Friday 10 April 1668

(Friday) All the morning at Office. At noon with W. Pen to Duke of York, and attended Council. So to piper and Duck Lane, and there kissed bookseller’s wife, and bought Legend. So home, coach. Sailor. Mrs. Hannam dead.

17 Annotations

First Reading

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

How interesting to see Sam's rough notes -- the musical equivalent would be listening to his demo ... just enough of the idea there for him to flesh out later.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

I wonder what caused the editing breakdown? Eye trouble? Girl trouble...Swinging bachelor pad a bit too busy? Or...

Heaven...

"Why didn't you transcribe the full copy?" Bess stares.

"You forgot to write it up, remember?"

"Ah, right. In Brampton that week I was trying to decide if you took up with Mrs. Burroughs in a big way or really began a pursuit of poor Deb. Never did come to a decision till I got back."

Hmmn...Frown...

Now, honey...

"Sam'l, you knew our collaboration made us a lot more exciting to History than a dull tale about a happily married, steadfastly faithful if brilliant naval adminstrator and his beautiful yet adoring half French wife...The way you'd've written it, you could have been Ralph Josselyn in the Navy Office."

"I suppose..."

"Well, lots of people here like your version of my Diary..The memoirs of Elisabeth St. Michel Pepys, secret scandalous courtesan of Charles II's court. I rather fancy it myself." grin.

"If we'd just had time to write it on Earth, people might have realized we were writing fiction."

"So?...They might just as well have thought both Diaries were true."

"But I kill Lord Sandwich in the seventh year of your Diary...I doubt that would have left any room for doubt."

"I love when you quote Othello as you stab him...And on my birthday. That was sweet, Sam'l."

"Well...Cousin Ed laughed but you know I think that bit still bothers Jemina."

Mary  •  Link

It might be worth noting that, as transcribed in the L&M edition, all these notes are shown as having been scored through, line by line, with a single, horizontal line - as though Pepys had been saying to himself, " done that; done that; done that; ......." to the end of the notes. The sort of thing that I might do with a 'to do' list when I had taken care of each item, yet there is apparently no extended transcription extant.

Georgiana Wickham  •  Link

At work, most of my colleagues are on holiday this week, and I am conscious of a void. Now Pepys has decided to join them. I feel abandoned.

john  •  Link

Did Pepys write on loose-leaf and later have them bound or did he actually write in bound volumes?

Mary  •  Link

According to L&M (Vol.1 pp.xlii ff.) the clear balance of evidence indicates that the diaries were not written on loose leaves that were then bound into volumes, but that all of the volumes were ordinary stationer's notebooks, bought at different times and with varying paper quality.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The stricken-through lines in L&M that Mary mentioned record what Pepys spent in various venues for the navy and himself. Here are the notes for his account book and such L&M notes as there are:

Eastwood 100l. (Roger Eastwood, asst. shipwright at Deptford and Woolwich, was fitting the Ruby, a French prize, with masts).
Mr. Raynor. Young Lyon 200l. (A 6th-rate recently sold to him and now bought back.)
Capt. Cubbins.
Wollwth Master Attendt. to carry Fr[ench] Ruby where she may lie afloat and take in men and provisions.
Young Lyon. buy 200l.
Elizabeth Ketch 17l.
Goldsmith's.
Legend. 0 14 0
So home coach. 0 4 0

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"So home coach" -- nice phrase and soooo SP!

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Goldsmith's____________"

Ralph Goldsmith, a ship's captain of Rotherhithe, was reported to the Navy Board on 18 April for keeping money and clothes belonging to a seaman: CSPD 1667-8, p. 347. (L&M)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"So to piper and Duck Lane, and there kissed bookseller’s wife,"

L&M: The Bookseller was William Shrewsbury: Cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
The Legenda Aurea (compiled by Jacque de Voragine, a 13th-century Dominican was the most popular collection of lives of the saints in the late Middle Ages. It is likely (from the number of self-marks on the flyleaf) that PL 2040 (an English version published by Wynkyn de Worde in 1527) was the copy Pepys now bought.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

But there was a zinger in Pepys' in-coming mail today, even if the senders had Hewer deliver it:

April 10. 1668
Navy creditors to Wm. Hewer.
We send a demand for certificates from the Navy Commissioners.
We have not set our names, because you know them by papers in the office.
We have enclosed a proposal for an accommodation of the affair, which we entreat you to show to Mr. Pepys, and if he thinks good, to the King in Council.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 62.]

Navy creditors to the Navy Commissioners.
We are refused certificates of our debts for goods and ships furnished during the war against the Dutch, and are therefore unable to register them upon the Act for 1,250,000l., as done by other creditors.
We entreat redress, or other creditors will be preferred before us; we shall else be obliged do complain Parliament. —April 9, Navy Office.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 62I.]

Proposals offered by creditors who have demanded certificates for their debts from the Navy Commissioners.
Promise that as soon as their certificates are registered to complete the 1,250,000l., they will lend the same to his Majesty, at the same interest, and upon the same fund as others have lately done.
If he should not have so much of that fund to dispose of as their debts may amount to, then so much as he has, and remainder upon some other good fund, so that they may take up money to keep them from utter ruin.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 62II.]

'Charles II: April 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 320-369. British History Online
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Other mail possibly included:

April 9. 1668
Harwich. Capt. Ant. Deane to the Navy Commissioners.
Victualling of a new ship.
The 50 watermen have not appeared; if they come down tomorrow, the ship may be well manned out of the fleet of colliers.
Has the pressed men on board, with 14 soldiers, officers, &c., 68 in all, and hopes to increase them every day from the light ships. Asks whether to hasten the ship away.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 57.]

April 9. 1668
M. Wren to the Navy Commissioners.
Sir John Harman having arrived in the Downs with the Lion and 5 others, his Royal Highness has ordered them to the buoy of the Nore;
he asks you to report to what yards they should come to be repaired.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 58.]

April 9. 1668
The Monmouth,
Downs.
Sir Thos. Allin to Sir Wm. Penn.
Came from his station off the Lizard on the 8th inst., with the Mary and 5 others;
has very little provision, and the ships require repair.
Has left the Milford and Francis at the station until further orders.
With notes [by Pepys] of places where the vessels are to be sent.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 59.]

April 9. 1668
The Greenwich,
Buoy of the Nore.
Capt. Rich. Beach to the Navy Commissioners.
Asks for a pilot and further orders;
also for a vessel to assist in getting men, as so many vessels are pressing.
If they will afford him a part of the men ordered to Chatham, it will be an additional favour.
Some of his volunteers have been pressed from him.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 60.]

April 10, 1668
Chereyhave
John Morehouse, purveyor, and John Chamberlain to the Navy Commissioners.
Have marked 170 loads of good timber, and cast the remainder as waste, and are now going to Whittlewood Forest.
Ask what to do about 57 pieces 25 feet long, and some others 10 or 12 feet, sold by Lieut. Goodman, the money for which lies in his hands.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 61.]

April 10. 1668
The Monmouth,
Downs.
Sir Thos. Allin to the Navy Commissioners.
Account of the condition of ships remaining there.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 63.] Encloses,
List of the provisions on board 7 ships named now in the Downs.—10 April 1668.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 63I.]

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

April 10. 1668
Chatham.
Commissioner Thos. Middleton to Sam. Pepys.
I send Major Nicholls' proposals for weighing wrecks in the river; I will meet you at the office on Tuesday, and give my judgment thereon.
The King's business goes slowly on.
The rope-house deals are bad;
there are neither joiners nor materials to make even a small mast or yard, the ships being plundered of all.
The Greenwich set sail yesterday for the buoy of the Nore.
Some ships would soon be ready if it were not for want of joiner's work and seamen;
60 soldiers came yesterday, and were distributed to every ship. [S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 64.] Encloses,
Proposals by Major Nicholls to Col. Middleton for weighing wrecks in the Medway.
That the King put in condition 4 ships with strong bridles;
pay him 300l. for wages, &c., for 3 months,
and 100l. a month for 3 months longer, if the work be not finished,
and allow him all the wrecks in the river except guns and anchors,
he undertaking to clear the river in 6 months.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. No. 64I.]

April 10. 1668
Certificate by John Berry,
that on 10 March last, he delivered up the ship Coronation to Capt. Robt. Wilkinson, for the use of the owners.
With calculation of sums due for its hire, from 7 May 1666, to 13 March 1668; total, 5,185l. 18s. 6d.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 65.] Annexing,

Certificate by George Erwin that the said ship was ready according to contract, 7 May 1666.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 238, No. 65I.]

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

And since the plight of the Lord Lt. of Ireland, James Butler, Duke of Ormonde, has been brought to our attention by Terry, here's a glimpse of his correspondence files on his desk this day:

Lord Lieutenant & Council of Ireland to the Lords of the Council in England
Written from: Council Chamber, Dublin
Date: 10 April 1668
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 36, fol(s). 279-280
Document type: Certified Copy [fourteen signatures]

Report further proceedings concerning the Genoese Prize-Ship 'Sacrifice of Abraham', and concerning matters thence arising.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Petition of Henry Buckle to the Duke of Ormonde
Date: [circa 10 April] 1668
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 160, fol(s). 23r-v
Document type: Copy

Recites the circumstances under which petitioner has been convicted of the manslaughter of Thomas Manby ... in a dispute about a certain piece of land decreed by the Court of Claims to petitioner's master, the Bishop of Killaloe [in MS.: "Killaloo"], to which land the said Manby pretended to be entitled. ... Prays for remission of the sentence of burning in the hand. ...

Annexed 1
An Order of Reference of this Petition to Sir William Davys, the Duke's Chancellor & Justice for his regalities of Tipperary
Written from: Dublin Castle
Date: 13 April 1668
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 160, fol(s). 24
Document type: Copy

Annexed 2
Certificate of Sir William Davys, upon the case of the above-named petitioner, as it appeared upon his trial at Clonmel Assizes
Written from: [Dublin]
Date: 5 December 1668
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 160, fol(s). 24
Document type: Copy

HENRY BUCKLE HAD TO WAIT FOR HIS PARDON. THE FILE REVEALS:
Annexed 3
Warrant, by the Duke of Ormonde, for the grant, in due form of law, of his Majesty's Pardon to the petitioner
Written from: Whitehall
Date: 26 December 1668
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 160, fol(s). 24v
Document type: Copy

https://wayback.archive-it.org/or…

JayW  •  Link

A couple of mentions above of ‘weighing’ the ships in the Medway. I assume this meaning is the same as ‘weighing the anchor’ ie lifting it and that these would have been the ships that are currently blocking the river.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

It seems that Sam collects his notes to write the Diary every 3-4 days. So, if anything has distracted him from the routine it could become apparent around Wednesday. Surely he's not libertine enough to disappear entirely into some week-long orgy, on which we suspect he would only be too happy to give us a report anyway. Could it just be the pressure of work? He seems to have quite a bit of discretion on how hard he works - his neglect of the Office last year was something he reproached himself, not something he ever said his bosses were calling him in about. He did, recently, moan on how the Office would run better if he really took control, perhaps he gave that a try? Or could there be something in the Office caseload, or in the current war scare for all the off-hand way he mentions it in the Diary, that especially preoccupies our bachelor? Something even more dire than the Committees' demands or the constant problems with ropeyards and captains.

Or is he just enraptured by the lives of saints in the Golden Legend?

And, correct on "weighing" the ships. Those things have been half-submerged for months. Some were so well made as to still be salvageable but many of them must have started to disintegrate, filling the river with more or less invisible driftwood and flotsam.

Gerald Berg  •  Link

And who's building the new chain for the Golden Thames? The other one broke too easily as I recall.

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