Wednesday 13 June 1666

Up, and by coach to St. James’s, and there did our business before the Duke as usual, having, before the Duke come out of his bed, walked in an ante-chamber with Sir H. Cholmly, who tells me there are great jarrs between the Duke of Yorke and the Duke of Albemarle, about the later’s turning out one or two of the commanders put in by the Duke of Yorke. Among others, Captain Du Tell, a Frenchman, put in by the Duke of Yorke, and mightily defended by him; and is therein led by Monsieur Blancford, that it seems hath the same command over the Duke of Yorke as Sir W. Coventry hath; which raises ill blood between them. And I do in several little things observe that Sir W. Coventry hath of late, by the by, reflected on the Duke of Albemarle and his captains, particularly in that of old Teddiman, who did deserve to be turned out this fight, and was so; but I heard Sir W. Coventry say that the Duke of Albemarle put in one as bad as he is in his room, and one that did as little.

After we had done with the Duke of Yorke, I with others to White Hall, there to attend again a Committee of Tangier, but there was none, which vexed me to the heart, and makes me mighty doubtfull that when we have one, it will be prejudiced against poor Yeabsly and to my great disadvantage thereby, my Lord Peterborough making it his business, I perceive (whether in spite to me, whom he cannot but smell to be a friend to it, or to my Lord Ashly, I know not), to obstruct it, and seems to take delight in disappointing of us; but I shall be revenged of him.

Here I staid a very great while, almost till noon, and then meeting Balty I took him with me, and to Westminster to the Exchequer about breaking of two tallys of 2000l. each into smaller tallys, which I have been endeavouring a good while, but to my trouble it will not, I fear, be done, though there be no reason against it, but only a little trouble to the clerks; but it is nothing to me of real profit at all.

Thence with Balty to Hales’s by coach, it being the seventh day from my making my late oathes, and by them I am at liberty to dispense with any of my oathes every seventh day after I had for the six days before going performed all my vowes.

Here I find my father’s picture begun, and so much to my content, that it joys my very heart to thinke that I should have his picture so well done; who, besides that he is my father, and a man that loves me, and hath ever done so, is also, at this day, one of the most carefull and innocent men, in the world.

Thence with mighty content homeward, and in my way at the Stockes did buy a couple of lobsters, and so home to dinner.

Where I find my wife and father had dined, and were going out to Hales’s to sit there, so Balty and I alone to dinner, and in the middle of my grace, praying for a blessing upon (these his good creatures), my mind fell upon my lobsters: upon which I cried, Odd zooks! and Balty looked upon me like a man at a losse what I meant, thinking at first that I meant only that I had said the grace after meat instead of that before meat. But then I cried, what is become of my lobsters? Whereupon he run out of doors to overtake the coach, but could not, so came back again, and mighty merry at dinner to thinke of my surprize. After dinner to the Excise Office by appointment, and there find my Lord Bellasses and the Commissioners, and by and by the whole company come to dispute the business of our running so far behindhand there, and did come to a good issue in it, that is to say, to resolve upon having the debt due to us, and the Household and the Guards from the Excise stated, and so we shall come to know the worst of our condition and endeavour for some helpe from my Lord Treasurer.

Thence home, and put off Balty, and so, being invited, to Sir Christopher Mings’s funeral, but find them gone to church. However I into the church (which is a fair, large church, and a great chappell) and there heard the service, and staid till they buried him, and then out. And there met with Sir W. Coventry (who was there out of great generosity, and no person of quality there but he) and went with him into his coach, and being in it with him there happened this extraordinary case, one of the most romantique that ever I heard of in my life, and could not have believed, but that I did see it; which was this:

About a dozen able, lusty, proper men come to the coach-side with tears in their eyes, and one of them that spoke for the rest begun and says to Sir W. Coventry, “We are here a dozen of us that have long known and loved, and served our dead commander, Sir Christopher Mings, and have now done the last office of laying him in the ground. We would be glad we had any other to offer after him, and in revenge of him. All we have is our lives; if you will please to get His Royal Highness to give us a fireship among us all, here is a dozen of us, out of all which choose you one to be commander, and the rest of us, whoever he is, will serve him; and, if possible, do that that shall show our memory of our dead commander, and our revenge.” Sir W. Coventry was herewith much moved (as well as I, who could hardly abstain from weeping), and took their names, and so parted; telling me that he would move His Royal Highness as in a thing very extraordinary, which was done. Thereon see the next day in this book. So we parted.

The truth is, Sir Christopher Mings was a very stout man, and a man of great parts, and most excellent tongue among ordinary men; and as Sir W. Coventry says, could have been the most useful man at such a pinch of time as this. He was come into great renowne here at home, and more abroad in the West Indys. He had brought his family into a way of being great; but dying at this time, his memory and name (his father being always and at this day a shoemaker, and his mother a Hoyman’s daughter; of which he was used frequently to boast) will be quite forgot in a few months as if he had never been, nor any of his name be the better by it; he having not had time to will any estate, but is dead poor rather than rich.

So we left the church and crowd, and I home (being set down on Tower Hill), and there did a little business and then in the evening went down by water to Deptford, it being very late, and there I staid out as much time as I could, and then took boat again homeward, but the officers being gone in, returned and walked to Mrs. Bagwell’s house, and there (it being by this time pretty dark and past ten o’clock) went into her house and did what I would. But I was not a little fearfull of what she told me but now, which is, that her servant was dead of the plague, that her coming to me yesterday was the first day of her coming forth, and that she had new whitened the house all below stairs, but that above stairs they are not so fit for me to go up to, they being not so. So I parted thence, with a very good will, but very civil, and away to the waterside, and sent for a pint of sacke and so home, drank what I would and gave the waterman the rest; and so adieu. Home about twelve at night, and so to bed, finding most of my people gone to bed.

In my way home I called on a fisherman and bought three eeles, which cost me three shillings.

41 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The Royal Society today at Gresham College — from the Hooke Folio Online

Iune. 13. 1666. Dr Wilkins brought for Repos: a Queen bee (1/3 longer than the ordinary) a Drone, and a working Bee.
mr. Hooke was desired by a microscope to view the Queen bee to see wt they haue peculiar from other Bees.
(Sr Th de Vaux history of Bees MS). [ Not registered. ]

Bone of Whales head) mr. Hooke brought in a petrifyed fish called Canis Spaticus, by which he conceiued
his notion about Stones to be confirmed (Lapis Bononiensis) http://www.mindat.org/min-30810.h… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bari…
mr. Powle on Philips his E. India variations)

mr Hooke produced a new contriuance of a circular pendulum applicable to a watch and mouing without any noyse & in continuall & euen motion without any jerks. he was desired to shew the vse of it in a watch, which he said the Pt
had already giuen orders for.

(Sr. G. Ent papers of Coloration ) also Sr. Th: De vaux)
Cox changing gold into siluer)
circular pendule for [Moon/silver] motion

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

Michalel Robinson  •  Link

" ... but dying at this time, his memory and name (his father being always and at this day a shoemaker, and his mother a Hoyman’s daughter; of which he was used frequently to boast) will be quite forgot in a few months as if he had never been, nor any of his name be the better by it; he having not had time to will any estate, but is dead poor rather than rich."

With his L5,000 plus pot SP should be free now from any prospect of want; could this be behind his drive for accumulation well beyond the reasonable need for long term financial security?

cgs  •  Link

another rise from the base:

"...his [Mynges ]memory and name (his father being always and at this day a shoemaker, and his mother a Hoyman’s daughter;..."
Hoyman’
A man in charge of a hoy; the master of a hoy.
1666 PEPYS Diary 13 June, A hoyman's daughter.
not tobe confused with hoydon
1. A rude, ignorant, or awkward fellow; a clown, boor. Obs.
1593
2. A rude, or ill-bred girl (or woman); a boisterous noisy girl, a romp.
1676 WYCHERLEY Pl. Dealer II. Wks. (Rtldg.) 113/2 Then Mrs. Hoyden, that calls all People by their surnames. 1706 PHILLIPS (ed. Kersey), Hoidon, a clownish ill-bred Wench.

hoy
Sailor's Word-bk. s.v., In the naval service there are gun-hoy, powder-hoy, provision-hoy, anchor-hoy, all rigged sloop-fashion.

1612 DEKKER If it be not good Wks. 1873 III. 358 A whole Hoy-full are Landed.
a1618 RALEIGH Observ. in Rem. (1661) 167 They [the Dutch] have..Ships called Boyers, Hoybarks, Hoyes, and others.

A. int. A cry used to call attention; also to incite or drive beasts, esp. hogs. In nautical language (also written hoay) used in hailing or calling aloft. (Cf. AHOY.)
1393..
a1605 MONTGOMERIE Flyting w. Polwart 121 Hoy, hurson, to hell. 1617 MINSHEU Ductor, Hoi, a word vsed in driuing hogges. 1620 BP. HALL Hon. Mar. Clergy II. ii. Wks. (1648) 721 Away nasty C. E. transformed by Circe! Hoy! back to her Styes, yea thine!

Paul Chapin  •  Link

What a full day - gossip, business, sentiment, art, amour, plague fears, and lobsters left in the coach. If anyone asks you why you read Pepys' diaries, point them to this entry.

Mary  •  Link

Pepys's latest vows.

I love the six-days-out-of-seven arrangement. A bit like dieting: counting calories all the week and then a cream slice at the weekend for being so good.

mary k mcintyre  •  Link

Sir Christopher descends to obscurity, but for our Sam... poignant. Who'd remember Nelson, if he'd been killed before his time; or Churchill, if he'd been taken out while crossing a London street against traffic in the 1920's? For that matter, who'd remember Pepys, if no one had bothered to figure out the code?

Clicked the diary link; from the sad crime scene outline on a patch of grass (satellite view), it seems St. Mary's is no more, either.

I can't find any info on it after 1914 -- possibly blown up in WW2, or the later depredations of 1990's land developers? Found this, tho', at the Museum of London site: http://tinyurl.com/m4yu7z
Cool, eh?

This building replaced the original church, beneath/beside which Minnes was buried. See photos of both bldgs here, on the East of London Family History Society site: http://tinyurl.com/nudghf

I think the 'chalk outline' in the present day park refers to the original church.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

The first photo linked by mary k mcintyre reminded me of a cover of New York Magazine soon after its founding in the 1960s that showed a former lower East Side synagogue facade covered with a sign saying "Eglesia de Jesu Christo."

From Captain Do Tell through the Myngs funeral to never on Wednesday oaths to the eeles, a great entry.

JWB  •  Link

What a full day-

Getting the 3 eeles at the end of the day seems to be an "early modern" post-modern take on the day. His father being the touchstone.

Bradford  •  Link

But what did Sam do that made him cry that historical oath? Leave the lobsters in the taxi? (So to speak.) Were they already cooked? I'd take for that for a tip on my route any day.

JWB  •  Link

From Hooke's notes...

1) "Sr. G. Ent papers of Coloration" This was translation of Mayerne's work. Mayerne being Paracelsian physician to Cromwell & credited w/ Calomel, that mercuric cure-all.

2) "Cox changing gold into siluer" Process long sought after by debtors, perfected by central banks and overshot today, that baser metal cure-all.

Ruben  •  Link

what is become of my lobsters?
It sprang to my mind that Sam Pepys and Leopold Bloom have been in opposite poles about a lot of things.
One had a diary for 10 years! The other had none but someone had for him a "one day diary". One was very real but fading with the passing of time till rescued for posterity. The other one was completely fictional at the beginning but now has become so real that his birthday will be celebrated in 2 days time at his birthplace!
Now, for the lobsters...

mary k mcintyre  •  Link

Michael R -- thanks! It did not even occur to me to try YouTube. I wonder if they removed the bodies when they razed the church, or whether Sir C. and the others are still resting below...

Am reading Peter Akroyd's biography of London, wherein our Sam is quoted repeatedly. Here in Toronto, a 100-year old building is a big deal; my brain cannot fully take in a place that has been so heavily occupied and for so long. I've visited London once a year since '98, just walk the streets Pepys walked and let it all roll over me.

My husband's family are from Walthamstow (pre-1940) and Ware (from Blitz onward), so mentions of either place in the Diary are always cool.

mary k mcintyre  •  Link

Found this, thanks to Michael for helping identify which, of the various St. Mary's in London, is the resting place of Sir Christopher Minnes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whit…

Case closed: the Blitz done for it.

cgs  •  Link

"...a 100-year old building is a big deal..."
Beware of Ware, there use to be 500 old manor housenearby,with a jug of water for washing, and a jakes down a way, sleeping in a bed [not the great bed] that predated Benedict Arnold, was delightful, it be like a hammock without strings attached.
Oh how monies doth destroy 'istory.

The ghost still be haunting? maybe it be Myngs, is outside on the pavement [side walk] asking for money for an hoy.
The lobsters could have grabbed the cabby and requested a trip to the Tems.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

I wonder if they removed the bodies when they razed the church, or whether Sir C. and the others are still resting below…

If my memory serves, human remains were not removed when a burial ground was closed and subsequently transfered to a local authority maintenance for use as a park. [They were removed if the land was used for building as famously occurred with St. Pancras Cometary when the Midland Railway entered London] However churchyards traditionally were 'buried over' multiple time so so between that, the rebuilding, and the fire and the bombs who knows where repose now the decayed remnants of Sir C's earthly remains.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Well before the Blitz, in 1831, there is this:

" St. MARY, Whitechapel, the church of, . stands at the eastern end of Whitechapel High-street, at the south side of the beginning of the Whitechapel, or Mile-end- road. This church is of some antiquity, as appears from Hugh de Fulbourn, being its rector in 1329. It was originally a chapel of ease to the parish of Stepney, and is supposed to have received its epithet white, from the colour of its walls. The ancient name of this church was St. Mary Matfellon, and the township was called Villa Bealie Marias de Matfellon, a name supposed to be derived from the Hebrew Matfel, which signifies a woman recently delivered of a son, alluding to the birth of Christ, to whose mother it is dedicated.

"The old church becoming very ruinous, it was taken down in 1673, and rebuilt as at present...."

http://snipurl.com/k40ra

Mary K McIntyre  •  Link

God, I love the Internet!!

Mary K McIntyre  •  Link

Still, let us spare a thought for those whom chance renders mute and obscure (like Sir C) and those whose efforts rescue them (like Sam and Phil).

Jan Grantham  •  Link

A great entry but even better annotations! Imagine, I start by clicking the map/satellite view at mkm's suggestion, zoom in to see the "chalk outline" then continue to see 1909 photos (enlarge even) and finally take a u tube stroll in the gate and onto the grass to stand and look all around as if I am on site myself. All from my office a million miles away in northern California. Amazing! and thanks.

Australian Susan  •  Link

"new whitened"

Limewash used as a disinfectant. This was still being done in the slums of Sydney after the 1900s plague outbreak.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Sam and money

Interesting to note his change of attitude - a few years ago, leaving a pair of lobsters in a coach would have been a cause for frustrated anger at the loss - similarly the casual leaving of sacke for the waterman and buying what seems very expensive eels. Sam the moneyed man. Pearls and portrait for Elizabeth and many jaunts in hired coaches.
The lobster episode affords us a glimpse of what was presumably normal household practise: Sam said grace before and after dinner - but is never mentioned as it happened all the time - I do wonder about that other event which is seldom mentioned: did his boy accompany him everywhere? Even hanging around outside the Bagwells whilst Sam [insert details here]? Rather uneasy about that. Or is this just my 21st century squeamishness?
Thanks to everyone for the information about St Mary's and now to work, to work!

Araucaria  •  Link

mary k mcintyre's link to St Mary's will be of interest to Ayn Rand admirers.

The photographer was John Galt.

Willy  •  Link

Mary's suggestion as to "Churchill, if he’d been taken out while crossing a London street against traffic in the 1920’s" misplaces and misdates the occasion of Winston's most famous accident.

It happened in Decmber, 1931, on Fifth Avenue in New York, where Churchill looked left, not right, as a Briton might do, and was struck by a car going 30 miles an hour.

Albatross  •  Link

“We are here a dozen of us that have long known and loved, and served our dead commander, Sir Christopher Mings, and have now done the last office of laying him in the ground."

"The truth is, Sir Christopher Mings was a very stout man, and a man of great parts, and most excellent tongue among ordinary men; and as Sir W. Coventry says, could have been the most useful man at such a pinch of time as this."

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chri…

"...he got a reputation for unnecessary cruelty, sacking and massacring entire towns in command of whole fleets of buccaneers.... The Spanish government considered him a common pirate and mass murderer...

"In 1663 buccaneers from all over the Caribbean joined him for the announced next expedition. Myngs directed the largest buccaneer fleet as yet assembled, fourteen ships strong and with 1400 pirates aboard, among them such notorious privateers as Henry Morgan and Abraham Blauvelt, and sacked San Francisco de Campeche in February. The atrocities led to an outrage and Charles II of England was forced to forbid further attacks..."

Don't weep too much for poor Mr. Myngs...

Pedro  •  Link

The Spanish government considered him a common pirate and mass murderer…Don’t weep too much for poor Mr. Myngs…

I think that what we have also to bear in mind is the atrocities of the Conquistadores!

cgs  •  Link

"wun mans pyrote" be another mans freedom fighter or hired help that takes cash payment from the recovery of mislaid properties, Sovereigns always have Lawyers to help with this trickey question of 'wot' be legal. There are still states that have not enough funds for having a navy thus free enterprise is used or else employ unregulated mercenaries that can step outside the official accepted law to make gains of territories.

'Tis done to have transparency when caught.

The King CII needed new means of having wealth so that he can look the Sun King in the moon, after suffering slights of being the poor cousin during his lost of royal income.

cgs  •  Link

Today:" WSJ Dubai_ pirates commandeer a cargo ship"

Geoff Minns  •  Link

Reference Sir Chrisopher Mings Funeral. I have been to the Bancroft Library and checked the St Mary's Burial records for the 13th of June 1666, and for a week either side of that date. But there is no record of a Burial of Sir Christopher Mings, in that period. So where was his Funeral? I think it could have been at St Katherine's by the Tower, but I haven't checked the records, this would have been in easy walking distance of Seething Lane.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"there are great jarrs between the Duke of Yorke and the Duke of Albemarle, about the later’s turning out one or two of the commanders put in by the Duke of Yorke. Among others, Captain Du Tell, a Frenchman"

L&M tell a curious story. They note Jean-Baptiste du Teil was now removed from the command of the Jersey frigate. In a letter to the Duke of 18 June, the Admirals of the fleet, Rupert and Albemarle, remarked on 'some great miscarriages and disorders in the last engagement, which might possibly arise from the difference of language betwixt du Teil and those who ought to have been commanded by him '. The captain was latter knighted, given a post in the Duke's household and employed on diplomatic missions. James's liking for French servants dated from his service in the French army in the 1650s.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"to resolve upon having the debt due to us"

L&M: The Tangier commissioners.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"here is a dozen of us, out of all which choose you one to be commander, and the rest of us, whoever he is, will serve him; and, if possible, do that that shall show our memory of our dead commander, and our revenge.”"

L&M: Service in fireships was the most dangerous of all naval duties. Their offer appears to have been accepted: CSPD 1555-6, p. 471.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He was come into great renowne here at home, and more abroad in the West Indys. "

Sir Christopher Myngs had served twice in the W. Indies (in 1655-7 and again shortly before the second Dutch War) but his reputation there derived mainly from his taking Santiago (Cuba) in October 1662. (L&M note)

See, e.g. CROMWELL’S PIRATE: THE INCREDIBLE NAVAL CAREER OF CHRISTOPHER MYNGS https://earlofmanchesters.wordpre…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He had brought his family into a way of being great; but dying at this time, his memory and name (his father being always and at this day a shoemaker, and his mother a Hoyman’s daughter; of which he was used frequently to boast) "

Cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

Marquess  •  Link

What a full day, Sir Christopher 's funeral and then a visit to Bagwell. I wonder if the fear of the plague would have dampened Sam's carnal pleasures.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... I with others to White Hall, there to attend again a Committee of Tangier, but there was none, which vexed me to the heart, and makes me mighty doubtfull that when we have one, it will be prejudiced against poor Yeabsly and to my great disadvantage thereby, my Lord Peterborough making it his business, I perceive (whether in spite to me, whom he cannot but smell to be a friend to it, or to my Lord Ashly, I know not), to obstruct it, and seems to take delight in disappointing of us; but I shall be revenged of him."

Another failed attempt to get a quorum to pass Yeabsly's business. It would be interesting to know why Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough, who had been Governor at Tangier and should know why they need supplies, was against the deal. Pepys seems to take it personally --???

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"And I do in several little things observe that Sir W. Coventry hath of late, by the by, reflected on the Duke of Albemarle and his captains, particularly in that of old Teddiman, who did deserve to be turned out this fight, and was so; but I heard Sir W. Coventry say that the Duke of Albemarle put in one as bad as he is in his room, and one that did as little."

General-at-Sea George Monck, Duke of Albemarle was broadly-speaking a "tar" -- one of the fighting men promoted by Cromwell for talent and ability.

William Coventry was a Royalist who had shared Charles II and James' exile. He seeks "balance" by putting into the Navy line-up some gentlemen of the Court, known as "Gentlemen Captains." (The unspoken fear is of a coup ... the tars joining the Dutch fleet, which represents a republic.)

And of course, Jean-Baptiste du Teil and Louis Duras, Marquis de Blanquefort were French, and who knew what Louis XIV and the French fleet were up to.

The conflict between the tars and the Gentlemen Captains would simmer for years.

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