Fort William

View of Fort William done after the painting in the Court Room of the Company's house in Leaden Hall Street, by Elisha Kirkall, 1735

Fashion

1730-1735
In 1734 women's stays were worn extremely low. The bodies of gowns were laced up the front over a stomacher, or else stays were worn outside; but in general there is little change in feminine costume since the last decade.
Men's costume also remained almost static, although the bag-wig was steadily ousting more elaborate types of coiffure. The turned back cuffs, frequently of contrasting colour to that of the coat, were cut in "pagoda" fashion, that is to say, narrow at the wrist and expanding sharply along the forearm. The name is a sufficient indication of the slight Oriental influence which made itself felt throughout the eighteenth century, not, however, so much affecting the shape of clothes as their colour, material, and decoration.
In France about 1730 men began to fasten their breeches at the knee over the stockings, but the older mode persisted among Englishmen for some years longer. The winter of 1719 was one of exceptional severity, and fine gentlemen, finding their thin stockings an insufficient protection against the cold, wore for a few months a kind of military gaiter. Men of the lower classes, with their grey or black woollen stockings, were better protected and had no need to adopt this short-lived fashion.
The fashion of leaving the waistcoat open in front in order to display the linen has been already mentioned. The custom reached its extreme in the early thirties. Sometimes, about a foot of frilled shirt was shown - a fashion to which the modern dress shirt and low-cut waistcoat can be ultimately traced. Women's riding-habits affected, as so often, a masculine mode, the waistcoat being shorter but of the same pattern, and the hat smaller but similar in shape to those worn by men.
Men's pockets were very ample and the folds of the long coat made it possible to carry comparatively bulky objects in them without spoiling their shape. Some fashionable gentlemen would carry a whole battery of snuff-boxes in the skirts of their coats.

1735-1740
The arrival of Queen Caroline in England (for previously the Royal Court had remained in Hanover) gave a certain impulse to fashion, which had for some time languished without a leader. The Queen of George II had a great liking for flowered silks, usually with a white ground embossed all over with a large pattern of gold, silver, or colours.
George II himself had no pretensions to be a leader of fashion. His tastes were those of a simple soldier, and he had no feeling for any of the elegances of life. The ladies he honoured with his favour were neither beautiful nor elegant, and the English aristocracy went its own way, independent of the Court, adopting French fashions to its own slightly more rural use, but inventing little of its own. The prestige which English costume was to exercise all over the Continent was still more than half a century in the future.
Women of the middle classes still dressed with a certain austerity, although the wives and daughters of rich city merchants did their best to copy the fashions of St. James's. Some of the merchants themselves assumed, on Sundays, the fine coats and elaborate periwigs of the nobility.
Women's stockings, until the middle of the seventeen-thirties, were of all colours, green being one of the favourites. They were worked with clocks of gold, silver, or coloured silks. About 1737, however, there was a sudden rage for white stockings which greatly alarmed contemporary moralists. White stockings seemed to the preachers little better than nudity, but they continued to be worn until almost the end of the century. As a matter of fact very little of the stocking was seen, as dresses were never shorter in this period than to just above the ankles. Dancing or climbing into a coach may have revealed a certain amount of stocking to the eyes of the curious, but not enough, one would have thought, to alarm the most rigorous censor of morals.
1730-1740
In addition to tie-wigs of many varieties there appeared, in the reign of George II, bob-wigs of various kinds. These imitated natural hair much more closely than the grand peruques; they were worn by professional men, citizens, and even by apprentices; lawyers affected a high frontlet and a long bag at the back tied in the middle, undergraduates a wig with a flat top to allow for the academic cap.
Cravats in this period show very few modifications; in fact, although there were many varieties, each variety was almost as static as the modern neck-tie. The fronts and cuffs of shirts continued to be elaborately frilled. Coat-cuffs were wide and deep and sometimes heavily embroidered with silk flowers or with patterns in gold and silver thread.
There is little change to record in the forms of women's head-dresses. The ideal of the small, neat head was maintained; caps became even smaller than they had been, and curls more neatly trimmed and arranged. The general shape of the female figure continued to be an equilateral triangle, resting securely on a wide base. The lower part of the body was inside the skirt rather than clothed by it, the only underclothes worn being in the form of a long "smock" or chemise. The evolution of underclothes should form an interesting and necessary chapter in the history of fashion. The phrase "body-linen" is still sometimes used, but actual linen underclothes must now be extremely rare. In the eighteenth century, however, linen was the usual material, very fine Dutch linen being imported for ladies' "smocks." Scotch or Irish linen could be bought for a third of the price, but was coarser and not so highly esteemed. Silk and lace-trimmed underwear was unknown in the 18th Century.

See here

Zenger Trial

No country values free expression more highly than does America (wriotes an American), and no case in American history stands as a greater landmark on the road to protection for freedom of the press than the trial of a German immigrant printer named John Peter Zenger. On August 5, 1735, 12 New York jurors, inspired by the eloquence of the best lawyer of the period, Andrew Hamilton, ignored the instructions of the Governor's hand-picked judges and returned a verdict of "Not Guilty" on the charge of publishing "seditious libels." The Zenger trial is a remarkable story of a divided Colony, the beginnings of a free press, and the stubborn independence of American jurors ... See more here.

Rochester, Kent

Rochester Castle and Cathedral from the north west by Nathaniel Buck, 1735

Luxembourg

From Seutter's Atlas Minor

This map was first published in Daniel de la Feuille's Atlas Portatif of 1702. It is very similar to a map published by Harrewijn in 1697. See here.

Ladies Shoes

English brocade silver buckle shoes

"The fashionable 18th Century women's shoe was a frankly luxurious and feminine accessory. Ladies of quality wore shoes of rich dress silks which might, but did not necessarily, match their gowns. Made as "straights," that is without a designated left or right shoe." Cora Ginsburg

"The passion for wearing silks spread to women's shoes in the 18th Century. Until the 1790s, very little leather was used for women's footwear, except boots for outdoors. The curved heel and pointed up-turned toe of this shoe are typical of women's shoes in this period." V&A

Brocaded Spitalfields silk uppers

Witchcraft act

England's most notorious Witchcraft Act, making witchcraft a felony, was passed early in the reign of Elizabeth I (1563) and was strengthened in 1604 by her successor James I.

A new witchcraft act was passed under George II in 1735. It marked a complete reversal in previous attitudes. No longer were people to be hanged for consorting with evil spirits. Rather, a person who pretended to have the power to call up spirits, or foretell the future, or cast spells, or discover the whereabouts of stolen goods was to be punished as a vagrant and a con artist, subject to fines and imprisonment.

In 1944, Helen Duncan was the last person to be jailed under this act, on the grounds that she had pretended to summon spirits . She spent nine months in prison. She was not, as is frequently stated, the last person to be convicted under the act this as Jane Rebecca Yorke was convicted later that year. The the last threatened use of the Act against a medium was in 1950. In 1951 the Act was repealed with the enactment of the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951, largely at the instigation of Spiritualists through the agency of Thomas Brooks MP.

It is widely suggested that astrology was covered by the Witchcraft Act. From the 1930s onwards many tabloid newspapers and magazines carried astrology columns but none were ever prosecuted. The Witchcraft Act was still legally in force in the Republic of Ireland, although it never was actually applied. Most old English laws were repealed 16 May 1983.

Plan of Bath

Plan drawing of Bath 1735. See here.

State Leaders

Africa
Ashanti Confederacy - Opoku Ware I, Asantehene

(1720-1750)
Bunyoro - Duhaga, Omukama of Bunyoro (1731-c.1782)
Dahomey - Tegbesu, King of Dahomey (1732-1774)
Ethiopia - Iyasu II, Emperor of Ethiopia, (1730-1755)
Nkore - Macwa, Omugabe of Nkole, (c.1727-c.1755)
Zulu - Mageba kaPhunga, King of the Zulu (1727-1745)

Asia
China (Qing Dynasty) -
1.Yongzheng, Emperor of China (1723-1735)
2.Qianlong, Emperor of China (1735-1796)
Japan
1.Monarch -
1.Nakamikado, Emperor of Japan (1709-1735)
2.Sakuramachi, Emperor of Japan (1735-1747)
2.Shogun (Tokugawa) - Tokugawa Yoshimune, Shogun of Japan (1716-1745)
3.Ryūkyū Kingdom - Shō Kei, King of Ryūkyū (1713-1751)
Korea (Joseon Dynasty) - Yeongjo, King of Joseon (1724-1776)

Europe
Denmark -
Monarch - Christian VI, King of Denmark (1730-1746) [see pic]
Prime Minister -
1.Ivar Eriksen Rosencrantz, Minister of State of Denmark (1730-1735)
2.Johan Ludvig, Minister of State of Denmark (1735-1751)
France - Louis XV, King of France (1715-1774)
Great Britain -
Monarch - George II, King of Great Britain (1727-1760)
Prime Minister - Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of Great Britain (1721-1742)
Holy Roman Empire - Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1711-1740)\
Hesse-Kassel - Frederick I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, also King of Sweden (1730-1751)
Saxony - Frederick Augustus II Elector of Saxony (from 1733 to 1763) (also King of Poland)
Portugal - John V, King of Portugal (1706-1750)
Prussia - Frederick William I, King of Prussia (1713-1740)
Russia - Anna Ivanovna, Tsaritsa of Russia (1730-1740)
Spain - Philip V, King of Spain (1700-1724, 1724-1746)
Sweden - Age of Liberty
Monarch - Frederick I, King of Sweden, also Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (1720-1751)
Prime Minister - Arvid Horn, President of the Privy Council Chancellery (1710-1738)
United Provinces -
Estates of Friesland, Groningen, Guelders, Holland, Overijssel, Utrecht, Zeeland (1581-1795)
Grand Pensionary of Holland - Simon van Slingelandt (1727-1736)
1. Friesland - Willem IV, Stadtholder of Friesland (1711-1751)
2. Groningen - Willem IV, Stadtholder of Groningen (1729-1751)
3. Guelders - Willem IV, Stadtholder of Guelders (1722-1751)
Venice - Alvise Pisani Doge of Venice (1735-1741)

Middle East and North Africa
Morocco - 1. Abdallah, Sultan of Morocco (1729-1735)
2. Ali, Sultan of Morocco (1735-1736)
Ottoman Empire -
Monarch - Mahmud I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1730-1754)
Grand Vizier - 1. Hekimoglu Ali Pasha, Ottoman Grand Vizier (1732-1735)
2. Gürcü Ismail Pasha, Ottoman Grand Vizier (1735)
Tunis - Ali I, Bey of Tunis (1735-1756)
From Wikipedia here

Native American Chief

In 1735 Swedish artist Gustavus Hesselius completed this portrait of Minisink chief Tishcohan, who would later sign the Walking Purchase, for John Penn, the colonial's propriety and a grandson of William Penn. See here.

The Wesleys, etc

The Renewed Moravian Church consecrates its first bishop in the person of David Nitschmann (1695-1772), restoring its own ministry separate from that of Nikolaus, graf von Zinzendorf. Zinzendorf sends missionaries to Britain's Georgia colony, where they will have little or no success.

John Wesley and his brother Charles lose their father (April 25) and embark in October for the Georgia colony with two other Methodists, a party of German Moravians sent by Zinzendorf and James E Oglethorpe (1696-1785), who had returned to England in 1734 and would not remain long at Savannah. The Simmonds encounters storms en route and John Wesley finds his fears greater than his faith. He later provoked criticism at Savannah but began the first Methodist society, and although his brother Charles soon returned to England, John remained for nearly two years.

Meanwhile in Swaffham, Norfolk, Robert Robinson (1735-1790), author of "Come Thou Fount of every blessing" and "Mighty God, while angels bless Thee", a Methodist and later Strict Baptist minister was born, on September 27.

Lancret's Party

Lancret's Luncheon party or Pleasure party