1690. A party of French and Indians under the sieur Hertel, returning from a marauding excursion among the English settlements, attacked and destroyed the fort at Casco, Me.
1723. Joseph Bingham, an English
ecclesiastic, died; author of Antiquities of the Christian Church, a learned and laborious work, in 10 vols.
1727. Catharine Alexievna, empress of Russia, died. She was the daughter of a peasant of Livonia, married a Swedish dragoon, who was killed on the same day in battle. The Russian general Bauer made her his mistress, after which she lived a short time with prince Mentschicoff. In her 17th year she became the mistress of Peter the Great, who afterwards married her and presented her with the diadem and the sceptre. After his death she was proclaimed sovereign empress of all the Russias, and showed herself worthy of her high fortune.
1729. Samuel Clarke, a famous English divine, died; celebrated also for his writings on mathematics, &c.
1732. William Lowth died; a celebrated English theological writer and commentator.
1738 O. S. Bell, the Scottish traveler, returned to St. Petersburg from his embassy to Constantinople, whither he went at the earnest solicitation of the Russian cabinet, and the British minister. This was the last of his expeditions, and was undertaken in the midst of winter, through a country exposed to all the horrors of a barbarous warfare, attended by only one servant, who understood the Turkish language.
1740. Peter Julian Rouille, a French Jesuit, died; professor of theology and philosophy to his order, and co-editor of the Roman History, 21 vols. quarto.
1742. Battle of Czaslau, or Chatusitz, in Bohemia; the Prussians defeated the Austrians, who lost 7,000; Prussian loss, 3,000.
1749. Samuel Boyse, an Irish poet, died. His talents were amply rewarded, but he unfortunately had a disposition to practice the meanest deceptions to procure benefactions, which brought him to wretchedness and contempt.