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San Diego Sarah has posted 9,746 annotations/comments since 6 August 2015.

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Second Reading

About Monday 24 April 1665

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Betty Pickering was born in 1644, so she is 21. Lady Sandwich is preoccupied with marrying off her own daughter, Jemima, who was born in 1646 -- therefore, aged 19. Perhaps the Montagus are guardians to Betty, and therefore it's up to Sir Gilbert and Lady Susannah Dryden Pickering to negotiate her marital future, and this infraction means the Montagus have not done a good job guarding her? Or perhaps Betty is earning her keep as a companion? Either way, Creed is out-of-line approaching Betty personally, and puts the Montagus' care in a bad light.

About Saturday 1 November 1662

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Well, Jimmigee, that's what happens when you have people, horses, cows and sheep tromping up and down the same trails over the hills for 2,000 years (the most westerly encampment of the Romans was near my home town of Torquay in Devonshire). Then farmers plant a hedge on either side of the sunken trail to enclose the animals, and you end up with a formidable "ditch" to drive through.

About Sunday 23 April 1665

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Linda ... I'm hoping for a James or a Rupert. In a nod to the Scots, how about Robert or Malcolm? Today is also the anniversary of the murder of King Brian of Ireland by the Vikings. The Royals could get a bit more adventurous if they wanted.

About Thursday 20 April 1665

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Chelsea House ... later known as Chelsea College. I know this because:

24 September, 1667. Returned to London, where I had orders to deliver the possession of Chelsea College (used as my prison during the war with Holland for such as were sent from the fleet to London) to our Society, as a gift of his Majesty, our founder. -- John Evelyn's Diary.

Chelsea College -- A polemical college founded in London in 1609. This establishment was intended to centralize controversial writing against Catholicism, and was the idea of Matthew Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, who was the first Provost. The College was dissolved in the Interregnum, by 1655.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

About Thursday 20 April 1665

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Notifies his intention of sailing on the 21st with the King's Fleet towards the Texel"

Do we know where the fleet is at this time?

About Wednesday 19 April 1665

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Terry asks, “Is here calendared part of a competition between cousins for Frances Stewart?”

Charles Stewart married …, secondly, Margaret Banaster, on 31 March 1662. He married, thirdly, Frances Teresa Stewart, granddaughter of Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre, in March 1667. -- https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

IMHO sustaining a romance for two years while married would be hard to sustain with Charles II breathing down your neck. But Charles Steward did not mourn second wife, the Lady Margaret, for long --
Margaret Banaster -- F, #5319, d. 6 January 1666/67
Margaret Banaster was the daughter of Laurence Banaster. She married, firstly, William Lewis before 1662. She married, secondly, Charles Stuart, 6th Duke of Lennox, son of George Stuart, 9th Seigneur d'Aubigny and Lady Katherine Howard, on 31 March 1662. She died on 6 January 1667, without issue. She was buried on 6 January 1667 at Westminster Abbey, Westminster, London, England. …
Citations: [S37] BP2003 volume 1, page 1034. See link for full details for this source.

The Lady Margaret must have been ill for a while, because a burial at Westminster Abbey must have taken organization. Therefore I doubt her date of death is recorded correctly.

For further information, see: http://thepeerage.com/p532.htm#i5…

To me it seems more likely that Charles Stewart started flirting with Frances when he knew Margaret was sick, and got hot and heavy when his coast was clear. Two months courtship before an elopement is more sustainable.

In which case, this appeal for help from James Butler, Duke of Ormonde, must be for some other transgression.

About Tuesday 18 April 1665

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Thence home to the office, where I find Sir J. Minnes come home from Chatham, and Sir W. Batten both this morning from Harwich, where they have been these 7 or 8 days." i.e. APRIL 11 – 18, 1665

In December 1664 Sir William Batten obtained a patent from Charles II to provide two lighthouses at Harwich.

Chatham shipyard employed 800 people in 1665, at a time where there was only a couple of dozen towns of more than 5,000 people in England.

About Treasurer for Tangier

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"So I to Sir Philip Warwick and with him to my Lord Treasurer, who signed my commission for Tangier-Treasurer and the docquet of my Privy Seal, for the monies to be paid to me."

The Lord Treasurer was Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton

L&M: Dated 18 April, 1665 this authorized payment (in quarterly installments) of up to £70,000 p.a. to Pepys. But it did not cover payments in the current quarter: see http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…...

About Sir John Robartes (2nd Baron Robartes, Lord Privy Seal)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Sir John, 2nd Baron Robartes (1606-1685) -- created Earl of Radnor in 1679. Lord Privy Seal from 1661-1673. In the 1660’s his London house was in Chelsea, opposite Crosby Hall. [Danvers House] “… was let from 1660 to 1685 to John, Lord Robartes, who, despite having fought for Cromwell, was able to entertain Charles II within months of the restoration. Samuel Pepys was also a visitor and ‘found it to be the prettiest contrived house that I ever saw in my life’ ….”

About Smyrna, Turkey

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

SMYRNA is the most western port of the Ottoman Empire. William Cave was the English Consul in Smyrna from 1661 – 1667. Greek influence was so strong in the area that the Turks called it "Smyrna of the infidels". On Monday 27 February, 1665, Pepys arranged for Mrs. Sarah Bland to ship there aboard Capt. Hill's Hannibal.

About Sunday 16 April 1665

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"This night I am told that news is come of our taking of three Dutch men-of-war, with the loss of one of our Captains."

Does L&M or anyone have information on these rumors? Or perhaps I'll have to wait until tomorrow ...???

About Edward Stillingfleet

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Rev. Edward Stillingfleet 1635-1699. Anglican theologian and writer, made rector of St. Andrew, Holborn in 1665. In the 1670’s a Chaplain to Charles II, and made the Bishop of Worcester in 1689. A frequent speaker in the House of Lords and a keen controversialist, writing many treatises.

About Sir Henry Wright

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Henry Wright (c.1637-64), of Dagnams, Havering, Essex, was married to Anne Crew, sister of Lady Jemima Crew Montagu. Henry’s father, Lawrence Wright, became Cromwell’s physician and had Henry appointed to the board of trade at the age of 19, which was one of the grossest examples of domestic patronage under the Protectorate. His home, Foulton Hall, was three miles from Harwich, and with the addition of Montagu’s Admiralty interest, his election in 1660 was secure. He was given a grant of a ‘baronetcy’ in 1658 and 1660, and died on 5 Feb. 1664, aged 27.

For more information see http://www.historyofparliamentonl…

About William Swan

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Which Lord Widdrington?

Sir Thomas Widdington MP 1603 - 1664: 1659-60 he was a member of the council of state, and on three occasions he was one of the commissioners of the great seal, but he lost some of his offices when Charles II was restored.

Sir Edward Widdrington lived in Axe Yard and was related both to a public orator at Cambridge and to the speaker of the House, William Lenthall. (Claire Tomalin, "Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self", p.68)

Thomas Widdrington was chief baron of the Exchequer, making him a better candidate for the person Pepys is calling "my Lord."

or Ralph Widdrington of Cambridge University, related to these Widdringtons.

About Tuesday 31 January 1659/60

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Gen. Charles Fleetwood's brother was Sir William Fleetwood, Royalist. A story told about their interesting relationship:

Sir William Fleetwood MP, ‘Being a servant in ordinary of the late King, he attended his person at Oxford’, bringing with him, as he later claimed, £60,000 revenue from the court of wards.

Parliament naturally removed Sir William Fleetwood from his post, which was given to his brother Charles Fleetwood, later a general during the Interregnum.

for more information, see: http://www.historyofparliamentonl…

About Tuesday 31 January 1659/60

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Therefore, it is profoundly symbolic that in 1660, when trying the case of Col. John Jones, charged as being one of the regicides of Charles I, the hearing was to be held in the very same room in which Charles I tried his victims in actual Star Chamber proceedings. This hearing must have shocked the entire English nation, and the world. One can only imagine how Pepys and the other clerks must have felt being subpoenaed to testify against Jones in the Star Chamber courtroom."

To be clear, Jones is not being charged as a Regicide today -- Parliament is still in charge. Pepys and the clerks were probably more curious than anything to see the famous courtroom. They were there to testify about Col. Jones levying Excise taxes on the Irish which were not authorized by Parliament. Presumably they had the documentary evidence.