Bill

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Second Reading

About Wednesday 25 December 1661

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"where at the door of our pew I was fain to stay, because that the sexton had not opened the door"

FAIN, glad, desirous
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

So the sexton didn't open the door when SP wanted to leave the pew?

About St Bride's

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Bride's (St.), or, St. Bridget's, a church on the south side of Fleet Street, in the ward of Farringdon Without.

Then is the parish church of St. Bridges or Bride, of old time a small thing, which now remaineth to be the choir, but since increased with a large body and side-aisles towards the west, at the charges of William Venor, esquire, Warden of the Fleet, about the year 1480.—Stow, p. 147.

This church was destroyed in the Great Fire, and the present building, one of Sir C. Wren's architectural glories, was erected in its stead, and was ready for service in 1680...
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Thursday 30 January 1661/62

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Jan. 30 [1662]
The Earl of Peterborough took possession of Tangier.
---A Chronological History of England. J. Pointer, 1714.

About John Birchensha

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John Birchensha (c.1605-1681) is chiefly remembered for the impression that his theories about music made on the mathematicians, natural philosophers and virtuosi of the Royal Society in the 1660s and 1670s, and for inventing a system that he claimed would enable even those without practical experience of music to learn to compose in a short time by means of 'a few easy, certain, and perfect Rules'. His great aim was to publish a treatise on music in its philosophical, mathematical and practical aspects entitled Syntagma musicæ. Unfortunately, the book never appeared, and no final manuscript of it survives. Recent research, however, has brought to light a number of manuscripts which allow us at last to form a more complete view of Birchensha's ideas and to gain at least a flavour of the lost Syntagma musicæ.
---(Blurb for the book) John Birchensha: Writings on Music. C. Field, Ashgate, 2010.

About John Birchensha

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BIRCHENSHA, JOHN (fl.1664-1672), musician; lived in family of Earl of Kildare, and afterwards taught the viol in London; prepared notes for a work on the mathematical basis of music.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Thursday 27 February 1661/62

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"I could not persuade him to grant wherein they were somewhat lame"

LAME, just plain stupid, un-original, or lifeless.
---Urban Dictionary, 2003.

About Daniel Whistler

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WHISTLER, DANIEL (1619-1684), physician; B.A. Merton College, Oxford, 1642; M.A., 1644; M.D. Leyden, 1645; incorporated M.D. Oxford, 1647; professor of geometry at Gresham College, London, 1648; Linacre reader at Oxford, 1648; F.R.C.P., 1649, Harveian orator, 1659, registrar, 1674-82, and president, 1683; published 'De Morbo puerili Anglorum,' a treatise on rickets (reprinted, 1684).
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Brick bats

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BRICKBAT, A piece of brick,
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About John Selden

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[continued] But, however, though he continued member of the house, and was in 1644, one of the 12 commissioners of the admiralty, he did not concur in the violent measures of the parliament and when the Icon Basilice appeared, Cromwell in vain solicited him to employ his talents to write against it. He died 30th Nov 1654, at White Friars at the house of the countess of Kent, with whom he lived in habits of friendship, and with some report of criminal intimacy. He was buried in the Temple church, and Usher preached a sermon in honor of his memory. His valuable library was given by his executors to the university of Oxford. As a scholar Selden ranks very high. He was not only skilled in the Hebrew and oriental languages, but he was acquainted with all laws, divine and human, and in the stores of a most retentive memory he had treasured up whatever is valuable, interesting, and important, in ancient and modern literature. He was, as Grotius states him, the glory of the English nation and as Whitelock says, his mind was as great as his learning, and he was as hospitable and as generous as any man. He was a person, as Clarendon has observed, whom no character can flatter, or transmit in any expressions equal to his merit and virtue. His learning was stupendous, and if he had some infirmities they were weighed down with wonderful and prodigious abilities, and excellences, in the other scale. The works of this great character were collected by Dr. Wilkins, 3 vols. fol. generally bound in six, 1726, of which the two first contain his Latin pieces, and the third his English, with a long life prefixed.
---Universal Biography. J. Lemprière, 1810.

About John Selden

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SELDEN, John, a learned Englishman, born at Salvinton, Sussex, 1584. He was educated at Chichester school, and Hart hall, Oxford after which he entered at Clifford's Inn, and two years after removed to the Inner Temple. He early distinguish himself as an antiquarian, and in 1610, published Jani Anglorum Facis Altera, & Duello, or the Origin of Single Combat. Besides other pieces he published Titles of Honor, 1614, a work of great merit and in 1618, appeared his History of Tithes, which as it censored the ignorance and laziness of the clergy gave great offence to that body. The work was attacked by several writers, especially Montague afterwards bishop of Norwich, and the author at last was obliged to make submission before the lords of the privy council for this offensive publication. His opinions in favor of the privileges of the house of commons, and his opposition to the measures of the court, drew upon him in 1621 the displeasure of king James, who committed him to the custody of the sheriff of London, from which he was liberated by the interference of his friend bishop Andrews. In 1623, he was chosen member of parliament for Lancaster and two years after for Great Bedwin, and in the house he distinguished himself by his attack on the character of Buckingham, and became one of the managers of his impeachment. His opposition to the measures of the court continued and for the freedom of his sentiments he was, in 1629, arrested with several other members, and upon refusing to make submission to the court he was sent to the king's bench prison. He was again sent into confinement the following year; but his sufferings in the cause of public liberty were rewarded by the parliament of 1646, who voted him 5000l. for his losses. Though apparently much engaged in politics, Selden was laboriously employed in literary pursuits. In 1634, he defended, in his Mare Clausum, the privileges of the English, and their rights in the herring fishery, against Grotius's work, called Mare Liberum. He was in 1640, elected member for Oxford university, and in 1642, it was intended by the king's ministers to remove lord Lyttelton from the seals, and to give them to him, as though he opposed the measures of the court, he was a sincere friend to the just prerogatives of the crown, but the offer was not made, as his delicate constitution, and his great love of ease prevented his exertions, and would have induced him to decline the honorable office. In 1643, he became one of the lay members of Westminster assembly of divines, and he about this time took the covenant, and was made by the parliament keeper of the records of the Tower.

About Monday 16 December 1661

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Technology is indeed great, but calculating the sunrise time was, of course, possible in Sam's era. Time zones are a new innovation though, so setting clocks was a task for each locality. William Andrew's ephemeris for 1712 ("Great News From the Stars") lists sunrise time for December 10 as 8:19 and for December 20 as 8:17.

About Abraham Cowley

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COWLEY, ABRAHAM (1618-1667), poet: king's scholar at Westminster; published 'Poetical Blossoms,' 1633, and 'Sylva,' 1636; scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1637; fellow, 1640; M.A.,1642; published 'Love's Riddle,' a pastoral drama, 1638; brought out, at Cambridge, 'Naufragium Joculare,' a Latin comedy, 1638, and 'The Guardian,' a comedy, 1641; ejected by the parliament, 1644; resided in St. John's College, Oxford; went to France, 1646; published 'The Mistress,' poems, 1647, and 'Miscellanies,' with other poems, including four books of the 'Davideis,' a sacred epic, 1656; cipher secretary to Queen Henrietta Maria, c.1647; royalist spy in England, 1656; M.D. Oxford, 1657; withdrew to France; published odes on the Restoration and against Cromwell, 1660-1; was refused the mastership of the Savoy, 1661; F.R.S.; published 'Verses upon several Occasions,' 1663; a competence provided for him by Earl of St. Albans and Duke of Buckingham; his collected works published 1668.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Charles Sackville (Lord Buckhurst)

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Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, eldest son of Richard, fifth Earl of Dorset, was born January 24th, 1638. He was a volunteer with the fleet in 1665, when he wrote his famous song beginning —

"To all ye ladies now at land
We men at sea indite."

In 1674, by the death of his uncle, Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, he came into possession of a considerable property, and in the following year was created Earl of Middlesex. In 1677 he succeeded his father as sixth Earl of Dorset. He was a favourite companion of Charles II. and of William III., and a patron of literary men. He died January 29th, 1707.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Hester Davenport ('Roxalana')

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This actress, so called from the character she played in the "Siege of Rhodes," was Frances or Elizabeth Davenport, who was born March 3rd, 1642. Evelyn saw her on January 9th, 1661-62, she being soon after taken to be "My Lord Oxford's Miss." She was induced to marry Aubrey de Vere, twentieth and last Earl of Oxford, after indignantly refusing to become his mistress, and discovered, when too late, that the nuptial ceremony had been performed by the earl's trumpeter, in the habit of a priest. For more of her history, see "Memoires de Grammont." Ashmole records the birth of the Earl of Oxford's son by Roxalana, April 17th, 1664, which shows that the liaison continued. The child was called Aubrey Vere. — Ward's Diary, p. 131. Downes (" Roscius Anglicanus," p. 20) places Mrs. Davenport first on the list of the four principal actresses who boarded in Sir William Davenant's house. Davies and Curll supposed this actress to be Mrs. Marshall, but this was owing to a confusion between the characters Roxana and Roxalana. Mrs. Marshall was the original Roxana in Lee's "Rival Queens," produced at the Theatre Royal in 1677. The translator of Grammont's "Memoirs" added to the confusion by translating Hamilton's "Roxelane " into "Roxana."
---Wheatley, 1899.