* 1738 – Premiere in London, England, Great Britain of Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.

* 1738 – Jacques François Dugommier, French general ( d. 1794 )

* 1683 – Jean-Joseph Mouret, French composer ( d. 1738 )

* 1738 – Leopold Hofmann, Austrian composer ( d. 1793 )

* 1738 – Real Academia de la Historia (" Royal Academy of History ") is founded in Madrid.

* 1738 – William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, English statesman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom ( d. 1809 )

Herman Boerhaave (, 31 December 1668 – 23 September 1738 ) was a Dutch botanist, humanist and physician of European fame.

There is some controversy over the identity of the disease, but in its virulent form, after the Great Plague of Marseille in 1720 – 1722, the Great Plague of 1738 ( which hit Eastern Europe ), and the Russian plague of 1770-1772, it seems to have gradually disappeared from Europe.

* 1738 – Richard Montgomery, Irish-born soldier ( d. 1775 )

* 1738 – Jan Antonín Koželuh, Bohemian composer ( d. 1814 )

* 1789 – Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and President of Delaware ( b. 1738 )

* 1684 – Matthias Braun, Czech sculptor ( d. 1738 )

By John Singleton Copley ( 1738 – 1815 )

Karl Friedrich ruled Baden 1738 – 1811 Baden sported perhaps the best government of the smaller states.

Karl Friedrich ruled well for 73 years ( 1738 – 1811 ) and was an enthusiast for The Enlightenment ; he abolished serfdom in 1783.

* 1738 – Canadian explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan.

* 1820 – King George III of the United Kingdom ( b. 1738 )

* 1738 – Isaac de Beausobre, French pastor ( b. 1659 )

* 1663 – Franz Xaver Murschhauser, German composer and theorist ( d. 1738 )

* 1738 – Jacques Delille, French poet and translator ( d. 1813 )

* 1738 – Mary Katharine Goddard, American printer and publisher ( d. 1816 )

* 1738 – Ethan Allen, American military leader ( d. 1789 )

* John Brown ( North Carolina ) ( 1738 – 1812 ), pioneer and statesman

It was continued by various writers and grew to twenty-one volumes ( 1633 – 1738 ), including illustrations by the beautiful copperplate engravings of Matthäus Merian ( 1593 – 1650 ).

In 1738, while hearing Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans read at St. Botolph Church on Aldersgate Street in London, John Wesley famously felt his heart " strangely warmed ", a conversion experience which is often seen as the beginning of Methodism.

Prince Eugene's Italian manuscript had been presented to him in 1713 by John Frederick Cramer ; and was transferred to the Austrian National Library in Vienna in 1738 with the rest of his library.

According to John Iliffe, " The worst crises were in the 1680s, when famine extended from the Senegambian coast to the Upper Nile and ' many sold themselves for slaves, only to get a sustenance ', and especially in 1738 – 56, when West Africa's greatest recorded subsistence crisis, due to drought and locusts, reportedly killed half the population of Timbuktu.

* 1738 – John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement ; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday.

Corbin Washington ( 1764 – 1799 ), son of Col. John Augustine Washington ( 1736 – 1787 ) and Hannah Bushrod ( 1738 – 1801 ).

* November 11 – Sir John Chesshyre, English lawyer ( d. 1738 )

* September 9 – John Singleton Copley, American painter ( b. 1738 )

* July 19 – John Palmer, Bath architect ( b. c. 1738 )

In 1738, Lewis Paul and John Wyatt, of Birmingham, England, patented the roller spinning machine, and the flyer-and-bobbin system for drawing cotton to a more even thickness using two sets of rollers that traveled at different speeds.

Lewis Paul and John Wyatt first worked on the problem in 1738, patenting the Roller Spinning machine and the flyer-and-bobbin system, for drawing wool to a more even thickness.

He married Euphemia Erskine ( 1718-1766 ) in 1738, their children included James, John ( 1743-1798 ) and ( Thomas ) David ( 1748-1826 ).

* John Brown ( 1738 – 1812 ), militia captain during the Revolutionary War, served as one of the state Treasurers ( 1782 – 1784 ), and served in the North Carolina state legislature ( 1784 – 1787 ).

John Schell's grandfather Michael Schell, the progenitor of this branch of the Schell family in America, first arrived in Philadelphia from the Palatinate by way of Rotterdam in 1727, after which more family members arrived in 1732 and again in 1738.

John Elder, the " Fighting Parson ," became pastor in 1738.

Although some contemporary sources suggest there was coal mining in Oldham at a commercial scale by 1738, older sources attribute the commercial expansion of coal mining with the arrival in the town of two Welsh labourers, John Evans and William Jones, around 1770.

In 1738, shortly after his return, he explained, in a memoir read before the Academy, the advantages of John Flamsteed's mode of determining right ascensions.

John Wheeler, who had been instrumental in proving the cases against his former colleagues, and who was freed, died at Hackney in January 1738.

On 12 September 1738 therefore, John Turpin was committed to gaol in Essex on charges of horse theft, but following his help in preventing a jailbreak, the charges were dropped on 5 March 1739.

In 1737 his King and the Miller of Mansfield, a " dramatic tale " of King Henry II, was produced at Drury Lane, and received with much applause ; the sequel, Sir John Cockle at Court, a farce, appeared in 1738.

Historian John Fredriksen claims that Clinton was born in Newfoundland ; his father was posted there from 1732 to 1738.

He also won a silver medal for his Latin verses on John Milton, gave the annual Latin oration in 1738, and was noted as having been the favourite student of his masters.

This series was written by William Guthrie, Samuel Johnson, and John Hawkesworth, and was printed in Edward Cave's periodical The Gentleman's Magazine from 1738 to 1746.