The Diary of John Evelyn Volume II Part 37

The King returned out of Holland just as this accident happened--Proclamation against the Papists, etc.

16th April, 1691. I went to see Dr. Sloane's curiosities, being an universal collection of the natural productions of Jamaica, consisting of plants, fruits, corals, minerals, stones, earth, sh.e.l.ls, animals, and insects, collected with great judgment; several folios of dried plants, and one which had about 80 several sorts of ferns, and another of gra.s.ses; the Jamaica pepper, in branch, leaves, flower, fruit, etc. This collection,[76] with his Journal and other philosophical and natural discourses and observations, indeed very copious and extraordinary, sufficient to furnish a history of that island, to which I encouraged him.

[Footnote 76: It now forms part of the collection in the British Museum.]

19th April, 1691. The Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishops of Ely, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, Gloucester, and the rest who would not take the oaths to King William, were now displaced; and in their rooms, Dr.

Tillotson, Dean of St. Paul's, was made Archbishop: Patrick removed from Chichester to Ely; c.u.mberland to Gloucester.

22d April, 1691. I dined with Lord Clarendon in the Tower.

24th April, 1691. I visited the Earl and Countess of Sunderland, now come to kiss the King's hand after his return from Holland. This is a mystery. The King preparing to return to the army.

7th May, 1691. I went to visit the Archbishop of Canterbury [Sancroft]

yet at Lambeth. I found him alone, and discoursing of the times, especially of the newly designed Bishops; he told me that by no canon or divine law they could justify the removing of the present inc.u.mbents; that Dr. Beveridge, designed Bishop of Bath and Wells, came to ask his advice; that the Archbishop told him, though he should give it, he believed he would not take it; the Doctor said he would; why then, says the Archbishop, when they come to ask, say "_Nolo_," and say it from the heart; there is nothing easier than to resolve yourself what is to be done in the case: the Doctor seemed to deliberate. What he will do I know not, but Bishop Ken, who is to be put out, is exceedingly beloved in his diocese; and, if he and the rest should insist on it, and plead their interest as freeholders, it is believed there would be difficulty in their case, and it may endanger a schism and much disturbance, so as wise men think it had been better to have let them alone, than to have proceeded with this rigor to turn them out for refusing to swear against their consciences. I asked at parting, when his Grace removed; he said that he had not yet received any summons, but I found the house altogether disfurnished and his books packed up.

1st June, 1691. I went with my son, and brother-in-law, Glanville, and his son, to Wotton, to solemnize the funeral of my nephew, which was performed the next day very decently and orderly by the herald in the afternoon, a very great appearance of the country being there. I was the chief mourner; the pall was held by Sir Francis Vincent, Sir Richard Onslow, Mr. Thomas Howard (son to Sir Robert, and Captain of the King's Guard), Mr. Hyldiard, Mr. James, Mr. Herbert, nephew to Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and cousin-german to my deceased nephew. He was laid in the vault at Wotton Church, in the burying place of the family. A great concourse of coaches and people accompanied the solemnity.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

10th June, 1691. I went to visit Lord Clarendon, still prisoner in the Tower, though Lord Preston being pardoned was released.

17th June, 1691. A fast.

11th July, 1691. I dined with Mr. Pepys, where was Dr. c.u.mberland, the new Bishop of Norwich,[77] Dr. Lloyd having been put out for not acknowledging the Government. c.u.mberland is a very learned, excellent man. Possession was now given to Dr. Tillotson, at Lambeth, by the Sheriff; Archbishop Sancroft was gone, but had left his nephew to keep possession; and he refusing to deliver it up on the Queen's message, was dispossessed by the Sheriff, and imprisoned. This stout demeanor of the few Bishops who refused to take the oaths to King William, animated a great party to forsake the churches, so as to threaten a schism; though those who looked further into the ancient practice, found that when (as formerly) there were Bishops displaced on secular accounts, the people never refused to acknowledge the new Bishops, provided they were not heretics. The truth is, the whole clergy had till now stretched the duty of pa.s.sive obedience, so that the proceedings against these Bishops gave no little occasion of exceptions; but this not amounting to heresy, there was a necessity of receiving the new Bishops, to prevent a failure of that order in the Church. I went to visit Lord Clarendon in the Tower, but he was gone into the country for air by the Queen's permission, under the care of his warden.

[Footnote 77: A mistake. Dr. c.u.mberland was made Bishop of Peterborough and Dr. John Moore succeeded Dr. Lloyd in the see of Norwich.]

18th July, 1691. To London to hear Mr. Stringfellow preach his first sermon in the newly erected Church of Trinity, in Conduit Street; to which I did recommend him to Dr. Tenison for the constant preacher and lecturer. This Church, formerly built of timber on Hounslow-Heath by King James for the ma.s.s priests, being begged by Dr. Tenison, rector of St. Martin's, was set up by that public-minded, charitable, and pious man near my son's dwelling in Dover Street, chiefly at the charge of the Doctor. I know him to be an excellent preacher and a fit person. This Church, though erected in St. Martin's, which is the Doctor's parish, he was not only content, but was the sole industrious mover, that it should be made a separate parish, in regard of the neighborhood having become so populous. Wherefore to countenance and introduce the new minister, and take possession of a gallery designed for my son's family, I went to London, where,

19th July, 1691. In the morning Dr. Tenison preached the first sermon, taking his text from Psalm xxvi. 8. "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth." In concluding, he gave that this should be made a parish church so soon as the Parliament sat, and was to be dedicated to the Holy Trinity, in honor of the three undivided persons in the Deity; and he minded them to attend to that faith of the church, now especially that Arianism, Socinianism, and atheism began to spread among us. In the afternoon, Mr. Stringfellow preached on Luke vii. 5. "The centurion who had built a synagogue." He proceeded to the due praise of persons of such public spirit, and thence to such a character of pious benefactors in the person of the generous centurion, as was comprehensive of all the virtues of an accomplished Christian, in a style so full, eloquent, and moving, that I never heard a sermon more apposite to the occasion. He modestly insinuated the obligation they had to that person who should be the author and promoter of such public works for the benefit of mankind, especially to the advantage of religion, such as building and endowing churches, hospitals, libraries, schools, procuring the best editions of useful books, by which he handsomely intimated who it was that had been so exemplary for his benefaction to that place. Indeed, that excellent person, Dr. Tenison, had also erected and furnished a public library [in St. Martin's]; and set up two or three free schools at his own charges.

Besides this, he was of an exemplary, holy life, took great pains in constantly preaching, and incessantly employing himself to promote the service of G.o.d both in public and private. I never knew a man of a more universal and generous spirit, with so much modesty, prudence, and piety.

The great victory of King William's army in Ireland was looked on as decisive of that war. The French General, St. Ruth, who had been so cruel to the poor Protestants in France, was slain, with divers of the best commanders; nor was it cheap to us, having 1,000 killed, but of the enemy 4,000 or 5,000.

26th July, 1691. An extraordinary hot season, yet refreshed by some thundershowers.

28th July, 1691. I went to Wotton.

2d August, 1691. No sermon in the church in the afternoon, and the curacy ill-served.

16th August, 1691. A sermon by the curate; an honest discourse, but read without any spirit, or seeming concern; a great fault in the education of young preachers. Great thunder and lightning on Thursday, but the rain and wind very violent. Our fleet come in to lay up the great s.h.i.+ps; nothing done at sea, pretending that we cannot meet the French.

13th September, 1691. A great storm at sea; we lost the "Coronation" and "Harwich," above 600 men peris.h.i.+ng.

14th October, 1691. A most pleasing autumn. Our navy come in without having performed anything, yet there has been great loss of s.h.i.+ps by negligence, and unskillful men governing the fleet and Navy board.

7th November, 1691. I visited the Earl of Dover, who having made his peace with the King, was now come home. The relation he gave of the strength of the French King, and the difficulty of our forcing him to fight, and any way making impression into France, was very wide from what we fancied.

8th to 30th November, 1691. An extraordinary dry and warm season, without frost, and like a new spring; such as had not been known for many years. Part of the King's house at Kensington was burned.

6th December, 1691. Discourse of another PLOT, in which several great persons were named, but believed to be a sham.--A proposal in the House of Commons that every officer in the whole nation who received a salary above 500 or otherwise by virtue of his office, should contribute it wholly to the support of the war with France, and this upon their oath.

25th December, 1691. My daughter-in-law was brought to bed of a daughter.

26th December, 1691. An exceedingly dry and calm winter; no rain for many past months.

28th December, 1691. Dined at Lambeth with the new Archbishop. Saw the effect of my greenhouse furnace, set up by the Archbishop's son-in-law.

30th December, 1691. I again saw Mr. Charlton's collection of spiders, birds, scorpions, and other serpents, etc.

1st January, 1691-92. This last week died that pious, admirable Christian, excellent philosopher, and my worthy friend, Mr. Boyle, aged about 65,--a great loss to all that knew him, and to the public.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

6th January, 1692. At the funeral of Mr. Boyle, at St. Martin's, Dr.

Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, preached on Eccles. ii. 26. He concluded with an eulogy due to the deceased, who made G.o.d and religion the scope of all his excellent talents in the knowledge of nature, and who had arrived to so high a degree in it, accompanied with such zeal and extraordinary piety, which he showed in the whole course of his life, particularly in his exemplary charity on all occasions,--that he gave 1,000 yearly to the distressed refugees of France and Ireland; was at the charge of translating the Scriptures into the Irish and Indian tongues, and was now promoting a Turkish translation, as he had formerly done of Grotius "on the Truth of the Christian Religion" into Arabic, which he caused to be dispersed in the eastern countries; that he had settled a fund for preachers who should preach expressly against Atheists, Libertines, Socinians, and Jews; that he had in his will given 8,000 to charitable uses; but that his private charities were extraordinary. He dilated on his learning in Hebrew and Greek, his reading of the fathers, and solid knowledge in theology, once deliberating about taking Holy Orders, and that at the time of restoration of King Charles II., when he might have made a great figure in the nation as to secular honor and t.i.tles, his fear of not being able to discharge so weighty a duty as the first, made him decline that, and his humility the other. He spoke of his civility to strangers, the great good which he did by his experience in medicine and chemistry, and to what n.o.ble ends he applied himself to his darling studies; the works, both pious and useful, which he published; the exact life he led, and the happy end he made. Something was touched of his sister, the Lady Ranelagh, who died but a few days before him. And truly all this was but his due, without any grain of flattery.

This week a most execrable murder was committed on Dr. Clench, father of that extraordinary learned child whom I have before noticed. Under pretense of carrying him in a coach to see a patient, they strangled him in it; and, sending away the coachman under some pretense, they left his dead body in the coach, and escaped in the dusk of the evening.

12th January, 1692. My granddaughter was christened by Dr. Tenison, now Bishop of Lincoln, in Trinity Church, being the first that was christened there. She was named Jane.

24th January, 1692. A frosty and dry season continued; many persons die of apoplexy, more than usual. Lord Marlborough, Lieutenant-General of the King's army in England, gentleman of the bedchamber, etc., dismissed from all his charges, military and other, for his excessive taking of bribes, covetousness, and extortion on all occasions from his inferior officers. Note, this was the Lord who was entirely advanced by King James, and was the first who betrayed and forsook his master. He was son of Sir Winston Churchill of the Greencloth.

7th February, 1692. An extraordinary snow fell in most parts.

13th February, 1692. Mr. Boyle having made me one of the trustees for his charitable bequests, I went to a meeting of the Bishop of Lincoln, Sir Rob.... wood, and serjeant, Rotheram, to settle that clause in the will which related to charitable uses, and especially the appointing and electing a minister to preach one sermon the first Sunday in the month, during the four summer months, expressly against Atheists, Deists, Libertines, Jews, etc., without descending to any other controversy whatever, for which 50 per annum is to be paid quarterly to the preacher; and, at the end of three years, to proceed to a new election of some other able divine, or to continue the same, as the trustees should judge convenient. We made choice of one Mr. Bentley, chaplain to the Bishop of Worcester (Dr. Stillingfleet). The first sermon was appointed for the first Sunday in March, at St. Martin's; the second Sunday in April, at Bow Church, and so alternately.

28th February, 1692. Lord Marlborough having used words against the King, and been discharged from all his great places, his wife was forbidden the Court, and the Princess of Denmark was desired by the Queen to dismiss her from her service; but she refusing to do so, goes away from Court to Sion house. Divers new Lords made: Sir Henry Capel, Sir William Fermor, etc. Change of Commissioners in the Treasury. The Parliament adjourned, not well satisfied with affairs. The business of the East India Company, which they would have reformed, let fall. The Duke of Norfolk does not succeed in his endeavor to be divorced.[78]

[Footnote 78: See _post_ pp. 351-52.]

20th March, 1692. My son was made one of the Commissioners of the Revenue and Treasury of Ireland, to which employment he had a mind, far from my wishes. I visited the Earl of Peterborough, who showed me the picture of the Prince of Wales, newly brought out of France, seeming in my opinion very much to resemble the Queen his mother, and of a most vivacious countenance.

April, 1692. No spring yet appearing. The Queen Dowager went out of England toward Portugal, as pretended, against the advice of all her friends.

4th April, 1692. Mr. Bentley preached Mr. Boyle's lecture at St.

Mary-le-Bow. So excellent a discourse against the Epicurean system is not to be recapitulated in a few words. He came to me to ask whether I thought it should be printed, or that there was anything in it which I desired to be altered. I took this as a civility, and earnestly desired it should be printed, as one of the most learned and convincing discourses I had ever heard.

6th April, 1692. A fast. King James sends a letter written and directed by his own hand to several of the Privy Council, and one to his daughter, the Queen Regent, informing them of the Queen being ready to be brought to bed, and summoning them to be at the birth by the middle of May, promising as from the French King, permission to come and return in safety.

24th April, 1692. Much apprehension of a French invasion, and of an universal rising. Our fleet begins to join with the Dutch. Unkindness between the Queen and her sister. Very cold and unseasonable weather, scarce a leaf on the trees.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

5th May, 1692. Reports of an invasion were very hot, and alarmed the city, Court, and people; nothing but securing suspected persons, sending forces to the seaside, and hastening out the fleet. Continued discourse of the French invasion, and of ours in France. The eastern wind so constantly blowing, gave our fleet time to unite, which had been so tardy in preparation, that, had not G.o.d thus wonderfully favored, the enemy would in all probability have fallen upon us. Many daily secured, and proclamations out for more conspirators.

8th May, 1692. My kinsman, Sir Edward Evelyn, of Long Ditton, died suddenly.

12th May, 1692. A fast.