Famous People Born In 1685

Johann Sebastian Bach was an 18-th century German composer of the Baroque period. He redefined both church and secular music. He served as the court musician of Duke Johann Ernst and King Augustus III. He created more than 300 cantatas and vocal music such as Mass in B minor.

George Frideric Handel was a Baroque composer renowned for his oratorios, operas, anthems, and organ concertos. A great composer, Handel's works had a strong influence on popular Classical-era composers like Beethoven and Mozart. George Frideric Handel's life and work have also inspired several films, such as the 1942 British biographical film The Great Mr. Handel.

Italian Baroque composer Domenico Scarlatti was no stranger to music, being the son of famous composer Alessandro Scarlatti. From being the official composer for the queen of Poland, to teaching music to the princess of Spain and creating 555 keyboard sonatas, the legendary harpsichordist had an illustrious life.

George Berkeley was an Anglo-Irish philosopher who is credited with popularizing a theory called immaterialism, which claims that material substance like tables and chairs can't exist without being perceived by the mind. Berkeley influenced several philosophers like David Hume. Also remembered for his humanitarian work, George Berkeley worked towards creating homes for abandoned children in London.

Much before his daughter Maria Theresa’s birth, Emperor Charles VI’s Pragmatic Sanction enabled his future daughter to succeed him, due to the lack of male heirs. Though he was always busy fighting, he apparently did it all to bring about peace. He had also unsuccessfully attempted to conquer Spain.

Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye was a French Canadian military officer and fur trader. Along with his four sons, he explored the area west of Lake Superior and established trading posts there. The family also helped in the process of adding Western Canada to the original New France territory.  He was awarded the Order of Saint Louis. 

Though he was initially educated in law, George Hadley gained fame as a physicist and meteorologist. He is remembered for his extensive research on trade-wind currents and for devising a theory describing trade winds and the north-south circulation pattern, which is now known as the Hadley cell.

Dramatist Aaron Hill is best known for adapting Voltaire’s plays Zaïre and Mérope. Though his The Northern Star dedicated to Russian tsar Peter the Great was said to have won a gold medal, the medal didn’t reach him. Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad was a satirical attack on Hill’s works.

William Kent was a British architect, painter, landscape architect, and furniture designer. After beginning his career as a court painter, Kent went on to establish himself as a prominent architect and introduced Palladian architecture to England. The gardens created by Kent at Chiswick House are one of the earliest models of the English garden.