Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, preached on Eccles. ii. 26. He concluded
with an eulogy due to the deceased, who made God and religion the scope
of all his excellent talents in the knowledge of nature, and who had
arrived to so high a degree in it, accompanied with such zeal and
extraordinary piety, which he showed in the whole course of his life,
particularly in his exemplary charity on all occasions,--that he gave
£1,000 yearly to the distressed refugees of France and Ireland; was at
the charge of translating the Scriptures into the Irish and Indian
tongues, and was now promoting a Turkish translation, as he had formerly
done of Grotius "on the Truth of the Christian Religion" into Arabic,
which he caused to be dispersed in the eastern countries; that he had
settled a fund for preachers who should preach expressly against
Atheists, Libertines, Socinians, and Jews; that he had in his will given
£8,000 to charitable uses; but that his private charities were
extraordinary. He dilated on his learning in Hebrew and Greek, his
reading of the fathers, and solid knowledge in theology, once
deliberating about taking Holy Orders, and that at the time of
restoration of King Charles II., when he might have made a great figure
in the nation as to secular honor and titles, his fear of not being able
to discharge so weighty a duty as the first, made him decline that, and
his humility the other. He spoke of his civility to strangers, the great
good which he did by his experience in medicine and chemistry, and to
what noble ends he applied himself to his darling studies; the works,
both pious and useful, which he published; the exact life he led, and
the happy end he made. Something was touched of his sister, the Lady
Ranelagh, who died but a few days before him. And truly all this was but
his due, without any grain of flattery.
This week a most execrable murder was committed on Dr. Clench, father of
that extraordinary learned child whom I have before noticed. Under
pretense of carrying him in a coach to see a patient, they strangled him
in it; and, sending away the coachman under some pretense, they left his
dead body in the coach, and escaped in the dusk of the evening.
12th January, 1692. My granddaughter was christened by Dr. Tenison, now
Bishop of Lincoln, in Trinity Church, being the first that was
christened there. She was named Jane.
24th January, 1692. A frosty and dry season continued; many persons die
of apoplexy, more than usual. Lord Marlborough, Lieutenant-General of
the King's army in England, gentleman of the bedchamber, etc., dismissed
from all his charges, military and other, for his excessive taking of
bribes, covetousness, and extortion on all occasions from his inferior
officers. Note, this was the Lord who was entirely advanced by King
James, and was the first who betrayed and forsook his master. He was son
of Sir Winston Churchill of the Greencloth.
7th February, 1692. An extraordinary snow fell in most parts.
13th February, 1692. Mr. Boyle having made me one of the trustees for
his charitable bequests, I went to a meeting of the Bishop of Lincoln,
Sir Rob.... wood, and serjeant, Rotheram, to settle that clause in the
will which related to charitable uses, and especially the appointing and
electing a minister to preach one sermon the first Sunday in the month,
during the four summer months, expressly against Atheists, Deists,
Libertines, Jews, etc., without descending to any other controversy
whatever, for which £50 per annum is to be paid quarterly to the
preacher; and, at the end of three years, to proceed to a new election
of some other able divine, or to continue the same, as the trustees
should judge convenient. We made choice of one Mr. Bentley, chaplain to
the Bishop of Worcester (Dr. Stillingfleet). The first sermon was
appointed for the first Sunday in March, at St. Martin's; the second
Sunday in April, at Bow Church, and so alternately.
28th February, 1692. Lord Marlborough having used words against the
King, and been discharged from all his great places, his wife was
forbidden the Court, and the Princess of Denmark was desired by the
Queen to dismiss her from her service; but she refusing to do so, goes
away from Court to Sion house. Divers new Lords made: Sir Henry Capel,
Sir William Fermor, etc. Change of Commissioners in the Treasury. The
Parliament adjourned, not well satisfied with affairs. The business of
the East India Company, which they would have reformed, let fall. The
Duke of Norfolk does not succeed in his endeavor to be divorced.[78]
[Footnote 78: See _post_ pp. 351-52.]
20th March, 1692. My son was made one of the Commissioners of the
Revenue and Treasury of Ireland, to which employment he had a mind, far
from my wishes. I visited the Earl of Peterborough, who showed me the
picture of the Prince of Wales, newly brought out of France, seeming in
my opinion very much to resemble the Queen his mother, and of a most
vivacious countenance.
April, 1692. No spring yet appearing. The Queen Dowager went out of
England toward Portugal, as pretended, against the advice of all her
friends.
4th April, 1692. Mr. Bentley preached Mr. Boyle's lecture at St.
Mary-le-Bow. So excellent a discourse against the Epicurean system is
not to be recapitulated in a few words. He came to me to ask whether I
thought it should be printed, or that there was anything in it which I
desired to be altered. I took this as a civility, and earnestly desired
it should be printed, as one of the most learned and convincing
discourses I had ever heard.
6th April, 1692. A fast. King James sends a letter written and directed
by his own hand to several of the Privy Council, and one to his
daughter, the Queen Regent, informing them of the Queen being ready to
be brought to bed, and summoning them to be at the birth by the middle
of May, promising as from the French King, permission to come and return
in safety.
24th April, 1692. Much apprehension of a French invasion, and of an
universal rising. Our fleet begins to join with the Dutch. Unkindness
between the Queen and her sister. Very cold and unseasonable weather,
scarce a leaf on the trees.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
5th May, 1692. Reports of an invasion were very hot, and alarmed the
city, Court, and people; nothing but securing suspected persons, sending
forces to the seaside, and hastening out the fleet. Continued discourse
of the French invasion, and of ours in France. The eastern wind so
constantly blowing, gave our fleet time to unite, which had been so
tardy in preparation, that, had not God thus wonderfully favored, the
enemy would in all probability have fallen upon us. Many daily secured,
and proclamations out for more conspirators.
8th May, 1692. My kinsman, Sir Edward Evelyn, of Long Ditton, died
suddenly.
12th May, 1692. A fast.
13th May, 1692. I dined at my cousin Cheny's, son to my Lord Cheny, who
married my cousin Pierpoint.
15th May, 1692. My niece, M. Evelyn, was now married to Sir Cyril Wyche,
Secretary of State for Ireland. After all our apprehensions of being
invaded, and doubts of our success by sea, it pleased God to give us a
great naval victory, to the utter ruin of the French fleet, their
admiral and all their best men-of-war, transport-ships, etc.
29th May, 1692. Though this day was set apart expressly for celebrating
the memorable birth, return, and restoration of the late King Charles
II., there was no notice taken of it, nor any part of the office annexed
to the Common Prayer Book made use of, which I think was ill done, in
regard his restoration not only redeemed us from anarchy and confusion,
but restored the Church of England as it were miraculously.
9th June, 1692. I went to Windsor to carry my grandson to Eton School,
where I met my Lady Stonehouse and other of my daughter-in-law's
relations, who came on purpose to see her before her journey into
Ireland. We went to see the castle, which we found furnished and very
neatly kept, as formerly, only that the arms in the guard chamber and
keep were removed and carried away. An exceeding great storm of wind and
rain, in some places stripping the trees of their fruit and leaves as if
it had been winter; and an extraordinary wet season, with great floods.
23d July, 1692. I went with my wife, son, and daughter, to Eton, to see
my grandson, and thence to my Lord Godolphin's, at Cranburn, where we
lay, and were most honorably entertained. The next day to St. George's
Chapel, and returned to London late in the evening.
25th July, 1692. To Mr. Hewer's at Clapham, where he has an excellent,
useful, and capacious house on the Common, built by Sir Den. Gauden, and
by him sold to Mr. Hewer, who got a very considerable estate in the
Navy, in which, from being Mr. Pepys's clerk, he came to be one of the
principal officers, but was put out of all employment on the Revolution,
as were all the best officers, on suspicion of being no friends to the
change; such were put in their places, as were most shamefully ignorant
and unfit. Mr. Hewer lives very handsomely and friendly to everybody.
Our fleet was now sailing on their long pretense of a descent on the
French coast; but, after having sailed one hundred leagues, returned,
the admiral and officers disagreeing as to the place where they were to
land, and the time of year being so far spent,--to the great dishonor of
those at the helm, who concerted their matters so indiscreetly, or, as
some thought, designedly.
This whole summer was exceedingly wet and rainy, the like had not been
known since the year 1648; while in Ireland they had not known so great
a drought.
26th July, 1692. I went to visit the Bishop of Lincoln, when, among
other things, he told me that one Dr. Chaplin, of University College in
Oxford, was the person who wrote the "Whole Duty of Man"; that he used
to read it to his pupil, and communicated it to Dr. Sterne, afterward
Archbishop of York, but would never suffer any of his pupils to have a
copy of it.
9th August, 1692. A fast. Came the sad news of the hurricane and
earthquake, which has destroyed almost the whole Island of Jamaica, many
thousands having perished.
11th August, 1692. My son, his wife, and little daughter, went for
Ireland, there to reside as one of the Commissioners of the Revenue.
14th August, 1692. Still an exceedingly wet season.
15th September, 1692. There happened an earthquake, which, though not so
great as to do any harm in England, was universal in all these parts of
Europe. It shook the house at Wotton, but was not perceived by any save
a servant or two, who were making my bed, and another in a garret. I and
the rest being at dinner below in the parlor, were not sensible of it.
The dreadful one in Jamaica this summer was profanely and ludicrously
represented in a puppet play, or some such lewd pastime, in the fair of
Southwark, which caused the Queen to put down that idle and vicious mock
show.
1st October, 1692. This season was so exceedingly cold, by reason of a
long and tempestuous northeast wind, that this usually pleasant month
was very uncomfortable. No fruit ripened kindly. Harbord dies at
Belgrade; Lord Paget sent Ambassador in his room.
6th November, 1692. There was a vestry called about repairing or new
building of the church [at Deptford], which I thought unseasonable in
regard of heavy taxes, and other improper circumstances, which I there
declared.
10th November, 1692. A solemn Thanksgiving for our victory at sea, safe
return of the King, etc.
20th November, 1692. Dr. Lancaster, the new Vicar of St. Martin's,
preached.
A signal robbery in Hertfordshire of the tax money bringing out of the
north toward London. They were set upon by several desperate persons,
who dismounted and stopped all travelers on the road, and guarding them
in a field, when the exploit was done, and the treasure taken, they
killed all the horses of those whom they stayed, to hinder pursuit,
being sixteen horses. They then dismissed those that they had
dismounted.
14th December, 1692. With much reluctance we gratified Sir J.
Rotherham, one of Mr. Boyle's trustees, by admitting the Bishop of Bath
and Wells to be lecturer for the next year, instead of Mr. Bentley, who
had so worthily acquitted himself. We intended to take him in again the
next year.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
January, 1692-93. Contest in Parliament about a self-denying Act, that
no Parliament man should have any office; it wanted only two or three
voices to have been carried. The Duke of Norfolk's bill for a divorce
thrown out, he having managed it very indiscreetly. The quarrel between
Admiral Russell and Lord Nottingham yet undetermined.
4th February, 1693. After five days' trial and extraordinary contest,
the Lord Mohun was acquitted by the Lords of the murder of Montford, the
player, notwithstanding the judges, from the pregnant witnesses of the
fact, had declared him guilty; but whether in commiseration of his
youth, being not eighteen years old, though exceedingly dissolute, or
upon whatever other reason, the King himself present some part of the
trial, and satisfied, as they report, that he was culpable. 69 acquitted
him, only 14 condemned him.
Unheard of stories of the universal increase of witches in New England;
men, women, and children, devoting themselves to the devil, so as to
threaten the subversion of the government.[79] At the same time there
was a conspiracy among the negroes in Barbadoes to murder all their
masters, discovered by overhearing a discourse of two of the slaves, and
so preventing the execution of the design. Hitherto an exceedingly mild
winter. France in the utmost misery and poverty for want of corn and
subsistence, while the ambitious King is intent to pursue his conquests
on the rest of his neighbors both by sea and land. Our Admiral, Russell,
laid aside for not pursuing the advantage he had obtained over the
French in the past summer; three others chosen in his place. Dr. Burnet,
Bishop of Salisbury's book burned by the hangman for an expression of
the King's title by conquest, on a complaint of Joseph How, a member of
Parliament, little better than a madman.
[Footnote 79: Some account of these poor people is given in Bray and
Manning's "History of Surrey," ii. 714, from the papers of the Rev.
Mr. Miller, Vicar of Effingham, in that county, who was chaplain to
the King's forces in the colony from 1692 to 1695. Some of the
accused were convicted and executed; but Sir William Phipps, the
Governor, had the good sense to reprieve, and afterward pardon,
several; and the Queen approved his conduct.]
19th February, 1693. The Bishop of Lincoln preached in the afternoon at
the Tabernacle near Golden Square, set up by him. Proposals of a
marriage between Mr. Draper and my daughter Susanna. Hitherto an
exceedingly warm winter, such as has seldom been known, and portending
an unprosperous spring as to the fruits of the earth; our climate
requires more cold and winterly weather. The dreadful and astonishing
earthquake swallowing up Catania, and other famous and ancient cities,
with more than 100,000 persons in Sicily, on 11th January last, came now
to be reported among us.
26th February, 1693. An extraordinary deep snow, after almost no winter,
and a sudden gentle thaw. A deplorable earthquake at Malta, since that
of Sicily, nearly as great.
19th March, 1693. A new Secretary of State, Sir John Trenchard; the
Attorney-General, Somers, made Lord-Keeper, a young lawyer of
extraordinary merit. King William goes toward Flanders; but returns, the
wind being contrary.
31st March, 1693. I met the King going to Gravesend to embark in his
yacht for Holland.
23d April, 1693. An extraordinary wet spring.
27th April, 1693. My daughter Susanna was married to William Draper,
Esq., in the chapel of Ely House, by Dr. Tenison, Bishop of Lincoln
(since Archbishop). I gave her in portion £4,000, her jointure is £500
per annum. I pray Almighty God to give his blessing to this marriage!
She is a good child, religious, discreet, ingenious, and qualified with
all the ornaments of her sex. She has a peculiar talent in design, as
painting in oil and miniature, and an extraordinary genius for whatever
hands can do with a needle. She has the French tongue, has read most of
the Greek and Roman authors and poets, using her talents with great
modesty; exquisitely shaped, and of an agreeable countenance. This
character is due to her, though coming from her father. Much of this
week spent in ceremonies, receiving visits and entertaining relations,
and a great part of the next in returning visits.
11th May, 1693. We accompanied my daughter to her husband's house,
where with many of his and our relations we were magnificently treated.
There we left her in an apartment very richly adorned and furnished, and
I hope in as happy a condition as could be wished, and with the great
satisfaction of all our friends; for which God be praised!
14th May, 1693. Nothing yet of action from abroad. Muttering of a design
to bring forces under color of an expected descent, to be a standing
army for other purposes. Talk of a declaration of the French King,
offering mighty advantages to the confederates, exclusive of King
William; and another of King James, with an universal pardon, and
referring the composing of all differences to a Parliament. These were
yet but discourses; but something is certainly under it. A declaration
or manifesto from King James, so written, that many thought it
reasonable, and much more to the purpose than any of his former.
June, 1693. WHITSUNDAY. I went to my Lord Griffith's chapel; the common
church office was used for the King without naming the person, with some
other, apposite to the necessity and circumstances of the time.
11th June, 1693. I dined at Sir William Godolphin's; and, after evening
prayer, visited the Duchess of Grafton.
21st June, 1693. I saw a great auction of pictures in the Banqueting
house, Whitehall. They had been my Lord Melford's, now Ambassador from
King James at Rome, and engaged to his creditors here. Lord Mulgrave and
Sir Edward Seymour came to my house, and desired me to go with them to
the sale. Divers more of the great lords, etc., were there, and bought
pictures dear enough. There were some very excellent of Vandyke, Rubens,
and Bassan. Lord Godolphin bought the picture of the Boys, by Murillo
the Spaniard, for 80 guineas, dear enough; my nephew Glanville, the old
Earl of Arundel's head by Rubens, for £20. Growing late, I did not stay
till all were sold.
24th June, 1693. A very wet hay harvest, and little summer as yet.
9th July, 1693. Mr. Tippin, successor of Dr. Parr at Camberwell,
preached an excellent sermon.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
13th July, 1693. I saw the Queen's rare cabinets and collection of
china; which was wonderfully rich and plentiful, but especially a large
cabinet, looking-glass frame and stands, all of amber, much of it white,
with historical bas-reliefs and statues, with medals carved in them,
esteemed worth £4,000, sent by the Duke of Brandenburgh, whose country,
Prussia, abounds with amber, cast up by the sea; divers other China and
Indian cabinets, screens, and hangings. In her library were many books
in English, French, and Dutch, of all sorts; a cupboard of gold plate; a
cabinet of silver filagree, which I think was our Queen Mary's, and
which, in my opinion, should have been generously sent to her.
18th July, 1693. I dined with Lord Mulgrave, with the Earl of
Devonshire, Mr. Hampden (a scholar and fine gentleman), Dr. Davenant,
Sir Henry Vane, and others, and saw and admired the Venus of Correggio,
which Lord Mulgrave had newly bought of Mr. Daun for £250; one of the
best paintings I ever saw.
1st August, 1693. Lord Capel, Sir Cyril Wyche, and Mr. Duncomb, made
Lord Justices in Ireland; Lord Sydney recalled, and made Master of the
Ordnance.
6th August, 1693. Very lovely harvest weather, and a wholesome season,
but no garden fruit.
31st October, 1693. A very wet and uncomfortable season.
12th November, 1693. Lord Nottingham resigned as Secretary of State; the
Commissioners of the Admiralty ousted, and Russell restored to his
office. The season continued very wet, as it had nearly all the summer,
if one might call it summer, in which there was no fruit, but corn was
very plentiful.
14th November, 1693. In the lottery set up after the Venetian manner by
Mr. Neale, Sir R. Haddock, one of the Commissioners of the Navy, had the
greatest lot, £3,000; my coachman £40.
17th November, 1693. Was the funeral of Captain Young, who died of the
stone and great age. I think he was the first who in the first war with
Cromwell against Spain, took the Governor of Havanna, and another rich
prize, and struck the first stroke against the Dutch fleet in the first
war with Holland in the time of the Rebellion; a sober man and an
excellent seaman.
30th November, 1693. Much importuned to take the office of President of
the Royal Society, but I again declined it. Sir Robert Southwell was
continued. We all dined at Pontac's as usual.
3d December, 1693. Mr. Bentley preached at the Tabernacle, near Golden
Square. I gave my voice for him to proceed on his former subject the
following year in Mr. Boyle's lecture, in which he had been interrupted
by the importunity of Sir J. Rotheram that the Bishop of Chichester[80]
might be chosen the year before, to the great dissatisfaction of the
Bishop of Lincoln and myself. We chose Mr. Bentley again. The Duchess of
Grafton's appeal to the House of Lords for the Prothonotary's place
given to the late Duke and to her son by King Charles II., now
challenged by the Lord Chief Justice. The judges were severely reproved
on something they said.
[Footnote 80: A mistake for Bath and Wells. Bishop Kidder is
referred to.]
10th December, 1693. A very great storm of thunder and lightning.
1st January, 1693-94. Prince Lewis of Baden came to London, and was much
feasted. Danish ships arrested carrying corn and naval stores to France.
11th January, 1694. Supped at Mr. Edward Sheldon's, where was Mr.
Dryden, the poet, who now intended to write no more plays, being intent
on his translation of Virgil. He read to us his prologue and epilogue to
his valedictory play now shortly to be acted.
21st January, 1694. Lord Macclesfield, Lord Warrington, and Lord
Westmorland, all died within about one week. Several persons shot,
hanged, and made away with themselves.
11th February, 1694. Now was the great trial of the appeal of Lord Bath
and Lord Montagu before the Lords, for the estate of the late Duke of
Albemarle.
10th March, 1694. Mr. Stringfellow preached at Trinity parish, being
restored to that place, after the contest between the Queen and the
Bishop of London who had displaced him.
22d March, 1694. Came the dismal news of the disaster befallen our
Turkey fleet by tempest, to the almost utter ruin of that trade, the
convoy of three or four men-of-war, and divers merchant ships, with all
their men and lading, having perished.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
25th March, 1694. Mr. Goode, minister of St. Martin's, preached; he was
likewise put in by the Queen, on the issue of her process with the
Bishop of London.
30th March, 1694. I went to the Duke of Norfolk, to desire him to make
cousin Evelyn of Nutfield one of the Deputy-Lieutenants of Surrey, and
entreat him to dismiss my brother, now unable to serve by reason of age
and infirmity. The Duke granted the one, but would not suffer my brother
to resign his commission, desiring he should keep the honor of it during
his life, though he could not act. He professed great kindness to our
family.
1st April, 1694. Dr. Sharp, Archbishop of York, preached in the
afternoon at the Tabernacle, by Soho.
13th April, 1694. Mr. Bentley, our Boyle Lecturer, Chaplain to the
Bishop of Worcester, came to see me.
15th April, 1694. One Mr. Stanhope preached a most excellent sermon.