← Fame through time1700-1799
The 18th century
Whose working lives fell in the 18th century. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 18th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
James Cook22 decades - 2
Adam Smith22 decades - 3
William Blake22 decades - 4
Anne, Queen of Great Britain0 decades - 5
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson22 decades - 6
David Hume22 decades - 7
Mary Wollstonecraft21 decades - 8
Robert Burns22 decades - 9
Samuel Johnson22 decades - 10
George III of the United Kingdom0 decades - 11
James Watt22 decades - 12
Blackbeard22 decades - 13
William Pitt the Younger3 decades - 14
John Wesley22 decades - 15
Robert Walpole22 decades - 16
Edward Jenner22 decades - 17
George IV of the United Kingdomnot measured- - 18
William Wilberforce22 decades - 19
Edward Gibbon22 decades - 20
Robert Clive22 decades - 21
William Godwin16 decades - 22
Joseph Priestley22 decades - 23
James Francis Edward Stuart, Prince of Walesnot measured- - 24
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallisnot measured- - 25
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Greynot measured-
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.