1698 in England

Events from the year 1698 in England.

Incumbents

• Monarch – William III

Events

• 4 January – the Palace of Whitehall is destroyed by fire.
• 11 January–21 April – Czar Peter I of Russia visits England as part of his Grand Embassy, making a particular study of shipbuilding.
• March – Jeremy Collier's pamphlet A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage is published.
• 24 June – abolition of the Royal African Company's monopoly is confirmed under terms of the Trade with Africa Act 1697, opening the slave trade to any merchant.
• 25 July – engineer Thomas Savery obtains a patent for a steam pump.
• July–August – general election results in victory for the New Country Tories.
• 11 October – Treaty of the Hague signed between France, England and Holland.
• 14 November – first Eddystone Lighthouse illuminated.

Undated

• Piracy Act ("An Act for the more effectuall Suppressions of Piracy") passed.
• Popery Act enforces penalties against Roman Catholic priests.
• Reverend Thomas Bray founds the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
• Thermal springs discovered at Matlock Bath in Derbyshire.
• The widow Bourne sets up the business which becomes Berry Brothers and Rudd in London. They will still be operating as wine merchants in the 21st century.
• Shepherd Neame Brewery established under this name in Faversham.

Births

• 10 January? – Richard Savage, poet (died 1743)
• 8 May – Henry Baker, naturalist (died 1774)
• 26 September – William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire (died 1755)
• 24 December – William Warburton, critic and Bishop of Gloucester (died 1779)

Deaths

• 24 January – William Holder, music theorist (born 1616)
• 7 February – Richard Adams, theologian (born c. 1626)
• 29 April – Charles Cornwallis, 3rd Baron Cornwallis, First Lord of the Admiralty (born 1655)
• 25 August – Fleetwood Sheppard, courtier and literary wit (born 1634)
• 3 September – Sir Robert Howard, playwright, poet and politician (born 1626)
• 13 September (bur.) – John Huddleston, Benedictine priest (born 1608)
• 1 October – Richard Frankland, dissenter (born 1630)
• Unknown date – Nicholas Barbon, economist (born c. 1640)

References