Pepys, << peeps, pehps, or PEHP ihs, >> Samuel (1633-1703), was an English writer and government official. His famous Diary provides an intimate self-portrait and a vivid picture of an exciting period in English history. Pepys also became known for his role in the development of the British Navy.
His diary
covers the period from 1660 to 1669. It deals with an early part of Pepys’s life, when he was clerk of the navy. He wrote the Diary in a code combination of shorthand, foreign words and phrases, and contractions of his own invention.
Pepys meticulously recorded events of his daily life. He wrote frankly about his affairs with women and his desire to become wealthy. He described his enthusiasm for music and the theater, and his interest in collecting books and paintings. Pepys told of his public career and his pride in his success. The Diary documents his curiosity about everything, from science to the gossip at the court of King Charles II. Pepys did not intend to have the Diary read by the public, and he wrote about himself with unusual honesty.
Pepys recorded many of the important events of the 1660’s as a witness and participant. The Diary colorfully describes the restoration of the king as ruler of England. The work also contains thrilling accounts of the Great Plague, the Great Fire of London, and England’s naval war with the Netherlands. In an especially memorable entry, Pepys related his court defense of the navy board after the board came under attack by a parliamentary committee.
Pepys stopped writing the Diary because his vision deteriorated. The work was first translated from 1819 to 1822 and was published in an abridged edition. The unabridged Diary was published in nine volumes from 1970 to 1976.
His life.
Pepys was born on Feb. 23, 1633, in London and attended Cambridge University. Through the influence of a powerful relative, Sir Edward Montagu, he was appointed clerk of the Acts of the Navy in 1660. This post gave Pepys a position on the navy board. His ability, dedication, and industriousness soon made him the most efficient administrator in the navy office.
In 1673, Pepys became secretary of the admiralty and thus, in effect, head of the navy. Under Pepys, the navy administration developed into an efficient, professional organization. Pepys introduced numerous reforms on matters ranging from the appointment of naval officers to the maintenance of dockyards. These standards and procedures were important to the foundation of the modern British Civil Service.
Pepys served in Parliament several times, and he was president of the Royal Society in 1684 and 1685 (see Royal Society). He lost his post in the admiralty after the fall of King James II in 1688. Pepys then wrote Memoires of the Royal Navy, 1679-1688, which was published in 1690. He died on May 26, 1703.
