Wednesday 24 July 1661
This morning my wife in bed tells me of our being robbed of our silver tankard, which vexed me all day for the negligence of my people to leave the door open.
My wife and I by water to Whitehall, where I left her to her business and I to my cozen Thomas Pepys, and discoursed with him at large about our business of my uncle’s will. He can give us no light at all into his estate, but upon the whole tells me that he do believe that he has left but little money, though something more than we have found, which is about 500l.
Here came Sir G. Lane by chance, seeing a bill upon the door to hire the house, with whom my coz and I walked all up and down, and indeed it is a very pretty place, and he do intend to leave the agreement for the House, which is 400l. fine, and 46l. rent a year to me between them. Then to the Wardrobe, but come too late, and so dined with the servants. And then to my Lady, who do shew my wife and me the greatest favour in the world, in which I take great content.
Home by water and to the office all the afternoon, which is a great pleasure to me again, to talk with persons of quality and to be in command, and I give it out among them that the estate left me is 200l. a year in land, besides moneys, because I would put an esteem upon myself.
At night home and to bed after I had set down my journals ever since my going from London this journey to this house.
This afternoon I hear that my man Will hath lost his clock with my tankard, at which I am very glad.
31 Annotations
First Reading
A. De Araujo • Link
"that my man Will hath lost his clock with my tankard,at which I am very glad." How can he be so petty?!...
Bradford • Link
"How can he be so petty?" The same way he can lie to folks at the office about his inheritance---why does this sound so contemporary?---though nowadays, when nothing is secret, he'd probably be found out and shown up.
Even we who love Sam would like to tell him, on days like this, to get a grip, man.
Yonmei • Link
Well, remember, Pepys thinks it's partly Will's fault for not closing the door (I assume the thieves just walked in) and is therefore feeling (with some justification, I think) satisfaction that Will's carelessness has made him suffer as well as Pepys himself.
It is petty, but understandable.
daniel • Link
yes! Sam, warts and all...
JWB • Link
Inside job?
Surely Will's clock would have been in his room, some out of the way cubbyhole, say on the third floor. How much portable stuff would a sneak thief have had to pass up, save the tankard, before he got to Will's room? How well do you think Pall knew the inside of Will's room? And do you really think this is an honest post by Sam?
dirk • Link
"...which is 400£ fine, and 46£ rent a year to me between them”
I must admit that I don’t quite understand this whole affair. Can somebody provide a sensible explanation?
dirk • Link
Evelyn's diary for today:
24. There was a Camel shewen in our Towne, newly broght from the Levant, which I saw, as I had others.
vicente • Link
Sam should be happy, he did not have to ride a Camel today "...There was a Camel shewen in our Towne, newly bro[u]ght from the Levant, which I saw, as I had others. 24 J. Evelyn P. 425 De Beers version.
"..to talk with persons of quality and to be in command, and I give it out among them that the estate left me is 200l. a year in land, besides moneys, because I would put an esteem upon myself..." Oh! those Hayseeds, [Thee are known by the company thy keep;}
may be he remembers being taught "Quantum quisque sua nummorum servat in arca, tantum habet et fidei. "Juvenal, Satirae, III, 143-144
Loosely put: Your word is only as good as the money ye doth have in your piggy bank:
The google has the educated answer
vicente • Link
The 500L is about not trusting on how much cash and valulables lieing around for the taking, [ gee whiz I thought the old geezer had more dough than that?] says Sam pumping his coz. Tommy.
Strange, Money always brings the "best out in people."
The 4oo quid etc., is to do with the house he finds in street, advertising it's availability"
He being Sir G. Lane and Sir G. wants Sam and/or his coz, to do the honors of interceedeing with the Owner; 'tis my take.
Petty? look at the old Baily site , a Human can be strung, drawn and degutted for removing 5 bob from another of the better sort.
Ye doth not mess with a man and his beer tankard.
Mary • Link
What has Will lost?
L&M read 'cloak' rather than 'clock'. This makes better sense in context.
Derek Louw • Link
"which is 400£ fine, and 46£ rent a year to me between them"
“I must admit that I don't quite understand this whole affair. Can somebody provide a sensible explanation”
Dirk - I think this is a premium (a one off payment to secure the lease of the property) of £500 plus £46 per annum rent. Quite a nice little bit of income in those days, although it is not clear to me who gets it. He also does not give the term of the lease - I would have thought it would have to be a good few years for that premium.
Xjy • Link
Cloak or clock?
There was me (brain-numb) thinking that Will kept his pocket-watch in the tankard overnight, so it was stolen along with it. But pocket-watches weren't so common then and certainly not among the serving classes. But I'm surprised the thief only took a tankard and a cloak -- were they the only things lying around?? Surely not.
Xjy • Link
Sam's pettiness
Sacking his sister, lying to his colleagues about his "worth", glad poor Will has lost something that will probably cost him a lot more proportionately to replace than Sam's tankard.
The system works for him, and he works for the system. All the rest is window-dressing.
As intelligent, amoral apes we play the percentages, and a vicious society promotes cheats, liars and self-obsessed egotists who don't get caught (and if we're important enough, even if we do get caught). Sam, given his position, helps himself along by good, solid work into the bargain, and the occasional touch of visible noblesse oblige...
Imagine hundreds like him at the time, cockroaches in the kitchen of the new regime, lacking Sam's artistic flair and his delight in work well done. Sickening.
Lawrence • Link
As For Sam being misleading to the amount of money he's to get from His/Father's inheritance viz £200… I don’t blame him, anything that puts him on level with the other officers of the navy is a must for him…
Mary • Link
Cloak and tankard.
Both items are handy for a thief, as both are easily made away with (don the cloak, conceal the tankard underneath it) and easily traded.
Sjoerd • Link
Case of the missing Cloak
Maybe Sam is happy about the missing cloak because that lets Will off the hook for the theft ?
Robert Gertz • Link
"Sam's pettiness…”
Sacking his sister…Only after hearing from dear wife Beth that Pall has been proud and behaving badly. We may not understand or like the idea of Sam keeping his sis a servant but at the time she seemed overjoyed to get out from under Mum and Pop and Sam did lay out the situation to her from the start…
Lying about his worth…”prick-louse” tailor’s son Sam must suffer a thousand slights and cuts every day in that office from the Sirs William and John and a chance to build himself up in the world, apart from Sandwich’s patronage is understandable…
Glad about Will’s loss…Petty but he counted on Will to watch over things while he was gone…Anyone who knows how well Hewer made out from his association with Sam in the end shouldn’t judge Sam too harshly here…
Sam has his noble days…And his notso noble days…And his downright wanta-kick-him-in-the-ass days. Like all of us, including our heros… He just left us an honest account of it. Come on, just this am you had a mean, petty thought about your spouse or a good friend, didn’t you?…Fess up.
vicente • Link
This week the House of Lords busy reading and passing laws that will effect and affect Sam and his Future:
Peers neglect to pay up their poll tax, have fourteen days to come up with monies due.
A Bill that will concern Sam [Mr Coventry did present to the House] A bill to regulate the Navy:
More on lead coffin filtch and the body of Archbishop dumped under a dungheap:
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
also 'Drain the fens : preserve the kings deer, don't kill them ' tis cruel. A Bill concerning Eccleiastical Jurisdiction. Should the Bishops punish the Wicked again?'
dirk • Link
petty Sam?
In a way this entry comes right on time. Some of us have tended to idealize Sam. He's just human!
"Let him who his without sin throw the first stone" &c
vicente • Link
Inside job? it has been said before, but one does forget. Juvenal, Satirae, VI, 347
"sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes"
but who will watch the watchman.
Google comes up 5,7xx hits, must be a popular expression.
He's just human!To err is human; to forgive, divine.
Alexander Pope
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes…
Errare humanum est. Perseverare diabolicum. -- "To err is human. To repeat error is of the Devil." (Seneca )
many claimants?
Pedro. • Link
Wills loss.
Another reason why Sam is glad of Will's loss maybe his frustration with Will a few months back, when he was getting above himself and staying abroad late. He even asked Will's uncle to put him straight.
Glyn • Link
It's not really important, but perhaps the theft didn't take place on this day, but on one of the days when Pepys was in Brampton. And when he returned home late on Monday night, tired and anxious about the estate, when he asked if everything was OK Elizabeth decided it wasn't the right time to burden him with it.
Pepys bought a tankard earlier in the year for Montagu which was worth over 30 shilling (one and a half pounds). Presumably this was less expensive but probably still cost at least a pound, i.e. a servant's wages for 3 or 4 months.
Pauline • Link
"...seeing a bill upon the door to hire the house...he do intend to leave the agreement for the House...to me between them."
It reads as being Cousin Thomas's house with a for-rent sign on it; and after showing the house to Sir G. Lane, with Sam in tow, a decision that Sam will act as agent between them for the lease agreement.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"which is 400£ fine, and 46£ rent a year to me between them" -- Sc. Pepys was to draw up the legal terms of the lease agreed to between Lane and Thomas Pepys. Sir George Lane was a clerk to the Privy Council, and secretary to Ormond, Lord Steward to the Royal Household. The house to be let was in the fields near St Martin's Lane. Thomas Pepys was to move to Newport St, Covent Garden, where he stayed until 1663, when he went to live at Hatcham, Surrey. ( L&M note )
jpmrb • Link
A 353 year-old punchline? "This afternoon I hear that my man Will hath lost his clock with my tankard, at which I am very glad." Petty or not petty? Well, all i can say is that i burst out laughing when i read this! Thanks Samuel.
Third Reading
JayW • Link
No mention of Will for the past few days so he may have been left in charge of the house and making sure everything was kept safe. In which case ‘Serves him right’ is a very understandable reaction to Will’s loss of his cloak.
San Diego Sarah • Link
The first thing on the House of Common's agenda today:
Poyer's Claim.
UPON reading of the humble Petition of Elizabeth Poyer, Relict of Col. John Poyer, deceased, who was sentenced by a Court Martial, and shot to Death; setting forth her Husband's Fidelity, Services, Loss of his Life, Expence of his Estate to the Value of 8,000£. and upwards, and her Debts and Sufferings; and praying some present Relief to keep her and hers from starving; and further Provision for the Maintenance of her and her poor Family.
Ordered, That the said Condition of the Petitioner and her Children be, and is hereby humbly recommended to the pious Consideration of his Majesty; who is humbly desired by this House to grant unto her such Relief, in Compensation of her sad Sufferings and Losses, as, in his Princely Wisdom and Goodness, he shall judge her Case may deserve.
@@@
Do you think the Poyer family deserved a ROYALIST pension? The Commons sent the case back to Charles II for the decision. I include the back story to remind us all just how confusing loyalty becomes in a 10 year civil war:
Extracted from "John Poyer, the forgotten hero (or villain) of the civil war"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales…
When you think of the Civil Wars, you tend to think of famous men like Charles I and Oliver Cromwell. But the war is organized and fought by thousands of individuals, all of whom contribute to the outcome.
In Wales there was one man who symbolizes the turmoil of the age, supporting first parliament and then the king. He was the mayor of Pembroke, John Poyer.
Initially, Poyer was a devoted Parliamentary man.
As well as being Pembroke's mayor, before the outbreak of war he also commanded one of Pembrokeshire's Trained Bands.
Parliament needed men like Poyer and his Trained Band because by 1642 most of south Wales had come out in favor of King Charles, except Pembroke and Tenby.
Over the next few years the war in Pembrokeshire was chaotic, with first one side gaining the upper hand, then the other. John Poyer was in the thick of it all, manipulating, bribing and fighting to advance parliament's cause.
Some of Poyer’s actions were barely legal.
At Michaelmas 1642, for example, Poyer, his term of office as mayor of Pembroke at an end, refused to stand down.
The new mayor had royalist leanings so there was no way John Poyer was going to give him control. He kept the position of mayor for the next 6 years.
Pembroke castle and town, under the command of Mayor Poyer and Gen. Rowland Laugharne, became a serious threat to the royalist Welsh forces.
The local royalist commanders even declared that when they captured Mayor Poyer they would put him in a barrel pierced by nails and roll him down hill into Milford Haven.
Poyer merely shrugged and said they would have to catch him first.
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
Thanks to the military skill of Gen. Rowland Laugharne and the adept political maneuvering of Mayor Poyer, parliament's forces in Pembrokeshire were ultimately successful and in May 1646, with the surrender of King Charles to the Scots, the first Civil War ended.
Parliament had clear control of the country, and it seemed men like Poyer could enjoy the fruits of victory.
In Pembrokeshire, bad feelings continued to simmer. Mayor Poyer was called to London to answer charges of appropriating land and property to the value of £6,000. The charge eventually came to nothing but Poyer was incensed he should be called to task by parliament, the people he had risked his life to champion.
For some time Gen. Laugharne's soldiers - like many other armies across Britain - had been refusing to disband until they were paid arrears in wages.
Sir Thomas, Lord Fairfax ordered Mayor Poyer to appear again before a committee of accounts and to give up control of Pembroke and its castle.
Poyer refused and used the excuse of the unpaid soldiers. He would vacate the castle when Gen. Laugharne's men had been given the wages they were owed.
England slipped towards a second civil war. There were many other causes for this, but men like Poyer and Laugharne now declared for Prince Charles.
When parliament sent a large force under Gen. Horton to deal with the south Wales rebels, Mayor Poyer declared:
"He, who feared neither Fairfax, Cromwell or Ireton, would be the first man to charge against Ironsides."
Unfortunately for Poyer and Laugharne, their army was defeated at the Battle of St. Fagans on 4 May, 1648, and they fell back to Pembroke.
Parliamentary forces appeared outside the town walls and a 7-week siege began. Oliver Cromwell commanded the besieging troops.
Mayor John Poyer and Gen. Rowland Laugharne were tireless defenders of Pembroke, appearing on the walls and leading sorties against Cromwell's troops. Inevitably, food and water ran short, and at the end of July the town surrendered.
John Poyer, Col. Laugharne and Col. Rice Powell (who had garrisoned Tenby against Cromwell) were sent to London for trial as traitors.
A military court sat from 4-12 April, 1649, and returned a guilty verdict. All 3 were condemned to death.
However, the council of state decided on leniency -- only one man must die, his fate to be decided by a child who would draw lots to decide who would face the firing squad. The unlucky man was John Poyer.
Mayor John Poyer's execution took place at Covent Garden on 25 April, 1649.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Today the Savoy Conference ended. It started on April 15: a digest of what was subsequently discussed and by whom is at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Sadly, it didn't achieve much in the way of reconciliation as both sides still wanted to "win". Since Charles II was officially CofE, the Anglican church quite predictably "won".
Notes based on "Everyman's History of the Prayer Book"
by Percy Dearmer
Chapter XI -- The Fifth English Prayer Book
http://justus.anglican.org/resour…
Percy Dearmer (1867 - 1936) was a Christian socialist and probably best-known as the author of 'A Parson's Handbook'.
THE Savoy Conference came to an end 24 July, 1661: before Christmas of that year Convocation had completed the Fifth Prayer Book; and the next year this was annexed to the Act of Uniformity.
The preceding chapter showed the conditions under which the new Prayer Book was produced and the principles which motivated the revisers. These are stated clearly in the first of the prefaces to the English Prayer Book, and is called "The Preface."
"The Preface" was written by Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, and is divided into 5 paragraphs:
1. A description of the previous revisions: in the often misquoted phrase, they had been meant "to keep the mean between the two extremes, of too much stiffness in refusing, and of too much easiness in admitting any variation." The loose way in which the word "Liturgy" (properly a term for the Holy Communion) is used of the service as a whole, is a sign that liturgical knowledge is not what it had been a century before.
2. A sketch of those preliminaries to the present revision (the deputation to the king, etc.) described in our last chapter. The harsh tone of a triumphant party will be noticed in the Bishop's phrases.
3. The standard by which proposed changes were accepted or rejected, with a proviso that the Book of 1604 contained nothing contrary to the Word of God.
Here is another famous and important sentence: "We have rejected all such as were either of dangerous consequence (as secretly striking at some established doctrine, or laudable practice of the Church of England, or indeed of the whole Catholick Church of Christ) or else of no consequence at all, but utterly frivolous and vain."
4. A description of the changes introduced, beginning with a statement that they were not made "to gratify this or that party in any their unreasonable demands."
5. An expression of the hope that these changes (though unwelcome to "men of factious, peevish, and perverse spirits") will be approved by "all sober, peaceable, and truly conscientious sons of the Church of England."
... [FOR THE EXACT CHANGES, PLEASE READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE -- SDS]
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
In 1662 two more State Services were drawn up by Convocation, those for King Charles the Martyr and for the Restoration, and were added to the Accession Service (Elizabeth's had been made in 1576, and Charles I's in 1626), and to that for Gunpowder Treason, which was altered.
These State Services were then annexed to the Prayer Book by the sanction of the Crown and Convocation, and were subsequently enjoined by Royal Proclamation at the beginning of each reign.
In 1859, ...
The State Services of 1662 are largely modelled upon that for "Powder Treason," which in its turn reflects the verbose Elizabethan type of special service and they illustrate the bad side of the period. The prayers have the magnificence of their age, and are full of fine passages; but they are not constructed on sound liturgical lines, and consequently do not bear comparison with the prayers of the Prayer Book for beauty, conciseness, or simplicity. They are full of political opinion, their loyalty is expressed in extravagant terms, and they confide to Almighty God their denunciations of "violent and bloodthirsty men," "bloody enemies," "sons of Belial, as on this day, to imbrue their hands in the blood of thine Anointed," "the unnatural Rebellion, Usurpation, and Tyranny of ungodly and cruel men" — using 4 words where one would have been too many.
This is magnificent, but it is not reconciliation.
Then remember these State Services were cheerfully used throughout the country for nearly 200 years to understand the accompanying decline in the English Church.
The Church of a [political] party could not be the Church of a people.
A Church which did nothing to answer in her Services the growing needs of succeeding ages, failed as time went on, and alienated large sections of religious men.
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION
Professor A. F. Pollard wrote this verdict: "While the State grew more comprehensive, the Church grew more exclusive. It was not that, after 1662, it seriously narrowed its formulas or doctrines; but it failed to enlarge them, and a larger proportion of Englishmen thus found themselves outside its pale."
The Church could not have reduced her Catholic heritage, for such negative action would have narrowed instead of enlarging her borders. But acts of comprehension would have been possible in many directions, had the authorities been alive to the need; and it is true that, beyond the alteration in 1865 of the form of clerical subscription to the Articles, almost nothing was done to meet the needs of the times during the 250 years which have elapsed since the Restoration.
The reader may verify the truth of this statement by testing it according to his own predilections. The bareness of our churches has been the chief recruit of Romanism, our liturgical stiffness, of Dissent.
He may be most impressed by one of these facts; or he may be among those who feel that many who love the Church most intelligently and sincerely have been alienated from her by the pressing of a 16th Century standard of theology upon the 20th.
Or again, he may be more impressed by the fact that the poverty of our Visitation of the Sick has driven many thousands into faith-healing sects, and the inadequacy of the Burial Service has caused others to seek comfort in Spiritism.
One thing has saved the Church from far worse desertions — has enabled her, against heavy odds, to emerge from the stagnation of the 18th century, and has made the Evangelical and Catholic Revivals possible: the growth of Post-Reformation hymnody.
This began with the Old Version of Metrical Psalms (Sternhold 1548, 1549; Sternhold and Hopkins, 1551, 1559, 1561; Day's Complete Psalter, 1562). After a long life, Sternhold and Hopkins gave place to the New Version Tate and Brady ("allowed by the King in Council," 1696), with its Supplement (1698).
The Supplement in its earliest known edition (1699) includes "While shepherds watched," in 1782 "Hark, the herald Angels," and in 1807 the Easter Hymn with a few others.
Hymnody developed greatly in the 18th century through the prolific genius of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley; and, in the 19th ... We have only to imagine our Sunday services, deprived of hymnody's additions to realize how large an element it has become in public worship, and how much it has done to defend the Church from narrowness. ...
The other happenings in England since 1662 have been of less importance. There was an attempt at revision in the reign of William III, happily abortive; and additional services, rare in the Georgian era, ...