1786 in Great Britain

Events from the year 1786 in the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Incumbents

August - British Cabinet approves the establishment of a penal colony at Botany Bay to serve as "a remedy for the evils likely to result from the late alarming and numerous increase of felons in this country and more particularly in the metropolis (London)".
11 August - Captain Francis Light lands in Penang and renamed it "Prince of Wales Island" in honour of the heir to the British throne.^[1]
26 September - Commercial treaty with France (the Eden Agreement) signed.^[2]

Sinking fund of £1M per annum established to reduce the national debt.
New Lanark established in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, by David Dale, as a model cotton milling community.
Wills, Watkins & Co. open a tobacconists’ shop in Bristol which will become W.D. & H.O. Wills.

^ ^a ^b Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 339. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
^ ^a ^b Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 230–231. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.