Thursday 24 October 1661
At the office all morning, at noon Luellin dined with me, and then abroad to Fleet Street, leaving my wife at Tom’s while I went out and did a little business. So home again, and went to see Sir Robert [Slingsby], who continues ill, and this day has not spoke at all, which makes them all afeard of him. So home.
23 Annotations
First Reading
dirk • Link
diary
Am I the only one to find Sam's diary entries over the last month or so less informative than they used to be? They read more like a catalogue of "went there" and "had dinner with" - without much of the lively detail we used to get before.
Possibly in a reaction to this, the annotation activity seems to have stalled somewhat too.
RexLeo • Link
"...went to see Sir Robert [Slingsby], who continues ill"
Sam seems to have special bond with Slingsby - he has been visting him every day!
Robert Gertz • Link
Sam has a knack for admiring worthy superiors and making them role models...Slingsby and Coventry are two of the best in the new government.
Note that Montague (who was at his best as hero of the Commonwealth when Sam first worked for him) has perhaps lost just a little of his early luster for Sam. That may be due mainly to the fact Sam's not in constant contact and now beginning to find himself an important personage in his own right, but I think the betrayals of old Cromwellian comrades and Sandwich's easy acceptance of the King's return for a comfortable position have somewhere deep down affected Sam's opinion of his old hero.
Xjy • Link
diary
"Am I the only one to find Sam's diary entries over the last month or so less informative than they used to be? They read more like a catalogue of "went there" and "had dinner with" - without much of the lively detail we used to get before.”
Interesting point, Dirk. We’re lucky he kept writing when things were in a bit of a rut. Autumn is drab. He’s ill remember — testicle trouble — and he’s been very intent on clearing up the legacy. The boss is away, his career is OK, things are politically fairly undramatic at the moment… Can’t have an eruption every day — but the volcano smoulders…
A. Hamilton • Link
which makes them all afeard of him
Interesting construction,which I gloss as "afraid for him" meaning I think, fearful for his life.
A digression. I can never read the name "Slingsby" without thinking of Edward Lear's story about the four little children who "bought a large boat to sail quite round the world by sea." Their names were Violet, Guy, Lionel and the eponymous Slingsby.
http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/n…
David A. Smith • Link
"and this day has not spoke at all"
No question, these entries are sketchier. Less is happening -- Montagu away, no national politics a-brew, no domestic crises. Thank Sam he has spared us the armatures of administration -- I feel confident things will pick up soon (and no, I haven't read ahead!).
Bob T • Link
No question, these entries are sketchier. Less is happening
It is possible that Sam has slipped into the typical male way of describing his day. Ask a woman what happened during her day, and she will describe in detail everything that happened after her feet touched the floor when she got out of bed. Ask a man the same thing, and he will say "Nothing". That means nobody was hired, was fired, got promoted, or died. Sam's detailed entries are to be enjoyed because they are rare in the male world.
joe • Link
Yes that is very true. When my wife talks to me and asks questions, my replies are always simple and to the point. When I ask her a question.....forget about it. Oh here we go.....
vicente • Link
So glad that he [Sam that is ] is not into English weather. Sam is not a woffler,or into column inches,or other forms of padding or even piffle, the facts, only the facts {mamm], never repeats old news. Parliament is snoring, too wet to go to the fields or parks to be entertained. Very little pressing of rings in molton wax.
He is not into telling us about the use of daily cutthroat of stubble, only when it means a new experience.
This his notes to keep abreast of when he experience a new problem, not to pad out the broadsheet.[If only the modern press could be so factual and not opinionated[or Syn there to].
Pauline • Link
"without much of the lively detail we used to get before"
He certainly began the diary at a time when events had everyone of the edge of their seats. I wonder if the same sense we have of few excitements and not much to tell isn't also starting to rumble about in Sam. And how he gets from that to being such an able and well-reknowned-down-to-today administrator and civil servant will be interesting to watch. A capable young man like Sam can either rest on the laurels to date and let the drinking and theatre-going be the excitement here on out or seize an opportunity that his career offers to become a real player. I hope some of Sam's decisive moments will be clear to us readers.
His health issues and having his parents move so far away and having a difficult young niece to settle estate for (as xyi notes above)--as well as some disappointment in his own inheritance from Uncle Robert (nearly as much hassle as gain)-- add up to considerable demoralization just now.
Second Reading
Edith Lank • Link
I've always assumed that those brief summaries of the day's events mark times when Samuel reconstructed the day later. He tells us, every now and then, that he's been bringing the diary up to date, and we know he jotted notes along the way. Those, it seems to me, are likely to be "where I was that day" records, as opposed to the more delightful entries penned in the heat of the moment.
Ivan • Link
On October 17th Sam did relate in quite a lot of detail what Captain Lambert had told him about the King of Portugal and his doings and on the following day he listed all the ingredients making up his poultice and how he applied it to his testicle plus an incisive characterisation of Mrs. Goldsborough. Then on the 20th he makes clear his irritation about Will Hewer's behaviour, so I think he is doing more than just marking time.
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
From Sandwich's log, at anchor in Tangier Bay:
October 24, Thursday.
In the morning by break of day we discerned a fleet of merchantmen Dutch and 4 Turks men of war edged off from them sailing out of the Straits within a league of us, whereupon instantly we slipped one cable and weighed our other anchor and stood after them, viz: The James, Montague, Forester and Martin.
As we were in chase we saw the Mary and Hampshire who had been in chase of them all night before.
All the while we were off Tangier land we had very little wind but the Turks had a fresh gale off Cape Spartel (2) and before in the calm rowed with 19 oars a side and so got a good way ahead of us.
When we came up to Cape Spartel we had a fresh gale of wind and they had less wind and we raised their hulls apace.
At the same time the Mary and the Hampshire, that were more into the middle of the gut, had much less wind than we and almost becalmed.
When we were all got out to sea we had very little wind, made scarce 2 leagues a watch.
The Turks with sailing and rowing by 4 o'clock in the afternoon got to sea out of our sight so we gave over chase and stood into the gut for Tangier again.
(2) MS Spratt
Copied from
The Journal of Edward Mountagu,
First Earl of Sandwich
Admiral and General-at-Sea 1659 - 1665
Edited by RC Anderson
Printed for the Navy Records Society
MDCCCCXXIX
Section III - Mediterranean 1661/62
@@@
Does anyone know what Sandwich specifically means when he writes about the gut of the Straits. After reading about Cape Spartel (see next annotation), I'm now guessing he means the narrowest mid-point of the Strait where the Med. meets the Atlantic. In rgw past I recall that being called the waist.
A question for the sailors: I understand weighing anchor, but what does he mean by also slipping a cable if a dufferent anchor?
The Straits of Gibraltar
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
On October 3 Sandwich divided his ships with Adm. Lawson, and these were 4 of the fighting ships he took to Tangier -- but at least 2 of these 4 turn out to be frigates:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
The James -- Pedro thinks this was The Royal James, and was Sandwich's flag ship
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
The Montagu -- no info yet
The Forester
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
The Martin
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
The Mary -- could this be the Royal Yacht Mary? There could have been a warship of the same name? -- https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
The Hampshire
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Tangier land -- you can see the area around Tangier as it looked in 1669 (after 7 years of English investment) -- (if you care about spoilers, don't read the annotations) -- at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
Cape Spartel -- Nestled about 14 kilometers from downtown Tangier, Cape Spartel serves as the meeting point between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
Contrary to the common belief, the cape is not the northmost point of Africa (a title that belongs to Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia) but rather the continent’s northwesternmost tip.
At 326 meters (1,000 ft) above sea level, the promontory overlooks the Strait of Gibraltar, providing a distant glimpse of Spain’s southern coastline, including Gibraltar’s famous rock.
Over the centuries, the nearby waters witnessed countless maritime battles between world powers. Perhaps the most notable of which was the Battle of Cape Spartel, where the British navy engaged in an intense fighting with dozens of French and Spanish vessels as it sought to break the Great Siege of Gibraltar. ...
Half a kilometer downhill [FROM THE LIGHTHOUSE] lies the iconic sign that indicates where the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean meet. The wooden mark sits atop a porch from where one can see the imaginary border between the two bodies of water.
The cape’s peak, known as Jebel Kebir, is topped by the Borj Spartel tower. ... As you reach the top, you’ll be rewarded with stunning views that stretch to Spain.
Located slightly south of Cape Spartel is a string of golden beaches and the mystical Hercules Caves, known for their Africa-shaped natural window as well as their many associated fables.
https://explanders.com/africa-mid…
Sandwich is taking on 4 Turkish men-of-war with a Royal Yacht, 2 frigates and The Royal James? Luckily he finds 2 more English frigates in hot pursuit. If the objective was to save the Dutch merchantships, they apparently succeeded. Hr wasn't prepared to capture those Turks.
Where is de Ruyter? He's supposed to be lurking on the other side of the Straits to take care of this kind of harassment.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Today I realized I had made a bad assumption. "Tangier is a seaport, on a small bay or inlet of the Straits of Gibraltar, which affords the only good harbour for shipping on the sea-board of Morocco, an extent of coast of about 900 miles." -- from our Encyclopedia.
True -- but Tangier is on the WEST side of the Straits -- the Atlantic Ocean side, not the Mediterranean Sea side. I've been posting Sandwich's logs up until now assuming it was on the EAST side of the Straits.
Tacking to and from Malaga and Alicante therefore must have been more complicated than going to Lisbon. And finding de Ruyter at Cape St. Vincent less difficult (they are all on the East side of the Straits).
Duh.
My apologies to anyone/everyone I have confused.
LKvM • Link
Well, we may have had a dull entry from Sam, but Sandwich's log makes up for it in spades. Sandwich spotted troubling activity and took off in hot pursuit. For the person who wondered what it means to slip a cable, it's a drastic move and means in an emergency to untie the anchor line (cable, or rode) from the bitt (post, or cleat) to which it is tied and just let it "slip" and run out, leaving the anchor and line on the bottom. It is a great loss.
(In ordinary sailing, one ties a flotation cushion or similar to the bitter end of the anchor line and with luck is able to go back later and find the cushion and retrieve the anchor. This has happened to me.)
Nate Lockwood • Link
The anchor cable is a 'rope' of special construction, large diameter, and expensive. I think that one of the most arduous tasks for the crew on the large sailing ships was to weigh anchor. It used many of the crew on the anchor windlass going round and round perhaps on two decks and is slow hard work as this is pulling the ship toward the anchor.
One needs a long anchor cable. When I sailed briefly on merchant ships in the late 1950's and later in the US Navy the rule of thumb was to let out 7 times the depth of the water in anchor chain for one anchor. It's the weight of the chain or cable and the friction over the bottom that anchors the ship; the anchor digs in and 'anchors' the end.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Thanks Nate and LKvM. Part of life's rich pageant I have not experienced.
"... instantly we slipped one cable and weighed our other anchor and stood after them, ..." The Royal James must be using 2 anchors to stay in place. Today she lost one. I trust she had at least a third aboard, just in case.
"To weigh anchor" has taken on additional meaning.
Stephane Chenard • Link
Ah yes, so quiet and humdrum this English political scene. Nothin' is on. So boring! Zzzzz...
Fortunately, there's always an Episcopalian plot to amuse us. The latest is apparently so interesting that it seems to have prompted Venetian ambassador Giavarina to write his weekly report today (at https://www.british-history.ac.uk…) rather than to wait for the quiet of Sunday as usual. It was, he says, "discovered in the present week", and "when the king heard of it he immediately devoted himself with the Council" to emergency action, ordering the arrest of nine officers, "all of the land forces now in the metropolis [the London trained bands, right at the Westminster doors], some from Monk's own companies", plus "at Hertford some colonels".
Plots and plotters are so omnipresent that perhaps Sam heard of it but dismissed the news as too routine to mention. We find an echo in the State Papers, which have several minutes dated October 24 from witness examinations, reporting fifth columns of "3,000 men about the City, maintained by Presbyterian ministers", or of "6,000 men with arms in London" - vast, rounded numbers that read like what a witness would say just to make him stop, the guy holding the pliers. But details will also pop up in the French Gazette dated November 19 (new style), in a London dispatch of November 10 which, between a marriage and a medal, notes that the conspirators included, uh-oh, a former Republican ambassador to Holland ("le Sieur Olivier S. Jean", unlisted in Wikipedia's seamless chronology at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lis…, or among the names that also appear in this week's Mercurius Politicus). Henry Vane and a couple of other Rep heavies have also been relocated to remoter and safer places than the Tower. The State Papers on October 21 had a warrant to Capt. Thomas Allin "to receive Sir Henry Vane, [and] transport him safe prisoner to the Isle of Scilly".
Giavarina adds that the plot "was discovered only six hours before it was to take effect". So we were *this close* to getting a so-much-more interesting Diary.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"a former Republican ambassador to Holland ("le Sieur Olivier S. Jean","
Oliver St.John was more of a Special Envoy than an Ambassador, Stephane, which is why he doesn't make your helpful list:
On 14 Feb. 1651 the parliament selected Oliver St.John MP (with Walter Strickland for his colleague) to negotiate a close alliance between the United Provinces and England. Their instructions directed them to propose not only ‘a confederacy perpetual,’ but, if that were accepted, ‘a further and more intrinsecal union’ between the two nations.
Great hopes were built upon the embassy. Marvell addressed St.John in a copy of Latin verses, dwelling upon the significance of his name and his mission, while a suite of nearly 250 persons showed the desire of the English government to enhance the prestige of its negotiators and secure their safety (MARVELL, Works, ed. Grosart, i. 413).
St.John arrived at The Hague on 17 March, but 3 months of negotiating ended in failure. The servants of the ambassador were assaulted in the streets by exiled cavaliers, and the lives of their masters were threatened.
The proposed league failed because the Dutch refused to expel the English royalists from their dominions, or to make Mary, Princess of Orange answerable for their intrigues against the English commonwealth. The political union of the two republics was in consequence never proposed.
On 20 June St.John left Holland, haughtily telling the Dutch commissioners that they would repent of having rejected his offers (GARDINER, Commonwealth and Protectorate, i. 357–65; GEDDES, John De Witt, i. 157; Report on the Duke of Portland's MSS. i. 557, 605; THURLOE, i. 174–195; GREY, Examination of Neal's Puritans, iv. App. li.; Rawlinson MS. C. 366, Bodleian Library).
He had shown no great skill as a diplomatist, but he was full of wrath at his failure, and contemporaries asserted that the passing of the Navigation Act was largely due to his resentment (LUDLOW, Memoirs, i. 267, ed. 1894; CLARENDON, Rebellion, xiii. 155, 169).
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Di…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
San Diego Sarah • Link
I found more on this plot:
IN the 1661 elections to Parliament, London had returned four strong dissenters, and letters then intercepted by the government revealed its hostility to unlimited monarchy and episcopacy.
The spies sent through its streets and environs now found their way into public houses to count the men and horses there, into churches and conventicles to note those present and the language used, into the jails to worm secrets from prisoners or enlist them as informers
They reported that men looked forward to "another bout," when Anabaptist joined Presbyterian, that dangerous men were coming to the city in large numbers, that even certain royal advisers were implicated in agitation, and that prayers were offered up for " a leader to come and redeem Zion", in such churches as All Hallows the Great and St. Sepulchre's.
City authorities were accordingly urged by the court to suppress sedition, to reform the militia and the night watch, and to ensure the return of churchmen and royalists to city offices in the ensuing elections, and these admonitions were accompanied by arrests and the dispersal of meetings on every hand.
The investigation soon developed the fact that the Post Office, which almost alone among the public offices had escaped reorganization, was a center of sedition.
The former headquarters of the republicans had been the Commonwealth Club in Bow Street. This under the same management but under a new name, the Nonsuch House, was the chief resort of the postmaster, Col. Bishop, and many of the clerks, who maintained the republican traditions of the place.
Reinforced by similar information against many postmasters throughout England,15 this news roused the administration to action.
After violent opposition, Col. Bishop was finally [IN 1663] replaced by Daniel O'Neale, a follower of the Duke of York, and many clerks and postmasters were dismissed and the service reorganized.
Through the Post Office passed all manner of political information, of peaceful and warlike opposition to the administration. The inspired cordwainer in Reading who was defended against the county authorities, and even against a King's messenger by the corporation; the new mayor of Coventry, a dissenting butcher, formerly Lambert's recruiting agent; and the prospective mayor of Preston, a "decimator and sequestrator", whom the loyalists urged the government to arrest or "otherwise handsomely frighten", personified the more peaceful endeavors of the rejected party to entrench themselves in the boroughs.
507
Of more violent designs the administration in this summer of 1661 found little definite trace. Reports of secret meetings, night ridings, fanaticism attendant on the news of the regicide executions, rumors of risings, were the most that could be unearthed.
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONTINUED
But a week before Parliament met there came into Secretary Nicholas's hands information of the utmost importance. It was to the effect that on November 10 or 11 a certain Richard Churme, of Wichenford, Worcs., had come upon a stranger lying by the roadside sorting letters. When he had gone Churme found a package which had been acoidentally dropped, and secured it before the stranger discovered his loss and returned to look for it.
The package was sent to Sir John Packington, J.P. and M.P. for Worcestershire, and, after copies had been made and sent to neighboring magistrates, it was forwarded to London with several examinations taken in regard to it.
The two letters enclosed purported to have been written by “Ann Ba" to a Mr. Sparry, parson of Martley, and to Capt. Yarrington of the old army. They spoke of the need of money, of "the company" having increased to 300, of an oath taken November 1, of news sent to Hereford, Gloucester, Worcester and Shrewsbury, of "a fatal blow against their adversaries," of u hopes for merry days", and "that the business would soon be done ".
Two persons deposed further that Capt. Yarrington had said he "had a commission to eure people of the simples", that " there would be news ere long ", and that Col. Turton's man had said "they " were to rendezvous at Edgehill the night of November 9.
All this was confirmed and enlarged from apparently independent sources, and many circumstances combined to heighten the probability of the information.
The West country and Midland loyalists were greatly excited.
Alarms were sent in every direction.
Neighboring towns, especially those named in the letters, were put in a state of defence.
The militia was called out, and many suspicious characters seized.
Sparry and Yarrington were secured, examined before the Worcester justices, and sent to London. There before the Secretary and the Council they "denied all", and no further results appeared. (Yarrington escaped, went to London, was recaptured, put in the Marshalsea and kept for some time as a prisoner or spy. In 1681 he published an account of this alleged plot, apparently in connection with the Exclusion agitation.)
Such was the story which made its way through England on the eve of the new session and met the members as they came up to London. It was not, on its face, wholly probable.
Careful investigation would have enabled the administration to establish its value without much question. But there was neither time, nor opportunity, nor, one may suspect, inclination, to look too closely into information which was so extremely useful to the dominant party. ...
More follows, all of which would be spoilers, so stay tuned. (This shows us just how miuch Pepys is out of the loop these days.)
FROM English Conspiracy and Dissent, 1660-1674
By Wilbur C. Abbott
The American Historical Review, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Apr., 1909), pp. 503-528 (26 pages)
www.jstor.org/stable/1836444?seq=…
San Diego Sarah • Link
We don't know the date for this memorandum, but it shows the concern at Court for the continuing unrest within England:
Certain Proposals humbly offered [by John, Lord Kingston]
Date: [1661?]
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 44, fol(s). 141-142
Document type: Endorsed, by James Butler, Duke of Ormonde, Lord Steward of his Majesty's Household:
"Lord Kingston's Proposition concerning Phanaticks".
Certain Proposals humbly offered [by John, Lord Kingston], conducing to the removal of such persons as may be apprehended likely to disturb the peace & tranquillity of England; to inhabit & improve the waste parts of Ireland; - and answer the scope of his Majesty's 'Declaration' in reference to tender consciences.
FROM Carte Calendar Volume 32, June - December 1661
For more information on the Carte manuscripts and calendar, see the Carte Calendar Project homepage.
Shelfmark: MS. Carte Calendar 32 Extent: 464 pages
https://wayback.archive-it.org/or…
@@@
John King, 1st Baron Kingston (died 1676) was an Anglo-Irish soldier during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms who served the Commonwealth government during the Interregnum and government of Charles II after the Restoration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joh…
The (troublesome) Declaration about Ireland of November 30, 1660
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…