David Gurliacci on 15 Jan 2003  •  Link

Pepys and Jemima Montague: A Close Relationship

In 1643 Pepys was enrolled in the Free Grammar School in Huntingdon, and Jemima was probably nearby in Hinchbrooke, which her Cavalier father-in-law had handed over to his Roundhead son. At some point in his youth, Pepys became familiar with Hinchingbrooke, and he likely got to know Jemima at about this time.

In 1643 Pepys turned 10 years old and Jemima turned 18.

Jemima Montagu "always looked on him [Pepys] 'like one of our own family,' entrusted her children to his care, scolded him, joked with him, borrowed money from him, consulted him and confided in him. And he reciprocated with devoted admiration and respect; for him she was always the model of what a woman should be."

-- Claire Tomalin, "Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self," 2002, pp. 20-21

David Gurliacci on 15 Jan 2003  •  Link

Jemima Crew Montagu (1625-1674)

She married Edward Montagu on 7 November 1642, when they were both 17 years old. Her husband was already an officer in the puritan army and had broken with his royalist father, Sir Sidney Montagu.

The marriage, a love match, took place in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, where Pepys would marry his wife in 1655.

When Pepys begins his diary, Jemima is 34 years old (as is her husband), and she has had eight children (although the youngest, Charles, born in 1658 may have died already).

She has given birth to children in 1646, 1648, 1649, 1650, 1653, 1655 (two children that year) and 1658.

The other seven children (with ages as of 1 January 1659/60) are: Jemima, 13; Edward ("Ned"), 11; Paulina, 10; Sidney, 9; Anne, 6; Oliver, 4; John, 4.

TINY PLOT SPOILER:
Jemima has two other children in her future: Catherine will be born in 1661 and James in 1664.

(Claire Tomalin, "Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self," 1992, information from family tree on pp. xii-xiii and various other points in the book)

Todd Bernhardt on 15 Jan 2003  •  Link

Ten children?!? Two in one year?!? Yow. Now *I* have the utmost respect for her.

As always, thanks for the annotations, David.

Glyn on 17 Sep 2003  •  Link

10 children? This extract from an internet site states that she had 11, which wouldn't have been unusual at the time but I imagine Tomalin is more accurate.

She was 34 years old, as the Diary begins.

"In 1642 Sandwich married Jemima, the 17-year old daughter of John Crew of Stene, a leading parliamentarian of Northamptonshire.

The sweetness of her disposition and her unfailing kindness to Pepys make her one of the most attractive figures in the diary - 'so good and discreet a woman I know not in the world'. She died in I674.

They had seven sons and four daughters. The two eldest sons, Edward (1648-88) and Sidney (I650-I727), were sent to be schooled in France in 1661."

It's interesting that one of her daughters is named Paulina - that is the name of her mother-in-law who was also a great-aunt to Samuel Pepys, and the family link between the Montagus and the Pepys families.

David Quidnunc on 7 Nov 2003  •  Link

Jemima hosts Charles I during the Civil War

Claire Tomalin's "Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self" mentions two extraordinary occasions when Charles I may have been a guest of Jemima at her home, Hinchingbrooke -- once when she was in the king's power and once when the king was a prisoner:

In August 1645, Jemima was pregnant with her first child at Hinchingbrooke, and her husband was with Cromwell in the west when King Charles and his men came through Huntingdon. The king's troops "fell to plundering" Tomalin writes. (p 24)

Tomalin thinks it likely Charles stayed at George Inn, yet if he stayed at Hinchingbrooke, Jemima, then about 20 years old, would have been his hostess and "would have received the king with perfect politeness, but he knew her husband was fighting against his forces." (p 24)

"In June [1647], the army sent Cornet Joyce to abduct him [King Charles I] into their power, and as a prisoner of the army he again visited Hinchingbrooke, probably still escorted by [Jemima's father, John] Crew. It was reported that he was 'nobly treated' by his hostess, Mistress Montagu. She was, as it happens, again three months pregnant, and her husband was away attending parliament in London." (p 28)

Charles may have received more than a cold politeness on his 1647 visit. In footnote 30, explained on page 384 Tomalin quotes one writer (I'm confused as to which one), who wrote: "K. Cha. I ... on his way from Holmby was very magnificently and dutifully entertained there by lady Mountagu . . ."

David Ross McIrvine on 26 Jan 2004  •  Link

Jemima (Crew), Countess of Sandwich,
is represented twice in the National
Portrait Gallery. Both entries are
for 19th century mezzotints after an
original portrait by Samuel Cooper.

http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search…

Samuel Cooper, one of the most famous
limners (miniaturists) in Europe, also
did a portrait of Elizabeth Pepys,
(commissioned in March 1668, executed
throughout July 1668, and completed and
paid for on Aug 10 1668).

Pedro on 1 Feb 2006  •  Link

From the annotations 31 January...

(Mary)…I seem to recall that letters of Jemima to her husband show that she also had difficulty spelling.

Looking in Ollard’s Biography of Montagu I find a couple of examples of Jemima’s letters. (If her spelling was bad she knows where to put a semicolon, which is more than I do! But maybe that would be Carte, from where the info is taken.)
I cannot see Sam telling Jem off in the same manner!

The birth of their daughter had taken place during his absence, and they had planned to call her Sarah, but Jem decided to christen her Katherine…

“you having the honour to bring our so much desired queen I thought we might a
alsoe have the honour to have her name”

(Perhaps a spoiler?) She wrote to him while he was in Madrid…

“I have sent little Kat to London to Mr Pers the Serg that belongs to the Duke ( my entry…our friend Pearse the gossip!) ther they say the famostes Docr. In Iingland for sore eies; he did a mirackeulus cure on the Dutches daughter, the Lady Ann, and now cam up to the Dutches of Richmon who by the smale pox had one of her eies much hurt.”

San Diego Sarah on 17 May 2021  •  Link

AFTER THE DIARY SPOILERS GALORE:

Sir Richard Edgcumbe MP married Lady Anne Montagu (1656-1728), daughter of Adm. Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich and Jemima Crewe in January, 1671 [aged 14]. https://www.myheritage.com/names/…

In 1671 Sir Richard was ‘cullied’ (according to Flagellum Parliamentarium) into marrying Sandwich’s daughter. [ Cullied means duped, per the online dictionaries ]

Sir Richard’s honeymoon was interrupted by a summons to attend the House, and on arrival he was appointed to the committee for removing the Cornish assizes from his Launceston constituency to Bodmin, Cornwall.

Lady Anne Montagu Edgcumbe’s mother, Jemima Crew Montagu, Dowager Countess of Sandwich – the much loved "my lady" of Samuel Pepys – spent her last years at Mount Edgecumbe near Plymouth, Devon, and is buried there. She died in 1674.

Sir Richard Edgcumbe MP entertained Charles II at Mount Edgcumbe in 1677 ‘where he and the whole Court was nobly treated’.

In his Tangier Journal, Samuel Pepys records a visit to Lady Anne Montagu Edgcumbe on 22 August 1679: "She received me extremely kindly. Visited her house and garden and park, a most beautiful place".

At the general election of 1685, the Earl of Sunderland urged Sir Richard to secure the return of loyal candidates. Edgcumbe expressed his zeal to serve Charles II, although he did not stand, being ‘exceedingly afflicted with the gout’.

Before his death, Edgcumbe had moved into opposition to James II, being noted as one of those most considerable both for interest and estates.

Sir Richard Edgcumbe MP died in 1688, aged 48, leaving 2 surviving sons and 6 daughters. If he was "cullied", it seems not to have been an insurmountable problem.

Their third son, Richard Edgcumbe Jr. was created Baron Edgcumbe in 1742.

Sir Richard Edgcumbe MP FRS's widow, Lady Anne Montagu Edgcumbe, remarried to Christopher Montagu MP (1655 - 1735). Their marriage license is dated 15 Jan. 1694, and she died in 1729.

Information gleaned from lots of places besides the above, but mainly:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric…
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
https://www.historyofparliamenton…

San Diego Sarah on 25 Sep 2024  •  Link

Believe it or not, L&M Companion has no biography of My Lady Jemima.

WikiTree says
Jemima "Countess of Sandwich" Montagu, formerly Crew
Born 17 July, 1625 in Steane, Northamptonshire, England
Ancestors:
Daughter of John (Crewe) Crew and Jemima (Waldegrave) Crew
Sister of Thomas Crew,
Nathaniel Crew
and Anne (Crewe) Wright

Wife of Edward Montagu MP — married 7 Nov 1642 in St Margaret, Westminster, Middlesex, England

Descendants:
Mother of Jemima (Montagu) Carteret,
Edward Montagu,
Paulina Montagu,
Sidney (Montagu) Wortley-Montagu,
Anne Montagu,
John Montagu,
Oliver Montagu,
Charles Montagu MP,
Katherine (Montagu) Gardeman
and James Montagu
Died 1674 at about age 48 in Cotehele, Cornwall, England (see my annotation above)

The Earl and Counterss of Montagu are ancestors of William, Prince of Wales.

It then quotes bits from the Diary:

The Diary of Samuel Pepys
5 January 1660 "Then my wife and I, it being a great frost, went to Mrs Jem's to eat a sac-posset, but, Mr Edward not coming, it was put off."

12 August 1661 "At home in the afternoon and had notice that my Lord Hinchingbrooke is fallen ill, which I fear is with the fruit that I did give them on Saturday last at my house: so in the evening I went thither and there found him very ill, and in great fear of small-pox. I supped with my Lady, and did consult about him, but we find it best to let him lie where he do."

28 May 1665 "Thence to my Lady Sandwich's, where, to my shame, I had not been a great while before. Here, upon my telling her a story of my Lord Rochester's running away on Friday night last with Mrs Mallet, ..."

We can do better!
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cre…