1712 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1712 in Great Britain.

Incumbents

1 January - War of the Spanish Succession: Peace congress opens at Utrecht.
17 January - Robert Walpole imprisoned in the Tower of London following charges of corruption.^[1]
24 July - War of the Spanish Succession: At the Battle of Denain, the French defeat a combined Dutch-Austrian force following the withdrawal of British troops.^[2]
4 November - Bandbox Plot: Jonathan Swift foils an attempted murder of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.^[3]

The first known working Newcomen steam engine is built by Thomas Newcomen with John Calley to pump water out of mines in the Black Country, the first practical device to harness the power of steam to produce mechanical work.^[4]
John Arbuthnot creates the character of "John Bull" to represent Britain.^[2]
Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, is completed.
Building begins of St. Paul's, Deptford, a church designed by Thomas Archer.^[1]

Barnaby Lintot's Miscellaneous Poems, including, anonymously, Alexander Pope's poem The Rape of the Lock.^[2]

2 February - Martin Lister, naturalist and physician (born c. 1638)
25 March - Nehemiah Grew, naturalist (born 1641)
1 July - William King, poet (born 1663)
12 July - Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland (born 1626)
26 July - Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, statesman (born 1631)
3 August - Joshua Barnes, scholar (born 1654)
18 August - Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers, soldier (born c. 1660)
29 August - Gregory King, statistician (born 1648)

^ ^a ^b Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 293–294. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
^ ^a ^b ^c Everett, Jason M., ed (2006). "1712". The People's Chronology. Thomson Gale.
^ "The Bandbox Plot". http://ecs.bathspa.ac.uk/swift/archives/000032.html.
^ Rolt, L. T. C.; Allen, J. S. (1977). "The First Newcomen Engines c1710-15". The Steam Engine of Thomas Newcomen (new ed.). Hartington: Moorland. pp. 44–57. ISBN 0-903485-42-7.