Samuel Pepys PRS (/piːps/; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade.
Why was Samuel Pepys so important?
Samuel Pepys was famous for his diary. It’s an amazing historical document that details the main events in Restoration England, including the Great Plague of 1665-1666 and the Great Fire of London of 1666.
What did Samuel Pepys do during the Great Fire of London?
Samuel Pepys, a man who lived at the time, kept a diary that has been well preserved – you can read it in full here. He was a Clerk to the Royal Navy who observed the fire. He recommended to the King that buildings were pulled down – many thought it was the only way to stop the fire.
What is Samuel Pepys famous?
Samuel Pepys, (born February 23, 1633, London, England—died May 26, 1703, London), English diarist and naval administrator, celebrated for his Diary (first published in 1825), which gives a fascinating picture of the official and upper-class life of Restoration London from Jan. 1, 1660, to May 31, 1669.
What job did Samuel Pepys have?
In June 1660, Pepys was appointed clerk of the acts to the navy board, a key post in one of the most important of all government departments, the royal dockyards. In 1673, he became secretary to the Admiralty and in the same year a member of parliament for a Norfolk constituency, later representing Harwich.
Who witnessed the Great Fire of London?
In September 1666, a fire destroyed much of the city of London. The diarist, Samuel Pepys, and a schoolboy called William Taswell witnessed what happened.
Who buried cheese in 1666?
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys was stationed at the Navy Office on Seething Lane and from 1660 lived in a house attached to the office. It was in the garden of this house that he famously buried his treasured wine and parmesan cheese during the Great Fire of 1666.
Who was blamed for the great fire?
French watchmaker Robert Hubert confessed to starting the blaze and was hanged on October 27, 1666. Years later it was revealed he was at sea when the fire began, and could not have been responsible. There were other scapegoats, including people of Catholic faith and from overseas.
Who helped stop the Great Fire of London?
There was no fire brigade in London in 1666 so Londoners themselves had to fight the fire, helped by local soldiers. They used buckets of water, water squirts and fire hooks. Equipment was stored in local churches. The best way to stop the fire was to pull down houses with hooks to make gaps or ‘fire breaks’.
Who was responsible for rebuilding London after the Great Fire?
architect Sir Christopher Wren
After the fire, architect Sir Christopher Wren submitted plans for rebuilding London to Charles II. An 18th-century copy of these plans is shown here. The narrow streets that had helped the fire spread are here replaced by wide avenues.
How many people died in the Great Fire of London?
six people
The Great Fire of London was arguably the greatest tragedy of its time. Remarkably just six people were officially recorded to have lost their lives, but the Great Fire rendered almost 85% of London’s population homeless.
What was unique about Pepys diary?
The diary wasn’t written in code but in a form of shorthand called tachygraphy. It took a reverend several years to decipher the diary – and this wasn’t done until the 1820s. Partly what makes the diary so entertaining is Pepys’s personality: his confession of his own weaknesses, his refreshing frankness.
What did Pepys say about the plague?
As plague moved from parish to parish Pepys described the changing face of London-life – ‘nobody but poor wretches in the streets’, ‘no boats upon the River’, ‘fires burning in the street’ to cleanse the air and ‘little noise heard day or night but tolling of bells’ that accompanied the burial of plague victims.
What is Samuel Pepys cheese worth?
There are over 300,000 wheels of Parmesan cheese stored in bank vaults in Italy, worth over $200 million. The cheese is held as collateral for loans to the cheese makers to assist their cash flow as the cheese takes so long to mature. So Pepys was not so crazy as it would seem.
Did Samuel Pepys own slaves?
Pepys became a shareholder in the Royal Adventurers into Africa in 1663. As well as profiting from the slave trade through his business investments he had Africans among his household, including a cook whom he called Doll. His diaries also reveal the ill treatment Africans suffered even in death.
Did anything survive the Great Fire London?
Although the Great Fire of London destroyed over 13,000 houses, almost 90 churches and even the mighty St Paul’s Cathedral, a handful of survivors managed to escape the flames and can still be seen to this day.
How did the Great Fire of London end?
The battle to put out the fire is considered to have been won by two key factors: the strong east wind dropped, and the Tower of London garrison used gunpowder to create effective firebreaks, halting further spread eastward.
What survived the Great Fire of London?
The Seven Stars, Holborn
The Seven Stars just survived as it was just beyond the limit of the fire. It is now a rare surviving example of a building from the pre-fire period. Built around 1602 it was formerly known as the ‘League of the Seven Stars’.
Who was the first person to eat cheese?
No one really knows who made the first cheese. According to an ancient legend, it was made accidentally by an Arabian merchant who put his supply of milk into a pouch made from a sheep’s stomach, as he set out on a day’s journey across the desert.
Was the first cheese made by accident?
The production of cheese predates recorded history, beginning well over 7,000 years ago. Humans likely developed cheese and other dairy foods by accident, as a result of storing and transporting milk in bladders made of ruminants’ stomachs, as their inherent supply of rennet would encourage curdling.
What destroyed most of London in 1666?
Great Fire of London, (September 2–5, 1666), the worst fire in London’s history. It destroyed a large part of the City of London, including most of the civic buildings, old St. Paul’s Cathedral, 87 parish churches, and about 13,000 houses.