Our John Crewe MP (whose father, Sir Thomas Crewe MP, was Speaker of the House of Commons) was returned sometime in May 1624 for the newly enfranchised borough of Amersham, where his uncle, Lord Chief Justice Sir Ranolph Crewe MP had recently acted as an arbitrator in a land sale. https://www.historyofparliamenton…
Everything was family business in those days. The families promoted their own.
They continued to enlarge the Inn accommodations, taking in more lawyers. Consequently, the hall was lengthened by the addition of two oriel windows giving the interior an odd shape which was reorganized in 1624, when a large and ornate screen and gallery designed by Robert Lynton was inserted into the building. Lynton may also have worked on a comparable screen at Crewe Hall, Cheshire, for Sir Randolph Crewe, a Bencher of the Inn.
In January 1618, the Benchers consulted Inigo Jones about building a Chapel. In November, the mason John Clark presented a model for the new building and received the commission. Clark’s chapel was 3 bays long and was over an open, vaulted undercroft. It’s unclear why this unusual arrangement was adopted; it open up the courtyard and allowed for direct internal connection with the first-floor council chamber. An external staircase to the chapel with more vaults was demolished in the 1880s, when the building was restored and extended to its present form.
Starting in December, 1422 a long series of administrative records were compiled by Lincoln’s Inn staff, and are known as the Black Books. From these we can form an impression of daily life at Lincoln’s Inn through the centuries.
The ‘fellows’ of the society were divided into benchers, barristers and students. All took an oath of obedience to the governors, and paid fees for lodging and food. Beneath them in the hierarchy were clerks (new members of the society who aspired to fellowship), and then servants.
By the mid-15th century, the society had leased the London residence of the Bishop of Chichester. This property and its gardens were outside the London walls, west of a street running between Holborn and Fleet Street. Here, they was close to the other Inns of Court and Chancery and had easy access to Westminster Hall, seat of the royal courts.
Meals were served to the entire membership of the society in the hall. These were eaten in sittings, with the quantity and quality of the food determined by seniority.
Accommodation varied in similar fashion.
During the legal terms, the fellows spent a great deal of time at Westminster Hall, involved in or observing the different courts that operated concurrently within its vast interior.
Breaking up the legal year were a series of festivals involving feasts and revels, lectures (called ‘readings’) in a format like university practicem and t practice court proceedings to debate points of law, which were called ‘moots’.
For moots, the hall was converted into a courtroom, a resembling the use of great halls in castles and houses across the nation for legal proceedings. Benchers sat on the dais in front of those more junior lawyers involved in the debate.
We seem to have three different subjects on this page: 1 Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court, which is celebrating its 600 year anniversary. 2 Then homes were built around a adjacent square, which were called Lincoln's Inn Fields, where Sandwich leased his fabulous house. 3 Finally, one of Pepys' favorite theaters was built here.
This post is just about the Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court: On Tuesday mornings at 11am there are tours, which lasted about an hour, Photography is allowed throughout, with plenty of time in each room to take photos and soak up the atmosphere.
Although the estate and the chapel are open to the public, the rest of the buildings are not, and if you like visiting grand buildings, this somewhat hidden enclave in the heart of London is worth a look around.
"Many around him also seem to be seizing opportunities to booze."
Given stressful circumstances -- and I'd say these times taxed everyone, not knowing if they were going to be Anglican or Puritan, or living in a Republic or a Monarchy by the end of the year, people getting jobs or losing them not for their qualities but because of who they had associated with in the past, and with Monck and Lawson behaving in very opaic ways -- they drank to achieve a certain level of oblivion.
I have read many articles that report imbibing more than usual is how many of our neighbors around the world have handled the stress of the last 3 years. My reason for adding that modern note is that we probably do not identify with our home town being occupied by opposing factions of the army and the local authorities behaving so unpredictably, but we do all share recent experience with one unpredictable stressor which could prove to be a source of unemployment, or be fatal quite whimsically. Stress is stress, and how humans handle it seems to be the same, generation after generation.
"Wednesday, January 11th, 1659/60. Custos Rotulorum of Westminster. RESOLVED, upon the Question, by the Parliament, That this House doth approve of Thomas Scot Esquire, nominated by the Governors of the School and Almshouses of Westminster, to be Custos Rotulorum of the City and Liberties of Westminster: And, It is
¶Ordered, That the Records be forthwith delivered to the said Thomas Scot, or such Person or Persons as he shall appoint, under his Hand, to receive the same: And all Person or Persons whom it doth or may concern, be and are required and enjoined to deliver the said Records accordingly: And the Commissioners for Custody of the Great Seal are hereby authorized and required to pass a Confirmation of the said Office of Custos Rotulorum unto the said Thomas Scot, under the Great Seal, in usual Form, accordingly.
No mention of George Montagu MP at all.
However, George Montagu's Parliamentary bio records: Commr. for new model ordinance, Hunts. 1645, assessment Hunts. 1645-8, 1663-80, Northants. 1647-8, 166l-80 Lincs. 1661-3, Glos., Mdx. and Westminster 1661-80, East Riding 1663-4, j.p. Hunts. and Northants. 1646-52, Mar. 1660-d., Westminster Mar. 1660-d., Mdx. Mar.-July 1660, 1662-d., commr. for militia, Hunts. and Northants. 1648, Hunts., Mdx. and Northants. Mar. 1660;
custos rot. Westminster Mar.-July 1660;
freeman, Dover Aug. 1660; warden of Salcey Forest, Northants. Aug. 1660-d.; commr. for sewers, Westminster Aug. 1660; master of St. Katharine’s hospital, London 1661-d.; commr. for loyal and indigent officers, Yorks. 1662, oyer and terminer, Mdx. 1662.3 Gent. of the privy chamber (extraordinary) July 1660; member of Queen’s council 1669-d.4 https://www.historyofparliamenton…
Maybe there was more than one Custos Rotulorum? No, I don't think so either. So now I'm as confused as L&M, which is good company to be in.
Sadly Pepys never mentions John Locke in the Diary, although they were moving at the same time in the small circle of decision-makers in London. Undoubtedly after the Diary they knew each other.
Prof. Kermit Roosevelt III -- a great-great-grandson of President Teddy -- has written a book called 'The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Story', in which one concept stood out to me and clarified a lot: "Professor Roosevelt: ... Founding America really was not dedicated to equality for all people. The Declaration of Independence was primarily concerned with the independence of the colonies, not the equality of people. “All men are created equal” was a shorthand invocation of the social contract theory of John Locke, and it was basically a rejection of the divine right of kings. It plays a role in the argument for independence, but it doesn’t mean much about how society should be structured. In particular, it doesn’t condemn slavery."
That explains how Locke and Lord Ashley could write into the Constitution of the Carolinas that serfdom was how the society should be organized: 'The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, called the "Grand Model," provided the form of government and society for the Carolina colony from 1669 to 1698. The Lords Proprietors of Carolina first issued the constitutions in 1669, then disseminated revisions in 1670, January 1682, August 1682, and 1698. The constitutions were suspended from 1693 to 1698.
'The main purposes of the Fundamental Constitutions were to protect Proprietary interests and to avoid the creation of a democracy. The Proprietors used the constitutions to try to establish a feudal government and society, so far as permitted by the Carolina charter of 1663. The feudal government was to be headed by nobles with the titles of palatine, landgrave, and cacique. They were to rule through their own courts, a grand council, and a Parliament. Freemen were to have a voice in government, but enslaved people and others who were bound were to have none. This government and feudal society were never fully implemented. Only the palatine's (Proprietor's) court operated for a time.' https://www.ncpedia.org/fundament….
The father of the Enlightenment in the 1660's wasn't as enlightened as I imagined. He was fine with enslaving poor pink people as well as unlucky brown people. The past is indeed a foreign land.
Long pepper is first recorded in the Mediterranean around the 6th century B.C.E. It was spicy in a way no other plant available to Europeans was at the time
Long pepper is rare today. Why did black pepper go mainstream, while long pepper, which is spicier and more complex, disappear? It’s a story of geography, supply and demand, and quantity beating quality
The Piper longum vine is native to north India. The long pepper travelled to the Mediterranean via overland spice routes, reaching Greece when Socrates taught and Athens was in its golden age.
It is a flower spike -- long, bumpy, and phallic. It has the same active compound as black pepper, an alkaloid named piperine, which activates the human body’s heat-sensing pathways
Mediterranean people had spicy food — mustard and horseradish are native — but they never would have tasted anything that attacked the mouth the way long pepper does
By the turn of the millennium, long pepper was a beloved spice.
Black pepper first reached Europe after the Romans had learned to navigate the monsoons to trade regularly with Kerala, southern India. With sea trade routes controlled by Rome, the supply of black pepper increased.
By the 4th century A.D., both long pepper and black pepper were being sold as fancy spices, but black pepper cost a third as much. Roman recipes rarely distinguished between the two. Was long pepper more expensive because it was scarcer, or was it tastier?
When tried side by side, black pepper is the more aggressive, announcing itself loudly before fading into a sharp tingle. Long pepper stages a quieter takeover, but once it arrives, it grows in power. It has a pleasantness that makes it tolerable for longer; black pepper’s assertive bite almost becomes tiresome. Long pepper also has an acrid mellowness to it — its spice hits, but with a floral note, rather than black pepper’s bitterness.
The two tastes are similar enough that it's hard to imagine anyone noticing their pasta is spiced with black pepper rather than long.
Both peppers survived the Middle Ages as luxury items, but Portuguese spice traders pioneered new routes to bring black pepper to Europe.
Long pepper was still available in Europe until the end of the 17th century.
By the 1700s, long pepper had fallen out of use. Sea trade routes had outcompeted overland routes, and since black pepper traveled by water, it won market dominance.
Today, long pepper’s still used in cooking from the places where it grows: it’s a basic ingredient in Indian and southeast Asian dishes. (Indonesia is a big supplier.) But for European and American cooks, there’s only one piperine plant that matters: Piper nigrum.
At the start of the Diary, Pepys is living through the last of Fleetwood's days as a mover and shaker: "Fleetwood was deprived of his command and ordered to appear before Parliament to answer for his conduct. He was powerless to oppose the Restoration of the monarchy in May 1660. Excluded from Charles II's Act of Indemnity and Oblivion as one of 20 individuals liable to penalties other than the death sentence, Fleetwood was finally barred from holding any public office or position of trust. He lived quietly at Stoke Newington in Middlesex until his death in October 1692."
I don't see any hint of him being a leader who preferred to pray than fight.
"I called Mr. Sheply and we both went up to my Lord’s lodgings at Mr. Crew’s, where he bade us to go home again, and get a fire against an hour after." ... "I went to see Mrs. Jem, at whose chamber door I found a couple of ladies, but she not being there, we hunted her out, and found that she and another had hid themselves behind a door. Well, they all went down into the dining-room, where it was full of tag, rag, and bobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking, of which I was ashamed, and after I had staid a dance or two I went away. Going home, called at my Lord’s for Mr. Sheply, but found him at the Lion with a pewterer, that he had bought pewter to-day of."
This is strange -- Sandwich is staying with his father-in-law at Lincoln's Inn Fields, while his 14-year-old daughter is staying, practically unchaperoned by the sound of it, elsewhere. I think Sandwich would have a fit to hear she was partying with the servants and their friends! I don't blame Pepys from departing the scene of the crime ASAP -- he was outnumbered, and the party would have been hard to stop. But I'm a bit surprised he didn't take Mrs. Jem away to her grandparents for the night.
It's possible he was going to ask Shepley if they could take Mrs. Jem in for the night at Whitehall, but found him out entertaining a tradesman at an inn as well, so that didn't work out. But that's not in the narrative so it's just a guess.
There seems to have been a Pied Bull Yard near what we call Bloomsbury Square: https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/artic… The history of Bloomsbury seems to be a bit of an undeveloped mystery before the 1770's https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-… Wikipedia says Bloomsbury Square was called Southampton Square in Pepys' Day (after Southampton House, home of the recently departed Earl of Southampton): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blo… That's as good as American Google does for me. Perhaps British Google can do better?
According to L&M, Mr. Spong was living in Bloomsbury Square in 1668. https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… Southampton Market was in Southampton Street, just off Bloomsbury Square. https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… So there was probably another Bull Inn near Bloomsbury Square from the way the narrative reads, as you suggest. There are many things we can never know for sure.
On 30 July a bill was introduced to enable him to lease and sell lands for payment of his debts and raising portions for his younger children. It was read twice and committed, and immediately followed by a resolution to confer £10,000 on him out of the excise ‘as a mark of respect for his eminent services and great sufferings for the public’. He declared himself willing to forego the gift if his estate bill were passed, but he was overborne. The concurrence of the Lords was speedily obtained, and the excise commissioners ordered to make payment accordingly. With his credit thus re-established he was among those ordered on 13 Aug. to raise a government loan of £100,000 in the City. Four days later he was appointed to the committee to state the facts about the attendance of Charles I’s judges at his trial, and he helped to manage 2 conferences on the regicides.
He brought in two papers drawn up by his late brother-in-law Thomas, Lord Grey of Groby, who had died in 1657, ‘to testify his penitence for his former being against the King’, and persuaded the House to strike his name out of the bill. He also spoke on behalf of his old opponent Gen. Lambert, and Sir Arthur Hesilrige.
He helped to manage the conference on settling ministers in their livings before Parliament adjourned for the autumn recess.
In the second session he was named to the committee for the attainder bill, and acted as teller on the unsuccessful motion for a second reading of the bill for modified episcopacy.
George Booth was raised to the peerage as Lord Delamer in the coronation honours, but he cannot have welcomed the Anglican religious settlement and the lack of restraint on the prerogative. He retained his Presbyterian chaplains, and naturally came under suspicion.
Attempts were made to implicate him in the northern plot of 1663.
After the Diary he was in opposition under Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby, entering 3 formal protests against the non-resisting test, and he voted for the second exclusion bill.
Sir George Booth, Lord Delamer died on 8 Aug. 1684 and was buried at Bowdon.
George Booth was descended from a younger branch of a Lancashire family, settled at Dunham Massey since 1433. His great-grandfather represented Cheshire in 1572. His father died before the Civil Wars, but his grandfather was a parliamentary supporter, and George was in arms for the same cause, and sat for the county as a recruiter until Pride’s Purge.
Chancellor Clarendon described George Booth MP as ‘a person of the best fortune and interest in Cheshire, and, for the memory of his grandfather, of absolute power with the Presbyterians’.
During the national uprising against the Rump in 1659M George Booth MP, who had been commissioned by Charles II as commander-in-chief for Cheshire, Lancashire and North Wales, was the only conspirator to get together anything like an army. He carefully avoided a public commitment on the monarchy, but was easily defeated by Gen. John Lambert, and captured in female attire when his disguise was betrayed by an unwary call for a razor.
Despite the ludicrous circumstances of his defeat and capture, George Booth’s reputation stood high in 1660, and he was returned for Cheshire at the general election, probably unopposed. Marked as a friend on Lord Wharton’s list, he was a moderately active Member of the Convention, in which he was named to 36 committees, including 4 conferences, acted as teller in 5 divisions, and made 17 recorded speeches. He was appointed to the committee of elections and privileges and sent to the Lords on 1 May 1660 to announce that the Commons were ready for a conference to settle ‘the great affairs of the kingdom’.
George Booth MP was among those instructed to prepare bills in accordance with Charles II’s letter. He absent-mindedly greeted Edmund Ludlow with great civility, but soon recollected himself enough to glare at him. He was the first Member chosen to carry the answer of the Commons to Breda.
On his return to the House Booth acted as teller for the successful motion that no more than 20 offenders should be excepted from the indemnity bill. He defended Bulstrode Whitelocke†, acting as teller on 14 June against putting the question on excepting him, and offered a petition from Oliver St.John, the Cromwellian chief justice, which was refused. He twice acted as teller for imposing an import duty of £2 10s. a head on Irish cattle.
Out of a series of insurrections around the country planned for the summer of 1659, Booth's Uprising was the only one that occurred. Although the insurgents succeeded in seizing Chester, they were easily defeated by Major-Gen. John Lambert at Winnington Bridge near Northwich on 19 August, 1659. Booth tried to escape disguised as a woman, but was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was released on bail in February 1660 after the excluded MPs were reinstated by Gen. Monck.
In April 1660, William Booth was elected to the Convention Parliament as MP for Cheshire. He was one of the 12 MPs appointed to convey Parliament's invitation to Charles II to return as King.
Booth appealed for clemency on behalf of a number of those threatened with prosecution, including Oliver St.John, Sir Arthur Hesilrige and even Major-Gen. Lambert. Parliament awarded him £10,000 for his role in securing the Restoration and, at the King's coronation in April 1661, Booth was elevated to the peerage as Lord Delamere.
Sir George Booth, Lord Delamere MP was active in Restoration politics in support of Presbyterianism and against Catholicism until his death in August 1684.
George Booth (1622-1684) was the second son of William Booth and his wife Vere, of Dunham Massey in Cheshire.
After the death of his father in 1636, George was brought up by his grandfather, also named Sir George Booth.
George attended the Inner Temple in 1637 but is said to have fled to France around 1639 after quarrelling with his grandfather over his marriage to Katherine Clinton, daughter of the Earl of Lincoln.
After Katherine Clinton Booth's death in 1643, George Booth married Elizabeth Grey, daughter of the Earl of Stamford, with whom he had 7 sons and 5 daughters.
George Booth returned to England on the outbreak of civil wars. He played an active role in Cheshire and the northern Marches, accompanying Sir William Brereton on his advance into north Wales in November 1643 and taking command of the garrison at Nantwich when Brereton's forces were driven back.
As a moderate Presbyterian, George Booth opposed Sir William Brereton on both political and religious grounds. After fighting at the siege of Chester in 1645, Booth resigned his commission in order to stand for Parliament.
Despite Brereton's opposition, Booth was elected recruiter MP for Cheshire in 1646. He was associated with the Presbyterian faction in Parliament, and was among the MPs excluded at Pride's Purge in December 1648 by soldiers under the command of his brother-in-law Lord Grey of Groby.
In 1654, George Booth MP was elected to the First Protectorate Parliament and in March 1655, he was one of the commissioners appointed to assist the Major-Generals in Cheshire.
During the elections for the Second Protectorate Parliament, Major-General Bridge intervened to substitute George Booth MP in place of the republican John Bradshaw as candidate for Cheshire. However, Booth emerged as a critic of the Major-Generals. When he described them as "Cromwell's hangmen" during the debates over the renewal of the decimation tax, the resulting altercation with Major-General Howard almost ended in a duel.
George Booth was elected MP for Lancashire in the Third Protectorate Parliament in January 1659.
In May 1659, the Rump Parliament was recalled and the Cromwellian Protectorate came to an end with the subsequent resignation of Richard Cromwell.
The restored Parliament was generally regarded as more radical than the Protectorate had been, and George Booth MP was active in demanding the re-admittance to Parliament of the Presbyterian MPs who had been expelled at Pride's Purge in 1648. When these demands were rejected, he became involved in a conspiracy for a Royalist insurrection and was commissioned by the Great Trust to lead the insurgency in Cheshire, Lancashire and north Wales.
Carp is the most common "farmed fish" of its day. It is native to China, where it has been cultivated since the 7th Century BC.
Carps were brought to ancient Rome, but were spread throughout Europe and to England by monks between the 13th and 16th centuries. (They supplied monasteries with food for Fridays.)
Carp is particularly easy to raise, as it tolerates less than perfect water conditions, eats almost anything, and grows quickly.
Here's a contemporary recipe for stewing carp:
PERIOD: England, 17th century SOURCE: The Whole Duty of a Woman: Or a Guide to the Female Sex, 1696 DESCRIPTION: How to stew fish in wine, onions, spices, & herbs:
Scrape off the Scale, make it clean with in and without, save the Blood, and mingle it with a pint of Claret, lay it in a stew-pan, with as much water and white-wine as will cover it, sprinkle it over with beaten Cloves, Ginger, Nutmeg and sweet Herbs, quarter in a large Onion, put in about half a pound of Butter, and when it boyls up, put in the Blood and Claret; and when it is enough serve it up, Garnishing with slices of Oranges and Greens.
And in this manner you may Dress a Breem, Barble, Salmon, Trout, Pike, or any not over large Fish.
Comments
Third Reading
About Wednesday 14 March 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
More about the (Parliamentary) Bernard family and the background on the political rivalry between them and the (nobility but still Parliamentary) Montagues at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… for William
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… for his wife, Elizabeth
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… for Sir John -- Shakespeare's grandson-in-law
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… for Sir Robert
This rivalry will occasionally pop up in the Diary for a couple of years
About Lincoln's Inn Fields
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sir Randolph Crewe MP had an "interesting" career, courtesy of James VI and I:
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
Our John Crewe MP (whose father, Sir Thomas Crewe MP, was Speaker of the House of Commons) was returned sometime in May 1624 for the newly enfranchised borough of Amersham, where his uncle, Lord Chief Justice Sir Ranolph Crewe MP had recently acted as an arbitrator in a land sale.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
Everything was family business in those days. The families promoted their own.
About Lincoln's Inn Fields
San Diego Sarah • Link
MORE:
They continued to enlarge the Inn accommodations, taking in more lawyers.
Consequently, the hall was lengthened by the addition of two oriel windows giving the interior an odd shape which was reorganized in 1624, when a large and ornate screen and gallery designed by Robert Lynton was inserted into the building.
Lynton may also have worked on a comparable screen at Crewe Hall, Cheshire, for Sir Randolph Crewe, a Bencher of the Inn.
In January 1618, the Benchers consulted Inigo Jones about building a Chapel. In November, the mason John Clark presented a model for the new building and received the commission.
Clark’s chapel was 3 bays long and was over an open, vaulted undercroft. It’s unclear why this unusual arrangement was adopted; it open up the courtyard and allowed for direct internal connection with the first-floor council chamber.
An external staircase to the chapel with more vaults was demolished in the 1880s, when the building was restored and extended to its present form.
Notes taken from 2 articles with pictures at https://www.countrylife.co.uk/arc…
And https://www.countrylife.co.uk/arc…
About Lincoln's Inn Fields
San Diego Sarah • Link
Starting in December, 1422 a long series of administrative records were compiled by Lincoln’s Inn staff, and are known as the Black Books.
From these we can form an impression of daily life at Lincoln’s Inn through the centuries.
The ‘fellows’ of the society were divided into benchers, barristers and students. All took an oath of obedience to the governors, and paid fees for lodging and food. Beneath them in the hierarchy were clerks (new members of the society who aspired to fellowship), and then servants.
By the mid-15th century, the society had leased the London residence of the Bishop of Chichester. This property and its gardens were outside the London walls, west of a street running between Holborn and Fleet Street. Here, they was close to the other Inns of Court and Chancery and had easy access to Westminster Hall, seat of the royal courts.
Meals were served to the entire membership of the society in the hall. These were eaten in sittings, with the quantity and quality of the food determined by seniority.
Accommodation varied in similar fashion.
During the legal terms, the fellows spent a great deal of time at Westminster Hall, involved in or observing the different courts that operated concurrently within its vast interior.
Breaking up the legal year were a series of festivals involving feasts and revels, lectures (called ‘readings’) in a format like university practicem and t practice court proceedings to debate points of law, which were called ‘moots’.
For moots, the hall was converted into a courtroom, a resembling the use of great halls in castles and houses across the nation for legal proceedings.
Benchers sat on the dais in front of those more junior lawyers involved in the debate.
About Lincoln's Inn Fields
San Diego Sarah • Link
We seem to have three different subjects on this page:
1 Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court, which is celebrating its 600 year anniversary.
2 Then homes were built around a adjacent square, which were called Lincoln's Inn Fields, where Sandwich leased his fabulous house.
3 Finally, one of Pepys' favorite theaters was built here.
This post is just about the Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court: On Tuesday mornings at 11am there are tours, which lasted about an hour,
Photography is allowed throughout, with plenty of time in each room to take photos and soak up the atmosphere.
Although the estate and the chapel are open to the public, the rest of the buildings are not, and if you like visiting grand buildings, this somewhat hidden enclave in the heart of London is worth a look around.
For a preview, see https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/artic…
About Friday 9 March 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Many around him also seem to be seizing opportunities to booze."
Given stressful circumstances -- and I'd say these times taxed everyone, not knowing if they were going to be Anglican or Puritan, or living in a Republic or a Monarchy by the end of the year, people getting jobs or losing them not for their qualities but because of who they had associated with in the past, and with Monck and Lawson behaving in very opaic ways -- they drank to achieve a certain level of oblivion.
I have read many articles that report imbibing more than usual is how many of our neighbors around the world have handled the stress of the last 3 years. My reason for adding that modern note is that we probably do not identify with our home town being occupied by opposing factions of the army and the local authorities behaving so unpredictably, but we do all share recent experience with one unpredictable stressor which could prove to be a source of unemployment, or be fatal quite whimsically. Stress is stress, and how humans handle it seems to be the same, generation after generation.
About Wednesday 7 March 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
Google takes me to:
"Wednesday, January 11th, 1659/60.
Custos Rotulorum of Westminster.
RESOLVED, upon the Question, by the Parliament, That this House doth approve of Thomas Scot Esquire, nominated by the Governors of the School and Almshouses of Westminster, to be Custos Rotulorum of the City and Liberties of Westminster: And, It is
¶Ordered, That the Records be forthwith delivered to the said Thomas Scot, or such Person or Persons as he shall appoint, under his Hand, to receive the same: And all Person or Persons whom it doth or may concern, be and are required and enjoined to deliver the said Records accordingly: And the Commissioners for Custody of the Great Seal are hereby authorized and required to pass a Confirmation of the said Office of Custos Rotulorum unto the said Thomas Scot, under the Great Seal, in usual Form, accordingly.
No mention of George Montagu MP at all.
However, George Montagu's Parliamentary bio records:
Commr. for new model ordinance, Hunts. 1645, assessment Hunts. 1645-8, 1663-80, Northants. 1647-8, 166l-80 Lincs. 1661-3, Glos., Mdx. and Westminster 1661-80, East Riding 1663-4, j.p. Hunts. and Northants. 1646-52, Mar. 1660-d., Westminster Mar. 1660-d., Mdx. Mar.-July 1660, 1662-d., commr. for militia, Hunts. and Northants. 1648, Hunts., Mdx. and Northants. Mar. 1660;
custos rot. Westminster Mar.-July 1660;
freeman, Dover Aug. 1660; warden of Salcey Forest, Northants. Aug. 1660-d.; commr. for sewers, Westminster Aug. 1660; master of St. Katharine’s hospital, London 1661-d.; commr. for loyal and indigent officers, Yorks. 1662, oyer and terminer, Mdx. 1662.3 Gent. of the privy chamber (extraordinary) July 1660; member of Queen’s council 1669-d.4
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
Maybe there was more than one Custos Rotulorum? No, I don't think so either. So now I'm as confused as L&M, which is good company to be in.
About Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (Baron Ashley, Chancellor of the Exchequer)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sadly Pepys never mentions John Locke in the Diary, although they were moving at the same time in the small circle of decision-makers in London. Undoubtedly after the Diary they knew each other.
Prof. Kermit Roosevelt III -- a great-great-grandson of President Teddy -- has written a book called 'The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Story', in which one concept stood out to me and clarified a lot:
"Professor Roosevelt: ... Founding America really was not dedicated to equality for all people. The Declaration of Independence was primarily concerned with the independence of the colonies, not the equality of people. “All men are created equal” was a shorthand invocation of the social contract theory of John Locke, and it was basically a rejection of the divine right of kings. It plays a role in the argument for independence, but it doesn’t mean much about how society should be structured. In particular, it doesn’t condemn slavery."
That explains how Locke and Lord Ashley could write into the Constitution of the Carolinas that serfdom was how the society should be organized: 'The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, called the "Grand Model," provided the form of government and society for the Carolina colony from 1669 to 1698. The Lords Proprietors of Carolina first issued the constitutions in 1669, then disseminated revisions in 1670, January 1682, August 1682, and 1698. The constitutions were suspended from 1693 to 1698.
'The main purposes of the Fundamental Constitutions were to protect Proprietary interests and to avoid the creation of a democracy. The Proprietors used the constitutions to try to establish a feudal government and society, so far as permitted by the Carolina charter of 1663. The feudal government was to be headed by nobles with the titles of palatine, landgrave, and cacique. They were to rule through their own courts, a grand council, and a Parliament. Freemen were to have a voice in government, but enslaved people and others who were bound were to have none. This government and feudal society were never fully implemented. Only the palatine's (Proprietor's) court operated for a time.'
https://www.ncpedia.org/fundament….
The father of the Enlightenment in the 1660's wasn't as enlightened as I imagined. He was fine with enslaving poor pink people as well as unlucky brown people. The past is indeed a foreign land.
Prof. Roosevelt's interview is at https://historynewsnetwork.org/bl…
About General information
San Diego Sarah • Link
For more on the role of the purcer in Pepys' navy, see:
A rum deal: the purser’s measure and accounting control of materials in the Royal Navy, 1665-1832
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4…
About Tuesday 6 March 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
For more on the role of the purcer in Pepys' navy, see:
A rum deal: the purser’s measure and accounting control of materials in the Royal Navy, 1665-1832
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4…
About Other
San Diego Sarah • Link
Long pepper is first recorded in the Mediterranean around the 6th century B.C.E. It was spicy in a way no other plant available to Europeans was at the time
Long pepper is rare today. Why did black pepper go mainstream, while long pepper, which is spicier and more complex, disappear? It’s a story of geography, supply and demand, and quantity beating quality
The Piper longum vine is native to north India. The long pepper travelled to the Mediterranean via overland spice routes, reaching Greece when Socrates taught and Athens was in its golden age.
It is a flower spike -- long, bumpy, and phallic. It has the same active compound as black pepper, an alkaloid named piperine, which activates the human body’s heat-sensing pathways
Mediterranean people had spicy food — mustard and horseradish are native — but they never would have tasted anything that attacked the mouth the way long pepper does
By the turn of the millennium, long pepper was a beloved spice.
Black pepper first reached Europe after the Romans had learned to navigate the monsoons to trade regularly with Kerala, southern India. With sea trade routes controlled by Rome, the supply of black pepper increased.
By the 4th century A.D., both long pepper and black pepper were being sold as fancy spices, but black pepper cost a third as much. Roman recipes rarely distinguished between the two. Was long pepper more expensive because it was scarcer, or was it tastier?
When tried side by side, black pepper is the more aggressive, announcing itself loudly before fading into a sharp tingle.
Long pepper stages a quieter takeover, but once it arrives, it grows in power. It has a pleasantness that makes it tolerable for longer; black pepper’s assertive bite almost becomes tiresome.
Long pepper also has an acrid mellowness to it — its spice hits, but with a floral note, rather than black pepper’s bitterness.
The two tastes are similar enough that it's hard to imagine anyone noticing their pasta is spiced with black pepper rather than long.
Both peppers survived the Middle Ages as luxury items, but Portuguese spice traders pioneered new routes to bring black pepper to Europe.
Long pepper was still available in Europe until the end of the 17th century.
By the 1700s, long pepper had fallen out of use. Sea trade routes had outcompeted overland routes, and since black pepper traveled by water, it won market dominance.
Today, long pepper’s still used in cooking from the places where it grows: it’s a basic ingredient in Indian and southeast Asian dishes. (Indonesia is a big supplier.)
But for European and American cooks, there’s only one piperine plant that matters: Piper nigrum.
Highlights from https://www.atlasobscura.com/arti…
About Lt-Gen. Charles Fleetwood
San Diego Sarah • Link
The biography of Fleetwood JCasey referred to above has moved to:
http://bcw-project.org/biography/…
At the start of the Diary, Pepys is living through the last of Fleetwood's days as a mover and shaker: "Fleetwood was deprived of his command and ordered to appear before Parliament to answer for his conduct. He was powerless to oppose the Restoration of the monarchy in May 1660. Excluded from Charles II's Act of Indemnity and Oblivion as one of 20 individuals liable to penalties other than the death sentence, Fleetwood was finally barred from holding any public office or position of trust. He lived quietly at Stoke Newington in Middlesex until his death in October 1692."
I don't see any hint of him being a leader who preferred to pray than fight.
About Tuesday 6 March 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
"I called Mr. Sheply and we both went up to my Lord’s lodgings at Mr. Crew’s, where he bade us to go home again, and get a fire against an hour after." ...
"I went to see Mrs. Jem, at whose chamber door I found a couple of ladies, but she not being there, we hunted her out, and found that she and another had hid themselves behind a door. Well, they all went down into the dining-room, where it was full of tag, rag, and bobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking, of which I was ashamed, and after I had staid a dance or two I went away. Going home, called at my Lord’s for Mr. Sheply, but found him at the Lion with a pewterer, that he had bought pewter to-day of."
This is strange -- Sandwich is staying with his father-in-law at Lincoln's Inn Fields, while his 14-year-old daughter is staying, practically unchaperoned by the sound of it, elsewhere. I think Sandwich would have a fit to hear she was partying with the servants and their friends! I don't blame Pepys from departing the scene of the crime ASAP -- he was outnumbered, and the party would have been hard to stop. But I'm a bit surprised he didn't take Mrs. Jem away to her grandparents for the night.
It's possible he was going to ask Shepley if they could take Mrs. Jem in for the night at Whitehall, but found him out entertaining a tradesman at an inn as well, so that didn't work out. But that's not in the narrative so it's just a guess.
About Wednesday 9 December 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
There seems to have been a Pied Bull Yard near what we call Bloomsbury Square:
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/artic…
The history of Bloomsbury seems to be a bit of an undeveloped mystery before the 1770's
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-…
Wikipedia says Bloomsbury Square was called Southampton Square in Pepys' Day (after Southampton House, home of the recently departed Earl of Southampton):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blo…
That's as good as American Google does for me. Perhaps British Google can do better?
About Wednesday 9 December 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
According to L&M, Mr. Spong was living in Bloomsbury Square in 1668.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Southampton Market was in Southampton Street, just off Bloomsbury Square. https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
So there was probably another Bull Inn near Bloomsbury Square from the way the narrative reads, as you suggest.
There are many things we can never know for sure.
About Sir George Booth
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
On 30 July a bill was introduced to enable him to lease and sell lands for payment of his debts and raising portions for his younger children. It was read twice and committed, and immediately followed by a resolution to confer £10,000 on him out of the excise ‘as a mark of respect for his eminent services and great sufferings for the public’. He declared himself willing to forego the gift if his estate bill were passed, but he was overborne. The concurrence of the Lords was speedily obtained, and the excise commissioners ordered to make payment accordingly.
With his credit thus re-established he was among those ordered on 13 Aug. to raise a government loan of £100,000 in the City.
Four days later he was appointed to the committee to state the facts about the attendance of Charles I’s judges at his trial, and he helped to manage 2 conferences on the regicides.
He brought in two papers drawn up by his late brother-in-law Thomas, Lord Grey of Groby, who had died in 1657, ‘to testify his penitence for his former being against the King’, and persuaded the House to strike his name out of the bill.
He also spoke on behalf of his old opponent Gen. Lambert, and Sir Arthur Hesilrige.
He helped to manage the conference on settling ministers in their livings before Parliament adjourned for the autumn recess.
In the second session he was named to the committee for the attainder bill, and acted as teller on the unsuccessful motion for a second reading of the bill for modified episcopacy.
George Booth was raised to the peerage as Lord Delamer in the coronation honours, but he cannot have welcomed the Anglican religious settlement and the lack of restraint on the prerogative. He retained his Presbyterian chaplains, and naturally came under suspicion.
Attempts were made to implicate him in the northern plot of 1663.
After the Diary he was in opposition under Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby, entering 3 formal protests against the non-resisting test, and he voted for the second exclusion bill.
Sir George Booth, Lord Delamer died on 8 Aug. 1684 and was buried at Bowdon.
From https://www.historyofparliamenton…
About Sir George Booth
San Diego Sarah • Link
George Booth was descended from a younger branch of a Lancashire family, settled at Dunham Massey since 1433. His great-grandfather represented Cheshire in 1572. His father died before the Civil Wars, but his grandfather was a parliamentary supporter, and George was in arms for the same cause, and sat for the county as a recruiter until Pride’s Purge.
Chancellor Clarendon described George Booth MP as ‘a person of the best fortune and interest in Cheshire, and, for the memory of his grandfather, of absolute power with the Presbyterians’.
During the national uprising against the Rump in 1659M George Booth MP, who had been commissioned by Charles II as commander-in-chief for Cheshire, Lancashire and North Wales, was the only conspirator to get together anything like an army.
He carefully avoided a public commitment on the monarchy, but was easily defeated by Gen. John Lambert, and captured in female attire when his disguise was betrayed by an unwary call for a razor.
Despite the ludicrous circumstances of his defeat and capture, George Booth’s reputation stood high in 1660, and he was returned for Cheshire at the general election, probably unopposed.
Marked as a friend on Lord Wharton’s list, he was a moderately active Member of the Convention, in which he was named to 36 committees, including 4 conferences, acted as teller in 5 divisions, and made 17 recorded speeches.
He was appointed to the committee of elections and privileges and sent to the Lords on 1 May 1660 to announce that the Commons were ready for a conference to settle ‘the great affairs of the kingdom’.
George Booth MP was among those instructed to prepare bills in accordance with Charles II’s letter. He absent-mindedly greeted Edmund Ludlow with great civility, but soon recollected himself enough to glare at him.
He was the first Member chosen to carry the answer of the Commons to Breda.
On his return to the House Booth acted as teller for the successful motion that no more than 20 offenders should be excepted from the indemnity bill.
He defended Bulstrode Whitelocke†, acting as teller on 14 June against putting the question on excepting him, and offered a petition from Oliver St.John, the Cromwellian chief justice, which was refused.
He twice acted as teller for imposing an import duty of £2 10s. a head on Irish cattle.
About Sir George Booth
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
Out of a series of insurrections around the country planned for the summer of 1659, Booth's Uprising was the only one that occurred. Although the insurgents succeeded in seizing Chester, they were easily defeated by Major-Gen. John Lambert at Winnington Bridge near Northwich on 19 August, 1659.
Booth tried to escape disguised as a woman, but was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
He was released on bail in February 1660 after the excluded MPs were reinstated by Gen. Monck.
In April 1660, William Booth was elected to the Convention Parliament as MP for Cheshire.
He was one of the 12 MPs appointed to convey Parliament's invitation to Charles II to return as King.
Booth appealed for clemency on behalf of a number of those threatened with prosecution, including Oliver St.John, Sir Arthur Hesilrige and even Major-Gen. Lambert.
Parliament awarded him £10,000 for his role in securing the Restoration and, at the King's coronation in April 1661, Booth was elevated to the peerage as Lord Delamere.
Sir George Booth, Lord Delamere MP was active in Restoration politics in support of Presbyterianism and against Catholicism until his death in August 1684.
Info from http://bcw-project.org/biography/…
About Sir George Booth
San Diego Sarah • Link
George Booth (1622-1684) was the second son of William Booth and his wife Vere, of Dunham Massey in Cheshire.
After the death of his father in 1636, George was brought up by his grandfather, also named Sir George Booth.
George attended the Inner Temple in 1637 but is said to have fled to France around 1639 after quarrelling with his grandfather over his marriage to Katherine Clinton, daughter of the Earl of Lincoln.
After Katherine Clinton Booth's death in 1643, George Booth married Elizabeth Grey, daughter of the Earl of Stamford, with whom he had 7 sons and 5 daughters.
George Booth returned to England on the outbreak of civil wars.
He played an active role in Cheshire and the northern Marches, accompanying Sir William Brereton on his advance into north Wales in November 1643 and taking command of the garrison at Nantwich when Brereton's forces were driven back.
As a moderate Presbyterian, George Booth opposed Sir William Brereton on both political and religious grounds. After fighting at the siege of Chester in 1645, Booth resigned his commission in order to stand for Parliament.
Despite Brereton's opposition, Booth was elected recruiter MP for Cheshire in 1646.
He was associated with the Presbyterian faction in Parliament, and was among the MPs excluded at Pride's Purge in December 1648 by soldiers under the command of his brother-in-law Lord Grey of Groby.
In 1654, George Booth MP was elected to the First Protectorate Parliament and in March 1655, he was one of the commissioners appointed to assist the Major-Generals in Cheshire.
During the elections for the Second Protectorate Parliament, Major-General Bridge intervened to substitute George Booth MP in place of the republican John Bradshaw as candidate for Cheshire.
However, Booth emerged as a critic of the Major-Generals. When he described them as "Cromwell's hangmen" during the debates over the renewal of the decimation tax, the resulting altercation with Major-General Howard almost ended in a duel.
George Booth was elected MP for Lancashire in the Third Protectorate Parliament in January 1659.
In May 1659, the Rump Parliament was recalled and the Cromwellian Protectorate came to an end with the subsequent resignation of Richard Cromwell.
The restored Parliament was generally regarded as more radical than the Protectorate had been, and George Booth MP was active in demanding the re-admittance to Parliament of the Presbyterian MPs who had been expelled at Pride's Purge in 1648.
When these demands were rejected, he became involved in a conspiracy for a Royalist insurrection and was commissioned by the Great Trust to lead the insurgency in Cheshire, Lancashire and north Wales.
About Carp
San Diego Sarah • Link
Carp is the most common "farmed fish" of its day. It is native to China, where it has been cultivated since the 7th Century BC.
Carps were brought to ancient Rome, but were spread throughout Europe and to England by monks between the 13th and 16th centuries. (They supplied monasteries with food for Fridays.)
Carp is particularly easy to raise, as it tolerates less than perfect water conditions, eats almost anything, and grows quickly.
Here's a contemporary recipe for stewing carp:
PERIOD: England, 17th century
SOURCE: The Whole Duty of a Woman: Or a Guide to the Female Sex, 1696
DESCRIPTION: How to stew fish in wine, onions, spices, & herbs:
Scrape off the Scale, make it clean with in and without,
save the Blood, and mingle it with a pint of Claret,
lay it in a stew-pan, with as much water and white-wine as will cover it,
sprinkle it over with beaten Cloves, Ginger, Nutmeg and sweet Herbs,
quarter in a large Onion,
put in about half a pound of Butter,
and when it boyls up, put in the Blood and Claret;
and when it is enough serve it up,
Garnishing with slices of Oranges and Greens.
And in this manner you may Dress a Breem, Barble, Salmon, Trout, Pike, or any not over large Fish.