1696 in England

Events from the year 1696 in England.

Incumbents

• Monarch – William III

Events

• January
• Great Recoinage of 1696: The Parliament of England passes the Recoinage Act.
• Colley Cibber's play Love's Last Shift is first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.
• 27 January – the ship (formerly Sovereign of the Seas) catches fire and burns at Chatham, after 57 years of service.
• 15 February – a Jacobite assassination attempt against King William III is foiled.
• March – Habeas Corpus suspended during a Jacobite invasion scare.
• April – window tax introduced.
• May – Great Recoinage of 1696: Shortage of silver coinage results in the guinea being officially revalued at 21 shillings, instead of 30.
• 21 November – John Vanbrugh's play The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Undated

• Board of Trade and Plantations established.
• Main façades of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire completed in a pioneering English Baroque style.

Publications

• Edward Lloyd probably begins publication of Lloyd's News, a predecessor of Lloyd's List, in London.
• Poets Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady publish New Version of the Psalms of David ("Tate and Brady"), a metrical psalter.

Births

• 27 June – William Pepperrell, colonial soldier (died 1759)
• 14 July – William Oldys, antiquarian and bibliographer (died 1761)
• 12 August – Maurice Greene, composer (died 1755)
• 13 October – John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, statesman and writer (died 1743)
• 22 December – James Oglethorpe, general and founder of the state of Georgia as a colony (died 1785)

Deaths

• 18 March – Robert Charnock, conspirator (born c. 1663)
• 30 April – Robert Plot, naturalist (born 1640)
• 28 May – William Gregory, politician and judge (born 1625)
• 30 May – Henry Capell, 1st Baron Capell, First Lord of the Admiralty (born 1638)
• 24 June – Philip Henry, minister (born 1631)
• 11 July – William Godolphin, politician (born 1635)
• 13 September – Caleb Banks, politician (born 1659)
• 8 December – Charles Porter, English-born judge (born 1631)
• 12 December – John Hampden (1653–1696), politician (born 1653)

References