Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Thomas Barlow, Pepys’s predecessor as Clerk of the Acts, to whom he paid part of the salary. Barlow held the office jointly with Dennis Fleeting.
Page 133 of Tomalin mentions Barlow who served under Charles I. He is bought out with an annuity (like flies to…). According to her, it is Sandwich who convinces Pepys that the salary is not what makes the position lucrative but the ‘opportunites of getting money while he is in the place.’ Our Sam is a quick study.
Thomas Barlow : sadly google failed? died feb 1664/65 according diary intro;
This intrepretation from Sara George’s “The Journal of Mrs. Pepys”:
“On the 29th of June [Sam] got his warrant from the Duke of York to be Clerk of the Acts and all seemed to be plain sailing until he heard that a previous holder of the post, a Mr Barlow, still held the reversion of it and was coming up to London to look after his interest….My lord told Sam to get possission of his patent as soon as possible and he’d do all he could to keep Barlow out.
“The Privy Coucil ordered the new Navy Board to meet even though their patents weren’t issued yet. Sam was named as one of the officers, but Mr Barlow had an appointment with Mr Coventry to put his case to the Duke of York. However, he turned out to be a sickly old man who didn’t intend to take the post himself and that made us feel a little better. The next day Sam went to see the Navy lodgings beside the Navy Office in Seething Lane and he said even the worst house was very good. He moved into the Navy office and began work by taking an inventory of all the papers and books, but still worried that the appointment could even now be given to Barlow.”
[Sam rushes around and gets the patent prepared and sealed before Barlow can make any more trouble.]
“Mr Barlow eventually appeared. He was old and consumptive and just after whatever gleanings he could get. He settled for L100 a year, and by the look of him it’s not going to go on for ever.”
L&M Companion on [Thomas] Barlow
Pepys’s predecessor as Clerk of the Acts. Originally in the service of the 10th Earl of Northumberland, he was muster-master in 1627 and 1636, and became joint-Clerk of the Acts in 1639. He appears from the diary to have been a friend of the statistician Graunt, and was probably the Mr. Barlow mentioned as a mathematician in a letter from William Petty in 1644. A John Barlow was in Petty’s service.