Friday 22 June 1660
To my Lord, where much business. With him to White Hall, where the Duke of York not being up, we walked a good while in the Shield Gallery. Mr. Hill (who for these two or three days hath constantly attended my Lord) told me of an offer of 500l. for a Baronet’s dignity, which I told my Lord of in the balcone in this gallery, and he said he would think of it.
I to my Lord’s and gave order for horses to be got to draw my Lord’s great coach to Mr. Crew’s.
Mr. Morrice the upholsterer came himself to-day to take notice what furniture we lack for our lodgings at Whitehall.
My dear friend Mr. Fuller of Twickenham and I dined alone at the Sun Tavern, where he told me how he had the grant of being Dean of St. Patrick’s, in Ireland; and I told him my condition, and both rejoiced one for another.
Thence to my Lord’s, and had the great coach to Brigham’s, who went with me to the Half Moon, and gave me a can of good julep, and told me how my Lady Monk deals with him and others for their places, asking him 500l., though he was formerly the King’s coach-maker, and sworn to it.
My Lord abroad, and I to my house and set things in a little order there. So with Mr. Moore to my father’s, I staying with Mrs. Turner who stood at her door as I passed. Among other things she told me for certain how my old Lady Middlesex … [beshit – L&M] herself the other day in the presence of the King, and people took notice of it. Thence called at my father’s, and so to Mr. Crew’s, where Mr. Hetley had sent a letter for me, and two pair of silk stockings, one for W. Howe, and the other for me.
To Sir H. Wright’s to my Lord, where he, was, and took direction about business, and so by link home about 11 o’clock.
To bed, the first time since my coming from sea, in my own house, for which God be praised.
38 Annotations
First Reading
gerry • Link
The missing word after Lady Middlesex is "beshit" per L&M. Makes me think of LBJ's two basic rules of politics: Never turn down a free meal and never miss an opportunity to visit the bathroom.
language hat • Link
"a can of good julep":
julep 'A sweet drink prepared in different ways; often, simply a liquid sweetened with syrup or sugar, and used as a vehicle for medicine; sometimes, a medicated drink used as a demulcent, "comforting", or gently stimulating mixture.’ (OED)
Mary • Link
julep
In England the derived form, 'jollop' is still used as a non-specific term for a medicinal liquid of some sort; cough syrup, laxative or what you will.
Brad W • Link
told me of an offer of 500l. for a Baronet's dignity, . . .
Were impoverished noble families able to sell titles even back then? Or am I the only one here that doesn’t know that a Baronet’s dignity is a piece of furniture or a statue or something?
Gerry’s LBJ quote reminds this Texan how much Lyndon sounded like a crass vaudeville comedian rather than a statesman. Alas we’re always going to come across as hicks. Guess I’ll go soak my feet in the Cement Pond.
Paul Brewster • Link
500l for a Barronets dignity
L&M footnote: "This would be payment for the grant of the title.... £300-400 was said to be a common price…. Hill who solicited it on someone else’s behalf may have been Pepys’s neighbour, John Hill of Axe Yard. Baronetcies had been commonly sold ever since their introduction in 1611, but little of the revenue from their sale (even from the official fee) at this time reached the Crown.”
Paul Brewster • Link
asking him 500l., though he was formerly the King's coach-maker,
In case you were worried about his fate, L&M say “Thomas Brigham was appointed coachmaker to the Duke of York in November.”
Matthew • Link
"Balcone":
Note the original Italian spelling - according to one of Patrick O'Brian's books the Italian pronunciation, with the stress on the second syllable, was still common in the early 19th century.
David A. Smith • Link
500l. for a Baronet's dignity
The market opens!
War unsettles economics and regime change creates new winners and losers. And my Lord Montagu’s response is appropriately non-committal: “I’ll think about it.” I predict that Montagu will get other such offers, and the price (which seems very high) will fall (especially as the newly restored King could simply create Montagu a title, could he not?)
gerry • Link
I believe that when baronetcies were introduced by James 1, they were intended to be a revenue raising product. A baronet is not a member of the Peerage.
Brad, LBJ would surely have slotted in easily in Sam's world; what a wheeler dealer.
j a gioia • Link
Alas we're always going to come across as hicks.
tut, brad. i read long ago that the current monarch gave advice viz the loo much the same as lyndon’s - what with endless state occasions and appearances and all.
Colin Gravois • Link
Re Gerry, Brad, and Qioiu's references to LBJ and Sam's era.
Right on, he would have fit neatly into that mid-17th century fabric of London high rollers. He may have been a crass wheeler-dealer SOB, but he was probably the smartest crass wheeler-dealer SOB ever to come down the pike (see Robt. Caro's triolgy -- more to come -- with his latest "Master of the Senate.")
vincent • Link
When you are weird, you are a nutcase if you are Pennyless but when you have a few (quid,brass,gold or) dollars you are just eccentric: i.e. if you broke your are a hick but otherwise just a good ol' boy:
money trumps brains but money and brains trumps all.
gerry • Link
This is not LBJ appreciation week but there are a lot of places in Caro's fascinating books where you could substitute Montague for LBJ. Its a question of knowing when to hold them and knowing when to fold them.
Right on Vincent!
Susanna • Link
£500 for a Baronetcy
I read this as Mr. Hill asking Pepys to ask my lord Montague (who already has a superior title; he is Earl of Sandwich) to use his influence with the king to make Mr. Hill a baronet for £500.
As for LBJ, I think he and his dictum “power is where power goes” would have been right at home in the Restoration.
helena murphy • Link
Lionel Cranfield (1575-1645) was the first Earl of Middlesex.He started life as an apprentice to a City businessman and rose to be Lord Treasurer under James I. He was impeached and consequently ruined by Buckingham,the court favourite ,on a trumped up charge of financial mishandling. Social acceptance was not always forthcoming for the recently ennobled. They
provoked envy in those without titles ,and condescension from those of a weightier pedigree. When Cranfield told the future Charles I that he was honour bound to marry the Spanish Infanta,the prince told him to keep to money matters and not to talk of honour to a gentleman. Mrs Turner's comment conceals a spiteful relish as if such behaviour is only to be expected.
JonTom Kittredge • Link
Montagu's Earldom
Susanna's annotation reminds me to ask: Has Montague actually been created an earl yet? I don't remember seeing any specific about it in the diary, but I could easily have missed it, since there has been so much happening since the Return of the King (so to speak). It's especially confusing since Pepys has always called him "my Lord" as a courtesy title. On the nineteenth, he mentions Montague entering the House of Commons, which I assume a peer could not do, so maybe the title hasn't come through yet?
JonTom Kittredge • Link
Lodgings at Whitehall
Another question about Montaqu: a couple of days ago, Pepys alluded to "the Great Wardrobe", apparently a house that the Master of the Wardrobe is entitled to use (though Montague will first have to evict some poor orphans). Today there's mention of "our lodgings at White Hall". Does this mean lodgings for Montagu in the palace itself? And are these lodgings distinct from the Great Wardrobe? (Or are these lodgings in the vicinity of White Hall Palace, for the Pepyses themselves?)
Pauline • Link
Axe Yard and White Hall
Lot of discussion of Pepys house in Axe Yard and its proximity to White Hall, and just what is White Hall, in the early months of the diary annotations. See http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo… (Axe Yard) and http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo… (White Hall Palace). Montagu has lodgings in White Hall, but has not used them actively yet in "diary time."
A recent map link showed the Great Wardrobe in London, not in Westminster or near White Hall.
Todd Bernhardt • Link
re: Montagu's earldom
To answer JonTom, I don't think Montagu is Earl of Sandwich just yet. I don't have the Tomalin bio handy, but I remember her mentioning the transition in her book (it's rather jarring, because she refers to Montagu as Sandwich from that point on), and I believe it came after this time.
As for Brad's comment about LBJ, I can only say that I wish that the current Texan in the White House was as competent and erudite as LBJ! Sheesh.
Paul Brewster • Link
re: Montagu's earldom
It looks like his formal title will come on the 9th of July, 1660.
in Aqua Scripto • Link
The Sandwich apartment be over the gate, known as the king Street Gate, with nice acces to the Tennis court and Privy Garden and the Bowling Green. Extracted from Companion {L&M]
The Shield Gallery 1st floor [2nd USA] east west out to the privey stairs over the Leads, so that one can see the swans a feeding and sculls a sculling.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"A recent map link showed the Great Wardrobe in London, not in Westminster or near White Hall. "
Pauline, perhaps that was an altered link. His Wardrobe would be near the King & fam. It is 22 on this map of Whitehall:
http://www.londonancestor.com/map…
Bill • Link
Julep, a preparative (of syrups, &c.) to open the inward parts and prepare for a purgation, from Julap, P[ersian]. a kind of rose-water.
---An English Dictionary. E. Coles, 1717.
Sasha Clarkson • Link
"Social acceptance was not always forthcoming for the recently ennobled."
..... and George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham was certainly a case in point. Hardly out of the top drawer himself, he owed his advancement to the fondness of James I & VI for the company of attractive young men. According to Wiki, he married the daughter of the 6th Earl of Rutland, Lady Katherine Manners, "despite the objections of her father."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geor…
His son George, the second Duke was a favourite of Charles II, but was a treacherous and vindictive libertine, who did an immense amount of damage to the reputation of King and Court.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geor…
Gerald Berg • Link
And power trumps all! LBJ was the clodhopper in Camelot till the rest happened. Then he became a political sage. Well, till the further rest happened.
meech • Link
Per Helena's annotation it apparently wasn't just his unusual rise to power that went against Cranfield, but the fact that in order to straighten out James' money problems he was trying to rid the government of the very system of payments and bribes that you all keep remarking on. Buckingham was his patron initially and then turned on him when he tried to clean up government. Most everyone turned on him since he was threatening a nice source of income for them all, as Sam can now confirm. But Cranfield was by now beyond their reach. It's his widow who deserves our concern.
I have been unable to ascertain exactly how old 'my old Lady Middlesex" was at this point, but myself entering the age of incontinence, I feel for her. LBJ's "never miss an opportunity" might not have helped in this instance. It would be horrible enough to have an accident in front of King and Court, but this poor lady's mishap has, thanks to Sam, been sent down through the ages so that people 350 or so years later still know about it. Talk about not being able to live something down.
Terry Foreman • Link
meech, Helena surely refers to the grandfather of the late husband of the beshitten Lady Middlesex. That husband had been Lionel Cranfield, 3rd Earl of Middlesex (1625 – 26 October 1674), styled Hon. Lionel Cranfield from 1640 until 1651.
Cranfield succeeded his brother as Earl of Middlesex in 1651. Around 1655, he married Rachel [1613-1680], daughter of the Earl of Westmorland and widow of Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath. In May 1660, he was one of the six peers deputed by the Convention Parliament to invite the return of Charles II of England. He was appointed a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles II in 1673. He died the following year without issue; his titles became extinct, and his estates passed to his nephew Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset.
Today she was probably 57. Here's an image of 'my old Lady Middlesex' in better days
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lio…
Her page on the interwebs http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/…
meech • Link
Oh dear! Thanks for the correction, Terry. Missed by a mile. And thanks for her age. I had a feeling she wasn't that old by our standards...or perhaps I should say my standards.
Terry Foreman • Link
Apologies, Pauline, about the King's Wardrobe location above!
The 'active' wardrobe is indeed near the King & fam. It is 22 on this map of Whitehall: http://www.londonancestor.com/map…
The King's Great Wardrobe which Mountagu is in charge of is a building located in London on what is now Queen Victoria Street. It was used as a storehouse for royal accoutrements, housing arms and clothing among other personal items of the Crown. The building also had apartments and offices for the several staff handling the clothing.. Among the apartments was a principal London lodging for Milady Jemima Mountague, her housekeeper and kitchen staff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy…
See the Encyclopedia: http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Terry Foreman • Link
balcone
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ba…
San Diego Sarah • Link
John Evelyn's Diary – he and Mary Browne Evelyn live at Saye's Court, Deptford.
http://brittlebooks.library.illin…
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22 June, 1660.
The Warwickshire gentlemen (as did all the shires and chief towns in all the three nations) presented their congratulatory address. It was carried by my Lord Northampton.
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Three nations … England, Scotland and Wales? There were some Irish MPs as well, so why were they excluded? If not the Irish, someone was excluded.
I’m guessing “the Warwickshire gentlemen” were the Members of Parliament from there. “It was carried” indicates a written document, but an “address” indicates a speech.
Maybe one of my heroes of the Civil Wars, James Compton, FRS, as the 3rd Earl of Northampton and the new Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, carried the speech for, and was responsible for formally introducing, the County MPs, and one of them then read the speech? All part of Charles II's "getting to know you" campaign:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Mr. Hill (who for these two or three days hath constantly attended my Lord) told me of an offer of 500/. for a Baronet’s dignity, which I told my Lord of in the balcone in this gallery, and he said he would think of it."
When Montagu was presented with his George, which was a highly unusual honor as it is customarily given to titled people on St. George's Day, by implication he was assured of some level of dignification. A Baronetcy hardly qualifies as a reward for his services. I can only read this as an opening of negotiations.
It will be interesting to find out if Montagu has to pay anything for it. (I hope Annesley doesn't turn down too many other thank you gifts on his behalf.)
MartinVT • Link
"my old Lady Middlesex" was 47 at this time (born 28 January 1613). Maybe Sam calls her "old lady" because she married the Earl of Middlesex about 1655 when she was 42 and he was 30. More about her here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rac…. It's kind of an embarrassment to be remembered through the ages for a wet fart, so let's try to celebrate her instead for her syllabub recipe, which actually sounds pretty good: http://foodhistorjottings.blogspo…
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Mr. Morrice the upholsterer came himself to-day to take notice what furniture we lack for our lodgings at Whitehall."
Capt. Robert Morris was not the Court Upholsterer -- and that position was contentious at this time, as I outlined on June 19, 1660 at
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-n…
Charles II’s taste was moulded by Richelieu, Mazarin and Louis XIII.
This might be why Montagu lacked furniture -- he needed to change the look of his Whitehall quarters to be more fashionable.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Mrs. Turner isn't as "in" as she likes to think:
"Rachel Fane Bourchier, Countess of Bath, married secondly Lionel Cranfield, 3rd Earl of Middlesex, in 1655, but retained her precedency as Countess of Bath by royal warrant."
JayW • Link
Re ‘the three nations’ mentioned in Evelyn’s diary entry quoted by San Diego Sarah on 19/6/2022. They would be Scotland, Ireland and “England and Wales”. England and Wales are still classed as the same country for legal purposes such as domicile at date of death.
Terry Foreman • Link
And on the political front: House of Commons today
The House invited to dine with the City.
The House being informed, that divers Aldermen, and others, attended at the Door from the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the City of London, they were called in; and, standing at the Bar, Mr. Alderman Fowke spake as followeth:
May it please you, Mr. Speaker,
We are sent from the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the City of London, humbly to acquaint this House, that we have lately made our humble Address to his Most Sacred Majesty, humbly praying that to his former Graces he would give us a further Opportunity to express our Joy for his happy Restitution and Return, and for all the happy Consequences thereof; and, for this Purpose, that he would honour the City so far, as to accept an Invitation from them, to dine at Guild Hall, upon such a Day as himself should please to appoint. His Majesty has graciously accepted the Invitation, and appointed this Day Fortnight, being the 5th of July, to be the Day. Hereupon, considering a Parliament is sitting, and that, as it becomes us to express our Loyalty and Duty to his Majesty, so also our humble Respects to the honourable the Houses of Parliament; We therefore, by Direction of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, and in the Name and Behalf of the City of London, do humbly pray, That this House will honour that Meeting with their Presence.
And so they withdrew.
Ordered, That this House doth accept the Invitation from the City of London; and that their hearty Thanks be returned to the said City.
The Aldermen, and the rest, being called in again, Mr. Speaker spake unto them as followeth:
Gentlemen, The House have considered of your Message; and take notice of the constant Continuation of the Kindness of the City of London to this House; and do accept of your Invitation; and have commanded me to return you the very hearty Thanks of this House.
https://www.british-history.ac.uk…
San Diego Sarah • Link
JayW's information about Wales sent me to the Google library again:
Why is Wales not separate from England?
Wales is a constituent country which forms part of the United Kingdom because it has its own government and national identity.
However, it is not a sovereign country because the UK government still has authority when it comes to law-making.
Why doesn't Wales have its own legal system?
Wales has been part of a unified legal jurisdiction with England since the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, during the reign of Henry VIII, and so does not have its own criminal justice system.
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The Tudors were originally a Welsh family -- Henry VIII must have appreciated the advantages of unifing the islands, and was successful with step 1.
The Stuarts, James I and VI and Queen Anne, tried step 2 with Scotland in 1603 and a century later -- with much less success!
Everyone's failure with step 3, to incorporate a united Ireland into a United Kingdom, is well documented.
The occasional references to "Great Britain" in the 17th century were purely aspirational.
Thanks, Jay, I had never clearly thought about this before.