“Lastly.  I desire that the remainder of what I shall leave be
     equally distributed between my sons Samuel and John Pepys and my
     daughter Paulina Jackson.

     “All which I leave to the care of my eldest son Samuel Pepys, to see
     performed, if he shall think fit.

     “In witness hereunto I set my hand.”

His wife Margaret, whose maiden name has not been discovered, died on the 25th March, 1667, also at Brampton.  The family of these two consisted of six sons and five daughters:  John (born 1632, died 1640), Samuel (born 1633, died 1703), Thomas (born 1634, died 1664), Jacob (born 1637, died young), Robert (born 1638, died young), and John (born 1641, died 1677); Mary (born 1627), Paulina (born 1628), Esther (born 1630), Sarah (born 1635; these four girls all died young), and Paulina (born 1640, died 1680), who married John Jackson of Brampton, and had two sons, Samuel and John.  The latter was made his heir by Samuel Pepys.

Samuel Pepys was born on the 23rd February, 1632-3, but the place of birth is not known with certainty.  Samuel Knight, D.D., author of the “Life of Colet,” who was a connection of the family (having married Hannah Pepys, daughter of Talbot Pepys of Impington), says positively that it was at Brampton.  His statement cannot be corroborated by the registers of Brampton church, as these records do not commence until the year 1654.

Samuel’s early youth appears to have been spent pretty equally between town and country.  When he and his brother Tom were children they lived with a nurse (Goody Lawrence) at Kingsland, and in after life Samuel refers to his habit of shooting with bow and arrow in the fields around that place.  He then went to school at Huntingdon, from which he was transferred to St. Paul’s School in London.  He remained at the latter place until 1650, early in which year his name was entered as a sizar on the boards of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.  He was admitted on the 21st June, but subsequently he transferred his allegiance to Magdalene College, where he was admitted a sizar on the 1st October of this same year.  He did not enter into residence until March 5th, 1650-51, but in the following month he was elected to one of Mr. Spendluffe’s scholarships, and two years later (October 14th, 1653) he was preferred to one on Dr. John Smith’s foundation.

Little or nothing is known of Pepys’s career at college, but soon after obtaining the Smith scholarship he got into trouble, and, with a companion, was admonished for being drunk.

[October 21st, 1653.  “Memorandum:  that Peapys and Hind were solemnly admonished by myself and Mr. Hill, for having been scandalously over-served with drink ye night before.  This was done in the presence of all the Fellows then resident, in Mr. Hill’s chamber.—­John wood, Registrar.” (From the Registrar’s-book of Magdalene College.)]