Trinity House

Trinity House is in Crown.

John Evelyn's Diary 25 January 1662. 25 Jan 1662. I dined with the Trinity Company at their house, that corporation being by charter fixed at Deptford.

John Evelyn's Diary 11 June 1666. 11 Jun 1666. Trinity Monday, after a sermon, applied to the remeeting of the Corporation of the Trinity-House, after the late raging and wasting pestilence: I dined with them in their new room in Deptford, the first time since it was rebuilt.

John Evelyn's Diary 25 May 1671. 25 May 1671. I dined at a feast made for me and my wife (36) by the Trinity House, for our passing a fine of the land which Sir R. Browne (66), my wife's (36) father, freely gave to found and build their college, or almshouses on, at Deptford, it being my wife's (36) after her father's decease. It was a good and charitable work and gift, but would have been better bestowed on the poor of that parish, than on the seamen's widows, the Trinity House being very rich, and the rest of the poor of the parish exceedingly indigent.

John Evelyn's Diary 26 March 1673. 26 Mar 1673. I was sworn a younger brother of the Trinity House, with my most worthy and long-acquainted noble friend, Lord Ossory (38) (eldest son to the Duke of Ormond (62)), Sir Richard Browne (68), my father-in-law, being now Master of that Society; after which there was a great collation.

John Evelyn's Diary 25 May 1673. 25 May 1673. My son (18) was made a younger brother of the Trinity House. The new master was Sir J. Smith, one of the Commissioners of the Navy, a stout seaman, who had interposed and saved the Duke (39) from perishing by a fire ship in the late war.

John Evelyn's Diary 22 May 1676. 22 May 1676. Trinity Monday. A chaplain of my Lord Ossory's (41) preached, after which we took barge to Trinity House in London. Mr. Pepys (43) (Secretary of the Admiralty) succeeded my Lord as Master.

John Evelyn's Diary 12 February 1683. 12 Feb 1683. This morning I received the news of the death of my father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne (78), Knt. and Bart., who died at my house at Sayes Court this day at ten in the morning, after he had labored under the gout and dropsy for nearly six months, in the 78th year of his age. The funeral was solemnized on the 19th at Deptford, with as much decency as the dignity of the person, and our relation to him, required; there being invited the Bishop of Rochester (58), several noblemen, knights, and all the fraternity of the Trinity House, of which he had been Master, and others of the country. The vicar preached a short but proper discourse on Psalm xxxix. 10, on the frailty of our mortal condition, concluding with an ample and well-deserved eulogy on the defunct, relating to his honorable birth and ancestors, education, learning in Greek and Latin, modern languages, travels, public employments, signal loyalty, character abroad, and particularly the honor of supporting the Church of England in its public worship during its persecution by the late rebels' usurpation and regicide, by the suffrages of divers Bishops, Doctors of the Church, and others, who found such an asylum in his house and family at Paris, that in their disputes with the Papists (then triumphing over it as utterly lost) they used to argue for its visibility and existence from Sir R. Browne's chapel and assembly there. Then he spoke of his great and loyal sufferings during thirteen years' exile with his present Majesty (52), his return with him in the signal year 1660; his honorable employment at home, his timely Recess to recollect himself, his great age, infirmities, and death.

John Evelyn's Diary 12 February 1683. 12 Feb 1683. He gave to the Trinity Corporation that land in Deptford on which are built those almshouses for twenty-four widows of emerited seamen. He was born the famous year of the Gunpowder Treason, in 1605, and being the last [male] of his family, left my wife (48), his only daughter, heir. His grandfather, Sir Richard Browne, was the great instrument under the great Earl of Leicester (favorite to Queen Elizabeth) in his government of the Netherland. He was Master of the Household to King James, and Cofferer; I think was the first who regulated the compositions through England for the King's (52) household, provisions, progresses,49 etc., which was so high a service, and so grateful to the whole nation, that he had acknowledgments and public thanks sent him from all the counties; he died by the rupture of a vein in a vehement speech he made about the compositions in a Parliament of King James. By his mother's side he was a Gunson, Treasurer of the Navy in the reigns of Henry VIII., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, and, as by his large pedigree appears, related to divers of the English nobility. Thus ended this honorable person, after so many changes and tossings to and fro, in the same house where he was born. "Lord teach us so to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom!".

John Evelyn's Diary 20 July 1685. 20 Jul 1685. The Trinity House met this day, which should have ben on ye Monday after Trinity, but was put off by reason of the Royal Charter being so large that it could not be ready before. Some immunities were super-added. Mr. Pepys (52), Secretary to ye Admiralty, was a second time chosen Master. There were present the Duke of Grafton (21), Lord Dartmouth (12), Master of ye Ordnance, the Commissioners of ye Navy, and brethren of the Corporation. We went to Church according to costome, and then took barge to the Trinity House, in London, where we had a great dinner, above 80 at one table.