Monday 2 July 1666

Up betimes, and forced to go to my Lord Mayor’s, about the business of the pressed men; and indeed I find him a mean man of understanding and dispatch of any publique business. Thence out of curiosity to Bridewell to see the pressed men, where there are about 300; but so unruly that I durst not go among them: and they have reason to be so, having been kept these three days prisoners, with little or no victuals, and pressed out, and, contrary to all course of law, without press-money, and men that are not liable to it.

Here I met with prating Colonel Cox, one of the City collonells heretofore a great presbyter: but to hear how the fellow did commend himself, and the service he do the King; and, like an asse, at Paul’s did take me out of my way on purpose to show me the gate (the little north gate) where he had two men shot close by him on each hand, and his own hair burnt by a bullet-shot in the insurrection of Venner, and himself escaped. Thence home and to the Tower to see the men from Bridewell shipped.

Being rid of him I home to dinner, and thence to the Excise office by appointment to meet my Lord Bellasses and the Commissioners, which we did and soon dispatched, and so I home, and there was called by Pegg Pen to her house, where her father and mother, and Mrs. Norton, the second Roxalana, a fine woman, indifferent handsome, good body and hand, and good mine, and pretends to sing, but do it not excellently. However I took pleasure there, and my wife was sent for, and Creed come in to us, and so there we spent the most of the afternoon. Thence weary of losing so much time I to the office, and thence presently down to Deptford; but to see what a consternation there is upon the water by reason of this great press, that nothing is able to get a waterman to appear almost. Here I meant to have spoke with Bagwell’s mother, but her face was sore, and so I did not, but returned and upon the water found one of the vessels loaden with the Bridewell birds in a great mutiny, and they would not sail, not they; but with good words, and cajoling the ringleader into the Tower (where, when he was come, he was clapped up in the hole), they were got very quietly; but I think it is much if they do not run the vessel on ground. But away they went, and I to the Lieutenant of the Tower, and having talked with him a little, then home to supper very late and to bed weary.

24 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

John Evelyn's Diary

July 2. Came Sir Jo: Duncomb & Mr. Tho: Chichley both Privy Councellors & Commissioners of his Majesties Ordinance to give me a visite, & to let me know his Majestie had in Council nominated me to be one of the Commissioners for regulating the farming & making of Salt-peter through the whole Kingdome, & that we were to sit in the Tower the next day &c: When they were gon, came to see me Sir Jo: Cotton (heire to the famous Antiquarie Sir Robert
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robe… ]) a pretended greate Gretian, but had by no meanes the parts or genius of his Grandfather: with him were severall other knights & Gent:

http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Le…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Bridewell birds"

jail-birds (L&M Select Glossary)

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...cajoling the ringleader into the Tower..."

Hard to imagine anyone being 'cajoled' into the Tower. Sort of like persuading the current head of the Taliban into visiting Guantanemo Bay.

On the other hand, it did work with Milošević...

cgs  •  Link

yee have two choices 1: die now 2 : await trial and if the Dutch win Yee may see the new year?
I tend to like the french connection go to tower or to the cajole [gaol]
[a. F. cajoler, in same sense, of uncertain origin and history.
Paré c 1550 has ‘cageoller comme un gay’ to chatter like a jay. Littré has 16th c. examples of cajoler, cajoller, cageoller, in the senses ‘to chatter like a jay or magpie’, and ‘to sing’, also, in the modern sense ‘to cajole’. Cotgr. 1611 has cajoler, cageoler ‘to prattle or jangle like a jay (in a cage), to bable or prate much to little purpose’. Most etymologists taking cageoler as the original form, have inferred its derivation from cage cage, through an assumed dim. *cageole. This is doubtful both in regard to sense and form; the early meaning ‘to chatter like a jay’ does not very obviously arise from cage, and does not clearly give rise to the modern sense.

The Fr. dim. of cage is not *cageole but geôle ‘gaol’, whence F. enjôler (OF. engaioler, engauler, Sp. enjaular) ‘to put in gaol, imprison’, also ‘to inveigle, entice, allure, enthrall by fair words, cajole’.

In Namur, cajoler has the sense enjoliver, to make joli, whence Grandgagnage would refer it to the stem jol- of joli, with ‘prefix ca- frequent in Walloon with an iterative force’. It is possible that two or even three words are here confused; in the modern sense, F. cajoler is synonymous with enjôler above, and if not cognate with that word, its sense has probably at least been taken over from it by form-association of cageoler or cajoler with enjôler. But the working out of the history must be left to French etymologists.]

1. trans. To prevail upon or get one's way with (a person) by delusive flattery, specious promises, or any false means of persuasion. (‘A low word’ J.)

b. Const. into, from an action or state.
1663 PEPYS Diary 17 Mar., Sir R. Ford..cajoled him into a consent to it.

2. intr. or absol. To use cajolery. {dag}to cajole with:{em}sense 1 (cf. persuade with).
1665 PEPYS Diary 12 Oct., He hath cajolled with Seymour, who will be our friend.

ca{sm}joling, ppl. a.
That cajoles; deceitfully persuasive.
1715 BURNET Own Time (1766) I. 518 The king writ him a cajoling letter.
cajolery
The action or practice of cajoling; persuasion by false arts.
1649 EVELYN Liberty & Serv. iv. (R.) Those infamous cajolleries.

Mary  •  Link

"and good mine"
i.e. 'and good mien'
She bears herself well, has presence.

JWB  •  Link

"That the matter of impressing and constraining any of us to serve in the wars is against our freedom; and therefore we do not allow it in our representatives; the rather, because money (the sinews of war) being always at their disposal, they can never want numbers of men apt enough to engage in any just cause."

An agreement of the people
for a firm and present peace upon grounds of common right and freedom.
28 October 1647

http://www.constitution.org/lev/e…

JWB  •  Link

Article 39, Magna Carta:

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or disseise or outlawed or exiled or in any way ruined, nor will we go ro send against him, except by the lawful jusgement of his peers or by the law of the land.

JWB  •  Link

"'1.In 1662 was passed 'An Act for providing of carriage by land and by water for the use of His Majesty’s Navy and Ordinance' (13-14 Gar. II., cap. 20), which gave power for impressing seamen, &c."'

http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive…

JWB  •  Link

Philip Bruce in "Economic Hist. of Va. in 17th C." records that JP's were authorized to impress men, horse & boats to hunt down runaway "servants" and that after Bacon's Rebellion mechanics were impressed to rebuild Jamestown in brick. The mechanics just ran away.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

I'm still curious as to what Sam would have had to say to Bagwell's mom. "Could you encourage your daughter-in-law to show a little more enthusiasm during our sex?", perhaps?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

JWB, I'm puzzled. The note seems to go beyond the Carriages, Horses, Ships, Hoys, &c. that may be impressed by a legal process that fixes rates of use for impressed vehicles per 'Charles II, 1662: An Act for providing Carriage by Land and by Water for the use of His Majesties Navy and Ordnance.', Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628-80 (1819), pp. 413-414. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… Date accessed: 03 July 2009
to persons, esp. seamen. Pepys seems to be correct about the illegality of it all.

Lawrence  •  Link

"I’m still curious as to what Sam would have had to say to Bagwell’s mom. “Could you encourage your daughter-in-law to show a little more enthusiasm during our sex?”, perhaps?"
Robert? L&M have Bagwell's moher, and not mother..

Terry Foreman  •  Link

In the Large Glossary, L&M define "moher" this way: "(Sp. mujer); vi [1665], 318, woman, wife," which would make sense here, no? Too bad "her face was sore," whatever that means.

cgs  •  Link

poxed?
her face was sore

Mary  •  Link

her face was sore

Alternatively, neuralgia, sinusitis? Had Bagwell perhaps given her something to remember him by before he boarded ship and she's still sporting the bruises? We'll never know.

Lawrence  •  Link

Sore? perhaps carried an angry look? there was much to be angry about, at the moment!

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Could also be toothache, like poor Bess a short while back.

Glad to know it's not all in the family, thanks Lawrence.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

",,, I to the Lieutenant of the Tower, and having talked with him a little..."

"Pardon me, sir..." cajoled mutinous ringleader calls from cell. "Could you tell me when the King might be coming by to begin our discussion of the lads' grievances?"

Robinson eyes Sam, Sam, Robinson...

"No doubt very shortly, my friend." Sam nods.

"King's a busy man, you know." Robinson adds.

"Quite right, sir. Don't mean to bother. I'll be waiting."

cgs  •  Link

Sore 'tis an interesting shade of meanings:
"...but her face was sore,..."

12. a. Of persons or their feelings: Inclined to be irritated or grieved; irritable, sensitive; angry, resentful. Also const. about, on, and at. Now colloq. (chiefly N. Amer.).
a1694 TILLOTSON (J.), Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy.

It was also used as slang for being a whore:
1. Venery. A buck in its fourth year. Obs.

a1613 OVERBURY Characters, Whore Wks. (1856) 82 The first yeere of her trade she is an eyesse,..the second a soare.
3 sore, n.3 *
Mud; now (in Cheshire and Yorkshire) black mud, liquid manure, drainage.
...1674 RAY Coll. Words, Saur-pool, a stinking puddle.

if with a sore head , be she be under the weather or three sheets to the wind; strong ale?.

Second Reading

Tonyel  •  Link

Not long ago, Mrs Bagwell was whitewashing the house against the plague. Any faint sign of infection on her face wold cause Sam to make a quick about-turn.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

According to Evelyn, John Cotton MP, 3rd Bart. was only ‘a pretended great Grecian, but had by no means the parts or genius of his grandfather’; but Cotton’s letters suggest that this verdict was too harsh.

http://www.historyofparliamentonl…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... and so I home, and there was called by Pegg Pen to her house, where her father and mother, and Mrs. Norton, the second Roxalana, a fine woman, indifferent handsome, good body and hand, and good mine, and pretends to sing, but do it not excellently. However I took pleasure there, and my wife was sent for, and Creed come in to us, and so there we spent the most of the afternoon. Thence weary of losing so much time I to the office, ..."

I suppose having Mary Norton at your house was like having a visit from Meryl Streep today. Worth stopping your close friends from working for a few hours to enjoy her company.

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