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 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
• 8 May – Henry Baker, naturalist
• 26 September – William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire
• 24 December – William Warburton, critic and Bishop of Gloucester

Deaths

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