The bios above give good outlines to his life, but do read his Parliamentary bio -- he was involved in things affecting Pepys: https://www.historyofparliamenton…
Pepys mentions the 1660 entrance he made with the old sword: "On the return of the secluded Members, he provided comic relief by tripping up Sir William Waller with his old-fashioned basket-hilt sword, and appeared as an open advocate of a Restoration."
He was a resolute Erastian, and ‘very earnestly and passionately’ insisted the decisions of a synod must be confirmed by King and Parliament, and ‘he could not be for bishops unless they derive their power from the King, and not own themselves to be jure divino’. [There's a sign of things to come -- in 80 years.]
After the conference on the indemnity bill, Prynne reminded the House that he had been for excepting all the regicides from the first, and remained of the same opinion: "An we did not, we should be all guilty of the King’s blood, they being such horrid traitors as never yet were known ... Our oaths bound us more than our votes, which we alter daily."
When Parliament met again after the recess, he was ‘ordered to take care’ of the marital separation bill which, as a lifelong bachelor, he could not be persuaded to take seriously.
A strong humanitarian streak found expression in his appointment to the commission for sick and maimed soldiers [from the civil wars], and his persistent efforts on behalf of English slaves in North Africa.
Prynne refused to kneel to receive the sacrament with the other Members, opposed a vote of thanks to Dr. Gunning for an aggressively Anglican sermon, and bitterly attacked the bill to restore the bishops to the House of Lords.
In his report on the final disbandment of the New Model Army he infuriated the Cavaliers by desiring them to be mindful not to do those things that might bring the soldiers together again.
It was probably during the Spring 1662 session that he initiated the attack on William Coventry for selling posts in the navy, which was to be followed up later.
On 28 Oct. 1665 he was sent to ask the King for a commission of inquiry into the administration of the Chatham chest, though as a commissioner he could only hint at abuses.
During the last session of the Clarendon administration he made 6 speeches, introduced bills to banish Popish recusants and abolish marriage licences, and reported the articles of Lord Mordaunt’s impeachment. He acted as teller against hearing the petition from the merchants trading to France. When a Catholic chapel was discovered in Bath, Prynne wrote a threatening letter which ignored the danger from the fanatics and inspired a friend of Evelyn’s to remark: ‘He can find high treason in a bulrush and innocence in a scorpion’.
John Crew MP’s grandfather was a tanner of Nantwich, who put his two sons to the law. Both became Speakers of the House of Commons, a record which remains unique. John Crew, a moderate Parliamentarian in the Civil Wars, was imprisoned at Pride’s Purge. Although summoned to Cromwell’s ‘Other House’, he never took his seat. He returned to Westminster with the secluded Members, and moved the resolution condemning the execution of King Charles.
John Crew MP was returned for Northamptonshire for the third time at the general election of 1660. It is probable that most of the 19 references in the Journals are to him rather than to his son. He derived additional political weight from the part played by his son-in-law Edward Montagu in the Restoration. His only known speech was unfortunate; Pepys records on 29 Apr. 1660 that, according to Montagu, ‘Mr Crew did go a little too far the other day in keeping out the young lords from sitting’.
He served on the committees for the abolition of the court of wards and the continuance of the Convention, and took part in drawing up the instructions for the messengers to Charles II and the conference on the King’s reception.
John Crew MP was one of the delegation that met Charles II at The Hague. After the King’s return, as a leading Presbyterian he seems to have been chiefly interested in the bill for settling ministers, helping to draw up a proviso on crown livings.
Crew received a peerage in the coronation honours, and retired from public life. His Northamptonshire estate was estimated at £1,660 p.a.
Pepys describes his household as ‘the best family in the world for goodness and sobriety’. There is no evidence that he conformed, and on Christmas Eve 1662 he lamented the fate of ‘the poor ministers who are put out, to whom, he says, the King is beholden for his coming in, and that if any such thing had been foreseen, he had never come in’.
John, Lord Crew was considered an opposition peer from 1675 until his death on 12 Dec. 1679. He and was buried at Steane.
William Lenthall was born June 1591, the second son of William Lenthall (d.1596) of Wilcot, Oxon. and Frances, daughter of Richard Southwell of Horsham St. Faith, Norf.
He went to St. Alban Hall, Oxf. in 1607; entered Lincoln's Inn in 1609, and was called to the bar in 1616.
By 1619, he had married Elizabeth (d.1662), daughter of Ambrose Evans of Loddington, Northants., and they had at least 2 sons and 2 daughters.
Lenthall was Speaker of House of Commons 3 Nov. 1640-30 July 1647, 6 Aug. 1647-20 Apr. 1653, 4 Sept. 1654-22 Jan. 1655, 7 May-13 Oct. 1659, 26 Dec. 1659-16 Mar. 1660.
Lenthall’s ancestors migrated from Herefordshire to Oxfordshire in the 15th century. The family was recusant under Queen Elizabeth, but his branch became Protestant after the death of Lenthall’s father in 1596.
Lenthall’s mother, the sister of the Jesuit poet Robert Southwell, conformed to the established Church, and his elder brother’s guardian was a client of the Cecils.
Lenthall became a lawyer, and was called to the bar in 1616. His marriage made him a kinsman of Sir Lawrence Tanfield MP, who presumably persuaded the corporation of New Woodstock to choose him as recorder in succession to Sir James Whitelocke. At the general election of 1624 Lenthall was returned for the borough, which usually elected its recorder. On one occasion he was appointed to assist Attorney General Sir Edward Coke MP with the amendments to the concealed lands bill.
Despite Sir Lawrence Tanfield MP death the following year, Lenthall hoped to be re-elected to Parliament in 1625, but he lost to the ranger of Woodstock Park, Sir Gerard Fleetwood. This represented a break with New Woodstock’s electoral tradition, and Lenthall evidently sought a seat in at least one subsequent Parliament, for he later complained to the town ‘you know what a disgrace it was to me the last time, the not choosing me amongst you’. Nevertheless he remained on good terms with the borough, to which he had remitted the greater part of his annual fee in 1622 ‘towards the repairing [sic] of poor children’, and he was finally re-elected in 1640.
His career flourished at the bar, enabling him to buy Bessels Leigh in 1634 and Burford Priory in 1637. By his own account, he was earning £2,500 per annum before he became Speaker of the Long Parliament.
Sir William Lenthall complied with most of the changes of the next 20 years, but was declared incapable of public office at the Restoration.
Having added a last codicil to his will on 13 Aug. 1662, Lenthall died on 3 September 1662 and was buried in Burford church.
Portraits of Lenthall as Speaker by Henry Paert and Van Weesop can be found in the Palace of Westminster. The National Portrait Gallery also holds an anonymous portrait, and a miniature likeness by Samuel Cooper.
Our February 14th celebration was named after St. Valentine, who was known for conducting outlawed marriages, but it didn’t always have romantic associations. The date was also associated with the start of birds’ mating season. The poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to connect the date with romantic love in his his 1375 poem 'Parliament of Foules': “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.”
Alter Kacker -- if he stayed home, Elizabeth would have demanded he help with the laundry, or walk the dog! So 1. he had an office to go to; he never knew when some money might become available, and he had to get there fast to claim some of it; 2. Mrs. Jem was in his care; she was a responsibility if not exactly paid employment; 3. he was collecting intelligence, for himself and for Sandwich. These were dangerous times; if the windowsmashers were coming his way, better be forewarned and lock up first. If Monck indicated a preference for something or someone, better take note.
If you were in the USA, I bet you were paying attention on January 6, 2021. We had no idea if copycats would gather elsewhere. That's the most dangerous day I can remember recently. Before that I have to go back to 1969 when MLK and RFK were assassinated, and they closed my office so we could get home before the riots began. Fortunately, people in my area were satisfied by just marching so there was no violence either time near me.
Our advantage is that we can listen to the radio, watch on TV, or get updates on our cell phones. Pepys has no alternative but to seeking out the information.
He's only 27, and all this running around occurs in a fairly small area -- except for John Playford who, "from 1652 until his retirement kept a shop in the Inner Temple, near the church door" which Pepys says was between his home in Axe Yard and his father's on Salisbury Court. Hhhhhmmmm ... a circuitous route I think, looking at the maps. "No no, Elizabeth -- it's THIS way!" -- "Oh look -- I had forgotten that I wanted a book. I'll just be a minute." Uh-huh.
Sometimes blogs and articles come up that just take my breath away -- this is one of them:
Two centuries ago, John Thomas Smith set out to record the last vestiges of ancient London that survived from before the Great Fire of 1666 but which were vanishing in his lifetime.
You can click on any of these images to enlarge them and study the tender human detail that Smith recorded in these splendid etchings he made from his own drawings. https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023…
Sorry Terry, in 1660 Versailles was still a favorite country chateau favored by the royal family for hunting. According to this article about a 2001 book on Versailles, Louis XIV started building it in 1661. And it took several years before he could move in. And more before the whole court moved there. Magnificent photos. https://www.countrylife.co.uk/arc…
I believe Louis XIV and his Regent mama, Anne of Austria, lived at the Louvre, but I can't find a citation for this. Am I right, Stephane?
I blame TV, Ensign Tom. Most of us have a closer fantasy connection with the daily news readers and talk radio hosts than we have with our neighbors. There is constant noise so our brains have little time for meditating, problem solving or form a desire to play an instrument, or committing to annotate the diary of a long-dead bureaucrat for 9-1/2 years.
As you say, Pepys lived in a more communal way: They took their roast to the bake shop because their home stove couldn't handle it. Someone went shopping every day, and brought home the news from the market. When someone died, everyone went to the church funeral to support the bereft family. There were no public conveniences (toilets) so if you had to go, preferably you visited someone's house that you knew. News was passed verbally; newsletters were read aloud and discussed. Doing the monthly wash was an enormous chore, so local women were hired to help out. People had a tailor or dressmaker. If you played music, you sought out a band. Outside influence was everywhere.
The single family unit we know was an invention by our income tax codes, which require people to be profit centers capable of being self-sustaining. Until 1913 no such idea existed. The tax codes were based on the number of windows in your house, and tariffs on imports.
I don't blame radio for breaking the community spirit: people sat on their front porch or steps and listened while watching children play and acknowledging the neighbors walking by. If you heard something interesting while out, you could stop and share the moment with the neighbor. It is these passing connections which add color, flavor and meaning to our lives, and which fill Pepys' diary.
So I think it's addiction to TV and video games that has us locked in the house with the curtains drawn, fearful that the people next door will mow their lawn, and spoil our enjoyment of the latest episode of QAnon. (The Popish Plot enables me to believe that this latest global insanity will be exposed and debunked in good time.) All we have to do is call a restaurant and dinner will be delivered. We don't even have to say "thank you" -- the food is left on the doorstep and a text says it's here.
Human beings are not designed for this. Community is one reason people who have been in the military often remember it as being the high point of their lives. They had to lean on and support their fellow recruits. Everyone had a part to play, and everyone was essential.
That is also the attraction of gangs and communes. Everyone counts. Everyone is seen and heard. Everyone is important.
Pepys experienced that village and community cohesion, and knew it on a cellular level, which we largely do not know. It's one reason he knew the Navy had to change. Wealthy captains can't mistreat an impressed crew and then expect to have an effective, unified fighting force.
Brilliant, Stephane. Thank you. Your narratives illustrate the dangers of the moment much more than Pepys did -- who would want to be strolling around London wearing a "white suit with silver lace coat" on such a day?
And as to advice for those at Versailles, I would caution that the rebellion is the easy part. What comes afterwards is much harder. And that's why I think the tinder did not blaze today. The populace realized they were out of options. Too many houses had burned down already. They were letting the Houses of Montagu and Capulet beat each other to a pulp. Everyone who avoided the fight won.
London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is home to an extraordinary range of documents, images, maps, film and books about London. This site offers an insight into the archives, with practical advice on how to research and use them, both at LMA and online.
"We run a wide selection of talks, guided tours, film screenings, exhibitions and other events, and you can find out more about these as well as the latest updates from the archives on our news and events page." Some are both in person and on line.
(ooops, I forgot to identify Lord Chancellor to King James, Sir Francis Bacon, as the the author referred to above. Sorry.)
Both the compilation of The History of the Trades and the subsequent philosophical scrutiny were seen as solitary tasks. The compilation had to be undertaken by a young man, or he would never have time to finish.
This combination of ‘usefulness’ and ‘philosophy’ (Evelyn’s preferred terms) was something Evelyn adopted early on and continued to work with throughout his life. It is clear from his first commonplace book that The Advancement of Learning and Hugo Grotius’ The Truth of the Christian Religion were his staple reading during the 1650s.
John Evelyn, a wealthy young man unable to find employment because he was a Royalist, for a time thought he might be the young man needed to make a serious attempt at compiling The History of the Trades. The first evidence we have of this is from 1653, the year in which the works at Wotton were completed, when Samuel Hartlib, a great Commonwealth educator and ‘Intelligencer’, mentions Evelyn as working on the project.
The British Library holds the manuscript volume Evelyn hoped to fill with details of the Trades. He failed to enter much beyond headings – page after page is left blank– since it proved more difficult than expected to get the Tradesmen to divulge what were after all ‘secrets’ of considerable commercial value. The size of the task must also have been an issue, proving to be well beyond Evelyn’s capacities, or the capacity of any one individual.
Eventually, in the context of the Royal Society, The History of the Trades was given a new lease of life in the new guise of a collaborative venture. John Evelyn was instrumental in embedding the History into their program.
The importance of the History to the Royal Society only declined as formal laboratories became more common, thus allowing the philosophical gentlemen increased independence from what Evelyn once called ‘mechanical and capricious persons’.
John Evelyn wrote and published on a broad range of topics including gardening, agriculture, etching and engraving, politics, natural philosophy, and painting to give an incomplete list.
The article is fascinating, and this Bacon/Royal Society aspect is only one part of it: Water in use and philosophy at Wotton House 1670s. A paper by Juliet Odgers: 2014 https://www.academia.edu/74608927…
I found a paper by Juliet Odgers which bringing together two instances from John Evelyn’s early career, the garden at Wotton, Surrey (the principal Evelyn family estate), and another project Evelyn was closely involved in, now known as The History of the Trades.
The ‘History’ was a cornerstone of Bacon’s program for the reformation of inquiry into Nature, and Bacon was an authority of the great importance to Evelyn.
Bacon first outlined the The History of the Trades project in 1605 in his book The Advancement of Learning, with which John Evelyn was thoroughly acquainted at an early age.
Bacon intended The History of the Trades to be a comprehensive compendium of trade ‘secrets’ or craft practices (‘history’ in this context is not a past-oriented word). This knowledge was to perform a crucial part in recasting the study of nature, moving methods away from Aristotelian scholastic disputation and towards personal observation and witness.
In Bacon’s plan, if ‘experiment’ (experience and observation, but no one had yet invented the idea of an hypothesis) was to be the foundation of natural philosophy, something had to serve as a laboratory. Formal laboratories did not become a working reality in England until John Evelyn and his generation started to erect them in their gardens and outhouses -- a good 30 years after the publication of The Advancement of Learning.
Institutional laboratories came even later, and in the absence of specific experimental facilities – ‘instruments’ Bacon calls them – the idea was that tradesmen's workshops, kitchens, brewhouses and gardens would serve as the sources of relevant ‘facts’. In these places, ‘nature’ was routinely subjected to all sorts of revealing transformations, and tradesmen were consequently in possession of a large amount of knowledge, which, when subjected to informed scrutiny, would further the natural philosopher’s understanding.
Before the trade secrets could be subjected to the philosophical scrutiny of ‘one man’s mind’, they would have to be collected, ordered and written-up into a comprehensive book, The History of the Trades.
What was needed was a young man ready to apply himself to the task – ready to persuade tradesmen to give up their secrets to further the cause of natural philosophy.
Meanwhile at the Oxford Court, Charles II today takes a stand against misinformation by authorizing the first issue of The Oxford Gazette. After their return to London, it became the London Gazette, published twice a week.
The London Gazette is not a conventional newspaper covering general news: it is the official journal of the British government and is published on behalf of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, making it subject to Crown copyright. When it was first published, it was sent by post to subscribers, rather than being purchasable on the streets from hawkers.
The London Gazette’s appearance came during a particularly turbulent time. The English Civil Wars were within recent memory, and had been partly fueled by propaganda, with both sides utilizing printing to support their causes and denounce their enemy.
The Restoration was one of glamour, excess, and also political instability. Charles II’s crown was far from secure.
The term ‘fake news’ is a 21st century one, but applies equally to 17th century Britain. Impartial, current, comprehensive news coverage was needed. Instead, information was often delivered late, and was frequently written with political and/or religious bias.
In 1665, plague struck London hard, forcing Charles II and his Court to relocate to Oxford. Fear of infection made many courtiers afraid to handle the miscellaneous London pamphlets, but the need for accurate news remained.
Charles therefore ordered a journal be printed in Oxford. The new journal would provide an authoritative alternative to the disorganized London press. The Gazette’s strap line has always been ‘Published by Authority.’
Pepys later remarked that the London Gazette was ‘full of newes, and no folly in it’.
When Charles II returned to London, the Oxford Gazette also moved, and was renamed and continued to be printed twice a week.
One famous issue, number 85, provided a timely and faithful account of the Great Fire of London, during which the paper’s printing facilities had been destroyed.
Today The Gazette is printed every weekday, publishing bills passed in Parliament, appointments to public office, military awards, and other official business.
It is also available online: every copy having now been digitized, but I find it hard to navigate their system (I suspect I need a subscription). https://www.thegazette.co.uk/
For more information about the Gazette's more recent history, see https://www.historyhit.com/first-… Again, you may need a subscription to this fun site.
John Paulet, 5th Marquess of Winchester is rightly famous for his defiant stand for 2 years during the Civil Wars -- his magnificent home, Basing House, stood on the main road from London to the West Country, a key strategic route during the Civil Wars. It had over 300 rooms, and its gardens covered 14-1/2 acres.
Basing House was referred to as a ‘nest of papists’ by the Parliamentarians. And if Paulet hadn't been so dismissive of the services rendered by Protestant Royalists, the seige might have gone on longer. Ultimately, it was an unwinnable situation.
This article is about how French dentists at the beginning of the 17th century used gold wires to anchor false teeth in the mouth of at least one wealthy widow. The author say this was state of the art dentisty at the time, so she wasn't the only one. The article has photos. https://www.livescience.com/17th-…
"So to church, where a stranger made a dull sermon" -- and Scube's other 36 entries.
Claire Tomalin (Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self) says of Pepys' post-diary life that he was a passionate believer in liberty of conscience.
He wrote in his will that he was content to die "in the profession of that faith, and in the practice of such worship, as I find established by the Law of my country, not being able to believe what I myself please, nor to worship God better than by doing as I would be done unto."
Clearly the cynicism born of his Popish Plot experiences (being accused of being a Catholic); his upbringing as a Puritan; his fears that the Non-Conformists would take over the government of Charles II, and their acceptance under William and Mary; his exposure to believing Catholics (namely Elizabeth and James II, but there were many others) throughout his adult years, leave him quite ambivalent as to God’s preferred religion under Queen Anne. He just wishes to be buried in whatever way the authorities prefer, and will worship God by following the Golden Rule, which should satisfy everyone.
He is a man of the Enlightenment. He has read books like Leviathan and Oceana. He knew James Harrington. He attended the Rota Club. No wonder he found all these sermons “dull”. They involved no original thinking.
Our first hint of this ambivilence is in the first year of the Diary when Sandwich tells Pepys that he is 'wholly Scepticall' in matters of religion. Pepys agrees with him privately with an 'as well as I.'
Later Pepys finds a thin congregation at Westminster Abbey, and writes, 'I see religion, be it what it will, is but a humour, and so the esteem of it passeth as other things do.'"
If Pepys really wanted a full-throated defense of the Church of England, he would have been attending St. Paul's in Covent Garden. But he doesn't.
He no longer lives in a world of Magical Thinking. He already lives in the Age of Reason.
I use to wonder why so many early modern philosophers were also mathematicians. Then I realized that if you train your brain to believe 2+2=4, etc., your brain will also develop a healthy skeptisism about unproveable stories. In order to believe maths and science solutions, you need to be able to repeat the experiment. Pepys can fit barrels into ships, and that requires calculus.
So why does he go to church at all? He has to, by law. This is where he often hears good music. This is where community announcements are read. To set a good example by using the Navy pews. But most of all, he goes to see and be seen, often in his latest Court outfit, with and without Elizabeth.
L&M: Richard Cumberland (15 July 1631 or 1632 – 9 October 1718) was Pepys' contemporary at St. Paul's School and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He describes him as "able a man, and honest" and "a man of reading and parts".
Pepys would have known him at St. Paul's, where all 150 students sat in the same hall, according to Claire Tomalin's biography on page 25.
And they would have grown closer at Magdalene, as there were only 30 students "in residence" when Pepys was there. Tomlin, page 37.
After the Diary, their friendship must have continued as Cumberland dedicated a book to him: An Essay towards the Recovery of the Jewish Measures and Weights (1686).
Cumberland did not like Hobbes' theories, and since he defines moral action in terms of ends and puts great stress on happiness, Cumberland has sometimes been called the father of English utilitarianism. Essential to his thought is his belief in the applicability of mathematical qualities of moral philosophy. The pursuit of the common good, he wrote, is “naturally fitting for a rational being.” As one of the first philosophers to develop a quasi-mathematical morality, or “moral calculus,” Cumberland greatly influenced subsequent ethicists such as Jeremy Bentham, Francis Hutcheson, Samuel Clarke, Benedict de Spinoza, and Gottfried Leibniz. https://www.britannica.com/biogra…
Richard Cumberland went on to be the bishop of Peterborough starting in 1691, and was distinguished by his gentleness and humility. He could not be roused to anger, and spent his days in unbroken serenity. His favourite motto was that a man had better "wear out than rust out." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric…
He died in 1718, leaving children and grandchildren, but none of my on-line biographies mention his wife or when he got married.
"Would copies of the letters be posted up somewhere, or handed round in coffee shops? By whom? And from whom would Pepys have bought his own personal copy?"
Yes, Carol D, they would. If you read the House of Commons minutes -- Phil has posted the links top right -- often you'll see that the Speaker directs that a sermon or a letter or a petition be printed and circulated. They were sold on the street for a penny or two, and passed around.
Later you'll hear about Joseph Williamson and The Gazette, which was England's first newspaper.
Getting the correct word out has always been a challenge for governments. Letting people read the original wording from the sender or speaker is often more impactful than just receiving a Law saying "thou shalt ...".
People also wrote and published "An Answer to ..." and posed opposite arguments. Again, sold on the streets and read widely in Inns and Coffee Ships and at Court.
And yes, this was their version of Twitter, and their opinions a lot longer than 280 characters.
She's a servant, so no, it probably was the illness:
a·gue /ˈāˌɡyo͞o/ noun ARCHAIC malaria or some other illness involving fever and shivering. "as our ancestors knew, the bitter-tasting bark of the willow tree was a cure against the “ague” or malaria" a fever or shivering fit. plural noun: agues "records and texts from the time describe agues or fevers at three- or four-day intervals"
The draining of the fens in East Anglia greatly reduced this chronic illness in Britain.
This article is about an American university level on-line history course. The instructor has chosen to end the section at 1763 instead of the usual 1500 or 1600 to provide students with more grounding in early modern encounters and colonialism, and a firmer foundation for further History study. But he never even mentions the Enlightenment.
Most interesting I thought were these supplementary reference materials about people and events I have never heard of before. Education is never done!
"... my two modules for 1450-1763 include as supplementary material a Dig history podcast episode on Malintzin and her involvement in the Spanish-Mexica war, a segment from PBS’ Africa’s Great Civilizations on Queen Njinga Mbandi and her resistance to Portuguese rule in Angola, an article from The Met about Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita to introduce students to Kongolese Christianity, and an episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast featuring Andrés Reséndez on the enslavement of Native Americans.
"Other example resources include the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database at slavevoyages.org, which has lesson plans, an Aeon long-form piece on the Little Ice Age, and a World History Encyclopedia overview of the global flow of silver from the Spanish-controlled mines in Potosí and Zacatecas."
February 10, 1763 -- The Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years War (French and Indian War). France surrenders all of its North American possessions east of the Mississippi to Britain. This ends a source of insecurity for the British colonists along the Atlantic Coast. https://www.ushistory.org/us/9a.a…
This is Chief Pontiac and Daniel Boone's time. Also shown is George III's proclamation in October outlining incentives for British settlers to move there.
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Third Reading
About William Prynne (MP Bath, Somerset)
San Diego Sarah • Link
The bios above give good outlines to his life, but do read his Parliamentary bio -- he was involved in things affecting Pepys: https://www.historyofparliamenton…
Pepys mentions the 1660 entrance he made with the old sword: "On the return of the secluded Members, he provided comic relief by tripping up Sir William Waller with his old-fashioned basket-hilt sword, and appeared as an open advocate of a Restoration."
He was a resolute Erastian, and ‘very earnestly and passionately’ insisted the decisions of a synod must be confirmed by King and Parliament, and ‘he could not be for bishops unless they derive their power from the King, and not own themselves to be jure divino’. [There's a sign of things to come -- in 80 years.]
After the conference on the indemnity bill, Prynne reminded the House that he had been for excepting all the regicides from the first, and remained of the same opinion: "An we did not, we should be all guilty of the King’s blood, they being such horrid traitors as never yet were known ... Our oaths bound us more than our votes, which we alter daily."
When Parliament met again after the recess, he was ‘ordered to take care’ of the marital separation bill which, as a lifelong bachelor, he could not be persuaded to take seriously.
A strong humanitarian streak found expression in his appointment to the commission for sick and maimed soldiers [from the civil wars], and his persistent efforts on behalf of English slaves in North Africa.
Prynne refused to kneel to receive the sacrament with the other Members, opposed a vote of thanks to Dr. Gunning for an aggressively Anglican sermon, and bitterly attacked the bill to restore the bishops to the House of Lords.
In his report on the final disbandment of the New Model Army he infuriated the Cavaliers by desiring them to be mindful not to do those things that might bring the soldiers together again.
It was probably during the Spring 1662 session that he initiated the attack on William Coventry for selling posts in the navy, which was to be followed up later.
On 28 Oct. 1665 he was sent to ask the King for a commission of inquiry into the administration of the Chatham chest, though as a commissioner he could only hint at abuses.
During the last session of the Clarendon administration he made 6 speeches, introduced bills to banish Popish recusants and abolish marriage licences, and reported the articles of Lord Mordaunt’s impeachment. He acted as teller against hearing the petition from the merchants trading to France.
When a Catholic chapel was discovered in Bath, Prynne wrote a threatening letter which ignored the danger from the fanatics and inspired a friend of Evelyn’s to remark: ‘He can find high treason in a bulrush and innocence in a scorpion’.
About John Crew (a, Baron Crew of Stene)
San Diego Sarah • Link
John Crew MP’s grandfather was a tanner of Nantwich, who put his two sons to the law. Both became Speakers of the House of Commons, a record which remains unique.
John Crew, a moderate Parliamentarian in the Civil Wars, was imprisoned at Pride’s Purge. Although summoned to Cromwell’s ‘Other House’, he never took his seat.
He returned to Westminster with the secluded Members, and moved the resolution condemning the execution of King Charles.
John Crew MP was returned for Northamptonshire for the third time at the general election of 1660. It is probable that most of the 19 references in the Journals are to him rather than to his son.
He derived additional political weight from the part played by his son-in-law Edward Montagu in the Restoration.
His only known speech was unfortunate; Pepys records on 29 Apr. 1660 that, according to Montagu, ‘Mr Crew did go a little too far the other day in keeping out the young lords from sitting’.
He served on the committees for the abolition of the court of wards and the continuance of the Convention, and took part in drawing up the instructions for the messengers to Charles II and the conference on the King’s reception.
John Crew MP was one of the delegation that met Charles II at The Hague. After the King’s return, as a leading Presbyterian he seems to have been chiefly interested in the bill for settling ministers, helping to draw up a proviso on crown livings.
Crew received a peerage in the coronation honours, and retired from public life. His Northamptonshire estate was estimated at £1,660 p.a.
Pepys describes his household as ‘the best family in the world for goodness and sobriety’. There is no evidence that he conformed, and on Christmas Eve 1662 he lamented the fate of ‘the poor ministers who are put out, to whom, he says, the King is beholden for his coming in, and that if any such thing had been foreseen, he had never come in’.
John, Lord Crew was considered an opposition peer from 1675 until his death on 12 Dec. 1679. He and was buried at Steane.
Highlights from https://www.historyofparliamenton…
About William Lenthall
San Diego Sarah • Link
William Lenthall was born June 1591, the second son of William Lenthall (d.1596) of Wilcot, Oxon. and Frances, daughter of Richard Southwell of Horsham St. Faith, Norf.
He went to St. Alban Hall, Oxf. in 1607; entered Lincoln's Inn in 1609, and was called to the bar in 1616.
By 1619, he had married Elizabeth (d.1662), daughter of Ambrose Evans of Loddington, Northants., and they had at least 2 sons and 2 daughters.
Lenthall was Speaker of House of Commons 3 Nov. 1640-30 July 1647,
6 Aug. 1647-20 Apr. 1653, 4 Sept. 1654-22 Jan. 1655, 7 May-13 Oct. 1659,
26 Dec. 1659-16 Mar. 1660.
Lenthall’s ancestors migrated from Herefordshire to Oxfordshire in the 15th century. The family was recusant under Queen Elizabeth, but his branch became Protestant after the death of Lenthall’s father in 1596.
Lenthall’s mother, the sister of the Jesuit poet Robert Southwell, conformed to the established Church, and his elder brother’s guardian was a client of the Cecils.
Lenthall became a lawyer, and was called to the bar in 1616. His marriage made him a kinsman of Sir Lawrence Tanfield MP, who presumably persuaded the corporation of New Woodstock to choose him as recorder in succession to Sir James Whitelocke.
At the general election of 1624 Lenthall was returned for the borough, which usually elected its recorder.
On one occasion he was appointed to assist Attorney General Sir Edward Coke MP with the amendments to the concealed lands bill.
Despite Sir Lawrence Tanfield MP death the following year, Lenthall hoped to be re-elected to Parliament in 1625, but he lost to the ranger of Woodstock Park, Sir Gerard Fleetwood. This represented a break with New Woodstock’s electoral tradition, and Lenthall evidently sought a seat in at least one subsequent Parliament, for he later complained to the town ‘you know what a disgrace it was to me the last time, the not choosing me amongst you’. Nevertheless he remained on good terms with the borough, to which he had remitted the greater part of his annual fee in 1622 ‘towards the repairing [sic] of poor children’, and he was finally re-elected in 1640.
His career flourished at the bar, enabling him to buy Bessels Leigh in 1634 and Burford Priory in 1637. By his own account, he was earning £2,500 per annum before he became Speaker of the Long Parliament.
Sir William Lenthall complied with most of the changes of the next 20 years, but was declared incapable of public office at the Restoration.
Having added a last codicil to his will on 13 Aug. 1662, Lenthall died on 3 September 1662 and was buried in Burford church.
Portraits of Lenthall as Speaker by Henry Paert and Van Weesop can be found in the Palace of Westminster. The National Portrait Gallery also holds an anonymous portrait, and a miniature likeness by Samuel Cooper.
Highlights from https://www.historyofparliamenton…
About Geoffrey Chaucer
San Diego Sarah • Link
Our February 14th celebration was named after St. Valentine, who was known for conducting outlawed marriages, but it didn’t always have romantic associations. The date was also associated with the start of birds’ mating season.
The poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to connect the date with romantic love in his his 1375 poem 'Parliament of Foules':
“For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.”
About Monday 13 February 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
Alter Kacker -- if he stayed home, Elizabeth would have demanded he help with the laundry, or walk the dog!
So 1. he had an office to go to; he never knew when some money might become available, and he had to get there fast to claim some of it;
2. Mrs. Jem was in his care; she was a responsibility if not exactly paid employment;
3. he was collecting intelligence, for himself and for Sandwich. These were dangerous times; if the windowsmashers were coming his way, better be forewarned and lock up first. If Monck indicated a preference for something or someone, better take note.
If you were in the USA, I bet you were paying attention on January 6, 2021.
We had no idea if copycats would gather elsewhere. That's the most dangerous day I can remember recently. Before that I have to go back to 1969 when MLK and RFK were assassinated, and they closed my office so we could get home before the riots began. Fortunately, people in my area were satisfied by just marching so there was no violence either time near me.
Our advantage is that we can listen to the radio, watch on TV, or get updates on our cell phones. Pepys has no alternative but to seeking out the information.
He's only 27, and all this running around occurs in a fairly small area -- except for John Playford who, "from 1652 until his retirement kept a shop in the Inner Temple, near the church door" which Pepys says was between his home in Axe Yard and his father's on Salisbury Court.
Hhhhhmmmm ... a circuitous route I think, looking at the maps. "No no, Elizabeth -- it's THIS way!" -- "Oh look -- I had forgotten that I wanted a book. I'll just be a minute." Uh-huh.
About The City of London
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sometimes blogs and articles come up that just take my breath away -- this is one of them:
Two centuries ago, John Thomas Smith set out to record the last vestiges of ancient London that survived from before the Great Fire of 1666 but which were vanishing in his lifetime.
You can click on any of these images to enlarge them and study the tender human detail that Smith recorded in these splendid etchings he made from his own drawings.
https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023…
This is the London where Pepys lived.
About Thursday 5 January 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sorry Terry, in 1660 Versailles was still a favorite country chateau favored by the royal family for hunting. According to this article about a 2001 book on Versailles, Louis XIV started building it in 1661. And it took several years before he could move in. And more before the whole court moved there.
Magnificent photos.
https://www.countrylife.co.uk/arc…
I believe Louis XIV and his Regent mama, Anne of Austria, lived at the Louvre, but I can't find a citation for this. Am I right, Stephane?
About Friday 10 February 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
I blame TV, Ensign Tom. Most of us have a closer fantasy connection with the daily news readers and talk radio hosts than we have with our neighbors. There is constant noise so our brains have little time for meditating, problem solving or form a desire to play an instrument, or committing to annotate the diary of a long-dead bureaucrat for 9-1/2 years.
As you say, Pepys lived in a more communal way: They took their roast to the bake shop because their home stove couldn't handle it. Someone went shopping every day, and brought home the news from the market. When someone died, everyone went to the church funeral to support the bereft family. There were no public conveniences (toilets) so if you had to go, preferably you visited someone's house that you knew. News was passed verbally; newsletters were read aloud and discussed. Doing the monthly wash was an enormous chore, so local women were hired to help out. People had a tailor or dressmaker. If you played music, you sought out a band. Outside influence was everywhere.
The single family unit we know was an invention by our income tax codes, which require people to be profit centers capable of being self-sustaining. Until 1913 no such idea existed.
The tax codes were based on the number of windows in your house, and tariffs on imports.
I don't blame radio for breaking the community spirit: people sat on their front porch or steps and listened while watching children play and acknowledging the neighbors walking by. If you heard something interesting while out, you could stop and share the moment with the neighbor.
It is these passing connections which add color, flavor and meaning to our lives, and which fill Pepys' diary.
So I think it's addiction to TV and video games that has us locked in the house with the curtains drawn, fearful that the people next door will mow their lawn, and spoil our enjoyment of the latest episode of QAnon. (The Popish Plot enables me to believe that this latest global insanity will be exposed and debunked in good time.) All we have to do is call a restaurant and dinner will be delivered. We don't even have to say "thank you" -- the food is left on the doorstep and a text says it's here.
Human beings are not designed for this. Community is one reason people who have been in the military often remember it as being the high point of their lives. They had to lean on and support their fellow recruits. Everyone had a part to play, and everyone was essential.
That is also the attraction of gangs and communes. Everyone counts. Everyone is seen and heard. Everyone is important.
Pepys experienced that village and community cohesion, and knew it on a cellular level, which we largely do not know. It's one reason he knew the Navy had to change. Wealthy captains can't mistreat an impressed crew and then expect to have an effective, unified fighting force.
About Thursday 2 February 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
Brilliant, Stephane. Thank you. Your narratives illustrate the dangers of the moment much more than Pepys did -- who would want to be strolling around London wearing a "white suit with silver lace coat" on such a day?
And as to advice for those at Versailles, I would caution that the rebellion is the easy part. What comes afterwards is much harder. And that's why I think the tinder did not blaze today. The populace realized they were out of options. Too many houses had burned down already. They were letting the Houses of Montagu and Capulet beat each other to a pulp. Everyone who avoided the fight won.
About Other general reference sites
San Diego Sarah • Link
London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is home to an extraordinary range of documents, images, maps, film and books about London. This site offers an insight into the archives, with practical advice on how to research and use them, both at LMA and online.
"We run a wide selection of talks, guided tours, film screenings, exhibitions and other events, and you can find out more about these as well as the latest updates from the archives on our news and events page." Some are both in person and on line.
LMA is free to use and open to everyone.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/lo…
About John Evelyn
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART TWO
(ooops, I forgot to identify Lord Chancellor to King James, Sir Francis Bacon, as the the author referred to above. Sorry.)
Both the compilation of The History of the Trades and the subsequent philosophical scrutiny were seen as solitary tasks. The compilation had to be undertaken by a young man, or he would never have time to finish.
This combination of ‘usefulness’ and ‘philosophy’ (Evelyn’s preferred terms) was something Evelyn adopted early on and continued to work with throughout his life. It is clear from his first commonplace book that The Advancement of Learning and Hugo Grotius’ The Truth of the Christian Religion were his staple reading during the 1650s.
John Evelyn, a wealthy young man unable to find employment because he was a Royalist, for a time thought he might be the young man needed to make a serious attempt at compiling The History of the Trades.
The first evidence we have of this is from 1653, the year in which the works at Wotton were completed, when Samuel Hartlib, a great Commonwealth educator and ‘Intelligencer’, mentions Evelyn as working on the project.
The British Library holds the manuscript volume Evelyn hoped to fill with details of the Trades. He failed to enter much beyond headings – page after page is left blank– since it proved more difficult than expected to get the Tradesmen to divulge what were after all ‘secrets’ of considerable commercial value.
The size of the task must also have been an issue, proving to be well beyond Evelyn’s capacities, or the capacity of any one individual.
Eventually, in the context of the Royal Society, The History of the Trades was given a new lease of life in the new guise of a collaborative venture. John Evelyn was instrumental in embedding the History into their program.
The importance of the History to the Royal Society only declined as formal laboratories became more common, thus allowing the philosophical gentlemen increased independence from what Evelyn once called ‘mechanical and capricious persons’.
John Evelyn wrote and published on a broad range of topics including gardening, agriculture, etching and engraving, politics, natural philosophy, and painting to give an incomplete list.
The article is fascinating, and this Bacon/Royal Society aspect is only one part of it:
Water in use and philosophy at Wotton House 1670s.
A paper by Juliet Odgers: 2014
https://www.academia.edu/74608927…
About John Evelyn
San Diego Sarah • Link
I found a paper by Juliet Odgers which bringing together two instances from John Evelyn’s early career, the garden at Wotton, Surrey (the principal Evelyn family estate), and another project Evelyn was closely involved in, now known as The History of the Trades.
The ‘History’ was a cornerstone of Bacon’s program for the reformation of inquiry into Nature, and Bacon was an authority of the great importance to Evelyn.
Bacon first outlined the The History of the Trades project in 1605 in his book The Advancement of Learning, with which John Evelyn was thoroughly acquainted at an early age.
Bacon intended The History of the Trades to be a comprehensive compendium of trade ‘secrets’ or craft practices (‘history’ in this context is not a past-oriented word). This knowledge was to perform a crucial part in recasting the study of nature, moving methods away from Aristotelian scholastic disputation and towards personal observation and witness.
In Bacon’s plan, if ‘experiment’ (experience and observation, but no one had yet invented the idea of an hypothesis) was to be the foundation of natural philosophy, something had to serve as a laboratory.
Formal laboratories did not become a working reality in England until John Evelyn and his generation started to erect them in their gardens and outhouses -- a good 30 years after the publication of The Advancement of Learning.
Institutional laboratories came even later, and in the absence of specific experimental facilities – ‘instruments’ Bacon calls them – the idea was that tradesmen's workshops, kitchens, brewhouses and gardens would serve as the sources of relevant ‘facts’. In these places, ‘nature’ was routinely subjected to all sorts of revealing transformations, and tradesmen were consequently in possession of a large amount of knowledge, which, when subjected to informed scrutiny, would further the natural philosopher’s understanding.
Before the trade secrets could be subjected to the philosophical scrutiny of ‘one man’s mind’, they would have to be collected, ordered and written-up into a comprehensive book, The History of the Trades.
What was needed was a young man ready to apply himself to the task – ready to persuade tradesmen to give up their secrets to further the cause of natural philosophy.
About Tuesday 7 November 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Meanwhile at the Oxford Court, Charles II today takes a stand against misinformation by authorizing the first issue of The Oxford Gazette.
After their return to London, it became the London Gazette, published twice a week.
The London Gazette is not a conventional newspaper covering general news: it is the official journal of the British government and is published on behalf of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, making it subject to Crown copyright. When it was first published, it was sent by post to subscribers, rather than being purchasable on the streets from hawkers.
The London Gazette’s appearance came during a particularly turbulent time. The English Civil Wars were within recent memory, and had been partly fueled by propaganda, with both sides utilizing printing to support their causes and denounce their enemy.
The Restoration was one of glamour, excess, and also political instability. Charles II’s crown was far from secure.
The term ‘fake news’ is a 21st century one, but applies equally to 17th century Britain. Impartial, current, comprehensive news coverage was needed. Instead, information was often delivered late, and was frequently written with political and/or religious bias.
In 1665, plague struck London hard, forcing Charles II and his Court to relocate to Oxford. Fear of infection made many courtiers afraid to handle the miscellaneous London pamphlets, but the need for accurate news remained.
Charles therefore ordered a journal be printed in Oxford. The new journal would provide an authoritative alternative to the disorganized London press. The Gazette’s strap line has always been ‘Published by Authority.’
Pepys later remarked that the London Gazette was ‘full of newes, and no folly in it’.
When Charles II returned to London, the Oxford Gazette also moved, and was renamed and continued to be printed twice a week.
One famous issue, number 85, provided a timely and faithful account of the Great Fire of London, during which the paper’s printing facilities had been destroyed.
Today The Gazette is printed every weekday, publishing bills passed in Parliament, appointments to public office, military awards, and other official business.
It is also available online: every copy having now been digitized, but I find it hard to navigate their system (I suspect I need a subscription).
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/
For more information about the Gazette's more recent history, see
https://www.historyhit.com/first-…
Again, you may need a subscription to this fun site.
About Isabella Theresa Mary Paulet
San Diego Sarah • Link
John Paulet, 5th Marquess of Winchester is rightly famous for his defiant stand for 2 years during the Civil Wars -- his magnificent home, Basing House, stood on the main road from London to the West Country, a key strategic route during the Civil Wars. It had over 300 rooms, and its gardens covered 14-1/2 acres.
Basing House was referred to as a ‘nest of papists’ by the Parliamentarians. And if Paulet hadn't been so dismissive of the services rendered by Protestant Royalists, the seige might have gone on longer. Ultimately, it was an unwinnable situation.
A book was published in 2022 about this heroic stand. That Paulet survived is remarkable:
https://www.historyhit.com/loyalt…
About Barber-Surgeons' Company
San Diego Sarah • Link
This article is about how French dentists at the beginning of the 17th century used gold wires to anchor false teeth in the mouth of at least one wealthy widow. The author say this was state of the art dentisty at the time, so she wasn't the only one. The article has photos.
https://www.livescience.com/17th-…
About Sunday 25 April 1669
San Diego Sarah • Link
"So to church, where a stranger made a dull sermon" -- and Scube's other 36 entries.
Claire Tomalin (Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self) says of Pepys' post-diary life that he was a passionate believer in liberty of conscience.
He wrote in his will that he was content to die "in the profession of that faith, and in the practice of such worship, as I find established by the Law of my country, not being able to believe what I myself please, nor to worship God better than by doing as I would be done unto."
Clearly the cynicism born of his Popish Plot experiences (being accused of being a Catholic); his upbringing as a Puritan; his fears that the Non-Conformists would take over the government of Charles II, and their acceptance under William and Mary; his exposure to believing Catholics (namely Elizabeth and James II, but there were many others) throughout his adult years, leave him quite ambivalent as to God’s preferred religion under Queen Anne. He just wishes to be buried in whatever way the authorities prefer, and will worship God by following the Golden Rule, which should satisfy everyone.
He is a man of the Enlightenment. He has read books like Leviathan and Oceana. He knew James Harrington. He attended the Rota Club. No wonder he found all these sermons “dull”. They involved no original thinking.
Our first hint of this ambivilence is in the first year of the Diary when Sandwich tells Pepys that he is 'wholly Scepticall' in matters of religion. Pepys agrees with him privately with an 'as well as I.'
Later Pepys finds a thin congregation at Westminster Abbey, and writes, 'I see religion, be it what it will, is but a humour, and so the esteem of it passeth as other things do.'"
If Pepys really wanted a full-throated defense of the Church of England, he would have been attending St. Paul's in Covent Garden. But he doesn't.
He no longer lives in a world of Magical Thinking. He already lives in the Age of Reason.
I use to wonder why so many early modern philosophers were also mathematicians. Then I realized that if you train your brain to believe 2+2=4, etc., your brain will also develop a healthy skeptisism about unproveable stories. In order to believe maths and science solutions, you need to be able to repeat the experiment. Pepys can fit barrels into ships, and that requires calculus.
So why does he go to church at all? He has to, by law. This is where he often hears good music. This is where community announcements are read. To set a good example by using the Navy pews. But most of all, he goes to see and be seen, often in his latest Court outfit, with and without Elizabeth.
About Richard Cumberland
San Diego Sarah • Link
L&M: Richard Cumberland (15 July 1631 or 1632 – 9 October 1718) was Pepys' contemporary at St. Paul's School and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He describes him as "able a man, and honest" and "a man of reading and parts".
Pepys would have known him at St. Paul's, where all 150 students sat in the same hall, according to Claire Tomalin's biography on page 25.
And they would have grown closer at Magdalene, as there were only 30 students "in residence" when Pepys was there. Tomlin, page 37.
After the Diary, their friendship must have continued as Cumberland dedicated a book to him: An Essay towards the Recovery of the Jewish Measures and Weights (1686).
Cumberland did not like Hobbes' theories, and since he defines moral action in terms of ends and puts great stress on happiness, Cumberland has sometimes been called the father of English utilitarianism. Essential to his thought is his belief in the applicability of mathematical qualities of moral philosophy. The pursuit of the common good, he wrote, is “naturally fitting for a rational being.” As one of the first philosophers to develop a quasi-mathematical morality, or “moral calculus,” Cumberland greatly influenced subsequent ethicists such as Jeremy Bentham, Francis Hutcheson, Samuel Clarke, Benedict de Spinoza, and Gottfried Leibniz.
https://www.britannica.com/biogra…
Richard Cumberland went on to be the bishop of Peterborough starting in 1691, and was distinguished by his gentleness and humility. He could not be roused to anger, and spent his days in unbroken serenity. His favourite motto was that a man had better "wear out than rust out."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric…
He died in 1718, leaving children and grandchildren, but none of my on-line biographies mention his wife or when he got married.
About Tuesday 31 January 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Would copies of the letters be posted up somewhere, or handed round in coffee shops? By whom? And from whom would Pepys have bought his own personal copy?"
Yes, Carol D, they would. If you read the House of Commons minutes -- Phil has posted the links top right -- often you'll see that the Speaker directs that a sermon or a letter or a petition be printed and circulated. They were sold on the street for a penny or two, and passed around.
Later you'll hear about Joseph Williamson and The Gazette, which was England's first newspaper.
Getting the correct word out has always been a challenge for governments. Letting people read the original wording from the sender or speaker is often more impactful than just receiving a Law saying "thou shalt ...".
People also wrote and published "An Answer to ..." and posed opposite arguments. Again, sold on the streets and read widely in Inns and Coffee Ships and at Court.
And yes, this was their version of Twitter, and their opinions a lot longer than 280 characters.
About Tuesday 31 January 1659/60
San Diego Sarah • Link
She's a servant, so no, it probably was the illness:
a·gue /ˈāˌɡyo͞o/
noun ARCHAIC
malaria or some other illness involving fever and shivering.
"as our ancestors knew, the bitter-tasting bark of the willow tree was a cure against the “ague” or malaria"
a fever or shivering fit.
plural noun: agues
"records and texts from the time describe agues or fevers at three- or four-day intervals"
The draining of the fens in East Anglia greatly reduced this chronic illness in Britain.
About Other general reference sites
San Diego Sarah • Link
This article is about an American university level on-line history course. The instructor has chosen to end the section at 1763 instead of the usual 1500 or 1600 to provide students with more grounding in early modern encounters and colonialism, and a firmer foundation for further History study. But he never even mentions the Enlightenment.
Most interesting I thought were these supplementary reference materials about people and events I have never heard of before. Education is never done!
"... my two modules for 1450-1763 include as supplementary material
a Dig history podcast episode on Malintzin and her involvement in the Spanish-Mexica war,
a segment from PBS’ Africa’s Great Civilizations on Queen Njinga Mbandi and her resistance to Portuguese rule in Angola,
an article from The Met about Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita to introduce students to Kongolese Christianity,
and an episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast featuring Andrés Reséndez on the enslavement of Native Americans.
"Other example resources include
the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database at slavevoyages.org, which has lesson plans,
an Aeon long-form piece on the Little Ice Age,
and a World History Encyclopedia overview of the global flow of silver from the Spanish-controlled mines in Potosí and Zacatecas."
From https://ageofrevolutions.com/2022…
So what happened in 1763?
February 10, 1763 -- The Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years War (French and Indian War). France surrenders all of its North American possessions east of the Mississippi to Britain. This ends a source of insecurity for the British colonists along the Atlantic Coast.
https://www.ushistory.org/us/9a.a…
This is Chief Pontiac and Daniel Boone's time. Also shown is George III's proclamation in October outlining incentives for British settlers to move there.