1893 text
Thomas Barlow, Pepys’s predecessor as Clerk of the Acts, to whom he paid part of the salary. Barlow held the office jointly with Dennis Fleeting.
This text comes from a footnote on a diary entry in the 1893 edition edited by Henry B. Wheatley.
7 Annotations
First Reading
chip • Link
Page 133 of Tomalin mentions Barlow who served under Charles I. He is bought out with an annuity (like flies to...). According to her, it is Sandwich who convinces Pepys that the salary is not what makes the position lucrative but the 'opportunites of getting money while he is in the place.' Our Sam is a quick study.
vincent • Link
Thomas Barlow : sadly google failed? died feb 1664/65 according diary intro;
Pauline • Link
This intrepretation from Sara George's "The Journal of Mrs. Pepys":
"On the 29th of June [Sam] got his warrant from the Duke of York to be Clerk of the Acts and all seemed to be plain sailing until he heard that a previous holder of the post, a Mr Barlow, still held the reversion of it and was coming up to London to look after his interest....My lord told Sam to get possission of his patent as soon as possible and he'd do all he could to keep Barlow out.
"The Privy Coucil ordered the new Navy Board to meet even though their patents weren't issued yet. Sam was named as one of the officers, but Mr Barlow had an appointment with Mr Coventry to put his case to the Duke of York. However, he turned out to be a sickly old man who didn't intend to take the post himself and that made us feel a little better. The next day Sam went to see the Navy lodgings beside the Navy Office in Seething Lane and he said even the worst house was very good. He moved into the Navy office and began work by taking an inventory of all the papers and books, but still worried that the appointment could even now be given to Barlow."
[Sam rushes around and gets the patent prepared and sealed before Barlow can make any more trouble.]
"Mr Barlow eventually appeared. He was old and consumptive and just after whatever gleanings he could get. He settled for L100 a year, and by the look of him it's not going to go on for ever."
Paul Brewster • Link
L&M Companion on [Thomas] Barlow
Pepys's predecessor as Clerk of the Acts. Originally in the service of the 10th Earl of Northumberland, he was muster-master in 1627 and 1636, and became joint-Clerk of the Acts in 1639. He appears from the diary to have been a friend of the statistician Graunt, and was probably the Mr. Barlow mentioned as a mathematician in a letter from William Petty in 1644. A John Barlow was in Petty's service.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
When he secures the Clerk of the Acts position at the Restoration, Thomas Barlow still held the position. Pepys bought him out, as it were:
"There came to my house before I went out Mr. Barlow, an old consumptive man, and fair conditioned, with whom I did discourse a great while, and after much talk I did grant him what he asked, viz., 50l. per annum, if my salary be not increased, and (100l. per annum, in case it be to 350l.), at which he was very well pleased to be paid as I received my money and not otherwise."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
This was no doubt but one of many similar "deals" at the regime change.
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Pepys' appointment as Clerk of the Acts is belatedly complicated by the emergence of King Charles lifetime appointment, Thomas Barlow, from 1639:
L&M: Thomas Barlow, appointed [as Clerk of the Acts] jointly with Dennis Fleming in 1639, had held the sole reversion since Fleming's death.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
L&M Companion: "During the Civil War and Interregnum the [Navy] Board was replaced by a series of commissions staffed by up to eight or ten members, mostly experienced seamen and merchants armed with general and flexible powers and deliberately made free of the constrictions attaching to the traditional officers of the Board. ... After the return of Charles II the Board was replaced, the former Commissioners continuing for a short period while the members of the Board were chosen and empowered to act."
Since Barlow was appointed in 1639, it looks like he didn't have long in the position before the entire Board disappeared. He then re-surfaces only to find that it’s a brand new game of musical chairs and he’s at risk of losing his seat.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Bit [more] of the Answer about Barlow
Barlow was joint-Clerk of the Acts under Charles I -- a previous COA rather than the existing COA. With the Restoration he appears to have a "reversion" to the job. The patent given for these appointments must be for a lifetime.
What Barlow is doing is staking a claim with the intent of "selling" the job to someone of his choice or being "bought out" with an annuity to clear the job for new appointment. It is a pre-Commonwealth asset in his portfolio that he realizes has regained value.
He is an old man and not interested in returning to London and taking the job back for himself.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
San Diego Sarah • Link
It appears the Admiralty ran the Navy during the First Anglo-Dutch War.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…