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Today we will be...Finding out about Samuel Pepys and his diary.
The Great Fire of London
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This is Samuel Pepys. He lived in London at the time of the Great Fire. Samuel Pepys was born
in 1633 so was 33 when the Great Fire happened. He married his wife, Elizabeth, in
1655 when Elizabeth was just 15 years old. His parents were not rich but he had a rich relative
who helped him to get a good job.
How do you think we know so much about Samuel Pepys and his experience in the Great Fire of London?
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Pepys wrote a diary and recorded his experiences. This is how we know so much about the Great Fire and what he did during it. He wrote his diary in secret and didn’t mean for anyone else to read it. He wrote it in code and it wasn’t published until 150
years after the fire.
Pepys was a Member of Parliament so he was quite involved in fighting the fire. In his diary, he writes about the decisions of the Lord Mayor and
the king took to fight the fire.
This picture shows an actual page from Pepys’ diary. What is the writing like?
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He also tells us about things he did like putting his wife on a boat to Woolwich to make sure she was safe and burying cheese
and wine in his garden!
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What did he see?
He saw the fire the night it started when his maidservant woke him up to tell him about it. He walked around London during the fire and saw London destroyed
when it had finally been put out.
Some of our maids sitting up late last night to get things ready against our feast today, Jane called up about three in the morning, to tell us of a great
fire they saw in the City. So I rose, and slipped on my night-gown and went to her window, and thought it to be on the back side of Mark Lane at the
farthest; but, being unused to such fires as followed, I thought it far enough off, and so went to bed again, and to sleep. . . . By and by Jane comes and
tells me that she hears that above 300 houses have been burned down tonight by the fire we saw, and that it is now burning down all Fish Street, by London Bridge. So I made myself ready presently, and walked to the Tower; and there got up upon one of the high places, . . .and there I did see the houses at the end of the bridge all on fire, and an infinite great fire on this and the other
side . . . of the bridge. . . .Extract from Samuel Pepys’ diary, 2nd September 1666
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What did he do?
His diary tells us that he looked after his own possessions by taking them out of London or burying them in his garden to keep them safe. He also took
messages from the king to the Lord Mayor and went to meet other important people to see what was being done about the fire.
At last I met my Lord Mayor in Cannon Street, like a man spent, with a [handkerchief] about his neck. To the King's message he cried, like a fainting woman, ‘Lord, what can I do? I am spent: people will not obey me. I have been pulling down houses, but the fire overtakes us faster than we can do
it.’ . . . So he left me, and I him, and walked home; seeing people all distracted, and no manner of means used to quench the fire. The houses, too, so very
thick thereabouts, and full of matter for burning, as pitch and tar, in Thames Street; and warehouses of oil and wines and brandy and other things
Extract from Samuel Pepys’ diary, 2nd September 1666
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We can find out a lot of information about the fire from
Pepys’ diary but what other sources could we use to find
out about the Great Fire?
Think, pair, share your ideas.
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We can use paintings and pictures from the time to find out about the fire.
What can we find out about the fire from this picture?
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We can also find out about the fire from objects that archaeologists have found. An archaeologist is someone who carefully digs up objects that have been buried for a long time. These objects can give us clues
about the past.
!
This is a fire bucket from 1666. It is made from leather and was found near Pudding Lane buried under debris and
rubble.
