"Sam calmly calling on the uncle who once offered to purchase his wife's "services" for 500/s ... Betty Michell calmly coming to dine at the home of her serial groper about whose intentions being dishonorable she can't have much doubt after the "box incident"."
Not so curious in those times: A rich man needed an heir. I bet he wasn't the first to look for a "safe" surrogate the only way available to them at the time. We make it acceptable by using injections as intermediaries. And the custom and good will of an influential man for the Mitchell's humble inn would overcome Betty's qualms, especially if she allies herself successfully with Elizabeth, which she seems to have done. 10 years ago Robert Gertz seems to have been blissfully unaware of the minefield women have always negotiated. "Just say No" rarely works. Hopefully the MeToo outpourings, resulting this week in the unseating the Gov. of New York State, has exlained the problem adequately.
"... at St. James’s, where waited on the Duke of York: and both by him and several of the Privy-Council, beyond expectation, I find that my going to Sir Thomas Allen was looked upon as a thing necessary: and I have got some advantage by it, among them."
Now we're privy to the months of complaints lodged by Allin about Pepys' lack of services to the new fleet, I'm not surprised James and the Privy Council were pleased you'd had the courtesy to visit and hear the Admiral's opinions in person. I was surprised at Pepys' reports at how cordial the meeting had been. Maybe Fitzgerald hogged all the time coaching Allin on negotiation techniques with the Sultan?
"... walked to Holborne, where got John Powell’s coach at the Black Swan, and he attended me at St. James’s, ..."
In my copy of L&M it says John Powell was "A Navy Office messenger".
Oh Pepys, so close and yet so far: I have long speculated that there were inter-departmental mail carriers. Surely the Navy Commissioners would box up their mail for Deptford every afternoon, and give it to one of their watermen for delivery. Same for the Duke of York/Matthew Wren -- same for the Admiralty Office -- but not necessarily delivered by river.
Correspondence for Portsmouth, Chatham and Harwich would probably go in the regular mail, which someone has to deliver to the Post Office at the Red Lion at Charing Cross, as it moved there on February 10, 1668. Pepys includes letters to Brampton with this run. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
On the other hand, in our Encyclopedia, Terry's L&M Companion specifies John Powell was a "Messenger to the Admiralty office", but specifies "He HAD served under the Commonwealth." So now we can assume his employment has carried over to the new regime.
Holborn hardly seems a central location. You'd think he'd make a daily run to the Municions Office at the Tower, the Navy Office, the Victuallers Office, and Caskett et al at the Pay Office, dropping off and picking up the mail. But it's Sunday ... did that make a difference?
The fact Powell continues with Pepys to St. James's indicates he had business there ... delivering the mail? or just helping Pepys with his letter boxes as a courtesy?
The L&M notation in my book confirms my idea about the inter-departmental mail system, but not its scope.
'Charles II: February 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 204-261. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Feb. 10. 1668 POST OFFICE, LONDON Sir John Bennet to Williamson.
Requests him to insert in the Gazette that the post-house is removed from the Swan, near Charing Cross, to the Red Lion at Charing Cross, against the newest gate. [S.P. Dom., Car. II. 234, No. 137.] *** The great fire had burned down the old Post Office.
Henry Howard, 22nd Earl of Arundel, FRS (1628 - 1684) had a difficult life. As a Royalist Catholic, his life in England was always in question. His grandfather died in Italy, his older brother, Thomas, 5th Duke of Norfolk was crazy and kept in obscurity in Italy. But Henry, Lord Howard was also lucky: He married for love twice.
Unfortunately his second wife, Jane Bickerton, was the daughter of a very minor Irish landowner, who used to be a clerk in Charles II's wine cellar. During the time of Pepys' Diary, Jane and Henry are having a steamy secret affair which resulted in a couple of children. Both Charles II and John Evelyn warned Henry, Lord Howard to run ... but he didn't/couldn't. In the 1670 Charles sent him as his Ambassador to Morocco, where he spent July 1669 to October 1670, but when Howard returned he secretly married his Jane.
The British Library's investigations into what happened in Barbados and when and who by continue.
Today they ask for volunteers who are willing to read truly awful stuff, taken from the 18th century archives of that sad country:
Barbados is particularly significant in the history of Caribbean enslavement because this is where Britain’s trans-Atlantic slave plantation model began in the 17th century, before spreading throughout the region.
Other European empires had enslaved and transported Africans to plantations in the Americas since the 1500s, but it was in the 17th century that English capitalists industrialized this process and created what historian Hilary Beckles described as the ‘first black slave society’ in Barbados.
English (and later British) capitalists purchased men, women and children enslaved in Africa, brought them to the Caribbean, forced them to work against their will, and then enslaved their children, grandchildren, and so on.
This model officially ended after the 1807 act to prohibit the trade of enslaved people and the 1833 act to abolish slavery altogether – although enslavement effectively continued until 1838 in the guise of transitional ‘apprenticeships’, which was essentially enslavement by another name.
Even after this date, many people had little choice but to continue working for their former enslavers on very low pay.
While the British enslaved people for hundreds of years across the Caribbean, this project is centered specifically on the abolition and emancipation period of the late 18th and early 19th century in Barbados, the place where Britain’s barbaric colonial slave plantation system began.
This project will focus on two newspaper titles, which are already free to view online: • The Barbados Mercury and Bridgetown Gazette (1783-1848) https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1086 • The Barbadian (1822-1861) https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1251 The physical copies of these newspapers are located at the Barbados Archives Department, where they were digitized by a local team thanks to funding from the British Library’s Endangered Archives Program.
Bridewell Palace was built in the early 16th century in the edge of the Thames as a residence for Henry VIII. The palace was a unique structure because it deviated from the architectural norms of the time by not having a great hall and featuring an elaborate staircase. It was also constructed around a large inner courtyard.
Under Edward VI in the 1550s, Bridewell Palace was given to the City of London as a home for the city’s homeless children and a place of punishment for “disorderly women.” It was run in conjunction with Bedlam Hospital throughout Shakespeare’s lifetime, and formed the blueprint for later large prisons: including the Clerkenwell Bridewell prison which opened as a correctional institute for prostitutes and vagrants in 1615; and Tothill Fields Bridewell prison which was opened in 1618 in Westminster.
The original building was mostly destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666, but the reputation of Bridewell outlasted the structure, with the term “bridewell” continuing in use around the world to today as a description for a city’s detention facility, usually close to a courthouse.
To see a copperplate map of the original Bridewell Palace as surveyed between 1553 and 1559, and to hear more details on a podcast given by Duncan Salkeld, the Professor Emeritus of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at the University of Chichester, and Visiting Professor at The University of Roehampton, go to: https://www.cassidycash.com/ep-17…
Pepys had lunch in Guildford, and was at Vauxhall (south of the Thames) in the late afternoon. It's about 30 miles as the crow flies, say 45 by road via Epsom, and so long as you don't get lost around Cobham, that's do-able in five hours. It's August, so it's still daylight, and he doesn't mention rain.
But I agree, Cliff; they didn't stop for sightseeing or cheesecake along the way, and they had four good horses.
St Catherine's Hill is a hill south of Guildford in Surrey, England, with a ruined chapel on its top. The hill is about half a mile south of Guildford on the way to Godalming, near the village of Artington and the River Wey. The village is on a sandstone outcrop near the Pilgrims' Way, at the crossing on the river. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_…
BBC 4's BOOK OF THE WEEK has recently completed five readings from Linda Porter's book "MISTRESSES" about "the sex and scandal" of Charles II's court. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play…
Our interest in Gilles de la Roche Saint Andre has come to the attention of one of his descendents who is researching a possible book about him. See: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
One important point Regis de la Roche Saint Andre made: "Few modern sources, even in France, call him Louis (and the mistake spread) but his real first name was Gilles. I have done some corrections in his Wikipedia page, that should not contain errors now."
I suspect, Liz, that you are experiencing something that is going to get "worse" over time ... we all rely on Google to tell us a fact or an address ... we have calendars popping up to tell us what to do next ... we have replaced our memories with electronic prompts so that the memory part of our brains are not being exercised very much. Our children are not expected to learn facts, they learn how to collaboratively research and solve problems. This brave new world is changing our programming. Then add in getting older ... whether or not "worse" is the right word I won't live to know. Maybe not remembering so much will be a blessing.
You'll remember the brouhaha when a Fresh captain stole a Flemish boat from the harbor at Torquay in February 1668? Turns out that the "captain" was of far higher rank than we knew:
In 1668, the squadron leader of the naval armies, Gilles de La Roche Saint-André was ordered to command 10 ships, part of the squadron commanded by the Duke of Beaufort, which Louis XIV wanted to keep at sea. His squadron was made up of eight ships and six smaller ships. De La Roche commanded Le Jules, when he died of a stroke, off Vigo, on the coast of Galicia, Spain, June 21, 1668. He was 47 years old. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil…
Which leads me to believe that Beaufort is still at sea, somewhere, since he wasn't with De la Roche ...
For the back story on the taking of The Mary, which Pepys thought would lead to war with the French, see: https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
"As we approach the end of this grand experiment, I've been thinking it would be nice to have a roll call, or a guest book, where readers could post their names (either real or internet, as they chose), where they're from, how long they've been reading, and anything else they wanted to share."
"... forthwith alarmes were beat by drum and trumpet through Westminster, and all to their colours, and to horse, as if the French were coming into the town! ..."
In times like this every able-bodied man either belonged to a regiment or a trained band, The trumpets sounded an alarm, and the men reported to a designated place and and to their colours (best represented by Regimental Flags today). In battle, that flag told you where the heart of your regiment was located, so you did not stray too far in the chaos. Hense the big deal about capturing the colours.
In the navy, flying colors means something a bit different. Yes, the Admiral of the Red, White or Blue squadron had different colours flying from his mast so the other ships knew where to find their order of battle, and roughly what was going to happen next.
The idiom "Passing with flying colours" comes from the Age of Exploration, when European explorers first set off across the seas. If a captain had been successful in his venture, he would order the crew to fly their country’s flag (or “colours”) to announce their victory before arriving back at the home port. Originally, the phrase “with flying colors” simply meant that a mission had been completed without a disaster, but over the centuries the idiom came to signify great success.
Nope ... I'm wrong again. Sir Arthur Bassettv MP was an older man, and his Parliamentary bio cautions that he had a cousin by the same name, and they often become confused.
https://www.google.com/books/edit… says that Arthur Bassett had fought for the French in the past, and that one of the problems in Tangiers was a shortage of commissioned officers. Death, sickness and shortage of supplies made it a very undesireable station. During this posting half the troops died.
Comments
Second Reading
About Sunday 9 August 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Sam calmly calling on the uncle who once offered to purchase his wife's "services" for 500/s ... Betty Michell calmly coming to dine at the home of her serial groper about whose intentions being dishonorable she can't have much doubt after the "box incident"."
Not so curious in those times: A rich man needed an heir. I bet he wasn't the first to look for a "safe" surrogate the only way available to them at the time. We make it acceptable by using injections as intermediaries.
And the custom and good will of an influential man for the Mitchell's humble inn would overcome Betty's qualms, especially if she allies herself successfully with Elizabeth, which she seems to have done.
10 years ago Robert Gertz seems to have been blissfully unaware of the minefield women have always negotiated. "Just say No" rarely works. Hopefully the MeToo outpourings, resulting this week in the unseating the Gov. of New York State, has exlained the problem adequately.
About Sunday 9 August 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... at St. James’s, where waited on the Duke of York: and both by him and several of the Privy-Council, beyond expectation, I find that my going to Sir Thomas Allen was looked upon as a thing necessary: and I have got some advantage by it, among them."
Now we're privy to the months of complaints lodged by Allin about Pepys' lack of services to the new fleet, I'm not surprised James and the Privy Council were pleased you'd had the courtesy to visit and hear the Admiral's opinions in person.
I was surprised at Pepys' reports at how cordial the meeting had been. Maybe Fitzgerald hogged all the time coaching Allin on negotiation techniques with the Sultan?
About Sunday 9 August 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... walked to Holborne, where got John Powell’s coach at the Black Swan, and he attended me at St. James’s, ..."
In my copy of L&M it says John Powell was "A Navy Office messenger".
Oh Pepys, so close and yet so far:
I have long speculated that there were inter-departmental mail carriers.
Surely the Navy Commissioners would box up their mail for Deptford every afternoon, and give it to one of their watermen for delivery.
Same for the Duke of York/Matthew Wren -- same for the Admiralty Office -- but not necessarily delivered by river.
Correspondence for Portsmouth, Chatham and Harwich would probably go in the regular mail, which someone has to deliver to the Post Office at the Red Lion at Charing Cross, as it moved there on February 10, 1668. Pepys includes letters to Brampton with this run.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
On the other hand, in our Encyclopedia, Terry's L&M Companion specifies John Powell was a "Messenger to the Admiralty office", but specifies "He HAD served under the Commonwealth."
So now we can assume his employment has carried over to the new regime.
Holborn hardly seems a central location.
You'd think he'd make a daily run to the Municions Office at the Tower, the Navy Office, the Victuallers Office, and Caskett et al at the Pay Office, dropping off and picking up the mail.
But it's Sunday ... did that make a difference?
The fact Powell continues with Pepys to St. James's indicates he had business there ... delivering the mail? or just helping Pepys with his letter boxes as a courtesy?
The L&M notation in my book confirms my idea about the inter-departmental mail system, but not its scope.
About Monday 10 February 1667/68
San Diego Sarah • Link
'Charles II: February 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 204-261.
British History Online
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Feb. 10. 1668
POST OFFICE, LONDON
Sir John Bennet to Williamson.
Requests him to insert in the Gazette that the post-house is removed from the Swan, near Charing Cross,
to the Red Lion at Charing Cross, against the newest gate.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 234, No. 137.]
***
The great fire had burned down the old Post Office.
About John Powell (c)
San Diego Sarah • Link
In my copy of L&M for Augusut 8, 1668 it simply says, "A Navy Office messenger".
In the present tense.
About Henry Howard
San Diego Sarah • Link
Henry Howard, 22nd Earl of Arundel, FRS (1628 - 1684) had a difficult life. As a Royalist Catholic, his life in England was always in question. His grandfather died in Italy, his older brother, Thomas, 5th Duke of Norfolk was crazy and kept in obscurity in Italy. But Henry, Lord Howard was also lucky: He married for love twice.
Unfortunately his second wife, Jane Bickerton, was the daughter of a very minor Irish landowner, who used to be a clerk in Charles II's wine cellar.
During the time of Pepys' Diary, Jane and Henry are having a steamy secret affair which resulted in a couple of children.
Both Charles II and John Evelyn warned Henry, Lord Howard to run ... but he didn't/couldn't.
In the 1670 Charles sent him as his Ambassador to Morocco, where he spent July 1669 to October 1670, but when Howard returned he secretly married his Jane.
This really should be a novel. Evelyn doesn't come off well in this version of the story:
https://royaldescent.blogspot.com…
About Barbados
San Diego Sarah • Link
The British Library's investigations into what happened in Barbados and when and who by continue.
Today they ask for volunteers who are willing to read truly awful stuff, taken from the 18th century archives of that sad country:
Barbados is particularly significant in the history of Caribbean enslavement because this is where Britain’s trans-Atlantic slave plantation model began in the 17th century, before spreading throughout the region.
Other European empires had enslaved and transported Africans to plantations in the Americas since the 1500s, but it was in the 17th century that English capitalists industrialized this process and created what historian Hilary Beckles described as the ‘first black slave society’ in Barbados.
English (and later British) capitalists purchased men, women and children enslaved in Africa, brought them to the Caribbean, forced them to work against their will, and then enslaved their children, grandchildren, and so on.
This model officially ended after the 1807 act to prohibit the trade of enslaved people and the 1833 act to abolish slavery altogether – although enslavement effectively continued until 1838 in the guise of transitional ‘apprenticeships’, which was essentially enslavement by another name.
Even after this date, many people had little choice but to continue working for their former enslavers on very low pay.
While the British enslaved people for hundreds of years across the Caribbean, this project is centered specifically on the abolition and emancipation period of the late 18th and early 19th century in Barbados, the place where Britain’s barbaric colonial slave plantation system began.
This project will focus on two newspaper titles, which are already free to view online:
• The Barbados Mercury and Bridgetown Gazette (1783-1848) https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1086
• The Barbadian (1822-1861) https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1251
The physical copies of these newspapers are located at the Barbados Archives Department, where they were digitized by a local team thanks to funding from the British Library’s Endangered Archives Program.
For more information, should you want to help:
https://blogs.bl.uk/endangeredarc…
About Bridewell Prison (formerly Bridewell Palace)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Bridewell Palace was built in the early 16th century in the edge of the Thames as a residence for Henry VIII. The palace was a unique structure because it deviated from the architectural norms of the time by not having a great hall and featuring an elaborate staircase. It was also constructed around a large inner courtyard.
Under Edward VI in the 1550s, Bridewell Palace was given to the City of London as a home for the city’s homeless children and a place of punishment for “disorderly women.” It was run in conjunction with Bedlam Hospital throughout Shakespeare’s lifetime, and formed the blueprint for later large prisons:
including the Clerkenwell Bridewell prison which opened as a correctional institute for prostitutes and vagrants in 1615;
and Tothill Fields Bridewell prison which was opened in 1618 in Westminster.
The original building was mostly destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666, but the reputation of Bridewell outlasted the structure, with the term “bridewell” continuing in use around the world to today as a description for a city’s detention facility, usually close to a courthouse.
To see a copperplate map of the original Bridewell Palace as surveyed between 1553 and 1559, and to hear more details on a podcast given by Duncan Salkeld, the Professor Emeritus of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at the University of Chichester, and Visiting Professor at The University of Roehampton, go to:
https://www.cassidycash.com/ep-17…
About Saturday 8 August 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
Pepys had lunch in Guildford, and was at Vauxhall (south of the Thames) in the late afternoon. It's about 30 miles as the crow flies, say 45 by road via Epsom, and so long as you don't get lost around Cobham, that's do-able in five hours. It's August, so it's still daylight, and he doesn't mention rain.
But I agree, Cliff; they didn't stop for sightseeing or cheesecake along the way, and they had four good horses.
About St Catherine's Hill, Guildford
San Diego Sarah • Link
St Catherine's Hill is a hill south of Guildford in Surrey, England, with a ruined chapel on its top.
The hill is about half a mile south of Guildford on the way to Godalming, near the village of Artington and the River Wey. The village is on a sandstone outcrop near the Pilgrims' Way, at the crossing on the river.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_…
About Thursday 6 August 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
Apparently urinating out a bullet is not a unique experience
http://www.thomas-morris.uk/man-p…
https://jag.journalagent.com/trav…
About Oliver Cromwell
San Diego Sarah • Link
A History Today podcast about the confusing character of Oliver Cromwell
https://www.historyextra.com/peri…
About Charles Stuart (II, King)
San Diego Sarah • Link
BBC 4's BOOK OF THE WEEK has recently completed five readings from Linda Porter's book "MISTRESSES" about "the sex and scandal" of Charles II's court.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play…
About Gilles de La Roche-Saint-André
San Diego Sarah • Link
Our interest in Gilles de la Roche Saint Andre has come to the attention of one of his descendents who is researching a possible book about him. See: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
One important point Regis de la Roche Saint Andre made:
"Few modern sources, even in France, call him Louis (and the mistake spread) but his real first name was Gilles. I have done some corrections in his Wikipedia page, that should not contain errors now."
About Sunday 11 April 1669
San Diego Sarah • Link
I suspect, Liz, that you are experiencing something that is going to get "worse" over time ... we all rely on Google to tell us a fact or an address ... we have calendars popping up to tell us what to do next ... we have replaced our memories with electronic prompts so that the memory part of our brains are not being exercised very much. Our children are not expected to learn facts, they learn how to collaboratively research and solve problems. This brave new world is changing our programming. Then add in getting older ... whether or not "worse" is the right word I won't live to know. Maybe not remembering so much will be a blessing.
About Sunday 21 June 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
You'll remember the brouhaha when a Fresh captain stole a Flemish boat from the harbor at Torquay in February 1668? Turns out that the "captain" was of far higher rank than we knew:
In 1668, the squadron leader of the naval armies, Gilles de La Roche Saint-André was ordered to command 10 ships, part of the squadron commanded by the Duke of Beaufort, which Louis XIV wanted to keep at sea. His squadron was made up of eight ships and six smaller ships.
De La Roche commanded Le Jules, when he died of a stroke, off Vigo, on the coast of Galicia, Spain, June 21, 1668. He was 47 years old.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil…
Which leads me to believe that Beaufort is still at sea, somewhere, since he wasn't with De la Roche ...
For the back story on the taking of The Mary, which Pepys thought would lead to war with the French, see:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Wednesday 5 August 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
And I should have added that we would love to know about you, too, so please share a bit of your bio.
About Wednesday 5 August 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
"As we approach the end of this grand experiment, I've been thinking it would be nice to have a roll call, or a guest book, where readers could post their names (either real or internet, as they chose), where they're from, how long they've been reading, and anything else they wanted to share."
Phil took up Laura K's idea for a roll call, and you can read about many of the annotators at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/news/2…
About Tuesday 24 March 1667/68
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... forthwith alarmes were beat by drum and trumpet through Westminster, and all to their colours, and to horse, as if the French were coming into the town! ..."
In times like this every able-bodied man either belonged to a regiment or a trained band, The trumpets sounded an alarm, and the men reported to a designated place and and to their colours (best represented by Regimental Flags today).
In battle, that flag told you where the heart of your regiment was located, so you did not stray too far in the chaos. Hense the big deal about capturing the colours.
In the navy, flying colors means something a bit different. Yes, the Admiral of the Red, White or Blue squadron had different colours flying from his mast so the other ships knew where to find their order of battle, and roughly what was going to happen next.
The idiom "Passing with flying colours" comes from the Age of Exploration, when European explorers first set off across the seas. If a captain had been successful in his venture, he would order the crew to fly their country’s flag (or “colours”) to announce their victory before arriving back at the home port.
Originally, the phrase “with flying colors” simply meant that a mission had been completed without a disaster, but over the centuries the idiom came to signify great success.
About Tuesday 4 August 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
Nope ... I'm wrong again. Sir Arthur Bassettv MP was an older man, and his Parliamentary bio cautions that he had a cousin by the same name, and they often become confused.
@@@
According to
https://www.google.com/books/edit…
Major Arthur Bassett had a regiment at Tangiers at the time in question.
https://www.google.com/books/edit…
says that Arthur Bassett had fought for the French in the past, and that one of the problems in Tangiers was a shortage of commissioned officers. Death, sickness and shortage of supplies made it a very undesireable station. During this posting half the troops died.
Now we know why he was in Pepys' interview.