at the disposal of the Admiralty.  The title of Portsmouth was given, in 1673, for her life, to the celebrated Louise de Querouaille, and becoming extinct with her, was, in 1743, conferred upon John Wallop, Viscount Lymington, the ancestor of the present Earl of Portsmouth.—­B.]

Home, with my mind pretty quiet:  not returning, as I said I would, to see the bride put to bed.

11th.  With Sir W. Pen by water to the Navy office, where we met, and dispatched business.  And that being done, we went all to dinner to the Dolphin, upon Major Brown’s invitation.  After that to the office again, where I was vexed, and so was Commissioner Pett, to see a busy fellow come to look out the best lodgings for my Lord Barkley, and the combining between him and Sir W. Pen; and, indeed, was troubled much at it.  Home to White Hall, and took out my bill signed by the King, and carried it to Mr. Watkins of the Privy Seal to be despatched there, and going home to take a cap, I borrowed a pair of sheets of Mr. Howe, and by coach went to the Navy office, and lay (Mr. Hater, my clerk, with me) at Commissioner Willoughby’s’ house, where I was received by him very civilly and slept well.

12th.  Up early and by coach to White Hall with Commissioner Pett, where, after we had talked with my Lord, I went to the Privy Seal and got my bill perfected there, and at the Signet:  and then to the House of Lords, and met with Mr. Kipps, who directed me to Mr. Beale to get my patent engrossed; but he not having time to get it done in Chancery-hand, I was forced to run all up and down Chancery-lane, and the Six Clerks’ Office

[The Six Clerks’ Office was in Chancery Lane, near the Holborn end.  The business of the office was to enrol commissions, pardons, patents, warrants, &c., that had passed the Great Seal; also other business in Chancery.  In the early history of the Court of Chancery, the Six Clerks and their under-clerks appear to have acted as the attorneys of the suitors.  As business increased, these under-clerks became a distinct body, and were recognized by the court under the denomination of ‘sworn clerks,’ or ’clerks in court.’  The advance of commerce, with its consequent accession of wealth, so multiplied the subjects requiring the judgment of a Court of Equity, that the limits of a public office were found wholly inadequate to supply a sufficient number of officers to conduct the business of the suitors.  Hence originated the ‘Solicitors’ of the “Court of Chancery.”  See Smith’s “Chancery Practice,” p. 62, 3rd edit.  The “Six Clerks” were abolished by act of Parliament, 5 Vict. c. 5.]

but could find none that could write the hand, that were at leisure.  And so in a despair went to the Admiralty, where we met the first time there, my Lord Montagu, my Lord Barkley, Mr. Coventry, and all the rest of the principal Officers and Commissioners, [except] only the Controller, who is not yet chosen.