Chronology of the Coventry Area
(1600 - 1800)
| 1602-3 | Plague in the city: 500 dead |
| 1603 | Princess Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia,
daughter of James I & VI, (1603-1625) moves to live at Coombe Abbey |
| 1605 | Conspirators, pro Catholic, met in Coventry and Warwickshire. They planned to take Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I
from Coombe Abbey. The bloody hunt of Dunsmore followed, led
by Sir John Harington who killed many of the conspirators |
| 1619 | Quinton Pool refurbished as a mill pool which was supplied by streams and springs |
| 1621 | James I & VI (1603-1625) consolidates
Coventry's Charters |
| 1626 | First separated church - Baptist - founded
in the city |
| 1627 | Silk weaving starts in Coventry |
| 1640-1649 | English
Civil War - Coventry supports Parliament |
| 1640 | Coventry begins
to build up an armoury in readiness for the coming conflict.
Cannon were stored at what is now Cannon Park |
| 1642 | Charles I
(1625-1649) attacks Coventry but fails to take it |
| 1642 | Coventry
Mayor Christopher Davenport orders every householder to supply
himself with arms |
| 1642 | Battle of Edgehill |
| 1642 | Population of
Coventry 9,500 |
| 1648 | Kenilworth Castle rendered defenceless on
the orders of Parliament |
| 1649-1660 | The English Republic |
| 1662 | Charles
II (1660-1685) orders Coventry city wall to be demolished. Mayor
Thomas Pidgeory accepts the orders - done in three weeks |
| 1672-1726 | Humfrey Wanley - famous antiquary who catalogued the Hoblein Collection Manuscripts now in the British Museum |
| 1678 | 'Lady Godiva' ride
features in the city's carnival for the first time |
| 1690's | Following
the persecution of the Huguenots in France many settle in Coventry
boosting the ribbon trade |
| 1690 | Barker, Billing and Crow's school
founded |
| 1694 | Fire which started in High Street, destroys a large part of Warwick |
| 1705 | William Bird sets up ribbon weaving works - by 1756 he employed 2,000 hand loom weavers |
| 1719 | Coventry Corporation
built the Market House for the city's market |
| 1722 | Election riots
as Tories block entrance to the polling station |
| 1724-1727 | Daniel
Defoe's Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain notes Coventry
'drove a thriving trade ... in tammies ... and in the weaving
of ribbons' |
| 1741 | Jopson's Coventry Mercury first published -
became the Coventry Standard in 1836 |
| 1745 | Coventry mobilises in
the face of Bonnie Prince Charlie's march south |
| 1747 | Samuel Vale
starts watch making in the city - his company became Vale &
Rotherham |
| 1749 | Population of Coventry: 13,000 |
| 1755-1831 | Sara
Siddons - leading actress - born in Coventry |
| 1756 | William Bird who
started silk ribbon weaving in 1705 employed 2,000 hand
weavers |
| 1762 | Tamworth Road turnpiked |
| 1769 | Canals reach the city
- Coventry Canal Basin built |
| 1771 | Lancelot (Capability) Brown
designs the Coombe Abbey Gardens |
| 1772 | The second Coventry Cross
pulled down for safety reasons |
| 1780 | Election scandals - the height
of the pre Reform Act corruption |
| 1793-1815 | French Revolutionary
& Napoleonic Wars |
| 1793 | Government buys the Black Bull Inn
and turns it into a barracks for the Coventry Volunteers. It
remained in use as a barracks until the end of the First World
War |
© 1996 Coventry City Council. City Development Directorate. Myles Mackie
Page updated 20.10.96 by Ecosaurus: coventry@ecosaurus.co.uk