A NOTE ON DATES: The individuals chosen range from those who lived
into the 1680s; or who were born before the end of 1815, thus ensuring that
their formative youth was spent within the parameters of the ‘long eighteenth
century’ to c.1840.

Names are listed alphabetically within each category.

Individuals are allocated to only one leading field of activity,
even though some polymaths could potentially be listed in many
(for example, MP Edmund Burke is listed as a political theorist,
since that role generated his maximum influence;
but he was a great parliamentary orator and could have been listed there).

Kings, queens and aristocrats had an automatic
degree of celebrity, because of their high status.
But the only individuals from such backgrounds listed here
are those with personal celebrity in some special field of activity,
over and above their titles.

The great majority of those listed have fame
for positive reasons; but a handful of rogues and criminals appear as well.

16.1 ARCHITECTURE & HOME/GARDEN DESIGN

Architect
Robert Adam (1728 – 92)
John Vanburgh (1664 – 1726)
Christopher Wren (1632 – 1723)

Furniture designer
Thomas Chippendale (1718 – 79)
George Hepplewhite (c.1727 – 86)
Thomas Sheraton (1751 – 1806)

Gardener/ landscape gardener
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716 – 83)
John Evelyn (1620 – 1706)
William Kent (1685 – 1748)
Humphry Repton (1752 – 1818)

16.2 ART

Artist
John Constable (1776 – 1837)
John Crome (1768 – 1821)
Henry Fuseli (1741 – 1825)
Thomas Gainsborough (1727 – 88)
Angelica Kauffman (1741 – 1807),
Joshua Reynolds (1723 – 92)
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 – 1851)
Joseph Wright ‘of Derby’ (1734 – 97)
Johan Zoffany (1733 – 1810)

Graphic satirist
Isaac Cruikshank (1764 – 1811)
William Hogarth (1697 – 1764)
Thomas Rowlandson (1757 – 1827)

Sculptor
Eleanor Coade (1733 – 1821)
Anne Seymour Damer (1748 – 1828)
John Flaxman (1755 – 1826)

16.3 THEATRE

Actor (female)
Nell Gwyn (1650 – 87)
Sarah Siddons (1755 – 1831)
Peg Woffington (1720 – 60)

Actor (male)
Colley Cibber (1671 – 1757)
David Garrick (1717 – 79)
Edmund Kean (1787 – 1833)
John Philip Kemble (1757 – 1823)

Dramatist
William Congreve (1670 – 1729)
Samuel Foote (1720 – 77)
John Gay (1685 – 1732)
Oliver Goldsmith (1728 – 74)
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 – 1816)

16.4 MUSIC

Composer
Thomas Arne (1710 – 78)
George Frederick Händel, Anglicised Handel (1685 – 1759)
Henry Purcell (1659 – 95)

Player
John Field, pianist (1782 – 1837)
Niel Gow, fiddler (1717 – 1807)
Denis Hempson, harpist (1695 – 1807)

Singer
Catherine ‘Kitty’ Clive (1711 – 85)
Elizabeth Ann Linley (1754 – 92)
John Templeton (1802 – 86)

Song-writer
Robert Burns (1759 – 96)
Charles Dibdin (1745 – 1814)
Thomas Moore (1779 – 1852)

16.5 ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS

Clown
Joseph ‘Joey’ Grimaldi (1778 – 1837)

Entertainment impresario
Richard ‘Dicky’ Dickinson (1669 – 1738), Scarborough
Richard ‘Beau’ Nash (1674 – 1761), Bath
Jonathan Tyers (1702 – 67), Vauxhall Gardens

Racing impresario
Sir Charles Bunbury, 6th Baronet (1740 – 1821)
Edward Smith – Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby (1752 – 1834)

Sportsman
Jack Broughton (c.1703 – 89), boxer
John Singleton senior (died c.1789), jockey
John Small (1737 – 1826), cricketer

Striking physiques (exhibited as curiosities in this era – despite protests)
Sarah ‘Saartje’ Baartman (c.1755 – 1815), also known as ‘the Hottentot Venus’
Charles Byrne (1761 – 83), also known as the ‘Irish Giant’ – great height
Daniel Lambert of Leicester (1770 – 1809) – great girth

16.6 LITERATURE

Biographer
James Boswell (1740 – 95)

Essayist
Thomas de Quincey (1785 – 1859)
William Hazlitt (1778 – 1830)
Charles Lamb (1775 – 1734)

Journalist
Joseph Addison (1672 – 1719)
William Cobbett (1763 – 1835)
Richard Steele (1672 – 1729)

Literary forger
Thomas Chatterton (1752 – 70)

Novelist
Jane Austen (1775 – 1817)
Frances Burney (1752 – 1840)
Daniel Defoe (c.1660 – 1731)
Charles Dickens (1812 – 70)
Maria Edgeworth (1768 – 1849)
Henry Fielding (1707 – 54)
Eliza Haywood (c.1693 – 1756)
Thomas Love Peacock (1785 – 1866)
Samuel Richardson (1689 – 1761)
Sir Walter Scott (1771 – 1832)
Mary Shelley (1797 – 1851)
Laurence Sterne (1713 – 68)
Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745)
Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717 – 97)

Poet
John Clare (1793 – 1864)
Samuel T. Coleridge (1772 – 1834)
William Cowper (1731 – 1800)
John Dryden (1631 – 1700)
Robert Fergusson (1750 – 74)
Thomas Gray (1716 – 71)
John Keats (1795 – 1821)
Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822)
Christopher Smart (1722 – 71)
Robert Southey (1774 – 1843)
William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850

Poet ‘of low life’
Stephen Duck (c.1705 – 56)
Ann Yearsley (1753 – 1806)

Publisher
James Lackington (1746 – 1815)
John Murray II (1778 – 1843)
John Walter (1738 – 1812) and dynasty

16.7 PROFESSIONAL LIFE

Doctor (physician)
John Arbuthnot (1667 – 1735)
George Cheyne (1672 – 1743)
Edward Jenner (1749 – 1823)
Daniel Sutton (1736 – 1819)

Doctor (surgeon)
John Bell (1763 – 1820)
John Hunter (1728 – 93)
William Hunter (1718 – 83)

Nurse/healer
Sarah ‘Crazy Sally’ Mapp (1706 – 37)
Mary Jane Seacole (1805 – 81)

Jurist
William Blackstone (1723 – 80)

Lawyer
Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine (1750 – 1823)
William Garrow (1760 – 1840)
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (1705 – 93)
John Scott, 1st Lord Eldon (1751 – 1838)
Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow (1731 – 1806)

See also Religion 16.10 below

16.8 LEARNING

Demographer
Gregory King (1648 – 1712)
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766 – 1834)

Economist
Bernard de Mandeville (1670 – 1733)
David Ricardo (1772 – 1823)
Adam Smith (1723 – 90)

Historian
Edward Gibbon (1737 – 94)
Catherine Macaulay (1731 – 91)
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800 – 59)
James MacGeoghegan (1702 – 63)

Linguist
Elizabeth Elstob (1683 – 1756), known in her youth and then forgotten
Sir William Jones (1746 – 94)

Philosopher
Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832)
George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne (1685 – 1753)
David Hume (1711 – 76)
John Locke (1632 – 1704)
John Stuart Mill (1806 – 73)

Sociologist
Adam Ferguson (1723 – 1816)

16.9 EDUCATION

Educationalist
Thomas Arnold (1795 – 1842)
John Pounds (1766 – 1839)
Sarah Trimmer (1741 – 1810)

16.10 RELIGION

Evangelist
John Wesley (1703 – 91)
George Whitefield (1714 – 70)
William Williams Pantycelyn (1717 – 91)

Preacher, Anglican
Joseph Butler, Bishop of Bristol (1692 – 1752)
John Newton, cleric at Olney, Bucks. (1725 – 1807)
John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury (1630 – 94)

Prophet/church founder
John Glas (1695 – 1773)
Edward Irving (1792 – 1834)
Robert Sandeman (1718 – 71)
Joanna Southcott (1750 – 1814)

Theologian
Hugh Blair (1718 – 1800)
John Brown of Haddington (1722 – 87)
William Cunningham (1805 – 61)
John Fletcher of Madeley (1729 – 85)
John Henry Newman (1801 – 90)

16.11 IRRELIGION

Freethinker
Anthony Collins (1676 – 1729)
Eliza Sharples (1803 – 52)
Matthew Tindal (1657 – 1733)
John Toland (1670 – 1722)

16.12 SCIENCE, PURE & APPLIED

Astronomer
John Goodricke (1764 – 86)
Edmond Halley (1656 – 1742)
Caroline Herschel (1750 – 1848)
William Herschel (1738 – 1822)

Botanist
Sir Joseph Banks (1743 – 1820)
Robert Brown (1773 – 1858)

Engineer
John Rennie the Elder (1761 – 1821)
John Smeaton (1724 – 92)
Thomas Telford (1757 – 1834)

Railway Engineer
George Stephenson (1781 – 1848)
Robert Stephenson (1803 – 59)
Richard Trevithick (1771 – 1833)

Geologist
James Hutton (1725 – 97)
Charles Lyell (1797 – 1875)

Inventor
Richard Arkwright (1732 – 92)
Charles Babbage (1791 – 1871)
James Hargreaves (c.1720 – 78)
John Harrison (1693 – 1776)
Thomas Newcomen (1664 – 1729)
James Watt (1736 – 1819)

Mathematician
Charles Hutton (1737 – 1823)
Ada Lovelace, Countess Lovelace (1815 – 52)
Mary Somerville (1780 – 1872)

Palaeontologist
Mary Anning (1799 – 1847)
Henry Thomas de la Beche (1796 – 1855)

Scientist
Robert Boyle (1627 – 91)
Henry Cavendish (1731 – 1810)
Michael Faraday (1791 – 1867)
Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727)
Joseph Priestley (1733 – 1804)
Daniel Rutherford (1749 – 1819)

Zoologist
Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)

16.13 ECONOMIC LIFE

Entrepreneur
Matthew Boulton (1728 – 1809), Birmingham
William Crawshay (1764 – 1834), Merthyr Tydfil
Josiah Wedgwood, (1730 – 95), the Potteries
John ‘Iron Mad’ Wilkinson (1728 – 1808), W. Midlands

Farmer
Robert Bakewell (1725 – 95)
Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1754 – 1842)
Jethro Tull (1674 – 1741)

Financier
Sampson Gideon (1699 – 1762)
John Law (1671 – 1729)
Nathan Meyer Rothschild (1777 – 1836)

Merchant
Alderman William Beckford (1709 – 70), London
Edward Colston (1636 – 1721), Bristol
Joshua Pim (1748 – 1822), Dublin

16.14 ARMED FORCES

Admiral
George Anson, 1st Baron Anson (1697 – 1762)
Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald (1775 – 1860)
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758 – 1805)

Army General
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650 – 1722)
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769 – 1852)
James Wolfe (1727 – 59)

16.15 SOCIAL & CULTURAL LIFE

Bluestocking/learned lady
Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland (1715 – 85)
Elizabeth Montagu (1718 – 1800)
Elizabeth Rawdon, Countess of Moira (173 – 1808)
Hester Thrale (1741 – 1821)

Celebrity lover (among other talents)
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788 – 1824)
Emma Hamilton (1765 – 1815)
Fanny Murray (1729 – 78)
Mary ‘Perdita’ Robinson (1757 – 1800)

Famous for being famous
Elizabeth Chudleigh (bigamist), becoming in turn
Duchess of Kingston & Countess of Bristol (1721 – 88)
Catherine ‘Kitty’ Fisher (1741 – 67)

Philanthropist
Angela Burdett – Coutts, 1st Baroness (1814 – 1906)
Thomas Coram (c.1668 – 1751)
Elizabeth Fry (1780 – 1845)
Jonas Hanway (1712 – 86)
John Howard (1726 – 90)

Pundit
Thomas Carlyle (1795 – 1881)
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury (1671 – 1713)
Samuel Johnson (1709 – 84)
Harriet Martineau (1802 – 76)
Hannah More (1745 – 1833)
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694 – 1773)

Style guru
George ‘Beau’ Brummell (1778 – 1840)

16.16 THE UNDERWORLD

Rogue
Anne Bonney (1697 – c.1721), pirate
John ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham (1682 – 1720), pirate
Dick Turpin (1705 – 39), highwayman turned legend

Criminal
John Carter (1738 – c.1807), Cornish smuggler
William Chaloner (1650 – 99), counterfeiter and trickster
John Hatfield (1758 – 1803), forger, bigamist and impostor
‘Captain’ James MacLaine (1724 – 50), highwayman
Sarah Malcolm (c.1710 – 33), triple murderer
Isaac ‘Ikey’ Solomon (c.1787 – 1850), receiver of stolen goods

16.17 PUBLIC DEBATES

Feminist writer
Mary Astell (1666 – 1731)
Aphra Behn (1640 – 89)
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 – 97)

Political theorist
Edmund Burke (1729 – 97)
William Godwin (1756 – 1836)
Robert Owen (1771 – 1858)
Thomas Paine (1737 – 1809)
Archdeacon William Paley (1743 – 1805)
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678 – 1751)
Thomas Spence (1750 – 1814)

16.18 THE WORLD OF POLITICS

Femocrat
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (1757 – 1806)
Elizabeth Fox, Baroness Holland (1771 – 1845)
Sarah Villiers, Countess of Jersey (1785 – 1867)

Parliamentary orator
George Canning (1770 – 1827)
Charles James Fox (1749 – 1806)
Henry Grattan (1746 – 1820)
Daniel O’Connell (1775 – 1847), known as ‘the Liberator’
William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708 – 78)
William Pitt the Younger (1759 – 1806)

Political fixer
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville (1742 – 1811), dubbed satirically ‘King
Harry the Ninth’ or ‘uncrowned king of Scotland’
Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1729 – 1808)
Thomas Pelham – Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (1693 – 1768)

Political reformer
Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham (1778 – 1868)
John Cartwright (1740 – 1824)
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (1764 – 1845)
John Wilkes (1725 – 97)
Christopher Wyvill (1740 – 1822)

Radical campaigner
John Doherty (1798 – 1854)
John Gast (1772 – 1837)
Thomas Hardy (1752 – 1832)
Henry Hetherington (1792 – 1849)
Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt (1773 – 1835)
William Lovett (1800 – 77)
Maurice Margarot (1745 – 1815)
Feargus O’Connor (1796 – 1855)
Francis Place (1771 – 1854)
John Thelwall (1764 – 1834)
Theodore Wolfe Tone (1763 – 98) – Irish republican
John Horne Tooke (1736 – 1812)

Speaker of House of Commons
Arthur Onslow (1691 – 1768), known as the ‘Great Speaker’

Supporter of Jacobite claim (excluding Jacobites in exile)
Rob Roy MacGregor (1671 – 1734)
William Shippen (1673 – 1743)
Sir Watkin Williams – Wynn, 3rd Baronet (1692 – 1749)

16.19 BRITAIN & WIDER WORLD

Abolitionist
Thomas Clarkson (1760 – 1846)
Olaudah Equiano (c.1745 – 97)
Granville Sharp (1735 – 1813)
Henry Thornton (1760 – 1815)
Nat Turner (1800 – 31)
William Wilberforce (1759 – 1833)

Explorer
George Anson, 1st Baron Anson (1697 – 1762)
Bungaree (1775 – 1830), with Matthew Flinders
James Cook (1728 – 79)
Matthew Flinders (1774 – 1814), with Bungaree
George Vancouver (1757 – 98)

Founder/first settler/significant governor of colony
Sir Hudson Lowe (1769 – 1844) – Governor St Helena 1815 – 21
James Edward Oglethorpe (1696 – 1785), Georgia
William Penn (1644 – 1718), Pennsylvania
Arthur Phillip (1738 – 1814), First Fleet to New South Wales
Sir Stamford Raffles (1781 – 1826), Singapore

Indianist (from diverse points of view)
Robert Clive ‘of India’ (1725 – 74)
James Mill (1773 – 1836)
Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet (1807 – 86)

Mission to China
George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney (1737 – 1806)

Supporter of entente with continental Europe
Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (1769 – 1822)

16.20 THE GREAT EXCEPTION UNKNOWN IN HIS OWN DAY BUT NOW
FAMED WORLD-WIDE

Poet and artist William Blake (1757 – 1827)