Tuesday 27 December 1664

My people came to bed, after their sporting, at four o’clock in the morning; I up at seven, and to Deptford and Woolwich in a gally; the Duke calling to me out of the barge in which the King was with him going down the river, to know whither I was going. I told him to Woolwich, but was troubled afterward I should say no farther, being in a gally, lest he think me too profuse in my journeys.

Did several businesses, and then back again by two o’clock to Sir J. Minnes’s to dinner by appointment, where all yesterday’s company but Mr. Coventry, who could not come. Here merry, and after an hour’s chat I down to the office, where busy late, and then home to supper and to bed. The Comet appeared again to-night, but duskishly.

I went to bed, leaving my wife and all her folks, and Will also, too, come to make Christmas gambolls to-night.

23 Annotations

First Reading

language hat  •  Link

"but was troubled afterward I should say no farther"

Can anyone interpret this?

Also, I love "duskishly" (first OED cite: 1589 FLEMING Virg. Georg. IV. 65 Purple hew.. dooth somwhat duskishly shine in the leaues).

cape henry  •  Link

"...no farther." I took this to mean that by taking a "gally" only as far as Woolwich, he was using a conveyance a bit grand [profuse] for the short length of the trip or mundane aspect of the destination. Is it not ever the goal of the middle manager to find the correct mean of lifestyle? Here he is seen in a towncar when he should have been in a jitney, perhaps. Embarrassing with the CEO observing.

cgs  •  Link

Samuell being found out that he was using the Gally for extended trips be a little embarrassing, like taking the company jet for a trip to Oxford or Cambridge,when he should have used his own car [ or the puffer, 1st class of course] here he should have used the services of the skull [with a see of course] or the the daily hoy.

andy  •  Link

My people came to bed, after their sporting, at four o’clock in the morning; I up at seven

know the feeling Sam,I have two sudent offspring back on holidays and I get the 07:18...

jeannine  •  Link

gambolls? any idea what they are?

cape henry  •  Link

Normally, I think of children - or dogs - gamboling about in the yard. But in this instance, I think Pepys means very active sort of merrymaking indoors. Blindmans' buff would qualify. It's easy to imagine any holiday party, when there are young people present, where general, ecstatic gamboling might erupt. I might be tempted to gambol now and again even at my age around certain grandchildren.

Bradford  •  Link

Note the low profile kept, for several psychological reasons.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"her folks"

Apparently her servants, since Will is included and no de St. Michel is named. The site search yields only 3 uses of "folks" in the Diary so far, to mean (a) people generally (13 May 1664); (b) people of a certain work-group (13 September 1662 and here, I presume).

But there seems to have been no Diary reference to "folks" as parents and/or other blood-relations. Was this uncommon yet? When did it begin?

cgs  •  Link

the OED concurs: not 'til 1715 then 1854 did it include family;
prior it : it was them that does the work.

1 country-folk *
2 womenfolk *
3 workfolk= WORKPEOPLE, esp. farm labourers.
c1475 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 285 That syche wyrfolk be payd in good moné.

1566 Engl. Ch. Furniture
Folk-
2. a. An aggregation of people in relation to a superior, e.g. God, a king or priest; the great mass as opposed to an individual; the people; the vulgar. Obs. exc. arch.

b. (also pl.) Retainers, followers; servants, workpeople. Obs.
c1205

4. a. pl. (exc. dial.) The people of one's family, parents, children, relatives. 1715 Pattern ...
b. dial. Friends, intimates. 1854 ...

cape henry  •  Link

Just musing here in response to TF's question, but I imagine Pepys would have noted it if his in-laws had shown up for the festivities, if for no other reason than because of Elizabeth's embarrassing, and for him incriminating, injury.

Pedro  •  Link

On behalf of Terry on behalf of Dirk.

William Coventry to Sandwich

Written from: [Whitehall]
Date: 27 December 1664

Shelfmark: MS. Carte 75, fol(s). 291-292

Document type: Holograph

Communicates reports from the Victualler, & from the Commissioners of Ordnance, as to supplies of provisions and ammunition to Portsmouth. States that at Amsterdam fifty per cent insurance on wine-ships, and thirty per cent on Smyrna ships, have been offered; - "which is the greatest ground of hopes I have that either here, or about the Straits, we may have a good account of it". ... "The Guinea frigate is returned from New England, & brings news that Nicols hath taken all that remained to the Dutch about Delaware Bay, where he took a fort by storm".

Jesse  •  Link

"make Christmas gambolls to-night"

Johnson has gambol(n) as 'a skip; a hop; a leap for joy.' The (v) being 'to dance; to skip' &c.

Sort of fits.

cgs  •  Link

the q. of Gambol vs gamble got me failing marks when I be eleven and I went on to be a cabin boy, and the Kings shilling.
Between the lambs that be the betters mark and playtime on the green, I dothe thinke that Samuell has lost his shirt, Eliza be cockin' a snoot.

cgs  •  Link

gambol, n. [a. F. gambade leap or spring. ad. It. gambata f. gamba leg (F. jambe).
The word appears first at the beginning of the 16th c. The ending -ade seems almost from the first to have been confused with the then more common -aud, -auld. Subsequently the d was dropped in gambald; cf. curtal from earlier curtald.]

gambol, n. [a. F. gambade leap or spring. ad. It. gambata f. gamba leg (F. jambe).
The word appears first at the beginning of the 16th c. The ending -ade seems almost from the first to have been confused with the then more common -aud, -auld. Subsequently the d was dropped in gambald; cf. curtal from earlier curtald.]

1. The bound or curvet of a horse. Obs. rare. (Cf. GAMBADE.) 1503
2. A leap or spring in dancing or sporting, a caper, frisk. Now chiefly pl., of the sportive movements of children and animals.
1513
. transf. and fig. in pl. Frolicsome movements or proceedings. Rarely sing., a frolic, merrymaking.

1596 SHAKES. Merch. V. III. i. 93 Those crisped snakie golden locks Which makes such wanton gambols with the winde.
. transf. and fig. in pl. Frolicsome movements or proceedings. Rarely sing., a frolic, merrymaking.

1596 SHAKES. Merch. V. III. i. 93 Those crisped snakie golden locks Which makes such wanton gambols with the winde.

4. attrib. (quasi-adj.) Sportive, playful. Obs.
1597 SHAKES. 2 Hen. IV, II. iv. 273 Such other Gamboll faculties hee hath, that shew a weake minde, and an able Body.

1622 MABBE tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. I. 132 Other were full of their gamboll-tricks, each man having his severall Posture.

1664 H. MORE Myst. Iniq. 447 It look'd alwaies to me so like a gambal trick, that I could not but place it among the earlier Legends or pious Fictions of the Church.

jeannine  •  Link

Thanks all for the explanation of gambolls-sounds like Elizabeth is at least having some fun with the servants.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Yes, that shiner must be quite a statement to the 'family' in its blue-black glory.

Pedro  •  Link

On the 27th December/6th January…

(De Ruyter has reached Cape Three Points on the Gold Coast and was told that it would be easy to capture the English settlement at Tacorary.)

A longboat was sent to the fort to demand its surrender, but the men on shore shouted, “Come back early tomorrow morning.” When the boat returned with white flags it was greeted with heavy musket shot by Negroes who were hidden along the coast, whereupon 440 men landed under cover of artillery of five shallops, which came close in to land. The fort offered little resistance and soon hoisted the white flag…The Negroes attacked it soon afterwards but were repulsed with great losses. Presently a thousand Negroes arrived from Elmina in canoes. They had been sent by the Dutch Governor and were welcomed by De Ruyter. They immediately proceeded to plunder the Tacorary Negro village. As the fortress did not promise to be of much use due to the hostile attitude of the population, it was blown up on the 6th January and an English ship, the Victory, lying off shore, was captured.

(Life of Admiral De Ruyter by Blok)

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

SPOILER ALERT: According to the Bills of Mortality, London’s Dreadful Visitation began 27 December 1664 and ended 19 December 1665.

The Bills of Mortality shaped how people in the 17th century understood the spread of disease, specifically from Parish to Parish. An online exhibition on Pinterest highlights the dramatic increase and decrease in plague deaths each week in 1665 – starting from 21 March 1665 to 12 December 1665 – which is shown in a simple line graph.

A few pages from the Bills of Mortality are shown, for July to September, which record the most shocking increase in plague deaths. It was during the hot summer months of 1665 when the black rat and its fleas rapidly multiplied. However, in the 17th century no one knew this was the source of infection. During this period it was believed that the air was infected, and the dreadful visitation was a punishment from God.

What is most striking about the Great Plague is that it changed the lives of everyone in London – rich, poor, men, women and children. Those who could afford to flee, for example, merchants, doctors and lawyers, escaped the city by land or river.

Others who witnessed and wrote about this devastating period are also explored in the exhibition, including Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn and Daniel Defoe.

There are the remedies recommended by physicians like Doctor Thomas Cocke, who advised the poor to drink ‘hot posset drink’ and ‘wash their mouth and hands with warm water and vinegar’ to avert the infection.

Also, one Doctor George Thomson practiced the dissection of the pestilential body alongside the burning of incense ‘to drive away the infected air.’

The nine engravings by John Dunstall show the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in England. Scenes like these were familiar in London throughout 1665. Nurses treating plague victims, homes that were shut and marked with a red cross, the rich fleeing the city, the burying and mourning of the dead, and survivors returning back to London after the rapid decline in plague deaths.

To visit the Great Plague 1665 board please click on this link: http://pinterest.com/guildhalllib…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"The Guinea frigate is returned from New England, & brings news that Nicols hath taken all that remained to the Dutch about Delaware Bay, where he took a fort by storm."

notes from
http://gerard-tondu.blogspot.com/…

October 3, 1664 - Sir Robert Carr (1629-1667) was appointed, with three other commissioners, "to place Delaware and all its inhabitants under the authority of His Majesty the King of England".

Arrived in Delaware Bay on September 30, 1664 with two ships, Sir Robert Carr sailed to the fort of New Amstel with no shots fired, and went up the river to the Finnish colony where he assured its settlers that they would continue to enjoy their farms and herds as under the former jurisdiction. He also guaranteed them that they could trade freely with all the English possessions with the same conditions as those granted to the English people.
The colonists saw their freedom of conscience was protected, and the magistrates were confirmed in their offices for six months.

Sir Robert Carr then held a meeting with Director d’Hinoyossa and the Dutch burghers of New Amstel. They agreed to surrender and took an oath of allegiance to Charles II.

However, Director d’Hinoyossa and the Dutch burghers of New Amstel refused to give up the fort. In the end, it was taken by force, killing three people and wounding some on the Dutch side.

After the fall of New Amster fort, the English soldiers and sailors looted the city despite the oath to its inhabitants. The properties of the Dutch authorities and their partisans were confiscated. The city was renamed New Castle.

When Fort Amstel fell to Sir Robert Carr, inside was found a large inventory of goods. Carr appropriated this booty and claimed for himself the houses, farms and stores seized to the Dutch officials.

October 24, 1664 - Sir Robert Carr was called back in New York and the Gov. of New York, Richard Nicolls, was sent in his place to Delaware to put the house in order.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

You didn't know there were Finns in Delaware? At the time Finland and Sweden were one country, and this had been Queen Christina's only toe-hold in the New World:

After some years of uneasy if not unfriendly cohabitation, the Dutch decided to build a fort, Fort Casimir, uncomfortably close to Swedish land.

The dashing governor of New Sweden, Johan Rising, captured Fort Casimir in 1654. In doing so, he inadvertently signed New Sweden’s death sentence.

Enraged, the powerful Governor of New Netherlands, Peter Stuyvesant, attacked New Sweden in 1655. In a matter of weeks, the Swedish governor was forced to surrender, and with that the Swedish foothold on the American continent was gone.

Or not ... during the 17 years Sweden had its colony, close to 1,000 settlers emigrated. The Dutch now controlled the area, but the settlers were still there, speaking Swedish or Finnish to each other, and holding to their customs and traditions.

Their Dutch overlords did not interfere, so everyone coexisted peacefully for over a decade. Perhaps their common love of herring and genever (gin) helped.

In the early 1660’s, the English had resolved their Civil Wars. Peace and the Monarchy were restored, and the government found time to study the situation in America. What they saw, they did not like. Between the northern English colonies (Massachusetts, Rhode Island and present-day Connecticut) and the southern colonies (Virginia and Maryland) was New Netherlands.

The English decided to take control of “their” continent.

In 1664, Delaware – together with the rest of New Netherlands – was taken over by the English. With the English came new colonial administration, new laws – and a new, more practical language. (Already Swedish suffered from being a language few learn to speak.)

The settlers held onto their antiquated Swedish when at home or in church, but as the years passed their language, traditions and customs faded into obscurity – except for one small and extremely utilitarian building: the log cabin.

For more see http://englishhistoryauthors.blog…

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ‘ . . to make Christmas gambolls to-night.’

‘gambol, n. < Middle French . .
. . 2.c. A customary game or pastime, typically played or engaged in during traditional holidays or times of festivity, as Christmas, Easter, Midsummer, etc. Usually in pl., esp. in Christmas gambols. Now somewhat arch. In early use usually applied to gymnastic games involving tumbling, jumping, etc., but later more usually parlour games.
. . 1665 J. Crowne Pandion & Amphigenia ii. 154 [She] tumbled her Grandam with her heels over her head, in the manner of a Christmas gambole . . ‘

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