Tuesday 31 July 1660

To White Hall, where my Lord and the principal officers met, and had a great discourse about raising of money for the Navy, which is in very sad condition, and money must be raised for it. Mr. Blackburne, Dr. Clerke, and I to the Quaker’s and dined there. I back to the Admiralty, and there was doing things in order to the calculating of the debts of the Navy and other business, all the afternoon. At night I went to the Privy Seal, where I found Mr. Crofts and Mathews making up all their things to leave the office tomorrow, to those that come to wait the next month. I took them to the Sun Tavern and there made them drink, and discoursed concerning the office, and what I was to expect tomorrow about Baron, who pretends to the next month.

Late home by coach so far as Ludgate with Mr. Mathews, and thence home on foot with W. Hewer with me, and so to bed.

12 Annotations

First Reading

vincent  •  Link

Based on Paul's annotation , the way I read this entry, is that it will be Baron's Turn to make the final approval of all Official documentation that requires wax to be poured and then holder of the Signet puts the seal of Signet to the melted wax. All these steps to ensure that no one Man can empty the Treasury of Funds. Please correct me, if I am in error:
b) The Treasury is low in Cash and it needs loans to keep The State on an even Keel: I know it is a bad thing to compare to days Money problems with those of the 17c, but in my ltd grey matter Certain problems stay the same,just the name of the crew and captain change;

JWBlackburn  •  Link

"Mr. Blackburne...and I to the Quaker's". Quaker Blackburns took up "plantations" in No. Ireland about this time, before moving to Penn. in early 1700's. Recall the relationship vs. Wm. Penn's father and Robert Blackburne at Admiralty...

Judy  •  Link

Re Quakers in (?)No. Ireland. There was a Quaker enclave and Wm Penn stayed there, at Castle Salem (Shalom) just outside Rosscarbery in Co Cork.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

principal officers met, and had a great discourse about raising of money for the Navy,

House of Commons Journal Volume 8: 2 August 1660 | British History Online
"Mr. Holles reports the State of the Debts upon the Navy, as it was represented to his Majesty Yesterday at the Council Board; and that, among other Inconveniences lying upon the Navy, Twenty-four Ships do lie in Harbour at Wages and Victual, through Want of Money to pay them off; which amounts to Ninety-four thousand Pounds; by the not Payment whereof, there is a growing Charge of about Sixteen thousand Pounds monthly."
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compi…

Daniel Baker  •  Link

Any idea why the Officers of the Navy Board would meet with Montagu at Whitehall, instead of at the Navy Office? Was this more convenient for Montagu, for some reason? I would have thought Montagu's new quarters at the Wardrobe would have made the Navy Office more convenient for him, too.

CGS  •  Link

That was when everyone be euphoric over NEW future, now they have seen the King is copying Papa I and spending the merchants money on the pleasures of life , and not every one be happy to "coff" up.
See 349 years later, same old.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Any idea why the Officers of the Navy Board would meet with Montagu at Whitehall"?

Methinks it SOP that his lieutenants would go to meet him wherever the General-at-Sea is or wants them to be.
The L&M Companion says of Mountagu's London quarters at this time: "he had an official residence in Whitehall Palace, from 1653 until his death, which included part (or probably all) of the gatehouse of the King St. Gate, and rooms adjacent to it on both sides of the street. He also had official lodgings (1660-8) at the Wardrobe...."

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Since Pepys mentions eating either at or with "Quaker's", and it's early summer time, this note about a back-story to the Diary belongs here:

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham had spent the last few years in England, and is married to a Puritan woman, Mary Fairfax, the daughter of Cromwellian Gen. Thomas, Lord Fairfax. For the rest of his life, Villiers read many of the English people's desire for less orthodox religion better than the Catholic-oriented Stuart Brothers.

That doesn't mean that Charles II didn't try to find a way to please everyone, realizing that if things were easier for the Quakers, they would also be easier for the Catholics. But the Church of England followers were not going to agree to that ever, so Villiers played up and benefitted from his appearance of being the non-conformists' representative.

Around this time the wealthy widow Margaret Fell (who later married George Fox in 1669) wrote Charles II a long letter about the persecution suffered by the Quakers, and during the summer of 1660 she travel to London to meet with him:
http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/mf2king.h…

Margaret Fell was an early spokesperson for the Quakers; she advocated for women to be allowed to speak in church and for better education for women, and wrote many widely-read pamphlets and books. We can consider her an early advocate for women's rights as well as Quakerism.
https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/24-04/

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

John Evelyn's Diary – he and Mary Browne Evelyn live at Saye's Court, Deptford.

http://brittlebooks.library.illinois.edu/brittleb…

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31 July, 1660.
I went to visit Sir Philip Warwick, now secretary to the Lord Treasurer, at his house in North Cray.

@@@
so the man who makes the Treasury function is OOT today!

Sir Philip Warwick:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/2200/#c53…

North Cray is a village in south-east London, within the present-day Borough of Bexley. It is 12.6 miles (20.3 km) south-east of Charing Cross. It lies on the River Cray, east of Sidcup and south of Bexley. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Cray

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