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

has been brought prominently forward lately in the war-rocket case. —⁠B. ↩

Apparently Thomas Wilson, who was appointed gunner in Upnor Castle, July, 1667, “in consideration of his good service in defence of the river at Chatham against the late attempt of the Dutch” (Calendar of State Papers, 1667, p. 322). ↩

“Pride, Lust, Ambition, and the People’s Hate,
The kingdom’s broker, ruin of the State,
Dunkirk’s sad loss, divider of the fleet,
Tangier’s compounder for a barren sheet:
This shrub of gentry, married to the crown,
His daughter to the heir, is tumbled down.”

Poems on State Affairs, vol. i, p. 253

—⁠B. ↩

The report was not true. The Lord High Constable at the coronation of Charles II in 1661 was Algernon, Earl of Northumberland. The next holder of this office was Henry, Duke of Grafton, who officiated at the coronation of James II in 1685. ↩

William Bodham was attached to Woolwich Ropeyard. ↩

Probably the following prognostications amused Pepys and his friends:

“The several lunations of this month do rather portend sea-fights, wars, etc., than give hopes of peace, particularly the several configurations do very much threaten Holland with a most strange and unusual loss at sea, if they shall dare to fight His Majesty’s forces. Still poor Poland is threatened either by the Muscovites or wandering Cossacks. Strange rumours dispersed in London, some vain people abuse His Majesty’s subjects with untruths and ill-grounded suggestions. Much division in London about building; perhaps that may occasion those vain and idle reports. Strange news out of Holland, as if all were in an uproar; we believe they are now in a sad and fearful condition.”

—⁠B. ↩

Evelyn (Diary, July 29th, 1667) says it was owing to Sir W. Coventry that no fleet was sent out in 1667:

“It is well known who of the Commissioners of the Treasury gave advice that the charge of setting forth a fleet this year might be spared. Sir W. C. (William Coventry) by name.”

↩

The Franakin was raised, and soon afterwards restored to its former state (Calendar of State Papers, 1667, pp. 401, 436). ↩

Caxton is a town in Cambridgeshire, nine and a half miles west of Cambridge. ↩

Richard Tyler. ↩

“June 17th. This day, Commissioner Pett, to whom was committed the care of the Yard at Chatham, with the afifairs of the Navy there, was committed close prisoner to the Tower, in order to his farther examination.”

The London Gazette, No. 166

“Warrants to [John] Bradley to seize [Peter] Pett, Commissioner at Chatham, and bring him to the Tower; and to the Lieutenant of the Tower to keep him close prisoner, for dangerous practices and misdemeanours.”

dated June 16th, Calendar of State Papers, 1667, p. 196

↩

Pett was made a scapegoat. This is confirmed by Marvel:

“After this loss, to relish discontent,
Some one must be accused by Parliament;
All our miscarriages on Pett must fall,
His name alone seems fit to answer all.
Whose counsel first did this mad war beget?
Who all commands sold through the Navy? Pett.
Who would not follow when the Dutch were beat?
Who treated out the time at Bergen? Pett.
Who the Dutch fleet with storms disabled met,
And, rifling prizes, them neglected? Pett.
Who with false news prevented the Gazette,
The fleet divided, writ for Rupert? Pett.
Who all our seamen cheated of their debt?
And all our prizes who did swallow? Pett.
Who did advise no navy out to set?
And who the forts left unprepared? Pett.
Who to supply with powder did forget
Languard, Sheerness, Gravesend, and Upnor? Pett.
Who all our ships exposed in Chatham net?
Who should it be but the fanatick Pett?
Pett, the sea-architect, in making ships,
Was the first cause of all these naval slips.
Had he not built, none of these faults had been;
If no creation, there had been no sin
But his great crime, one boat away he sent,
That lost our fleet, and did our flight prevent.”

Instructions to a Painter

—⁠B. ↩

Clerk of the Council. ↩

The warrant of the Earl of Sandwich, appointing John Hart captain of the Revenge, September 13th, 1665, is among the loose papers in Rawlinson, A. 289. —⁠B. ↩

This was the earliest notice of the air so named that Mr. Willaim Chappell had come across. He was unable to discover the original words (Popular Music of the Olden Time, p. 518). ↩

He died on June 20th at Richmond. ↩

The Third Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England Concerning High Treason and Other Pleas of the Crown and Criminal Cases, by Sir Edward Coke; London, 1644, folio. ↩

“I shall draw towards a conclusion of this section with a case of very recent memory and of singular notoriety throughout the whole kingdom. I mean that of the conflagration of our ships by the Dutch (June, 1667) not many years past in the river of Chatham. There prevailed at that time an universal jealousie among the people that upon this occasion some suddain stop might be put upon the Exchequer, and thereupon the Bankers were exercised with restless solicitations for the speedy payment of their debts. The king for the sedation of these fears and apprehensions is advised (and to the eternal honour of the persons who gave the advice I write it) to issue forthwith his declaration (see the Declaration at the end of this treatise), to preserve inviolate the course of payments in the Exchequer, which was accordingly done.”

The Case of the Bankers and their Creditors Stated and Examined; the third impression with additions amounting to a third part more than hath been at any time before printed, London, 1675, 8vo., pp. 105, 106

This curious little work, written to show the enormity