The Diary of John Evelyn Volume II Part 44

8th December, 1700. Great alterations of officers at Court, and elsewhere,--Lord Chief Justice Treby died; he was a learned man in his profession, of which we have now few, never fewer; the Chancery requiring so little skill in deep law-learning, if the practicer can talk eloquently in that Court; so that probably few care to study the law to any purpose. Lord Marlborough Master of the Ordnance, in place of Lord Romney made Groom of the Stole. The Earl of Rochester goes Lord Lieutenant to Ireland.

January, 1700-01. I finished the sale of North Stoake in Suss.e.x to Robert Mich.e.l.l, Esq., appointed by my brother to be sold for payment of portions to my nieces, and other inc.u.mbrances on the estate.

4th January, 1701. An exceeding deep snow, and melted away as suddenly.

19th January, 1701. Severe frost, and such a tempest as threw down many chimneys, and did great spoil at sea, and blew down above twenty trees of mine at Wotton.

9th February, 1701. The old Speaker laid aside, and Mr. Harley, an able gentleman, chosen. Our countryman, Sir Richard Onslow, had a party for him.

27th February, 1701. By an order of the House of Commons, I laid before the Speaker the state of what had been received and paid toward the building of Greenwich Hospital.

Mr. Wye, Rector of Wotton, died, a very worthy good man. I gave it to Dr. Bohun, a learned person and excellent preacher, who had been my son's tutor, and lived long in my family.

18th March, 1701. I let Sayes Court to Lord Carmarthen, son to the Duke of Leeds. 28th. I went to the funeral of my sister Draper, who was buried at Edmonton in great state. Dr. Davenant displeased the clergy now met in Convocation by a pa.s.sage in his book, p. 40.

April, 1701. A Dutch boy of about eight or nine years old was carried about by his parents to show, who had about the iris of one eye the letters of _Deus meus_, and of the other _Elohim_, in the Hebrew character. How this was done by artifice none could imagine; his parents affirming that he was so born. It did not prejudice his sight, and he seemed to be a lively playing boy. Everybody went to see him; physicians and philosophers examined it with great accuracy; some considered it as artificial, others as almost supernatural.

4th April, 1701. The Duke of Norfolk died of an apoplexy, and Mr. Thomas Howard of complicated disease since his being cut for the stone; he was one of the Tellers of the Exchequer. Mr. How made a Baron.

May, 1701. Some Kentish men, delivering a pet.i.tion to the House of Commons, were imprisoned.[93]

[Footnote 93: Justinian Champneys, Thomas Culpepper, William Culpepper, William Hamilton, and David Polhill, gentlemen of considerable property and family in the county. There is a very good print of them in five ovals on one plate, engraved by R. White, in 1701. They desired the Parliament to mind the public more, and their private heats less. They were confined till the prorogation, and were much visited. Burnet gives an account of them.]

A great dearth, no considerable rain having fallen for some months.

17th May, 1701. Very plentiful showers, the wind coming west and south.

The Bishops and Convocation at difference concerning the right of calling the a.s.sembly and dissolving. Atterbury and Dr. Wake writing one against the other.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

20th June, 1701. The Commons demanded a conference with the Lords on the trial of Lord Somers, which the Lords refused, and proceeding on the trial, the Commons would not attend, and he was acquitted.

22d June, 1701. I went to congratulate the arrival of that worthy and excellent person my Lord Galway, newly come out of Ireland, where he had behaved himself so honestly, and to the exceeding satisfaction of the people: but he was removed thence for being a Frenchman, though they had not a more worthy, valiant, discreet, and trusty person in the two kingdoms, on whom they could have relied for his conduct and fitness. He was one who had deeply suffered, as well as the Marquis, his father, for being Protestants.

July, 1701. My Lord Treasurer made my grandson one of the Commissioners of the prizes, salary 500 per annum.

8th July, 1701. My grandson went to Sir Simon Harcourt, the Solicitor-General, to Windsor, to wait on my Lord Treasurer. There had been for some time a proposal of marrying my grandson to a daughter of Mrs. Boscawen, sister of my Lord Treasurer, which was now far advanced.

14th July, 1701. I subscribed toward rebuilding Oakwood Chapel, now, after 200 years, almost fallen down.

August, 1701. The weather changed from heat not much less than in Italy or Spain for some few days, to wet, dripping, and cold, with intermissions of fair.

2d September, 1701. I went to Kensington, and saw the house, plantations, and gardens, the work of Mr. Wise, who was there to receive me.

The death of King James, happening on the 15th of this month, N. S., after two or three days' indisposition, put an end to that unhappy Prince's troubles, after a short and unprosperous reign, indiscreetly attempting to bring in Popery, and make himself absolute, in imitation of the French, hurried on by the impatience of the Jesuits; which the nation would not endure.

Died the Earl of Bath, whose contest with Lord Montague about the Duke of Albemarle's estate, claiming under a will supposed to have been forged, is said to have been worth 10,000 to the lawyers. His eldest son shot himself a few days after his father's death; for what cause is not clear. He was a most hopeful young man, and had behaved so bravely against the Turks at the siege of Vienna, that the Emperor made him a Count of the Empire. It was falsely reported that Sir Edward Seymour was dead, a great man; he had often been Speaker, Treasurer of the Navy, and in many other lucrative offices. He was of a hasty spirit, not at all sincere, but head of the party at any time prevailing in Parliament.

29th September, 1701. I kept my first courts in Surrey, which took up the whole week. My steward was Mr. Hervey, a Counsellor, Justice of Peace, and Member of Parliament, and my neighbor. I gave him six guineas, which was a guinea a day, and to Mr. Martin, his clerk, three guineas.

31st October, 1701. I was this day 81 complete, in tolerable health, considering my great age.

December, 1701. Great contentions about elections. I gave my vote and interest to Sir R. Onslow and Mr. Weston.

27th December, 1701. My grandson quitted Oxford.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

21st January, 1701-02. At the Royal Society there was read and approved the delineation and description of my Tables of Veins and Arteries, by Mr. Cooper, the chirurgeon, in order to their being engraved.

8th March, 1702. The King had a fall from his horse, and broke his collar bone, and having been much indisposed before, and aguish, with a long cough and other weakness, died this Sunday morning, about four o'clock.

I carried my accounts of Greenwich Hospital to the Committee.

12th April, 1702. My brother-in-law, Glanville, departed this life this morning after a long languis.h.i.+ng illness, leaving a son by my sister, and two granddaughters. Our relation and friends.h.i.+p had been long and great. He was a man of excellent parts. He died in the 84th year of his age, and willed his body to be wrapped in lead and carried down to Greenwich, put on board a s.h.i.+p, and buried in the sea, between Dover and Calais, about the Goodwin sands; which was done on the Tuesday, or Wednesday after. This occasioned much discourse, he having no relation at all to the sea. He was a gentleman of an ancient family in Devons.h.i.+re, and married my sister Jane. By his prudent parsimony he much improved his fortune. He had a place in the Alienation Office, and might have been an extraordinary man, had he cultivated his parts.

My steward at Wotton gave a very honest account of what he had laid out on repairs, amounting to 1,900.

3d May, 1702. The report of the committee sent to examine the state of Greenwich hospital was delivered to the House of Commons, much to their satisfaction. Lord G.o.dolphin made Lord High Treasurer.

Being elected a member of the Society lately incorporated for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts, I subscribed 10 per annum toward the carrying it on. We agreed that every missioner, besides the 20 to set him forth, should have 50 per annum out of the stock of the Corporation, till his settlement was worth to him 100 per annum. We sent a young divine to New York.

22d June, 1702. I dined at the Archbishop's with the newly made Bishop of Carlisle, Dr. Nicolson, my worthy and learned correspondent.

27th June, 1702. I went to Wotton with my family for the rest of the summer, and my son-in-law, Draper, with his family, came to stay with us, his house at Addis...o...b.. being new-building, so that my family was above thirty. Most of the new Parliament were chosen of Church of England principles, against the peevish party. The Queen was magnificently entertained at Oxford and all the towns she pa.s.sed through on her way to Bath.

31st October, 1702. Arrived now to the 82d year of my age, having read over all that pa.s.sed since this day twelvemonth in these notes, I render solemn thanks to the Lord, imploring the pardon of my past sins, and the a.s.sistance of his grace; making new resolutions, and imploring that he will continue his a.s.sistance, and prepare me for my blessed Savior's coming, that I may obtain a comfortable departure, after so long a term as has been hitherto indulged me. I find by many infirmities this year (especially nephritic pains) that I much decline; and yet of his infinite mercy retain my intellect and senses in great measure above most of my age. I have this year repaired much of the mansion house and several tenants' houses, and paid some of my debts and engagements. My wife, children, and family in health: for all which I most sincerely beseech Almighty G.o.d to accept of these my acknowledgments, and that if it be his holy will to continue me yet longer, it may be to the praise of his infinite grace, and salvation of my soul. Amen!

8th November, 1702. My kinsman, John Evelyn, of Nutfield, a young and very hopeful gentleman, and Member of Parliament, after having come to Wotton to see me, about fifteen days past, went to London and there died of the smallpox. He left a brother, a commander in the army in Holland, to inherit a fair estate.

Our affairs in so prosperous a condition both by sea and land, that there has not been so great an union in Parliament, Court, and people, in memory of man, which G.o.d in mercy make us thankful for, and continue!

The Bishop of Exeter preached before the Queen and both Houses of Parliament at St. Paul's; they were wonderfully huzzaed in their pa.s.sage, and splendidly entertained in the city.

December, 1702. The expectation now is, what treasure will be found on breaking bulk of the galleon brought from Vigo by Sir George Rooke, which being made up in an extraordinary manner in the hold, was not begun to be opened till the fifth of this month, before two of the Privy Council, two of the chief magistrates of the city, and the Lord Treasurer.

After the excess of honor conferred by the Queen on the Earl of Marlborough, by making him a Knight of the Garter and a Duke, for the success of but one campaign, that he should desire 5,000 a year to be settled on him by Parliament out of the Post Office, was thought a bold and unadvised request, as he had, besides his own considerable estate, above 30,000 a year in places and employments, with 50,000 at interest. He had married one daughter to the son of my Lord Treasurer G.o.dolphin, another to the Earl of Sunderland, and a third to the Earl of Bridgewater. He is a very handsome person, well-spoken and affable, and supports his want of acquired knowledge by keeping good company.

January, 1702-03. News of Vice-Admiral Benbow's conflict with the French fleet in the West Indies, in which he gallantly behaved himself, and was wounded, and would have had extraordinary success, had not four of his men-of-war stood spectators without coming to his a.s.sistance; for this, two of their commanders were tried by a Council of War, and executed;[94] a third was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, loss of pay, and incapacity to serve in future. The fourth died.

[Footnote 94: The Captains Kirby and Wade, having been tried and condemned to die by a court-martial held on them in the West Indies, were sent home in the "Bristol;" and, on its arrival at Portsmouth were both shot on board, not being suffered to land on English ground.]

Sir Richard Onslow and Mr. Oglethorpe (son of the late Sir Theo. O.) fought on occasion of some words which pa.s.sed at a committee of the House. Mr. Oglethorpe was disarmed. The Bill against occasional conformity was lost by one vote. Corn and provisions so cheap that the farmers are unable to pay their rents.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

February, 1703. A famous cause at the King's Bench between Mr. Fenwick and his wife, which went for him with a great estate. The Duke of Marlborough lost his only son at Cambridge by the smallpox. A great earthquake at Rome, etc. A famous young woman, an Italian, was hired by our comedians to sing on the stage, during so many plays, for which they gave her 500; which part by her voice alone at the end of three scenes she performed with such modesty and grace, and above all with such skill, that there was never any who did anything comparable with their voices. She was to go home to the Court of the King of Prussia, and I believe carried with her out of this vain nation above 1,000, everybody coveting to hear her at their private houses.

26th May, 1703. This day died Mr. Samuel Pepys, a very worthy, industrious and curious person, none in England exceeding him in knowledge of the navy, in which he had pa.s.sed through all the most considerable offices, Clerk of the Acts and Secretary of the Admiralty, all which he performed with great integrity. When King James II. went out of England, he laid down his office, and would serve no more; but withdrawing himself from all public affairs, he lived at Clapham with his partner, Mr. Hewer, formerly his clerk, in a very n.o.ble house and sweet place, where he enjoyed the fruit of his labors in great prosperity. He was universally beloved, hospitable, generous, learned in many things, skilled in music, a very great cherisher of learned men of whom he had the conversation. His library and collection of other curiosities were of the most considerable, the models of s.h.i.+ps especially. Besides what he published of an account of the navy, as he found and left it, he had for divers years under his hand the History of the Navy, or _Navalia_, as he called it; but how far advanced, and what will follow of his, is left, I suppose, to his sister's son, Mr.

Jackson, a young gentleman, whom Mr. Pepys had educated in all sorts of useful learning, sending him to travel abroad, from whence he returned with extraordinary accomplishments, and worthy to be heir. Mr. Pepys had been for near forty years so much my particular friend, that Mr. Jackson sent me complete mourning, desiring me to be one to hold up the pall at his magnificent obsequies; but my indisposition hindered me from doing him this last office.