1735. "Here lyes inter'd ye remains of deacon Christopher Huntington of Norwich, November 1st, 1660, and ye first born of males in ye town. He served near 40 years in ye office of a deacon, and died April ye 24th, 1735, to ye 75th yr. of his age. Memento mori."
1763. Charles Stephen Pesselier, a French dramatist and financier, died. He was early assiduously devoted to literature and the muses; but when entrusted with the finances of the kingdom, his application ruined his constitution, and he fell a victim to excessive mental fatigue.
1773. Philip Dormer, earl of Chesterfield, died. He was a polished courtier, and a writer on, rather than a practicer of, good manners.
1775. Josiah Quincy, Jr., an eminent American patriot, died. He was employed by the British officers, together with John Adams, to defend their cause in the case of the Boston massacre, and although warmly opposed to the measures of the British ministry, he conducted the defence with great propriety. He fell a victim to intense application, at the age of 31, and died at sea on his return from England.
1778. Action in the roads opposite the town of Carrickfergus, in Ireland, in which the British sloop of war Drake was captured by the United States ship Ranger, under Paul Jones.
1780. Claude Joseph Dorat, a French poet, died. He entered the military service as a musketeer, but abandoned it to pursue his favorite study. His works comprise 20 vols.
1780. John Nourse, a distinguished bookseller and mathematician, died.
1799. William Seward, an English antiquary, died. He was the son of a brewer, and being possessed of a competency devoted himself to literature. He published 7 volumes of anecdotes and notices of distinguished characters, compiled from scarce and curious books.
1799. Peter Augustin Caron de
Beaumarchais, a French dramatist, died. He was a watchmaker, and made some improvement in the escapement of a watch. His dramas are numerous, and some of them still popular.