Thursday 1 March 1665/66
Up, and to the office and there all the morning sitting and at noon to dinner with my Lord Bruncker, Sir W. Batten and Sir W. Pen at the White Horse in Lumbard Streete, where, God forgive us! good sport with Captain Cocke’s having his mayde sicke of the plague a day or two ago and sent to the pest house, where she now is, but he will not say anything but that she is well. But blessed be God! a good Bill this week we have; being but 237 in all, and 42 of the plague, and of them but six in the City: though my Lord Bruncker says, that these six are most of them in new parishes where they were not the last week. Here was with us also Mr. Williamson, who the more I know, the more I honour.
Hence I slipt after dinner without notice home and there close to my business at my office till twelve at night, having with great comfort returned to my business by some fresh vowes in addition to my former, and-more severe, and a great joy it is to me to see myself in a good disposition to business.
So home to supper and to my Journall and to bed.
14 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
John Evelyn's Diary
March
1 To Lond: presented his Majestie with my booke, intituled, The Pernicious Consequences of the new Heresy of the Jesuites, against King & States:
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cgs • Link
DesCarte [Jesuit trained too ] was also in the Dog house with the Jesuits over his version of xyz and how it was not a good idea to have Cartesian ideas.
Glyn • Link
Mr Williamson is almost the same age as Sam and apparently from as humble a background as his father was a vicar, yet in a very few years he'll be knighted and Sam never will. Sometimes there's no justice.
Paul Chapin • Link
"Sam never will [be knighted]"
I've thought about this too, Glyn. My guess, based on what I've read so far, is that his wagon was hitched too tightly to James II, and after 1688 that was a serious liability. Possibly also Sam was too old by the time of William's reign to perform the kinds of service that would gain him royal notice (that's pure speculation on my part). If anyone has read better informed explanations in Tomalin or elsewhere, I'd be interested to hear about them. I do find it curious that James didn't knight him while he could.
Michael Robinson • Link
“Sam never will [be knighted]”
It's worth pointing out that none of SP's successors at either the Navy Board or the Admiralty were knighted. The posts Williamson held, unlike SP, and also Williamson's associated diplomatic roles, came with a knighthood -- if one did not already hold a peerage or have a courtesy title -- like the standard issue KCMG of later years.
phoenix • Link
The grim undercurrent in ribbing Cocke about his maid and the casualness of her being put in the pest house makes these men seem both current and remote. How tough they were.
Lawrence • Link
Sam never will [be knighted]
Paul I've often wondered why James didn't knight sam, William was never going to, as Sam, on william and mary coming to the throne chose to be a nonjuror, this would have not endeared him to the new order!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonj…
cgs • Link
Going rate for a knighthood, was cash to sweeten the pot and means to bring credit to the Crown.
According to Liza Picard a Baroncy went for 1000 l. + plus proof of a sustainable income of another 1000 l. per annum. [P.257 Restoration London, Liza Picard]
[l = quids]
interesting section for the lessors to read.
Terry Foreman • Link
Baronetcy = barons lite aka "pay to play"
"The British peerage with its dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts and barons is a medieval creation. By contrast, the baronetage is a modern invention. The "sixth hereditary degree", the baronetage, goes back merely to 1611, to the impecunious days of King James I of England, who, needing money to effect the English colonization of Ulster, devised tile baronetage. King James proposes{ to create 200 ) baronets from among gentlemen of suitable estate and lineage. The recipients of the new, title of "baronet" were to pay for the upkeep for three years of thirty infantrymen in Ulster to repel the Irish rebels there or to pay to the king's exchequer £1095. A further £1200 had to be paid as fees for tile various officials expediting of tile letters patent.
"The baronets were a species of hereditary knight; the incumbents got tile title of "Sir" and would have precedence after barons' younger sons, and their eldest scan would have tile right to a knighthood at the age of twenty-one...." http://www.founderspatriots.org/a…
Terry Foreman • Link
The preceding is a scanning mess: "the" is scanned as "tile," etc.
Pedro • Link
“Here was with us also Mr. Williamson, who the more I know, the more I honour”
When Sam first met Williamson he regarded him as “a pretty knowing man and a scholar but thinks himself to be too much so.” In fact Williamson would know quite a lot about Sam.
I don’t think you can compare Sam with Williamson, as Michael points out the post that he held would lend itself to a knighthood. The diplomatic side also includes espionage, and he made himself the hub of the intelligence network in the regime of Charles both home and abroad.
Anyone who is interested in this chap should read Intelligence and Espionage 1660-1685 by Marshall.
cgs • Link
costly secret be "Espionage 1660-1685 by Marshall." not for the newly impoverished victims of the debit driven credit card users.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"But blessed be God! a good Bill this week we have; being but 237 in all, and 42 of the plague, and of them but six in the City: though my Lord Bruneker says, that these six are most of them in new parishes"
L&M: I.e. in the parishes of St Benet Fink, St Dunstan-in-the East, St James Garlickhithe, St Mildred Poultry and St Stephen Coleman St.
Louise Hudson • Link
Glyn: “Mr Williamson . . . . in a very few years he'll be knighted and Sam never will.”
Isn’t it great to be able to make predictions from the future?