Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete 1660 N.S. Samuel Pepys

of his

       personal circumstances beyond the fact of his having lived for

       fourteen years in Covent Garden, then a fashionable locality."

      Another work I have found of the greatest value is the late Mr. J. E. Doyle's "Official Baronage of England" (1886), which contains a mass of valuable information not easily to be obtained elsewhere. By reference to its pages I have been enabled to correct several erroneous dates in previous notes caused by a very natural confusion of years in the case of the months of January, February, and March, before it was finally fixed that the year should commence in January instead of March. More confusion has probably been introduced into history from this than from any other cause of a like nature. The reference to two years, as in the case of, say, Jan. 5, 1661–62, may appear clumsy, but it is the only safe plan of notation. If one year only is mentioned, the reader is never sure whether or not the correction has been made. It is a matter for sincere regret that the popular support was withheld from Mr. Doyle's important undertaking, so that the author's intention of publishing further volumes, containing the Baronies not dealt with in those already published, was frustrated.

      My labours have been much lightened by the kind help which I have

      received from those interested in the subject. Lovers of Pepys are

      numerous, and I have found those I have applied to ever willing to

      give me such information as they possess. It is a singular pleasure,

      therefore, to have an opportunity of expressing publicly my thanks

      to these gentlemen, and among them I would especially mention Messrs.

      Fennell, Danby P. Fry, J. Eliot Hodgkin, Henry Jackson, J. K. Laughton,

      Julian Marshall, John Biddulph Martin, J. E. Matthew, Philip Norman,

      Richard B. Prosser, and Hugh Callendar, Fellow of Trinity College,

      who verified some of the passages in the manuscript. To the Master

      and Fellows of Magdalene College, also, I am especially indebted for

      allowing me to consult the treasures of the Pepysian Library, and more

      particularly my thanks are due to Mr. Arthur G. Peskett, the Librarian.

       H. B. W.

      BRAMPTON, OPPIDANS ROAD, LONDON, N.W.

       February, 1893.

PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF THE DIARY.

       Table of Contents

      I. Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II., comprising his Diary from 1659 to 1669, deciphered by the Rev. John Smith, A.B., of St. John's College, Cambridge, from the original Shorthand MS. in the Pepysian Library, and a Selection from his Private Correspondence. Edited by Richard, Lord Braybrooke. In two volumes. London, Henry Colburn … 1825. 4vo.

      2. Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq., F.R.S. … Second edition. In five volumes. London, Henry Colburn. … 1828. 8vo.

      3. Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II.; with a Life and Notes by Richard, Lord Braybrooke; the third edition, considerably enlarged. London, Henry Colburn. … 1848–49. 5 vols. sm. 8vo.

      4. Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, F.R.S. … The fourth edition, revised and corrected. In four volumes. London, published for Henry Colburn by his successors, Hurst and Blackett … 1854. 8vo.

      The copyright of Lord Braybrooke's edition was purchased by the late Mr. Henry G. Bohn, who added the book to his Historical Library.

      5. Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, Esq., F.R.S., from his MS. Cypber in the Pepysian Library, with a Life and Notes by Richard, Lord Braybrooke. Deciphered, with additional notes, by the Rev. Mynors Bright, M.A. … London, Bickers and Son, 1875–79. 6 vols. 8vo.

      Nos. 1, 2 and 3 being out of copyright have been reprinted by various publishers.

      No. 5 is out of print.

      PARTICULARS OF THE LIFE OF SAMUEL PEPYS.

      The family of Pepys is one of considerable antiquity in the east of England, and the Hon. Walter Courtenay Pepys

      [Mr. W. C. Pepys has paid great attention to the history of his

       family, and in 1887 he published an interesting work entitled

       "Genealogy of the Pepys Family, 1273–1887," London, George Bell and

       Sons, which contains the fullest pedigrees of the family yet

       issued.]

      says that the first mention of the name that he has been able to find is in the Hundred Rolls (Edw. I, 1273), where Richard Pepis and John Pepes are registered as holding lands in the county of Cambridge. In the next century the name of William Pepis is found in deeds relating to lands in the parish of Cottenham, co. Cambridge, dated 1329 and 1340 respectively (Cole MSS., British Museum, vol. i., p. 56; vol. xlii., p. 44). According to the Court Roll of the manor of Pelhams, in the parish of Cottenham, Thomas Pepys was "bayliffe of the Abbot of Crowland in 1434," but in spite of these references, as well as others to persons of the same name at Braintree, Essex, Depedale, Norfolk, &c., the first ancestor of the existing branches of the family from whom Mr. Walter Pepys is able to trace an undoubted descent, is "William Pepis the elder, of Cottenham, co. Cambridge," whose will is dated 20th March, 1519.

      In 1852 a curious manuscript volume, bound in vellum, and entitled "Liber Talboti Pepys de instrumentis ad Feoda pertinentibus exemplificatis," was discovered in an old chest in the parish church of Bolney, Sussex, by the vicar, the Rev. John Dale, who delivered it to Henry Pepys, Bishop of Worcester, and the book is still in the possession of the family. This volume contains various genealogical entries, and among them are references to the Thomas Pepys of 1434 mentioned above, and to the later William Pepys. The reference to the latter runs thus:—

      "A Noate written out of an ould Booke of my uncle William Pepys."

       "William Pepys, who died at Cottenham, 10 H. 8, was brought up by

       the Abbat of Crowland, in Huntingdonshire, and he was borne in

       Dunbar, in Scotland, a gentleman, whom the said Abbat did make his

       Bayliffe of all his lands in Cambridgeshire, and placed him in

       Cottenham, which William aforesaid had three sonnes, Thomas, John,

       and William, to whom Margaret was mother naturallie, all of whom

       left issue."

      In illustration of this entry we may refer to the Diary of June 12th, 1667, where it is written that Roger Pepys told Samuel that "we did certainly come out of Scotland with the Abbot of Crowland." The references to various members of the family settled in Cottenham and elsewhere, at an early date already alluded to, seem to show that there is little foundation for this very positive statement.

      With regard to the standing of the family, Mr. Walter Pepys writes:—

      "The first of the name in 1273 were evidently but small copyholders.

       Within 150 years (1420) three or four of the name had entered the

       priesthood, and others had become connected with the monastery of

       Croyland as bailiffs, &c. In 250 years (1520) there were certainly

       two families: one at Cottenham, co. Cambridge, and another at

       Braintree, co. Essex, in comfortable circumstances as yeomen

       farmers. Within fifty years more (1563), one of the family, Thomas,

       of Southcreeke, co. Norfolk, had entered the ranks of the gentry

       sufficiently to have his coat-of-arms