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PEPYS, SAMUEL (1633-1703)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 132 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PEPYS, See also:SAMUEL (1633-1703) , See also:English diarist, was See also:born on the 23rd of See also:February 1633. The See also:place of his See also:birth is not known. The name was pronounced in the 17th See also:century, and has always been pronounced by the See also:family, " Peeps." The family can be traced in See also:Cambridgeshire as far back as the reign of See also:Edward I. They See also:rose by slow degrees from the class of small copyholders and See also:yeoman farmers to the position of gentry. In 1563 they had a recognized right to use a coat of arms. See also:John Pepys, Samuel's See also:father, was a younger son, who, like other gentlemen in his position in that See also:age, went into See also:trade. He was for a See also:time established as a tailor in See also:London, but in 1661 he inherited a small See also:estate at See also:Brampton near See also:Huntingdon, where he lived during the last years of his See also:life. Samuel was fifth See also:child and second son of a large family, all of whom he survived. His first school was in Huntingdon, but he was afterwards sent to St See also:Paul's in London, where he remained till 1650. While at St Paul's he was an See also:eye-See also:witness of the See also:execution of See also:King See also:Charles I. On the 21st of See also:June in that See also:year his name was entered as a See also:sizar on the books of Trinity See also:Hall, See also:Cambridge, but it was transferred to Magdalene on the 1st of See also:October. On the 5th of See also:March he entered into See also:residence, and he remained there till 1654 or 1655.

He obtained a Spendluffe scholarship a See also:

month after entering, and one on Dr John See also:Smith's See also:foundation on the 14th of October 1653. Nothing is known of his university career except that on the 21st of October 1653 he was publicly admonished with another undergraduate for having been " scandalously overserved with drink." At Cambridge he wrote a See also:romance, Love is a Cheat, which he afterwards destroyed. On the 1st of See also:December 1655 he was married at St See also:Margaret's See also:church, See also:Westminster, to See also:Elizabeth, daughter of See also:Alexander Marchant, Sieur de St See also:Michel, a See also:French Huguenot See also:exile from See also:Anjou who had married an English See also:lady named Kingsmill. Pepys had at this time no See also:independent means, and probably relied on his See also:cousins, the Montagues, to provide for him. On the 26th of March 1658 he was cut for the See also:stone, an event which he always kept in memory by a 'See also:solemn anniversary. In 165g he went as secretary with his See also:cousin, Edward See also:Montagu, after-wards See also:earl of See also:Sandwich, on a voyage to the See also:Sound. On his return he was engaged as a clerk under Mr (afterwards See also:Sir) Edward See also:Downing, one of the four tellers of the See also:exchequer. In 166o he accompanied his cousin, who commanded the See also:fleet which brought King Charles II. back from exile. In that year, by the See also:interest of his cousin, he was named " clerk of the acts " in the See also:navy See also:office, but , was compelled to buy off a competitor, one See also:Barlow, by an See also:annuity of See also:loo. Pepys was now fairly established in the See also:official career which led him to See also:honour. On the 1st of See also:January 166o he had begun his second and hidden life as a diarist. It is in that capacity that he is of such unique interest.

But if his See also:

diary had never been written, or had been lost, he would still be a notable See also:man, as an able official, the author of valuable See also:Memoirs of the Navy (169o), an See also:amateur musician and See also:protector of musicians, a See also:gentleman who took an enlightened interest in See also:science, and was elected See also:president of the Royal Society. To his contemporary diarist, John See also:Evelyn, he appeared as " a worthy, industrious and curious See also:person." It is true that See also:Andrew Marvel accused him of having accumulated a See also:fortune of k40,00o by " illegal See also:wages." But this See also:charge, made in a pamphlet called A See also:List of the See also:principal Labourers in the See also:great See also:design of Popery and Arbitrary See also:Power, was attributed to See also:political animosity. To the See also:world he appeared as an See also:honourable and religious man, and so he would seem to have been to us if he had not recorded in his diary all those weaknesses of See also:character and sins of the flesh which other men are most careful to conceal. His place of clerk to the Navy See also:Board was See also:equivalent to the See also:post of permanent under secretary in See also:modern times. It made him See also:chief of the secretariat and a member of the administrating See also:body of the navy. Though he was so ignorant of business that he did not even know the multiplication table when he first took office, he soon mastered the needful See also:mechanical details by working See also:early and See also:late. He had other posts and honours, which came to him either as consequential on his clerkship or because he was a useful official. On the 23rd of See also:July 166o he was appointed one of the clerks of the privy See also:seal, an office which returned him 3 a See also:day in fees. He was made a See also:justice of the See also:peace. In 1662 he was appointed a younger See also:brother of the Trinity See also:House, and was named a See also:commissioner for managing the affairs of See also:Tangier, then occupied by an English See also:garrison. In 1664 he became a member of the See also:corporation of the Royal See also:Fishery, to which body he was named treasurer when another official had brought the accounts into confusion. In that year he also joined the Royal Society.

During the See also:

naval See also:war with See also:Holland (1664-67) he proved himself an indefatigable worker. As surveyor of the victualling, the whole See also:burden of a most important See also:department was thrown on him in addition to his See also:regular duties. He in fact organized the department. While the See also:plague was raging in London in 1666 he remained at his post when many of his colleagues ran away, and he manfully avowed his readiness to take the See also:risk of disease, as others of the king's servants faced the dangers of war. He had now gained the full confidence of the See also:lord high See also:admiral, the See also:duke of See also:York, afterwards King See also:James II. When, on the termination of the war, the navy office was violently attacked in See also:parliament, he was entrusted with its See also:defence. The speech which he delivered at the See also:bar of the House of See also:Commons on the 5th of March 1668 passed for a See also:complete vindication. In sober fact the charges of mismanagement were well founded, but the See also:fault was not in the officials of the navy office only, and Pepys, who was See also:master of the details, had no difficulty in throwing dust in the eyes of the House of Commons, which was ignorant. Nobody indeed was better acquainted with the defects of the office, for in 1668 he See also:drew up for the duke of York two papers of inquiry and rebuke, " The Duke's Reflections on the severall Members of the Navy Board's See also:Duty " and " The Duke's See also:answer to their severall excuses " (Harleian MS. 6003). In 1669 he travelled abroad. His success in addressing parliament gave him the ambition to become a member of the House of Commons.

He stood for See also:

Aldborough, but the See also:death of his wife, on the loth of See also:November 1669, prevented him from conducting his See also:canvass in person, and he was not elected. In 1673 he was returned for See also:Castle Rising. The validity of his See also:election was questioned by his opponent, Mr Offley, and the See also:committee of See also:privilege decided against him, but the See also:prorogation of the house prevented further See also:action. The no-popery agitation was now growing in strength. The duke of York was driven from office by the Test See also:Act, and Pepys was accused of " popery," partly on the ground that he was said to keep a crucifix and See also:altar in his house, partly because he was accused of having converted his wife to See also:Roman Catholicism. The crucifix See also:story See also:broke down on examination, but there is some See also:reason to believe that Mrs Pepys did become a Roman See also:Catholic. Pepys was transferred by the king from the navy office to the secretaryship of the See also:admiralty in 1673. In 1679 he was member for See also:Harwich, and in the height of the popish See also:plot See also:mania he was accused, manifestly because he was a trusted servant of the duke of York, of betraying naval secrets to the French, but the charges were finally dropped. Pepys was released on See also:bail on the 12th of February 1680. In that year he accompanied the king to See also:Newmarket, and took down the narrative of his See also:escape after the See also:battle of See also:Worcester. A proposal to make him See also:head of King's See also:College, Cambridge, in 168x, came to nothing. In 1682 he accompanied the duke of York to See also:Scotland, where the uncleanly habits of the See also:people caused him great offence.

In 1683-1684 he was engaged in arranging for the evacuation of Tangier. He visited the place and kept a diary of his voyage. In 1684 he was elected president of the Royal Society. On the See also:

accession 'of King James II. in 1685 he retained his place as secretary to the admiralty, to which he had been appointed by patent when James resumed the lord high admiralship (June to, 1684), and Pepys was in effect See also:minister for the navy. The revolution of 1688 ended his official career. He was dismissed on the 9th of March 1689, and spent the See also:rest of his life in retirement, and, except for a brief imprisonment on the charge of Jacobite intrigue in 1690, in peace. He died at his house in Clapham on the 25th of May 1703. His last years were passed in See also:correspondence with his See also:friends, who included Evelyn and See also:Dryden, or in arranging his valuable library. It was See also:left on his death to his See also:nephew, John See also:Jackson, son of his See also:sister Pauline, and in 1724, by the terms of his will, was transferred to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where it is still preserved. Such was the outward and visible life of Samuel Pepys, the public servant whose See also:diligence was rewarded by success. The other Pepys, whom Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott called " that curious See also:fellow," was revealed in 1825, when his See also:secret diary was partly published. The first entry was made on the 1st of January 1660, the last on the 31st of May 1669, when the increasing weakness of his eyes, which had given him trouble since 1664, compelled him to cease See also:writing in the conditions he imposed upon himself.

If there is in all the literature of the world a See also:

book which can be called " unique " with strict propriety it is this. Confessions, diaries, See also:journals, autobiographies abound, but such a See also:revelation of a man's self has not yet been discovered. The diary is a thing apart by virtue of three qualities which are rarely found in perfection when See also:separate and nowhere else in See also:combination. It was secret; it was full; and it was honest. That Pepys meant it for his own eye alone is clear. He wrote it in See also:Shelton's See also:system of tachygraphy published in 1641, which he complicated by using See also:foreign See also:languages or by varieties of his own invention whenever he had to See also:record the passages least See also:fit to be seen by his servants or by " all the world." Relying on his cypher he put down what-ever he saw, heard, See also:felt or imagined, every See also:motion of his mind, every action of his body. And he noted all this, not as he desired it to appear to others, but as it was to his seeing. The result is " a human document " of amazing vitality. The man who displays himself to himself in the diary is often odious, greedy, cowardly, casuistical, brutal. He tells how he kicked his See also:cook, and blacked his wife's eye, and was annoyed when others saw what he had done. He notes how he compelled the wives of unfortunate men who came to draw their See also:husband's pay at the navy office to prostitute themselves; how he took " compliments," that is to say gifts, from all who had business to do with the navy office; how he got tipsy and suffered from sick headache; how he repented, made vows of sobriety, and found casuistical excuses for breaking them. The See also:style is as See also:peculiar as the See also:matter—colloquial, garrulous, racy from simplicity of See also:language, and full of the unconscious See also:humour which is never absent from a truthful See also:account of the workings of nature in the See also:average sensual man.

His position enabled him to see much. His complete See also:

harmony with the animalism and vulgarity of the Restoration makes him a valuable witness for his time. To his See also:credit must be put the facts that he knew the animalism and vulgarity to be what they were; that he had a real love of See also:music and gave help to musicians, Cesare See also:Morelli for instance; that though he made See also:money out of his places he never allowed See also:bad wcrk to be done for the navy if he could help it; that he was a hard worker; and that he had a capacity for such acts of kindness and generosity as are compatible with a See also:gross temperament and a pedestrian ambition. The diary, written in a very small See also:hand in six volumes, was included among his books at Magdalene. On the publication of Evelyn's diary in 1818, the then head of Magdalene, the Hon. and Rev. See also:George See also:Neville, decided to publish Pepys's. See also:Part of the MS. was deciphered by his cousin Lord See also:Grenville. The library contained both the See also:short and the See also:long-hand copies of Pepys's account of King Charles's adventures, but its books were so little known by the curators that this See also:key was overlooked. The MS. was deciphered by John Smith, afterwards See also:rector of Baldock in See also:Hertfordshire, between 1819 and 1822. The first and partial edition, edited by See also:Richard Neville See also:Griffin, 3rd Lord Braybrooke, appeared in 1825 in two volumes See also:quarto (London). It attracted great See also:attention and was reviewed by Sir Walter Scott in the Quarterly for January 1826. A second edition in two See also:octavo volumes followed in 1828 (London).

A third and enlarged edition in five volumes octavo appeared in 1848–1849, and a See also:

fourth in four in 1854 (London) . In 1875–1879 Dr Minors See also:Bright published a still See also:fuller edition in six volumes octavo (London). Many portraits of Pepys are known to have been taken and several can be traced. One was taken by Savill (1661), another by John See also:Hales (1666), now in the See also:National Portrait See also:Gallery. A portrait by Sir See also:Peter See also:Lely is in the Pepysian library, Magdalene College, Cambridge. Three portraits were taken by Sir See also:Godfrey See also:Kneller, of which one belongs to the Royal Society, and another is in the Hall of Magdalene. Pepys's only known publication in his life was the Memoirs of the Navy, but other writings have been attributed to him.

End of Article: PEPYS, SAMUEL (1633-1703)

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