“Here’s a health to my Lady Brouncker, and the best card in her hand;
And a health to my Lord her husband, with ne’er a foot of land.”[243]
These were some of the men who helped to carry on the work of the English navy. It would have been well for the fame of most of them if Pepys had never put pen to paper.
FOOTNOTES:
- [188] Vol. iii. There is a MS. copy of these “Tracts” in the Pepysian Library.
- [189] Thus Amir-al-moumenim is the Arabic for Commander of the Faithful.
- [190] It is to Colonel Pasley’s kindness that I owe the greater portion of the information contained in this chapter. That officer, who is Director of Works at the Admiralty, has made large collections relating to the early history of the administration of the navy, and to him I am also indebted for the valuable lists in the [Appendix], which he has compiled for me with great labour from original sources. No such lists were previously in existence. Colonel Pasley has further kindly supplied me with the notes that follow which are signed in each instance “C. P.”
- [191] Harl. MS. 249.
- [192] Letters and Papers, Henry VIII. vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 309.
- [193] Add. MS. 5752, fol. 6b (Brit. Mus.).
- [194] State Papers, Dom. Eliz. vol. xv. No. 4. There is a copy of these regulations in the British Museum, Add. MS. 9295, fol. 17.
- [195] The number of principal officers was afterwards fixed at four, viz.:—1. Treasurer; 2. Comptroller; 3. Surveyor; 4. Clerk of the Acts.
- [196] These amounts were made up of the “Fee out of the Exchequer” (or salary proper); the Allowance for one or more Clerks; “Boat-hire,” and “Riding Costs” (or travelling expenses).—C. P.
- [197] “Diary,” July 7, 1660.
- [198] The emoluments of the Treasurer arose chiefly from “poundage” on all sums passing through his hands. In time of war his profits were often very large.—C. P.
- [199] “Diary,” Nov. 9, 1663.
- [200] In the “Succession of the Lords High Admiral,” &c., in Pepys’s “Naval Collections,” it is stated that on the Restoration the existing Commissioners of the Admiralty and of the Navy respectively were temporarily continued in office by order in council of the 31st May, 1660. By a subsequent order (7th July following) a Board of Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy on the ancient model was appointed, and the Duke of York was directed to revoke the authority he had granted “unto the former Treasurer, Officers, and Commissioners of the Navy.” It would appear, therefore, that the Admiralty Commissioners had been suppressed, and the Duke appointed Admiral at some intermediate date between the 31st May and the 7th July, 1660; although, according to Pepys’s list, quoted above, his patent under the Great Seal bore date the 29th January, 1660–61.—C. P.
- [201] Life of Clarendon, 1827, vol. ii. p. 331.
- [202] The Regulations were printed in 1717, under the title of “The Œconomy of His Majesty’s Navy Office.... By an Officer of the Navy.”
- [203] See “Diary,” Aug. 16, 21, 23, 25, 30, 1668.
- [204] Aug. 29, Sept. 8th, 1668.
- [205] Sept. 12, 18, 1668.
- [206] “The Duke’s Reflections on the severall Members of the Navy Boards Duty,” dated “St. James, 28 Aug., 1668.” “The Duke’s Answer to their severall Excuses,” dated “Whitehall, 25 Nov., 1668” (both in Harleian MS. 6003).
- [207] See “Diary,” Nov. 25, 1668.
- [208] “Diary,” Nov. 5, 1668.
- [209] Williamson Letters (Camden Society), vol. i. pp. 47, 51, 56.
- [210] “Diary,” March 17, 1664–65.
- [211] “Diary,” Nov. 2, 1663.
- [212] P. Gibson in “Life of Penn,” ii. 616.
- [213] Sloane MS. 2751.
- [214] The letter, signed “S. Pepyes,” and dated “Greenwich, 1st January, 1665,” is in the British Museum (Add. MS. 6287). There is also a copy in Harl. MS. 6003.
- [215] The “Englishmen on board the Dutch ships” were heard to say, “We did heretofore fight for tickets; now we fight for dollars!”—“Diary,” June 14, 1667.
- [216] “Diary,” Oct. 20, 1666.
- [217] Gibson was a contemporary of Pepys, and a clerk in the Navy Office. He was somewhat of a laudator temporis acti, and fonder of drawing his illustrations from events of Queen Elizabeth’s time than from those of more recent days. See his paper in praise of “Seamen Captains,” printed in the preface to Charnock’s “History of Marine Architecture,” pp. lxxiv.-xcv.—C. P.
- [218] “Diary,” Oct. 20, 1666.
- [219] Jan. 10, 1665–66.
- [220] Campbell’s “Naval History,” 1818, vol. ii. p. 165.
- [221] Ibid. p. 177.
- [222] “Diary,” April 10, 1661. This house (of which there is a plan in King’s MS. 43) was pulled down in 1703, and the house now occupied by the Admiral Superintendent of Chatham Dockyard was built in its place.—C. P.
- [223] A plan, with front and side elevations of the Hill-house as it was in 1698, is in King’s MS. 43. The ground on which it stood is now included in the Marine Barracks.—C. P.
- [224] “Diary,” April 8, 1661.
- [225] 1729, p. 23.
- [226] “Diary,” July 3, 1662.
- [227] Nov. 13, 1662.
- [228] June 18, 1667.
- [229] Dummer was Assistant to the Surveyor of the Navy when he designed these works. The improvement of Portsmouth and the foundation of a dockyard at Plymouth were called for by the political changes arising out of the Revolution. Previously our great naval wars had been waged against the Dutch, and the Thames and Medway were then the most convenient localities for fitting and repairing ships of war. After the Revolution, the Dutch became our allies, and the French our most formidable enemies. The naval ports on the Channel then became more important than those on the east coast.—C. P.
- [230] King’s MS. 43 (Brit. Mus.) contains plans of all the dockyards in 1688 and 1698, and detailed drawings of the principal buildings as they were in the latter year, as well as of the Navy Office in Seething Lane, and the Hill-house at Chatham.—C. P.
- [231] “Diary,” Nov. 29, 1661.
- [232] Campbell’s “Naval History,” 1818, vol. ii. p. 217.
- [233] “Evelyn’s Diary,” ed. 1879, vol. iii. p. 414. (Letter dated Sept. 19, 1682.)
- [234] “Diary,” July 4, 1663.
- [235] “Diary,” Dec. 7, 1661.
- [236] Nov. 4, 1664.
- [237] June 13, 1663.
- [238] May 5, 1664.
- [239] Nov. 4, 1664.
- [240] Nov. 9, 1663.
- [241] Lister’s “Life of Clarendon,” vol. iii. p. 107.
- [242] “Diary,” Jan. 29, 1666–67.
- [243] Aubrey’s “Lives,” 1813, vol. ii. p. 260.
CHAPTER IX.
