Friday 17 May 1667

Up, and to the office, where all the morning upon some accounts of Mr. Gawden’s, and at noon to the Three Tuns to dinner with Lord Bruncker, Sir J. Minnes, W. Batten, W. Pen, and T. Harvy, where very merry, and my Lord Bruncker in appearance as good friends as ever, though I know he has a hatred to me in heart. After dinner to my house, where Mr. Sheply dined, and we drank and talked together. He, poor man, hath had his arm broke the late frost, slipping in going over Huntingdon Bridge. He tells me that Jasper Trice and Lewes Phillips and Mr. Ashfield are gone from Brampton, and he thinks chiefly from the height of Sir J. Bernard’s carriage, who carries all things before him there, which they cannot bear with, and so leave the town, and this is a great instance of the advantage a man of the law hath over all other people, which would make a man to study it a little. Sheply being gone, there come the flageolet master, who having had a bad bargain of teaching my wife by the year, she not practising so much as she should do, I did think that the man did deserve some more consideration, and so will give him an opportunity of 20s. a month more, and he shall teach me, and this afternoon I begun, and I think it will be a few shillings well spent. Then to Sir R. Viner’s with 600 pieces of gold to turn into silver, for the enabling me to answer Sir G. Carteret’s 3000l.; which he now draws all out of my hand towards the paying for a purchase he hath made for his son and my Lady Jemimah, in Northamptonshire, of Sir Samuel Luke, in a good place; a good house, and near all her friends; which is a very happy thing. Thence to St. James’s, and there spoke with Sir W. Coventry, and give him some account of some things, but had little discourse with him, there being company with him, and so directly home again and then to my office, doing some business, and so to my house, and with my wife to practice on the flageolet a little, and with great pleasure I see she can readily hit her notes, but only want of practice makes her she cannot go through a whole tune readily. So to supper and to bed.


14 Annotations

First Reading

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...and my Lord Bruncker in appearance as good friends as ever, though I know he has a hatred to me in heart."

I'd watch that enemies list, Sam.

Carl in Boston  •  Link

"with great pleasure I see she can readily hit her notes"
Spoken like a musician. It's all in the fundamentals

tg  •  Link

Then to Sir R. Viner’s with 600 pieces of gold to turn into silver, for the enabling me to answer Sir G. Carteret’s 3000l.; which he now draws all out of my hand towards the paying for a purchase he hath made for his son and my Lady Jemimah, in Northamptonshire, of Sir Samuel Luke, in a good place; a good house, and near all her friends; which is a very happy thing.

Is Sam here taking 600 pieces of his own money to pay for Carteret's personal purchase of a house for his son? I don't recall any foreshadowing of this transaction.

George Robins  •  Link

“…and my Lord Bruncker in appearance as good friends as ever, though I know he has a hatred to me in heart.”

Really I'm not paranoid but I know he doesn't like me.

Events, way in the future, will prove the wisdom of our man's looking over his shoulder.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Keep friends close and enemies closer...

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"He tells me that Jasper Trice and Lewes Phillips and Mr. Ashfield are gone from Brampton, and he thinks chiefly from the height of Sir J. Bernard’s carriage, who carries all things before him there, which they cannot bear with, and so leave the town, and this is a great instance of the advantage a man of the law hath over all other people, which would make a man to study it a little."

"First thing we do, lets kill all the lawyers." -Henry VI, Part II.

"Yes, Pepys. A thorough knowledge of the law makes a man to triumph over all... And a small army of hired thugs doesn't hurt."

Don McCahill  •  Link

> Is Sam here taking 600 pieces of his own money to pay for Carteret’s personal purchase of a house for his son?

I read it as Sam being asked to do a chore for one of the Lord's ... doing the banking run, so to speak. I doubt SP would be spending that kind of money without a lot of complaining about it.

cum salis grano  •  Link

30 pieces of silver grease more palms than one goldern guinea.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Is Sam loaning Carteret the money? Or coming in as an investor...?

cum salis grano  •  Link

Opinion:
little bit of interest for changing gold into silver so that it will influence more people is my take on this transaction

Australian Susan  •  Link

Sam seems to choose gold when he is storing money, but silver when he is actually transacting something. He uses Viner's to handle these changes although he is no longer confident in Viner's clerks' abilities and the last time checked the paperwork of the transactions himself. This seems to be a loan.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"he now draws all out of my hand towards the paying for a purchase he hath made for his son and my Lady Jemimah, in Northamptonshire, of Sir Samuel Luke, in a good place; a good house, and near all her friends; which is a very happy thing."

L&&M note the manor of Hawnes or Haynes (in Bedfordshire not Northamptonshire) was conveyed at this time by Sir Samuel Luke and his son Oliver to Sir Thomas Mountagu and Sir Thomas Crew, presumably trustees for Carteret.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He tells me that Jasper Trice and Lewes Phillips and Mr. Ashfield are gone from Brampton, and he thinks chiefly from the height of Sir J. Bernard’s carriage, who carries all things before him there, which they cannot bear with, and so leave the town, and this is a great instance of the advantage a man of the law hath over all other people, which would make a man to study it a little."

L&M: Bernard was a serjeant-at-law and the Recorder of Huntingdon. He had become a baronet in 1666, and in Brampton owned one manor and was steward of another. He was an M.P. for the county and took a leading part in county politics. Jasper Trice and Lewis Philips were lawyers too (but not so grand) Suton Ashfield a landowner.

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