PEPYS, SAMUEL, a distinguished officer of the admiralty during the reigns of Charles II. and James II., was b. Feb. 23; 1682-33. He was the son of a London citizen, a tailor, but was well educated, first at St. Paul's school, and afterwards at Magdalen college, Cambridge. His cousin, sir Edward Montague (the first earl of Sandwich), introduced him to public employment. In 1660 he was appointed clerk of the acts of the navy, and in 1673 secretary for the affairs of the navy. He was an excellent public servant, acute, diligent, and laborious; but during the fanatical excitement of the Popish plot he was committed to the tower, on an unfounded and absurd charge of aiding in the design to dethrone the king and extirpate the Protestant religion. Having been discharged with out a trial, Pepys was replaced at his post in the admiralty, which be retained till the abdication of James II. For two years be held the honorable station of president of the royal society. He died May 26, 1703. Pepys wrote hlemoirs of the Royal Navy, 1690. He left to Magdalen college his large collection of books, MSS., and prints, including about
2,000 ancient English ballads. forming five folio volumes. This curious collection was begun, he says, by Selden, and continued down to the year 1700, when the form peculiar to the old ballads, namely, the black letter with pictures, was laid aside for the simpler modern fashion. Pepys is now best remembered for his diary, deciphered by the rev. J. Smith from the original short-hand MS. in the Pepysian library, Cambridge, and first published, under the editorial care of lord Braybrooke, in 1825. It commences on Jan. 1, 1659-60, and is continued for above nine years, when the diarist was obliged from defective eyesight to abandon his daily task. As a picture of the court and times of Charles II. this diary is invaluable: the events, characters, follies, vices, and peculiarities of the age are presented in true and lively colors, and the work altogether is one of the most racy, unique, and amusing books in the language. The fullest edition is that by the rev. Sfynors Bright, which began to appear in 1875.