Thursday 19 October 1665

Up, and to my accounts again, and stated them very clear and fair, and at noon dined at my lodgings with Mr. Hater and W. Hewer at table with me, I being come to an agreement yesterday with my landlady for 6l. per month, for so many rooms for myself, them, and my wife and mayde, when she shall come, and to pay besides for my dyett. After dinner I did give them my accounts and letters to write against I went to the Duke of Albemarle’s this evening, which I did; and among other things, spoke to him for my wife’s brother, Balty, to be of his guard, which he kindly answered that he should. My business of the Victualling goes on as I would have it; and now my head is full how to make some profit of it to myself or people. To that end, when I came home, I wrote a letter to Mr. Coventry, offering myself to be the Surveyor Generall, and am apt to think he will assist me in it, but I do not set my heart much on it, though it would be a good helpe. So back to my office, and there till past one before I could get all these letters and papers copied out, which vexed me, but so sent them away without hopes of saving the post, and so to my lodging to bed.

19 Annotations

First Reading

A. Hamilton  •  Link

Sam's taking care of business
(and working overtime):

The accounts, settling with the landlady, lunch (dinner) and assignments for his clerks, finding a job for Balty (good brother-in-law points for Sam), making his pitch to be Surveyor General, and paperwork "til past one" AM. More than a full day's work.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...now my head is full how to make some profit of it to myself or people." Sam does take care of his own...And in more than money, considering his assistance to poor Hayter.

dirk  •  Link

Evelyn's diary today:

I went to Gravesend, next day to Chattam, thence to Maidstone, in order to the march of 500 Prisoners to Leeds-Castle which I had hired of my Lord Culpeper, and... [cont'd 19 Oct.]

Don McCahill  •  Link

Any ideas about what "saving the post" means?

language hat  •  Link

"saving the post"

OED save 14. 'To take or embrace opportunely, so as not to lose' (J[ohnson]); to be in time for, manage to catch.
[...] 1802 CANNING in G. Rose Diaries I. 456, I have but a moment to save the post. [...] 1849 THACKERAY 12 June in Scribner's Mag. I. 409/2 The note must go this instant to save the post.

(This Pepys entry is a considerable antedate.)

Mary  •  Link

Don't miss the new Pepys Family Tree that Phil has kindly added to the site.

Don McCahill  •  Link

Thanks, LH.

By the OED entry, it seems that saving the post means catching the mailman before he leaves. Your citation (very helpful) seems to be to a related meaning that eventually develops, while Sam is using the literal meaning. Thus his statement is not really an antedate to that definition.

language hat  •  Link

I don't know what you mean. All of the quotes, Sam's and the OED citations, are literal and clearly refer to getting something into the mail in time for the postman to take it. (I submitted it to the OED and they thanked me for the antedate.)

FJA  •  Link

Any ideas on when might have been the last post of the day, or the first of the next, such that by finishing earlier SP might successfully have met the post?
Given that he had no hope of doing so, by what means would he have sent all these papers and letters out at 1:00 in the morning?
How regular and reliable was the post in plague-ridden England?

dirk  •  Link

Evelyn’s diary today:

(correction)

(cont'd from the 17th)...and dined with Mr. Harlakingdon, a worthy Gent: of Maid-stone, being earnestly desired by the Learned Sir Roger Twisden & Deputy Lieutenants, to spare that town from quartering any of my sick flock: Here Sir Ed: Brett sent me some horses to bring up the rere, which returned that night to Rochester:

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"spoke to [ the Duke of Albemarle ] for my wife’s brother, Balty, to be of his guard, which he kindly answered that he should"

L&M: After serving for about a year in the guards Balty was appointed a muster-master in the navy.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"How regular and reliable was the post in plague-ridden England?"

I'm guessing they did the best they could for most of the country. If the stage coach rolls, so does the mail.

But Pepys' mail isn't just any mail ... it goes to the King, the Duke of York, Coventry, Mennes, Carteret and Batten, all of whom are at the seat of power in Oxford.
The government mail would be very reliable, and an express. Getting it across the Thames and to the General Letter Office (which was located in Clock Lane, Dowgate until 1666) might be one of his headaches.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Thomas Harlackenden's mother was Pauline, the daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper of Leeds Castle, Kent, so the man who has rented the Castle to Evelyn is his cousin. Plus Harlackenden's first wife (who died before 1652) was Philippa, daughter of John Colepeper, 1st Baron Colepeper of Thoresway, whose side of the family owns Leeds Castle later on.

Harlackenden was an MP at the same time as Pepys, so later in life they would have met.

See https://www.historyofparliamenton…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Sir Thomas Twisden was a Parliamentary MP in the 1640's, and then reelected for the short Convention Parliament at the start of 1660. However, he quickly transitioned onto the bench and became a judge of the Regicides. Charles II must have liked him because he was knighted in July 1660. (I have a feeling there is more to this story than the Commons website lets on.) He was a resident of Maidstone, hence this interest.
For more https://www.historyofparliamenton…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

We know Pepys met Sir Edward Brett at least once. On October 12, 1660:

"Office day all the morning, and from thence with Sir W. Batten and the rest of the officers to a venison pasty of his at the Dolphin, where dined withal Col. Washington, Sir Edward Brett, and Major Norwood, very noble company."

"Vincent" at the time came up with the following background information:
date of birth ? 1607/8
"... In May 1644, Captain Edward Brett's Troop evidently formed part of the force escorting the Queen to Exeter in July 1644 [Lostwithiel Campaign]
... Captain Brett was shot in the left arm ...
... King to immediately draw Captain Brett's sword upon his return, and knighted him Sir Edward Brett, while he was still on horseback. This occurred about midnight ...
... By September 1645, Captain Sir Edward Brett was made Major, and was now the commander of the Queen's Troop in the King's Lifeguard of Horse ..."
"... The officers and men of King Charles I's Life Guard of Foot suffered varying fortunes in the years following the Civil War. Some officers and men did not live to see the Restoration, ...
Others were more fortunate, and received some preferment when Charles II regained his throne.
was in the military service of William of Orange,
Sir Edward Brett Capt., His Majesty's Own Regiment of Horse, 1674
died, Feb. 12, 1682-3, aged 75.
His tomb, with an elaborate epitaph, is at Bexley.

But the links Vincent gave us are now both dead.

Herbert  •  Link

The letter he writes to Coventry is included in the Further Correspondence of Samuel Pepys (Ed Tanner 1929). Pepys writes...
“The truth is, I know of one that if you shall think fit have it propounded to, I dare go as far in assuring you the work shall be done to your mind, for I am sure he will take pains at it and stay by it, and (which is more) will by his other occasions be ever at hand, both for the ready receiving as well as giving directions and answers in all matters relating to this business”
A touch cringey by today's standards but maybe it is of its time and fitting of Samuel's station?

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