Events from the year 1655 in England.
Incumbents Lord Protector – Oliver Cromwell
Events 22 January – Oliver Cromwell dissolves the First Protectorate Parliament. 11–14 March – Penruddock uprising: a Royalist uprising beginning in Wiltshire is defeated by a skirmish in South Molton. 28 April – Admiral Robert Blake destroys the pirate fleet of the bey of Tunis. 10–27 May – Anglo-Spanish War: Invasion of Jamaica – Forces led by William Penn and Robert Venables capture the island of Jamaica from Spain. 9 August – the Rule of the Major-Generals, a period of direct military government, begins. 24 November – Anglican services prohibited by Cromwell. 4–18 December – Whitehall Conference convened by Cromwell to debate the Resettlement of the Jews in England.
Ongoing events Anglo-Spanish War 1654–1660
Publications John Wallis's Arithmetica Infinitorum, first work on differential calculus.
Births 11 January – Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk, politician and soldier (died 1701) 23 April (bapt.) – Andrew Allam, writer (died 1685) 25 April – John Lowther, 1st Viscount Lonsdale, politician (died 1700) 3 June – William Nicolson, bishop and antiquary (died 1727) 20 July – Ford Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville, statesman (died 1701) 12 November – Francis Nicholson, military officer and colonial governor (died 1728) 28 December – Charles Cornwallis, 3rd Baron Cornwallis, First Lord of the British Admiralty (died 1698) Sir John Barker, 4th Baronet, politician (died 1696)
Deaths 31 January (bur.) – Anthony Stapley, politician and regicide (born 1590) February – George Brydges, 6th Baron Chandos, royalist peer (smallpox) (born 1620) 18 March – Richard Smith, Catholic bishop (in France) (born 1568) 16 May – John Penruddock, Cavalier (executed) (born 1619) after May – Elizabeth Alkin, Parliamentarian publisher, nurse and spy (born c. 1600) by 9 June – Sir Thomas Mauleverer, 1st Baronet, Member of Parliament and regicide (born 1599) 26 June – Edward Conway, 2nd Viscount Conway, politician, royalist military commander and bibliophile (in France) (born 1594) 19 November – Stephen Marshall, nonconformist minister (born 1594) December – Robert Cox, comic performer
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