Who was the man behind the diaries, Samuel Pepys?

BBC ^ | 22 July 2010 | Trevor Timpson

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It is 350 years since one of the UK's most famous diarists put pen to paper. But what was Samuel Pepys really like? And why did this modest clerk become so celebrated?

A new home for a new man in a new age - on 11 July 1660, a clerk, obscure but already on the way up, was moving into a house.

His new home, in Seething Lane near the Tower of London, came with his new job at the Navy Board.

Samuel Pepys had been lucky. His patron had been involved with the restoration of the monarch, Charles II, from the start, and was able to gather favours for himself and his retainers.

Five days earlier, Pepys and his colleagues took possession of the Navy Office, and he worried about getting the patent for his new job, saw his tailor about a new velvet coat, visited two inns, and ended the day singing extempore with a friend: "...and I find by use that we are able to sing a bass and a treble pretty well".

But soon afterwards, Pepys got the sort of surprise that often lurks in new homes: "Going down into my cellar I put my foot into a great heap of turds [from his neighbour's toilet]... which doth trouble me."

Well, it would. And we know about it, because that year Pepys had started a diary. And the ordinary clerk started to turn into an extraordinary writer.

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Who was Samuel Pepys?

Samuel Pepys

* Born to a tailor in London's Fleet Street in 1633
* After studying at Cambridge University, became a teller at the Exchequer
* Began writing his diary on 1 January 1660
* It was written in shorthand and it recorded his daily life for nine years
* Some of the most famous passages are about the Great Fire in 1666
* His meticulously indexed collection of books and manuscripts formed one of the most important 17th Century private libraries

[iowamark]

The diary online:

http://www.pepysdiary.com/

[csvset]

Thanks for posting that.

[stylecouncilor]

Cool!

[LastNorwegian]

“Modest clerk”?

A clerk wasn’t just a secretary in those days. Pepys actually had power and influence.

[Moonmad27]

Thanks for posting that! Those diaries have been fascinating to me for years, Just added that church and Seething Lane to my sightseeing list for an upcoming trip to London.

[Oshkalaboomboom]

bfl

[Fiji Hill]

Who was Samuel Pepys?

One of history's most notable bureaucrats.

[onedoug]

´Have your pepys talk to my pepys....´

That´s peeps. One crack and I´ll....

[SunkenCiv]

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