Today Sandwich was visiting with John Evelyn. From Evelyn's Diary:
"25th September, 1665. My Lord Admiral being come from the fleet to Greenwich, I went thence with him to the Cock-pit, to consult with the Duke of Albemarle. I was peremptory that, unless we had ^10,000 immediately, the prisoners would starve, and it was proposed it should be raised out of the East India prizes now taken by Lord Sandwich.
"They being but two of the commission, and so not empowered to determine, sent an express to his Majesty and Council, to know what they should do. In the meantime, I had five vessels, with competent guards, to keep the prisoners in for the present, to be placed as I should think best.
"After dinner (which was at the General's) I went over to visit his Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth." [Archbishop of Canterbury Gilbert Sheldon]
Rochester is the next town down the Medway from Chatham (i.e. west, and around a bend in the river). It must have been very dark! Or the fisher boy really didn’t want to go to Chatham.
Sadly Pedro's link is dead. The City of Rochester has a history page at http://www.city-of-rochester.org.… But in case it dies, here is the short version:
Rochester is an old city; there was an important settlement here well before the Roman occupation of Britain in AD43. It was also where the ancient highway which later became part of the Roman Watling Street, forded the River Medway. The Romans probably built the first bridge and fortified the town, which became known as Durobrivae – ‘The Stronghold by the Bridge’.
The first Christian church in Rochester was established in AD604 and Justus (a contemporary of St. Augustine) was appointed its first Bishop. The Norman’s recognised Rochester’s strategic importance and a castle was built here soon after William’s Conquest of 1066. The city received its first charter from Richard I in 1190.
The River Medway divides the County of Kent in two, separating the ‘Men of Kent’ on the East Bank from the ‘Kentish Men’ on the West.
Many Kings and Queens visited Rochester: In 1540, Henry VIII came to see the woman who was to be his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves -- and wasn't happy. Elizabeth I came to Rochester in 1573, staying at the Crown Inn (still standing at the bridge end of Rochester High Street, albeit much changed). She also stayed at the home of Richard Watts, MP for Rochester. Watts’ former home is known as ‘Satis House’ in tribute to Queen Elizabeth’s comment when asked how she had enjoyed her stay.
James I visited the city three times. In 1625, Charles I passed through on his way to Dover. In 1660, Charles II stayed overnight at the home of Sir Francis Clerke, prior to his restoration to the throne. The house, known since then as ‘Restoration House’, was the inspiration for Miss Haversham’s house in Dickens’ Great Expectations. In 1688, James II was a semi-prisoner in a house on the High Street before his escape to France (this house is now known as ‘Abdication House’).
Samuel Pepys visited Rochester and Chatham in 1661, and again in 1667 to view the damage done by the Dutch Fleet following its attack on Chatham Dockyard. [HA! We know better!]
The personality most often associated with Rochester is novelist Charles Dickens. He spent his early childhood in Chatham, where his father was employed as Clerk to the Pay Office. Young Dickens and his father would go for long walks through the surrounding countryside and it was on these walks that Dickens first saw and admired Gad’s Hill Place in nearby Higham. This house, about four miles from Rochester on the road to Gravesend, was to become Dickens’ home from 1859 until his death in 1870.
Rochester features in Dickens’ work more than any other town except London, either by its own name or a fictitious one – ‘Cloisterham’ in ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ and ‘Dullborough’ in the ‘Uncommercial Traveller’.
It does seem Sandwich and colleagues are in violation of a 1661 Act for the Establishing Articles and Orders for the regulating and better Government of His Majesties Navies Ships of War & Forces by Sea.
Taking out of Prize, or Ships or Goods seized for Prize, any Money, &c. before Judgment had Punishment; Proviso for Pillage.; Exception.
7. None in his Majesty’s pay shall take out of any Prize or Ship or Goods seized on for Prize any Money Plate Goods Lading or Tackle before Judgement thereof first past in the Admiralty Court but the full and entire accompt of the whole without embezzlement shall be brought in and Judgement past entirely upon the whole without fraud upon pain of such punishment as shall be imposed by a Court martial or the Court of Admiralty excepting That it shall be lawful for all Captains Seamen Soldiers and others serving as aforesaid to take and to have to themselves as Pillage without further or other account to be given for the same all such Goods and [Merchandize (fn. 1) ] (other than Arms Ammunition Tackle Furniture or Stores of such Ship) as shall be found by them or any of them in any Ship (they shall take in fight or prize) upon or above the Gundeck of the said Ship and not otherwise.
HOWEVER, if your seamen are hungry, their pay is in arrears, and the possibility exists that the Dutch may be back shortly, it might be considered prudent to share a taste of the spoils quickly. Rioting, looting, desertion, and/or mutiny need to be avoided, almost regardless of cost. If the seamen see the Admiral is concerned about their welfare, they may not desert. (This is entirely my argument to explain Sandwich's actions ... so far I haven't seen anything in the Diary to justify him knowlingly ignoring the above rules.)
September 14, 1665, John Tillison wrote, in a letter to Dr. Sancroft, Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral (presumably out of town this summer -- and never mentioned in the Diary):
“What eye would not weep to see so many habitations uninhabited, ye poor sick not visited, ye hungry not fed, ye grave not satisfied. Death stares us continually in the face in every infected person that passeth by us; in every coffin which is daily and hourly carried along ye streets. … The custom was … to bury the dead in the night only; now, both night and day will hardly be time enough to do it. … [L]ast week, … the dead was piled in heaps above ground … before either time could be gained or place to bury them. The Quakers … have buried in their piece of ground [Bunhill Row] a thousand … Many are [also] dead in … other places about the town which are not included in the bill of mortality”.
Two more nominations of who should be working with the prizes:
Robert Southwell obtained the post of secretary to the Commission of Prizes in 1664.
Sir Thomas Clifford, M.P. for Totnes 1660-1672; ... a sub-commissioner of the Sick and Wounded and a Commissioner for Prizes 1664-1667. He served in the fleet in the Second Dutch War. Pepys remarks more than once on his ability and his astonishing rise to power. (Seems to be M.I.A. on both commissions! You've got 3,000 P.O.W.s to house and feed too. Evelyn's only taking 300.)
Where are the Prize Commissioners? I have the following notes on who should be doing the work Mennes and Brouncker are being sent to do:
On 28 April 1664 Sir Elisha Leighton was made one of the secretaries of the prize office (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1663–4, p. 571).
(L&M footnote) The Calendars of State Papers are full of applications for Commissionerships of the Prize Office. In December, 1664, the Navy Committee appointed themselves the Commissioners for Prize Goods, Sir Henry Bennet being appointed comptroller, and Lord Ashley treasurer. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Politicians landed all the jobs appointed on 24 December: besides Bennett and Ashley the others were, with few exceptions, M.P.s: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
"In Charles II’s reign, captains could usually expect half the value of the prize and its contents, although allocations did vary; any goods or valuables in the great cabin were reserved for the captain, while the seamen were free to get what else they could between decks. Captains of the smaller ships were at a clear advantage, as their vessels were employed on cruising and convoy duties and were therefore more likely to encounter enemy warships or merchantmen than those in the main fleet." -- (Gentlemen and Tarpaulins by J D Davies)
So Sandwich giving part of the spoils to his seamen was S.O.P. (Standard Operating Procedures). "L&M: The two E. Indiamen (the Phoenix and the Slotheny) had been captured by Sandwich, along with 11 other ship, on 3 September. Imprudently he allowed his commanders and seamen to take their accustomed share (all that lay between decks) before it was legally judged to be prize." https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
"Expresses H.R.H.'s satisfaction at the receipt of the despatches brought by Sir Henry Bellasys, reporting the late action with part of the Dutch fleet."
Sir Henry Belasyse 1639-1667, eldest son of John, 1st Baron Belasyse, married for the second time in October 1662 a wealthy but plain heiress, Susan, daughter of Sir William Armyne, 2nd Bt., of Osgodby, Lincs. Unfortunately, Henry was in love with someone else.
Then his friend, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, endorsed someone else to be M.P. for York, so Henry offered his services as a volunteer aboard the fleet during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
On Saturday, 16 September, 1665, Dirk tells us that John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester delivered a report from Sandwich to Bennet and Ashley-Cooper at Wimborne St. Giles. I suppose Sandwich wrote reports to all the Privy Councilors scattered all over the country, and sent them via these noble volunteers.
Horrifying as we find Pepys’ solution to his predicament, he wasn’t alone. What is remarkable is that this was so unusual for him, he recorded his conflict.
When convent-educated Queen Catherine of Braganza and her bevy of ladies arrived in England for her marriage to Charles II in 1661, she and her Portuguese ladies were horrified to see noblemen urinating throughout the palace. The ladies complained “they cannot stir abroad without seeing in every corner great beastly English pricks battering against every wall.”
But it wasn’t just the English. In a 1675 report on life at the Louvre says, “on the grand staircases … behind the doors and almost everywhere one sees there a mass of excrement, one smells a thousand unbearable stenches caused by calls of nature which everyone goes to do there every day.” Louis XIV built the place without any public houses of office.
Smelly filth is one reason the Courts travel so much. Henry VIII and wives and friends went from Whitehall to Hampton Court Palace to Windsor Castle to Greenwich Palace to Nonesuch and Richmond and beyond, often completing 30 moves a year. Once the Court had vacated, servants descended, brushes and buckets in hand, to remove all the human waste off the floors and walls.
"... then to Sir J. Minnes’s, where I find my Lady Batten come, and she and my Lord Bruncker and his mistresse, and the whole house-full there at cards. But by and by my Lord Bruncker goes away and others of the company, and when I expected Sir J. Minnes and his sister should have staid to have made Sir W. Batten and Lady sup, I find they go up in snuffe to bed without taking any manner of leave of them, but left them with Mr. Boreman. The reason of this I could not presently learn, but anon I hear it is that Sir J. Minnes did expect and intend them a supper, but they without respect to him did first apply themselves to Boreman, which makes all this great feude. However I staid and there supped, all of us being in great disorder from this, ... where my Lady Batten and Sir W. Batten did come to town with an intent to lodge, and I was forced to go seek a lodging ..."
From this I gather that rooms were limited at Mr. Boreman's house. At first Pepys thinks he can stay there, but when he finds that Admiral and Lady Batten, and Admiral Mennes and his sister are all there for the night, there are insufficient rooms. Rather than find themselves roomless, the Batten skip dinner and quietly go to bed (probably taking the nicest rooms), leaving the rest to fight it out.
Pepys doesn't want to go to Woolwich, or back to George Cocke's, so it's Hewer to the rescue, again.
Today the Guardian printed an article about Capt. Edward Barlow, who could easily have known Pepys later, although he does not appear in the Diary because he was younger and junior at the time.
As a farm worker’s son, Barlow joined the navy as a child, sailed as a teenager on the same ship as Pepys to bring Charles II back to England, and went on to survive several shipwrecks and captivity, and eventually rose to become a captain.
“After dinner Cocke did pray me to help him to 500l. of W. Howe, who is deputy Treasurer, wherein my Lord Bruncker and I am to be concerned and I did aske it my Lord, and he did consent to have us furnished with 500l., and I did get it paid to Sir Roger Cuttance and Mr. Pierce in part for above 1,000l. worth of goods, Mace, Nutmegs, Cynamon, and Cloves, and he tells us we may hope to get 1,500l. by it, which God send!”
Cocke and Howe have cooked up a deal whereby Howe will sell mace, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves to the consortium of Pepys, Cocke and Brouncker for 500l.. Pepys clears the idea with Sandwich, who agrees to advance them the 500l. for goods worth 1,000l., but says to give the money to surgeon James Pearse and Flag Capt. Sir Roger Cuttance. They expect to sell the goods for 1,500l.
Makes me wonder what Mennes brought home, and forgot to mention at lunch yesterday.
At the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War both Howe and Creed assumed they will be Sandwich's Treasurer for the campaign. Pepys diplomatically put the money on the table and waits for them to sort out who takes responsibility for it. Howe takes the money.
By April 1665 Creed had lost Sandwich's trust as it has been revealed he is worth 10,000l., and the suspicion is he profited from their last cruise when he oversaw (and messed up) the fleet accounts. However, both Sandwich and Pepys agree that young Howe is officious. From one point-of-view, Pepys stays neutral by agreeing with both that the other is the problem, but that fans suspicion and jealousy. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Mountebank -- did you see the episode of Downton Abbey were the family were discussing what they were going to be doing over the weekend, and Dowager Countess asks, "What's a weekend?"
These folk worked every day until they died. Yes, Sunday was the sabbath, and Easter was a Holy Day, and as such work was minimal, but the stove still needed wood put on it, food had to be cooked, and Elizabeth and Sam would need help shifting.
I recall a couple of years ago Sam promised the household a trip to Dunkirk next summer as a way of lifting the household gloom about something. It was cynical on his part because he knew the war was coming. Even Elizabeth's trips out-of-town in the summer are to avoid the plague, not to have fun walking on the seashore for a few days.
Captain Roger Cuttance was a naval officer who took a prominent role in the first and second Anglo-Dutch Wars.
Cuttance initially commanded the 5th Rate Pearl (24 guns) 1651-2, but then took a prominent role in the first Dutch War (1652-4) when, in August 1652, he fought at the Battle of Plymouth under Sir George Ayscue.
In 1653, he commanded the 4th Rate Sussex (46 guns) and fought at the Battle of Portland. At the Battle of the Gabbard, he was in Samuel Howett’s division. He was also likely at the Battle of Scheveningen.
Cuttance sailed on the Tunis expedition in 1655, then commanded the 3rd Rate Langport. From 1656 to 1657 and again from 1659 to 1660, he commanded the 1st Rate Naseby, upon which Samuel Pepys sailed.
He was flag captain for Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich, from 1660-5 on the Naseby (later Royal Charles), then Royal James. At the Battle of Lowestoft, 13 June 1665 (the worst naval defeat in Dutch history), he commanded the 1st Rate Royal Prince (86 guns). When he was knighted on 1 July, according to Samuel Pepys it was on "board of the Prince, a vessel of 90 brasse ordnance (most whole canon) & happly the best ship in the world both for building & sailing: she had 700 men ... after dinner came his Majestie (King Charles II) & the Duke & Prince Rupert: & here I saw him knight Capt Cuttance, for behaving himselfe so bravely in the late fight."
However, Sir Roger Cuttance was later implicated, along with William Penn and the Earl of Sandwich, in the Prize Goods Scandal, he was excluded from further command at sea shortly thereafter.
Sir Roger Cuttance died in 1669. His son, Henry Cuttance, was also by then a prominent naval officer.
References "Cuttance, Roger". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. http://www.seadogs.org.uk/biograp…
"... but in dinner time comes Sir J. Minnes from the fleete, like a simple weak man, having nothing to say of what he hath done there, but tells of what value he imagines the prizes to be, ..."
Pepys has described Mennes as being "ill at ease" in his role of Controller, and when exasperated by his incompetence Pepys refers to him as "dolt" "dotard" and "old fool" -- but as of January 1664 it appears Mennes may have been experiencing Parkinson's, lead or alcohol poisoning. Outside the office Pepys admits that Mennes, with his skills as a poet and mimic, was the best of company.
Plus it seems reasonable to me that the Controller of the Navy might be interested in gauging the approximate revenue about to be realized by the Prize Committee.
[Wotton near Epsom, Surrey, is the EVELYN FAMILY HOME - John Evelyn's wife, Mary, is staying there to avoid the plague]
and on 16 September, 1665, to visit old Secretary Nicholas, being now at his new purchase of West Horsley, once mortgaged to me by Lord Viscount Montague: a pretty dry seat on the Down. Returned to Wotton.
[The Down(s) in the case are a series of hills running parallel to the south coast of England]
In 1665, during the plague times, Pepys often visited Capt. and Mrs. George Cocke in Greenwich, where he reports "... I lay the softest I ever did in my life, with a down bed, after the Danish manner, upon me, ..."
Cocke's wife, Anna Maria Solomons Cocke, came from Danzig. Maybe Pepys had had a couple of drinks, and misremembered Danzig for Denmark?
Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) was a cultured and wealthy city, per this Wikipedia entry:
"In 1569, when Royal Prussia's estates agreed to incorporate the region into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city insisted on preserving its special status. It defended itself through the Siege of Danzig in 1577 in order to preserve special privileges, and subsequently insisted on negotiating by sending emissaries directly to the Polish king.
"Danzig's location as a deep-water port where the Vistula river met the Baltic Sea made it into one of the wealthiest cities in Europe in the 17th centuries as grain from Poland and the Ukraine was shipped up the Vistula on barges to be loaded onto ships in Danzig, where it was shipped on to western Europe. As many of the merchants shipping the grain from Danzig were Dutch, who built Dutch-style houses for themselves, leading to other Danzigers imitating them, thus giving the city a distinctively Dutch appearance. Danzig become known as "the Amsterdam of the East", a wealthy seaport and trading crossroads that linked together the economics of western and eastern Europe ..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fre…
Comments
Second Reading
About Monday 25 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Today Sandwich was visiting with John Evelyn. From Evelyn's Diary:
"25th September, 1665. My Lord Admiral being come from the fleet to Greenwich, I went thence with him to the Cock-pit, to consult with the Duke of Albemarle. I was peremptory that, unless we had ^10,000 immediately, the prisoners would starve, and it was proposed it should be raised out of the East India prizes now taken by Lord Sandwich.
"They being but two of the commission, and so not empowered to determine, sent an express to his Majesty and Council, to know what they should do. In the meantime, I had five vessels, with competent guards, to keep the prisoners in for the present, to be placed as I should think best.
"After dinner (which was at the General's) I went over to visit his Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth." [Archbishop of Canterbury Gilbert Sheldon]
http://brittlebooks.library.illin…
This leads me to think Monck and Sandwich were Prize Commissioners, but they knew they couldn't make distribution decisions alone.
About Monday 25 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Rochester is the next town down the Medway from Chatham (i.e. west, and around a bend in the river). It must have been very dark! Or the fisher boy really didn’t want to go to Chatham.
About Rochester, Medway
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sadly Pedro's link is dead. The City of Rochester has a history page at http://www.city-of-rochester.org.… But in case it dies, here is the short version:
Rochester is an old city; there was an important settlement here well before the Roman occupation of Britain in AD43. It was also where the ancient highway which later became part of the Roman Watling Street, forded the River Medway. The Romans probably built the first bridge and fortified the town, which became known as Durobrivae – ‘The Stronghold by the Bridge’.
The first Christian church in Rochester was established in AD604 and Justus (a contemporary of St. Augustine) was appointed its first Bishop. The Norman’s recognised Rochester’s strategic importance and a castle was built here soon after William’s Conquest of 1066. The city received its first charter from Richard I in 1190.
The River Medway divides the County of Kent in two, separating the ‘Men of Kent’ on the East Bank from the ‘Kentish Men’ on the West.
Many Kings and Queens visited Rochester: In 1540, Henry VIII came to see the woman who was to be his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves -- and wasn't happy. Elizabeth I came to Rochester in 1573, staying at the Crown Inn (still standing at the bridge end of Rochester High Street, albeit much changed). She also stayed at the home of Richard Watts, MP for Rochester. Watts’ former home is known as ‘Satis House’ in tribute to Queen Elizabeth’s comment when asked how she had enjoyed her stay.
James I visited the city three times. In 1625, Charles I passed through on his way to Dover. In 1660, Charles II stayed overnight at the home of Sir Francis Clerke, prior to his restoration to the throne. The house, known since then as ‘Restoration House’, was the inspiration for Miss Haversham’s house in Dickens’ Great Expectations. In 1688, James II was a semi-prisoner in a house on the High Street before his escape to France (this house is now known as ‘Abdication House’).
Samuel Pepys visited Rochester and Chatham in 1661, and again in 1667 to view the damage done by the Dutch Fleet following its attack on Chatham Dockyard. [HA! We know better!]
The personality most often associated with Rochester is novelist Charles Dickens. He spent his early childhood in Chatham, where his father was employed as Clerk to the Pay Office. Young Dickens and his father would go for long walks through the surrounding countryside and it was on these walks that Dickens first saw and admired Gad’s Hill Place in nearby Higham. This house, about four miles from Rochester on the road to Gravesend, was to become Dickens’ home from 1859 until his death in 1870.
Rochester features in Dickens’ work more than any other town except London, either by its own name or a fictitious one – ‘Cloisterham’ in ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ and ‘Dullborough’ in the ‘Uncommercial Traveller’.
About Wednesday 20 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
It does seem Sandwich and colleagues are in violation of a 1661 Act for the Establishing Articles and Orders for the regulating and better Government of His Majesties Navies Ships of War & Forces by Sea.
Taking out of Prize, or Ships or Goods seized for Prize, any Money, &c. before Judgment had Punishment; Proviso for Pillage.;
Exception.
7. None in his Majesty’s pay shall take out of any Prize or Ship or Goods seized on for Prize any Money Plate Goods Lading or Tackle before Judgement thereof first past in the Admiralty Court but the full and entire accompt of the whole without embezzlement shall be brought in and Judgement past entirely upon the whole without fraud upon pain of such punishment as shall be imposed by a Court martial or the Court of Admiralty excepting That it shall be lawful for all Captains Seamen Soldiers and others serving as aforesaid to take and to have to themselves as Pillage without further or other account to be given for the same all such Goods and [Merchandize (fn. 1) ] (other than Arms Ammunition Tackle Furniture or Stores of such Ship) as shall be found by them or any of them in any Ship (they shall take in fight or prize) upon or above the Gundeck of the said Ship and not otherwise.
To see it in full http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…...
HOWEVER, if your seamen are hungry, their pay is in arrears, and the possibility exists that the Dutch may be back shortly, it might be considered prudent to share a taste of the spoils quickly. Rioting, looting, desertion, and/or mutiny need to be avoided, almost regardless of cost. If the seamen see the Admiral is concerned about their welfare, they may not desert. (This is entirely my argument to explain Sandwich's actions ... so far I haven't seen anything in the Diary to justify him knowlingly ignoring the above rules.)
About Thursday 14 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Definitely not merry today."
September 14, 1665, John Tillison wrote, in a letter to Dr. Sancroft, Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral (presumably out of town this summer -- and never mentioned in the Diary):
“What eye would not weep to see so many habitations uninhabited, ye poor sick not visited, ye hungry not fed, ye grave not satisfied. Death stares us continually in the face in every infected person that passeth by us; in every coffin which is daily and hourly carried along ye streets. … The custom was … to bury the dead in the night only; now, both night and day will hardly be time enough to do it. … [L]ast week, … the dead was piled in heaps above ground … before either time could be gained or place to bury them. The Quakers … have buried in their piece of ground [Bunhill Row] a thousand … Many are [also] dead in … other places about the town which are not included in the bill of mortality”.
From https://lostcityoflondon.co.uk/20…
and The Great Plague, by A. Lloyd Moote and Dorothy C. Moote.
About Wednesday 20 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Two more nominations of who should be working with the prizes:
Robert Southwell obtained the post of secretary to the Commission of Prizes in 1664.
Sir Thomas Clifford, M.P. for Totnes 1660-1672; ... a sub-commissioner of the Sick and Wounded and a Commissioner for Prizes 1664-1667. He served in the fleet in the Second Dutch War. Pepys remarks more than once on his ability and his astonishing rise to power. (Seems to be M.I.A. on both commissions! You've got 3,000 P.O.W.s to house and feed too. Evelyn's only taking 300.)
About Wednesday 20 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Where are the Prize Commissioners? I have the following notes on who should be doing the work Mennes and Brouncker are being sent to do:
On 28 April 1664 Sir Elisha Leighton was made one of the secretaries of the prize office (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1663–4, p. 571).
(L&M footnote) The Calendars of State Papers are full of applications for Commissionerships of the Prize Office. In December, 1664, the Navy Committee appointed themselves the Commissioners for Prize Goods, Sir Henry Bennet being appointed comptroller, and Lord Ashley treasurer. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Politicians landed all the jobs appointed on 24 December: besides Bennett and Ashley the others were, with few exceptions, M.P.s: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
"In Charles II’s reign, captains could usually expect half the value of the prize and its contents, although allocations did vary; any goods or valuables in the great cabin were reserved for the captain, while the seamen were free to get what else they could between decks. Captains of the smaller ships were at a clear advantage, as their vessels were employed on cruising and convoy duties and were therefore more likely to encounter enemy warships or merchantmen than those in the main fleet." -- (Gentlemen and Tarpaulins by J D Davies)
So Sandwich giving part of the spoils to his seamen was S.O.P. (Standard Operating Procedures). "L&M: The two E. Indiamen (the Phoenix and the Slotheny) had been captured by Sandwich, along with 11 other ship, on 3 September. Imprudently he allowed his commanders and seamen to take their accustomed share (all that lay between decks) before it was legally judged to be prize."
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Wednesday 20 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Expresses H.R.H.'s satisfaction at the receipt of the despatches brought by Sir Henry Bellasys, reporting the late action with part of the Dutch fleet."
Sir Henry Belasyse 1639-1667, eldest son of John, 1st Baron Belasyse, married for the second time in October 1662 a wealthy but plain heiress, Susan, daughter of Sir William Armyne, 2nd Bt., of Osgodby, Lincs. Unfortunately, Henry was in love with someone else.
Then his friend, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, endorsed someone else to be M.P. for York, so Henry offered his services as a volunteer aboard the fleet during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
On Saturday, 16 September, 1665, Dirk tells us that John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester delivered a report from Sandwich to Bennet and Ashley-Cooper at Wimborne St. Giles. I suppose Sandwich wrote reports to all the Privy Councilors scattered all over the country, and sent them via these noble volunteers.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Thursday 28 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Horrifying as we find Pepys’ solution to his predicament, he wasn’t alone. What is remarkable is that this was so unusual for him, he recorded his conflict.
When convent-educated Queen Catherine of Braganza and her bevy of ladies arrived in England for her marriage to Charles II in 1661, she and her Portuguese ladies were horrified to see noblemen urinating throughout the palace. The ladies complained “they cannot stir abroad without seeing in every corner great beastly English pricks battering against every wall.”
But it wasn’t just the English. In a 1675 report on life at the Louvre says, “on the grand staircases … behind the doors and almost everywhere one sees there a mass of excrement, one smells a thousand unbearable stenches caused by calls of nature which everyone goes to do there every day.” Louis XIV built the place without any public houses of office.
Smelly filth is one reason the Courts travel so much. Henry VIII and wives and friends went from Whitehall to Hampton Court Palace to Windsor Castle to Greenwich Palace to Nonesuch and Richmond and beyond, often completing 30 moves a year. Once the Court had vacated, servants descended, brushes and buckets in hand, to remove all the human waste off the floors and walls.
Lots more on Tudor and Stuart poisons and sanitation in
https://daily.jstor.org/hidden-po…
About Tuesday 19 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... then to Sir J. Minnes’s, where I find my Lady Batten come, and she and my Lord Bruncker and his mistresse, and the whole house-full there at cards. But by and by my Lord Bruncker goes away and others of the company, and when I expected Sir J. Minnes and his sister should have staid to have made Sir W. Batten and Lady sup, I find they go up in snuffe to bed without taking any manner of leave of them, but left them with Mr. Boreman. The reason of this I could not presently learn, but anon I hear it is that Sir J. Minnes did expect and intend them a supper, but they without respect to him did first apply themselves to Boreman, which makes all this great feude. However I staid and there supped, all of us being in great disorder from this, ... where my Lady Batten and Sir W. Batten did come to town with an intent to lodge, and I was forced to go seek a lodging ..."
From this I gather that rooms were limited at Mr. Boreman's house. At first Pepys thinks he can stay there, but when he finds that Admiral and Lady Batten, and Admiral Mennes and his sister are all there for the night, there are insufficient rooms. Rather than find themselves roomless, the Batten skip dinner and quietly go to bed (probably taking the nicest rooms), leaving the rest to fight it out.
Pepys doesn't want to go to Woolwich, or back to George Cocke's, so it's Hewer to the rescue, again.
About Sunday 13 May 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Today the Guardian printed an article about Capt. Edward Barlow, who could easily have known Pepys later, although he does not appear in the Diary because he was younger and junior at the time.
As a farm worker’s son, Barlow joined the navy as a child, sailed as a teenager on the same ship as Pepys to bring Charles II back to England, and went on to survive several shipwrecks and captivity, and eventually rose to become a captain.
https://www.theguardian.com/artan…
About Monday 18 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
“After dinner Cocke did pray me to help him to 500l. of W. Howe, who is deputy Treasurer, wherein my Lord Bruncker and I am to be concerned and I did aske it my Lord, and he did consent to have us furnished with 500l., and I did get it paid to Sir Roger Cuttance and Mr. Pierce in part for above 1,000l. worth of goods, Mace, Nutmegs, Cynamon, and Cloves, and he tells us we may hope to get 1,500l. by it, which God send!”
Cocke and Howe have cooked up a deal whereby Howe will sell mace, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves to the consortium of Pepys, Cocke and Brouncker for 500l.. Pepys clears the idea with Sandwich, who agrees to advance them the 500l. for goods worth 1,000l., but says to give the money to surgeon James Pearse and Flag Capt. Sir Roger Cuttance. They expect to sell the goods for 1,500l.
Makes me wonder what Mennes brought home, and forgot to mention at lunch yesterday.
About William Howe
San Diego Sarah • Link
At the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War both Howe and Creed assumed they will be Sandwich's Treasurer for the campaign. Pepys diplomatically put the money on the table and waits for them to sort out who takes responsibility for it. Howe takes the money.
By April 1665 Creed had lost Sandwich's trust as it has been revealed he is worth 10,000l., and the suspicion is he profited from their last cruise when he oversaw (and messed up) the fleet accounts. However, both Sandwich and Pepys agree that young Howe is officious. From one point-of-view, Pepys stays neutral by agreeing with both that the other is the problem, but that fans suspicion and jealousy. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Sunday 17 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Mountebank -- did you see the episode of Downton Abbey were the family were discussing what they were going to be doing over the weekend, and Dowager Countess asks, "What's a weekend?"
These folk worked every day until they died. Yes, Sunday was the sabbath, and Easter was a Holy Day, and as such work was minimal, but the stove still needed wood put on it, food had to be cooked, and Elizabeth and Sam would need help shifting.
I recall a couple of years ago Sam promised the household a trip to Dunkirk next summer as a way of lifting the household gloom about something. It was cynical on his part because he knew the war was coming. Even Elizabeth's trips out-of-town in the summer are to avoid the plague, not to have fun walking on the seashore for a few days.
We have much to thank Unions for.
About Capt. Roger Cuttance
San Diego Sarah • Link
Captain Roger Cuttance was a naval officer who took a prominent role in the first and second Anglo-Dutch Wars.
Cuttance initially commanded the 5th Rate Pearl (24 guns) 1651-2, but then took a prominent role in the first Dutch War (1652-4) when, in August 1652, he fought at the Battle of Plymouth under Sir George Ayscue.
In 1653, he commanded the 4th Rate Sussex (46 guns) and fought at the Battle of Portland. At the Battle of the Gabbard, he was in Samuel Howett’s division. He was also likely at the Battle of Scheveningen.
Cuttance sailed on the Tunis expedition in 1655, then commanded the 3rd Rate Langport. From 1656 to 1657 and again from 1659 to 1660, he commanded the 1st Rate Naseby, upon which Samuel Pepys sailed.
He was flag captain for Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich, from 1660-5 on the Naseby (later Royal Charles), then Royal James. At the Battle of Lowestoft, 13 June 1665 (the worst naval defeat in Dutch history), he commanded the 1st Rate Royal Prince (86 guns). When he was knighted on 1 July, according to Samuel Pepys it was on "board of the Prince, a vessel of 90 brasse ordnance (most whole canon) & happly the best ship in the world both for building & sailing: she had 700 men ... after dinner came his Majestie (King Charles II) & the Duke & Prince Rupert: & here I saw him knight Capt Cuttance, for behaving himselfe so bravely in the late fight."
However, Sir Roger Cuttance was later implicated, along with William Penn and the Earl of Sandwich, in the Prize Goods Scandal, he was excluded from further command at sea shortly thereafter.
Sir Roger Cuttance died in 1669. His son, Henry Cuttance, was also by then a prominent naval officer.
References
"Cuttance, Roger". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
http://www.seadogs.org.uk/biograp…
from: https://www.revolvy.com/page/Roge…
About Sunday 17 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... but in dinner time comes Sir J. Minnes from the fleete, like a simple weak man, having nothing to say of what he hath done there, but tells of what value he imagines the prizes to be, ..."
Pepys has described Mennes as being "ill at ease" in his role of Controller, and when exasperated by his incompetence Pepys refers to him as "dolt" "dotard" and "old fool" -- but as of January 1664 it appears Mennes may have been experiencing Parkinson's, lead or alcohol poisoning. Outside the office Pepys admits that Mennes, with his skills as a poet and mimic, was the best of company.
Plus it seems reasonable to me that the Controller of the Navy might be interested in gauging the approximate revenue about to be realized by the Prize Committee.
About Saturday 16 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
http://brittlebooks.library.illin…
14 September, 1665. I went to Wotton;
[Wotton near Epsom, Surrey, is the EVELYN FAMILY HOME - John Evelyn's wife, Mary, is staying there to avoid the plague]
and on 16 September, 1665, to visit old Secretary Nicholas, being now at his new purchase of West Horsley, once mortgaged to me by Lord Viscount Montague: a pretty dry seat on the Down. Returned to Wotton.
[The Down(s) in the case are a series of hills running parallel to the south coast of England]
About Monday 15 September 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
Beautiful picture, John. Imagine London looking like that all over ... sigh.
About Saturday 9 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
“Has seen letters which complain that the coast of Lancashire is much infested with Capers.”
Noun -- caper (plural capers)
1. A vessel formerly used by the Dutch; privateer.
From https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ca… -- but sadly nothing more to illuminate the discussion.
About George Cocke ("Captain")
San Diego Sarah • Link
In 1665, during the plague times, Pepys often visited Capt. and Mrs. George Cocke in Greenwich, where he reports "... I lay the softest I ever did in my life, with a down bed, after the Danish manner, upon me, ..."
Cocke's wife, Anna Maria Solomons Cocke, came from Danzig. Maybe Pepys had had a couple of drinks, and misremembered Danzig for Denmark?
Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) was a cultured and wealthy city, per this Wikipedia entry:
"In 1569, when Royal Prussia's estates agreed to incorporate the region into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city insisted on preserving its special status. It defended itself through the Siege of Danzig in 1577 in order to preserve special privileges, and subsequently insisted on negotiating by sending emissaries directly to the Polish king.
"Danzig's location as a deep-water port where the Vistula river met the Baltic Sea made it into one of the wealthiest cities in Europe in the 17th centuries as grain from Poland and the Ukraine was shipped up the Vistula on barges to be loaded onto ships in Danzig, where it was shipped on to western Europe. As many of the merchants shipping the grain from Danzig were Dutch, who built Dutch-style houses for themselves, leading to other Danzigers imitating them, thus giving the city a distinctively Dutch appearance. Danzig become known as "the Amsterdam of the East", a wealthy seaport and trading crossroads that linked together the economics of western and eastern Europe ..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fre…