Thursday 2 July 1668

Called up by a letter from W. Coventry telling me that the Commissioners of Accounts intend to summons me about Sir W. Warren’s Hamburg contract, and so I up and to W. Coventry’s (he and G. Carteret being the party concerned in it), and after conference with him about it to satisfaction I home again to the office. At noon home to dinner, and then all the afternoon busy to prepare an answer to this demand of the Commissioners of Accounts, and did discourse with Sir W. Warren about it, and so in the evening with my wife and Deb. by coach to take ayre to Mile-end, and so home and I to bed, vexed to be put to this frequent trouble in things we deserve best in.

16 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Sir W. Warren’s Hamburg contract"

L&M note this the mast contract of 1664.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The Royal Society at a standstill because the "operator's sick" this day

Without Robert Hooke, letters can be read, books and curiosities presented and accepted and examined, interests identified, but naught else except to record it all. To end the meeting, the Secretary records this:

The experiments appointed ſor this meeting not being prepared by reaſon oſ the operator's indiſpoſition, it was ordered, that on the like occaſion another perſon ſhould' be hired and made uſe of pro tempore to dothe manual part, that the ſociety might not be deſtitute oſ experiments. -
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/…
-----
Was there ever another like Hooke?!

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"and the lady he had married this day, came and bedded at night at my house, many friends accompanying the bride."

"in 1668, Sir Samuel Tuke, 1st Baronet married a second wife, Mary Sheldon (died 1705, Portugal), a dresser to Charles II's Queen, Catherine of Braganza - she was accused of interfering with a witness to the Popish Plot in 1679 and after Charles II's death returned to Portugal with Catherine in 1692."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

'Charles II: July 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 469-516.
https://www.british-history.ac.uk…

@@@
July 2. 1668
St. James's.
M. Wren to the Navy Commissioners.

The Montague, Yarmouth, and Tiger, and another not fixed, are to be added to Sir Thos. Allin's fleet.
His Royal Highness being gone a-hunting prevented my getting his directions for fitting these ships in writing.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 121.]

@@@
July 2. 1668
Whitehall.
Petition of Anth. Deane, master shipwright of Harwich to the King,

to be discharged from what remains due on a bill of imprest for 1,000I. assigned to him, Sir Joseph Jordan and Commissioner Taylor, for fitting fireships, &c. at the time of the engagement with the Dutch against Landguard Fort, having accounted for the greater part of it.

Saved from sinking 4 ships, which were appraised at 9,342l., and ordered to be sunk;
took great pains in weighing 5 others that were sunk, and was exposed to much danger, charge, and expenses, as a captain, by his Majesty's command, and never received one penny as a reward for his faithful services.
With reference thereon to the Duke of York.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 123.]
Annexing,

Certificate by the Earl of Anglesey, Lord Brouncker, Col. Thos. Middleton, and Sam. Pepys,
that they have passed 645/. 19s. as disbursed by Sir Joseph Jordan, Commissioner Taylor, and Capt. Anth. Deane, for the fitting out of fire-ships and ships to sink, in the time of the approach of the Dutch fleet against Harwich in 1667,
being part of 1,000/. committed to their care for that purpose.
—30 June 1668.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 123i]

WHY ANTHONY DEANE'S PETITION IS DATE-LINED WHITEHALL, I DON'T KNOW.
DEANE PROBABLY WROTE IT FROM HARWICH.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"WHY ANTHONY DEANE'S PETITION IS DATE-LINED WHITEHALL, I DON'T KNOW. DEANE PROBABLY WROTE IT FROM HARWICH."

I post these letters the month before I read them in context, and as we've seen, Pepys has been walking and talking with Deane for a week now. That he was staying at Whitehall still seems unlikely to me ... but who knows.

On consulting our Wikipedia entry for Anthony Deane, it says, "Harwich Dockyard was closed in 1668, following the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and Deane was appointed Master Shipwright at Portsmouth Dockyard."

Closing such a useful dockyard was probably a matter of economy.

For more info. about Harwich, Deane, and the Third Anglo-Dutch War, see https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

That Pepys hasn't mentioned the closure of Harwich, and what's going on with one of his very best friends in his lifetime, Anthony Deane, indicates to me how much his failing eye sight is hampering and abbreviating his Diary annotations these days.

I think the letters supplement Pepys' stories enough to continue doing them, if that's OK with Phil? Context is everything in history. Nothing happens in a vacuum.

Timo  •  Link

Keep up the good work Sarah. You’re a star

JayW  •  Link

Yes please carry on with the correspondence Sarah. It does give an insight into the work of the Navy Office. Thanks!

JB  •  Link

Yes, please continue, Sarah. It adds so much! Many thanks.

john  •  Link

I concur with the above, Sarah, but your comment "I post these letters the month before I read them in context" confused me.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Hi John ... around the 20th of the month I start copying the next month's letters into their correct day. I'm reading the Diary along with you, so while thinking this letter is interesting, and I don't think that one is, they are still somewhat of a surprise for me when we get to them.
They are now done through the end of July, so I have a few days off before tackling August.

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.