Thursday 30 March 1665
Up, and to my Lord Ashly, but did nothing, and to Sir Ph. Warwicke and spoke with him about business, and so back to the office, where all the morning. At noon home to dinner, and thence to the Tangier Committee, where, Lord! to see how they did run into the giving of Sir J. Lawson (who is come to towne to-day to get this business done) 4000l. about his Mole business, and were going to give him 4s. per yarde more, which arises in the whole Mole to 36,000l., is a strange thing, but the latter by chance was stopped, the former was given.
Thence to see Mrs. Martin, whose husband being it seems gone away, and as she is informed he hath another woman whom he uses, and has long done, as a wife, she is mighty reserved and resolved to keep herself so till the return of her husband, which a pleasant thing to think of her.
Thence home, and to my office, where late, and to bed.
18 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
The domestic details of CR II's retainers; Ireland intel in cypher
Duke of Albemarle & Earl of Lindsey to Ormond [as Lord Steward of his Majesty's Household]
Written from: Cockpit, Whitehall
Date: 30 March 1665
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 34, fol(s). 125
Document type: Original
Solicit, on behalf of Mr Robert Hope, Chief Clerk of his Majesty's Spicery, his Continuance in that employment, by the Duke's favour.
***
Intelligence [concerning political incidents in various parts of Ireland; and also in parts beyond sea. Sent, in Cypher, to Lord Deputy, the Earl of Ossory.]
Date: [30 March?] 1665
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 34, fol(s). 131
Document type: Decypher
http://www.rsl.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwm…
Robert Gertz • Link
I'm sure Lawson didn't think it strange...
Easy to see now why Sam regards his little side deals as rather minor lapses.
***
Ok...? So knowing Mr. Martin has a second wife (in France?), Betty is now planning to lead a life of strict (uh-huh) monogamy?
I'm sure my wife can explain this to me somehow...Oh, Gay...!
'Course to be fair, Sam is never so faithful and attentive as when he thinks Bess is about to run off with somebody.
I guess what Bess really needs is some good-looking, charming, devotedly married but (both his marital and financial situations being unknown at Court) impoverished nobleman, a few cuts above Sam in social rank and well versed in all those blithe social graces Sam would so desperately like to possess, whom she could pay to constantly make passes at her. A sort of super-Pembleton.
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Terry Foreman • Link
"the Tangier Committee...were going to give [Lawson] 4s. per yarde more" to build "[his] Mole"
Cp. 16 February 1662/63: "the contract for the Mole at Tangier, which is done at 13s. the Cubical yard, though upon my conscience not one of the Committee, besides the parties concerned, do understand what they do therein, whether they give too much or too little." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
L&M note the mole's final cost was £340,000.
Robert Gertz • Link
"Charlie?"
"Yes, my love?"
"About that fellow Hope that Albemarle wants to renew his job as Spicery clerk...?"
"That long-nosed fellow? What of him, Babs?"
"I was thinking...I think that Harry Crosby would be a much better man in the job." Glance to good ole Bing hidden by window curtain...
"Bo-bo-bo..." sound of throat clearing...
"What was..."
"Nightgale..." Barbara, innocently as she can manage.
"Hey, what gives!" Sound of fuming Hope hidden in cupboard... "Babs, I gave you forty pounds to pump the ole...er Your Majesty, heh..."
Narrow stare from Charles... "Crosby, you can come out too!"
"Just checking the curtains for Dutch spies, Majesty." Bing notes.
"Yeah. Well, gentlemen I think I have a much more important assignment for you two."
***
"We're off on the road to Barbados..."
Robert Gertz • Link
I'm sure Lawson didn't think it strange...
Easy to see now why Sam regards his little side deals as rather minor lapses.
***
Ok...? So knowing Mr. Martin has a second wife (in France?), Betty is now planning to lead a life of strict (uh-huh) monogamy?
I'm sure my wife can explain this to me somehow...Oh, Gay...!
'Course to be fair, Sam is never so faithful and attentive as when he thinks Bess is about to run off with somebody.
I guess what Bess really needs is some good-looking, charming, devotedly married but (both his marital and financial situations being unknown at Court) impoverished nobleman, a few cuts above Sam in social rank and well versed in all those blithe social graces Sam would so desperately like to possess, whom she could pay to constantly make passes at her. A sort of super-Pembleton.
***
JWB • Link
Linda Colley, "Britain, Empire and the World, 1600-1850" states that the mole when completed by Cholmly mid-70's was 3 million cu.ft., and since 1cu.yd.=27cu.ft., the mole =111,111 cubic yds. or by Sam's refused estimate 444,444s or 22,222L (plus the 4K). Colley also writes that between 1671 and 81 annual expenditure on the colony amounted to about 87,500L.
JWB • Link
By L&M note, given by Terry, final cost came to about 3L/cu.yd. which is about 16 times estimate the committee considered giving to Lawson.
Robert Gertz • Link
"...where, Lord! to see how they did run into the giving of Sir J. Lawson (who is come to towne to-day to get this business done) 4000l. about his Mole business, and were going to give him 4s. per yarde more, which arises in the whole Mole to 36,000l..."
Sam, I think I begin to see why Povy might have wanted to hand this job over to you.
CGS • Link
another Government misjudgment, normal I dothe see, estimates be estimates , low to suck one in, then the zinger , higher costs,.
Bankers please note,is this not familiar.
Mary • Link
"which is a pleasant thing to think of her."
Not an un-Pepys-like touch of irony here, surely?
Bryan M • Link
Perhaps a little too early in his career for irony.
On 19 March Sam divided women into two categories; those fine and respectable ladies like Sir J Lawson’s daughter, Mr Southwell’s very pretty new wife and Dr Whore’s very fine wife and, on the other hand, those wh… um. .. other less respectable ladies like Castlemain and Lady Kerneguy (who apparently gave the Duke a round of applause).
My guess is the puritan in Sam like the idea of Mrs Martin moving closer to the former rather than the latter category.
Saddest of all of course was poor Bagwell’s wife, in a category of her own, denied even a name.
Robert Gertz • Link
Things must be going well with Bess for Sam to "pleasantly" entertain the notion of losing Betty Martin's attentions to her new-found monogamy.
Phil • Link
From this entry I think I see a Sam who operates from knowledge to application. He has a keen mind that has a drive to know and then once he knows something applies that knowledge to his great joy and success. He does not work on estimates or caught up in the hype of the mole but rather on his past knowledge of exactly what it takes in real terms to build a ship. I think Povy, and perhaps Creed are more likely to prepare their books based on estimates and heresy accounts of costs or revenues.
And I wonder if Sam approaches his love life with the same formula. He doesn't just think on love, he explores and applies his knowledge to his great joy and success. Nature gives the male the ability to have hundreds of children but no one female could be so productive. It appears, knowing the difference between love and sex is a key piece of knowledge males need to have, but I'm not sure our Samuel fully appreciates this. What a difficult thing it must be for our hero to see all the beautiful women around him. He can not just admire them, he must know the status of their husbands, can he get away from his wife, etc.
He' like a moth to a flame in both his love life and business world.
language hat • Link
"Not an un-Pepys-like touch of irony here, surely?"
No, I think he genuinely admires her.
cgs • Link
Nowt said on this coupling
"...Thence to see Mrs. Martin, whose husband being it seems gone away, and as she is informed he hath another woman whom he uses, and has long done, as a wife, she is mighty reserved and resolved to keep herself so till the return of her husband, which a pleasant thing to think of her...."
Second Reading
Marquess • Link
And cgs, nothing said on it 9 years later. Let's hope Mrs Martin didn't wait in vain?
Louise Hudson • Link
I wonder how Sam knew that Mrs. Martin planned to stay “monogamous” until her husband returns. I can imagine this scenario. Sam came sniffing around and Mrs. Martin was not interested so she gave him a good line about how she was remaining faithful.. She may well have had another bedmate and it wasn’t Sam. She found the perfect way to get rid of him and not hurt his feelings too much—and make herself look respectable at the same time.
Gerald Berg • Link
I am so confused!
Not 3 days before: "Thence to Mrs. Martin, who, though her husband is gone away, as he writes, like a fool into France, yet is as simple and wanton as ever she was, with much I made myself merry and away."
With words like "simple" and "wanton" I thought I needed no help parsing "much I made myself merry".
Now, everything is gone open marriage and yet so 'mighty reserved' and 'pleasant to think on' I have no idea what is happening or what to think.