Saturday 4 July 1668

Up, and to see Sir W. Coventry, and give him account of my doings yesterday, which he well liked of, and was told thereof by my Lord Halifax before; but I do perceive he is much concerned for this business. Gives me advice to write a smart letter to the Duke of York about the want of money in the Navy, and desire him to communicate it to the Commissioners of the Treasury; for he tells me he hath hot work sometimes to contend with the rest for the Navy, they being all concerned for some other part of the King’s expenses, which they would prefer to this, of the Navy. He shewed me his closet, with his round table, for him to sit in the middle, very convenient; and I borrowed several books of him, to collect things out of the Navy, which I have not, and so home, and there busy sitting all the morning, and at noon dined, and then all the afternoon busy, till night, and then to Mile-End with my wife and girl, and there drank and eat a joie of salmon, at the Rose and Crown, our old house; and so home to bed.

8 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He shewed me his closet, with his round table, for him to sit in the middle,...."

L&M note it was described by Lauderdale as turning "to him (as he sits still) several sorts of businesses"; Coventry's enemies, Buckingham and Howard, will use the table as a prop in a play to ridicule him, as Pepys will record next 6 March. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Mary  •  Link

for "joie' read "jole.'

Glyn  •  Link

" to write a smart letter"

I assume that "smart" doesn't mean "clever" in this case, but "severe or critical", although he would still need to be polite to the Duke. I suppose the only common survival of this use nowadays would be when we say that something smarts or stings (or is that only a UK usage?).

Jenny  •  Link

Regarding the "smart letter". Slight spoiler but the diary entries regarding this letter are some of the most interesting in the whole diary.

Second Reading

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…

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July 4. 1668
Ticket Office.
Jas. Carkasse and Nath. Whitfield to Sam. Pepys.

Find that the full wages due to the Fox and Merlin for 1665-1666 amount to 1,179l. 17s. 6d.,
and that neither of their books is charged with any clothes.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 136.]

WHAT'S PEPYS SUPPOSED TO DO ABOUT THAT? THREE YEARS, A PANDEMIC, A FIRE, AND A WAR LATER ... ?

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July 4. 1668
Jersey.
R. Manley to Rob. Francis.

I must dispense with the happiness of seeing you this season, as my voyage is off;
I must yield to our governor, who purposes for England sooner than I could have returned.

We hear of reduction of forces in England, but it cannot reach me, as I and all my officers quitted our employment in Holland to come to serve the King;
we are in continual service, and I am one of the oldest captains in the regiment;
but a little precaution may not be amiss, and a friend at Court can do wonders.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 137a.]

Major-General Sir Thomas Morgan, Bart. was appointed Governor of Jersey in 1665, and the island of Jersey is England’s first line of defense against the French. http://www.british-civil-wars.co.…

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July 4. 1668
Lyme.
Anth. Thorold to James Hickes.

The Elizabeth from Havre de Grace report that the Duc de Beaufort is at sea with a squadron of the French fleet;
that they are building there 2 ships of 80 guns each;
and that they have near 1,000 men at work making a better harbor, and expect their King there shortly to see it.

The Sarah and Jane from Morlaix says the peace with Spain has not been proclaimed there, and they fear the war is not yet at an end, as some of their ships were stopped in Spain.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 138.]

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

By coincidence, in my in-box today, was a short clip of the development of Mount Orgueil, the fortress of Jersey, going back to 1680, so you can see where R. Manley was stationed.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Capt. Roger Manley was appointed Deputy Governor of Jersey on 2 Nov., 1667. This letter was to his cousin, Robert Francis.
For another informative letter from Manley to Francis, see
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"WHAT'S PEPYS SUPPOSED TO DO ABOUT THAT? THREE YEARS, A PANDEMIC, A FIRE, AND A WAR LATER ... ?"

Another example of pulling together the records, two years later.
Paper work got mislaid during the plague and the fire, and duplicates or statements were needed for the Commission of Accounts.

The observation that the slops (clothing) distributed during the voyage was not charged against the sailors' accounts means the Navy will over-pay the sailors when the Fox and Merlin are/were paid off.

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