"Yesterday Mr. Gibson, upon his discovering by my discourse to him that I had a willingness, or rather desire, to have him stay with me, than go, as he designed, on Sir W. Warren’s account, to sea, he resolved to let go the design and wait his fortune with me, though I laboured hard to make him understand the uncertainty of my condition or service, but however he will hazard it, which I take mighty kindly of him, though troubled lest he may come to be a loser by it, but it will not be for want of my telling him what he was to think on and expect. However, I am well pleased with it, with regard to myself, who find him mighty understanding and acquainted with all things in the Navy, that I should, if I continue in the Navy, make great use of him."
L&M: Richard Gibson (Pepys's clerk since 1667) had been a purser. He stayed in the service of the Navy, becoming Purser-General to the Straits fleet (1670-2), chief clerk to three successive Clerks of the Acts (1672-7), and Pepys's clerk at te Admiralty (1680-9). His handwriting (perhaps significantly) was very like that of Pepys.
" I by coach...to White Hall, and there did deliver the Duke of York a memorial for the Council about the case of Tangiers want of money; "
L&M: 'Upon a Memoriall of Mr. Pepys . . . concerning his Maties Garrison of Tangier (this day read at the Board) It was Ordered . . . That the seventy thousand pounds per Annum formerly Established . . . be continued till the 25th of March': PRO, PC 2/60, p. 112. The memorandum has not been traced.
"therefore to the other two playhouses into the pit, to gaze up and down, to look for them, and there did by this means, for nothing, see an act in “The Schoole of Compliments” at the Duke of York’s house, and “Henry the Fourth” at the King’s house;"
L&M: Theatregoers could see one act free if they undertook to leave after it or to pay if they stayed.
"Up, weary, about 9 o’clock, and then out by coach to White Hall to attend the Lords of the Treasury about Tangier with Sir Stephen Fox, "
L&M: Sir Stephen Fox was Paymaster-General to the army. He and Pepys were called in about the assignments on the country excise for the garrisons. 'Mr. Pepys will return answer as soon as may be': CTB, ii. 218.
"we met with my Lord Brereton, and several other strangers, to dine there; and I find him a very sober and serious, able man, and was in discourse too hard for the Bishop of Chester"
L&M: George Hall was Bishop of Chester, 1662-68. Brereton was chairman of the Brooke House Committee. For hiis roughness in argument, see Bryant, ii. 21+.
"Anthony Joyce met me, and so walked part of the way with me, and it was to see what I would do upon what his wife a little while since did desire, which was to supply him 350l. to enable him to go to build his house again. "
"And it seems that in itself it is not to be practiced till after this session of Parliament, by the very words of the Act, which nobody regarded, and therefore cannot come in force yet, unless the next meeting they do make a new Act for the bringing it into force sooner; which is a strange omission."
Naval officer: twice commissioned as lieutenant, and four times as captain 1666-71; discharged (court marshaled) for embezzling powder in 1672. Both Pepys and Coventry wrote of him as 'drunken.' (L&M Companion)
"By and by I met with Mr. Brisband; and having it in my mind this Christmas to (do what I never can remember that I did) go to see the manner of the gaming at the Groome-Porter’s"
L&M: A court official at Whitehall Palace: for his duties as controller of the gaming at court, see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… This post was now held by Thomas Offley.
L&M: An office of the Lord Steward's department of the King's Household, who supervised and received the profits of the gaming allowed there during the twelve days of Christmas, in which the King himself often took part. (The office -- at this time held by Sir Richard Hobart -- was abolished in 1783.) Play rook place both in the Privy Chamber and in the Groom-Porter's lodgings. Pepys visited the Groom-Porter's on 1 January 1668; Evelyn on 6 January 1662 and 8 January 1558. J. Addison, Hist. gambling in Engl., pp. 41+; Evelyn, iii. 308, n. 4. This officer also supervised the betting when the court went to the horse-races: see Shadwell, True Widow, V. 2.
"Methought he made but a poor sermon, but long, and reprehending the mistaken jollity of the Court for the true joy that shall and ought to be on these days, he particularized concerning their excess in plays and gaming, saying that he whose office it is to keep the gamesters in order and within bounds, serves but for a second rather in a duell, meaning the groom-porter."
L&M: An office of the Lord Steward's department of the King's Household, who supervised and received the profits of the gaming allowed there during the twelve days of Christmas, in which the King himself often took part. (The office -- at this time held by Sir Richard Hobart -- was abolished in 1783.) Play rook place both in the Privy Chamber and in the Groom-Porter's lodgings. Pepys visited the Groom-Porter's on 1 January 1668; Evelyn on 6 January 1662 and 8 January 1558. J. Addison, Hist. gambling in Engl., pp. 41+; Evelyn, iii. 308, n. 4. This officer also supervised the betting when the court went to the horse-races: see Shadwell, True Widow, V. 2.
"only I hear that Sir G. Savile, one of the Parliament Committee of nine, for examining the Accounts, is by the King made a Lord, the Lord Halifax; which, I believe, will displease the Parliament."
L&M: By a votwe of 2 December none of the Brooke House committee https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… was to be a member of either House. But Halifax played no great part in the committee's work, and no parliamentary criticism of his appointment seems to have been made. The warrant for his peerage was issued on 31 December, the patent on 13 January.
"Thence I to White Hall, and there walked up and down the house a while, and do hear nothing of anything done further in this business of the change of Privy-counsellors."
"Here a mighty company of citizens, ‘prentices, and others; and it makes me observe, that when I begun first to be able to bestow a play on myself, I do not remember that I saw so many by half of the ordinary ‘prentices and mean people in the pit at 2s. 6d. a-piece as now; I going for several years no higher than the 12d. and then the 18d. places"
L&M: 1s. and 1s. 6d. were the prices of admission to the upper gallery and the middle gallery, respectively.
"Thence I after dinner to the Duke of York’s playhouse, and there saw “Sir Martin Mar-all;” which I have seen so often"
L&M: Pepys had already seen Dryden's comedy in whole or in part, five times, and had attempted to see it two other times when it was full: https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Comments
Second Reading
About Wednesday 8 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"Yesterday Mr. Gibson, upon his discovering by my discourse to him that I had a willingness, or rather desire, to have him stay with me, than go, as he designed, on Sir W. Warren’s account, to sea, he resolved to let go the design and wait his fortune with me, though I laboured hard to make him understand the uncertainty of my condition or service, but however he will hazard it, which I take mighty kindly of him, though troubled lest he may come to be a loser by it, but it will not be for want of my telling him what he was to think on and expect. However, I am well pleased with it, with regard to myself, who find him mighty understanding and acquainted with all things in the Navy, that I should, if I continue in the Navy, make great use of him."
L&M: Richard Gibson (Pepys's clerk since 1667) had been a purser. He stayed in the service of the Navy, becoming Purser-General to the Straits fleet (1670-2), chief clerk to three successive Clerks of the Acts (1672-7), and Pepys's clerk at te Admiralty (1680-9). His handwriting (perhaps significantly) was very like that of Pepys.
About Wednesday 8 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"Thence with Lord Brouncker to White Hall to the Commissioners of the Treasury at their sending for us to discourse about the paying of tickets, "
L&M: The Navy Board was asked at this meeting to draw up rules for the issue of pay-tickets and to submit them to the Treasury: CTB, ii. 220. The government had been especially troubled about this matter since the enquiries of the Commons' Committee on Miscarriages into trhe conduct of the war: cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Wednesday 8 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
" I by coach...to White Hall, and there did deliver the Duke of York a memorial for the Council about the case of Tangiers want of money; "
L&M: 'Upon a Memoriall of Mr. Pepys . . . concerning his Maties Garrison of Tangier (this day read at the Board) It was Ordered . . . That the seventy thousand pounds per Annum formerly Established . . . be continued till the 25th of March': PRO, PC 2/60, p. 112. The memorandum has not been traced.
About Tuesday 7 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"therefore to the other two playhouses into the pit, to gaze up and down, to look for them, and there did by this means, for nothing, see an act in “The Schoole of Compliments” at the Duke of York’s house, and “Henry the Fourth” at the King’s house;"
L&M: Theatregoers could see one act free if they undertook to leave after it or to pay if they stayed.
About Tuesday 7 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"Up, weary, about 9 o’clock, and then out by coach to White Hall to attend the Lords of the Treasury about Tangier with Sir Stephen Fox, "
L&M: Sir Stephen Fox was Paymaster-General to the army. He and Pepys were called in about the assignments on the country excise for the garrisons. 'Mr. Pepys will return answer as soon as may be': CTB, ii. 218.
About Mary Hollworthy
Terry Foreman • Link
Mary Hollworthy
'A woman of state and wit and spirit.'
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Sunday 5 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"Here dined also Sir Philip Howard, a Barkeshire Howard"
L&M: I,e, a son of the Earl of Berkshire. He was M.P. of Carlisle and Colonel of Albemarle;s troop of the Life Guard.
About Sunday 5 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"we met with my Lord Brereton, and several other strangers, to dine there; and I find him a very sober and serious, able man, and was in discourse too hard for the Bishop of Chester"
L&M: George Hall was Bishop of Chester, 1662-68. Brereton was chairman of the Brooke House Committee. For hiis roughness in argument, see Bryant, ii. 21+.
About Sunday 5 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"I find by others, that the business of putting out of some of the Privy-council is over, the King being at last advised to forbear it;"
L&M: Cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Sunday 5 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"Anthony Joyce met me, and so walked part of the way with me, and it was to see what I would do upon what his wife a little while since did desire, which was to supply him 350l. to enable him to go to build his house again. "
L&M: See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Saturday 4 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"And it seems that in itself it is not to be practiced till after this session of Parliament, by the very words of the Act, which nobody regarded, and therefore cannot come in force yet, unless the next meeting they do make a new Act for the bringing it into force sooner; which is a strange omission."
L&M: A mistake; the Committee began work later in this month:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Levi Greene
Terry Foreman • Link
Levi Greene
Naval officer: twice commissioned as lieutenant, and four times as captain 1666-71; discharged (court marshaled) for embezzling powder in 1672. Both Pepys and Coventry wrote of him as 'drunken.' (L&M Companion)
About Wednesday 1 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"By and by I met with Mr. Brisband; and having it in my mind this Christmas to (do what I never can remember that I did) go to see the manner of the gaming at the Groome-Porter’s"
L&M: A court official at Whitehall Palace: for his duties as controller of the gaming at court, see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… This post was now held by Thomas Offley.
About Groom-Porter
Terry Foreman • Link
L&M: An office of the Lord Steward's department of the King's Household, who supervised and received the profits of the gaming allowed there during the twelve days of Christmas, in which the King himself often took part. (The office -- at this time held by Sir Richard Hobart -- was abolished in 1783.) Play rook place both in the Privy Chamber and in the Groom-Porter's lodgings. Pepys visited the Groom-Porter's on 1 January 1668; Evelyn on 6 January 1662 and 8 January 1558. J. Addison, Hist. gambling in Engl., pp. 41+; Evelyn, iii. 308, n. 4. This officer also supervised the betting when the court went to the horse-races: see Shadwell, True Widow, V. 2.
About Thursday 25 December 1662
Terry Foreman • Link
"Methought he made but a poor sermon, but long, and reprehending the mistaken jollity of the Court for the true joy that shall and ought to be on these days, he particularized concerning their excess in plays and gaming, saying that he whose office it is to keep the gamesters in order and within bounds, serves but for a second rather in a duell, meaning the groom-porter."
L&M: An office of the Lord Steward's department of the King's Household, who supervised and received the profits of the gaming allowed there during the twelve days of Christmas, in which the King himself often took part. (The office -- at this time held by Sir Richard Hobart -- was abolished in 1783.) Play rook place both in the Privy Chamber and in the Groom-Porter's lodgings. Pepys visited the Groom-Porter's on 1 January 1668; Evelyn on 6 January 1662 and 8 January 1558. J. Addison, Hist. gambling in Engl., pp. 41+; Evelyn, iii. 308, n. 4. This officer also supervised the betting when the court went to the horse-races: see Shadwell, True Widow, V. 2.
About Wednesday 1 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"only I hear that Sir G. Savile, one of the Parliament Committee of nine, for examining the Accounts, is by the King made a Lord, the Lord Halifax; which, I believe, will displease the Parliament."
L&M: By a votwe of 2 December none of the Brooke House committee
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
was to be a member of either House. But Halifax played no great part in the committee's work, and no parliamentary criticism of his appointment seems to have been made. The warrant for his peerage was issued on 31 December, the patent on 13 January.
About Wednesday 1 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"Thence I to White Hall, and there walked up and down the house a while, and do hear nothing of anything done further in this business of the change of Privy-counsellors."
L&M: See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Wednesday 1 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"Here a mighty company of citizens, ‘prentices, and others; and it makes me observe, that when I begun first to be able to bestow a play on myself, I do not remember that I saw so many by half of the ordinary ‘prentices and mean people in the pit at 2s. 6d. a-piece as now; I going for several years no higher than the 12d. and then the 18d. places"
L&M: 1s. and 1s. 6d. were the prices of admission to the upper gallery and the middle gallery, respectively.
About Wednesday 1 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"Thence I after dinner to the Duke of York’s playhouse, and there saw “Sir Martin Mar-all;” which I have seen so often"
L&M: Pepys had already seen Dryden's comedy in whole or in part, five times, and had attempted to see it two other times when it was full:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Wednesday 1 January 1667/68
Terry Foreman • Link
"They did talk much of the disgrace the Archbishop is fallen under with the King, and the rest of the Bishops also. "
L&M: Because of their defence of Clarendon: see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…