There are 110 livery companies, comprising London's ancient and modern trade associations and guilds, almost all of which are styled the 'Worshipful Company of...' their respective craft, trade or profession.[1][2] These livery companies play a significant part in the life of the City of London (i.e. the financial district and historic heart of the capital), not least by providing charitable-giving and networking opportunities. Liverymen retain voting rights for the senior civic offices, such as the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs and Corporation, its ancient municipal authority with extensive local government powers.[2]
The term livery originated in the specific form of dress worn by retainers of a nobleman and then by extension to special dress to denote status of belonging to a trade. Livery companies evolved from London's medieval guilds, becoming corporations under Royal Charter responsible for training in their respective trades, as well as for the regulation of aspects such as wage control, labour conditions and industry standards. Early guilds often grew out of parish fraternal organizations, where large groups of members of the same trade lived in close proximity and gathered at the same church.[3] Like most organisations during the Middle Ages, these livery companies had close ties with the Catholic Church (before the Protestant Reformation), endowing religious establishments such as chantry chapels and churches, observing religious festivals with hosting ceremonies and well-known mystery plays. Most livery companies retain their historical religious associations, although nowadays members are free to follow any faith or none.
The perfect politician, or, A full view of the life and action (military and civil) of O. Cromwel whereunto is added his character, and a compleat catalogue of all the honours conferr'd by him on several persons. Fletcher, Henry., Raybould, William. London: Printed by J. Cottrel, for William Roybould ... and Henry Fletcher ..., 1660. Early English Books Online [full text] https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo…
"He told me he feared there was new design hatching, as if Monk had a mind to get into the saddle"
L&M: Some extreme republicans -- to save themselves from something worse -- were pressing Monck to become sole ruler. A few of his officers approved of the plan, but Monc k himself certainly did not.
"Great also is the dispute now in the House, in whose name the writs shall run for the next Parliament; and it is said that Mr. Prin, in open House, said, “In King Charles’s.”"
L&M: Prynne was in charge of the bill for the dissolution and on 1 March argued that this was the only valid form of summons and that the Long Parliament had been dissolved by the death of the King in 1649. He used landguage just as bold on the same issue a week later: T. Carte, op. cit., ii. 312-13.
White Hart (Saffron Waldon) L&M: In Kin St; the town's most popular inn; now (1965) the Hoops. The innkeeper in 1656 was /john Potter: Trans. Essex Arch. Soc. (n.s.) 14/14.
"So after a cup of drink I went to Magdalene College to get the certificate of the College for my brother’s entrance there, that he might save his year. "
L&M: John, admitted to Magdalene in June 1659, had transferred to Christ's before taking up residence. /he would be allowed to count the term as part of his period of residence: D. A. Winstanley, Unreformed Cambridge, p.42.
"So with Mr. Fuller home to my house, where he dined with me, and he told my wife and me a great many stories of his adversities, since these troubles, in being forced to travel in the Catholic countries, &c. He shewed me his bills, but I had not money to pay him. "
L&M: William Fuller (a friend of Pepys, and now a schoolmaster at Twickenham) had been expelled from his studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, during the revolution; his sufferings were alluded to later when he was rewarded with an Irish deanery: Wood, Ath. Oxon. (ed. Bliss), iv. 850. The bills were for the schooling of Edward, Mountagu's son.
"Walking in the Hall, I saw Major-General Brown, who had a long time been banished by the Rump, but now with his beard overgrown, he comes abroad and sat in the House."
L&M: Ald. and Maj.-Gen. Richard Browne, probably the most important of the city Presbyterians, had been proclaimed against for his royalism in June 1659, and had lain in hiding in the Stationers' Hall in London since Booth's rising of that summer: CSPD 1659-60, p. 52; James Heath, Brief Chronicle (1663), p. 753. The proclamation was annulled on this day and he was re-admitted to the House: CJ, vii. 848. He became Lord Mayor in October 1660.
"This morning I met in the Hall with Mr. Fuller, of Christ’s, and told him of my design to go to Cambridge, and whither. He told me very freely the temper of Mr. Widdrington, how he did oppose all the fellows in the College, and that there was a great distance between him and the rest, at which I was very sorry, for that he told me he feared it would be little to my brother’s advantage to be his pupil."
L&M: cF. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… Ralph Widdrington had quarreled with his colleagues, particularly with the liberal theologians (the Latitude-men, or Cambridge Platonists) among them. Relying on his political influence (his brother was Sir Thomas Widdrington, late Speaker, now First Commissioner of the Great Seal), he had in 1659 tried to displaced Ralph Cudworth from the mastership. He was ejected from his fellowship in 1661-2, but was restored on appeal to the Privy Council, and had his revenge by residing for the rest of his life.
"Here also Capt. Taylor began a discourse of something that he had lately writ about Gavelkind in answer to one that had wrote a piece upon the same subject"
L&M: Silas Taylor's History of gavelkind (1663) was written in answer to William Somner's A treatise of gavelkind (1660). For gavelkind see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… ------------------- A treatise of gavelkind, both name and thing. Shewing the true etymologie and derivation of the one, the nature, antiquity, and original of the other. With sundry emergent observations, both pleasant and profitable to be known of Kentish-men and others, especially such as are studious, either of the ancient custome, or the common law of this kingdome. By (a well-willer to both) William Somner. Somner, William, 1598-1669. London: printed by R. and W. Leybourn for the authour, and are to be sold by John Crooke at the Ship, and Daniel White at the Seven Stars in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1660. Early English Books Online [full text] https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo…
"But it is very strange that this could be carried so private, that the other members of the House heard nothing of all this, till they found them in the House, insomuch that the soldiers that stood there to let in the secluded members, they took for such as they had ordered to stand there to hinder their coming in."
L&M : Ludlow (ii.235) asserts that Monck had assured the Council of State on the night of 20 February that no such attempt would be made by the secluded members, and undertook to double the guard to satisfy them. On the other hand, Monck had already declare his intention at meetings held on 17 and 20 February which some Rumpers had attended (see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… ). Possibly a few of the Rumpers were in fact taken by surprise: the evidence is discussed in CSPVen. 1659-61, p. xxiii. There were 18 Rumpers to 73 secluded members at the meeting of 21 February: R. Wodrow, Hist. sufferings Church of Scotland (1828-30), i. 5-6.
"To Westminster Hall, there being many new remonstrances and declarations from many counties to Monk and the City, and one coming from the North from Sir Thomas Fairfax."
L&M: In these addresses -- often the product of secret royalist organisations -- the country was protesting against the imposition of taxes by an unrepresentative parliament. Norfolk, e.g., had recently petitioned both the Rump and Monck, and on this day manifestoes from Oxfordshire and Warwickshire appeared in print: BM, 190 g. 13/148; 669 f. 23/35, 45. The 'one coming from the North' was addressed to Monck from Yorkshire, and was published both in York and in London. It declared against taxes and demanded either the admission of the secluded members or a free parliament: BM, 669 f.23/48; cf. CSPD 1659-60, p. 356. In another (spurious) version (13 February; BM, 669 f.23/47). An armed rising was threatened by the 'lords, knights, esquires' et al. of the county and city of York. Both versions were acquired by Thomason on the 16th. It is difficult to be sure which version Pepys refers to: Fairfax's name appears at the head of the signatories to the pacific one, and in the title of the militant one. Despite his Scottish barony, Fairfax was still often called 'Sir Thomas'.
""so to Paul’s, where I met with Mr. Kirton’s apprentice (the crooked fellow) and walked up and down with him two hours, sometimes in the street looking for a tavern to drink in, but not finding any open, we durst not knock."
L&M: Alehouse-keepers were forbidden, by the terms of their licenses, to serve drink during the hours of divine service. But see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… Joshua Kirton was a bookseller.
"And that the Mayor and Aldermen had offered him their own houses for himself and his officers; and that his soldiers would lack for nothing."
L&M: The official minute of the meeting simply records the aldermen's agreement to provide quarters in inns and other public houses: LRO, Repert. 67, f.43r. Meantime, the soldiers were drawn up in Finsbury Fields, waiting.
"and [Mt, Moore] also told me what Monk had done in the City, how he had pulled down the most part of the gates and chains that they could break down, and that he was now gone back to White Hall."
L&M: [Squibb] went back on the evening of this day, against parliament's wishes. His officers and men had refused to complete the work of destroying the city's defenses.
"I went to my office, where I wrote to my Lord after I had been at the Upper Bench, where Sir Robert Pye this morning came to desire his discharge from the Tower; but it could not be granted."
L&M: Pye (M.P. for Berkshire) had been imprisoned on 25 January for presenting a petition from the county for the re-admission of the secluded members. His application for release was refused, although it does not seem to have been strongly opposed by government counsel: Ludlow, ii. 232-3. He was discharged on 21 February.
Comments
Second Reading
About Tuesday 6 March 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
Livery Companies of the City of London
There are 110 livery companies, comprising London's ancient and modern trade associations and guilds, almost all of which are styled the 'Worshipful Company of...' their respective craft, trade or profession.[1][2] These livery companies play a significant part in the life of the City of London (i.e. the financial district and historic heart of the capital), not least by providing charitable-giving and networking opportunities. Liverymen retain voting rights for the senior civic offices, such as the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs and Corporation, its ancient municipal authority with extensive local government powers.[2]
The term livery originated in the specific form of dress worn by retainers of a nobleman and then by extension to special dress to denote status of belonging to a trade. Livery companies evolved from London's medieval guilds, becoming corporations under Royal Charter responsible for training in their respective trades, as well as for the regulation of aspects such as wage control, labour conditions and industry standards. Early guilds often grew out of parish fraternal organizations, where large groups of members of the same trade lived in close proximity and gathered at the same church.[3] Like most organisations during the Middle Ages, these livery companies had close ties with the Catholic Church (before the Protestant Reformation), endowing religious establishments such as chantry chapels and churches, observing religious festivals with hosting ceremonies and well-known mystery plays. Most livery companies retain their historical religious associations, although nowadays members are free to follow any faith or none.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liv…
About Anon's 'The perfect politician: or A full view of the life and actions military and civil of Oliver Cromwel'
Terry Foreman • Link
The perfect politician, or, A full view of the life and action (military and civil) of O. Cromwel whereunto is added his character, and a compleat catalogue of all the honours conferr'd by him on several persons.
Fletcher, Henry., Raybould, William.
London: Printed by J. Cottrel, for William Roybould ... and Henry Fletcher ..., 1660.
Early English Books Online [full text]
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo…
About Saturday 3 March 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"This day I was told that my Lord General Fleetwood told my lord that he feared the King of Sweden is dead of a fever at Gottenburg."
L&M: Charles X had died on 3/13 February. Mountague had met the King during has expedition to the Sound in 1659.
About Saturday 3 March 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"He told me he feared there was new design hatching, as if Monk had a mind to get into the saddle"
L&M: Some extreme republicans -- to save themselves from something worse -- were pressing Monck to become sole ruler. A few of his officers approved of the plan, but Monc k himself certainly did not.
About Friday 2 March 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"Great also is the dispute now in the House, in whose name the writs shall run for the next Parliament; and it is said that Mr. Prin, in open House, said, “In King Charles’s.”"
L&M: Prynne was in charge of the bill for the dissolution and on 1 March argued that this was the only valid form of summons and that the Long Parliament had been dissolved by the death of the King in 1649. He used landguage just as bold on the same issue a week later: T. Carte, op. cit., ii. 312-13.
About White Hart (Saffron Waldon)
Terry Foreman • Link
White Hart (Saffron Waldon)
L&M: In Kin St; the town's most popular inn; now (1965) the Hoops. The innkeeper in 1656 was /john Potter: Trans. Essex Arch. Soc. (n.s.) 14/14.
About Sunday 26 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"So after a cup of drink I went to Magdalene College to get the certificate of the College for my brother’s entrance there, that he might save his year. "
L&M: John, admitted to Magdalene in June 1659, had transferred to Christ's before taking up residence. /he would be allowed to count the term as part of his period of residence: D. A. Winstanley, Unreformed Cambridge, p.42.
About Thursday 23 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"So with Mr. Fuller home to my house, where he dined with me, and he told my wife and me a great many stories of his adversities, since these troubles, in being forced to travel in the Catholic countries, &c. He shewed me his bills, but I had not money to pay him. "
L&M: William Fuller (a friend of Pepys, and now a schoolmaster at Twickenham) had been expelled from his studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, during the revolution; his sufferings were alluded to later when he was rewarded with an Irish deanery: Wood, Ath. Oxon. (ed. Bliss), iv. 850. The bills were for the schooling of Edward, Mountagu's son.
About Wednesday 22 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"Walking in the Hall, I saw Major-General Brown, who had a long time been banished by the Rump, but now with his beard overgrown, he comes abroad and sat in the House."
L&M: Ald. and Maj.-Gen. Richard Browne, probably the most important of the city Presbyterians, had been proclaimed against for his royalism in June 1659, and had lain in hiding in the Stationers' Hall in London since Booth's rising of that summer: CSPD 1659-60, p. 52; James Heath, Brief Chronicle (1663), p. 753. The proclamation was annulled on this day and he was re-admitted to the House: CJ, vii. 848. He became Lord Mayor in October 1660.
About Tuesday 21 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"This morning I met in the Hall with Mr. Fuller, of Christ’s, and told him of my design to go to Cambridge, and whither. He told me very freely the temper of Mr. Widdrington, how he did oppose all the fellows in the College, and that there was a great distance between him and the rest, at which I was very sorry, for that he told me he feared it would be little to my brother’s advantage to be his pupil."
L&M: cF. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Ralph Widdrington had quarreled with his colleagues, particularly with the liberal theologians (the Latitude-men, or Cambridge Platonists) among them. Relying on his political influence (his brother was Sir Thomas Widdrington, late Speaker, now First Commissioner of the Great Seal), he had in 1659 tried to displaced Ralph Cudworth from the mastership. He was ejected from his fellowship in 1661-2, but was restored on appeal to the Privy Council, and had his revenge by residing for the rest of his life.
About Tuesday 21 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"Here also Capt. Taylor began a discourse of something that he had lately writ about Gavelkind in answer to one that had wrote a piece upon the same subject"
L&M: Silas Taylor's History of gavelkind (1663) was written in answer to William Somner's A treatise of gavelkind (1660). For gavelkind see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
-------------------
A treatise of gavelkind, both name and thing. Shewing the true etymologie and derivation of the one, the nature, antiquity, and original of the other. With sundry emergent observations, both pleasant and profitable to be known of Kentish-men and others, especially such as are studious, either of the ancient custome, or the common law of this kingdome. By (a well-willer to both) William Somner.
Somner, William, 1598-1669.
London: printed by R. and W. Leybourn for the authour, and are to be sold by John Crooke at the Ship, and Daniel White at the Seven Stars in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1660.
Early English Books Online [full text]
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo…
THE HISTORY OF GAVEL-KIND, WITH THE ETYMOLOGY THEREOF; CONTAINING...
Taylor, Silas https://www.lawbookexchange.com/p…
About Tuesday 21 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"But it is very strange that this could be carried so private, that the other members of the House heard nothing of all this, till they found them in the House, insomuch that the soldiers that stood there to let in the secluded members, they took for such as they had ordered to stand there to hinder their coming in."
L&M : Ludlow (ii.235) asserts that Monck had assured the Council of State on the night of 20 February that no such attempt would be made by the secluded members, and undertook to double the guard to satisfy them. On the other hand, Monck had already declare his intention at meetings held on 17 and 20 February which some Rumpers had attended (see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… ). Possibly a few of the Rumpers were in fact taken by surprise: the evidence is discussed in CSPVen. 1659-61, p. xxiii. There were 18 Rumpers to 73 secluded members at the meeting of 21 February: R. Wodrow, Hist. sufferings Church of Scotland (1828-30), i. 5-6.
About Monday 20 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"In the evening Simons and I to the Coffee Club,"
L&M: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Tuesday 14 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"To Westminster Hall, there being many new remonstrances and declarations from many counties to Monk and the City, and one coming from the North from Sir Thomas Fairfax."
L&M: In these addresses -- often the product of secret royalist organisations -- the country was protesting against the imposition of taxes by an unrepresentative parliament. Norfolk, e.g., had recently petitioned both the Rump and Monck, and on this day manifestoes from Oxfordshire and Warwickshire appeared in print: BM, 190 g. 13/148; 669 f. 23/35, 45. The 'one coming from the North' was addressed to Monck from Yorkshire, and was published both in York and in London. It declared against taxes and demanded either the admission of the secluded members or a free parliament: BM, 669 f.23/48; cf. CSPD 1659-60, p. 356. In another (spurious) version (13 February; BM, 669 f.23/47). An armed rising was threatened by the 'lords, knights, esquires' et al. of the county and city of York. Both versions were acquired by Thomason on the 16th. It is difficult to be sure which version Pepys refers to: Fairfax's name appears at the head of the signatories to the pacific one, and in the title of the militant one. Despite his Scottish barony, Fairfax was still often called 'Sir Thomas'.
About Sunday 12 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"other times in the churchyard, where one told me that he had seen the letter printed"
L&M: Monck's letter to parliament of the day before: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Sunday 12 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
""so to Paul’s, where I met with Mr. Kirton’s apprentice (the crooked fellow) and walked up and down with him two hours, sometimes in the street looking for a tavern to drink in, but not finding any open, we durst not knock."
L&M: Alehouse-keepers were forbidden, by the terms of their licenses, to serve drink during the hours of divine service. But see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… Joshua Kirton was a bookseller.
About Saturday 11 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"And that the Mayor and Aldermen had offered him their own houses for himself and his officers; and that his soldiers would lack for nothing."
L&M: The official minute of the meeting simply records the aldermen's agreement to provide quarters in inns and other public houses: LRO, Repert. 67, f.43r. Meantime, the soldiers were drawn up in Finsbury Fields, waiting.
About Friday 10 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"how he had pulled down the most part of the gates and chains that they could break down, and that he was now gone back to White Hall."
L&M: This order was made not on the 10th, but on the afternoon of the 9th: CJ, vii. 838.
About Friday 10 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"and [Mt, Moore] also told me what Monk had done in the City, how he had pulled down the most part of the gates and chains that they could break down, and that he was now gone back to White Hall."
L&M: [Squibb] went back on the evening of this day, against parliament's wishes. His officers and men had refused to complete the work of destroying the city's defenses.
About Thursday 9 February 1659/60
Terry Foreman • Link
"I went to my office, where I wrote to my Lord after I had been at the Upper Bench, where Sir Robert Pye this morning came to desire his discharge from the Tower; but it could not be granted."
L&M: Pye (M.P. for Berkshire) had been imprisoned on 25 January for presenting a petition from the county for the re-admission of the secluded members. His application for release was refused, although it does not seem to have been strongly opposed by government counsel: Ludlow, ii. 232-3. He was discharged on 21 February.