A story through the diary · His work
Patrons
Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich from 1660, made him; then Coventry and the Duke of York took over, while Sandwich fell from favour, went abroad and came home deep in debt.
413 days across 10 years, 1660–1669 · 25 steps in its story
Edward Montagu, his father's cousin, took Pepys to sea as his secretary in 1660 to bring home the King, and that summer got him his place at the Navy Office. In July Montagu was made Earl of Sandwich; from then on he is Sandwich here. Two other men came to matter more: William Coventry, the Duke of York's secretary, who joined the Navy Board in 1662, and the Duke himself, the King's brother, who as Lord High Admiral was head of the Navy.
This thread follows the hand-over: favours asked and given, advice, a letter of reproof, the prizes, a patron abroad and come home in debt, a patron in the Tower, and the Duke and Sandwich contending “who shall be the kindest to me”. The prizes were two Dutch East India ships and others that Sandwich, commanding the fleet in the Dutch war, took in September 1665. He shared their goods among himself and his flag officers, and Pepys bought some of them. Sandwich later owned that all he did that year he did “without commission”.
The chart counts, year by year, the days on which each of the three men is among the people of the day's entry, most of them days Pepys sees him or deals with him. Sandwich towers over 1660, the year of the voyage, then drops: he sails in June 1661 to fetch the Queen from Lisbon and is back only in May 1662, with no days between. Coventry passes him in 1662 and leads 54 to 53 in 1663; the Duke passes him in 1664.
In 1665 all three fall: the Duke is at sea in the spring and Sandwich for much of the year, and the plague, Pepys writes, “keeps the Court away from the place of business”. From 1666 Coventry and the Duke far outnumber him. In 1667, with Sandwich in Spain, his line falls to none, though talk and letters of him run through that year.
The thread's own days are fewer: only those on which the patronage itself shows. The places Montagu won him, before and after his earldom, are told in the thread From £40 to £6,900, under His work.
The story in 25 steps
Step 1 · Tuesday 6 March 1660
In the garden at Whitehall, Montagu asks how things are with him and promises to work for him. Then he asks whether Pepys will go to sea as his secretary: he wants someone there he can trust.
he would use all his own, and all the interest of his friends that he had in England, to do me good
6 Mar 1660Step 2 · Friday 25 May 1660
On the morning the King lands at Dover, Pepys speaks on board with the Duke of York about business, and asks for his favour.
called me Pepys by name, and upon my desire did promise me his future favour
25 May 1660Step 3 · Saturday 2 June 1660
Pepys thanks Montagu for his share of the King's and the Duke's money. Montagu hopes to do him “a more lasting kindness”, if things stand as they are now between him and the King.
We must have a little patience and we will rise together
2 Jun 1660Step 4 · Tuesday 10 July 1660
In his first silk suit, Pepys finds Montagu in Whitehall garden and gets him to the Secretary's office to ask for both their bills to be signed by the King. Montagu's is his peerage.
His bill is to be Earl of Sandwich, Viscount Hinchingbroke, and Baron of St. Neot’s.
10 Jul 1660Step 5 · Monday 2 September 1661
In Westminster Hall Mr Pickering, a fool in Pepys's view but one who repeats all he hears, speaks of efforts to push Sandwich aside at sea. Pepys believes Coventry and the Duke of York want it, and hopes they will fail.
there are endeavours to get my Lord out of play at sea, which I believe Mr. Coventry and the Duke do think will make them more absolute
2 Sep 1661Step 6 · Tuesday 30 September 1662
Summing up the month, he finds himself as high in reputation at the office as any man there. Sandwich has been civil to his wife and drawn a plan for the Brampton house.
good hold I have of Mr. Coventry and Sir G. Carteret, which I am resolved, and it is necessary for me, to maintain by all fair means
30 Sep 1662Step 7 · Wednesday 22 October 1662
Calling on Sandwich, with Povy there on Tangier business, Pepys notes a change in how he is received, and the reason he sees for it.
receives me now more and more kindly, now he sees that I am respected in the world; and is my most noble patron
22 Oct 1662Step 8 · Wednesday 18 November 1663
He sends Will Hewer with his letter of reproof for Sandwich's hand: talk of his absence from Court, his neglect of the Navy, and his lodging, where a daughter of the house is called a common courtesan. He is afraid, but sure Sandwich needs it.
the duty which every bit of bread I eat tells me I owe to your Lordship
18 Nov 1663Step 9 · Wednesday 20 January 1664
Since the letter, Sandwich treats him with respect, but as a stranger. Pepys thinks Sandwich cannot face him, and resolves to keep a grave distance, save his money and stand on his own legs.
look upon me as a remembrancer of his former vanity, and an espy upon his present practices
20 Jan 1664Step 10 · Friday 4 March 1664
After a long, free talk in Sandwich's garden he feels the old respect restored, and owes Sandwich his place on the Fishery commission. At Whitehall the Duke of York calls him over to talk of the new ship at Woolwich.
I never had so much discourse with the Duke before, and till now did ever fear to meet him
4 Mar 1664Step 11 · Wednesday 22 March 1665
The day before the Duke leaves, Coventry professes a love and esteem Pepys could not wish greater. At St James's Pepys kisses the Duke's hand.
had his most kind expressions of his value and opinion of me, which comforted me above all things in the world
22 Mar 1665Step 12 · Wednesday 11 October 1665
Mr Seymour, a Commissioner for Prizes, seizes the goods Pepys bought off the fleet with Captain Cocke; they quarrel. That night, keeping his tenth wedding anniversary a day late, he counts himself well off, but judges Sandwich's taking of the prizes “a very rash act”.
puts himself out of a power of begging anything again a great while of the King
11 Oct 1665Step 13 · Wednesday 25 October 1665
An hour alone with Sandwich. When Pepys asks whether Sandwich should not make friends with Coventry, even with some condescension, Sandwich says it is impossible, and warns Pepys that he will not want enemies either.
He tells me that Mr. Coventry and he are not reconciled, but declared enemies
25 Oct 1665Step 14 · Sunday 31 December 1665
Summing up the year, he counts one great evil: Sandwich's fall. His mistake over the prizes has undone him at Court, Pepys believes, and the embassy to Spain softens it only a little. That mistake, he adds, “is not to be excused”.
The great evil of this year, and the only one indeed, is the fall of my Lord of Sandwich
31 Dec 1665Step 15 · Sunday 28 January 1666
At Hampton Court the Duke and Coventry are kind. Sandwich, melancholy, would rather they met at his lodgings than be seen walking together, and owns that Pepys has “a very hard game to play”.
I dare not walk with Sir W. Coventry, for fear my Lord or Sir G. Carteret should see me
28 Jan 1666Step 16 · Sunday 25 February 1666
At Cranborne, before he leaves, Sandwich walks an hour with him in the park, names the friends Pepys may rely on for him, and says he will stand or fall by the King.
he hath lately made it his business to be seen studious of the King’s favour, and not of the Duke’s
25 Feb 1666Step 17 · Wednesday 15 August 1666
In the Park, he asks Coventry to tell him if he ever finds fault in him. Coventry sees none, but adds that, for want of money, no one man can be blamed now. Pepys, who has feared his distance and silence, finds reasons for them.
he is grown a very great man, much greater than he was, and so must keep more distance
15 Aug 1666Step 18 · Monday 2 September 1667
Coventry takes him to his chamber and tells him he is leaving the Duke of York's service, at his own wish, he says, and in kindness. Talk has it he offended the Duke; he owns he proposed the Lord Chancellor's removal.
he that serves a Prince must expect, and be contented to stand, all fortunes, and be provided to retreat
2 Sep 1667Step 19 · Sunday 13 October 1667
In his chamber, as he dresses, the Duke of York calls Pepys over of his own accord: the King has granted the ship Pepys asked for, the galliot Maybolt.
he was mightily satisfied with my service, and that he would be willing to do anything that was in his power for me
13 Oct 1667Step 20 · Sunday 23 August 1668
At St James's the Duke of York hears Pepys's great letter on the Office all through “with extraordinary content”, thanks him heartily, tells him with much inwardness of designs to alter the Navy, and desires his further advice.
that he would have a care of me on all occasions
23 Aug 1668Step 21 · Monday 28 September 1668
Sidney Montagu brings word that Sandwich is near home and needs £2,000. Pepys finds himself supplying £500, and is sure Sandwich could not raise £500 on his word from any other man in England.
I think it becomes my duty to my Lord to do something extraordinary in this, and the rather because I have been remiss in writing to him
28 Sep 1668Step 22 · Monday 18 January 1669
Sandwich, who proposed a paymaster for Tangier, where Pepys is Treasurer, tells him he took it ill that the Duke of York wanted Pepys satisfied first. Pepys is glad to see Sandwich jealous of the Duke's kindness to him.
the Duke of York and he might come to contend who shall be the kindest to me
18 Jan 1669Step 23 · Saturday 23 January 1669
Sandwich, Peterborough, Hinchingbrooke and others dine at Pepys's house, served one dish at a time with a variety of excellent wines, and stay merry at cards and talk until seven.
the fullest of honour and content to me, that ever I had in my life
23 Jan 1669Step 24 · Thursday 4 March 1669
Coventry is sent to the Tower over his challenge to the Duke of Buckingham to fight. Deeply troubled, Pepys hears the particulars at the House, then goes directly to the Tower, finds Coventry busy with Lord Halifax, and stays only a moment.
only to give him comfort, and offer my service to him, which he kindly and cheerfully received
4 Mar 1669Step 25 · Tuesday 30 March 1669
Coventry tells him that, from his talk with the Lord Keeper, opinion is divided over removing him and Brouncker from the Navy, and that he told the Lord Keeper what replacing Pepys would cost. Pepys is pleased to have that character, whatever comes of it.
it would cost the King L10,000 before he hath made another as fit to serve him in the Navy as I am
30 Mar 1669
See all 413 days on the mood grid
Related stories
- From £40 to £6,900 How a clerk worth £40 became a rich official, counting his pounds on the way.
- Making the Navy work How a clerk new to the Navy learned its business, and then had to defend it.
- The Dutch war, from his desk England's war with the Dutch, 1664–67, seen by the man who had to find the ships, the seamen and the money.
- Music Singing in parts, the viol and the flageolet, songs of his own: from the diary's first month to its last week.
Sources: The Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. Wheatley: Introduction and notes (opens in a new tab)