Saturday 31 March 1660

Annotations

• - mwyler on Tue 1 Apr 2003, 12:15am. Flag this

  Any idea of how old this “boy” would have been?? I know children went to sea in the navy at a relatively young age, but Sam’s “boy” wouldn’t have been in the navy, would he?

• - kvk on Tue 1 Apr 2003, 01:32am. Flag this

  Meanwhile
  I do not have the exact date, but sometime around the end of the month Monck writes back to Charles and suggests that he move out of Spanish-controlled Brussels. England is still officially at war with Spain and it is not an appropriate place for the king to negotiate from. Charles will move to Breda, and he, Hyde, Ormonde and Edward Nicholas are probably at work right now on the Declaration of his terms for return.

• - Warren Keith Wright on Tue 1 Apr 2003, 03:20am. Flag this

  The biographical sketch of Pepys’s footboy for this voyage, Eliezer or Ely Jenkins, has been moved to his own dedicated page; click on “boy” above. The circumstance of his hiring on March 14th (q.v.) would indicate that he was not in the navy; and his behavior later this same year(described in that blurb), indicates that he was indeed just a boy.
  

• - michael f vincent on Tue 1 Apr 2003, 03:55am. Flag this

  ” boy age” at least 12yrs even in 1946
  14yrs old boys went as cabin boys, school leaving age change that year in the u.k.
  
  “Upon the …the 20s. piece that he sent me yesterday, up 5l.; wherefore he ….give the boy 4l. for me, and the boy ..bill under his hand”
  Once more raking in the cash

• - Grahamt on Tue 1 Apr 2003, 08:37am. Flag this

  Buying commissions:
  The

• - David Bell on Tue 1 Apr 2003, 12:36pm. Flag this

  The 5l from Captain Jowles

  It’s possible that sending the note is a safer way of handling the money, Pepys than then send somebody as his representative to collect the money, rather than both parties trusting the postal service.

  We don’t know what else the Captain wrote. He may well have suggested a couple of alternatives for cashing the note, if he or Sam were to suddenly put to sea.

• - Nix on Tue 1 Apr 2003, 05:07pm. Flag this

  Captain Jowles’ promissory note —

  Perhaps it was a demand note, which means that it was payable immediately rather than at a specified later date. I think the desirability of cash rather than a note in Samuel’s siatuation would be obvious: he will be at sea, or in foreign lands. There isn’t much use for cash at sea, but there is in foreign seaports, where a note wouldn’t have much value. And David Bell correctly notes that Jowles might not be a good prospect for collection: not necessarily because he is untrustworthy, but because he is in a risky line of work — and one that keeps him moving around.

• - Dave Bell on Tue 1 Apr 2003, 08:10pm. Flag this

  The April Fool annotation.

  As those who checked email addresses will have noticed, I was the one who posted the spurious annotation this morning; All Fools’ Day in the real world. Perhaps Sam will, one year or another, mention the occasion in his time. I hope nobody was offended.

  This is an example of an old tradition of tall stories and practical jokes, not just limited to the English-speaking world. In France, I understand, the cry is “poisson d’Avril” instead of “April Fool” when the victim falls for the joke.

  The English custom is that such jokes are only permissible before noon, although a certain tolerance has developed for such things as weekly magazines and broadcast media. A famous example was a TV report on the Italian spaghetti harvest, shown in the days when there wasn’t TV in the morning.

  My thanks to those who emailed compliments from around the world. While I confess to a slight regret that it was removed from the site so promptly, I cannot complain that it was removed. Any fault in this matter is mine alone; particularly my fault of not saving a copy…
  

• - Rick Ansell on Tue 1 Apr 2003, 08:15pm. Flag this

  First posted in the 29th March entry in error:

  Note that this wasn’t for a Commission as the _Master_ of the Wexford, it was as its Commander.

  Whilst the commander of a merchant ship is, and was, the Master, at this date the Master was a separate post in the Navy. Commanders, being Gentlemen, didn’t necessarily have the skills and experience to navigate the ship, despite being in command. Commanders were Commissioned officers, i.e. they held a Commission.

  The navigation etc. was done by the holder of a separate post, the Master. Like Saml he held a Warrant but wasn’t a Gentleman. On the 29th Saml and co. spent the late evening in the Masters cabin, socialising with someone with similar status aboard ship.

  At this date the Lieutenants didn’t need to be seamen either. In later (post diary) years Saml Peyps esq. would have a hand in instituting minimum experience levels and formal examinations in seamanship for lieutenants. This was a (the?) major step in creating the truly professional career officer corps of later years.

  BTW, I was wrong in an earlier post, in the 1700s the commissioned and more ‘gentlemanlike’ warrant officers, such as the Admirals Secretary, the Surgeon, the Purser, the Chaplain and the Master would have been members of the Wardroom mess. The ‘lower class’ warrant officers, such as the Carpenter and Bosun, would have messed separately. The Gunner presided over the Gunroom where the young and very young officers messed.
  

• - Alan McLeod on Tue 1 Apr 2003, 10:49pm. Flag this

  April Fools

  From CBC, it appears that April fools is after Sam. Persons who did not follow the new Gregorian calendar were considered being fools, as easily caught (in a trick) as “april fish” - “poisson d’avril!” is still what is said today in Quebec.

  The English and their American colonies adopted the Gregorian Calendar in the middle of the eighteenth century:from http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Things/gregorian_calendar.html

• - Paul Chapin on Wed 2 Apr 2003, 04:23am. Flag this

  The absent April Fool
  Sorry that those of us in the Western Hemisphere apparently slept through the entire lifespan of Dave Bell’s April Fool annotation. Phil, any chance of posting it in a secure, well-lighted area so we can see what we missed?

• - Phil on Wed 2 Apr 2003, 10:56am. Flag this

  The excised annotations have gone forever. I know it might seem like me lacking a sense of humour, but I’m trying to keep this as a useful resource for people who don’t have the time to distinguish between jokes and genuine information. And I’d prefer not to have to spend my time going through deleting spurious posts. Thanks.

• - Roger Miller on Wed 2 Apr 2003, 12:08pm. Flag this

  Gone forever eh?

  http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:snu3KuLwGeQJ:www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1660/03/31/index.php+pepys+poisson&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

• - Linda Camidge on Tue 30 Mar 2010, 07:46pm. Flag this

  I have just tried the 2003 link above and yes, I’m afraid it has gone forever.