Thursday 18 July 1667

Up and to the office, where busy all the morning, and most of our time taken up with Carcasse upon some complaints brought in against him, and many other petitions about tickets lost, which spends most of our time. Home to dinner, and then to the office again, where very well employed at the office till evening; and then being weary, took out my wife and Will Batelier by coach to Islington, but no pleasure in our going, the way being so dusty that one durst not breathe. Drank at the old house, and so home, and then to the office a little, and so home to supper and to bed.

9 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The Royal Society today at Arundel House — from the Hooke Folio Online

Iuly. 18. (Dr. Kings opening the dog thorax faild)

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

Had this not been an experiment Hooke had gladly given away.

jmacg  •  Link

Will we ever stop hearing about Carcasse? Can't they get rid of him for once and for all?

Carl in Boston  •  Link

The Shorter Pepys skips over these boring entries. I like them, they're quite informative about the life of the times. The dust on the roads wasn't healthy, and wasn't eliminated till about 1900 in the USA when pavement was laid down. Even then sanitation took years to take hold. Yay for boring days.

Ruben  •  Link

for information about road improvement see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maca…
Like in other aspects, France was ahead in those days.
You can see an illustration of the first paved road in USA in 1823.
Wikipedia can fill your free time easily...

Second Reading

john  •  Link

Well, Carl, our road was only paved two years ago. In summer, the dust clouds from passing vehicles could be seen at some distance and all were covered in dust. (Winter was better in that snow filled in the holes.) Riding in an open carriage would not have been pleasant.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I have been figuring out who John Evelyn had lunch with at Sayes Court, Deptford today.

Sir Nicholas Armourer was one of the most trusted, and certainly one of the busiest, of all the agents who were employed by the Charles II and his principal counsellors during their exile. -- Geoffrey Smith: ‘Armorer, Sir Nicholas (c. 1620–1686)’, ODNB, online edn, May 2006, -- you need a subscription

Mr. Williamson was probably the Secretary of State Joseph Williamson.

The Master of the Mint had just undergone a change: Sir Ralph Freeman MP, was a joint Master of the Mint. He drew up his will on 5 June 1667, and one week later he was dead, leaving his partner, Henry Slingsby FRS as the only Master.

References in the diaries of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn indicate Henry Slingsby and his wife, Ann Cage, held a high position in London society and the Royal Court.

I think “Edward” Bowyer was really EDMUND Bowyer MP. By 1633 Hester Aucher had married Sir Edmund Bowyer MP (1613-1681) of Camberwell Green, Surrey. Hester died in 1665. Her father was Sir Anthony Aucher MP (c.1614-92), of Bishopsbourne, Kent. (Younger than his son-in-law -- lucky Hester.)

Further, John Evelyn is recorded as visiting Sir Edmund Bowyer several times during the Interregnum at his ‘melancholy seat’ [the manor of Camberwell Freren] in Camberwell, Surrey.3
• 3. VCH Surr. iv. 30; Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 172; CSP Dom. 1648-9, pp. 184, 305; Cal. Comm. Comp. 132; Evelyn Diary, iii. 196, 197, 211, 218.

We know Evelyn’s spelling is awful, and the bios give AUGER as an alternative spelling for AUCHER.

So my last guess is that these two 50-year-old MPs, former in-laws, were the guests mentioned at this lunch.

For a lovely painting of Hester Aucher Bowyer and some of this history, see
https://www.woolleyandwallis.co.u…
and for her husband and father:
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
and for Ann Cage and Henry Slingsby
https://atticsandacres.com/2016/0…

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