Samuel Pepys was an accomplished naval administrator and Member of Parliament. However, he is best known for his diaries, which were written between 1659 and 1669. This was an extremely turbulent period in British history, and his writings still provide a valuable commentary on seventeenth century Britain.

The son of a tailor, Pepys was born on February 23rd 1633 in Salisbury Court off Fleet Street. During the English Civil War, he attended grammar school at Huntingdon, an establishment whose ex pupils included Oliver Cromwell. He went on to study at St. Paul’s School in London and Cambridge University. After graduating, he was employed as secretary to Edward Montagu, a distant relative who was a Councillor of State.

Pepys married Elizabeth Marchant de Saint-Michel in 1655. His new bride was just fifteen, and the daughter of a Huguenot exile. Three years later, he had a bladder stone removed in a highly risky operation. Every year, on the anniversary of the operation, he held a lavish banquet to celebrate his recovery.

Pepys began his famous diary on 1 January 1660. As well as numerous revelations regarding the author’s infidelity and private life, it also catalogues the tumultuous political and social happenings of the era. The diary comments on the aftermath of the Civil War and the Cromwellian protectorate, the plague of 1665, the Second Dutch War, the Great Fire of London and Charles II’s coronation. Pepys also offers his musings on key figures of the late seventeenth century such as Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Isaac Newton.

In June 1660, Pepys was appointed clerk of the acts to the navy board; he became secretary to the admiralty – and Member of Parliament for a Norfolk constituency – in 1673. He embarked upon an urgent crusade to reform and update the navy. He was an advocate for the safety and hygiene of the sailors, and his initiatives paved the way for the creation of a professional and modern naval service. He was also instrumental in the early development of the British Civil Service, and became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1665, serving as its president between 1684 and 1686.

Yet Pepys’s fortunes took a turn for the worse when he was charged with selling naval secrets to the French in 1679. Although the charges were later dropped, Pepys had been forced to resign from the Admiralty, and had been sent to the Tower of London.

In 1685, Charles II died; he was succeeded by James II. Pepys served both of these kings extremely loyally. When James was overthrown and replaced by William and Mary in 1688, Pepys’s career effectively ended. In 1690, he was arrested for a second time, this time on suspicion of Jacobite tendencies. The charges were dropped, but he retired from public life following his release. He retreated to Clapham, which was then in the countryside surrounding London, where he died on 26th May 1703.