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San Diego Sarah has posted 9,745 annotations/comments since 6 August 2015.

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Second Reading

About St Lawrence Jewry

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

St. Lawrence Jewry stands in Gresham Street, with the entrance in Guildhall Yard.

It is named after St. Lawrence, who was roasted to death on a grid iron in AD 258, which is why the weather vane is in the shape of a grid iron (although some historians say he was beheaded). The name Jewry comes from it standing in what used to be the Jewish section of the City of London until they were expelled in 1290 by Edward I. The nearby street, Old Jewry, housed the Great London Synagogue until then.

The old church was one destroyed in the fire of 1666, so the one we see today was built by Sir Christopher Wren between 1671 and 1677.

For more information, see http://www.barryoneoff.co.uk/chur…

About Thomas Grey (MP Ludgershall, Wiltshire)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I was wondering how or why Pepys was becoming friendly with Thomas Grey, eldest surviving son of Lord Grey of Warke:

After the Restoration Thomas Grey played a prominent part in the City and at Court. He invested £2,000 in the Africa Company, on the board of which, according to William Coventry, he was eager for war with the Dutch, being "... steered by the merchant party without perceiving it (being zealous for the company) and partly out of a desire to maintain a popularity with the merchants as well as the court party, so that he might be chosen the next sub-governor, of which he was ambitious, partly having nothing else to do and partly for the opportunity it gave him to make his court" to Charles II.

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

About Thursday 9 February 1664/65

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Gen Ed Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester was Lord Chamberlain to Charles II from 1660 to 1671.

Details gleaned from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lor…

The Lord Chamberlain, or Lord Chamberlain of the Household, is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main channel of communication between the Sovereign and the House of Lords. ...

The Lord Chamberlain is always sworn member of the Privy Council, is usually a peer, and before 1782 the post was of Cabinet rank. The position was a political one until 1924. The office dates from the Middle Ages when the King's Chamberlain often acted as the King's spokesman in Council and Parliament.

During the Early Modern period the Lord Chamberlain was one of the three principal officers of the Royal Household, the others being the Lord Steward and the Master of the Horse.

The Lord Chamberlain was responsible for the "chamber" or the household "above stairs": that is, the series of rooms used by the Sovereign to receive increasingly select visitors, terminating in the royal bedchamber (although the bedchamber itself came to operate semi-autonomously under the Groom of the Stool/Stole). His department not only furnished the servants and other personnel (such as physicians and bodyguards, the Yeomen of the Guard and Gentlemen Pensioners) in intimate attendance on the Sovereign but arranged and staffed ceremonies and entertainments for the court. ...

About Tuesday 10 January 1664/65

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Evelyn is touring the south coast making arrangements for the care of sick and wounded seamen, and Dutch prisoners, when the war finally starts."

It occurs to me that Dutch prisoners are already arriving, from aboard the prize ships taken. So Evelyn is dealing with an immediate need.

About Wednesday 8 February 1664/65

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"We know that Sandwich is in difficulties over his finances, but his knowledge of maths is excellent and can be applied to surveying, navigation and astronomy."

So far 17th century monarchs had made a habit of promising rich rewards, but being 'slow payers' (if they paid at all). Seeing how much Monck was rewarded for facilitating the Restoration, Sandwich evidently expected similar rewards and overspent on improving his housing in London and at Hinchingbrooke. His error could have been believing his king, and spending money not yet in hand. Then he got sick last year, disappeared from Court, and lost seniority. Out of sight, out of Charles II's mind.

Louis XIV was busy in France showing that paying your courtiers for being at court and being faithful was a winning strategy. But no one has ever accused Anthony Ashley Cooper of being a Colbert.

About Wednesday 8 February 1664/65

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"On 8 February 1665 Pepys was proposed as a Fellow by Thomas Povey FRS, a financier and colleague on the Tangier Committee."

So Pepys found a way of extracting something of value from Povy in exchange for all the wasted hours trying to make sense of his shoe boxes full of reports.

About Sunday 8 January 1664/65

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

As I recall the times of church services depended on daylight hours, churches being ill lit at best. So they could be much earlier and later in the summer.

About Monday 2 January 1664/65

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Maybe jealous isn't the word we would use today. Perhaps he means embarrassed or flustered? This may be Sir Philip Sidney's poem Elizabeth made him read recently -- perhaps it gives us a clue:

Love and Jealousy - by Sir Philip Sidney

With two strange fires of equall heat possest,

The one of Loue, the' other of Iealousie,

Both still do worke, in neither I find rest;

For both, alas, their strengths together tie,

The one aloft doth hold, the other hie.

Loue wakes the iealous eye least thence it moues;

The iealous eye the more it lookes, it loues.

These fires increase: in these I dayly burne;

They feed on me, and with my wings do flie;

My louely ioyes to dolefull ashes turne,

Their flames mount vp, my powers prostrate lie;

They liue in force, I quite consumed die.

One wonder yet farre passeth my conceat, —

The fewell small, how be the fires so great?
***

No, this seems to be about being possessive and selfish.

About Monday 6 February 1664/65

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... ended my contract with the “Kingfisher” I hired for Tangier, and I hope to get something by it."

How the heck did he do that? All I can think of is writing in the Navy books that the deposit was, say, 200l., when it was really 150l., so he will walk away with the difference.

About Saturday 4 February 1664/65

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... being assured by the King of France that in coming to them he should be used with all the liberty, honor, and safety, that could be desired. And at the just day he did come to the Scotts."

Louis XIII died at the age of 41 on May 14, 1643, the monarchy passed to his eldest child, Louis XIV, who was four years and eight months old. With the new king too young to rule over his 19,000,000 subjects, his mother, Anne of Austria, served as regent and appointed Louis XIV’s godfather, Italian-born Cardinal Jules Mazarin, as chief minister.

This story comes from October 1645, so when it says "the King of France" understand it was Anne of Austria and Mazarin's policy.

About Sunday 5 February 1664/65

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

'"my business having got before me much of late. " This surprised me. It seems to me that Sam has been working long, hard hours recently and got very tired (thus the lie-in this morning). I suppose they are all extra busy because of the war preparations. ?'

Yes, but it's not just war preparations. He's on the Tangier Committee -- Povy has messed up the accounting, so he devoted days to helping Povy and Creed get it straightened out -- and covering up his culpability, while explaining to Belasyse how things work, and hiring ships they may not need. He's spent time lobbying for the Prize Office to come under the Navy Board. He spent a couple of days trying to find someone other than Clarendon to sign off on tree paperwork. While James was with the Fleet he had to meet three times a week with people who knew nothing about their workings who ordered up a whole lot of extra reports. And he's prepared reports and testified to MP's in support of the Supply Bill. There are letters to be written as needed to Sandwich with intelligence. And don't discount the stress of knowing the Dutch are lying in wait for this cousin and his fleet, and they could be fighting it out right now.

Then the house was/wasn't on fire, and there were/weren't people on the roof ready to break and steal his goodies. Now a good cook has quit and he has the annoyance of finding a new one. A couple of relatives have died, and it is one of the coldest winters in history.

He's taken to raping women, and force-kissing his female distant relatives.

As to Elizabeth -- playing with the staff over the 12 days of Christmas wasn't a good idea. Oh, but that was Sam's fault too.

It's about time his Puritan upbringing kicks his conscience -- and that energy is being diverted into work. It's the easy thing to do, and will make him more efficient. Perhaps it will appease his conscience -- and maybe not.

About Saturday 7 January 1664/65

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Mrs. Batten’s neighbors would have been “interested” and also critical of her but there would have been little criticism of her visitor."

I think it depends on how old she was (I suspect in her 50's), and how many servants were around. And Sir William has a son -- perhaps he was living there too. All in all, I think if Pepys had thought it would be misconstrued by his arch-rival Batten, he would either not have gone, or would have taken Elizabeth. He seems to be very good about stopping in on the sick or lonely.

About Louis Duras (Marquis de Blanquefort)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Louis Duras (Marquis de Blanquefort) -- (1641 – 19 April 1709) a French nobleman who was created Earl of Feversham by Charles II. He was a Huguenot. In 1663 he came to England in the suite of James, Duke of York, and was naturalized in the same year. By 1666 Blanquefort was as influential as Coventry with the Duke of York. In September 1667 Blanquefort was in charge of the Duke of York's Privy Purse. On 19 January 1673 Blanquefort was raised to the English peerage as Baron Duras, of Holdenby, his title being derived from an estate in Northamptonshire bought from the Duke of York. In 1676 he married Mary, daughter and elder co-heiress of Sir George Sondes, created in that year Baron Throwley, Viscount Sondes and Earl of Feversham. Under James II, Feversham became a member of the Privy Council, and in 1685 was given the chief command against the rebels under this same Duke of Monmouth, in which he mainly distinguished himself by his cruelty to the vanquished after the Battle of Sedgemoor. After the Glorious Revolution, Feversham succeeded in making his peace with William III, on the intercession of the queen dowager [Mary of Modena?], at whose instance he received the mastership of the Royal Hospital of St. Catherine near the Tower (1698). Feversham died childless on 19 April 1709 and was buried in the Savoy, in the Strand; but was reburied on 21 March 1740 in Westminster Abbey.

About Friday 3 February 1664/65

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Resolved, &c. That the Title shall be, An Act for granting a Royal Aid unto the King's Majesty of Twenty-four hundred seventy-seven thousand and Five hundred Pounds, to be raised, levied, and paid, in Three Years."

Would that be 2,477,500l.? The HEIC merchants were happy to make their countrymen pay big-time for all that international trade.

About Friday 3 February 1664/65

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Just over a year ago: "They being gone, my wife did tell me how my uncle did this day accost her alone, ..." Remember 'accost' doesn't necessarily mean then what you and I immediately think of today. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

But it sounds like Pepys accosted Mrs. Margaret Wight this evening. Her annotation says she is one of John's three sister -- I don't see any John and Margaret Wights on the family tree. Anyone know who she/they are?

About Salisbury Court

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Anyone know how to update these links?

Philip Somervail's interesting annotation leaves me a little unclear: Does the old Bishop's Palace ("the house") burn down in 1666, but not Salisbury Court or Salisbury Square?

About Thomas Gifford

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Thomas or Henry Gifford is a merchant who work with James Houblon on Pepys hiring of the “King’s Fisher” [the Kingfisher] to go to Tangier in February 1665.

About The Sun (Threadneedle St)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The Sun on Threadneedle St., behind the Exchange -- at other times Pepys reports, "At noon being invited, I to the Sun behind the ‘Change, to dinner to my Lord Belasses" ... "Here we dined merry; but my club and the rest come to 7s. 6d., which was too much." So it appears to be an expensive, higher class establishment.