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.
Ensign Tom -- it was standard to have someone stay up all night for security, and to make sure the fires never went out in the kitchen or in the main downstairs rooms. They could do the wake up calls for the early risers, staff and guests. An Inn would be in trouble if the fire was out and the washing water cold when the cook arrived to prepare breakfast. The shoes also needed to be cleaned and the shirts ironed that were left outside the rooms by the guests.
"In the morning went to my Lord’s lodgings, thinking to have spoke with Mr. Sheply, having not been to visit him since my coming to town. But he being not within I went up, and out of the box where my Lord’s pamphlets lay, I chose as many as I had a mind to have for my own use and left the rest."
Easier to get forgiven than ask for permission, Pepys?
"Has Montagu had some flyers printed, and Pepys takes some?"
My guess 4 years later is that Pepys wanted to know what Sandwich knew, and what was influencing Sandwich's actions. In my day I read my grandparents' old Readers Digests and LIFE magazines to find things to talk to them about. Pepys' need for intelligence was more pressing than that, of course.
Sir Henry Yelverton “was arrested as a royalist suspect in 1659, but on his release … that he was still ready to serve the King by raising 500 horse and securing Northampton. ... With Thomas Crew he presented to George Monck an address of thanks from Northamptonshire for the recall of the secluded Members.” -- https://www.historyofparliamenton…
So my reading of this is that Sir Henry Yelverton MP had come to pick up John Crew MP in order to carry the thanks from the County of Northamptonshire to Gen. Monck, but Montagu and his father-in-law were detained elsewhere, possibly attending the burial of John the coachman. After waiting a while, Pepys, Thomas Crew, possibly Mr. Sheply, and Sir Henry Yelverton MP trooped into the dining room and ate anyways. Why waste a good meal?
Yelverton’s ancestors first sat in Parliament in 1451. His father was an enclosing landlord and found a seat in the Long Parliament, where he served until Pride’s Purge.
The family was Puritan, but Yelverton was tutored by the deprived bishop of Durham, and became a devout Anglican.
The letter-writer Dorothy Osborne found him ‘a very pretty little gentleman’, and claimed credit for his excellent match in 1654 with Susan Longueville, s.j. Baroness Grey, heir of Charles, 12th Lord Grey of Ruthin. They had 4 sons and a daughter.
Yelverton was arrested as a royalist in 1659, and on his release declared he was ready to serve the King by raising 500 horse and securing Northampton.
With Thomas Crew MP, Yelverton presented to George Monck an address of thanks from Northants. for the recall of the secluded Members.
Recommended by Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester as a ‘worthy person’, he stood as a Royalist for Northants. at the 1660 general election, and was returned after a contest.
Yelverton was among the more prominent Members in the opening weeks of the Convention Parliament. He was one of 4 Members entrusted with counting votes for the delegation to be sent to Breda. He was appointed to the committee to organize the King's reception.
He was appointed to the committee to examine unauthorized Anglican publications.
Altogether he was named to 13 committees in the Convention Parliament, and acted as teller in 3 divisions, he is not known to have spoken.
Yelverton did not stand for reelection in 1661. Perhaps his father’s record was against him, but this does not account for his failure to retain his place in the lieutenancy.
At a by-election for Northampton in 1663 he was defeated by Sir John Bernard (who enjoyed the support of dissenters), but was seated on petition after complaints of a ‘miscarriage’ by the mayor.
Backed by Richard Rainsford MP, Yelverton obtained a letter from Charles II on 2 June 1664, forbidding the ejection of ‘the loyal party’ from the corporation. Meanwhile Yelverton had acted as teller against a Lords amendment to the Conventicles Bill, but he was only moderately active.
He was appointed to 21 committees in the Cavalier Parliament; the most important was to prevent the import of foreign cattle on 20 Oct. 1665. He was teller in one other unimportant division, and does not appear to have spoken in the House, although Samuel Pepys, meeting him for the first time since their school-days, found him ‘a wise man by his manner of discourse’.
By 1669 he was receiving official intelligence from Joseph Williamson. He was counted a supporter of Ormonde and one MP to be engaged for the Court by the Duke of York and his friends.
Yelverton died suddenly on 3 Oct. 1670. His son inherited the Grey of Ruthin peerage, and no other family members entered the Lower House.
"... Mr. Moore, who told me how my Lord is chosen General at Sea by the Council, and that it is thought that Monck will be joined with him therein."
I wonder who gave Montagu the head's up, enabling him to hurry up to town in time for the negotiations? In the time before morse code and telephones, people had intelligence networks of friends like Pepys, who wrote letters in code and letterlocked. http://letterlocking.org/
Yeo wasn't alone. In Dartmouth, a few miles away, John Flavel had arrived in 1656, when he was about 26. Going amongst his parisioners, and in all the freshness of his affections, he and the inhabitants became attached to one another. With his striking stories, his faculty of happy illustration, with a temperament in which cheerfulness and solemnity were remarkably blended, and with a style in which friendly encouragement alternated with grave remonstrance and melting pathos, his ministry was extremely popular.
When John Flavel went from home, his plain and interesting conversations were often the way of awakening or converting hearers, so he was invited to preach far beyond the bounds of his own large parish.
The period was brief during which he was allowed to ply such an unfettered ministry. Ejected by the 1662 Act of Uniformity, for some time he tried to keep together and instruct his flock; but spies and penal laws made their meetings difficult and dangerous.
In 1662 Rev. Flavel was ejected from his pulpit for nonconformity to the state church. After that John Flavel defied the law and continued to preach in secret meetings, sometimes in the woods at midnight. Once he disguised himself as a woman on horseback to reach a meeting with the persecuted church. Another time he had to ride his horse into the sea and swim away in order to escape arrest.
When the Oxford Act was passed, and Flavel could no longer live in Dartmouth, on the day of his departure the inhabitants accompanied him as far as the churchyard of Townstall where, amidst prayers and tears, they parted. Nevertheless, his heart was still with his beloved flock.
Flavel lived as near to them as the law allowed; and, sometimes in Dartmouth itself, sometimes in a quiet apartment in a neighboring village, and sometimes in a wood or other sheltered spot in the open air, he contrived to meet a detachment of them almost every Sabbath day.
At James II’s Indulgence permitted the open resumption of his ministry. A commodious meeting-house was built, and there, for the remaining years of his life, he continued to warn, exhort, and comfort all who came, with fervor. His prayers were wonderful.
When he died a brass was erected to his memory in St. Saviour, but removed by order of the Corporation in 1709. It now occupies a prominent place in the Independent Chapel, and ends with: ‘Could Grace or Learning from the Grave set free, FLAVELL, Thov had'st not seen Mortality; Thovgh here Thy dusty part Death's Victim lies, Thov by thy WORKS thyself dost Eternize, Which Death nor Rust of Time shall Overthrow; While Thov dost Reign above, These Live Below.'
Today is one of great upheaval across the land. Nonconfirming ministers were turned out of their parishes, with few replacements to help the people deal with their manditory source of comfort.
In Newton Abbot, Devon, we have a story of how it went. Click through to see lovely pictures of the pit in Bradley Woods:
Puritan's Pit, which is also known as Preacher's Pit, The Devil's Pit or Gruti's Pit, lies on the south side of the valley of the River Lemon in Bradley Woods. The large steep-sided pit is probably a collapsed limestone cavern and although it is about 12 metres deep and some 50 metres across at its widest, it is invisible from the river and the main path on the other side. It can only be seen from the woods above.
Puritan's Pit owes its notability to Willam Yeo, a Presbyterian clergyman who was installed as Rector of Wolborough in 1648 by Oliver Cromwell. He was assiduous in his duties and walked around the town after Sunday service with a constable, to ensure that the Sabbath was kept holy, but after 14 years he was deprived of his living for refusing to acknowledge the post-Restoration Act of Uniformity.
The legend goes that in the years that followed, Rev. William Yeo and his supporters met in Puritan's Pit by night to worship. At this time he was effectively an outlaw as can be seen from an order of sessions that was made in 1683 offering a reward of 40 shillings to anyone who apprehended a dissenting minister.
The Act of Toleration 1689 brought this episode to a close, and Rev. William Yeo's house was certified to be used as a place of worship.
A plaque at the pit says: “The Revd William Yeo, born June 1, 1617, and educated Emmanuel College Cambridge, was a Presbytarian clergyman who was appointed Rector of Wolborough in 1648 by Oliver Cromwell. With Parliament passing the Act of Uniformity on August 24, 1662, St. Bartholomew’s Day, he having strong Puritan values refused to acknowledge the Act and was forced out of his church, as can be seen from an Order of Quarter Sessions. Effectively, Revd. Yeo was an outlaw.
“The Puritan’s Pit has been formed through the collapse of a limestone cavern and being hidden deep in Bradley Woods and covered by a canopy of elm trees and easily guarded by lookouts, it could not be seen from the footpaths or the riverbank, and the entrance was concealed. It thus provided a safe and secret place for Revd Yeo and his brave Dissenter congregation to gather by day and night to pray and worship. ...
“With the Declaration of Induigenna by Charles II on March 15, 1672, Revd. Yeo was free to preach in Newton Abbot again, but his end the congregration’s situation did not really improve until passing of the Act of Toleration on May 24, 1689, during the reign of William and Mary. ..."
"It seems a small matter to break into someone else's room. Would the lock have been easy to replace?"
Seems to me that tomorrow, or whenever Pepys catches Mr. Sheply sober, he'll quietly remind him that it needs to be repaired since he broke it. There must be locksmiths running around Whitehall Palace who can do the job. That leaves it up to Sheply to pay for it -- or discreetly hide the expense in My Lord's accounts.
If that doesn't work, a quiet word to Sandwich might get Shepley fired, but would get the job done.
"and after dinner went out with him to buy a hat (calling in my way and saw my mother), which we did at the Plough in Fleet Street by my Lord’s direction, but not as for him"
"Pepys, your hat looks like it's been through the wars."
"Uh, yes, it was wet out there. But it was an old one anyways."
"Buy yourself a new one, cousin. Here's 5 shillings for taking care of my Jem. I saw some very cavalier ones on a sale at the Plough today. A man is judged by his hat these days."
"Then to horse, and for London through the forest, where we found the way good, but only in one path, which we kept as if we had rode through a canal all the way."
My reaction to this use of the description 'canal' is that this path was sunken -- many old roads in the UK are well below the level of the land around them, because of centuries of usage. Often these pathways have hedges on either side, so when it rains, it acts like a river or a drain, and you can't see anything when you are down in it. Later some roads or driveways were dug down on purpose so they did not spoil the view from the country house (an 18th century technique called a Haha).
Canals have been around since ancient times, even if the Brits didn't build any until the end of the 17th century, so Pepys would have been familiar with the word. http://www.historyworld.net/wrldh….
"Mr. Pierce at our Inn, who told us that he had lost his journey, for my Lord was gone from Hinchingbroke to London on Thursday last,"
Here's a puzzle: Why had Pearse "lost his journey"?
On February 22, "to Will’s, where Mr. Pierce found me out, and told me that he would go with me to Cambridge, where Colonel Ayre’s regiment, to which he was surgeon, lieth." https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Col. William Eyre MP of Neston, Wiltshire (fl. 1642–1660), was a parliamentarian army officer and politician. On 29 November 1648 Capt. William Eyre was returned as the Member of Parliament for Chippenham. Capt. William Eyre was admitted to the Rump Parliament on 15 January 1649. At the end of the Protectorate, the restored Rump commissioned Capt. William Eyre colonel of a regiment of foot previously commanded by John Lambert. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will…...
If Lambert/Eyre's regiment had marched to London after Montagu (or Lambert), Pearse and Pepys would have crossed paths with them on their journey.
I guess Pepys was in his cups again when he wrote this narrative, and confused his thoughts in the telling??? I have not found a history of Eyre/Lambert's regiment at that time; Lambert usually had the best troops.
Since Pepys is buried in paperwork at the office today, he's oblivious to some arrests being made around town:
After the Restoration, Praise-God Barebone was looked upon with a jealous eye, and on Nov. 26, 1661, was apprehended, together with Major John Wildman and committed prisoner to the Tower, where he was confined for some time.
On the meeting of parliament early in the following year, the Lord Chancellor thought fit to alarm the house with the noise of plots and conspiracies, and enumerated the names of several persons whom he reported to be engaged in traitorous designs against the government. Among these were Major Wildman, Major Hains, Alderman Ireton, Mr. Praise-God Barebone, &c.
How far the charge against these persons was substantiated, or whether it was only a political engine of government to get rid of suspected individuals, we will not take upon us to say. Certain it is, that Mr. Barebone had now to contend with the strong arm of the civil power, which was directed with all the acrimony of party prejudice against persons of his stamp.
This article says James Harrington was also arrested in November, but many other accounts say he was not arrested until after Christmas, so I've removed that piece of info from the above version.
No doubt you've heard of the problem posed by Fermat's Last Theorem.
On this day Pierre de Fermat (b.1601), French lawyer and mathematician, died. His equation xn + yn = zn is named after him, and remained unproven for centuries.
In 1905 Paul Wolfskehl, a German mathematician, bequeathed a reward of 100,000 marks to whoever could find a proof to the last theorem. It stumped mathematicians until 1993, when Andrew John Wiles made a break-through.
The history of its resolution and final proof by Andrew Wiles is told by Amir D. Aczel in his 1996 book "Fermat's Last Theorem", and by "Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem" by Simon Singh which was published in 1997.
Comments
Third Reading
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.
About Monday 27 February 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
Ensign Tom -- it was standard to have someone stay up all night for security, and to make sure the fires never went out in the kitchen or in the main downstairs rooms. They could do the wake up calls for the early risers, staff and guests. An Inn would be in trouble if the fire was out and the washing water cold when the cook arrived to prepare breakfast. The shoes also needed to be cleaned and the shirts ironed that were left outside the rooms by the guests.
About Thursday 1 March 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
"In the morning went to my Lord’s lodgings, thinking to have spoke with Mr. Sheply, having not been to visit him since my coming to town. But he being not within I went up, and out of the box where my Lord’s pamphlets lay, I chose as many as I had a mind to have for my own use and left the rest."
Easier to get forgiven than ask for permission, Pepys?
"Has Montagu had some flyers printed, and Pepys takes some?"
My guess 4 years later is that Pepys wanted to know what Sandwich knew, and what was influencing Sandwich's actions. In my day I read my grandparents' old Readers Digests and LIFE magazines to find things to talk to them about. Pepys' need for intelligence was more pressing than that, of course.
About Thursday 1 March 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sir Henry Yelverton “was arrested as a royalist suspect in 1659, but on his release … that he was still ready to serve the King by raising 500 horse and securing Northampton. ... With Thomas Crew he presented to George Monck an address of thanks from Northamptonshire for the recall of the secluded Members.” -- https://www.historyofparliamenton…
So my reading of this is that Sir Henry Yelverton MP had come to pick up John Crew MP in order to carry the thanks from the County of Northamptonshire to Gen. Monck, but Montagu and his father-in-law were detained elsewhere, possibly attending the burial of John the coachman. After waiting a while, Pepys, Thomas Crew, possibly Mr. Sheply, and Sir Henry Yelverton MP trooped into the dining room and ate anyways. Why waste a good meal?
About Sir Henry Yelverton
San Diego Sarah • Link
Yelverton’s ancestors first sat in Parliament in 1451. His father was an enclosing landlord and found a seat in the Long Parliament, where he served until Pride’s Purge.
The family was Puritan, but Yelverton was tutored by the deprived bishop of Durham, and became a devout Anglican.
The letter-writer Dorothy Osborne found him ‘a very pretty little gentleman’, and claimed credit for his excellent match in 1654 with Susan Longueville, s.j. Baroness Grey, heir of Charles, 12th Lord Grey of Ruthin. They had 4 sons and a daughter.
Yelverton was arrested as a royalist in 1659, and on his release declared he was ready to serve the King by raising 500 horse and securing Northampton.
With Thomas Crew MP, Yelverton presented to George Monck an address of thanks from Northants. for the recall of the secluded Members.
Recommended by Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester as a ‘worthy person’, he stood as a Royalist for Northants. at the 1660 general election, and was returned after a contest.
Yelverton was among the more prominent Members in the opening weeks of the Convention Parliament. He was one of 4 Members entrusted with counting votes for the delegation to be sent to Breda. He was appointed to the committee to organize the King's reception.
He was appointed to the committee to examine unauthorized Anglican publications.
Altogether he was named to 13 committees in the Convention Parliament, and acted as teller in 3 divisions, he is not known to have spoken.
Yelverton did not stand for reelection in 1661. Perhaps his father’s record was against him, but this does not account for his failure to retain his place in the lieutenancy.
At a by-election for Northampton in 1663 he was defeated by Sir John Bernard (who enjoyed the support of dissenters), but was seated on petition after complaints of a ‘miscarriage’ by the mayor.
Backed by Richard Rainsford MP, Yelverton obtained a letter from Charles II on 2 June 1664, forbidding the ejection of ‘the loyal party’ from the corporation. Meanwhile Yelverton had acted as teller against a Lords amendment to the Conventicles Bill, but he was only moderately active.
He was appointed to 21 committees in the Cavalier Parliament; the most important was to prevent the import of foreign cattle on 20 Oct. 1665.
He was teller in one other unimportant division, and does not appear to have spoken in the House, although Samuel Pepys, meeting him for the first time since their school-days, found him ‘a wise man by his manner of discourse’.
By 1669 he was receiving official intelligence from Joseph Williamson. He was counted a supporter of Ormonde and one MP to be engaged for the Court by the Duke of York and his friends.
Yelverton died suddenly on 3 Oct. 1670. His son inherited the Grey of Ruthin peerage, and no other family members entered the Lower House.
Highlights from https://www.historyofparliamenton…
About Wednesday 29 February 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... Mr. Moore, who told me how my Lord is chosen General at Sea by the Council, and that it is thought that Monck will be joined with him therein."
I wonder who gave Montagu the head's up, enabling him to hurry up to town in time for the negotiations?
In the time before morse code and telephones, people had intelligence networks of friends like Pepys, who wrote letters in code and letterlocked.
http://letterlocking.org/
About Sunday 24 August 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
Yeo wasn't alone. In Dartmouth, a few miles away, John Flavel had arrived in 1656, when he was about 26. Going amongst his parisioners, and in all the freshness of his affections, he and the inhabitants became attached to one another. With his striking stories, his faculty of happy illustration, with a temperament in which cheerfulness and solemnity were remarkably blended, and with a style in which friendly encouragement alternated with grave remonstrance and melting pathos, his ministry was extremely popular.
When John Flavel went from home, his plain and interesting conversations were often the way of awakening or converting hearers, so he was invited to preach far beyond the bounds of his own large parish.
The period was brief during which he was allowed to ply such an unfettered ministry. Ejected by the 1662 Act of Uniformity, for some time he tried to keep together and instruct his flock; but spies and penal laws made their meetings difficult and dangerous.
In 1662 Rev. Flavel was ejected from his pulpit for nonconformity to the state church. After that John Flavel defied the law and continued to preach in secret meetings, sometimes in the woods at midnight. Once he disguised himself as a woman on horseback to reach a meeting with the persecuted church. Another time he had to ride his horse into the sea and swim away in order to escape arrest.
When the Oxford Act was passed, and Flavel could no longer live in Dartmouth, on the day of his departure the inhabitants accompanied him as far as the churchyard of Townstall where, amidst prayers and tears, they parted. Nevertheless, his heart was still with his beloved flock.
Flavel lived as near to them as the law allowed; and, sometimes in Dartmouth itself, sometimes in a quiet apartment in a neighboring village, and sometimes in a wood or other sheltered spot in the open air, he contrived to meet a detachment of them almost every Sabbath day.
At James II’s Indulgence permitted the open resumption of his ministry. A commodious meeting-house was built, and there, for the remaining years of his life, he continued to warn, exhort, and comfort all who came, with fervor. His prayers were wonderful.
When he died a brass was erected to his memory in St. Saviour, but removed by order of the Corporation in 1709. It now occupies a prominent place in the Independent Chapel, and ends with:
‘Could Grace or Learning from the Grave set free,
FLAVELL, Thov had'st not seen Mortality;
Thovgh here Thy dusty part Death's Victim lies,
Thov by thy WORKS thyself dost Eternize,
Which Death nor Rust of Time shall Overthrow;
While Thov dost Reign above, These Live Below.'
Mainly from, https://books.google.com/books?id…
About Sunday 24 August 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
Today is one of great upheaval across the land. Nonconfirming ministers were turned out of their parishes, with few replacements to help the people deal with their manditory source of comfort.
In Newton Abbot, Devon, we have a story of how it went. Click through to see lovely pictures of the pit in Bradley Woods:
Puritan's Pit, which is also known as Preacher's Pit, The Devil's Pit or Gruti's Pit, lies on the south side of the valley of the River Lemon in Bradley Woods. The large steep-sided pit is probably a collapsed limestone cavern and although it is about 12 metres deep and some 50 metres across at its widest, it is invisible from the river and the main path on the other side. It can only be seen from the woods above.
Puritan's Pit owes its notability to Willam Yeo, a Presbyterian clergyman who was installed as Rector of Wolborough in 1648 by Oliver Cromwell. He was assiduous in his duties and walked around the town after Sunday service with a constable, to ensure that the Sabbath was kept holy, but after 14 years he was deprived of his living for refusing to acknowledge the post-Restoration Act of Uniformity.
The legend goes that in the years that followed, Rev. William Yeo and his supporters met in Puritan's Pit by night to worship. At this time he was effectively an outlaw as can be seen from an order of sessions that was made in 1683 offering a reward of 40 shillings to anyone who apprehended a dissenting minister.
The Act of Toleration 1689 brought this episode to a close, and Rev. William Yeo's house was certified to be used as a place of worship.
A plaque at the pit says: “The Revd William Yeo, born June 1, 1617, and educated Emmanuel College Cambridge, was a Presbytarian clergyman who was appointed Rector of Wolborough in 1648 by Oliver Cromwell.
With Parliament passing the Act of Uniformity on August 24, 1662, St. Bartholomew’s Day, he having strong Puritan values refused to acknowledge the Act and was forced out of his church, as can be seen from an Order of Quarter Sessions. Effectively, Revd. Yeo was an outlaw.
“The Puritan’s Pit has been formed through the collapse of a limestone cavern and being hidden deep in Bradley Woods and covered by a canopy of elm trees and easily guarded by lookouts, it could not be seen from the footpaths or the riverbank, and the entrance was concealed. It thus provided a safe and secret place for Revd Yeo and his brave Dissenter congregation to gather by day and night to pray and worship. ...
“With the Declaration of Induigenna by Charles II on March 15, 1672, Revd. Yeo was free to preach in Newton Abbot again, but his end the congregration’s situation did not really improve until passing of the Act of Toleration on May 24, 1689, during the reign of William and Mary. ..."
https://www.devonlive.com/news/hi…
About Tuesday 28 February 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
"It seems a small matter to break into someone else's room. Would the lock have been easy to replace?"
Seems to me that tomorrow, or whenever Pepys catches Mr. Sheply sober, he'll quietly remind him that it needs to be repaired since he broke it. There must be locksmiths running around Whitehall Palace who can do the job. That leaves it up to Sheply to pay for it -- or discreetly hide the expense in My Lord's accounts.
If that doesn't work, a quiet word to Sandwich might get Shepley fired, but would get the job done.
About Tuesday 28 February 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
"and after dinner went out with him to buy a hat (calling in my way and saw my mother), which we did at the Plough in Fleet Street by my Lord’s direction, but not as for him"
"Pepys, your hat looks like it's been through the wars."
"Uh, yes, it was wet out there. But it was an old one anyways."
"Buy yourself a new one, cousin. Here's 5 shillings for taking care of my Jem. I saw some very cavalier ones on a sale at the Plough today. A man is judged by his hat these days."
About Tuesday 28 February 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Then to horse, and for London through the forest, where we found the way good, but only in one path, which we kept as if we had rode through a canal all the way."
My reaction to this use of the description 'canal' is that this path was sunken -- many old roads in the UK are well below the level of the land around them, because of centuries of usage. Often these pathways have hedges on either side, so when it rains, it acts like a river or a drain, and you can't see anything when you are down in it.
Later some roads or driveways were dug down on purpose so they did not spoil the view from the country house (an 18th century technique called a Haha).
Canals have been around since ancient times, even if the Brits didn't build any until the end of the 17th century, so Pepys would have been familiar with the word. http://www.historyworld.net/wrldh….
He seems to have used a couple of homonyms today.
About Saffron Walden
San Diego Sarah • Link
Pictures of Saffron Walden and a suggested walking tour of the town to be found at https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/artic…
About Saffron Walden
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sadly "pic of a 17c Pub with historic past. Saffron Walden Sun Inn from Cromwells period. http://www.totaltravel.co.uk/phot…" is no longer available – try this instead:
https://adam-yamey-writes.com/202…
It even has a detailed picture of the old Sun Inn.
About Sunday 26 February 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
"After dinner, while we sat talking by the fire, Mr. Pierce’s man came to tell me that his master was come to town, so my father and I took leave,"
The obvious has just occurred to me: Surgeon James Pearse's "master" must be the elusive Col. William Eyre MP. Duh!
About Sunday 26 February 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Mr. Pierce at our Inn, who told us that he had lost his journey, for my Lord was gone from Hinchingbroke to London on Thursday last,"
Here's a puzzle: Why had Pearse "lost his journey"?
On February 22, "to Will’s, where Mr. Pierce found me out, and told me that he would go with me to Cambridge, where Colonel Ayre’s regiment, to which he was surgeon, lieth."
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Col. William Eyre MP of Neston, Wiltshire (fl. 1642–1660), was a parliamentarian army officer and politician. On 29 November 1648 Capt. William Eyre was returned as the Member of Parliament for Chippenham.
Capt. William Eyre was admitted to the Rump Parliament on 15 January 1649. At the end of the Protectorate, the restored Rump commissioned Capt. William Eyre colonel of a regiment of foot previously commanded by John Lambert.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will…...
James Pearse, Surgeon, gained his Commission in Col. Eyre's Regiment on January 31, 1660
https://www.british-history.ac.uk…
If Lambert/Eyre's regiment had marched to London after Montagu (or Lambert), Pearse and Pepys would have crossed paths with them on their journey.
I guess Pepys was in his cups again when he wrote this narrative, and confused his thoughts in the telling??? I have not found a history of Eyre/Lambert's regiment at that time; Lambert usually had the best troops.
About Monday 26 November 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Since Pepys is buried in paperwork at the office today, he's oblivious to some arrests being made around town:
After the Restoration, Praise-God Barebone was looked upon with a jealous eye, and on Nov. 26, 1661, was apprehended, together with Major John Wildman and committed prisoner to the Tower, where he was confined for some time.
On the meeting of parliament early in the following year, the Lord Chancellor thought fit to alarm the house with the noise of plots and conspiracies, and enumerated the names of several persons whom he reported to be engaged in traitorous designs against the government.
Among these were Major Wildman, Major Hains, Alderman Ireton, Mr. Praise-God Barebone, &c.
How far the charge against these persons was substantiated, or whether it was only a political engine of government to get rid of suspected individuals, we will not take upon us to say. Certain it is, that Mr. Barebone had now to contend with the strong arm of the civil power, which was directed with all the acrimony of party prejudice against persons of his stamp.
From https://google.cat/books?id=MjUXA…
This article says James Harrington was also arrested in November, but many other accounts say he was not arrested until after Christmas, so I've removed that piece of info from the above version.
About Thursday 12 January 1664/65
San Diego Sarah • Link
No doubt you've heard of the problem posed by Fermat's Last Theorem.
On this day Pierre de Fermat (b.1601), French lawyer and mathematician, died. His equation xn + yn = zn is named after him, and remained unproven for centuries.
In 1905 Paul Wolfskehl, a German mathematician, bequeathed a reward of 100,000 marks to whoever could find a proof to the last theorem. It stumped mathematicians until 1993, when Andrew John Wiles made a break-through.
The history of its resolution and final proof by Andrew Wiles is told by Amir D. Aczel in his 1996 book "Fermat's Last Theorem", and by
"Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem" by Simon Singh which was published in 1997.