About Wednesday 27 March 1661

Harvey on 27 Mar 2014  •  Link

Well, even more careful reading shows Sam is to receive sixty pounds. But the bill could have been drawn for more and originally by a third party, so my conjecture remains possible. His words "not know how to get" could mean "how to collect."

About Wednesday 27 March 1661

Harvey on 26 Mar 2014  •  Link

Considering that Sam is not at this time impecunious, I doubt that the bill of exchange is one he writes for the purpose of borrowing ready specie. Isn't it more likely that this is a note someone has given Sam but is of doubtful worth and that Sam will endorse it over to Cateret in exchange for gold, passing the credit risk (and some profit potential) to Cateret?

Careful reading indicates that the bill of exchange is for sixty pounds but Cateret promises only "some" money, i.e., he is discounting the bill. I don't think Sam would put it quite this way if it were his own note.

About Saturday 1 December 1660

Harvey on 2 Dec 2013  •  Link

As good Puritans knew, nothing in the Bible points to December as the season of Christ's birth.

Reading the Diary should convince one that the return of the High Church and its holidays coincided with a sharp decline in public morality. For this and other reasons It is fallacious to think that dislike of a certain religion is necessarily blind prejudice.