"In the evening my Lady Pen and daughter come to see, and supped with us, then a messenger about business of the office from Sir G. Carteret at Chatham, and by word of mouth did send me word that the business between my Lord and him is fully agreed on, and is mightily liked of by the King and the Duke of Yorke, and that he sent me this word with great joy; they gone, we to bed."
A nice evening supper at home for Pepys and the three ladies (let's ignore the plague for a while!) -- messengers bringing news from Chatham -- gossip about the King and the Duke of York -- great joy all round about weddings (and maybe an off-color joke or two?). And so to bed. What could be nicer?
"... going to my Lady Batten’s, there found a great many women with her, in her chamber merry, my Lady Pen and her daughter, among others; where my Lady Pen flung me down upon the bed, and herself and others, one after another, upon me, and very merry we were ..."
And Pegg Penn made what of this? Good natured Mr. Pepys must be wildly attractive to all women, including her mother, and he welcomes the attention? Enquiring minds want to know ... maybe her maid can enlighten her?
"... and in the evening walking in the garden, my Lady Pen and her daughter walked with my wife and I, and so to my house to eat with us, and very merry, ..."
More implied parental approval of that nice couple next door.
"I think that this Peg Penn is the teenage daughter of Sir Wm., born 1651."
Mary is correct. The teenager charmer is husband hunting ... or her parents are. Facial patches had been around since King Charles' time as an attractive way to cover up blemishes, or the pox, or scars.
Pepys wore one: Sept. 28, 1664: "...my mouth very scabby, my cold being going away, so that I was forced to wear a great black patch."
But he liked patches on Elizabeth: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… But she's a married woman, and a spotty teenager may represent something different to Pepys.
"To church, where, God forgive me! I spent most of my time in looking [on] my new Morena —[a brunette]— at the other side of the church, an acquaintance of Pegg Pen’s."
A brace of nubile young women got you distracted, Pepys? Did they notice you?
"Up, and with my wife to church, where Pegg Pen very fine in her new coloured silk suit laced with silver lace."
Mistress Pegg is now of marriageable age. There are many reasons to go to church: to be seen is one of the most obvious. How she looks reflects on her parents and their ability to provide a substantial dowry. And Queen Catherine set the fashion:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… Friday 24 June 1664 "Thence with him to the Park, and there met the Queen coming from Chappel, with her Maids of Honor, all in silver-lace gowns again: which is new to me, and that which I did not think would have been brought up again."
And Elizabeth had succumbed: August 12, 1664: "... going to Stevens the silversmith to change some old silver lace and to go buy new silke lace for a petticoat ..."
I wonder if Pepys comment about wondering at the subject being brought up again might refer back to King James' time when the 1st Duke of Buckingham's brother-in-law, Giles Mompesson MP, had brought great disgrace on the family by over-farming his allotment and stealing from the goldsmiths. Silver and gold thread were costly and the subject of easy fraud and graft. https://www.historyofparliamenton…
"Sam has not been to church for weeks and now promptly sleeps through the sermon! (which would have lasted about an hour). One wonders if this was common? Did the women do it too? Or was this a male prerogative? i have this image of a church full of slumped males and upright, cross, women."
Sleeping parishioners must have been a problem for centuries:
An unusual position at Exeter cathedral in the 18th century was that of 'sluggard waker', who had a long wooden pole with a brass knob on one end and a foxes tail (or something similar) on the other.
The brass end was used to prod any man in the back who had dared fall asleep during a service, and the fluffy end was used on women who had nodded off to tickle them awake.
So at 13, Mistress Margaret Penn has her own maid.
"So I carried her some paper and kissed her, leading her by the hand to the garden door and there let her go. ... I was troubled to think what if she should tell this and whether I had spoke or done any thing that might be unfit for her to tell. But I think there was nothing more passed than just what I here write."
And to whom might the maid tell the story of this event? Miss Pegg, as a cautionary tale? ... or Lady Penn, who might find it tut-tut titillating? ... or the other servants who doubtlessly suspect it and more anyways? All of which means it might get back to Elizabeth? Or that knave, the Admiral?
Was "... how much I was put out of order by this surprisal" worth it, Pepys? To your credit you appear to think that kiss was a very foolish move.
"... and thence by water home again, where at the door we met Sir W. Pen and his daughter coming to visit us, and after their visit I to my office, ..."
Somehow Sam and Elizabeth always have time for a visit with Pepys' bete noire and his daughter. They obviously both like Pegg.
"... and thence to see Sir W. Pen, ... Played a little at cards with him and his daughter, who is grown every day a finer and finer lady, and so home to supper and to bed."
The results of that expensive education, no doubt. Plus, at 13, young Mistress Pegg is of marriageable age. She's becoming of interest to Pepys, finally.
"... I sent for some dinner and there dined, Mrs. Margaret Pen being by, to whom I had spoke to go along with us to a play this afternoon, and then to the King’s Theatre, where we saw “Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,” which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life. I saw, I confess, some good dancing and some handsome women, which was all my pleasure.
Thence set my wife down at Madam Turner’s, and so by coach home, and having delivered Pegg Pen to her father safe, ..."
So Miss Pegg can separate her relationship with the Pepys from that of her father's. And another fun afternoon, play, and safe coach rides in her memory bank. Nice Uncle Pepys.
"To church with my wife, who this day put on her green petticoat of flowred satin, with fine white and gimp lace of her own putting on, which is very pretty. Home with Sir W. Pen to dinner by appointment, and to church again in the afternoon, and then home, ... and we to supper again to Sir W. Pen. Whatever the matter is, he do much fawn upon me, and I perceive would not fall out with me, and his daughter mighty officious to my wife, but I shall never be deceived again by him, but do hate him and his traitorous tricks with all my heart. It was an invitation in order to his taking leave of us to-day, he being to go for Ireland in a few days."
To me, Penn's behavior is hinged on his leaving for Ireland in a few days.
In the last 2 years the Pepys have stood in when Penn had to go to Whitehall, and Lady Penn was in Ireland. They have taken the children to the theater, they have had fun dinners and walks. Elizabeth has helped Pegg buy pretty dresses, and visited her at school. They were good neighbors ... and then Sam took liberties with pranks and asserting himself into the business. No doubt the Admiral told Pegg why they were no longer friendly ... hence her being 'mighty officious' to Elizabeth today. But now the Admiral thinks he needs them to look out for Pegg again.
'"By and by he and his daughter came out to walk, so we took no notice of them a great while, at last in going home spoke a word or two..."
'Chilly night in the June garden. Is this any way to treat a man for whom a state was named?'
This is Admiral Sir William Penn ... he loaned so much money to Charles II that the only way to repay the estate was for Charles to give William Jr. what became Pennsylvania. But that is many years from now.
William Jr. has recently been sent down, or removed, from Oxford University, having faced his first moral dilemma. His mentor, John Owen was censured after being fired as Dean of his college, and in 1660 the students were threatened with punishment for associating with him. Penn stood by Dean Owen, earning a fine and reprimand from the university. Admiral Penn pulled young Penn away from Oxford, hoping to distract him from the heretical influences of the university. The attempt had no effect. Father and son struggled to understand each other.
Back at school, the administration imposed stricter religious requirements including daily chapel attendance and required a dress. William Penn rebelled against enforced worship.
And so, in March, 1662 Penn Jr. arrived home for good. We can assume he was "sent down for non-conformity".
I think the problem of what to do with #1 son was much more on the Admiral's mind than Pepys' petulant vendetta.
" and at noon he, with Sir W. Pen and his daughter, dined with me, and he to his work again, and we by coach to the Theatre and saw “Love in a Maze.” The play hath little in it but Lacy’s part of a country fellow, which he did to admiration."
12 year old Pegg Penn enjoys another trip to the theater with that fun man who lives next door.
Young Miss Penn is thinking for herself: "We had a lobster to supper, with a crabb Pegg Pen sent my wife this afternoon, the reason of which we cannot think; but something there is of plot or design in it, for we have a little while carried ourselves pretty strange to them."
She remembers outings and laughter and good times at your house, Pepys. No plot, at least on her part.
Good food and laughter, in safety with friends and family ... Pegg Penn will remember these happy times with dear Elizabeth, who helped her get a pretty dress, and good old Uncle Sam, being carefree and funny, in later days.
"... and then come home with us Sir W. Pen, and drank with us, and then went away, and my wife after him to see his daughter that is lately come out of Ireland. I staid at home at my book; she came back again and tells me that whereas I expected she should have been a great beauty, she is a very plain girl."
Peg was born in 1651, so she's 10. Pre-teens can be scrawny, pimply and unattractive. I expect the Admiral had been boasting about his beautiful daughter for months, so there was no way reality could measure up. Caterpillars turn into butterflies, Pepys.
Admiral Sir William Penn returned triumphant from the second Anglo-Dutch War that year, but London was in the grip of the plague of 1665. At home, William Penn Jr. reflected on the suffering and the deaths, and the way humans reacted to the epidemic. He wrote that the scourge "gave me a deep sense of the vanity of this World, of the Irreligiousness of the Religions in it."[31] 31 Hans Fantel, William Penn: Apostle of Dissent, William Morrow & Co., New York, 1974, p.6, ISBN 0-688-00310-9, p.60
Further William Jr. observed how Quakers on errands of mercy were arrested and demonized by other religions, even accused of causing the plague.[32] 32 Hans Fantel, William Penn: Apostle of Dissent, William Morrow & Co., New York, 1974, p.6, ISBN 0-688-00310-9, p. 61
Early in 1666 William Penn left Lincoln’s Inn and plague-ridden London for his father's new Irish estate at Kinsale and Shanagarry Castle.
During the summer he took part in quelling a meeting at Carrickfergus, and in October, 1666 had his portrait painted in armor. http://statemuseumpa.org/rare-por…
From 1665 to 1679 William Penn became prominent in the Society of Friends and became one of their best spokesmen.
In 1667 he spent seven and a half months in prison in the Tower, and while there he wrote the first version of what would be one of his best works, "No Cross, No Crown".
i guess the Penns kept their mouths closed about all this. Or Pepys didn't believe it.
Comments
Second Reading
About Sunday 2 July 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"In the evening my Lady Pen and daughter come to see, and supped with us, then a messenger about business of the office from Sir G. Carteret at Chatham, and by word of mouth did send me word that the business between my Lord and him is fully agreed on, and is mightily liked of by the King and the Duke of Yorke, and that he sent me this word with great joy; they gone, we to bed."
A nice evening supper at home for Pepys and the three ladies (let's ignore the plague for a while!) -- messengers bringing news from Chatham -- gossip about the King and the Duke of York -- great joy all round about weddings (and maybe an off-color joke or two?). And so to bed. What could be nicer?
About Tuesday 27 June 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... At noon dined by chance at my Lady Batten’s, and they sent for my wife, and there was my Lady Pen and Pegg. Very merry ..."
Friendly Mr. Pepys entertains the ladies again.
About Tuesday 30 May 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... about 11 at night, called into the garden by my Lady Pen and daughter, and there walked with them and my wife till almost twelve, ..."
How romantic. Pepys and three women ... he was in his element.
About Wednesday 12 April 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... going to my Lady Batten’s, there found a great many women with her, in her chamber merry, my Lady Pen and her daughter, among others; where my Lady Pen flung me down upon the bed, and herself and others, one after another, upon me, and very merry we were ..."
And Pegg Penn made what of this? Good natured Mr. Pepys must be wildly attractive to all women, including her mother, and he welcomes the attention? Enquiring minds want to know ... maybe her maid can enlighten her?
About Sunday 9 April 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... and in the evening walking in the garden, my Lady Pen and her daughter walked with my wife and I, and so to my house to eat with us, and very merry, ..."
More implied parental approval of that nice couple next door.
About Friday 13 January 1664/65
San Diego Sarah • Link
"I think that this Peg Penn is the teenage daughter of Sir Wm., born 1651."
Mary is correct. The teenager charmer is husband hunting ... or her parents are. Facial patches had been around since King Charles' time as an attractive way to cover up blemishes, or the pox, or scars.
Pepys wore one: Sept. 28, 1664: "...my mouth very scabby, my cold being going away, so that I was forced to wear a great black patch."
But he liked patches on Elizabeth: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
But she's a married woman, and a spotty teenager may represent something different to Pepys.
About Sunday 18 December 1664
San Diego Sarah • Link
"To church, where, God forgive me! I spent most of my time in looking [on] my new Morena —[a brunette]— at the other side of the church, an acquaintance of Pegg Pen’s."
A brace of nubile young women got you distracted, Pepys? Did they notice you?
Brace came to mean ‘a pair, two’ from about 1400 and was applied to pistols, pheasants, dogs, etc.
https://www.macmillandictionarybl…
About Sunday 20 November 1664
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Up, and with my wife to church, where Pegg Pen very fine in her new coloured silk suit laced with silver lace."
Mistress Pegg is now of marriageable age. There are many reasons to go to church: to be seen is one of the most obvious. How she looks reflects on her parents and their ability to provide a substantial dowry. And Queen Catherine set the fashion:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Friday 24 June 1664
"Thence with him to the Park, and there met the Queen coming from Chappel, with her Maids of Honor, all in silver-lace gowns again: which is new to me, and that which I did not think would have been brought up again."
And Elizabeth had succumbed:
August 12, 1664:
"... going to Stevens the silversmith to change some old silver lace and to go buy new silke lace for a petticoat ..."
I wonder if Pepys comment about wondering at the subject being brought up again might refer back to King James' time when the 1st Duke of Buckingham's brother-in-law, Giles Mompesson MP, had brought great disgrace on the family by over-farming his allotment and stealing from the goldsmiths. Silver and gold thread were costly and the subject of easy fraud and graft.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
About Sunday 17 April 1664
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Sam has not been to church for weeks and now promptly sleeps through the sermon! (which would have lasted about an hour). One wonders if this was common? Did the women do it too? Or was this a male prerogative? i have this image of a church full of slumped males and upright, cross, women."
Sleeping parishioners must have been a problem for centuries:
An unusual position at Exeter cathedral in the 18th century was that of 'sluggard waker', who had a long wooden pole with a brass knob on one end and a foxes tail (or something similar) on the other.
The brass end was used to prod any man in the back who had dared fall asleep during a service, and the fluffy end was used on women who had nodded off to tickle them awake.
For this and other "employment" at the Cathedral, see
https://www.devonlive.com/news/de…
About Saturday 12 December 1663
San Diego Sarah • Link
So at 13, Mistress Margaret Penn has her own maid.
"So I carried her some paper and kissed her, leading her by the hand to the garden door and there let her go. ... I was troubled to think what if she should tell this and whether I had spoke or done any thing that might be unfit for her to tell. But I think there was nothing more passed than just what I here write."
And to whom might the maid tell the story of this event? Miss Pegg, as a cautionary tale? ... or Lady Penn, who might find it tut-tut titillating? ... or the other servants who doubtlessly suspect it and more anyways? All of which means it might get back to Elizabeth? Or that knave, the Admiral?
Was "... how much I was put out of order by this surprisal" worth it, Pepys? To your credit you appear to think that kiss was a very foolish move.
About Tuesday 22 September 1663
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... and thence by water home again, where at the door we met Sir W. Pen and his daughter coming to visit us, and after their visit I to my office, ..."
Somehow Sam and Elizabeth always have time for a visit with Pepys' bete noire and his daughter. They obviously both like Pegg.
About Wednesday 10 June 1663
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... and thence to see Sir W. Pen, ... Played a little at cards with him and his daughter, who is grown every day a finer and finer lady, and so home to supper and to bed."
The results of that expensive education, no doubt. Plus, at 13, young Mistress Pegg is of marriageable age. She's becoming of interest to Pepys, finally.
About Monday 29 September 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... I sent for some dinner and there dined, Mrs. Margaret Pen being by, to whom I had spoke to go along with us to a play this afternoon, and then to the King’s Theatre, where we saw “Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,” which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life. I saw, I confess, some good dancing and some handsome women, which was all my pleasure.
Thence set my wife down at Madam Turner’s, and so by coach home, and having delivered Pegg Pen to her father safe, ..."
So Miss Pegg can separate her relationship with the Pepys from that of her father's. And another fun afternoon, play, and safe coach rides in her memory bank. Nice Uncle Pepys.
About Sunday 29 June 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
"To church with my wife, who this day put on her green petticoat of flowred satin, with fine white and gimp lace of her own putting on, which is very pretty. Home with Sir W. Pen to dinner by appointment, and to church again in the afternoon, and then home, ... and we to supper again to Sir W. Pen. Whatever the matter is, he do much fawn upon me, and I perceive would not fall out with me, and his daughter mighty officious to my wife, but I shall never be deceived again by him, but do hate him and his traitorous tricks with all my heart. It was an invitation in order to his taking leave of us to-day, he being to go for Ireland in a few days."
To me, Penn's behavior is hinged on his leaving for Ireland in a few days.
In the last 2 years the Pepys have stood in when Penn had to go to Whitehall, and Lady Penn was in Ireland. They have taken the children to the theater, they have had fun dinners and walks. Elizabeth has helped Pegg buy pretty dresses, and visited her at school. They were good neighbors ... and then Sam took liberties with pranks and asserting himself into the business. No doubt the Admiral told Pegg why they were no longer friendly ... hence her being 'mighty officious' to Elizabeth today. But now the Admiral thinks he needs them to look out for Pegg again.
Ah, the laws of unintended consequences.
About Sunday 22 June 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
No, A. Hamilton. wrong William Penn:
'"By and by he and his daughter came out to walk, so we took no notice of them a great while, at last in going home spoke a word or two..."
'Chilly night in the June garden. Is this any way to treat a man for whom a state was named?'
This is Admiral Sir William Penn ... he loaned so much money to Charles II that the only way to repay the estate was for Charles to give William Jr. what became Pennsylvania. But that is many years from now.
William Jr. has recently been sent down, or removed, from Oxford University, having faced his first moral dilemma. His mentor, John Owen was censured after being fired as Dean of his college, and in 1660 the students were threatened with punishment for associating with him. Penn stood by Dean Owen, earning a fine and reprimand from the university. Admiral Penn pulled young Penn away from Oxford, hoping to distract him from the heretical influences of the university. The attempt had no effect. Father and son struggled to understand each other.
Back at school, the administration imposed stricter religious requirements including daily chapel attendance and required a dress. William Penn rebelled against enforced worship.
And so, in March, 1662 Penn Jr. arrived home for good. We can assume he was "sent down for non-conformity".
I think the problem of what to do with #1 son was much more on the Admiral's mind than Pepys' petulant vendetta.
For more about the history of William Penn Jr. see
https://tehistory.org/hqda/html/v…
About Thursday 22 May 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
" and at noon he, with Sir W. Pen and his daughter, dined with me, and he to his work again, and we by coach to the Theatre and saw “Love in a Maze.” The play hath little in it but Lacy’s part of a country fellow, which he did to admiration."
12 year old Pegg Penn enjoys another trip to the theater with that fun man who lives next door.
About Sunday 30 March 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
Young Miss Penn is thinking for herself: "We had a lobster to supper, with a crabb Pegg Pen sent my wife this afternoon, the reason of which we cannot think; but something there is of plot or design in it, for we have a little while carried ourselves pretty strange to them."
She remembers outings and laughter and good times at your house, Pepys. No plot, at least on her part.
About Sunday 29 September 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
Good food and laughter, in safety with friends and family ... Pegg Penn will remember these happy times with dear Elizabeth, who helped her get a pretty dress, and good old Uncle Sam, being carefree and funny, in later days.
About Sunday 28 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... and then come home with us Sir W. Pen, and drank with us, and then went away, and my wife after him to see his daughter that is lately come out of Ireland. I staid at home at my book; she came back again and tells me that whereas I expected she should have been a great beauty, she is a very plain girl."
Peg was born in 1651, so she's 10. Pre-teens can be scrawny, pimply and unattractive. I expect the Admiral had been boasting about his beautiful daughter for months, so there was no way reality could measure up. Caterpillars turn into butterflies, Pepys.
About Thursday 5 December 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
Admiral Sir William Penn returned triumphant from the second Anglo-Dutch War that year, but London was in the grip of the plague of 1665. At home, William Penn Jr. reflected on the suffering and the deaths, and the way humans reacted to the epidemic.
He wrote that the scourge "gave me a deep sense of the vanity of this World, of the Irreligiousness of the Religions in it."[31]
31 Hans Fantel, William Penn: Apostle of Dissent, William Morrow & Co., New York, 1974, p.6, ISBN 0-688-00310-9, p.60
Further William Jr. observed how Quakers on errands of mercy were arrested and demonized by other religions, even accused of causing the plague.[32]
32 Hans Fantel, William Penn: Apostle of Dissent, William Morrow & Co., New York, 1974, p.6, ISBN 0-688-00310-9, p. 61
Early in 1666 William Penn left Lincoln’s Inn and plague-ridden London for his father's new Irish estate at Kinsale and Shanagarry Castle.
During the summer he took part in quelling a meeting at Carrickfergus, and in October, 1666 had his portrait painted in armor.
http://statemuseumpa.org/rare-por…
From 1665 to 1679 William Penn became prominent in the Society of Friends and became one of their best spokesmen.
In 1667 he spent seven and a half months in prison in the Tower, and while there he wrote the first version of what would be one of his best works, "No Cross, No Crown".
i guess the Penns kept their mouths closed about all this. Or Pepys didn't believe it.
https://tehistory.org/hqda/html/v…