1700–1799
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 Wikipedia coverage and readership agree.
#PersonIn print, 1800–2019Echoed
- 1
Edward Jenner1749–1823 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Doctors22 decades - 2
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Erasmus Darwin1731–1802 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Doctors22 decades - 3
John Arbuthnot1667–1735 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Doctors19 decades - 4
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William Smellie1697–1763 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Doctors12 decades - 5
Charles Blagden1748–1820 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Doctors8 decades - 6
John Berkenhout1726–1791 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Doctors0 decades - 7
John Mudge1721–1793 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Doctors2 decades - 8
John Zephaniah Holwell1711–1798 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Doctorsnot measured— - 9
Charles Alston1685–1760 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Doctors0 decades - 10
John Coakley Lettsom1744–1815 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Doctorsnot measured— - 11
Joseph Constantine Carpue1764–1846 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Doctorsnot measured— - 12THThomas Hutchins1742–1790 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Doctorsnot measured—
How this is measured
- Placing people in time. Each person belongs to the century in which they were most active — around age 35, and never after their death.
- Who ranks highest. Within a century, people are ranked where two independent signals agree: how many of the world’s Wikipedia language editions cover them, and how many people actually read about them. Article counts alone can be lifted by a person’s own circle; readers cannot.
- Fame in print. The curves count how often a name appears in Google Books from 1800 to 2019, as a share of all the words printed each year, in the person’s own language wherever that corpus exists. Those decades are over, so each measurement is made once and kept.
- What is left out. A lifetime is measured only from 1820, when there is enough print to judge; the five years after a death are skipped as obituaries; and a name shared with someone equally notable is credited to neither.