Who was the first person in Britain to fly by ascending in a hot air balloon?

James Tytler (17 December 1745 – 11 January 1804) was a Scottish apothecary and the editor of the second edition of Encyclopædia Britannica. Tytler became the first person in Britain to fly by ascending in a hot air balloon (1784).

A group of historiographers wrote about him:

"A social outcast, Tytler did much hack work for low pay and rarely if ever emerged from poverty. But ... he deserves to be remembered as a man of many talents - as a political and religious controversialist, scholar, journalist, poet, songwriter, musician, balloonist, pharmacist, surgeon and printer. In addition ... he was an outstanding encyclopedist whose editorship of the second edition earns him a notable place in the history of encyclopedias."

— Hardesty Doig, Kafker, Loveland, Trinkle, 2009