Wednesday 20 September 1665
Called up by Captain Cocke (who was last night put into great trouble upon his boy’s being rather worse than better, upon which he removed him out of his house to his stable), who told me that to my comfort his boy was now as well as ever he was in his life.
So I up, and after being trimmed, the first time I have been touched by a barber these twelvemonths, I think, and more, went to Sir J. Minnes’s, where I find all out of order still, they having not seen one another till by and by Sir J. Minnes and Sir W. Batten met, to go into my Lord Bruncker’s coach, and so we four to Lambeth, and thence to the Duke of Albemarle, to inform him what we have done as to the fleete, which is very little, and to receive his direction. But, Lord! what a sad time it is to see no boats upon the River; and grass grows all up and down White Hall court, and nobody but poor wretches in the streets! And, which is worst of all, the Duke showed us the number of the plague this week, brought in the last night from the Lord Mayor; that it is encreased about 600 more than the last, which is quite contrary to all our hopes and expectations, from the coldness of the late season. For the whole general number is 8,297, and of them the plague 7,165; which is more in the whole by above 50, than the biggest Bill yet; which is very grievous to us all.
I find here a design in my Lord Bruncker and Captain Cocke to have had my Lord Bruncker chosen as one of us to have been sent aboard one of the East Indiamen, and Captain Cocke as a merchant to be joined with him, and Sir J. Minnes for the other, and Sir G. Smith to be joined with him. But I did order it so that my Lord Bruncker and Sir J. Minnes were ordered, but I did stop the merchants to be added, which would have been a most pernicious thing to the King I am sure. In this I did, I think, a very good office, though I cannot acquit myself from some envy of mine in the business to have the profitable business done by another hand while I lay wholly imployed in the trouble of the office.
Thence back again by my Lord’s coach to my Lord Bruncker’s house, where I find my Lady Batten, who is become very great with Mrs. Williams (my Lord Bruncker’s whore), and there we dined and were mighty merry.
After dinner I to the office there to write letters, to fit myself for a journey to-morrow to Nonsuch to the Exchequer by appointment.
That being done I to Sir J. Minnes where I find Sir W. Batten and his Lady gone home to Walthamstow in great snuffe as to Sir J. Minnes, but yet with some necessity, hearing that a mayde-servant of theirs is taken ill. Here I staid and resolved of my going in my Lord Bruncker’s coach which he would have me to take, though himself cannot go with me as he intended, and so to my last night’s lodging to bed very weary.
21 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"Called up by Captain Cocke..., who told me that to my comfort his boy was now as well as ever he was in his life."
That's why he "...was last night put into great trouble upon his boy’s being rather worse than better, upon which he removed him out of his house to his stable"
The boy's health is unstable, Captain Cocke; leave him without!
Michael Robinson • Link
" ... but I did stop the merchants to be added, which would have been a most pernicious thing to the King I am sure. In this I did, I think, a very good office, though I cannot acquit myself from some envy of mine in the business to have the profitable business done by another hand while I lay wholly imployed in the trouble of the office."
Wonderful sequence of Pepysian rationalization; now if only all involved had agreed to give SP a percentage of the business up front, would that not have been expeditious in raising money fast, rather than 'pernicious,' for the King!
Poor SP, too busy securing his continuing personal interest in Tangier matters, allows Minnes, the "doating foole, to do no good, but proclaim himself an asse; ...," to beat him out in the race to the real financial action.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
CGS • Link
"...So I up, and after being trimmed, the first time I have been touched by a barber these twelvemonths,..."
Wot be under the periwig be Samuel's and that that be outside be cut for a new periwig.
Michael Robinson • Link
" ... the first time I have been touched by a barber these twelvemonths, I think, ..."
CGS: I just assumed the barber had a pretty young assistant, like Jane Welsh ...
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Robert Gertz • Link
"Pepys." a solemn, sad-eyed Captain Cocke.
"Cocke? You look...Has the boy...?"
"No, no...Jacke's quite well. But...I'm afraid the barber just died."
CGS • Link
Thanks M.R.: searching the diurnal for barber,allowed me to see that his visits in the past year, be only to snuf out the terrain, not to shear locks.
I only visit the shearers every 3 to 4 months, that creates enough comments, but for a young man, that growth must must have been wondrous, no wonder he periwigged it.
Of course having long tresses, would be a grand excuse to have a young lass debug him, while he was using his immense imagination on that that lay within eyeball reach.
tg • Link
"So I up, and after being trimmed, the first time I have been touched by a barber these twelvemonths, I think, and more."
This again raises the hygiene issue of 17th century life. Sam seems to only infrequently "shift himself" of his clothes, and now he tells us he hasn't shaved for a year. Is it any wonder they can't figure out what is causing the plague? At least the ancients knew that hot and cold running water was vital to healthy life.
Ruben • Link
“…So I up, and after being trimmed, the first time I have been touched by a barber these twelvemonths,…”
From Pepys portrait we cannot know if Pepys was bald or not. Many males have hair growing on the sides and are completely bald in the same place were our Samuel likes to have his wig. If the wig was the same colour of his hair, he did not need to trim, specially considering that locks were OK in his time.
Mary • Link
'trimming' does not necessarily involve shaving.
In February 1664 Sam was certainly shaving himself in the mornings (though not necessarily every morning), so perhaps he has just continued this practice without recording it in the diary. He may have been growing and wearing his own hair for a year, but I find it difficult to imagine that he would have been allowing his beard to grow for twelve whole months without making some mention of that fact in the journal.
tonyt • Link
'I did stop the merchants to be added'. You would think that Brouncker and Minnes might have been rather upset with Pepys over this action but there is no evidence for it in the rest of this diary entry.
Robert Gertz • Link
Probably Brouncker and Minnes only offered requests spots for Cocke and (presumably) Sir G. Smith as favors...I imagine their only concern really is that they get on board.
JWB • Link
Not bald in August:
"Dressed and had my head combed by my little girle,..."
A. De Araujo • Link
"...touched by a barber these twelve months."
Methinks he has been shaving himself;our Sam is too fashion conscious.
CGS • Link
Surely barber be not only for the sideburns and chin stubble, they had flints for eons to scrape off the excess facial growth, even most thinning hair types have hair growth else where on the major sensing block, see the images of the great Bard and not all be tonsured.
Most of the Citezens could not come up with the enough farthings to sit and discuss the the weather while be sheared and peeled.
Sensing block, where the audio gets transcribed, visuals get down loaded, where the dead life gets re-organised and tasted and finally results get transcribed into sound.
dirk • Link
From the Carte Papers, Bodleian Library
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
James, Duke of York, to Sandwich
Written from: York
Date: 1665 [possibly 18 September?]
Expresses H.R.H.'s satisfaction at the receipt of the despatches brought by Sir Henry Bellasis, reporting the late action with part of the Dutch fleet. What hath been done, "considering with how little loss it hath been acquired is sufficient ground to give God thanks for his goodness to us, and, under him to you for your care in this action". Adds that as to Lord Sandwich's going onshore he willingly concurs in the directions which his Lordship will receive from the King at Salisbury. ...
-----
George, Duke of Albemarle, to Sandwich
Written from: Cock-pitt
Date: 19 September 1665
Has received his Lordship's letter of the 16th instant. Trusts he will take care that there be no embezzlement of Prize Goods, for, adds the Duke, "I cannot tell what shifts we shall make for moneys, unless we make something out of these Prizes that may be considerable; and if there be an account taken of them, and put into the East-India Company's hands, I believe they will advance a good sum of money to pay off the fleet, and to help us towards the payment of the prisoners and sick men". Communicates his opinion as to the sending of convoys for merchant ships bound to the Elbe & elsewhere. Enters, at great length, into questions affecting the disposal of prisoners:- "For Chelsea College, Mr Evelyn told me... that not more Dutch prisoners than 250 or 300... can be received there".
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"For the whole general number is 8,297, and of them the plague 7,165; which is more in the whole by above 50, than the biggest Bill yet;"
L&M: The week 12-19 September was to prove the worst of the whole plague period, During the previous week plague deaths had been 6544 out of a total of 7690.
Terry Foreman • Link
"But I did order it so that my Lord Bruncker and Sir J. Minnes were ordered, but I did stop the merchants to be added, which would have been a most pernicious thing to the King I am sure."
L&M: They were to go aboard the E. Indiamen to supervise the loading of the prize goods: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… On 6 October, they were reinforced by two government servants, Charles Bennett and Richard Kingdom.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Expresses H.R.H.'s satisfaction at the receipt of the despatches brought by Sir Henry Bellasys, reporting the late action with part of the Dutch fleet."
Sir Henry Belasyse 1639-1667, eldest son of John, 1st Baron Belasyse, married for the second time in October 1662 a wealthy but plain heiress, Susan, daughter of Sir William Armyne, 2nd Bt., of Osgodby, Lincs. Unfortunately, Henry was in love with someone else.
Then his friend, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, endorsed someone else to be M.P. for York, so Henry offered his services as a volunteer aboard the fleet during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
On Saturday, 16 September, 1665, Dirk tells us that John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester delivered a report from Sandwich to Bennet and Ashley-Cooper at Wimborne St. Giles. I suppose Sandwich wrote reports to all the Privy Councilors scattered all over the country, and sent them via these noble volunteers.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
San Diego Sarah • Link
Where are the Prize Commissioners? I have the following notes on who should be doing the work Mennes and Brouncker are being sent to do:
On 28 April 1664 Sir Elisha Leighton was made one of the secretaries of the prize office (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1663–4, p. 571).
(L&M footnote) The Calendars of State Papers are full of applications for Commissionerships of the Prize Office. In December, 1664, the Navy Committee appointed themselves the Commissioners for Prize Goods, Sir Henry Bennet being appointed comptroller, and Lord Ashley treasurer. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Politicians landed all the jobs appointed on 24 December: besides Bennett and Ashley the others were, with few exceptions, M.P.s: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
"In Charles II’s reign, captains could usually expect half the value of the prize and its contents, although allocations did vary; any goods or valuables in the great cabin were reserved for the captain, while the seamen were free to get what else they could between decks. Captains of the smaller ships were at a clear advantage, as their vessels were employed on cruising and convoy duties and were therefore more likely to encounter enemy warships or merchantmen than those in the main fleet." -- (Gentlemen and Tarpaulins by J D Davies)
So Sandwich giving part of the spoils to his seamen was S.O.P. (Standard Operating Procedures). "L&M: The two E. Indiamen (the Phoenix and the Slotheny) had been captured by Sandwich, along with 11 other ship, on 3 September. Imprudently he allowed his commanders and seamen to take their accustomed share (all that lay between decks) before it was legally judged to be prize."
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
San Diego Sarah • Link
Two more nominations of who should be working with the prizes:
Robert Southwell obtained the post of secretary to the Commission of Prizes in 1664.
Sir Thomas Clifford, M.P. for Totnes 1660-1672; ... a sub-commissioner of the Sick and Wounded and a Commissioner for Prizes 1664-1667. He served in the fleet in the Second Dutch War. Pepys remarks more than once on his ability and his astonishing rise to power. (Seems to be M.I.A. on both commissions! You've got 3,000 P.O.W.s to house and feed too. Evelyn's only taking 300.)
San Diego Sarah • Link
It does seem Sandwich and colleagues are in violation of a 1661 Act for the Establishing Articles and Orders for the regulating and better Government of His Majesties Navies Ships of War & Forces by Sea.
Taking out of Prize, or Ships or Goods seized for Prize, any Money, &c. before Judgment had Punishment; Proviso for Pillage.;
Exception.
7. None in his Majesty’s pay shall take out of any Prize or Ship or Goods seized on for Prize any Money Plate Goods Lading or Tackle before Judgement thereof first past in the Admiralty Court but the full and entire accompt of the whole without embezzlement shall be brought in and Judgement past entirely upon the whole without fraud upon pain of such punishment as shall be imposed by a Court martial or the Court of Admiralty excepting That it shall be lawful for all Captains Seamen Soldiers and others serving as aforesaid to take and to have to themselves as Pillage without further or other account to be given for the same all such Goods and [Merchandize (fn. 1) ] (other than Arms Ammunition Tackle Furniture or Stores of such Ship) as shall be found by them or any of them in any Ship (they shall take in fight or prize) upon or above the Gundeck of the said Ship and not otherwise.
To see it in full http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…...
HOWEVER, if your seamen are hungry, their pay is in arrears, and the possibility exists that the Dutch may be back shortly, it might be considered prudent to share a taste of the spoils quickly. Rioting, looting, desertion, and/or mutiny need to be avoided, almost regardless of cost. If the seamen see the Admiral is concerned about their welfare, they may not desert. (This is entirely my argument to explain Sandwich's actions ... so far I haven't seen anything in the Diary to justify him knowlingly ignoring the above rules.)