The Diary by Samuel Pepys (children's ebooks online TXT) 📕

was a neighbour of Pepys’s in Axe Yard, is mentioned again under date August 5th, 1660, when Pepys sat in his pew at St. Margaret’s, Westminster. ↩

Younger brother of Sir Gilbert Pickering, Bart, born 1618, and bred to the law; and in 1681 a resident in Lincoln’s Inn. He married Dorothy, one of the daughters of Sir John Weld of Arnolds, in Edmonton, Middlesex, and died in 1698, s.p.s.; his widow survived till December, 1707. Roger North (Life of Lord Keeper Guildford, 1742, p. 58) has drawn a very unfavourable picture of Edward Pickering, calling him a subtle fellow, a money-hunter, a great trifler, and avaricious, but withal a great pretender to Puritanism, frequenting the Rolls’ Chapel, and most busily writing the sermon in his hat, that he might not be seen. We learn from the same authority that Sir John Cutts of Childerley, having left his aunt, Mrs. Edward Pickering, an estate worth £300 per annum, for ninety-nine years, if she should so long live, her husband, who was the executor, erased from the will the words of reference to her life, with intention to possess himself of the property for the term, absolutely, which fraud being suspected, the question was tried in a court of law, and the jury without hesitation found Pickering the author of the erasure, before the publication of the will. —⁠B. ↩

Edward Montagu, eldest son of Edward, second Lord Montagu of Boughton, killed in the action in Bergen, 1665. ↩

This is the first mention in the Diary of Admiral (afterwards Sir William) Penn, with whom Pepys was subsequently so particularly intimate. At this time admirals were sometimes styled generals. William Penn was born at Bristol in 1621, of the ancient family of the Penns of Penn Lodge, Wilts. He was Captain at the age of twenty-one; Rear-Admiral of Ireland at twenty-three; Vice-Admiral of England and General in the first Dutch war, at thirty-two. He was subsequently M.P. for Weymouth, Governor of Kingsale, and Vice-Admiral of Munster. He was a highly successful commander, and in 1654 he obtained possession of Jamaica. He was appointed a Commissioner of the Navy in 1660, in which year he was knighted. After the Dutch fight in 1665, where he distinguished himself as second in command under the Duke of York, he took leave of the sea, but continued to act as a Commissioner for the Navy till 1669, when he retired to Wanstead, on account of his bodily infirmities, and dying there, September 16th, 1670, aged forty-nine, was buried in the church of St. Mary Redcliffe, in Bristol, where a monument to his memory was erected. ↩

Gray’s Thurrock, a market town on the Thames, in the county of Essex. ↩

Balthasar St. Michel, Mrs. Pepys’s brother. ↩

Reformado, “a broken or disbanded officer.” Boyer translates “Officier reformé, a reformado.” See Diary, October 1st, 1660. ↩

John Stokes, or Stoakes, was captain of the Royal James. He died at Portsmouth, February, 1664⁠–⁠65. ↩

Bardsey Isle, in Pwllheli district, Carnarvon. It lies at the northwest extremity of Cardigan Bay, and is famous for oysters, lobsters, and white fish. ↩

Probably Edward Pickering, see note 344. ↩

“A vessel of the galliot order, equipped with two masts, viz., the main and mizen masts, usually from 100 to 250 tons burden. Ketches were principally used as yachts for conveying great personages from one place to another.”

Smyth’s Sailor’s Word-Book, 1867

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The castles were Walmer, Sandgate, Sandwich, Deale, and Dover. ↩

“A sort of chamber or apartment in a large ship of war, just before the great cabin. The floor of it is formed by the aftmost part of the quarter deck, and the roof of it by the poop: it is generally the habitation of the flag-captain.”

Smyth’s Sailor’s Word-Book

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Charles, who succeeded his father as second Earl of Norwich. He had been banished eleven years before by the Parliament for heading an army, and keeping the town of Colchester for the use of the King. At his first coming he went to the Council of State, and had leave to remain in London, provided he did not disturb the peace of the nation. —⁠Rugge’s Diurnal —⁠B. ↩

The Hon. Robert Boyle, youngest son of Richard, first Earl of Cork. ↩

Probably a miswriting for Sir John Boys, the celebrated Royalist commander, who was released from Dover Castle on February 23rd, 1659⁠–⁠60, having been imprisoned for petitioning for a free parliament. ↩

“His Excellency had now dined at nine of the chief Halls; at every Hall there was after dinner a kind of stage-play, and many pretty conceits, and dancing and singing, and many shapes and ghosts, and the like, and all to please Lord Monk.”

Rugge’s Diurnal

—⁠B. ↩

The manner of the escape of John Lambert, out of the Tower, on the 11th inst., as related by Rugge:⁠—“That about eight of the clock at night he escaped by a rope tied fast to his window, by which he slid down, and in each hand he had a handkerchief; and six men were ready to receive him, who had a barge to hasten him away. She who made the bed, being privy to his escape, that night, to blind the warder when he came to lock the chamber-door, went to bed, and possessed Colonel Lambert’s place, and put on his nightcap. So, when the said warder came to lock the door, according to his usual manner, he found the curtains drawn, and conceiving it to be Colonel John Lambert, he said, ‘Good night, my Lord.’ To which a seeming voice replied, and prevented all further jealousies. The next morning, on coming