knights, gentlemen, captains, many of them Irish and English Papists,
and Nonjurors or Jacobites (so called), to murder King William on the
first opportunity of his going either from Kensington, or to hunting, or
to the chapel; and upon signal of fire to be given from Dover Cliff to
Calais, an invasion was designed. In order to it there was a great army
in readiness, men-of-war and transports, to join a general insurrection
here, the Duke of Berwick having secretly come to London to head them,
King James attending at Calais with the French army. It was discovered
by some of their own party. £1,000 reward was offered to whoever could
apprehend any of the thirty named. Most of those who were engaged in it,
were taken and secured. The Parliament, city, and all the nation,
congratulate the discovery; and votes and resolutions were passed that,
if King William should ever be assassinated, it should be revenged on
the Papists and party through the nation; an Act of Association drawing
up to empower the Parliament to sit on any such accident, till the Crown
should be disposed of according to the late settlement at the
Revolution. All Papists, in the meantime, to be banished ten miles from
London. This put the nation into an incredible disturbance and general
animosity against the French King and King James. The militia of the
nation was raised, several regiments were sent for out of Flanders, and
all things put in a posture to encounter a descent. This was so timed by
the enemy, that while we were already much discontented by the greatness
of the taxes, and corruption of the money, etc., we had like to have had
very few men-of-war near our coasts; but so it pleased God that Admiral
Rooke wanting a wind to pursue his voyage to the Straits, that squadron,
with others at Portsmouth and other places, were still in the Channel,
and were soon brought up to join with the rest of the ships which could
be got together, so that there is hope this plot may be broken. I look
on it as a very great deliverance and prevention by the providence of
God. Though many did formerly pity King James's condition, this design
of assassination and bringing over a French army, alienated many o£ his
friends, and was likely to produce a more perfect establishment of King
William.
1st March, 1696. The wind continuing N. and E. all this week, brought so
many of our men-of-war together that, though most of the French finding
their design detected and prevented, made a shift to get into Calais and
Dunkirk roads, we wanting fire-ships and bombs to disturb them; yet they
were so engaged among the sands and flats, that 'tis said they cut their
masts and flung their great guns overboard to lighten their vessels. We
are yet upon them. This deliverance is due solely to God. French were to
have invaded at once England, Scotland, and Ireland.
8th March, 1696. Divers of the conspirators tried and condemned.
Vesuvius breaking out, terrified Naples. Three of the unhappy wretches,
whereof one was a priest, were executed[82] for intending to assassinate
the King; they acknowledged their intention, but acquitted King James of
inciting them to it, and died very penitent. Divers more in danger, and
some very considerable persons.
[Footnote 82: Robert Charnock, Edward King, and Thomas Keys.]
Great frost and cold.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
6th April, 1696. I visited Mr. Graham in the Fleet.
10th April, 1696. The quarters of Sir William Perkins and Sir John
Friend, lately executed on the plot, with Perkins's head, were set up at
Temple Bar, a dismal sight, which many pitied. I think there never was
such at Temple Bar till now, except once in the time of King Charles
II., namely, of Sir Thomas Armstrong.[83]
[Footnote 83: He was concerned in the Rye-House plot, fled into
Holland, was given up, and executed in his own country, 1684. See p.
198.]
12th April, 1696. A very fine spring season.
19th April, 1696. Great offense taken at the three ministers who
absolved Sir William Perkins and Friend at Tyburn. One of them (Snatt)
was a son of my old schoolmaster. This produced much altercation as to
the canonicalness of the action.
21st April, 1696. We had a meeting at Guildhall of the grand committee
about settling the draught of Greenwich hospital.
23d April, 1696. I went to Eton, and dined with Dr. Godolphin, the
provost. The schoolmaster assured me there had not been for twenty years
a more pregnant youth in that place than my grandson. I went to see the
King's House at Kensington. It is very noble, though not great. The
gallery furnished with the best pictures [from] all the houses, of
Titian, Raphael, Correggio, Holbein, Julio Romano, Bassan, Vandyke,
Tintoretto, and others; a great collection of porcelain; and a pretty
private library. The gardens about it very delicious.
26th April, 1696. Dr. Sharp preached at the Temple. His prayer before
the sermon was one of the most excellent compositions I ever heard.
28th April, 1696. The Venetian Ambassador made a stately entry with
fifty footmen, many on horseback, four rich coaches, and a numerous
train of gallants. More executions this week of the assassins. Oates
dedicated a most villainous, reviling book against King James, which he
presumed to present to King William, who could not but abhor it,
speaking so infamously and untruly of his late beloved Queen's own
father.
2d May, 1696. I dined at Lambeth, being summoned to meet my co-trustees,
the Archbishop, Sir Henry Ashurst, and Mr. Serjeant Rotheram, to consult
about settling Mr. Boyle's lecture for a perpetuity; which we concluded
upon, by buying a rent charge of £50 per annum, with the stock in our
hands.
6th May, 1696. I went to Lambeth, to meet at dinner the Countess of
Sunderland and divers ladies. We dined in the Archbishop's wife's
apartment with his Grace, and stayed late; yet I returned to Deptford at
night.
13th May, 1696. I went to London to meet my son, newly come from
Ireland, indisposed. Money still continuing exceedingly scarce, so that
none was paid or received, but all was on trust, the mint not supplying
for common necessities. The Association with an oath required of all
lawyers and officers, on pain of _præmunire_, whereby men were obliged
to renounce King James as no rightful king, and to revenge King
William's death, if happening by assassination. This to be taken by all
the Counsel by a day limited, so that the Courts of Chancery and King's
Bench hardly heard any cause in Easter Term, so many crowded to take the
oath. This was censured as a very entangling contrivance of the
Parliament in expectation, that many in high office would lay down, and
others surrender. Many gentlemen taken up on suspicion of the late plot,
were now discharged out of prison.
29th May, 1696. We settled divers offices, and other matters relating to
workmen, for the beginning of Greenwich hospital.
[Sidenote: DEPTFORD]
1st June, 1696. I went to Deptford to dispose of our goods, in order to
letting the house for three years to Vice Admiral Benbow, with condition
to keep up the garden. This was done soon after.
4th June, 1696. A committee met at Whitehall about Greenwich Hospital,
at Sir Christopher Wren's, his Majesty's Surveyor-General. We made the
first agreement with divers workmen and for materials; and gave the
first order for proceeding on the foundation, and for weekly payments to
the workmen, and a general account to be monthly.
11th June, 1696. Dined at Lord Pembroke's, Lord Privy Seal, a very
worthy gentleman. He showed me divers rare pictures of very many of the
old and best masters, especially one of M. Angelo of a man gathering
fruit to give to a woman, and a large book of the best drawings of the
old masters. Sir John Fenwick, one of the conspirators, was taken. Great
subscriptions in Scotland to their East India Company. Want of current
money to carry on the smallest concerns, even for daily provisions in
the markets. Guineas lowered to twenty-two shillings, and great sums
daily transported to Holland, where it yields more, with other treasure
sent to pay the armies, and nothing considerable coined of the new and
now only current stamp, cause such a scarcity that tumults are every day
feared, nobody paying or receiving money; so imprudent was the late
Parliament to condemn the old though clipped and corrupted, till they
had provided supplies. To this add the fraud of the bankers and
goldsmiths, who having gotten immense riches by extortion, keep up their
treasure in expectation of enhancing its value. Duncombe, not long since
a mean goldsmith, having made a purchase of the late Duke of
Buckingham's estate at nearly £90,000, and reputed to have nearly as
much in cash. Banks and lotteries every day set up.
18th June, 1696. The famous trial between my Lord Bath and Lord Montague
for an estate of £11,000 a year, left by the Duke of Albemarle, wherein
on several trials had been spent,£20,000 between them. The Earl of Bath
was cast on evident forgery.
20th June, 1696. I made my Lord Cheney a visit at Chelsea, and saw those
ingenious waterworks invented by Mr. Winstanley, wherein were some
things very surprising and extraordinary.
21st June, 1696. An exceedingly rainy, cold, unseasonable summer, yet
the city was very healthy.
25th June, 1696. A trial in the Common Pleas between the Lady Purbeck
Temple and Mr. Temple, a nephew of Sir Purbeck, concerning a deed set up
to take place of several wills. This deed was proved to be forged. The
cause went on my lady's side. This concerning my son-in-law, Draper, I
stayed almost all day at Court. A great supper was given to the jury,
being persons of the best condition in Buckinghamshire.
30th June, 1696. I went with a select committee of the Commissioners for
Greenwich Hospital, and with Sir Christopher Wren, where with him I laid
the first stone of the intended foundation, precisely at five o'clock in
the evening, after we had dined together. Mr. Flamstead, the King's
Astronomical Professor, observing the punctual time by instruments.
4th July, 1696. Note that my Lord Godolphin was the first of the
subscribers who paid any money to this noble fabric.
7th July, 1696. A northern wind altering the weather with a continual
and impetuous rain of three days and nights changed it into perfect
winter.
12th July, 1696. Very unseasonable and uncertain weather.
26th July, 1696. So little money in the nation that Exchequer Tallies,
of which I had for £2,000 on the best fund in England, the Post Office,
nobody would take at 30 per cent discount.
3d August, 1696. The Bank lending the £200,000 to pay the array in
Flanders, that had done nothing against the enemy, had so exhausted the
treasure of the nation, that one could not have borrowed money under 14
or 15 per cent on bills, or on Exchequer Tallies under 30 per cent.
Reasonable good harvest weather. I went to Lambeth and dined with the
Archbishop, who had been at Court on the complaint against Dr. Thomas
Watson, Bishop of St. David's, who was suspended for simony. The
Archbishop told me how unsatisfied he was with the Canon law, and how
exceedingly unreasonable all their pleadings appeared to him.
September, 1696. Fine seasonable weather, and a great harvest after a
cold, wet summer. Scarcity in Scotland.
6th September, 1696. I went to congratulate the marriage of a daughter
of Mr. Boscawen to the son of Sir Philip Meadows; she is niece to my
Lord Godolphin, married at Lambeth by the Archbishop, 30th of August.
After above six months' stay in London about Greenwich Hospital, I
returned to Wotton.
24th October, 1696. Unseasonable stormy weather, and an ill seedtime.
November, 1696. Lord Godolphin retired from the Treasury, who was the
first Commissioner and most skillful manager of all.
8th November, 1696. The first frost began fiercely, but lasted not long.
More plots talked of. Search for Jacobites so called.
15th-23d November, 1696. Very stormy weather, rain, and inundations.
13th December, 1696. Continuance of extreme frost and snow.
17th January, 1696-7. The severe frost and weather relented, but again
froze with snow. Conspiracies continue against King William. Sir John
Fenwick was beheaded.
7th February, 1697. Severe frost continued with snow. Soldiers in the
armies and garrison towns frozen to death on their posts.
(Here a leaf of the MS. is lost.)
17th August, 1697. I came to Wotton after three months' absence.
September, 1697. Very bright weather, but with sharp east wind. My son
came from London in his melancholy indisposition.
12th September, 1697. Mr. Duncombe, the rector, came and preached after
an absence of two years, though only living seven or eight miles off [at
Ashted]. Welcome tidings of the Peace.
3d October, 1697. So great were the storms all this week, that near a
thousand people were lost going into the Texel.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
16th November, 1697. The King's entry very pompous; but is nothing
approaching that of King Charles II.
2d December, 1697. Thanksgiving Day for the Peace, the King and a great
Court at Whitehall. The Bishop of Salisbury preached, or rather made a
florid panegyric, on 2 Chron. ix. 7, 8. The evening concluded with
fireworks and illuminations of great expense.
5th December, 1697. Was the first Sunday that St. Paul's had had service
performed in it since it was burned in 1666.
6th December, 1697. I went to Kensington with the Sheriff, Knights, and
chief gentlemen of Surrey, to present their address to the King. The
Duke of Norfolk promised to introduce it, but came so late, that it was
presented before be came. This insignificant ceremony was brought in in
Cromwell's time, and has ever since continued with offers of life and
fortune to whoever happened to have the power. I dined at Sir Richard
Onslow's, who treated almost all the gentlemen of Surrey. When we had
half dined, the Duke of Norfolk came in to make his excuse.
12th December, 1697. At the Temple Church; it was very long before the
service began, staying for the Comptroller of the Inner Temple, where
was to be kept a riotous and reveling Christmas, according to custom.
18th December, 1697. At Lambeth, to Dr. Bentley, about the Library at
St. James's.
23d December, 1697. I returned to Wotton.
1697-98. A great Christmas kept at Wotton, open house, much company. I
presented my book of Medals, etc., to divers noblemen, before I exposed
it to sale.
2d January, 1698. Dr. Fulham, who lately married my niece, preached
against atheism, a very eloquent discourse, somewhat improper for most
of the audience at [Wotton], but fitted for some other place, and very
apposite to the profane temper of the age.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
5th January, 1698. Whitehall burned, nothing but walls and ruins left.
30th January, 1698. The imprisonment of the great banker, Duncombe:
censured by Parliament; acquitted by the Lords; sent again to the Tower
by the Commons.
The Czar of Muscovy being come to England, and having a mind to see the
building of ships, hired my house at Sayes Court, and made it his court
and palace, newly furnished for him by the King.[84]
[Footnote 84: While the Czar was in his house. Evelyn's servant
writes to him: "There is a house full of people, and right nasty.
The Czar lies next your library, and dines in the parlor next your
study. He dines at ten o'clock and at six at night; is very seldom
at home a whole day; very often in the King's yard, or by water,
dressed in several dresses. The King is expected here this day; the
best parlor is pretty clean for him to be entertained in. The King
pays for all he has."]
21st April, 1698. The Czar went from my house to return home. An
exceedingly sharp and cold season.
8th May, 1698. An extraordinary great snow and frost, nipping the corn
and other fruits. Corn at nine shillings a bushel [£18 a load].
30th May, 1698. I dined at Mr. Pepys's, where I heard the rare voice of
Mr. Pule, who was lately come from Italy, reputed the most excellent
singer we had ever had. He sung several compositions of the late Dr.
Purcell.
5th June, 1698. Dr. White, late Bishop of Norwich, who had been ejected
for not complying with Government, was buried in St. Gregory's
churchyard, or vault, at St. Paul's. His hearse was accompanied by two
non-juror bishops, Dr. Turner of Ely, and Dr. Lloyd, with forty other
non-juror clergymen, who would not stay the Office of the burial,
because the Dean of St. Paul's had appointed a conforming minister to
read the Office; at which all much wondered, there being nothing in that
Office which mentioned the present King.
8th June, 1698. I went to congratulate the marriage of Mr. Godolphin
with the Earl of Marlborough's daughter.
9th June, 1698. To Deptford, to see how miserably the Czar had left my
house, after three months making it his Court. I got Sir Christopher
Wren, the King's surveyor, and Mr. London, his gardener, to go and
estimate the repairs, for which they allowed £150 in their report to the
Lords of the Treasury. I then went to see the foundation of the Hall and
Chapel at Greenwich Hospital.
6th August, 1698. I dined with Pepys, where was Captain Dampier,[85] who
had been a famous buccaneer, had brought hither the painted Prince Job,
and printed a relation of his very strange adventure, and his
observations. He was now going abroad again by the King's encouragement,
who furnished a ship of 290 tons. He seemed a more modest man than one
would imagine by the relation of the crew he had assorted with. He
brought a map of his observations of the course of the winds in the
South Sea, and assured us that the maps hitherto extant were all false
as to the Pacific Sea, which he makes on the south of the line, that on
the north end running by the coast of Peru being extremely tempestuous.
[Footnote 85: The celebrated navigator, born in 1652, the time of
whose death is uncertain. His "Voyage Round the World" has gone
through many editions, and the substance of it has been transferred
to many collections of voyages.]
25th September, 1698. Dr. Foy came to me to use my interest with Lord
Sunderland for his being made Professor of Physic at Oxford, in the
King's gift. I went also to the Archbishop in his behalf.
7th December, 1698. Being one of the Council of the Royal Society, I was
named to be of the committee to wait on our new President, the Lord
Chancellor, our Secretary, Dr. Sloane, and Sir R. Southwell, last
Vice-President, carrying our book of statutes; the office of the
President being read, his Lordship subscribed his name, and took the
oaths according to our statutes as a Corporation for the improvement of
natural knowledge. Then his Lordship made a short compliment concerning
the honor the Society had done him, and how ready he would be to promote
so noble a design, and come himself among us, as often as the attendance
on the public would permit; and so we took our leave.
18th December, 1698. Very warm, but exceedingly stormy.
January, 1698-99. My cousin Pierrepoint died. She was daughter to Sir
John Evelyn, of Wilts, my father's nephew; she was widow to William
Pierrepoint, brother to the Marquis of Dorchester, and mother to Evelyn
Pierrepoint, Earl of Kingston; a most excellent and prudent lady.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
The House of Commons persist in refusing more than 7,000 men to be a
standing army, and no strangers to be in the number. This displeased the
Court party. Our county member, Sir R. Onslow, opposed it also; which
might reconcile him to the people, who began to suspect him.
17th February, 1699. My grandson went to Oxford with Dr. Mander, the
Master of Baliol College, where he was entered a fellow-commoner.
19th February, 1699. A most furious wind, such as has not happened for
many years, doing great damage to houses and trees, by the fall of which
several persons were killed.
5th March, 1699. The old East India Company lost their business against
the new Company, by ten votes in Parliament, so many of their friends
being absent, going to see a tiger baited by dogs.
The persecuted Vaudois, who were banished out of Savoy, were received by
the German Protestant Princes.
24th March, 1699. My only remaining son died after a tedious languishing
sickness, contracted in Ireland, and increased here, to my exceeding
grief and affliction; leaving me one grandson, now at Oxford, whom I
pray God to prosper and be the support of the Wotton family. He was aged
forty-four years and about three months. He had been six years one of
the Commissioners of the Revenue in Ireland, with great ability and
reputation.
26th March, 1699. After an extraordinary storm, there came up the Thames
a whale which was fifty-six feet long. Such, and a larger of the spout
kind, was killed there forty years ago (June 1658). That year died
Cromwell.
30th March, 1699. My deceased son was buried in the vault at Wotton,
according to his desire.
The Duke of Devon lost £1,900 at a horse race at Newmarket.
The King preferring his young favorite Earl of Albemarle to be first
Commander of his Guard, the Duke of Ormond laid down his commission.
This of the Dutch Lord passing over his head, was exceedingly resented
by everybody.
April, 1699. Lord Spencer purchased an incomparable library[86] of ...
wherein, among other rare books, were several that were printed at the
first invention of that wonderful art, as particularly "Tully's Offices,
etc." There was a Homer and a Suidas in a very good Greek character and
good paper, almost as ancient. This gentleman is a very fine scholar,
whom from a child I have known. His tutor was one Florival of Geneva.
[Footnote 86: The foundation of the noble library now at Blenheim.]
29th April, 1699. I dined with the Archbishop; but my business was to
get him to persuade the King to purchase the late Bishop of Worcester's
library, and build a place for his own library at St. James's, in the
Park, the present one being too small.
3d May, 1699. At a meeting of the Royal Society I was nominated to be of
the committee to wait on the Lord Chancellor to move the King to
purchase the Bishop of Worcester's library (Dr. Edward Stillingfleet).
4th May, 1699. The Court party have little influence in this Session.
7th May, 1699. The Duke of Ormond restored to his commission. All
Lotteries, till now cheating the people, to be no longer permitted than
to Christmas, except that for the benefit of Greenwich Hospital. Mr.
Bridgman, chairman of the committee for that charitable work, died; a
great loss to it. He was Clerk of the Council, a very industrious,
useful man. I saw the library of Dr. John Moore,[87] Bishop of Norwich,
one of the best and most ample collection of all sorts of good books in
England, and he, one of the most learned men.
[Footnote 87: Afterward Bishop of Ely. He died 31st of July, 1714.
King George I. purchased this library after the Bishop's death, for
£6,000, and presented it to the University of Cambridge, where it
now is.]
11th June, 1699. After a long drought, we had a refreshing shower. The
day before, there was a dreadful fire at Rotherhithe, near the Thames
side, which burned divers ships, and consumed nearly three hundred
houses. Now died the famous Duchess of Mazarin; she had been the richest
lady in Europe. She was niece of Cardinal Mazarin, and was married to
the richest subject in Europe, as is said. She was born at Rome,
educated in France, and was an extraordinary beauty and wit but
dissolute and impatient of matrimonial restraint, so as to be abandoned
by her husband, and banished, when she came into England for shelter,
lived on a pension given her here, and is reported to have hastened her
death by intemperate drinking strong spirits. She has written her own
story and adventures, and so has her other extravagant sister, wife to
the noble family of Colonna.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
15th June, 1699. This week died Conyers Seymour, son of Sir Edward
Seymour, killed in a duel caused by a slight affront in St. James's
Park, given him by one who was envious of his gallantries; for he was a
vain, foppish young man, who made a great _éclât_ about town by his
splendid equipage and boundless expense. He was about twenty-three years
old; his brother, now at Oxford, inherited an estate of £7,000 a year,
which had fallen to him not two years before.
19th June, 1699. My cousin, George Evelyn, of Nutfield, died suddenly.
25th June, 1699. The heat has been so great, almost all this month, that
I do not remember to have felt much greater in Italy, and this after a
winter the wettest, though not the coldest, that I remember for fifty
years last past.
28th June, 1699. Finding my occasions called me so often to London, I
took the remainder of the lease my son had in a house in Dover Street,
to which I now removed, not taking my goods from Wotton.
23d July, 1699. Seasonable showers, after a continuance of excessive
drought and heat.
August, 1699. I drank the Shooters' Hill waters. At Deptford, they had
been building a pretty new church. The Bishop of St. David's [Watson]
deprived for simony.[88] The city of Moscow burnt by the throwing of
squibs.
[Footnote 88: _Ante_, p. 330.]
3d September, 1699. There was in this week an eclipse of the sun, at
which many were frightened by the predictions of the astrologers. I
remember fifty years ago that many were so terrified by Lilly, that they
dared not go out of their houses. A strange earthquake at New Batavia,
in the East Indies.