Thursday 14 September 1665

Up, and walked to Greenwich, and there fitted myself in several businesses to go to London, where I have not been now a pretty while. But before I went from the office newes is brought by word of mouth that letters are now just now brought from the fleete of our taking a great many more of the Dutch fleete, in which I did never more plainly see my command of my temper in my not admitting myself to receive any kind of joy from it till I had heard the certainty of it, and therefore went by water directly to the Duke of Albemarle, where I find a letter of the 12th from Solebay, from my Lord Sandwich, of the fleete’s meeting with about eighteen more of the Dutch fleete, and his taking of most of them; and the messenger says, they had taken three after the letter was wrote and sealed; which being twenty-one, and the fourteen took the other day, is forty-five sail; some of which are good, and others rich ships, which is so great a cause of joy in us all that my Lord and everybody is highly joyed thereat. And having taken a copy of my Lord’s letter, I away back again to the Beare at the Bridge foot, being full of wind and out of order, and there called for a biscuit and a piece of cheese and gill of sacke, being forced to walk over the Bridge, toward the ’Change, and the plague being all thereabouts. Here my news was highly welcome, and I did wonder to see the ’Change so full, I believe 200 people; but not a man or merchant of any fashion, but plain men all. And Lord! to see how I did endeavour all I could to talk with as few as I could, there being now no observation of shutting up of houses infected, that to be sure we do converse and meet with people that have the plague upon them. I to Sir Robert Viner’s, where my main business was about settling the business of Debusty’s 5000l. tallys, which I did for the present to enable me to have some money, and so home, buying some things for my wife in the way. So home, and put up several things to carry to Woolwich, and upon serious thoughts I am advised by W. Griffin to let my money and plate rest there, as being as safe as any place, nobody imagining that people would leave money in their houses now, when all their families are gone. So for the present that being my opinion, I did leave them there still. But, Lord! to see the trouble that it puts a man to, to keep safe what with pain a man hath been getting together, and there is good reason for it. Down to the office, and there wrote letters to and again about this good newes of our victory, and so by water home late.

Where, when I come home I spent some thoughts upon the occurrences of this day, giving matter for as much content on one hand and melancholy on another, as any day in all my life. For the first; the finding of my money and plate, and all safe at London, and speeding in my business of money this day. The hearing of this good news to such excess, after so great a despair of my Lord’s doing anything this year; adding to that, the decrease of 500 and more, which is the first decrease we have yet had in the sickness since it begun: and great hopes that the next week it will be greater. Then, on the other side, my finding that though the Bill in general is abated, yet the City within the walls is encreased, and likely to continue so, and is close to our house there. My meeting dead corpses of the plague, carried to be buried close to me at noon-day through the City in Fanchurch-street. To see a person sick of the sores, carried close by me by Gracechurch in a hackney-coach. My finding the Angell tavern, at the lower end of Tower-hill, shut up, and more than that, the alehouse at the Tower-stairs, and more than that, the person was then dying of the plague when I was last there, a little while ago, at night, to write a short letter there, and I overheard the mistresse of the house sadly saying to her husband somebody was very ill, but did not think it was of the plague. To hear that poor Payne, my waiter, hath buried a child, and is dying himself. To hear that a labourer I sent but the other day to Dagenhams, to know how they did there, is dead of the plague; and that one of my own watermen, that carried me daily, fell sick as soon as he had landed me on Friday morning last, when I had been all night upon the water (and I believe he did get his infection that day at Brainford), and is now dead of the plague. To hear that Captain Lambert and Cuttle are killed in the taking these ships; and that Mr. Sidney Montague is sick of a desperate fever at my Lady Carteret’s, at Scott’s-hall. To hear that Mr. Lewes hath another daughter sick. And, lastly, that both my servants, W. Hewer and Tom Edwards, have lost their fathers, both in St. Sepulchre’s parish, of the plague this week, do put me into great apprehensions of melancholy, and with good reason. But I put off the thoughts of sadness as much as I can, and the rather to keep my wife in good heart and family also. After supper (having eat nothing all this day) upon a fine tench —[?? D.W.]— of Mr. Shelden’s taking, we to bed.

28 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"my command of my temper in my not admitting myself to receive any kind of joy from it till I had heard the certainty of it"

temper = temperament, mood (i.a. - L&M Select Glossary)

***
"a biscuit and a piece of cheese and gill of sacke"

The gill (homophone of "Jill") is a unit of measurement for volume equal to a quarter of a pint. It is no longer in common use, except in regard to the volume of alcoholic spirits measures but it is also kept alive by the occasional reference, such as in the cumulative song "The Barley Mow".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gill…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the decrease of 500 and more, which is the first decrease we have yet had in the sickness since it begun"

L&M have the Bills of Mortality for 5-12 September reporting 6,544 dying of the plague, compared to 6.988 the previous week.

Paul Dyson  •  Link

"The gill is a unit of measurement for volume equal to a quarter of a pint."

Or in Lancashire, and perhaps elsewhere in northern England, half a pint when dealing with beer or milk.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...in which I did never more plainly see my command of my temper in my not admitting myself to receive any kind of joy from it till I had heard the certainty of it..."

Commendable...Unless of course...

"Oh, God!!! Your Grace, pray it's true?!!! I've got to know!!!" grabs Albemarle by collar, shaking him.

"Pepys, my dear fellow."

"If it's not true I shall sell all and leave for America tomorrow night before the mob comes to kill us all!! For God's sake, your Grace!!!"

"Now there, Pepys. Calm yourself. Willis, some wine for Mr. Pepys."

"You silly fool!! Tell me!!! Oh, Lord, it's all a lie isn't it? Just another rumor. Oh, it's all over. Done for. The fleet outfoxed again! And we are lost!!!" falls to knees, shaking hands to Heaven.

"Pepys. My boy, I understand you've been under quite a strain recently... And done admirable service in London in these terrible times..."

Duchess enters, wearing new silk scarf... "George, isn't it lovely? Just from the largest of the 45 Sandwich captured."

Sam, blinking...Ummn...

"Oh, dear... I meant it to be a grand surprise for the Navy boys. Well, cat out of the bag, eh Samuel?"

"Eh...My gracious Duke."
***

"But I put off the thoughts of sadness as much as I can, and the rather to keep my wife in good heart and family also."

Seriously...No one better able, Sam. And you would probably be justified in including many friends and most of those you've encountered in London and elsewhere. Many a life was eased if not saved I'm sure by your warmth and cheerfulness in these days.

deepfatfriar  •  Link

After supper (having eat nothing all this day) upon a fine tench...

OED lists tench as a thick-bodied fresh water fish, tinca vulgaris. Wikipedia lists it as tinca tinca, with pictures.

Pedro  •  Link

The Doctor Fish.

Very few course fish are eaten today in England, but I believe they are popular in Eastern Europe. Perhaps people with large ornamental pools will have to be wary as we don’t want our tench suffering the same fate as our swans.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008…

Don McCahill  •  Link

> which being twenty-one, and the fourteen took the other day, is forty-five sail;

And this guy is an accountant???

Paul in Bristol  •  Link

"which being twenty-one, and the fourteen took the other day, is forty-five sail"

Sam! In my book 21 + 14 = 35, not 45

wishful thinking...?

JWB  •  Link

Sam's Sums:

1) Sept 10: 8 or 9
2) Sept 14: Letter of the 12th, most of 18=14
3) Sept 14: the 21

That's 43 or 44.

dirk  •  Link

From the Carte Papers, Bodleian Library
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Joseph Ash to Sir John Wolstenholme, and others, Farmers of the Customs,

Written from: Plymouth
Date: 15 September 1665

Reports the arrival at Plymouth of a ship from New England which left Boston in company of another ship which was subsequently taken by a Dutch 'Caper' in the Soundings; and that since that arrival news has come of the capture of two Dutch Capers by H.M.S. Elizabeth, & another.

CGS  •  Link

H.M.S. Elizabeth, The title H.M.S.
This must have been a very early use of this title for a ship as the official records usually say Navy royal, but His Majesty's ship???

Michael Robinson  •  Link

H.M.S. Elizabeth, The title H.M.S.

The 'calendar' of the Carte Papers is an abstract prepared between 1877 and 1883 so much of the usage is from that date and not the C17th.

See second item on:-
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...To hear that poor Payne, my waiter, hath buried a child, and is dying himself. To hear that a labourer I sent but the other day to Dagenhams, to know how they did there, is dead of the plague; and that one of my own watermen, that carried me daily, fell sick as soon as he had landed me on Friday morning last, when I had been all night upon the water (and I believe he did get his infection that day at Brainford), and is now dead of the plague."

I wonder if the office boys preferred not to sit with Sam after hearing this list of woe. "Plague" Pepys.

"Every man that this man Pepys meets dies o' plague! I say burn 'im and look for the medical explanation in his black soul!"

"Mr. Evelyn?" Sam, held by the mob stares.

Evelyn, dropping street accent adopted for benefit of mob..."Ah, sorry, there Mr. Pepys. But one cannot be too careful in these times."

"Burn 'im! 'fore he brings death down on us all!!" Evelyn resumes accent.

"Burn him!! Burn him!!" supportive single-voiced cry from mob.

"Bess?!"

***

CGS  •  Link

Thanks : Michael Robinson

A. Hamilton  •  Link

Thanks L.H. for the fine quote from "Lament for the Makeris," William Dunbar:

http://www.bartleby.com/101/21.ht…

A sampling of verses appropriate to Sam's state of mind today:

The state of man does change and vary,
Now sound, now sick, now blyth, now sary,
Now dansand mirry, now like to die:—
Timor Mortis conturbat me.
...
Unto the Death gois all Estatis,
Princis, Prelatis, and Potestatis,
Baith rich and poor of all degree:—
Timor Mortis conturbat me.

Cosidering the rhymes (die,me; degree me) do you think its likely Dunbar pronounced the Latin "me" (sounds like may) the same as the English me (sounds like we)?

language hat  •  Link

Definitely. All speakers of English (or Scots) pronounced Latin exactly as if it were English (or Scots) until the 19th century, and the struggle for the "restored" classical pronunciation lasted throughout the century. We still have remnants of the old pronunciation; nobody says "et KYE-tera" or "KYE-sar."

language hat  •  Link

And of course Dunbar said "dee" for "die."

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the alehouse at the Tower-stairs"

L&M: Probably the Rose and Crown.

Nick Hedley  •  Link

I suspect that the "plate" that was left at home is not what we now call "silver plate", i.e. silver plated on base metal such as copper or cupronickel since electroplating was not developed until the 1840s and even the earlier Sheffield plate, which involved fusing silver onto copper, was not developed until the 1740s. I would therefore guess that the "plate" is actually solid sterling silver, possibly gilded with gold.

StanB  •  Link

WOW!!!
What an entry I really feel the dismal gloom as Sam walks around London
It is easy to see Art imitating Life
From Mary Shelley's The Last Man (1826) to I Am Legend Richard Matheson (1954) and beyond right up to now and in the future
Sam was actually living a dystopian life with these plague entries way before it was coined and of course, temper that with the great news concerning the Dutch and is Plate still secure its a real juxtaposition
Today has to be one of my favourite entries

Matt Newton  •  Link

I suspect that the "plate" that was left at home is not what we now call "silver plate", i.e. silver plated on base metal such as copper or cupronickel.
Nick, so actual eat off kind of plates? Not bars?
Does the term plate cover any of his silver items?

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Definitely not merry today."

September 14, 1665, John Tillison wrote, in a letter to Dr. Sancroft, Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral (presumably out of town this summer -- and never mentioned in the Diary):

“What eye would not weep to see so many habitations uninhabited, ye poor sick not visited, ye hungry not fed, ye grave not satisfied. Death stares us continually in the face in every infected person that passeth by us; in every coffin which is daily and hourly carried along ye streets. … The custom was … to bury the dead in the night only; now, both night and day will hardly be time enough to do it. … [L]ast week, … the dead was piled in heaps above ground … before either time could be gained or place to bury them. The Quakers … have buried in their piece of ground [Bunhill Row] a thousand … Many are [also] dead in … other places about the town which are not included in the bill of mortality”.

From https://lostcityoflondon.co.uk/20…
and The Great Plague, by A. Lloyd Moote and Dorothy C. Moote.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

“Ye bells never cease to putt us in mind of our own mortality.” – John Tillison to Dean Sancroft, September 14, 1665 -- The Great Plague, Lloyd and Dorothy Moote, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, pages 183.

Christopher  •  Link

The links for "Diary of Ralph Josselin" died in 2019. The Wayback machine fills in the missing pages...

from Sept. 12. to 19. the moon at full on the 14. though the weather cold, and winds stirring yet there was an increase again and especially within the walls where there died. 1493. of the plague 1189. this bill was 8297. of the plague 7165. and yet Coln preserved.

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"The Quakers … have buried in their piece of ground [Bunhill Row] a thousand … "

George Fox has this to say about the plague times:

'At London many Friends were crowded into Newgate, and other prisons, where the sickness was, and many died in prison. Many also were banished, and several sent on ship-board by the King’s order.

'Some masters of ships would not carry them, but set them on shore again; yet some were sent to Barbadoes, Jamaica, and Nevis, and the Lord blessed them there. One master of a ship was very wicked and cruel to Friends that were put on board his ship; for he kept them down under decks, though the sickness was amongst them; so that many died of it. But the Lord visited him for his wickedness; for he lost most of his seamen by the plague, and lay several months crossed with contrary winds, though other ships went on and made their voyages.

'At last he came before Plymouth, where the Governor and magistrates would not suffer him nor any of his men to come ashore, though he wanted necessaries for his voyage; but Thomas Tower, Arthur Cotton, John Light, and other Friends, went to the ship’s side, and carried necessaries for the Friends that were prisoners on board.

'The master, being thus crossed and vexed, cursed them that put him upon this freight, and said he hoped he should not go far before he was taken. And the vessel was but a little while gone out of sight of Plymouth before she was taken by a Dutch man-of-war, and carried into Holland.

'When they came into Holland, the States sent the banished Friends back to England, with a letter of passport, and a certificate that they had not made an escape, but were sent back by them.

'In time the Lord’s power wrought over this storm, and many of our persecutors were confounded and put to shame.'

From 'The Autobiography of George Fox'
CHAPTER XVI.
A Year in Scarborough Castle. 1665-1666.
https://ccel.org/ccel/fox_g/autob…

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