Summary

In 1664 he worked in the Ordnance Office in the Tower of London and he married Betty Lane, one of Pepys’ mistresses. Pepys had a low opinion of the man, although Martin seemed to hold Pepys in some respect.

3 Annotations

First Reading

Michael Robinson  •  Link

Per L&M companion:-

... Martin's carer was very different from what might be expected of Pepys' account of him ('a sorry simple fellow,' 'without discourse,' 'not worth a farthing'). When he married Betty [Lane] in 1664 he was working in the Ordnance Office in the Tower. He then became a purser (James Lane standing as one of his sureties) in at least five ships before 1672, when he was appointed to the important post of consul at Algiers. His correspondence with Pepys in that capacity, pitched in tones of great respect, shows him a man of some ability. In 1674 he sent Pepys a tame lion, which Pepys found 'good company.' In 1677 he found himself in debtors' prison through having engaged in some unhappy trading ventures, and in 1678 he died.

Second Reading

Carla Mulford  •  Link

I would be interested in finding out more information about Samuel Martin. Pardon my ignorance: what is the L and M companion?

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Hi Carla ... please read Phil's notes "About The Text" at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/about/…
in which he explains -- amongst a whole lot of other helpful information -- that Lathom and Matthews put out the first translation of Pepys' Diary about 200 years ago (as I recall) in which they did "annotations" as known at the time. Since most of that information would only know be known to historians with access to the archives, their notes have been added to our annotations over the years by kind people who possess various editions of their printed version of the Diary. Most of the time I find them very helpful.

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1664

1665

1666

1667

1668

1669