Friday 6 March 1667/68

Up betimes, and with Sir D. Gawden to Sir W. Coventry’s chamber: where the first word he said to me was, “Good-morrow, Mr. Pepys, that must be Speaker of the Parliament-house:” and did protest I had got honour for ever in Parliament. He said that his brother, that sat by him, admires me; and another gentleman said that I could not get less than 1000l. a-year if I would put on a gown and plead at the Chancery-bar; but, what pleases me most, he tells me that the Sollicitor-Generall did protest that he thought I spoke the best of any man in England. After several talks with him alone, touching his own businesses, he carried me to White Hall, and there parted; and I to the Duke of York’s lodgings, and find him going to the Park, it being a very fine morning, and I after him; and, as soon as he saw me, he told me, with great satisfaction, that I had converted a great many yesterday, and did, with great praise of me, go on with the discourse with me. And, by and by, overtaking the King, the King and Duke of York come to me both; and he —[The King]— said, “Mr. Pepys, I am very glad of your success yesterday;” and fell to talk of my well speaking; and many of the Lords there. My Lord Barkeley did cry me up for what they had heard of it; and others, Parliament-men there, about the King, did say that they never heard such a speech in their lives delivered in that manner. Progers, of the Bedchamber, swore to me afterwards before Brouncker, in the afternoon, that he did tell the King that he thought I might teach the Sollicitor-Generall. Every body that saw me almost come to me, as Joseph Williamson and others, with such eulogys as cannot be expressed. From thence I went to Westminster Hall, where I met Mr. G. Montagu, who come to me and kissed me, and told me that he had often heretofore kissed my hands, but now he would kiss my lips: protesting that I was another Cicero, and said, all the world said the same of me. Mr. Ashburnham, and every creature I met there of the Parliament, or that knew anything of the Parliament’s actings, did salute me with this honour:— Mr. Godolphin;— Mr. Sands, who swore he would go twenty mile, at any time, to hear the like again, and that he never saw so many sit four hours together to hear any man in his life, as there did to hear me; Mr. Chichly,— Sir John Duncomb,— and everybody do say that the kingdom will ring of my abilities, and that I have done myself right for my whole life: and so Captain Cocke, and others of my friends, say that no man had ever such an opportunity of making his abilities known; and, that I may cite all at once, Mr. Lieutenant of the Tower did tell me that Mr. Vaughan did protest to him, and that, in his hearing it, said so to the Duke of Albemarle, and afterwards to W. Coventry, that he had sat twenty-six years in Parliament and never heard such a speech there before: for which the Lord God make me thankful! and that I may make use of it not to pride and vain-glory, but that, now I have this esteem, I may do nothing that may lessen it!

I spent the morning thus walking in the Hall, being complimented by everybody with admiration: and at noon stepped into the Legg with Sir William Warren, who was in the Hall, and there talked about a little of his business, and thence into the Hall a little more, and so with him by coach as far as the Temple almost, and there ’light, to follow my Lord Brouncker’s coach, which I spied, and so to Madam Williams’s, where I overtook him, and agreed upon meeting this afternoon, and so home to dinner, and after dinner with W. Pen, who come to my house to call me, to White Hall, to wait on the Duke of York, where he again and all the company magnified me, and several in the Gallery: among others, my Lord Gerard, who never knew me before nor spoke to me, desires his being better acquainted with me; and [said] that, at table where he was, he never heard so much said of any man as of me, in his whole life.

We waited on the Duke of York, and thence into the Gallery, where the House of Lords waited the King’s coming out of the Park, which he did by and by; and there, in the Vane-room, my Lord Keeper delivered a message to the King, the Lords being about him, wherein the Barons of England, from many good arguments, very well expressed in the part he read out of, do demand precedence in England of all noblemen of either of the King’s other two kingdoms, be their title what it will; and did shew that they were in England reputed but as Commoners, and sat in the House of Commons, and at conferences with the Lords did stand bare. It was mighty worth my hearing: but the King did only say that he would consider of it, and so dismissed them. Thence Brouncker and I to the Committee of Miscarriages sitting in the Court of Wards, expecting with Sir D. Gawden to have been heard against Prince Rupert’s complaints for want of victuals. But the business of Holmes’s charge against Sir Jer. Smith, which is a most shameful scandalous thing for Flag officers to accuse one another of, and that this should be heard here before men that understand it not at all, and after it hath been examined and judged in before the King and Lord High Admirall and other able seamen to judge, it is very hard. But this business did keep them all the afternoon, so we not heard but put off to another day. Thence, with the Lieutenant of the Tower, in his coach home; and there, with great pleasure, with my wife, talking and playing at cards a little — she, and I, and W. Hewer, and Deb., and so, after a little supper, I to bed.

26 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Scanning error - L&M have

"My Lord Berkeley did cry [me] up for what they had heard of it"

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the Barons of England, from many good arguments, very well expressed in the part he read out of, do demand precedence in England of all noblemen of either of the King's other two kingdoms, be their title what it will; and did shew that they were in England reputed but as Commoners, and sat in the House of Commons, and at conferences with the Lords did stand bare."

This petition had been drawn up by the Lords and agreed to by Commons on the 4th and is online here:

Address to the King, concerning Precedence of Foreign Nobility.

The Lord Howard of Charlt. reported from the Committee for Privileges, a Draught of an humble Address to be presented to the King concerning Foreign Nobility, according to the Directions of this House: Which Address was read, as followeth:
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

L&M note "[t]he objection was to those Irish and Scottish peers who were English by birth and residence claiming equality of rank and place with English peers....This anomaly ceased with the acts of union with Scotland and Ireland in 1707 and 1801."

Christopher Squire  •  Link

It is pleasing, is not, to see Our Hero basking in the general admiration after so many toilsome and worrisome days and nights of preparation for his call to account?

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

It is indeed, Christopher. We're proud of you, Sam!

Carl in Boston  •  Link

Success has a thousand fathers. I suppose they never before heard someone who had his act together. And now comes this snake, who hisses:
my Lord Gerard, who never knew me before nor spoke to me, desires his being better acquainted with me.
Gerard is one snake I would not get acquainted with.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Sorry, "national revenues (taxes)" = "Supply" in 17th C parliament-speak.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

And good reporter that he is, our hero quickly moves on from himself and his success to the events of the day. Well-deserved praise for hard work, Sam.

language hat  •  Link

Well, not *that* quickly. He does mention every single person who said nice things about him, quoting them in extenso. Which I certainly understand, and he deserves the egoboo (as we used to say in sf fan circles), but I wouldn't call this entry particularly self-effacing.

pepfie  •  Link

Schnell mal hingehudelt:

OED huddle, v.

I.2 To pile or heap up confusedly; to crowd together closely and unceremoniously. (In earlier use the sense was sometimes simply, To jumble, mix up in confusion.)

   1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 252 Shee told mee‥that I was duller then a great thaw, hudling iest vpon iest.    1623 tr. Favine's Theat. Hon. vii. xi. 252 This Genealogie is in this partie much hudled.    1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Huddle, to confound or mingle things together, after a confused manner.    1897 Hall Caine Christian x, The furniture was huddled about in disorder.

Sadly, SP is disregarded, possibly due to huddling:
4.c with up: To hurry the completion of; to work up, finish up, or compile, in haste and without proper care; to botch up hastily.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"so Captain Cocke, and others of my friends, say that no man had ever such an opportunity of making his abilities known; and, that I may cite all at once, Mr. Lieutenant of the Tower did tell me that Mr. Vaughan "

L&M: John Vaughan, himself a powerful orator.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"my Lord Keeper delivered a message to the King, the Lords being about him, wherein the Barons of England, from many good arguments, very well expressed in the part he read out of, do demand precedence in England of all noblemen of either of the King’s other two kingdoms, be their title what it will; and did shew that they were in England reputed but as Commoners, and sat in the House of Commons, and at conferences with the Lords did stand bare. It was mighty worth my hearing: but the King did only say that he would consider of it, and so dismissed them. "

L&M: The objection was to the habit of those Irish and Scottish peers who were English by birth and residence of claiming equality of rank and place with English peers. A petition had been drawn up by the Lords' Committee of Privileges and agreed to by the House on the 4th: LJ, xii. 197, 198, 199. No reply from the King is reported in the Journals this session. The anomaly ceased with the acts of union with Scotland and Ireland in 1707 and 1801.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"....and at conferences with the Lords did stand bare."

I,a. the petition stipulated that these Irish and Scottish peers defer to the English peers by removing their hats..

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Thence Brouncker and I to the Committee of Miscarriages sitting in the Court of Wards, expecting with Sir D. Gawden to have been heard against Prince Rupert’s complaints for want of victuals."

L&M: In 1666: cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"The anomaly ceased with the acts of union with Scotland and Ireland in 1707 and 1801."

In the Lords, yes. But in the House of Commons there seems to be an unfairness that Scots and Welsh MPs sit in the English Parliament, but no English MPs sit in the Scots or Welsh assemblies. I'm not sure about Northern Ireland ... since no one even considered the Irish border issue before the Brexit vote, I suspect there are no Irish MPs.

If I misunderstand that quandary, please would one of our currently in-Britain annotators clarify the situations.

Martin  •  Link

@San Diego Sarah -- there is no 'English parliament'. There is a UK parliament that sites in Westminster. Unlike the other nations of the union, England does not have a devolved assembly. You could argue that that's unfair, but it's a slightly different issue to the one you raise.

Nicolas  •  Link

And after all of these glowing accolades to think that in only eleven years’ time Sam would find himself imprisoned in the Tower.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

It seems unbelievable, as well as unfair, that a long, official speech, given in Parliament no less, admired by all London, on politically red-hot matters, full of crunchy bits about corruption, at a time when everyone trafficked in pamphlets, and in a Kingdome with some of the best record-keeping in the World, has utterly vanished and that not one paragraph of it has surfaced in centuries of pepsyontological excavations. Could there have been only one copy, vanished in '73 with the Office itself? Did everyone else recycle or lose their copies?

Could Sam have spoken for three hours without a text? He certainly likes the art oratory. Apart from the theater, he is a keen critic of preachers and their dull sermons, and didn't he recently (we can't find the entry) visit Temple Bar just to enjoy the pleadings?

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

Speaking of preachers? News flash: The authentic introduction and soaring conclusion of Sam's great Speech have been found, preserved in formalin in the braines of a Dogg, in which Mr. Boyle had, as an Expt., recorded it live on the House floor. Hark then:

(...) It is obvious today that England has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her seamen are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, England has given the seagoing people a bad ticket, a ticket which has come back marked insufficient funds. (Applause)

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. (Laughter)

(...) I have a dream that one day on the green hills of Sussex, the widows of pressed seamen and the widows of officers will be able to sit down together at the table of sisterhood and to pay for their meals in cash. (Applause)

(...) I have a dream that my 90,000 little seamen will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their tickets but by the content of their purse. I have a dream today. (Standing ovation; many MPs suddenly wake up and start clapping too; not a dry eye in the House, except perhaps Lord Gerard's)

(An eerily similar and even more powerful speech, for which we affirm our immense respect, can be read or re-read with much profit at www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/…)

john  •  Link

@Stephane, I think that he very much spoke ex tempore. Pepys has been immersed in the matter for some time and only needed the occasional reference.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I wonder what the clerks had been preparing for all these weeks. I imagined Pepys would enter into the official record books of accounts from the beginning to the end of the war, plus copies of official instructions received which they executed. Apparently not. But he had read and discussed the specifics so often that he could make the presentation as if he was in the office.

As for not finding a transcript, it is possible to find the essence:
L&M: The professors had found an office copy in Hayter's hand, 21 February, 1668 entitled in Pepys' hand "Considerations offered by the Principal Officers & Commissioners of the Navy touching their discharging Seamen by Ticket' at Oxford in the Bodleian Library among the Papers of Samuel Pepys, 191, ff. 233-5; signed by Pepys and Mennes. On the flyleaf Pepys has written a note that unsigned copies were sent to Col. Birch, Sir John Lowther and Mr. Joliffe.
https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.u…

Helpful as this appears to be, it takes you to a page with Samuel Pepys documents clearly indicated as being available, but I have not been able to puzzle out how to access any of them on-line.

At the bottom it says:
"Physical Storage Information for Staff
Box: 606674715 (mixed materials)"

so perhaps we have to go there and see the original?

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

This "Consideration" is not transcribed into THE LETTERS OF SAMUEL PEPYS edited by Guy De La Bedoyere, 2006. Sorry.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

'Charles II: March 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 262-320. British History Online
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

@@@
March 6/16. 1668
[Rotte]rdam
— to Sam. Cottington, merchant.

There is great joy here at an apprehended misunderstanding between his Majesty and his subjects in Parliament.

Letters have been sent to the retired brethren in several parts to be in readiness, for a resurrection of the cause is said to be at hand, Robert Washington, justice of peace at Leeds in the old Protector's time, and now one of the company at Dort, is one of the grand incendiaries of this mischief.

He matched a daughter to Moody, a Yorkshire saint, residing about Basinghall Street, "who corresponds so well with his pater that all the villainous books, libels, and pamphlets that the secretaries of hell can exhibit to continue the unwary understanding of seduced souls is handed over by this sweet sinner."

I lately sent a representation of the malcontents in verse to the Parliament held at Rotterdam, as a jewel to be translated into Dutch; but the spirit of the States will not bear it.
One of the jovial creed, named Nehemiah Borne, alias Garrat Bond, after a consultation seriously debated at a fanatic's coffee-house, missed his way back to the Scotch ordinary, and fell into the water, though he had a candle in his paw; so that Job's prophecy was fulfilled, that the candle of the wicked shall be put out.
There is a pretty piece come out in Dutch about their choice of chiefs, and introducing the Prince into the Council of State to mortify the office of Stadt-holder;
I will send it if requested.
[1¼ pages. S.P. Dom., Car. II. 236, No. 18.]

[Basinghall Street is in London]

@@@
March 6. 1668
WHITEHALL
Warrant
for continuation of a yearly payment to Humphrey Wild of 1,000/. for secret service, as granted him 17 March 1662.
[S.P. Dom., Entry Book 26, f. 28.]

@@@
March 6. 1668
Whitehall
Message from Charles II to the House of Commons.

His allies press him to hasten his preparations;
the honour of the nation requires that a fleet be set out with all speed, the forts fortified, and more ships built.
Recommends them to provide supplies, and is willing that these be collected and issued only by such persons as they think fit, since they have not yet had the accounts of the former supplies.
[Printed in Commons' journals, Vol. IX. p. 62.
S.P. Dom., Car. II. 236, No. 15.]

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

March 1668
Alexander, Archbishop of Glasgow to Williamson.

Those formerly employed by the King of Scotland are in an unfortunate condition.
I am supported by a sense of innocency, but grieve for the disappointments of others.
Sir James Turner was once commended for the very same acts of severity towards the rebels, about which he is now condemned by Council.
I wish influence to be used with the King on his behalf.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 236, No. 16.]

[Alexander Burnet (1615-1684), was Archbishop of Glasgow and Chancellor of Glasgow University, 1664 to 1669. He is the brother of Bishop Gilbert Burnet, the gossipy memoire writer.]

@@@
March 6. 1668
Yarmouth.
Rich. Bower to the Prize Commissioners, Whitehall.

I acquainted you in January last that I was unjustly prosecuted by Jas. Miles for a prize cable seized upon the information of John Barker, of Yarmouth, in Miles' house, and put into his Majesty's stores.
You wished to know the value of the action, &c.

I informed you, and begged postponement of the trial till my informer, Barker, returned to town; but the case was tried at Thetford assizes, and I was overthrown, for want of evidence to prove that the prosecution was a conspiracy by 12 persons named, who stole the cable, sole it by auction, and divided the proceeds in 12 shares of 10s. each.

I request you to send summonses to all the embezzlers to appear in London;
to avoid this they will make affidavits of the truth;
I shall else be rendered ridiculous, and great trouble will be brought upon me, it being a combination of persons interested in prize goods.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 236, No. 19.]

@@@
March 6. 1668
Yarmouth.
Rich. Bower to Williamson.

A ship with coals from Bridlington was lost on the Cockle Sands, but the men saved,
and 4 other vessels were lost near Winterton, with the companies of 2 of them.

I was overthrown at Thetford Assizes about the cable, the person upon whose information I seized the cable having been gone to sea 8 months; the prosecutor well understood this, otherwise he would not have attempted to trouble me.

I have discovered what prize cable it was that was embezzled, and have sent an account and affidavit to the Prize Commissioners.
Some of the embezzlers will discover the whole truth if summoned;
otherwise they durst not voluntarily do it.

I dared not send the enclosed to Mr. Lloyd, for fear of not receiving an answer in time to prevent judgment, and am therefore constrained to entreat you to give it to his lordship.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 236, No. 20.]

@@@
March 6. 1668
Lynn.
Edw. Bodham to Williamson.

An extraordinary storm has caused great damage to the warehouses of the town, and loss in the country by breaking the banks and drowning cattle and land.
A hoy from Hull with lead and tallow was cast away,
and a laden collier was forced upon a sand bank, went to pieces, and all here men were lost.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 236, No. 23.]

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