DECEMBER 10, 1824 Born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire,
1826 Family moves to the Farm, Huntly
1832 Death of MacDonald’s mother, Helen MacKay MacDonald
1840 Enters King’s College, Aberdeen
1848 Attends Highbury Theological College, London; proposes to Louisa Powell
1850 Accepts pastorate at Trinity Congregational Church in Arundel, Sussex
1851 Marries Louisa Powell; ordained to Congregational ministry
1852 Birth of first child, Lilia Scott; congregation reduces his salary
1853 Resigns pastorate at Arundel; the family moves to Manchester
1855 Publishes Within and Without: A Dramatic Poem
1856 Lady Byron becomes MacDonald’s patron; the family vacations in Algiers
1857 Moves to Huntly Cottage, Hastings
1858 Publishes Phantastes; death of father
1859 Accepts professorship of English literature at Bedford College, London
1863 Publishes David Elginbrod
1865 Begins lecturing at King’s College, London
1866 Becomes a member of the Church of England at the Chapel of St. Peter’s, Vere Street, where F. D. Maurice is rector
1867 George MacKay, last of II children, is born; the family moves to the Retreat, Upper Mall, Hammersmith; publishes first of three volumes of Unspoken Sermons
1868 Becomes involved with the housing projects sponsored by John Ruskin and Octavia Hill; publishes Robert Falconer
1869 Becomes editor of Good Words for the Young
1871 Publishes At the Back of the North Wind
1872 George, Louisa, and their son Greville MacDonald go on a lecture tour of America; publishes The Princess and the Goblin
1875 Family leaves the Retreat
1877 Louisa organizes the first family performance of The Pilgrim’s Progress, with Princess Louise in attendance; Queen Victoria awards MacDonald a Civil Lists Pension
1878 Death of daughter Mary
1879 Publishes Sir Gibbie; death of son Maurice
1880 Family settles in Bordighera, Italy; publishes A Book of Strife in the Form of a Diary of an Old Soul
1882 Publishes The Princess and Curdle and The Gifts of the Christ Child
1884 Death of daughter Grace
1895 Publishes Lilith
1891 Death of daughter Lilia
1893 Publishes A Dish of Orts
1901 Louisa and George celebrate their golden wedding anniversary on June 8
1902 Death of Louisa in Bordighera
1905 Dies on September 18 at Ashtead in Surrey; his ashes are buried in Louisa’s grave in Bordighera
His TIMES
1825 S. T. Coleridge, Aids to Reflection
1837 Victoria ascends the throne
1837-38 Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
1838 F. D. Maurice, The Kingdom of Christ
1846 Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) publishes English translation of D. F. Strauss’s The Life of Jesus Critically Examined
1850s AND 60s Height of evangelical influence in England
1850 Death of William Wordsworth
1854 Inauguration of the London Working Men’s College, with Maurice as first principal
1853-56 Crimean War
1859 Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species
1862 J. W. Colenso, The Pentoteuch and the Book of Joshua Critically Examined
1865 Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
1869-70 First Vatican Council
1870 Universal elementary education introduced in England and Wales
1870s Beginning of the Keswick conferences to promote holiness
1874 G. K. Chesterton is born
1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone
1878 William and Catherine Booth found the Salvation Army
1881 Cambridge University exams open to women
1884 Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
1888 Mrs. Humphry Ward, Robert Elsmere
1892 Soon after the death of Baptist preacher C. H. Spurgeon, the Bible League is formed
1894 Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book
1899-1902 Boer War
1901 Death of Queen Victoria
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