| 1641 Henry Dodwell born (d. 1711). |
| 1657 William Wake born (d. 1737). |
| 1663 Francis Atterbury born (d. 1732). |
| 1663 Thomas Wilson, bp. of Sodor and Man born (d. 1755). |
| 1667? Susannah Centlivre born (d. 1723). |
| 1674 Isaac Watts born (d. 1748). |
| 1675 William Somerville born (d. 1742). |
| 1676 Benjamin Hoadly born (d. 1761). |
| 1678 Simon Ockley born (d. 1720). |
| 1678 Thomas Sherlock born (d. 1761). |
| 1683 Conyers Middleton born (d. 1750). |
| 1683 Daniel Waterland born (d. 1740). |
| 1683 Edward Young born (d. 1765). |
| 1685 Aaron Hill born (d. 1750). |
| 1686 Thomas Carte born (d. 1754). |
| 1688? Thomas Warton the elder born (d. 1745). |
| 1689 Samuel Richardson born (d. 1761). |
| 1692 Joseph Butler born (d. 1752). |
| 1693 George Lillo born (d. 1739). |
| 1696 Matthew Green born (d. 1737). |
| 1699 Robert Blair born (d. 1746). |
| 1700 Death of Dryden. |
| 1700 James Thomson born (d. 1748). |
| 1700? John Dyer born (d. 1758). |
| 1702 Philip Doddridge born (d. 1751). |
| 1703 John Wesley born (d. 1791). |
| 1703? Henry Brooke born (d. 1783). |
| 1705 Abraham Tucker born (d. 1774). |
| 1707 Henry Fielding born (d. 1754). |
| 1707 Charles Wesley born (d. 1788). |
| 1708 Ockley’s History of the Saracens begins to appear (completed 1757). |
| 1709 John Armstrong born (d. 1779). |
| 1709 Samuel Johnson born (d. 1784). |
| 1709 George, Lord Lyttelton born (d. 1773). |
| 1709 Mrs. Centlivre’s The Busy Body. |
| 1709 First Copyright Act passed. |
| 1710 Thomas Reid born (d. 1796). |
| 1711 David Hume born (d. 1776). |
| 1712 Richard Glover born (d. 1785). |
| 1712 Edward Moore born (d. 1757). |
| 1713 Laurence Sterne born (d. 1768). |
| 1714 James Hervey born (d. 1758). |
| 1714 William Shenstone born (d. 1763). |
| 1714 George Whitefield born (d. 1770). |
| 1714–27 George I. |
| 1715 Richard Graves born (d. 1804). |
| 1715 Richard Jago born (d. 1781). |
| 1715 William Whitehead born (d. 1785). |
| 1716 Thomas Gray born (d. 1771). |
| 1717 David Garrick born (d. 1779). |
| 1717 Horace Walpole born (d. 1797). |
| 1717–20 The Bangorian Controversy. |
| 1719 Death of Addison. |
| 1719 Edward Young’s Busiris. |
| 1720 Samuel Foote born (d. 1777). |
| 1720 Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu born (d. 1800). |
| 1720 Gilbert White born (d. 1793). |
| 1721 Mark Akenside born (d. 1770). |
| 1721 William Collins born (d. 1759). |
| 1721 William Robertson born (d. 1793). |
| 1721 Tobias Smollett born (d. 1771) |
| 1722 John Home born (d. 1808). |
| 1722 Thomas Leland born (d. 1785). |
| 1722 Christopher Smart born (d. 1771). |
| 1722 Joseph Warton born (d. 1800)
1723 Richard Price born (d. 1791). |
| 1723 Sir Joshua Reynolds born (d. 1792). |
| 1723 Adam Smith born (d. 1790). |
| 1726 Law’s Absolute Unlawfulness of the Stage Entertainment fully demonstrated. |
| 1726 Thomson’s Winter. |
| 1727 Arthur Murphy born (d. 1805). |
| 1727 John Wilkes born (d. 1797). |
| 1727 Death of Newton. |
| 1727 Dyer’s Grongar Hill. |
| 1727 Thomson’s Summer. |
| 1727–60 George II. |
| 1728 Oliver Goldsmith born (d. 1774). |
| 1728 Thomas Warton the Younger born (d. 1790). |
| 1728 Fielding’s Love in Several Masques. |
| 1728 Gay’s Beggar’s Opera. |
| 1728 Thomson’s Spring. |
| 1729 John William Fletcher (of Madeley) born (d. 1785). |
| 1729 Thomas Percy born (d. 1811). |
| 1729 Clara Reeve born (d. 1807). |
| 1729 Thomson’s Sophonisba. |
| 1730 Fielding’s Tom Thumb. |
| 1730 Thomson’s Seasons (including Autumn). |
| 1731 Charles Churchill born (d. 1764). |
| 1731 Death of Defoe. |
| 1731 The Gentleman’s Magazine first appears. |
| 1731 Lillo’s London Merchant. |
| 1732 George Colman born (d. 1794). |
| 1732 William Falconer born (d. 1769). |
| 1732 David Hartley born (d. 1813). |
| 1733 Joseph Priestley born (d. 1804). |
| 1734 Henry Carey’s Chrononhotonthologos. |
| 1735 James Beattie born (d. 1803). |
| 1735 Somervile’s The Chace. |
| 1736 James Macpherson born (d. 1796). |
| 1736 Butler’s Analogy. |
| 1736 Fielding’s Pasquin. |
| 1736 Aaron Hill’s Zara. |
| 1736 Lillo’s Fatal Curiosity. |
| 1737 Death of Queen Caroline. |
| 1737 Edward Gibbon born (d. 1794.) |
| 1737 Fielding’s The Historical Register for 1736. |
| 1737 Green’s The Spleen. |
| 1738 Johnson’s London. |
| 1739 Hugh Kelly born (d. 1777). |
| 1739 War declared against Spain. |
| 1739–40 Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature. |
| 1740 James Boswell born (d. 1795). |
| 1740 Sir Philip Francis born (d. 1818). |
| 1740–1 Richardson’s Pamela. |
| 1741 Middleton’s Life of Cicero. |
| 1741 Resignation of Walpole. |
| 1742 Battle of Dettingen. |
| 1742 Fielding’s Joseph Andrews. |
| 1742–5 Young’s Night Thoughts. |
| 1743 William Paley born (d. 1805). |
| 1743 Blair’s The Grave. |
| 1743 Fielding’s Miscellanies. |
| 1744 William Mitford born (d. 1827). |
| 1744 Pope died. |
| 1744 Akenside’s Pleasures of the Imagination. |
| 1744 Armstrong’s Art of preserving health. |
| 1744 Sarah Fielding’s David Simple. |
| 1744 Johnson’s Life of Savage. |
| 1745 Henry Mackenzie born (d. 1831). |
| 1745 Hannah More born (d. 1833). |
| 1745 Death of Swift. |
| 1745–6 Jacobite Rebellion. |
| 1746–7 Hervey’s Meditations. |
| 1747 Collins’s Odes. |
| 1747 Gray’s Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College. |
| 1747 John Hoadly’s Suspicious Husband. |
| 1747 Lyttelton’s Monody. |
| 1747–8 Richardson’s Clarissa Harlowe. |
| 1747–55 Carte’s History of England. |
| 1748 Hume’s Philosophical Essays concerning Human Understanding. |
| 1748 Smollett’s Roderick Random. |
| 1748 Thomson’s Castle of Indolence. |
| 1749 Fielding’s Tom Jones. |
| 1749 David Hartley’s Observations on Man.
1749 Johnson’s Vanity of Human Wishes and Irene. |
| 1750 First number of The Rambler, 20 March. (Last, 14 March, 1752). |
| 1750 Fielding’s Enquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robbers. |
| 1750 Whitehead’s The Roman Father. |
| 1751 Sheridan born (d. 1816). |
| 1751 Fielding’s Amelia. |
| 1751 Gray’s Elegy. |
| 1751 Hume’s Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals. |
| 1751 Smollett’s Peregrine Pickle. |
| 1752 Frances Burney (Mme. d'Arblay) born (d. 1840). |
| 1752 Thomas Chatterton born (d. 1770). |
| 1752 Joseph Ritson born (d. 1803). |
| 1752 Smollett’s Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom. |
| 1753 Edward Moore’s The Gamester. |
| 1753–4 Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison. |
| 1754–61 Hume’s History of Great Britain. |
| 1755 Fielding’s Voyage to Lisbon. |
| 1755 Johnson’s Dictionary. |
| 1755 Shebbeare’s Letters to the People of England begin. |
| 1755 The Monitor established. |
| 1756 Home’s Douglas. |
| 1757–60 The great years of Pitt. |
| 1757 Battle of Plassey. |
| 1757 The Strawberry Hill Press opened. |
| 1757 Gray’s Odes. |
| 1757 Price’s Review of the principal questions in Morals. |
| 1757–8 Smollett’s History of England. |
| 1758 H. S. Woodfall assumes control of The Public Advertiser. |
| 1758–60 Johnson’s Idler. |
| 1759 Battle of Minden. Capture of Quebec. |
| 1759 Johnson’s Rasselas. |
| 1759 Robertson’s History of Scotland. |
| 1759 Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments. |
| 1760 Lyttelton’s Dialogues of the Dead. |
| 1760 Macpherson’s Fragments of Ancient Poetry. |
| 1760 Rousseau’s Nouvelle Héloïse. |
| 1760–7 Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. |
| 1760–1820 George III. |
| 1761 Churchill’s The Rosciad and The Apology. |
| 1761 Colman’s The Jealous Wife. |
| 1761 Diderot’s Éloge de Richardson. |
| 1761 Resignation of Pitt. Bute at the head of affairs. |
| 1762 Isaac Bickerstaff’s Love in a Village. |
| 1762 Falconer’s The Shipwreck. |
| 1762 Goldsmith’s Citizen of the World. |
| 1762 Macpherson’s Fingal. |
| 1762 Smollett’s Sir Launcelot Greaves. |
| 1762 Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painting in England. |
| 1763 No. 45 of The North Briton appears. |
| 1763–5 Continuation of Smollett’s History of England. |
| 1763 Macpherson’s Temora. |
| 1763 Percy’s Five Pieces of Runic Poetry. |
| 1763 Resignation of Bute. |
| 1763 Smart’s Song to David. |
| 1764 Goldsmith’s The Traveller. |
| 1764 Reid’s Inquiry into the Human Mind. |
| 1764 Shenstone’s Works in Prose and Verse. |
| 1764 Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto. |
| 1764 The Candor pamphlets. |
| 1765 The Stamp Act. |
| 1765 Johnson’s edition of Shakespeare. |
| 1765 Percy’s Reliques. |
| 1765 Tucker’s Light of Nature pursued, Vols. I–IV. (Completed 1778). |
| 1766 Colman’s Clandestine Marriage. |
| 1766 Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield. |
| 1766 Repeal of the Stamp Act. The Chatham Ministry. |
| 1766 Smollett’s Travels through France and Italy. |
| 1766–70 Henry Brooke’s The Fool of Quality.
1768 Goldsmith’s The Good-Natur'd Man. |
| 1768 Gray’s Poems. |
| 1768 Kelly’s False Delicacy. |
| 1768 Priestley’s Essay on the first principles of Government. |
| 1768 Resignation of Chatham. |
| 1768 Sterne’s Sentimental Journey. |
| 1768 Horace Walpole’s Historic Doubts. |
| 1769 The Letters of Junius begin to appear in The Public Advertiser. |
| 1769 Reynolds’s first Discourse. |
| 1769 Robertson’s History of Charles V. |
| 1769 Smollett’s History and Adventures of an Atom. |
| 1769 Wilkes expelled from the House. |
| 1770 Goldsmith’s Deserted Village. |
| 1771 Goldsmith’s History of England. |
| 1771 Mackenzie’s Man of Feeling. |
| 1771 Smollett’s Humphrey Clinker. |
| 1771 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Edn. I. |
| 1771–4 Beattie’s The Minstrel. |
| 1772 Graves’s Spiritual Quixote. |
| 1772 The Letters of Junius collected. |
| 1773 Goldsmith’s She stoops to conquer. |
| 1773 Leland’s History of Ireland. |
| 1773 Mackenzie’s Man of the World. |
| 1773 The Boston Tea Riots. |
| 1774 Chesterfield’s Letters to his Son. |
| 1774–81 Warton’s History of English Poetry. |
| 1775 Charles Lamb born (d. 1834). |
| 1775 Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. |
| 1775–8 Tyrwhitt’s edition of Chaucer published. |
| 1776 American Declaration of Independence. |
| 1776 Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. I. (Vols. II, III, 1781; Vols. IV–VI, 1788.) |
| 1776 Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. |
| 1777 Chatterton’s Rowley Poems published. |
| 1777 Mackenzie’s Julia de Roubigné. |
| 1777 Clara Reeve’s Old English Baron. |
| 1778 Death of Voltaire. |
| 1778 Death of Rousseau. |
| 1778 Fanny Burney’s Evelina. |
| 1778 Walpole’s Miscellaneous Letters appear as Vol. V of his Collected Works. |
| 1781 Johnson’s Lives of the Poets. |
| 1782 Fanny Burney’s Cecilia. |
| 1783 Peace of Versailles. |
| 1784 Death of Johnson. |
| 1784 Death of Diderot. |
| 1784 Mitford’s History of Greece, Vol. I (completed 1810). |
| 1786 Boswell’s Tour to the Hebrides. |
| 1788–95 Trial of Warren Hastings. |
| 1789 White’s Natural History of Selborne. |
| 1791 Boswell’s Life of Johnson. |
| 1794 Death of Gibbon. |
| 1794 Paley’s Evidences. |
| 1796 Fanny Burney’s Camilla. |
| 1796 Gibbon’s Memoirs of my Life and Writings published with his Miscellaneous Works. |
| 1842–6 Fanny Burney’s Diary and Letters published. |
| 1857 Horace Walpole’s Letters, ed. P. Cunningham. |
| 1903 Horace Walpole’s Letters, ed. Mrs. Paget Toynbee. |