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San Diego Sarah has posted 9,736 annotations/comments since 6 August 2015.

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Second Reading

About Thursday 3 March 1663/64

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... there was a falling out over Creed's accounts ..."

Yes, Creed had prevailed on his friend Pepys to do some time-consuming creative bookkeeping -- one might consider them 'alternative facts' -- which appear to have been accepted partly because it was Pepys presenting them. Creed owed him big time, and Pepys had the sum of one hundred pounds in mind. Creed sent an indian dress for Elizabeth, which Pepys found to be worth much less, and returned it to Creed. After a stand-off of several weeks, Pepys settled for less. see http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

So the falling out was more about Creed being a cheapskate than the accounts per se. But friends are friends, and Pepys couldn't afford to be on the outs with everyone in the Sandwich household.

About Joseph Holden

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Monday 28 January 1660/61
Thence to see the Doctor at his lodging at Mr. Holden’s, where I bought a hat, cost me 35s.
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Tuesday 21 May 1661
and did buy a new hat, cost between 20 and 30 shillings, at Mr. Holden’s.
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Thursday 27 June 1661
This day Mr. Holden sent me a bever, which cost me 4l. 5s.
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Wednesday 12 August 1663
Though by and by he coming to Mr. Holden’s (where I was buying a hat) he took no notice to me of anything.
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Monday 7 September 1663
... called at my brother’s and Mr. Holden’s about several businesses, ...
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Friday 11 December 1663
So to Mr. Holden’s and evened all reckonings there for hats, and then walked to Paul’s Churchyard ...
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Sunday 2 December 1666
I to Mr. Martin’s, where find the company almost all come to the christening of Mrs. Martin’s child, a girl. ... After sitting long, till the church was done, the Parson comes, and then we to christen the child. I was Godfather, and Mrs. Holder (her husband, a good man, I know well), ...

Sam was a good customer. And Mrs. Holden was a good friend to brother Tom. As my father said to me once, "Never give your money to a salesman you don't like."

About Priscilla Holden

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Monday 17 August 1663
... and so my brother being come in I went forth to Mrs. Holden’s, to whom I formerly spoke about a girle to come to me instead of a boy, ...
This day at Mrs. Holden’s I found my new low crowned beaver according to the present fashion made, and will be sent home to-morrow.

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Sunday 13 March 1663/64 (Lord’s day).
... and then to my brother, who lies in bed talking idle. He could only say that he knew me, and then fell to other discourse, and his face like a dying man, which Mrs. Turner, who was here, and others conclude he is. ... and seeing a nurse there of Mrs. Holden’s choosing, I left them,
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Tuesday 15 March 1663/64
I to my brother again, where Madam Turner and her company, and Mrs. Croxton, my wife, and Mrs. Holding.
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Wednesday 16 March 1663/64
to my brother’s to look after things, and saw the coffin brought; and by and by Mrs. Holden came and saw him nailed up.
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Friday 18 March 1663/64
... and so to my brother’s again: whither, though invited, as the custom is, at one or two o’clock, they came not till four or five. But at last one after another they come, many more than I bid: and my reckoning that I bid was one hundred and twenty; but I believe there was nearer one hundred and fifty. Their service was six biscuits apiece, and what they pleased of burnt claret. My cosen Joyce Norton kept the wine and cakes above; and did give out to them that served, who had white gloves given them. But above all, I am beholden to Mrs. Holden, who was most kind, and did take mighty pains not only in getting the house and every thing else ready, but this day in going up and down to see, the house filled and served, in order to mine, and their great content, I think; the men sitting by themselves in some rooms, and women by themselves in others, very close, but yet room enough.
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Sunday 2 December 1666
After sitting long, till the church was done, the Parson comes, and then we to christen the child. I was Godfather, and Mrs. Holder (her husband, a good man, I know well), and a pretty lady, that waits, it seems, on my Lady Bath, at White Hall, her name, Mrs. Noble, were Godmothers. After the christening comes in the wine and the sweetmeats, and then to prate and tattle, and then very good company they were, and I among them.

About John Stacey

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Tuesday 16 June 1663
So I to the office and thence to Stacy’s, his Tar merchant, whose servant with whom I agreed yesterday for some tar do by combination with Bowyer and Hill fall from our agreement, which vexes us all at the office, even Sir W. Batten, who was so earnest for it.
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Wednesday 17 June 1663
Anon went with money to my tar merchant to pay for the tar, which he refuses to sell me; but now the master is come home, and so he speaks very civilly, and I believe we shall have it with peace. I brought back my money to my office, and thence to White Hall ...,
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Thursday 16 July 1663
In the morning before I went on the water I was at Thames Street about some pitch, and there meeting Anthony Joyce, I took him and Mr. Stacy, the Tarr merchant, to the tavern, where Stacy told me many old stories of my Lady Batten’s former poor condition, and how her former husband broke, and how she came to her state.
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Saturday 12 March 1664
So at Halfway house put in, and there meeting Mr. Stacy with some company of pretty women, I took him aside to a room by ourselves, and there talked with him about the several sorts of tarrs, and so by and by parted,

About Maypole (The Strand)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"On the present site of St. Mary's Church, at the west end, stood a stone cross where the justices itinerant sat at certain seasons, and also on the site was the old Strand well. The cross became decayed, and a maypole was erected either on its site or close beside it.

"The Puritans pulled down the maypole, but after the Restoration another and a much taller maypole, measuring in two pieces 134 feet, was put up by sailors under the direction of James, Duke of York amid the rejoicings of the people. The maypole stood until 1713."

For more information, see: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25…

About The Strand

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

There is a wonderful book, free from Gutenberg, about old London. A sample:

"On the present site of St. Mary's Church, at the west end, stood a stone cross where the justices itinerant sat at certain seasons, and also on the site was the old Strand well. The cross became decayed, and a maypole was erected either on its site or close beside it.

"The Puritans pulled down the maypole, but after the Restoration another and a much taller maypole, measuring in two pieces 134 feet, was put up by sailors under the direction of James, Duke of York amid the rejoicings of the people. The maypole stood until 1713."

For more information, see: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25…

About Thursday 22 November 1660

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"I light at the maypole in the strand ... "

"On the present site of St. Mary's Church, at the west end, stood a stone cross where the justices itinerant sat at certain seasons, and also on the site was the old Strand well. The cross became decayed, and a maypole was erected either on its site or close beside it.

"The Puritans pulled down the maypole, but after the Restoration another and a much taller maypole, measuring in two pieces 134 feet, was put up by sailors under the direction of James, Duke of York amid the rejoicings of the people. The maypole stood until 1713."

For more information, see: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25…

About Sunday 1 January 1659/60

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

This article sheds light on why Pepys wrote his Diary:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/brit…

In 1656 John Beadle, an Essex minister, wrote a manual on how to keep a diary and explained the variety of types that were written in the 17th century:

'We have our state diurnals, relating to national affairs. Tradesmen keep their shop books. Merchants their account books. Lawyers have their books of pre[c]edents. Physitians have their experiments. Some wary husbands have kept a diary of daily disbursements. Travellers a Journal of all that they have seen and hath befallen them in their way. A Christian that would be more exact hath more need and may reap much more good by such a journal as this. We are all but stewards, factors here, and must give a strict account in that great day to the high Lord of all our ways, and of all his ways towards us'.

Diary-writing seems to have become a common genre that covered many different functions. One count in 1950 put diaries written before 1700 at 363, and since then many more have been discovered.

Beadle suggests we look for many factors to explain 17th century diary-keeping, including the growing literacy rate. a more literate culture, changes in the education system, cheaper paper and a heightened awareness of the 'self'. But one factor, the impact of the Protestant reformation on the world of the 'thankful Christian', stands out.

The most common reason for keeping a diary was to keep an account of providence or God's ordering of the world and of individual lives. Ralph Josselin called the diary he kept between 1641 and 1683 'a thankfull observation of divine providence and goodness towards me and a summary view of my life'.

Diaries allowed authors to meditate on personal failings - a type of written confession in a Protestant world that rejected the need for a Catholic priest to mediate sins. The diarist could count his blessings, give thanks for births or marriages, or seek consolation for illness and death. In an age when life in this world and salvation in the next were uncertain, diaries were a way of making sense of and ordering existence. They reflected the intensely introspective and anxious, self-examining religiosity of the 17th century, particularly among the 'hotter sort' of Protestants, such as the Presbyterians, independents, Baptists and Quakers.

Generally, diaries are the records of men and women of higher status. Their journals mingle a world of public events with private ones. Acting as key mediators of local authority or privileged to receive and disperse information, they were aware of the seismic nature of the events through which they were living.

Samuel Pepys seems to have begun his diary because he was aware of the crisis affecting the nation at the start of 1660. ...

About Privy Seal Office

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I'm confused:

Clerks of the Privy Seal:
Baron, Hartgill 1660-1673
Castle, John 1638-[1646]; 1660-1664
Montagu, Edward (created Earl of Sandwich 12 July 1660) 1660-1672
Watkins, William 1643-[1646]; 1660-1662

SEE http://www.history.ac.uk/publicat… Clerks of the Privy Seal c. 1537-1851 The four Clerks of the Privy Seal were appointed by the crown by letters patent under the great seal from 1537. The Tenure was for life until 1814 ...."

So was Lord Privy Seal The Lord Robartes (or John, Lord Roberts) their "boss" ... I've Googled this and not come up with a clear delineation of responsibilities.

About Thursday 3 December 1668

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... and saw “The Unfortunate Lovers;” a mean play, I think, but some parts very good, and excellently acted." Fourth time's the charm. He hated it the first three times.

About Wednesday 8 April 1668

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... here we saw “The Unfortunate Lovers,” no extraordinary play,..."

Sam, this is the third time you've seen this play, and you didn't think much of it the other two times either.

About Newsbooks

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Seventeenth Century Print Culture -- In Our Time -- BBC podcast

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 17th century print culture. "Away ungodly Vulgars, far away, Fly ye profane, that dare not view the day, Nor speak to men but shadows, nor would hear Of any news, but what seditious were, Hateful and harmful and ever to the best, Whispering their scandals ... "

In 1614 the poet and playwright George Chapman poured scorn on the popular appetite for printed news. However, his initial scorn did not stop him from turning his pen to satisfy the public's new found appetite for scandal.

From the advent of the printing press the number of books printed each year steadily increased, and so did literacy rates. With a growing and socially diverse readership appearing over the 16th and 17th centuries, printed texts reflected controversy in every area of politics, society and religion.

In the advent of the Civil War, print was used as the ideological battle-ground by the competing forces of Crown and Parliament. What sorts of printed texts were being produced? How widespread was literacy and who were the new consumers of print? Did print affect social change? And what role did print play in the momentous English Civil War?

With Kevin Sharpe, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London; Ann Hughes, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Keele; Joad Raymond, Professor of English Literature at the University of East Anglia.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p…

About Friday 4 March 1663/64

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Friday 26 February 1664 -- "Up, and after dressing myself handsomely for riding, I out, ... Creed and I ... round about the bush through bad ways to Highgate. Good discourse in the way had between us, and it being all day a most admirable pleasant day, we, upon consultation, had stopped at the Cock, a mile on this side Barnett, ... and we met the coach very gracefully, and I had a kind receipt from both Lord and Lady as I could wish, ... Among others talking with W. Howe, he told me ... Povy (who went with them down to Hinchinbrooke) ..."

The mystery of this day out last Friday on Coventry's horse with Creed deepens for me ... we now know that the Earl and Countess of Sandwich and William Howe did not go on to Hinchinbrooke, and Pepys chose to ride back to London from this undisclosed house, probably in the dark, rather than wait for them possibly the next day. If I were writing a novel, this day would be in it.

About Mr White

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Mr. White was an influential man, and well known to Pepys and Sandwich:

"Thursday 9 May 1661 ... I went to Whitehall and there spoke with my Lord at his lodgings, and there being with him my Lord Chamberlain, I spoke for my old waterman Payne, to get into White’s place, who was waterman to my Lord Chamberlain, and is now to go master of the barge to my Lord to sea, and my Lord Chamberlain did promise that Payne should be entertained in White’s place with him."

About Mr White

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Watermen -- The Thames must have been a wonderful and busy place with hundreds of watermen at work. This gives an idea of the importance of the watermen in Pepys' time.

Records of the Company of Waterman and Lightermen at Guildhall Library
http://www.ihrinfo.ac.uk/gh/water…

About Thursday 3 March 1663/64

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

William Howe keeps his word -- evidently he did not go on to Hinchingbrooke:

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Friday 26 February 1664

"Among others talking with W. Howe, he told me how my Lord in his hearing the other day did largely tell my Lord Peterborough and Povy (who went with them down to Hinchinbrooke) how and when he discarded Creed, and took me to him, and that since the Duke of York has several times thanked him for me, which did not a little please me, and anon I desiring Mr. Howe to tell me upon [what] occasion this discourse happened, he desired me to say nothing of it now, for he would not have my Lord to take notice of our being together, but he would tell me another time, which put me into some trouble to think what he meant by it."

So this story about the "... outing of Creed in his Secretaryship" could date back to 1660 when Montagu took Pepys to sea instead of Creed, or to Creed being Deputy-Treasurer to the fleet in 1660-1663 as we have heard nothing about why Creed lost this position.

About Monday 29 February 1663/64

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Got home before our mayds, who by and by came with a great cry and fright that they had like to have been killed by a coach; but, Lord! to see how Jane did tell the story like a foole and a dissembling fanatique, like her grandmother, but so like a changeling, would make a man laugh to death almost, and yet be vexed to hear her."

Pepys sees through this story. The maids were out having a good time, shopping, flirting, visiting their families or friends, who knows what. So they get home late and cover up by telling a tall story. He's polite enough not to say anything.

About Francis Willoughby (5th Baron Willoughby of Parham)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

A book about Francis Willoughby and Willoughbyland has been written:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/0… the-strange-history-of-willoughbyland-modern-day-suriname/

Both links about his life and Willoughbyland are too long for this site, so I am cutting them both in two so you can copy and link together manually.

http://www.historytoday.com/matth… britains-forgotten-south-american-colony?mc_cid=88f288d3f8&mc_eid=e844b859b2

About Thursday 29 November 1666

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

My favorite story about Sir Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham is his adventure in South America. He set up a country called Willoughbyland (now Suriname), and one of the settlers was Alpha Behr, who later became a Royalist spy in 1663 and a successful playwright.

For more information, see http://www.historytoday.com/matth…