You took me too literally, Terry ... I was writing about the emotional turmoil of temporarily moving your office to one location and some of your personal stuff to another ... and not knowing when things would get back to normal. Every morning I have trouble remembering where I put my cell phone in a small house. From what Pepys says, not all the files have gone to The King's House, Greenwich yet, nor all the staff. The War Effort was chaotic enough without this.
Thanks for filling in the slavery blank, Terry. Perhaps the silence is because the Navy was too busy waging war and protecting Tanger to be involved in Caribbean convoy escort services. And maybe England wasn't that deeply involved yet.
Somewhere along the way I did find these statistics:
1654 - English Capt. Thomas Hiway. Middle Passage, 40 enslaved Africans killed; the revolt was unsuccessful. Source: Paige, 106.
1651 -- On the Gambia River a slave revolt took place and all enslaved Africans and crew were killed. This revolt was successful. Recognizing the ship was lost, the English captain committed suicide by blowing up the ship with all aboard. Source: Ligon, 57; Limbaugh and Rediker, 128-29.
1641 -- Attempted slave revolt on board Dutch slave ship. Source: Van den Boogaart and Emmer, 366.
There seem to have been more revolts at home than on the high seas.
"... home, and late at my business to dispatch away letters, and then home to bed, which I did not intend, but to have staid for altogether at Woolwich, but I made a shift for a bed for Tom, whose bed is gone to Woolwich, and so to bed."
Where is home now, anyways? Where is the bed? Where are those papers? Woolwich, Greenwich or Seething Lane? Is it better to be free to flirt and work, or be with the wife listening to gossip about Frenchmen. Whose side are they on anyways? And why would one want to be in Woolwich talking with the maid with the plague taking hold? No wonder Pepys forgot his appointment with Pett; stress and exhaustion can do that to you.
I wonder if Royal physician Sir Alexander Fraser had read Dr. Tobias Venner’s (1577–1660) writings on the subject of healthy living in general, and in particular the advantages of thermal spas like Bath? Dr. Venner lived in Bath and enjoyed a comfortable life there: his medical practice and the sales of his books flourished. The books were: • Via Recta ad Vitam Longam (1620) • A brief and accurate treatise concerning the taking of the fume of tobacco (1621) • The baths of Bath (1628)
The physicians of the day were worried about people developing bad sleeping habits because of all the unnatural candlelight which was extending their awake time. (Sound familiar?)
In 1637 the physician Tobias Venner (1577–1660) suggested a range of therapies to those confronting the unhappiness of night-time ‘watching’, including ‘a good draught of soporiferous Almond milk’ blended with barley, the flowers of borage and violets and rosewater sweetened with sugar.
Venner's advice rings true today:
‘If therefore ye desire peaceable and comfortable rest, live soberly, eschew crudity, and embrace tranquility of mind.’
Pepys, are you listening? SPOILER: The answer is "NO".
I think we should read your question together with Terry's L&M post right before it. But why Pepys puts in for office expenses, and Hewer collects £119 10s. in prest- and conduct-money for seamen, I cannot say. Maybe there was more money in one account than another, and some clerk along the way altered the account info to match the funds he has? In which case:
How was Sam paid for this? -- Hewer was given cash later, but L&M doesn't say by whom; I'm guessing the Treasury office which was at Nonsuch Palace by now, as I recall.
Who signed off on it? -- Both Brouncker and Mennes were members of the Navy Board and authorized to do so.
Did he have to provide receipts? -- If he didn't, I'm sure he had file boxes full of them if questioned. (Remember the mess Povy had: shoe boxes full of unassigned receipts which had to be allocated before the accounts could be closed.)
And a related but unasked question to which I found the answer recently: Did they use double-entry bookkeeping?
What some Italians invented 800 years ago is what rules the world of Finance today, a testament to how excellent the system is: Double-entry bookkeeping. This has the further upside – from an accountant’s perspective – of being rather complex, ensuring that accounting (one of the oldest professions) has a bright and lucrative future. But it is also that complexity which ensures most businesses adhere to the straight and narrow – being too creative in a double-entry book-keeping system has a nasty tendency to come back and bite you. -- for more observations on how the Italians, Jews, Catholics and Protestants contributions to capitalism, see http://englishhistoryauthors.blog…
Frances Wray married Treasurer of the Navy Harry Vane MP on July 1, 1640; the marriage settlement made him a wealthy man, bring him Raby Castle amongst other properties. According to his biographers, his relationship with Frances was happy and fulfilling as they shared spiritual goals and intimacy.
But Sir Harry’s ideas were unacceptable to both Parliament and the Royalists, so on 14 June, 1662, Sir Harry Vane was taken to Tower Hill and beheaded. Samuel Pepys was there and recorded the event.
Sir Harry and Frances Wray Vane had ten children. Of their five sons, only the last, Christopher, had children, and succeeded to his father's estates. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen…
Col. Henry Danvers’ wife went to London in July 1663 to convey news of the latest rebellion schemes to Lady Frances Vane, who seems to have been a key contact with revolutionaries in the City. -- per 3:327-28, 393; G. Lyon Turner, "Williamson's Spy Book," Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society, 5 (1912): 315. 11 C.S.P.D., Chas. If, 3:463,565,606,638; 4:246.
Around this time one of Pepys’ enemies, John Scott, was determined to marry the widowed Lady Vane, but I see no reference to him being successful in this effort. – see Intelligence and Espionage in the reign of Charles II, by Allen Marshall, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-52127-0
Sounds like an interesting lady. I wish I had found more about her to report here.
Monck had his hands full keeping the peace in London. For instance, a Baptist preacher and known conspirator, Col. Henry Danvers, was finally apprehended after a 3-year man hunt on August 5, 1665, but he was rescued in Cheapside by a friendly crowd which is thought to have included numerous Baptists and Fifth Monarchists.
SPOILER: On 30 August 1665 Danvers will be charged with high treason and summoned by proclamation to stand trial. The Sheriff of Leicestershire will be ordered to secure his estate in that county pending the outcome of the trial.
The plot in which Col. Henry Danvers is alleged to be involved (usually known as the Rathbone Plot) was supposed to go into action on 3 September, 1665, when Charles II would be assassinated, the Tower seized, London put to the torch, a republic established, and property redistributed.
August 18/28 is the 500th anniversary of the official start of the transatlantic slave trade. Charles I of Spain/Holy Roman Emperor Charles V [same person] signed a Charter in favor of some of his pals to ship direct from Africa to Puerto Rico ... up until then Africans had been brought to Portugal and Spain, and trans-shipped.
The result of direct shipment was a gross increase in the number of people sent, which destabilized the African continent and led to many wars, and has left a terrible legacy of misery and inequity on four continents today.
This article points out that there are only two or three institutions investigating the roots of the trade, so most people are unaware of this anniversary.
"... comes a neighbor of ours hard by to speak with me about business of the office, one Mr. Fuller, a great merchant, ..."
Interesting this is the only mention of the 'great merchant' neighbor. I can see not doing business with a uninvited drunk in the middle of the night (no matter how great), but given Pepys' current need to take full advantage of everything available (either for the penniless war effort, or in his 'live for today, for tomorrow we die' epidemic mindset), I am amazed he didn't follow up and use this indiscretion as a lever to his own advantage.
Pepys mentions The Globe seven times in the Diary, always in terms of a business lunch. It sounds as if it was close to the yard, and reliably served good food.
People assume Greenwich Hospital was built all at the same time, but one of the four main courts is much older than the other three.
The Palace of Placentia was enjoyed by monarchs up to James I and VI. While he was building The Queen’s House for his wife, Anne of Denmark (who died before it was finished) Placentia looked run-down. James, found the maritime air of Greenwich too damp for his old bones, so he moved to Whitehall. Placentia sat and rotted.
Henrietta Maria found Greenwich to her taste, but stayed in the Queen’s House.
Cromwell sold off everything he could during the Commonwealth. When Charles II came to see what was left in 1661, it was so vandalized and neglected the rusty old gates had to be broken open for him.
Henrietta Maria wanted the Queen’s House finished – even if she was now a sad Miss Haversham-like dowager attended by 24 gentlemen in black velvet.
Charles II just wanted new palaces. Work began on 4 March, 1664. Samuel Pepys attended, “I observed the laying of a very great house for the King,” he wrote, adding “which will cost a great deal of money.”
Pepys was right. John Webb, the architect, had a plan to build it as a grand, three-sided affair, but everyone knew it was going to be difficult to manage even one side.
Like many of Charles II’s Big Ideas, the King’s House ran into financial difficulties. It was a building site for years. When Pepys visited on 24 August 1665 he wanted rooms in the palace, but had to live elsewhere, as it was not finished.
Three years and £26,433 later it wasn’t finished. Charles started many projects, flitting one to the next. The Observatory was a case in point.
By 1669, Pepys was used to there being nowhere for him to stay when he came to Greenwich. He wrote that it “goes on slow, but is very pretty.”
The East Wing of the King’s House was finally done in 1669. But by this point the world had moved on. [I THINK THIS SHOULD BE 1689]
William and Mary were on the throne. Mary wanted to turn Greenwich park into a seaman’s hospital, and commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to design it. He came up with a plan that would flatten both the Queen’s and King’s houses and create a grid-affair of enormous buildings. Mary wanted to keep the King’s house and the view from her own house.
Wren swallowed his pride, molding his ideas and ego to fit what was already there.
The King's House is heavily classical – pediments, columns, and with no doubt about its instigator – "Carolus II Rex" is inscribed in giant letters on the river-side. It’s definitely best seen in blazing sunshine or by night, when it's floodlit.
Inside is the Admiral’s House and Trinity College of Music. The interior courtyard, still quaintly cobbled, feels more out-of-another-era than the rest of the Hospital.
We saw that fear with Ebola recently; people seem to have gotten used to living with the Zeka virus amongst us. Perhaps when antibiotics no longer work, we will become more nervous. With climate change I think more strange illnesses will emerge shortly. Debbie Downer is here this evening -- sorry!
“… the rest of my fellows …” I assume Lord Bruncker had rooms at Whitehall, and sent runners to all the other available members of the Navy Board. It took a while for the messenger[s] to row/sail to Deptford and Greenwich, find their lordships, and for them to row/sail back to Whitehall. Plus I would add Lord Craven, given the comments the other day.
Frederick III (Danish: Frederik; 18 March 1609 – 9 February 1670) was king of Denmark and Norway from 1648 until his death in 1670. He instituted absolute monarchy in Denmark-Norway in 1660, confirmed by law in 1665 as the first in Western historiography. He was born the second-eldest son of Christian IV and Anne Catherine of Brandenburg. With Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg he had many children including Prince George of Denmark, who married Princess Anne (Queen Anne of England).
"Pepys gets rumors on Bergen August 16 while Sandwich doesn’t sight his bad news till today."
News is sent "express mail" to the Lord High Admiral, James, Duke of York, still at Whitehall. He shares with Monck, Craven, and the Navy Board. (Express mail = fast packet ships, relays of horses, etc.)
Sandwich had detached a fleet under Teddiman to go to Bergen, as he patrolled elsewhere. Sandwich got his reports from Clifford and Teddiman on August 13 as he made his way to Flamborough Head -- my guess is he got it from that packet ship, or one dispatched specifically to him. I think Sandwich heard the news first.
Comments
Second Reading
About Tuesday 29 August 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
You took me too literally, Terry ... I was writing about the emotional turmoil of temporarily moving your office to one location and some of your personal stuff to another ... and not knowing when things would get back to normal. Every morning I have trouble remembering where I put my cell phone in a small house. From what Pepys says, not all the files have gone to The King's House, Greenwich yet, nor all the staff. The War Effort was chaotic enough without this.
About Monday 28 August 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Thanks for filling in the slavery blank, Terry. Perhaps the silence is because the Navy was too busy waging war and protecting Tanger to be involved in Caribbean convoy escort services. And maybe England wasn't that deeply involved yet.
Somewhere along the way I did find these statistics:
1654 - English Capt. Thomas Hiway. Middle Passage, 40 enslaved Africans killed; the revolt was unsuccessful. Source: Paige, 106.
1651 -- On the Gambia River a slave revolt took place and all enslaved Africans and crew were killed. This revolt was successful. Recognizing the ship was lost, the English captain committed suicide by blowing up the ship with all aboard. Source: Ligon, 57; Limbaugh and Rediker, 128-29.
1641 -- Attempted slave revolt on board Dutch slave ship. Source: Van den Boogaart and Emmer, 366.
There seem to have been more revolts at home than on the high seas.
About Tuesday 29 August 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
I feel for Pepys:
"... home, and late at my business to dispatch away letters,
and then home to bed, which I did not intend, but to have staid for altogether at Woolwich, but I made a shift for a bed for Tom, whose bed is gone to Woolwich, and so to bed."
Where is home now, anyways? Where is the bed? Where are those papers? Woolwich, Greenwich or Seething Lane? Is it better to be free to flirt and work, or be with the wife listening to gossip about Frenchmen. Whose side are they on anyways? And why would one want to be in Woolwich talking with the maid with the plague taking hold? No wonder Pepys forgot his appointment with Pett; stress and exhaustion can do that to you.
About Monday 3 September 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
September 3, 1658 Oliver Cromwell died. In our times, unlike Diary times, there will be people celebrating his life outside the House of Commons:
http://www.olivercromwell.org/day…
About Bath, Somerset
San Diego Sarah • Link
I wonder if Royal physician Sir Alexander Fraser had read Dr. Tobias Venner’s (1577–1660) writings on the subject of healthy living in general, and in particular the advantages of thermal spas like Bath? Dr. Venner lived in Bath and enjoyed a comfortable life there: his medical practice and the sales of his books flourished. The books were:
• Via Recta ad Vitam Longam (1620)
• A brief and accurate treatise concerning the taking of the fume of tobacco (1621)
• The baths of Bath (1628)
About Monday 23 March 1662/63
San Diego Sarah • Link
The physicians of the day were worried about people developing bad sleeping habits because of all the unnatural candlelight which was extending their awake time. (Sound familiar?)
In 1637 the physician Tobias Venner (1577–1660) suggested a range of therapies to those confronting the unhappiness of night-time ‘watching’, including ‘a good draught of soporiferous Almond milk’ blended with barley, the flowers of borage and violets and rosewater sweetened with sugar.
Venner's advice rings true today:
‘If therefore ye desire peaceable and comfortable rest, live soberly, eschew crudity, and embrace tranquility of mind.’
Pepys, are you listening? SPOILER: The answer is "NO".
About St Catherine's Hill, Guildford
San Diego Sarah • Link
Some recent shots of Guildford, including St. Catherine's Hill: not the city Pepys knew, but there are echoes:
https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/…
About Saturday 26 August 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Ahhh, Matt, you ask teasing questions:
I think we should read your question together with Terry's L&M post right before it. But why Pepys puts in for office expenses, and Hewer collects £119 10s. in prest- and conduct-money for seamen, I cannot say. Maybe there was more money in one account than another, and some clerk along the way altered the account info to match the funds he has? In which case:
How was Sam paid for this? -- Hewer was given cash later, but L&M doesn't say by whom; I'm guessing the Treasury office which was at Nonsuch Palace by now, as I recall.
Who signed off on it? -- Both Brouncker and Mennes were members of the Navy Board and authorized to do so.
Did he have to provide receipts? -- If he didn't, I'm sure he had file boxes full of them if questioned. (Remember the mess Povy had: shoe boxes full of unassigned receipts which had to be allocated before the accounts could be closed.)
And a related but unasked question to which I found the answer recently: Did they use double-entry bookkeeping?
What some Italians invented 800 years ago is what rules the world of Finance today, a testament to how excellent the system is: Double-entry bookkeeping. This has the further upside – from an accountant’s perspective – of being rather complex, ensuring that accounting (one of the oldest professions) has a bright and lucrative future. But it is also that complexity which ensures most businesses adhere to the straight and narrow – being too creative in a double-entry book-keeping system has a nasty tendency to come back and bite you.
-- for more observations on how the Italians, Jews, Catholics and Protestants contributions to capitalism, see http://englishhistoryauthors.blog…
About Frances Vane (b. Wray)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Frances Wray married Treasurer of the Navy Harry Vane MP on July 1, 1640; the marriage settlement made him a wealthy man, bring him Raby Castle amongst other properties. According to his biographers, his relationship with Frances was happy and fulfilling as they shared spiritual goals and intimacy.
But Sir Harry’s ideas were unacceptable to both Parliament and the Royalists, so on 14 June, 1662, Sir Harry Vane was taken to Tower Hill and beheaded. Samuel Pepys was there and recorded the event.
Sir Harry and Frances Wray Vane had ten children. Of their five sons, only the last, Christopher, had children, and succeeded to his father's estates. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen…
Col. Henry Danvers’ wife went to London in July 1663 to convey news of the latest rebellion schemes to Lady Frances Vane, who seems to have been a key contact with revolutionaries in the City. -- per 3:327-28, 393; G. Lyon Turner, "Williamson's Spy Book," Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society, 5 (1912): 315. 11 C.S.P.D., Chas. If, 3:463,565,606,638; 4:246.
Around this time one of Pepys’ enemies, John Scott, was determined to marry the widowed Lady Vane, but I see no reference to him being successful in this effort. – see Intelligence and Espionage in the reign of Charles II, by Allen Marshall, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-52127-0
Sounds like an interesting lady. I wish I had found more about her to report here.
About Monday 21 August 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
“harassing the poor Presbyterians”
Monck had his hands full keeping the peace in London. For instance, a Baptist preacher and known conspirator, Col. Henry Danvers, was finally apprehended after a 3-year man hunt on August 5, 1665, but he was rescued in Cheapside by a friendly crowd which is thought to have included numerous Baptists and Fifth Monarchists.
SPOILER: On 30 August 1665 Danvers will be charged with high treason and summoned by proclamation to stand trial. The Sheriff of Leicestershire will be ordered to secure his estate in that county pending the outcome of the trial.
The plot in which Col. Henry Danvers is alleged to be involved (usually known as the Rathbone Plot) was supposed to go into action on 3 September, 1665, when Charles II would be assassinated, the Tower seized, London put to the torch, a republic established, and property redistributed.
The Restoration wasn't to everyone's taste.
About Monday 28 August 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
August 18/28 is the 500th anniversary of the official start of the transatlantic slave trade. Charles I of Spain/Holy Roman Emperor Charles V [same person] signed a Charter in favor of some of his pals to ship direct from Africa to Puerto Rico ... up until then Africans had been brought to Portugal and Spain, and trans-shipped.
The result of direct shipment was a gross increase in the number of people sent, which destabilized the African continent and led to many wars, and has left a terrible legacy of misery and inequity on four continents today.
This article points out that there are only two or three institutions investigating the roots of the trade, so most people are unaware of this anniversary.
I wonder why Pepys is so silent on the subject.
For more information about recent documentation and revelations, see https://www.independent.co.uk/new…
About Wednesday 23 August 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... comes a neighbor of ours hard by to speak with me about business of the office, one Mr. Fuller, a great merchant, ..."
Interesting this is the only mention of the 'great merchant' neighbor. I can see not doing business with a uninvited drunk in the middle of the night (no matter how great), but given Pepys' current need to take full advantage of everything available (either for the penniless war effort, or in his 'live for today, for tomorrow we die' epidemic mindset), I am amazed he didn't follow up and use this indiscretion as a lever to his own advantage.
About Wednesday 23 August 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Forget a lecture from Uncle Wight ... can you imagine what Sandwich could say!
About Globe (Deptford)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Pepys mentions The Globe seven times in the Diary, always in terms of a business lunch. It sounds as if it was close to the yard, and reliably served good food.
About King's House (Greenwich)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Taken from http://www.thegreenwichphantom.co…
People assume Greenwich Hospital was built all at the same time, but one of the four main courts is much older than the other three.
The Palace of Placentia was enjoyed by monarchs up to James I and VI. While he was building The Queen’s House for his wife, Anne of Denmark (who died before it was finished) Placentia looked run-down. James, found the maritime air of Greenwich too damp for his old bones, so he moved to Whitehall. Placentia sat and rotted.
Henrietta Maria found Greenwich to her taste, but stayed in the Queen’s House.
Cromwell sold off everything he could during the Commonwealth. When Charles II came to see what was left in 1661, it was so vandalized and neglected the rusty old gates had to be broken open for him.
Henrietta Maria wanted the Queen’s House finished – even if she was now a sad Miss Haversham-like dowager attended by 24 gentlemen in black velvet.
Charles II just wanted new palaces. Work began on 4 March, 1664. Samuel Pepys attended, “I observed the laying of a very great house for the King,” he wrote, adding “which will cost a great deal of money.”
Pepys was right. John Webb, the architect, had a plan to build it as a grand, three-sided affair, but everyone knew it was going to be difficult to manage even one side.
Like many of Charles II’s Big Ideas, the King’s House ran into financial difficulties. It was a building site for years. When Pepys visited on 24 August 1665 he wanted rooms in the palace, but had to live elsewhere, as it was not finished.
Three years and £26,433 later it wasn’t finished. Charles started many projects, flitting one to the next. The Observatory was a case in point.
By 1669, Pepys was used to there being nowhere for him to stay when he came to Greenwich. He wrote that it “goes on slow, but is very pretty.”
The East Wing of the King’s House was finally done in 1669. But by this point the world had moved on. [I THINK THIS SHOULD BE 1689]
William and Mary were on the throne. Mary wanted to turn Greenwich park into a seaman’s hospital, and commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to design it. He came up with a plan that would flatten both the Queen’s and King’s houses and create a grid-affair of enormous buildings. Mary wanted to keep the King’s house and the view from her own house.
Wren swallowed his pride, molding his ideas and ego to fit what was already there.
The King's House is heavily classical – pediments, columns, and with no doubt about its instigator – "Carolus II Rex" is inscribed in giant letters on the river-side. It’s definitely best seen in blazing sunshine or by night, when it's floodlit.
Inside is the Admiral’s House and Trinity College of Music. The interior courtyard, still quaintly cobbled, feels more out-of-another-era than the rest of the Hospital.
About Sunday 20 August 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
We saw that fear with Ebola recently; people seem to have gotten used to living with the Zeka virus amongst us. Perhaps when antibiotics no longer work, we will become more nervous. With climate change I think more strange illnesses will emerge shortly. Debbie Downer is here this evening -- sorry!
About Monday 21 August 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
“… the rest of my fellows …” I assume Lord Bruncker had rooms at Whitehall, and sent runners to all the other available members of the Navy Board. It took a while for the messenger[s] to row/sail to Deptford and Greenwich, find their lordships, and for them to row/sail back to Whitehall. Plus I would add Lord Craven, given the comments the other day.
About Frederick III (King of Denmark)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Frederick III (Danish: Frederik; 18 March 1609 – 9 February 1670) was king of Denmark and Norway from 1648 until his death in 1670. He instituted absolute monarchy in Denmark-Norway in 1660, confirmed by law in 1665 as the first in Western historiography. He was born the second-eldest son of Christian IV and Anne Catherine of Brandenburg. With Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg he had many children including Prince George of Denmark, who married Princess Anne (Queen Anne of England).
About Friday 18 August 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Pepys gets rumors on Bergen August 16 while Sandwich doesn’t sight his bad news till today."
News is sent "express mail" to the Lord High Admiral, James, Duke of York, still at Whitehall. He shares with Monck, Craven, and the Navy Board. (Express mail = fast packet ships, relays of horses, etc.)
Sandwich had detached a fleet under Teddiman to go to Bergen, as he patrolled elsewhere. Sandwich got his reports from Clifford and Teddiman on August 13 as he made his way to Flamborough Head -- my guess is he got it from that packet ship, or one dispatched specifically to him. I think Sandwich heard the news first.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Saturday 19 August 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Miss the reference, sorry!
Taken from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25…
WEST AND NORTH OF CHARING CROSS