Wednesday 10 December 1662
This morning rose, receiving a messenger from Sir G. Carteret and a letter from Mr. Coventry, one contrary to another, about our letter to my Lord Treasurer, at which I am troubled, but I went to Sir George, and being desirous to please both, I think I have found out a way to do it. So back to the office with Sir J. Minnes, in his coach, but so great a snow that we could hardly pass the streets. So we and Sir W. Batten to the office, and there did discourse of Mr. Creed’s accounts, and I fear it will be a good while before we shall go through them, and many things we meet with, all of difficulty. Then to the Dolphin, where Sir J. Minnes, Sir W. Batten, and I, did treat the Auditors of the Exchequer, Auditors Wood and Beale, and hither come Sir G. Carteret to us. We had a good dinner, cost us 5l. and 6s., whereof my share 26s., and after dinner did discourse of our salarys and other matters, which I think now they will allow.
Thence home, and there I found our new cook-mayde Susan come, who is recommended to us by my wife’s brother, for which I like her never the better, but being a good well-looked lass, I am willing to try, and Jane begins to take upon her as a chamber-mayde. So to the office, where late putting papers and my books and businesses in order, it being very cold, and so home to supper.
13 Annotations
First Reading
Terry F • Link
"We...did discourse of our salarys"
L&M note that what we in the USA call an annual COLA (cost of living adjustment) was now in the purview of the Auditors of the Exchequer for the Navy Office officers and others, and that Pepys was now in line for this on a regular basis.
Terry F • Link
An annual cost of living adjustment of Officers's salaries UP must mean there is inflation at court, since the are [a very] few who will go over to the competition {the Dutch, the French or the Spanish, e.g.). Is this a hint of Government profligacy? Stay tuned, folks.
Terry F • Link
Mr Pepys shows his value as a member of a committee --
Given two views "one contrary to another," whose proponent are unaware of each other's proposals, he talks to the more powerful one, "being desirous to please both," -- to mediate, and, sure enough, he decides "I think I have found out a way to do it" -- .
How interesting it would be to know what issues were at stake, since there seems to have been no precedent for "our letter to my Lord Treasurer", or else some boilerplate would long since have solved the Composition Quandary.
In what respects do Sir G. Carteret and Mr. Coventry differ? Are these dueling paradigms? ("The Letter should be more like an Invoice" vs. "more like a legal case"?)
In a note to 11 Dec., L&M say there are copies and a synopsis of it in the archives.
in Aqua Scripto • Link
"...and after dinner did discourse of our salarys and other matters, which I think now they will allow..." Inflation there be, but the major increase would be in the allowances provided for outlay on the their trips to the boon docks, Samuell could save the cost by walking, rather than take a coach and exercise his shooting the bridge. The coach trip and feeding and sofening up the suppliers be eating into the pocket of Sam and even the Sir wills. The expense sheet was one of the marvels of working in the service.
in Aqua Scripto • Link
"...We had a good dinner, cost us 5l. and 6s., whereof my share 26s., ..." 6 persons be a stuffing themselves, be there 4 payees : [106 bob/ 4 = 26.5 [extra tanner each.] who paid the 2 bob ????. and did this amount truly come out of Sam's Pocket or be it from the till next week or at the end of the year.
in Aqua Scripto • Link
"...I found our new cook-mayde Susan come, who is recommended to us by my wife’s brother, for which I like her never the better, but being a good well-looked lass, I am willing to try, ..."
" My Wife's brother"
Oh! Samuell! you be frit to say what be you thinking, I dothe think. Anything for a quiet life.
That long suffering intake of breath, I can hear it in the shorthand.
Robert Gertz • Link
Bess loves that brother, no doubt about it...For Balty's sake lets hope Susan actually can cook.
"Cook? Balty, you got me hired as a cook? I've never cooked in me life."
"So? What is there to it, ma chere? One cracks an egg, lights a fire, sticks a roast on a spit, and voila."
I notice once again B-boy has chosen a well-favored girl for his brother-in-law's household. I guess our hero's interest in the opposite sex is rather transparent...
dirk • Link
Inflation
I made some calculations, on the basis of the retail purchasing power of the £ as provided by
http://eh.net/hmit/ppowerbp/
Setting the value of the pound's purchasing power at 100% for 1662, the value of £1 in terms of purchasing power would have been:
1650 ... 91.66% or £0.92
1651 ... 109.23% or £1.09
1652 ... 118.68% or £1.19
1653 ... 132.82% or £1.33
1654 ... 141.63% or £1.42
1655 ... 144.83% or £1.45
1656 ... 137.57% or £1.38
1657 ... 125.66% or £1.26
1658 ... 119.04% or £1.19
1659 ... 109.86% or £1.10
1660 ... 112.43% or £1.12
1661 ... 118.68% or £1.19
1662 ... 100.00% or £1.00
This means that the purchasing power of the £ was at its lowest since 1651. So maybe salary adjustment was overdue...
Second Reading
Bridget Davis • Link
Am I right that when Sam and Elizabeth married they had no servents, and Elizabeth did the cooking?
Weavethe hawk • Link
This is the first entry of the diary, so he already had one serving girl. Must have been a cramped little garret.
"Blessed be God, at the end of the last year I was in very good health, without any sense of my old pain, but upon taking of cold.
I lived in Axe Yard having my wife, and servant Jane, and no more in family than us three"
john • Link
L&M report that his salary went from £33 and change to £350. Unless that is an error, that is quite a raise.
Bridget Davis • Link
Thanks, Weavethe Hawk.
So at this point we have a husband and wife with three servants?
Terry Foreman • Link
"after dinner did discourse of our salarys and other matters, which I think now they will allow."
L&M: See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
By a Council order of 4 July 1660 Pepys's salary had been made up from the traditional (basic) £33 6s. 8d. pa. (The amount fixed by his patent of 13 July 1660) to £350. Similar increases were granted to the other Principal Officers. The position was now regularized in the Exchequer: in Admiralty warrants (5 January 1663) was issued to the Attorney-General, and on 6 February the auditors of the Exchequer enrolled the new rates: PRO, Adm. 2/1725, ff. 88-90; BL, Add. 9307, ff. 14-15. Pepys made a note of the agreed rates in the office memorandum-book: PRO, Adm. 2/1733, f.9v. /he kept copies both of his patent and of Auditor Wood's enrollment: Rawl. A 216, pp. 29-32.