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PREFACE
The manuscript in which Phineas Pett has recorded the story of his life from his birth in 1570 to the end of September 1638, consisted originally of sixty-nine uniform quarto sheets, of which the 52nd is now lost, together with the bottom of the 14th. The handwriting is that of Phineas throughout, but marginal references on the first few pages and a note at the end—'The life of Commissioner Pett's father whose place he did enjoy'—have been added subsequently by Samuel Pepys, no doubt when he was making the transcript referred to below.
The first paragraph is written on a separate sheet, which, unlike the rest, has no writing on the back, and is followed by a series of subtraction sums of the form 1612 1570 42 giving the age of Phineas for each year from 1612 to 1640. From the differences apparent in the figures and ink it is clear that these calculations were made year by year from the time that Phineas was forty-two until he reached the age of seventy.
A close inspection of the internal construction, the handwriting, and of the ink used, leads to the conclusion that the body of the manuscript, in the form in which it has descended to us, was written up, not at short intervals, but in sections at comparatively long intervals of time. The first and largest of these, written apparently in 1612, narrates the events down to September 1610, and stops at the word 'ordered' on line 15 of [page 80] below. The remainder[1] of that paragraph continues on a fresh sheet in a smaller handwriting and different ink, and from that point the ample margin of the earlier pages is abandoned and a small one ruled off with lead pencil. The top line of this page is also ruled, and from this page to the end of the writing the use of these pencil lines persists. The next break is in July 1611 ([page 92]), where Pett reiterates the statement that he was sent for by Prince Henry. Another break in the writing seems to occur in September 1613; and a very perceptible one, with change of ink, occurs in 1625 at 'All April' ([page 134]). The final section, as indicated by a further change of ink, begins in February 1631: 'The 23rd of February' ([page 146]). The various anachronisms observable in the text show that these sections were written up some considerable time after the events occurred. Thus, the references to 'Sir' John Pennington in 1627 and 1628 make it clear that the events of those years were not written up before 1634.