Saturday 17 November 1660

In the morning to Whitehall, where I inquired at the Privy Seal Office for a form for a nobleman to make one his Chaplain. But I understanding that there is not any, I did draw up one, and so to my Lord’s, and there I did give him it to sign for Mr. Turner to be his first Chaplain. I did likewise get my Lord to sign my last sea accounts, so that I am even to this day when I have received the balance of Mr. Creed.

I dined with my Lady and my Lady Pickering, where her son John dined with us, who do continue a fool as he ever was since I knew him. His mother would fain marry him to get a portion for his sister Betty but he will not hear of it.

Hither came Major Hart this noon, who tells me that the Regiment is now disbanded, and that there is some money coming to me for it. I took him to my Lord to Mr. Crew’s, and from thence with Mr. Shepley and Mr. Moore to the Devil Tavern, and there we drank. So home and wrote letters by the post. Then to my lyra viall, and to bed.

21 Annotations

First Reading

Paul Miller  •  Link

"at the Privy Seal Office for a form for a nobleman to make one his Chaplain. But I understanding that there is not any, I did draw up one"

Fee, fi, fo, fum,
I smell the blood of an
bureaucratic Englishman

vincent  •  Link

Major Hart bringing bad news , the lost of of a gratuity { see sept 10th anno's }

dirk  •  Link

"His mother would fain marry him to get a portion for his sister Betty"

Can somebody clarify this for me. I'm somewhat lost here...

vincent  •  Link

My interpretation is that the Family is in poor circumstances and the boy is an idiot , marry him off for the name and and give some of the proceeds(Dowry) to marrying off the girl.
But the lad is not that short [of bats] in the belfry.

Jackie  •  Link

Yes. Women without a dowry were considered pretty much unmarriageable. In this case, if the idiot boy married well, then he'd get a good sum of money from his new wife's family, some of which could be used to assist his sister to marry.

andy  •  Link

But I understanding that there is not any, I did draw up one:

What advantages lay for a nobleman in registering his Chaplain, or was it, in these religiously sensitive times, obligatory?

Sam clearly anticpates that others will need to do the same thing, and as an early civil servant translates the procedures to be followed - must be set out elsewhere - into an easy form.

Sam would have loved Windows and object-oriented programming, with the ticks and boxes that we are using here!

Jon  •  Link

"...I did draw one up."

Not in our sense, but as in a form of words. Sam is delivering his lord a Result, and proud of it. Would this effectively have been a contract or charter, setting out the obligations and returns on either side, rather than a piece of bureaucracy?

Nix  •  Link

"to get a portion for his sister Betty" --

Failing this, she will be in the position of Sam's sister Pall (see last week's discussion), but with an idiot brother instead of a rapidly rising public servant.

Mary  •  Link

Turner's chaplaincy

We're not looking at an exclusive occupation here. From 1649-1689 Turner was Rector of Eynesbury in Huntingdonshire and from 1687-1705, Rector of Wistow, also in Huntingdonshire.

David A. Smith  •  Link

"I understanding that there is not any, I did draw up one"
Extending Andy and Jon's observations, we see here another example of how the Restoration was not simply a succession but a genuine regime change (in our modern lexicon). We are in a time of Restored but fragile monarchy, with undefined church-state boundaries. (Before this we had the Puritans, and before them, the Established Church of England.) The document legitimizes a role and its boundaries.
We also see evidence of Sam's value. Unruffled by the absence of precedent -- indeed, stimulated by it! -- he whips up a form and has it effectuated within the day. Such an aide -- especially a witty, flattering, industrious one -- is a valuable resource to a rising Lord who has the king's ear ....

Roger Arbor  •  Link

Thank you David... one can imagine Sandwich speaking to his peers of this young Pepys who is SO useful and resourceful.

john lauer  •  Link

Having reread the background on John Pickering, I think he was not literally an idiot, but was generally seen by Pepys as what we would now call an egregious ass. After all, we're told he has, or had, worked at the Exchequer. An ass in a position of some authority? Of course Sam would have loathed him.

vincent  •  Link

'Tis wonderful to see the rules {of law} taking shape, Pleasing those that could have a say [and power to make physical changes] in the affairs of the realm , a space between absolute power [King,or Dictatorship]of One Person to the other extreem of anarchy {Too many differences of Opinining} {fortunately there was the escape valve of adventure[plus lots of rewards ] to the East Indies or to the West Indies {+ new colonies with university of H in Cambridge} for those could not survive under any of the above..{at least they had differing areas to try out their plans and satisfy the Polit-relig Ideals }
There are so many revolutions and evolutions in motion in all the Known endeavours, Food Distribution, Organising Government [rather relying on whim ] Military Organising, Shipping etc..
Then Taxes to pay for it all.
So much of todays ways got their start in this period. This last 10 months have been momentus.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

"His mother would fain marry him to get a portion for his sister Betty but he will not hear of it."

Betty is Elizabeth Pickering, John's sister. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/7294/ She married John Creed in 1668. We read other speculation on a marriage for John Pickering on August 13, 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Sam and Sandwich have a financial interest in the Privy Seal office. So, by inventing a new form to be filled in, Sam might have invented a new money-spinner too?

MarkS  •  Link

It wasn't a form in the modern sense of the word, and it wouldn't be a money-spinner.

Sam was looking for an example of a legal contract for a nobleman to retain a household chaplain. No doubt the Privy Seal had many different types of model contracts on file for their own use, so Sam was hoping he could find a suitable one. It was just to save him time and give him an idea of what such a contract usually looked like.

Since there wasn't any contract of this type on file, he simply drew one up as best he could, for Sandwich and Turner to sign. It didn't affect anything at the Privy Seal Office.

Has Sam had any formal legal training? Probably not, but he has seen a large number of legal contracts, and he knows what Sandwich wants.

eileen d.  •  Link

just a reminder, PLEASE no spoilers. this site provides a wonderful immediacy for us readers by allowing us to learn things as Pepys learns them.

there's plenty of info in the background links when one desires a chronological overview of individuals or events. that information does not belong here in the daily annotations.

sorry, bill, while I appreciate your contributions I find I now have to skip your posts, scrolling quickly past so as to avoid an unwanted revelation.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I inquired at the Privy Seal Office for a form for a nobleman to make one his Chaplain. But I understanding that there is not any, I did draw up one"

It's not clear why there wasn't such a form: L&M explain: formal appointment as chaplain to a nobleman would permit a certain amount of non-residence [2nd job - income, living], by virtue of an act of 1529.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Hither came Major Hart this noon, who tells me that the Regiment is now disbanded"

L&M: In Shropshire on 12 November, its arrears amounting to over £16,000: Merc. Pub., 15 November, p. 727. For Pepys's pay see http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1660/11/28/

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