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San Diego Sarah has posted 9,762 annotations/comments since 6 August 2015.

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Second Reading

About Saturday 15 September 1666

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"and while my people were busy, wrote near thirty letters and orders with my owne hand."

Does anyone know what these letters were about, or to whom Pepys was writing?

My guess is that he's rounding up information for the Parliamentary report Coventry has requested ... ?

About Friday 14 September 1666

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

https://books.google.com/books?pg…

Calendar of State Papers, Domestic. September 14, 1666

Sept. 14. 120. [Aphra Behn to Mr. Halsall].

Her letters from Holland say the French fleet cannot be got ready to join the Holland fleet, and a speedy battle may prevent the joining.

There are disorders in the States, and another is displaced from the Council for visiting Buat in prison. It is said that if our fleet win, the Prince [of Orange], who is at Cleves, will return with an army, and the army in Holland is generally for him.

Also, that Benjamin Turley is the quaker in whom the fanatics so confide, but his name is not to be mentioned. [Partly in cypher, decyphered, 2 pages.}

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On August 18, 1666 Charles II made another peace offer to Grand Pensionary De Witt, using Capt. Henri Buat as an intermediary (he had performed this task before).

Among the letters given to De Witt was one included by mistake which contained the secret English instructions to their contacts in the Orange party, outlining plans for an overthrow of the States regime.

Capt. Buat was arrested. As a result, his accomplices fled to England, among them Johan Kievit, who was condemned to death in absentia. Van Tromp's family was fined, and he was forbidden to serve in the fleet.

De Witt now had proof of the collaborationist nature of the Orange movement; and the major city regents distanced themselves from the Orangist's cause.

The mood in the Republic has now became very belligerent.

About Limehouse

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The Grapes is a famous riverside pub, dating from the 1550's. Given Pepys' love of eating out, it's amazing to me that he never mentions going there. For some gritty pictures and stories past and present of this landmark:

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/…

About Sir Thomas Adams (1st Baronet)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Highlights from https://landedfamilies.blogspot.c…

In the 1650s former Lord Mayor of London, and former Col. of the militia Thomas Adams was suspected of helping to finance Royalist plots and of supporting the Stuart court in exile, to the reputed extent of £10,000.

Col. Adams was elected MP for the City of London, 1654-55, 1656-58 but was excluded because of his Royalist sympathies; he was the only MP excluded from both Commonwealth Parliaments.

At the Restoration, Col. Adams MP was one of the citizens asked by the City of London to accompany Gen, Monck to Breda to bring home the King.

Charles II knighted Col. Adams MP at The Hague in May 1660, and he was created a baronet on 13 June 1661.
Sir Thomas was subsequently restored to his aldermanry and to the presidency of St. Thomas's Hospital.

Alderman Sir Thomas Adams MP died following a fall from his coach, 24 February 1668, aged about 81. After his death an enormous kidney stone, weighing 25 ounces, was removed from his body and exhibited at the Royal Society; remarkably, according to Pepys, it had occasioned him no pain.

An elaborate funeral, organized by the heralds, was held at St. Katherine Cree on 10 March, 1667/8, after which Alderman Sir Thomas Adams 1st Bart., was taken to Sprowston Hall, Norfolk, for burial.

Alderman Adams' will, proved in April 1668, left legacies to many charities, hospitals, and ministers' widows.

Some of these bequests are listed in
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Renowned as a public benefactor, in his lifetime Sir Thomas gave his house at Wem as a free-school (Thomas Adams School) to the town, and endowed it;

he founded an Arabic professorship at Cambridge in 1643,

and paid for the printing of the Gospels in Persian, and for sending them into the east.

Despite suffering great losses in his estate, he left legacies to the poor of many parishes, to hospitals, and ministers' widows in his will.

From the introduction to Dean Nathaniel Hardy's printed version of his sermon after the 1666 Great Fire, it appears Sir Thomas Adams supported and protected Hardy throughout the Cromwell years at St. Dionis Church, London.

About Nathaniel Hardy

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Dean Hardy of St. Dionis is very close to former Lord Mayor and current Aldeman Sir Thomas Adams, 1st Bart., who was also known to Pepys, but he doesn't tell us how. They both were Royalists who were successful under Cromwell.

About Nathaniel Hardy

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... there preached Dean Harding; but, methinks, a bad, poor sermon, though proper for the time; ..."

I tried to read it, and have to agree with Pepys. Dean Nathanial Hardy was trying very hard to be relevant, but ...

Lamentation, mourning, and woe. Sighed forth in a sermon preached in the parish-church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, on the 9th day of September. Being the next Lords-day after the dismal fire in the city of London. By Nath. Hardy D.D.D.R. Chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty, and Vicar of the said parish-church.

Many of his writings and sermons are available here:

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo…

About Thursday 2 July 1668

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"and the lady he had married this day, came and bedded at night at my house, many friends accompanying the bride."

"in 1668, Sir Samuel Tuke, 1st Baronet married a second wife, Mary Sheldon (died 1705, Portugal), a dresser to Charles II's Queen, Catherine of Braganza - she was accused of interfering with a witness to the Popish Plot in 1679 and after Charles II's death returned to Portugal with Catherine in 1692."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir…

About James Butler (Duke of Ormond, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The best documentation of the change in spelling that I have been able to find today is from
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_of_Orm…

James Butler, the fifth earl of Ormond in this creation, was made Marquess of Ormonde (1642) and Duke of Ormonde (1660) in the Peerage of Ireland, and Duke of Ormonde (1682) in the Peerage of England. ... After 1682, the spelling "Ormonde" was used almost universally.

I'd say the confusion on spelling Ormonde is still universal!

About James Butler (Duke of Ormond, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

During the Diary years, James Butler, Duke of Ormonde is mostly the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, based in Dublin Castle.

In 1660 James Butler, Marquis of Ormonde (who had urged constitutional rather than military rule in Ireland), was made a commissioner for the treasury and the navy.

On 30 March, 1661 James Butler was created Duke of Ormonde in the Irish peerage and made Lord High Steward of England.

At the coronation of Charles II in May 1661, Ormonde carried the crown. His Irish estates were restored to him as a matter of course, and the King added a promise to pay him a large sum of money.

That promise was never kept, but the Irish Parliament, anxious to curry favor with Ormonde and the king, voted him 30,000 pounds. (At the close of his career Ormonde declared that he had spent nearly a million of money in service to the crown, and although this is an obvious exaggeration, it is a fact that he lost heavily financially and otherwise by his adherence to the Stuart cause.)

Appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland in 1662, Ormonde made vigorous attempts to encourage Irish commerce and industry. Nevertheless, his enemies (the Buckingham faction) at court persuaded Charles II to dismiss him in 1669.

James Butler, Duke of Ormonde was restored to royal favor in 1677 and appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland for the third time in 50 years.

Protestant James Butler was created a Duke in the English peerage in 1682, and was recalled from Ireland in 1684 as a result of new intrigues at Charles II’s court and because of the determination of James, Duke of York, to strengthen his Catholic supporters in Ireland.

(And "e" was added to his Irish title "Ormond" by Charles I -- there is also a Scottish title spelled "Ormond". It's too late to change all the history books.)

About Thursday 13 September 1666

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Here I hear that this poor town [Deptford] do bury still of the plague seven or eight in a day."

From this comment I now reverse my guess that the Deptford shipyards were closed. If they had been closed, Pepys would have been aware of the extent of the pestilence in the town. It does add weight to my theory about why Mrs. Bagwell didn't want to see him the other day.

About Thursday 13 September 1666

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... a threat of that kind has long been mentioned in the intelligence received, ..."

Intelligence? There has been a noticeable lack thereof all summer.

About Wednesday 5 September 1666

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

1666 end of August -- The Generals-at-Sea, Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle, were anxious to score one last victory during the fighting season. The ships were repaired and victualed, and went cruising off the Dutch coast.

By the end of August the duc de Beaufort and the French fleet has progressed as far as the Bay of Biscay. They were further away than even the Dutch appreciated. Their plan was to join the two fleets and attack the English fleet by stealth and by numbers.

Following some skirmishes the English fleet, anticipating the combined Dutch and French fleets, by the beginning of September was staying close to Portsmouth, with several ships needing repairs.

Then on September 5, the Duke of Albemarle received a letter from Secretary of State Sir William Morrice telling him that Charles II needed him back in London because "God had visited the city with a heavy calamity."

Albemarle surrendered control of the fleet to Prince Rupert and began his 75-mile return to London the next morning.

More information see 1666: Plague, War and Hellfire by Rebecca Rideal -- St. Martin' Press, New York -- 2016 -- ISBN 978-1-250-09707-2 (hard back) -- page 165-166

About Wednesday 12 September 1666

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"...I took him [Balty] down with me to Deptford, and there by the Bezan loaded above half my goods and sent them away. So we back home,
... and so away home late to Sir W. Pen’s (Balty and his wife lying at my house), ..."

I only remember him saying that the Joyce home and his father's old house had burned down. No mention of what has happened to the Saint Michel Seniors, or Esther's home, or where the four Joyces and uncle and aunt Wight are camping.

Now Pepys has some furniture back in his house, he can accommodate Balty and Esther in more comfort than anywhere else available to them. Plus they can supervise the clean up and unpacking, freeing him up to do what exactly tomorrow?

Sometimes he makes it hard to like him.

About Wednesday 12 September 1666

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

1666 September -- It took more than a week for the news of the Great Fire to reach Paris.

Publicly Louis IV said that he would not have "any rejoicings about it, being such a deplorable accident involving injury to so many unhappy people" and offered his condolences to Dowager Queen Henrietta Maria, his aunt, then living in Paris. He offered to send aid, food and other disaster relief.

Privately he was thrilled at his stroke of good fortune. He had made a mess of his summer campaign, and the French fleet was in no position to fight. He believed the English maritime supplies and magazines had been destroyed, which would force the English to retire from the War.

More information see 1666: Plague, War and Hellfire by Rebecca Rideal -- St. Martin' Press, New York -- 2016 -- ISBN 978-1-250-09707-2 (hard back) -- page 199

About Monday 10 September 1666

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... calling at Deptford, intending to see Bagwell ..."

She expected you yesterday, remember?

The plague is still in Deptford. Maybe she's whitewashing downstairs now her husband has left again. No wonder she refused to open the door to you.

About Monday 10 September 1666

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... while I upon Jane’s coming went down to my wife, ..."

Jane Birch is back? She's hardly a replacement for Mercer. Pepys wants the house cleaned, so maybe that's why she's here. We shall see.

About Monday 10 September 1666

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"But by and by comes brother Balty from sea ..."

The fleet is hovering around Portsmouth in St. Helen's Roads off the Isle of Wight, just in case the Dutch get their act together. Since Balty has been used as a messenger before, it's reasonable to think that's why he's in London now. The regular seamen have not been released.

About Monday 10 September 1666

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

'"God hath preserved my house in Broad Street. I wish I could give your Lordship the same account of the Wardrobe, but I am told your goods there are preserved."'

I think this means that the Wardrobe building burned down, but the King's ceremonial robes and extra belongings, and the Montagu family belongings, were safely removed in time.

I wonder where all the furniture from Whitehall was taken.