February – Admiralty revises the command structure of the Royal Navy and issues new Fighting Instructions.[2]
1 February – two princes of Anamaboe who have been taken prisoners and made slaves are presented to King George II of Great Britain. The British government has paid their ransoms and they are placed in the care of the Earl of Halifax.[3]
The second part of John Cleland's erotic novelFanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) is published in February. The author is released from debtor's prison in March. The Church of England asks the Secretary of State to "stop the progress of this vile Book, which is an open insult upon Religion and good manners." In November, Cleland is arrested and charged with "corrupting the King's subjects."