Samuel Pepys - Diary of Samuel Pepys

My labours have been much lightened by the kind help which I have

received from those interested in the subject. Lovers of Pepys are

numerous, and I have found those I have applied to ever willing to

give me such information as they possess. It is a singular pleasure,

therefore, to have an opportunity of expressing publicly my thanks

to these gentlemen, and among them I would especially mention Messrs.

Fennell, Danby P. Fry, J. Eliot Hodgkin, Henry Jackson, J. K. Laughton,

Julian Marshall, John Biddulph Martin, J. E. Matthew, Philip Norman,

Richard B. Prosser, and Hugh Callendar, Fellow of Trinity College,

who verified some of the passages in the manuscript. To the Master

and Fellows of Magdalene College, also, I am especially indebted for

allowing me to consult the treasures of the Pepysian Library, and more

particularly my thanks are due to Mr. Arthur G. Peskett, the Librarian.

H. B. W.

BRAMPTON, OPPIDANS ROAD, LONDON, N.W.

February, 1893.

Table of Contents

[The year did not legally begin in England before the 25th March

until the act for altering the style fixed the 1st of January as the

first day of the year, and previous to 1752 the year extended from

March 25th to the following March 24th. Thus since 1752 we have

been in the habit of putting the two dates for the months of January

and February and March 1 to 24—in all years previous to 1752.

Practically, however, many persons considered the year to commence

with January 1st, as it will be seen Pepys did. The 1st of January

was considered as New Year’s day long before Pepys’s time. The

fiscal year has not been altered; and the national accounts are

still reckoned from old Lady Day, which falls on the 6th of April.]

Blessed be God, at the end of the last year I was in very good health, without any sense of my old pain, but upon taking of cold.

[Pepys was successfully cut for the stone on March 26th, 1658. See

March 26th below. Although not suffering from this cause again

until the end of his life, there are frequent references in the

Diary to pain whenever he caught cold. In a letter from Pepys to

his nephew Jackson, April 8th, 1700, there is a reference to the

breaking out three years before his death of the wound caused by the

cutting for the stone: “It has been my calamity for much the

greatest part of this time to have been kept bedrid, under an evil

so rarely known as to have had it matter of universal surprise and

with little less general opinion of its dangerousness; namely, that

the cicatrice of a wound occasioned upon my cutting for the stone,

without hearing anything of it in all this time, should after more

than 40 years’ perfect cure, break out again.” At the post-mortem

examination a nest of seven stones, weighing four and a half ounces,

was found in the left kidney, which was entirely ulcerated.]

I lived in Axe Yard,

[Pepys’s house was on the south side of King Street, Westminster;

it is singular that when he removed to a residence in the city, he

should have settled close to another Axe Yard. Fludyer Street

stands on the site of Axe Yard, which derived its name from a great

messuage or brewhouse on the west side of King Street, called “The

Axe,” and referred to in a document of the 23rd of Henry VIII—B.]

having my wife, and servant Jane, and no more in family than us three. My wife … gave me hopes of her being with child, but on the last day of the year. … [the hope was belied.]

[Ed. note: … are used to denote censored passages]

The condition of the State was thus; viz. the Rump, after being disturbed by my Lord Lambert,

[John Lambert, major-general in the Parliamentary army. The title

Lord was not his by right, but it was frequently given to the

republican officers. He was born in 1619, at Calton Hall, in the

parish of Kirkby-in-Malham-Dale, in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

In 1642 he was appointed captain of horse under Fairfax, and acted

as major-general to Cromwell in 1650 during the war in Scotland.

After this Parliament conferred on him a grant of lands in Scotland

worth £1000 per annum. He refused to take the oath of allegiance to

Cromwell, for which the Protector deprived him of his commission.

After Cromwell’s death he tried to set up a military government.

The Commons cashiered Lambert, Desborough, and other officers,

October 12th, 1659, but Lambert retaliated by thrusting out the

Commons, and set out to meet Monk. His men fell away from him, and

he was sent to the Tower, March 3rd, 1660, but escaped. In 1662 he

was tried on a charge of high treason and condemned, but his life

was spared. It is generally stated that he passed the remainder of

his life in the island of Guernsey, but this is proved to be

incorrect by a MS. in the Plymouth Athenaeum, entitled “Plimmouth

Memoirs collected by James Yonge, 1684” This will be seen from the

following extracts quoted by Mr. R. J. King, in “Notes and Queries,”

“1667 Lambert the arch-rebel brought to this island [St. Nicholas,

at the entrance of Plymouth harbour].” “1683 Easter day Lambert

that olde rebell dyed this winter on Plimmouth Island where he had

been prisoner 15 years and more.”]

was lately returned to sit again. The officers of the Army all forced to yield. Lawson

[Sir John Lawson, the son of a poor man at Hull, entered the navy as

a common sailor, rose to the rank of admiral, and distinguished

himself during the Protectorate. Though a republican, he readily

closed with the design of restoring the King. He was vice-admiral

under the Earl of Sandwich, and commanded the “London” in the

squadron which conveyed Charles II. to England. He was mortally

wounded in the action with the Dutch off Harwich, June, 1665. He

must not be confounded with another John Lawson, the Royalist, of

Brough Hall, in Yorkshire, who was created a Baronet by Charles II,

July 6th, 1665.]

lies still in the river, and Monk—[George Monk, born 1608, created Duke of Albemarle, 1660, married Ann Clarges, March, 1654, died January 3rd, 1676.]—is with his army in Scotland. Only my Lord Lambert is not yet come into the Parliament, nor is it expected that he will without being forced to it. The new Common Council of the City do speak very high; and had sent to Monk their sword-bearer, to acquaint him with their desires for a free and full Parliament, which is at present the desires, and the hopes, and expectation of all. Twenty-two of the old secluded members

[“The City sent and invited him [Monk] to dine the next day at

Guildhall, and there he declared for the members whom the army had

forced away in year forty-seven and forty-eight, who were known by

the names of secluded members.”—Burnet’s Hist. of his Own Time,

book i.]

having been at the House-door the last week to demand entrance, but it was denied them; and it is believed that [neither] they nor the people will be satisfied till the House be filled. My own private condition very handsome, and esteemed rich, but indeed very poor; besides my goods of my house, and my office, which at present is somewhat uncertain. Mr. Downing master of my office.

[George Downing was one of the Four Tellers of the Receipt of the

Exchequer, and in his office Pepys was a clerk. He was the son of

Emmanuel Downing of the Inner Temple, afterwards of Salem,

Massachusetts, and of Lucy, sister of Governor John Winthrop. He is

supposed to have been born in August, 1623. He and his parents went