Tuesday 3 July 1666
Being very weary, lay long in bed, then to the office and there sat all the day. At noon dined at home, Balty’s wife with us, and in very good humour I was and merry at dinner, and after dinner a song or two, and so I abroad to my Lord Treasurer’s (sending my sister home by the coach), while I staid there by appointment to have met my Lord Bellasses and Commissioners of Excise, but they did not meet me, he being abroad. However Mr. Finch, one of the Commissioners, I met there, and he and I walked two houres together in the garden, talking of many things; sometimes of Mr. Povy, whose vanity, prodigality, neglect of his business, and committing it to unfit hands hath undone him and outed him of all his publique employments, and the thing set on foot by an accidental revivall of a business, wherein he had three or fours years ago, by surprize, got the Duke of Yorke to sign to the having a sum of money paid out of the Excise, before some that was due to him, and now the money is fallen short, and the Duke never likely to be paid. This being revived hath undone Povy.
Then we fell to discourse of the Parliament, and the great men there: and among others, Mr. Vaughan, whom he reports as a man of excellent judgement and learning, but most passionate and ‘opiniastre’. He had done himself the most wrong (though he values it not), that is, the displeasure of the King in his standing so long against the breaking of the Act for a triennial parliament; but yet do believe him to be a most loyall gentleman.
He told me Mr. Prin’s character; that he is a man of mighty labour and reading and memory, but the worst judge of matters, or layer together of what he hath read, in the world; which I do not, however, believe him in; that he believes him very true to the King in his heart, but can never be reconciled to episcopacy; that the House do not lay much weight upon him, or any thing he says.
He told me many fine things, and so we parted, and I home and hard to work a while at the office and then home and till midnight about settling my last month’s accounts wherein I have been interrupted by public business, that I did not state them two or three days ago, but I do now to my great joy find myself worth above 5600l., for which the Lord’s name be praised! So with my heart full of content to bed.
Newes come yesterday from Harwich, that the Dutch had appeared upon our coast with their fleete, and we believe did go to the Gun-fleete, and they are supposed to be there now; but I have heard nothing of them to-day.
Yesterday Dr. Whistler, at Sir W. Pen’s, told me that Alexander Broome, a the great song-maker, is lately dead.
15 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
John Evelyn's Diary
July 3 I went to sit with the Commissioners at the Tower of Lond, where our Commiss: being read, we made some progresse in buisinesse: Sir G: Wharton being our Secretary [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_… ], that famous Mathematitian, & who writ the yearely Almanac, during his Majesties troubles: Thence to Painter hall to our other Commiss: [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wors… ] & dined at my L: Majors:
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Le…
Terry Foreman • Link
"Sir G: Wharton ...who writ the yearely Almanac, during his Majesties troubles:"
The Rise and Fall of the Astrological Almanac, by Derek Parker
"The part played by the so-called 'War of the Almanacs' during the English Civil War is still insufficiently explored by historians. One commentator noted that the two astrologers, William Lilly and George Wharton, "led the commons of this kingdom as bears are led by the nose with bagpipes before them"." http://www.skyscript.co.uk/almana…
History, nation, and the satirical almanac, 1660-1760, Criticism, Summer, 1998 by Frank Palmeri
http://findarticles.com/p/article…
Terry Foreman • Link
Palmieri begins: "The satiric and parodic almanac Poor Robin was published annually from the mid-1660s through the early nineteenth century. When nine or twelve almanacs for the same year were bound together (as they often were), Poor Robin usually concluded the collection, like a satyr play following a tragic trilogy in Athens, mocking and inverting the conventions of the more serious genre. But Poor Robin not only emptied out the serious almanac; it also accommodated the form it parodied. After the first year of its appearance, the parodic almanac was published by the same Stationers' Company that energetically protected its monopoly on the publishing of all the other almanacs in England. This essay will concern itself with four episodes in the history of the parodic and satiric almanac. Originating with Rabelais and others in the early sixteenth century, the satiric almanac becomes increasingly partisan in England from the 1590s to the 1650s. Early in the Restoration, Poor Robin begins annual publication, and the following four decades see it at its most innovative and suggestive. Swift refers to Poor Robin and builds on the tradition of the satiric almanac when he writes the predictions of Isaac Bickerstaff for 1708, which begin by foretelling the death of John Partridge, another almanac-maker. The Poor Richard almanacs, written by Benjamin Franklin from 1732 to 1758, take Poor Robin and Swift's predictions as two of their models; in form they parallel but in political perspective they diverge dramatically from almanacs on the other side of the Atlantic."
Michael L • Link
"Mr. Povy, whose vanity, prodigality, neglect of his business, and committing it to unfit hands..."
Hmm. Wasn't one of those hands Pepys himself?
Todd Bernhardt • Link
Could someone help explain exactly what has "undone" Povy? Thanks.
Paul Chapin • Link
William Prynne has gotten the reputation of a crank, whom nobody takes seriously any more. A very hard thing to overturn, once established.
Mary • Link
"he told me many fine things"
Pepys never loses an opportunity to tap any likely source for news of who's in, who's out, who's up, who's down. All potentially useful information to the rising man.
Lawrence • Link
"Yesterday Dr. Whistler, at Sir W. Pen’s, told me that Alexander Broome, a the great song-maker, is lately dead"
L&M Brome (Lawyer, versifier and dramatist) had died on 29 June.
Terry Foreman • Link
"Could someone help explain exactly what has “undone” Povy?"
I gather Pepys is being told that Povey's undone as he can't repay a debt to the Duke of York that's been suddenly declared due ("revived"). His prosperity has long been quite dependent on the Duke's fiduciary trust in him. He'd been Treasurer to the Tangier Committee -- which the Duke chaired --, and is still Treasurer to the Duke himself. L&M note he will be replaced in this role by Sir Allen Apsley this coming September.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
",Mr. Vaughan, whom he reports as a man of excellent judgement and learning, but most passionate and ‘opiniastre’"
L&M: John Vaughan was M.P. for Cardiganshire and a leading member of the country party . To Clarendon (whose impeachment Vaughan was to support in 1667) he was 'proud and insolent... magisterial and supercilious': Life, i. 37. He was made Chief Justice of Common Pleas and knighted in 1668.
Terry Foreman • Link
"[Mr. Finch] told me Mr. Prin’s character; that he is a man of mighty labour and reading and memory, but the worst judge of matters, or layer together of what he hath read, in the world; which I do not, however, believe him in;"
L&M: The consensus of opinion is with Finch not Pepys: William Prynne's method of writing a book was to discharge his materials pell-mell on to the page and into the margins.
Terry Foreman • Link
"[Mr. Vaughan] believes [Mr. Prynne] had always very true to the King in his heart, but can never be reconciled to episcopacy; that the House do not lay much weight upon him, or any thing he says."
L&M: Prynne had always supported monarchy, but had opposed jure divino episcopacy. In the Commons he had been reprimanded in 1661 for a pamphlet addressed to the Lords against the Corporation Bill (CJ , viii. 301-2). The Corporation Act of 1661 was an Act of the Parliament of England (13 Cha. II. St. 2 c. 1). It belonged to the general category of test acts, designed for the express purpose of restricting public offices in England to members of the Church of England.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cor… And Prynne had been reprimanded in 2664 for altering a bill after its committal: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… He was too bookish and long-winded -- too fond of perambulating among his precedents -- to be a good oarliamentarian: Cf. The Moderate, 12 December 1648: John Price. Mystery of...Resttauration (1680), p. 131; Milward, p. 130.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... At noon dined at home, Balty’s wife with us, and in very good humor I was and merry at dinner, and after dinner a song or two, and so I abroad to my Lord Treasurer’s (sending my sister home by the coach), ..."
From "Balty's wife" to "my sister" in one paragraph. He was in good humor, and must have enjoyed those songs. And he felt rich enough to pay for her coach home as well. I suspect Esther worked hard for this acceptance.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... I abroad to my Lord Treasurer’s ... while I staid there by appointment to have met my Lord Bellasses and Commissioners of Excise, but they did not meet me, he being abroad."
Wednesday 27 June 1666
I did this afternoon visit my Lord Bellasses, ... My Lord is going down to his garrison to Hull, by the King’s command, to put it in order for fear of an invasion which course I perceive is taken upon the sea-coasts round; for we have a real apprehension of the King of France’s invading us. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Money seems to be the common denominator here. The Commissioners of Excise are not mentioned in our Encyclopedia, beyond John Ball (as of 1665) being their Treasurer, and Pepys mentions him 8 times, according to L&M.
Wikipedia says: "His or Her Majesty's Excise refers to 'inland' duties levied on articles at the time of their manufacture. Excise duty was first raised in England in 1643. Like HM Customs (a far older branch of the revenue services), the Excise was administered by a Board of Commissioners who were accountable to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. While 'HM Revenue of Excise' was a phrase used in early legislation to refer to this form of duty, the body tasked with its collection and general administration was usually known as the Excise Office."
There's more about the 17th century organization specifically, but nothing about Pepys' years besides it being levied on beer and made a permanent thing whereas before it was a temporary taxation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HM_…
One guess is that Belasyse was supposed to raise some revenue. But why was Pepys there? He only spends money. Presumably the local ships will be pressed into service to defend Hull. Perhaps Belasyse is going to give Pepys a Wish List? I wish we knew. Maybe tomorrow?
San Diego Sarah • Link
Spies ... and oh, what a tangled web we weave:
Arlington to Ormonde
Written from: Whitehall
Date: 3 July 1666
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 46, fol(s). 329
Document type: Original, subscribed & signed
"The Dutch are said to be lying at the Gunfleet and are hourly expecting the arrival of the French fleet, to [join] them.
"Lord St. Alban's letter to the King speaks, uncertainly, of M. de Beaufort's being at Rochelle;
"Mr. Montagu affirms it positively, in a letter to the writer; asserting that he is to accompany the new Queen to Portugal, before he comes hither. ...
"It is said that the design of the Dutch is upon Scotland; that of the French upon Ireland; - hoping for a conjunction, in all three Kingdoms, of the discontented party, upon the foot of the Covenant ..."
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
So the threat of invasion includes Scotland and Ireland, with an uprising in England of "Covenanters".
I'm guessing the Mr. Montagu is Roman Catholic Abbe Walter Montagu, younger brother of Lord Chamberlain Gen. Sir Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, who probably returned to Paris with Queen Mother Henrietta Maria in August 1665.
Good old Walter seems to be planning to escort Marie Françoise Elizabeth de Savoie-Nemours (1646 – 1683)
to Portugal to marry Catherine of Braganza's brother, Afonso VI ... she's a cousin of Louis XIV, who is using her as a pawn in his plan to subvert the Spanish.
After which Walter plans to come to England ... as a known Catholic spy, he's not really welcome.
At the Restoration, Henry "Harry" Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans became Lord Chamberlain, which he fulfilled for 3 years. He remained Queen Mother Henrietta Maria’s principal servant until her death in 1669, although Charles II frequently also employed him as ambassador to France. In that role St. Albans supported the policy of friendship with France, and he contributed largely to the close secret understanding between Charles II and Louis XIV of France, being instrumental in arranging the preliminaries of the Treaty of Dover in 1669.
St. Albans should have known where the French fleet was and why.
I wonder what Catherine and Charles thought about the up-coming wedding. She must have known Afonso was "infirm".