San Diego Sarah

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Third Reading

About Tea

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

By 1775, England’s love affair with tea had become too expensive. Most of the tea was imported from China. The British were so obsessed with the beverage that the fast “clipper’ ships were invented to get the freshest tea leaves back to the home country.

The famous Cutty Sark could transport over 1,000,000 lbs. of tea to England in less than 100 days.

In a mercantile world, the problem was this created a trade imbalance for England. Chinese citizens were not interested in British products. To pay for the imports, England was drained of gold and silver. What was needed was an export that Chinese had to have. Starting around 1775 the British East India Company started exporting opium from India to Canton, China to help with the balance of payments. This exploded into such a problem for the Chinese, they declared war on England during Victoria’s reign.
https://www.historyanecdotesforteachers.com/the-f…

Of course, it wasn’t just the Chinese being addicted: “Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a poet and an opium addict. One day in 1797, he went to sleep under the influence, after having read about Kubla Khan’s palace at Zanadu. When he awoke, he began to feverishly copy down a poem he had dreamed. It began with the famous line: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan build a stately Pallace…”

When he reached the 54th line (one sixth of the way through the planned poem), his writing was interrupted by the infamous “person on business from Porlock” and by the time he got back to work, he had forgotten the rest of his most famous poem.”
https://www.historyanecdotesforteachers.com/the-o…

About Sunday 25 May 1662

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Ensign Tom tells us stubble was common in Pepys' day:

Historian Richard Holmes describing the death of Charles II in his 2008 work, "Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius", writes: "On the morning of 2 February 1685 he [the King] rose after a restless night, and sat down to the barber, 'it being shaving day' -- even monarchs were shaved only two or three times a week."

Holmes' quoted source was the two volume "Memoirs of Thomas, Earl of Ailesbury" published in 1890.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1660/02/22/#c556…

So being clean shaven meant something a bit different to them than it does to us. Otherwise, Charles II would have asked Pepys how he achieved his clean appearance, and started scrubbing himself every day as well.

About Tuesday 14 February 1659/60

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Yes they have, Ensign Tom -- at the top of this page is a black band with the words: THE DIARY - LETTERS - ENCYCLOPEDIA - ARTICLES - SITE NEWS - RECENT ACTIVITY - ABOUT

Under ARTICLES, our recent efforts have been book reviews, but if you go back further you'll find that Jeannine, Sue Nicholson, Phil Gyford, and others from the First Reading contributed in-depth articles about different aspects of the Diary. One concerns the garden at Seething Lane, and the other is about how Pepys' home there evolved during the Diary years.

Poke around; it's fun. The price is right!

If you're in a hurry, this is the article you're looking for:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/indepth/2011/09/23/at-…

About Saturday 17 March 1659/60

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I wonder where Autumnbreeze got the idea that Dorothea St.Michel was of Irish origin.
One of the more tantalizing possibilities about Elizabeth's lineage is:

"Another interesting point of debate has to do with the parentage of Elizabeth’s mother, Dorethea.
"Marjorie Astin’s biography of Elizabeth, which differs on this point from all others ..., states that Dorethea was the “daughter of Lavinia and Matthew Penneford of Gort, and widow of Thomas Fleetwood. She was closely connected with the Kingsmills, a family of considerable worth and consequence, who had resided at Basingstoke, Hants, from the12th to 16th century; they had received a grant from the Royal Mill there, from which they derived their name.” (Astin, p.10). Perhaps it is best to put these “details of debate” into the broader perspective, where through this letter we will see that the results infer that Elizabeth had a “curious childhood, full of poverty and unrest, for her father was often abroad earning his bread as a soldier.” (Astin, p.12)."

The letter from Balty St.Michel to Pepys as part of his Popish Plot defense gives all the details.

Balty says he and Elizabeth were born in Bideford, Devon. His letter is about 1/3 of the way through an article at https://www.pepysdiary.com/indepth/2006/05/31/a-v…

About Saturday 17 March 1659/60

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Pepys sounds depressed -- not only did he omit mention of Will Bowyer escorting Elizabeth to his parents' home, but he also forgot to say that the dog and Jane Booth left as well. The house must have been very empty when he went back for the final look around.

About Saturday 17 March 1659/60

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

If anyone is, like Autumnbreeze, confused about Elizabeth's background, a good summary is at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/150/#c6504

She was a Devonian -- and anyone familiar with that dialect will atest she might as well have been speaking French for most Londoners -- in fact, so many Londoners had spent time in France, they would probably have preferred that she did speak French.

About Pepys’ home in Axe Yard

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

L&M Companion: Pepys lived here from c. Aug. 1658 until July 1660. The house was probably on the north side, and was the fourth from King Street. It had 8 hearths, which was about average for a street which also included a house with 36 (probably a rooming house), one with 3, and the others ranged from 4 to 15.

It appears from the rate book of 1657/8 to have been divided, the Pepyses occupying 2/3 (assessed on 5 hearths). Before the Diary begins, the Beales (who had occupied the rest of the house) had moved along the street to the Axe Inn, and Pepys (now presumably in sole occupancy) was paying rent to both Francis Beale and the freeholder, Valentine Wanley of Lambeth.

HMMM ... that's not what Pepys says on the first day of the Diary: "... (we living lately in the garret) ..."
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1660/01/01/

A garret:
garret -- noun
Synonyms of garret: a room or unfinished part of a house just under the roof.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/garret

Perhaps after Pepys gets a better-paid job in March, he, Elizabeth and Jane take over more space?

About Francis Beale

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Francis Beale is identified as Landlord Beale on 20 September, 1660.

L&M: Francis Beale was Pepys' landlord 1658-1660. Beale had lived in Axe Yard since at least 1627/8 in a house whose freehold was owned by Valentine Wanley. Sometime before the beginning of the Diary, Beale moved to the Axe Inn. He dies in 1662, and his widow, Alice Whittney Beale, lived on until 1666.

So Tim's information looks quite likely.

About Sir John Bernard

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

John Bernard was descended from a younger son of the Northamptonshire family.

His father, Robert Bernard MP of Huntingdon, was recorder of that town and represented the borough in the Short Parliament.

John Bernard bought the Brampton estate, 2 miles from the town, in 1653. A domineering lord of the manor, he used his legal training to drive the smaller freeholders out.

With his brother-in-law, Nicholas Pedley, he defeated the Montagu candidates for Huntingdon at the general election of 1660.

in Apr. John Bernard MP obtained a pass for Holland, where he hoped to counteract the influence of Adm. Edward Montagu MP at Court, and perhaps to solicit the baronetcy (which was granted to his father in 1662).

He was not an active Member of the Convention Parliament, serving only on the committee of elections and privileges and on two others of minor importance, and making no recorded speeches. He is likely to have voted with the Opposition.

It is not known whether John Bernard stood again at Huntingdon, where his father continued as recorder until removed by the commissioners for corporations.

John had the courage to shelter his first wife’s father (Elizabeth was the daughter of Oliver St.John) before the Cromwellian Lord Chief Justice fled the country, and the longstanding conventicle at Brampton may have owed something to his protection, as well as the bishop of Lincoln’s tolerance.

John Bernard succeeded his father as the 2nd Bart. on 18 Apr. 1666.

He either resigned or was removed from the commission of the peace in July 1670, presumably because of his opposition to the Conventicles Act.

Sir John Bernard, 2nd Bart., died on 25 June 1679, and was buried at Brampton.
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/…

About Wednesday 14 March 1659/60

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

More about the (Parliamentary) Bernard family and the background on the political rivalry between them and the (nobility but still Parliamentary) Montagues at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/556/ for William
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/14028/ for his wife, Elizabeth
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/556/ for Sir John -- Shakespeare's grandson-in-law
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/555/ for Sir Robert

This rivalry will occasionally pop up in the Diary for a couple of years

About Lincoln's Inn Fields

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Sir Randolph Crewe MP had an "interesting" career, courtesy of James VI and I:
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/…

Our John Crewe MP (whose father, Sir Thomas Crewe MP, was Speaker of the House of Commons) was returned sometime in May 1624 for the newly enfranchised borough of Amersham, where his uncle, Lord Chief Justice Sir Ranolph Crewe MP had recently acted as an arbitrator in a land sale.
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/…

Everything was family business in those days. The families promoted their own.

About Lincoln's Inn Fields

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

MORE:

They continued to enlarge the Inn accommodations, taking in more lawyers.
Consequently, the hall was lengthened by the addition of two oriel windows giving the interior an odd shape which was reorganized in 1624, when a large and ornate screen and gallery designed by Robert Lynton was inserted into the building.
Lynton may also have worked on a comparable screen at Crewe Hall, Cheshire, for Sir Randolph Crewe, a Bencher of the Inn.

In January 1618, the Benchers consulted Inigo Jones about building a Chapel. In November, the mason John Clark presented a model for the new building and received the commission.
Clark’s chapel was 3 bays long and was over an open, vaulted undercroft. It’s unclear why this unusual arrangement was adopted; it open up the courtyard and allowed for direct internal connection with the first-floor council chamber.
An external staircase to the chapel with more vaults was demolished in the 1880s, when the building was restored and extended to its present form.

Notes taken from 2 articles with pictures at https://www.countrylife.co.uk/architecture/lincol…
And https://www.countrylife.co.uk/architecture/350-ye…

About Lincoln's Inn Fields

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Starting in December, 1422 a long series of administrative records were compiled by Lincoln’s Inn staff, and are known as the Black Books.
From these we can form an impression of daily life at Lincoln’s Inn through the centuries.

The ‘fellows’ of the society were divided into benchers, barristers and students. All took an oath of obedience to the governors, and paid fees for lodging and food. Beneath them in the hierarchy were clerks (new members of the society who aspired to fellowship), and then servants.

By the mid-15th century, the society had leased the London residence of the Bishop of Chichester. This property and its gardens were outside the London walls, west of a street running between Holborn and Fleet Street. Here, they was close to the other Inns of Court and Chancery and had easy access to Westminster Hall, seat of the royal courts.

Meals were served to the entire membership of the society in the hall. These were eaten in sittings, with the quantity and quality of the food determined by seniority.

Accommodation varied in similar fashion.

During the legal terms, the fellows spent a great deal of time at Westminster Hall, involved in or observing the different courts that operated concurrently within its vast interior.

Breaking up the legal year were a series of festivals involving feasts and revels, lectures (called ‘readings’) in a format like university practicem and t practice court proceedings to debate points of law, which were called ‘moots’.

For moots, the hall was converted into a courtroom, a resembling the use of great halls in castles and houses across the nation for legal proceedings.
Benchers sat on the dais in front of those more junior lawyers involved in the debate.

About Lincoln's Inn Fields

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

We seem to have three different subjects on this page:
1 Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court, which is celebrating its 600 year anniversary.
2 Then homes were built around a adjacent square, which were called Lincoln's Inn Fields, where Sandwich leased his fabulous house.
3 Finally, one of Pepys' favorite theaters was built here.

This post is just about the Lincoln's Inn, one of the Inns of Court: On Tuesday mornings at 11am there are tours, which lasted about an hour,
Photography is allowed throughout, with plenty of time in each room to take photos and soak up the atmosphere.

Although the estate and the chapel are open to the public, the rest of the buildings are not, and if you like visiting grand buildings, this somewhat hidden enclave in the heart of London is worth a look around.

For a preview, see https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/go-on-a-tour…

About Friday 9 March 1659/60

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Many around him also seem to be seizing opportunities to booze."

Given stressful circumstances -- and I'd say these times taxed everyone, not knowing if they were going to be Anglican or Puritan, or living in a Republic or a Monarchy by the end of the year, people getting jobs or losing them not for their qualities but because of who they had associated with in the past, and with Monck and Lawson behaving in very opaic ways -- they drank to achieve a certain level of oblivion.

I have read many articles that report imbibing more than usual is how many of our neighbors around the world have handled the stress of the last 3 years. My reason for adding that modern note is that we probably do not identify with our home town being occupied by opposing factions of the army and the local authorities behaving so unpredictably, but we do all share recent experience with one unpredictable stressor which could prove to be a source of unemployment, or be fatal quite whimsically. Stress is stress, and how humans handle it seems to be the same, generation after generation.

About Wednesday 7 March 1659/60

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Google takes me to:

"Wednesday, January 11th, 1659/60.
Custos Rotulorum of Westminster.
RESOLVED, upon the Question, by the Parliament, That this House doth approve of Thomas Scot Esquire, nominated by the Governors of the School and Almshouses of Westminster, to be Custos Rotulorum of the City and Liberties of Westminster: And, It is

¶Ordered, That the Records be forthwith delivered to the said Thomas Scot, or such Person or Persons as he shall appoint, under his Hand, to receive the same: And all Person or Persons whom it doth or may concern, be and are required and enjoined to deliver the said Records accordingly: And the Commissioners for Custody of the Great Seal are hereby authorized and required to pass a Confirmation of the said Office of Custos Rotulorum unto the said Thomas Scot, under the Great Seal, in usual Form, accordingly.

No mention of George Montagu MP at all.

However, George Montagu's Parliamentary bio records:
Commr. for new model ordinance, Hunts. 1645, assessment Hunts. 1645-8, 1663-80, Northants. 1647-8, 166l-80 Lincs. 1661-3, Glos., Mdx. and Westminster 1661-80, East Riding 1663-4, j.p. Hunts. and Northants. 1646-52, Mar. 1660-d., Westminster Mar. 1660-d., Mdx. Mar.-July 1660, 1662-d., commr. for militia, Hunts. and Northants. 1648, Hunts., Mdx. and Northants. Mar. 1660;

custos rot. Westminster Mar.-July 1660;

freeman, Dover Aug. 1660; warden of Salcey Forest, Northants. Aug. 1660-d.; commr. for sewers, Westminster Aug. 1660; master of St. Katharine’s hospital, London 1661-d.; commr. for loyal and indigent officers, Yorks. 1662, oyer and terminer, Mdx. 1662.3 Gent. of the privy chamber (extraordinary) July 1660; member of Queen’s council 1669-d.4
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/…

Maybe there was more than one Custos Rotulorum? No, I don't think so either. So now I'm as confused as L&M, which is good company to be in.

About Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (Baron Ashley, Chancellor of the Exchequer)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Sadly Pepys never mentions John Locke in the Diary, although they were moving at the same time in the small circle of decision-makers in London. Undoubtedly after the Diary they knew each other.

Prof. Kermit Roosevelt III -- a great-great-grandson of President Teddy -- has written a book called 'The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Story', in which one concept stood out to me and clarified a lot:
"Professor Roosevelt: ... Founding America really was not dedicated to equality for all people. The Declaration of Independence was primarily concerned with the independence of the colonies, not the equality of people. “All men are created equal” was a shorthand invocation of the social contract theory of John Locke, and it was basically a rejection of the divine right of kings. It plays a role in the argument for independence, but it doesn’t mean much about how society should be structured. In particular, it doesn’t condemn slavery."

That explains how Locke and Lord Ashley could write into the Constitution of the Carolinas that serfdom was how the society should be organized: 'The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, called the "Grand Model," provided the form of government and society for the Carolina colony from 1669 to 1698. The Lords Proprietors of Carolina first issued the constitutions in 1669, then disseminated revisions in 1670, January 1682, August 1682, and 1698. The constitutions were suspended from 1693 to 1698.

'The main purposes of the Fundamental Constitutions were to protect Proprietary interests and to avoid the creation of a democracy. The Proprietors used the constitutions to try to establish a feudal government and society, so far as permitted by the Carolina charter of 1663. The feudal government was to be headed by nobles with the titles of palatine, landgrave, and cacique. They were to rule through their own courts, a grand council, and a Parliament. Freemen were to have a voice in government, but enslaved people and others who were bound were to have none. This government and feudal society were never fully implemented. Only the palatine's (Proprietor's) court operated for a time.'
https://www.ncpedia.org/fundamental-constitutions….

The father of the Enlightenment in the 1660's wasn't as enlightened as I imagined. He was fine with enslaving poor pink people as well as unlucky brown people. The past is indeed a foreign land.

Prof. Roosevelt's interview is at https://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/154690