Saturday 27 June 1668
At the office all the morning, at noon dined at home, and then my wife, and Deb., and I to the King’s playhouse, and saw “The Indian Queene,” but do not doat upon Nan Marshall’s acting therein, as the world talks of her excellence therein. Thence with my wife to buy some linnen, 13l. worth, for sheets, &c., at the new shop over against the New Exchange; [and the master, who is] come out of London —[To the Strand.]— since the fire, says his and other tradesmen’s retail trade is so great here, and better than it was in London, that they believe they shall not return, nor the city be ever so great for retail as heretofore. So home and to my business, and to bed.
14 Annotations
First Reading
Chris Squire • Link
‘dote | doat, v.1 <Early Middle English doten, dotien . . , corresponds to Middle Dutch doten to be crazy or silly, to dote.
. . 3. To be infatuatedly fond of; to bestow excessive love or fondness on or upon; to be foolishly in love. Const. + of (obs. rare), upon, on.
. . a1616 Shakespeare Two Gentlemen of Verona (1623) iv. iv. 80 You doate on her, that cares not for your love.
. . 1742 E. Young Complaint i. 277 How distant oft the thing we doat on most, From that for which we doat, Felicity!’ [OED]
Terry Foreman • Link
"Nan Marshall’s acting therein"
L&M note she played Zemboalla, the Queen. Guess she's not regal.
Art perry • Link
I had to read the bit about the master of the linen shop a few times. The editorial comments confused me. Any idea who this is or where his previous shop was in the city? 13 pounds is a goodly sum, is it not?
Mary • Link
No idea at all who this linen-draper might be. Both phrases shown within the square brackets are editorial interpolations and not in the original text as shown by L&M.
NJM • Link
It is 13 shillings that he spent on the linen, not 13 pounds, so perhaps not quite such an extravagant purchase ! It's the way pre decimal coinage was shown, so after the / would have been any pence.
So if it had been say one pound 13 shillings and sixpence it would have been written as £1. 13/6d
Bryan M • Link
Pounds vs Shillings
I believe the amount is 13 pounds. It is a lower case "l" following the amount rather than a slash-hyphen (/-). Sam used the "lsd" symbols to record his expenses on his recent trip. For example on 9 June:
paid our guide, 1l. 2s. 6d.
Dinner and servants, 1l. 0s. 6d.
It does see like a lot of sheets, etc.
Margaret • Link
I believe the linen draper had to move to the Strand because of the great fire, and is finding that he's doing so well there, that he has no plans to return to London proper.
Alan Kerr • Link
The Strand is not in what Pepys knew as London, but in the City of Westminster, a distinction presumably much clearer in his day. It enters the City of London at the Temple Bar, changing its name to Fleet Street. This distinction between the Royal/governmental Westminster and the commercial City of London (aka "The City") still lingers.
AnnieC • Link
"I believe the amount is 13 pounds."
Yes, this is much more likely.
"It does seem like a lot of sheets, etc"
Yes indeed, and presumably it still has to be cut and hemmed to turn it into sheets etc. Real linen sheets are divine to sleep in.
language hat • Link
"The Strand is not in what Pepys knew as London, but in the City of Westminster, a distinction presumably much clearer in his day."
It was so much clearer that people of his day would be astonished to learn that it had virtually disappeared except for legal and nitpicking purposes a few centuries later. It would have been seen as immutable, like the difference between Manhattan and Brooklyn in New York (a difference which is, however, still salient over a century after the merging of the two into a single city, presumably because they are separated by the East River).
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
'Charles II: June 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 418-468. British History Online
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
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June 27. 1668
Deal.
Rich. Watts to [Williamson].
Rear Admiral Sir Edw. Spragg has arrived with 4 ships.
Twenty sail of outward-bound Flemings came into the Downs, owing to the contrary winds.
Every day produces showers of rain;
after a great plenty of corn, as great a scarcity is feared.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 50.]
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June 27. 1668
Downs.
Sir Jer. Smyth to Williamson.
The Revenge, Swallow, and Kent have arrived in the Downs, and a Dutch man of-war of 32 guns,
with 20 merchant ships under her convoy, has also put in.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 51.]
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June 27. 1668
Rye.
James Welsh to Williamson.
Hears from a merchant dwelling at Dieppe that the story concerning the scuffle between one of his Majesty's pleasure-boats and a French man-of-war is false.
Sir Thos. Allin and his squadron of 8 or 9 ships have been these 2 days turning to the westward, and are now in Hastings Bay.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 52.]
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June 27. 1668
Account by Sir Denis Gauden
of the value of the provisions delivered aboard the Merlin and Zebulon in March and June 1665, while in Mr. Warren's service,
and also of their sea victuals; total, 785/. 1s. 4d.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 53.]
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June 27. 1668
London.
Sir Denis Gauden to the Navy Commissioners.
Particulars of harbour provisions issued to the Fox and Merlin;
total, 3,500/.
Finds none for the Zebulon and Little Britain.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 54.]
San Diego Sarah • Link
June 27. 1668
R. Waith to the Navy Commissioners.
Sir G. Carteret has perfected his accounts to 30 June 1667, except such seamen's tickets as he has paid that were payable by the Earl of Anglesey,
which must either be passed by list, or by exchange with the present Treasurer for books to the value.
Having made up the sea-books, I find there will be a debt of 10,000/. to the chest, slopsellers, and in surplusage of groats and two pences to ministers and surgeons, which could not be foreseen till the books were made up.
This money has been issued to the King's advantage in payment of mariners' wages.
Sir George Carteret being in surplusage upon the list of tickets to the full value of the debt, I conceive it ought to be satisfied by the present Treasurer, to whom all orders for money are made over, he receiving discount from Sir G. Carteret on his lists of tickets.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 55.]
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June 27 1668
Bristol.
Dan. Furzer to the Navy Commissioners.
I beg consideration of my own and my men's condition.
I have so disabled myself in the relief of poor workmen that I cannot relieve my own family;
I have disbursed and engaged for more than I am worth.
The country is utterly undone, every day sueing and imprisoning persons that have not wherewith to satisfy their debts contracted for necessaries while employed in the service.
The timber in Dean Forest, as well as other places, designed for building the new ship, suffers extremely by the weather and embezzlement.
Give me your final resolution, that it may be known what is and what is not be done.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 56.]
San Diego Sarah • Link
Yesterday Pepys and Co. spent hours going over victualling accounts ... today Gauden sends a statement for a transaction (or two) in 1665.
Things get lost in a pandemic when people not only work from home, but have to evacuate as well. We have more sympathy for this confusion now than we would have had before COVID -- and we have the internet; they only had hard copies.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"R. Waith to the Navy Commissioners.
"Sir G. Carteret has perfected his accounts to 30 June 1667, except such seamen's tickets as he has paid that were payable by the Earl of Anglesey,
which must either be passed by list, or by exchange with the present Treasurer for books to the value. ..."
Yesterday the Navy Commissioners had spent the morning with Sir George, the former Navy Treasurer, going over his accounts and reconciling with those of his replacement, Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey.
On March 31, 1668 "R. Waith of Broad Street" had sent a Memorandum outlining how this should be done. See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Broad Street -- Pepys often visited this wide road in the City as Capt. Cocke lived there, and it also contained the Excise Office and African House. After 1664, the office and residence of the Navy Treasurer, Sir George Carteret was also here.
Robert Waith and his wife, Elizabeth, were well-known to the Pepys:
L&M Companion: "Appointed Paymaster to the Navy Treasurer 1660, ... As paymaster he was much distrusted and, after investigation by the Brooke House Committee, was joined in the treasurership by the upright Richard Hutchinson. His office was in his official house in Deptford."
But Pepys' dislike of him is documented at https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
My take on this is (1) Carteret's staff did not continue in their employment under Anglesey, or these accounts would have been reconciled;
and (2) the Brooke House Commission was now actively investigating Carteret and, consequently, Waith.