Friday 19 February 1663/64
Up in good order in my head again and shaved myself, and then to the office, whither Mr. Cutler came, and walked and talked with me a great while; and then to the ’Change together; and it being early, did tell me several excellent examples of men raised upon the ’Change by their great diligence and saving; as also his owne fortune, and how credit grew upon him; that when he was not really worth 1100l., he had credit for 100,000l. of Sir W. Rider how he rose; and others. By and by joyned with us Sir John Bankes; who told us several passages of the East India Company; and how in his very case, when there was due to him and Alderman Mico 64,000l. from the Dutch for injury done to them in the East Indys, Oliver presently after the peace, they delaying to pay them the money, sent them word, that if they did not pay them by such a day, he would grant letters of mark to those merchants against them; by which they were so fearful of him, they did presently pay the money every farthing.
By and by, the ’Change filling, I did many businesses, and about 2 o’clock went off with my uncle Wight to his house, thence by appointment we took our wives (they by coach with Mr. Mawes) and we on foot to Mr. Jaggard, a salter, in Thames Street, for whom I did a courtesy among the poor victuallers, his wife, whom long ago I had seen, being daughter to old Day, my uncle Wight’s master, is a very plain woman, but pretty children they have. They live methought at first in but a plain way, but afterward I saw their dinner, all fish, brought in very neatly, but the company being but bad I had no great pleasure in it. After dinner I to the office, where we should have met upon business extraordinary, but business not coming we broke up, and I thither again and took my wife; and taking a coach, went to visit my Ladys Jemimah and Paulina Montagu, and Mrs. Elizabeth Pickering, whom we find at their father’s new house1 in Lincolne’s Inn Fields; but the house all in dirt. They received us well enough; but I did not endeavour to carry myself over familiarly with them; and so after a little stay, there coming in presently after us my Lady Aberguenny and other ladies, we back again by coach, and visited, my wife did, my she cozen Scott, who is very ill still, and thence to Jaggard’s again, where a very good supper and great store of plate; and above all after supper Mrs. Jaggard did at my entreaty play on the Vyall, but so well as I did not think any woman in England could and but few Maisters, I must confess it did mightily surprise me, though I knew heretofore that she could play, but little thought so well. After her I set Maes to singing, but he did it so like a coxcomb that I was sick of him.
About 11 at night I carried my aunt home by coach, and then home myself, having set my wife down at home by the way. My aunt tells me they are counted very rich people, worth at least 10 or 12,000l., and their country house all the yeare long and all things liveable, which mightily surprises me to think for how poore a man I took him when I did him the courtesy at our office.
So after prayers to bed, pleased at nothing all the day but Mrs. Jaggard playing on the Vyall, and that was enough to make me bear with all the rest that did not content me.
18 Annotations
First Reading
ruizhe • Link
"Did a courtesy"? For Jaggard?
Then SP got 2 free meals out of it, I presume (anything else?)
ruizhe • Link
"Did a courtesy"? For Jaggard?
Then SP got 2 free meals out of it, I presume (anything else?)
Terry F • Link
?? "...pleased at nothing all the day but Mrs. Jaggard playing on the Vyall...."
Nothing?! Has Samuel forgot his morning study of the 'Change, how keenly he listened to the "several excellent examples of men raised upon the 'Change by their great diligence and saving" -- men (he seems to have thought) whose practise of virtues he too prizes led to their wealth? (and why not I?)
MissAnn • Link
"... is a very plain woman, but pretty children they have." - How many times do we see this still - beautiful people with plain children and vice versa.
cumsalisgrano • Link
With all those 4 letter words casted in to so many paragraphs, then organised into 22 chapters, bound to create a problem. Still have not created a dictionary to make sure the spelling be rite. Look at the mess we make with an arc and simply strokes, tweake here, tweake there, it is soon be unreadable.
Mary • Link
Tales from the Exchange.
Does it strike anyone else that these success stories sound remarkably like a 'come-on'? Pepys is perceived to be a rising man in an office that affords the means of amassing a bit of capital. Could it be that his guides to mercantile life are preparing him for an approach for investment in as yet unspecified business opportunities?
JWB • Link
"Tales from the Exchange"
The tale about Oliver sounded prescriptive to me- a word in the right ear about how such matters successfully handled in the past.
Bradford • Link
"that when he was not really worth 1100l., he had credit for 100,000l."
Anything like having a $30,000 line of credit on your credit card with a minimum monthly payment of $15?
At least the fish dinner was brought in "neatly," with no dirty thumbprints on the plates, but apparently no chips.
cumsalisgrano • Link
Bradford : thy word , handshake and seeing the whites of thine eyes, was thy bond and the stocks [not wall street] were available for the wayward, along with a shower rotten eggs, there be seven places to house the forgetfull or the indigent.
Andrew Hamilton • Link
"Tales from the Exchange"
I see a little of both Mary's "come on" to Sam and JWB's note about how conflicts with the Dutch were handled better (for the merchants) under Oliver Cromwell. They're testing Sam in more than one way.
Nix • Link
"they word, handshake and seeing the whites of thine eyes, was thy bond" --
There was also the little matter of debtors' prison. Living large on borrowed money was a much riskier game then than now.
Nix • Link
... and if you loaned Jaggard money that he couldn't repay, you couldn't get no satisfaction.
(Sorry -- someone had to say it.)
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"Sir John Bankes...told us several passages of the East India Company; and how in his very case, when there was due to him and Alderman Mico 64,000l. from the Dutch for injury done to them in the East Indys, Oliver presently after the peace, they delaying to pay them the money, sent them word, that if they did not pay them by such a day, he would grant letters of mark to those merchants against them; by which they were so fearful of him, they did presently pay the money every farthing."
Pepys seems to have confused the payment of £85,000 to the E. India Company made after the Treaty of 1654, with the payment of £50,000 to Banks and others made in 1659 for their losses from three trading ventures. Banks himself made a profit of only £465. See D.C. Coleman, Sir John Banks, pp. 18-19; Cal. court mins E. India Co. 1650-4 (ed. E.B. Sainsbury) p. xii; ib., 1655-9, pp. v, vi; Thurloe, State Papers, iii, 212. (L&M footnote)
Terry Foreman • Link
" their country house "
L&M: at Tooting Bec, named after Bec Abbey in Normandy, which was given land in this area after the Norman Conquest. Saint Anselm, the second Abbot of Bec, is reputed to have been a visitor to Tooting Bec long before he succeeded Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury. .A relief sculpture of Saint Anselm visiting the Totinges tribe (from which Tooting as a whole gets its name) is visible on the exterior of Wandsworth Town Hall. Tooting Bec sits on Stane Street, a former Roman Road which linked Roman London with Chichester to the southwest.
Tooting Bec appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Totinges. It was held partly by St Mary de Bec-Hellouin Abbey and partly by Westminster Abbey. Its domesday assets were: 5 hides. It had 5½ ploughs, 13 acres (5.3 ha). It rendered £7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too…
San Diego Sarah • Link
"My aunt tells me they are counted very rich people, worth at least 10 or 12,000l., and their country house all the yeare long and all things liveable, which mightily surprises me to think for how poore a man I took him when I did him the courtesy at our office."
Aunt Wight is appealing to Samuel's acquisitive nature. I wonder how much she understood of Uncle Wight's designs on Elizabeth.
Bill • Link
“ Mr. Jaggard, a salter, in Thames Street,”
SALTER, one who deals in Salt or Salt Fish.
---An universal etymological English dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.
So not surprising that Jaggard served a dinner of “all fish”.
Gerald Berg • Link
I concur on the astute Mary and JWB's observations. My eyes glaze as much as Sam's gleam with these tales of wealth.
Shaving. No nicks this time Sam? Blade must be sharper. Care greater.
Question on shaving: Does this ritual now include shaving his entire head?
That wig must itch with real hair growth.
Chris Squire UK • Link
Re: ’he would grant letters of mark’
‘marque, n.1 < Anglo-Norman mark . .
. . 2. letter of marque n.
a. Usu. in pl. Also more fully letter(s) of marque and reprisal. Originally: a licence granted by a monarch authorizing a subject to take reprisals on the subjects of a hostile state for alleged injuries. Later: legal authority to fit out an armed vessel and use it in the capture of enemy merchant shipping and to commit acts which would otherwise have constituted piracy . .
So far as European nations are concerned the issue of letters of marque was abolished by the Declaration of Paris in 1856. However, it remains possible under the U.S. Constitution for Congress (but not for state governments) to commission privateers by letters of marque.
1353 Rolls of Parl. II. 250/1 Nous eions la Lei de mark & de reprisailles.
. . 1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VIII f. cxlvv, Shewyng hym how their goodes were taken, by letters of Marke, their shippes restrained [etc.].
. . 1690 Dryden Don Sebastian iv. i. 83 'Tis a prize worth a Million of Crowns, and you carry your Letters of mark about you.’ (OED)