Bill

Annotations and comments

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

Comments

Second Reading

About Peter Lely

Bill  •  Link

Peter Lely, who was knighted by Charles II. He lived for a time in Drury Lane, but in 1662 he moved to a house in the Piazza, Covent Garden. He died of apoplexy, 1680, and left an estate in Lincolnshire of £800 a year. His collection of pictures and drawings was very fine, and realized £26,000 when sold by auction.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Dunkirk, France

Bill  •  Link

A treaty was signed on the 27th October by which Dunkirk was sold to France for five million livres, two of which were to be paid immediately, and the remaining three by eight bills at dates varying from three months to two years; during which time the King of England was to contribute the aid of a naval force, if necessary, for defence against Spain. Subsequently the remaining three millions were reduced to 2,500,000 to be paid at Paris, and 254,000 in London. It is not known that Clarendon suggested the sale of Dunkirk, but it is certain that he adopted the measure with zeal. There is also no doubt that he got as much as France could be induced to give. —Lister's Life of Clarendon, ii. 173-4.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Theobalds Palace (nr Cheshunt, Herts)

Bill  •  Link

Theobalds, a royal palace and park in the parish of Cheshunt, Herts. The house was built by Sir William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burghley) in 1560. James I. exchanged Hatfield with the Earl of Salisbury for this estate. Charles II. granted Theobalds to Monk, Duke of Albemarle, but at the death of his son it reverted to the crown. The last vestiges of the palace were destroyed in 1765.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Paulina Claxton (b. Pepys)

Bill  •  Link

Paulina, daughter of Talbot Pepys of Impington, and sister of Roger and of Dr. John Pepys, married Hamond Claxton. She was born at Norwich, January 30th, 1622.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Elizabeth Dickons

Bill  •  Link

The only burial recorded in the parish Register of All Hallows, Barking, as having taken place on the 22d October, 1662, is that of Elizabeth, daughter of John Dickens; and the circumstance of her father's interment being entered in the same book, just a week before, leaves no question that she was the person alluded to. The word being doubtful in the MS., Morena is here substituted for Morma, which has no intelligible signification, at the suggestion of Mr. J.S. Warden; see Notes and Queries, vol. vii., p. 118. Morena, he tells us, is good Portuguese for a Brunette; and it was probably adopted by Pepys to indicate that Miss Dickens had a dark complexion. It is further possible that the same expression was applied to Catherine of Braganza, who, as is well known, was a beauty of a similar description, and the courtiers might naturally wish to pay Her Majesty a compliment in the language of her own country.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Nicholas Lechmere

Bill  •  Link

LECHMERE, Sir NICHOLAS (1613-1701), judge; nephew of Sir Thomas Overbury; B.A. Wadham College, Oxford; barrister, Middle Temple, 1641; bencher, 1655; sided with the parliament on outbreak of the civil war; M.P., Bewdley, 1648; present at the battle of Worcester, 1651; M.P., Worcester, 1654, 1656, 1658-9; attorney-general to the duchy of Lancaster, 1654; reader at his inn, 1669; serjeant-at-law, 1689; knighted, 1689; judge of the exchequer bench, 1689-1700.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Nicholas Lechmere

Bill  •  Link

Nicholas Lechmere, knighted and made a Baron of the Exchequer, 1689. Ob. 1701.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About The Villain (Thomas Porter)

Bill  •  Link

A tragedy, by T. Porter. "The Villain, a tragedy which I have seen acted at the Duke's Theatre with great applause: the part of Malignii being incomparably played by Mr. Sandford."—Langbaine, p. 407. "This person, [Sandford] acted strongly with his face; and, as King Charles said, was the best villain in the world."—Tony Aston, p. 11.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Christopher Merrett

Bill  •  Link

MERRET or MERRETT, CHRISTOPHER (1614-1695), physician; M.D. Gloucester Hall, Oxford, 1643; F.R.C.P., 1651 ; Gulstonian lecturer, 1654; censor seven times between 1657 and 1670; first librarian at Royal College of Physicians, which was destroyed, 1666, and his services dispensed with; expelled from his fellowship for non-attendance, 1681; published works on natural history and medicine.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Christopher Merrett

Bill  •  Link

Christopher Merret, M.D., a native of Gloucestershire, author of several works on medicine and natural history: ob. 1695.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Sir Charles Berkeley (1st Earl of Falmouth, 1st Viscount Fitzharding)

Bill  •  Link

Created Lord Berkeley of Rathdown, and Viscount Fitzharding (Irish honours) soon afterwards, and, in 1664, Baron Bottetourt, and Earl of Falmouth, in England. He was the second son of Sir Charles Berkeley, of Bruton.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Sir Henry Bennet (Baron Arlington, Secretary of State)

Bill  •  Link

BENNET, HENRY, first EARL OF ARLINGTON (1618-1685), member of Cabal ministry; grandson of Sir John Bennet, educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford; joined royal forces as volunteer; travelled in France and Italy; agent of Prince Charles at Madrid, 1658; keeper of privy purse after Restoration; secretary of state, 1662-74; M.P.; centre of opposition to Clarendon, 1663; created Lord Arlington, 1663; probably ultimately responsible for outbreak of first Dutch war; arranged conclusion of triple alliance, 1668; member of Cabal; arranged secret treaty of Dover, 1670; peer and K.G., 1672; unsuccessfully impeached in House of Commons as instrument of the king's evil measures, 1674; lord chamberlain, 1674; spent his last years in retirement.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Sir Henry Bennet (Baron Arlington, Secretary of State)

Bill  •  Link

Created Baron of Arlington, 1663, and Viscount Thetford and Earl of Arlington, 1672; he was also K.G., and Chamberlain to the King. Ob. 1685. His daughter and sole heir married the first Duke of Grafton.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Oliver St John

Bill  •  Link

ST. JOHN, OLIVER (1598?-1673), chief-justice; educated at Queens' College, Cambridge; barrister, Lincoln's Inn, 1626; connected with company for plantation of Providence island; counsel for Lord Saye and John Hampden in their resistance to payment of ship-money, 1637; M.P., Totnes, in Short and Long parliaments, 1640; opened attack on ship-money, 1640; solicitor-general, 1641-3; promoted bill for Strafford's attainder; drew up Root and Branch and Militia Bills; enabled by ordinance to perform duties of the attorney-general, who had joined Charles I, 1644; took solemn league and covenant; one of commissioners to treat for peace at Uxbridge, 1645; sided with army against parliament, 1647; chief-justice of common pleas, 1648; refused to act as commissioner for trial of Charles I; with Walter Strickland selected by parliament to negotiate alliance (the negotiations failed) between United Provinces and England, 1651; chancellor of Cambridge University 1651; commissioner of treasury, 1654; devoted himself exclusively to judicial duties; member of council of state, 1659 and 1660; published his 'Case' to counteract rumours as to his share in Charles I's execution and his relations with the Cromwells, and escaped punishment other than perpetual incapacitation from office, 1660; left England, 1662. He was related to Cromwell by marriage.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Oliver St John

Bill  •  Link

Oliver St. John, one of Cromwell's Lords, and Chief Justice; and therefore, after the Restoration, properly called "My late Lord." His third daughter, Elizabeth, by his second wife, daughter of Henry Cromwell, of Upwood, uncle to the Protector, married John Bernard, who became a baronet on the death of his father, Sir Robert, and was M.P. for Huntingdon. Ob. 1689. There is a monument to his memory in Brampton Church, Huntingdonshire.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Saturday 9 August 1662

Bill  •  Link

John, as I said, we've done this before. And this same footnote was also mentioned last September. But I think the dictionary entry from 62 years later shows at least the beginning of a distinction between the two words. And this English-French dictionary from 1684 does indeed seem to be distinguishing between the "mental" and "moral" qualities. So I think that footnote might be wrong.

Ingenious, ingenieux, adroit, spirituel; ingenieux, subtil, inventif. [ingenious, clever, witty; ingenious, subtle, inventive.]

Ingenuous, ingenu, honnite. [ingenuous, honest]
---A short dictionary English and French. G. Miège, 1684.
[The translation is modern, but this same dictionary also gives "witty" as one possible definition of "spirituel."]

About Sir Jerome Bowes

Bill  •  Link

BOWES, Sir JEROME (d.1616), ambassador; temporarily banished from court for slandering Earl of Leicester, 1577; ambassador to Russia, 1583; dismissed after death of the Czar Ivanvasilovitch; translated from French an 'Apology for Christians of France,' 1579.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Thursday 4 September 1662

Bill  •  Link

"but ‘tis very pleasant to see her in her hair under her hood"

Virtruvius says the People of Ionia formed it [the Ionic Column] on the Model of a young Woman dress'd in her Hair, and of an easy, elegant Shape; whereas the Dorick had been formed on the Model of a Robust, strong Man.
---Dictionarium Britannicum. 1730.

About Sunday 10 August 1662

Bill  •  Link

"for I have not heard a neater sermon a great while"

NEAT, clean, trim, cleanly and tightly dressed, clever
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Thursday 7 August 1662

Bill  •  Link

"my interest still growing, for which God be praised

INTEREST, Advantage, Concernment, Benefit, Credit, Power, Right.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.