Sunday 21 October 1666
(Lord’s day). Up, and with my wife to church, and her new woman Barker with her the first time. The girle will, I think, do very well.
Here a lazy sermon, and so home to dinner, and took in my Lady Pen and Peg (Sir William being below with the fleete), and mighty merry we were, and then after dinner presently (it being a mighty cool day) I by coach to White Hall, and there attended the Cabinet, and was called in before the King and them to give an account of our want of money for Tangier, which troubles me that it should be my place so often and so soon after one another to come to speak there of their wants — the thing of the world that they love least to hear of, and that which is no welcome thing to be the solicitor for — and to see how like an image the King sat and could not speak one word when I had delivered myself was very strange; only my Lord Chancellor did ask me, whether I thought it was in nature at this time to help us to anything. So I was referred to another meeting of the Lords Commissioners for Tangier and my Lord Treasurer, and so went away, and by coach home, where I spent the evening in reading Stillingfleet’s defence of the Archbishopp, the part about Purgatory, a point I had never considered before, what was said for it or against it, and though I do believe we are in the right, yet I do not see any great matter in this book.
So to supper; and my people being gone, most of them, to bed, my boy and Jane and I did get two of my iron chests out of the cellar into my closett, and the money to my great satisfaction to see it there again, and the rather because the damp cellar spoils all my chests. This being done, and I weary, to bed.
This afternoon walking with Sir H. Cholmly long in the gallery, he told me, among many other things, how Harry Killigrew is banished the Court lately, for saying that my Lady Castlemayne was a little lecherous girle when she was young … [and used to rub her thing with her fingers or against the end of forms, and that she must be rubbed with something else. – L&M] This she complained to the King of, and he sent to the Duke of York, whose servant he is, to turn him away. The Duke of York hath done it, but takes it ill of my Lady that he was not complained to first. She attended him to excute it, but ill blood is made by it.
He told me how Mr. Williamson stood in a little place to have come into the House of Commons, and they would not choose him; they said, “No courtier.” And which is worse, Bab May went down in great state to Winchelsea with the Duke of York’s letters, not doubting to be chosen; and there the people chose a private gentleman in spite of him, and cried out they would have no Court pimp to be their burgesse; which are things that bode very ill. This afternoon I went to see and sat a good while with Mrs. Martin, and there was her sister Doll, with whom, contrary to all expectation, I did what I would, and might have done anything else.
19 Annotations
First Reading
Michael L • Link
"I did get two of my iron chests out of the cellar into my closett, and the money to my great satisfaction to see it there again"
Visions of Scrooge McDuck throwing gold pieces in the air -- "I'm rich! Rich!"
Jesse • Link
"no Court pimp to be their burgesse"
On first thought why not, maybe it'd be a good vehicle to get the King's ear. On second thought it's probably a nascent form of checks and balances.
Robert Gertz • Link
"This afternoon I went to see and sat a good while with Mrs. Martin, and there was her sister Doll, with whom, contrary to all expectation, I did what I would, and might have done anything else."
Speaking of Court pimps, Sam...How is Bagwell these days? Not to mention the Mitchell campaign...
Michael Robinson • Link
"... which troubles me that it should be my place so often and so soon after one another to come to speak there of their wants — the thing of the world that they love least to hear of, and that which is no welcome thing to be the solicitor for ..."
HM Clerk of the Acts and Treasurer of Tangier having a 'low man on the totem-pole' problem.
Michael Robinson • Link
"... was a little lecherous girle when she was young … "
" ... and used to rub her thing with her fingers, or against the end of forms, and that she must be rubbed with something else. This she complained to the King of -- ..." continues L&M's text.
Ruben • Link
“… was a little lecherous girle when she was young … “
” … and used to rub her thing with her fingers, or against the end of forms, and that she must be rubbed with something else. This she complained to the King of — …” continues L&M’s text.
Pure Pepys
Robert Gertz • Link
One of the very few times one is inclined to sympathize with Castlemaine.
djc • Link
", Bab May went down in great state to Winchelsea "
Text link to '2nd Earl of Winchelsea' should be to Winchelsea, a town in Sussex. ie Bab May was sponsored by the Duke to be MP for Winchelsea but the electorate decided otherwise.
Rex Gordon • Link
Harry (and Thomas) Killegrew
This bad apple didn't fall far from the tree. His father, Thomas Killegrew, had left England for the European continent during the Civil Wars. He roamed from capital to capital and on at least one occasion was expelled from a court (Venice) for some grotesque debaucheries. One of his diversions during his wandering was writing pornography, like one story called "The Possessing and Dispossessing of Several Nuns in the Nunnery at Tours in France." It is said that on a visit to the Louvre, seeing a painting of the Crucifixion between a portrait of Pope Innocent X and Louis XIV, he remarked, "Though I have often heard that our Saviour was hanged between two thieves, yet I never knew who they were until now." Charles welcomed Thomas into his entourage in exile and enjoyed his ribald humor and outrageous behavior. (Charles also enjoyed the behavior of Thomas' sister, Elizabeth, Lady Shannon, who spent many a night with him.)
On their return to England Thomas became groom of the bedchamber and later, chamberlain to Catherine of Braganza, while his wife was appointed first lady of the queen's privy chamber. He opened the Theatre Royal in what is now Drury Lane in 1663. In 1664 he put on one of his own plays called The Parson's Wedding, with an all-female cast, and explained its advantages:
When boys played women's parts, you'd think the stage
Was innocent in that tempting age.
No: for your amorous fathers then, like you,
Amongst those boys had playhouse misses, too.
They set those bearded beauties on their laps,
Men gave 'em kisses and the ladies claps.
But they, poor hearts, could not supply our room,
While we, in kindness to ourselves, and you,
Can hold our women to our lodgings, too.
A. De Araujo • Link
"and used to rub her thing with her fingers"
but she grew up unto serious pleasures!
A. Hamilton • Link
Harry Killigrew
As Rex Gordon points out, this Harry is the son of Thomas, not the Harry in the link.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"so home to dinner, and took in my Lady Pen and Peg (Sir William being below with the fleete)"
L&M: Below = Down river at the Nore.
Terry Foreman • Link
"I spent the evening in reading Stillingfleet’s defence of the Archbishopp, the part about Purgatory"
L&M: Edward Stillingfleet's A rational account of the grounds of Protestant religion (1665; PL 2325); A commentary on Archbishop Laud's book (1639) enlarging on his controversy in 1622 with the Jesuit John Fisher. In ch. vi of pt iii (pp. 636-54) Stillingfleet considers 'the advantage which comes to the Church of Rome by the doctrine of Purgatory'; the lack of patristic basis for it; 'the churches infallibility made at last the Foundation of the belief.... The falsity of that principle: and the whole concluded.
Terry Foreman • Link
More text supplied by L&M:
"This afternoon, walking with Sir H. Cholmly long in the gallery, he told me, among many other things, how Harry Killigrew is banished the Court lately for saying that my Lady Castlemayne was a little lecherous girl when she was young, and used to rub her thing with her fingers or against the end of forms. This she complained to the King of --- and he sent to the Duke of York, whose servant he is, to turn him away."
L&M note: He was the son of Thomas Killigrew, sen., the dramatist, and a Groom of the Bedchamber to the Duke of York. Cf the newsletter report (25 October) in HMC, Rep., 7/1/485 in which he is said to have used 'raw words' against 'a lady of pleasure'. The King, writing to his sister Minette a year later, said of Killigrew, 'Have one caution of him, that you believe not one word he says of us here, for he is a most notorious liar...' (C. H. Hartmann, The King my brother, p. 202).
Terry Foreman • Link
"And which is worse, Bab May went down in great state to Winchelsea with the Duke of York’s letters, not doubting to be chosen; and there the people chose a private gentleman in spite of him, and cried out they would have no Court pimp to be their burgesse; which are things that bode very ill."
L&M: In September Joseph Williamson (head of Arlington's secretariat) had been defeated at Morpeth, Northumberland, by Lord Morpeth. Cf. the account by his brother, who acted as his agent, in CSPD Add. 1660-85, p. 163: 'They say openly that after Sir George Downing no courtier or stranger shall be chosen by them'. Baptist May (Groom of the Bedchamber to the Duke of York) was defeatged at Winchelsea in early October by Robert Austin of Tenterden despite (or because of) the Duke;s letter of recommendation. Williamson failed om two further occasions before being elected in 1669. These defeats were remarkable but not untypical; bye-elections (numerous at this time) were going against the government.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"(Sir William being below with the fleete)"
Admiral Penn is overseeing what fleet repairs and dock and fort building can be done. The fleet is anchored at the Nore (a long east-west sandbank producing a large stretch of calmer water used by the navy as a convenient anchorage) which lies just off the Ness at what today is the town of Sheerness.
When the second Anglo-Dutch war began in March 1665, the Dutch and English faced each other across the North Sea, dictating the likely arena for engagements, meaning maintenance would fall to the three dockyards, hours of sailing time up river on the Thames and Medway.
The Admiralty decided the broad mudflats exposed at low tide on the southern side of the Ness could be used for more than the careening of ships' hulls, and in the spring of 1665 a small ready-to-use victualing storehouse was erected adjacent to the foreshore. As readily available supplies of spare masts, yards, rigging and canvas came into demand to keep the fighting ships at sea, a stockpile of stores was developed at Sheerness in what rapidly became a ramshackle little depot.
On 18 August, 1665 the Navy Board landed at Sheerness to survey the ground and layout the proposed new dockyard.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
In mid-November 1665 it was announced large warships could now be refitted at Sheerness Dockyard adjacent to which, at the Ness, they started building a fort to contain 29 pieces of ordnance, but progress on the fort was slow.
The Sheerness fort was part of a nationwide awareness that invasion by the Dutch was a probability, especially after Holmes' Bonfire.
SPOILER: Sheerness fort was still not completed by June 1667. No doubt we'll find out if Penn catches blame for that later.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... my boy and Jane ..."
I think this is the first time I've seen the two mentioned in one sentence. Tom Edwards is a "boy" and I think we concluded he was about 14 when he joined the Pepys household, making him around 16 now. Jane Birch is an experienced and appreciated maid. I think she was about 13 when the Diary started, making her about 20 now. SPOILER: And these two get married later in life. Should we rethink their ages -- or was she a cougar?
Kelvin Hard • Link
Anne Hathaway was of course eight years older than Shakespeare and such age differences between an older woman and younger man were not uncommon in those days. (If the man were older I doubt we would even note it.) Marriages were made as much for reasons of convenience or security as for romance and Tom may have reasoned that he was unlikely to do better than marrying Pepys’ favourite. Moreover, whatever looks and personality so charmed Pepys are just as likely to have worked on Tom.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"On their return to England Thomas Killigrew became groom of the bedchamber and later, chamberlain to Catherine of Braganza, while his wife was appointed first lady of the queen's privy chamber."
Thomas Killigrew's first wife, Cecilia Crofts Killigrew, was a Maid of Honor to Queen Henrietta Maria. She died in 1638.
His second wife, Charlotte de Hesse Killigrew, was not in Catherine of Braganza's entourage that I can find.
"First lady of the privy chamber" was a term that ended with Queen Elizabeth. Catherine's ladies were called "Ladies of the Bedchamber". They main ones were:
• 1663–1667: Katherine Stanhope, Countess of Chesterfield
• 1663–1673: Barbara Villiers Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine
• 1663–1681: Barbara Villiers Wenman Wentworth Howard, Countess of Suffolk
• 1663–1688: Mary Fairfax Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham
• 1663–1688: Jane Wyche Granville, Countess of Bath
Charlotte de Hesse Killigrew was too mature (and married) to be a Lady-in-Waiting. But no one seems to have written much about her on line, so I can't unravel this entry more than this.