Bill

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

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Second Reading

About William Crofts (1st Baron Crofts)

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William Crofts, created Baron Crofts, of Saxham, in Suffolk, 1658, and died s.p. 1677. Governor to the King's son (afterwards the Duke of Monmouth), who bore his name before he took that of Scott from his wife.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Saturday 26 July 1662

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"I find that my Lord hath lost the garden to his lodgings, and that it is turning into a tennis-court."

The old Tennis Court at Whitehall, built by Henry VIII., was converted by Charles II. into lodgings for the Duke of Monmouth, and this garden was turned into the new Tennis Court, which was finished about the end of 1663. Captain Cooke, as Master of the Tennis Court, had apartments close by. (See Julian Marshall's "Annals of Tennis," 1878, pp. 86-88.)
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Friday 25 July 1662

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"Mr. Holland’s discourse of the Navy"

This was a MS. of ninety folio pages, entitled, "A Brief Discourse of the Navy," and appears afterwards to have been in the possession of Sir William Penn. At the end is written, "Composed by Mr. John Holland 29° 7 1638." Attached to the MS. is a note in the handwriting of William Penn the Quaker, of the date 1675-6, giving direction to a transcriber to make a copy of it for himself, but adding this prohibition, "I will part with no copy." The transcript is now in the British Museum (Sloane MSS., No. 3232), and forms part of "Sir William Penn's Naval Tracts," but the author's name at the end is omitted. — Penn's Memorials of Sir William Penn, ii. 530.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Umbles

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UMBLES, HUMBLES, Part of the Entrails of a Deer.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Daniel O'Neill

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Daniell O'Neille (as he himself signed his name) was a wealthy man of good family, who was active during the Civil War in support of Charles I. He was concerned in 1641 with Digby, Wilmot, Goring, and Ashburnham, in the "Army Plot," the object of which was to support the king, uphold the church, and overawe the parliament. He was placed in the Tower, but managed to escape in woman's clothes, and a few months later he was Lieutenant-Colonel of Horse under Rupert. At Marston he led Prince Rupert's regiment of foot, and in 1658 he accompanied the Marquis of Ormonde in disguise to London, and remained there some time, holding meetings with the Royalists, and sounding them as to the prospect of a successful rising against Cromwell (see "The Pythouse Papers," ed. W. A. Day, 1879, pp. lvlvii, 25).
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Col. Giles Rawlins

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Giles Rawlings occurs in an old household book of James Duke of York, at Audley End, as Gentleman of the Privy Purse to his Royal Highness, with a salary of 400l. per annum.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About William Crofts (1st Baron Crofts)

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CROFTS, WILLIAM, Baron Crofts Of Saxham (1611?-1677), captain of Queen Henrietta Maria's guards before outbreak of civil war, during which he continued in attendance on the king and queen; given manors in Essex and Suffolk, 1645; gentleman of bedchamber to Charles II, 1652; created peer, 1658; employed on several royal missions after the Restoration.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Saturday 26 July 1662

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"Lord of Oxford, and Duchesse of Suffolk, being witnesses"

There was no Duchess of Suffolk at this time; the lady meant must have been Barbara, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, widow of Richard Wenman, eldest son of Philip, third Viscount Wenman, an Irish peer, and second wife of James Howard, third Earl of Suffolk. She was Mistress of the Robes to the Queen, who might well feel annoyed at her own servant being selected for the office of sponsor to the King's base-born son. Lady Castlemaine was niece to Lady Suffolk, who perhaps had been her godmother, as they both bore the same christian name.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Aubrey de Vere (20th Earl of Oxford)

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VERE, AUBREY De, twentieth Earl Of Oxford (1626-1703), son and heir of Robert de Vere, nineteenth earl; succeeded, 1632; brought up in Friesland; officer in the Dutch service till 1648; his estates sequestrated by parliament, 1651; imprisoned as a royalist, 1654 and 1659; an envoy to recall Charles II, 1660; lord-lieutenant of Essex and colonel of 'the Oxford blues' regiment, 1661; privy councillor, 1669; pensioned, 1670; opposed James II's arbitrary measures, 1688; joined the Prince of Orange, 1688; lieutenant-general, 1689; fought at the Boyne; a whig lord.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About John Hollond

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HOLLOND or HOLLAND, JOHN (fl. 1638-1659), naval writer; paymaster of navy before 1635 till c.1642; one of commissioners for navy, 1642 till c.1645; member of 'committee of merchants for regulation of navy and customs,' 1649; surveyor of the nary, 1649; member of parliament's commission of navy, 1649-52; wrote 'First Discourse of the Navy,' 1638, and 'Second Discourse,' 1659."
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Daniel O'Neill

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O'NEILL, DANIEL (1612?-1664), royalist soldier; nephew of Owen Roe O'Neill; became a protestant and frequented court of Charles I; wounded at siege of Breda, 1636; an active enemy of Strafford; captured by the Scots at Newburn, 1640; implicated in army plots; was impeached, but escaped from the Tower of London, 1642; fought at two battles of Newbury, 1643 and 1644, and at Naseby, 1645, and commanded Rupert's foot at Marston Moor, 1644; accompanied Randal MacDonnell on mission to Ormonde, and became groom of the bedchamber to Charles I, 1644; went to Ireland and negotiated between Ormonde and Owen Roe, 1649; defended Trim, 1649; commanded Ulster army during Owen Roe's illness; made terms with Ireton; captured in Scotland but released, 1650; joined in Charles IIs invasion of 1651; subsequently employed in royalist intrigues abroad, having great influence with Charles II; received pension and numerous grants of land at Restoration; postmastergeneral, 1663; nicknamed 'Infallible Subtle.'
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Sir William Compton

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COMPTON, SIR WILLIAM (1625-1663), royalist; third son of Spencer Compton, second earl of Northampton; fought bravely at taking of Banbury, 1642; knighted, 1643; royalist governor of Banbury, 1642; besieged, 1644; surrendered, 1646; took part in the Kentish rising, 1648; imprisoned, 1648, 1655, and 1658; master of the ordnance, 1660; M.P., 1661.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Wednesday 11 January 1659/60

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"went in to see Crowly, who was now grown a very great loon and very tame"

LOON, an idle, lazy, good for nothing Fellow : Also a Bird in New England like a Cormorant.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Thursday 1 May 1662

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Hmm, a search of the internet (where are the OED people when you need them?) indicated that "truckle" applied to a bed came first, from a Latin word meaning "small wheel." And around Pepys' time the word as a verb came to have a pejorative meaning, as in the dictionary entry above.

About Thursday 1 May 1662

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"a dish with eggs of the butter of the Sparagus, which is very fine meat"

MEAT, Flesh, Provisions of any Sort.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Thursday 1 May 1662

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I think the (original) idea of a "truckle bed" was that it was for someone who was beneath you, literally and figuratively. Someone who "submitted" to you.

About Hearth Tax (1662)

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There are a number of other references in Pepys' diary to this tax using the term "chimney money."

About Hearth Tax (1662)

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FUMAGE, Hearth Money
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Sunday 27 April 1662

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"This evening came a merchantman in the harbour, which we hired at London to carry horses to Portugall.

On April 11, the day after SP learned that "the Queen is resolved to embarque for England this week," he had seen "men and horse" being dispatched to Portugal from Deptford.