The Autobiography of Phineas Pett
[484] This expression is unknown to the dictionaries, and it is
difficult to conjecture its meaning: it may be a synonym for 'bank'
or 'shore,' or for 'seaweed,' which would be found in the shallower
water near the shore.
[485] N.W. Spain. MS. 'Ortingall.'
[486] Apparently 'bent' was in use at this period in speaking of the
tide when it had turned and begun to ebb or flow with full force.
_Cf._ Luke Ward's narrative (1582) in Hakluyt (vol. xi. p. 174):
'Being at anchor, I manned our boat and would have gone aboard the
Admiral, but could not, the flood was bent so strong.'
[487] _I.e._ make way against.
[488] Brother of Sir John Trevor, and a naval officer of distinction;
knighted in 1604.
[489] The captain, or commanding officer. 'Commander' as a
substantive rank dates only from 1793.
[490] MS 'Gundamar.' Diego Sarmiento d'Acuna, Count of Gondomar. He
played an important part in the foreign policy of Great Britain from
1613, when he was sent to England as ambassador to bring James into
accord with Spanish policy. It was Gondomar who secured the execution
of Ralegh.
[491] MS. 'Sylla.' He means the principal island, St. Mary.
[492] _I.e._ the ship first beat to windward, tacking two or three
times, and then laid her course for the anchorage with the wind on
her quarter.
[493] Castle Hugh, near Hugh Town, the capital.
[494] The shoal at the entrance to Spithead, north of St. Helen's.
[495] Gentleman of the Chamber.
[496] The sands along the Kent coast off Sandwich.
[497] The narrow part of the ship's bottom near the stern post.
[498] MS. 'over.'
[499] Duke Christian of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. He arrived in England
on December 20 with letters of recommendation from Elizabeth of
Bohemia, whose cause he was championing, and was the guest of the
Prince of Wales.
[500] The official residence of the Navy Officers on Chatham Hill.
[501] Bore large, bringing the wind on the beam or quarter.
[502] MS. 'Bullen.'
[503] Dragged their anchors.
[504] Predicament.
[505] John Pyham, Vicar of Chatham.
[506] Designs.
[507] This has been added at the bottom of the page, where it has no
connection with the context. In the margin Pett has written, 'Son
Joseph died in Ireland this year 1625.'
[508] 12 Dec. 1626. Pett was named last in the list.
[509] _I.e._ the Great Seal.
[510] Built by the Dutch, but intended for the French Navy. It was
captured in the Texel and added to the English Fleet.
[511] One of the four Masters Attendant.
[512] MS. '1637.' 1628 new style.
[513] Treasurer of the Navy.
[514] Knighted in 1634.
[515] Shipbuilders.
[516] The ten _Lion's Whelps_.
[517] Payments in advance.
[518] MS. 'Redcliff.'
[519] More usually spelt 'Compter': one of the debtors' prisons
attached to the Sheriff's Court; the last was abolished in 1854.
[520] The prison on the east side of Farringdon Street, taking its
name from the Fleet River; burnt down in 1666 and in 1780; it was
abolished in 1842.
[521] Treasurer of the Army, with whom Buckingham was lodging.
[522] Apparently used in the sense of 'unemployed.'
[523] Colonel Sir Thomas Fryer. The circumstances are related in
detail by Dr. S. R. Gardiner in his _History of England from the
Accession of James I._, vol. vi. chap. lxv.
[524] _I.e._ the prison of that name.
[525] Chaussée de Sein, south of Ushant.
[526] Richard, successor to Paul Isackson.
[527] Robert Bertie, created Earl of Lindsey 1626; admiral of the
second fleet sent to Rochelle in 1628.
[528] Robert Treswell.
[529] Foliejon on the modern ordnance map. 'Folly' appears to be a
local name for a clump of trees on a hill.
[530] Henry Goddard.
[531] Francis Brooke.
[532] John Brooke.
[533] MS. 'Farum.'
[534] The report, signed by Phineas Pett, Jo. Dearslye, Peter Pett,
Andrewes Burrell, John Greaves and John Taylor, is preserved (_S.P.
Dom. Chas. I._ clxxvi. 8). Mr. Oppenheim (_Administration_, p. 297)
points out that 'five years later some of the same men turned round
with "we positively conclude that there is a worm in that harbour."'
[535] Richard Weston, created Baron Weston in 1628, and Earl of
Portland in 1633.
[536] The Lord High Chamberlain was Robert Bertie, Earl of Lindsey;
the Lord Chamberlain was Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, who had
succeeded his brother, William.
[537] Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, beheaded 1649.
[538] A prize of 1625 taken into the Navy.
[539] MS. 'Strowde.'
[540] A very late example of this form of the past tense of 'row.'
[541] MS. 'given.'
[542] Deliberately.
[543] Son of Edward Stephens, late Master Shipwright. Imprisoned in
1626 for disrespect to Pett and Trevor.
[544] The passage in italics is wanting in the original MS.
[545] Below.
[546] MS. Ockum. In the Medway.
[547] Kenrick Edisbury, _alias_ Wilkinson, who in 1626 was Paymaster
of the Navy, succeeded Sir Thos. Aylesbury as Surveyor of the Navy in
December 1632 and died in 1638. Mr. Oppenheim pronounces him 'perhaps
the most observant and energetic of the chief officers.'
[548] John Goodwin, Master Attendant at Portsmouth.
[549] Nathaniel Apslyn. In 1626, when Carpenter of the _Red Lion_, he
was recommended by Pett for the post of Assistant Master Shipwright,
and was appointed in that capacity at Chatham.
[550] Hawkridge is said to have accompanied Button in the voyage
of 1612. In 1619 he was in command of an expedition in search of
the North-West Passage which proved a failure. Subsequently he was
captured with his ship and cargo, valued at £2000, by the pirates
of Algiers and held to ransom. _See_ Christy, _Voyages of Foxe and
James_ (Hakluyt Soc.).
[551] Near Wye, on the main road from Ashford to Canterbury.
[552] MS. 'Shorum.'
[553] Nephew.
[554] Master Carpenter of the _St. Denis_ in 1632.
[555] MS. 'Langer.' At the entrance to Harwich harbour.
[556] Old cordage, used for manufacture into brown paper.
[557] Francis Sheldon, Clerk of the Check at Woolwich.
[558] The wife of Thomas Cole, who was one of the witnesses at the
Inquiry of 1610 (_supra_, p. 57). Thomas Cole owned the Manor of
Woodbridge, which by 1649 came into Peter's possession. See Copinger,
_Manors of Suffolk_, vol. iv. p. 328.
[559] Bailiffs.
[560] See Introduction.
[561] Edward Boate, Master Shipwright.
[562] Comptroller of the Navy since 1632; son of the Comptroller of
the Navy of the same name who died in 1611.
[563] Denis Fleming, Clerk of the Acts.
[564] Edward Sackville, 4th Earl, one of the Commissioners of the
Admiralty appointed after the death of Buckingham.
[565] The elder (1589-1655), then Comptroller of the Household and
Privy Councillor.
[566] Sir Francis Windebank (1582-1646), joint-Secretary of State
with Sir John Coke, 1632.
[567] MS. 'president.'
[568] MS. 'whelles.'
[569] MS. 'Waynstead.' A royal manor.
[570] On the edge of the Maplin, six miles east of Shoeburyness.
[571] MS. 'Burlington.'
[572] MS. 'Whytebye.'
[573] Luke Foxe, the Arctic navigator. He died at Whitby in July.
[574] M.S. 'Stockdone.'
[575] Stockton had fallen into decay during the sixteenth century.
[576] _Sic._
[577] MS. 'Chopple.' On the Derwent, six miles south-west of
Newcastle.
[578] MS. 'Bramespeth.' On the Wear, four miles south-west of Durham.
[579] MS. 'Duresme.'
[580] Pett's clerk.
[581] Comptroller of Customs for Port of London; one time Secretary
of the Council of the North.
[582] MS. 'Tuckesford.'
[583] MS. 'Grantum.'
[584] Charles Lewis, the second son of Frederick and Elizabeth, born
in 1617. Frederick had died in 1632.
[585] Prince Rupert.
[586] It was the 9th.
[587] _I.e._ not moored, having only one anchor down.
[588] Swinging round with the tide.
[589] Obsolete form of 'travailed'; laboured.
[590] Charles Lewis, whom, on p. 162, he called the Palsgrave. The
title of Elector was, however, not formally accorded to him until the
Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, when the Lower Palatinate was restored.
[591] Apprentice. In 1633 he was recommended by Pett for the post of
Master Carpenter of the _Charles_ on the ground that he had wrought
upon the same throughout her being built, and was also 'a pretty
mariner.' _S. P. Dom. Chas. I._, ccxxxi. 45.
[592] Became too shallow.
[593] Spring tide.
[594] MS. 'Austyne'; Thomas Austen.
[595] Burning reeds.
[596] MS. 'Grenhyve.'
[597] MS. 'Shevarees.' Marie de Rohan; exiled from France in 1626.
[598] James Stuart, 4th Duke; created Duke of Richmond, 1641.
[599] Married on 7th January. On p. 171 his wife's father's name is
given as 'Etherington'; her Christian name was Mildred. The use of
two forenames was practically unknown at this period; evidently she
had been married before.
[600] Wife of Christopher Pett.
[601] The south end of the Goodwin Sands.
[602] This word is lost, the margin being torn away; these six words
are not in the Harleian copy.
[603] Chatham.
[604] Perhaps intended for 'own.'
[605] At Chatham.
[606] Sion House at Brentford, the seat of the Duke of
Northumberland, who had been appointed on 13th April to act for
the young Duke of York, declared Lord High Admiral for life at the
Council on 18th March.
[607] _I.e._ of France. Marie de Medicis, widow of Henri IV. and
mother of Queen Henrietta Maria; she landed at Harwich on 18th
October.
APPENDICES
I
Grant to Phineas Pett. 26th April 1604
(_In Latin_)
[=Pat. Roll 1646=]
The King[608] to all to whom etc. greeting. Whereas our dearest
Sister Elizabeth late deceased Queen of England by her letters
patent under the great seal of England bearing date at Westminster
the twenty-third day of January in the twenty-sixth year[609] of her
reign gave and granted for herself her heirs and successors unto
Mathew Baker and John Addey Shipwrights and to the longer liver of
either of them among other[610] things a certain annuity or annual
rent of twelve pence sterling a day: to have and to receive yearly
the said annuity or annual rent of twelve pence sterling a day to
the aforesaid Matthew Baker and John Addey and their assigns and to
the longer liver of either of them from the Feast of the Nativity of
the Lord then last past before the date of the same letters patent
during the natural life of the same Mathew Baker and John Addey and
the longer liver of either of them from her Treasury and that of her
heirs and successors at the Receipt of the Exchequer at Westminster
of herself her heirs and successors at the hands of the Treasurer
and Chamberlain of her her heirs and successors there for the time
in being at the four terms of the year namely at the Feast of the
Annunciation of the B.V. Mary of St. John the Baptist of St. Michael
the Archangel and of the Nativity of the Lord in equal portions.
And whereas also our same dearest Sister Elizabeth by other letters
patent under the great seal of England bearing date at Westminster
the twenty-ninth day of July in the thirty-second year of her
reign[611] gave and granted for herself her heirs and successors to
Joseph Pett Shipwright another annuity or annual fee of twelve pence
a day of lawful money of England; to have hold and receive unto the
same Joseph Pett and his assigns during the natural life of the
same Joseph Pett from the Treasury of her her heirs and successors
at the Receipt of the Exchequer at Westminster by the hands of the
Treasurer and Chamberlain there and from time to time existing, as
by the several said letters patent more plainly doth appear. Which
said Mathew Baker and John Addey and Joseph Pett to this day remain
alive and to this present have and enjoy the said several annuities
by virtue of the several letters patent aforesaid. Know ye that we