# 1799 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1799 in Great Britain.

## Incumbents

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

## Events

* 9 January – Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces an income tax of two shillings to the pound to raise funds for Great Britain's war effort in the French Revolutionary Wars.
* 20 March–21 May – British troops lend aid to the Ottoman defenders against the French Siege of Acre.
* 4 May – Battle of Seringapatam: British forces defeat the Sultan of Mysore; his kingdom is divided between the Honourable East India Company and Hyderabad.
* 1 July – Britain allies with Russia, Austria, Portugal, Naples, and the Ottoman Empire against France.
* 12 July – Parliament passes:
** The Combination Act to outlaw trade unions.
** Unlawful Societies Act to outlaw clandestine radical societies and require a printer's imprint on all published material.
* 15–19 August – A combined French and Spanish fleet stands off the south west coast of England.
* 27 August – Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland: Britain and Russia send an expedition to the Batavian Republic.
* 30 August – Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland: Vlieter Incident – A squadron of the Batavian Republic's navy, commanded by Rear-Admiral Samuel Story, surrenders to the British Royal Navy under Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell near Wieringen without joining action.
* 6 October – Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland: Battle of Castricum – Franco-Dutch forces defeat the Russo-British expedition force.
* 9 October – Sinking of HMS Lutine (1779), a famous treasure wreck, in the West Frisian Islands.
* 16 October – Action of 16 October 1799: A Spanish treasure convoy worth more than £600,000 is captured by the Royal Navy off Vigo.
* 18 October – Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland: Capitulation of Anglo-Russian expedition forces in North Holland.
* 23 October – The River Severn ferry at The Tuckies, Jackfield, Shropshire capsizes and 28 workers from Coalport China Works are drowned.
* 5 November – HMS Sceptre is wrecked in a storm in Table Bay, South Africa, with the loss of 349 and 41 survivors.
* The Religious Tract Society is established as an evangelical publisher in Paternoster Row, London; as The Lutterworth Press the imprint continues into the 21st century.

### Ongoing

* Anglo-Spanish War, 1796–1808
* French Revolutionary Wars, War of the Second Coalition

## Births

* January – James Meadows Rendel, civil engineer (died 1856)
* 12 January – Priscilla Susan Bury, botanist (died 1872)
* 8 February – John Lindley, botanist (died 1865)
* 16 March – Anna Atkins, botanist and photographer (died 1871)
* 29 March – Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, Prime Minister (died 1869)
* 17 April – Eliza Acton, cookery writer (died 1859)
* 13 May – Catherine Gore, author (died 1861)
* 21 May – Mary Anning, paleontologist (died 1847)
* 23 May – Thomas Hood, poet (died 1845)
* 18 June – William Lassell, astronomer (died 1880)
* 25 June – David Douglas, Scottish botanist (died 1834 in Hawaii)
* 8 September – James Bowman Lindsay, Scottish inventor (died 1862)
* 21 December – Ignatius Spencer, priest (died 1864)
* James Townsend Saward, barrister and forger (date of death unknown)
* Approximate date – William Simson, Scottish-born painter (died 1847)

## Deaths

* 26 January – Gabriel Christie, Scottish-born general and settler in Montreal (born 1722)
* 26 May – James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, Scottish judge and comparative linguist (born 1714)
* 14 June – Sir Patrick Warrender, Scottish soldier and politician (born 1731)
* 4 August – John Bacon, sculptor (born 1740)
* 5 August – Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, admiral (born 1726)
* 25 August – John Arnold, watchmaker (born 1736)
* 3 September – William Thomas, academic and Chancellor of Llandaff Cathedral (born 1726)
* 6 October – William Withering, physician (born 1741)
* 4 November – Josiah Tucker, economist (born 1713)