Tuesday 11 September 1666

Lay there, and up betimes, and by water with my gold, and laid it with the rest in my office, where I find all well and safe. So with Sir W. Batten to the New Exchange by water and to my Lord Bruncker’s house, where Sir W. Coventry and Sir G. Carteret met. Little business before us but want of money. Broke up, and I home by coach round the town. Dined at home, Balty and myself putting up my papers in my closet in the office. He away, I down to Deptford and there spoke with Bagwell and agreed upon to-morrow, and come home in the rain by water. In the evening at Sir W. Pen’s; with my wife, at supper, he in a mad, ridiculous, drunken humour; and it seems there have been some late distances between his lady and him, as my [wife] tells me. After supper, I home, and with Mr. Hater, Gibson, and Tom alone, got all my chests and money into the further cellar with much pains, but great content to me when done. So very late and weary, to bed.


9 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Lay there," i.e. at Woolwich (see yesterday's entry).

Australian Susan  •  Link

So only the trusted clerks and his loyal (we hope) boy know exactly where the wealth is stored and presumably the "further cellar" was well underground and under the house and with only one possible way of getting into it which could be locked and barred, so probably pretty secure by the standards of the times.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Uh...We'll be leaving now..." Sam tries.

"Sit down! You haven't taken over the Navy Office yet." Penn, fist on table.

"Will, enough." Lady Penn.

"Oh no, dear heart. We've had a round of Humiliate the Host. Now it's time for Get the Guests." Penn, roughly. "So, Mrs. P...May I call you Bess? Tell me? Where do you think our eager little Pepys was all this long day? Surely you know he wasn't tending to the office after our recent little brush with disaster...Come now, don't be shy. Do you know or do you want me to tell you? Though I should be relieved as I know he wasn't with my daughter or my wife...Today."

"Father..." Meg, pleading...

"I think I want to go home now, Sam'l." Bess, rising...

"No...Believe me, I don't like this any more than you. Well, Pepys...Care to tell her yourself...You worthless little lecher? Shall I? The wronged father of the violated child?"

"Dad..." Will Jr...Sighing...

"You people are crude and vicious..." Bess stumbles for door...

"What people, Admirals?" Penn calls.

"Penn." Sam, furious...Yet...Cautious.

"Pepys. You want to step out. Fine. Stick with women like Bagwell. Don't touch another man's daughter or wife. You are garbage...And you know it." Penn, sneering. "Get out of my house."

"This is why I am turning Quaker..." Will Jr. hisses to Meg.

Lawrence  •  Link

"I home, and with Mr. Hater, Gibson, and Tom alone, got all my chests and money into the further cellar with much pains, but great content to me when done"

I wonder how much this little fortune weighed? I'm guessing that it would have all been gold and silver, and some of it plate? and as I recall he has a little dog, and I think a bird, wonder where these have been? poor London, the Medieval city gone for ever, yet retaining on the whole, the old street plan!

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the old street plan!"

'Map and key to references', A Survey of Documentary Sources for Property Holding in London before the Great Fire: London Record Society, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

Shows each parish in the burnt area.

Alan  •  Link

If I recall correctly there's another part of the cellar that's not so nice.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Henry Moore to Sandwich
Written from: London

Date: 11 September 1666

Shelfmark: MS. Carte 75, fol(s). 477

Document type: Holograph

After mention of some domestic and financial incidents at Hinchinbroke, the writer proceeds to state some particulars of the great fire in London: - "The 'Wardrobe' is reduced to ashes, but we had the good luck to snatch away almost what[ever] was of value belonging to your Lordship there, except your plate which was left locked up in an iron chest, and, by reason of its weightiness, we wanted hands and strength to remove it". Adds some mention of the incidents of a project of marriage for Lord Hinchinbroke now broken off. http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Second Reading

Matt Newton  •  Link

If I recall correctly there's another part of the cellar that's not so nice.
Yes Allen. I believe there was or is (?) an over flow from next door. Humm, where there is muck, there's brass.

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