William Rumbold

4 Annotations

First Reading

David Quidnunc  •  Link

Biography

Rumbold served in the Wardrobe since 1629, was a Royalist agent during the Interregnum and became joint clerk of the King's Great Wardrobe (with Thomas Townsend) in 1660.

He died in 1667, and his wife, Mary, died soon after.

He has a nephew, Henry, who becomes storekeeper at Tangier, a British possession in Pepys's time in Morocco.

-- L&M Companion volume

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

RUMBOLD, WILLIAM (1613-1667), cavalier; brother of Henry Rumbold; attended Charles I until after the battle of Naseby, when he retired to Spain; returned, 1649, and acted as Charles IIs financial agent and secretary to secret royalist council; imprisoned about two years by Cromwell; engaged in Sir George Booth's plot; surveyor-general of customs, 1663.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

Bill  •  Link

Rumball is mentioned on several occasions in the Diary. On October 29th, 1660, Pepys praises his claret, and on December 8th, 1661, a great christening of Rumball’s child (Charles) is mentioned. Since these passages were printed the editor has been obligingly informed as to this worthy by Sir Horace Rumbold, Bart., G.C.M.G., H.B.M. Minister at the Hague. The forms Rumball and Rumbell given by Pepys are corruptions of the correct name, which was Rumbold. William Rumbold entered the office of the Great Wardrobe in 1629, attended Charles I. all through the Civil War till Naseby, where he was engaged, together with his father, Thomas Rumbold, afterwards taken prisoner by the Parliamentary forces, and during the period of the Commonwealth he rendered considerable service to the royal cause. He acted as Secretary to the Secret Council which was kept up in England by Charles II. during his exile, and among the Clarendon Papers at Oxford there are numerous letters from him written to the king, Lord Chancellor Hyde, Ormonde, and others. At the Restoration he became Comptroller of the Great Wardrobe and Surveyor-General of the Customs. He died May 27th, 1667, at his house at Parson’s Green, Fulham, where he is buried in the chancel of All Saints‘ Church with his wife Mary, daughter of William Barclay, Esquire of the Body to Charles I. This distinguished royalist was an ancestor of Sir Horace Rumbold, who has contributed to the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society “Notes on the History of the Family of Rumbold in the Seventeenth Century" (N.S., vol. vi., p. 145). Sir Horace mentions the Colonel Henry Norwood referred to in the text as one of those friends who spoke of William Rumbold with great affection.
---Wheatley, 1904.

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1660

1661

  • Dec

1662

  • Jan

1663

  • Mar

1666