Events from the year

1697 Events January–March * January 8 – Thomas Aikenhead is hanged outside Edinburgh, becoming the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy. * January 11 – French writer Charles Perrault releases the book ''Histoires ou ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Incumbents

Monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...

–

William III William III or William the Third may refer to: Kings * William III of Sicily (c. 1186–c. 1198) * William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702) * William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg ...

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

– 3rd of King William III

Events

* May –

John Vanbrugh Sir John Vanbrugh (; 24 January 1664 (baptised) – 26 March 1726) was an English architect, dramatist and herald, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restora ...

's comedy ''

The Provoked Wife ''The Provoked Wife'' (1697) is the second original comedy written by John Vanbrugh. It made its first appearance in Lincoln's Inn Fields in May, 1697. The often-repeated claim that Vanbrugh wrote part of his comedy ''The Provoked Wife'' in th ...

'' premières in London at

Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre Lisle's Tennis Court was a building off Portugal Street in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. Originally built as a real tennis court, it was used as a playhouse during two periods, 1661–1674 and 1695–1705. During the early period, ...

. * 15 May – violent

hail Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. Ice pellets generally fal ...

storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmos ...

across

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, perhaps the most severe ever in Britain. * 30 June – earliest known

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

match takes place, in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. * 20 September – the

Treaty of Ryswick The Peace of Ryswick, or Rijswijk, was a series of treaties signed in the Dutch city of Rijswijk between 20 September and 30 October 1697. They ended the 1688 to 1697 Nine Years' War between France and the Grand Alliance, which included England, ...

ends the

War of the Grand Alliance The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...

; France recognises William III as King of England. * 2 December – first service (to celebrate the Treaty of Ryswick) held in

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

since rebuilding work after the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

began. *

Trade with Africa Act 1697 The Trade with Africa Act 1697, also known as An Act to settle the Trade to Africa was a law passed by the Parliament of England to officially revoke the monopoly enjoyed by the Royal African Company in the African slave trade. Instead the act i ...

(''An Act to settle the Trade to Africa'') confirms the

Royal African Company The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English mercantile (trade, trading) company set up in 1660 by the royal House of Stuart, Stuart family and City of London merchants to trade along the West Africa, west coast of Africa. It was led by the J ...

's loss of monopoly on the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...

, with effect from 1698. *

Poor Act 1697 The Poor Act 1697 (8 & 9 Will. III, c. 30), formally titled An Act for supplying some Defects in the Laws for the Relief of the Poor of this Kingdom, was a 1697 welfare statute, operating within the framework of the Act for the Relief of the Poor 1 ...

requires badging of recipients of parish welfare.

Publications

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...

's ''An Essay upon Projects'', favouring the implementation of

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

and the education of women. *

Francis Moore (astrologer) Francis Moore (29 January 1657 – 1715) was an English physician and astrologer who wrote and published what later became ''Old Moore's Almanack''. He was born into poverty in Bridgnorth, reputedly in one of the cave dwellings in the vicinity o ...

first publishes ''

Old Moore's Almanack ''Old Moore’s Almanack'' is an astrological almanac This article gives a list of various almanacs. Note that ''almanac'' can also be spelled ''almanack'', and some of the publications listed use this form. Wikipedia almanac-type data * L ...

''.

Births

* 10 November –

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like s ...

, artist (died 1764)

Deaths

* 28 January – Sir John Fenwick, Jacobite conspirator, beheaded (born c. 1645) * 27 March –

Simon Bradstreet Simon Bradstreet (baptized March 18, 1603/4In the Julian calendar, then in use in England, the year began on March 25. To avoid confusion with dates in the Gregorian calendar, then in use in other parts of Europe, dates between January and Ma ...

, colonial magistrate (born 1603) * 8 May –

Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet (28 March 1634 – 8 May 1697) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1697. Life Temple was the son of Sir Peter Temple, 2nd Baronet of Stowe and his second wi ...

, politician (born 1634) * 7 June –

John Aubrey John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the ''Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. He was a pioneer archaeologist, ...

, antiquary and memoirist (born 1626) * 10 June –

Francis Pemberton Sir Francis Pemberton (18 July 1624 – 10 June 1697) was an English judge and briefly Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in the course of a turbulent career. Early life He was born on 18 July 1624 at St Albans, the son and heir of a former ...

, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench (born 1624) * 12 June – Ann Baynard, natural philosopher (born 1672) * 19 June –

Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough (15 November 1621 – 19 June 1697) was an English soldier, peer and courtier. Early life Styled Lord Mordaunt from 1628, he was the eldest son of John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough. He was educat ...

, diplomat (born 1621) * 18 July –

Thomas Dolman Sir Thomas Dolman (13 January 1622 – 18 July 1697) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1661 to 1679. Dolman was the son of Humphrey Dolman of Shaw House, Berkshire and his wife Anne Quarles, daughter of ...

, politician (born 1622) * 8 November – Samuel Enys, politician (born 1611) * Undated –

Mary Speke Mary Speke (née Pye) (c. 1625 – 1697) was an English nonconformist patron and political activist. She lived in Somerset in a non-conformist family. She was credited with changing her husband's political opinions and the Bishop of Bath and Well ...

, nonconformist patron and political activist (born c. 1625) * Probable year –

Gilbert Clerke Gilbert Clerke (1626–c.1697) was an English mathematician, natural philosopher and Socinian theological writer. Life Born at Uppingham, Rutland, in 1626, he was a son of John Clerke, master of the school there. In 1641 he was admitted to Si ...

, mathematician, natural philosopher and theologian (born 1626)

References

{{Year in Europe, 1697 Years of the 17th century in England