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Wednesday 8 January 1661/62

I rose and went to Westminster Hall, and there walked up and down upon several businesses, and among, others I met with Sir W. Pen, who told me that he had this morning heard Sir G. Carteret extremely angry against my man Will that he is every other day with the Commissioners of Parliament at Westminster, and that his uncle was a rogue, and that he did tell his uncle every thing that passes at the office, and Sir William, though he loves the lad, did advise me to part with him, which did with this surprise mightily trouble me, though I was already angry with him, and so to the Wardrobe by water, and all the way did examine Will about the business, but did not tell him upon what score, but I find that the poor lad do suspect something. To dinner with my Lady, and after dinner talked long with her, and so home, and to Sir W. Batten’s, and sat and talked with him, and so home troubled in mind, and so up to my study and read the two treaties before Mr. Selden’s “Mare Clausum,” and so to bed. This night come about 100l. from Brampton by carrier to me, in holsters from my father, which made me laugh.

Thursday 9 January 1661/62Tuesday 7 January 1661/62

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  • (Average for January 1662)

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Annotations

  • “from Brampton by carrier to me, in holsters from my father, which made me laugh.”

    After a period, where Sam was worried about the health of mother and father, and the relationship between them, this is the first we have heard of them for some time. I bet they have been having a whale of a time out in the sticks!

  • Holsters?

  • Holsters? a guess: just a leather case with a lock to prevent thievery. then the name was hi-jacked for carrying a pistol. I wonder, if there be a connection to Holstein, the state, and leather goods, a case made of leather coming from Denmark and for want of better moniker, it be called a [holstein] holster.

  • My Man Will has a nice life, after helping Sam with his boots and cloaks has day to abscond and let the girls do all the mucky ucky chores like empty the “Chamber pot”.

  • Holster from an etymological dictionary
    holster
    “leather case for a pistol,” 1663, probably from O.E. heolster, earlier helustr “concealment, hiding place,” from P.Gmc. *khelus-/*khulis- (cf. O.H.G. huluft “cover, case, sheath,” O.N. hulstr “case, sheath,” M.Du. holster, Ger. Holfster “holster”), from PIE *kel- “to cover, to hide” (see cell). Intermediate forms are wanting, and the modern word may as well be from the O.N. or M.Du. cognates.

  • Sorry -
    O.E. = Old English
    O.H.G. = Old High German
    O.N. = Old Norse
    M. Du = Middle Dutch
    Don’t know what P.Gmc or PIE mean.

  • “made me laugh”
    Why? Because it was so much money? Because conveying it in holsters was a silly thing to do? Because it was a surprise?

  • Etymological abbreviations
    P.Gmc = Proto-Germanic
    PIE = Proto-Indo-European

  • holster

    The 1663 citation quoted by Australian Susan reads “holsters at his saddle-bow”. Perhaps Sam’s amusement arises from his father’s calculation that

  • today we got 3 sentences. The first one is as long as it gets!
    May be it is P.Gmc?

  • “Sir G. Carteret extremely angry against my man Will”
    Why is Carteret extremely angry? afraid of whistle blowing?

  • Carteret’s anger.

    Occasioned by the fact that Will Hewer’s uncle, Richard Blackborne, was a strong Puritan who had flourished during the Commonwealth but lost office at the Restoration. He is definitely out of favour with the new regime and therefore Carteret is uneasy about the intelligence that he may be gleaning from Will. Cartaret had always been a vigorous anti-Parliamentarian, so it’s not surprising that he distrusts Blackborne and/or his motives.

  • Thanks Mary

  • “his uncle was a rogue”

    At this date the term ‘rogue’ retained its full, pejorative force to indicate a thoroughly dishonest, untrustworthy man. It is only in more recent times that its less forceful meaning (a bit of a lad etc.) has come to predominate, at least in English English.

  • Cattle & Blackburne…
    To put the best turn on Carteret’s “rogue”, I think he means an outlier or stray, like a cow who won’t keep to the herd.

  • These people expect treachery and double-dealing because they did so much of it themselves during the war years, but this puts Pepys into a very difficult position. He’s only a few years older than Hewer himself, and now he’s being told to let Hewer go for the sake of national security, and Montagu is too far away to get advice from. I think most people in Pepys’ situation would have done it, especially as Pepys is still irritated with Hewer about him having been drunk. He certainly doesn’t want to fall into suspicion by association, his own position is still too insecure for that.

  • The Parliamentary Commissioners

    This is an organization created by Parliament for the express purpose of decommissioning much of the fleet and reducing the strength of the military in general, now that stable government has finally been restored. They are putting a lot of sailors out of work.

  • Great connection to the inside politics. Glyn

  • Let’s put the best take on this and just hope Will H was naive and being exploited by the unscrupulous.

  • Re: Will exploited
    An even better take is that Will has done nothing that Carteret alledges, and his bluster may have no greater basis than his own paranoia. This isn’t the first time he’s suspected treachery on the part of a naval clerk, as evidenced in the entry referenced by Glyn
    http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1661/01/19/index.php#c10547
    when he similarly impeached Thomas Hayter, without any resulting consequence being evident, assumedly because there was no merit.

    On the day following this post Carteret is alone with Pepys, yet makes no mention of his allegation. If his suspicions of Will were well founded I’d expect the Treasurer of the Navy to prosecute this serious charge with Sam, who was merely the Clerk of Acts at the time.
    Perhaps instead, Carteret is deliberately trying to keep the ranks below him aflutter as a means of asserting his power.
    And we don’t know context—maybe the less-than-competent Carteret had just heard one too many compliments about the young administrator, Sam Pepys, so, threatened, he responds in anger, impugning Sam’s favored clerk, and by association, Sam’s judgement.
    Or maybe I’m being paranoid.

  • more on Holster: OE: first mention is 1665 by Butler. So this entry is even an earlier one. It’s root appears to be baltic related Du/Eng/Icl/Da : Du, Houlster: Icl, Hustlr:Da, Hylster: Case sheath for concealment. Tied to the pummel of saddle or to the waist of a Horseman.

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