1800 The Act of Union formally united Britain and Ireland. The Union flag bearing the crosses of St George and St Andrew and known as the Union Jack had the cross of St Patrick added

1800 A man called John Franklin returned from Botany Bay where he had been sent after being convicted of murder. His friends petitioned for the return of the two cottages that he owned. When Franklin died shortly after his return the property was returned to his children.

1801 King George III planned a new house at Kew. It looked like a Gothic castle with turrets and crenelations, tall keeps and towers and a large courtyard surrounded by a high wall. It was criticised by architectural critics and the public and ‘was described as looking like the Bastille with the foundations in a bog close to the Thames and the principal view, according to Sir Nathanial Wraxall was that of the ‘dirty town of Brentford’. It was demolished on the orders of George IV.

1802 The third James Clitherow of Boston House issued a notice to the ‘inhabitants of Brentford and the adjacent neighbourhood of the lower classes’ stating how a set of ‘poore idle and disorderly daring villains’ had been trespassing on his property, stealing and damaging his fences, gates and hedges and fishing unlawfully. At the time these felonies could be punished by death or transportation but James Clitherow said that he was prepared to be lenient and only fine offenders. After deduction of charges the fines were paid into the funds of the Charity School. Rewards were offered for information on conviction of the felons.

1803 Jane Austen published Northanger Abbey.

1803 The marriage took place in the Friends Meeting House of Sarah Lynes, a well known itinerant preacher and John Grubb. After the ceremony they took tea with Sarah and Benjamin Angell at Gumley House in Isleworth.

The Armed Association was re-formed as the Ealing and Brentford Armed Association in view of further threats from Napoleon.

1804 Napoleon Bonaparte, as head of the government, declared himself Emperor of France.

1804 Percy Bysshe Shelley, the poet, ‘was at school at Syon Park Academy which stood on the site of the Royal Mail sorting office. He found his schooldays ‘perfect hell’. Another pupil at the time was the engineer John Rennie.

1805 The Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Admiral Lord Nelson took place.

1805 The third James Clitherow of Boston House died aged 73 years. He had inherited the property from his father in 1752 and been an influential member of the community throughout his life.

1806 John Holloway was arrested at the Brentford Elections for the murder, with others, of Mr J P Steel on Hounslow Heath 4 years earlier. His execution took place outside Newgate Goal when 31 people amongst the spectators died due to the press of the crowds.

1807 Kew Palace was said to overlook the worst part of Brentford.

1809 Robert Trevithick demonstrated the first steam locomotive.

1810 Sarah Trimmer died at her house in Windmill Road.

A census taken in New Brentford showed 453 households living in 297 houses and a total population of 1,733.

1811 The Prince of Wales was appointed Regent in view of his father’s illness.

1811 The Methodists had a new meeting house in St Paul’s Road. Bargemen were brought before the magistrates for loading and unloading their boats on the Sabbath.

1814 The Duke of Wellington’s carriage was damaged as he passed through the town. He was so popular that the townspeople were eager to pull his carriage themselves and not wait for repairs.

1815 Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by armies led by the Duke of Wellington.

1815 St Lawrence’s Boys School opened on The Ham. The land had been donated by James Clitherow of whom it was said, the Parish was ‘much indebted far this most important addition to the means of educating the lower classes’.

1815 to 1817 John Quincey Adams and his family lived at Little Boston on the corner of The Ride and Windmill Road as tenants of the Clitherows when Adams was the American Ambassador to’ Great Britain. On his return to the United States he was appointed Secretary of State and was elected the Sixth President in 1825. His father had been the second President following George Washington

1819 There were 3,000 acres of market gardens in the parishes in and around the parishes of Brentford which was described as ‘the great fruit and vegetable garden of London

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