Samuel Pepys
1663–1703

Samuel Pepys, born on 23 February 1633, the son of a London tailor, went to St Paul’s school, and in March 1651 to Magdalen College, Cambridge. In 1655 he married a pretty girl of fifteen, and became secretary to a cousin, obtaining, by his favour, small appointments; in 1660 was made Clerk of the Acts of the Navy, and also Clerk of the Privy Seal, and was a very energetic and competent official. In 1686 he became Secretary to the Admiralty, and for a time sat in parliament. At the Revolution his career was closed, but until the end of his life he was looked on as the Nestor of navy affairs. But it is as the writer of a Diary (in cypher), unique in the literature of the world, that his fame still lives; a work which has thrown the most unexpected light upon the history and manners of his day, while at the same time it presents a most remarkable psychological study.
Pepys was Master of the Trinity House (1676 and 1685) and President of the Royal Society (1684–86). During the supposed Popish Plot (1679) he was committed to the Tower, and in 1690 he was placed in Westminster Gate-house for a few days. He died on 26 May 1703.