PEPYS, SAMUEL (1633-1703). A well-known English diarist. He was born February 23. 1633. the son of a London citizen, a tailor, but was well educated, first at Saint Paul's School, and afterwards at Magdalene College. Cambridge. His cousin, Sir Edward Montagu (later Earl of Sandwich, q.v.), introduced him to public em ployment. 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 (see OATEN, Tin's). he was committed to the Tower on an unfounded charge of aiding in the design to assassinate the King and extirpate the Protestant religion. Having been discharged without a trial, Pepys was restored to his post in the Admiralty, which he retained till the Revolu tion of 16S8. He subsequently suffered a short imprisonment on the charge of being a Jacobite (1689-90). For two years (1684-S6) he held the honorable station of president of the Royal So eiety. He died May 26, 1703. Pepys wrote Memoirs of the Royal Vary (1090), and has been credited with The Portugal History. 1667-6S, by S. I'. Esq. (1677). He left to Magdalene Col lege his large collection of books, manuscripts, and prints, including about 2000 ancient English ballads, forming five folio volumes. This envious collection was begun, he says, by Seidel]. and con tinued down to the year 1700, when the form peculiar to the old ballads, namely, the black let with pictures, was laid aside for the simpler modern fashion. Pepys is now remembered for
his Diary, deciphered by the Rev. J. Smith from the original shorthand manuscript in the Pepvs ian Library. Cambridge. and first published in a mutilated form under the editorial care of Lord Braybrooke in 1825. It begins January 1. 1660, and is continued for about 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 invalu able; 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. It has often been printed, but all the editions are fragmentary except the last by 11 heatley in eight volumes (London, 1893-96), which is accurate and complete except for the omission of a few of the most offensive passages. The same editor has also published Samuel Pepys and the Ile tired In (London, 1880). Some hitherto unpublished letters of Pepys are to be found in The Academy. vol. xxxviii. (ib., 1890), and The Athenwum, vol. xe. (ib., 1887). Consult also: Tanner, "Pepys and the Popish Plot," in The English Historical Itericir, vol. vii. (ib., 1892) ; Stevenson, "Samuel Pepys," in Familiar Studies (ib., 1892).