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

Grandison, born November, 1640, married April 14th, 1659, to Roger Palmer, created Earl of Castlemaine, 1661. She became the King’s mistress soon after the Restoration, and was in 1670 made Baroness Nonsuch, Countess of Southampton, and Duchess of Cleveland. She had six children by the King, one of them being created Duke of Grafton, and the eldest son succeeding her as Duke of Cleveland. She subsequently married Beau Fielding, whom she prosecuted for bigamy. She died October 9th, 1709, aged sixty-nine. Her life was written by G. Steinman Steinman, and privately printed 1871, with addenda 1874, and second addenda 1878. ↩

Major Tollhurst was an old friend of Pepys’s, and is mentioned again on January 9th, 1662⁠–⁠63. ↩

Payne Fisher, who styled himself Paganus Piscator, was born in 1616, in Dorsetshire, and removed from Hart Hall, Oxford, of which he had been a commoner, to Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1634, and there took a degree of B.A., and first discovered a turn for poetry. He was afterwards a captain in the King’s service at Marston Moor fight; but, leaving his command, employed his pen against the cause which he had supported with his sword, and became a favourite of Cromwell’s. After the King’s return, he obtained a scanty subsistence by flattering men in power, and was frequently imprisoned for debt. He borrowed from Pepys, see post 28th of this same month. He died, 1693, in the Fleet Prison (Harl. MS. 1460). He published several poems, chiefly in Latin and, in 1682, printed a book of Heraldry, with the arms of such of the gentry as he had waited upon with presentation copies. He was a man of talents, but vain, unsteady, and conceited, and a great timeserver. —⁠B. ↩

Jack Spicer, brother clerk of the Privy Seal. ↩

William Hewer, of whose family little more is known than that his father died of the plague, September 14th, 1665. He was first the clerk, and afterwards the faithful friend of Pepys, who died in his house at Clapham, previously the residence of Sir Dennis Gauden. He was appointed Deputy Judge Advocate of the Fleet in 1677, and Commissioner of the Navy in 1685, and elected M.P. for Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, in 1685. He was also Treasurer for Tangier. Mr. Hewer was buried in the old church at Clapham, where a large monument of marble, with his bust in alto-relievo, erected to his memory, was, on the rebuilding of the church, placed outside. ↩

The New Exchange on the south side of the Strand, built on the site of the stables of Durham House. The first stone was laid June 10th, 1608, and the new building was named by James I “Britain’s Burse.” It was a much frequented place after the Restoration, and the destruction of the Royal Exchange in the Great Fire caused it much prosperity for a time. It was taken down in 1737. ↩

The oath of allegiance was printed on July 2nd. ↩

Robert Barnwell. He died in 1662. See post, June 4th, 1662. ↩

Still retains the name New Street. ↩

As Earl of Sandwich. ↩

This is still railed off from St. James’s Park, and called the Enclosure. ↩

Sir William Morrice, born November 6th, 1602, at Exeter, Secretary of State from 1660 to 1668. He died December 12th, 1676. He was kinsman to General Monk. ↩

They were both clerks of the Privy Seal. ↩

My dining with Mr. Creed and seeing the Butlers ought to be placed in yesterday’s account, it being put here by mistake.

Pepys

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In the Journals this is stated to have taken place July 24th. ↩

The Gatehouse at Westminster was a prison. Perhaps they were friends of the keeper. ↩

Frances Butler, the beauty. ↩

The Earl of Manchester was chosen Speaker of the House of Lords, see ante, April 26th, 1660. ↩

August, 1661:

“This year the Fair, called St. James’s Fair, was kept the full appointed time, being a fortnight; but during that time many lewd and infamous persons were by his Majesty’s express command to the Lord Chamberlain, and his Lordship’s direction to Robert Nelson, Esq., committed to the House of Correction.”

Rugge’s Diurnal

St. James’s fair was held first in the open space near St. James’s Palace, and afterwards in St. James’s Market. It was prohibited by the Parliament in 1651, but revived at the Restoration. It was, however, finally suppressed before the close of the reign of Charles II. ↩

This is one of the earliest references to Pall Mall as an inhabited street, and also one of the earliest uses of the word clubbing. ↩

Half a piece was valued at 2s. 4½d., see ante, July 10th. ↩

Some clocks are still made with a small ball, or bullet, on an inclined plane, which turns every minute. The King’s clocks probably dropped bullets. Gainsborough the painter had a brother who was a dissenting minister at Henley-on-Thames, and possessed a strong genius for mechanics. He invented a clock of a very peculiar construction, which, after his death, was deposited in the British Museum. It told the hour by a little bell, and was kept in motion by a leaden bullet, which dropped from a spiral reservoir at the top of the clock, into a little ivory bucket. This was so contrived as to discharge it at the bottom, and by means of a counterweight was carried up to the top of the clock, where it received another bullet, which was discharged as the former. This seems to have been an attempt at the perpetual motion.

Gentleman’s Magazine, 1785, p.