] (Sorry, but that link doesn't seem to apply to 1775-1817, as far as I can see....)

You're right, Caroline: they started after JA's period. (I am indebted to my husband, who formerly rowed for Queen's Oxford, for this information.)

The first Henley Regatta was in 1839. However, teams from Oxford and Cambridge, or their individual colleges, had been rowing in the years before this date. Queen's, for example, first started in 1827. Well after JA's period.