaware Continentals that Baron Johannes de Kalb had marched south from Morristown, New Jersey seven months earlier.
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1781
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1 Jan. 1781 - Mutiny of unpaid Pennsylvania soldiers

17 Jan. 1781 - Daniel Morgan defeats Tarleton at Cowpens, SC

1 March 1781 – Maryland delegates formally sign the Articles of Confederation. The 2nd Continental Congress is officially disolved and merely the name changed to The Congress of the Confederation. It would last until 4 March 1789 when it was superceded by the U.S. Congress following the final adoption of the Constitution

15 March 1781 – Guilford Courthouse, NC Cornwallis wins a pyrrich victory; Cornwallis begins a march to York Town, seeking to open a base of operations in the Chesapeake.

15 - 23 April 1781 – Siege of Ft. Watson by Lee and Marion

25 April 1781 - Greene defeated at Hobkirk's Hill, SC

15 May 1781 - British Major Andrew Maxwell cedes Fort Granby, SC to patriot Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee

On May 21, Washington and Rochambeau met at Wethersfield, Connecticut, to discuss strategy. Washington argued for an attack on New York City. Rochambeau urged an operation against the forces of Phillips and Arnold in Virginia. In the end, Rochambeau agreed to cooperate with Washington against Clinton. He did not at first tell Washington that he had received word that Admiral de Grasse had sailed from France, bound for the West Indies. Rochambeau secretly urged the Admiral to sail to the Chesapeake.

6 June 1781 – Americans recapture Augusta, GA

18 June 1781 – British hold off Americans at Ninety Six, SC

6 July 1781 – Mad Anthony Wayne repulsed at Green Springs Farm, VA

1781 July 18 - King's Speech to Parliament

1781 Nov. 27 - King's Speech to Parliament




21 Aug 1781 – Washington and Rochambeau begin their march out of NY towards Yorktown.

8 Sep 1781 – Gen. Greene defeated at Eutaw Springs, SC in the last engaged the last remaining contingent of British forces in the southern backcountry at the Battle of Eutaw Springs. The brits then withdrew to Charleston. In 13 months, . In a period of British forces in the south had gone from what appeared to be complete mastery of the territory to complete abandonment of it.

15 Sep 1781 – French fleet drives naval force from the Chesapeake Bay
19 Oct. 1781 - Cornwallis surrounded on Land and sea by Americans and French, surrenders at Yorktown, VA

Nov. - Dec. 1781 – Bloody Bill Cunningham's cuts a bloody trail across SC.
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1782
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20 March 1782 – Lord North resigns as Prime Minister

11 July 1782 – British evacuate Savannah, GA

1782 July 11 - King's Speech to Parliament

1782 Dec. 5 - King's Speech to Parliament

30 Nov. 1782 - Britain and the U.S. sign preliminary articles of peace

14 Dec. 1782 - Britain evacuates Charleston, SC

British forces finally withdrew from the city, taking with them unimaginable amounts of stolen goods. One historian estimates that the British made off with over 500 rice barrels full of stolen valuables, including the bells from St. Michael’s. As the British moved out, the Continentals moved in and were greeted by balconies, doors, and windows filled with joyous, patriotic citizens. Some British loyalists had their estates or a percentage of their property taken away, while others simply fell out of favor or lost their influential positions in society. In time all but the worst offenders were allowed to return, and slowly, life in Charles Towne began to return to normal. The city worked to repair the damage to both property and society resulting from the Siege. - See more at: http://www.premierecharleston.com/charleston-article-details.cfm?ArticleID=47#sthash.4gSOnTtM.dpuf


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1783
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19 April – Congress ratifies the preliminary Peace Treaty

1783 July 16 - King's Speech to Parliament

3 Sep – The triparty Treaty of Paris is signed

25 Nov. - last of the British troops, those occupying NYC, leave

23 Dec – Washington resigns as Commander in Chief


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1784
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1785
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1786
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September 14 Annapolis Convention: Call for a Grand Convention
December 30 Pennsylvania selects eight delegates



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1787
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January 6 North Carolina selects five delegates

January 17 New Hampshire selects four delegates

February 3 Delaware selects five delegates

February 4 Shay's Rebellion ends

February 10 Georgia selects four delegates

February 21 Congress approves Constitutional Convention

February 28 New York selects three delegates

March 8 South Carolina selects four delegates

March 10 Massachusetts selects four delegates

March 14 Rhode Island declines to send delegates

May 5 Rhode Island again declines to send delegates

May 14 Constitutional Convention supposed to begin but lacks necessary quorum

May 21 Connecticut selects three delegates

May 25 Constitutional Convention meets quorum requirement

May 29 Virginia Plan introduced

June 13 Virginia Plan amended

June 15 New Jersey Plan introduced

June 16 Rhode Island again declines to send delegates

June 19 New Jersey Plan rejected

July 13 Northwest Ordinance adopted

July 16 Connecticut Compromise accepted

July 26 Constitutional Convention adjourns

August 6 Constitutional Convention reconvenes: Committee of Detail Report

September 12 Committee of Style Report: final draft of Constitution

September 17 Constitution signed; U.S. Constitution signed at the end of the Convention

September 20 Confederation Congress reads Constitution

September 26-28 Confederation Congress debates Constitution

September 28 Call for state ratifying conventions by Confederation Congress

September 28 Pennsylvania calls for state convention

October 17 Connecticut calls for state convention

October 25 Massachusetts calls for state convention

October 26 Georgia calls for state convention

October 31 Virginia calls for state convention

November 1 New Jersey calls for state convention

November 3 Rhode Island Rejects Call for a State Ratifying Convention

November 6 Pennsylvania elects 69 delegates

November 10 Delaware calls for state convention

November 12 Connecticut elects 168 delegates

November 19-January 7 Massachusetts elects 355 delegates

November 20-December 2 Pennsylvania ratifying convention meets

November 26 Delaware elects 30 delegates

November 27 Maryland calls for state convention

November 27-December 1 New Jersey elects 38 delegates

December 3-7 Delaware ratifying convention meets

December 4-5 Georgia elects 26 delegates

December 6 North Carolina calls for state convention

December 7 Delaware ratifies 30-0

December 11-20 New Jersey ratifying convention meets

December 12 Pennsylvania ratifies 46-23

December 14 New Hampshire calls for state convention

December 18 New Jersey ratifies 38-0

December 25-January 5 Georgia ratifying convention meets

December 31 Georgia ratifies 26-0

December 31 New Hampshire elects 110 delegates
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1788
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January 3-9 Connecticut ratifying convention meets
February 1 New York calls for state convention (Assembly)(Senate)
March 24 Rhode Island rejects call for a state ratifying convention
March 28-29 North Carolina elects 268 delegates
April 7 Maryland elects 76 delegates
April 11-12 South Carolina elects 222 delegates
April 29-May 3 New York elects 67 delegates
Sept. 13 Congress prepares for a new government
November 30 North Carolina calls for a second state convention




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1789
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January 7 Presidential electors chosen
February 4 Election of Senators, Representatives, and President
March 4 - U.S. govt. begins operation
April 1 House organized
April 6 Senate organized
April 30 First Inaugural Address of George Washington
June 8 - Madison introduces  12¶ Bill of Rights in House
August 21-22 North Carolina elects 271 delegates to second state convention
August 24 House passes 17 Amendments to the Constitution
September 9 Senate passes 12 Amendments to the Constitution
September 24 Judiciary Act passed by Congress
September 25 Congress sends 12 Amendments to the state legislatures for ratification
October 10 Last business under Articles of Confederation
December 23 Maryland cedes ten square miles for a federal city

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1790
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January 17 Rhode Island calls for state convention to ratify Constitution
February 8 Rhode Island elects delegates to ratifying convention
March 1-6 Rhode Island ratifying convention: first session
May 26-29 Rhode Island ratifying convention: second session
June 11 Rhode Island adopts the Bill of Rights



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1791
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March 3 Vermont admitted to the United States
November 3 Vermont adopts the Bill of Rights

1791 15 Dec. - 3-12 of the Bill of Rights are Ratified by 9 states and become law




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