Person    | Male  Born 23/2/1633  Died 26/5/1703

Samuel Pepys

Diarist and Secretary of the Admiralty. Born Salisbury Court, where his father ran a tailoring business. The house backed onto St Brides church. Highly regarded administrator of the navy. Served Cromwell, King Charles II, King James II, but resigned rather than serve King William III. Pepys was on the ship commanded by Montagu that brought Charles II back from exile at the Restoration. On the governing board of Christ's Hospital with a special interest in the Royal Mathematical School

In 1659, through his patron, Montague, he got his first job in the Navy Board and he moved into the house that came with the job, in Seething Lane (plaque) where he stayed until c.1672. He was very house-proud and enjoyed improving it. The book cases he had built there are the first-known purpose-built bookcases in England. Having survived the Great Fire of London Seething Lane was burnt down in January 1673 and Pepys lived in lodgings just around the corner in Mark Lane. In January the following year he moved to rooms above the Admiralty quarters in Derby House in Cannon Row (just north of Westminster tube station).

In 1679, on release from a brief spell in the Tower, Pepys went to stay with his trusted assistant and friend William Hewer in York Buildings, Buckingham Street (plaque) where he had his own set of rooms. In 1685 Pepys was joined there by his mistress of 14 years, Mary Skinner, who was now often given the respect normally reserved for a wife. Hewer moved out and Pepys had the Admiralty Office moved from Derby House to Buckingham Street. The houses involved were no 12 and no 14.  In 1680, rather than serve King William he resigned from the Admiralty and refused to move out of his home so the Admiralty Office was moved out instead.

Died Clapham in Will Hewer's house where Pepys had moved in 1701, together with his library. This house, demolished c. 1760, is thought to have been on the north side of the common, near what is now Victoria Road. Buried at St Olave's.

1655 married the 14-year old Elizabeth, who died in 1669.

Pepys invested in the slave trading Royal Africa Company and was a slave trade enabler through his job at the Naval Office.

We highly recommend 'Samuel Pepys: the Unequalled Self' by Claire Tomalin.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Samuel Pepys

Commemorated ati

Kipling House

The wording on the plaque could have been clearer. The first half is giving t...

Read More

Mile End mural

Murals are often rather fun puzzles so do have a go identifying what you can ...

Read More

Old Cock Tavern - Fleet Street - lost plaque

Ye Olde Cock Tavern, est. circa 1554. The Cock was opened in 1888 with the fi...

Read More

Pepys and Navy Office

Site of the Navy Office in which Samuel Pepys lived and worked. Destroyed by...

Read More

Show all 14

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Samuel Pepys

Creations i

Pepys and Harrison

Londonist gives a deliciously grim description of the process of being hung, ...

Read More

Pepys - Stew Lane

This page of Pepys' Diary is given at The Diary of Samuel Pepys with lots of ...

Read More

Other Subjects

D. H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence

Novelist and poet (also painter). Born Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. Died Vence, France. Novels include: Lady Chatterley's Lover, Sons and Lovers, Women in Love.

Person, Literature, Seriously Famous, France

2 memorials
Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

Poet, novelist and short story writer. Born Massachusetts. Came to England and met Ted Hughes at a celebration for a poetry magazine in Cambridge. Married him on 16 June 1956 at St George the Marty...

Person, Literature, Poetry, Seriously Famous, USA

1 memorial
Ford Madox Ford

Ford Madox Ford

Born Surrey as Ford Hermann Hueffer, of an English mother and German father, Francis Heuffer. Grew up in Pre-Raphaelite circles. On the death of their father in 1889 Ford and his brother went to li...

Person, Literature, France, Germany, USA

1 memorial
Piotr Ouspensky

Piotr Ouspensky

Philosopher. Born in Moscow. He became a pupil of George Gurdjieff who taught that most humans live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to transcend to a high...

Person, Literature, Philosophy, Russia

1 memorial
Stoke Newington Literary Festival

Stoke Newington Literary Festival

From their website in 2022: "Since 2010, we’ve been celebrating the area’s radical and literary history with a festival that’s become one of the most eclectic, diverse and, frankly, FUN in the lite...

Event, Community / Clubs, Literature

1 memorial