1686 in England

Events from the year 1686 in England.

Incumbents

21 June – judgement in the case of Godden v. Hales affirms the king's power to exercise his dispensing powers granting exemptions from anti-Catholic legislation.^[1] Heneage Finch is dismissed as Solicitor General for his refusal to defend the king's case.
10 July – Court of Ecclesiastical Commission created.^[2]
17 July – King James appoints four Catholics to the Privy Council of England.^[2]
5 November – Bar Convent in York established, making it the oldest surviving active Catholic convent in England.^[3]

Edmond Halley presents a systematic study of the trade winds and monsoons and identifies solar heating as the cause of atmospheric motions.^[4]
John Playford publishes The Delightful Companion, containing the first publication of Henry Purcell's arrangement of "Lillibullero";^[5] Thomas Wharton composes lyrics.
Robert Plot publishes The Natural History of Staffordshire.

6 March – Christopher Packe, medical doctor and geologist (died 1749)
9 April – James Craggs the Younger, politician (died 1721)^[6]
29 April – Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, statesman (died 1742)
5 June – Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk, aristocrat (died 1777; possibly born 1685)
12 August – John Balguy, philosopher (died 1748)
19 August – Eustace Budgell, writer (suicide 1737)
30 November – Richard Lumley, 2nd Earl of Scarbrough, Whig politician (suicide 1740)

14 January – Sir Thomas Abdy, 1st Baronet, lawyer and landowner (born 1612)
19 January – Simon Digby, 4th Baron Digby, politician (born 1657)
10 February – Sir William Dugdale, antiquary (born 1605)
15 April – Sir Joseph Ashe, 1st Baronet, Whig politician and merchant (born 1618)
21 April – John Dolben, Archbishop of York (born 1625)
28 May – Paskah Rose, butcher, executioner and burglar (birth unknown)
23 June – Sir William Coventry, statesman (born c. 1628)
10 July – John Fell, Bishop of Oxford (born 1625)
16 July – John Pearson, theologian and scholar (born 1612)
28 July (bur.) – Thomas Watson, nonconformist Puritan preacher and author (born c. 1620)
26 October – John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, nobleman (born 1623)
November – Jack Ketch, executioner employed by King Charles II (birth unknown)
ca. November – John Playford, bookseller and music publisher (born 1623)

^ "Godden v. Hales | law case". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
^ ^a ^b Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 196–197. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
^ "The Bar Convent". Retrieved 2016-04-11.
^ Halley, E. (1686). "An Historical Account of the Trade Winds, and Monsoons, observable in the Seas between and near the Tropicks, with an attempt to assign the Physical cause of the said Winds". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 16 (183). London: 153–168. doi:10.1098/rstl.1686.0026. S2CID 186213939.
^ Chappell, William (1900). "Purcell". Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 2. p. 729.
^ "James Craggs". everything2. Retrieved 2017-12-05.