A story through the diary · The man
The family
A tailor's family, an uncle's estate at Brampton, and the eldest son who ran them both.
374 days across 10 years, 1660–1669 · 25 steps in its story
When the diary opens in 1660, Pepys's father John is a London tailor. With him are his wife Margaret; their son Tom, who works with him; the youngest son, John; and their daughter Paulina (Pall). In July 1661 Pepys's uncle Robert died and left his small estate at Brampton in Huntingdonshire to Pepys's father for life and to Pepys after him. His parents and Pall moved there, and the will brought years of disputes and lawsuits with his uncle Thomas and with Tom Trice.
Pepys, the eldest surviving son, became the family's manager and its purse. He settled the estate, made it sound worse to his father than it was and promised to make up the difference from his own purse, and tried to marry off Tom and Pall. He judged his mother, his brothers and above all Pall sharply in the diary, while writing of his father with tenderness and grieving for Tom and for his mother. Tom died in 1664, owing money; his mother died at Brampton in 1667; Pall married John Jackson in 1668. Their son, another John Jackson, became Pepys's heir, the nephew named at the foot of this page. The gold he sent to Brampton in the Dutch raid of 1667 is also in From £40 to £6,900; Elizabeth's own family is in her thread.
The story in 25 steps
Step 1 · Friday 6 January 1660
On 6 January Pepys and Elizabeth sup at his cousin Stradwick's with his father and mother, his brothers and his sister. A cake is brought in, and in the choosing Pall is Queen.
in the choosing, Pall was Queen and Mr. Stradwick was King
6 Jan 1660Step 2 · Wednesday 7 March 1660
His father comes home from Brampton. Uncle Robert, whose leg is in a dangerous state, has told him he means to make Pepys his heir, leave Tom something, and give his parents something to raise portions for John and Pall.
to make me his heir and give my brother Tom something
7 Mar 1660Step 3 · Monday 12 November 1660
Pepys and his father agree that Pall shall live with him, though he fears her ill nature. Before the family he tells her she is to come not as a sister but as a servant. She promises, and weeps for joy.
to have her come not as a sister in any respect, but as a servant
12 Nov 1660Step 4 · Friday 31 May 1661
At his father's house he finds his parents quarrelling. He blames his mother and speaks to her, he admits, in a way that did not become him; his father, he writes, is become a very unhappy man.
my mother is grown now so pettish that I know not how my father is able to bear with it
31 May 1661Step 5 · Saturday 6 July 1661
A messenger brings news that uncle Robert died the day before. Pepys rides to Brampton, has the coffin, which has begun to smell, moved into the yard, and lies that night with his father, “greedy to see the will”.
so I rose sorry in some respect, glad in my expectations in another respect
6 Jul 1661Step 6 · Monday 8 July 1661
A week at Brampton on his uncle's papers. Tom Trice enters a caveat for his mother, whom the will leaves nothing; the surrenders of the copyhold land are missing; and the estate is far smaller than expected. Pepys hides his worry from his father.
our trouble is to find that his estate appears nothing as we expected, and all the world believes
8 Jul 1661Step 7 · Sunday 25 August 1661
His father about to leave, Pepys angrily tells Pall he will keep her no longer; their father says he will have nothing to do with her. Her “high spirit” brought down, he gets their father to agree she shall go with her parents.
told her before my father that I would keep her no longer
25 Aug 1661Step 8 · Tuesday 14 October 1662
At the Brampton manor court the steward puts off uncle Thomas's claims, and Pepys and his father are admitted to the lands: his father for life, Pepys after him. Taking his leave, he gives Pall 10s., but has shown her no kindness since he came.
I find her so very ill-natured that I cannot love her, and she so cruel a hypocrite that she can cry when she pleases
14 Oct 1662Step 9 · Wednesday 22 October 1662
Tom's match is broken off: Mrs Butler's daughter brings £400, not the £600 a go-between promised; her mother wants a jointure Pepys will not grant for that portion, and finds fault with Tom's house and speech. Tom is much troubled.
But however we did break off the business wholly
22 Oct 1662Step 10 · Saturday 14 February 1663
At cousin Roger Pepys's chambers, after a hot dispute, Pepys signs and seals an agreement with uncle Thomas and his sons over uncle Robert's estate, and pays uncle Thomas £30, the arrears of his annuity.
with great seeming love parted, and I presently to bed, my head akeing mightily with the hot dispute
14 Feb 1663Step 11 · Friday 1 May 1663
The estate will clear £50 a year for his father, but Pepys, fearing the debts would fall on the rest of the land if his father died first, makes it sound worse to them and promises £20 a year of his own. All three weep.
I did make the business worse to them
1 May 1663Step 12 · Tuesday 15 March 1664
Tom, no better, lies talking idly and knows no one. A doctor finds no sign of the pox rumoured. That evening, not wanting to watch him die, Pepys walks Mrs Turner home; returning minutes later, he finds Tom dead and breaks into cries of grief.
I had no mind to see him die, as we thought he presently would, and so withdrew
15 Mar 1664Step 13 · Monday 21 March 1664
Before their father, Pepys reads John's “roguish letters” and says he will give him nothing more of his own. John answers churlishly. Their father, who Pepys believes partly went along with Tom's and John's designs out of good nature, meaning no harm, is much troubled.
will be as good as my word in making him to his cost know that I will remember his carriage to me in this particular the longest day I live
21 Mar 1664Step 14 · Wednesday 6 April 1664
John Noble, his father's old servant, tells him Tom got his servant Margaret with child and paid a pensioner, Cave, to take the surviving baby. Expecting to lose a great sum by Tom's death, Pepys will pay no more himself, and tells their father.
vexed to think what a rogue my brother was in all respects
6 Apr 1664Step 15 · Monday 16 May 1664
Pepys and Elizabeth agree to offer to take Pall to London and find her a husband there: some trouble to them, he reckons, but better than leaving her in the country until no one will have her and she falls on his hands.
it will be better than to have her stay there till nobody will have her and then be flung upon my hands
16 May 1664Step 16 · Thursday 22 June 1665
With plague in town, Pepys puts it to his mother that she go back to the country, and she agrees. She begs him to forgive John; he kindly refuses. Still unwilling, she delays until she loses her coach seat and rides in the wagon.
she, poor wretch, desiring that I would forgive my brother John, but I refused it to her
22 Jun 1665Step 17 · Wednesday 13 June 1666
At the painter Hales's he finds his father's portrait begun, and is overjoyed to have it so well done. That afternoon his father and Elizabeth go to sit there.
who, besides that he is my father, and a man that loves me, and hath ever done so, is also, at this day, one of the most carefull and innocent men, in the world
13 Jun 1666Step 18 · Thursday 7 February 1667
As Pepys gives his brother John advice before he leaves for Brampton, John falls to the floor in a faint. Pepys lifts him up, trembling and ready to weep, gives him money for books and the journey, and begins to love him.
Poor fellow! he is so melancholy, and withal, my wife says, harmless, that I begin to love him
7 Feb 1667Step 19 · Wednesday 27 March 1667
A letter from his brother tells him that his mother died on Monday, and that her last words were of him. He weeps, then reflects that it is better than if she had outlived his father and himself, and orders mourning for the household.
her last words were, “God bless my poor Sam!” The reading hereof did set me a-weeping heartily
27 Mar 1667Step 20 · Wednesday 19 June 1667
Elizabeth comes back and tells him how she and his father buried his gold: on the Sunday, in daylight, in the middle of the garden. She thinks Pall knows of it. He is so angry he will not sup or speak with her.
My father and she did it on Sunday, when they were gone to church, in open daylight, in the midst of the garden
19 Jun 1667Step 21 · Thursday 10 October 1667
At Brampton by night he digs for the gold with his father and Elizabeth. They cannot agree where it lies, and he grows angry; at last they find it, near the neighbours. His father says all were at church; Pepys will not excuse it.
But, good God! to see how sillily they did it, not half a foot under ground
10 Oct 1667Step 22 · Friday 7 February 1668
Pepys meets John Jackson, Pall's suitor. He finds him plain and of few words, not a man of reading like Cumberland, but one who will please him well enough, and agrees to pay another £100 of her portion at once.
a plain young man, handsome enough for Pall, one of no education nor discourse, but of few words
7 Feb 1668Step 23 · Monday 2 March 1668
Busy preparing the Navy Board's answer to Parliament, Pepys hears that Pall married John Jackson on the Thursday before. He hopes, he writes, that that work is well over.
This day I have the news that my sister was married on Thursday last to Mr. Jackson
2 Mar 1668Step 24 · Sunday 24 May 1668
At Brampton he walks the house with his father and sees Pall, now married: comelier, he thinks, but pert and proud. Her husband keeps her handsomely and, they say, they are very fond; they will live at Ellington, malting and grazing cattle.
but a mighty pert woman she is, and I think proud
24 May 1668Step 25 · Wednesday 12 May 1669
His brother John arrives from Ellington with the first news that Pall is expecting a child. Pepys does not know whether it troubles or pleases him more.
which I know not whether it did more trouble or please me, having no great care for my friends to have children; though I love other people’s
12 May 1669
See all 374 days on the mood grid
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Sources: The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Introduction (opens in a new tab)