Monday 7 May 1660

This morning Captain Cuttance sent me 12 bottles of Margate ale. Three of them I drank presently with some friends in the Coach. My Lord went this morning about the flag-ships in a boat, to see what alterations there must be, as to the arms and flags. He did give me order also to write for silk flags and scarlett waistcloathes. For a rich barge; for a noise of trumpets,1 and a set of fidlers.

Very great deal of company come today, among others Mr. Bellasses, Sir Thomas Lenthropp, Sir Henry Chichley, Colonel Philip Honiwood, and Captain Titus, the last of whom my Lord showed all our cabins, and I suppose he is to take notice what room there will be for the King’s entertainment.

Here were also all the Jurates of the town of Dover come to give my Lord a visit, and after dinner all went away.

I could not but observe that the Vice-Admiral after dinner came into the great cabin below, where the Jurates and I and the commanders for want of room dined, and there told us we must drink a health to the King, and himself called for a bottle of wine, and begun his and the Duke of York’s. In the afternoon I lost 5s. at ninepins.

After supper musique, and to bed. Having also among us at the Coach table wrote a letter to the French ambassador, in French, about the release of a ship we had taken.

After I was in bed Mr. Sheply and W. Howe came and sat in my cabin, where I gave them three bottles of Margate ale, and sat laughing and very merry, till almost one o’clock in the morning, and so good night.

30 Annotations

First Reading

Alan Bedford  •  Link

"Jurate" - one who has taken an oath. In English usage, an alderman. Makes sense in this case. The politicians come, stay for dinner, then leave.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

Sir Thomas Lenthropp
Wheatley Footnote: Sir Thomas Leventhorpe, Bart., married Mary, daughter of Sir Capell Bedell, Bart. Died 1671.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

More on Jurates of the town of Dover
Wheatley: "The jurats of the Cinque Ports answered to the aldermen of other towns."

Per the OED:
Jurat ... 2. A municipal officer (esp. of the Cinque Ports) holding a position similar to that of an alderman.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

... among others Mr. Bellasses, Sir Thomas Lenthropp, Sir Henry Chichley, Colonel Philip Honiwood, and Captain Titus
L&M footnotes this list: All were active royalists. Leventhorpe (Lenthropp) and Titus had recently been involved in Booth's rising.

vincent  •  Link

"Jurates" thanks Alan and Paul: jury also from the same latin jurare (juratum: has been sworn) Most of the law is French-Latin based. English was first used in English courts in 1642.

PHE  •  Link

The passage of time
The interesting aspect of this webpage is that we get a real feel for how long Pepys was on the ship and the sense that it is quite tedious. On reading the diary in book form, you would be more inclinded to skim through these pages to pick up just the most interesting bits and get onto more eventful times.

mw  •  Link

PHE a lovely point. Tomorrow and any future arrives as you wish with a book, not so here. I can think of no other situation where I can experience time past in its real equivalent. A fine and important observation. Indeed perhaps it is just that point that makes this diary presentation so real. As opposed to so much of the taught history we commonly experience.
Thanks for that one.

Christo  •  Link

Vincent has clearly never heard of the English Common Law, which predates the Norman Conquest and remains the bedrock of the legal system in both England & Wales and our former colonies. See: http://www.naturenet.net/law/common.html

j a gioia  •  Link

After I was in bed Mr. Sheply and W. Howe came and sat in my cabin ... and sat laughing and very merry, till almost one o’clock in the morning

it's been noted here before, still i find it remarkable how much business/socializing at the time was done while one party was abed. it certainly indicates an overall lack of a modern sense of privacy and one is left wondering how and why the custom changed.

Nix  •  Link

While Christo is correct that much of the SUBSTANTIVE law of English-speaking countries derives from Anglo-Saxon times, Vincent is also right -- courts were conducted, and records kept, in "Law French" for half a milennium after the Conquest. This doesn't mean that they relied on Justinian, but it does mean that much of the language of the law is French- (and hence Latin-) derived. The historic need to be understood in both languages is the reason we have so many duplicative phrases in law (e.g., "cease and desist"). Additionally, some areas of the law (such as marriage and adoption) were controlled by the church rather than the crown, and therefore do have their roots in Rome.

Nix  •  Link

More on Law French --

The application of the French, Latin-derived title "jurate" to these officials, rather than the Anglo-Saxon "alderman", illustrates that what England had was really a mix of Norman and pre-Norman legal rules and institutions. They are from the area closest, physically and presumably culturally, to France -- hence "Cinque Ports". My dictionary indicates that "jurat" is still the term used for certain municipal officers in the Channel Islands. It is also worth noting that, while we think of the jury as the quintessential Anglo-Saxon legal institution, the word itself originates from the Latin "jurare", to swear, and the concept of trial by jury was introduced by the Normans.

vincent  •  Link

"never heard of the English Common Law" nay I 'eard of it, lo and behold did suffer it. It may be common (as dirt) or like common land (taken away by common law) or common sense (sometimes available). It did not mean me and my kind knew what it said(n'estpas). I not be Juras Prudent. I am no longer in your jurisdiction or under your judicial control. Any way I jury rigged up this answer ;

language hat  •  Link

duplicative phrases:
I suspect these come more from the desire of lawyers to cover every conceivable circumstance and interpretation. In any case, your example doesn't work, because "cease" and "desist" are both from French.

Emilio  •  Link

'cease' and 'desist' are both from French
I had noticed that, too. If they had meant to balance the phrase for Middle English and French speakers, it would have been something more like "stop and cease."
I do wonder, though - first recorded usage of of 'cease' was about a couple hundred years earlier than that of 'desist,' and 'cease' is still the more common word. 'Cease' would have likely been the word more familiar to the average person, so I wonder if such duplications may have been meant to cover a class rather than a language divide.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Maybe they're not duplicative?

Perhaps the reason "cease and desist" are used together is because they can be interpreted as telling someone to "stop, and continue to stop" an action?

Nigel Pond  •  Link

Re: Duplicative Words

I think Todd has hit the nail on the head: "cease" and "desist" do not mean exactly the same thing. Used together they mean "stop doing it and don't do it in the future". Then of course there is the old chestnut to fall back on -- that lawyers were paid by the word so it was in their best interest to use as many words as possible.

On a side note, as a barrister and some time Classics scholar, it pains me to see the current Lord Chancellor removing Latin expressions from legal practice. They had persisted for so long simply because they encapsulated in a few words concepts that in English require many more words to define.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

vk  •  Link

I'm sorry, but I do not see this distinction between 'cease' and 'desist'. 'Continue to stop' does not appear to make semantic sense.

maureen  •  Link

Imagine saying the equivalent to a stroppy three year old! First, you are to stop doing that. Second, you are not to start again as soon as my back is turned.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

"a noise of trumpets" What a pleasant phrase that is.

Francis. Why, then, cover and set them down; and see if thou
find out Sneak's noise; Mistress Tearsheet would fain hear
music.
---Henry IV, part 2, ii, 4

I hear him coming, and a whole noise of Fidlers at his Heels.
---The Maiden Queen, John Dryden, 1667

(The Maiden Queen was noteworthy as a vehicle for Nell Gwyn, who played the heroine Florimel. Pepys raved about her performance in his Diary — "so great performance of a comical part was never, I believe, in the world before...." He returned to see the play eight more times. It was also a special favorite of the King, who reportedly called it "his play."
--Wikipedia, 2013)

Dick Wilson  •  Link

Would my brothers at the bar ever employ Latin/French for purposes of obfuscation? Why, res ipsa loquitur! And I have heard that in ancient Rome, lawyers would confuse things by lapsing into Greek.

Gillian Bagwell  •  Link

Sorry, Bill - it wasn't "The Maiden Queen" but "Secret Love" in which Nell played Florimel. It was by Dryden - he wrote the part just for her, and the play established her and her lover and mentor Charles Hart as the William Powell and Myrna Loy of the 1660s, playing in a series of "gay couple" comedies (the old kind of gay couple!).

Nell's career on and off stage is a big part of my novel about her, "The Darling Strumpet."

john  •  Link

As to the legal (ab)use of language and its historical journey, I heartily recommend "Party of the First Part: The Curious World of Legalese" by Adam Freedman. Though an American author, he traces its roots back to England.

Gillian Bagwell  •  Link

Ah, I should have remembered that, Bill! I was thinking of "The Indian Queen."

Neil Ferguson  •  Link

A mere 12 yrs after it was written ..but let me express my appreciation of the humour of Vincent's riposte re Common Law

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He did give me order also to write for silk flags and scarlett waistcloathes."

L&M: To decorate the ship bringing home the King. The Council of Sate's instructions to this effect are in Sandwich MSS, App., ff. 208, 213, 222. The Admiralty Commissioners had in fact ordered silk flags for the Naseby on this day; the waistcloths were ordered on the 11th: CSPD 1659-60, pp.431-2, 437.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Very great deal of company come today, among others Mr. Bellasses, Sir Thomas Lenthropp, Sir Henry Chichley, Colonel Philip Honiwood, and Captain Titus"

L&M: All were active royalists. Leventhorpe ('Lenthropp') and Titus had recently been involved in Booth's rising. Titus was a Groom of the Bedchamber to the King.

Concerning Sir George Booth's recent personal history: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1660/02/21/#c5412…

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Meanwhile, back at Whitehall:

After Oliver Cromwell's death, Katharine "Kate" Boyle Jones, Lady Ranelagh returned from Ireland to her house in the Mall. Almost her neighbor, John Milton was living in his garden-house in Petty France. He was still in correspondence with her son, Dick Jones, and his tutor Henry Oldenburg in Paris; Milton was still Latin Secretary to the Council, with Andrew Marvell as his assistant.

The uneasy dawn of the New Year 1660 found him, despondent but undaunted, still fighting hard, by tract-warfare, for a doomed Republic.

John Milton the Pamphleteer and John Lambert the General are remembered together as the last two opponents of the Restoration.

In March, 1660 after John Milton's printed exhortations to the Council and to Gen. George Monck, the blind Latin secretary was discharged from his office, and an order was issued for the arrest of his publisher.

On May 7, 1660 — the day before Charles II was proclaimed in London — John Milton disappeared from his garden-house in Petty France.

Nobody knows what was done about his 3 daughters aged 14, 13 and 8 years old, or whose friendly hand guided the blind man's steps into his hiding-place. "In the house of a friend in Bartholomew Close" — a narrow passage, entered from West Smithfield under an archway that was old, even in Milton's day — Milton lay concealed for more than 3 months.
1 Part of the Church of the Old Priory of St. Bartholomew.

From: Robert Boyle, a biography, by Flora Masson
There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002934242

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