Hugo Arnot; John Duncan

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Hugo Arnot; John Duncan

by John Kay
etching, 1784
5 1/4 in. x 3 7/8 in. (132 mm x 98 mm) plate size; 6 in. x 4 in. (151 mm x 102 mm) paper size
Purchased with help from the Friends of the National Libraries and the Pilgrim Trust, 1966
Reference Collection
NPG D16830

Sittersback to top

  • Hugo Arnot (1749-1786), Writer and advocate. Sitter in 6 portraits.
  • John Duncan (active 1784), Beggar known as 'Gingerbread Jock'. Sitter in 2 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • John Kay (1742-1826), Miniature painter and caricaturist. Artist or producer associated with 288 portraits, Sitter in 4 portraits.

Events of 1784back to top

Current affairs

Theatre proprietor and postal reformer John Palmer runs the first mail coach in England, between Bristol and London. A three day journey is now completed in 16 hours.
Commutation Act reduces punitive duties on tea to combat smuggling.

Art and science

Aeronaut James Sadler makes the first hot air balloon flight in Britain, from Oxford to Woodeaton.
Chemist Henry Cavendish's paper Experiments on Air reveals the composition of water.
Writer Samuel Johnson dies.
Joshua Reynolds succeeds Allan Ramsay as Painter to the King.

International

Thomas Jefferson's Land Ordinance passed by the United States' Continental Congress, coming into effect the following year. It allows for the sale of land in the largely unmapped west of the country.
Britain receives its first bales of cotton from the United States since before the War of American Independence.
William Pitt's India Act creates a Board of Control to oversee the affairs of the British East India Company and centralise power.

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