1604. William Morgan, bishop of Asaph, formerly of Landaff, died. He directed and superintended the translation of the scriptures into Welsh.
1621. King James gave sir William Alexander a patent of the whole territory of Acadia, by the name of Nova Scotia. It was erected into a palatinate, to be holden as a fief of the crown of Scotland. An unsuccessful attempt was soon after made to effect a settlement, and he sold it to the French in 1630. Twenty years afterwards three thousand families settled there from New England.
1649. Peter Goudelin, a poet of Gascony, died. He was so celebrated that he
acquired the title of the Homer of Gascony.
1691. Edward Pococke died; a most learned English critic and commentator, and famous particularly for his great skill in the oriental languages.
1714. An agreement between the Van Hoorn or Berbice company, and the Dutch East India company, to furnish the former annually after this day, 240 negroes from Angola, or Ardrah (one-third to be females), at 165 florins a head.
1730. Guichard Joseph du Verney died; professor of anatomy at Paris, of great celebrity.
1738. Thomas Sheridan, an Irish divine and poet, died. He published a prose translation of Perseus.
1752. John Baptist Bertrand died; a French physician, known for his interesting account of the plague of Marseilles.
1759. Second action off Pondicherry, between the British fleet, admiral Pococke, and the French under admiral d'Auché. British loss 164 killed, 385 wounded. A deserter reported the French loss to have been 1500 killed and wounded.