Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self

by Claire Tomalin

  38. Diary, 9 Feb. 1666, 14 Nov. 1666, 12 Feb. 1668.

  39. John Evelyn, 16 Jan. 1679, The Diary of John Evelyn, ed. E. S. de Beer (1955), and Pepys to John Evelyn, 13 Nov. 1690, The Correspondence of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, ed. G. de la Bédoyère.

  40. There are several portraits of Sarah Houblon. The one with the best provenance has been passed down through the family and was reproduced in Lady Alice Archer Houblon’s The Houblon Family, where it was attributed to Mary Beale; but recently it has been thought to be by William Wissing. Another, attributed to Peter Lely, shows her in a pose and with a nose very like Lady Castlemaine’s; it is currently displayed at Cannon Hall Museum, Barnsley, which acquired it from a private owner in 1956. I have seen a photograph of a third, head and shoulders only, sold through Sotheby’s in 1931 and filed under Lely at the Witt Library, which shows a handsome face with a Roman nose and the same jewellery as in the Cannon Hall portrait. All three give her dark curls and dark eyes, and the second and third show her richly and fashionably dressed and jewelled, with pearl necklace and large matching drop earrings.

  41. A draft letter in Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MSS, A 180, fol. 244.

  42. For the singing, letter from Cesare Morelli to Pepys, 4 Apr. 1681, Letters and Second Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. R. G. Howarth, p. 112. Pepys to James Houblon, 19 Oct. 1683, Letters and Second Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. R. G. Howarth, p. 161 (Pepys is writing from abroad).

  43. For the instinctive feelings of a new Houblon baby for Pepys, Sarah Houblon to Pepys, 3 Dec. 1683, ibid., p. 163.

  44. 30 Nov. 1683, ibid., p. 435.

  45. Pepys first met Lady Mordaunt in 1666 (Diary, 11 Dec. 1666) at his cousin Jane Turner’s, describing her as ‘a most homely widow, but young and pretty rich and good-natured’. He met her again with Jane Turner in Feb. and Mar. 1667, the second time with her sister.

  46. Evidence for the flirting is found in a letter from Thomas Hill, Pepys’s friend whom he had known since January 1664, who wrote from Lisbon, 14 Apr. 1673, teasing Pepys about Lady Mordaunt and Mrs Steward: ‘they are desperately in Love with you, and sigh out their Passions so charmingly… Your enjoyments in their Conversation, can no where else be found; theirs is so great, when you entertain them, that they all acknowledge your Humour the best in the whole world.’ Letters and Second Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. R. G. Howarth, pp. 41–3.

  47. Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MSS, A 174, fols. 437–9, dated 15 June 1670.

  48. See Bryant’s account, The Years of Peril, pp. 65–6. Andrew Marvell called Charles’s action ‘Robbery at the Exchequer’.

  49. Pepys had dined with Ashley Cooper at his house in the Strand, 23 Sept. 1667, and expressed admiration of his great abilities, displayed for instance at the Tangier Committee, several times in the Diary, for example, 15 and 27 May 1663, 16 Jan. 1665. Shaftesbury’s belief that Pepys was a Catholic, which first surfaced in the election at Castle Rising in November 1673, was partly based at least on his having seen something like a crucifix at Pepys’s house, i.e., at Seething Lane.

  50. Pepys to duke of York, 17 June 1669, 18 Feb. 1671, Further Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, ed. J. R. Tanner, pp. 239, 268–9.

  51. See note by John Evelyn, 16 May 1672, given in F. R. Harris, The Life of the First Earl of Sandwich (1912), vol. II, p. 248: ‘Going to Whitehall to take leave of his lordship, who had his lodgings in the Privy Garden, shaking me by the hand he bid me good-bye, and said he thought he should see me no more, and I saw to my thinking something boding in his countenance. “No,” says he, “they will not have me live. Had I lost a fleet I should have fared better; but be as it pleases God, I must do something I know not what, to save my reputation.”’ See also Pepys’s account of Lord Clarendon’s (Henry, the second earl) description of a meeting with Sandwich ‘just before his last going to Sea; when their discourse turning upon the preparations for that Summers Campaign and what was to be expected from it, his Lordship then walking with his hands upon the Shoulder of Charles Harbord and the other upon Cotterells (for his greater Ease being then grown somewhat Goutish and otherwise unwieldy) told the company by way of reflexion upon the then management of our Sea Affairs that though he was then Vice Admiral of England and Admiral of the narrow Seas, yet he knew no more of what was to be done that summer than any of them, or any other that knew nothing of it; this only I know that I will die and these two Boys [meaning Harbord and Cotterel] will die with me. Accordingly they did most honourably.’ Pepys wrote this down in 1694; it appears as No. 138 among his naval papers, and a copy is attached to vol. X of the Sandwich Papers in the National Maritime Museum.

  52. Various accounts of the death of Lord Sandwich are found in letters in the Calendar of State Papers for May and June 1672; in John Charnock’s Biographia Navalis (1794–8), vol. I, pp. 42, 230; in John Campbell, Naval History of Great Britain including History and Lives of the British Admirals (1818), vol. II, pp. 295–6; in F. R. Harris, The Life of the First Earl of Sandwich, vol. II, pp. 265–78 (Harris cites various other sources); and in Richard Ollard, Cromwell’s Earl: A Life of Edward Montagu, First Earl of Sandwich (1994), pp. 256–62. I am grateful to Dr Charles Knighton for help here.

  53. Pepys to Balthasar St Michel, 22 June 1672, Further Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, ed. J. R. Tanner, p. 271, for both the five days spent with the fleet and the application to the duke on behalf of Baity.

  54. A stone on the north side of the chapel marks the place.

  55. Anne Montagu was married 5 Jan. 1671, aged seventeen.

  56. The words of the will are given by F. R. Harris, The Life of the First Earl of Sandwich, vol. II, p. 288.

  57. Lucy Hutchinson (1620–?) and Anne Fanshawe (1625–80) both wrote memoirs, officially of their husbands but containing much information about themselves. Anne Fanshawe’s husband Richard preceded Lord Sandwich as ambassador to Spain, and unlike Lady Sandwich she accompanied him there.

  58. Pepys’s Tangier Diary, 22 Aug. 1683, The Tangier Papers of Samuel Pepys, ed. and transcriber Edwin Chappell (1935). Lady Sandwich died at Cotehele, the Edgcumbes’ beautiful old manor house, on 17 July 1674; she is buried at Calstock. Cotehele is now open through the National Trust.

  59. PRO, ADM 106/2887, unnumbered pages, but dated 30 Jan. 1672/3.

  21. Public and Private Life

  1. Arthur Bryant gives Sarah Houblon’s remark in Samuel Pepys: The Years of Peril (1935), P. 91. The lodgings were in Winchester Street. The Navy Office went first briefly to Trinity House in Water Lane, then on 24 Feb. to a house belonging to a merchant family, the Blaynings, in Mark Lane. PRO, Navy Board minute book, ADM 106/2887, which gives dates and times of meetings and initials of officers present. The volume of work recorded is impressive: questions and demands from shipyards and ships, instructions from the duke of York, letters from suppliers, etc.

  2. Buckingham Street and some of the houses, including Hewer’s No. 12, which has a plaque, are still there. So is the water gate, high and dry since the river was embanked, spoiling the charm of the area. Information from John Stow, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster… And the Survey and History Brought Down from the Year 1633 to the Present Time by John Strype (1720), Book VI, p. 76, and N.G. Brett-James, The Growth of Stuart London (1935), p. 328, who says the architect of York Buildings was Barbon, son of the Praisegod Barebones who preached in Fleet Street in Pepys’s boyhood and later gave his name to one of Cromwell’s parliaments. Hewer’s house, now a language school, is six windows across and five storeys high plus basements, with a yard at the back in which stands a fine decorated water tank with his initials W.H. on it, and the date 1710 (five years before his death). The house also has the splendid original banisters and staircase.

  3. For Hewer’s shipbuilding activities in 1674, see Bernard Pool, Navy Board Contracts (1966), p. 14.

  4. Coventry to Pepys, 25 June 1674, letter cited in Letters and the Second Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. R. G. Howarth (1932), p. 43.

  5. He wrote to Coventry
to say as much on 20 Aug. 1673, letter printed in Further Correspondence of Samuel Pepys 1662–1679, ed. J. R. Tanner (1929), p. 272. See also B. McL. Ranft, ‘The Significance of the Political Career of Samuel Pepys’, Journal of Modern History, vol. 24 (1952), pp. 368–75. Ranft believes the letter was to Savile rather than to Coventry.

  6. Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MSS, A 172, fols. 141–6.

  7. For parliamentary debates, A. Grey, Debates of the House of Commons (1769), vol. II, pp. 304–428.

  8. Among several references in the Diary, Pepys called him, on 15 May 1663, ‘ a man of great business and yet of pleasure and drolling too’. Later Pepys wrote of his taking a bribe, but this is unsubstantiated and very unlikely to be true, if only because Shaftesbury was too rich to bother with the sort of bribes Pepys himself found attractive.

  9. The letter, dated 15 Feb. 1674, is in the Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MSS, A 172, fol. 135, also quoted in full by Arthur Bryant, Samuel Pepys: The Years of Peril, p. 114.

  10. Balthasar St Michel to Pepys, 8 Feb. 1674, letter printed in Letters and Second Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. R. G. Howarth, p. 44, and The Letters of Samuel Pepys and His Family Circle, ed. H. T. Heath (1955), p. 25.

  11. Obviously, he also lied about the church attendance and never having been present at a mass, as almost anyone under that degree of pressure would. It was not the real issue, and no one pressed him on it, but there may have been those who knew he was lying, which would not have helped his case.

  12. Bishop Burnet in his History of My Own Time (1818), vol. I, p. 103.

  13. The friend, whom Pepys met through the Houblons, was Thomas Hill. Pepys to Hill, 21 Nov. 1674, printed in Letters and Second Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. R. G. Howarth, pp. 48–9. Pepys wrote defiantly ‘nothing which has yet or may further happen towards the rendering me more conspicuous in the world, has led or can ever lead to the admitting any alteration in the little methods of my private way of living’.

  14. Anchitel Grey, Debates of the House of Commons, vol. IV, pp. 115–18, and summary in Arthur Bryant, Samuel Pepys: The Years of Peril, p. 162.

  15. For remark about speaking more like an admiral, Anchitel Grey, Debates of the House of Commons, vol. V, p. 388, and Arthur Bryant, Samuel Pepys: The Years of Peril, p. 167, footnote.

  16. 21 Aug. 1674, The Diary of John Evelyn, ed. E. S. de Beer (1955).

  17. In 1693, however, his one-time clerk Richard Gibson put in a memo on the state of the navy to William III in which he asked that ‘the employment of lieutenants in your ships be vacated’, i.e., abolished, in favour of a right of succession ‘from a midshipman by seniority to the master’s mate and master. This will encourage all chief officers and masters of merchant ships to come voluntarily into your sea-service.’ A copy of Gibson’s paper, which covered the question of gentlemen officers versus ‘tarpaulins’, the appointment of commissioners, the keeping and checking of ships’ journals, treatment of sick and wounded, victualling, etc., was given to Pepys in 1696; by then he was out of office and does not appear to have commented. Gibson’s proposal to abolish lieutenants was not adopted.

  18. Ε. H. Pearce, Annals of Christ’s Hospital (1908), p. 104. Also Pepys to Sir John Frederick, president of Christ’s Hospital, 31 Dec. 1675, about his memo on scheme for apprenticing maths department boys, approved by order in council, 12 Nov. 1675, given in Further Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, ed. J. R. Tanner, p. 286. Also The Diary of Robert Hooke, 1672–1680, eds. H. W. Robinson and W. Adams (1935), 11 July, 28 Aug. 1676. Later Pepys applied to Newton for a recommendation: see Chapter 26.

  19. 19 Dec. 1676, The Diary of Robert Hooke, eds. H. W. Robinson and W. Adams.

  20. Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MSS, A 185, fols. 114, 116.

  21. Pepys to Dr Burton, 9 Apr. 1677, Letters and Second Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. R. G. Howarth, pp. 66–7.

  22. For Pepys’s behaviour towards Povey with regard to this agreement, see Chapter 9.

  23. Pepys to Sir Denis Gauden, 31 July 1677, Further Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, ed. J. R. Tanner, pp. 302–3. For Hewer acquiring lease of Clapham house, see Will Hewer’s letter of 14 Nov. 1678, British Library, Egerton MSS, 928, fol. 229, saying he has lease of Sir Denis Gauden’s house, at a yearly rent, and for the goods and chattels, etc., all of which were in possession of the Sheriff upon a judgement by one Pilkington and others, to whom Gauden was indebted.

  24. Reference from Bernard Pool, Navy Board Contracts, p. 14, citing National Maritime Museum, Sergison (4), Navy Board, 5 Sept. 1677.

  25. Morelli’s composition of ‘new Psalms’ when John died and the mournful singing with Pepys come in the testimony of his butler John James, given to the parliamentary committee that accused Pepys of Catholicism. James’s testimony contains lies, but there is no need to doubt this particular information. Pepys Library, Mornamont MSS, vol. II, pp. 1,181–7.

  26. Pepys to his father, 20 June 1677, printed in The Letters of Samuel Pepys and His Family Circle, ed. H. T. Heath, pp. 51–4, and other family letters in Heath.

  27. Pepys’s paper, ‘The Present 111 State of My Health’, is in the Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MSS A 185, fols. 206–13, and was first printed by Arthur Bryant as an appendix to Samuel Pepys: The Years of Peril, pp. 405–13. For Shaftesbury’s operation and health, Kenneth H. D. Haley, The First Earl of Shaftesbury (1968), pp. 204–5.

  28. Woodhall Mansion, an Elizabethan building standing north of Hatfield House, was pulled down shortly after the first marquess of Salisbury bought the whole estate from Revd Julius Hutchinson, grandson of Mary Skinner’s foster-sister Isabel, in 1792. The Elizabethan doorway was re-erected as a landscape feature by a lake in the park of Hatfield House, where it can still be seen, although now much eroded. Some wrought-iron gates displaying Sir Francis Boteler’s initials were also moved to Hatfield’s East Garden, where they can also be seen. A cottage dating from the same period as the Woodhall Mansion remains, but some of the land is now covered by the southern districts of Welwyn Garden City. The handsome tombstones of Sir Francis and Dame Elizabeth Boteler in St Etheldreda’s Church are unfortunately hidden by a carpet.

  29. Sir Francis’s first wife died in 1644, which means his daughters were a good ten years older than Mary. Mary’s will of 1714 names Julia Shallcross (née Boteler) as ‘my dearly beloved friend’ and leaves her two ‘Indian perfuming Bottles’ and ten pounds for mourning.

  30. Anne Fanshawe’s memoirs for their visit to the Botelers at Woodhall in 1663. Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe (1829), p. 176.

  31. Biographical information about Boteler from The History of Parliament’s first volume, House of Commons 1660–1690, ed. Basil Duke Henning (1983), pp. 691–2. I am grateful to Robin Harcourt Williams, archivist at Hatfield House, for drawing my attention to this. As a younger son, Boteler initially had a struggle. He enlisted to fight in Ireland under Strafford, was knighted by Charles I at York in 1642, and in 1649 owned nothing but his horse and clothes. He inherited the estate after this.

  32. Will of Dame Elizabeth Boteler, dated 14 Jan. 1681, in Hertfordshire County Record Office.

  33. Frances Skinner’s affection for Mary is shown in her will of 1702, made at the home of her daughter Frances (Lady Buck), in which Mary and Frances are called ‘well beloved’ and made executrices. Seven of the Skinner children’s baptisms were registered at St Olave’s. The missing two, Daniel and Mary, are clearly the eldest. Obrian is given as Briant in the register, but both his mother’s will and Pepys’s reference give Obrian.

  34. Daniel Skinner Jr to Pepys, letter received 5 July 1676, Latin text in Letters andSecond Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. R. G. Howarth, pp. 53–5. I am indebted to Nicholas Monck for the English translation. For the marriage of Frances Skinner, see entry for Buck of Hanby Grange in Burke’s Extinct Baronetage, also the wills of her mother (PRO, PROB 11 467) and Mary Skinner (PRO, PROB 11 548).

  35. The examples are taken from letters taken down by Mary Skinner from Pepys’s dictation in 1699, reproduced verbatim by J. R. Tann
er in his Private Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of Samuel Pepys 1679–1703 (1926).

  36. Samuel Pepys and the Second Dutch War, ed. Robert Latham, transcribed by Charles Knighton and by William Matthews (1995), p. 433: ‘ so as I plainly told his Majesty, my work must be to get a son and bring him up only to understand this controversy between Brooke House and us, and that his Majesty too should provide for successors to be instructed on his part in the state of this case, which otherwise would never likely be understood’.

  37. Letter from Daniel Skinner Jr. to Pepys, op. cit.

  38. 15 Dec. 1676, Diary of Robert Hooke, eds. H. W. Robinson and W. Adams. Pepys’s concern for Mary’s illness in Mar. 1679 is discussed in the next chapter.

  39. For example, Pepys to Mrs Skinner, 24 Oct. 1680, Letters and Second Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. R. G. Howarth, p. 89.

  40. Note in Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MSS, C 859, fol. 56, ‘ Sir Fr. Boteler’, probably about 1678. Entry in Pepys Library, Mornamont MSS, 21 Mar. 1680, vol. II, p. 1,228, ‘ to Covent Garden church, thence to Sir Francis Butler’s, so to the Parks’.

  41. Daniel Skinner Snr’s name is among the signatories of the certificate of regular attendance by ‘Mr Pepys and his whole family’ at St Olave’s provided by the Revd Mills on 22 May 1681. Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MSS, A 194, fols. 248V.–50.

  22. Plots

  1. It has been generally assumed that Daniel and Mary Skinner were related to Milton’s old friend Cyriack Skinner, and that this led to Daniel becoming Milton’s amanuensis. However, William Riley Parker’s 1968 biography of Milton, revised by Gordon Campbell in 1996, says that, although a connection is possible, ‘I have found no proof that Cyriack Skinner was a relative [of Daniel Skinner]’ (p. 1,130). Cyriack’s mother, Bridget, was a daughter of Sir Edward Coke; his father was William Skinner (1594–1627) of Thornton Curtis in Lincolnshire, son of Sir Vincent Skinner, who died in London 1616. Cyriack had a brother Edward who died 1657, leaving a son Edward, and a brother William, born 1626. None of these connect with Daniel Skinner, who came from Essex; and Skinner is a common name. Daniel’s account of his academic career is found in his letter to Pepys, undated but received 5 July 1676, in which he says he spent seven years at Westminster and then six at Cambridge.