Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
(Sunday.) All the day busy without my band on, putting up my books and things, in order to my going to sea. At night my wife and I went to my father’s to supper, where J. Norton and Chas. Glascocke supt with us, and after supper home, where the wench had provided all things against tomorrow to wash, and so to bed, where I much troubled with my cold and coughing.
Monday 12 March 1659/60Saturday 10 March 1659/60
hmmm …. no mention of religious services. was he just too busy? and was that an excuse in those days?
Joyce Norton
She’s a distant relative of Pepys’ who apparently lives at Salisbury Court in Jane Turner’s home (Latham isn’t sure). Not enough information is provided in the Companion volume to show exactly how she is related to Pepys, but her mother, Barbara Pepys (b. 1575) married Richard Norton of South Creake, Norfolk, in 1601.
London would have been much more interesting to be living in than her native Norfolk, but perhaps she didn’t have a choice (she may even have missed the country). Jane Turner seems to be a kind woman with a husband who provides very well for his family. I guess this was the fate of a woman who didn’t marry or wasn’t rich. Did she have any siblings who inherited whatever her father left and who could take her in? Or did she not get along with them? Or did her father die poor? We’ll probably never know.
Norton is probably pretty close in age to Pepys’s father (b. 1601) — in her 50s, possibly her 40s. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen her. On 3 Feb. Pepys showed her and Jane Turner the hall where Parliament meets, and on 29 Feb. had a “brave” cup of her metheglin. She visited Pepys’s home just four days ago (7 March; Ash Wednesday; about 3/4 of the way down the diary entry), accompanied by Glascock. Ash Wednesday would be an odd time to go visiting if you’re actually fasting.
Charles Glascock
He’s a distant relative and resident of Fleet Street who told Pepys on 12 Feb. (the day after all the bonfires) that he liked the recent course of political events (against the Rump). He also mentioned that the windows of Praisegod Barebones (also a Fleet Street resident) were broken by vandals.
He seems to get along with Joyce Norton. His brother, John Glascock, is rector of Little Canfield, Essex. We won’t see Glascock again till next year.
“without my band on..” What does this mean?
Joyce Norton
Tomalin writes, “[Jane Turner] assembled her own London household around her at Salisbury court, which included her widowed sister and cousin Joyce Norton…”
I would guess looking at her book’s Pepys Family Tree, that Joyce’s mother Barbara (b. 1574) was the brother of Jane’s dad, John Pepys (of Ashstead and Salibury Court), who was born in 1576. This puts her nearer in age to Jane, who was born in 1623 (our Sam in 1633).
Jane’s widowed sister may be Elizabeth who married Thomas Dyke. No dates given.
Jane’s great great grandfather (John Pepys of Norfolk) is the brother of Sam’s great great grandfather ( William Pepys of Cottenham, Cambs.). But only if I have kept it all straight.
Band
The Shorter OED has on meaning of band as:
b spec. The neckband or collar of a shirt, a collar, a ruff, (now arch. or Hist.);
So I would guess that he is dressed down, without his collar as he is busy packing. In the days of removable shirt collars, (pre 1960/70’s) it would be unthinkable to be seen without a collar on Sunday, because it was a day of rest, and you removed the collar and tie when doing manual work. Similarly, this might be why he thought it worth mentioning.
Band
(from Chambers’s Encyclopaedia, 1906)
“Band, or bands, linen pendants from the neck, forming part of clerical, legal, and academic costume. It is a moot question whether they are a survival of the Amice, or immediate descendants of the wide falling collar which was a part of the ordinary civilian dress in the reign of James I [reign 1603-1625].”
For those of us who smiled at the surname of distant relative Charles Glascock, ‘A Dictionary of Surnames’, Hanks and Hodges, OUP provides the following origin: “English: habitation name from Glascote in Warwicks., so called from OE ‘glaes’ glass + ‘cot’ hut, shelter; it was probably once a site inhabited by a glass blower.” ‘Glasscock’ is given as a variation.
Joyce Norton’s age
Pauline, isn’t it far more likely that Joyce Norton’s mother had her relatively closer to 1601, when she got married, rather than 1623? Her mother, Barbara, was born in 1574 (according to the Companion volume) or 1575 (according to Tomalin), so she’d have been 48 or 49 in 1623. Barbara was 25 or 26 when she got married.
How late in age can a woman still have children? Would that age have been the same back in the 17th century? Pepys’s sister, Pall, got married in her 30s and had the only grandchildren of John and Margaret Pepys, so late marriages did happen and produce kids.
Anyway, that’s an interesting name you’ve got there, crazy hat nunc boy. Somehow oddly familiar, though. Have you posted before …?
Ah, David, you looked closer
I was relating Barbara’s birth date to John’s and making them sister and brother without seeing that John was 47 when Jane was born and at that age his older sister Barbara was likely having grandchildren. (This linking of John and Barbara being total speculation.) You are right about Joyce being of the generation preceding Jane.
And my grandpa’s uncle’s wife’s sister married his brother and, upon his death, him—to bring in the personal in one sentence of few+ words. Never trust what looks straightforward in a family tree.
Along with the fascination of Sam’s personal development comes consideration of the familial relationships. Father evidently plays an important role. We may also suspect both mother, brother Tom and Elizabeth have a similar importance.
I disagree with some posts that see significant pre-meditation as part of Sam’s writing style. At core, my argument would be Sam’s lack of meditation about both himself and his family. There is no self-conciousness on any of these issues. Pre-meditation is expressed in many ways amongst which the personal is often an early starter . Susposition: true, but other diarists can attest to this.
By way of a simple example: no mention of weakening on the week’s alcohol ban.
Crouchback: It does indeed seem unusual that Sam missed services today, but with the press of preparation for his upcoming sea voyage, he clearly did not have the time. Perhaps one of our colleagues can comment on the propriety of missing services in the 1660s, or the excuses (if any) for doing so.
As noted on the collar discussion, he did not dress for church, nor did he mention leaving the house until he and his wife went to his father’s for supper. (I wonder if Elizabeth is still unhappy about only recently being informed of Sam’s plans.)
Sam and church
A prosaic note; Sam is later complaining of ‘my cold’ and a troublesome cough. Perhaps he didn’t fancy coughing his way through a couple of sermons and seized the opportunity to spend the day on personal business at home.
“… against tomorrow to wash.” Is this to wash Sam’s clothing before travel, or is Sam going to take a bath before going aboard ship? I wonder how regularly people bathed during this time.
Brian: I don’t think it’s either of those alternatives, but more likely to be the regular laundry that they (or rather his wife and his maid!) did every month on a Monday. Have a look at the entry and comments for Monday 16th January.
Correction Re: “Joyce Norton’s Age”
PLOT SPOILER (1668) ON PEPYS’S SISTER:
I pointed out in my note that Pepys’s sister, Pall, got married in her 30s. Actually, she got married at age 27 or 28 (born 1640, married 1668). Sorry, everybody.
Brian, there’s the well known (and almost certainly apocryphal) saying about Elizabeth I, that she “took a bath once every three months, whether she needed one or not.”
… Or the other story that to prepare her for her funeral, the morticians had to remove accumulated layers of makeup from her face with a chisel.
No wonder she was the Virgin Queen!
:^)