Diary of the times of Charles II/Volume 1/Mr. Mountstevens to Mr. Sidney, January 23, 1679
MR. MOUNTSTEVENS TO MR. SIDNEY.
Honoured Sir,
His Majesty has thought fit to remove Mr. Hayter from the employment of Secretary to the Admiralty to that of Comtroller of the Navy, void upon my Lord Brunkard's quitting it, and has appointed Mr. Brisbane to be Hater's successor in the Admiralty.
The Earl of Clarendon is made Treasurer to the Queen, in the room of Mr. Harvey, who died yesterday morning.
The King has commanded my Lord Herbert to deliver up his commission in the Duke's regiment; and, upon his Lordship's desiring to know the reason of it, and particularly whether his zeal in promoting the petition for calling a Parliament had not been the occasion of His Majesty's displeasure, the King told him in answer, that amongst a great many others that was one. The King has commanded that the Commission of the Peace be taken from my Lord Grey, brother to the Lord Chief Justice North, who was one of the Lords that some time since presented the King with a petition for calling the Parliament. I am also told that the Commission of the Peace is like-wise taken from all who would not understand, or which is all one, would not obey His Majesty's Proclamation, prohibiting tumultuous and seditious Petitions, to which several counties in England have had great regard, as is evident by the inclosed Gazette.
Upon Friday Mr. Gadbury[1] was sent for and examined before Cooncilly where he affirmed that Mrs. Collier[2] had often told him that she did not question but in a little time she should see Westminster Abbey become a convent of Benedictines, and the Temple stockt with Fryars. He likewise affirmed that Mrs. Collier had desired him to cast the King's nativity, when His Majesty was sick the last summer at Windsor; and that, upon his refusing to meddle in a matter of such consequence, she parted very much dissatisfied, telling him she would inform herself elsewhere.
Mr. Oates and Mr. Bedlow, two of the King's evidences, have given particulars to the Council against the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs. One of them I am told is, that his Lordship is frequently drunk with prohibited wines, which you will imagine a very notorious crime, since it is a sin against God, King, and Parliament. I shall endeavour to furnish you with a copy of the Articles by the next, and always to behave myself as one who is most absolutely
Yours.
This day the Court of Aldermen and Common Council met at Guildhall, where it was moved that a petition might be presented to His Majesty for calling a Parliament, but it was carried in the negative by six voices; there being 101 against the petition, 96 for it.
- ↑ The great astrologer of those days. In a cotemporary Journal kept by a Dr. Taswell, in the possession of Mr. Elliott, to whom I am obliged for this and other references, there is the following curious account of a party, who, in the year 1681, went to consult the oracle: "He (Sir Edward Deering) desired me to meet him at a tavern, where being arrived, there were present besides, Bernard, Doctor of Physic, and his brother, a surgeon, esteemed the most skilful in his way, and John Gadbury. This man calculated my nativity, according to the strict rules of astrology, and gave me it into my hand. I received it, not with a confidence that what he wrote were true. If you go upon certainty, says I, only foretel to me two or three events, which, if they should happen, would infallibly render me a proselyte of yours: but, if otherwise, I shall expect you to desert so vain and empty a pursuit. After consulting each other, Deering and Gadbury came to me, and told me, that they themselves would give no credit to their profession if these three circumstances they were going to relate did not actually come to pass.
"1st. That Charles II., after the burial of Queen Katherine, would have a son of another wife, who should be born after his death.
"That Louis XIV. would dye in 1682.
"That the Earl of Shaftesbury, who at that time favoured the rebellion, would be beheaded.
"So much for astrology, since the greatest champions for it never could judge with certainty concerning future contingencies, and I always esteemed astrology among those curious arts whose advocates, after they were converted from it by the Apostles, came and burnt their books in the presence of the multitude ; and it is evident from the Epiphany that this study was prohibited by the Apostles : therefore, returning to college, I could not be easy till I had thrown the account of my nativity in the fire. Deering foretold happy times to me from 36 until 48 years of my age, when he said I should have a bastard. In this interval I spent my time unhappy and inglorious. With regard to my having a bastard, the 48 years passed by me when I had never lain with any other woman but my own wife." - ↑ "A popish midwife, who had a great share of wit, and was abandoned to lewdness."—Burnet, ii. 234.