Friday 7 September 1660

Not office day, and in the afternoon at home all the day, it being the first that I have been at home all day since I came hither.

Putting my papers, books and other things in order, and writing of letters. This day my Lord set sail from the Downs for Holland.

16 Annotations

First Reading

Paul Brewster  •  Link

An office day;
L&M and Wheatley have obviously come to quite differing conclusions about the shorthand. The characters probably appear quite similar ("a" is sans-serif "A" without the crossbar while "not" is a sans-serif "7") and Wheatley used the information in the second part of the sentence to reach his conclusion.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

This day my Lord set sail from the Downes for Holland.
The day's entry would have been even shorter without that last sentence which according to L&M was a "addition crowded into the end of the line."

chip  •  Link

The next few days are short entries. To continue yesterday's conversation, I too suspected he meant Pett. I was confused because he agrees to help Pett haggle with Conventry over the price of the "place". It is clear Pett wants Pepys to convince Conventry that the post is not worth that much. These rich families didn't get rich by chance, they were, and are, parsimonious. I agree that Pepys does not yet appreciate the reach of the Petts.

Ruben Lenger  •  Link

you can see a famous Pett image at "Peter Pett and the Sovereign of the Seas, by Sir Peter Lely" in the Maritime Art Museum at Greenwich, or in the Museum's site in the Internet.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

Navy Debt -- Today In Parliament

House of Commons Journal Volume 8: 7 September 1660 | British History Online
"and disburthening the Kingdom of the great Debt of the Navy. He told us, the Charge of the Navy is great;- Forty thousand Pounds a Month;-and (he desired us to observe it) it was not a Navy of the King's setting forth: Had it been so, the King would have taken care to provide for it: But his Majesty found the Charge;-made it not. He told us, Twenty-five Ships lay in Harbour, at a useless Charge amounting to Fifteen thousand Pounds a Month: And that the Inconveniences was not only the Uselessness of the Charge, but another Inconvenience followed; the Seamen lie idle, and by that means become unserviceable: And he told us, Sixscore thousand Pounds would cut off that Charge.""
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"An office day, and in the afternoon at home all the day, it being the first that I have been at home all day "

I wonder if "at home" here refers to the Seething Lane navy compound and that it is NOT elsewhere. Later on in this vein he notes: "I sent them to church this morning, I staying at home at the office, busy." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The Diary of John Evelyn (Vol 1 of 2)
Author: John Evelyn
Commentator: Richard Garnett
Release Date: October 29, 2012 [EBook #41218]
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41…

7th September, 1660. I went to Chelsea to visit Mr. [ROBERT] Boyle, and see his pneumatic engine perform divers experiments.
Thence, to Kensington, to visit Mr. Henshaw, returning home that evening.

@@@

Since Robert Boyle was living at Oxford, when he came to London for Royal Society meetings he usually stayed with his sister, Katherine Boyle Jones, Lady Ranelagh, the estranged Parliamentarian wife of the Royalist Richard Jones, MP FRS, known as The Viscount Ranelagh between 1669 and 1677.
"Katy" was a friend of John Milton, and held an influential salon during the Interregnum. The Boyles were one of the families who seemed to be able to straddle the political divide without injuring too deeply their internal relationships.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

CORRECTION: Richard Jones was Katy's son.

Her husband was ARTHUR Jones, 2nd Visct. Ranelagh, who died on 7 Jan. 1670;
Richard's Parliamentary bio. says Arthur was "a drunken oaf, sat for Weobley in the Long Parliament until disabled for residing in the King’s quarters." [I don't know what the means exactly, but it sounds like he might have been a Royalist at heart.]
https://www.historyofparliamenton…

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"An office day, and in the afternoon at home all the day, it being the first that I have been at home all day "

An office day may mean the Navy Board sat in the morning -- they have yet to organize set days for sitting as there is not only much work to be attended to, but also I think they were still sorting out their roles and who was responsible for what. Slingsby has just joined them and needed to be brought up to speed.

So the fact that Pepys spent a Friday afternoon at home setting up his office/closet/accounts etc. seems likely to me.

Terry's comment ""I sent them to church this morning, I staying at home at the office, busy." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…" refers to a Sunday -- when the Board are still agonizing about bills, but this time it's their own Navy debt.

Lacking other evidence, I believe Pepys. He doesn't say he played hookey from the office in the morning.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

It occurs to me that Pepys, the "Energizer Rabbit", may not have been setting up his office/closet/accounts etc.
He could have been taking a nap, which is what I would be doing after such a busy month.

Trust what Pepys says -- but at this stage he might be too vane to admit to being tired.
It isn't until 1666 and 1667 that Sam confesses to needing them.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

We confirm that "This day my Lord set sail from the Downs for Holland", or, as Capt. Teddiman says in the log my Lord appended to his journal (at https://archive.org/details/journ…, page 80): "At 8 this morning the wind being at S.S.W. my Lord came aboard the Resolution for the voyage for Hellevoetshuis and at 9 this morning weighed and sailed from the Downs with 9 sail of men of war in company with one ketch and hoy".

Which brings the question, does absolutely everybody refer to my Lord in his absence as "my Lord"? Teddiman's ship's log seems an official record but in there he could have been "the Admiral", too, but no. We phant'sy he enjoys "my Lord" too much even for that.

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