The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Bristol, England.
Prior to 16th century
803 – St James' Priory founded. ca.1000 – A Saxon settlement began to grow up at the junction of the rivers Frome and Avon. 1009 – Market active. 12th C. – College Green created. 1129 – St James' Priory founded. 1140 – St Augustine's Abbey founded. 1141 – February: Stephen, King of England imprisoned in Bristol Castle after the Battle of Lincoln. 1147 – Bristol fair active. 1172 - Charter from Henry II. 13th C. – Society of Merchant Venturers formed. c.1220 – Bristol Cathedral construction begins. c.1223 – Grey friary founded. c.1228 – Blackfriars Dominican priory established. 1290 – Jews expelled. 1292 – Church of St Mary Redcliffe built. 1295 – Parliamentary representation begins. 1373 – Bristol becomes a county corporate; Redcliffe becomes part of Bristol. 1470 – St Stephen's Church rebuilt. c.1478–1479 – Ricart's Maiores Kalendar of Bristol started. 1497 – May: Italian-born adventurer John Cabot sets sail on the ship Matthew (principally owned by Richard Amerike) looking for new lands to the west. 1498 – May: Cabot sets sail on his second voyage to the Americas; he is never heard of again.
16th–17th centuries
1504 – Chapel of the Three Kings of Cologne built. 1542 – See of Bristol established. 1552 – Society of Merchant Venturers chartered. 1580 – Red Lodge Museum established. 1595 – Merchant Venturers' School founded. 17th C. – The trade in African slaves flourishes. 1643 – July: Bristol in the English Civil War: Bristol taken by forces of Prince Rupert. 1644 – Fort at St. Michael's Hill rebuilt. 1645 – September: Bristol taken by forces of Cromwell. 1656 – Bristol Castle demolished. c. 1670 – King William Ale House built as a refuge for poor women. 1691 Bristol Corporation of the Poor founded. Almshouse established at St. Michael's Hill.
18th century
1701 – Merchants' hall built. 1702 – Bristol Post-Boy newspaper begins publication. 1710 – Colston's Hospital founded. 1708 – Unrest. 1709 – St James's Square laid out. 1712 – Custom House built. 1717 – William Cossley bookseller in business. 1725 – Farley's Bristol News-Paper begins publication. 1727 – Dowry Square laid out. 1729 – Walter Churchman patents his invention for making chocolate. 1737 – Bristol Royal Infirmary opens. 1738 – William Champion patents a process to distill zinc from calamine using charcoal in a smelter. 1739 – New Room (Methodist chapel) built. 1740 – Merchant Tailors' Guild Hall built. 1741 – King Square laid out. 1743 – The Exchange built. 1747 – Bristol becomes Britain's busiest slave trading port. 1753 – Economic unrest. c.1759 – Joseph Fry begins chocolate manufacture. 1766 – Theatre opens. 1767 – Bristol Gazette newspaper begins publication. 1768 – Bristol Bridge built. 1769 – St Nicholas Church rebuilt. 1770 – Bristol porcelain manufacture begins; Bristol blue glass is also first produced at about this date. 1773 – Bristol Library Society founded. 1779 – Stapleton Prison built to hold naval prisoners of war captured during the American Revolutionary War. 1786 Infirmary opens. Wills, Watkins & Co. open a tobacconists' shop which becomes W.D. & H.O. Wills. 1788 – John Wesley gives speech against slavery. c.1790 – Berkeley Square laid out. 1791 – Christ Church with St Ewen and Equestrian Theatre built. 1793 – 30 September: Bridge riot. 1793–1813 – Stapleton prison used for French prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars. 1796 – John Harvey & Sons, importers of Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry, founded. 1799 – Pneumatic Institution established.