Saturday 7 November 1668

Up, and at the office all the morning, and so to it again after dinner, and there busy late, choosing to employ myself rather than go home to trouble with my wife, whom, however, I am forced to comply with, and indeed I do pity her as having cause enough for her grief. So to bed, and there slept ill because of my wife. This afternoon I did go out towards Sir D. Gawden’s, thinking to have bespoke a place for my coach and horses, when I have them, at the Victualling Office; but find the way so bad and long that I returned, and looked up and down for places elsewhere, in an inne, which I hope to get with more convenience than there.

14 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Samuel Pepys admitting to himself that he made the bed of nails he must lie on -- and that Elizabeth is entitled to every bit of her (perhaps infinite) anger.

John  •  Link

Sam recording his feelings with that great honesty we have come to love and respect.
And then that so familiar trudge round London streets looking 'up and down'for parking that he can afford, and which is not miles from the office.

Katherine  •  Link

If we get to the end of the diary without a coach and horse and a place to stable them, I'm going to have a complete fit of frustration.

jeannine  •  Link

If we get to the end of the diary without a coach and horse and a place to stable them, I’m going to have a complete fit of frustration.

At the rate Sam is going he's probably going to need to build a doghouse first as that might be where he ends up sleeping.....

Dorothy  •  Link

IMO the doghouse would be an improvement! I do feel sorry for him. He has tried to be fashionable and chase women like the men at court, but his wife is not interested in being fashionable in that way and won't play along. Poor Sam just doesn't have the personality to be a Real Restoration Rake.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Still at least this may end the affair before it gets irrepairable...Sam's been foolish but not all the way foolish, with Deb.

Second Reading

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

This is a general question, not relevant to this or any other specific day. Sam is a well – regarded official who is certainly somebody the King would recognise and Sam has very regular dealings with the Duke of York who is the heir to the throne. Many of the people that Sam deals with more or less as his professional peers are either Lords or else have knighthoods. Does anyone have any insight as to why our hero never became Sir Sam? I cannot remember whether this was ever discussed in the Tomalin biography.

LKvM  •  Link

"Does anyone have any insight as to why our hero never became Sir Sam?"
Kelvin:
It was suggested somewhere (I can't recall where) that he probably wouldn't have wanted that honor because of the expense (or "charge," in his era's usage).
I think he should be awarded a knighthood posthumously.

Mary K  •  Link

There is also the point that Pepys has tied himself very firmly to the Duke of York's interest and that does not redound to his general credit with the "opposition" at court - especially not at times like these when the Buckingham "party" appear to be gaining overweening influence with Charles.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I think the conversation you are referring to, Mary K, is at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

And sadly LKvM, there is no such thing as a posthumous knighthood.

But rules are made to be broken ... know any MP's? It would take an act of parliament, and I suspect Pepys isn't the only deserving person throughout Britain's long history who went unrecognized.
Maybe the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography could put together a 'catch-up' list, and right some wrongs without wearing out the Queen's sword arm.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The vol. of Dom. State Papers with correspondence from Oct. 1668 - Dec. 1669 is at
https://play.google.com/books/rea…

@@@
Nov. 7 1668.
Paris
William, Lord Allington, to Lord [Arlington].

I declined writing, knowing you receive constant intelligence of what passes at this Court from better hands.
I am waiting at Paris for the return of spring, and intend for England on the beginning of the sessions of Parliament.

I have not heard that the Earl of Middleton has yet gone to Tangiers;
if that affair be stopped, I wish I were settled there myself, or in anything else;
you have full power to dispose of me as you think best.

If you have any command, a letter sent to my mother's, in Drury Lane, will infallibly find me out.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 249, No. 33.]
===
William, 3rd Baron Alington of Killard MP, of whom Pepys had a poor opinion.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Lord Alington appears to be vacationing after the death of his wife and child.

@@@
Nov. 1 1668.
Paris
[Sam.] Puffendorf to [Williamson].

Pray tell me whether in [Chancellor Francis] Bacon's works there is not a treatise on the mode and inducements for the rest of Europe to make war on Spain.
The late Cardinal Richelieu had it translated into French, and printed in 1635,
but it can no longer be found.
I have had put into the [French] Gazette what is devised here, but is pretended to be written from London.
[French. S.P. Dom., Car. II. 249, No. 34.]

@@@
Nov. 7 1668.
Whitehall
Petition of Elizabeth, wife of Thos. Wyndham, the King's servant, to the King,

for a lease in reversion of lands, tenements, tithes, and prebends specified,
in Middlesex, Berkshire, Dorsetshire, Durham, and Cheshire, for 31 years,
and at the present rents.

His Majesty, since his restoration, has recompensed all those who were anyways aiding or assisting in his preservation after the battle of Worcester, and as she daily attended on him when he lay concealed at Trent, she conceives she ought to be reckoned among the number.

With reference thereon to the Treasury Commissioners;
their report, 19 Nov. 1668, that it has not been usual to grant leases over the
heads of present tenants, and is contrary to the rules to grant lands for a longer
period than 31 years in the whole, and that the better way of gratifyng such as
have so well deserved has been by a pension out of the Exchequer, which pensions have been constantly paid;

and further report of Lord Ashley, 14 May 1669 that the petition is disallowed,
as being not agreeable to rule.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 249, No. 35.]
===
Sept. 15-18, 1651, as Charles II was trying to escape from England after losing the second Battle of Worcester, he stayed at Trent Manor, Trent, Dorset (between Sherborne and Yeovil), the home of Francis Wyndham.
https://www.theguardian.com/envir…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Nov. ? 1668.
Petition of Elizabeth, wife of Thos. Wyndham, to the King.

Having attended his Majesty at Trent, after the battle of Worcester, he was pleased to give her a warrant for a lease in reversion of several small leases for 31 years, but its passing is obstructed as being a breach of rule;
yet the same thing has been granted by his predecessors, and by his Majesty since his restoration;
begs an order therefore for the lease to pass, notwithstanding any restriction or limitation.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 249, No. 30.]

@@@
Nov. 7 1668.
Whitehall
The King to Arthur, Earl of Anglesey, late Treasurer of the Navy,

You are to deliver up to Sir Thos. Osborne and Sir Thos. Littleton, appointed Commissioners for the Navy Treasurership, the house lately used for that office, excepting one room needful for keeping your papers and making up your accounts.
[Draft. S.P. Dom., Cur. II. 249, No. 40.]
===
Hard to argue with this, Lord Anglesey.
L&M: The Treasurer of the Navy had official lodgings at Whitehall, and a residence at Deptford. In 1664 Carteret had persuaded Charles II that he needed a house and office, which was located on Broad Street. I am guessing this is the house referred to.

@@@
Nov. 7 1668.
Whitehall
The King to the Master, wardens, &c., of the Pewterers' Company of London.

We approve your admission of James Taudin, a naturalized subject, into your society,
and request that he be not molested as others have been, by the malicious exercise of by-laws, and thus have to seek relief from hard usage, he being our servant.
[S.P. Dom., Entry Book 25, f. 72.]
===
Be nice to the French immigrant, or else.

It seems Jacques (James) Taudin I, London [fl. 1645 - 1680] had run afoul of the Pewterers before.
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/…
http://www.colonialsense.com/How-…

@@@
Nov. 7 1668.
Dublin
Capt. Rob. Hooper to the Navy Commissioners.

Could not sail The Harp for Kinsale because of the wind;
though some dispraise the ship, questions not but she may go a longer voyage.
Knows nothing of any former proceedings, nor can find out any person that was concerned therein.

The purser was constrained to supply us with provisions, there being none of the victualler's agents here;
knows him to be much in debt in that place, yet has prevailed with him for more victuals.

Will not be backward to depart when the wind serves.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 249, No. 43.]

@@@
Nov. 7 1668.
Whitehall
Pass for Anne Nevill, Mary Tuchet, Katherine Berry, Anne Berrington, Marg. Smith, Anne Chaworth, and their servants, to France.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 249, No. 41.]
===
A girls' weekend in Paris? A group of novices bound for a Catholic nunnery? Spies sent to tempt Louis XIV?

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Nov. 7 1668.
Bristol
Dan. Furzer to the Navy Commissioners.

Sends an account of goods put on board the Edgar, from those left in the yard at Conpill, and the stores of the Harp.
With note of a copy taken of the above, 10 Nov., for Col. Middleton.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 249, No. 42.]

@@@
Nov. 7 1668.
M. Wren to the Navy Commissioners.

Desires them to give directions for fitting the Mary Rose,
the Earl of Carlisle having chosen her for carrying him to Gottenburg;
so that in case the Earl's departure is pressed, he may not stay for the vessel that is to carry him.

Will send the Duke's order for it on coming to St. James's.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 249, No. 44. ]

@@@
Nov. 7 1668.
Portsmouth
Capt. Ant. Deane to the Navy Commissioners.

Sends 2 contracts;
one is for timber ready to be delivered, as soon as they order the 300/.
which was laid aside for ready payment;
if they will order Mr. Hayter or Mr. Ewers to receive it, remittance shall be found for it.

Asks if the contracts are right, being unaccustomed to make them.

The deals and wainscoat have arrived.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 249, No. 45.]

Log in to post an annotation.

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