Friday 6 January 1664/65
Lay long in bed, but most of it angry and scolding with my wife about her warning Jane our cookemayde to be gone and upon that she desires to go abroad to-day to look a place. A very good mayde she is and fully to my mind, being neat, only they say a little apt to scold, but I hear her not.
To my office all the morning busy. Dined at home. To my office again, being pretty well reconciled to my wife, which I did desire to be, because she had designed much mirthe to-day to end Christmas with among her servants. At night home, being twelfenight, and there chose my piece of cake, but went up to my viall, and then to bed, leaving my wife and people up at their sports, which they continue till morning, not coming to bed at all.
23 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
The Earl of My Lord Sandwich will receive an official letter written today and inventoried in the Carte Calendar
James, Duke of York, to Lord Sandwich
Written from: Whitehall
Date: 6 January 1665
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 75, fol(s). 130
Document type: Original; subscribed & signed. With seal of arms.
Desires that Sandwich will cause the requisite number of men to be drafted out of the Fleet under his command to fill up the companies of the squadron intended for Guinea.
----------------------------------------
Subjoins a list of that squadron [not now appended].
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
Terry Foreman • Link
The Earl of Sandwich will receive a family letter written today, inventoried in the Carte Calendar, asking him to prescribe an itinerary for his 18-year-old son, Edward's, return from his period of education on the continent, as though Sandwich did not have to make the many decisions that an Admiral must make, even when the fleet is idling at port, making ready (see the previous letter): Edward hasn't a clue..
[Edward Mountagu, Viscount] Hinchinbroke to Sandwich
Written from: Rome
Date: 6 January 1665
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 223, fol(s). 121
Document type: Holograph
Has received his father's letter brought by Sir Thomas Crew, but none of later date. Hopes that the statement sent as to expenditure has not displeased the Earl. Desires his orders, as to the road homewards.
French.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
Terry Foreman • Link
Rome is evidently the end of the road for Hinchbrooke, in more senses than one.
Robert Gertz • Link
"To my office again, being pretty well reconciled to my wife, which I did desire to be, because she had designed much mirthe to-day to end Christmas with among her servants."
What? But Sam, you could sulk all day and night and ruin the evening for everybody...Where's that ole Pepysian 'never give Bess the last word'?
Robert Gertz • Link
I see Bess seems to be getting along with Mercer pretty well, for the moment.
Terry Foreman • Link
"they say a little apt to scold, but I hear her not."
We hear what we want to hear, do we not?! My younger brother is terrified by rain and by thunderstorms: they are to me a soporific.
Pedro • Link
And John Evelyn on the 6th...
To Dover, where Colonel Stroode, Lieutenant of the Castle, having received the letter I brought him from the Duke of Albemarle, made me lodge in it, and I was splendidly treated, assisting me from place to place. Here I settled my first Deputy. The Mayor and officers of the Customs were very civil to me.
Martin • Link
Is it normal, in Sam's time, place and social status, for the mistress to party all night with the hired help, as she did today as well as several previous nights during this Christmas season-- rather than attending affairs with one's peers?
In any event -- Beth probably had much more fun tonight than she would have at the Penn's, or someplace. Besides, she has sworn not to go out until Easter. From the Twelfth Night page on this site: " In English and French custom, the Twelfth-cake was baked to contain a bean and a pea, so that those who received the slices containing them should be designated king and queen of the night's festivities." So, Sam, peeved at not getting bean or pea, goes up to play the fiddle.
Pedro • Link
James, Duke of York, to Lord Sandwich
Terry, I read the letter from the Duke to Sandwich in a different context. The first we hear from Sam about the fleet for Guinea under Prince Rupert is in late August, and in October he reported that Rupert was whinging of the danger to his fleet while lying idle in Portsmouth. Also in October Lawson had brought the confirmation of De Ruyter heading south.
The make up of Rupert's fleet would be decided by the Duke, no doubt with input from Penn, and the manpower and vitualling down to Coventry. They have been for some time in possession of a letter from Holmes urging them not to waste all the good work that has been done, and yet they still do not know whether they are coming or going. We have also seen the problems of pressing enough men.
Sandwich had sailed to command the fleet in the Channel in mid July, and bar for a few weeks back in October, he has moved about and the fleet as a whole have taken over 100 Dutch ships. I read, therefore, that Sandwich has now been provided with a list of ships and is being asked to provide the manpower from within the fleet under his command. In other words he is being asked to get them out of the mire!
Terry Foreman • Link
Pedro, I do not propose a different view of what Sandwich is being asked to do now (thinks for linking it with Holmes, whose doings in Guinea you've kept us apprised of), but I'm unsure about the extent to which ships under his command have been active in the capture of Dutch ships that have sailed into harm's way.
Ralph Berry • Link
I wonder if the reason Beth wanted Jane gone was that she thought Sam might be getting too free with Jane. He does describe her as "A very goode mayde she is, and fully to my mind, being neat ..."
Not quite sure what the "fully to my mind" really means but we do know Sam liked to use his authority over women to get his way.
Pedro • Link
"the capture of Dutch ships that have sailed into harm’s way."
Terry, I cannot find too much out about this. The capture of over 100 Dutch ships by the end of the year comes from Feiling in his British Foreign Policy 1660-72, but he does not expand any further.
The Journal of Sandwich, edited by Anderson, is not of much help because it is really the ship’s log and does not discuss much else that does not pertain to the ship, except the Blazing Star and water spouts which he obviously thinks warrants the entries. However, Anderson does say in the introduction that during December and most of January Sandwich lay near the Isle of Wight sending out small detachments to pick up Dutch prizes.
From Sam (on the 21st of November) we only yet know of the capture of the Bordeaux fleet by Teddiman, and the number between 18 or 20.
The section of the Sandwich Journal starts on July 18th 1664, but Anderson mentions an earlier note that Teddiman is in the Revenge along with a Swedish gentleman Eric Sjoblad. (This gentleman became Captain in the Swedish Navy in 1666, Rear Admiral in 1674 and Admiral in 1676. In 1677 he was defeated by the Danes and taken prisoner.) The only other relative entry for Teddiman is on the 17th of December 1664 where Sandwich records that he joins him from the Canaries, but it is unclear whether Sandwich actually sent him there.
Mary • Link
"fully to my mind"
I take this to mean that Jane completely fulfills Sam's expectations of what a cook-maid should be.
cgs • Link
"...A very good mayde she is and fully[Complete, perfect, thorough, without defect. Also, of a full or rounded form.] to my mind [memory], being neat, only they say a little apt to scold, but I hear her not
...
OED has many intriguing uses for mind.
mind
I. Senses relating to memory.
1. The state of being remembered; remembrance, recollection. Chiefly in phrases.
to come to mind: to be recalled
f. to bring (also call) to mind: to cause one to remember something or someone, recollect, recall; (of an object, circumstance, etc.) to suggest, to remind one of (some other object, etc.), esp. through similarity.
cgs • Link
Under the Stairs one could hear the snickers and Eliza be sensitive to aftermath of a bruise.
" That there Master he dus know how to keeps his staff in hand 'member the story of his wallopping that young wots his name?"
Nix • Link
"Is it normal, in Sam’s time, place and social status, for the mistress to party all night with the hired help" --
Samuel has not been reluctant to express anxiety over his social, political and domestic status. His lack of objection to the all night partying throughout the holiday season tells me that it was within social norms.
cgs • Link
Society is still evolving at this time, from every one being dependent on the father {figure, King, whom at this time in theory was the owner of the land and his subjects could could use at his whim}, but father was not always mindful of his responsibilities, so the dependency was eroding as the Lorded ones {land} kicked off all the excess labour not required and they became the landless and master less and had to fend for them selves.
Later as the means to support, ones eating, finding a shirt, and a paliass became more complex , Landless more dependent on their own abilities and less gratitude to the leader for his hunger so did the scale of interaction between the alphas and the led became more complex and those that were leading had to hide their deficiencies from mob in order to maintain there own position by statute rather being a true alpha, the treatment of the hired ones started to become less of a family unit an became the hired help.
The family concept is still alluded to in some modern organizations like the regiment, the ship, the department, i.e. small but working intergrated units working as a team, which many do like [ Beau Geste], but many organisations are developing the US-THEM syndrome.
Thus I think Sam sees the family as a group working as a coordinated organic organization and like in the wild some leave to join other families and others join his. There was a type of equality based on function and not on who has the best money.
just a tort.
Familia? [Paysan]
cgs • Link
Family OED:
[ad. L. familia household, f. famulus servant.]
I 1. a. The servants of a house or establishment; the household. Obs. exc. in family of servants.
a1400...
1722 DE FOE Plague (1840) 10, I was a single man..but I had a family of servants.
b. The retinue of a nobleman or grandee. Obs.
1548
c. The staff of a high military officer or (in India) state official.
1808
d. Rom. Ant. A troop, school (of gladiators).
2. a. The body of persons who live in one house or under one head, including parents, children, servants, etc.
1545
1631 Star Chamb. Cases (Camden) 44 His family were himself and his wife and daughters, two mayds, and a man.
3. a. The group of persons consisting of the parents and their children, whether actually living together or not; in wider sense, the unity formed by those who are nearly connected by blood or affinity. Holy Family: see quot. 1875.
1667 MILTON P.L. x. 216 As Father of his Familie he clad Thir nakedness. 1796
4. a. Those descended or claiming descent from a common ancestor: a house, kindred, lineage.
c1425
b. (Man, woman, etc.) of family: of noble or gentle descent.
a1763
c. In wider sense: A race; a people or group of peoples assumed to be descended from a common stock.
1583
6. a. A group or assemblage of objects, connected together and distinguished from others by the possession of some common features or properties.
a1626 BACON Sylva §354 There be two Great Families of Things;..Sulphureous and mercurial. 1731
7. family of love: a sect which originated in Holland, and gained many adherents in England in the 16th and 17th c.; they held that religion consisted chiefly in the exercise of love, and that absolute obedience was due to all established governments, however tyrannical.
1579
.............
1589 NASHE Martins Months Minde To Rdr. Wks. 1883 I. 165, I meddle not here with the Anabaptists, *Famely louists, Machiauellists, nor Atheists.
Robert Gertz • Link
I think if Jane the cook had joined the harem Pepys, Sam would be falling over himself to review his escapades in the Diary. Indeed, I suspect the poor/lucky girl just doesn't quite make the cut...
Robert Gertz • Link
Though one likes to think she's too tough for the little man...After all, he seemed ready to let Jane deal with potential burglars earlier.
cgs • Link
"After all, he seemed ready to let Jane deal with potential burglars earlier."
All good cooks have the rolling pin, that kept many a straying , wondering [sic] male on the straight and narrow.
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
With the inevitable war looming, Edward Montagu, Viscount Hinchinbrook isn't the only son being recalled from their educational years abroad. No one wants a son to be held hostage by the Dutch or French. Also, with the probability of the French being pulled into the fray, the route home isn't that obvious. I'd also ask my dad's advice. Maybe Edward should go to Malaga or Lisbon and catch a ride with on a navy ship?
Chris Squire UK • Link
Re: ‘A very good mayde she is and fully to my mind, being neat . . ’
. . to one's mind: according to one's wish, to one's taste or liking . . Now somewhat arch.
. . 1685 in J. G. Dunlop Dunlop Papers (1953) III. 18 Agnes Fergison..heath goten a master to her own myend . . ‘
(OED)