Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Eliezer, or Ely, Jenkins was Pepys’s footboy at sea, hired at the same time as his shipboard clerk, John Burr, on 14 March 1659/60. A footboy was the most junior servant in a household, and served an indentureship like an apprentice—-though this probably did not apply to short-term employment like Pepys’s voyage to Holland. On water or land, the footboy was expected to do every sort of chore and errand; on May 11,Eliezer will be sent from the ship to fetch Pepys’s linen at Deale, though high winds made his master fear for his safety, before he was brought back by another ship.
Post-trip, 27 August, he reappears on a smack by which sundry admirers have sent Pepys gifts—-including, coincidentally, the pair of turtle-doves for Elizabeth from John Burr (see his page). In parting, Pepys gives him half a crown “because I saw that he was ready to cry to see that he could not be entertained by me here.”
Ely came from Westminster, and may possibly have been the son of the Bailiff for 1657-60, Nicholas Jenkins.
(Companion, biographical note and “Household” essay; “Shorter Pepys”)