The following is a general overview of what happened when in George Borrow’s life, together with what was going on elsewhere. We also have a skeletal timeline for Kensington/Brompton and hope to add others before the end of 2012.
Year |
George Borrow |
Great Britain |
Other |
1803 |
Born at East Dereham |
Suppression of rebellion in Ireland |
Wellesley defeats Indians in Maratha War |
1804 |
Regiment was at Coxheath Camp, Kent, and Silver Hill Barracks, Sussex (1804-5) |
First Corn Law |
Trevithick’s first steam rail locomotive |
1805 |
|
|
Nelson beats France and Spain at Battle of Cape Trafalgar |
1806 |
Battle, Blatchington, Hastings, Pett Camp, Winchelsea, Rye, Hythe, Sandgate, and Dover |
|
Portugal occupied by France |
1807 |
Regiment in and about Canterbury |
Prohibition of shipment of slaves in British ships or to British colonies |
|
1808 |
Regiment in Chelmsford and Colchester (1808-9) |
|
Spanish uprising against French; Wellesley lands in Lisbon |
1809 |
Back at East Derehem |
Cobbett imprisoned for criticising flogging in the army |
|
1810 |
Norman Cross (1810-11) |
|
|
1811 |
Back at East Dereham |
George III insane; Luddites smash spinning and weaving machinery |
|
1812 |
Slow march North |
War of 1812 |
Napoleon’s Russian campaign |
1813 |
Edinburgh Castle |
|
English East India company loses monopoly |
1814 |
Return to Norwich, Regiment mustered out |
|
Wellington invades France, Napoleon exiled to Elba |
1815 |
West Norfolk Militia re-embodied, then Ireland |
|
Napoleon defeated at Waterloo, exilec to St. Helena |
1816 |
Templemore, Ireland then Norwich and regiment mustered out, settle at Willow Lane, George goes to Norwich Grammar School (1816- |
|
British museum acquires Elgin Marbles |
1817 |
|
Habeas Corpus suspended |
|
1818 |
Runs away, caught, flogged in front of school (on back of James Martineau) |
|
|
1819 |
Captain Borrow retires, George articled to Messrs. Simpson and Rackhamn |
Peterloo massacre |
|
1820 |
William Taylor |
George IV becomes king |
Scott’s Ivanhoe, first cheap New Testament published in Spanish in Spain |
1821 |
John Borrow leaves for London |
Famine in Ireland |
Mexico and Peru gain independence; Napoleon dies on St. Helena |
1822 |
Captain Borrow makes last will, asks George Borrow what he intends to do with his life |
|
First Iron Steamship sails |
1823 |
Murder of William Ware by John Thurtell |
Daniel O’Connell forms Catholic Association |
|
1824 |
Death of Captain Borrow, end of articles, George goes to London, Sir Richard Phillips etc. |
|
|
1825 |
Celebrated trials published, Faustus published, “Lavengro mumping” |
|
Stockton Darlington railway |
1826 |
Romantic Ballads published |
|
|
1827 |
Marshland Shales at Tombland fair |
|
joint Anglo-French fleet defeats Turks at Navarino |
1828 |
|
|
Duke of Wellington becomes Prime Minister |
1829 |
Sometimes in London, developing schemes with John Bowring |
Catholic Emancipation; Police founded |
Stephenson’s Rocket |
1830 |
Battle of John Borrow’s back-pay (1830-32) |
Lord Grey PM, William IV King |
France takes Algeria |
1831 |
|
Cholera epidemic |
Darwin begins Beagle voyage |
1832 |
Presents Mary Clarke translation of Bluebeard, walked to London for Bible Society interview |
Reform act |
|
1833 |
Taken on by Bible Society, sent to Russia |
|
Abolition of slavery throughout Empire |
1834 |
In St. Petersburgh printing Manchu scriptures |
Workhouses established |
|
1835 |
Targum published, return to England, then to Portugal |
|
Railway Boom |
1836 |
Spain (1836-40) |
|
|
1837 |
|
Queen Victoria starts reign June 20th |
Electric Telegraph invented. Euston becomes London’s first railway station |
1838 |
|
|
|
1839 |
|
Anti-Corn law, Chartists |
First Opium war in China (1839-42) |
1840 |
Return to England, marries Mary Clarke, settles at Oulton |
Victoria marries Albert, first postage stamps |
First bicycle |
1841 |
Zincali published |
Peel PM |
Livingstone arrives in Africa |
1842 |
Bible in Spain published (December) |
Income tax reintroduced |
Kabul garrison annihilated in Khyber pass, Brooke made Rajah of Sarawak |
1843 |
Bible in Spain runaway success, George Borrow famous |
|
Brunel’s SS. Great Britain |
1844 |
Tour of the East (Paris, Vienna, Hungry, Constantinople, etc.) |
Factory acts |
|
1845 |
Fails to write acceptable review to Ford’s Hand-book |
Irish potato famine (1845-48) |
Richard Ford’s Hand-book for Travellers in Spain published |
1846 |
Henrietta starts to stay at Bury St. Edmunds (the Harvey’s) |
Corn Laws repealed |
|
1847 |
Dr. Hake, the Magistracy of Oulton, affair of Dr. Bowring |
|
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights |
1848 |
Only photograph of George Borrow taken in Lucy Brightwell’s garden, Borrow ill |
Major Chartist rally in Kennington Park, London |
John Bowring appointed to Canton consulship |
1849 |
Ann Borrow leaves Willow lane to live at Oulton |
Navigation Acts repealed |
California Gold Rush |
1850 |
|
Irish Franchise Act |
|
1851 |
Lavengro published, Borrows at Yarmouth |
Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace |
|
1852 |
Writing Romany Rye |
Aberdeen PM |
|
1853 |
Rescues boat crew at Yarmouth, Cornish Tour |
|
|
1854 |
First Welsh Tour (i.e. Wild Wales) |
|
Crimean War (1854-56) |
1855 |
Manx Tour |
Palmerston PM |
|
1856 |
Lodging at Camperdown Pace, Yarmouth |
|
|
1857 |
Romany Rye published, Second Welsh Tour |
|
Indian Mutiny (1857-58) |
1858 |
Ann Borrow dies, tour of Scotland |
|
East India Company dissolved |
1859 |
Tour of Ireland |
Darwin’s Origin of Species |
|
1860 |
Move to 22 Hereford Square, Brompton, London (1860-1874) |
|
|
1861 |
Welsh and Their Literature published |
Death of Prince Albert |
American Civil War (1861-65) |
1862 |
Wild Wales published, starts to publish translations in “Once a Week” |
|
|
1863 |
|
|
Emancipation of US slaves |
1864 |
|
|
|
1865 |
Henrietta marries William MacOubrey, moves to Ireland |
Russell PM |
Lincoln assassinated |
1866 |
Visit to Ireland to see Henrietta, tour of Scotland and Ireland |
Derby PM |
Nobel invents dynamite; Mendel published his research into Genetics |
1867 |
George and Mary at Bognor |
Second Reform Act |
|
1868 |
Trouble with Oulton estate, Mary has to attend in person |
Gladstone PM, TUC formed |
Traffic signal in London |
1869 |
Mary Borrow dies |
|
Suez Canal opened |
1870 |
Charles Leyland writes to Borrow |
Elementary education act |
|
1871 |
Working on second edition of Gypsy Luke for Bible Society, meets Charles Leyland |
Trade Unions become legal |
Pullman introduces the Sleeper car |
1872 |
Second edition of Gypsy Luke published |
Secret ballot introduced |
Earl Mayo, Viceroy of India is murdered |
1873 |
Working on Lavo-Lil |
|
Charles Leyland’s English Gypsies published |
1874 |
Lavo-Lil published, Borrow withdraws to Oulton “to die” |
Disraeli forms government |
|
1875 |
Lucy Brightwell dies |
Britain buys Suez canal shares |
Bell patents telephone |
1876 |
|
Victoria becomes Empress of India |
Battle of Little Bighorn |
1877 |
|
|
|
1878 |
Henrietta and William MacOubrey move back to Oulton |
The Christian Mission changes its name to The Salvation Army |
Congress of Berlin settles Balkan crisis |
1879 |
George “unable to walk as far as the white gate” |
|
Zulu war |
1880 |
George Borrow makes last Will and Testament |
Gladstone’s Midlothian campaign |
First boer war (1880-81) |
1881 |
George Borrow dies |
Irish land and coercion acts |
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