Tuesday 16 July 1667
In the morning I was able to put on a wide shoe on the foot, and to the office without much pain, and there sat all the morning. At noon home to dinner, where Creed to discourse of our Tangier business, which stands very bad in the business of money, and therefore we expect to have a committee called soon, and to acquaint them among other things with the order come to me for the not paying of any more pensions. We dined together, and after dinner I to the office, and there very late, very busy, doing much business indeed, and so with great comfort home to supper, and so to bed to ease my foot, which toward night began to ake.
15 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
Brodrick to Ormond
Written from: [London]
Date: 16 July 1667
Communicates particulars of the Duke of Buckingham's release from the Tower: of his continuance "at his Lady's lodgings in St. Martin's Lane"; and of his preparations "to remove, with great equipage, to Wallingford-House, against the [meeting of] Parliament".
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A News-Letter, addressed to Sir George Lane
Written from: [Whitehall]
Date: 16 July 1667
The Lord Ambassador Coventry gave to the King in Council, at its meetings on 10th and 11th inst., a statement of the progress of the Negotiations at Breda:- of the particulars insisted on by himself and his colleagues, in pursuance of their instructions;- and of other particulars, in respect of which some concession, it was thought, might be made. The King, with the advice of his Council, and after some slight alteration, approved of the terms so reported by the Ambassador.
A Virginia Fleet is reported to have reached "a port in this Kingdom", and to consist of forty sail; "but", it is added, "we expect the confirmation". ...
http://www.rsl.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwm…
Terry Foreman • Link
Ormond to Anglesey
Written from: Dublin
Date: 16 July 1667
Lord Anglesey's letter of the 6th was received as the Duke was taking a view of the Leinster Militia on the Curragh of Kildare. ... There were about 1,800 good horse, & near 3,000 good foot ... They parted well pleased ... Wishes the standing Army were, or had reason to be, as well satisfied. ... Upon the best scrutiny that can be made into the Revenue, we can give them at present only three months' pay,- of so many that are in arrear,- & that only by assignments.
... Adds, at great length, various particulars concerning the Revenue & the Finance-Accounts of the Kingdom. ...
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Ormond to Arlington
Written from: Dublin
Date: 16 July 1667
Particulars concerning the Army and Revenue affairs of Ireland ...
"If", adds the Duke, "I understand the points remaining to be adjusted by the Ambassadors at Breda, ... they are not so hard to swallow, as by the mention of them in ... [Lord Arlington's] letter of the 6th, I feared they would be".
... "It may possibly be a ... question whether the meeting of the Parliament may not now be dispensed with; ... as I hear, it was doubtful whether the calling it, in the interval, was legal, or at least regular". ...
http://www.rsl.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwm…
Larry Bunce • Link
...the order come to me for the not paying of any more pensions.
Sam does not add a word about feeling sorry for the pensioners about to lose their incomes. I wonder if this is just a short entry, or he is getting inured to the business of the Navy when money is short.
Terry Foreman • Link
Pensions Pepys did not want to pay
An example L&M cited on 13 July is Henry Mordaunt (2nd Earl of Peterborough) who had received a pension of £1000 p.a. after only eight months' service as Governor of Tangier. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
language hat • Link
Yes, these pensioners are presumably not poor doddering old salts but aristos on the make. (I don't think ordinary folk got pensions in those days.)
JWB • Link
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary:
"Pension:An allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country."
arby • Link
Good ol' Sam Johnson, thanks JWB!
cum salis grano • Link
pension
An ancient way of removing useless but dangerous individuals that you could not put into the tower due to them having well placed supporters, now we give them a sinecure title & well place seat where cannot commit mayhem or other damage and have no 'loss of face' .
There are many other euphemisms for not wanted here.
cum salis grano • Link
Pension
< Anglo-Norman pencione, pensioun, Anglo-Norman and Middle French pencion, Anglo-Norman and Middle French, French pension payment, compensation (1216 in Old French as pensiun),
annuity (1315 in Old French; the spec. sense ‘retirement pay, old age pension’ is not paralleled in French until much later),
rent (1346), salary (1428), boarding house (1609), boarding school (a1615), and its etymon classical Latin p{emac}nsi{omac}n-, p{emac}nsi{omac} payment, rent, a measured weight, compensation, in post-classical
Latin also interest (4th cent.), tax (4th cent.), tribute (9th cent.), annuity, salary, pension (in ecclesiastical sense from 12th cent. in continental sources, frequently a1223-1576 in British sources; also in secular sense), fixed payment made from or charged to the revenues of a benefice
(frequently c1156-1565 in British sources) < p{emac}ns-, past participial stem of pendere to weigh (see PENSE v.1) + -i{omac} -ION suffix1. Compare Old Occitan pensio (1482 or earlier; Occitan pension), Catalan pensió (13th cent.), Portuguese pensão (1371 as pensõões (plural)), Italian pensione (a1519),
Spanish pensión (17th cent.), and also (partly via French) Middle Dutch pensioen, pencioen (Dutch pensioen), Middle Low German p{emac}nsi{omac}n, German Pension (beginning of the 15th cent.).
In forms pensión (compare quot. 1951 at sense 7c) after Spanish pensión.
With sense 7 compare Middle French pension food for a person (1535) and en pension (1564 or earlier in prendre en pension to take (a person) on as a boarder); independent use of pension in sense ‘payment for board and lodging’ is later in French (1602).
Sense 8 probably derives from sense 5, but the semantic development is unclear
cum salis grano • Link
Pension a selection:
1 a. Any regular payment made to a person for present services or to retain allegiance, goodwill, etc.; a stipend, wage; a fee. Obs.
b. A regular payment made to a person of rank or a royal favourite to enable him or her to live to an expected standard. Also: a regular payment made to an artist or scholar to enable him or her to carry out work of public interest or value. Now hist.
2. Any payment made by or exacted from a person or persons; a tax, charge, price; a contribution; an expenditure. Also fig. Obs.
a1387
3. A one-off payment, esp. a reward. Obs.
c1400
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Pension Parliament n. Eng. Hist. (now rare) = Pensioner Parliament n. at PENSIONER n. Compounds 2; also fig.
1682 DRYDEN in T. Southerne Loyal Brother Epil. 59 'Tis Faction buys the Votes of half the Pit; Their's is the *Pension-Parliament of wit.
Robert Gertz • Link
I know of a few US state governments that only wish they could pull off what Sam is getting to do regards pensions. Seriously I wonder how much pension cash was getting syphoned off to keep the ole boys in fine old wine.
Heaven help him if he must next cut off the mistresses' pensions.
"Pepys..." Crash of pottery against wall inside room.
"Sire? You had me summoned?"
"Indeed..." Charles turns as crash followed by splintering sound is heard.
"That's for your new Louis XIV armchair!!" cry...
"Pity. New modern design, ever see one?" Charlie notes calmly to Sam.
"Er, no, Sire."
"Have to write Louis for a new one. Anyway, Pepys...Jamie's told me about the bang-up..."
More splinting of wood sounds... "Say goodbye to Dad's portrait, you son-of-a...!"
"Oh, not Dad's portrait!" Charles goes to door...Dodges thrown frame, closing door hurriedly.
Hmmn...
"Lady Castlemaine paying a call, bit of a headache this am, I think...As I was saying Pepys..." takes Sam's arm. "The bang-up job you did with those Tangier types...The pensioners, I mean...Saved us a bundle, Jamie says."
"Terrible what abuses they were making of your Treasury, sire...I was only too glad..."
"Well..." winking smile... "No man's an angel, Samuel. Can't really blame a fellow sent out to a miserable hole like Tangier for trying to get a little back, you know? Still, I was thinking..."
Door opens...Clothes tossed out. "Take your miserable rags and..."
"Keep that door closed will you?" Charles waves to guards. "Wouldn't want her Majesty the Q disturbed when she passes by on her way to chapel. Oh, and you might tell her M that Lady Castlemaine will be indisposed for duty tonight. Chesterton, wipe that smirk off your face..." smile at one guard. "And tell her M that I will be able to attend her at dinner. My pressing matter became less so..."
"So, Pepys, getting back to the subject...I was thinking, hoping, really...That you might possibly consider continuing your work in the pension reform field?"
"Sire? If I can be of any service...? Shall I make up a list of those unworthy of receiving as it pertains to the Navy?"
"Hmmn...Navy? No, not quite it, Pepys. Believe Jamie thinks we've about squeezed that lemon dry. But, there's a whole new area in which your talents of devotion to duty and charitable tact should come in quite handy."
Door thrown open... "You worthless...!!!" the divine Castlemaine framed in doorway, blocked by guards, face black with rage. "You'd cut me off without a penny?!! Your miserable brats are dead!! Dead!!!!"
Not exactly as I'd fantasied...Sam notes, sadly.
"Your first assignment, Samuel... Best of luck." Charles waves to Castlemaine. "Mr. Pepys here should be able to help you , dearest. He'll be the one redirecting your income to help restore our naval losses."
"First...?" Sam gasps out...Castlemaine locking eyes on him.
JWB • Link
It should be noted Johnson's Dictionary published well before Geo III & the Tory Bute came to power offering fellow party faithful Johnson 300 pounds per annum, which he took & wrote almost nothing worthwhile afterwards.
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Pepys does not add a word about feeling sorry for the pensioners about to lose their incomes."
My guess is that Pepys would rather spend his part of the budget on victualing the troops in Tangier (earning a commission) than giving money to rich aristocrats (with no commission). Besides, Pepys didn't end their pensions; Charles II did. Let them sort it out. Allocating the budget is above his pay grade.
He's just following orders.
Batch • Link
Many of the people who helped Charles escape after Worcester, like Jane Lane and the Pendrells, received pensions in perpetuity. Jane Lane's lapsed because she was childless, but the Pendrell brothers' pensions are still being paid to a number of their descendants.
Mike Zim • Link
JWB "It should be noted Johnson's Dictionary published well before Geo III & the Tory Bute came to power offering fellow party faithful Johnson 300 pounds per annum, which he took & wrote almost nothing worthwhile afterwards."
Beg to differ, my favorite Johnson work came after 1762, when his pension commenced.
"Journey to the Western Islands" (1773), and "Prayers and Meditations" (1785).
ps, "Lives of the Poets" was published in 1777. (I suspect Boris Johnson's 2011 "Johnson's Life Of London" is a hat tip to that book's title.")