Skip to content
VitrineRoyal Houses of Europe
Sign in

Princess Sophia of the United Kingdom

1777–1848

Born
3 Nov 1777, Buckingham Palace
Country of birth
Kingdom of Great Britain, today United Kingdom
Died
27 May 1848, Kensington Palace
facts
7
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Buckingham Palace

    Birth, Buckingham Palace

  2. Died · Kensington Palace

    Death, Kensington Palace

What was it like?

The world around Buckingham Palace, 1777: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Princess was born the same year as John Ross, Thomas Campbell, and Filippo Taglioni.

Born the same year

  • John Ross

    Scottish naval officer and polar explorer (1777–1856)

  • Thomas Campbell

    Scottish poet (1777-1844)

  • Filippo Taglioni

    ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer

  • Carl Friedrich Gauss

    German mathematician and physicist (1777–1855)

  • Alexander I of Russia

    The tenth Emperor of Russia (1777–1825)

  • Hans Christian Ørsted

    Danish physicist and chemist (1777-1851)

Fashion
Around 1750–1774

Dual-purpose Undergarments

Women often wore a shift (a basic undergarment) that served as both daytime underwear and sleepwear.

Around 1750–1774

Popular Bedgowns as Street Wear

Bedgowns, which were lightweight front-wrapping jackets, evolved into a staple garment for British working-class street wear.

Music
Around 1773–1773

Music at a Black social club

At a 1773 dance in Southwark, a group of 59 Black servants entertained themselves with music played on violins and French horns. All the performers in this band were Black, and no White people were allowed to attend.

Around 1770–1770

Harp music for a late night dance

In 1770, party guests hired a professional harpist for an evening of dancing, paying him one shilling each for his services. The music from this single harp was sufficient for them to dance until 1 a.m.

Getting around
Around 1750–1774

Slow coach travel speeds in mid-18th century

Coaching became more common after 1760, but travel remained slow; in 1755, average coach speeds to London were less than five miles per hour.

Around 1750–1774

Travel options depended on personal wealth

Wealthy travelers hired expensive postchaises for speed, while poorer people sometimes paid to sit on baggage in slow carts pulled by carriers.

Daily life
Around 1750–1774

Adjusting Rushlights Was a Child's Chore

Rushlights, made from dried reed pith dipped in fat, were a cheap source of light, though they could burn for as little as ten minutes. It was often the youngest family member's chore to manually adjust the reed in its clamp to keep the light burning.

Around 1750–1774

Communal Baking for a Small Fee

In smaller communities, people often used a shared bakehouse where they paid a small fee to have their dough baked in a communal oven. Residents would carry their bread loaves to these ovens on boards resting on their shoulders.

Food
Around 1750–1774

Sixpenny dinner for craftsmen

For an average London craftsman, a typical dinner consisted of bread, beer, and cheese or fatty bacon, often costing sixpence.

Around 1750–1774

Tea becomes a common drink

By the middle of the 18th century, drinking tea had become common even among ordinary people, despite its cost.

Prices and wages
Around 1770–1774

Worker daily wages in the 1770s

In the 1770s, many building laborers and skilled craftsmen in cities like London earned around 2s. 6d. per day.

Around 1750–1774

Cost of a simple dinner

In 18th-century London, a simple dinner of cold meat, bread, and a pint of porter cost 6 1/4d.

Work
Around 1750–1774

Common jobs in the period

Common occupations included agricultural labourers, who worked by the seasons, and diverse urban roles like cordwainers (shoemakers), chandlers (candle makers), and night-soil men, who removed waste at night.

Around 1750–1774

Notable work facts and extremes

Some people worked unusual hours, such as a publican who began mowing at 2:00 a.m. in 1756, and children were employed from a young age for tasks like bird-scaring and stone-picking.

During their lifetime

  1. 1799

    Unions outlawed in 1799

    The Combination Act of 1799 prohibited workers from collectively bargaining or forming unions to improve their pay and conditions.

  2. 1840

    Introduction of the Penny Post

    The Uniform Penny Post was introduced in 1840, making mail affordable and leading to a five-fold increase in sent letters.

Family

Parents

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.