Pepys, Fuller and an Archbishop

Abstract

Among young Samuel Pepys's many acquaintances was Thomas Fuller, antiquary, historian, preacher, biographer and wit. Fuller died on August 16, 1661, but he had previously appeared more than once in the Diary. On May 17, 1660, Pepys had a rapturously busy time at court: “After that, going to see the Queen of Bohemia, I met with Dr. Fuller, whom I sent to a tavern with Mr. Edw. Pickering, while I and the rest went to see the Queen. …” Early the next year (January 5, 1661), “Several people came to me about business, among others the great Tom Fuller, who came to desire a kindness for a friend of his … which I promised to do.” Later in the month (January 22) “I met with Dr. Thomas Fuller and took him to the Dog, where he tells me of his last and great book that is coming out: that is, his History of all the Families in England; and could tell me more of my own, than I knew myself.” In the same conversation Fuller talked with great complacence and detail about his own feats of memory. Twice Pepys heard Fuller preach: the first time (February 3, 1661), he commended a point made by the speaker, but on May 12, 1661, he was forced to admit, “methought it was a poor dry sermon.” He heard of Fuller's death, “of a sort of fever” then prevalent, on the day it occurred, and called him “the famous Tom Fuller.”