Thursday 14 June 1660
Up to my Lord and from him to the Treasurer of the Navy for 500l.. After that to a tavern with Washington the Purser, very gallant, and ate and drank. To Mr. Crew’s and laid my money.
To my Lady Pickering with the plate that she did give my Lord the other day.
Then to Will’s and met William Symons and Doling and Luellin, and with them to the Bull-head, and then to a new alehouse in Brewer’s Yard, where Winter that had the fray with Stoakes, and from them to my father’s.
13 Annotations
First Reading
Larry Bunce • Link
Pepy's silence on the subject of his wife is getting louder. I would wonder if their reunion went badly. Sam is excited about his sudden rise in station, his hobnobbing with royalty, and his wife starts out scolding him for leaving her alone for so long, complaining about her accomodations, and wondering when their house will be ready again. Sam may be realising that he will always be just the ordinary Sam Pepys she married to his wife, and that she will never be able to appreciate the world he is now moving in.
chip • Link
Yes Mister Bunce, I too noted how little SP has mentioned EP. Is it possible that Sam feels beyond her? It is always difficult for the traveller to relate the journey to those left behind. But Sam's world is now much larger than it was not 3 months ago. This had to affect the marriage.
Mary • Link
Let's not read too much into Sam's failure
to mention his wife at the end of each day. He's busy networking and these entries are just succint notes of who he's met and what he's arranged each day. If the reunion had gone badly, I'm sure we should have heard about it. Once he's settled his new work-pattern I'm sure he'll find time to make domestic notes again.
Firenze • Link
Bit of stereotyping going on - casting Mrs P as a nagging shrew on total absence of evidence. Au contraire - bringing in my own generalisation here - men do not comment when things are satisfactory/normal. Only the exceptional requires record: would he really note a spot of ink on the tablecloth and NOT 'my wife uncommon peevish'?
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
L&M transcribe "To Mr. Crew’s and laid the [not 'my'] money."
This is consistent with his apparent role as a carrier of government funds from point A to point B for Mountagu: ."Up to my Lord and from him to the Treasurer of the Navy for 500l."
Terry Foreman • Link
"to a new alehouse in Brewer’s Yard, where Winter that had the fray with Stoakes"
L&M note William Winter, a merchant, had had a dispute with Capt John Stoakes about a prize taken c. 1657 in the Mediterranean (CSPD 1659-60, pp/ 289-90 [subscription required]).
The Journals of the House of Commons show Captain Stoakes' case referred from the Council of State was "referred to the Court of Admiralty: And [ordered] that they determine it according to Justice: And that the Proceedings at Law in the Upper-Bench, or elsewhere, by William Winter, against the said John Stoakes, be staid in the mean time."
Journals of the House of Commons, Volume 7, By Great Britain House of Commons p. 868, 8 March 1659
http://books.google.com/books?id=pRNDAAAAcAAJ&pg=…
Tonyel • Link
"to the Treasurer of the Navy for 500l. After that to a tavern......."
Would this have been in gold? A huge amount to risk in a pub!
Dick Wilson • Link
Tonyel: More probably than not, it is in gold coin. Heavy, as well as risky to transport. These people need the Bank of
England desperately, but they do not know that.
Chris Squire UK • Link
I agree with Tonyel: it seems extraordinary that he didn't deliver the money (which one might think of as £100k in today's money) straight away before he went for his dinner.
Terry Foreman • Link
Might the "money" Pepys carries from the "Treasurer of the Navy" (an office) to John Crew by way of an alehouse have been a promissory note? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promissory_note#Hist…
L&M in the Companions article on Finances note how much of the transfer of fungible wealth was handled this way.
(For a link to that article, see my next post [below]._
Terry Foreman • Link
"These people need the Bank of England desperately, but they do not know that."
Going forward to August 17 1666: "Sir Richard Ford did very understandingly, methought, give us an account of the originall of the Hollands Bank, and the nature of it, and how they do never give any interest at all to any person that brings in their money, though what is brought in upon the public faith interest is given by the State for. The unsafe condition of a Bank under a Monarch, and the little safety to a Monarch to have any; or Corporation alone (as London in answer to Amsterdam) to have so great a wealth or credit, it is, that makes it hard to have a Bank here." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1666/08/17/
The recent and proximate occasions justifying such concerns are noted here in the Companions article on Finances:
http://books.google.com/books?id=xrB2qol5kE8C&pg=…
What was thought at the time by Sir Richard Ford, who'd lived in Holland and had pondered these things. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/1347/?c=53….
Bill • Link
Not to over-prolong this discussion but... A consortium lent William III 1.2 million pounds. They then sold that debt (which the king owed them) as small promissory notes to the public. Voila! Paper Currency. National Debt. Ain't Central Banks great?
Terry Foreman • Link
"To my Lady Pickering with the plate that she did give my Lord the other day."
A banking theme?!
Items of silver were assets that, like gold coin and bars, stored personal wealth. Plate was used to secure and/or discharge debts at that time as well as ornent glass-fronted chests and the dinner table for the admiration of guests..