Saturday 16 November 1661
At the office all the morning. Dined at home, and so about my business in the afternoon to the Temple, where I found my Chancery bill drawn against T. Trice, which I read and like it, and so home.
Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
At the office all the morning. Dined at home, and so about my business in the afternoon to the Temple, where I found my Chancery bill drawn against T. Trice, which I read and like it, and so home.
Log in to post an annotation.
If you don't have an account, then register here.
9 Annotations
First Reading
vicente • Link
"...I found my Chancery bill drawn against... I read and like it,..." did he pay a fee or was done as professional curtesy ? The savings on interest was roughly 12/16L per annum. Or was it simply a case of wrights wright, no matter the cost. Just a wandering..
Nix • Link
I assume he paid a fee. As one of my partners once told me, the law is not an eleemosynary activity -- it is a profession pursued for profit. The pleading probably would have been prepared by a solicitor. Had it been a barrister, there would have been no "fee", but a customary "gift" (barristers, being deemed gentlemen, did not charge for their services). This is a practice Samuel would have understood from his work at the Privy Seal.
RexLeo • Link
"...where I found my Chancery bill drawn against T. Trice"
What is Chancery Bill? Is it a stamped IOU for the 200L. settlement?
Nix • Link
"What is Chancery Bill?"
It is the pleading to initiate a suit -- what is now called the "complaint". Because Samuel's case deals with questions of inheritance, it goes in the court of chancery, also known as the court of equity -- as opposed to the court of law.
Black's Law Dictionary (rev. 4th ed.) defines it thus:
"A formal written complaint, in the nature of a petition, addressed by a suitor to the chancellor or to a court of equity or a court having equitable jurisdiction, showing the names of the parties, stating the facts which make up the case and the complainant's allegations, averring that the acts disclosed are contrary to equity, and praying for process [i.e., an order to the defendant to appear and answer the claim] and for specific relief, or for such relief as the circumstances demand."
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"my Chancery bill drawn against T. Trice"
L&M note Pepys's bill -- dated 23 November, with Trice's answer of 3 December (both in the UK Public Record Office before it was merged into the National Archives in 2003) -- was filed in order to stop an action at common law which Trice had begun for the recovery of the £200 in which the bond of 1630 was secured.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
They further note the dispute dragged on till 1663 and was finally settled out of court.
Louise Hudson • Link
Chancery Court in Pepys' time mst have been like Chancery Court in Dickens' time, which Dickens wrote about in Bleak House. Apparently not much had changed in Chancery Court in the approximately 200 years between Pepys and Dickens.
"At the novel's core is long-running litigation in England's Court of Chancery, Jarndyce v Jarndyce, which has far-reaching consequences for all involved. This case revolves around a testator who apparently made several wills. The litigation, which already has taken many years and consumed between £60,000 and £70,000 in court costs, is emblematic of the failure of Chancery. Dickens's assault on the flaws of the British judicial system is based in part on his own experiences as a law clerk, and in part on his experiences as a Chancery litigant seeking to enforce copyright on his earlier books. His harsh characterisation of the slow, arcane Chancery law process gave memorable form to pre-existing widespread frustration with the system.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl…
Chris Squire UK • Link
OED has:
‘eleemosynary
. . 2. Dependent on or supported by alms.
1654 G. Goddard Acct. Parl. in T. Burton Diary (1828) I. Introd. p. lxv, If we be a mere elemosynary Parliament we are bound to do his drudgery . . ‘
Third Reading
MartinVT • Link
A nice sober Saturday for Sam, nose to the grindstone, no merriment, not a drop to drink. Hence, not much for us to comment about, alas.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Oh Pepys ... to give us something to think about, here's news from Vienna and Paris:
85. Giovanni Sagredo, Venetian Ambassador in Vienna, Germany, to the Doge and Senate.
The distasteful news has arrived of the combat which took place in England for the place of their coaches between the ambassadors of the crowns and the precipitous action of the French in dismissing the Count of Fuendalsagna and in stopping the further progress of the Marquis of la Fuentes, his successor, in recalling their ambassador in England, in their protest to the Catholic king and in other steps, unfavourable at the present conjuncture, contrary to the alliance and leading rather to a rupture.
In discussing the matter they say that this accident is unfortunate not only for the general interests of all Christendom but for those of the Catholic in particular.
The most prudent here do not think it right that after having sacrificed the Infanta and various places in Flanders for the sake of securing peace, he should be placed in manifest peril for an affair of no great consequence, more particularly since Spain has not the place from France with the most conspicuous princes of Christendom, so that it was no great gain to obtain it in England for a single day, for as there was no decision of the king the place could not be permanent, and being won by force would always be liable to be lost by force.
The affair is also extremely unfortunate for the war against the Turk, as if the quarrel between the crowns is not adjusted and they rush into war, they will make haste here to make peace with the Ottoman.
They think at this Court that before matters grow worse His Holiness should intervene by couriers extraordinary and his own letters to prevent the rupture which may easily occur from the youthfulness and irresponsibility of the king of France, who is attracted by arms and surrounded by councillors who believe that war will suit their fortunes better than peace.
Vienna, the 13th November, 1661. N.S.
[Italian.]
@@@
86. Alvise Grimani, Venetian Ambassador in France, to the Doge and Senate.
I went recently to pay my respects to the queen of England at Fontainebleau. [QUEEN MOTHER HENRIETTA MARIA]
She is invited to London by the king, to dwell there in future, and so she will abandon France. This gives rise to a variety of opinions in conversation; but as King Charles has to be receiving his wife, that would be quite sufficient to account for his motive in recalling his mother.
But before the queen leaves this country she wishes to see Madame, her daughter, safely delivered. [HENRIETTA ANNE, A.K.A. MINETTE]
Moret, the 15th November, 1661.
[Italian.]
FROM:
'Venice: November 1661', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 33, 1661-1664, ed. Allen B Hinds (London, 1932), British History Online
https://www.british-history.ac.uk…