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

During the Commonwealth organs were destroyed all over the country, and the following is the title of the Ordinances under which this destruction took place: “Two Ordinances of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, for the speedy demolishing of all organs, images, and all matters of superstitious monuments in all Cathedrals and Collegiate or Parish Churches and Chapels throughout the Kingdom of England and the dominion of Wales; the better to accomplish the blessed reformation so happily begun, and to remove all offences and things illegal in the worship of God. Dated May 9th, 1644.” When at the period of the Restoration music again obtained its proper place in the services of the Church, there was much work for the organ builders. According to Dr. Rimbault (Hopkins on the Organ, 1855, p. 74), it was more than fifty years after the Restoration when our parish churches began commonly to be supplied with organs. Drake says, in his Eboracum (published in 1733), that at that date only one parish church in the city of York possessed an organ. Bernard Schmidt, better known as “Father Smith,” came to England from Germany at the time of the Restoration, and he it was who built the organ at the Chapel Royal. He was in high favour with Charles II, who allowed, him apartments in Whitehall Palace. ↩

Henry King, Dean of Rochester, advanced to the See of Chichester, February, 1641⁠–⁠42. Died September 30th, 1669, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. ↩

Salisbury, portrait painter, not mentioned by Walpole. ↩

The Grace which passed the University, on this occasion, is preserved in Kennett’s Chronicle, and commenced as follows:

“Cum Sam. Pepys, Coll. Magd. Inceptor in Artibus in Regiâ Classe existat e Secretis, exindeq. apud mare adeo occupatissimus ut Comitiis proximè futuris interesse non possit; placet vobis ut dictus S. P. admissionem suam necnon creationem recipiat ad gradum Magistri in Artibus sub personâ Timothei Wellfit, Inceptoris, etc. etc.⁠—June 26, 1660.”

See post, August 14th, 1660. —⁠B. ↩

Goring House in St. James’s Park, the town residence of George, Lord Goring, Earl of Norwich. It occupied the site of Buckingham House, afterwards Buckingham Palace. Goring House was burnt in 1674, at which time the Earl of Arlington was living there. ↩

That would be £1 13s. 3d. The rate at which the Mexico or Seville piece of eight was to be received was 4s. 9d. ↩

The motive for Sir Edward Montagu’s so suddenly altering his intended title is not explained; probably, the change was adopted as a compliment to the town of Sandwich, off which the Fleet was lying before it sailed to bring Charles from Scheveling. Montagu had also received marked attentions from Sir John Boys and other principal men at Sandwich; and it may be recollected, as an additional reason, that one or both of the seats for that borough have usually been placed at the disposal of the Admiralty. The title of Portsmouth was given, in 1673, for her life, to the celebrated Louise de Querouaille, and becoming extinct with her, was, in 1743, conferred upon John Wallop, Viscount Lymington, the ancestor of the present Earl of Portsmouth. —⁠B. ↩

Pepys was a frequent visitor to the Dolphin, which was conveniently situated in Tower Street. There is a farthing token of this tavern which is dated 1650 (see Boyne’s Trade Tokens, ed. Williamson, vol. i, 1889, p. 779). ↩

Sir John Berkeley, son of Sir Maurice Berkeley of Bruton, co. Somerset, knighted at Berwick in 1637⁠–⁠8. He was distinguished as a royalist officer in the Civil Wars, and created Baron Berkeley of Stratton in 1658 by letters patent dated at Brussels. At the Restoration he was appointed an Extra Commissioner of the Navy, which office he held until December, 1664; sworn in the Privy Council in 1663, and appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1670. He went as ambassador to France in 1674. He built, in 1665, a mansion in Piccadilly, at a cost of £30,000, called Berkeley House, which was destroyed by fire in 1733, when in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, and Devonshire House now occupies its site. He died in 1678. ↩

Willoughby’s name does not occur in the list of Naval Commissioners, 1660⁠–⁠1760, by Sir George Jackson, privately printed by Sir G. F. Duckett in 1889. ↩

The Six Clerks’ Office was in Chancery Lane, near the Holborn end. The business of the office was to enrol commissions, pardons, patents, warrants, etc., that had passed the Great Seal; also other business in Chancery. “In the early history of the Court of Chancery, the Six Clerks and their under-clerks appear to have acted as the attorneys of the suitors. As business increased, these under-clerks became a distinct body, and were recognized by the court under the denomination of ‘sworn clerks,’ or ‘clerks in court.’ The advance of commerce, with its consequent accession of wealth, so multiplied the subjects requiring the judgment of a Court of Equity, that the limits of a public office were found wholly inadequate to supply a sufficient number of officers to conduct the business of the suitors. Hence originated the ‘Solicitors’ of the Court of Chancery.” See Smith’s Chancery Practice, p. 62, 3rd edit. The “Six Clerks” were abolished by act of Parliament, 5 Vict. c. 5. ↩

Edward, second Lord Montagu of Boughton. He died 1683. ↩

The Earls of Worcester had a large house in the Strand between Durham Place and the Savoy, the site of which is now marked by Beaufort Buildings, which Lord Clarendon rented while his own mansion was building. ↩

Barbara Villiers, only child of William, second Viscount