The Autobiography of Phineas Pett
Edition opening
Contents and reading sections
Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See
https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofp00pettuoft
Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
A carat character is used to denote superscription. A
single character following the carat is superscripted
(example: A^o). Multiple superscripted characters are
enclosed by curly brackets (example: vij^{mo.}).
As noted in the Preface, some [missing words] in the
text have been added inside brackets [ ] in this edition.
Many archaic and nautical terms are explained in the
Footnotes.
More detail can be found at the end of the book.
Publications of the Navy Records Society
VOL. LI.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF PHINEAS PETT
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF PHINEAS PETT
Edited by W. G. Perrin
Printed for the Navy Records Society
MDCCCCXVIII
THE COUNCIL
OF THE
NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY
1917-1918
PATRON
THE KING
PRESIDENT
THE RIGHT HON. LORD GEORGE HAMILTON, G.C.S.I.
VICE-PRESIDENTS
CORBETT, SIR JULIAN S., F.S.A.
CUSTANCE, ADMIRAL SIR REGINALD N., G.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.V.O., D.C.L.
FIRTH, PROFESSOR C. H., LL.D., F.B.A.
GRAY, ALBERT, K.C., C.B.
COUNCILLORS
ATKINSON, C. T.
BETHELL, ADMIRAL HON. SIR A.E., K.C.B., K.C.M.G.
BRINDLEY, HAROLD H.
CALLENDER, GEOFFREY A. R.
DARTMOUTH, THE EARL OF, K.C.B.
DESART, THE EARL OF, K.C.B.
DEWAR, COMMANDER ALFRED C., R.N.
GOUGH-CALTHORPE, VICE-ADMIRAL THE HON. SIR SOMERSET A., K.C.B., C.V.O.
GUINNESS, CAPTAIN HON. RUPERT E. C., C.B., C.M.G., M.P.,
R.N.V.R., AD. C.
KENYON, SIR FREDERIC G., K.C.B., D.Litt., F.B.A.
LEYLAND, JOHN
MARSDEN, R. G.
MILFORD HAVEN, ADMIRAL THE MARQUESS OF, P.C., G.C.B., G.C.V.O.,
K.C.M.G., LL.D., AD. C.
MURRAY, JOHN, C.V.O.
NEWBOLT, SIR HENRY
OTTLEY, REAR-ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES L., K.C.M.G., C.B., M.V.O.
PARRY, SIR C. HUBERT, BT., C.V.O.
POLLEN, ARTHUR H.
RICHMOND, CAPTAIN HERBERT W., R.N.
ROBINSON, COMMANDER CHARLES N., R.N.
SANDERSON, LORD, G.C.B., K.C.M.G., I.S.O.
SLADE, ADMIRAL SIR EDMOND J. W., K.C.I.E., K.C.V.O.
SMITH, COMMODORE AUBREY C. H., M.V.O., R.N.
TANNER, J. R., Litt.D.
SECRETARY
LIEUT.-COLONEL W. G. PERRIN, O.B.E., R.A.F., Admiralty, S.W.
HON. TREASURER
SIR W. GRAHAM GREENE, K.C.B., Ministry of Munitions, S.W.
THE COUNCIL of the NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY wish it to be distinctly
understood that they are not answerable for any opinions or
observations that may appear in the Society's publications. For these
the responsibility rests entirely with the Editors of the several
works.
PREFACE
The manuscript in which Phineas Pett has recorded the story of his
life from his birth in 1570 to the end of September 1638, consisted
originally of sixty-nine uniform quarto sheets, of which the 52nd is
now lost, together with the bottom of the 14th. The handwriting is
that of Phineas throughout, but marginal references on the first few
pages and a note at the end--'The life of Commissioner Pett's father
whose place he did enjoy'--have been added subsequently by Samuel
Pepys, no doubt when he was making the transcript referred to below.
The first paragraph is written on a separate sheet, which, unlike
the rest, has no writing on the back, and is followed by a series
of subtraction sums of the form 1612 - 1570 = 42 giving the age
of Phineas for each year from 1612 to 1640. From the differences
apparent in the figures and ink it is clear that these calculations
were made year by year from the time that Phineas was forty-two until
he reached the age of seventy.
A close inspection of the internal construction, the handwriting,
and of the ink used, leads to the conclusion that the body of the
manuscript, in the form in which it has descended to us, was written
up, not at short intervals, but in sections at comparatively long
intervals of time. The first and largest of these, written apparently
in 1612, narrates the events down to September 1610, and stops at the
word 'ordered' on line 15 of page 80 below. The remainder[1] of that
paragraph continues on a fresh sheet in a smaller handwriting and
different ink, and from that point the ample margin of the earlier
pages is abandoned and a small one ruled off with lead pencil. The
top line of this page is also ruled, and from this page to the end of
the writing the use of these pencil lines persists. The next break is
in July 1611 (page 92), where Pett reiterates the statement that he
was sent for by Prince Henry. Another break in the writing seems to
occur in September 1613; and a very perceptible one, with change of
ink, occurs in 1625 at 'All April' (page 134). The final section, as
indicated by a further change of ink, begins in February 1631: 'The
23rd of February' (page 146). The various anachronisms observable in
the text show that these sections were written up some considerable
time after the events occurred. Thus, the references to 'Sir' John
Pennington in 1627 and 1628 make it clear that the events of those
years were not written up before 1634.
From the great accuracy of the dates given (which have been
frequently tested from contemporary sources), it is clear that
Phineas kept a diary in which events were recorded as they occurred,
and from which the narrative was compiled. He appears to have
commenced this diary on going to Chatham in June 1600, when precise
dates begin to replace the vague 'about,' 'toward the end,' &c., of
the earlier paragraphs.
The narrative stops abruptly in 1638, apparently with the sentence
unfinished, for there is no mark of punctuation after the last word.
In 1640, when the final section seems to have been written, Pett was
an old man, and it is probable that, having been interrupted at this
point, the fast-gathering troubles of the State diverted his mind
from the subject, or left him without sufficient energy or leisure to
pursue it.
It will be noticed that towards the end the composition becomes more
slovenly and the omission of words more frequent, as though the task
had become burdensome and the author anxious to have done with it.
Pepys copied the whole of the manuscript into the first volume of his
Miscellany with the following preface:
'A Journal of Phineas Pett, Esquire, Commissioner of the Navy
and father to Peter Pett, late Commissioner of the same at
Chatham, viz: from his birth A^o 1570 to the arrival of the Royal
Sovereign, by him then newly built, at her moorings at Chatham;
transcribed from the original written all with his own hand and
lent me to that purpose by his grandson Mr. Phineas, son to
Captain Phineas Pett.'
The manuscript afterwards came into the possession of George Jackson,
who was Secretary of the Navy Board in 1758 and Second Secretary of
the Admiralty from 1766 to 1782. Sir George Duckett (he had changed
his surname in 1797) died in 1822, and ten years later his library,
including a very valuable collection of naval manuscripts, was sold
by auction. Fortunately the manuscripts were purchased by the British
Museum after being bought in at the sale; the volume (No. IV) in
which this manuscript was contained becoming Additional MS. 9298. A
commonplace book (Additional MS. 9295) containing, among copies of
various naval documents, an abbreviated version was purchased at the
same time.
The copy of the autobiography most generally known is the early
eighteenth-century transcript in the Harleian Collection (Harl.
6279). It is to this copy that writers usually refer, possibly
because it is mentioned in the paper[2] published in _Archæologia_ in
1796, although the garbled extracts there given are stated to have
been taken 'from another copy' and seem, in fact, to have been taken
from the original.[3] A further reason for the preference generally
shown for the Harleian copy may be its more modern and more clerkly
handwriting.
The Harleian transcript is not a good one. It contains few omissions,
none of great importance, but mistranscriptions of individual words
are very numerous and have reduced the text to nonsense in several
places.[4] It may seem strange that writers should be content to
quote passages that were evidently incorrect, without looking at
another copy, which was easily to be found; but whatever the
reason may be, the fact is that hitherto the original has remained
unidentified as such.
The best transcript is that made by Pepys; but even he had difficulty
in deciphering some of the words, although the handwriting of Pett
is, on the whole, very clear and consistent.
In preparing this edition, the Pepysian and Harleian copies have been
collated and the missing parts of the original made good by this
means; but as the numerous inversions of form and mistakes of reading
in these copies have no general interest--and are of no authority in
presence of the original--there is no need to specify them in detail.
Considerable licence has been taken with the punctuation of the
sentences, which is entirely without system in the original, and
the spelling has been modernised in accordance with the rule of the
Society, but the composition has been left otherwise untouched.
Where some word is necessary to complete the sense it has been
added in square brackets [], and the parts now missing from the
original, which have been supplied from the transcripts, have been
printed in italics. The legal year in England, prior to 1752, did
not commence until the 25th March, and Pett usually gives his dates
by this reckoning, but in one or two instances he writes as though
the year had begun on 1st January and ended on 31st December. To
avoid misunderstanding, it may be stated that the dates in the
Introduction, headings, and notes are given according to the Julian
year, commencing on 1st January.
Pett invariably wrote and signed 'Phinees' but it has been thought
better to adhere to the spelling 'Phineas,' which appears from time
to time in documents from 1605 onwards and has been universally
adopted by modern writers.
In the Introduction an attempt has been made: first, to trace
the rise of the Master Shipwright as an official of the Crown
and to consider his relation to the profession of shipwrights
generally; secondly, to trace the origin of the Pett family and its
ramifications down to the date of Phineas' death; thirdly, to throw
additional light on the events narrated in the manuscript from such
original sources as are accessible. In asking the indulgence of the
reader towards the evident shortcomings of this attempt, the Editor
would plead that most of the work has had to be carried out under
great difficulties in scanty moments of leisure. Despite the generous
assistance of Mr. Vincent Redstone of Woodbridge, whose extensive
knowledge of Suffolk genealogy has been brought to bear on the
problem, it has not been found possible to trace the Pett family to
its original location, but it is hoped that sufficient has been done
to render this task more easy to some future investigator.
In conclusion the Editor has to thank many friends for the help
readily given, more especially Dr. Tanner, who has read the proofs
and given the Introduction the benefit of his criticism, and Mr. G.
E. Manwaring, of the London Library, who has rendered invaluable
help in clearing up many obscure points, and he is indebted to Mrs
Scott for the loan of the MS. treatise on shipbuilding referred to
in the Introduction. The Editor has also had the great advantage