"he told me of the general want of money in the country; that land sold for nothing, and the many pennyworths he knows of lands and houses upon them, with good titles in his country,"
L&M: Birch's 'country' was Herefordshire -- he was M/P. fo Leominster. In June 1669 a Leominster estate was offered at 16 years' purchase: HMC, pORTLAND, III. 311. Birch hads a great reputation as a shrewd business man. The shortage of money and (in many places) the drop in rent had been progressive since the beginning of the war. (Cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… an d https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… According to a witness before the Lords' Committee on the Decay of Trade, appointed in October 1668, the capital value of land generally was then, and had been for some time, calculated at 16 years' purchase. In 1665 Petty had rated it at 18, and in better times it had been rated at 20: HMC, Rep., 8/133-4. W. R. Scott, Joint Stock Companies, i. 264.
"to a little ordinary in Hercules-pillars Ally — the Crowne, a poor, sorry place, where a fellow, in twelve years, hath gained an estate of, as he says, 600l. a- year, which is very strange,"
L&M: Pepys remarks on the fortunes made by other innkeepers at 25 February 1665: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… The landlord was William King.
"now Reames and ———— are put in to be overseers there,"
L&M: On 16 January warrants were issued for the appointment of Col. Bullen Reymes as Surveyor and Andrew Newport as Controller of the Great Wardrobe : CSPD 1667-8, p. 170. For the reorganization of the department at this time, see ib., pp. 64-5.
"He tells me that Townsend, of the Wardrobe, is the eeriest knave and bufflehead that ever he saw in his life, and wonders how my Lord Sandwich come to trust such a fellow,"
L&M: Thomas Townshend, sen. (Sandwich's deputy at the Wardrobe) was in trouble over his accounts with Capt. Henry Cooke of the Chapel Royal, and on the 24th had been examined by Coventry and rest of the Treasury Commissioners on the subject: CTB, ii, 238. He was suspended from his office in March: PRO, SP29/253, f. 28v.
'He tells me they have reduced the charges of Ireland above 70,000l. a-year, and thereby cut off good profits from my Lord Lieutenant; which will make a new enemy, but he cares not."
L&M: The existing Irish establishment had been in force since 1 April 1666. On 15 January 1668 Coventry had secured the appointment of a joint committee of English and Irish privy councillors to reduce expenditure which had reported on the 27th. When their proposals were effected in Michaelmas 1669, the total saving was only c. It had been found impossible to £13,000 p.a. It had been found impossible to cut the costs severely without dangerously weakening the military establishment, far and away the biggest item of expense. See CSP Ireland, 1666-9, pp. 7-9; ib., 1669-70, pp. 7-9; CTB, ii. 232, 236, , 238. HNC, Ormonde, n.s. iii' pp. x-xiii. For Ormonde's hostility to Coventry, see HMC. op cit., p. 262.
"Coming home, my wife and I went and saw Kate Joyce, who is still in mighty sorrow, and the more from something that Dr. Stillingfleete should simply say in his sermon, of her husband’s manner of dying, as killing himself."
"We did tell him of the many defects and disorders among the captains, and I prayed we might do it in writing to him, which he liked; and I am glad of an opportunity of doing it. "
"That he will now desire the King to let him be what he is, that is, Admirall; and he will put in none but those that he hath great reason to think well of; and particularly says, that; though he likes Colonell Legg well, yet his son that was, he knows not how, made a captain after he had been but one voyage at sea, he should go to sea another apprenticeship, before ever he gives him a command."
L&M: George Legge, son of Col. William Legge of the Ordnance Office, had commanded the Pembroke in 1667 at the age of 19. There is no record of his having served as a lieutenant before receiving his next command in 1672. He became Baron Dartmouth in 1682 and in 1683-4 led the Tangier expedition (on which Pepys also served) sent to dismantle the fortress and evacuate the town.
Modern sensibilities tend to be uncomfortable with the concept of buying a commission. In the Regency era, the system was viewed differently. They believed that since men had to pay for their rank, men of fortune and character that had a real interest in the fate of the nation would be drawn to the military.
Moreover, since they ‘owned’ their commission, they would be more responsible with their ‘property’ than someone with nothing to lose. Private ownership of rank also led to perception that since officers did not owe their rank to the King, they would be less likely to be used by the King against the people. https://randombitsoffascination.c…
In the Regency era [1811 – 1820], social status was closely related to career and wealth. An Army officer or Navy officer was considered a gentleman. Thus a man could gain an element of “respectability” that they might not hold by virtue of their birth. Moreover an officer’s status was considered higher than that of other gentlemanly professions: the church, the law and medicine. https://randombitsoffascination.c…
"That they did put out some men for cowards that the Duke of York had put in, but little before, for stout men; and would now, were he to go to sea again, entertain them in his own division, to choose: and did put in an idle fellow, Greene, who was hardly thought fit for a boatswain by him: they did put him from being a lieutenant to a captain’s place of a second-rate ship;"
"Thence to my Lady Peterborough’s, she desiring to speak with me. She loves to be taken dressing herself, as I always find her; and there, after a little talk, to please her, about her husband’s pension, "
"[Mr. Povy] tells me the Duchesse is a devil against him, and do now come like Queen Elizabeth, and sits with the Duke of York’s Council, and sees what they do;"
"Thence to Graye’s Inn walkes; and there met Mr. Pickering and walked with him two hours till 8 o’clock till I was quite weary. His discourse most about the pride of the Duchess of York;"
L&M: Cf. Burnet, i. 298: '[she] took state on her, rather too much.'
" Mr. Povy do tell me how he is like to lose his 400l. a- year pension of the Duke of York, which he took in consideration of his place which was taken from him."
L&M: On 27 September 1666 Thomas Povey had been replaced by Sir Allen Apsley as Treasurer and Receiver-General to the Duke. In December 1669 he was granted £2000 in compensation through the intervention of the Queen Mother: HMC, Rep., 8/1/280.
"[Mr. Povy] tells me the Duchesse is a devil against him, and do now come like Queen Elizabeth, and sits with the Duke of York’s Council, and sees what they do;"
L&M: On 27 September 1666 Thomas Povey had been replaced by Sir Allen Apsley as Treasurer and Receiver-General to the Duke. In December 1669 he was granted £2000 in compensation through the intervention of the Queen Mother: HMC, Rep., 8/1/280.
"The Bishop tells me he thinks that the great business of Toleration will not, notwithstanding this talk, be carried this Parliament; nor for the King’s taking away the Deans’ and Chapters’ lands to supply his wants, they signifying little to him, if he had them, for his present service."
L&M: This was one of Buckingham's hare-brained schemes: cf. Starkey's newsletter 18 January (BM, Add. 36916, f. 58r. An unsuccessful motion to this effect was made in Commons on 7 March: Grey, i. 108. See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
"In discourse, we think ourselves safe for this year, by this league with Holland, which pleases every body, and, they say, vexes France; insomuch that D’Estrades; the French Embassador in Holland, when he heard it, told the States that he would have them not forget that his master is at the head of 100,000 men, and is but 28 years old; which was a great speech."
L&M: Louis had already announced to the Dutch that he would shortly attack Flanders. d’Estrades's two despatches of 16/26 January make it clear that he used strong word when shown the Anglo-Dutch treaty by de Witt: Letters and negotiations of the Compte d'Estrades (1711), pp. 509-12. Sir William Temple, English ambassador to the United Provinces, reported to Arlington (14/24 January) that d'Estrades remarked to him that some of the terms of the treaty were not 'very proper to be digested by a king of twenty-nine years old, and at the head of eighty thousand men': Temple, Works (1814), i. 303.
Letters and Negotiations of the Count D'Estrades: Ambassador from Lewis XIV . by Godefroi Louis Estrades, pub. 1711 https://archive.org/details/lette…
"But the Bishop a very extraordinary good- natured man, and one that is mightily pleased, as well as I am, that I live so near Bugden"
L&M: Buckden, Hunts., the country seat of the bishops, had been used since 1660 as their main residence, the episcopal palace in Lincoln having been destroyed in the Civil War. Fuller soon settled in a house in Lincoln close. VCH, Lincs., i. 69.
Comments
Second Reading
About Friday 31 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"he told me of the general want of money in the country; that land sold for nothing, and the many pennyworths he knows of lands and houses upon them, with good titles in his country,"
L&M: Birch's 'country' was Herefordshire -- he was M/P. fo Leominster. In June 1669 a Leominster estate was offered at 16 years' purchase: HMC, pORTLAND, III. 311. Birch hads a great reputation as a shrewd business man. The shortage of money and (in many places) the drop in rent had been progressive since the beginning of the war. (Cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… an d
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
According to a witness before the Lords' Committee on the Decay of Trade, appointed in October 1668, the capital value of land generally was then, and had been for some time, calculated at 16 years' purchase. In 1665 Petty had rated it at 18, and in better times it had been rated at 20: HMC, Rep., 8/133-4. W. R. Scott, Joint Stock Companies, i. 264.
About Thursday 30 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"to a little ordinary in Hercules-pillars Ally — the Crowne, a poor, sorry place, where a fellow, in twelve years, hath gained an estate of, as he says, 600l. a- year, which is very strange,"
L&M: Pepys remarks on the fortunes made by other innkeepers at 25 February 1665: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
The landlord was William King.
About Thursday 30 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"But I do believe this arises from somebody that hath a mind to fright her into a composition for her estate"
COMPOSITION = settlement, compromise agreement (L&M Large Glossary)
About Wednesday 29 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"now Reames and ———— are put in to be overseers there,"
L&M: On 16 January warrants were issued for the appointment of Col. Bullen Reymes as Surveyor and Andrew Newport as Controller of the Great Wardrobe : CSPD 1667-8, p. 170. For the reorganization of the department at this time, see ib., pp. 64-5.
About Wednesday 29 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"He tells me that Townsend, of the Wardrobe, is the eeriest knave and bufflehead that ever he saw in his life, and wonders how my Lord Sandwich come to trust such a fellow,"
L&M: Thomas Townshend, sen. (Sandwich's deputy at the Wardrobe) was in trouble over his accounts with Capt. Henry Cooke of the Chapel Royal, and on the 24th had been examined by Coventry and rest of the Treasury Commissioners on the subject: CTB, ii, 238. He was suspended from his office in March: PRO, SP29/253, f. 28v.
About Wednesday 29 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
'He tells me they have reduced the charges of Ireland above 70,000l. a-year, and thereby cut off good profits from my Lord Lieutenant; which will make a new enemy, but he cares not."
L&M: The existing Irish establishment had been in force since 1 April 1666. On 15 January 1668 Coventry had secured the appointment of a joint committee of English and Irish privy councillors to reduce expenditure which had reported on the 27th. When their proposals were effected in Michaelmas 1669, the total saving was only c. It had been found impossible to £13,000 p.a. It had been found impossible to cut the costs severely without dangerously weakening the military establishment, far and away the biggest item of expense. See CSP Ireland, 1666-9, pp. 7-9; ib., 1669-70, pp. 7-9; CTB, ii. 232, 236, , 238. HNC, Ormonde, n.s. iii' pp. x-xiii. For Ormonde's hostility to Coventry, see HMC. op cit., p. 262.
About Tuesday 28 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"Coming home, my wife and I went and saw Kate Joyce, who is still in mighty sorrow, and the more from something that Dr. Stillingfleete should simply say in his sermon, of her husband’s manner of dying, as killing himself."
L&M: See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Tuesday 28 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"We did tell him of the many defects and disorders among the captains, and I prayed we might do it in writing to him, which he liked; and I am glad of an opportunity of doing it. "
L&M: No such report has been traced.
About Tuesday 28 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"That he will now desire the King to let him be what he is, that is, Admirall; and he will put in none but those that he hath great reason to think well of; and particularly says, that; though he likes Colonell Legg well, yet his son that was, he knows not how, made a captain after he had been but one voyage at sea, he should go to sea another apprenticeship, before ever he gives him a command."
L&M: George Legge, son of Col. William Legge of the Ordnance Office, had commanded the Pembroke in 1667 at the age of 19. There is no record of his having served as a lieutenant before receiving his next command in 1672. He became Baron Dartmouth in 1682 and in 1683-4 led the Tangier expedition (on which Pepys also served) sent to dismantle the fortress and evacuate the town.
About Tuesday 28 August 1666
Terry Foreman • Link
Modern sensibilities tend to be uncomfortable with the concept of buying a commission. In the Regency era, the system was viewed differently. They believed that since men had to pay for their rank, men of fortune and character that had a real interest in the fate of the nation would be drawn to the military.
Moreover, since they ‘owned’ their commission, they would be more responsible with their ‘property’ than someone with nothing to lose. Private ownership of rank also led to perception that since officers did not owe their rank to the King, they would be less likely to be used by the King against the people. https://randombitsoffascination.c…
About Tuesday 28 August 1666
Terry Foreman • Link
Being an officer made you a gentleman
In the Regency era [1811 – 1820], social status was closely related to career and wealth. An Army officer or Navy officer was considered a gentleman. Thus a man could gain an element of “respectability” that they might not hold by virtue of their birth. Moreover an officer’s status was considered higher than that of other gentlemanly professions: the church, the law and medicine.
https://randombitsoffascination.c…
About Tuesday 28 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"That they did put out some men for cowards that the Duke of York had put in, but little before, for stout men; and would now, were he to go to sea again, entertain them in his own division, to choose: and did put in an idle fellow, Greene, who was hardly thought fit for a boatswain by him: they did put him from being a lieutenant to a captain’s place of a second-rate ship;"
L&M: See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Monday 27 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"Thence to my Lady Peterborough’s, she desiring to speak with me. She loves to be taken dressing herself, as I always find her; and there, after a little talk, to please her, about her husband’s pension, "
L&M: See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Monday 27 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"[Mr. Povy] tells me the Duchesse is a devil against him, and do now come like Queen Elizabeth, and sits with the Duke of York’s Council, and sees what they do;"
L&M: Of the Duchess of York's pride, see
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Sunday 13 April 1662
Terry Foreman • Link
"Thence to Graye’s Inn walkes; and there met Mr. Pickering and walked with him two hours till 8 o’clock till I was quite weary. His discourse most about the pride of the Duchess of York;"
L&M: Cf. Burnet, i. 298: '[she] took state on her, rather too much.'
About Monday 27 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
" Mr. Povy do tell me how he is like to lose his 400l. a- year pension of the Duke of York, which he took in consideration of his place which was taken from him."
L&M: On 27 September 1666 Thomas Povey had been replaced by Sir Allen Apsley as Treasurer and Receiver-General to the Duke. In December 1669 he was granted £2000 in compensation through the intervention of the Queen Mother: HMC, Rep., 8/1/280.
About Monday 27 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"[Mr. Povy] tells me the Duchesse is a devil against him, and do now come like Queen Elizabeth, and sits with the Duke of York’s Council, and sees what they do;"
L&M: On 27 September 1666 Thomas Povey had been replaced by Sir Allen Apsley as Treasurer and Receiver-General to the Duke. In December 1669 he was granted £2000 in compensation through the intervention of the Queen Mother: HMC, Rep., 8/1/280.
About Thursday 23 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"The Bishop tells me he thinks that the great business of Toleration will not, notwithstanding this talk, be carried this Parliament; nor for the King’s taking away the Deans’ and Chapters’ lands to supply his wants, they signifying little to him, if he had them, for his present service."
L&M: This was one of Buckingham's hare-brained schemes: cf. Starkey's newsletter 18 January (BM, Add. 36916, f. 58r. An unsuccessful motion to this effect was made in Commons on 7 March: Grey, i. 108. See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Thursday 23 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"In discourse, we think ourselves safe for this year, by this league with Holland, which pleases every body, and, they say, vexes France; insomuch that D’Estrades; the French Embassador in Holland, when he heard it, told the States that he would have them not forget that his master is at the head of 100,000 men, and is but 28 years old; which was a great speech."
L&M: Louis had already announced to the Dutch that he would shortly attack Flanders. d’Estrades's two despatches of 16/26 January make it clear that he used strong word when shown the Anglo-Dutch treaty by de Witt: Letters and negotiations of the Compte d'Estrades (1711), pp. 509-12. Sir William Temple, English ambassador to the United Provinces, reported to Arlington (14/24 January) that d'Estrades remarked to him that some of the terms of the treaty were not 'very proper to be digested by a king of twenty-nine years old, and at the head of eighty thousand men': Temple, Works (1814), i. 303.
Letters and Negotiations of the Count D'Estrades: Ambassador from Lewis XIV . by Godefroi Louis Estrades, pub. 1711
https://archive.org/details/lette…
About Thursday 23 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"But the Bishop a very extraordinary good- natured man, and one that is mightily pleased, as well as I am, that I live so near Bugden"
L&M: Buckden, Hunts., the country seat of the bishops, had been used since 1660 as their main residence, the episcopal palace in Lincoln having been destroyed in the Civil War. Fuller soon settled in a house in Lincoln close. VCH, Lincs., i. 69.