Monday 31 December 1666
Rising this day with a full design to mind nothing else but to make up my accounts for the year past, I did take money, and walk forth to several places in the towne as far as the New Exchange, to pay all my debts, it being still a very great frost and good walking. I staid at the Fleece Tavern in Covent Garden while my boy Tom went to W. Joyce’s to pay what I owed for candles there. Thence to the New Exchange to clear my wife’s score, and so going back again I met Doll Lane (Mrs. Martin’s sister), with another young woman of the Hall, one Scott, and took them to the Half Moon Taverne and there drank some burnt wine with them, without more pleasure, and so away home by coach, and there to dinner, and then to my accounts, wherein, at last, I find them clear and right; but, to my great discontent, do find that my gettings this year have been 573l. less than my last: it being this year in all but 2,986l.; whereas, the last, I got 3,560l.. And then again my spendings this year have exceeded my spendings the last by 644l.: my whole spendings last year being but 509l.; whereas this year, it appears, I have spent 1154l., which is a sum not fit to be said that ever I should spend in one year, before I am master of a better estate than I am. Yet, blessed be God! and I pray God make me thankful for it, I do find myself worth in money, all good, above 6,200l.; which is above 1800l. more than I was the last year. This, I trust in God, will make me thankfull for what I have, and carefull to make up by care next year what by my negligence and prodigality I have lost and spent this year.
The doing of this, and entering of it fair, with the sorting of all my expenses, to see how and in what points I have exceeded, did make it late work, till my eyes become very sore and ill, and then did give over, and supper, and to bed.
Thus ends this year of publick wonder and mischief to this nation, and, therefore, generally wished by all people to have an end. Myself and family well, having four mayds and one clerk, Tom, in my house, and my brother, now with me, to spend time in order to his preferment. Our healths all well, only my eyes with overworking them are sore as candlelight comes to them, and not else; publick matters in a most sad condition; seamen discouraged for want of pay, and are become not to be governed: nor, as matters are now, can any fleete go out next year. Our enemies, French and Dutch, great, and grow more by our poverty. The Parliament backward in raising, because jealous of the spending of the money; the City less and less likely to be built again, every body settling elsewhere, and nobody encouraged to trade. A sad, vicious, negligent Court, and all sober men there fearful of the ruin of the whole kingdom this next year; from which, good God deliver us! One thing I reckon remarkable in my owne condition is, that I am come to abound in good plate, so as at all entertainments to be served wholly with silver plates, having two dozen and a half.
31 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
John Evelyn's Diary
December 31. Blessed God for his Protection of me & mine this past yeare:
http://www.gyford.com/archive/200…
CGS • Link
He"...to pay all my debts..."
he then settles the score "...Thence to the New Exchange to clear my wife’s score,...".
Credit [tic, tab, chit, ticket, score, debt,IOU , sou,,,] by any other name is still makes one indebted.
Nate • Link
I wonder if he counts the value of his plate in his accounts? If so, I imagine that the resale value is less than was paid for it.
Nate • Link
BTW Happy New Year to all and all of yours. Live well and prosper in the new year.
Larry Bunce • Link
The 6,200 pounds Pepys is worths translates to 8.9 million today relative to average earnings. Not bad for a 33 year old. There was a time when having your age in thousands of dollars was considered doing well.
Happu New Year Sam and all.
cape henry • Link
"Thus ends this year of publick wonder and mischief to this nation, and, therefore, generally wished by all people to have an end."
Indeed. So Happy New Year to all who contribute so much to our understanding and all who read these pages.
Terry Foreman • Link
"my brother, now with me, to spend time in order to [secure] his preferment"
preferment
Pronunciation: \pri-ˈfər-mənt\
Function: noun
Date: 15th century
1 a : advancement or promotion in dignity, office, or station b : a position or office of honor or profit
2 : priority or seniority in right especially to receive payment or to purchase property on equal terms with others
3 : the act of bringing forward (as charges) http://www.merriam-webster.com/di…
mary k mcintyre • Link
Happy New Year everyone -- like Sam, we have had a year of "publick wonder and mischief", let's hope 2010 brings us all better.
xoM
Michael Robinson • Link
Spoiler -- ODNB Entry -- the 350 anniversary of beginning the Diary is upon us.
Pepys, Samuel (1633–1703), naval official and diarist, was born at the family home, Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, London, on 23 February 1633, the second son of John Pepys (1601–1680), tailor, and his wife, Margaret, née Kite (d. 1667), daughter of a Whitechapel butcher. He was the fifth of their eleven children, and the oldest to survive into adulthood. He was baptized on 3 March in St Bride's Church by James Palmer. Although his immediate background was urban and modest, Pepys's family came from Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, and he had landed connections there and in Huntingdonshire. Among these was his father's brother Robert, who owned an estate at Brampton, Huntingdonshire, which Pepys eventually inherited. Of more immediate importance was the marriage of John Pepys's aunt Paulina to Sir Sydney Montagu of Hinchingbrooke; their son Edward Mountagu (later earl of Sandwich), who was to have a large place in the Commonweath regime and a larger one in its overthrow, was the agent for Pepys's advancement into public service.
Continued, for seven days only at:
http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/l…
Tony Eldridge • Link
all sober men there fearful of the ruin of the whole kingdom this next year; from which, good God deliver us!
Nothing changes, does it? Let's hope God, or someone, delivers all of us. Happy New Year!
Robert Gertz • Link
"Thence to the New Exchange to clear my wife’s score, and so going back again I met Doll Lane (Mrs. Martin’s sister), with another young woman of the Hall, one Scott, and took them to the Half Moon Taverne and there drank some burnt wine with them, without more pleasure..."
Heaven...
"So I can hope 1667 will be better in Diarytime?"
"Bess...I quote '...cleared my wife's (My wife's) score...without more pleasure...' Without...More...Pleasure, Bess."
"Gee...What a redemption. Did the Spirits of New Years Past, Present, and Future visit you that NYE?"
"Bess..."
"And this...
'...then to my accounts, wherein, at last, I find them clear and right; but, to my great discontent, do find that my gettings this year have been 573l. less than my last: it being this year in all but 2,986l.; whereas, the last, I got 3,560l.. And then again my spendings this year have exceeded my spendings the last by 644l.: my whole spendings last year being but 509l.; whereas this year, it appears, I have spent 1154l., which is a sum not fit to be said that ever I should spend in one year, before I am master of a better estate than I am. Yet, blessed be God! and I pray God make me thankful for it, I do find myself worth in money, all good, above 6,200l.; which is above 1800l. more than I was the last year. This, I trust in God, will make me thankfull for what I have, and carefull to make up by care next year what by my negligence and prodigality I have lost and spent this year.' ...all that and you don't even mention me in all this reckoning of blessing."
"Of course I do... '...myself and family...' See?"
" ...and family...?'
"Well...I don't talk about my health here."
"For which I'm sure we're all grateful..."
"But the spirit of my happiness is clearly wrapped around you. '...without more pleasure...' I remind you."
CGS • Link
Name Cottenham and Pepys dothe live on, 'twas in the daily read.
"One for the diary: a Pepys is to wed"
out of context.
"a descendant of Samuel Pepys (whose diaries were almost as admired as my own)"
Mary • Link
But, as far as we know, our Pepys had no direct descendants .... certainly none acknowledged as such. ... and brother John died unmarried at the age of 36.
This Pepys must be a collateral descendant of some kind. Any details given?
Fern • Link
When I was a youngster I used to attend a youth group in Raynes Park, SW London. I used to walk up Pepys Rd which led into Cottenham Park Rd. Perhaps the family owned land in that area too.
Australian Susan • Link
John's preferment: Sam is looking out for a living for him - presumably Sandwich does not have any livings in his gift (or they are all sold to or occupied by more immediate relatives) to help out here. We do not seem to have heard anything of Sam being diligent in this connection, unlike his recording of efforts to find Balty an office (muster master). He does not seem to have had a terribly high opinion of his brother.
CGS • Link
stop complaining Tars, yoall get thy fart[h]ings
H o C today
Seamen and Naval Stores.
AN ingrossed Bill, to prevent the Disturbances of Seamen, and others; and to preserve the Stores of his Majesty's Navy Royal; was read.
Resolved, &c. That the Bill do pass: And that the Title shall be, An Act to prevent the Disturbances of Seamen, and others; and to preserve the Stores of his Majesty's Navy Royal.
{All Atheist to be ...}
Atheism, &c.
An ingrossed Bill for punishing and preventing Atheism, Profaneness, and profane Cursing and Swearing, was read.
Resolved, &c. That the Bill do pass: And that the Title shall be, An Act for punishing and preventing Atheism, Profaneness, and profane Cursing and Swearing.
CGS • Link
Cottenham connection via wiki, lifted
"
The title of the earldom is derived from the village of Cottenham (pronounced "Cot-nam") in Cambridgeshire, birthplace of John Pepys, ancestor of the first Earl, and great-uncle of Samuel Pepys the diarist."
Paul Chapin • Link
So we've survived the plague, the fire, and (so far) the Dutch and the French, and are 1800L richer than last year, but still it was a year "generally wished by all people to have an end." Not a whole lot different from 2009, I'd say, with a few substitute nouns.
Happy New Year and New Decade to all on this blog, one of the good things of the year past and the year to come.
Paul Chapin • Link
"it being still a very great frost and good walking"
I guess the walking is better when the ground is frozen instead of muddy.
CGS • Link
'I guess the walking is better when the ground is frozen instead of muddy.'
Yep, Mother/Nanny does not cuss you out on those days for traipsing in the mud.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
" the City less and less likely to be built again"
Unbelievably, some rumors about events very important to London are not mongered to Pepys by his frequent suppliers (in effect he is supplied the daily oral tabloids).
L&M note the bills governing the rebuilding and the settling of claims were still before parliament. The two main ones were shortly to receive the royal assent on 8 February 1667.
See the speech that day of the Speaker of the House of Commons presenting bills for His Majesty's assent: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
San Diego Sarah • Link
MEANWHILE, in Irvine, Scotland: James Blackwood and John M’Coul, two Covenanter martyrs, met their ends today:
Mostly from The Homes, Haunts, and Battlefields of the Covenanters.
The martyrs in question, who were among many of that profession in these years, were executed by Cornelius Anderson, a condemned fellow-Covenanter who, days before in Ayr, miserably consented to turn hangman in order to save his own life.
STOP PASSENGER
THOU TREADEST NEAR TWO MARTYRS
JAMES BLACKWOOD & JOHN M’COUL
who suffered at IRVINE
on the 31st of December 1666
REV xii. 11th
These honest Country-men whose Bones here lie
A Victim fell to Prelates Cruelty;
Condemn’d by bloody and unrighteous Laws
They died Martyrs for the good old cause
Which Balaams wicked Race in vain assail
For no Inchantments ‘gainst Israel prevail
Life and this evil World they did contemn
And dy’d for Christ who died first for them
‘They lived unknown
Till Persecution dragged them into fame
And chas’d them up to Heaven’ [Cowper lines -ed.]
-- Erected by Friends to Religious Liberty - 31st Dec. 1823.
As at other executions, the men were probably executed in the town and their heads displayed at Irvine’s mercat cross before they were spiked, probably on a burgh gate, for public display.
This was part of the reprisals from the Pentland Rising in November. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Nate Lockwood • Link
An echo from the past and past annotators: "Thus ends this year of publick wonder and mischief to this nation, and, therefore, generally wished by all people to have an end."
Zexufang • Link
Happy New Year.
Nothing better than reading Pepys diary on a cold night here in Ohio.
I have learned more about London and its history via Pepys (and this website) than any other source.
And for that.... I thank you Phil Gyford.
Tonyel • Link
Maths has never been my strong point but if Sam's 'gettings' are down and his 'spendings' up over the year, how does he end up £1800 better off?
Is this the first recorded instance of creative accounting?
Happy new year and may we all prosper like Mr Pepys.
Steven Snipes • Link
He earned less than last year and he spent more than last year, but he still had a net gain, though smaller than last year's net gain, which increased his net worth.
Buffalo Gal • Link
I never thought of salt goose as a treat! In winter the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company ate large quantities of geese that had been salted in barrels. An article from Ontario History, Fall 2017, by John S Long et al, gives a figure of 700 salted geese eaten by 24 men over the course of 10 weeks - about 3 geese per man per week. These were wild geese, of course. And I suppose this annotation is somewhat of an anachronism as, from Sam's current point of view, the Hudson's Bay Company doesn't yet exist - it was founded in 1670.
Jonathan V • Link
Buffalo Gal, thanks. I had to look up "powdered goose," and your note helps immensely.
Happy New Year to all.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Speaking of the Dutch ... since we have no idea of a date for this, I'm putting it here for no particular reason:
As mentioned in the past, a group of Cromwellian exiles in Antwerp were working with the Dutch republicans to undermine the English Monarchy.
Aphra Behn was employed there by Charles II as a spy during 1666, and under the code name, ‘Astrea’, had been sent there to reacquaint herself with a former suitor, William Scott (son of the regicide Thomas Scott, who was executed in 1660), and discover what the Dutch were up to.
William Scott was eager to ingratiate himself with the English government, but he didn’t know much so when Aphra was ready to leave Antwerp she had little useful information. Maybe as a result, her expenses were not paid by William Chiffinch, Charles II’s administrator of the ‘Secret Service’ budget (and reputed pimp -- but wasn't everyone). Chiffinch and his wife were in charge of the private entrance to Charles' apartments after 1666. They were personal friends of the King and served as go-betweens, arranging meetings with informers and spies on behalf of the Whigs and Catholic leaders who couldn’t be seen coming to court in the light of day.
As we know, there was no money at the end of 1666, so Aphra had to borrow the money to pay for her trip home in January, 1667. This also resulted in her spending months in gaol for the debt she had no means to repay. We don't know anything more about Aphra's story for about 18 months. Imagine her in a debtors' prison, or on the run.
San Diego Sarah • Link
On the trail of the elusive English spy, Aphra Behn:
"Dec. 26. 148. Aphra Behn to Lord Arlington.
Knows the justness of her cause, or would be wild with her hard treatment; applies to him as her last hope, and the fountain of mercy; the delays have caused her twice the expense she would have had; would not beg nor starve, and had to get credit, &c.
Desires much to come home if she had money, although confident that with the supplies promised, she could do much, as he [Scott] will have his liberty in a few days. Wants a bill for 100£., of which her friend shall have part; cannot return without this; is a poor stranger and her life depends on it.
Did not desire the place she has, nor the voyage; must come by this convoy, or will have to stay two months longer. Gives an extract from her friend's letter, in which he says that neither failure of money nor anything shall make him fail in his duty, and begs to see her once more before she returns, as he has many important things to tell her.
Would have given all his letter, but many of hers have miscarried. [5 pages.]"
https://books.google.com/books?id…
Third Reading
Charles Miller • Link
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
A small point re Larry Bunce’s assertion that SPs £6200 would be worth £8.9m in 2010, according to the historic currency converter at Kew, £6200 in 1670 (the nearst year that can be selected) would be worth £705,426.70 in 2017, the present cut off year for the converter, a far more plausible sum..