The Isles of Scilly featured in Charles II's escape from England in March 1646. The islands hold a strange place in history following Charles' visit:
In 1651, the Dutch Republic decided to get involved in the English Civil Wars.
The Dutch sent a fleet of 12 warships to the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, to demand reparations from the Royalists, who had been raiding Dutch shipping lanes.
Their demands were ignored, at which point the Dutch declared war on the Isles of Scilly. The Dutch hung around for 3 months and then abandoned the fruitless conflict and sailed home.
But they forgot one thing: to declare peace with the Isles of Scilly.
The bloodless war technically lasted for 335 years until anyone saw fit to formally sign a peace treaty, which finally happened in 1986. It remains at least one of the longest wars in history, and is known as The Three Hundred and Thirty-Five Years' War.
The map and a census offering such details as who rented which building was then sent to old Amsterdam, where Johannes Vingboons, a noted cartographer and watercolorist, created a replica of the work
The original has been lost, but the replica was bound into an atlas that was sold to Cosimo III de’ Medici, the future Grand Duke of Tuscany, during his visit to the Dutch Republic to tour some well-known Dutch painters’ studios. [Cosmo landed in Rotterdam on June 5, 1669 -- I'd love to find a translation of his European travelogue - SDS.]
It wasn’t until the early 1900s that the geographical world rediscovered this centuries-old map of a long-gone Dutch New World colony, which was hanging on a wall in the Villa di Castello, a country estate that once belonged to de’ Medici, outside Florence. “Throughout much of our history, we’ve looked at American beginnings through English eyes,” Shorto says.
Like the Castello Plan, the story of Dutch New Amsterdam was overlooked.
But the Dutch colony is key to understanding New York today. The settlers imported their ideas of pluralism and business from Europe. “This multi-ethnic community and its capitalist ethic has defined New York from the very beginning,” Shorto says.
Enslaved Africans did much of the work of building New Amsterdam. Most surviving artifacts relate to European settlers, but in 1984, archaeologists found a collection of objects which had probably belonged to an enslaved person, known as a mpungu. This mpungu is a trove of bones and teeth, fragments of a pipe, a copper thimble, stoneware marbles, and other small items which were discovered in a basket buried under a Dutch plate near a home that once stood on present-day Pearl Street. It is evidence of an enslaved person who brought part of their culture to the island, says Shorto. In some central African cultures these mpungu — “to stick together” — have healing properties.
When Shorto proposed creating an exhibit commemorating the 400th anniversary of the founding of New Amsterdam, he knew he wanted to bring the Castello Plan back to New York. It has become the centerpiece of a complicated, multi-layered story about the history of Manhattan.
Included among the artifacts is New York’s “birth certificate” — a letter describing the purchase of the island from Indigenous people, the terms of which are much debated — and the mpungu collection.
That’s the story Shorto sees when he looks at the Castello Plan. “New Yorkers are coming to appreciate that their beginnings are quite different from other parts of colonial America,” Shorto says.
FOUR HUNDRED YEARS AGO, THE Dutch established the colony of New Amsterdam on the southern tip of the island of Mannahatta.
A map of the settlement circa 1660, known as the Castello Plan, offers a birds-eye view of a thriving community of about 1,500 people. There are houses, businesses, extensive gardens, windmills, piers, and boats bobbing along the rocky coast. Near the southern end of the island stands Fort Amsterdam flying the flag of the Dutch West India Company. On the western side, a broad way stretches north from the fort toward a wall that crosses the island from east to west.
Follow the map today, and you can find yourself standing in New York City’s Financial District at the place where that broad way — today’s Broadway — and the northern wall — Wall Street — meet. Simply, the Castello Plan is a map of Manhattan before it was Manhattan.
The details shown on the map have been erased by time, as New Amsterdam became New York City and landfill projects reshaped Manhattan’s shoreline, but the streets, although renamed, remain, among them Broadway; Wall Street; Pearl Street (which marked the island’s eastern border); and Broad Street, home to a canal that ran through the center of the settlement almost to the modern-day Exchange Place. The footprint of Fort Amsterdam also remains; it's the 20th-century site of Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House.
Close your eyes and you can imagine these blocks as they looked in the mid-17th century. “I always think of it as kind of a little Wild West-looking town, but with Dutch gable houses,” says Shorto, who wrote "The Island at the Centre of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America". He points out a house on the map that once stood near the modern-day intersection of Pearl and Whitehall streets. Lenape people came there to trade corn and venison with the settlers. On what is now South William Street, Shorto identifies a modest building where dozens of African people enslaved by the Dutch West India Company lived.
But until the opening of an exhibit at the New York Historical Society featuring the Castello Plan (March 15 - July 14, 2024), Shorto had never seen the plan in person. The most revealing map of the origins of New York City is in the collection of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Italy. It has rarely been displayed on the island it depicts.
Johannes Vingboons painted a watercolor of New Amsterdam at the moment it became New York, captioning his work, “New Amsterdam or now New York on the Island Man[hattan].”
The story of the Castello Plan begins in about 1660 at the height of the settlement, when Jacques Cortelyou, a prominent resident of New Netherlands and surveyor-general of the province, created a map of New Amsterdam.
If you stole a pineapple today, you’d likely end up paying a small fine, but the punishment for pineapple theft was far more severe between the 16th and 19th centuries in Britain.
Pineapples were first introduced to the European continent in the late 1400s, and rapidly gained popularity as a rare — and expensive — luxury among the elite.
Growing pineapples on British soil proved challenging, and few made it back from their Atlantic colonies without spoiling. This made the fruit all the more desirable, and by the 1770s, the most expensive pineapples were valued around £60 to £80, or roughly $17,000 to $23,000 today.
The scarcity and value of pineapples meant they were the target of many thieves, and given the high cost of each pineapple, those who were caught were subject to heftier fines and punishments than people who stole more common, inexpensive foods such as bread.
By the late 18th century, farmers figured out how to grow pineapples on British soil, and many hired security guards to protect their crops. Still, criminals remained determined to get their hands on the valuable fruit. In 1807, a man named John Godding was charged with stealing 7 pineapples, and was sentenced to 7 years in an Australian penal colony.
Eventually, pineapple rental shops began appearing throughout Britain, allowing middle-class Brits to borrow pineapples to be used as centerpieces at parties.
By the latter half of the 19th century, Britain was importing more of the fruit than ever, and advances in refrigeration and canning made pineapples easy to come by. https://historyfacts.com/world-hi…
Susan reminds us that "it is Lady Day and thus pay day, but no mention of making money over to Mr Barlow?? Did he die? Is SP waiting to be chased for the money?"
People commonly settle their accounts around Quarter Days -- but Pepys has been receiving cash when it becomes available from the exchequer, and appears to have kept current without this accommodation. The problem was the shorage of coins. When X pays Y, Y now has money to go to R and pay off his tab. R now pays his supplier, who in turn pays his staff, so they can pay their rents, etc. etc. etc. The same sovereign goes from hand to hand.
Mr. Barlow is alive and well. No doubt we will hear about his payment in time.
Pepys seems to have solved his financial worries from a month ago, when he was worried about having enough money to splash on the coronation. Was it as simple as getting paid -- again -- for his trip picking up the royal family last year from the Dutch Republic?
@@@
On a different subject, if I was having a dinner party tomorrow, I wouldn't start building a new staircase in the parlor today. Maybe that's why he stopped by his parent's house and talked to them about it -- so will it be held at Salisbury Court? In which case, this is another reason to think John Pepys Snr. was not just an impoverished tailor -- his home was big enough to accommodate some of the overflow of Sandwich's staff, and the well-to-do Honywood family stayed there, and to host dinner parties.
Will Pall be the cook, no matter where it is held?
True -- 'The 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys often slept with male friends and rated their conversation skills. One of his favorites was the “merry Mr. Creed,” who provided “excellent company. ...
'Travelers often slept with strangers. ...
'Bedding down with strangers could lead to some awkwardness. The 16th-century English poet Andrew Buckley complained of bedmates who “buck and babble, some commeth drunk to bed.”
'Then there was the Great Bed of Ware — a massive bed kept in an inn in a small town in central England. Built with richly decorated oak around 1590, the 4-post bed is about the size of 2 modern double beds. 'Twenty-six butchers and their wives — a total of 52 people — are said to have spent a night in the Great Bed in 1689.' https://qz.com/quartzy/1714155/th…
"... met my uncle Wight, and with him Lieut.-Col. Baron, who told us how Crofton, the great Presbyterian minister that had lately preached so highly against Bishops, is clapped up this day into the Tower. Which do please some, and displease others exceedingly."
Pepys understates the problem created by people like Dr. Crofton:
"The measures taken after Venner’s Jan. 1661 millenarian rising provoked a campaign in the pulpits [of the City of London], most of which were still occupied by the enemies of the Church of England. "In his ‘subtle, witty’ preaching, little Dr. Crofton ceaselessly ‘banged’ the bishops, ‘which theme he doth most exquisitely handle’. "Preparations for the 1661 election were made in a republican club under the direction of John Wildman and the political theorist [James] Harrington, and the management committed to Francis Jencks, a linen-draper of Cornhill." https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
For those of you crying out for more Easter/Lent observances, now you see the problem!
Just 2 days ago Pepys told us: "The great talk of the town is the strange election that the City of London made yesterday for Parliament-men; viz. Fowke, Love, Jones, and …, men that are so far from being episcopall that they are thought to be Anabaptists; and chosen with a great deal of zeal, in spite of the other party that thought themselves very strong, calling out in the Hall, “No Bishops! no Lord Bishops!” It do make people to fear it may come to worse, by being an example to the country to do the same. And indeed the Bishops are so high, that very few do love them."
Diary of Ralph Josselin (Private Collection) Friday 22 March 1661 -- document 70012990 "Esther. 4: death stands in the way of our mercies, the soul must venture on god that will obtain good, and those that do trustingly do speed"
I've read Esther Chapter 4, and don't find this quote. Ideas anyone? I like Josselin's idea, but he's not supported by this text.
Coming home, there were at least 2 coaches, so Pepys could find a seat, and his horse was either riden by someone else, or it was tied to the back of coach and led home.
The proximity of the Chatham shipyard gave the Government a strong interest in Rochester, and in normal times the cathedral chapter had considerable influence, in 1686 estimated at 50 votes.
In 1660 Peter Pett, navy commissioner at Chatham, who had represented the city in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament, and John Marsham, a neighbouring country gentleman, were returned. Marsham had been a Cavalier and Pett was trying to live down his record of support for Commonwealth and Protectorate.
In 1661 Sir Francis Clerke, another active Royalist, reasserted his family interest and was elected ‘nemine contradicente’. The election of Sir William Batten, surveyor of the navy and a Presbyterian Royalist, may have been contested. He was strongly opposed on behalf of the cathedral interest by the mayor, who swore in the dean, the archdeacon and 10 clergymen as freemen shortly before the election.
Sir William Batten was the only Member during the period who did not live in or near the city, but as surveyor of the navy he enjoyed the Admiralty interest, and through his son Benjamin’s 1658 marriage to Margaret Alcock, the daughter of a wealthy citizen, he must have been well known to the electors. https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
In 1662 the Rochester corporation was thoroughly purged under the Corporations Act, 10 aldermen and almost 100 freemen being removed.
Late in 1663 a writ of quo warranto was served on the corporation but the mayor, Richard Head, succeeded in obtaining confirmation of the charter, with the addition of the usual clause requiring crown approval of recorder and town clerk.
Perhaps in gratitude for his efforts, Richard Head was returned as the MP in 1667 at the by-election caused by Batten’s death. Head's politics were uncertain, but he was the only Rochester Member who was neither a placeman nor an outright court supporter.
Before the first election of 1679 Samuel Pepys campaigned vigorously for Sir John Banks. ...
If you're interested in Pepys' life after the end of the Diary, there are several extracts of letters to and from him in the 1670's later in this blog.
The first Huguenots to arrive in London were fleeing the persecution that culminated in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572. By 1593 there were 37 Huguenot silversmiths in London; a decade later there were 63.
A second wave of Huguenots came after 1660, as aggressions condoned by Louis XIV became more serious. The restoration of Charles II enlivened the market in luxury goods, with British consumers keen to embrace French fashions. The first Huguenot silversmith to receive a royal commission was Jean-Gerard Cockus, hired in 1661 for work in Charles II’s bedchamber, although there is no recorded mark to trace his work.
In 1681 Charles II formally offered Huguenots royal protection. One of the first silversmiths to receive ‘Letters of Denization’ was Pierre Harache, whose work is still much admired. Harache trained many leading Huguenot silversmiths, including Simon Pantin; Pantin in turn took as apprentice Peter Courtauld (1689/90–1729), who married his Pantin cousin. Such interconnections were typical.
James II’s Declaration of Indulgence in 1687, which allowed freedom of worship, offered further encouragement: as many as 50,000 made their way to England. Geneva, the Swiss Cantons, the Palatinate in western Germany and the Dutch United Provinces were also places of refuge, but London provided the best opportunities for enterprising silversmiths, bankers and wine merchants.
It was not until 1697 that silversmiths were required to register and use marks consisting of the first 2 letters of their surnames.
According to Harry Williams-Bulkeley, head of the silver department at Christie’s, the Huguenots ‘revitalized the London silver scene’.
Today Paul de Lamerie tops collectors’ lists, alongside Pierre Platel, David Willaume, Paul Crespin and Simon Pantin. These stars took their place within an extensive network of Huguenot makers.
Huguenots who went to Switzerland contributed to a specialism in fine gold boxes shared with Geneva and Hanau in southern Germany. Many Huguenots also went to the Dutch Republic but Huguenot silver is quite rare in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam goldsmith Sebastien du Flos and Isacq Samuel Busard in The Hague are among the better-known craftsmen.
Some Huguenot silversmiths landed in America – the most famous name being Paul Revere. Paul Revere Sr., born Apollos Rivoire on Guernsey in 1702, crossed the Atlantic as a boy, learning his trade in Boston and anglicizing his name. His son, Paul Revere Jr., is most famous for his midnight ride in 1775 to warn that the British were coming.
The lapse of the first Conventicles Act in 1669 showed that the Church of England had failed to make any serious inroads on dissent; although its successor was not strictly enforced, it was much disliked by the aldermen, most of whom considered that molestation of dissenters must be prejudicial to trade, ‘which is driven by many worthy persons of that opinion’. A demonstration against it, which coincided with Charles II’s absence at Dover to conclude the alliance with France, alarmed the magistrates, not least by its good order and discipline.
The third Anglo-Dutch war caused less damage to commerce than its predecessor, and the City lost little in the Stop of the Exchequer; but several years later ...
The only contest was between Ford and the Presbyterian Jones, who never attained the bench and had lost his seat on the common council as long ago as 1647. But the crowd never ceased crying ‘A Jones! a Jones!’, and he was successful by 5-to-1. There had never been ‘so general a union of Presbyterians, Independents, and Anabaptists crying down the Episcopalians, who went away cursing and swearing and wishing they had never come’. The other successful candidates were all aldermen: Fowke, ‘not much noted for religion, but ... deeply engaged in bishops’ lands’, Love, one of the republican committee, and the Presybterian Sir William Thompson https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… who, like Jones, had represented the City in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament. ‘Never knew so small an affair create such a prattle’, wrote a supporter; but most of the 68 letters intercepted in the Post Office urged other constituencies to follow suit, and in an account of the election written for the ambassador to the Sublime Porte it was admitted that ‘the choice hath much disgusted his Majesty’.
The 2 Presbyterians gave little trouble in Parliament; ‘Jones of late years has been esteemed both honest and able’, a Royalist wrote. Love was effectually excluded from the House for most of the Clarendon administration by the sacramental test. But in the opening session of the Cavalier Parliament until his death in April 1662 Fowke was the boldest opponent of the Court.
In May, Love was removed from the bench. But Charles II refused to renew the charter until 4 other aldermen had been replaced, and only then was the writ issued to fill the vacancy caused by Fowke’s death.
Although his successor, Frederick, probably had Presbyterian inclinations, his firm was heavily involved in financing diplomatic missions throughout Europe, and his election probably pleased the Court. Also the common council had been taken in hand by Robinson, who was clearly much more than the ‘talking, bragging bufflehead’ depicted by Pepys. It concentrated on its own affairs without meddling in high politics, and voted regular loans to the crown, although after 1664 they were generally undersubscribed.
The situation changed with the calamities of the second Anglo-Dutch war, the Plague and the Fire. In the mass of legislation that followed, the administrative measures were often bold and successful, notably the creation of the Fire Court https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… under Sir Matthew Hale https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… , the suspension of guild privileges, and the ‘sanitary charter’ of 1671. But the financial expedients, such as the levy on coal, were inadequate to arrest the decline of the chamber into insolvency.
Much revenue was lost to the corporation by the destruction of property in the Fire, and the westward drift of trade accelerated. The deficit rose from £265,000 in 1666 to £700,000 in 1680.
Eventually the corporation agreed, but only on condition that their own chamber staff should take charge of the disbandment payments, an unsatisfactory arrangement because no accounts were ever rendered to the Exchequer.
Evidence of the widening gap between the aldermen and the electorate was provided by the proposal to levy a rate for the militia. Leave to bring in a bill to raise £140,000 for this purpose was refused on 26 Nov., with Robinson acting as teller for the minority. By claiming that the money was needed to defray the expenses of the Restoration, Silius Titus https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… , an associate of Brown’s, had more success; but even then Alexander Baker, as representative of the small property-owners, claimed that there was no popular support for the expenditure, and 56 Members voted against the second reading. Eventually Bludworth piloted the bill through its remaining stages on the day before the dissolution of the Convention.
The Government failed to take account of these warning signals, and in particular of the resentment aroused by the poll-tax and the excise. Complaints were heard in the City that ‘none of their Members opened their mouth against them’, although this was unfair to Vincent, for one.
The measures taken after Venner’s Jan. 1661 millenarian rising provoked a campaign in the pulpits, most of which were still occupied by the enemies of the Church of England. In his ‘subtle, witty’ preaching little Dr. Crofton https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… ceaselessly ‘banged’ the bishops, ‘which theme he doth most exquisitely handle’.
Preparations for the 1661 election were made in a republican club under the direction of John Wildman I https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… and the political theorist [James] Harrington https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…, and the management committed to Francis Jencks, a linen-draper of Cornhill.
Ten thousand voters were said to have attended the hustings ‘in their liveries’, and 33 candidates were proposed. The hecklers had evidently been well rehearsed. When Wilde was nominated for re-election, there was an answer made: ‘We have been too wild already’. Even popular churchmen, like Robinson and Bludworth, were hissed and cried down with ‘No bishops!’.
In the Cavalier Parliament the tight-fisted John Fowke https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… demanded his wages, and on 8 Apr. 1662 it was resolved to pay him his livery (£6 13s. 4d. per session) and those wages ‘due by the Statute’; but he died before it could be carried into effect. His successor, Sir John Frederick https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… , was paid in February 1664, but returned the money as a gift to the corporation. Only John Jones https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… received payment throughout the Cavalier Parliament, and it has been suggested this must have been a charitable grant.
On the day before the 1660 general election a declaration was issued in the name of the City renouncing any form of government except by King, Lords and Commons, and, out of the 30 or 40 candidates nominated, 4 Royalists ‘were chosen without any dispute, which was never known before’. Of these only Major-Gen. Richard Browne https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… could be called a national figure; a Presbyterian who had served with distinction in the parliamentary forces, he had been removed from the bench in 1649, and at the time of his election held no London office apart from the command of the train-bands. The other wing of the Royalist conspiracy was represented by John Robinson; the son of an archdeacon and executor of the martyred archbishop [LAUD?], he had concealed his Anglican and royalist convictions sufficiently to be elected alderman in 1655 and appointed to the command of a militia regiment. Wilde and William Vincent https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… were less colourful figures.
The provisional government and the restored monarchy depended heavily, and not always successfully, on loans from the City until the revenue could be settled and the army disbanded. An advance of £30,000 on 10 May, 1660, was produced by the 3 merchant Members, with Thomas Bludworth https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… and Thomas Rich. Robinson’s little nest-egg of £4,500 ‘in ready gold’ proved particularly useful, and the remainder was provided by bills on Amsterdam. But another group of Members, Londoners sitting for provincial constituencies, headed by Frederick in the absence of the other aldermen who were attending Charles II, found it too hard to raise even the modest sum of £2,000, which they eventually advanced themselves. The most substantial loan was the £100,000 for which a joint committee of both Houses attended a special meeting of the common council on 14 Aug.; but according to Arthur Annesley https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… they ‘could then have no positive answer’.
The City of London was virtually a state within a state, able to afford sanctuary to the ‘guilty Commons’ between sessions. Its vast patronage was exercised mainly through the powerful committees of the common council, run by a handful of people, including most of the men who were or became the Members for London. They controlled the City lands from which most of its revenue came, the hospitals, the prisons, the markets and the Ulster plantation. The chamber of London (its treasury) combined municipal finance with public banking. The loans voted to the crown by the common council on the security of the parliamentary taxes were collected by way of subscriptions by the chamberlain of London, paid into the chamber, transferred to the Exchequer in bulk payments, and later repaid with interest to individual subscribers. The common hall, consisting of the members of the City companies who had taken their livery, elected the 4 Members of Parliament and the 2 sheriffs, who were returning officers for Middlesex as well as for London. They also elected annually the chamberlain, the bridgemasters, and the auditors of the bridgehouse accounts, all ‘places of profit and advantage’. The corporation enjoyed a unique relationship with the Commons; its sheriffs alone had the right to present petitions directly at the bar of the House. Most, if not all parliamentary elections in this period were decided by the show or the cry; at general elections all the aldermen were presented in turn, followed by any other candidates who had been nominated. All were either present or past members of the corporation. Although the population probably shrank, the electorate was substantially enlarged. Hon. Roger North complained: "Increasing the number, and debasing the quality of the livery trades and liverymen ... hath been effectually, though almost insensibly, done in a few years. ... First the lord mayors and aldermen were gained so far as to give the privilege of the livery to divers companies that were poor and populous; and commonly the meaner the trade, the more numerous the traders. ... This led immediately to invigorate the course of garbling and forming the common hall, which only had to do with elections."
During this period the financial stability of the chamber became increasingly dubious, despite official denials, a situation reflected in the erratic payment of parliamentary wages.
The Convention was the only Parliament in this period in which London was represented by its recorder (William Wilde https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… ), and he received 5s. a day to cover boat-hire and diet. One of his colleagues, John Robinson https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… , who was in Pepys’ view good only for giving sumptuous banquets, recovered £37 4s. after he had failed to secure re-election.
Elections Date Candidate 27 Mar. 1660 WILLIAM WILDE RICHARD BROWNE I JOHN ROBINSON I WILLIAM VINCENT 19 Mar. 1661 JOHN FOWKE SIR WILLIAM THOMPSON WILLIAM LOVE JOHN JONES Sir Richard Ford 10 Feb. 1663 (SIR) JOHN FREDERICK vice Fowke, deceased 17 Feb. 1679 SIR ROBERT CLAYTON ...
Thanks to the diary of Samuel Pepys no period of London history is better known than the years of the Restoration, which had come about through a tax-payers’ revolt against the Rump, in alliance with the well-disciplined forces of George Monck. It was widely believed that London always ‘led the dance’, and great was the dismay at Court when the general election of 1661 returned 4 opponents of the Church; but on this occasion the rest of England marched to a different tune. The spectacular growth of the western suburbs, accelerated by the Great Fire of 1666, suggested that a second capital might arise at Westminster, as a centre of administration, fashion and commerce.
Pepys, one of the comparatively few to be equally familiar with both places, wrote about the bonfires lit for the 6th anniversary of the Restoration: "Lord, to see the difference between how many there was on the other side, and so few our, the City side of the Temple, would make one wonder the difference between the temper of one sort of people and the other."
Hence the obstructive attitude of the City Members to the proposal to build a bridge at Putney: ‘this will make the skirts (though not London) too big for the body’.
The exclusion agitation, during which most political literature was produced and printed in London, and the City’s obstinate but unsuccessful defence of its charter against a quo warranto, once again placed it in the forefront; but it did nothing to bring about the [GLORIOUS] Revolution, and when a hotly-contested by-election was fought a few months later nobody except a casual American visitor even noticed.
The executive branch of the corporation of London comprised the lord mayor and aldermen, consisting of 26 members elected for life; while the legislative branch consisted of the 236 members of the common council elected annually in the several wards by the inhabitant householders. The aldermen, being the wealthier merchants, many of them members of the monied companies and government contractors, tended to be more moderate and amenable to court pressure than the common council.
'In no European city did coffee catch on as aggressively as it did in London, whose coffee houses proliferated in the mid-17th-century and became “social and intellectual hotbeds.” 'Later, “Paris’ coffee houses hosted Enlightenment figures like Diderot and Voltaire, who allegedly drank 50 cups of coffee a day.” (In fairness, it was a lot weaker back then.) 'Producing and transporting the ever-increasing amounts of coffee imbibed in these and other centers of human civilization required world-spanning imperial operations, which were commanded with just the degree of caution and sensitivity one might imagine.'
Our Wiki entry reads: '"Argenis" is a book by John Barclay. It is a work of historical allegory which tells the story of the religious conflict in France under Henry III of France and Henry IV of France, and also touches on more contemporary English events, such as the Overbury scandal. The tendency is royalist, anti-aristocratic; it is told from the angle of a king who reduces the landed aristocrats' power in the interest of the "country", the interest of which is identified with that of the king. 'Jennifer Morrish describes "Argenis" as one of "the two most influential Neo-Latin novels", along with Thomas More's "Utopia".'
What were the 'contemporary English events, such as the Overbury scandal'?
'In the autumn of 1615 the Earl and Countess of Somerset were detained on suspicion of having murdered Sir Thomas Overbury. 'The arrest of these leading court figures created a sensation. The young and beautiful Countess of Somerset had already achieved notoriety when she divorced her first husband in controversial circumstances. The Earl of Somerset was one of the richest and most powerful men in the kingdom, having risen to prominence as the male 'favourite' of James I. 'In a vivid, enthralling narrative, Anne Somerset unravels these extraordinary events. It is, at once, a story rich in passion, intrigue and corruption and a murder mystery -- for, despite the guilty verdicts, there is much about Overbury's death that remains enigmatic. The Overbury murder case profoundly damaged the monarchy, and constituted the greatest court scandal in English history.'
Unnatural Murder: Poison in the Court of James I: The Overbury Murder By Anne Somerset SKU: 9781474618731 https://shop.nationalarchives.gov…
Throughout English history the rule of law and the preservation of liberty have been inseparable, and both are intrinsic to England's constitution.
A new book, "Law, Liberty and the Constitution", gives accessible and entertaining history tracing the growth of the law from its beginnings in Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. It shows how the law evolved from a means of ensuring order and limiting feuds to become a supremely sophisticated dispenser of justice and the primary guardian of civil liberties. This development owed much to the English kings and their judiciary, who, in the 12th century, forged a unified system of law -- predating that of any other European country -- from almost wholly Anglo-Saxon elements.
By the17th century this royal offspring -- Oedipus Lex it could be called -- was capable of regicide. Since then the law has had a somewhat fractious relationship with that institution upon which the regal mantle of supreme power descended, Parliament. "Law, Liberty and the Constitution" tells the story of the common law not merely by describing major developments but by concentrating on prominent personalities and decisive cases relating to the constitution, criminal jurisprudence, and civil liberties.
It investigates the great constitutional conflicts, the rise of advocacy, and curious and important cases relating to slavery, insanity, obscenity, cannibalism, the death penalty, and miscarriages of justice.
"Law, Liberty and the Constitution" concludes by examining the extension of the law into the prosecution of war criminals and protection of universal human rights and the threats posed by over-reaction to national emergencies and terrorism. Devoid of jargon and replete with good stories, it represents a new approach to the telling of legal history and will be of interest to anyone wishing to know more about the common law -- the spinal cord of the English body politic.
Harry Potter is a former fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge and a practising barrister specialising in criminal defence. He has authored books on the death penalty and Scottish history and wrote and presented an award-winning series on the history of the common law for the BBC.
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The Isles of Scilly featured in Charles II's escape from England in March 1646. The islands hold a strange place in history following Charles' visit:
In 1651, the Dutch Republic decided to get involved in the English Civil Wars.
The Dutch sent a fleet of 12 warships to the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, to demand reparations from the Royalists, who had been raiding Dutch shipping lanes.
Their demands were ignored, at which point the Dutch declared war on the Isles of Scilly. The Dutch hung around for 3 months and then abandoned the fruitless conflict and sailed home.
But they forgot one thing: to declare peace with the Isles of Scilly.
The bloodless war technically lasted for 335 years until anyone saw fit to formally sign a peace treaty, which finally happened in 1986. It remains at least one of the longest wars in history, and is known as The Three Hundred and Thirty-Five Years' War.
Extracted from:
https://historyfacts.com/world-hi…
About New Netherland, America
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION
The map and a census offering such details as who rented which building was then sent to old Amsterdam, where Johannes Vingboons, a noted cartographer and watercolorist, created a replica of the work
The original has been lost, but the replica was bound into an atlas that was sold to Cosimo III de’ Medici, the future Grand Duke of Tuscany, during his visit to the Dutch Republic to tour some well-known Dutch painters’ studios. [Cosmo landed in Rotterdam on June 5, 1669 -- I'd love to find a translation of his European travelogue - SDS.]
It wasn’t until the early 1900s that the geographical world rediscovered this centuries-old map of a long-gone Dutch New World colony, which was hanging on a wall in the Villa di Castello, a country estate that once belonged to de’ Medici, outside Florence.
“Throughout much of our history, we’ve looked at American beginnings through English eyes,” Shorto says.
Like the Castello Plan, the story of Dutch New Amsterdam was overlooked.
But the Dutch colony is key to understanding New York today. The settlers imported their ideas of pluralism and business from Europe. “This multi-ethnic community and its capitalist ethic has defined New York from the very beginning,” Shorto says.
Enslaved Africans did much of the work of building New Amsterdam. Most surviving artifacts relate to European settlers, but in 1984, archaeologists found a collection of objects which had probably belonged to an enslaved person, known as a mpungu.
This mpungu is a trove of bones and teeth, fragments of a pipe, a copper thimble, stoneware marbles, and other small items which were discovered in a basket buried under a Dutch plate near a home that once stood on present-day Pearl Street. It is evidence of an enslaved person who brought part of their culture to the island, says Shorto. In some central African cultures these mpungu — “to stick together” — have healing properties.
When Shorto proposed creating an exhibit commemorating the 400th anniversary of the founding of New Amsterdam, he knew he wanted to bring the Castello Plan back to New York. It has become the centerpiece of a complicated, multi-layered story about the history of Manhattan.
Included among the artifacts is New York’s “birth certificate” — a letter describing the purchase of the island from Indigenous people, the terms of which are much debated — and the mpungu collection.
That’s the story Shorto sees when he looks at the Castello Plan. “New Yorkers are coming to appreciate that their beginnings are quite different from other parts of colonial America,” Shorto says.
Excerpted from https://www.atlasobscura.com/arti…
Much of Cosmo's English observations are excerpted in appropriate places.
About New Netherland, America
San Diego Sarah • Link
FOUR HUNDRED YEARS AGO, THE Dutch established the colony of New Amsterdam on the southern tip of the island of Mannahatta.
A map of the settlement circa 1660, known as the Castello Plan, offers a birds-eye view of a thriving community of about 1,500 people. There are houses, businesses, extensive gardens, windmills, piers, and boats bobbing along the rocky coast. Near the southern end of the island stands Fort Amsterdam flying the flag of the Dutch West India Company. On the western side, a broad way stretches north from the fort toward a wall that crosses the island from east to west.
Follow the map today, and you can find yourself standing in New York City’s Financial District at the place where that broad way — today’s Broadway — and the northern wall — Wall Street — meet.
Simply, the Castello Plan is a map of Manhattan before it was Manhattan.
The details shown on the map have been erased by time, as New Amsterdam became New York City and landfill projects reshaped Manhattan’s shoreline, but the streets, although renamed, remain, among them Broadway; Wall Street; Pearl Street (which marked the island’s eastern border); and Broad Street, home to a canal that ran through the center of the settlement almost to the modern-day Exchange Place.
The footprint of Fort Amsterdam also remains; it's the 20th-century site of Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House.
Close your eyes and you can imagine these blocks as they looked in the mid-17th century. “I always think of it as kind of a little Wild West-looking town, but with Dutch gable houses,” says Shorto, who wrote "The Island at the Centre of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America".
He points out a house on the map that once stood near the modern-day intersection of Pearl and Whitehall streets. Lenape people came there to trade corn and venison with the settlers.
On what is now South William Street, Shorto identifies a modest building where dozens of African people enslaved by the Dutch West India Company lived.
But until the opening of an exhibit at the New York Historical Society featuring the Castello Plan (March 15 - July 14, 2024), Shorto had never seen the plan in person. The most revealing map of the origins of New York City is in the collection of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Italy. It has rarely been displayed on the island it depicts.
Johannes Vingboons painted a watercolor of New Amsterdam at the moment it became New York, captioning his work, “New Amsterdam or now New York on the Island Man[hattan].”
The story of the Castello Plan begins in about 1660 at the height of the settlement, when Jacques Cortelyou, a prominent resident of New Netherlands and surveyor-general of the province, created a map of New Amsterdam.
About About fruit and vegetables
San Diego Sarah • Link
If you stole a pineapple today, you’d likely end up paying a small fine, but the punishment for pineapple theft was far more severe between the 16th and 19th centuries in Britain.
Pineapples were first introduced to the European continent in the late 1400s, and rapidly gained popularity as a rare — and expensive — luxury among the elite.
Growing pineapples on British soil proved challenging, and few made it back from their Atlantic colonies without spoiling. This made the fruit all the more desirable, and by the 1770s, the most expensive pineapples were valued around £60 to £80, or roughly $17,000 to $23,000 today.
The scarcity and value of pineapples meant they were the target of many thieves, and given the high cost of each pineapple, those who were caught were subject to heftier fines and punishments than people who stole more common, inexpensive foods such as bread.
By the late 18th century, farmers figured out how to grow pineapples on British soil, and many hired security guards to protect their crops. Still, criminals remained determined to get their hands on the valuable fruit.
In 1807, a man named John Godding was charged with stealing 7 pineapples, and was sentenced to 7 years in an Australian penal colony.
Eventually, pineapple rental shops began appearing throughout Britain, allowing middle-class Brits to borrow pineapples to be used as centerpieces at parties.
By the latter half of the 19th century, Britain was importing more of the fruit than ever, and advances in refrigeration and canning made pineapples easy to come by.
https://historyfacts.com/world-hi…
About Monday 25 March 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
Susan reminds us that "it is Lady Day and thus pay day, but no mention of making money over to Mr Barlow?? Did he die? Is SP waiting to be chased for the money?"
People commonly settle their accounts around Quarter Days -- but Pepys has been receiving cash when it becomes available from the exchequer, and appears to have kept current without this accommodation.
The problem was the shorage of coins. When X pays Y, Y now has money to go to R and pay off his tab. R now pays his supplier, who in turn pays his staff, so they can pay their rents, etc. etc. etc. The same sovereign goes from hand to hand.
Mr. Barlow is alive and well. No doubt we will hear about his payment in time.
Pepys seems to have solved his financial worries from a month ago, when he was worried about having enough money to splash on the coronation. Was it as simple as getting paid -- again -- for his trip picking up the royal family last year from the Dutch Republic?
@@@
On a different subject, if I was having a dinner party tomorrow, I wouldn't start building a new staircase in the parlor today.
Maybe that's why he stopped by his parent's house and talked to them about it -- so will it be held at Salisbury Court?
In which case, this is another reason to think John Pepys Snr. was not just an impoverished tailor -- his home was big enough to accommodate some of the overflow of Sandwich's staff, and the well-to-do Honywood family stayed there, and to host dinner parties.
Will Pall be the cook, no matter where it is held?
About Friday 22 March 1660/61
San Diego Sarah • Link
True -- 'The 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys often slept with male friends and rated their conversation skills. One of his favorites was the “merry Mr. Creed,” who provided “excellent company. ...
'Travelers often slept with strangers. ...
'Bedding down with strangers could lead to some awkwardness. The 16th-century English poet Andrew Buckley complained of bedmates who “buck and babble, some commeth drunk to bed.”
'Then there was the Great Bed of Ware — a massive bed kept in an inn in a small town in central England. Built with richly decorated oak around 1590, the 4-post bed is about the size of 2 modern double beds.
'Twenty-six butchers and their wives — a total of 52 people — are said to have spent a night in the Great Bed in 1689.'
https://qz.com/quartzy/1714155/th…
About Saturday 23 March 1660/61
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... met my uncle Wight, and with him Lieut.-Col. Baron, who told us how Crofton, the great Presbyterian minister that had lately preached so highly against Bishops, is clapped up this day into the Tower. Which do please some, and displease others exceedingly."
Pepys understates the problem created by people like Dr. Crofton:
"The measures taken after Venner’s Jan. 1661 millenarian rising provoked a campaign in the pulpits [of the City of London], most of which were still occupied by the enemies of the Church of England.
"In his ‘subtle, witty’ preaching, little Dr. Crofton ceaselessly ‘banged’ the bishops, ‘which theme he doth most exquisitely handle’.
"Preparations for the 1661 election were made in a republican club under the direction of John Wildman and the political theorist [James] Harrington, and the management committed to Francis Jencks, a linen-draper of Cornhill."
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
For those of you crying out for more Easter/Lent observances, now you see the problem!
Just 2 days ago Pepys told us: "The great talk of the town is the strange election that the City of London made yesterday for Parliament-men; viz. Fowke, Love, Jones, and …, men that are so far from being episcopall that they are thought to be Anabaptists; and chosen with a great deal of zeal, in spite of the other party that thought themselves very strong, calling out in the Hall, “No Bishops! no Lord Bishops!” It do make people to fear it may come to worse, by being an example to the country to do the same. And indeed the Bishops are so high, that very few do love them."
Off to the Tower with him!
About Friday 22 March 1660/61
San Diego Sarah • Link
Diary of Ralph Josselin (Private Collection)
Friday 22 March 1661 -- document 70012990
"Esther. 4: death stands in the way of our mercies, the soul must venture on god that will obtain good, and those that do trustingly do speed"
I've read Esther Chapter 4, and don't find this quote. Ideas anyone? I like Josselin's idea, but he's not supported by this text.
About Friday 22 March 1660/61
San Diego Sarah • Link
My bet is that Pepys hired a horse from The Dophin Inn, which was close to Seething Lane.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Coming home, there were at least 2 coaches, so Pepys could find a seat, and his horse was either riden by someone else, or it was tied to the back of coach and led home.
About Rochester, Medway
San Diego Sarah • Link
Elections
Date Candidate
12 Apr. 1660 PETER PETT https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
JOHN MARSHAM https://www.historyofparliamenton…
21 Mar. 1661 SIR FRANCIS CLERKE https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
SIR WILLIAM BATTEN
2 Nov. 1667 RICHARD HEAD https://www.historyofparliamenton…
19 Feb. 1679 SIR JOHN BANKS, Bt. https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… ...
SIR JOHN BANKS, Bt.
(SIR) RICHARD HEAD, Bt.
Sir Francis Clerke
@@@
The proximity of the Chatham shipyard gave the Government a strong interest in Rochester, and in normal times the cathedral chapter had considerable influence, in 1686 estimated at 50 votes.
In 1660 Peter Pett, navy commissioner at Chatham, who had represented the city in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament, and John Marsham, a neighbouring country gentleman, were returned. Marsham had been a Cavalier and Pett was trying to live down his record of support for Commonwealth and Protectorate.
In 1661 Sir Francis Clerke, another active Royalist, reasserted his family interest and was elected ‘nemine contradicente’.
The election of Sir William Batten, surveyor of the navy and a Presbyterian Royalist, may have been contested. He was strongly opposed on behalf of the cathedral interest by the mayor, who swore in the dean, the archdeacon and 10 clergymen as freemen shortly before the election.
Sir William Batten was the only Member during the period who did not live in or near the city, but as surveyor of the navy he enjoyed the Admiralty interest, and through his son Benjamin’s 1658 marriage to Margaret Alcock, the daughter of a wealthy citizen, he must have been well known to the electors.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
In 1662 the Rochester corporation was thoroughly purged under the Corporations Act, 10 aldermen and almost 100 freemen being removed.
Late in 1663 a writ of quo warranto was served on the corporation but the mayor, Richard Head, succeeded in obtaining confirmation of the charter, with the addition of the usual clause requiring crown approval of recorder and town clerk.
Perhaps in gratitude for his efforts, Richard Head was returned as the MP in 1667 at the by-election caused by Batten’s death. Head's politics were uncertain, but he was the only Rochester Member who was neither a placeman nor an outright court supporter.
Before the first election of 1679 Samuel Pepys campaigned vigorously for Sir John Banks. ...
Extracted from https://www.historyofparliamenton…
If you're interested in Pepys' life after the end of the Diary, there are several extracts of letters to and from him in the 1670's later in this blog.
About Huguenot
San Diego Sarah • Link
The first Huguenots to arrive in London were fleeing the persecution that culminated in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572. By 1593 there were 37 Huguenot silversmiths in London; a decade later there were 63.
A second wave of Huguenots came after 1660, as aggressions condoned by Louis XIV became more serious.
The restoration of Charles II enlivened the market in luxury goods, with British consumers keen to embrace French fashions.
The first Huguenot silversmith to receive a royal commission was Jean-Gerard Cockus, hired in 1661 for work in Charles II’s bedchamber, although there is no recorded mark to trace his work.
In 1681 Charles II formally offered Huguenots royal protection. One of the first silversmiths to receive ‘Letters of Denization’ was Pierre Harache, whose work is still much admired. Harache trained many leading Huguenot silversmiths, including Simon Pantin; Pantin in turn took as apprentice Peter Courtauld (1689/90–1729), who married his Pantin cousin. Such interconnections were typical.
James II’s Declaration of Indulgence in 1687, which allowed freedom of worship, offered further encouragement: as many as 50,000 made their way to England. Geneva, the Swiss Cantons, the Palatinate in western Germany and the Dutch United Provinces were also places of refuge, but London provided the best opportunities for enterprising silversmiths, bankers and wine merchants.
It was not until 1697 that silversmiths were required to register and use marks consisting of the first 2 letters of their surnames.
According to Harry Williams-Bulkeley, head of the silver department at Christie’s, the Huguenots ‘revitalized the London silver scene’.
Today Paul de Lamerie tops collectors’ lists, alongside Pierre Platel, David Willaume, Paul Crespin and Simon Pantin. These stars took their place within an extensive network of Huguenot makers.
Huguenots who went to Switzerland contributed to a specialism in fine gold boxes shared with Geneva and Hanau in southern Germany. Many Huguenots also went to the Dutch Republic but Huguenot silver is quite rare in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam goldsmith Sebastien du Flos and Isacq Samuel Busard in The Hague are among the better-known craftsmen.
Some Huguenot silversmiths landed in America – the most famous name being Paul Revere. Paul Revere Sr., born Apollos Rivoire on Guernsey in 1702, crossed the Atlantic as a boy, learning his trade in Boston and anglicizing his name. His son, Paul Revere Jr., is most famous for his midnight ride in 1775 to warn that the British were coming.
Excerpted from an article about Paul de Lamerie, with photos of some of his fine work. See
https://www.apollo-magazine.com/f…
About The City of London
San Diego Sarah • Link
OOPS, THE REAL CONCLUSION:
The lapse of the first Conventicles Act in 1669 showed that the Church of England had failed to make any serious inroads on dissent; although its successor was not strictly enforced, it was much disliked by the aldermen, most of whom considered that molestation of dissenters must be prejudicial to trade, ‘which is driven by many worthy persons of that opinion’.
A demonstration against it, which coincided with Charles II’s absence at Dover to conclude the alliance with France, alarmed the magistrates, not least by its good order and discipline.
The third Anglo-Dutch war caused less damage to commerce than its predecessor, and the City lost little in the Stop of the Exchequer; but several years later ...
FROM https://www.historyofparliamenton…
About The City of London
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
The only contest was between Ford and the Presbyterian Jones, who never attained the bench and had lost his seat on the common council as long ago as 1647. But the crowd never ceased crying ‘A Jones! a Jones!’, and he was successful by 5-to-1.
There had never been ‘so general a union of Presbyterians, Independents, and Anabaptists crying down the Episcopalians, who went away cursing and swearing and wishing they had never come’.
The other successful candidates were all aldermen:
Fowke, ‘not much noted for religion, but ... deeply engaged in bishops’ lands’, Love, one of the republican committee, and the Presybterian Sir William Thompson https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… who, like Jones, had represented the City in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament.
‘Never knew so small an affair create such a prattle’, wrote a supporter; but most of the 68 letters intercepted in the Post Office urged other constituencies to follow suit, and in an account of the election written for the ambassador to the Sublime Porte it was admitted that ‘the choice hath much disgusted his Majesty’.
The 2 Presbyterians gave little trouble in Parliament; ‘Jones of late years has been esteemed both honest and able’, a Royalist wrote.
Love was effectually excluded from the House for most of the Clarendon administration by the sacramental test.
But in the opening session of the Cavalier Parliament until his death in April 1662 Fowke was the boldest opponent of the Court.
In May, Love was removed from the bench. But Charles II refused to renew the charter until 4 other aldermen had been replaced, and only then was the writ issued to fill the vacancy caused by Fowke’s death.
Although his successor, Frederick, probably had Presbyterian inclinations, his firm was heavily involved in financing diplomatic missions throughout Europe, and his election probably pleased the Court.
Also the common council had been taken in hand by Robinson, who was clearly much more than the ‘talking, bragging bufflehead’ depicted by Pepys. It concentrated on its own affairs without meddling in high politics, and voted regular loans to the crown, although after 1664 they were generally undersubscribed.
The situation changed with the calamities of the second Anglo-Dutch war, the Plague and the Fire.
In the mass of legislation that followed, the administrative measures were often bold and successful, notably the creation of the Fire Court https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… under Sir Matthew Hale https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… , the suspension of guild privileges, and the ‘sanitary charter’ of 1671. But the financial expedients, such as the levy on coal, were inadequate to arrest the decline of the chamber into insolvency.
Much revenue was lost to the corporation by the destruction of property in the Fire, and the westward drift of trade accelerated. The deficit rose from £265,000 in 1666 to £700,000 in 1680.
About The City of London
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 4
Eventually the corporation agreed, but only on condition that their own chamber staff should take charge of the disbandment payments, an unsatisfactory arrangement because no accounts were ever rendered to the Exchequer.
Evidence of the widening gap between the aldermen and the electorate was provided by the proposal to levy a rate for the militia. Leave to bring in a bill to raise £140,000 for this purpose was refused on 26 Nov., with Robinson acting as teller for the minority.
By claiming that the money was needed to defray the expenses of the Restoration, Silius Titus https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… , an associate of Brown’s, had more success; but even then Alexander Baker, as representative of the small property-owners, claimed that there was no popular support for the expenditure, and 56 Members voted against the second reading.
Eventually Bludworth piloted the bill through its remaining stages on the day before the dissolution of the Convention.
The Government failed to take account of these warning signals, and in particular of the resentment aroused by the poll-tax and the excise. Complaints were heard in the City that ‘none of their Members opened their mouth against them’, although this was unfair to Vincent, for one.
The measures taken after Venner’s Jan. 1661 millenarian rising provoked a campaign in the pulpits, most of which were still occupied by the enemies of the Church of England.
In his ‘subtle, witty’ preaching little Dr. Crofton https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… ceaselessly ‘banged’ the bishops, ‘which theme he doth most exquisitely handle’.
Preparations for the 1661 election were made in a republican club under the direction of John Wildman I https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… and the political theorist [James] Harrington https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…, and the management committed to Francis Jencks, a linen-draper of Cornhill.
On behalf of the Court, letters were written in favour of Wilde, Sir Richard Ford https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… , Sir Nicholas Crisp https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… , and the philanthropic alderman, Sir Thomas Adams https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… .
Ten thousand voters were said to have attended the hustings ‘in their liveries’, and 33 candidates were proposed. The hecklers had evidently been well rehearsed. When Wilde was nominated for re-election, there was an answer made: ‘We have been too wild already’. Even popular churchmen, like Robinson and Bludworth, were hissed and cried down with ‘No bishops!’.
About The City of London
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 3
In the Cavalier Parliament the tight-fisted John Fowke https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… demanded his wages, and on 8 Apr. 1662 it was resolved to pay him his livery (£6 13s. 4d. per session) and those wages ‘due by the Statute’; but he died before it could be carried into effect.
His successor, Sir John Frederick https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… , was paid in February 1664, but returned the money as a gift to the corporation.
Only John Jones https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… received payment throughout the Cavalier Parliament, and it has been suggested this must have been a charitable grant.
In 1677 two of his colleagues, Sir William Thompson https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… and William Love https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… , testified that London had ceased to pay them.
On the day before the 1660 general election a declaration was issued in the name of the City renouncing any form of government except by King, Lords and Commons, and, out of the 30 or 40 candidates nominated, 4 Royalists ‘were chosen without any dispute, which was never known before’.
Of these only Major-Gen. Richard Browne https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… could be called a national figure; a Presbyterian who had served with distinction in the parliamentary forces, he had been removed from the bench in 1649, and at the time of his election held no London office apart from the command of the train-bands.
The other wing of the Royalist conspiracy was represented by John Robinson; the son of an archdeacon and executor of the martyred archbishop [LAUD?], he had concealed his Anglican and royalist convictions sufficiently to be elected alderman in 1655 and appointed to the command of a militia regiment.
Wilde and William Vincent https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… were less colourful figures.
The provisional government and the restored monarchy depended heavily, and not always successfully, on loans from the City until the revenue could be settled and the army disbanded. An advance of £30,000 on 10 May, 1660, was produced by the 3 merchant Members, with Thomas Bludworth https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… and Thomas Rich.
Robinson’s little nest-egg of £4,500 ‘in ready gold’ proved particularly useful, and the remainder was provided by bills on Amsterdam.
But another group of Members, Londoners sitting for provincial constituencies, headed by Frederick in the absence of the other aldermen who were attending Charles II, found it too hard to raise even the modest sum of £2,000, which they eventually advanced themselves.
The most substantial loan was the £100,000 for which a joint committee of both Houses attended a special meeting of the common council on 14 Aug.; but according to Arthur Annesley https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… they ‘could then have no positive answer’.
About The City of London
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
The City of London was virtually a state within a state, able to afford sanctuary to the ‘guilty Commons’ between sessions.
Its vast patronage was exercised mainly through the powerful committees of the common council, run by a handful of people, including most of the men who were or became the Members for London. They controlled the City lands from which most of its revenue came, the hospitals, the prisons, the markets and the Ulster plantation.
The chamber of London (its treasury) combined municipal finance with public banking. The loans voted to the crown by the common council on the security of the parliamentary taxes were collected by way of subscriptions by the chamberlain of London, paid into the chamber, transferred to the Exchequer in bulk payments, and later repaid with interest to individual subscribers.
The common hall, consisting of the members of the City companies who had taken their livery, elected the 4 Members of Parliament and the 2 sheriffs, who were returning officers for Middlesex as well as for London. They also elected annually the chamberlain, the bridgemasters, and the auditors of the bridgehouse accounts, all ‘places of profit and advantage’.
The corporation enjoyed a unique relationship with the Commons; its sheriffs alone had the right to present petitions directly at the bar of the House.
Most, if not all parliamentary elections in this period were decided by the show or the cry; at general elections all the aldermen were presented in turn, followed by any other candidates who had been nominated. All were either present or past members of the corporation.
Although the population probably shrank, the electorate was substantially enlarged. Hon. Roger North complained: "Increasing the number, and debasing the quality of the livery trades and liverymen ... hath been effectually, though almost insensibly, done in a few years. ... First the lord mayors and aldermen were gained so far as to give the privilege of the livery to divers companies that were poor and populous; and commonly the meaner the trade, the more numerous the traders. ... This led immediately to invigorate the course of garbling and forming the common hall, which only had to do with elections."
During this period the financial stability of the chamber became increasingly dubious, despite official denials, a situation reflected in the erratic payment of parliamentary wages.
The Convention was the only Parliament in this period in which London was represented by its recorder (William Wilde https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… ), and he received 5s. a day to cover boat-hire and diet.
One of his colleagues, John Robinson https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… , who was in Pepys’ view good only for giving sumptuous banquets, recovered £37 4s. after he had failed to secure re-election.
About The City of London
San Diego Sarah • Link
Elections
Date Candidate
27 Mar. 1660 WILLIAM WILDE
RICHARD BROWNE I
JOHN ROBINSON I
WILLIAM VINCENT
19 Mar. 1661 JOHN FOWKE
SIR WILLIAM THOMPSON
WILLIAM LOVE
JOHN JONES
Sir Richard Ford
10 Feb. 1663 (SIR) JOHN FREDERICK vice Fowke, deceased
17 Feb. 1679 SIR ROBERT CLAYTON ...
Thanks to the diary of Samuel Pepys no period of London history is better known than the years of the Restoration, which had come about through a tax-payers’ revolt against the Rump, in alliance with the well-disciplined forces of George Monck.
It was widely believed that London always ‘led the dance’, and great was the dismay at Court when the general election of 1661 returned 4 opponents of the Church; but on this occasion the rest of England marched to a different tune.
The spectacular growth of the western suburbs, accelerated by the Great Fire of 1666, suggested that a second capital might arise at Westminster, as a centre of administration, fashion and commerce.
Pepys, one of the comparatively few to be equally familiar with both places, wrote about the bonfires lit for the 6th anniversary of the Restoration: "Lord, to see the difference between how many there was on the other side, and so few our, the City side of the Temple, would make one wonder the difference between the temper of one sort of people and the other."
Hence the obstructive attitude of the City Members to the proposal to build a bridge at Putney: ‘this will make the skirts (though not London) too big for the body’.
The exclusion agitation, during which most political literature was produced and printed in London, and the City’s obstinate but unsuccessful defence of its charter against a quo warranto, once again placed it in the forefront; but it did nothing to bring about the [GLORIOUS] Revolution, and when a hotly-contested by-election was fought a few months later nobody except a casual American visitor even noticed.
The executive branch of the corporation of London comprised the lord mayor and aldermen, consisting of 26 members elected for life; while the legislative branch consisted of the 236 members of the common council elected annually in the several wards by the inhabitant householders.
The aldermen, being the wealthier merchants, many of them members of the monied companies and government contractors, tended to be more moderate and amenable to court pressure than the common council.
About Coffee
San Diego Sarah • Link
'In no European city did coffee catch on as aggressively as it did in London, whose coffee houses proliferated in the mid-17th-century and became “social and intellectual hotbeds.”
'Later, “Paris’ coffee houses hosted Enlightenment figures like Diderot and Voltaire, who allegedly drank 50 cups of coffee a day.” (In fairness, it was a lot weaker back then.)
'Producing and transporting the ever-increasing amounts of coffee imbibed in these and other centers of human civilization required world-spanning imperial operations, which were commanded with just the degree of caution and sensitivity one might imagine.'
https://www.openculture.com/2024/…
About Barclay's 'Argenis'
San Diego Sarah • Link
Our Wiki entry reads:
'"Argenis" is a book by John Barclay. It is a work of historical allegory which tells the story of the religious conflict in France under Henry III of France and Henry IV of France, and also touches on more contemporary English events, such as the Overbury scandal. The tendency is royalist, anti-aristocratic; it is told from the angle of a king who reduces the landed aristocrats' power in the interest of the "country", the interest of which is identified with that of the king.
'Jennifer Morrish describes "Argenis" as one of "the two most influential Neo-Latin novels", along with Thomas More's "Utopia".'
What were the 'contemporary English events, such as the Overbury scandal'?
'In the autumn of 1615 the Earl and Countess of Somerset were detained on suspicion of having murdered Sir Thomas Overbury.
'The arrest of these leading court figures created a sensation. The young and beautiful Countess of Somerset had already achieved notoriety when she divorced her first husband in controversial circumstances. The Earl of Somerset was one of the richest and most powerful men in the kingdom, having risen to prominence as the male 'favourite' of James I.
'In a vivid, enthralling narrative, Anne Somerset unravels these extraordinary events. It is, at once, a story rich in passion, intrigue and corruption and a murder mystery -- for, despite the guilty verdicts, there is much about Overbury's death that remains enigmatic. The Overbury murder case profoundly damaged the monarchy, and constituted the greatest court scandal in English history.'
Unnatural Murder: Poison in the Court of James I: The Overbury Murder
By Anne Somerset
SKU: 9781474618731
https://shop.nationalarchives.gov…
About Civil law
San Diego Sarah • Link
Throughout English history the rule of law and the preservation of liberty have been inseparable, and both are intrinsic to England's constitution.
A new book, "Law, Liberty and the Constitution", gives accessible and entertaining history tracing the growth of the law from its beginnings in Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. It shows how the law evolved from a means of ensuring order and limiting feuds to become a supremely sophisticated dispenser of justice and the primary guardian of civil liberties. This development owed much to the English kings and their judiciary, who, in the 12th century, forged a unified system of law -- predating that of any other European country -- from almost wholly Anglo-Saxon elements.
By the17th century this royal offspring -- Oedipus Lex it could be called -- was capable of regicide.
Since then the law has had a somewhat fractious relationship with that institution upon which the regal mantle of supreme power descended, Parliament.
"Law, Liberty and the Constitution" tells the story of the common law not merely by describing major developments but by concentrating on prominent personalities and decisive cases relating to the constitution, criminal jurisprudence, and civil liberties.
It investigates the great constitutional conflicts, the rise of advocacy, and curious and important cases relating to slavery, insanity, obscenity, cannibalism, the death penalty, and miscarriages of justice.
"Law, Liberty and the Constitution" concludes by examining the extension of the law into the prosecution of war criminals and protection of universal human rights and the threats posed by over-reaction to national emergencies and terrorism. Devoid of jargon and replete with good stories, it represents a new approach to the telling of legal history and will be of interest to anyone wishing to know more about the common law -- the spinal cord of the English body politic.
Harry Potter is a former fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge and a practising barrister specialising in criminal defence. He has authored books on the death penalty and Scottish history and wrote and presented an award-winning series on the history of the common law for the BBC.
Manufacturer/Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Binding: Paperback
Author: Harry Potter
SKU: 9781783275038
https://shop.nationalarchives.gov…