Wednesday 6 November 1661

Going forth this morning I met Mr. Davenport and a friend of his, one Mr. Furbisher, to drink their morning draft with me, and I did give it them in good wine, and anchovies, and pickled oysters, and took them to the Sun in Fish Street, there did give them a barrel of good ones, and a great deal of wine, and sent for Mr. W. Bernard (Sir Robert’s son), a grocer thereabouts, and were very merry, and cost me a good deal of money, and at noon left them, and with my head full of wine, and being invited by a note from Luellin, that came to my hands this morning in bed, I went to Nick Osborne’s at the Victualling Office, and there saw his wife, who he has lately married, a good sober woman, and new come to their home. We had a good dish or two of marrowbones and another of neats’ tongues to dinner, and that being done I bade them adieu and hastened to Whitehall (calling Mr. Moore by the way) to my Lord Privy Seal, who will at last force the clerks to bring in a table of their fees, which they have so long denied, but I do not join with them, and so he is very respectful to me. So he desires me to bring in one which I observe in making of fees, which I will speedily do. So back again, and endeavoured to speak with Tom Trice (who I fear is hatching some mischief), but could not, which vexed me, and so I went home and sat late with pleasure at my lute, and so to bed.

14 Annotations

First Reading

Pedro.  •  Link

"at the Victualling Office, and there saw his wife, who he has lately married, a good sober woman"

As she is a sober woman the Victualling Office must be concerned with shipping and not booze!

vicente  •  Link

'Sober' she be, of the religious type, I doth think, no laugh, no cackle nor a pullet may be. Abstemsious. Our Sam he be punning again.
"...and cost me a good deal of money..." for the why he doth spend so much?
Nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit.
Cicero, In Verrem,,I, ii, 4
Nutin is so well fortified that a bit of brass cannot overcome.

Bullus Hutton  •  Link

"endeavoured to speak with Tom Trice .. but could not, which vexed me"
Ha ha, not suprised, you naughty juicer! All whizzed up by mid-day, what are you doing Sam?
He must have been able to hold his booze well though, imagine playing a lute after all that "great deal of wine" .. or maybe he didn't, maybe his neighbours were going - Omigod there he goes again!

Xjy  •  Link

A very good day for Sam

Lots of booze and company, oysters, grumbling about money, meeting a good woman, sucking up to the boss (the Lord Privy Seal), playing his music, and being vexed by a possible hatcher of mischief with an improbable name...

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: "my Lord Privy Seal, who will at last force the clerks to bring in a table of their fees, which they have so long denied, but I do not join with them, and so he is very respectful to me."

Anyone care to help me w/an interpretation of this? Thanks in advance...

Mary  •  Link

a table of their fees.

According to an L&M footnote, the Lord Privy Seal received 20% of all fees and a fixed tariff would facilitate his check on the clerks' accounts as well as protect the public. Apparently no official table of fees survived amongst the Navy Office papers, though there are some fee-acounts, dating from 1717 onwards, in the Public Records Office.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Thanks, Mary. So, is Sam saying that unlike the other clerks ("I do not join with them"), he has already shown the Lord Privy Seal his table of fees, and that the Lord has asked him to bring in an example of his work to show the other clerks ("So he desires me to bring in one which I observe in making of fees, which I will speedily do")?

Mary  •  Link

The table of fees.

Yes, Todd, I think that that's exactly what Sam is saying. The Lord Privy Seal is pleased to discover that one of his clerks is sticking to a schedule of fees and (by implication) suspects that others may be profiteering on a "what the market will bear" basis, or neglecting to tell him the full amount of the fees that they charge, or a combination of the two.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

What's with Uncle Robert's Will today? What with Pepys lobbying in the forenoon with "a good deal of money" the Brampton connections -- Davenport, Furbisher, Bernard -- and the vain quest for Tom Trice at day's end. His sitting "late with pleasure at [ his ] lute" suggests he deems the day a success, but I do wish he'd told us what it was all about.

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Sir Richard Fanshawe to Sandwich
Written from: Lisbon
Date: 6/16 November 1661
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 73, fol(s). 612-613
Document type: Holograph

The news of the readiness of Tangiers "to take a new master" in obedience to orders from their old one, were very welcome news to all the English here and to the "Portingall Court"; but many others, he adds, "of this nation murmur exceedingly at it; overvaluing what they part with, as much as many of ours in England, wise men too, seem to undervalue what we shall receive."

Encloses some observations [not now appended], sent by favour of Mr. Herbert, who is anxious to wait upon his Lordship, upon that and kindred subjects, which he hopes may be shewn hereafter to Lord Peterborough, as well as to Sandwich, but with due care, believing that great advantages may accrue, which might, however, "be rendered impossible, by alarming other Nations too soon".

Adds many and interesting passages of foreign news.

FROM:
Carte Calendar Volume 32, June - December 1661
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Edward Edwards, 2005
Shelfmark: MS. Carte Calendar 32
Extent: 464 pages
https://wayback.archive-it.org/or…

@@@

Sir Richard Fanshaw was the English Ambassador to both Spain and Portugal at this time -- https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Lord Peterboroygh -- Henry MORDAUNT, 2nd Earl of Peterborough (1624?-1697) -- https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

MartinVT  •  Link

"to drink their morning draft with me, and I did give it them in good wine, and anchovies, and pickled oysters, and took them to the Sun in Fish Street, there did give them a barrel of good ones, and a great deal of wine,"

Sam seems to repeat himself here, unless they went to two different pubs and had oysters in each one, all before a big lunch. Perhaps he got interrupted in writing this, and restarted without deleting the previous thought?

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

From Sandwich's log, at anchor in Tangier Bay:

November 6, Wednesday.

The Princess came in from Faro.
Brought the report thaat the King of Portugal's being to be married to a daughter of the old Prince of Orange,
and that the Ambassador was gone away from Lisbon to Holland about it.2

2 Alfonso IV of Portugal married the daughter of the Duc de Nemours. (I omit a spoiler which is not material to Sandwich's log.)

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

@@@

The Princess
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Faro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far…
Alphonso IV and his bride, Queen Maria Francisca Isabel de Sabóia
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Charles Amadeus of Savoy, Duke of Nemours (1624 – 1652) was a French military leader and magnate. He was the father of the penultimate Duchess of Savoy and of a Queen of Portugal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cha…
The Ambassador -- I guess he means Sir Richard Fanshawe, but why would be do that? His Parliamentary bio says:
"In the opening weeks of the Cavalier Parliament he was named to the committee of elections and privileges, and those for confirming public acts, the fen drainage bill, and a Hertfordshire estate bill. But he never became an active Member, and during the recess he was sent to Catherine of Braganza at Lisbon with the King’s letter and picture. He returned to England at Christmas, but after the royal marriage went back to Portugal as ambassador." So maybe this was just a bad rumor? In fact he had sailed for London.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…

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