A story through the diary · The man
Deb Willet
Elizabeth's young companion: his sexual advances in his own house, the discovery, her dismissal, and how he went on pursuing her.
189 days across 3 years, 1667–1669 · 24 steps in its story
In September 1667 Elizabeth Pepys took on Deb Willet, a girl from a school at Bow whom Pepys calls “grave beyond her bigness and age”, to wait on her. The diary never gives her age. Deb lived in the house, went with them to plays and on journeys, combed Pepys's hair at night, and was paid wages. She was a young servant; he was her employer's husband and the master of the house. Within weeks he saw that Elizabeth was jealous of his kindness to the girl. By Christmas he had kissed Deb, and by August 1668 he was touching her while she combed his hair. On 25 October 1668 Elizabeth came in and found him embracing her.
Deb lost her place for what he had done. Elizabeth threatened to turn her out of doors, questioned her until she confessed, and made him promise to send her away himself; he dismissed her on 12 November. When Elizabeth learned he had found Deb again, she swore to slit Deb's nose; he promised in writing never to see or speak with Deb, and at Elizabeth's demand wrote to her calling her a whore, a part Hewer kept back from her. Elizabeth's thread tells this. Pepys records Deb's tears, her trying to avoid him, her not appearing when he waited, her being “mighty coy, and I hope modest”, and once a wink and a smile; he also records that she got into his coach when he came and agreed to meet him again. He never quotes her directly, and the text does not tell us what she wanted. In 1669 he followed her in the streets and groped her in an alehouse, and in May he was still trying to find her. In the last entry, on 31 May, he writes that it is over; the diary tells us no more. Wheatley cut parts of the most explicit entries, sometimes at the act itself, and this thread claims only what his text says. His conduct with other women is in Other women.
The story in 24 steps
Step 1 · Friday 27 September 1667
He first sees the girl Elizabeth is taking on to wait on her, from a school at Bow. She is so pretty that, in judgement but not passion, he could wish she were not coming, lest he be found minding her too much.
she is mighty pretty; and so pretty, that I find I shall be too much pleased with it
27 Sep 1667Step 2 · Monday 30 September 1667
Deb Willet arrives, brought by Batelier. Pepys finds her very pretty and grave, “a little too good for my family”, and hopes Elizabeth will treat her well. (Wheatley's cut falls earlier in the day, not in Deb's part.)
I wish my wife may use her well
30 Sep 1667Wheatley cut part of this entry.
Step 3 · Tuesday 15 October 1667
At the play Elizabeth complains of Deb sitting “cheek by jowl” with them. Pepys sees that she is already jealous of his kindness to the girl, and begins to fear Deb will not stay long.
I perceive she is already jealous of my kindness to her
15 Oct 1667Step 4 · Sunday 22 December 1667
On a Sunday, with Elizabeth in pain upstairs, Deb brings him an errand from Elizabeth, and he kisses her for the first time. He writes that he loves her “mightily”.
this time I first did give her a little kiss
22 Dec 1667Step 5 · Saturday 11 January 1668
After supper, by the fire, Deb combs his hair, which she now often does. He writes that he loves to have her fussing about him.
to have my head combed, as I do now often do, by Deb., whom I love should be fiddling about me
11 Jan 1668Step 6 · Tuesday 31 March 1668
Deb cries because she cannot write his dictation as well as she would; Elizabeth takes it for sullenness and is angry. At bedtime Deb undresses him, and he kisses her while she still weeps. He writes this in his private mix of languages.
going to bed she undressed me, and there I did give her good advice and baiser la, elle weeping still
31 Mar 1668Step 7 · Saturday 13 June 1668
On the journey west they visit Bristol, where Deb was born. Her uncle, a merchant, shows them round; old poor people rejoice to see the daughter of a mother “mightily beloved”, and one woman weeps so for joy that Pepys weeps too.
led us through Marsh Street, where our girl was born
13 Jun 1668Step 8 · Monday 10 August 1668
In the evening Elizabeth reads aloud to him while Deb combs his hair. All the while, he writes, he touches Deb with his hand, for his own great pleasure.
all the while Deb. did comb my head, and I did toker her with my main para very great pleasure
10 Aug 1668Step 9 · Sunday 25 October 1668
After supper Deb combs his hair, and Elizabeth, coming up suddenly, finds him embracing her; Wheatley's text breaks off there. Pepys is at a loss, and so is Deb. Elizabeth's grief and anger that night are told in Elizabeth's thread.
I was at a wonderful loss upon it, and the girle also
25 Oct 1668Wheatley cut part of this entry.
Step 10 · Monday 26 October 1668
Elizabeth tells him she will turn Deb out of doors, and he fears he has ruined the girl. At home Elizabeth will not speak to Deb, and Deb is sad.
with my mind mightily troubled for the poor girle, whom I fear I have undone by this
26 Oct 1668Step 11 · Tuesday 3 November 1668
At supper Elizabeth watches whether he looks at Deb. He does, and sees Deb weep; she is, he writes, “my sacrifice”. Elizabeth has told Deb's aunt, in kind terms on both sides, that she wants to part with Deb; he accepts it is “but necessary”.
to my grief did see the poor wretch look on me and see me look on her, and then let drop a tear or two
3 Nov 1668Step 12 · Monday 9 November 1668
He throws Deb a note saying he still denies ever kissing her, so that she “might govern herself”. It is a lie, he writes, but the truth would ruin her and his marriage. She reads it and, as he told her to, flings it back.
advise her that I did continue to deny that ever I kissed her, and so she might govern herself
9 Nov 1668Step 13 · Thursday 12 November 1668
He calls Elizabeth and Deb to his room and, in tears, dismisses Deb, telling her to go as soon as she can. She weeps too. From what Elizabeth has told him, he is apt to believe her “a cunning girle, if not a slut”.
which she took with tears too, but I believe understands me to be her friend
12 Nov 1668Step 14 · Friday 13 November 1668
Deb says she has found a place and will leave next day. He writes that he wants to take her virginity, and does not doubt he could if he could get time with her. He gives Elizabeth £10, and she pays Deb her wages.
I have a good mind to have the maidenhead of this girl
13 Nov 1668Step 15 · Monday 16 November 1668
Two days after Deb leaves, he goes looking for her round Whetstone's Park, from things Elizabeth has let fall, troubled that she is “forced to go thereabouts”. He learns that the Dr Allbon she is said to be with is in hiding.
I find that this Dr. Allbon is a kind of poor broken fellow that dare not shew his head nor be known where he is gone
16 Nov 1668Step 16 · Wednesday 18 November 1668
Lying to Elizabeth, he finds Deb; she gets into his coach, he kisses her; the text breaks off. He tells her to let no man do with her as he has done; she promises. He gives her 20s. and arranges how to find her.
suffer no man para avoir to do con her as je have done
18 Nov 1668Wheatley cut part of this entry.
Step 17 · Saturday 21 November 1668
After his written promise to Elizabeth, Hewer brings back, unshown, the part of his letter to Deb calling her a whore, written at Elizabeth's demand (both told in her thread). Hewer passed on only Pepys's wish never to see her. Pepys resolves to forget her.
though I love the poor girl and wish her well, as having gone too far toward the undoing her
21 Nov 1668Step 18 · Monday 7 December 1668
Out in the coach with Elizabeth, he sees Deb pass on foot in Queen's Street. It stirs “new thoughts of her”, which he dares not show; he thinks Elizabeth did not see her, and puts the thoughts away as soon as he can.
I saw pass by our coach on foot Deb., which, God forgive me, did put me into some new thoughts of her
7 Dec 1668Step 19 · Friday 12 March 1669
Elizabeth hears Deb lives “very fine”, and speaks ill of Elizabeth. He grants it “with good reason might vex her”; “the baggage is to blame”. He writes that he knows nothing of Deb, though “my devil that is within me” wishes he did.
though God knows that my devil that is within me do wish that I could
12 Mar 1669Step 20 · Tuesday 13 April 1669
At Whitehall he spies Deb, in her old clothes and with “more ordinary people”. He sends Will Hewer away and runs after her. She tries to avoid him, but he gets her to tell him where she lives and to promise to say nothing.
I observed she endeavoured to avoid me
13 Apr 1669Step 21 · Thursday 15 April 1669
He overtakes Deb, who seems unwilling to speak, and leads her into an out-of-the-way alehouse; alone, he kisses her and touches her breasts. She is “mighty coy, and I hope modest”. The text breaks off. He gives her 20s.; they agree to meet Monday.
she made no stop, but seemed unwilling to speak to me
15 Apr 1669Wheatley cut part of this entry.
Step 22 · Monday 19 April 1669
As agreed, he waits over two hours in Westminster Hall, but Deb does not appear. Not knowing why, he writes that he would be gladdest if she had stayed away out of modesty. (Wheatley's cut falls in a passage about another woman.)
the last whereof, as being most pleasing, as shewing most modesty, I should be most glad of
19 Apr 1669Wheatley cut part of this entry.
Step 23 · Monday 26 April 1669
Out with Elizabeth, he sees Deb with another woman at the Temple gate. She winks at him and smiles without Elizabeth seeing, and he is glad to see her.
Deb. winked on me and smiled, but undiscovered
26 Apr 1669Step 24 · Tuesday 4 May 1669
With Elizabeth away, he sends the coachman to Deb's lodging and learns she has gone to Greenwich. He is glad, hoping to find her there. Elizabeth comes home soon after dinner; if Deb could have been found, he writes, he would have been out.
if Deb. had been to have been found it is forty to one but I had been abroad, God forgive me
4 May 1669
See all 189 days on the mood grid
Related stories
- Elizabeth Nine years of a marriage in his own words: tenderness and quarrels, her loneliness, his jealousy and his violence, her reproaches, and the night she found him embracing Deb Willet.
- Other women The women he made sexual advances to over nine years, many of them dependent on him for a husband's post, a widow's pay or a place in his house.
- The household Servants hired and dismissed, boys and maids beaten, and Will Hewer, the clerk who stayed.