Sunday 16 November 1662

(Lord’s day). About 3 o’clock in the morning waked with a rude noise among Sir J. Minnes his servants (he not being yet come to his lodgings), who are the rudest people but they that lived before, one Mrs. Davis, that ever I knew in my life.

To sleep again, and after long talking pleasantly with my wife, up and to church, where Mrs. Goodyer, now Mrs. Buckworth, was churched. I love the woman for her gravity above any in the parish. So home and to dinner with my wife with great content, and after dinner walked up and down my house, which is now almost finished, there being nothing to do but the glazier and furniture to put up. By and by comes Tom, and after a little talk I with him towards his end, but seeing many strangers and coaches coming to our church, and finding that it was a sermon to be preached by a probationer for the Turkey Company, to be sent to Smyrna, I returned thither. And several Turkey merchants filled all the best pews (and some in ours) in the Church, but a most pitiful sermon it was upon a text in Zachariah, and a great time he spent to show whose son Zachary was, and to prove Malachi to be the last prophet before John the Baptist.

Home and to see Sir W. Pen, who gets strength, but still keeps his bed. Then home and to my office to do some business there, and so home to supper and to bed.


20 Annotations

First Reading

Bradford  •  Link

So much for the deterioration in civility being a modern invention. With so little to go on, what brave visionary would care to speculate on just how Minnes's servants showed their rudeness to a rising man such as Pepys?

The subject of the sermon suggests that the probationer had to pull a topic from one of the hats men then kept on in church, and orate impromptu. A true test for one being sent to heathen lands.

dirk  •  Link

Rev. Josselin: a plot?

"A dry clear day after high driving windy showers, god good to us in the liberty of the Sabbath, oh spare me for my ministerial work. speech of a plot but no presbyter in it. lord keep us, them from every evil. and dishonour to the gospel."

Terry F  •  Link

"to church, where Mrs. Goodyer, now Mrs. Buckworth, was churched"

"Placed between the Rite for the Burial of the Dead, the Commination and the Prayers to be Used at Sea among the Occasional Offices in the back of the Book of Common Prayer we find a short rite which bears the rather long title: The Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth, commonly called the Churching of Women. Though its practise has mainly died out in the past years, the rite has survived all major prayer book reforms and is also, though in a modified form, to be found in the 1979 version of the American Prayer Book and in the Alternative Service Book." http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mikef/chur…

Nix  •  Link

Rude noise --

A loud party while the boss is away, boozing and singing and whooping and hollering. And plenty to say when Samuel hollers "Shut up out there -- People are trying to sleep!" Since I live two blocks from a university, I don't need to use much imagination.

Actually, I'd guess he made it "Honest people are trying to sleep!"

Robert Gertz  •  Link

One heck of a bout of gout, Sir Will...

But then, the cure was no doubt by far the worst of it.

"Bleed him!"

"Purge him!"

"Blister him!"

"No, no he must to his knees on the sharpest stones in the icy cold of the courtyard and pray God to relieve his suffering!"

"Then bleed, purge, blister him!"

Australian Susan  •  Link

Anyone else think that there is a theme over the past few days of Sam saying the house is finished, but for one thing and then there's another thing. First it was just the joinery, then it was just the painting, now it is just the glaziers and the furniture. Sounds like he's being fobbed off by the workmen as to the when and the whatever.

Churching of Women now rejigged as Thanksgiving for the Birth of a Child - also in the current 1995 Australian Prayer Book (Anglican). Tends to be used nowadays for those not yet ready for baptism or when there have been real problems and survivial of mother and child becomes an occasion to give thanks for (thankfully rare nowadays).

Note that Sam says that Sir J's house was previously occupied by Mrs Davis, so our surmising that the 5 houses were occupied by Davis, Minnes, Pepys, Penn and Batten falls down. So, who was in the 5th house?

The Sermon: sounds as though the text (whatever it was) was tricky, so the missionary-to-be concentrated on the background, going into who the author was and then going on to one of the other 12 minor prophets, Malachi. His writings are dated to around 400 BC and classical Biblical scholarship holds that he was the Last Prophet and no more prophecy happened until the one who procliamed the Lord (John the B) appears to "make straight the way of the Lord" . People declared John to be Elijah come again - it was/is held in Jewish belief that before the Messiah comes, Elijah will come again. A cup of wine is poured out for Elijah at every Passover, in case he comes - as a herald of the Messiah. Sam obviously considered such discussions as Not A Proper Sermon. He was probably also huffy about the wealthy merchants settling themselves into the Navy Office gallery seating. It should have been up to the Verger to explain that those seats were private. Wonder if he got a fat tip to let them sit there? Sam, Penn, Batten etc. will be paying a hefty rent for the seating (the installation of which they organised and paid for).

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

Traditon dies hard, it be Saturday nite, "...About 3 o’clock in the morning waked with a rude noise ..."
I know the feeling Sam , I've had to move a few times. Steam has to be release, but never next door.
Bibamus , Moriendum est.

Terry F  •  Link

A close friend was churched in joyful Thanksgiving for the Birth of a Child, her first, born with no problems, in New York, New York (to repeat an anti-Catholic slogan of which Pepys was supposedly fond) 30 years ago; but perhaps, Australian Susan, that isn't "nowadays" - sometimes I forget how swifly time passes.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

The pitiful sermon
Australian Susan's comment about the sermon reminds me of an old story about an Professor of Old Testament who gave his class the same final exam question every year: give a chronological list of the kings of Israel. So the students prepared well for that question. One year, though, the prof changed the test to: name the major and minor prophets. Most students struggled as best they could, but one enterprising student wrote, "I am unable to respond properly to your query at this time, but for your information, here is a chronological list of the kings of Israel." Sounds like our Smyrna-bound preacher.

andy  •  Link

a rude noise among Sir J. Minnes his servants

I remember Minnes had complained about Sam's servants as well, maybe Sam has got some ammunition now.

Xjy  •  Link

“nowadays”
Hell, Terry, that's the mid-70s - only an hour or two ago. Now the 50s, that's beginning to feel a bit like yesterday... though in some respects - like the anti-colonial victories in Dien Bien Phu and Suez, and in the boundless energy and joy of rock n roll celebrating youth and sex (goodness gracious Great Balls of FIRE!) - it might as well be tomorrow... Our Winds of Change have been blowing in reverse for decades now...

Tom Burns  •  Link

...where Mrs. Goodyer, now Mrs. Buckworth, was churched.

I was not familiar with the use of "church" as a verb.

According to Webster's 1828 dictionary:

http://65.66.134.201/cgi-bin/webs…

CHURCH, v.t. To perform with any one the office of returning thanks in the church, after any signal deliverance, as from the dangers of childbirth.

Hugh Yeman  •  Link

Rudest people... best pews... Sam sure does love his superlatives. I often smiled to myself as I listened to the diary tapes because he so often commented that the eye-candy du jour was "...the prettiest woman that ever I saw." It's rather charming how his enthusiasm makes him think of the current experience as the most beautiful or amazing or awful thing in the world.

Out of curiosity I ran some searches on the Project Gutenberg copy of the complete diaries and found 191 occurrences of "in my life", 97 occurrences of "that ever I saw" and 15 occurrences of "that ever I did see". I'm sure that I'm forgetting many other favorite phrases.

-Hugh

Nix  •  Link

the house is finished, but for one thing and then there’s another thing --

We are presently remodeling, so I feel his pain.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

the house is finished, but for one thing and then there’s another thing.

Been there. Those endless punch lists!

A. Hamilton  •  Link

Elijah come again

When he was 2, my brother-in-law Peter struck up a friendship with a yard-man named Elijah. On the day in 1948 when his baby sister was brought home from the hospital, his father called him to come see her, saying "Eliza is here." Peter's disappointment in not seeing Elijah was great.

pjk  •  Link

...my house, which is now almost finished...
There is a kind of xeno's paradox in building. In the first six months we compete 50% of the work, in the second sixth months 75%, then 95%, then 99%, then 99.5%... but we never actually completely finish the house. I am sure every house in world has a last piece of skirting board missing or a lamp on a landing that never got a lampshade. These final tasks are the impossible end point of an infinite progression of diminishing likelihood.

Australian Susan  •  Link

If you all click on the link to the Turkey Company in the text, TerryF, dirk and Robert Gertz have posted some really fascinating, v. absorbing and totallydistractingfromwork links. Thanks!!

Second Reading

arby  •  Link

Hugh, the writers of Moone Boy may have taken a hint from Sam: "That is the single greatest thing my little eyes have ever witnessed."

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘church v.trans. . .
▸1440 Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 75 Chyrchyn, or puryfyen, Purifico.
. . 1597 in J. Barmby Churchwardens' Accts. Pittington (1888) 43 For makinge a natt for the wyves to knele on when they come to be churched.
. . 1667 M. A. F. Fox Touch-stone 70 The like may be said also of their Churching women, and Marrying people with Rings: but it appeareth that the main end of these Practices, are to get money of people . . ‘

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