Friday 29 September 1665

[Continued from yesterday. P.G.] to sleep till 5 o’clock, when it is now very dark, and then rose, being called up by order by Mr. Marlow, and so up and dressed myself, and by and by comes Mr. Lashmore on horseback, and I had my horse I borrowed of Mr. Gillthropp, Sir W. Batten’s clerke, brought to me, and so we set out and rode hard and was at Nonsuch by about eight o’clock, a very fine journey and a fine day. There I come just about chappell time and so I went to chappell with them and thence to the several offices about my tallys, which I find done, but strung for sums not to my purpose, and so was forced to get them to promise me to have them cut into other sums. But, Lord! what ado I had to persuade the dull fellows to it, especially Mr. Warder, Master of the Pells, and yet without any manner of reason for their scruple. But at last I did, and so left my tallies there against another day, and so walked to Yowell, and there did spend a peece upon them, having a whole house full, and much mirth by a sister of the mistresse of the house, an old mayde lately married to a lieutenant of a company that quarters there, and much pleasant discourse we had and, dinner being done, we to horse again and come to Greenwich before night, and so to my lodging, and there being a little weary sat down and fell to order some of my pocket papers, and then comes Captain Cocke, and after a great deal of discourse with him seriously upon the disorders of our state through lack of men to mind the public business and to understand it, we broke up, sitting up talking very late. We spoke a little of my late business propounded of taking profit for my money laid out for these goods, but he finds I rise in my demand, he offering me still 500l. certain. So we did give it over, and I to bed. I hear for certain this night upon the road that Sir Martin Noell is this day dead of the plague in London, where he hath lain sick of it these eight days.


15 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

A6. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)

[Evelyn obliged to repeat a request]

For my most honord Friend
Samuel Pepys Esqr
at the Navy-Office in Greenewich

Sayes Court

29 September 1665 (2)

Sir

This being but an iteration of what was Orderd on Thursday, when we were with his Grace (3), I cannot divine how it comes to be repeated; But being told it was brought hither by two Captaines (in my absence this day at Erith) (4) who it seemes applyed them selves to my Lord for the conveying of their Sick-men (and indeede I have no quarters neerer then those places his Grace mentions Graves-end and Chatham being full) I suppose it was written to pacifie their importunity, and quicken the raising of the monyes to be assign’d me: There was a Copy of the letter, left at my house with it, which causes me to write thus confidently of the Contents: Sir, I am

Your most humble
and obedient Servant:

JEvelyn

The bearer hereoff (one of our Chyrurgeons) whom I sent to see the state of our sick, will give you an account (5) of the extreame misery of both our owne and Prisoners, for want of bread to preserve (6) them perishing

Source: PRO S.P. 29/133, f.58. Endorsed by P, ‘29 7ber. 65. Says Court. Esqr Evelin.’

2 MS: ‘Says-Court 29th:-7br -65’.

3 Thursday was the 28th. E reports that he met Albemarle on the 28th (diary). P records a meeting with Albemarle and E on the 27th (diary, see p.34, note 4). De Beer (III, 420, n.1) suggested that two meetings were unlikely and that P was more likely to be right. However, de Beer does not refer to this letter which appears to confirm E, or that there were two meetings.

4 E had spent the day there organising the sale of East India ‘prizes’ which, it had been agreed on 23 September by Albemarle, would help finance care of the prisoners (E’s diary 23 and 29 September).

5 MS: ‘acco-t’.

6 Clumsily formed (p[r]eò erue) where ‘p[r]es’ is formed as a single character.

http://www.romanbritain.freeserve…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Master of the Pells"

OF pel becomes E. pell, a skin or a hide (both obs), whence a roll of parchment, whence a record in parchment, whence the obs Master of the Pells....

*Origins* by Eric Partridge, p. 479.
http://books.google.com/books?id=…

dirk  •  Link

From the Carte Papers, Bodleian Library
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

A News-Letter, addressed to Sir George Lane

Written from: [Oxford?]
Date: 29 September 1665

Among the chief prizes taken from the Dutch and already arrived in the Thames are two richly-laden East India ships; the charge of which has been committed, by the Duke of Albemarle, to Lord Brouncker, and another. Some of the prizes, it is added, were scattered in the late storm.

The King, Queen and Court are now at Oxford.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...then comes Captain Cocke, and after a great deal of discourse with him seriously upon the disorders of our state through lack of men to mind the public business and to understand it..."

Ummn...Excuse me?

"Deplorable. I am shocked, shocked. Now as to my profits in the looting of the prize ships."

JWB  •  Link

"...tallys,... strung for sums..."

Nice, set in a row.

Tony Eldridge  •  Link

Mr Warder, Master of the Pells, sounds like a real jobsworth:
"But, Mr Pepys, we always do 'em this way"
"Well, you should've said earlier if you want 'em different."
"But how was we to know?"
"Well, we can I suppose, but it'll take time - we got a lot of work on at present."
(sotto voce) "Comes down 'ere, giving himself airs - put 'em at the end of the queue,lads."

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"But, Lord! what ado I had to persuade the dull fellows to it, especially Mr. Warder, Master of the Pells, and yet without any manner of reason for their scruple."

Or maybe Mr. Warder actually is just doing his job and checking to see the alteration is allowed. Our boy does have an increasing powerful man's tendency to regard anyone not immediately doing as he wishes to be a silly fool or deliberately opposing him.

CGS  •  Link

To pell or not to pell [not in my dictionary]
that be the question ?
He pells here and there and then he gets his pelling from a pell at the pell office at the pell stake wearing his nice pell wool smock..

CGS  •  Link

pell bits.
of course the pell man did pass the math test with a nice Pell Equation

pell, n.1

[< Anglo-Norman pel, peel, peau, etc., and Middle French pel, peau, etc. (French peau) animal skin or hide (c1100 in Old French), human skin (beginning of the 12th cent.), parchment (c1175) < classical Latin pellis skin, leather, parchment < the same Indo-European base as FELL n.1 Compare Old Occitan pel (1149), pelh (c1200; Occitan pèl), Catalan pell (a1150), Spanish piel (1207; 939 as pielle), Italian pelle (end of the 12th cent.).
It is uncertain whether the following examples should be taken as reflecting the Middle English or the Anglo-Norman word:
1320 in C. Innes Reg. Episcopatus Glasguensis (1843) 227 Tres cappas chori de pel. 1403 in J. Raine Testamenta Eboracensia (1865) III. 25 Item, j pell, iiij d. 1451 in Archaeologia Aeliana (1859) 3 187 Pro cc pellis lanutis et continentibus iij quarteria, xx pelles.
For the extension to sense 1a ‘a cloak so lined or trimmed, a fur’ and corresponding examples given in N.E.D. (1904) s.v. see PALL n.1 5.]

1. a. An animal skin or hide, esp. a furred skin used to make, line, or trim a cloak. Obs.
Recorded earliest in pell wool n. at Compounds 2.
1404 i

b. = VELVET n. 2a. Cf. PILL n.2 3. Obs. rare.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew, To Fray,..when Deer rub..their Heads against Trees to get the pells of their new Horns off.

2. a. A parchment; spec. either of two rolls of parchment for recording receipts (called in Latin the pellis receptorum) and issues (called in Latin the pellis exituum), formerly kept at the Exchequer. Now hist.
1434 .........
1642 C. VERNON Considerations Excheqver 42 Another Pell, called Pellis Exitus, wherein every dayes issuing of any of the moneyes..was to be entred. 1675 R. VAUGHAN Disc. Coin & Coinage xi, The whole receipts of the Kingdom, as appeaeth by the Pell of the Introitus amounted to 72,826 pound 11 shillings 5 pence.

b. Clerk of the Pells n. (formerly also {dag}Pell) an officer formerly charged with entering receipts and issues on the pells. Also Master of the Pells. Now hist.
a1603 in Coll. Ordinances Royal Househ. (1790) 244 Clark of the pell; fee{em}£17. 10. 0. 1657 J. HOWELL Londinopolis 370 Touching..the Clerk of the Pell; his duty is, to enter every Tellers bill into a Roll call'd Pellis Receptorum. 1665 S. PEPYS Diary 29 Sept. (1972) VI. 244 Mr. Warder, Master of the Pells.

c. the Pells n. the Office of the Exchequer in which these rolls were kept. Now hist.
1681 H. NEVILE Plato Redivivus 197 No Sanctuary to fly to, but a peice of Parchment kept in the Pells. 1692 J. LOCKE Let. 31 Oct. in Corr. Locke & Clarke (1927) 358 Seeing where the matter pinches, he no longer desires me to search for the order and Mr. Broncker's receipt in the pells or anywhere else. 1

pell office n.
a1650 S. D'EWES Autobiogr. (1845) II. iii. 67 Monday, March the 5th, having been searching almost all the day in the *Pell Office, I was suddenly sent for by my wife. 1697 N. LUTTRELL Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) IV. 311 Mr. Lemar, a clerk in the pell office in the exchequer.

C2. {dag}pell-monger n. Obs. a dealer in skins and furs.
1676 M. NEDHAM Pacquet Advices 31 May they leave off barking when he comes into the City; and not do as dogs do at a *Pell-monger.

pell wool n. now hist. wool from the skin of a dead sheep; = pelt wool n. at PELT n.1 Compounds 2.
1404 *Pelwolle [see sense 1a]. 1442 Rolls of Parl. V. 61/1 Please it your noble grace, to ordeyne..that ther be put in noon of thoo Worstedes, eny Lambe woll, nor Pell woll.

..............

pell, n.2

[< Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French pel PEEL n.2; for the spec. sense compare PALE n.1 1b.]

A stake or post at which to practise sword-strokes.

Show pronunciation* Hide etymology* Hide quotations* Show date charts*

Pell, n.3 math
[<the name of John Pell (see PELLIAN adj.).]

In full Pell equation, Pell's equation. A Diophantine equation of the form y2 - ax2 = 1, where x and y are integer variables, and a is an integer constant.
to pell classical Latin pellere to drive
1. intr. To hurry, rush.

2. trans. To beat or strike violently. Freq. with down. Also occas. intr

Terry Foreman  •  Link

John Evelyn's Diary (in lieu of Dirk)

29. To Erith to quicken the Sale of the Prizes lying there, by orders, to the Commissioners who lay on board, til they should be disposed of, 5000 pounds being proportiond for my quarters: Then I also deliverd the Dut[c]h Vice Admirall, who was my Prisoner, to Mr. Lo[?], of the Marshallsea he giving me bond of 500 pounds to produce him at my call: I exceedingly pittied this brave, unhappy person, who had lost with these Prizes 40000 pounds, after 20 yeares negotiation in the East Indies: I dined in one of these Vessels of 1200 tunn, full of riches, and return’d home:

***

The Marshalsea had been a prison in Southwark since at least 1329 (best known today as the notorious debtors prison where the father of "Little Dorrit" was sent, as Charles Dickens' own father had been "in 1824 owing £40 and 10 shillings, when Dickens was 12 years old").
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars…

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"I exceedingly pittied this brave, unhappy person, who had lost with these Prizes 40000 pounds, after 20 yeares negotiation in the East Indies"

John Evelyn once again shows himself to be a man of rare humaneness - able to empathize with "the enemy." The more I learn about Evelyn, the better I like him.

Pedro  •  Link

"The more I learn about Evelyn, the better I like him."

The recent book “John Evelyn, Living with Ingenuity” by Gillian Darley is a great insight for anyone wishing to learn about this fascinating character, and a contrast to Sam in many ways.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"my pocket papers"

Pepys seems to have carried these by habit: notes of expenditures, receipts, notes in shorthand, journall-jottings. Latham and Matthews' formatting of some of what must have been "pocket papers" for parts of 1668 shows this:

[The entries from April 10th to April 19th are transcribed from three leaves (six pages) of rough notes, which are inserted in the MS. The rough notes were made to serve for a sort of account book, but the amounts paid are often not registered in the fair copy when he came to transcribe his notes into the Diary.]
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

[The rough notes for the journal from [the 5th] to the 17th of June are contained on five leaves, inserted in the book; and after them follow several pages left blank for the fair copy which was never made.]
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"29. To Erith to quicken the Sale of the Prizes lying there, by orders, to the Commissioners who lay on board, til they should be disposed of, 5000 pounds being proportiond for my quarters: ..."

On September 25, 1665, Sandwich visited with John Evelyn. From Evelyn's Diary:
"25th September, 1665. My Lord Admiral being come from the fleet to Greenwich, I went thence with him to the Cock-pit, to consult with the Duke of Albemarle. I was peremptory that, unless we had ^10,000 immediately, the prisoners would starve, and it was proposed it should be raised out of the East India prizes now taken by Lord Sandwich.

"They being but two of the commission, and so not empowered to determine, sent an express to his Majesty and Council, to know what they should do. …”

Monck and Sandwich knew they couldn't make distribution decisions alone. Presumably the OK came back from Court by return of express – but Evelyn only got half what he asked for.

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Today is Michaelmas ... could this be why the Exchequer men were in church, and somewhat busy? It's a day for paying bills and collecting debts.

There are traditionally four “quarter days” in a year (Lady Day (25 March), Midsummer (24 June), Michaelmas (29 September) and Christmas (25 December)). They are three months apart, on religious festivals, and close to solstices or equinoxes. They were the dates on which servants were hired, rents due or leases begun. It used to be said that harvest had to be completed by Michaelmas, marking the end of the productive season. It was the time at which new servants were hired, land was exchanged, and debts paid.

And shortly Pepys will hear from some desperate seamen who need their back pay. He sounds almost casual about not getting money for his tallys today, but I bet he was in reality very worried.

After all, the fleet must go out again soon ...

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