Friday 17 July 1668
Up, and fitted myself to discourse before the Council about business of tickets. So to White Hall, where waited on the Duke of York, and then the Council about that business; and I did discourse to their liking, only was too high to assert that nothing could be invented to secure the King more in the business of tickets than there is; which the Duke of Buckingham did except against, and I could have answered, but forbore; but all liked very well. Thence home, and with my wife and Deb. to the King’s House to see a play revived called The ———, a sorry mean play, that vexed us to sit in so much heat of the weather to hear it. Thence to see Betty Michell newly lain in, and after a little stay we took water and to Spring Garden, and there walked, and supped, and staid late, and with much pleasure, and to bed. The weather excessive hot, so as we were forced to lie in two beds, and I only with a sheet and rug, which is colder than ever I remember I could bear.
8 Annotations
First Reading
Robert Gertz • Link
So...The various messages on Sam and Bess' sleeping arrangements continue with the suggestion that currently all has been rather well until tonight's heat enforced a separation. It is a pity though Sam doesn't give us much detail as to their conversations in bed...Which to my mind are the intimacy cement for many a marriage...Though generally the signs are favorable throughout the Diary "Lie long with pleasure talking to my wife...", etc. Would be neat to know if he frequently charmed her with a censored version of the Diary's day, that sort of thing.
Terry Foreman • Link
"Up, and fitted myself to discourse before the Council about business of tickets."
L&M note, responding to parliamentary complaints about the use of tickets to pay seamen, on the 8th the Council had asked the Navy Board to dispense with the practice; on the 10th the Navy Board had replied with reasons why this was their sole recourse.
arby • Link
Interesting use of "colder", if I am understanding it correctly.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"The weather excessive hot, so as we were forced to lie in two beds, and I only with a sheet and rug, which is colder than ever I remember I could bear."
Apparently sleeping next to each other in the same bed would have been intolerably hot, but the alternative seems to have lacked appropriate bed-linen.
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 17. 1668
Lord Keeper Bridgeman to Williamson.
Recently Bridgeman was convalescing at Rushall, near Tunbridge Wells.
I send a document, and desire you will read it to the King.
The substance is forthwith to declare an ambassador for France to be sent from hence, and to despatch Sir. Wm. Temple with all speed.
I have given my reasons at large, and perhaps more freely than a wise man should, but would rather be accounted honest than wise.
I have written to Lord Arlington upon it.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 56.]
M. Colbert is coming ...
@@@
July 17. 1668
London.
John Wadlow to Williamson.
Understands from Katherine Ward that endeavours have been used to supplant her son, John Ward, from his consulship at Algiers — although there is no just cause of complaint — and that she has a petition depending before his Majesty for her son's continuance in his employment.
Begs him to do all the service he can, that her business may have despatch, so that she may be taken off from attendance at court, which from her years and weakness is troublesome to her.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 57.]
---
John Ward was a merchant in Algiers, and never officially the Consul. However, the men appointed had a way of not showing up, so he did what had to be done. SPOILER Later in 1668 Adm. Allin will appoint Robert Crofts, a factor of William Bowtell ... but again, he never reported to work, so Ward labored onwards until 1674, when an unfortunate series of events took place ... which are nothing to do with the Diary.
https://www.google.com/books/edit…
@@@
July 17. 1668
John Cooke to Williamson.
Sec. Morice wants the States General's letter of revocation of M. Meerman, that a letter residential may be drawn thereupon.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 58.]
---
I think this means the States General have recalled their Ambassador, Johannes Meerman (1624-1676).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joh…
@@@
July 17. 1668
Yarmouth.
Rich. Bower to Williamson.
Several persons of Norwich, 23 or 24, have arrived in a galliot hoy, which they hired at the Brill to bring them over.
Fifty vessels sailed yesterday out of Yarmouth Road for Sunderland and Newcastle,
and 20 more to-day.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 59.]
San Diego Sarah • Link
July 18. 1668
The Harp, Dublin.
Capt. Rob. Hooper to the Navy Commissioners.
Desires some course to provide him with victuals, being quite destitute;
his credit has extended as far as the ability of the persons who supplied him can afford, and no victuals are provided in any port on that coast.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 64.]
@@@
July 18. 1668
Bristol.
Sir John Knight to the Navy Commissioners.
The Edgar will not be fitted to sail out for 1,500/., besides the materials already sent and what the shipwright is to furnish, so that the 100/. ordered will quickly be at an end, and the ship must lie at charge for want of money and credit, there not being any that will furnish without money.
I have observed in such cases that the growing charge comes to more than the sum first due;
Pray take some course that money may be ordered;
if I had but an engagement that what is delivered for her use shall be paid in 3 months, out of some particular money arising by the customs or other taxes in Bristol, I could procure credit from shopkeepers, and victuals should also be ready.
I have already paid for bringing up sails, cables, and cordage, in order to the launching.
There should be either an order for 1,500/., or a general one for fitting the ship, payable by the customs' collector.
For the 100/. ready, I have charged a bill of exchange upon you, payable to Mathew Roydon;
I send a note from the boatswain of what he shall want, and the captain demands 5/.;
I want an order to pay him, as also an order for the delivery of a furnace, and some ropes and old sails, left by other ships.
We have tendered to some seamen, who have 2 days' service due to them, 7s. per week per man, which they refuse, and demand 9s. or utterly refuse to work.
[2 pages. S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 65.]
@@@
July 18. 1668
Bristol.
Capt. John Wettwang, of the Edgar, to the Navy Commissioners.
There is a great deal of work to do about the ship;
all the stores are taken aboard but guns and shot, and it would cost more to get them out now than the demurrage.
The carpenter cannot take in the cables, for he will not ballast till she comes below.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 66.]
@@@
July 18. 1668
The Merlin, King-road, Bristol.
Capt. John Clements to the Navy Commissioners.
I have brought my yacht here for Mr. Furzer to fish my mast, but I hear nothing of him as yet.
Mr. Rogers has received order from Sir Denis Gauden to victual but 16 men for 2 months;
on coming out of the river, I was ordered 4 more and victualled for 20, both at London and Plymouth.
Pray send to Sir Denis Gauden to renew his order;
I have received notice to wait on the Edgar, so shall have more occasion for men than before;
I beg that our yacht may be tallowed, being extraordinarily foul.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 67.]
---
The Edgar was the warship Pepys saw on his flying visit to Bristol
Jmacg • Link
It's interesting that on the last two hottest nights Sam has ever experienced, he needs a heavy rug as well as a sheet to keep warm. Here in my non-airconditioned house in NZ, I have nothing but a sheet on my bed for quite a few nights each summer. We're warmer than London, but not by all that much.
San Diego Sarah • Link
The Council did a lot more than discuss tickets. On this day they took a giant step towards establishing a professional navy ... and it was a small, budget-conscious step in favor of their friends, but the step was taken.
(Slightly edited for length and clarity):
"At the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War the Government formally recognized for the first time the claims of officers to pay in peace time. The first step did not go far, but the principle lead to the modern system of continuous employment.
"By an Order in Council of 17 July, 1668, it was provided that, in consideration of 'the eminent services performed in the late war against the Dutch by the flag officers,' and that 'during the time of peace several of them are out of employment, and thereby disabled to support themselves in a condition answerable to their merits and those marks of honour his Majesty hath conferred on them,' they should receive 'pensions' in proportion to the scale of pay on active service which had been fixed at the beginning of the war.
"These 'pensions' ranged from £150 a year for captains of flag-ships up to £250 a year for rear-admirals and vice-admirals of fleets."
From a series of well-researched and referenced lectures about Pepys' career:
Samuel Pepys and the Royal Navy, by J. R. (Joseph Robson) Tanner
LEES KNOWLES LECTURES DELIVERED AT TRINITY COLLEGE IN CAMBRIDGE,
NOVEMBER 6, 13, 20 and 27, 1919
BY J. R. TANNER, LITT.D.
FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: FETTER LANE, E. C. 4
1920
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4…