Saturday 26 September 1668

Could sleep but little last night, for my concernments in this business of the victualling for Sir D. Gawden, so up in the morning and he comes to me, and there I did tell him all, and give him my advice, and so he away, and I to the office, where we met and did a little business, and I left them and by water to attend the Council, which I did all the morning, but was not called in, but the Council meets again in the afternoon on purpose about it. So I at noon to Westminster Hall and there stayed a little, and at the Swan also, thinking to have got Doll Lane thither, but elle did not understand my signs; and so I away and walked to Charing Cross, and there into the great new Ordinary, by my Lord Mulgrave’s, being led thither by Mr. Beale, one of Oliver’s, and now of the King’s Guards; and he sat with me while I had two grilled pigeons, very handsome and good meat: and there he and I talked of our old acquaintances, W. Clerke and others, he being a very civil man, and so walked to Westminster and there parted, and I to the Swan again, but did nothing, and so to White Hall, and there attended the King and Council, who met and heard our answer. I present, and then withdrew; and they spent two hours at least afterwards about it, and at last rose; and to my great content, the Duke of York, at coming out, told me that it was carried for D. Gawden at 6d. 8d., and 8¾d.; but with great difficulty, I understand, both from him and others, so much that Sir Edward Walker told me that he prays to God he may never live to need to plead his merit, for D. Gawden’s sake; for that it hath stood him in no stead in this business at all, though both he and all the world that speaks of him, speaks of him as the most deserving man of any servant of the King’s in the whole nation, and so I think he is: but it is done, and my heart is glad at it. So I took coach and away, and in Holborne overtook D. Gawden’s coach, and stopped and went home, and Gibson to come after, and to my house, where D. Gawden did talk a little, and he do mightily acknowledge my kindness to him, and I know I have done the King and myself good service in it. So he gone, and myself in mighty great content in what is done, I to the office a little, and then home to supper, and the boy to read to me, and so to bed. This noon I went to my Lady Peterborough’s house, and talked with her about the money due to her Lord, and it gives me great trouble, her importunity and impertinency about it. This afternoon at Court I met with Lord Hinchingbroke, newly come out of the country, who tells me that Creed’s business with Mrs. Pickering will do, which I am neither troubled nor glad at.


17 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"it was carried for D. Gawden at 6d. 8d., and 8 ¾d.;"

L&M note these were the rates of daily allowance for each man -- for harbor-victuals, ordinary sea-victuals, and foreign sea-victuals, respectively.

JWB  •  Link

Using the UK Nat'l. Archives converter, 6d(1670)equals about 2 GBP(2006). Compare with this:
BBC News,2006:
"AVERAGE PRICE PER HEAD
Adult prison: £1.87 per day
Young Offenders' Institute: £3.81 per day
Hospitals: £2.50 per day
Ministry of Defence: £2.20"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_new…

Clement  •  Link

"...thinking to have got Doll Lane thither, but elle did not understand my signs..."

I'll bet elle certainly did understand his signs and wasn't interested, but I'm still curious to know what they were.

cgs  •  Link

As basic square basher, my day rate was 7s 0d.
From 1660 to 1950, col escalation 14x

From 1950 to 2011 col change 70 x
It matters not the no the number of coins / paper
What matters is the number of hours/minutes it takes to get ones 1800 calories.

Jesse  •  Link

"but elle did not understand my signs"

Okay, I apologize in advance but a quick search on youtube found something close to what might have taken place http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT… (you may want to mute).

Robert Gertz  •  Link

First Knepp seeking greener pastures with Lord Brouncker now Doll Lane (God, thanks for the Falstaff touch there, Sam), fails to acknowledge his invite...Has our boy lost it? Is he wearing those paper tubes too often? Are the freer-spirited ladies of London seeing writing on the wall regarding the inhabitants of the Naval Office? Or, perhaps...

"So I spoke to Mary Mercer...And she says, our Pepysie's gone and got himself a thing going with that young girl, his wife's maid..." Mrs. Martin, shrewd nod.

"That bit of a girl? The tall one? Oh, that's too much..." Doll, fuming a bit. "You know Mrs. Knepp was telling me she'd sworn off him when he came on her while she was sleeping a while back. And that poor Mitchell girl, he just wouldn't leave off pestering her...The husband won't speak a word to him but the poor thing suffers for it, I can tell you."

"Poor boy's gone and got hisself some bad habits, Doll."

"I'm gone and done with him, that's for certain."

"Course it could be his eyes...They're troublin' him, you know."

"What, he mistakes that girl for his wife? Come on now, Bets...You've always had much too soft a spot for him..."

"He is the most charmin' lil' fellow when he wants to be...And God, the sex was great...That time we did it over a chair..." Fond look in eye...

"When you had me peep in, pretendin' to be a man with that 'Sir, why do you kiss that gentlewoman so?!' bit? That was great, sis...He must've jumped two foot in the air." hearty laugh. "Here now...You're not lookin' to go on with him?"

"Life can get dull, sister. And Sam Pepys be a good cure for what ails..."

"Oh, Bets..."

Andrew Hamilton  •  Link

If I understand this victualing business correctly, Sam is in a position to let Dennis Gawden know what the other bidders are proposing. Are we to assume that Gawden will show his thanks?

Shelley  •  Link

As a writer, I can't help thinking that Dickens would have thoroughly enjoyed (and possibly cribbed ideas from) every line of this.

And congratulations on being chosen for the Wikio Top Blogs list!

JWB  •  Link

Just how much rolled oats could 6d. buy?

"With 1666, the flow of Scots transportees to Virginia became more visible. A sharp persecution of Covenanting groups unwilling to accept the claim of the restored English monarchy to supremacy in the kirk—the church—as well as in the state, and the defeat of the first Covenanting rebellion at Rullion Green in the Pentlands outside Edinburgh left the regime with political prisoners on its hands.

They could be sent to the royal colony of Tangier. Members of the garrison thought they might as well be in prison as sweating in a fortified city under perpetual siege from the Moroccans. A soldier who complained about never being paid was shot. Margaret Summerton, convicted of sedition and trying to raise rebellion in Tangier in 1663, was flogged in front of the assembled garrison before being thrown into the cells. She probably emerged to join other offenders who, after their whipping, were set to work without pay and in shackles on the defenses. They were officially enslaved.

We tend to think of slaves as black, but Caucasians were enslaved in Tangier. Indeed, they were enslaved in Scotland. Male and female Scots coal miners and salt workers were slaves until 1799. The status was hereditary.

People facing forced labor on Tangier, like John Denholm, who appealed to the Privy Council from Edinburgh tolbooth in 1669, were likely to discover they had never been truly Covenanters after all and free to take any oath the king could devise.

Anything was better than the hellhole of Tangier. By comparison, Virginia looked good."

"Lusty Beggars, Dissolute Women, Sorners, Gypsies, and Vagabonds for Virginia"

by Bruce P. Lenman
http://www.history.org/Foundation…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"This noon I went to my Lady Peterborough’s house, and talked with her about the money due to her Lord."

L&M note this is for his pension as ex-governor of Tangier.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Signs between the sexes

In the 18th c, ladies had devised a system of sending information to men via their fans in ballrooms and elsewhere. See

http://www.minuetcompany.org/furt…

Not sure if anything similar would have been in place in the 17th century and it seems to me that Sam was fairly confident about his attractiveness to women so would probably have ignored Go Away signals.

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The volume covering correspondence from Nov. 1667 – Sept. 1668 is at
https://play.google.com/books/rea…

Pages 651 – 652

@@@
Sept. 26. 1668
Bromley
Capt. John Andrewes to Sam. Pepys.

Has lent the Antelope to the East India Company, and is obliged to depart from Gravesend by 20 November, under penalty of 5/. 6s. 8d. a day demurrage;

had 7 or 8 calkers employed to fit the ship, all of whom were pressed, or frighted away through fear of press.
Desires a protection for 6 calkers for 14 days.
[S.P. Dom., Whitehall. Car. II. 246, No. 148.]
---
I presume this is HMS Antelope, a 40-gun fourth rate frigate, launched in 1653 as Preston and renamed in 1660. Sold in 1693.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
In which case it gives us an idea of how powerful the HEIC was in 1668 that there would be no question about a King’s ship being loaned to them by a Captain. Or maybe there are two ships named Antelope? But it still begs the question about a Captain informing the CoA about what he has done.

@@@
Sept. 26 1668
Whitehall
Proclamation
that as the collection for relief of the sufferers of London after the fire has been so remissly made that the whole sum received falls short of what has been collected for small towns and villages -- the collection be made at once in all places where it has been omitted, and that all moneys received be sent in, with certificates of the amount, to the receivers of the 11 months' assessment, to be by them paid to the Chamberlain of London for succour of the distressed poor.
[Printed. Proc. Coll., p. 262.]

@@@
Sept. 26. 1668
Whitehall
Order in Council
— on report of the Committee for considering the proposals of Sir D. Gauden, Mr. Child, Mr. King, and Mr. Dodington about Navy victualling —
that Sir Denis Gauden's proposals being cheapest, he shall have the victualling at the rates he proposes, viz.,
6d. a day each man for harbour victuals,
8d, for sea victuals,
and 8 d. when southward of 27 degrees;
he taking into co-partnership within 15 days 2 other fit and responsible persons approved by the King.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 246, No. 154.]

@@@
Sept. 26, 1668.
Deposition
by Ralph Smith before Rob. Jegon, J.P., that he and others not named were apprehended on a charge of highway robbery, on the road from St. Alban's to London.

Also deposition by Rob. Chandler and Edw. Vale, that they were robbed by highwaymen, one of 23/., and the other of 18/. and a horse.
[S.P. Dom. Car. II. 246, No. 154A.]

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Sept. 26, 1668.
Cost of the establishment of all the guards, garrisons, and land forces in England
Forces not in garrison, 5 regiments, 107,425/. 3s. 4d. a year;
garrisons, 76,545/. 3s. 4d;
to be disposed of at the King's special orders, 4,610/. 13s. 4d.;
total, 188,581/. 0s. 0d.
Signed by
the King and Lord General Albemarle.
[20 pages. [S.P. Dom. Car. II. 246, No. 155.]

@@@
Sept. 26 1668.
Paris
[Sam.] Puffendorf to Williamson.

I send you a list of memoirs, good, bad, and indifferent;
some are rare, but the French will never tell their price till they see the money glitter, and customers are on the point of going elsewhere.

The state of the binding varies.
I advise you to offer 25/. or 30/. for the whole,
employing a trusty friend to negotiate for you.
I commend [Claude] du Puy's history, which costs 40 or 50 French livres, but is necessary to know the maxims and pretensions of the French.

I will thank you for Cotgrave or some dictionary which explains English in Latin or French.
[2 pages. French. [S.P. Dom. Car. II. 246, No. 156.]

Annexing,
List of French memoirs printed, including those of M. du Puy.
[1] page. [S.P. Dom. Car. II. 246, No. 1561.]

@@@
Sept. 26, 1668.
J. Aldrich to Rob. Francis.
Coventry

Pray thank Mr. Hope for favours received on his score, for which I am amazed, considering the general good usage of the place, as if one had been translated from hell to the suburbs of heaven.

If the George at Northampton is not a hell, it is certainly of a middle estate, and worse than purgatory, for that is human invention, and I have too much charity for mankind to think their wits wicked enough to devise such an entertainment.

Ever since the Court has fleeced us of our money, meat has grown almost the only indispensably necessary to living in the country.
[S.P. Dom. Car. II. 246, No. 158.]

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

CORRECTION:
"6d. a day each man for harbour victuals,
8d, for sea victuals,
and 8 d. when southward of 27 degrees;"

I double-checked the printed version, and it does say "and 8-3/4d" but the type is tiny and the scan didn't pick it up; apologies: I didn't catch it.

@@@
I bet Dennis and Sam had a nightcap together on that news.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

Not-so-fast. It seems a bit early for Gauden to pop the bubbly, because, says our summary of the Order in Council, he still has to "tak[e] into co-partnership within 15 days 2 other fit and responsible persons approved by the King". So the job is so big that he needs two subcontractors; no surprise there, but how come, after all these weeks of negotiations, that he has to be given (or at any rate, is given) two weeks to produce them and get them approved? It looks like, after getting four bids, checking and re-checking them, and the Council spending an hour on it, all we have is a price and very likely Sam's kickback, but not a lot of visibility or confidence on how the Gauden Corp. will pull it off.

Sam and Dennis are kicking back, with mutual toasts and winks aplenty. "So when can I phant'sy meeting your two mysterious partners, Dennis? Less than two weeks, I trust". Gauden, after another sip: "Oh, have no concern, Mr. Pepys. All's in hand. They'll be on time. The Dutch are very reliable". Sam chokes on his bubbly and almost drops his glass: "Dutch??" "Well, aye. Good butter in those biscuits. 'Twas either them or Soleiman General Supply in Constantinople, to meet those prices. What's the problem? The French buy everything from them too".

In case you wonder if there would be any bubbly in any case - yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His… says as of 1668 it was flowing in London, and "the English were among the first who saw the tendency of Champagne to sparkle as a desirable trait".

Clark Kent  •  Link

Lusty Beggars, Dissolute Women, Sorners. Gypsies and Vagabonds for Virginia... "Sorner," for those of us unfamiliar with the term, is "one who obtrudes himself on another for room and board." (And no, the article is not a sequel to "Yes, There Is a Santa Claus, Virginia." And a big thumbs up to Jesse for the "Rounding Third" video--signifying my approbation and not "you're out!"

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