Friday 31 May 1667
Up, and there came young Mrs. Daniel in the morning as I expected about business of her husband’s. I took her into the office to discourse with her about getting some employment for him … [And there I did put my hand to her belly, so as to make myself do, but she is so lean that I had no great pleasure with her. So parted and I – L&M] by water to White Hall to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, the first time I ever was there and I think the second that they have met at the Treasury chamber there. Here I saw Duncomb look as big, and take as much state on him, as if he had been born a lord. I was in with him about Tangier, and at present received but little answer from them, they being in a cloud of business yet, but I doubt not but all will go well under them. Here I met with Sir H. Cholmly, who tells me that he is told this day by Secretary Morris that he believes we are, and shall be, only fooled by the French; and that the Dutch are very high and insolent, and do look upon us as come over only to beg a peace; which troubles me very much, and I do fear it is true. Thence to Sir G. Carteret at his lodgings; who, I perceive, is mightily displeased with this new Treasury; and he hath reason, for it will eclipse him; and he tells me that my Lord Ashly says they understand nothing; and he says he believes the King do not intend they shall sit long. But I believe no such thing, but that the King will find such benefit by them as he will desire to have them continue, as we see he hath done, in the late new Act that was so much decried about the King; but yet the King hath since permitted it, and found good by it. He says, and I believe, that a great many persons at Court are angry at the rise of this Duncomb, whose father, he tells me, was a long-Parliamentman, and a great Committee-man; and this fellow used to carry his papers to Committees after him: he was a kind of an atturny: but for all this, I believe this man will be a great man, in spite of all. Thence I away to Holborne to Mr. Gawden, whom I met at Bernard’s Inn gate, and straight we together to the Navy Office, where we did all meet about some victualling business, and so home to dinner and to the office, where the weather so hot now-a-days that I cannot but sleep before I do any business, and in the evening home, and there, to my unexpected satisfaction, did get my intricate accounts of interest, which have been of late much perplexed by mixing of some moneys of Sir G. Carteret’s with mine, evened and set right: and so late to supper, and with great quiet to bed; finding by the balance of my account that I am creditor 6900l., for which the Lord of Heaven be praised!
18 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
“Up, and there came young Mrs. Daniel in the morning as I expected about business of her husband's. I took her into the office to discourse with her about getting some employment for him And there I did put my hand to her belly, so as to make myself do, but she is so lean that I had no great pleasure with her.”
Text from L&M
tg • Link
but she is so lean that I had no great pleasure with her.
Oh those skinny girls! Poor Sam needs his women a little bigger for his larger desires.
Robert Gertz • Link
"Daniels?"
"Mr. Pepys, sir."
"About your wife..."
"Sir?"
"Lean, Daniels, lean. I should hope no more need be said."
Robert Gertz • Link
Anyway so much for my hope that reform of the Treasury might be curbing Sam in other areas...
Robert Gertz • Link
"Here I met with Sir H. Cholmly, who tells me that he is told this day by Secretary Morris that he believes we are, and shall be, only fooled by the French; and that the Dutch are very high and insolent, and do look upon us as come over only to beg a peace; which troubles me very much, and I do fear it is true."
It is true, Sam and you are begging a peace. And I'd beg it...Quick.
Robert Gertz • Link
"...which have been of late much perplexed by mixing of some moneys of Sir G. Carteret’s with mine, evened and set right: and so late to supper, and with great quiet to bed; finding by the balance of my account that I am creditor 6900l., for which the Lord of Heaven be praised!"
Heaven, today...
"Pepys!!! Pepys!!! You cheating little rascal!!"
"Sir George, how nice to see you finally...er you are here."
"Mrs. Pepys. My Lady Carteret said to tell you you have her sympathies. Pepys!!! Get out here!!!"
"What's he done now?" Bess, anxious look. Oh, no...Spies copy of diary.
Not another angry reader...He's just recovered from Mr. Knipp's horsewhipping.
"Sir George? How nice to..."
"You little...Mixed my moneys? Mixed? I knew I had a thousand pound shortfall in May '67. You little thief!"
"Sir George...My Sam'l is many things...Many awful, lousy, slimy, unmentionable things...Things so low..."
"We get the picture, Bess..." Sam frowns.
"...But not a thief."
"Tell that to Tom Povy! Pepys, you owe me 1000Ls as of May 30, 1667 and with interest..."
"Sir George, this is Heaven...Where money counts for naught."
"Tis the principle, madam...The sacred principle."
"Of honesty?...In the Stuart administration?"
"No...Of a senior administrator famed for his shrewdness being taken by a junior administrator."
"Sir George, I am sure if you will examine the accounts, you will see they are right and true."
"I shall take the books..." Takes books offered. "My wife will need to go over them. She was the financial brains in the family...A mathematical wizard par excellence..."
"Really?" Sam blinks. "I never knew that."
"Of course not, you damned little fool. I was never so damned foolish as to write things like that into a diary."
"George?"
"My dear?" "My Lady..." Sam and Bess, bow and curtsy, respectively.
"I think I curtsy, you bow, Sam'l."
"Really...Been so long, I'd quite forgot."
"Are you bothering poor Pepys about that 1000Ls? George, you know damned well you had me lose 20000Ls of state money into our private accounts in that year alone."
Ummn...
"Damned principle of the thing, dear..."
"Well if Charlie Stuart doesn't have a problem with you, you let poor Mr. Pepys off."
"Just a mo..."Bess fumes a bit. "Sam'l has sworn he'd not taken that money. And we are prepared to undergo a full accounting."
"Really...?" Beam... "I've not done books in 350 years, I'd be happy to."
We are prepared to undergo a full accounting...? Bess hisses hopefully to Sam as Lady Carteret happily takes up the books.
"Yes...Of course..."Forthrightly.
Povy, another matter...hiss back.
"Very well. I'll leave it to you, medear." Sir George nodding to Sam and Bess. "Principle of the thing, you know."
cum salis grano • Link
friends and foes who be they?
The Portuguese are fed up with the Spanish playing tidlewinks in the Arguarve , the French are vacationing some troops to dissuade the Spanish from enjoying the corks required for oh Port and Sherry [Juarez] , The English are trying diplomacy in Iberia and placating The Portuguese English Queen, The Spanish want back the nether lands, the French want to be influential in low countries and Charles wants money from the Sun king, stop the Dutch from trading in spice and guineas, also wants the Spanish treasure from Peru.
Oh what a diplomatic mess.
Ruben • Link
"oh Port and Sherry [Juarez]"
May I presume that Jerez becomes Juarez when salted?
Don McCahill • Link
> he was a kind of an atturny
Wow, that's a slam. "Why, he is no better than a lawyer."
:)
Mr. Gunning • Link
...much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"the late new Act"
The Act for an Additional Aid of £1 1/4 m. (17 Car. II c.i passed on 31 October) would be “a new venture in English public finance” (L&M) in which bills would be paid by the Exchequer on credit, bypassing the Treasury, denying Carteret his poundage and other profits. SPOILER - On 31 Oct. we will see Pepys’s scapticism of financing on credit (a concern he will share with Carteret and the bankers); but the scheme is a success. (L&M note 6 November 16
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
"He says, and I believe, that a great many persons at Court are angry at the rise of this Duncomb, whose father, he tells me, was a long-Parliamentman, and a great Committee-man;"
L&M say Cartaret was misinformed : Duncombe's father, Sir Edward (of Battlesden, Bed.) had died in 1638, before the Long Parliament was summoned and Duncombe himself had been in France throughout most of the Interregnum. The Duncombes were a many-branched family and possibly the mistake was due to confusion with, e.g., Robert Duncombe of Suffolk whose name often appears in the lists of committeemen for his county in the 1650s.
Terry Foreman • Link
"I was in with him about Tangier, and at present received but little answer from them"
L&M: The Treasury minute runs: Mr. Pepys to be speedily considered for 30,000l. for Tangiers (CTB, ii. 3).
Terry Foreman • Link
""...which have been of late much perplexed by mixing of some moneys of Sir G. Carteret’s with mine, evened and set right: and so late to supper, and with great quiet to bed; finding by the balance of my account that I am creditor 6900l.,"
L&M: 'Private Accompt made up May.31.1667': Rawl. A 185. ff. 17-27; an abstract (with rough notes and some later items added), in Pepys's hand. The exact amount of his credit was £6948 12s. 0d.
john • Link
"he was a kind of an atturny" was not necessarily a slur.
attorney, n.1
1. One appointed or ordained to act for another; an agent, deputy, commissioner. In later times only fig. and perhaps with conscious reference to sense 2. Obs.
1347 Ord. R. Househ. 9 Clerkes, attorneys of the Victualles in sondry shiers. c 1430 Lydg. Bochas viii. vi. (1554) 181 a, From occupacion hys rest for to take Hys attorney Maximian he doth make. c 1440 Promp. Parv., Atturneye, suffectus, attornatus. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 100, I will attend my husband‥for it is my Office, And will haue no atturney but my selfe. 1642 Rogers Naaman 382 His Minister, whom he hath made his Attorney to receiue our acknowledgement.
OED
Terry Foreman • Link
More context from Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, v. i. 100.
ADRIANA
I will attend my husband, be his nurse,
Diet his sickness, for it is my office
100And will have no attorney but myself;
And therefore let me have him home with me.
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
"So parted and I – L&M] by water to White Hall to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, the first time I ever was there and I think the second that they have met at the Treasury chamber there. Here I saw Duncomb look as big, and take as much state on him, as if he had been born a lord. I was in with him about Tangier, and at present received but little answer from them, they being in a cloud of business yet, but I doubt not but all will go well under them."
Pepys was right -- don't let the double negative confuse you:
"May 31.
Friday. Present: Duke of Albemarle, Sir Thomas Clifford, Sir William Coventry, Sir John Duncomb.
The officers of the Exchequer to attend here on Monday at 3 p.m.
The Farmers of the Customs to send to my Lords next Monday and every Monday an account of their receipts and payments for London and the like quarterly for the outports; and that for the future they pay no money on any tally but by order of my Lords: and that they attend here Monday next at 3 p.m. When Lord Ashley is present it is to be considered as to their carrying in all their tallies into the Exchequer.
Mr. Wood to be here on Monday with what papers relate to the tin at Ostend. Write to Sir William Temple to give my Lords an account of the whole state of the tin affair in Flanders, how disposed and what remains. Also to Mr. Glanvile to the like effect that he deliver to Alderman Backwell's order what tin is not disposed by Sir William Temple's order, except the 2,000lb. for the Swedish Ambassador. This to be communicated to said Backwell.
Sir George Carteret, Alderman Backwell and Mr. Sherwyn appearing gave an account by word of mouth of the tin in Flanders and [of] a second bargain of 300 tons of the King's tin which was sold to Alderman Lewys and Alderman Dashwood at 4l. per ton.
Sir George Carteret and Mr. Gawden appeared about the 62,000l. assignment demanded by the Victualler of the Navy. To be speedily considered.
Sir George Carteret to give in to my Lords an accompt of all assignments in his hands.
Mr. Pepys to be speedily considered for 30,000l. for Tangiers.
Sir George Carteret reports that he can have from the Bankers about 60,000l. presently if they like their security. He is to treat with them to lend it on the remotest orders of the Eleven Months' tax, not on those [orders thereon] for seamen's wages.
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
The receivers and agents for the Royal Aid in co. Hereford are to attend the Privy Council this afternoon concerning their arrears. Lord Ashley to be moved to know how the matter stands as to the money in Mr. Price's hands for said county. Mr. Tim. Coles' permitted to give an account to my Lords of money in the hands of William Grisman, a constable in said county.
Sir William Doily's paper to be presented to the Privy Council concerning a suit commenced in co. Northampton against a collector.
Lord Ashley to be spoken with by the Serjeant at Arms concerning keeping in custody Mr. Price, receiver of co. Hereford. Price, Veale, White and Sir William Doily to attend here to-morrow.
Sir William Doily to give an accompt how the Receivers' accompts stand, and also of the charge of their [Doyle's] office and waggons. The auditors of the revenue are to call to accompt all the Receivers of the Poll money. Sir William Doyly to write to the Receivers of the said Poll money and of the taxes to hasten hither their accompts and moneys, and to the Commissioners of all [the counties, &c., of] England to send up the duplicates of the Poll money.
The Excise Commissioners to be spoken to concerning the papers of the Farmers of the London Excise, Mr. Ashburnham and Sir Stephen Fox of this day's date.
A time to be appointed to consider how to make returns by exchange out of the counties; and to consider Sir William Doily's papers of the 29th inst. for 7,000l. for waggons.
A copy to be sent to Lord Arlington of what is written to Sir William Temple and Mr. Glanvile about the tin at Ostend.
Sir Robert Southwell's Privy Seal read. Lord Arlington and Lord Ashley to be consulted about it.
Consideration to be taken of the allowances ordinary and extra-ordinary to public ministers; and to represent something to the King about it.
The Privy Seal for repayment to the King, out of the 11 Months' tax, of the 200,000l. borrowed by him on the Customs, and paid to Sir George Carteret and the Ordnance for the Navy and stores, agreed to, and sent to Lord Arlington for the King's signature.
My Lords' ordinary time of meeting to be Monday, 3 p.m., instead of Tuesday, 8 a.m.
[Treasury Minute Book I. pp. 7–9.]"
FROM
'Minute Book: May 1667', in Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 2, 1667-1668, ed. William A Shaw( London, 1905), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk…
They ran an expensive and global empire -- no phones, mimeo or xerox machines. I am impressed.