Historical Figures Codexery

Samuel Pepys

English diarist and naval administrator of the Stuart Restoration

Samuel Pepys

John Hayls · via Wikipedia: Samuel Pepys · Public domain

He is best known for his diary, which he began on 1 January 1660 and recorded his daily life for almost 10 years.[1] His diary is often regarded as Britain's most celebrated diary.[1]

Quick Facts

Office
President of the Royal Society
Took office
1 December 1684
Left office
30 November 1686
Predecessor
Cyril Wyche
Successor
John Vaughan

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

He suffered from bladder stones and underwent a successful but painful operation on 26 March 1658.[2][3] He rose to become Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under Charles II and James II.[4] Pepys increased his wealth substantially through corruption, with his net worth rising by £7,500 on a £350 annual salary in seven and a half years.[5] Pepys stopped writing his diary in 1669 due to eyesight trouble, but lived another 34 years without going blind.[6]

Of the 11 children born to his parents, Pepys was the fifth, but because many children died young, he soon became the oldest living child.[7] Pepys studied at Huntingdon Grammar School and later at St Paul's School in London; in 1650 he began attending the University of Cambridge.[7][8] At age 22, Pepys wed 14-year-old Elisabeth de St Michel; they had a religious ceremony on 10 October 1655 and a civil one on 1 December 1655.[9]

What the cited sources add

In it, Pepys recorded the bureaucracy of preparations and noted the governor's wife in church.[10] A 2015 Guardian article states that in 1683 Pepys was dispatched to Tangier as the navy's most senior civil servant, and while there he kept another diary.[10] That second diary is largely concerned with professional activities.[10] The article recounts Pepys sadly noting a hectic day: he rose early, attended work meetings, ate dinner at home, took a boat up the Thames to Whitehall, met an old lover, and then went with his wife and a friend to walk in the park and spend a merry evening at The World's End pub before returning home late.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Samuel Pepys" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pepys, "The Diary of Samuel Pepys", Harper Collins, 2000, p. cxliii; Kuiper 2011, p. 206; Pepys, "A Pepys anthology : passages from the diary of Samuel Pepys", Univ. of California Pr., 2000 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Samuel Pepys" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Trease 1972, p. 6 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Samuel Pepys" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Knighton 2004 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Samuel Pepys" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ollard 1984, p. ch. 16 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Samuel Pepys" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Davies 2017, p. 19, 68 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Samuel Pepys" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Samuel Pepys FAQ", pepys.info (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Samuel Pepys" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Trease 1972, p. 6; Knighton 2004; Knighton 2004 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Samuel Pepys" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tomalin 2002, p. 3 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Samuel Pepys" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: . This was because religious ceremonies were not legally recognised during the Interregnum. The couple regularly celebrated the anniversary of the first date. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Kennedy, "Samuel Pepys's other diary on display in new exhibition", The Guardian, 13 November 2015. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Samuel Pepys (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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