Annotations and comments

Terry Foreman has posted 16,447 annotations/comments since 28 June 2005.

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First Reading

About Tuesday 17 February 1662/63

Terry F  •  Link

Sundry

"at the school, where Mary Ashwell is"

L&M note that she worked as a supervisor of little children

"the Embassy money"

Sandwich's embassy to Portugal, 1661-2 (L&M).

Mr. Montagu

We've seen this fellow before. See 6 August 1662 for a duel in which "the world says Mr. Montagu did carry himself very poorly in the business, and hath lost his honour for ever with all people in it, of which I am very glad, in hopes that it will humble him."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

About Monday 16 February 1662/63

Terry F  •  Link

"The great question is, whether the Presbyters will be contented to have the Papists have the same liberty of conscience with them, or no...."

A Royal declaration of "tolerance", that was under Sam's diary's radar, is coming to a head: "Under the influence of [Sir Henry] Bennett, [Baron Arlington,] who became Secretary of State in October, 1662, and of [George Digby,] the Earl of Bristol, who assumed the leadership of the English Catholics, Charles issued on December 26, 1662, a declaration announcing his intention of exempting from the penal ties of the Act of Uniformity peaceable persons whose conscientious scruples prevented them from conforming. Parliament was invited to pass an Act which would enable him to exercise 'with a more universal satisfaction' his inherent dispensing power. 'I am in my nature,' Charles told Parliament when it next met, 'an enemy to all severity for religion and conscience, how mistaken soever it be, when it extends to capital and sanguinary punishments.' Lord Robartes brought in an 'Act concerning his Majesty's power in ecclesiastical affairs,' which would enable the King by the issue of letters-patent to grant dispensations from the Act of Uniformity and from other laws requiring oaths and subscriptions of the same kind (February 23, 1663). It was read twice in the House of Lords, but met with great opposition. While Lord Ashley spoke strongly in its favour, Clarendon was vehement against it. The Lords limited the operation of the Bill to Protestant Nonconformists ; the Commons protested against it, declaring that it would 'establish schism by law.' Both Houses together presented a petition for the enforcement of the laws against the Catholics, and the Bill was consequently dropped."
http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/…

About Mingo / Mungo (Sir William Batten's servant)

Terry F  •  Link

Mungo/Mingo/Mingoe - from Servant to Lighthouse Keeper
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Sir William Batten was granted Letters Patent by King James I to operate the Harwich Lighthouse, a profitable concern because of its strategic importance to shipping in 1664. These extracts from his will reveal that Batten wanted his 'servante Mingoe a Negroe' to become lighthouse keeper upon his death. The servant was also left a legacy of £20 per year for life - a substantial sum of money at the time.

PROB 11/325, q. 144 (Dec 1667) [Image and transcript of the portion of Sir W. Batten's will as it pertains to 'Mingoe'[Mungo] at the bottom of http://www.nationalarchives.gov.u…

About Sunday 15 February 1662/63

Terry F  •  Link

"the St. John’s Isle of my drawing"

As I read it a drawing Sam'l did. L&M note "Untraced." [now THAT IS a pun, perhaps inadvertent], but I wonder where/what "St. John’s Isle" is?

About Sunday 15 February 1662/63

Terry F  •  Link

"he did handle it so hard that it put me to very horrid pain; and what should this be but my cods, which after I woke were in very great pain for a good while."

So L&M's text.

About Saturday 14 February 1662/63

Terry F  •  Link

The legal doings of the day…

Dirk, that said, that read (again, earlier), perhaps it's just me, but I still don't understand the terms of the settlement, even with the help of L&M's notes for today.

About Saturday 14 February 1662/63

Terry F  •  Link

I join Bradford in an appeal for someone who can clarify the legal doings of the day. He offers sixpence (old style); I the gratitude of me and many others as this "business" seems to be drawing to a whimpering end (if attended by psycho-somatic pain for our hero).

About Friday 13 February 1662/63

Terry F  •  Link

Dirk, sorry if my slow-post detracts from your wonderful tribute to Jeannine's own tribute to the Valentines fracas at the Pepys's.

About Friday 13 February 1662/63

Terry F  •  Link

"the second part of Dr. Bates’s Elenchus [newly published]...reaches to the fall of Richard" Cromwell in Spring, 1659. (L&M footnote)

About Cuckold's Point (nr. Deptford)

Terry F  •  Link

Cuckold’s Point.

A spot on the riverside near Deptford. So called from a tradition that King John made there successful love to a labourer’s wife. http://www.bartleby.com/81/4444.h…

Cuckolds Point (today Nelson Dock, the only dry dock left in London) is in the NE corner of this section of the 1802 FAIRBURN MAP OF LONDON, WESTMINSTER AND THE NEW DOCKS, showing Redriffe to the west http://www.motco.com/map/81004/Se…

About Thursday 12 February 1662/63

Terry F  •  Link

To underscore the point about trade secrets and monopolies made by in Aqua Scripto, Past Master of BH = British History Online --
In Diary period, we are still mostly in an age of controlled- NOT free-trade; of trade secrets protected with care by sharing it only within families; of trades controlled by Guilds, aka, Livery Companies, extending their tentacles abroad to trading companies, subject to royal authorisation (signed and sealed).