[Alderman Edward Backwell, an eminent banker and goldsmith, who is
frequently mentioned in the Diary. His shop was in Lombard Street.
He was ruined by the closing of the Exchequer by Charles II. in
1672. The crown then owed him L295,994 16s. 6d., in lieu of which
the King gave him an annuity of L17,759 13s. 8d. Backwell retired
into Holland after the closing of the Exchequer, and died there in
1679. See Hilton Price’s “Handbook of London Bankers,” 1876.]
for English, and then to Cardinal’s Cap, where he and the City
Remembrancer who paid for all. Back to Westminster, where my Lord was,
and discoursed with him awhile about his family affairs. So he went
away, I home and wrote letters into the country, and to bed.
24th. Sunday. Drank my morning draft at Harper’s, and bought a pair of
gloves there. So to Mr. G. Montagu, and told him what I had received
from Dover, about his business likely to be chosen there. So home and
thence with my wife towards my father’s. She went thither, I to Mr.
Crew’s, where I dined and my Lord at my Lord Montagu of Boughton in
Little Queen Street. In the afternoon to Mr. Mossum’s with Mr. Moore,
and we sat in Mr. Butler’s pew. Then to Whitehall looking for my Lord
but in vain, and back again to Mr. Crew’s where I found him and did give
him letters. Among others some simple ones from our Lieutenant, Lieut.
Lambert to him and myself, which made Mr. Crew and us all laugh. I went
to my father’s to tell him that I would not come to supper, and so after
my business done at Mr. Crew’s I went home and my wife within a little
while after me, my mind all this while full of thoughts for my place of
Clerk of the Acts.
25th. With my Lord at White Hall, all the morning. I spoke with Mr.
Coventry about my business, who promised me all the assistance I could
expect. Dined with young Mr. Powell, lately come from the Sound, being
amused at our great changes here, and Mr. Southerne, now Clerk to Mr.
Coventry, at the Leg in King-street. Thence to the Admiralty, where I
met with Mr. Turner
[Thomas Turner (or Tourner) was General Clerk at the Navy Office,
and on June 30th he offered Pepys L150 to be made joint Clerk of the
Acts with him. In a list of the Admiralty officers just before the
King came in, preserved in the British Museum, there occur, Richard
Hutchinson; Treasury of the Navy, salary L1500; Thomas Tourner,
General Clerk, for himself and clerk, L100.]
of the Navy-office, who did look after the place of Clerk of the Acts.
He was very civil to me, and I to him, and shall be so. There came
a letter from my Lady Monk to my Lord about it this evening, but he
refused to come to her, but meeting in White Hall, with Sir Thomas
Clarges, her brother, my Lord returned answer, that he could not desist
in my business; and that he believed that General Monk would take it
ill if my Lord should name the officers in his army; and therefore he
desired to have the naming of one officer in the fleet. With my Lord by
coach to Mr. Crew’s, and very merry by the way, discoursing of the late
changes and his good fortune. Thence home, and then with my wife to
Dorset House, to deliver a list of the names of the justices of the
peace for Huntingdonshire. By coach, taking Mr. Fox part of the way with
me, that was with us with the King on board the Nazeby, who I found
to have married Mrs. Whittle, that lived at Mr. Geer’s so long. A very
civil gentleman. At Dorset House I met with Mr. Kipps, my old friend,
with whom the world is well changed, he being now sealbearer to the Lord
Chancellor, at which my wife and I are well pleased, he being a very
good natured man. Home and late writing letters. Then to my Lord’s
lodging, this being the first night of his coming to Whitehall to lie
since his coming from sea.
26th. My Lord dined at his lodgings all alone to-day. I went to
Secretary Nicholas
[Sir Edward Nicholas, Secretary of State to Charles I. and II.
He was dismissed from his office through the intrigues of Lady
Castlemaine in 1663. He died 1669, aged seventy-seven.]
to carry him my Lord’s resolutions about his title, which he had chosen,
and that is Portsmouth.
[Montagu changed his mind, and ultimately took his title from the
town of Sandwich, leaving that of Portsmouth for the use of a King’s
mistress.]
I met with Mr. Throgmorton, a merchant, who went with me to the old
Three Tuns, at Charing Cross, who did give me five pieces of gold for to
do him a small piece of service about a convoy to Bilbo, which I did. In
the afternoon, one Mr. Watts came to me, a merchant, to offer me L500 if
I would desist from the Clerk of the Acts place. I pray God direct me in
what I do herein. Went to my house, where I found my father, and carried
him and my wife to Whitefriars, and myself to Puddlewharf, to
the Wardrobe, to Mr. Townsend, who went with me to Backwell, the
goldsmith’s, and there we chose L100 worth of plate for my Lord to give
Secretary Nicholas. Back and staid at my father’s, and so home to bed.
27th. With my Lord to the Duke, where he spoke to Mr. Coventry to
despatch my business of the Acts, in which place every body gives me
joy, as if I were in it, which God send.
[The letters patent, dated July 13th, 12 Charles II., recite and
revoke letters patent of February 16th, 14 Charles I., whereby the
office of Clerk of the Ships had been given to Dennis Fleming and
Thomas Barlow, or the survivor. D. F. was then dead, but T. B.
living, and Samuel Pepys was appointed in his room, at a salary of
L33 6s. 8d. per annum, with 3s. 4d. for each day employed in
travelling, and L6 per annum for boathire, and all fees due. This
salary was only the ancient “fee out of the Exchequer,” which had
been attached to the office for more than a century. Pepys’s salary
had been previously fixed at L350 a year.]
Dined with my Lord and all the officers of his regiment, who invited my
Lord and his friends, as many as he would bring, to dinner, at the Swan,
at Dowgate, a poor house and ill dressed, but very good fish and plenty.
Here Mr. Symons, the Surgeon, told me how he was likely to lose his
estate that he had bought, at which I was not a little pleased. To
Westminster, and with Mr. Howe by coach to the Speaker’s, where my Lord
supped with the King, but I could not get in. So back again, and after
a song or two in my chamber in the dark, which do (now that the bed is
out) sound very well, I went home and to bed.
28th. My brother Tom came to me with patterns to choose for a suit.
I paid him all to this day, and did give him L10 upon account. To Mr.
Coventry, who told me that he would do me all right in my business. To
Sir G. Downing, the first visit I have made him since he came. He is
so stingy a fellow I care not to see him; I quite cleared myself of his
office, and did give him liberty to take any body in. Hawly and he are
parted too, he is going to serve Sir Thos. Ingram. I went also this
morning to see Mrs. Pierce, [the chirurgeon’s wife]. I found her in bed
in her house in Margaret churchyard. Her husband returned to sea. I did
invite her to go to dinner with me and my wife to-day. After all this to
my Lord, who lay a-bed till eleven o’clock, it being almost five before
he went to bed, they supped so late last night with the King. This
morning I saw poor Bishop Wren
[Matthew Wren, born 1585, successively Bishop of Hereford, Norwich,
and Ely. At the commencement of the Rebellion he was sent to the
Tower, and remained a prisoner there eighteen years. Died April
24th, 1667.]
going to Chappel, it being a thanksgiving-day
[“A Proclamation for setting apart a day of Solemn and Publick
Thanksgiving throughout the whole Kingdom,” dated June 5th, 1660.]
for the King’s return. After my Lord was awake, I went up to him to the
Nursery, where he do lie, and, having talked with him a little, I took
leave and carried my wife and Mrs. Pierce to Clothworkers’-Hall, to
dinner, where Mr. Pierce, the Purser, met us. We were invited by Mr.
Chaplin, the Victualler, where Nich. Osborne was. Our entertainment very
good, a brave hall, good company, and very good music. Where among other
things I was pleased that I could find out a man by his voice, whom I
had never seen before, to be one that sang behind the curtaine
formerly at Sir W. Davenant’s opera. Here Dr. Gauden and Mr. Gauden the
victualler dined with us. After dinner to Mr. Rawlinson’s,
[Daniel Rawlinson kept the Mitre in Fenchurch Street, and there is a
farthing token of his extant, “At the Mitetr in Fenchurch Streete,
D. M. R.” The initials stand for Daniel and Margaret Rawlinson (see
“Boyne’s Trade Tokens,” ed. Williamson, vol. i., 1889, p. 595) In
“Reliquiae Hearnianae” (ed. Bliss, 1869, vol. ii. p. 39) is the
following extract from Thomas Rawlinson’s Note Book R.: “Of Daniel
Rawlinson, my grandfather, who kept the Mitre tavern in Fenchurch
Street, and of whose being sequestred in the Rump time I have heard
much, the Whiggs tell this, that upon the king’s murder he hung his
signe in mourning. He certainly judged right. The honour of the
Mitre was much eclipsed through the loss of so good a parent of the
church of England. These rogues say, this endeared him so much to
the churchmen that he soon throve amain and got a good estate.”
Mrs. Rawlinson died of the plague (see August 9th, 1666), and the
house was burnt in the Great Fire. Mr. Rawlinson rebuilt the Mitre,
and he had the panels of the great room painted with allegorical
figures by Isaac Fuller. Daniel was father of Sir Thomas Rawlinson,
of whom Thomas Hearne writes (October 1st, 1705): “Sir Thomas
Rawlinson is chosen Lord Mayor of London for ye ensueing
notwithstanding the great opposition of ye Whigg party” (Hearne’s
“Collections,” ed. Doble, 1885, vol. i. p. 51). The well-known
antiquaries, Thomas and Richard Rawlinson, sons of Sir Thomas, were
therefore grandsons of Daniel.]
to see him and his wife, and would have gone to my Aunt Wight, but that
her only child, a daughter, died last night. Home and to my Lord, who
supped within, and Mr. E. Montagu, Mr. Thos. Crew, and others with him
sat up late. I home and to bed.
29th. This day or two my maid Jane--[Jane Wayneman.]--has been lame,
that we cannot tell what to do for want of her. Up and to White Hall,
where I got my warrant from the Duke to be Clerk of the Acts. Also I
got my Lord’s warrant from the Secretary for his honour of Earle of
Portsmouth, and Viscount Montagu of Hinchingbroke. So to my Lord, to
give him an account of what I had done. Then to Sir Geffery Palmer, to
give them to him to have bills drawn upon them, who told me that my Lord
must have some good Latinist to make the preamble to his Patent, which
must express his late service in the best terms that he can, and he told
me in what high flaunting terms Sir J. Greenville had caused his to
be done, which he do not like; but that Sir Richard Fanshawe had done
General Monk’s very well. Back to Westminster, and meeting Mr. Townsend
in the Palace, he and I and another or two went and dined at the Leg
there. Then to White Hall, where I was told by Mr. Hutchinson at the
Admiralty, that Mr. Barlow, my predecessor, Clerk of the Acts, is yet
alive, and coming up to town to look after his place, which made my
heart sad a little. At night told my Lord thereof, and he bade me get
possession of my Patent; and he would do all that could be done to keep
him out. This night my Lord and I looked over the list of the Captains,.
and marked some that my Lord had a mind to have put out. Home and to
bed. Our wench very lame, abed these two days.
30th. By times to Sir R. Fanshawe to draw up the preamble to my Lord’s
Patent. So to my Lord, and with him to White Hall, where I saw a great
many fine antique heads of marble, that my Lord Northumberland had given
the King. Here meeting with Mr. De Cretz, he looked over many of the
pieces, in the gallery with me and told me [by] whose hands they were,
with great pleasure. Dined at home and Mr. Hawly with me upon six of my
pigeons, which my wife has resolved to kill here. This day came Will,
[William Wayneman was constantly getting into trouble, and Pepys had
to cane him. He was dismissed on July 7th, 1663.]
my boy, to me; the wench continuing lame, so that my wife could not be
longer without somebody to help her. In the afternoon with Sir Edward
Walker, at his lodgings by St. Giles Church, for my Lord’s pedigree, and
carried it to Sir R. Fanshawe. To Mr. Crew’s, and there took money and
paid Mrs. Anne, Mrs. Jemima’s maid, off quite, and so she went away and
another came to her. To White Hall with Mr. Moore, where I met with
a letter from Mr. Turner, offering me L150 to be joined with me in my
patent, and to advise me how to improve the advantage of my place, and
to keep off Barlow. To my Lord’s till late at night, and so home.