Events from the year 1683 in England.
Incumbents Monarch – Charles II
Events
9 January – Charles II gives orders establishing the dates on which he will perform the "Touching the King's Evil" ceremony. 22 March – great fire in Newmarket, Suffolk, consuming half the houses and forcing Charles II (who is in residence) to flee the town. 24 May – the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, opens as the world's first purpose-built university museum. 12 June – the Rye House Plot to assassinate Charles II is discovered; at least 11 people will be executed for their connections with it. 21 July – Lord Russell is beheaded by Jack Ketch at Lincoln's Inn Fields for his part in the Rye House Plot. 28 July – The Lady Anne, the King's niece and fourth in line of succession, marries Prince George of Denmark in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace, London. 12 December – start of exceptional cold spell. The River Thames freezes, allowing a frost fair to be held (pictured).
Undated Wild boars are hunted to extinction in Britain. The London Jilt; or, the Politick Whore, probably by Alexander Oldys, is published.
Births 1 March – Caroline of Ansbach, queen of George II of Great Britain (died 1737) 3 April – Mark Catesby, naturalist (died 1749) 25 October – Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, politician (died 1757) 10 November – King George II of Great Britain (died 1760) 27 December – Conyers Middleton, minister (died 1750)
Deaths 15 January – Philip Warwick, writer and politician (born 1609) 21 January – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, politician (born 1621) 19 March – Thomas Killigrew, dramatist (born 1612) 13 July – Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex, statesman, implicated in Rye House Plot, suicide (born 1631) 18 August – Charles Hart, actor (born 1625) 21 July – William Russell, Lord Russell, politician, executed (born 1639) 24 August – John Owen, non-conformist theologian (born 1616) 25 October – William Scroggs, lord chief justice of England (born c. 1623) 7 December John Oldham, poet (born 1653) Algernon Sidney, parliamentarian and republican, executed (born 1623) 15 December – Izaak Walton, writer (born 1593) John Hingston, court composer, viol player and organist (born 1612)
References