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The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1660 Particulars on the Life of Samuel Pepys · The Samuel Pepys Library

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Speaker 1: Particulars of the life of Samuel PEAPs. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by Nicol Lee. The Darria of Samuel PEAPs sixteen
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Speaker 1: sixty by Samuel PEAPs, Particulars of the life of Samuel PEAPs.
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Speaker 1: The family of Peeps is one of considerable antiquity in
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Speaker 1: the East of England, and the Honorable Walter Courtney Peeps
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Speaker 1: says that the first mention of the name that he
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Speaker 1: has been able to find is in the hundred Rolls
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Speaker 1: and with the first twelve seventy three, where Richard Peaks
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Speaker 1: and John Peeps are registered as holding lands in the
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Speaker 1: County of Cambridge. In the next century, the name of
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Speaker 1: William PEAPs is found in deeds relating to Lance in
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Speaker 1: the Parish of Cottenham, County Cambridge, dated thirteen twenty nine
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Speaker 1: and thirteen forty respectively, Coural Manuscript's British Museum. According to
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Speaker 1: the court roll of the Manor of Pelhams in the
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Speaker 1: Parish of Cottenham, Thomas PEAPs was bailiff of the Abbot
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Speaker 1: of Crowlan in fourteen thirty four, but in spite of
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Speaker 1: the use references as well as others to persons of
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Speaker 1: the same name at Braintree, Essex, Deepdale, Norfolk, et cetera.
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Speaker 1: The first ancestor of the existing branches of the family,
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Speaker 1: from whom mister Walter PEAPs is able to trace an
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Speaker 1: undoubted descent, is William Peeps, the elder of Cottenham, Cambridge,
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Speaker 1: whose will is dated twentieth March fifteen ninety. In eighteen
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Speaker 1: fifty two, a curious manuscript volume bound in vellum and
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Speaker 1: entitled Liber talbotie Peeps des instrumentius at faouda pertinentibus exemplificats,
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Speaker 1: was discovered in an old chest in the parish church
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Speaker 1: of Bolney, Sussex, by the vicar of the Reverend John Dale,
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Speaker 1: who delivered it to Henry Peeps, Bishop of Bucester, and
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Speaker 1: the book is still in the possession of the family.
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Speaker 1: This volume contains various genealogical interests, and among them are
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Speaker 1: references to the Thomas PEAPs of fourteen thirty four mentioned above,
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Speaker 1: and to the later William Peeps. The reference to the
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Speaker 1: latter runs thus a note written out of an old
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Speaker 1: book of my uncle William Peeps William Peeps, who died
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Speaker 1: at Cottenham, was brought up by the Abbot of Crowland
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Speaker 1: in Huntingdonshire, and he was born in Dunbar in Scotland,
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Speaker 1: a gentleman, whom the said Abbot did make his bailiff
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Speaker 1: of all his lands in Cambridgeshire, and placed him in Cottenham,
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Speaker 1: which William aforesaid had three sons, Thomas, John and William,
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Speaker 1: to whom Margaret was mother, naturally, all of whom left issue.
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Speaker 1: In illustration of this entry, we may refer to the
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Speaker 1: Diary of June twelfth, sixteen sixty seven, where it is
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Speaker 1: written that Roger PEAPs told Samuel that we did certainly
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Speaker 1: come out of Scotland with the Abbot of Crowlan. The
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Speaker 1: references to various members of the family settled in Cottenham
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Speaker 1: and elsewhere at an early date already alluded to, seemed
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Speaker 1: to show that there little foundation for this very positive
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Speaker 1: statement with regard to the standing of the family. Mister
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Speaker 1: Walter Peaps's rights the first of the name in twelve
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Speaker 1: seventy three were evidently but small copy holders. Within one
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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty years fourteen twenty three or four of
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Speaker 1: the name had entered the priesthood, and others had become
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Speaker 1: connected with the Monastery of Croyland as bailiff's et cetera.
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Speaker 1: In two hundred and fifty years fifteen twenty, there were
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Speaker 1: certainly two families, one at Cottenham, Cambridge and another at Braintree, Essex,
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Speaker 1: in comfortable circumstances as yeoman farmers. Within fifty years more,
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Speaker 1: fifteen sixty three, one of the family, Thomas of South Creek, Norfolk,
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Speaker 1: had entered the ranks of the gentry sufficiently to have
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Speaker 1: his coat of arms recognized by the Herald Cook, who
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Speaker 1: conducted the visitation of Norfolk in that year. From that
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Speaker 1: date the majority of the family have been in good circumstances,
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Speaker 1: with perhaps more than the average of its members taking
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Speaker 1: up public positions. There is a very general notion that
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Speaker 1: Samuel Peeps was of Plebeian birth, because his father followed
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Speaker 1: the trade of a tailor, and his own remark, but
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Speaker 1: I believe indeed our family were never considerable February tenth,
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Speaker 1: sixteen sixty one sixty two has been brought forward in
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Speaker 1: corroboration of this view, But nothing can possibly be more erroneous,
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Speaker 1: and there can be no doubt that the diarist is
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Speaker 1: really proud of his descent. This may be seen from
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Speaker 1: the inscription on one of his book plates, where he
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Speaker 1: stated to be Samuel Peeps of Brampton in Huntingdonshire, Esquire
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Speaker 1: Secretary of the Admirals to his master, King Charles the
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Speaker 1: second descended from the ancient family of Peeps of Cottenham
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Speaker 1: in Cambridgeshire. Many members of the family have greatly distinguished
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Speaker 1: themselves since the direst day, and of them, mister Foss
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Speaker 1: wrote Judges of England, Volume six. In the Family of
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Speaker 1: Peeps is illustrated every gradation of legal rank, from reader
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Speaker 1: of an inn of Court to Lord High Chancellor of England.
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Speaker 1: The William Peeps of Cottenham, who commences the pedigree, had
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Speaker 1: three sons and three daughters. From the eldest son, Thomas,
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Speaker 1: descended the first Norfolk branch. From the second son, John
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Speaker 1: Peeps of South Creek descended the second Norfolk branch, and
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Speaker 1: from the third son, William descended the Impington branch. The
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Speaker 1: latter William had four sons and two daughters. Two of
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Speaker 1: these sons from named Thomas, and as they were both
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Speaker 1: living at the same time, one was distinguished as the
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Speaker 1: Black and the other as the Red Thomas the Red
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Speaker 1: had four sons and four daughters. John born sixteen o
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Speaker 1: one was the third son, and he became the father
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Speaker 1: of Samuel the Diarist. Little is known of John Peeps,
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Speaker 1: but we learn when the opens that he was settled
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Speaker 1: in London as a tailor. He does not appear to
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Speaker 1: have been a successful man, and his son on August
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Speaker 1: twenty sixth, sixteen sixty one, found that there was only
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Speaker 1: forty five pounds owing to him, and that he owed
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Speaker 1: about the same sum. He was a citizen of London
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Speaker 1: in sixteen fifty when his son Samuel was admitted to
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Speaker 1: Maudlin College, but at an earlier period he appears to
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Speaker 1: have had business relations with Holland. In August sixteen sixty one,
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Speaker 1: John Peeps retired to a small property at Brampton, worth
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Speaker 1: about eighty pounds per annum, which had been left to
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Speaker 1: him by his eldest brother, Robert Peeps, where he died
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Speaker 1: in sixteen eighty. The following is a copy of John
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Speaker 1: Peeps's will, my father's will endorsement by Samuel Peeps. Mymorandum
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Speaker 1: that I John Peeps of Ellington in the County of Huntingdon,
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Speaker 1: Gentlemen do declare my mind in the disposal of my
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Speaker 1: worldly goods, as followeth. First, I desire that my lands
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Speaker 1: and goods left me by my brother Robert Peeps deceased,
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Speaker 1: be delivered up to my eldest son, Samuel PEAPs of London,
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Speaker 1: as quire according as is expressed in the last will
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Speaker 1: of my brother Robert aforesaid. Secondly, as for what goods
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Speaker 1: I have brought from London or procured since, and what
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Speaker 1: money so I shall leave behind me or due to me,
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Speaker 1: I desire may be disposed of as followeth. In primis,
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Speaker 1: I give to the stock of the poor of the
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Speaker 1: Parish of Brampton, in which church I desire to be
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Speaker 1: interred five pounds. Item I give to the poor of
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Speaker 1: Ellington forty shillings. Item I desire that my two grandsons,
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Speaker 1: Samuel and John Jackson have ten pounds apiece. Item I
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Speaker 1: desire that my daughter Paulina Jackson may have my largest
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Speaker 1: silver tankard. Item I desire that my son John Peeps
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Speaker 1: may have my gold seal ring. Lastly, I desire that
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Speaker 1: the remainder of what I shall leave be equally distributed
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Speaker 1: between my son Samuel and John Peeps, and my daughter
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Speaker 1: Paulina Jackson, all which I leave to the care of
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Speaker 1: my eldest son, Samuel Peeps, to see performed, if he
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Speaker 1: shall think fit in witness here unto I set my hand.
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Speaker 1: His wife, Margaret, whose maiden name has not been discovered,
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Speaker 1: died on the twenty fifth March sixteen sixty seven, also
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Speaker 1: at Brapton. The family of these two consisted of six
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Speaker 1: sons and five daughters. John born sixteen thirty two died
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Speaker 1: sixteen forty. Samuel born sixteen thirty three died seventeen o three,
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Speaker 1: Thomas born sixteen thirty four died sixteen sixty four, Jacob
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Speaker 1: born sixteen thirty seven died young, Robert born sixteen thirty
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Speaker 1: eight died young, and John born sixteen forty one died
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Speaker 1: sixteen seventy seven, Mary born sixteen twenty seven, Paulina born
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Speaker 1: sixteen twenty eight, Esther born sixteen thirty Sarah born sixteen
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Speaker 1: thirty five. These four girls all died young, and Paulina
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Speaker 1: born sixteen forty died sixteen eighty, who married John Jackson
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Speaker 1: of Brapton, and had two sons, Samuel and John. The
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Speaker 1: latter was made his heir by Samuel Peeps. Samuel Peeps
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Speaker 1: was born on the twenty third February sixteen thirty two three,
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Speaker 1: but the place of birth is not known with certainty.
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Speaker 1: Samuel Knight d d, author of the Life of Colin,
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Speaker 1: who was a connection of the family, having married Hannah Peeps,
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Speaker 1: daughter of Talbot Peeps of Impington, says positively that it
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Speaker 1: was at Brampton. His statement cannot be corroborated by the
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Speaker 1: registers of Brampton Church, as these records do not commence
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Speaker 1: until the year sixteen fifty four. Samuel's early youth appears
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Speaker 1: to have been spent pretty equally between town and country.
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Speaker 1: When he and his brother Tom were children, they lived
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Speaker 1: with the nurse Goody Lawrence at Kingsland, and in after
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Speaker 1: life Samuel refers to his habit of shooting with bow
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Speaker 1: and arrow in the fields around that place. He then
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Speaker 1: went to school at Huntingdon, from which he was transferred
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Speaker 1: to Saint Paul's School in London. He remained at the
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Speaker 1: latter place until sixteen fifty early in which year his
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Speaker 1: name was entered as a sizar on the boards of
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Speaker 1: Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was admitted on the twenty first June,
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Speaker 1: but subsequently he transferred his allegiance to Maudling College, where
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Speaker 1: he was admitted at Sizar on the first October of
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Speaker 1: this same year. He did not entern to residence until
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Speaker 1: March fifth, sixteen fifty fifty one, but in the following
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Speaker 1: month he was elected to one of mister Spendloff's scholarships,
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Speaker 1: and two years later, October fourteenth, sixteen fifty three, he
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Speaker 1: was preferred to want on doctor John Smith's foundation. Little
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Speaker 1: or nothing is known of Peeps's career at college, but
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Speaker 1: soon after obtaining the Smith's scholarship, he got into trouble
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Speaker 1: and with a companion, was admonished for being drunk. October
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Speaker 1: twenty first, sixteen fifty three memorandum that Peeps and Hind
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Speaker 1: was solemnly admonished by myself and mister Hill for having
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Speaker 1: been scandalously overserved with drink the night before. This was
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Speaker 1: done in the presence of all the fellows then resident
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Speaker 1: in mister Hill's chamber. John Wood, Registrar from the Registrar's
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Speaker 1: Book of Maudlin College. His time, however, was not wasted,
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Speaker 1: and there's evidence that he carried into his busy life
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Speaker 1: a fair stock of classical learning and a true love
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Speaker 1: of letters. Throughout his life. He looked back with pleasure
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Speaker 1: to the time he spent at the university, and his
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Speaker 1: college was remembered in his will when he bequeathed his
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Speaker 1: valuable library in this same year sixteen fifty three. He
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Speaker 1: graduated b A. On the first of December sixteen fifty,
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Speaker 1: when he was still without any settled means of support,
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Speaker 1: he married Elizabeth Saint Michel, a beautiful and portionless girl
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Speaker 1: of fifteen. Her father, Alexander Marchant Sir de Saint Michel,
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Speaker 1: was of a good family in Orgou and son of
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Speaker 1: the High Sheriff of Bouges in Orgou. Having turned Huguenot
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Speaker 1: at the age of twenty one when in the German service,
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Speaker 1: his father disinherited him, and he also lost the reversion
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Speaker 1: of some twenty thousand pounds sterling, which his uncle, a
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Speaker 1: rich French cannon, intended to bequeath to him. And before
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Speaker 1: he left the Roman Catholic Church, he came over to
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Speaker 1: England in the retiny of Henrietta Maria on her marriage
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Speaker 1: with Charles the First, but the Queen dismissed him on
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Speaker 1: finding that he was a Protestant and did not attend Mass.
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Speaker 1: Being a handsome man with courtly manners. He found favor
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Speaker 1: in the sight of the widow of an Irish squire,
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Speaker 1: daughter of Sir Francis Kingsmill, who married him against the
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Speaker 1: wishes of her family. After the marriage, Alexander Saint Michel
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Speaker 1: and his wife, having raised some fifteen hundred pounds, started
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Speaker 1: for France in the hope of recovering some part of
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Speaker 1: the family property. They were unfortunate in all their movements,
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Speaker 1: and on their journey to France were taken prisoners by
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Speaker 1: the Dunkirkers, who stripped them of all their property. They
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Speaker 1: now settled at Midford in Derbyshire, and here on nearby
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Speaker 1: were born Elizabeth and the rest of the family. At
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Speaker 1: a later period, said Michel, served against the Spaniards at
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Speaker 1: the taking of Dunkirk and Arras, and settled at Paris.
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Speaker 1: He was an unfortunate man throughout life, and his son
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Speaker 1: Balthazar says of him, my father class grew full of
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Speaker 1: whimsies and propositions for perpetual motion, et cetera to king's
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Speaker 1: princes and others, which soaked his pocket and brought all
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Speaker 1: our family so low. By his not minding anything else,
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Speaker 1: spending all he had got and getting no other employment
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Speaker 1: to bring in more. While he was away from Paris,
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Speaker 1: some deluding papists and pretended devouts persuaded Madam son Michel
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Speaker 1: to place her daughter in the nunnery of the Ursulines.
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Speaker 1: When the father heard of this, he hurried back and
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Speaker 1: managed to get Elizabeth out of the nunnery after she
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Speaker 1: had been there for Thinking that France was a dangerous
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Speaker 1: place to live in, he removed his family to England.
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Speaker 1: Very soon afterwards, his daughter was married, although as Lord
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Speaker 1: Braybrooke remarks, we are not told how she became acquainted
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Speaker 1: with peeps. Saint Micheal was greatly pleased that his daughter
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Speaker 1: had become the wife of a true Protestant, and she
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Speaker 1: herself said to him, kissing his eyes, dear father, though
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Speaker 1: in my tender years I was, by my low fortune
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Speaker 1: in this world deluded to popery by the fond dictates thereof,
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Speaker 1: I have now joined with my riper years, which give
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Speaker 1: me some understanding. A man to my husband, too wise
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Speaker 1: and one too religious to the Protestant religion to suffer
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Speaker 1: my thoughts to bend that way any more. Alexander s
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Speaker 1: and Michele kept up his character for fecklessness through life,
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Speaker 1: and took up patents for curing smoking chimneys, purifying water,
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Speaker 1: and molding bricks. In sixteen sixty seven he petitioned the
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Speaker 1: King asserting that he had discovered King Solomon's gold and
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Speaker 1: silver mines, and the diary of the same date contains
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Speaker 1: a curious cometary upon these visions of wealth. March twenty nine,
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Speaker 1: sixteen six four shillings a week, which is Baldise Michel's
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Speaker 1: father receives of the French church, is all the subsistence
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Speaker 1: his father and mother have, and about twenty pounds a
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Speaker 1: year maintains them. As already noted, Peeps has married on
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Speaker 1: December the first, sixteen fifty five. This date is given
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Speaker 1: on the authority of the registers of Saint Margaret's Church, Westminster.
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Speaker 1: The late mister T. C. Noble kindly communicated to me
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Speaker 1: a copy of the original marriage certificate, which is as follows.
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Speaker 1: Samuel PEAPs of this parish gentleman and Elizabeth de Saint
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Speaker 1: Michel of Martin's in the Fields, Spinster, published October nineteenth,
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Speaker 1: twenty second twenty ninth, sixteen fifty five, and were married
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Speaker 1: by Richard Sherwin, Esquire, one of the Justices of the
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Speaker 1: Peace of the City and Liberties of Westminster, December first,
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Speaker 1: signed Richard Sherwin. But strangely enough, Peeps himself supposed his
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Speaker 1: wedding day to have been October the tenth. Lord Breyberike
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Speaker 1: remarks on this, it is notorious that the registers in
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Speaker 1: those times were very ill kept, of which we have
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Speaker 1: here a striking instance. Surely mandric to diary could not
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Speaker 1: have made such a blunder. What is even more strange
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Speaker 1: than Peps's conviction that he was married on October the
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Speaker 1: tenth is Missus Peeps's agreement with him on October tenth,
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Speaker 1: sixteen sixty six. We read, so home to supper and
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Speaker 1: to bed, it being my wedding night. But how many
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Speaker 1: years I cannot tell, But my wife says ten. Here
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Speaker 1: miss Peeps was wrong, as it was eleven years, so
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Speaker 1: she may have been wrong in the day. Also, in
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Speaker 1: spite of the high authority of mister and Missus PEAPs
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Speaker 1: on a question so interesting to them both, we must
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Speaker 1: accept the register as conclusive on this point until further
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Speaker 1: evidence of its incorrectness is forthcoming. Sir Edward Montague afterwards,
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Speaker 1: Earl of Samdge, who was Peeps's first cousin one removed,
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Speaker 1: Peeps's grandfather and Montague's mother, being brother and sister, was
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Speaker 1: a true friend to his poor kinsman, and he at
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Speaker 1: once told out her, helping her to the imprudent couple,
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Speaker 1: allowing them to live in his house. John PEAPs does
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Speaker 1: not appear to have been insufficiently good circumstances to pay
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Speaker 1: for the education of his son, and it seems probable
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Speaker 1: that Samuel went to the univer under his influential cousin's patronage.
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Speaker 1: At all events, he owed his success in life primarily
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Speaker 1: to Montague, to whom he appears to have acton as
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Speaker 1: a sort of agent. On March twenty sixth, sixteen fifty eight,
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Speaker 1: he underwent a successful operation for the stone, and we
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Speaker 1: find him celebrating each anniversary of this important event of
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Speaker 1: his life with thanksgiving. He went through life with little
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Speaker 1: trouble on this score, but when he died at the
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Speaker 1: age of seventy, a nest of seven stones was found
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Speaker 1: in his left kidney. June tenth, sixteen sixty nine, I
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Speaker 1: went this evening to London to carry mister Peeps to
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Speaker 1: my brother Richard, now exceedingly afflicted with the stone, who
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Speaker 1: had been successfully cut, and carried the stone as big
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Speaker 1: as a tennis ball, to show him an encourageous resolution
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Speaker 1: to go through the operation Evelyn's Diary. In June sixteen
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Speaker 1: fifty nine, Peep's accompanied Sir Edward Montague in the Naisby
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Speaker 1: when the Admiral of the Baltic Fleet and Alger and
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Speaker 1: Sidney went to the Sound as joint commissioners. It was
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Speaker 1: then that Montague corresponded with Charles's second but he had
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Speaker 1: to be very secret in his movements on account of
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Speaker 1: the suspicions of Sydney. Peeps knew nothing of what was
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Speaker 1: going on, as he confesses in the diary. I do
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Speaker 1: from this raise an opinion of him to be one
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Speaker 1: of the most secret men in the world, which I
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Speaker 1: was not so convinced of before. On Peap's return to England,
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Speaker 1: he obtained an appointment in the office of Mister after
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Speaker 1: Sir George Downing, who was one of the foretellers of
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Speaker 1: the receipt of the exchequer. He was clerk to Downing
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Speaker 1: when he commenced his darry on January first, sixteen sixty,
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Speaker 1: and then lived in Axe Yard, close by King Street, Westminster,
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Speaker 1: a place on the site of which was built Floodier Street.
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Speaker 1: This too was swept away for the government officers in
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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty four to sixty five. His salary was fifty
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Speaker 1: pounds a year. Downing invited Peeps to accompany him to Holland,
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Speaker 1: but he does not appear to have been very pressing,
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Speaker 1: And a few days later, in this same January, he
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Speaker 1: got him appointed one of the clerks of the Council.
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Speaker 1: But the recipient of the favor does not appear to
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Speaker 1: have been very grateful. A great change was now about
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Speaker 1: to take place in Peeps's fortunes, for in the following
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Speaker 1: March he was made secretary to said ward More Montague
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Speaker 1: in his expedition to bring about the restoration of Charles
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Speaker 1: the second, And on the twenty third he went on
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Speaker 1: board the swift Shore with Montague. On the thirtieth they
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Speaker 1: transferred themselves to the Naisby owing to this appointment of Peeps,
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Speaker 1: we have in the diary a very full account of
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Speaker 1: the daily movements of the fleet, until events having followed
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Speaker 1: their natural course, Montague had the honor of bringing Charles
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Speaker 1: the Second to Dover, where the king was received with
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Speaker 1: great rejoicing. Several of the ships in the fleet had
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Speaker 1: names which are obnoxious to royalists, And on the twenty
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Speaker 1: third May the King came aboard the Nasby and altered
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Speaker 1: there the Naseby to the Charles, the Richard to the
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Speaker 1: Royal James, the Speaker to the Mary, the Windsby to
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Speaker 1: the Happy Return, the Wakefield to the Richmond, the Lambert
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Speaker 1: to the Henrietta, the Cheriton to the Speedwell, and the
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Speaker 1: Bradford to the success This portion of the diaries of
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Speaker 1: particular interest, and the various excursions in Holland which the
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Speaker 1: diarists made, are described in a very amusing manner. When
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Speaker 1: Montague and Peeps had both returned to London, the former
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Speaker 1: told the land that he had obtained the promise of
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Speaker 1: the office of Clerk of the Axe for him. Many
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Speaker 1: difficulties occurred before Peeps actually secured the place, so that
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Speaker 1: at times he was inclined to accept the offers which
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Speaker 1: were made to him to give it up. General Monk
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Speaker 1: was anxious to get the office for mister Turner, who
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Speaker 1: was chief Clerk in the Navy Office, but in the
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Speaker 1: end Montague's influence secured it for Peeps. Then Thomas Barlow,
18:21
Speaker 1: who had been appointed Clerk of the Acts in sixteen
18:23
Speaker 1: thirty eight, turned up and appeared likely to become disagreeable.
18:28
Speaker 1: Peeps brought him off with an annuity of a hundred pounds,
18:31
Speaker 1: which he did not have to pay for any length
18:33
Speaker 1: of time, as Barlow died in February sixteen sixty four
18:36
Speaker 1: to sixty five. It is not in human nature to
18:39
Speaker 1: be greatly grieved at the death of one to whom
18:41
Speaker 1: you have to pay an annuity, and Peeps expresses his feelings
18:44
Speaker 1: in a very naive manner, for which God knows my heart.
18:47
Speaker 1: I can be as sorry as is possible for one
18:49
Speaker 1: to be for a stranger by whose death he gets
18:51
Speaker 1: a hundred pounds per annum, he being a worthy, honest man.
18:55
Speaker 1: But when I come to consider the providence of God,
18:57
Speaker 1: by this means unexpectedly to give me a hundred pounds
18:59
Speaker 1: a year more in my estate, I have caused him.
19:02
Speaker 1: Bless God, and do it from the bottom of my heart.
19:06
Speaker 1: This office was one of considerable importance, for not only
19:09
Speaker 1: was the holder the Secretary of Registrar of the Navy Board,
19:12
Speaker 1: but he was also one of the principal officers of
19:14
Speaker 1: the Navy, and as member of the Board of equal
19:17
Speaker 1: rank with the other commissioners. This office Peeps held during
19:20
Speaker 1: the whole period of the diary, and we find him
19:22
Speaker 1: constantly fighting for his position, as some of the other
19:25
Speaker 1: members whish to reduce his rank merely to that of secretary.
19:29
Speaker 1: In his contention, Peeps appears to have been in the
19:31
Speaker 1: right and a valuable manuscript volume in the Pipsian library
19:35
Speaker 1: contains an extract from the Old Instructions of about sixteen
19:38
Speaker 1: forty nine in which this very point is argued out.
19:42
Speaker 1: The volume appears to have been made up by William Penn,
19:44
Speaker 1: the Quaker, from a collection of manuscripts on the affairs
19:47
Speaker 1: of the Navy found in his father's, Sir William Penn's closet.
19:51
Speaker 1: It was presented to Charles the Second with a dedication ending, thus,
19:55
Speaker 1: I hope enough to justify so much freedom with the
19:57
Speaker 1: Prince that is so easy to excuse the well intended
20:00
Speaker 1: as this is by Great Prince, thy faithful subject, William Penn, London,
20:05
Speaker 1: the twenty second of the month Call, June sixteen eighty.
20:09
Speaker 1: It does not appear how the volume came into Peeps's possession.
20:13
Speaker 1: It may have been given him by the King, or
20:15
Speaker 1: he may have taken it as a perquisite of his office,
20:18
Speaker 1: the book as an index, which was evidently added by Peeps.
20:21
Speaker 1: In this are these entries which show his appreciation of
20:23
Speaker 1: the contents of the manuscript. Clerk of the Axe, his duty,
20:27
Speaker 1: his necessity and usefulness. The following description of the duty
20:31
Speaker 1: of the Clerk of the Axe shows the importance of
20:33
Speaker 1: the office, and the statement that if the clerk is
20:36
Speaker 1: not fitted to act as a commissioner, he is a
20:38
Speaker 1: blockhead and unfit for his employment, is particularly racy and
20:42
Speaker 1: not quite the form of expression one would expect to
20:44
Speaker 1: find in an official document. Clerk of the Axe. The
20:48
Speaker 1: Clerk of the Navy's duty depends principally upon rating by
20:51
Speaker 1: the Board's approbation of all bills and recording of them,
20:54
Speaker 1: and or orders, contracts and warrants, making up and casting
20:57
Speaker 1: of accounts, framing and writing answers to lefer orders and
21:00
Speaker 1: commands from the Council Lord, High Admiral or Commissioners of
21:04
Speaker 1: the Admiralty. And he ought to be a very able accountant,
21:07
Speaker 1: well versed in naval affairs and all inferior officer's duties.
21:11
Speaker 1: It hath been objected by some that the Clerk of
21:12
Speaker 1: the Acts ought to be subordinate to the rest of
21:14
Speaker 1: the commissioners, and not to be joined in equal power
21:17
Speaker 1: with them, although he was so constituted from the first institution,
21:21
Speaker 1: which hath been an opinion only of some to keep
21:23
Speaker 1: him at a distance, unless he might be thought too
21:26
Speaker 1: forward if he had joined power in discovering or arguing
21:29
Speaker 1: against that which peradventure of private interests would have concealed.
21:33
Speaker 1: It is certain no man sees more of the Navy's
21:35
Speaker 1: transactions than himself, and possibly may speak as much to
21:38
Speaker 1: the project if required, or else he is a blockhead
21:40
Speaker 1: and not fit for that employment. But why he should
21:43
Speaker 1: not make as able a commissioner as a shipwright, not
21:46
Speaker 1: wise men judge. In Peeps's patent, the salary is stated
21:49
Speaker 1: to be thirty three pounds six shillings eight pence, but
21:52
Speaker 1: this was only the ancient fee out of the exchequer,
21:55
Speaker 1: which had been attached to the office for more than
21:57
Speaker 1: a century. Peeps's salary had been previously fed at three
22:00
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty pounds a year. Neither the two qualifications
22:04
Speaker 1: upon which particular stresses laid in the above instructions was
22:07
Speaker 1: possessed by Peeps. He knew nothing about the Navy, and
22:10
Speaker 1: so little of accounts that apparently he learned the multiplication
22:13
Speaker 1: table for the first time in July sixteen sixty one.
22:17
Speaker 1: We see from the particulars given in the diary how
22:19
Speaker 1: hard he worked to obtain the knowledge required in his office,
22:22
Speaker 1: and in consequence of his assid duty, he soon became
22:24
Speaker 1: a model official. When Peace became Clerk of the Axe,
22:27
Speaker 1: he took up his residence at the Navy Office, a
22:30
Speaker 1: large building situated between Crutched Friars and Seething Lane, with
22:34
Speaker 1: an entrance in each of those places. On July fourth,
22:37
Speaker 1: sixteen sixty, he went with Commissioner pet to view the
22:40
Speaker 1: houses and was very pleased with them, but he feared
22:42
Speaker 1: that the more influential officers would jocky him out of
22:45
Speaker 1: his rights. His fears were not well grounded, and on
22:48
Speaker 1: July eighteenth he records the fact that he died in
22:51
Speaker 1: his own apartments, which were situated in the Ceething Lane front.
22:55
Speaker 1: On July twenty fourth, sixteen sixty, Peeps were sworn in
22:58
Speaker 1: as Lord Symondge's deputy for a clerkship of the Privy Seal.
23:02
Speaker 1: This office, which he did not think much of at first,
23:04
Speaker 1: brought him in for a time three pounds a day.
23:07
Speaker 1: In June sixteen sixty he was made Master of Arts
23:10
Speaker 1: by proxy, and soon afterwards he was sworn in as
23:13
Speaker 1: a Justice of the Peace for middlesex Essex, Kent and Hampshire,
23:17
Speaker 1: the counties in which the chief dockyards were situated. Peeps's
23:20
Speaker 1: life is written large in the Darry, and it is
23:23
Speaker 1: not necessary here to do more than catalog the chief
23:25
Speaker 1: incidents of it in chronological order. In February sixteen sixty
23:30
Speaker 1: one sixty two he was chosen a younger brother of
23:32
Speaker 1: the Trinity House, and in April sixteen sixty two, when
23:36
Speaker 1: on an official visit to Portsmouth Dockyard, he was made
23:39
Speaker 1: a burgess of the town. In August of the same
23:42
Speaker 1: year he was appointed one of the commissioners for the
23:44
Speaker 1: affairs of Tangier. Soon afterwards, Thomas Povey, the Treasurer, got
23:48
Speaker 1: his accounts into a muddle and showed himself incompetent for
23:52
Speaker 1: the place, so that Peeps replaced him as treasurer to
23:54
Speaker 1: the commission. In March sixteen sixty three sixty four, the
23:58
Speaker 1: Corporation of the Royal Fishery was appointed with the Duke
24:01
Speaker 1: of York as Governor and thirty two assistants, mostly very
24:05
Speaker 1: great persons. Through Lord Savage's influence, Peeps was made one
24:09
Speaker 1: of these. The time was now arriving when Peps's general
24:13
Speaker 1: ability and devotion to business brought him prominently into notice.
24:17
Speaker 1: During the Dutch War, the unriddenness of the ships, more
24:20
Speaker 1: particularly in respect to vittling, was the cause of great trouble.
24:24
Speaker 1: The Clerk of the Ax did his utmates to set
24:26
Speaker 1: things right, and he was appointed Surveyor General of the
24:29
Speaker 1: Vittling Office. The kind way in which mister Coventry proposed
24:32
Speaker 1: him as the fittest man in England for the office,
24:35
Speaker 1: and the Duke of York's expressed approval, greatly pleased him.
24:39
Speaker 1: During the fearful period when the plague was raging, Peeps
24:41
Speaker 1: stuck to his business, and the chief management of naval
24:44
Speaker 1: affairs devolved upon him, for the meetings at the Navy
24:47
Speaker 1: Office were but thinly attended. In a letter to Coventry,
24:51
Speaker 1: he wrote, the sickness in general thickens round us, and
24:54
Speaker 1: particularly upon our neighborhood. You, sir, took your turn of
24:58
Speaker 1: the sword. I must not therefore go urge to take
25:00
Speaker 1: mine of the pestilence at this time his wife was
25:03
Speaker 1: living at Woolwich, and he himself with his clerks at Greenwich.
25:07
Speaker 1: One may only remain in the house in London. Peaves
25:10
Speaker 1: rendered special service at the time of the Fire of London.
25:13
Speaker 1: He communicated the King's wishes to the Lord Mayor, and
25:16
Speaker 1: he saved the Navy Office by having up workment from
25:18
Speaker 1: Wilwich and Deptford dock yards to pull down the houses
25:21
Speaker 1: around and so prevent the spread of the flames. When
25:24
Speaker 1: peace was at length concluded with the Dutch and people
25:27
Speaker 1: had time to think over the disgrace which the country
25:30
Speaker 1: had suffered by the presence of De Ruyter's fleet in
25:32
Speaker 1: the Medway, it was natural that a public inquiry into
25:35
Speaker 1: the management of the war should be undertaken. A parliamentary
25:39
Speaker 1: committee was appointed in October sixteen sixty seven to inquire
25:42
Speaker 1: into the matter. Peaves made a statement which satisfied the committee,
25:46
Speaker 1: but for months afterwards she was continually being summoned to
25:49
Speaker 1: answer some charge, so that he confesses himself as mad
25:53
Speaker 1: to become the hackney of this office. In perpetual trouble
25:55
Speaker 1: and vexation that needed least at last, a storm broke
25:59
Speaker 1: out in the hose of Commons against the principal officers
26:01
Speaker 1: of the Navy, and some members demanded that they should
26:04
Speaker 1: be put out of their places. In the end they
26:07
Speaker 1: were ordered to be heard in their own defense at
26:08
Speaker 1: the bar of the house. The whole label of the
26:11
Speaker 1: defense fell upon Peeps. But having made out his case
26:14
Speaker 1: with great skill, he was rewarded by a most unexpected success.
26:18
Speaker 1: On the fifth March sixteen sixty seven sixty eight, he
26:21
Speaker 1: made the great speech of his life, and spoke for
26:23
Speaker 1: three hours, with the effect that he so far removed
26:25
Speaker 1: the prejudice against the officers of the Navy board, that
26:28
Speaker 1: no further proceedings were taken in Parliament on the subject.
26:31
Speaker 1: He was highly praised for his speech, and he was
26:34
Speaker 1: naturally much related at his brilliant success. About the year
26:38
Speaker 1: sixteen sixty four we first hear of a defect in
26:40
Speaker 1: Peeps's eye sight. He consulted the celebrated Cocker and began
26:44
Speaker 1: to wear green spectacles. But gradually this defect became more pronounced,
26:48
Speaker 1: and on the thirty first of May sixteen sixty nine
26:51
Speaker 1: he wrote the last words in his diary, and thus
26:54
Speaker 1: ends all that I doubt I shall ever be able
26:56
Speaker 1: to do with my own eyes in the keeping of
26:57
Speaker 1: my journal, I being not able to do any longer,
27:01
Speaker 1: having done now as long as to undo my eyes
27:03
Speaker 1: almost every time that I take a pen in my hand,
27:07
Speaker 1: he feared blindness and was forced to desist, to his
27:09
Speaker 1: lasting regret and our great loss. At this time he
27:12
Speaker 1: obtained leave of absence from the duties of his office,
27:15
Speaker 1: and he set out on a tour through France and Holland,
27:18
Speaker 1: accompanied by his wife. In his travels, he was due
27:21
Speaker 1: to the occupation of his life and made collections respecting
27:24
Speaker 1: the French and Dutch navies. Some months after his return
27:28
Speaker 1: he spoke of his journey as having been full of
27:30
Speaker 1: health and content. But no sooner had he and his
27:33
Speaker 1: wife returned to London than the latter became seriously ill
27:36
Speaker 1: with a fever. The disease took a fatal turn, and
27:39
Speaker 1: on the tenth of November sixteen sixty nine, Elizabeth Peeps
27:42
Speaker 1: died at the early age of twenty nine years, to
27:45
Speaker 1: the great grief of her husband. She died at the
27:48
Speaker 1: house in Crutched Friars and was buried at Saint Olav's Church,
27:50
Speaker 1: Hart Street, where Peeps erected a monument to her memory.
27:54
Speaker 1: Peep's successful speech at the bar of the House of
27:56
Speaker 1: Commons made him anxious to become a member, and the
27:59
Speaker 1: Duke of year Work and Sir William Coventry heartily supported
28:02
Speaker 1: him in his resolution. An opening occurred in due course
28:05
Speaker 1: at Alborough in Suffolk owing to the death of Sir
28:08
Speaker 1: Robert Brooke in sixteen sixty nine, but in consequence of
28:11
Speaker 1: the death of his wife, Peeps was unable to take
28:13
Speaker 1: part in the election. His cause was warmly espounced by
28:16
Speaker 1: the Duke of York and by Lord Henry Howard after
28:18
Speaker 1: its Earl of Norwich and sixth Duke of Norfolk, but
28:21
Speaker 1: the efforts of his supporters failed and the contescended in
28:24
Speaker 1: favor of John Bruce, who represented the Popular Party. In
28:28
Speaker 1: November sixteen seventy three, Peeps was more successful and was
28:32
Speaker 1: elected for Castle Rising on the elevation of the member,
28:35
Speaker 1: Sir Robert Paston to the peerage as Viscount Yarmouth. His
28:39
Speaker 1: unsuccessful opponent, Missed Offley, petitioned against the return, and the
28:43
Speaker 1: election was determined to be void by the Committee of
28:45
Speaker 1: Privileges Parliament, Harbour being prorogued the following month without the
28:49
Speaker 1: houses coming to any vote on the subject, PEAPs was
28:51
Speaker 1: permitted to retain his seat. A most irrelevant matter was
28:55
Speaker 1: introduced into the inquiry, and Peeps was charged with having
28:58
Speaker 1: a crucifix in his house, in which it was inferred
29:00
Speaker 1: that he was a papist or popishly inclined. The charge
29:04
Speaker 1: was grounded upon repeated assertions of Sir John Banks and
29:07
Speaker 1: the Earl of Shrewsbury, which they did not stand to
29:09
Speaker 1: when examined on the subject, and the charge was not
29:12
Speaker 1: proved to be good. The House, then, proceeding upon the
29:15
Speaker 1: debate touching the election for Castle Rising between mister Peeps
29:18
Speaker 1: and mister Offley, did in the first place take into
29:21
Speaker 1: consideration what related personally to mister Peeps. Information being given
29:25
Speaker 1: to the House that they had received an account from
29:27
Speaker 1: a person of quality that he saw an altar with
29:29
Speaker 1: a cruse fix upon it in the house of mister Peeps.
29:32
Speaker 1: Mister Peeps, standing up in his place, did heartily and
29:35
Speaker 1: flatly deny that he ever had any altar or cusefix,
29:38
Speaker 1: or the image or picture of any saint what server
29:40
Speaker 1: in his house from the top to the bottom of it.
29:43
Speaker 1: And the members being called upon to name the person
29:45
Speaker 1: that gave them the information they were unwilling to declare
29:48
Speaker 1: it without the order of the House, which being made
29:50
Speaker 1: they named the Earl of Shrewsbury, and the house. Being
29:52
Speaker 1: also informed that Sir Jay Banks did likewise see the altar,
29:56
Speaker 1: he was ordered to turn the bar of the house
29:58
Speaker 1: to declare what he knew of this matter. Ordered that
30:00
Speaker 1: Sir William Coventry, Sir Thomas Meres, and mister Garraway to
30:03
Speaker 1: attend Lord Charlesbury on the like occasion and receive what
30:06
Speaker 1: information his Lordship can give on this matter. Journals of
30:10
Speaker 1: the House of Commons, Volume nine, page three hundred and
30:12
Speaker 1: six thirteenth February, Sir William commentary reports that they attended
30:16
Speaker 1: the Earl of Sharlesbury and received from him the account
30:19
Speaker 1: which they had put in writing. The Earl of Shawsbury
30:21
Speaker 1: denied that he ever saw an altar in mister Peeps's
30:24
Speaker 1: house or lodgings. As to the crucfix, he saith he
30:26
Speaker 1: hath some imperfect memory of seeing somewhat which he conceived
30:30
Speaker 1: to be a crusfix. When his Lordship was asked the time,
30:33
Speaker 1: he said it was before the burning of the Office
30:35
Speaker 1: of the Navy. Being asked concerning the manner. He said
30:38
Speaker 1: he could not remember whether to were painted or carved,
30:40
Speaker 1: or in what manner the thing was, and that his
30:43
Speaker 1: memory was so very imperfect in it that if he
30:45
Speaker 1: were upon his oath, he could give no testimony. Amid.
30:48
Speaker 1: Volume nine, page three or nine, sixteenth February, Sir John
30:51
Speaker 1: Mans was called in. The speaker desired him to answer
30:54
Speaker 1: what acquaintance he had with mister PEAPs, and whether he
30:57
Speaker 1: used to have recourse to him to his house, and
30:59
Speaker 1: had seen there any altar a cruc fix, or whether
31:02
Speaker 1: he knew of his being a papist or popishly inclined.
31:05
Speaker 1: Sir j. Banks said that he had known and had
31:07
Speaker 1: been acquainted with mister Peeps several years, and had often
31:10
Speaker 1: visited him and conversed with him at the Navy office
31:13
Speaker 1: and at his house there upon several occasions, and that
31:16
Speaker 1: he never saw in his house there any altar or
31:17
Speaker 1: a cruse fix, and that he does not believe him
31:20
Speaker 1: to be a papist or that may inclined in the least,
31:22
Speaker 1: nor had any regional ground to think or believe it
31:25
Speaker 1: hemid Volume nine, page three ten. It would be seen
31:28
Speaker 1: from the ex strikes from the journals of the House
31:30
Speaker 1: of Commons given in the note that Peeps denied ever
31:33
Speaker 1: having had an altar or a cruse fix in his house.
31:35
Speaker 1: In the Diary there is a distinct statement of his
31:37
Speaker 1: possession of a cruse fix, but it is not clear
31:40
Speaker 1: from the following XTRICX whether it was not merely a
31:43
Speaker 1: varnished engraving of the cruc fixion which he possessed July twentieth,
31:47
Speaker 1: sixteen sixty six. So I await a lovettz there to
31:50
Speaker 1: see how my picture goes on to be varnished, A
31:52
Speaker 1: fine cruse fix which will be very fine. August second,
31:56
Speaker 1: at home find Lovett, who showed me my cruse fix,
31:58
Speaker 1: which will be very fine when done. Never my third,
32:01
Speaker 1: this morning comes mister Lovett and brings me my print
32:04
Speaker 1: of the Passion varnished by him, and the frame, which
32:06
Speaker 1: is indeed very fine, though not so fine as I expected,
32:10
Speaker 1: but pleases me exceedingly. Whether he had or had not
32:13
Speaker 1: a chrus fix in his house was a matter for
32:15
Speaker 1: himself alone, and the interference of the House of Commons
32:19
Speaker 1: was in CLSs violation of the liberty of the subject.
32:23
Speaker 1: In connection with Lord Shastbury's part in this matter, the
32:26
Speaker 1: late mister W. D. Christie found the following letter to
32:29
Speaker 1: Sir Thomas Meres among the papers at Saint Giles House, Dorsetshire,
32:33
Speaker 1: Exeter House, February tenth, sixteen seventy four. Sir, that there
32:39
Speaker 1: might be no mistake, I thought best to put my
32:41
Speaker 1: answer in writing to those questions that yourself, Sir William
32:44
Speaker 1: Coventry and mister Garraway were pleased to propose to me
32:47
Speaker 1: this morning from the House of Commons, which is that
32:50
Speaker 1: I never designed to be a witness against any man
32:52
Speaker 1: for what I either heard or saw, and therefore did
32:55
Speaker 1: not take so exact notice of things inquired of as
32:58
Speaker 1: to be able to remember them so clearly as is
33:00
Speaker 1: requisite to do in a testimony upon honor or oath,
33:03
Speaker 1: or to so great and honorable a body as the
33:06
Speaker 1: House of Commons, it being some years distance since I
33:09
Speaker 1: was at mister Peakes's lodging, only that particular of an
33:12
Speaker 1: altar is so signal that I must needs have remembered
33:14
Speaker 1: it had I seen any such thing, which I am
33:17
Speaker 1: sure I do not. This I desire you to communicate
33:20
Speaker 1: with Sir William Commentary and mister Garaway, to be delivered
33:23
Speaker 1: as my answer to the House of commons it being
33:25
Speaker 1: the same I gave you this morning. I am, sir,
33:28
Speaker 1: your most humble servant Shawsbury. After reading this letter, Sir
33:31
Speaker 1: William Commentary very justly remarked, there are great many more
33:35
Speaker 1: Catholics than think themselves, so if having a crusfix will
33:38
Speaker 1: make one. Mister Christie resented the remarks on Lord Sharlesbury's
33:42
Speaker 1: part in this persecution of peeps made by Lord Braybrick,
33:45
Speaker 1: who said painful. Indeed, is it to reflect to what
33:48
Speaker 1: length the bad passions which party violence inflames could in
33:51
Speaker 1: those days carry a man of Shrowsbury's rank, station and abilities.
33:55
Speaker 1: Mister Christie observes it is clear from the letter to
33:57
Speaker 1: Meres that Sharlesbury showed no manice much scrupulousness when a
34:01
Speaker 1: formal charge involving important results was founded on his loose
34:04
Speaker 1: private conversations. This would be a fair vindication of the
34:08
Speaker 1: above attack upon peeps stood alone. But we shall see
34:10
Speaker 1: later on that Shawspy was the moving spirit in a
34:13
Speaker 1: still more unjustifiable attack. Lord Sandridge died heroically in the
34:17
Speaker 1: naval action in south Wall Bay, and on June twenty fourth,
34:20
Speaker 1: sixteen seventy two, his remains were buried with some pop
34:23
Speaker 1: whom Westminster Abbey. There were eleven earls among the mourners,
34:26
Speaker 1: and Peeps, as the first among the six banerals, walked
34:29
Speaker 1: in the procession. About this time Peeps has called from
34:33
Speaker 1: his old post of Clerk of the Acte to the
34:35
Speaker 1: higher office of Secretary of the Admiralty. His first appointment
34:38
Speaker 1: was a piece of favoritism, but it was due to
34:41
Speaker 1: his merits alone that he obtained the secretary ship. In
34:44
Speaker 1: the summer of sixteen seventy three, the Duke of York,
34:46
Speaker 1: having resigned all his appointments on the passing of the
34:49
Speaker 1: test Act, the King put the Admiralty into commission, and
34:52
Speaker 1: Peeps was appointed Secretary for the affairs of the Navy.
34:55
Speaker 1: The office generally known as Secretary of the Admiralty dates
34:58
Speaker 1: back many years, but the officer who filled it was
35:00
Speaker 1: sometimes Secretary to the Lord High Admiral and sometimes to
35:03
Speaker 1: the Commission for that office. His Majesty's letters Patent for
35:07
Speaker 1: the Erecting the Office of Secretary of the Admiralty of
35:09
Speaker 1: England and creating Samuel Peeps Esquire, first Secretary therein, is
35:14
Speaker 1: dated June tenth, sixteen eighty four. He was thus brought
35:17
Speaker 1: into more intimate connection with Charles the Second, who took
35:20
Speaker 1: the deepest interest in ship building and all naval affairs.
35:23
Speaker 1: The Duke of Buckingham said of the King the Great,
35:26
Speaker 1: almost the only pleasure of his mind to which he
35:28
Speaker 1: seemed addicted we was shipping and sea affairs, which seemed
35:31
Speaker 1: to be so much as talent for knowledge, as well
35:33
Speaker 1: as inclination that a war of that kind was rather
35:35
Speaker 1: an entertainment than any disturbance to his thoughts. When Peeps
35:39
Speaker 1: ceased to be Clerk of the Axe, he was able
35:41
Speaker 1: to obtain the appointment for his clerk, Thomas Hayter and
35:44
Speaker 1: his brother John Peeps, who held it jointly. The latter
35:46
Speaker 1: does not appear to have done much credit to Samuel.
35:49
Speaker 1: He was appointed clerk to the Trinity House in sixteen
35:51
Speaker 1: seventy on his brother's recommendation, and when he died in
35:54
Speaker 1: sixteen seventy seven he was in debt three hundred pounds
35:57
Speaker 1: to his employers, and this sun Samuel had to pay.
36:01
Speaker 1: In sixteen seventy six, peepsos Master of the Trinity House
36:04
Speaker 1: and in the following year master of the Clothworker's Company,
36:07
Speaker 1: when he presented a richly chased silver cup, which is
36:10
Speaker 1: still used at the banquets of the company. On Tuesday,
36:13
Speaker 1: second September sixteen seventy seven, the Feast of the Honorable
36:17
Speaker 1: Artillery Company was held at Merchant Taylor's Hall, when the
36:20
Speaker 1: Duke of York, the Duke of Somerset, the Lord Chancellor,
36:22
Speaker 1: and other distinguished persons were present. On this occasion, VI
36:26
Speaker 1: Count Newport, Sir Joseph Williamson, and Samuel Peeps officiated as stewards.
36:32
Speaker 1: About this time it is evident that the Secretary carried
36:35
Speaker 1: himself with some haughtiness as the ruler of the navy,
36:38
Speaker 1: and that this was resented by some. An amusing instance
36:41
Speaker 1: will be found in the parliamentary debates on May eleventh,
36:44
Speaker 1: sixteen seventy eight. The King's vermal message to quicken the
36:47
Speaker 1: supply was brought in by mister Secretary Williamson when Peep
36:51
Speaker 1: spoke to this effect, when I promised that the ship
36:53
Speaker 1: should be ready by the thirtieth of May. It was
36:56
Speaker 1: upon the supposition of the money for ninety ships, proposed
36:58
Speaker 1: by the King and voted by you the assizes and rates,
37:02
Speaker 1: and I doubt not by that time to have ninety ships,
37:04
Speaker 1: And if they fall short. It will be only from
37:06
Speaker 1: the failing of the straight ship's coming home and those
37:08
Speaker 1: but two. Sir Robert Hard then rose and said, Peeps
37:12
Speaker 1: here speaks rather like an admiral than a secretary. I
37:14
Speaker 1: and we I wish he knows half as much of
37:17
Speaker 1: the navy as superintends. Peeps was chosen by the electors
37:20
Speaker 1: of Carriage as their member in the short parliament that
37:23
Speaker 1: sat from March till July sixteen seventy nine, his colleague
37:27
Speaker 1: being sad Nid Dean, But both members were sent to
37:30
Speaker 1: the Tower in May on a baseless charge, and they
37:32
Speaker 1: were superseded in the next parliament that met on the
37:34
Speaker 1: seventeenth October sixteen seventy nine. The high handed treatment which
37:38
Speaker 1: Peeps underwent at this time exhibits a marked instance of
37:42
Speaker 1: the disgraceful persecution connected with the so called Popish plot.
37:46
Speaker 1: He was totally unconnected with the Roman Catholic Party, but
37:48
Speaker 1: his association with the Duke of York was sufficient to
37:51
Speaker 1: mark him as a prey for the men who initiated
37:53
Speaker 1: this terror of the seventeenth century. Seredmund Bury Godfrey came
37:57
Speaker 1: to his death in October sixteen seventy eight, and in December,
38:01
Speaker 1: Samuel Atkins, Peeps's clerk, was brought to trial as an
38:04
Speaker 1: accessory to his murder. Sharspy and the others, not having
38:07
Speaker 1: succeeded in getting at Peeps through his clock, soon after,
38:10
Speaker 1: Its attacked him more directly using the infamous evidence of
38:13
Speaker 1: Colonel Scott. Much light has lately been thrown upon the
38:16
Speaker 1: underhand dealings of this miscreant by mister G. D. Scull,
38:20
Speaker 1: who printed privately in eighteen eighty three a valuable work
38:23
Speaker 1: entitled Dorothy Scott otherwise Gothson and Hogmen of Eagerton House, Kent,
38:28
Speaker 1: sixteen eleven to sixteen eighty. Don Scott, calling himself Colonel Scott,
38:34
Speaker 1: ingratiated himself into acquaintance with Major Gothereson and sold to
38:37
Speaker 1: the latter large tracts of land in Long Island to
38:40
Speaker 1: which he had no right whatever. Dorothy Gotheson, after her
38:43
Speaker 1: husband's death, took steps to ascertain the exact state of
38:46
Speaker 1: her property and obtained the assistance of Colonel Francis Lovena's
38:50
Speaker 1: governor of New York. Scott's ford was discovered and a
38:53
Speaker 1: petition for address was presented to the King. The result
38:56
Speaker 1: of this was that the Duke of York commanded Peeps
38:58
Speaker 1: to collect evidence against Scott, and he accordingly brought together
39:01
Speaker 1: a great number of depositions and information as to his
39:04
Speaker 1: dishonest proceedings in New England, Long Island, Barbados, France, Holland
39:09
Speaker 1: and England, and these papers are preserved among the rawlings
39:12
Speaker 1: and manuscripts in the Bodleian. Scott had his revenge and
39:15
Speaker 1: accused Peeps of betraying the navy by sending secret particulars
39:18
Speaker 1: to the French government, and of a design to dethrine
39:21
Speaker 1: the king and extirpate the Protestant religion. Peeps and s
39:24
Speaker 1: Anthony Deane were committed to the tar under the Speaker's
39:27
Speaker 1: barrand on May twenty second, sixteen seventy nine, and Peeps's
39:31
Speaker 1: place at the Admiralty was filled by the appointment of
39:33
Speaker 1: Thomas Hayter. When the two prisoners were brought to the
39:36
Speaker 1: bar of the King's Bench on the second of June,
39:38
Speaker 1: the Attorney General refused bail, but subsequently they were allowed
39:41
Speaker 1: to find security for thirty thousand pounds. Peeps has put
39:45
Speaker 1: a great expense in collecting evidence against Scott and obtaining
39:48
Speaker 1: witnesses to clear himself. After the charges brought against him,
39:51
Speaker 1: he employed his brother in law, Barthoza Saint Michel, to
39:54
Speaker 1: collect evidence in France. As he himself explained in a
39:57
Speaker 1: letter to the Commissioners of the Navy, his mane jes
40:00
Speaker 1: see of his gracious regard to me and the justification
40:02
Speaker 1: of my innocence, was then pleased at my humble request
40:05
Speaker 1: to dispense with my said brother going with the ship
40:08
Speaker 1: about that time designed for Tangier, and to give leave
40:11
Speaker 1: to his going into France the scene of the villainies
40:13
Speaker 1: then in practice against me, he being the only person whom,
40:16
Speaker 1: from his relation to me, together with his knowledge in
40:19
Speaker 1: the place and language, his known diligence and particular affection
40:22
Speaker 1: towards me, I could at that time, and in so
40:25
Speaker 1: great a course, pitchon for committing the care of this affair,
40:28
Speaker 1: of detecting the practice of my enemies there. In the end,
40:31
Speaker 1: Scott refused to acknowledge to the truth of his original deposition,
40:35
Speaker 1: and the prisoners were relieved from their belle On February twelfth,
40:37
Speaker 1: sixteen seventy nine to eighty. John James and Butler, previously
40:41
Speaker 1: in Peeps's service, confessed on his deathbed in sixteen eighty
40:44
Speaker 1: that he had trumped up the whole story relating to
40:47
Speaker 1: his former master's change of religion at the instigation of
40:50
Speaker 1: mister William Harbor, m P for Thetford. Peeps wrote on
40:53
Speaker 1: July first, sixteen eighty to missus Skinner, I would not
40:56
Speaker 1: omit giving you the knowledge of my having at last
40:58
Speaker 1: obtained what with as much reason I might have expected
41:01
Speaker 1: a year ago, by full discharge from the bondage I
41:04
Speaker 1: had from one villain's practice so long lain under William
41:08
Speaker 1: Harbord of Calbury, Somerset, second son of Sir Charles Harboard,
41:12
Speaker 1: whom he succeeded in sixteen eighty two as Surveyor General
41:15
Speaker 1: of the Land Revenues of the Crown, was Peep's most
41:17
Speaker 1: persistent enemy. Several papers referring to Harbard's conduct were found
41:21
Speaker 1: at Scott's lodging after his flight and are now preserved
41:24
Speaker 1: among the Rawlington manuscripts in the Model, and one of
41:27
Speaker 1: these was the following memorandum, which shows pretty plainly Peeps's
41:30
Speaker 1: opinion of Harboard that about the time of mister Peeps's
41:33
Speaker 1: surrender of his employment of Secretary of the Admiralty, Captain
41:37
Speaker 1: Russell and myself being in discourse about mister Peeps. Mister
41:40
Speaker 1: Russell delivered himself, in these other words to this purport
41:43
Speaker 1: that he thought it might be of advantage to both
41:46
Speaker 1: if a good understanding were heard between his brother Harboard
41:48
Speaker 1: and mister Peeps, asking me to propose it to mister Peeps,
41:51
Speaker 1: and he would to his brother, which I agreed to,
41:53
Speaker 1: and went immediately from him to mister Peeps and telling
41:56
Speaker 1: him of this discourse. He gave me readily this answer
41:59
Speaker 1: in these very words, that he knew of no service
42:01
Speaker 1: mister Harboard could do him, or if he could, he
42:04
Speaker 1: should be the last man in England he would receive
42:06
Speaker 1: any from William Harboard sat as empty for Thatford in
42:09
Speaker 1: several parliaments. In sixteen eighty nine he was chosen on
42:12
Speaker 1: the Privy Council, and in sixteen ninety became Vice Treasurer
42:16
Speaker 1: for Ireland. He has appointed a Master to Turkey in
42:18
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety two and died at Belgrade in July of
42:21
Speaker 1: that year. Besides Scott's dishonesty in his dealings with Major Gothereson,
42:26
Speaker 1: it came out that he had cheated the States of
42:27
Speaker 1: Holland out of seven thousand pounds, in consequence of which
42:30
Speaker 1: he was hanged in effigy at the Hague in sixteen
42:33
Speaker 1: seventy two. In sixteen eighty two he fled from England
42:36
Speaker 1: to escape from the law, as he had been guilty
42:38
Speaker 1: of wilful murder by killing George Butler, a Hackney coachman,
42:41
Speaker 1: and he reached Norwayn's safety, where he remained till sixteen
42:44
Speaker 1: ninety six. In that year, some of his influential friends
42:47
Speaker 1: obtained a pardon for him from William the Third, and
42:50
Speaker 1: he returned to England. In October sixteen eighty Peeps attended
42:54
Speaker 1: on Charles's Second at new Market, and there he took
42:57
Speaker 1: down from the King Somath, the narrative of His Majesty's
42:59
Speaker 1: escape from which was first published in seventeen sixty six
43:03
Speaker 1: by Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hales. From the manuscript, which
43:07
Speaker 1: now remains in the Peepsian Library, both in shorthand and
43:09
Speaker 1: in long hand, it is creditable to Charles the Second
43:12
Speaker 1: and the Duke of York that both brothers highly appreciated
43:15
Speaker 1: the abilities of Peeps and availed themselves of his knowledge
43:18
Speaker 1: of naval affairs. In the following year, there were some
43:22
Speaker 1: chance that Peeps might retire from public affairs and take
43:25
Speaker 1: upon himself the headship of one of the chief Cambridge colleges.
43:28
Speaker 1: On the death of Sir Thomas Page, the profest of
43:30
Speaker 1: King's College, in August sixteen eighty one, mister s Marian,
43:34
Speaker 1: a fellow of Clare Hall, recommended Peeps to apply to
43:37
Speaker 1: the King for the appointment, being assured that the Royal
43:40
Speaker 1: mandate of obtained would secure his election. He liked the idea,
43:43
Speaker 1: but replied that he believed Colonel Legg. Afterwards, Lord Dartmouth
43:46
Speaker 1: wanted to get the office for an old tutor. Nothing
43:49
Speaker 1: further seems to have been done by Peeps, except that
43:52
Speaker 1: he promised, if he were chosen, to give the whole
43:54
Speaker 1: profit of the first year, and at least half of
43:57
Speaker 1: that of each succeeding year, to be dedicated to the
44:00
Speaker 1: general and public use of the college. In the end,
44:02
Speaker 1: Doctor John Coppleston was appointed to the post. On May
44:06
Speaker 1: twenty second, sixteen eighty one. The Reverend Doctor Mills, Rectorf
44:10
Speaker 1: Saint Olaf's, who is so often mentioned in the diary,
44:14
Speaker 1: gave Peeps a certificate as to his attention to the
44:16
Speaker 1: services of the church. It is not quite clear what
44:19
Speaker 1: was the occasion of the certificate, but probably the diarists
44:22
Speaker 1: wished to have it ready in case of another attack
44:25
Speaker 1: upon him in respect to his tendency towards the Church
44:28
Speaker 1: of Rome. Early in sixteen eighty two, Peep's accompanied the
44:31
Speaker 1: Duke of York to Scotland and narrowly escaped shipwreck by
44:35
Speaker 1: the way. Before letters could arrive in London to tell
44:38
Speaker 1: of his safety. The news came of the wreck of
44:40
Speaker 1: the Gloucester, the duke ship, and of the loss of
44:43
Speaker 1: many lives. His friend's anxiety was relieved by the arrival
44:47
Speaker 1: of a letter which Peeps wrote from Edinburgh to Hewer
44:50
Speaker 1: on May eighth, in which he detailed the particulars of
44:52
Speaker 1: the adventure. The knew invited him to go on board
44:55
Speaker 1: the Gloucester frigate, but he preferred his own yacht to
44:57
Speaker 1: the Catherine, in which he had more room, and in
45:00
Speaker 1: consequence of his resolution he saved himself from the risk
45:03
Speaker 1: of drowning. On May fifth, the frigates struck upon the
45:06
Speaker 1: sand called the lemon and Ore, about sixteen leagues from
45:09
Speaker 1: the mouth of the Humber. This was caused by the
45:12
Speaker 1: callousness of the pilot, to whom Peeps imputed an obstinate
45:16
Speaker 1: overweening in opposition to the contrary opinions of Sir i Bury,
45:20
Speaker 1: his master mates, Colonel Legg, the Duke himself, and several others,
45:25
Speaker 1: concurring unanimously in not being yet clear of the sands.
45:28
Speaker 1: The Duke and his party escaped, but numbers were drowned
45:30
Speaker 1: in the sinking ship, and it is said that had
45:33
Speaker 1: the wreck occurred two hours earlier, and the accompanying yachts
45:36
Speaker 1: been at the distance they had previously been, not a
45:39
Speaker 1: soul would have escaped. Peep stayed in Edinburgh for a
45:42
Speaker 1: short time, and the Duke of York allowed him to
45:45
Speaker 1: be present at two councils. He then visited with Colonel
45:48
Speaker 1: George Legg some of the principal places in the neighborhood,
45:52
Speaker 1: such as Sterling in Nithgow, Hamilton and Glasgow, the latter
45:57
Speaker 1: place he describes as a very extraordinary town, indeed beauty
46:00
Speaker 1: and trade much superior to any in Scotland. Peeps had
46:04
Speaker 1: now been out of office for some time, but he
46:07
Speaker 1: was soon to have employment again Tangier, which was acquired
46:10
Speaker 1: at the marriage of the King to Catherine of braganza
46:13
Speaker 1: had long been an encumbrance, and it was resolved at
46:16
Speaker 1: last to destroy the place. Colonel Lake, now Lord Dartmouth,
46:20
Speaker 1: was in August sixteen eighty three constituted Captain General of
46:24
Speaker 1: His Majesty's forces in Africa and Governor of Tangier, and
46:28
Speaker 1: sent with a fleet of about twenty sail to demolish
46:30
Speaker 1: and blow up the works, destroy the harbor, and bring
46:33
Speaker 1: home the garrison. Peeps received the King's commands to accompany
46:36
Speaker 1: Lord Dartmouth on his expedition, and the latter's instructions were secret,
46:40
Speaker 1: and Peeps therefore did not know what had been decided upon.
46:43
Speaker 1: He saw quite enough, however, to form a strong opinion
46:46
Speaker 1: of the uselessness of the place to England. Lord Dartmouth
46:50
Speaker 1: carried out his instructions thoroughly, and on March twenty ninth,
46:53
Speaker 1: sixteen eighty four, he and his party, including Peeps, arrived
46:57
Speaker 1: in the English Channel. The King himself now is the
47:00
Speaker 1: office of Lord High Admiral, an appointed peepe Secretary of
47:03
Speaker 1: the Admiralty with a salary of five hundred pounds per annum.
47:07
Speaker 1: In the peeps in library is the original patent dated
47:10
Speaker 1: June tenth, sixteen eighty four his Majesty's Letters Patent for
47:14
Speaker 1: the erecting the office of Secretary of the Admiralty of England,
47:17
Speaker 1: and creating Samuel Peeps Esquire, first Secretary therein. In this
47:22
Speaker 1: office the direst remained until the period of the Revolution,
47:25
Speaker 1: when his official career was concluded. A very special honor
47:29
Speaker 1: was conferred upon Peeps in this year when he was
47:31
Speaker 1: elected President of the Royal Society in succession to cicyril Rich,
47:35
Speaker 1: and he held the office for two years. Peeps had
47:38
Speaker 1: been admitted a fellow of the Society on February fifteenth,
47:40
Speaker 1: sixteen sixty four sixty five, and from Birches's history we
47:44
Speaker 1: find that in the following month he made a statement
47:47
Speaker 1: to the Society. Mister PEAPs gave an account of what
47:50
Speaker 1: information he had received from the Master of the Jersey Ship,
47:53
Speaker 1: which had been in company with Major Homes in the
47:55
Speaker 1: Guinea voyage, concerning the Pendulum watches March fifteenth, sixteen sixty
48:00
Speaker 1: four five. The records of the Society showed that he
48:04
Speaker 1: frequently made himself useful by obtaining such information as might
48:07
Speaker 1: be required in his department. After he retired from the presidency,
48:12
Speaker 1: he continued to entertain some of the most distinguished members
48:15
Speaker 1: of the society on Saturday evenings at his house in
48:18
Speaker 1: York Buildings. Evelyn expressed the strongest regret when it was
48:21
Speaker 1: necessary to discontinue these meetings on account of the infirmities
48:25
Speaker 1: of the host. In sixteen eighty five, Charles the Second
48:28
Speaker 1: died and was succeeded by James, Duke of York. From
48:32
Speaker 1: his intimate association with James, it might have been supposed
48:35
Speaker 1: that a long period of official life was still before Peeps,
48:39
Speaker 1: but the new King's bigotry and incapacity soon made this
48:42
Speaker 1: a practical impossibility. At the coronation of James the Second,
48:46
Speaker 1: Peeps marched in the procession immediately behind the King's canopy
48:49
Speaker 1: as one of the sixteen Barons of the sink Ports.
48:52
Speaker 1: In the year sixteen eighty five, a new charter was
48:55
Speaker 1: granted to the Trinity Company, and Peeps was named in
48:58
Speaker 1: it the first Master, this being the second time that
49:00
Speaker 1: he had held the office of Master. Even especially refers
49:04
Speaker 1: to the event in his diary and mentions the distinguished
49:07
Speaker 1: persons present at the dinner on July twentieth, It is
49:10
Speaker 1: evident that at this time Peeps was looked upon as
49:13
Speaker 1: a specially influential man, and when a parliament was summoned
49:16
Speaker 1: to meet on May nineteenth, sixteen eighty five, he was
49:18
Speaker 1: elected both for Harrich and for Sandwich. He chose to
49:21
Speaker 1: serve for Harrich, as Sir Philip Parker was elected to
49:24
Speaker 1: fill his place at Sandwich. This parliament was dissolved by
49:28
Speaker 1: proclamation July second, sixteen eighty seven, and on August twenty fourth,
49:32
Speaker 1: the King declared in council that another parliament should be
49:35
Speaker 1: summoned for November twenty seventh, sixteen eighty eight. But great
49:39
Speaker 1: changes took place before that date, and when the Convention
49:42
Speaker 1: Parliament was called together in January and February sixteen eighty nine,
49:46
Speaker 1: ninety peeps found no place in it. The right eyed
49:49
Speaker 1: man of the exiled monarch was not likely to find
49:51
Speaker 1: favor in the eyes of those who were now in possession.
49:54
Speaker 1: When the election for Harich came on, the electors refused
49:57
Speaker 1: to return him, and the streets echoed to the cry
50:00
Speaker 1: of no tower men, no men out of the tower.
50:04
Speaker 1: They did not wish to be represented in Parliament by
50:06
Speaker 1: a disgraced official. We have little or no information to
50:09
Speaker 1: guide us as to Peep's proceedings at the period of
50:12
Speaker 1: the revolution. We know that James the Second, just before
50:15
Speaker 1: his flight, was sitting to Nello for a portrait intended
50:18
Speaker 1: for the Secretary to the Admiralty, and that Peeps acted
50:21
Speaker 1: in that office for the last time on twentieth February
50:24
Speaker 1: sixteen eighty eight eighty nine. But between those dates we
50:27
Speaker 1: know nothing of the anxieties and troubles that he must
50:29
Speaker 1: have suffered. On the ninth March, an order was issued
50:32
Speaker 1: from the Commissioners of the Admiralty for him to deliver
50:35
Speaker 1: up his books, et cetera, to Phineas Bows, who superseded
50:38
Speaker 1: him as secretary. Peeps had many firm friends upon whom
50:41
Speaker 1: he could rely, but he had also enemies who lost
50:44
Speaker 1: no opportunity of wearing him. On June tenth, sixteen ninety evening,
50:48
Speaker 1: hears this entry in his diary, which throws some light
50:50
Speaker 1: upon the events of the time. Mister PEAPs read to
50:53
Speaker 1: me his remonstrance, skewing with what malice and injustice he
50:56
Speaker 1: was suspected with Sir Anthony Dean about the timber of
50:59
Speaker 1: which the thirty ships were built. By a late Act
51:02
Speaker 1: of Parliament, with the exceeding danger, which the fleet would
51:05
Speaker 1: shortly be in by reason of the tunny and incompetency
51:08
Speaker 1: of those who now managed the Admiralty and affairs of
51:10
Speaker 1: the Navy, of which he gave an accurate state and
51:13
Speaker 1: shewed his great ability. On the twenty fifth of this
51:16
Speaker 1: same month, Peemes was committed to the Gatehouse at Westminster
51:19
Speaker 1: on a charge of having sent information to the French
51:22
Speaker 1: court of the state of the English Navy. There was
51:25
Speaker 1: no evidence of any kind against him, and at the
51:27
Speaker 1: end of July he was allowed to return to his
51:29
Speaker 1: own house on account of ill health. Nothing further was
51:33
Speaker 1: done in respect to the charge, but he was not
51:35
Speaker 1: free till some time after, and he was long kept
51:38
Speaker 1: in anxiety. For even in sixteen ninety two he still
51:41
Speaker 1: apprehended some fresh persecution. Sir Peter Palaviccini, mister James Soublan,
51:46
Speaker 1: mister Blackburn and mister Martin bailed him, and he sent
51:49
Speaker 1: them the following circular letter October fifteenth, sixteen ninety being
51:54
Speaker 1: this day become once again a free man in every
51:56
Speaker 1: respect I mean, but that of my obligation to you,
51:59
Speaker 1: and the rest of my end to whom I stand
52:01
Speaker 1: indebted for my being. So I think it but a
52:04
Speaker 1: reasonable part of my duty to pay you and them
52:06
Speaker 1: my thanks for it in a body, but know not
52:09
Speaker 1: how otherwise to compass it than by begging you, which
52:11
Speaker 1: I hereby do, to take your share with them in
52:14
Speaker 1: me here to morrow of a piece of mutton, which
52:16
Speaker 1: is all I dare promise you, besides that of being
52:19
Speaker 1: ever your most bounded and faithful, humble servant s p.
52:24
Speaker 1: He employed the unforced idleness caused by being thrust out
52:26
Speaker 1: of his employment in the collection of the materials for
52:29
Speaker 1: the valuable work which he published in sixteen ninety under
52:33
Speaker 1: the title of Memoirs of the Navy. Little more was
52:36
Speaker 1: left for him to do in life. But as the
52:38
Speaker 1: government became more firmly established and the absolute absurdity of
52:41
Speaker 1: the idea of his disloyalty was proved, Peeps held up
52:44
Speaker 1: his head again as a man to be respected and consulted,
52:47
Speaker 1: and for the remainder of his life he was looked
52:49
Speaker 1: upon as the nestor of the Navy. There's little more
52:52
Speaker 1: to be told of Peeps's life. He continued to keep
52:55
Speaker 1: up an extended correspondence with his many friends, and as
52:58
Speaker 1: treasure of Christ's Hospital. He took very great interest in
53:01
Speaker 1: the welfare of that institution. He succeeded in preserving from
53:05
Speaker 1: impending ruin the mathematical foundation which had been originally designed
53:09
Speaker 1: by him, and through his anxious solicitations, endowed and cherished
53:13
Speaker 1: by Charles the Second and James the Second. One of
53:16
Speaker 1: the last public acts of his life was the presentation
53:18
Speaker 1: of the portrait of the eminent doctor John Wallace Sevilliant,
53:21
Speaker 1: Professor of Geometry, to the University of Oxford in seventeen
53:26
Speaker 1: o one. He sent Sir Godfrey Nella to Oxford to
53:28
Speaker 1: paint the portrait, and the university rewarded him with the
53:31
Speaker 1: Latin diploma containing in gorgeous language the expression of thanks
53:35
Speaker 1: for his munificence. On the twenty sixth May seventeen o three,
53:38
Speaker 1: Samuel Peeps, after long continued suffering, breathed his last in
53:42
Speaker 1: the presence of the learned doctor George Hicks, the non
53:45
Speaker 1: juring Dean of Worcester. And the following letter from John
53:48
Speaker 1: Jackson to his uncle's life long friend Evelyn contains particulars
53:52
Speaker 1: as to the cause of death. Mister Jackson to mister
53:55
Speaker 1: evelin Clapham, May twenty eighth, seventeen o three, Friday night,
53:59
Speaker 1: Honored Sir, tis no small addition to my grief to
54:02
Speaker 1: be obliged to interrupt the quiet of your happy recess
54:05
Speaker 1: with the afflicting tidings of my uncle Peeps's death, knowing
54:08
Speaker 1: how sensibly you will partake with me herein. But I
54:12
Speaker 1: should not be faithful to his desires if I did
54:14
Speaker 1: not beg your doing the honor to his memory of
54:16
Speaker 1: accepting mourning from him as a small instance of his
54:19
Speaker 1: most affectionate respect and honor for you. I have thought
54:22
Speaker 1: myself extremely unfortunate to be out of the way at
54:25
Speaker 1: that only time when you please lately to touch her
54:28
Speaker 1: and express so great a desire of taking your leave
54:30
Speaker 1: of my uncle, which could not but have been admitted
54:33
Speaker 1: by him as a most welcome exception to his general
54:36
Speaker 1: orders against being interrupted. And I could most heartily wish
54:39
Speaker 1: that the circumstances of your health and distance did not
54:42
Speaker 1: forbid me to ask the favor of your assisting in
54:45
Speaker 1: the holding up of the pall at his intermined, which
54:47
Speaker 1: is intended to be on Thursday next, For of the
54:50
Speaker 1: manner is so affected with what passes below, I am
54:52
Speaker 1: sure this would have been very grateful to his I
54:55
Speaker 1: must not admit acquainting you, sir, that, upon opening his body,
54:58
Speaker 1: which the uncommonness of him this case required of us
55:01
Speaker 1: for our own satisfaction as well as public good, there
55:04
Speaker 1: was found in his left kidney a nest of no
55:06
Speaker 1: less than seven stones, of the most irregular figures your
55:09
Speaker 1: imagination can frame, and weighing together four ounces and a half,
55:13
Speaker 1: but all fast linked together and adhering to his back,
55:16
Speaker 1: whereby they solve his having felt no greater pains upon motion,
55:20
Speaker 1: nor either of the ordinary symptoms of the stone. Some
55:22
Speaker 1: of the lesser defects there also were in his body
55:25
Speaker 1: proceeding from the same cause. But his stamina in general
55:28
Speaker 1: were marvelously strong, and not only supported him under the
55:32
Speaker 1: most exquisite pains weeks beyond all expectations, but in the
55:35
Speaker 1: conclusion contended for nearly forty hours unassisted by any nourishment,
55:40
Speaker 1: with the very agonies of death, some few minutes excepted
55:43
Speaker 1: before his expiring, which were very calm. There remains only
55:48
Speaker 1: for me, under this affliction, to beg the consolation and
55:51
Speaker 1: honor of succeeding to your patronage for my uncle's sake,
55:54
Speaker 1: and leave to number myself with the same sincerity he
55:56
Speaker 1: ever did among your greatest honorers, which I sell esteem
56:00
Speaker 1: as one of the most valuable parts of my inheritances
56:02
Speaker 1: from him, being also with the faithfulest wishes of health
56:06
Speaker 1: and a happy long life to you, honored Sir, your
56:09
Speaker 1: most obedient and most humble servant. J Jackson, mister Hewes,
56:13
Speaker 1: as my uncle's executor and equally your faithful servant, joins
56:16
Speaker 1: with me in every part hereof the time of my
56:19
Speaker 1: uncle's departure was about three quarters past three on Wednesday
56:22
Speaker 1: morning last even an allude to his diary to Peeps's
56:26
Speaker 1: death and the present to him of a suit of mourning,
56:29
Speaker 1: he speaks in very high terms of his friend seventeen
56:33
Speaker 1: o three May twenty sixth this day died mister Sam Peeps,
56:36
Speaker 1: a very worthy, industrious and curious person. None in England
56:40
Speaker 1: exceeding him in knowledge of the navy in which he
56:42
Speaker 1: had passed through all the most considerable officers, Clerk of
56:45
Speaker 1: the Acts and Secretary of the Admiralty, all which he
56:48
Speaker 1: performed with great integrity. When King James the Second went
56:51
Speaker 1: out of England, he laid down his office and would
56:54
Speaker 1: serve no more but withdrawing himself from all public affairs,
56:57
Speaker 1: he lived at Clapham with his partner mister Hewer, for
57:00
Speaker 1: only his clock, in a very noble and sweet place,
57:03
Speaker 1: where he enjoyed the fruits of his labors in great prosperity.
57:06
Speaker 1: He was universally beloved, hospitable, generous, learned in many things,
57:10
Speaker 1: skilled in music, a very great cherishore of learned men,
57:14
Speaker 1: of whom he had the conversation mister Peeps had been
57:17
Speaker 1: for near forty years, so much my particular friend, that
57:20
Speaker 1: mister Jackson sent me complete mourning, desiring me to be
57:23
Speaker 1: one to hold at the poll at its magnificent obsequies,
57:26
Speaker 1: But my indisposition hindered me from doing him this last office.
57:30
Speaker 1: The body was brought from Clapham and burden Saint Ollins's Church,
57:33
Speaker 1: Hart Street on the fifth June at nine o'clock at night,
57:36
Speaker 1: in a vault just beneath the monument to the memory
57:38
Speaker 1: of Missus PEAPs, Doctor Hicks performed the last sad officers
57:41
Speaker 1: for his friend. Peeps's faithful friend Hewer was his executor,
57:46
Speaker 1: and his nephew, John Jackson his heir. Morning was presented
57:49
Speaker 1: to forty persons and a large number of rings to relations,
57:52
Speaker 1: god children, servants and friends, also to representatives of the
57:56
Speaker 1: Royal Society, of the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, of
58:00
Speaker 1: the Admiralty, and of the Navy Office. The bulk of
58:03
Speaker 1: the property was bequeathed to Jackson, but the money which
58:05
Speaker 1: was left was much lesser might have been expected, for
58:08
Speaker 1: at the time of Peeps's death there was a balance
58:10
Speaker 1: of twenty eight thousand, seven pounds two shillings one pence
58:14
Speaker 1: due to him from the Crown, and none of this
58:16
Speaker 1: was ever paid. The books and other collections were left
58:19
Speaker 1: a Moudal in College, Cambridge, but Jackson was to have
58:22
Speaker 1: possession of them during his lifetime. These were the most
58:24
Speaker 1: important portion of Peeps's effects, for with them was the
58:27
Speaker 1: manuscript of the Immortal Diary. The following other directions for
58:31
Speaker 1: the disposition of the library taken from Hull Manuscript numbers
58:35
Speaker 1: seven three O one. For the further settlement and preservation
58:38
Speaker 1: of my said library after the death of my nephew,
58:41
Speaker 1: John Jackson, I do hereby declare that could I be
58:44
Speaker 1: sure of a constant succession of heirs from my said nephew,
58:47
Speaker 1: qualified like himself for the use of such a library,
58:50
Speaker 1: I should not entertain a thought of its ever being
58:52
Speaker 1: alienated from them. But this uncertainty, considered with the infinite
58:57
Speaker 1: pains and time and cost employed in my collecting, methodizing,
59:01
Speaker 1: and reducing the same to the state it now is,
59:03
Speaker 1: I cannot but be greatly solicitous that all possible provisions
59:06
Speaker 1: should be made for its unalterable preservation and perpetual security,
59:10
Speaker 1: against the ordinary fate of such collections falling into the
59:14
Speaker 1: hands of an incompetent heir, and thereby being sold, dissipated,
59:17
Speaker 1: or embezzled. And since it has pleased God to visit
59:20
Speaker 1: me in a manner that leaves little appearance of being
59:23
Speaker 1: myself restored to a condition of concerting the necessary measures
59:27
Speaker 1: for attaining these ends, I must endo with great confidence,
59:30
Speaker 1: rely upon the sincerity and direction of my executor and
59:33
Speaker 1: said nephew, for putting in execution the powers given them
59:36
Speaker 1: by my forementioned will relating hereto requiring that the same
59:40
Speaker 1: be brought to a determination in twelve months after my decease,
59:43
Speaker 1: and that special regard me had therein to the following particulars,
59:47
Speaker 1: which I declare to be my present thoughts and prevailing inclinations,
59:50
Speaker 1: in this matter viz. One, that after the death of
59:54
Speaker 1: my said nephew, my said library be placed and forever
59:56
Speaker 1: settled in one of our universities, and rather than that
59:59
Speaker 1: of Cambridge than Oxford. Two and rather in a private
1:00:03
Speaker 1: college there than in the public library. Three and in
1:00:06
Speaker 1: the colleges of Trinity or Maudling, preferably to all others.
1:00:09
Speaker 1: Four And of these two ketris parabous, rather in the latter,
1:00:14
Speaker 1: for the sake of my own and my nephew's education.
1:00:16
Speaker 1: Therein five, that in which server of the two it is,
1:00:19
Speaker 1: a fair room be provided therein six, And if in Trinity,
1:00:23
Speaker 1: that the said room be contiguous to and have communication
1:00:27
Speaker 1: with the new library there. Seven, And if in Maudlin,
1:00:30
Speaker 1: that it be in the new building there and any
1:00:32
Speaker 1: part thereof at my nephew's election. Eight, That my said
1:00:35
Speaker 1: library be continued in its present form, and now other
1:00:38
Speaker 1: books mix therein, save what my nephew may add to
1:00:41
Speaker 1: theirs of his own collecting indistinct presses. Nine. That the
1:00:44
Speaker 1: said room and books so placed and adjusted be called
1:00:47
Speaker 1: by the name of Bibliotecha Pepsiana. Ten, that this Bibliotecher
1:00:51
Speaker 1: Pepsiana be under the sole power and custody of the
1:00:53
Speaker 1: Master of the College for the time being, who shall
1:00:56
Speaker 1: neither himself convey nor suffer to be conveyed by others
1:00:59
Speaker 1: any of the said books from thence to any other
1:01:01
Speaker 1: place except to his own lodge in the said College,
1:01:04
Speaker 1: nor there have more than ten of them at a time,
1:01:07
Speaker 1: And that of those also a strict entry be made
1:01:09
Speaker 1: an account kept at the time of their having been
1:01:11
Speaker 1: taken out and returned in a book to be provided
1:01:14
Speaker 1: and remain in the said library for that purpose only eleven,
1:01:18
Speaker 1: that before my said library be put into the possession
1:01:20
Speaker 1: of either of the said colleges, that college for which
1:01:23
Speaker 1: it shall be designed, first enter into covenants for performance
1:01:26
Speaker 1: of the foregoing articles twelve, and that for yet further
1:01:30
Speaker 1: security hearing the said two colleges of Trinity and Maudlin
1:01:33
Speaker 1: have a reciprocal check upon one another, and that college
1:01:36
Speaker 1: which shall be in present possession of the said library,
1:01:38
Speaker 1: be subject to an annual visitation from the other, and
1:01:41
Speaker 1: to the forfeiture thereof to the life, possession and use
1:01:44
Speaker 1: of the other, upon conviction of any breach of their
1:01:46
Speaker 1: said covenants. A s peeps. The library and the original
1:01:50
Speaker 1: bookcases were not transferred to Modeling College until seventeen twenty four,
1:01:54
Speaker 1: and there they have been preserved in safety ever since.
1:01:58
Speaker 1: A large number of peeps As manuscripts appear to have
1:02:00
Speaker 1: remained unnoticed in York buildings for some years. They never
1:02:03
Speaker 1: came into Jackson's hands and were thus lost to model
1:02:05
Speaker 1: In College. Doctor Rawlinson afterwards obtained them, and they were
1:02:09
Speaker 1: included in the bequest of his books to the Bodilin Library.
1:02:12
Speaker 1: Peeps was partial to having his portrait taken, and he
1:02:15
Speaker 1: sat as Saville Hell's Lily and Nella. Hell's portrait, painted
1:02:19
Speaker 1: in sixteen sixty six, is now in the National Portrait Gallery,
1:02:22
Speaker 1: and in etching from the original forms the frontispiece to
1:02:25
Speaker 1: this volume. The portrait by Lily is in the Peepslein Library,
1:02:29
Speaker 1: after three portraits by Nella. One is in the Hall
1:02:31
Speaker 1: of Maudlin College and now that the Royal Society, and
1:02:35
Speaker 1: the third was lent to the first Special Exhibition of
1:02:37
Speaker 1: National Portraits eighteen sixty six by the late mister Andrew
1:02:40
Speaker 1: PEAPs Cockrell. Several of the portraits have been a grave,
1:02:43
Speaker 1: but the most interesting of these are those used by
1:02:46
Speaker 1: Peeps himself as book plates. These were both engraved by
1:02:49
Speaker 1: Robert White and taken from paintings by Nella. The Judge
1:02:52
Speaker 1: of Cineler of hart Street, is intimately associated with Peeps,
1:02:56
Speaker 1: both in his life and in his death, and for
1:02:58
Speaker 1: many years the question had been constantly asked by visitors
1:03:01
Speaker 1: whereas Peep's monument. On Wednesday, July fifth, eighteen eighty two,
1:03:05
Speaker 1: a meeting was held in the vestry of the church,
1:03:07
Speaker 1: when an influential committee was appointed, upon which all the
1:03:11
Speaker 1: great institutions with which Peeps was connected were represented by
1:03:14
Speaker 1: their masters, presidents or other officers, with the object of
1:03:18
Speaker 1: taking steps to obtain an adequate memorial of the Diarist.
1:03:21
Speaker 1: Mister now Sir Alfred Blomfield, architect of the church, presented
1:03:26
Speaker 1: an appropriate design for a monument, and sufficient subscriptions, having
1:03:30
Speaker 1: been obtained for the purpose, he superintended its erection on
1:03:34
Speaker 1: Tuesday afternoon in March eighteenth, eighteen eighty four. The monument,
1:03:37
Speaker 1: which was affixed to the wall of the church where
1:03:39
Speaker 1: the gallery containing Peep's pew formerly stood, was unveiled in
1:03:43
Speaker 1: the presence of a large concourse of visitors. The Earl
1:03:46
Speaker 1: of Northbrook, first Lord of the Admiralty, consented to unveil
1:03:49
Speaker 1: the monument but he was at the last moment prevented
1:03:52
Speaker 1: by public business from attending. But late Mister Russell Lowell,
1:03:55
Speaker 1: then the American Minister, took Lord Northbrook's place, and made
1:03:58
Speaker 1: a very charming and appreciative speech on the occasion from
1:04:01
Speaker 1: which the following passages are extracted. It was proper his
1:04:04
Speaker 1: excellency said that he should read a note he had
1:04:07
Speaker 1: received from Lord Northbrook. This was stated that day from
1:04:10
Speaker 1: the Admiralty, and was as follows, My dear Mister Lowell,
1:04:14
Speaker 1: I am very much annoyed that I am prevented from
1:04:16
Speaker 1: assisting at the ceremony to day. It would be very
1:04:18
Speaker 1: good if you would say that nothing but very urgent
1:04:20
Speaker 1: business would have kept me away. I was anxious to
1:04:23
Speaker 1: give my testimony to the merits of peeps. As an
1:04:25
Speaker 1: Admiralty official, leaving his literary merits to you, he was
1:04:29
Speaker 1: concerned with the administration of the Navy from the Restoration
1:04:32
Speaker 1: to the Revolution, and from sixteen seventy three as Secretary.
1:04:36
Speaker 1: I believe his merits to be fairly stated in a
1:04:38
Speaker 1: contemporary account, which I send yours very truly Northbrook. The
1:04:43
Speaker 1: contemporary account, which Lord Northbrook was good enough to send
1:04:45
Speaker 1: him said Peeps was, without exception the greatest and most
1:04:49
Speaker 1: useful minister that have fulfilled the same situations in England.
1:04:53
Speaker 1: The Acts and registers of the Admiralty proving this beyond contradiction.
1:04:57
Speaker 1: The principal rules and establishments in present use in the
1:05:00
Speaker 1: These officers are well known to have been of his introducing,
1:05:03
Speaker 1: and most of the officers serving their in since the
1:05:05
Speaker 1: restoration of his bringing up. He was a most judious
1:05:08
Speaker 1: promoter and strenuous asserter of order and discipline. Sobriety, diligence, capacity, loyalty,
1:05:14
Speaker 1: and subjection to command were essentials required in all whom
1:05:17
Speaker 1: he advanced. Where any of these were found, wanting, no
1:05:20
Speaker 1: interest or authority was capable of moving him in favor
1:05:23
Speaker 1: of the highest pretender. Discharging his duty to his princely
1:05:26
Speaker 1: country with a religious application and perfect integrity. He feared
1:05:30
Speaker 1: no one, courted no one, and neglected his own fortune.
1:05:34
Speaker 1: That was a character drawn, it was true, by a
1:05:36
Speaker 1: friendly hand. But to those who were familiar with the
1:05:38
Speaker 1: life of Peeps, the praise hardly seemed exaggerated. As regarded
1:05:42
Speaker 1: his official life, it was unnecessary to dilate upon his
1:05:45
Speaker 1: peculiar merits, for they all knew how faithful he was
1:05:47
Speaker 1: in his duties, and they all knew too, how many
1:05:50
Speaker 1: faithful officials there were working on in obscurity, who were
1:05:53
Speaker 1: not only never honored with a monument, but who never
1:05:56
Speaker 1: expected one. The few words mister Lowell went on to
1:05:59
Speaker 1: remark which he was expected to say upon that occasion,
1:06:02
Speaker 1: therefore referred rather to what he believed was the true
1:06:04
Speaker 1: motive which had brought that assembly together, and that was
1:06:07
Speaker 1: by no means a character of Peeps, either as clerk
1:06:10
Speaker 1: of the Acts or as secretary to the Admiralty. This
1:06:13
Speaker 1: was not the place in which one could go into
1:06:14
Speaker 1: a very close examination of the character of Peeps as
1:06:17
Speaker 1: a private man. He would begin by admitting that Peeps
1:06:20
Speaker 1: was the type, perhaps of what was now called a philistine.
1:06:23
Speaker 1: We had no word in England which was equivalent to
1:06:25
Speaker 1: the French adjective bourgeois. But at all events, Samuel PEAPs
1:06:29
Speaker 1: was the most perfect type that ever existed of the
1:06:31
Speaker 1: class of people whom this word described. He had all
1:06:34
Speaker 1: its merits as well as many of its defects. With
1:06:37
Speaker 1: all those defects, however, perhaps in consequence of them, Peeps
1:06:40
Speaker 1: had written one of the most delightful books that it
1:06:42
Speaker 1: was man's privilege to read in the English language or
1:06:44
Speaker 1: in any other. Whether Peeps intended this diary to be
1:06:48
Speaker 1: afterwards read by the general public or not, and this
1:06:51
Speaker 1: was a doubtful question. When it was considered that he
1:06:53
Speaker 1: had left, possibly by inadvertence, a key to his cipher
1:06:56
Speaker 1: behind him, it was certain that he had left with
1:06:58
Speaker 1: us a most delightful picture, or rather, he had left
1:07:01
Speaker 1: the power in our hands of drawing for ourselves some
1:07:04
Speaker 1: of the most delightful pictures of the time in which
1:07:06
Speaker 1: he lived. There was hardly any book which was analogous
1:07:09
Speaker 1: to it. If one were asked what were the reasons
1:07:11
Speaker 1: for liking Peeps, it would be found that they were
1:07:14
Speaker 1: as numerous as the days upon which he made an
1:07:16
Speaker 1: entry in his diary, And surely there was sufficient arguments
1:07:19
Speaker 1: in his favor. There was no book mister Lowell said
1:07:21
Speaker 1: that he knew, or for that occurred to his memory,
1:07:24
Speaker 1: with which Peep's diary could fairly be compared, except the
1:07:27
Speaker 1: journal of Le'stoile, who had the same anxious curiosity and
1:07:30
Speaker 1: the same commonness, not to save vulgarity of interest. And
1:07:33
Speaker 1: the book was certainly unique in one respect, and that
1:07:36
Speaker 1: was the absolute sincerity of the author with himself. Montaigne
1:07:40
Speaker 1: is conscious that we are looking over his shoulder and
1:07:42
Speaker 1: were so secretive in comparison with him. The very fact
1:07:45
Speaker 1: of that sincerity of the author with himself argued a
1:07:48
Speaker 1: certain greatness of character. Doctor Hicks, who attended Peeps at
1:07:52
Speaker 1: his death bed, spoke of him as this great man,
1:07:55
Speaker 1: and said he knew no one who died so greatly.
1:07:57
Speaker 1: And yet there was something almost of the ridiculous in
1:07:59
Speaker 1: the state when the greatness was compared with the garrulous
1:08:02
Speaker 1: frankness which Peep showed towards himself. There was no parallel
1:08:06
Speaker 1: to the character of Peeps, he believed in respect of naivette,
1:08:09
Speaker 1: and as they were found in that of Falstaff. And
1:08:12
Speaker 1: Peep showed himself too like Falstaff on terms of unbuttoned
1:08:15
Speaker 1: familiarity with himself. Falstaff had just the same naivete, but
1:08:19
Speaker 1: in Falstaff it was the naivete of conscious humor. In
1:08:22
Speaker 1: Peeps it was quite different. For Peeps's naivete was the
1:08:25
Speaker 1: inoffensive vanity of a man who loved to see himself
1:08:28
Speaker 1: in the glass. Falstaff had a sense to of inadvertent humor,
1:08:32
Speaker 1: but who was questionable whether Peeps could have had any
1:08:34
Speaker 1: sense of humor at all, and yet permitted himself to
1:08:37
Speaker 1: be so delightful. There was probably half a more involuntary
1:08:40
Speaker 1: humor in Peeps's Diary than there was in any other
1:08:43
Speaker 1: book extant. When he told his readers of the landing
1:08:45
Speaker 1: of Charles the Second at Dover, for instance, it would
1:08:48
Speaker 1: be remembered how Peeps chronicled the fact that the Mayor
1:08:50
Speaker 1: of Dover presented the Prince with the Bible, for which
1:08:53
Speaker 1: he returned his thanks and said it was the most
1:08:55
Speaker 1: precious book to him in the world. Then again it
1:08:57
Speaker 1: would be remembered how when he received a letter dressed
1:09:00
Speaker 1: Samuel Peeps Squire, he confesses in the Diary that this
1:09:03
Speaker 1: pleased him mightily. When too, he kicked his cook maid,
1:09:06
Speaker 1: he admits that he was not sorry for it, but
1:09:08
Speaker 1: was sorry that the footboy of a worthy knight with
1:09:10
Speaker 1: whom he was acquaintance saw him do it. And the
1:09:13
Speaker 1: last instance he would mention of poor Peeps's naivete was
1:09:16
Speaker 1: when he said in the Dary that he could not
1:09:18
Speaker 1: help having a certain pleasant and satisfied feeling when Barlew
1:09:21
Speaker 1: died Barlow. It must be remembered received during his life
1:09:24
Speaker 1: the yearly sum from Peeps of a hundred pounds. The
1:09:27
Speaker 1: value of Peeps's book was simply priceless. And while there
1:09:29
Speaker 1: was nothing in it approaching that the single page in
1:09:31
Speaker 1: Saint Simon, where he described that thunder of coughtily red
1:09:35
Speaker 1: heels passing from one ring of the palace to another,
1:09:37
Speaker 1: as the prince was lying on his deathbed, and favor
1:09:40
Speaker 1: was to flow from another source. Still, Peep's Dary was
1:09:43
Speaker 1: unequaled in its peculiar quality of amusement. The lightest part
1:09:47
Speaker 1: of the dary was of value historically, for it enable
1:09:50
Speaker 1: one to see London of two hundred years ago, and
1:09:53
Speaker 1: what was more, to see it with the eager eyes
1:09:54
Speaker 1: of Peeps. It was not Peepe's official who had brought
1:09:57
Speaker 1: that large gathering together that day in honor of his men.
1:10:00
Speaker 1: It was Peeps the diarist. In concluding this account of
1:10:04
Speaker 1: the chief particulars of Peeps's life, it may be well
1:10:07
Speaker 1: to add a few words upon the pronunciation of his name.
1:10:10
Speaker 1: Various attempts appear to have been made to represent this phonetically.
1:10:14
Speaker 1: Lord Braybrooke, in quoting the entry of death from Saint
1:10:16
Speaker 1: Olar's Registers, where the spelling Is, Papes wrote, and this
1:10:20
Speaker 1: is decisive as to the proper pronunciation of the name.
1:10:23
Speaker 1: This spelling may show that the name was pronounced as
1:10:25
Speaker 1: a monosyllable, but it is scarcely conclusive as to anything else.
1:10:29
Speaker 1: And Lord Braybrooke does not say what he supposes the
1:10:32
Speaker 1: sound of the vowels to have been. At present. There
1:10:34
Speaker 1: are three pronunciations in use. PEPs, which is the most usual, Peeps,
1:10:39
Speaker 1: which is the received one at Maudlin College, and Peppis,
1:10:42
Speaker 1: which I learned from mister Walter C. Peppis, is the
1:10:45
Speaker 1: one used by other branches of the family. Mister Peppis
1:10:48
Speaker 1: has paid particular attention to this point, and in his
1:10:51
Speaker 1: valuable genealogy of the Peep's family, he has collected seventeen
1:10:55
Speaker 1: varieties of spelling of the name, which are as follows
1:10:58
Speaker 1: the dates of the documents in which the former Peers
1:11:00
Speaker 1: being attached. One Peppis twelve seventy three, two Peppi fourteen
1:11:04
Speaker 1: thirty nine, three Pippis fifteen eleven, four, Pipes fifteen eleven, five,
1:11:09
Speaker 1: Peppis fifteen eighteen, six, PEPs fifteen nineteen, seven, Peeps fifteen
1:11:14
Speaker 1: twenty eight, Peppis fifteen fifty two, nine Peeps sixteen thirty six,
1:11:19
Speaker 1: ten Pippis sixteen thirty nine, eleven Peepis sixteen fifty three,
1:11:23
Speaker 1: twelve PEPs sixteen fifty five, thirteen Pipes sixteen fifty six,
1:11:27
Speaker 1: fourteen Papes sixteen fifty six, fifteen Peeps sixteen seventy nine,
1:11:32
Speaker 1: sixteen Peeps sixteen eighty three, seventeen Papes seventeen oh three.
1:11:36
Speaker 1: Mister Walter Peppis adds the acceptance spelling of the name
1:11:40
Speaker 1: Peeps was adopted generally about the end of the seventeenth century,
1:11:43
Speaker 1: though it occurs many years before that time. There have
1:11:46
Speaker 1: been numerous ways of pronouncing the name as PEPs peeps
1:11:48
Speaker 1: in Peppis, the day is undoubtedly pronounced it peeps, and
1:11:52
Speaker 1: the lineal descendants of his sister Paulina, the family of
1:11:55
Speaker 1: Peeps Cockrel pronounced it so to this day. The other
1:11:58
Speaker 1: branches of the family all pronounce it Pepys. And I
1:12:01
Speaker 1: am led to be satisfied that the latter pronunciation is
1:12:03
Speaker 1: correct by the two facts that in the earliest known
1:12:06
Speaker 1: writing it is spelt Peppis, and that the French form
1:12:08
Speaker 1: of the name is Peppi. The most probable explanation is
1:12:11
Speaker 1: that the name in the seventeenth century was either pronounced
1:12:14
Speaker 1: pips or papes. For both the forms of A and
1:12:17
Speaker 1: e would represent the latter pronunciation. The general change in
1:12:21
Speaker 1: the pronunciation of the spelling A from Ai to ee
1:12:24
Speaker 1: took place in a large number of words at the
1:12:26
Speaker 1: end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century,
1:12:29
Speaker 1: and three words at least ea, break and great keep
1:12:32
Speaker 1: this old pronunciation still. The present Irish pronunciation of English
1:12:36
Speaker 1: is really the same as the English pronunciation of the
1:12:38
Speaker 1: seventeenth century, when the most extensive settlement of Englishmen in
1:12:42
Speaker 1: Ireland took place, and the irishw is pronounced Ea like
1:12:45
Speaker 1: Ai as he gave him a innate baiting neat beating again,
1:12:50
Speaker 1: the ey of papes would rhyme with they and obey.
1:12:54
Speaker 1: English literature is full of illustrations of the old pronunciation
1:12:57
Speaker 1: of e a, as in hoodibras. Doubtless, the pleasure is
1:13:01
Speaker 1: as great in being cheated as to cheat, which was
1:13:04
Speaker 1: then a perfect rhyme. In the Rape of the lock
1:13:07
Speaker 1: t Tay rhymes with the obey, and in Cooper's verses
1:13:10
Speaker 1: on Alexander Selkirk c rhymes with survey. It is not
1:13:15
Speaker 1: likely that the pronunciation of the name is fixed. But
1:13:17
Speaker 1: there is every reason to suppose that the spellings of
1:13:19
Speaker 1: Papes and Papes were intended to represent the sound of
1:13:22
Speaker 1: pets rather than peeps. In spite of all the research
1:13:25
Speaker 1: which has brought to light so many incidents of interest
1:13:28
Speaker 1: in the life of Simuel Peeps, we cannot but feel
1:13:30
Speaker 1: how dry these facts are when placed by the side
1:13:33
Speaker 1: of the living details of the diary. It is in
1:13:36
Speaker 1: its pages so the true man is displayed. And it
1:13:38
Speaker 1: has therefore not been thought necessary here to do more
1:13:41
Speaker 1: than set down in chronological order such facts as are
1:13:44
Speaker 1: known of the life outside the diary. A full appreciation
1:13:47
Speaker 1: of the man must be left for some future occasion. H. P. W.
1:13:51
Speaker 1: And of particulars