6 May – while on passage from Portsmouth to Scotland, HMS Gloucester (1654) runs aground on a sandbank off the Norfolk coast and sinks. The Duke of York (the future King James II) and John Churchill (the future 1st Duke of Marlborough) are among those saved but at least 120 drown.[2]
25 August – following the Bideford witch trial, three women become (probably) the penultimate known to be hanged for witchcraft in England, at Exeter.[3]
Celia Fiennes, noblewoman and traveller, begins her journeys across Britain in a venture that will prove to be her life's work. Her aim is to chronicle the towns, cities and great houses of the country. Her travels continue until at least 1712, and will take her to every county in England, though the main body of her journal is not written until 1702.
^Gent, Frank J. (1982). The Trial of the Bideford Witches. Bideford.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Another woman was sentenced to be hanged for witchcraft in Exeter in 1685 although there is no surviving confirmation that the sentence was carried out. "The Devon "Witches"". Exeter Civic Society. Retrieved 2022-07-27.
^ abPalmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 194–196. ISBN0-7126-5616-2.
