Bill

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Bill has posted 2,777 annotations/comments since 9 March 2013.

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Second Reading

About Monday 12 January 1662/63

Bill  •  Link

"so that I see he is a servant of the King’s pleasures too, as well as business"

Here is my take on this. While Sam and Sandwich are passing Lady Castlemaine's lodging, Charles sees them and sends someone out to get Sandwich. Sandwich is pleased to confer with the king, of course, but does not want to excite further gossip by Sam telling the Tangier Committee exactly where this conference is taking place. So he tells Sam to say only he's with the king and to travel a different path so that it isn't obvious how he was diverted. This seems a reasonable request.

So why is Sam angry? Surely he didn't expect his boss to ignore the king? He is angry with Charles and Castlemaine for their dalliance, his puritan side showing through.

About William Lilly

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LILLY, WILLIAM (1602-1681), astrologer; wrote a treatise on 'The Eclipse of the Sun in the eleventh Degree of Gemini, 22 May 1639,' 1639; published his first almanac, 'Merlinus Anglicus Junior, the English Merlin revived,' 1644, and henceforth prepared one every year till his death; began to issue pamphlets of prophecy, 1644; published 'Christian Astrology modestly treated in three Books,' long an authority in astrological literature, 1647; while ostensibly serving the parliament endeavoured to aid Charles I, 1647-8; claimed scientific value for his 'Annus Tenebrosus, or the dark Year, together with a short Method how to judge the Effects of Eclipses,' 1652; studied medicine; granted a licence to practise, 1670. His published writings consist mainly of astrological predictions and vindications of their correctness; his chief non-professional work is his' True History of King James I and King Charles I,' 1651.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Monday 12 January 1662/63

Bill  •  Link

“the poor boy was in a pitifull taking and pickle”

TAKING, Seizure; distress.
PICKLE, ... 3. Condition; state.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Cider

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To make Cyder
PULL your fruit before it is too ripe, and let it lie but one or two days, to have one good sweat; your apples must be pippins, pearmains, or harveys (if you mix winter and summer fruit together it is never good); grind your apples, and press it; and when your fruit is all press'd, put it immediately into a hogshead where it may have some room to work, but no vent, but a little hole near the hoops but close bung'd; put three or four pound of raisins into a hogshead, and two pound of sugar, it will make it work better; often racking it off is the best way to fine it, and always rack it into small vessels keeping them close bung'd and only a small vent hole; if it should work after racking, put into your vessel some raisins for it to feed on; and bottle it in March.
---The Compleat Housewife. E. Smith, 1739.

About Monday 5 January 1662/63

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I chopped up an apple that I had roasted with brown sugar and cinnamon and put it into a warmed-up Belgian ale. Dang, it was good! The apple bits floating on top even looked like lamb's wool.

About Saturday 10 January 1662/63

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“doting coxcomb”

COXCOMB, a conceited Fool, a silly Fellow.

DOTAGE, doteing, dulness, stupidness.
A DOTARD, a doting Fellow.
To DOTE, to grow dull, senseless or stupid.
To DOTE UPON, to be very fond of .
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Tuesday 17 March 1662/63

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To BUFFLE, To puzzle.
BUFFLEHEADED, Dull, stupid.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Sir George Downing

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Sir George Downing, a poor child, bred upon charity; like Judas, betrayed his Master. What then can his country expect? He drew and advised the oath of renouncing the king's family, and took it first himself. For his honesty, fidelity, &c. rewarded by his Majesty with 80,000l. at least, and is a commissioner of the customs, the house bell, to call the courtiers to vote at six o'clock at night, an Exchequer teller.
---A Seasonable Argument. Andrew Marvell, 1677.

About Samuel Pepys

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Samuel Pepys, Esquire, once a taylour, then serving-man to the Lord Sandwitch, now secretary to the admiralty, got by passes and other illegal wayes 40000l.
---A Seasonable Argument. Andrew Marvell, 1677.

About Capt. Robert Holmes

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Sir Robert Holmes, first an Irish livery boy, then a highwayman, now Bashaw of the Isle of Wight, got in boones, and by rapine 100000l. The cursed beginner of the two Dutch wars.
---A Seasonable Argument. Andrew Marvell, 1677.

About Sir Richard Lloyd (MP Radnorshire)

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LLOYD, Sir RICHARD (1606-1676), royalist: entered Inner Temple, 1631; attended Charles I in the north, 1639: attorney-general for North Wales and knighted, 1642; justice of Glamorganshire, Brecknockshire, and Radnorshire, 1660; M.P., Radnorshire, 1661.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Dr John Exton

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EXTON, JOHN (1600?-1665?), admiralty lawyer; M.A. Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 1623; LL.D., 1634; admiralty judge, 1649-65; published 'The Maritime Dicaeologie,' 1664.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Tuesday 17 March 1662/63

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“where the judge of the Admiralty came”

The old Admiralty Court, then held at the Marshalsea, and finally abolished, 31st December, 1849.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Monday 9 March 1662/63

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“The crowns of Cromwell are now sold, it seems, for 25s. and 30s. apiece.”

Although modern numismatists may smile at the preference given by Mr. Slingsby to Rotier's coins, Pepys's remark that Oliver's crowns were then selling at 25s. or 30s. is very curious, for it is to this day considered doubtful whether these beautiful pieces by Simons were current coin or pattern pieces. Snelling, in his Silver Coinage, 1762, calls them "very scarce," and so they remain, as the prices which they still bring at sales seem to show, varying from 2l. 10s. to 11l, according to condition.
Mr. Joseph Gibbs, of the Inner Temple, who kindly furnished the above remarks, has one of the crowns without any flaw, for which be paid 4l. 18s.; and Mr. Curteton, the coin collector, had six sets of these monies at the time he was robbed and nearly murdered, in the winter of 1850. Pepys's evidence of the high value of the crowns in 1663, strengthens the idea that they were pattern pieces only; there is a tradition, that the die became cracked across the neck after a few impressions were struck, which having been considered ominous, the issue was stopped, but the truth of the story must still remain matter of conjecture.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

Prices will vary over the years but a quick search on this date finds a silver crown coin of Oliver (e. fine condition) (1658/7) selling for £5.500.

About Thomas Simon

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SIMON, THOMAS (1623?-1665), medallist and seal engraver; joint chief graver to the royal mint, 1645; sole chief graver, 1649-60; engraved dies for Cromwell's projected coinages of 1656 and 1658, his portrait for the Dunbar medal, and the great seals of 1648,1651, and 1661; died of the plague.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Algernon Sidney

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SIDNEY or SYDNEY, ALGERNON (1622-1683), republican ; accompanied his father, Robert Sidney, second earl of Leicester, to Denmark and Paris; served under his brother, Lord Lisle, against the Irish rebels, 1642; took up arms against Charles I, and was wounded at Marston Moor, 1644; governor of Colchester, 1645; M.P., Cardiff, 1646; lieutenant general of horse in Ireland, 1647; appointed governor of Dublin, but immediately superseded; governor of Dover, 1648-50; nominated commissioner for trial of Charles I, but opposed constitution and proceedings of high court as invalid, as well as the subsequent 'engagement' approving them; member of council of state, 1653; held aloof from the protectorate after dissolution of the Rump; again member of council of state, 1659; chief of four commissioners who mediated between Sweden and Denmark at Elsinore, 1659-60. Refusing to give pledges to Charles II, he remained abroad; at Rome, 1660-3; his attempts to obtain foreign military employment frustrated by English influence; his life attempted at Augsburg; went to Holland, 1665; afterwards lived in France; negotiated with Louis XIV, with the view of raising a revolt in England, 1666; came to England on private business, 1677, and remained; unable to obtain a seat in parliament, but exercised much influence; vindicated himself in interview with Charles II from charge of complicity in nonconformist plot; intimate with republicans, but quarrelled with Shaftesbury; received money from French ambassador and co-operated with him on foreign questions, but ridiculed his pretensions to direct opposition; said to have drafted answer to Charles II’s reasons for dissolving Oxford parliament; discussed question of insurrection with whig leaders, January 1683; sent to Tower of London after discovery of Rye House plot (June); tried before Jeffreys on three overt charges of treason (November); defended himself ably, but convicted; drew up petitions setting forth illegality of his trial and for commutation of sentence; executed on Tower Hill (December); his body buried at Penshurst; his vindication allowed to be published by government; his 'Discourses concerning Government' (answer to Filmer) first printed, 1698, an edition containing letters and report of trial being issued, 1763, further revised and added to, 1773.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Saturday 7 March 1662/63

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"He told me how for some words of my Lady Gerard’s against my Lady Castlemaine to the Queen, the King did the other day affront her in going out to dance with her at a ball, when she desired it as the ladies do, and is since forbid attending the Queen by the King; which is much talked of, my Lord her husband being a great favourite."

Smith, in an earlier transcription of the diary, had a different reading, with a note by Baybrooke on the words "affront/apprehend" and "desired":

Creed told me how, for some words of my Lady Gerard's, against my Lady Castlemaine to the Queen, the King did the other day apprehend her in going out to dance with her at a ball, when she desired it as the ladies do, and is since forbid attending the Queen by the King; which is much talked of, my Lord her husband being a great favourite.

[Sic orig.: probably the word should be reprehend, and denied, in the following line, should, perhaps, be substituted for desired.]