Volume 1

A later Pepys: the correspondence of Sir W.W.P. with Mrs. Chapone, Mrs. Hartley, Mrs. Montagu, Hannah More, William Franks, Sir James McDonald, Major Rennell, Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, and others / edited with an introduction and notes, by Alice C. C. Gaussen.

  • Pepys, William Weller, Sir, 1740-1825.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: A later Pepys: the correspondence of Sir W.W.P. with Mrs. Chapone, Mrs. Hartley, Mrs. Montagu, Hannah More, William Franks, Sir James McDonald, Major Rennell, Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, and others / edited with an introduction and notes, by Alice C. C. Gaussen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    26/501
    When the news of William III.’s landing in England was received, James IP was sitting to Sir Godfrey Kneller for his picture, which he had ordered as a present for Samuel Pepys. He told the artist to proceed, as he did not wish to disappoint his good friend. In 1655, in the person of Sir Richard Pepys, the family gave a Lord Chief Justice to Ireland. The next member of the family of note, was Sir William Pepys, who wrote these letters. He was born in 1740, was Master in Chancery, and Boswell describes him as “well known in polite circles.” Doctor Johnson said of him speaking to Mrs. Thrale, “ I know nobody who blasts by praise as you do ; for whenever there is exaggerated praise, everybody is set against a character. They are provoked to attack it. Now there is Pepys, you praised that man with such disproportion, that I was incited to lessen him, perhaps more than he deserved. His blood is upon your head. By the same means, your malice defeats itself, for your censure is too violent.” Wraxall declared that as long as letters, charms of con- versation, virtues and endowments claim remembrance, Sir William’s name could not die ; but for a time this man, once the moving spirit of what Lord Macaulay said was intellectually far the best society of the kingdom, has been forgotten. He shared his kinsman’s faculty of revealing his every thought; yet, unlike Samuel Pepys, he possessed a mind that could afford to think aloud. The Hon. Walter Pepys has kindly allowed me to make use of a number of letters collected by his father, the first Earl of Cottenham, and his uncle, the Bishop of Worcester, sons of Sir William Pepys. This has enabled me to give a short account of his life, as far as possible in his own words. P'rom want of health and spirits during his early years, he was not able to avail himself of the reputation he obtained at Eton ; and, as a child, the only part of the Church service he could not