1829 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1829 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Burking Poor Old Mrs Constitution, Aged 141 by William Heath: The Duke of Wellington and Robert Peel as Burke and Hare smother the Bill of Rights 1689 by the Roman Catholic Relief Act

8 January – hanging of body-selling murderer William Burke in Edinburgh. His associate William Hare, who has testified against him, is released.
26 January – first performance of Douglas Jerrold's comic nautical melodrama Black-Eyed Susan; or, All in the Downs at the Surrey Theatre in Lambeth; it will run for a new record of well over 150 performances.^[1]
1–2 February – York Minster is extensively damaged in a fire started by Jonathan Martin (who is subsequently acquitted of arson on the grounds of insanity).^[2]
21 March – a duel is fought between the Prime Minister (the Duke of Wellington) and George Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea, in Battersea Fields, provoked by the Duke's support for Catholic emancipation and foundation of the secular King's College London. Deliberately off-target shots are fired by both and honour is satisfied without injury.
27 March – Zoological Society of London receives its royal charter.
April–September – the composer Felix Mendelssohn pays his first visit to Britain. This includes (June) the first London performance of his concert overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream and (August) his trip to Fingal's Cave.^[3]
13 April – passage of the Roman Catholic Relief Act by Parliament of the United Kingdom granting Catholic Emancipation.^[4]

Stephenson's Rocket at The Rainhill Trials (model)

5 June – slave trade: HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.
10 June – the Oxford University Boat Club wins the first inter-university Boat Race,^[4] rowed at Henley-on-Thames.^[5]
19 June – Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Act establishes the Metropolitan Police Service.^[4]
30 June – Henry Robinson Palmer files a patent application for corrugated iron for use in buildings.^[6]
4 July – George Shillibeer begins operating the first bus service in London.^[7]
2–3 August – the "Muckle Spate", a great flood of the River Findhorn which devastates much of Strathspey, Scotland, washing away many bridges.^[8]
14 August – King's College London founded by Royal Charter
29 September – the first police officers of the Metropolitan Police Service, known by the nicknames "bobbies" or "peelers", go on patrol in London.^[4]
8 October – George Stephenson's steam locomotive, The Rocket, defeats John Ericsson's Novelty and thus wins The Rainhill Trials held near Liverpool.^[7]
4 December – in the face of fierce opposition, British Lord William Bentinck carries a regulation declaring that all who abet suttee in India are guilty of culpable homicide.
13 December – last British hanging for forgery – Thomas Maynard.
Undated – last of the Bounty mutineers dies at Pitcairn Island.

17 January – Catherine Booth, Mother of The Salvation Army (died 1890)
2 February – William Stanley, inventor (died 1909)
6 March – Arthur Blomfield, architect (died 1899)
10 April – William Booth, founder of The Salvation Army (died 1912)
4 June – Allan Octavian Hume, member of the Indian civil service and "the Father of Indian Ornithology" (died 1912)
5 June – George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen, Scottish-born businessman in Canada and philanthropist (died 1921)
8 June – John Everett Millais, Pre-Raphaelite painter (died 1896)
16 June – Bessie Rayner Parkes, journalist and feminist (died 1925)
14 July – Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1896)
25 July – Elizabeth Siddal, Pre-Raphaelite artists' model, painter and poet (died 1862)
25 September – William Michael Rossetti, critic (died 1919)
9 November – Sir Peter Lumsden, Scottish general in the Indian army (died 1918)
John Lowther du Plat Taylor, founder of the Army Post Office Corps (died 1904)

15 January – John Mastin, local historian, memoirist and clergyman (born 1747)
25 January – William Shield, composer, violinist and violist (born 1748)
28 January – William Burke, murderer and grave robber, executed (born 1792 in Ireland)
1 March – Thomas Earnshaw, watchmaker (born 1749)
8 May – Charles Abbot, 1st Baron Colchester, barrister, statesman, Speaker of the House of Commons (born 1759)
10 May – Thomas Young, physician and linguist (born 1773)
29 May – Sir Humphry Davy, chemist (born 1778)
27 June – James Smithson, mineralogist, chemist and sponsor of the Smithsonian Institution (born 1765)
7 August – John Reeves, conservative activist, public servant and legal historian (born 1752)
10 October – Maria Elizabetha Jacson, botanist (born 1755)
28 December – Bill Richmond, bare-knuckle welterweight boxer (born 1763 in British America)

^ Gillan, Don (2007). "Longest Running Plays in London and New York". Retrieved 15 February 2011.
^ Balston, Thomas (1945). The Life of Jonathan Martin.
^ Grove, George (1 October 1904). "Mendelssohn's Scotch Symphony". The Musical Times. 45 (740): 644. JSTOR 904111.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
^ "Foundations of The Boat Race". The Xchanging Boat Race. Theboatrace.org. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
^ Thomson, Nick (2011). Corrugated Iron Buildings. Oxford: Shire Publications. pp. 7–8. ISBN 978-0-7478-0783-4.
^ ^a ^b "Icons, a portrait of England 1820–1840". Archived from the original on 22 September 2007. Retrieved 12 September 2007.
^ Mcewen, Lindsey J.; Werritty, Alan (2007). "The Muckle Spate of 1829: the physical and societal impact of a catastrophic flood on the River Findhorn, Scottish Highlands". Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 32: 66–89. doi:10.1111/j.1475-5661.2007.00232.x.