Wednesday 12 December 1666

Up, and to the office, where some accounts of Mr. Gawden’s were examined, but I home most of the morning to even some accounts with Sir H. Cholmly, Mr. Moone, and others one after another. Sir H. Cholmly did with grief tell me how the Parliament hath been told plainly that the King hath been heard to say, that he would dissolve them rather than pass this Bill with the Proviso; but tells me, that the Proviso is removed, and now carried that it shall be done by a Bill by itself. He tells me how the King hath lately paid about 30,000l.1 to clear debts of my Lady Castlemayne’s; and that she and her husband are parted for ever, upon good terms, never to trouble one another more. He says that he hears 400,000l. hath gone into the Privypurse since this warr; and that that hath consumed so much of our money, and makes the King and Court so mad to be brought to discover it.

He gone, and after him the rest, I to the office, and at noon to the ’Change, where the very good newes is just come of our four ships from Smyrna, come safe without convoy even into the Downes, without seeing any enemy; which is the best, and indeed only considerable good newes to our Exchange, since the burning of the City; and it is strange to see how it do cheer up men’s hearts. Here I saw shops now come to be in this Exchange, and met little Batelier, who sits here but at 3l. per annum, whereas he sat at the other at 100l., which he says he believes will prove of as good account to him now as the other did at that rent. From the ’Change to Captain Cocke’s, and there, by agreement, dined, and there was Charles Porter, Temple, Fern, Debasty, whose bad English and pleasant discourses was exceeding good entertainment, Matt. Wren, Major Cooper, and myself, mighty merry and pretty discourse.

They talked for certain, that now the King do follow Mrs. Stewart wholly, and my Lady Castlemayne not above once a week; that the Duke of York do not haunt my Lady Denham so much; that she troubles him with matters of State, being of my Lord Bristoll’s faction, and that he avoids; that she is ill still.

After dinner I away to the office, where we sat late upon Mr. Gawden’s accounts, Sir J. Minnes being gone home sick. I late at the office, and then home to supper and to bed, being mightily troubled with a pain in the small of my back, through cold, or (which I think most true) my straining last night to get open my plate chest, in such pain all night I could not turn myself in my bed. Newes this day from Brampton, of Mr. Ensum, my sister’s sweetheart, being dead: a clowne.


23 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The Royal Society today at Gresham College — from the Hooke Folio Online

Dec: 12. 1666./ transfusion expt. made succeeded not soe well as the Last, though the monday before the same. had
been tryed before wth. good sucesse where were present Dr Pope mr. D. Cox. mr T Cox mr Oldenburg mr Hooke
orderd that at next meeting it should be tryd vpon a mangy & a sound dog Letting the blood of the former into the veines of the Later & that Dr. Ball mr D Cox mr T Cox & mr Hooke should take care of the expts.
(animall to be weighed)

about tides) Dr wrens leuell /being/ called for it was produced Ready made and orderd to be Desribed.

(Querys for Turky to mr Ricaut).

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the Proviso is removed, and now carried that it shall be done by a Bill by itself"

H o C yesterday

Resolved, &c. That the Proviso concerning the Taking of Accompts of publick Monies, tendered to be made Part of the Poll Bill, shall be converted into a distinct Bill of itself.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

CGS  •  Link

Yea , I did misunderstand , 'tis the King that would have to count for every mite his lasses of the court would spend, not where baksheesh went on getting best vittles, for it so noticed from time immemorial that funds from the taxes never get to be spent fully on the true intent it has a way of dribbling into deep pockets on its way to the final destination.

Forgot authorizes the collection, the King says who gets what.

here goes...One for Navy , one for the girls , one for the king, one for boys, one for the navy, one for the girls,...

CGS  •  Link

Publick Accompts now that the king has won his way.
off to the engrossing stage.

Poll Bill
A Proviso, touching One Peny in the Pound only . . be allowed for Receipts and Disbursements of publick Monies, was twice read.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"(Querys for Turky to mr Ricaut)." - Hooke's minutes of the RS

Sir Paul Rycaut (1629-1700): An author and diplomat, Rycaut was the leading authority of his day on the Ottoman Empire. Rycaut spent seventeen years in Turkey first (1661) as secretary to the English Ambassador in Constantinople, then English Consul for the Levant Company in Smyrna (1667-1678). This was followed by a brief spell as chief secretary in Ireland under James II, and eleven years as British resident at the Hanse Towns for William and Mary. He wrote The Present State of the Ottoman Empire (1665) and The History of the Turkish empire (1623-1677). Besides translating Gracián's work, Rycaut also translated (1685) the 1479 Historia B. Platinae de Vitis Pontificum Romanorum [Lives of the Popes] of Bartolomeo Platina, Vatican Librarian. http://www.erbzine.com/mag18/crit…

Michael Robinson  •  Link

@Robert Hooke “(Querys for Turky to mr Ricaut).”

SP was familiar with the man, his reputation and writing:

"... and there looked upon a new booke, set out by one Rycault, secretary to my Lord Winchelsea, of the policy and customs of the Turks, which is, it seems, much cried up." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Spoiler: SP was to acquire a copy on April 8th. 1667:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

Larry  •  Link

Mr. Ensum: a clowne? Does anyone know why he is referred to as such?

JWB  •  Link

Always an exception-"The more you court a clown, the statlier he becomes":
Pepys:"...but my wife tells me he is a drunken, ill-favoured, ill-bred country fellow, "
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Tom  •  Link

Up until about 150 years ago a clown was another name for a country man, an unsophisticated yokel.

Louise H  •  Link

Thirty thousand pounds for Castlemaine -- yikes! I see that 2K of this went for diamond rings, but what would the rest have been spent on? Would some of this have been gambling debts? This is a spectacular sum to spend on clothes and trinkets and wait staff alone, I'd think, especially over (presumably) only a few years.

Andrew Hamilton  •  Link

Clown

Both principal meanings (countryman, boor, an ignorant, uncouth, ill bred man; and fool, jester) were current in Pepys's time. By context, Pepys appears to mean the former, which is closest to the root meaning. The etymology of clown as given in the OED is copied below and makes interesting reading.

(klaUn) Also 6 cloune, cloine, cloyne. [Appears in Eng. in second half of 16th c. as cloyne or cloine, and clowne. The phonetic relation between these is difficult to understand; the former is esp. obscure: possibly a dialect form. By Dunbar, the word (if indeed the same) is written cloun; but it rimes with tone, Joun, meaning tune, June, both having in Sc. the sound (Y or {), which would imply (klYn). Words identical or closely related appear in several of the cognate langs. and dialects: e.g. NFris. (Moringer dial.) ‘klönne (or klünne) ‘clumsy lout, lumpish fellow’ (Bendsen):—OFris. type *klunda wk. masc. Cf. NFris. insular dial. Amrum klünj (pl. klünjar) ‘clod, clot, lump’ = Sylt klünd ‘clog, wooden mall’:—OFris. type *klund str. masc. Also mod.Icel. klunni:—*klunþi ‘clumsy boorish fellow’ (Vigf.), ‘en klods, ubehændig person’ (Jonson), compared with Sw. dial. klunn, kluns (Rietz) ‘clump, clog, log’, and Da. dial. klunds = klods ‘block, log, stump’, also ‘clown’. In Dutch also, Sewell (1766) has kleun fem. (marked as a ‘low word’) ‘a hoidon or lusty bouncing girl’, kloen n. with same sense; and he explains Eng. clown as ‘een plompe boer, kinkel, kloen’. Bilderdijk Verklarende Geslachtlijst (1832) says that kloen applied to a man signifies een lompert, ‘clown’ in English, and so is it with klont, kluit, and kluts or klots, all meaning primarily ‘clod, clot, lump’. So far as concerns the sense-development, then, it is clear that we have here a word meaning originally ‘clod, clot, lump’, which like these words themselves (see clod 5, clot 4), has been applied in various langs. to a clumsy boor, a lout. Of an OE. type, corresp. to the Fris., or to the Du. words, we have no trace, no more than of the occurrence in Eng. of the primitive sense ‘clod’; and it is probable that in Eng. the word is of later introduction from some Low German source.]

CGS  •  Link

Thirty thousand pounds annual for a strumpet, and 3 pounds annual for Samuell's maid.
nowt has changed.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

James Hickes to [Williamson]. Is told that Lord Brouncker, a Navy Comr., has made the seamen exceeding outrageous, by detaining thousands of seamen’s tickets, and ordering the men to other ships, without tickets or money; several seamen have sworn to do for him it they meet him. He is said to have got 30,000l. out of the two great Dutch prizes. They also complain that Sir W. Batten, formerly a serious, honest man, now rants and storms, calls their wives ill names, and forces them away. Many persons have been found murdered in the vaults among the ruins [of London]. It is supposed that the link fellows, who cry “Do you want lights?” when they catch a man single, knock him down, strip him, and leave him for dead. An apothecary’s man in Southwark, coming into Fenchurch Street, was so treated, but when the murderers were gone, he struck a light by a tinder-box they had left behind, saw a woman’s dead body in the vault, and got out. For want of good watches, no one dares go in the ruins, after the close of the evening. Dec 12 1666 CSPD 1666-7, p. 340, 76.:
https://books.google.com/books?id…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He tells me how the King hath lately paid about 30,000l.1 to clear debts of my Lady Castlemayne’s; and that she and her husband are parted for ever, upon good terms, never to trouble one another more. "

L&M: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Gifts to Lady Castlemaine (and with them her extravagance) are said to have increased after she had arranged for the appointment of her friend Baptist May as Keeper of the Privy Purse. Cf. Clarendon, Life, iii. 61-2.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"very good newes is just come of our four ships from Smyrna, come safe without convoy even into the Downes, without seeing any enemy"

L&M: They carried a cargo valued at £700,000 and had been in danger of capture by a Dutch squadron: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
CSPD 1666-7, pp. 340, 341, 343-4.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"James Hickes to [Williamson]. Is told that Lord Brouncker, a Navy Comr., has made the seamen exceeding outrageous, by detaining thousands of seamen’s tickets, and ordering the men to other ships, without tickets or money; several seamen have sworn to do for him it they meet him. He is said to have got 30,000l. out of the two great Dutch prizes."

I have to think this isn't about OUR William, 2nd Viscount Brouncker, FRS. It must refer to his nasty kid brother, Henry about whom we will hear more during the enquiries into the conduct of the Second Anglo-Dutch War:

Henry Brouncker was Member of Parliament for New Romney from 1665 to 21 April, 1668, but was expelled when charges were brought against him for allowing the Dutch to escape during the Battle of Lowestoft and ordering the sails of the English fleet to be slackened in the name of James, Duke of York. Such a decision, taken without the Duke's authority, was an incident seemingly without parallel, especially as his apparent motive was simply that he was fatigued with the stress and noise of the battle.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

"a Navy Comr." could be an abbreviation for Commissioner OR Commander. I hope I'm right.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Gifts to Lady Castlemaine (and with them her extravagance) are said to have increased after she had arranged for the appointment of her friend Baptist May as Keeper of the Privy Purse. Cf. Clarendon, Life, iii. 61-2."

Baptist May was born at the end of Oct. 1628, the sixth son of Sir Humphrey May MP (a trusted courtier to James VI and I, and a follower of George Villiers, Ist Duke of Buckingham). Therefore, May said he was ‘bred about the King ever since he was a child’.

May attended James, Duke of York in exile.

At the Restoration, Baptist May was granted a valuable post in Chancery, together with the 1st Earl of St. Albans, with whom he was also associated in the Jermyn Street development.

In 1665 Baptist May became Keeper of the Privy Purse to Charles II, in which capacity he enjoyed: “the greatest and longest share in the King’s secret confidence of any man in that time ... though ... in his actions against everything that the King was for, both France, Popery, and arbitrary government; but a particular sympathy of temper and his serving the King in his vices created a confidence much envied.”

May stood for Winchelsea in October 1666 with the support of James, Duke of York, the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, but ‘the people chose a private gentleman in spite of him, and cried out they would have no court pimp to be their burgess’. Perhaps because of this rebuff, he was ‘heard to say that £300 a year is enough for any country gentleman’.

As one of Barbara Villiers Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine’s ‘wicked crew,’ Baptist May actively promoted the fall of Chancellor Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, upon which he ‘catched the King about the legs and joyed him, and said that this was the first time that ever he could call him King of England’. (!)

Samuel Pepys considered this ‘most ridiculous’, but Baptist May was probably anticipating the reversal of Clarendon’s foreign policy and the formation of the Triple Alliance against France.

Baptist May was returned for Midhurst at a by-election during the Christmas recess of 1669-70. His purpose was to introduce a bill following the precedent set by John Manners, Lord Roos so Charles II could to divorce Catherine of Braganza. No orator himself, he formed plans for ‘managing those who would undertake the debate; but three days before the motion was to be made, the King called for him, and told him the matter must be let alone’.

May's "good intentions" were rewarded with the keepership of Windsor Park, worth £1,500 p.a.

https://www.historyofparliamenton…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"He says that he hears 400,000l. hath gone into the Privypurse since this warr; and that that hath consumed so much of our money, and makes the King and Court so mad to be brought to discover it."

And the Privy Purse, ladies and gentlemen, is what good ol' Baptist May is in charge of.

To be fair, his wikipedia page does say:
"Despite being Keeper of the Privy Purse, May did not enjoy control over the king's private finances. Surviving documents show that the payments by May were routine payments. However, he enjoyed the king's confidence throughout his reign, despite May's offhand remarks. For example, according to Clarendon's biography, after the Great Fire of London in 1666, he remarked that it was welcomed, to make the city more controllable. This shocked those around him, including the king."

https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"James Hickes to Williamson." We all know who Under Secretary of State Joseph Williamson is.

Here's my nomination for James Hick(e)s:

"Over 70,000 Londoners were left homeless in 1666 when, in the early hours of September 2nd, a fire that began in a bakery on Pudding Lane swiftly grew to consume and devastate the entire city. It is believed that approximately 13,000 residences burnt to the ground.

"As London’s first Post Office at Cloak Lane surrendered to what we now know as the Great Fire Of London, Postmaster James Hicks quickly salvaged as much of the city’s correspondence as physically possible, and fled with his family to Barnet. Once there, still shaken, he sent this letter to his fellow Postmasters and informed them of the unfolding catastrophe.

"This letter, along with 124 other fascinating pieces of correspondence, can be found in the bestselling book, Letters of Note:

"To my good friends ye Postmasters betwixt London & Chester & Holly Head

"Gentlemen,

"it hath pleased Almighty God to visit this famous city of London with most raging fire which began on Sunday morning last about 2 a clock in Pudding Lane in a baker’s house behind the Kings Head tavern in New Fish Street & though all the means possible was used yet it could not be obstructed but before night it had burnt most part of ye City with St Magnus Church & part of ye Bridge to Q Hith to the water side, Canon Street, Dowgate, & upon Monday struck up Gratious Street, Lombard Street, Cornhill, Poultry, Bartholomew Lane, Throgmorton Street, Lothbury, & the last night & this day rages through all parts of the city as far as Temple Bar, Holborn Bridge, Smithfield & by all conjecture is not by any means to be stopped from further ruin except God in his infinite wisdom prevent it.

"I am at ye Red Lyon in Barnet with my family, & God in reasonable good health, notwithstanding great loss and sufferings by the distraction of our office yet I am commanded to let you know yet what little come to your hands from any ministers of State yet again give you all quick and speedy dispatch to me hither yet I may convey you home to Court or such places as I may receive directions for, & I am also to intimate to you which letters are sent to you from Court & shall see them sent forwards from here to you with speedy care & conveyance & so soone as pleasith God to put an end to ye violence of this fire some place will be picked on for ye general correspondence as formerly of which you shall God willing have advice at present this is all

"Your sorrowfull friend
"James Hicks
"Barnet Sep. 4. 11 at night

see http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009…

I may be wrong of course, but this is the sort of useful gossip Hick(e)s would have access to by reading the mail.
Either way, now at least we know what became of the post office after the fire.

mountebank  •  Link

"He tells me how the King hath lately paid about 30,000l.1 to clear debts of my Lady Castlemayne’s"

This really puts into perspective the amounts Boris Johnson arranged to go to Jennifer Arcuri for "IT lessons".

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Good one Mountebank ... first real laugh of the day.

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