Tuesday 14 January 1667/68
At the office all the morning, and at noon home to dinner, and after dinner with Mr. Clerke and Gibson to the Temple (my wife and girle going further by coach), and there at the Auditor’s did begin the examining my Tangier accounts, and did make a great entry into it and with great satisfaction, and I am glad I am so far eased. So appointing another day for further part of my accounts, I with Gibson to my bookseller, Martin, and there did receive my book I expected of China, a most excellent book with rare cuts; and there fell into discourse with him about the burning of Paul’s when the City was burned; his house being in the church-yard. And he tells me that it took fire first upon the end of a board that, among others, was laid upon the roof instead of lead, the lead being broke off, and thence down lower and lower: but that the burning of the goods under St. Fayth’s arose from the goods taking fire in the church-yard, and so got into St. Fayth’s Church; and that they first took fire from the Draper’s side, by some timber of the houses that were burned falling into the church. He says that one warehouse of books was saved under Paul’s; and he says that there were several dogs found burned among the goods in the church-yard, and but one man, which was an old man, that said he would go and save a blanket which he had in the church, and, being a weak old man, the fire overcome him, and was burned. He says that most of the booksellers do design to fall a-building again the next year; but he says that the Bishop of London do use them most basely, worse than any other landlords, and says he will be paid to this day the rent, or else he will not come to treat with them for the time to come; and will not, on that condition either, promise them any thing how he will use them; and, the Parliament sitting, he claims his privilege, and will not be cited before the Lord Chief justice, as others are there, to be forced to a fair dealing.
Thence by coach to Mrs. Pierce’s, where my wife and Deb. is; and there they fell to discourse of the last night’s work at Court, where the ladies and Duke of Monmouth and others acted “The Indian Emperour;” wherein they told me these things most remarkable: that not any woman but the Duchesse of Monmouth and Mrs. Cornwallis did any thing but like fools and stocks, but that these two did do most extraordinary well: that not any man did any thing well but Captain O’Bryan, who spoke and did well, but, above all things, did dance most incomparably. That she did sit near the players of the Duke’s house; among the rest, Mis Davis, who is the most impertinent slut, she says, in the world; and the more, now the King do show her countenance; and is reckoned his mistress, even to the scorne of the whole world; the King gazing on her, and my Lady Castlemayne being melancholy and out of humour, all the play, not smiling once. The King, it seems, hath given her a ring of 700l., which she shews to every body, and owns that the King did give it her; and he hath furnished a house for her in Suffolke Street most richly, which is a most infinite shame. It seems she is a bastard of Colonell Howard, my Lord Berkshire, and that he do pimp to her for the King, and hath got her for him; but Pierce says that she is a most homely jade as ever she saw, though she dances beyond any thing in the world. She tells me that the Duchesse of Richmond do not yet come to the Court, nor hath seen the King, nor will not, nor do he own his desire of seeing her; but hath used means to get her to Court, but they do not take.
Thence home, and there I to my chamber, having a great many books brought me home from my bookbinder’s, and so I to the new setting of my books against the next year, which costs me more trouble than I expected, and at it till two o’clock in the morning, and then to bed, the business not being yet done to my mind. This evening come Mr. Mills and his wife to see and sit and talk with us, which they did till 9 o’clock at night, and then parted, and I to my books.
27 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
The King to Ormond
Written from: Whitehall
Date: 14 January 1668
The appeal exhibited by Dr Robert Gorges, on behalf of H.R.H. the Duke of York, against certain decisions of the Commissioners of the Court of Claims in Ireland is to be taken off the file and cancelled; no such appeal being warranted by the Acts of Settlement & Explanation. ...
But the subject-matter of the said appeal is to be heard, by way of complaint; and full inquiry into all the allegations thereof to be instituted, and the result to be reported to the King. ...
____
Ormond to Arlington
Written from: Dublin
Date: 14 January 1668
... Observes a wonderful wariness in most of those who should bear their parts in the management of affairs here, whilst others assume great confidence in disturbing them, under the countenance [i.e. the colour, or pretence] of law. And those who most insist on the ... privilege of laws, are for the most part such as in times past allowed others no share in them. This appears in nothing more than in the opposition given, in most towns, to the quartering of the Army. ...
Sir Allan Brodrick ... sent a Vote of the House of Commons to his deputy, by which his Majesty's officers ... are required to bring in ... an account of all lands, rents, &c alienated [in MS.: "alien'd"] from the Crown, since '41 (as the Duke takes it). ... The officers ... apply to the writer who is unable to direct them, having no command from his Majesty ... and concerning the proceedings of 'the Long Parliament' to be no rules to go by now. ...
_____
Warrant, by the Duke of Ormond, to the Seneschal of the Liberties of the Lord Archbishop of Dublin, concerning quarters for the foot company, commanded by Captain Charles Feilding, and forming part of the Regiment of Guards
Written from: Dublin Castle
Date: 14 January 1668
http://www.rsl.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwm…
Robert Gertz • Link
Is that the famous "Kettle drums" O'Bryan?
Robert Gertz • Link
Deb seems a bit young for such risque conversation...I wonder that Bess didn't head her home but I suppose the temptation of exquisite gossip with Sam and his smart friends was too much.
Robert Gertz • Link
"Outrageous, Martin. Outrageous. Trust that I shall acquaint the Duke with this business. Well, wonderful job on the China book...Yes." Glance round...
Hmmn...
"Thank ye, Mr. Pepys. Was there anything else?"
"Uh..." Glance round...Hmmn...
Ah...
No, not it. Risk a brief search? No, damnit...Gibson's still here admiring the dratted China thing.
"Oh, no. Just looking round one last time...Never know what might turn up..."
In brown paper wrapper...
"Gibson, perhaps you should..."
"You wanted me to remind you about your appointment to meet Mrs. Pepys,sir."
Hmmn...?
Oh...Yes...
He couldn't have already sold it? Damn, it would be just like that rogue Penn to have snapped it right up the first day, the perverse fellow. No shame in him, he'd buy it and happily saunter down the street, reading from it, indulging his wantoness. Whereas some, like myself, could acquire much important worldly knowledge from...
"Sir?"
"Uh, yes...Right. Mrs. Pepys."
Must remember to ask Bess about her school days in Paris again...
Terry Foreman • Link
"he says that the Bishop of London do use them most basely, worse than any other landlords, and says he will be paid to this day the rent, or else he will not come to treat with them for the time to come; and will not, on that condition either, promise them any thing how he will use them; and, the Parliament sitting, he claims his privilege, and will not be cited before the Lord Chief justice, as others are there, to be forced to a fair dealing."
L&M note "the Court of Claims set up under Lord Chief Justice Kelynge to deal with the complicated interests in real property destroyed by the Fire, usually remitted rents accruing after 1 September 1666, provided the tenant paid for rebuilding. Only where the rent was a ground rent [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grou… ] or little more , and a substantial fine had been paid many years before, was rent often exacted as suggested here."
It sounds to me that the Bishop is appealing to a very long-term exclusive lease arrangement that booksellers in St Paul's Yard had enjoyed, and John Martin is whining; but I appeal to nix or someone else , who knows far more law than I to clarify this, if possible.
Australian Susan • Link
"...but one man, which was an old man, that said he would go and save a blanket which he had in the church, and, being a weak old man, the fire overcome him, and was burned. ..."
Timelessly poignant. Repeated in so many disasters.
Re TF's comment
All very apposite for our situation in Brisbane. It will be interesting to see how landlords behave here. Already we have had problems with looters and profiteers ($10 for a loaf of bread would you believe). Just as what happened after The Great Fire. The nastier sides of human behaviour seep out across the ages.
Terry Foreman • Link
John Martin's complaint
L&M further note, and source the claim that "[t]he Bishop of London, Humphrey Henchman, was said to have been harsh in dealing with the booksellers and mercers of Paternoster Row, and to have claimed his parliamentary privilege as a peer to protect himself against citation to the Court;"
Perhaps my interpretation above was mistaken.
sbt • Link
R Gertz. Deb was 17 at this date. Elizabeth was a married woman at 15. The 'Age of Consent' in the UK today is 16, as it is in many US States.
Whilst for many purposes she would be classed as a minor in both the UK and US she would be expected to be sexually aware at 17 in both countries today and even more so in the Restoration period.
Robert Gertz • Link
I would say Deb seems younger in nature, given Sam's constant referrence to her as the girl and Bess herself generally seems to have been kept out of such worldly society by Sam...Usually she is noted as attending christenings and the like not "All about Mrs. Davis" gossipfests.
Not that I really think neither had ever heard this sort of thing befoe. In fact it's rather a confirmation that Bess is not as innocent of the Court world as Sam's referrences to her activities might suggest.
language hat • Link
"I would say Deb seems younger in nature, given Sam’s constant referrence to her as the girl"
Nothing to do with age. OED:
girl 7. a. A female servant or domestic employee; a maid (now chiefly hist.). Now more generally: a female employee. Freq. with connotations of social inferiority. ...
1668 S. Pepys Diary 24 Aug. (1976) IX. 287 My wife is upon hanging the long chamber, where the girl lies, with the sad stuff that was in the best chamber.
Robert Gertz • Link
Younger in nature not actual age...But again though Deb gives an air of innocence in the entries, I don't really believe Bess or Deb have ever been spared such adult conversation just that Sam has previously seemed careful about keeping Bess away from such Court world things...Gradually the walls have been crumbling and Sam has let or been unable to prevent that other world come seeping in.
nix • Link
A landlord who thinks the rent is below market won't cut the tenants much slack, and will look for any legal excuse to terminate them. That is undoubtedly the case with the Bishop -- he is looking to build a new, bigger, grander St. Paul's, and undoubtedly thinks a gaggle of booksellers' stalls is not the "highest and best use" of this strategic property.
And isn't "Humphrey Henchman" a perfect name for a bishop? Surely, if it hadn't already been taken, Dickens would have used it.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"they fell to discourse of the last night’s work at Court, where the ladies and Duke of Monmouth and others acted “The Indian Emperour;”
L&M observe the Dryden play was now acted in the Great Hall, Whitehall, which had been converted into a theatre. Amateur performances of plays at court were rare: see Eleanor Boswell, Restoration court stage, pp. 128-9.
Terry Foreman • Link
"It seems [Mary Davis] is a bastard of Colonell Howard, my Lord Berkshire"
L&M note she was also said to have been the daughter of a Wiltshire blacksmith. The truth is not known. Burnet (i. 483-4) alleges that the pimp was Buckingham, who wanted to get rid of Lady Castlemaine's influence.
Terry Foreman • Link
"This evening come Mr. Mills and his wife to see and sit and talk with us, which they did till 9 o’clock at night, and then parted, and I to my books."
Is the Milles visit repentance for yesterday's French porn?
Terry Foreman • Link
"that not any man did any thing well but Captain O’Bryan, who spoke and did well, but, above all things, did dance most incomparably."
L&M: This was an accomplishment which Pepys later held against him, for it was 'his quallity and Guift of Daunceing' that brought him (through the favour od Monmouth and his duchess) naval promotion: NWB, P. 221.
James Morgan • Link
It's great to see in the same entry two people recognized for the quality of their dancing. Mary Davis, despite being "a most homely jade", rises in the world because "dances beyond any thing in the world". Then Captain OBryan, "who spoke and did well, but, above all things, did dance most incomparably" and also gains recognition. His entry says he even became captain of a 56 gun ship for it.
Louise Hudson • Link
The poor old man who went back for his blanket. Who could blame him? Blankets weren't easy to get back then. It might have been his only comfort.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Does anyone have an idea of what Robert Gertz was referring to? I've never heard of "Kettle drums" O'Bryan.
David G • Link
While we are asking questions, any idea what took Sam five hours (and still not finished) in "setting" his books? Was he cutting the pages so he could read them? Arranging them on the shelf?
Stephane Chenard • Link
"At the office all the morning", and then some book-buying and theater. Ah well.
The morning mail has come. At least no summons from the Duke today, yesterday's meeting was frustration enough. But what's this?
Sir William Batten assembles the Officers of the Navy, and their most trusted clerks, in a secure part of the Office. He has a paper in hand.
"Gentlemen, an announcement". Theatrical pause. Wink. "We got 'em!"
Batten waits until the applause and the catcalls subside; cries of "huzzah! Begorra! Gramercy!" And, from the Clerk of the Acts, a slightly crestfallen "Adod!" Then Batten reads the dispatch now come from Portsmouth:
-- "Jan. 13, Portsmouth Ropeyard. Gregory Peachy to the Navy Commissioners. Two rope-makers were taken last Saturday with 14 lb. weight of cable. Captain Tinker and the mayor have secured the pieces, and taken security for the men's appearance until your Honours' pleasure is known" [shorturl.at/ayAB6, page 166].
"Hang' em with their own rope", is one predictable suggestion. Batten continues, "I'd like to thank my lord the mayor of Portsmouth, the Portsmouth watch and justice of the peace, and the many others who helped in this two-month manhunt and who, for the King's security, have to carry on anonymously with their duty... And now I am going to Whitehall to give His Royal Highness the good news. You know his Grace personally tracks the pilfering that's going on" - this with a quick glance at Sam.
Saturday? Why, on Lord's day Peachy didn't know the fiends had been caught, and was still writing of failure and of how hard it was? And of course, they'd send him the bad news, but the good ones go to "the Commissioners", eh?
Will Hewer quietly asks Sam, "you're not going along to the Duke, boss?"
"Well, no. It's not victualling or contracting, see... And I have quite a busy day already".
Well, at least the nightmare is over. Still, they recovered only 14 lbs? Nearly the whole haul has already disappeared into the black market for ropes and yarn.
"Hey boss, how do we know it's them?"
"Well, Peachy had said he 'shall know the yarn again if he can see it'. It's at page 104 in the State Papers". Still... there will be others. Industrial security is a never-ending job.
Thieves and embezzlers everywhere, as if things weren't in enough chaos. If only the Navy was as tidy as Sam's books, office and closet!
Perhaps one day the Society will come up with a solution. Why, if a man's blood can be changed, why not replace other corrupted parts with clockwork? An entire Navy of honest, predictable mechanicall seamen... "Mr. Boyle to carry the experiment". Ha ha.
Stephane Chenard • Link
Not a Pepys matter really, but we also resist not quoting this message sent yesterday from Weymouth: "The Portugal ship in Portland road has been seized and carried to Ostend, notwithstanding being in the King's chamber, within shot of the castle. Only the captain, a boy and some customs' officers on board were let come on shore". [shorturl.at/ayAB6, page 165].
The "Portugal ship". From a country in revolutionary turmoil, former home to a somewhat miffed queen, and that's about to lose its Indian dominions to England. It's not trusted. And it's "within shot of the castle"? Why, if the King should happen to be in Weymouth, on a discreet outing with some mistress... An accidental broadside from the ships' guns... Kaboom. Suinto muito. Who else but the captain and that Persian spy knew of Charles' plans for Bombay anyway? And India stays Portuguese.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"The Portugal ship in Portland road has been seized and carried to Ostend, notwithstanding being in the King's chamber, within shot of the castle. Only the captain, a boy and some customs' officers on board were let come on shore".
Much as I enjoyed Stephane's interpretation of this story, I read it differently:
A ship from Portugal was visiting England, and temporarily anchored in Portland roads as a guest of Charles II and under the security of Weymouth Castle.
Along comes an Ostender [these days Ostend is in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium -- so the Ostender might have been French or Dutch, but my regional knowledge isn't up to guessing this one].
The crew of the Ostender boards the Portuguese vessel and sends the the captain, a boy and some English customs' officers who were on board back to town. And then they sailed away with the ship, presumably to Ostend, and presumably with the rest of the Portugese crew.
Another casus belli. And a stain on Charles II's honor for not protecting a ship belonging to an ally.
@@@
"Who else but the captain and that Persian spy knew of Charles' plans for Bombay anyway? And India stays Portuguese."
You don't think Portugal was as happy to be rid of Bombay as England was to be rid of Tangier? A constant drain on the economy and endless warfare.
At one time Madeira was also also included in Catherine's dowry, but they thought better of it. No natives, closer, and a useful set of rocks in the Atlantic on the way to the Americas. The Portuguese were not stupid.
Stephane Chenard • Link
Susan, we concede that your interpretation is so much more consistent with the Weymouth dispatch as to be, in fact, correct. Our minde had just recoiled at the possibility of so brazen a deed as seizing a ship in dock, but we also now do find that Mr. Muddiman was suffered to report the embarrassing incident in his Gazette (No. 216 of Jan. 13-16, page 2, col. 2), and clarifies that (a) the ship was part of a caravan that had sought shelter from a storm, (b) it was indeed "seised on by an Ostender and carryed off", and (c) the captain was not "let go" (hey, captains are good to ransom), but happened to be on shore; only the English customs-men did the Ostender have "the kindness" (how touching), and the great wisdom, to leave alone.
"Ostender" in 1668 is a loaded term. Ostend is indeed part of the United Provinces, but must have been a thorn in their side as the main base for the infamous Dunkirkers, privateers with a decades-long record of working for Spain. Their concise history at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dun… is a bit blank on the 1660s, but clearly they're still available and Spain is still technically at war with Portugal until February, so no problem there.
One could still, if of a sinful disposition, build an alternative history in which the Portuguese captain had only pretended to be driven to the coast, was really on a mission, &c. A mission for who? The court in Lisbon did have bigger fish to fry than the fate of Bombay, had traded it off for help in Europe against Spain. But that didn't mean a lack of interest in India, where Portugal had plenty of other bases and controlled land well beyond Bombay (see the map at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Por…) Brazil is fine, but why should it be enough, and aren't we all agreed that the real riches are in the Orient?
On the ground, anyway, the Portuguese viceroy and governor have been doing all they could to stop, delay or contain the transfers to England. As of 1668 they have lost bits and pieces and Bombay has a hands-on governor, a Capt. Gary, who is doing a bit more than his predecessors to fortify the island - but it's nothing like what the Company, already a formidable entity, could (and will) deploy. If Sam had worked for the EIC (and who knows if he didn't get the pitch?) he likely wouldn't have complained as much of not getting resources (why, Mr. Pepys, in the private sector of course you would have that coach already!) But, anyway, life went on. Many of the Portuguese just got rebadged as Company men. Portugal retreated to Goa and will cling to it until 1974.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Jan. 14. 1668
Letter Office. A. Ellis to Williamson.
Three French mails have come in at once. The postmaster of Calais notes the reason; Webb, the postmaster of Sittingbourne, a stubborn, refractory fellow, was 7 hours in riding 12 miles.
[Ibid. No. 118.]
https://www.british-history.ac.uk…
San Diego Sarah • Link
Jan. 14. 1668
Weymouth.
Deposition by John Phillips and 5 others of Weymouth, before Sam. Bond, Judge of the Vice-Admiralty of Dorsetshire, that the St. Stephen of Lisbon had nearly been cast away in Portland Bay, but was saved by the care of the Vice-Admiral's officers, brought within half gun-shot of the castle, and the custom house officers sent on board, when John Derrickson, captain of an Ostend privateer, seized her, setting the custom house officers on shore, although they told him that she was in the King's chamber, and bade him take care what he did. [Copy. S.P. Dom., Car. II. 232, No. 120.]
https://www.british-history.ac.uk…
"the King's chamber" must mean that part of Portland roads were legally protected by the English (the King owns everything), and should have been respected by the Ostenders.
Google thinks I want to know about Egyptian tombs.
San Diego Sarah • Link
From CHARLES II AND HIS COURT
BY A. G. A. BRETT
NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
LONDON: METHUEN & GO. LTD.
1910
https://archive.org/stream/charle…
In 1668 Monmouth visited the French Court, taking the following letter from Charles II to Madame:
"Whithall, 14 Jan., 1668,
I beleeve you may easily guesse that I am something concerned for this bearer, [James Duke of Monmouth added in red ink and a different hand], and therefore I put him into your handes to be directed by you in all thinges, and pray use that authority over him as you ought to do in kindness to me which is all I shall say to you at this time, for I thinke he will not be so soone at Paris as the poste, and I have no more to trouble you with now, only to assure you that I am intierly yours, C. R." . . .
"A thousand thankes for the care you take before-hand of James, ... I do confesse I love him very well." ...
"I cannot thanke you eno' for your goodness and kindnesse to James." ...
"if he does faile in writting, I feare he takes a little after his father." ...
"He intends to put on a perriwig againe, when he comes to Paris, but I beleeve you will thinke him better farr, as I do, with his short haire. ..."