If you're reading along with the Rev. Ralph, you'll know that the last member of the Harlakenden family recently left Earl’s Colne, Essex. They were Puritans, and land owners who considered it a good time to "downsize".
Diary of Ralph Josselin (Private Collection) (Tuesday 24 July, 1660)
24: heard divers of my friends and neighbours in trouble, Lord help them out by spirit, friends, providences, and do them good. this day Mr. R.H. [Richard Harlakenden] showed me his will, wherein he has dealt well with his grand-daughter, and used me in divers trusts. the lord spare him and give me a heart to be faithful unto him and them, in all the things of the lord, and matters of estate.
@@@
The Restoration was a huge upheaval: it wasn't just Court positions in question: also in flux were which minister 'owned' the rectory and parish; who owned sequestered property; much of this is being handled by petitions to the House of Lords. The wisdom of Job was called for all day, every day.
Pepys isn't the only person trying to nail down his future with a Plan A and a Plan B. People are on-edge. I can understand Pepys dissembling to Watkins; he didn't want to upset him.
Not so invisible after all: Turns out Baron Hartgill was a courier and involved in advocating for the Sealed Knot's aborted uprising in 1659. Charles II and Chancellor Hyde considered him a bit of a hothead, by the end of the mentions of him in "Travels with the King" http://archive.org/stream/travels… Index: Baron, Hartgill, 325, 390, 432, 436, 437, 446. takes marriage proposal to James, 436-437. [** this is funny **] letter of, 443. Coordinating an invasion (and life) without telephones or email was difficult.
So making Baron Hartgill one of the 4 Clerks of the Privy Seal was another of Charles II's "thank you" appointments.
Charles Bickerstaffe -- Clerk in the Privy Seal. Displaced in 1660 by the appointment of Hartgill Barron (a relative by marriage). [-- Does anyone know about this relationship? I can't find any documentation, and Hartgill Barron is an invisible man, except for a 1671 court case in Middlesex.]
But Bickerstaffe was admitted in 1662 to another clerkship there, only to lose it in 1669 on the resignation of Lord Robartes, the Lord Privy Seal.
Charles Bickerstaffe had a brother, Philip, who was an MP. His bio gives some family history:
The Bickerstaffes claimed descent from an ancient Lancashire family, but at the 1623 Surrey heralds’ visitation recorded only a short and undistinguished descent. Their father, Haward Bickerstaffe of Chelsham, Surrey, became a page of the bedchamber, attended King Charles I in Oxford during the first Civil War, and died in exile in Barbados.
The elder brother, our Charles Bickerstaffe, was involved in Lord Mordaunt’s plans for a Surrey Uprising in 1659, and after the Restoration settled in Kent, becoming a clerk of the privy seal and a servant of Charles Stewart, Duke of Richmond.
Philip Bickerstaffe (1639-1714) was a courtier and a soldier (Ensign, Admiralty Regt. 1664, Lt. 1665-78; Capt. Duke of York’s Foot 1678-9.), and served in the Royal household as Clerk of the scullery by 1662, woodyard to 1683, poultry 1683-at least 1689. He wasn't elected until 1685, so we don't need to pursue that. https://www.historyofparliamenton…
Meanwhile, letters were crossing the Channel, between all sorts of people.
One was William Morice, MP, who managed the estates of his wife, Elizabeth Prideaux of Soldon, Cornwall’s kinsman, Gen. George Monck, and he was his ‘greatest confidant’. Morice took his seat in the Long Parliament on the return of the secluded Members, and at Monck’s request was made governor of Plymouth.
Charles II, aware of the contribution Gov. Morice could make to the Restoration, wrote to him on 17 March, 1660: ‘the good offices you have and will perform for me are so meritorious that they deserve all the trust and confidence I can repose in you’; and let it be known that he would appoint him secretary of state as ‘the most grateful and obliging thing’ that could be done for Monck.
SPOILERS from here on:
On 1 May, ‘in a very eloquent oration’, Morice was the first to speak in the House for a restoration, and was among those ordered to prepare the answer to Charles II’s letter.
In a personal letter of thanks for his appointment as secretary, he suggested Charles II should write again to Parliament, reiterating the promises contained in the declaration of Breda, and stating his desire that Parliament should advise what policies he should pursue. This, Morice said, would ‘bring you hither by a conquest of hearts as well as by the right of inheritance, and make your empire more safe by being less absolute’.
He was one of the MPs sent to confer with the Lords' committee over the King’s reception, and at Charles II’s request he accompanied Monck to welcome him at Dover.
Gov. William Morice MP was knighted on 27 May, 1660 when he was appointed the Secretary of State for the North.
Both Secretaries of State, North and South, witnessed Sandwich and Pepys take the Oath of Allegiance. That Sandwich chose to share the ceremony with his cousin strikes me as touching. Maybe I underestimate the importance of a new Commissioner of the Navy, but I thought it several rungs below that of a new Earl.
If you missed clicking through and reading all of Secretary of State William Morice's encyclopedia offerings:
"As early as October 1667 it was rumoured Morice was ‘willing to resign’, and the King was displeased with his ‘constancy to the chancellor’. It remained only to negotiate the sale of the post, and in September 1668 he sold it for a price variously estimated at £6,000 and £8,000 to Alington’s nominee, John Trevor, rather than to Sir Robert Howard, Buckingham’s candidate." https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
As early as October 1667 it was rumoured Morice was ‘willing to resign’, and the King was displeased with his ‘constancy to the chancellor’. It remained only to negotiate the sale of the post, and in September 1668 he sold it for a price variously estimated at £6,000 and £8,000 to Alington’s nominee, John Trevor, rather than to Sir Robert Howard, Buckingham’s candidate. Following the sale, Sir William Morice retired to his estate at Werrington, and devoted himself to theology and the accumulation of a notable library.
He gave a yearly pension to an ejected nonconformist minister, and the Independent, John Owen, dedicated a book to him. While Sir Thomas Osborne listed him as a court supporter in September 1669, his name does not appear on the opposition lists drawn up later.
In 1676 Sir Richard Wiseman simply noted that ‘I guess will not come up’. Burnet thought him ‘virtuous but weak’ as a secretary, and ‘full of pedantry and affectation’. His old friend Shaftesbury wrote to him on his retirement that ‘you are the only happy man that have got off the stage with the love and esteem of all’.
Sir William Morice MP died on 12 Dec. 1676 and was buried at Werrington, Devon.
Listed as a court dependant in 1664, in the Oxford session he was appointed to the committee for attainting English officers in the service of the enemy.
In November 1666 he cut short a debate on the hearth tax by informing the House that Charles II would never consent to part with it.
The last important legislation in which he was involved concerned the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire. He introduced bills to facilitate the production of the necessary brick and tile and to raise money by a levy on coal.
On 4 Feb. 1667 he brought a message from Charles II about rebuilding the City churches, and was appointed to the committee to prepare a bill.
On 30 Aug. 1667 Morice was sent to Clarendon to demand his seals of office, but when Parliament met he was one of the Members who believed that they should not further prosecute or trample on the fallen minister.
Sir William Morice's account of the 1666 division of the fleet gave the House little satisfaction, and he later blamed lack of money, stating that ‘he never had from Charles II for intelligence above £750 in one year, [whereas] Oliver allowed for intelligence £70,000 per annum’. This absurdity was not challenged, for obvious reasons, by those in a position to know better, like Andrew Marvell.
He was appointed to the committees to inquire into restraints on jurors, and with Sir Charles Berkeley, Lord Fitzhardinge MP and Christopher Monck, Lord Torrington MP was sent to ask Charles II to consult Monck about measures to secure the highways against robbers.
After Clarendon’s flight he agreed to commit the bill for his banishment, ‘though it be condemning him unheard, because he could not but conclude it would be so’.
In a supply debate after the Christmas recess he opposed taxing ‘dignified clergy and ecclesiastical officers’, stating that ‘they are to pray for us, and I would not have them meddled with’. On 11 Mar. 1668 he wound up a confused debate on ease for Protestant dissenters by moving its adjournment for a month. In his last recorded speech, on 28 Apr., Morice attacked the continuation of the Conventicles Act, warning that ‘the fire of zeal for suppression of conventicles may be so hot that it will burn those that cast them in, as well as those that are cast in’.
His last mention in the Journals was on 4 May, when he pardoned a Chester bookseller who had published a letter from a post office clerk, passing himself off as under-secretary of state. He had been appointed to 40 committees, including the committee of elections and privileges in six sessions, and 13 speeches are on record.13
On 17 Nov. he brought to the attention of the House a dangerous book denying that the Long Parliament had been legally dissolved. He was among those ordered to draw up the excise clauses for the bill abolishing the court of wards. Despite his Presbyterian views, he opposed the bill to give statutory force to the Worcester House declaration for modified Episcopacy, concluding with a characteristic metaphor that ‘sometimes a wound would heal of itself if you applied nothing to it’.
Morice was re-elected for Plymouth in 1661 without known opposition, but he was even less active in the Cavalier Parliament, although the peerages bestowed on Arthur Annesley, Denzil Holles, and Sir Anthony Ashley-Cooper had thinned out the government front bench, and until the appointment of Sir Henry Bennet (the other secretary of state) was not in the Commons. He seems to have been content to let Heneage Finch shoulder the burden of committee work, while he acted chiefly as a messenger. He helped to manage the conference on Charles II’s marriage, but quickly revealed his Presbyterian sympathies by acting as teller against the burning of the Covenant. On 20 May he reported a message from the Scottish Parliament. When Dr. Gunning, ‘the hammer of the schismatics’, preached to the House on 27 May, Morice found his sermon scandalous and together with William Prynne opposed a vote of thanks. He was one of the managers of the conference on the security bill on the next day, and was appointed to the committee to consider the bill restoring the bishops to the House of Lords and to inquire into the shortfall in the revenue. On 1 July he carried up the bill to confirm the legislation of the Convention, and he was named to the committees for the uniformity bill and the bill of pains and penalties. He was one of 4 Members selected to deliver to Charles II a petition on behalf of the Marquess of Winchester.
After the autumn recess he was sent to the Lords for concurrence in an address for disarming the disbanded soldiers and expelling them from the metropolitan area, and to Charles II to thank him for deferring for 4 months the demonetization of the Commonwealth coinage.
In the 1663 session, his chief interest in the session was the prevention of the growth of Popery. He was appointed to the committees to consider a bill to combine the resolutions of both Houses against Jesuits and Popish priests, and on 27 June he carried the bill to the Lords. He was also named to the committee to consider the bill to regulate the sale of offices. He was one of those appointed on 17 July to request Charles II grants preferment to the chaplain of the House.
He was confirmed as secretary of state, provoking in the wife of a disappointed royalist claimant to the office the comment that he was merely ‘a poor country gentleman of about £200 a year, a fierce Presbyterian, and one that never saw the King’s face’. But Sir Edward Hyde considered that he ‘behaved himself very honestly and diligently in the King’s service, and had a good reputation in the House of Commons, and did the business of his office without reproach’. His French accent was somewhat comic, but ‘for all domestic affairs no man doubted his sufficiency’.
With the Restoration, Morice helped to draw up the petition for a day of thanksgiving and to administer the oaths to Members. With the Plymouth election resolved in his favor he resigned his seat at Newport.
He managed the conference on recovering Queen Mother Henrietta Maria’s jointure, and brought a message from Charles II on 18 June urging the House to expedite the indemnity bill. On 2 July he made ‘an excellent speech for the speedy raising of money’, and 2 days later defended the imposition of the oaths, saying ‘there was something hid in the opposition of it’.
On 27 July, when the House was considering withholding supply until the indemnity bill was passed, Morice said: "Having called the King home without conditions, [we] should not distrust him now. ... He had commands from the King to speed the bill of indemnity, and moved that we should show our duty and trust the King."
The House accepted Morice’s arguments and he was named to the committee for settling the revenue. In the debate on replacing the income derived by the crown from the court of wards, he opposed a pound rate as ‘very injurious and partial’. He was added to the managers of conformers on the poll-tax and the indemnity bill, and acted as teller for agreeing with the Lords to pardon 16 offenders disabled from office. On 30 Aug. he argued that ‘as long as the soldiery continued there would be a perpetual trembling in the nation’. He helped to manage a conference on disbandment.
When the debts of the army and navy were under consideration after the recess, Morice delivered ‘a set speech’ in favour of a year’s assessment at £70,000 a month. Otherwise, he said, "the debts of the public would be like that serpent in America which would eat a cow at a meal, and, falling asleep, the birds of prey devour him, but if they break not the bones of him he grows as big as before."
Highlights from William Morice MP's bio, -- I've left many details as they are covered in the Diary, and he was influential:
William Morice was 6 Nov. 1602, oldest son of Evan Morice, DCL, chancellor of Exeter dioc. 1594-1605, by Mary, daughter of John Castell of Ashbury, Devon.
He attended Exeter Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford, 1619, BA 1622. Little is known of Morice’s father except he came from Carmarthenshire and his 11 years as an official of the Exeter diocese would not have given Morice the entry into society but for his mother’s second marriage into the Prideaux family and his own solid, if unspectacular, talents.
In 1627, William married Elizabeth (d. Dec. 1663), da. of Humphrey Prideaux of Soldon, Cornwall. They had 4 sons and 4 daughters.
‘Always looked upon as a man far from any malice towards the King, if he had not any good affection for him’, William Morice was returned for Devonshire, but had not taken his seat before Pride’s Purge [1648].
A zealous Presbyterian, he was re-elected to the Protectorate Parliaments. In 1657 he published an attack on the Independent doctrine of the sacrament.
In Richard Cromwell’s Parliament, Morice sat for Newport, where he had bought the principal interest by his purchase of Werrington Manor, Devon, from Sir Francis Drake, 2nd Bt., in 1651.
He managed the estates of his wife’s kinsman, Gen. George Monck, and became his ‘greatest confidant’. He took his seat in the Long Parliament on the return of the secluded Members, and at Monck’s request was made governor of Plymouth.
Charles II, aware of the contribution Morice could make to the Restoration, wrote to him on 17 Mar. 1660: ‘the good offices you have and will perform for me are so meritorious that they deserve all the trust and confidence I can repose in you’; and let it be known that he would appoint him secretary of state as ‘the most grateful and obliging thing’ that could be done for Monck; Morice was knighted on 27 May, 1660.
At the general election of 1660, Sir William Morice MP was re-elected for Newport and involved in a double return at Plymouth. He was only moderately active in the Convention, with 10 recorded speeches and 24 committees.
On 1 May, ‘in a very eloquent oration’, he was the first to speak in the House for a restoration, and was among those ordered to prepare the answer to Charles II’s letter.
In a personal letter of thanks for his appointment as secretary, he suggested Charles II should write again to Parliament, reiterating the promises contained in the declaration of Breda, and stating his desire that Parliament should advise what policies he should pursue. This, Morice said, would ‘bring you hither by a conquest of hearts as well as by the right of inheritance, and make your empire more safe by being less absolute’. He was one of the MPs sent to confer with the Lords over the King’s reception. At Charles’ request he accompanied Monck to welcome him at Dover.
Uh-oh: St. Swithin, the 9th-century bishop of Winchester famous for the folklore that if it rains on 15th July (St. Swithun’s day), it will rain for 40 days.
Evidently, it either rained after midnight, or Pepys isn't superstitious about St. Swithin, the 9th-century bishop of Winchester famous for the folklore that if it rains on 15th July (St. Swithun’s day), it will rain for 40 days.
Saint Swithin, the 9th-century bishop of Winchester famous for the folklore that if it rains on 15th July (St. Swithun’s day), it will rain for forty days.
When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Charles II promptly bought the vessel on which he had escaped from Cromwell after the second Battle of Worcester from its owner, Capt. Nicholas Tattersell, and renamed her the Royal Escape. The King had her moored in the Thames off Whitehall Palace, and showed her off to important visitors. Perhaps she was also a reminder of the potential insecurity of his position, or of God’s providence in preserving his life (or both).
As for Capt. Nicholas Tattersell, Charles II treated him with considerable generosity.
On this day, 25 July, 1660, he commissioned Tattersell as captain of the frigate Sorlings, and on April 20, 1661,commissioned him as the captain of the powerful Third Rate man-of-war Monck, in which capacity Tattersell served until 12 February, 1663, after which he retired with a pension of 100/.s a year for life.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper married three times: (1) 25 Feb. 1639, Margaret (d. 11 July, 1649), da. of Sir Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry of Aylesborough, s.p.; (2) 15 Apr. 1650, Lady Frances Cecil (d. 31 Dec., 1652), da. of David Cecil, 3rd Earl of Exeter, 2s. (1 d.v.p.); and (3) 30 Aug. 1655 (with £4,000) Margaret (1625 - 1693), da. of William Spencer MP, 2nd Baron Spencer. https://www.historyofparliamenton…
Margaret Spencer Cooper was the daughter of William Spencer MP, 2nd Baron Spencer of Wormleighton and Lady Penelope Wriothesley. Margaret was the youngest of surviving children: Hon. Elizabeth Spencer -- b. 16 Feb 1618, d. 11 Aug 1672 Henry Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland -- b. c Oct 1620, d. 20 Sep 1643 Robert Spencer, 1st Viscount Teviot -- b. a 1621 Hon. William Spencer -- b. a 1622 Hon. Alice Spencer -- b. 29 Dec 1625, d. between Jul 1696 - 1712 Hon. Margaret Spencer -- b. 1627, d. 1693 http://www.thepeerage.com/p10528.…
HOWEVER, William Spencer MP's parliamentary biography tells us there were many more pregnancies: m. settlement 7 Oct. 1614 (with £4,000), Penelope (d. 16 July 1667), da. of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd earl of Southampton, 6 sons (2 d.v.p.) 7 daughters (1 d.v.p.). And it also tells us that William Spencer MP’s father, ennobled in 1603, was reputedly one of the richest men in England, with an annual income of up to £8,000. The Spencers made their money by being astute money managers, real estate investments, and sheep -- Sir William, and young Margaret, called Althorpe home. https://www.historyofparliamenton…
For a description of Althorpe, see https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… -- you will have realized by now that William Spencer MP, 2nd Baron Spencer of Wormleighton and Lady Penelope Wriothesle are the ancestors of our own Princess Diana and Charles, Earl Spencer.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st East of Shaftesbury's third wife, Margaret Spencer, Countess of Shaftsbury, outlived him and died in 1693. http://bcw-project.org/biography/…
I wonder if the Countess joined Shaftesbury in exile in the Netherlands. What did she think of their secretary, Dr. John Locke? One not very reliable site says they had 2 still born children. So many questions.
His highness there changed horses, for the sake of expediting his journey. They travelled from Althrop to Brackley, through a country partly in tillage and partly in pasture; and of a similar description was the road to Oxford, although it became rather flatter.
His highness arrived at Oxford at one in the morning, 3/13 May, 1669 FOR COSMO’S VISIT TO OXFORD, SEE https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
@@@
From: TRAVELS OF COSMO THE THIRD, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY, THROUGH ENGLAND, DURING THE REIGN OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND (1669) TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT https://archive.org/stream/travel…
His highness, Cosmo, must be considered only as a traveler. Under his direction, the narrator of the records was Count Lorenzo Magalotti, afterwards Secretary to the Academy del Cimento, and one of the most learned and eminent characters of the court of Ferdinand II.
At table his highness sat in the place of honor, in an armchair, he having previously desired that my lady, the wife of the earl, might be seated in a similar one; the earl also was obliged by his highness to take his place close to him, the gentlemen of his retinue sitting separately upon stools. When dinner was over, his highness was conducted through the other apartments of the mansion, all of which were sumptuously furnished; and having observed the manner in which one apartment communicated with another, he went down into the garden, in which, except some ingenious divisions, parterres, and well-arranged rows of trees, there is little to be seen that is rare or curious; as it is not laid out and diversified with those shady walks, canopied with verdure, which add to the pleasantness of the gardens of Italy and France, but of which the nature and usage of this country would not admit.
This villa is built at the bottom of a valley, surrounded by beautiful hills, clothed with trees. To get into the court (which is situated betwixt two large branches of the building that bound two of its sides, which correspond with each other as to their shape and style of architecture, and have betwixt them the principal part of the house which is in front) we ascended a bridge of stone, under which is to run the water, which will collect in great abundance from the springs that issue from the surrounding hills. The whole of the edifice is regularly built, both as to its exterior and interior, and is richly ornamented with stone of a white color, worked in the most exquisite manner, which is dug from a quarry at Weldon, 14 miles distant. If they could take off a certain natural roughness from this stone, and give it a polish, it would not be inferior to marble.
250
The ascent from the ground floor to the noble story above, is by a spacious staircase of the wood of the walnut-tree, stained, constructed with great magnificence; this staircase, dividing itself into two equal branches, leads to the grand saloon, from which is the passage into the chambers, all of them regularly disposed after the Italian manner, to which country the earl was indebted for a model of the design, and it may be said to be the best planned and best arranged country-seat in the kingdom, for though there may be many which surpass it in size, none are superior to it in symmetrical elegance.
At a proper hour, after dinner, his highness departed from the villa, highly gratified with the politeness of the earl, who sent him, in his own coach-and-six, as far as Brackley, a town in the county of Northampton, formerly of considerable extent, and celebrated for the fine woolen cloths which were manufactured there; at present it is merely a collection of a few houses.
Cosmo, the future Grand Duke of Turin, visited Holdenby House, Northants., in May 1669 on his way to Oxford.
I've standardized the spelling of names I know, corrected scanning errors I could figure out, and increased the number of paragraphs. I apologize if I guessed incorrectly:
244
On the morning of 2/12 May, 1669 the weather being very fine, his highness, having heard mass privately, left Cambridge, taking the road to Northampton,…
His highness left Northampton for Oxford, in variable weather; the road, almost the whole of the way, was uneven; and the country, for the most part uncultivated, abounding in weeds, which surround on every side the royal villa of Holdenby, a square palace, situated on the highest part of an eminence, of which you have a view on the right, as you go along the road.
After taking a view of Holdenby, we entered into a park, separated by palisades from the adjacent territory, belonging to the villa of Althorp, a seat of my Lord Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who had given his highness repeated and pressing invitations to visit him there.
Before he reached the villa, his highness was received and escorted by the said earl, who was anxiously expecting his arrival. Immediately on alighting, he went to see the apartments on the ground floor, from which he ascended to the upper rooms, and found both the one and the other richly furnished.
His highness paid his compliments to my lady, the wife of the master of the house, and daughter of my Lord George Digby, Earl of Bristol, by whom the Earl had three children, one son and two daughters; and when he had spent some time in this visit, the hour of dinner arrived, which was splendid, and served in the best possible style.
Comments
Third Reading
About Tuesday 24 July 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
If you're reading along with the Rev. Ralph, you'll know that the last member of the Harlakenden family recently left Earl’s Colne, Essex. They were Puritans, and land owners who considered it a good time to "downsize".
Diary of Ralph Josselin (Private Collection)
(Tuesday 24 July, 1660)
24: heard divers of my friends and neighbours in trouble, Lord help them out by spirit, friends, providences, and do them good.
this day Mr. R.H. [Richard Harlakenden] showed me his will, wherein he has dealt well with his grand-daughter, and used me in divers trusts.
the lord spare him and give me a heart to be faithful unto him and them, in all the things of the lord, and matters of estate.
@@@
The Restoration was a huge upheaval: it wasn't just Court positions in question: also in flux were which minister 'owned' the rectory and parish; who owned sequestered property; much of this is being handled by petitions to the House of Lords. The wisdom of Job was called for all day, every day.
Pepys isn't the only person trying to nail down his future with a Plan A and a Plan B. People are on-edge. I can understand Pepys dissembling to Watkins; he didn't want to upset him.
About Hartgill Baron
San Diego Sarah • Link
Not so invisible after all:
Turns out Baron Hartgill was a courier and involved in advocating for the Sealed Knot's aborted uprising in 1659. Charles II and Chancellor Hyde considered him a bit of a hothead, by the end of the mentions of him in
"Travels with the King"
http://archive.org/stream/travels…
Index:
Baron, Hartgill, 325, 390, 432, 436, 437, 446.
takes marriage proposal to James, 436-437. [** this is funny **]
letter of, 443.
Coordinating an invasion (and life) without telephones or email was difficult.
So making Baron Hartgill one of the 4 Clerks of the Privy Seal was another of Charles II's "thank you" appointments.
About Hartgill Baron
San Diego Sarah • Link
L&M Companion clarifies Bill's misunderstanding:
Charles Bickerstaffe -- Clerk in the Privy Seal. Displaced in 1660 by the appointment of Hartgill Barron (a relative by marriage). [-- Does anyone know about this relationship? I can't find any documentation, and Hartgill Barron is an invisible man, except for a 1671 court case in Middlesex.]
But Bickerstaffe was admitted in 1662 to another clerkship there, only to lose it in 1669 on the resignation of Lord Robartes, the Lord Privy Seal.
Bickerstaffe was knighted in 1671.
About Charles Bickerstaffe
San Diego Sarah • Link
Charles Bickerstaffe had a brother, Philip, who was an MP. His bio gives some family history:
The Bickerstaffes claimed descent from an ancient Lancashire family, but at the 1623 Surrey heralds’ visitation recorded only a short and undistinguished descent.
Their father, Haward Bickerstaffe of Chelsham, Surrey, became a page of the bedchamber, attended King Charles I in Oxford during the first Civil War, and died in exile in Barbados.
The elder brother, our Charles Bickerstaffe, was involved in Lord Mordaunt’s plans for a Surrey Uprising in 1659, and after the Restoration settled in Kent, becoming a clerk of the privy seal and a servant of Charles Stewart, Duke of Richmond.
Philip Bickerstaffe (1639-1714) was a courtier and a soldier (Ensign, Admiralty Regt. 1664, Lt. 1665-78; Capt. Duke of York’s Foot 1678-9.), and served in the Royal household as Clerk of the scullery by 1662, woodyard to 1683, poultry 1683-at least 1689. He wasn't elected until 1685, so we don't need to pursue that.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
About Saturday 17 March 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
Meanwhile, letters were crossing the Channel, between all sorts of people.
One was William Morice, MP, who managed the estates of his wife, Elizabeth Prideaux of Soldon, Cornwall’s kinsman, Gen. George Monck, and he was his ‘greatest confidant’.
Morice took his seat in the Long Parliament on the return of the secluded Members, and at Monck’s request was made governor of Plymouth.
Charles II, aware of the contribution Gov. Morice could make to the Restoration, wrote to him on 17 March, 1660:
‘the good offices you have and will perform for me are so meritorious that they deserve all the trust and confidence I can repose in you’; and let it be known that he would appoint him secretary of state as ‘the most grateful and obliging thing’ that could be done for Monck.
SPOILERS from here on:
On 1 May, ‘in a very eloquent oration’, Morice was the first to speak in the House for a restoration, and was among those ordered to prepare the answer to Charles II’s letter.
In a personal letter of thanks for his appointment as secretary, he suggested Charles II should write again to Parliament, reiterating the promises contained in the declaration of Breda, and stating his desire that Parliament should advise what policies he should pursue.
This, Morice said, would ‘bring you hither by a conquest of hearts as well as by the right of inheritance, and make your empire more safe by being less absolute’.
He was one of the MPs sent to confer with the Lords' committee over the King’s reception, and at Charles II’s request he accompanied Monck to welcome him at Dover.
Gov. William Morice MP was knighted on 27 May, 1660 when he was appointed the Secretary of State for the North.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
About Monday 23 July 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Both Secretaries of State, North and South, witnessed Sandwich and Pepys take the Oath of Allegiance. That Sandwich chose to share the ceremony with his cousin strikes me as touching.
Maybe I underestimate the importance of a new Commissioner of the Navy, but I thought it several rungs below that of a new Earl.
About Monday 28 October 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
If you missed clicking through and reading all of Secretary of State William Morice's encyclopedia offerings:
"As early as October 1667 it was rumoured Morice was ‘willing to resign’, and the King was displeased with his ‘constancy to the chancellor’.
It remained only to negotiate the sale of the post, and in September 1668 he sold it for a price variously estimated at £6,000 and £8,000 to Alington’s nominee, John Trevor, rather than to Sir Robert Howard, Buckingham’s candidate."
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Sir William Morice (Secretary of State)
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 5
As early as October 1667 it was rumoured Morice was ‘willing to resign’, and the King was displeased with his ‘constancy to the chancellor’.
It remained only to negotiate the sale of the post, and in September 1668 he sold it for a price variously estimated at £6,000 and £8,000 to Alington’s nominee, John Trevor, rather than to Sir Robert Howard, Buckingham’s candidate.
Following the sale, Sir William Morice retired to his estate at Werrington, and devoted himself to theology and the accumulation of a notable library.
He gave a yearly pension to an ejected nonconformist minister, and the Independent, John Owen, dedicated a book to him.
While Sir Thomas Osborne listed him as a court supporter in September 1669, his name does not appear on the opposition lists drawn up later.
In 1676 Sir Richard Wiseman simply noted that ‘I guess will not come up’. Burnet thought him ‘virtuous but weak’ as a secretary, and ‘full of pedantry and affectation’.
His old friend Shaftesbury wrote to him on his retirement that ‘you are the only happy man that have got off the stage with the love and esteem of all’.
Sir William Morice MP died on 12 Dec. 1676 and was buried at Werrington, Devon.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
About Sir William Morice (Secretary of State)
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 4
Listed as a court dependant in 1664, in the Oxford session he was appointed to the committee for attainting English officers in the service of the enemy.
In November 1666 he cut short a debate on the hearth tax by informing the House that Charles II would never consent to part with it.
The last important legislation in which he was involved concerned the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire.
He introduced bills to facilitate the production of the necessary brick and tile and to raise money by a levy on coal.
On 4 Feb. 1667 he brought a message from Charles II about rebuilding the City churches, and was appointed to the committee to prepare a bill.
On 30 Aug. 1667 Morice was sent to Clarendon to demand his seals of office, but when Parliament met he was one of the Members who believed that they should not further prosecute or trample on the fallen minister.
Sir William Morice's account of the 1666 division of the fleet gave the House little satisfaction, and he later blamed lack of money, stating that ‘he never had from Charles II for intelligence above £750 in one year, [whereas] Oliver allowed for intelligence £70,000 per annum’.
This absurdity was not challenged, for obvious reasons, by those in a position to know better, like Andrew Marvell.
He was appointed to the committees to inquire into restraints on jurors, and with Sir Charles Berkeley, Lord Fitzhardinge MP and Christopher Monck, Lord Torrington MP was sent to ask Charles II to consult Monck about measures to secure the highways against robbers.
After Clarendon’s flight he agreed to commit the bill for his banishment, ‘though it be condemning him unheard, because he could not but conclude it would be so’.
In a supply debate after the Christmas recess he opposed taxing ‘dignified clergy and ecclesiastical officers’, stating that ‘they are to pray for us, and I would not have them meddled with’.
On 11 Mar. 1668 he wound up a confused debate on ease for Protestant dissenters by moving its adjournment for a month.
In his last recorded speech, on 28 Apr., Morice attacked the continuation of the Conventicles Act, warning that ‘the fire of zeal for suppression of conventicles may be so hot that it will burn those that cast them in, as well as those that are cast in’.
His last mention in the Journals was on 4 May, when he pardoned a Chester bookseller who had published a letter from a post office clerk, passing himself off as under-secretary of state.
He had been appointed to 40 committees, including the committee of elections and privileges in six sessions, and 13 speeches are on record.13
About Sir William Morice (Secretary of State)
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 3
On 17 Nov. he brought to the attention of the House a dangerous book denying that the Long Parliament had been legally dissolved.
He was among those ordered to draw up the excise clauses for the bill abolishing the court of wards.
Despite his Presbyterian views, he opposed the bill to give statutory force to the Worcester House declaration for modified Episcopacy, concluding with a characteristic metaphor that ‘sometimes a wound would heal of itself if you applied nothing to it’.
Morice was re-elected for Plymouth in 1661 without known opposition, but he was even less active in the Cavalier Parliament, although the peerages bestowed on Arthur Annesley, Denzil Holles, and Sir Anthony Ashley-Cooper had thinned out the government front bench, and until the appointment of Sir Henry Bennet (the other secretary of state) was not in the Commons. He seems to have been content to let Heneage Finch shoulder the burden of committee work, while he acted chiefly as a messenger.
He helped to manage the conference on Charles II’s marriage, but quickly revealed his Presbyterian sympathies by acting as teller against the burning of the Covenant.
On 20 May he reported a message from the Scottish Parliament.
When Dr. Gunning, ‘the hammer of the schismatics’, preached to the House on 27 May, Morice found his sermon scandalous and together with William Prynne opposed a vote of thanks.
He was one of the managers of the conference on the security bill on the next day, and was appointed to the committee to consider the bill restoring the bishops to the House of Lords and to inquire into the shortfall in the revenue.
On 1 July he carried up the bill to confirm the legislation of the Convention, and he was named to the committees for the uniformity bill and the bill of pains and penalties.
He was one of 4 Members selected to deliver to Charles II a petition on behalf of the Marquess of Winchester.
After the autumn recess he was sent to the Lords for concurrence in an address for disarming the disbanded soldiers and expelling them from the metropolitan area, and to Charles II to thank him for deferring for 4 months the demonetization of the Commonwealth coinage.
In the 1663 session, his chief interest in the session was the prevention of the growth of Popery.
He was appointed to the committees to consider a bill to combine the resolutions of both Houses against Jesuits and Popish priests, and on 27 June he carried the bill to the Lords.
He was also named to the committee to consider the bill to regulate the sale of offices.
He was one of those appointed on 17 July to request Charles II grants preferment to the chaplain of the House.
About Sir William Morice (Secretary of State)
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
He was confirmed as secretary of state, provoking in the wife of a disappointed royalist claimant to the office the comment that he was merely ‘a poor country gentleman of about £200 a year, a fierce Presbyterian, and one that never saw the King’s face’.
But Sir Edward Hyde considered that he ‘behaved himself very honestly and diligently in the King’s service, and had a good reputation in the House of Commons, and did the business of his office without reproach’.
His French accent was somewhat comic, but ‘for all domestic affairs no man doubted his sufficiency’.
With the Restoration, Morice helped to draw up the petition for a day of thanksgiving and to administer the oaths to Members.
With the Plymouth election resolved in his favor he resigned his seat at Newport.
He managed the conference on recovering Queen Mother Henrietta Maria’s jointure, and brought a message from Charles II on 18 June urging the House to expedite the indemnity bill.
On 2 July he made ‘an excellent speech for the speedy raising of money’, and 2 days later defended the imposition of the oaths, saying ‘there was something hid in the opposition of it’.
On 27 July, when the House was considering withholding supply until the indemnity bill was passed, Morice said:
"Having called the King home without conditions, [we] should not distrust him now. ... He had commands from the King to speed the bill of indemnity, and moved that we should show our duty and trust the King."
The House accepted Morice’s arguments and he was named to the committee for settling the revenue.
In the debate on replacing the income derived by the crown from the court of wards, he opposed a pound rate as ‘very injurious and partial’.
He was added to the managers of conformers on the poll-tax and the indemnity bill, and acted as teller for agreeing with the Lords to pardon 16 offenders disabled from office.
On 30 Aug. he argued that ‘as long as the soldiery continued there would be a perpetual trembling in the nation’. He helped to manage a conference on disbandment.
When the debts of the army and navy were under consideration after the recess, Morice delivered ‘a set speech’ in favour of a year’s assessment at £70,000 a month. Otherwise, he said,
"the debts of the public would be like that serpent in America which would eat a cow at a meal, and, falling asleep, the birds of prey devour him, but if they break not the bones of him he grows as big as before."
About Sir William Morice (Secretary of State)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Highlights from William Morice MP's bio, -- I've left many details as they are covered in the Diary, and he was influential:
William Morice was 6 Nov. 1602, oldest son of Evan Morice, DCL, chancellor of Exeter dioc. 1594-1605, by Mary, daughter of John Castell of Ashbury, Devon.
He attended Exeter Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford, 1619, BA 1622.
Little is known of Morice’s father except he came from Carmarthenshire and his 11 years as an official of the Exeter diocese would not have given Morice the entry into society but for his mother’s second marriage into the Prideaux family and his own solid, if unspectacular, talents.
In 1627, William married Elizabeth (d. Dec. 1663), da. of Humphrey Prideaux of Soldon, Cornwall. They had 4 sons and 4 daughters.
‘Always looked upon as a man far from any malice towards the King, if he had not any good affection for him’, William Morice was returned for Devonshire, but had not taken his seat before Pride’s Purge [1648].
A zealous Presbyterian, he was re-elected to the Protectorate Parliaments. In 1657 he published an attack on the Independent doctrine of the sacrament.
In Richard Cromwell’s Parliament, Morice sat for Newport, where he had bought the principal interest by his purchase of Werrington Manor, Devon, from Sir Francis Drake, 2nd Bt., in 1651.
He managed the estates of his wife’s kinsman, Gen. George Monck, and became his ‘greatest confidant’.
He took his seat in the Long Parliament on the return of the secluded Members, and at Monck’s request was made governor of Plymouth.
Charles II, aware of the contribution Morice could make to the Restoration, wrote to him on 17 Mar. 1660: ‘the good offices you have and will perform for me are so meritorious that they deserve all the trust and confidence I can repose in you’; and let it be known that he would appoint him secretary of state as ‘the most grateful and obliging thing’ that could be done for Monck;
Morice was knighted on 27 May, 1660.
At the general election of 1660, Sir William Morice MP was re-elected for Newport and involved in a double return at Plymouth.
He was only moderately active in the Convention, with 10 recorded speeches and 24 committees.
On 1 May, ‘in a very eloquent oration’, he was the first to speak in the House for a restoration, and was among those ordered to prepare the answer to Charles II’s letter.
In a personal letter of thanks for his appointment as secretary, he suggested Charles II should write again to Parliament, reiterating the promises contained in the declaration of Breda, and stating his desire that Parliament should advise what policies he should pursue.
This, Morice said, would ‘bring you hither by a conquest of hearts as well as by the right of inheritance, and make your empire more safe by being less absolute’.
He was one of the MPs sent to confer with the Lords over the King’s reception. At Charles’ request he accompanied Monck to welcome him at Dover.
About Tuesday 15 July 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
Uh-oh: St. Swithin, the 9th-century bishop of Winchester famous for the folklore that if it rains on 15th July (St. Swithun’s day), it will rain for 40 days.
A wet summer to come, Pepys.
About Wednesday 16 July 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
Evidently, it either rained after midnight, or Pepys isn't superstitious about St. Swithin, the 9th-century bishop of Winchester famous for the folklore that if it rains on 15th July (St. Swithun’s day), it will rain for 40 days.
About Monday 16 July 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Saint Swithin, the 9th-century bishop of Winchester famous for the folklore that if it rains on 15th July (St. Swithun’s day), it will rain for forty days.
Phew -- missed it by a day.
About Wednesday 25 July 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Also at Whitehall today:
When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Charles II promptly bought the vessel on which he had escaped from Cromwell after the second Battle of Worcester from its owner, Capt. Nicholas Tattersell, and renamed her the Royal Escape.
The King had her moored in the Thames off Whitehall Palace, and showed her off to important visitors. Perhaps she was also a reminder of the potential insecurity of his position, or of God’s providence in preserving his life (or both).
As for Capt. Nicholas Tattersell, Charles II treated him with considerable generosity.
On this day, 25 July, 1660, he commissioned Tattersell as captain of the frigate Sorlings,
and on April 20, 1661,commissioned him as the captain of the powerful Third Rate man-of-war Monck, in which capacity Tattersell served until 12 February, 1663,
after which he retired with a pension of 100/.s a year for life.
Lots more at
https://jddavies.com/2015/01/19/h…
About Margaret Cooper
San Diego Sarah • Link
Anthony Ashley-Cooper married three times:
(1) 25 Feb. 1639, Margaret (d. 11 July, 1649), da. of Sir Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry of Aylesborough, s.p.;
(2) 15 Apr. 1650, Lady Frances Cecil (d. 31 Dec., 1652), da. of David Cecil, 3rd Earl of Exeter, 2s. (1 d.v.p.);
and (3) 30 Aug. 1655 (with £4,000) Margaret (1625 - 1693), da. of William Spencer MP, 2nd Baron Spencer.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
Margaret Spencer Cooper was the daughter of William Spencer MP, 2nd Baron Spencer of Wormleighton and Lady Penelope Wriothesley. Margaret was the youngest of surviving children:
Hon. Elizabeth Spencer -- b. 16 Feb 1618, d. 11 Aug 1672
Henry Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland -- b. c Oct 1620, d. 20 Sep 1643
Robert Spencer, 1st Viscount Teviot -- b. a 1621
Hon. William Spencer -- b. a 1622
Hon. Alice Spencer -- b. 29 Dec 1625, d. between Jul 1696 - 1712
Hon. Margaret Spencer -- b. 1627, d. 1693
http://www.thepeerage.com/p10528.…
HOWEVER, William Spencer MP's parliamentary biography tells us there were many more pregnancies:
m. settlement 7 Oct. 1614 (with £4,000), Penelope (d. 16 July 1667), da. of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd earl of Southampton, 6 sons (2 d.v.p.) 7 daughters (1 d.v.p.).
And it also tells us that
William Spencer MP’s father, ennobled in 1603, was reputedly one of the richest men in England, with an annual income of up to £8,000.
The Spencers made their money by being astute money managers, real estate investments, and sheep -- Sir William, and young Margaret, called Althorpe home.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
For a description of Althorpe, see
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
-- you will have realized by now that William Spencer MP, 2nd Baron Spencer of Wormleighton and Lady Penelope Wriothesle are the ancestors of our own Princess Diana and Charles, Earl Spencer.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st East of Shaftesbury's third wife, Margaret Spencer, Countess of Shaftsbury, outlived him and died in 1693.
http://bcw-project.org/biography/…
I wonder if the Countess joined Shaftesbury in exile in the Netherlands.
What did she think of their secretary, Dr. John Locke?
One not very reliable site says they had 2 still born children.
So many questions.
About Robert Spencer (2nd Earl of Sunderland)
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 3
His highness there changed horses, for the sake of expediting his journey.
They travelled from Althrop to Brackley, through a country partly in tillage and partly in pasture; and of a similar description was the road to Oxford, although it became rather flatter.
His highness arrived at Oxford at one in the morning, 3/13 May, 1669
FOR COSMO’S VISIT TO OXFORD, SEE
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
@@@
From:
TRAVELS OF COSMO THE THIRD, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY,
THROUGH ENGLAND,
DURING THE REIGN OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND (1669)
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT
https://archive.org/stream/travel…
His highness, Cosmo, must be considered only as a traveler. Under his direction, the narrator of the records was Count Lorenzo Magalotti, afterwards Secretary to the Academy del Cimento, and one of the most learned and eminent characters of the court of Ferdinand II.
About Robert Spencer (2nd Earl of Sunderland)
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
249
At table his highness sat in the place of honor, in an armchair, he having previously desired that my lady, the wife of the earl, might be seated in a similar one; the earl also was obliged by his highness to take his place close to him, the gentlemen of his retinue sitting separately upon stools.
When dinner was over, his highness was conducted through the other apartments of the mansion, all of which were sumptuously furnished; and having observed the manner in which one apartment communicated with another, he went down into the garden, in which, except some ingenious divisions, parterres, and well-arranged rows of trees, there is little to be seen that is rare or curious; as it is not laid out and diversified with those shady walks, canopied with verdure, which add to the pleasantness of the gardens of Italy and France, but of which the nature and usage of this country would not admit.
This villa is built at the bottom of a valley, surrounded by beautiful hills, clothed with trees. To get into the court (which is situated betwixt two large branches of the building that bound two of its sides, which correspond with each other as to their shape and style of architecture, and have betwixt them the principal part of the house which is in front) we ascended a bridge of stone, under which is to run the water, which will collect in great abundance from the springs that issue from the surrounding hills. The whole of the edifice is regularly built, both as to its exterior and interior, and is richly ornamented with stone of a white color, worked in the most exquisite manner, which is dug from a quarry at Weldon, 14 miles distant. If they could take off a certain natural roughness from this stone, and give it a polish, it would not be inferior to marble.
250
The ascent from the ground floor to the noble story above, is by a spacious staircase of the wood of the walnut-tree, stained, constructed with great magnificence; this staircase, dividing itself into two equal branches, leads to the grand saloon, from which is the passage into the chambers, all of them regularly disposed after the Italian manner, to which country the earl was indebted for a model of the design, and it may be said to be the best planned and best arranged country-seat in the kingdom, for though there may be many which surpass it in size, none are superior to it in symmetrical elegance.
At a proper hour, after dinner, his highness departed from the villa, highly gratified with the politeness of the earl, who sent him, in his own coach-and-six, as far as Brackley, a town in the county of Northampton, formerly of considerable extent, and celebrated for the fine woolen cloths which were manufactured there; at present it is merely a collection of a few houses.
About Robert Spencer (2nd Earl of Sunderland)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Cosmo, the future Grand Duke of Turin, visited Holdenby House, Northants., in May 1669 on his way to Oxford.
I've standardized the spelling of names I know, corrected scanning errors I could figure out, and increased the number of paragraphs. I apologize if I guessed incorrectly:
244
On the morning of 2/12 May, 1669 the weather being very fine, his highness, having heard mass privately, left Cambridge, taking the road to Northampton,…
His highness left Northampton for Oxford, in variable weather; the road, almost the whole of the way, was uneven; and the country, for the most part uncultivated, abounding in weeds, which surround on every side the royal villa of Holdenby, a square palace, situated on the highest part of an eminence, of which you have a view on the right, as you go along the road.
FOR COSMO’S VISIT TO NORTHAMPTON AND VIEW OF HOLDENBY HOUSE, SEE NORTHAMPTON = https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
After taking a view of Holdenby, we entered into a park, separated by palisades from the adjacent territory, belonging to the villa of Althorp, a seat of my Lord Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who had given his highness repeated and pressing invitations to visit him there.
Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland = https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Before he reached the villa, his highness was received and escorted by the said earl, who was anxiously expecting his arrival. Immediately on alighting, he went to see the apartments on the ground floor, from which he ascended to the upper rooms, and found both the one and the other richly furnished.
His highness paid his compliments to my lady, the wife of the master of the house, and daughter of my Lord George Digby, Earl of Bristol, by whom the Earl had three children, one son and two daughters; and when he had spent some time in this visit, the hour of dinner arrived, which was splendid, and served in the best possible style.
ANNE DIGBY SPENCER, COUNTESS OF SUNDERLAND = https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
George Digby, Earl of Bristol = https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…