17th August, 1697. I came to Wotton after three months' absence.
September, 1697. Very bright weather, but with sharp east wind. My son came from London in his melancholy indisposition.
12th September, 1697. Mr. Duncombe, the rector, came and preached after an absence of two years, though only living seven or eight miles off [at Ashted]. Welcome tidings of the Peace.
3d October, 1697. So great were the storms all this week, that near a thousand people were lost going into the Texel.
LONDON
16th November, 1697. The King's entry very pompous; but is nothing approaching that of King Charles II.
2d December, 1697. Thanksgiving Day for the Peace, the King and a great Court at Whitehall. The Bishop of Salisbury preached, or rather made a florid panegyric, on 2 Chron. ix. 7, 8. The evening concluded with fireworks and illuminations of great expense.
5th December, 1697. Was the first Sunday that St. Paul's had had service performed in it since it was burned in 1666.
6th December, 1697. I went to Kensington with the Sheriff, Knights, and chief gentlemen of Surrey, to present their address to the King. The Duke of Norfolk promised to introduce it, but came so late, that it was presented before be came. This insignificant ceremony was brought in in Cromwell's time, and has ever since continued with offers of life and fortune to whoever happened to have the power. I dined at Sir Richard Onslow's, who treated almost all the gentlemen of Surrey. When we had half dined, the Duke of Norfolk came in to make his excuse.
12th December, 1697. At the Temple Church; it was very long before the service began, staying for the Comptroller of the Inner Temple, where was to be kept a riotous and reveling Christmas, according to custom.
18th December, 1697. At Lambeth, to Dr. Bentley, about the Library at St. James's.
23d December, 1697. I returned to Wotton.
1697-98. A great Christmas kept at Wotton, open house, much company. I presented my book of Medals, etc., to divers noblemen, before I exposed it to sale.
2d January, 1698. Dr. Fulham, who lately married my niece, preached against atheism, a very eloquent discourse, somewhat improper for most of the audience at [Wotton], but fitted for some other place, and very apposite to the profane temper of the age.
LONDON
5th January, 1698. Whitehall burned, nothing but walls and ruins left.
30th January, 1698. The imprisonment of the great banker, Duncombe: censured by Parliament; acquitted by the Lords; sent again to the Tower by the Commons.
The Czar of Muscovy being come to England, and having a mind to see the building of ships, hired my house at Sayes Court, and made it his court and palace, newly furnished for him by the King.84
21st April, 1698. The Czar went from my house to return home. An exceedingly sharp and cold season.
8th May, 1698. An extraordinary great snow and frost, nipping the corn and other fruits. Corn at nine shillings a bushel [£18 a load].
30th May, 1698. I dined at Mr. Pepys's, where I heard the rare voice of Mr. Pule, who was lately come from Italy, reputed the most excellent singer we had ever had. He sung several compositions of the late Dr. Purcell.
5th June, 1698. Dr. White, late Bishop of Norwich, who had been ejected for not complying with Government, was buried in St. Gregory's churchyard, or vault, at St. Paul's. His hearse was accompanied by two non-juror bishops, Dr. Turner of Ely, and Dr. Lloyd, with forty other non-juror clergymen, who would not stay the Office of the burial, because the Dean of St. Paul's had appointed a conforming minister to read the Office; at which all much wondered, there being nothing in that Office which mentioned the present King.
8th June, 1698. I went to congratulate the marriage of Mr. Godolphin with the Earl of Marlborough's daughter.
9th June, 1698. To Deptford, to see how miserably the Czar had left my house, after three months making it his Court. I got Sir Christopher Wren, the King's surveyor, and Mr. London, his gardener, to go and estimate the repairs, for which they allowed £150 in their report to the Lords of the Treasury. I then went to see the foundation of the Hall and Chapel at Greenwich Hospital.
6th August, 1698. I dined with Pepys, where was Captain Dampier,85who had been a famous buccaneer, had brought hither the painted Prince Job, and printed a relation of his very strange adventure, and his observations. He was now going abroad again by the King's encouragement, who furnished a ship of 290 tons. He seemed a more modest man than one would imagine by the relation of the crew he had assorted with. He brought a map of his observations of the course of the winds in the South Sea, and assured us that the maps hitherto extant were all false as to the Pacific Sea, which he makes on the south of the line, that on the north end running by the coast of Peru being extremely tempestuous.
25th September, 1698. Dr. Foy came to me to use my interest with Lord Sunderland for his being made Professor of Physic at Oxford, in the King's gift. I went also to the Archbishop in his behalf.
7th December, 1698. Being one of the Council of the Royal Society, I was named to be of the committee to wait on our new President, the Lord Chancellor, our Secretary, Dr. Sloane, and Sir R. Southwell, last Vice-President, carrying our book of statutes; the office of the President being read, his Lordship subscribed his name, and took the oaths according to our statutes as a Corporation for the improvement of natural knowledge. Then his Lordship made a short compliment concerning the honor the Society had done him, and how ready he would be to promote so noble a design, and come himself among us, as often as the attendance on the public would permit; and so we took our leave.
18th December, 1698. Very warm, but exceedingly stormy.
January, 1698-99. My cousin Pierrepoint died. She was daughter to Sir John Evelyn, of Wilts, my father's nephew; she was widow to William Pierrepoint, brother to the Marquis of Dorchester, and mother to Evelyn Pierrepoint, Earl of Kingston; a most excellent and prudent lady.
LONDON
The House of Commons persist in refusing more than 7,000 men to be a standing army, and no strangers to be in the number. This displeased the Court party. Our county member, Sir R. Onslow, opposed it also; which might reconcile him to the people, who began to suspect him.
17th February, 1699. My grandson went to Oxford with Dr. Mander, the Master of Baliol College, where he was entered a fellow-commoner.
19th February, 1699. A most furious wind, such as has not happened for many years, doing great damage to houses and trees, by the fall of which several persons were killed.
5th March, 1699. The old East India Company lost their business against the new Company, by ten votes in Parliament, so many of their friends being absent, going to see a tiger baited by dogs.
The persecuted Vaudois, who were banished out of Savoy, were received by the German Protestant Princes.
24th March, 1699. My only remaining son died after a tedious languishing sickness, contracted in Ireland, and increased here, to my exceeding grief and affliction; leaving me one grandson, now at Oxford, whom I pray God to prosper and be the support of the Wotton family. He was aged forty-four years and about three months. He had been six years one of the Commissioners of the Revenue in Ireland, with great ability and reputation.
26th March, 1699. After an extraordinary storm, there came up the Thames a whale which was fifty-six feet long. Such, and a larger of the spout kind, was killed there forty years ago (June 1658). That year died Cromwell.
30th March, 1699. My deceased son was buried in the vault at Wotton, according to his desire.
The Duke of Devon lost £1,900 at a horse race at Newmarket.
The King preferring his young favorite Earl of Albemarle to be first Commander of his Guard, the Duke ofOrmond laid down his commission. This of the Dutch Lord passing over his head, was exceedingly resented by everybody.
April, 1699. Lord Spencer purchased an incomparable library86of ... wherein, among other rare books, were several that were printed at the first invention of that wonderful art, as particularly "Tully's Offices, etc." There was a Homer and a Suidas in a very good Greek character and good paper, almost as ancient. This gentleman is a very fine scholar, whom from a child I have known. His tutor was one Florival of Geneva.
29th April, 1699. I dined with the Archbishop; but my business was to get him to persuade the King to purchase the late Bishop of Worcester's library, and build a place for his own library at St. James's, in the Park, the present one being too small.
3d May, 1699. At a meeting of the Royal Society I was nominated to be of the committee to wait on the Lord Chancellor to move the King to purchase the Bishop of Worcester's library (Dr. Edward Stillingfleet).
4th May, 1699. The Court party have little influence in this Session.
7th May, 1699. The Duke of Ormond restored to his commission. All Lotteries, till now cheating the people, to be no longer permitted than to Christmas, except that for the benefit of Greenwich Hospital. Mr. Bridgman, chairman of the committee for that charitable work, died; a great loss to it. He was Clerk of the Council, a very industrious, useful man. I saw the library of Dr. John Moore,87Bishop of Norwich, one of the best and most ample collection of all sorts of good books in England, and he, one of the most learned men.
11th June, 1699. After a long drought, we had a refreshing shower. The day before, there was a dreadful fire at Rotherhithe, near the Thames side, which burned divers ships, and consumed nearly three hundred houses. Now died the famous Duchess of Mazarin; she had been the richest lady in Europe. She was niece of Cardinal Mazarin, and was married to the richest subject inEurope, as is said. She was born at Rome, educated in France, and was an extraordinary beauty and wit but dissolute and impatient of matrimonial restraint, so as to be abandoned by her husband, and banished, when she came into England for shelter, lived on a pension given her here, and is reported to have hastened her death by intemperate drinking strong spirits. She has written her own story and adventures, and so has her other extravagant sister, wife to the noble family of Colonna.
LONDON
15th June, 1699. This week died Conyers Seymour, son of Sir Edward Seymour, killed in a duel caused by a slight affront in St. James's Park, given him by one who was envious of his gallantries; for he was a vain, foppish young man, who made a greatéclâtabout town by his splendid equipage and boundless expense. He was about twenty-three years old; his brother, now at Oxford, inherited an estate of £7,000 a year, which had fallen to him not two years before.
19th June, 1699. My cousin, George Evelyn, of Nutfield, died suddenly.
25th June, 1699. The heat has been so great, almost all this month, that I do not remember to have felt much greater in Italy, and this after a winter the wettest, though not the coldest, that I remember for fifty years last past.
28th June, 1699. Finding my occasions called me so often to London, I took the remainder of the lease my son had in a house in Dover Street, to which I now removed, not taking my goods from Wotton.
23d July, 1699. Seasonable showers, after a continuance of excessive drought and heat.
August, 1699. I drank the Shooters' Hill waters. At Deptford, they had been building a pretty new church. The Bishop of St. David's [Watson] deprived for simony.88The city of Moscow burnt by the throwing of squibs.
3d September, 1699. There was in this week an eclipse of the sun, at which many were frightened by the predictions of the astrologers. I remember fifty years ago that many were so terrified by Lilly, that they dared not go out of their houses. A strange earthquake at New Batavia, in the East Indies.
4th October, 1699. My worthy brother died at Wotton, in the 83d year of his age, of perfect memory and understanding. He was religious, sober, and temperate, and of so hospitable a nature, that no family in the county maintained that ancient custom of keeping, as it were, open house the whole year in the same manner, or gave more noble or free entertainment to the county on all occasions, so that his house was never free. There were sometimes twenty persons more than his family, and some that stayed there all the summer, to his no small expense; by this he gained the universal love of the county. He was born at Wotton, went from the free school at Guildford to Trinity College, Oxford, thence to the Middle Temple, as gentlemen of the best quality did, but without intention to study the law as a profession. He married the daughter of Colwall, of a worthy and ancient family in Leicestershire, by whom he had one son; she dying in 1643, left George her son an infant, who being educated liberally, after traveling abroad, returned and married one Mrs. Gore, by whom he had several children, but only three daughters survived. He was a young man of good understanding, but, over-indulging his ease and pleasure, grew so very corpulent, contrary to the constitution of the rest of his father's relations, that he died. My brother afterward married a noble and honorable lady, relict of Sir John Cotton, she being an Offley, a worthy and ancient Staffordshire family, by whom he had several children of both sexes. This lady died, leaving only two daughters and a son. The younger daughter died before marriage; the other afterward married Sir Cyril Wych, a noble and learned gentleman (son of Sir —— Wych), who had been Ambassador at Constantinople, and was afterward made one of the Lords Justices of Ireland. Before this marriage, her only brother married the daughter of —— Eversfield, of Sussex, of an honorable family, but left a widow without any child living; he died about 1691, and his wife not many years after, and my brother resettled the whole estate on me. His sister, Wych, had a portion of £6,000, to which was added £300 more; the three other daughters, with what I added, had about £5,000 each. My brother died on the 5th of October, in a good old age and great reputation,making his beloved daughter, Lady Wych, sole executrix, leaving me only his library and some pictures of my father, mother, etc. She buried him with extraordinary solemnity, rather as a nobleman than as a private gentleman. There were, as I computed, above 2,000 persons at the funeral, all the gentlemen of the county doing him the last honors. I returned to London, till my lady should dispose of herself and family.
21st October, 1699. After an unusual warm and pleasant season, we were surprised with a very sharp frost. I presented my "Acetaria," dedicated to my Lord Chancellor, who returned me thanks in an extraordinarily civil letter.
15th November, 1699. There happened this week so thick a mist and fog, that people lost their way in the streets, it being so intense that no light of candles, or torches, yielded any (or but very little) direction. I was in it, and in danger. Robberies were committed between the very lights which were fixed between London and Kensington on both sides, and while coaches and travelers were passing. It began about four in the afternoon, and was quite gone by eight, without any wind to disperse it. At the Thames, they beat drums to direct the watermen to make the shore.
19th November,1699. At our chapel in the evening there was a sermon preached by young Mr. Horneck, chaplain to Lord Guilford, whose lady's funeral had been celebrated magnificently the Thursday before. A panegyric was now pronounced, describing the extraordinary piety and excellently employed life of this amiable young lady. She died in childbed a few days before, to the excessive sorrow of her husband, who ordered the preacher to declare that it was on her exemplary life, exhortations and persuasion, that he totally changed the course of his life, which was before in great danger of being perverted; following the mode of this dissolute age. Her devotion, early piety, charity, fastings, economy, disposition of her time in reading, praying, recollections in her own handwriting of what she heard and read, and her conversation were most exemplary.
24th November, 1699. I signed Dr. Blackwell's election to be the next year's Boyles Lecturer.
Such horrible robberies and murders were committed, as had not been known in this nation; atheism, profaneness, blasphemy, among all sorts, portended some judgment if not amended; on which a society was set on foot, who obliged themselves to endeavor the reforming of it, in London and other places, and began to punish offenders and put the laws in more strict execution; which God Almighty prosper! A gentle, calm, dry, temperate weather all this season of the year, but now came sharp, hard frost, and mist, but calm.
3d December, 1699. Calm, bright, and warm as in the middle of April. So continued on 21st of January. A great earthquake in Portugal.
LONDON
The Parliament reverses the prodigious donations of the Irish forfeitures, which were intended to be set apart for discharging the vast national debt. They called some great persons in the highest offices in question for setting the Great Seal to the pardon of an arch-pirate,89who had turned pirate again, and brought prizes into the West Indies, suspected to be connived at on sharing the prey; but the prevailing part in the House called Courtiers, out-voted the complaints, not by being more in number, but by the country party being negligent in attendance.
14th January, 1699-1700. Dr. Lancaster, Vicar of St. Martin's, dismissed Mr. Stringfellow, who had been made the first preacher at our chapel by the Bishop of Lincoln [Dr. Tenison, now Archbishop], while he held St. Martin's by dispensation, and put in one Mr. Sandys, much against the inclination of those who frequented the chapel. The Scotch book about Darien was burned by the hangman by vote of Parliament.90
21st January, 1700. Died the Duke of Beaufort, a person of great honor, prudence, and estate.
25th January, 1700. I went to Wotton, the first time after my brother's funeral, to furnish the house with necessaries, Lady Wych and my nephew Glanville, the executors having sold and disposed of what goods were there of my brother's. The weather was now altering into sharp and hard frost.
LONDON
One Stephens, who preached before the House of Commons on King Charles's Martyrdom, told them that the observation of that day was not intended out of any detestation of his murder, but to be a lesson to other Kings and Rulers, how they ought to behave themselves toward their subjects, lest they should come to the same end. This was so resented that, though it was usual to desire these anniversary sermons to be printed, they refused thanks to him, and ordered that in future no one should preach before them, who was not either a Dean or a Doctor of Divinity.
4th February, 1700. The Parliament voted against the Scots settling in Darien as being prejudicial to our trade with Spain. They also voted that the exorbitant number of attorneys be lessened (now indeed swarming, and evidently causing lawsuits and disturbance, eating out the estates of the people, provoking them to go to law).
18th February, 1700. Mild and calm season, with gentle frost, and little mizzling rain. The Vicar of St. Martin's frequently preached at Trinity chapel in the afternoon.
8th March, 1700. The season was like April for warmth and mildness.—11th. On Wednesday, was a sermon at our chapel, to be continued during Lent.
13th March, 1700. I was at the funeral of my Lady Temple, who was buried at Islington, brought from Addiscombe, near Croydon. She left my son-in-law Draper (her nephew) the mansion house of Addiscombe, very nobly and completely furnished, with the estate about it, with plate and jewels, to the value in all of about £20,000. She was a very prudent lady, gave many great legacies, with £500 to the poor of Islington, where her husband, Sir Purbeck Temple, was buried, both dying without issue.
24th March, 1700. The season warm, gentle, and exceedingly pleasant. Divers persons of quality entered into the Society for Reformation91of Manners; and some lectures were set up, particularly in the city of London. The most eminent of the clergy preached at Bow Church, after reading a declaration set forth by the King to suppress the growing wickedness; this began already to take some effect as to common swearing, and oaths in the mouths of people of all ranks.
25th March, 1700. Dr. Burnet preached to-day before the Lord Mayor and a very great congregation, on Proverbs xxvii. 5, 6, "Open rebuke is better than secret love; the wounds of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy." He made a very pathetic discourse concerning the necessity and advantage of friendly correction.
April, 1700. The Duke of Norfolk now succeeded in obtaining a divorce from his wife by the Parliament for adultery with Sir John Germaine, a Dutch gamester, of mean extraction, who had got much by gaming; the Duke had leave to marry again, so that if he should have children, the Dukedom will go from the late Lord Thomas's children, Papists indeed, but very hopeful and virtuous gentlemen, as was their father. The now Duke their uncle is a Protestant.
The Parliament nominated fourteen persons to go into Ireland as commissioners to dispose of the forfeited estates there, toward payment of the debts incurred by the late war, but which the King had in great measure given to some of his favorites of both sexes, Dutch and others of little merit, and very unseasonably. That this might be done without suspicion of interest in the Parliament, it was ordered that no member of either House should be in the commission. The great contest between the Lords and Commons concerning the Lords' power of amendments and rejecting bills tacked to the money bill, carried for the Commons. However, this tacking of bills is a novel practice, suffered by King Charles II., who, being continually in want of money, let anything pass rather than not have wherewith to feed his extravagance. This was carried but by one voice in the Lords, all the Bishops following the Court, save one; so that near sixty bills passed, to the great triumph of the Commons and Country party, but high regret of the Court, and those to whom the King had given large estates in Ireland. Pity it is, that things should be brought to this extremity, the government of this nation being so equally poised between King and subject; but we are satisfied with nothing; and, while there is no perfection on this side heaven, methinks both might be contented without straining things too far. Among the rest, there passed a law as to Papists' estates, that if one turned not Protestant before eighteen years of age, it shouldpass to his next Protestant heir. This indeed seemed a hard law, but not only the usage of the French King to his Protestant subjects, but the indiscreet insolence of the Papists here, going in triumphant and public processions with their Bishops, with banners and trumpets in divers places (as is said) in the northern counties, has brought it on their party.
24th April, 1700. This week there was a great change of State officers. The Duke of Shrewsbury resigned his Lord Chamberlainship to the Earl of Jersey, the Duke's indisposition requiring his retreat. Mr. Vernon, Secretary of State, was put out. The Seal was taken from the Lord Chancellor Somers, though he had been acquitted by a great majority of votes for what was charged against him in the House of Commons. This being in term time, put some stop to business, many eminent lawyers refusing to accept the office, considering the uncertainty of things in this fluctuating conjuncture. It is certain that this Chancellor was a most excellent lawyer, very learned in all polite literature, a superior pen, master of a handsome style, and of easy conversation; but he is said to make too much haste to be rich, as his predecessor, and most in place in this age did, to a more prodigious excess than was ever known. But the Commons had now so mortified the Court party, and property and liberty were so much invaded in all the neighboring kingdoms, that their jealousy made them cautious, and every day strengthened the law which protected the people from tyranny.
A most glorious spring, with hope of abundance of fruit of all kinds, and a propitious year.
10th May, 1700. The great trial between Sir Walter Clarges and Mr. Sherwin concerning the legitimacy of the late Duke of Albemarle, on which depended an estate of £1,500 a year; the verdict was given for Sir Walter, 19th. Serjeant Wright at last accepted the Great Seal.
WOTTON
24th May, 1700. I went from Dover street to Wotton, for the rest of the summer, and removed thither the rest of my goods from Sayes Court.
2d June, 1700. A sweet season, with a mixture of refreshing showers.
9th-16th June, 1700. In the afternoon, our clergyman had a catechism, which was continued for some time.
July, 1700. I was visited with illness, but it pleased God that I recovered, for which praise be ascribed to him by me, and that he has again so graciously advertised me of my duty to prepare for my latter end, which at my great age, cannot be far off.
The Duke of Gloucester, son of the Princess Anne of Denmark, died of the smallpox.
13th July, 1700. I went to Harden, which was originally a barren warren bought by Sir Robert Clayton, who built there a pretty house, and made such alteration by planting not only an infinite store of the best fruit; but so changed the natural situation of the hill, valleys, and solitary mountains about it, that it rather represented some foreign country, which would produce spontaneously pines, firs, cypress, yew, holly, and juniper; they were come to their perfect growth, with walks, mazes, etc., among them, and were preserved with the utmost care, so that I who had seen it some years before in its naked and barren condition, was in admiration of it. The land was bought of Sir John Evelyn, of Godstone, and was thus improved for pleasure and retirement by the vast charge and industry of this opulent citizen. He and his lady received us with great civility. The tombs in the church at Croydon of Archbishops Grindal, Whitgift, and other Archbishops, are fine and venerable; but none comparable to that of the late Archbishop Sheldon, which, being all of white marble, and of a stately ordinance and carvings, far surpassed the rest, and I judge could not cost less than £700 or £800.
20th September, 1700. I went to Beddington, the ancient seat of the Carews, in my remembrance a noble old structure, capacious, and in form of the buildings of the age of Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth, and proper for the old English hospitality, but now decaying with the house itself, heretofore adorned with ample gardens, and the first orange trees92that had been seen in England, planted in the open ground, and secured in winter only by a tabernacle of boards and stoves removable in summer, that, standing 120 years, large and goodly trees,and laden with fruit, were now in decay, as well as the grotto, fountains, cabinets, and other curiosities in the house and abroad, it being now fallen to a child under age, and only kept by a servant or two from utter dilapidation. The estate and park about it also in decay.
23d September, 1700. I went to visit Mr. Pepys at Clapham, where he has a very noble and wonderfully well-furnished house, especially with Indian and Chinese curiosities. The offices and gardens well accommodated for pleasure and retirement.
31st October, 1700. My birthday now completed the 80th year of my age. I with my soul render thanks to God, who, of his infinite mercy, not only brought me out of many troubles, but this year restored me to health, after an ague and other infirmities of so great an age; my sight, hearing, and other senses and faculties tolerable, which I implore him to continue, with the pardon of my sins past, and grace to acknowledge by my improvement of his goodness the ensuing year, if it be his pleasure to protract my life, that I may be the better prepared for my last day, through the infinite merits of my blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen!
5th November, 1700. Came the news of my dear grandson (the only male of my family now remaining) being fallen ill of the smallpox at Oxford, which after the dire effects of it in my family exceedingly afflicted me; but so it pleased my most merciful God that being let blood at his first complaint, and by the extraordinary care of Dr. Mander (Head of the college and now Vice Chancellor), who caused him to be brought and lodged in his own bed and bedchamber, with the advice of his physician and care of his tutor, there were all fair hopes of his recovery, to our infinite comfort. We had a letter every day either from the Vice Chancellor himself, or his tutor.
17th November, 1700. Assurance of his recovery by a letter from himself.
LONDON
There was a change of great officers at Court. Lord Godolphin returned to his former station of first Commissioner of the Treasury; Sir Charles Hedges, Secretary of State.
30th November, 1700. At the Royal Society, Lord Somers, the late Chancellor, was continued President.
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 Sussex to Robert Michell, Esq., appointed by my brother to be sold for payment of portions to my nieces, and other incumbrances 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 passage 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 ofDeus meus, and of the otherElohim, 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 ofNorfolk 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 petition to the House of Commons, were imprisoned.93
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 assembly and dissolving. Atterbury and Dr. Wake writing one against the other.
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 ofMrs. 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.
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 languishing illness, leaving a son by my sister, and two granddaughters. Our relation and friendship 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 ship, 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 Devonshire, 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 Godolphin 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 Addiscombe 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 passed through on her way to Bath.
31st October, 1702. Arrived now to the 82d year of my age, having read over all that passed since this day twelvemonth in these notes, I render solemn thanks to the Lord, imploring the pardon of my past sins, and the assistance of his grace; making new resolutions, and imploring that he will continue his assistance, 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 God 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 God 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 passage, and splendidly entertained in the city.
December, 1702. The expectation now is, what treasure will be found on breaking bulk of the galleon broughtfrom 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 Godolphin, 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 assistance; for this, two of their commanders were tried by a Council of War, and executed;94a third was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, loss of pay, and incapacity to serve in future. The fourth died.
Sir Richard Onslow and Mr. Oglethorpe (son of the late Sir Theo. O.) fought on occasion of some words which passed 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.