Editing 1698 (section)

=== January–March ===
* [[January 1]] – [[Leonardo VII Tocco]], Italian noble, the Prince of Montemiletto and the titular Prince of Achaea (d. [[1776]])
* [[January 3]] – [[Metastasio]], (b. Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi), Italian poet and opera librettist (d. [[1782]])
* [[January 7]] – [[Thomas Southwell, 2nd Baron Southwell]], Irish peer, politician and freemason (d. [[1766]])
* [[January 21]] – [[Auguste Louise of Württemberg-Oels]], Duchess of Württemberg-Oels by birth and by marriage Duchess of Saxe-Weissenfels-Barby (d. [[1739]])
* [[February 4]] – [[Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué]], Prussian Lieutenant general and General der Infanterie and a confidant of King Frederick the Great (d. [[1774]])
* [[February 5]] – [[Germain-François Poullain de Saint-Foix]], 18th-century French writer and playwright (d. [[1776]])
* [[February 7]] – [[Nicolas Sarrabat]], French mathematician and scientist (d. [[1739]])
* [[February 16]]
** [[Pierre Bouguer]], French mathematician, geophysicist, geodesist, and astronomer (d. [[1758]])
** [[Johann Elias Ridinger]], German painter (d. [[1767]])
* [[February 19]] – [[William FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Cleveland]], English nobleman (d. [[1774]])
* [[February 20]]
** [[Gerard Arnout Hasselaer]], burgomaster and counsellor of the city of Amsterdam (d. [[1766]])
** [[Bernardo Tanucci]], Italian statesman (d. [[1783]])
* [[February 22]] – [[Giovanni Battista de' Rossi]], Italian Roman Catholic priest (d. [[1764]])
* [[February 23]] – [[Thomas Bladen]], colonial governor in North America and British MP (d. [[1780]])
* [[February 28]] – [[Sigismund von Schrattenbach]], Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg (d. [[1771]])
* [[March 6]] – [[Johannes Alberti]], Dutch theologian (d. [[1762]])
* [[March 17]] – [[Lady Jane Douglas]], Scottish noblewoman (d. [[1753]])
* [[March 26]] – [[Václav Prokop Diviš]], Czech priest, scientist and inventor (d. [[1765]])