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
Phillis Wheatley1753–1784 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers16 decades - 2
Lizzie Velasquezborn 1743 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers0 decades - 3
Noah Webster1758–1843 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers22 decades - 4
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney1746–1825 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers22 decades - 5
%2C_by_John_Singleton_Copley.jpg?width=1200)
Mercy Otis Warren1728–1814 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers5 decades - 6
Henry Laurens1724–1792 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers22 decades - 7
Joel Barlow1754–1812 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers22 decades - 8
Philip Freneau1752–1832 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers17 decades - 9
Judith Sargent Murray1751–1820 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers3 decades - 10
Mason Locke Weems1759–1825 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers0 decades - 11GIGilbert Imlay1754–1828 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers3 decades
- 12
Jupiter Hammon1711–1806 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers6 decades - 13
Charlotte Lennox1730–1804 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers10 decades - 14
Timothy Dwight IV1752–1817 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers0 decades - 15
Susanna Rowson1762–1824 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers0 decades - 16
William Hill Brown1765–1793 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers0 decades - 17
Mary Randolph1762–1828 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 18
Lindley Murray1745–1826 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers21 decades - 19
Lucy Terry1730–1821 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers0 decades - 20
Royall Tyler1757–1826 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 21
.jpg?width=1200)
Arthur Lee1740–1792 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 22
.jpg?width=1200)
David Ramsay1749–1815 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 23
_-_Gilbert_Stuart_(cropped).jpg?width=1200)
Hugh Henry Brackenridge1748–1816 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 24
Josiah Quincy II1744–1775 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 25SKSarah Kemble Knight1666–1727 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers0 decades
- 26
William Short1759–1849 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 27
Hannah Webster Foster1758–1840 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers0 decades - 28RBRobert Beverley, Jr.1673–1726 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured—
- 29SSSolomon Spalding1761–1816 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured—
- 30
Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson1737–1801 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 31
Ann Eliza Bleecker1752–1783 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 32
Jeremy Belknap1744–1798 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 33
James Swan1754–1830 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 34
Henry Livingston, Jr.1748–1828 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 35
.jpg?width=1200)
Esther Edwards Burr1732–1758 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 36
Francis Fauquier1703–1768 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 37
Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton1759–1846 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 38
Samuel Hopkins1721–1803 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 39LNLewis Nicola1717–1807 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured—
- 40MHMary Hemings1753–1834 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured—
- 41MDMartha Daniell Logan1704–1779 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writers0 decades
- 42SWSusanna Wright1697–1784 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured—
- 43
.jpg?width=1200)
Annis Boudinot Stockton1736–1801 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured— - 44NGNathaniel Gist1733–1796 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot measured—
- 45
Abiel Holmes1763–1837 · 🇺🇸 United States · Writersnot 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.