Thursday 11 December 1662
Up, it being a great frost upon the snow, and we sat all the morning upon Mr. Creed’s accounts, wherein I did him some service and some disservice. At noon he dined with me, and we sat all the afternoon together, discoursing of ways to get money, which I am now giving myself wholly up to, and in the evening he went away and I to my office, concluding all matters concerning our great letter so long in doing to my Lord Treasurer, till almost one in the morning, and then home with my mind much eased, and so to bed.
14 Annotations
First Reading
A. De Araujo • Link
"discoursing of ways to get money,which I am now giving myself wholly up to"
Is this State Business, Personal Business or both?
Terry F • Link
"Is this State Business, Personal Business or both?"
Nice question, A. De Araujo; methinks Personal Business.
I don't think "Creed's accounts" for contigency funds for provisioning ships in the past, about which Pepys, an honest accountant, has already made both positive and negative judgements, are in question here.
The "great letter...to my Lord Treasurer" is pretty much a done deal, it having earned the imprimatur of the Treasurer of the Navy, Sir G. Carteret.
Ergo methinks this "discoursing of ways to get money" is held with the enlargement of salaries announced yesterday in the mind of the Diarist, who has been lately concerned with avoiding "running behindhand in the world" -- his concern about *The Deprived Life of Bess*, which has left him painfully vulnerable to the schemes of Balty, her confidante.
in Aqua Scripto • Link
"Is this State Business, Personal Business or both" I lean to a better use of the imprest, while personell salarys are the perrog of long negotiations by parliament,but imprest is in the hands of the Exchequor, and more immediate, for if Sam et all do not have cab fare and other backhanders, business be at standstill. It be state business to keep the ships afloat along with all the trimmings, but this be about how to legally syphon off enough to make work be rewarding.
Always in the running of a Company, if the Chief bottle washer does not watch the petty cash, [so hard to keep track of thousands of little slips for 9d for the oarsman from stairs to stairs.] it could be curtains.
Petty cash has broken many a business, the set aside for the missing penny worth of nails and the extra 2 x 4 for the ass. To-day it be the hour long call to missy a continent away, and all those boxes of stickits.
Terry F • Link
The handling of imprest funds (petty cash in far from petty amounts) was indeed what the morning with Mr. Creed was about. Has Pepys sat down for an informal lesson from Creed in what is often called 'legal graft'? How does this jibe with the "disservice" he had rendered "Mr. Creed's accounts" and with his concerns about the collusion between Batten and Wood?
Goody • Link
Ergo methinks this “discoursing of ways to get money” is held with the enlargement of salaries announced yesterday in the mind of the Diarist, who has been lately concerned with avoiding “running behindhand in the world” — his concern about *The Deprived Life of Bess*, which has left him painfully vulnerable to the schemes of Balty, her confidante.
:))))))))))
A. Hamilton • Link
Neither enlargement of salaries or dipping into petty cash but something other, I think.
Remember Sam's disdain for the graft he sees around him; remember also Sam's side ventures, such as digging for gold in the basement of the Tower, and investing small sums here and there. This is the age of the earliest venture capitalists, backing ships that bring back rich cargos, planting new colonies, etc. Perhaps being a Tangier commissioner opens up
business opportunities? Sam's fertile mind is at work.
OzStu • Link
"...I did him some service and some disservice. At noon he dined with me.."
Either the disservices were minor, or the meeting very civilised, if they were still on good enough terms to be eating together afterwards. I suspect that the disservices must have been excusable (such as accounting errors) rather than dishonest.
J A Gioia • Link
“…I did him some service and some disservice. At noon he dined with me..”
"I demonstrated my power over him, and over lunch he showed how the both of us can gain."
NOT pretty, but all too understandable and, within bounds, not oh-so-bad. sam sees how the world, and the court, runs and has decided to swim to keep up. (and add the possible support of his parents to his household woes.)
agreed, he is not the type for outright graft. sam is all about delivering value for expenditure. however the gelt has to go to someone and better to he who genuinely cares about the navy's well being.
Pauline • Link
“...I did him some service and some disservice..."
I took it as straightening out somethings in the accounts and muddling up others. Or finding errors that served them, and errors that didn't.
I agree with A. Hamilton. I think Sam and Creed have had a young men's afternoon talking about how to become rich. Budgeting, enterprising, whatever. Creed, well off, is a financial man and strict with a penny, perhaps he is imparting his theories to Sam; and in his zeal has inspired Sam to embrace the conviction/mind set: "I am now giving myself wholly up to..." 'Greed is good.'
Pedro • Link
On this day at the Old Bayly Thomas Tonge is found guilty of treason in what became known as the Tonge Plot.
“In the next year 1662 was a Conspiracy among several sorts of our Sectaries, to levy War against the King, and to surprize and kill Him, with the Duke of York, the Duke of Albemarle, Sir Richard Brown, and to give no quarter to any that opposed them; to put an end to Kings, Princes, Dukes, that they might have a free State, and be troubled no more with any such kind of men, nor with Lawn-sleeves and Surcingles. For this end they had provided store of Arms, and had laid them up in several places, and had disposed a good number of them to their Friends. The time appointed for the Insurrection was Alhallows Eve: and to colour the business they pretended that they had received a Letter from a Correspondent of the Papists, that the Papists at that time intended to make use of their Army [meaning the King's Guards at White-hall] for the Massacring of all Protestants in the City. Which news they dispersed in and about London by a Letter of their own to their Friends: wherein they invited them to doe what Piety to God, Loyalty to their King, Love to their Country, and Self-preservation should direct them: Calling the eternal God to witness that this was no trepan nor trick, but a sober truth. They had framed a Declaration to justifie their proceedings, viz. against Popery and Monopolies, Bishops and Common-Prayer, for Liberty of Conscience and a free Commonwealth. They were discovered by some of the Party, and several of them were apprehended, tried and condemned at Iustice-Hall in the Old Bayly, London, the same year, Dec. 11. Some acknowledged themselves wholly guilty, others so far guilty as that they heard this villany discoursed of, and did not reveal it: only Tho. Tonge in his Dying Speech said, That he had sometimes been in some mens company where he had heard them contriving the business for which he was condemned to die; and that that which led him to join with them, was this, That he had sometimes been in the Army, and looked upon this cause to be good.”
http://anglicanhistory.org/charle…
“The history of the alleged Tonge Plot has long been a contentious one. Two sides to the argument which emerged over the break up of this supposed design exit. The first viewpoint has it that the scheme was at least partly genuine and that the minor figures that were arrested, convicted and executed were part of a more general and nationwide scheme. The second view, however, was that the plot had little validity outside the fevered and greedy imaginations of a group of agents provocateurs, who were mainly concerned to exploit the situation as much as they could; moreover that what emerged was taken up by a rattled government, who ruthlessly exploited it in parliament and sent a group of, comparatively, innocent, and certainly misguided, men to a bloody death for its own purposes.”
(Intelligence and Espionage in the Reign of Charles II by Alan Marshall.)
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
[See] A brief narrative of that stupendious [sic] tragedie late intended to be acted by the satanical saints of these reforming times humbly presented to the king's most excellent majesty : also, an impartial account of the indictment, arraignment, tryal [sic], and condemnation of Thomas Tonge, George Phillips, Francis Stubbs, James Hind, John Sallers, and Nathaniel Gibbs, at Justice-Hall in the Old-Bailey, London, Decemb. 11, 1662 ; together with the confessions, speeches, and prayers of George Phillips, Thomas Tonge, Nathaniel Gibbs, Francis Stubbs, at the place of execution, on Munday, Decemb. 22, 1662. / exactly taken in short-hand characters, by the same person that wrote the late king's judges tryals.
Hill, William, fl. 1662., Tonge, Thomas, d. 1662., Phillips, George, d. 1662., Stubbs, Francis, d. 1662., Sallers, John, d. 1662., Gibbs, Nathaniel, d. 1662.
London: Printed for Charles Adams ..., 1662. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/…
Sasha Clarkson • Link
Just a note that, as England uses the Julian Calendar still, today is the Winter Solstice (shortest day).
Chris Squire UK • Link
By ‘today’ Sasha means ‘this day’ = Dec 11 1662.
Louise Hudson • Link
Pepys wrote:
"Up and to the office, Mr. Coventry and I alone sat till two o’clock, and then he inviting himself to my house to dinner, "
That doesn't sound as if there could have been much time to prepare the meal. Of course it had to be Liz's fault! It couldn't have been Sam's! The man of the house snaps his fingers and a fully cooked meal is supposed to magically appear on the table. Glad to see times have changed a little, anyway.