While Pepys provides an account of the Plague through his diary, Henry Foe's nephew Daniel Defoe published A Journal of the Plague Year, a fictional account of the plague, in 1722, possibly based on Foe's journals.

Pepys records in his celebrated diary a legend that, before his death, Nostradamus made the townsfolk swear that his grave would never be disturbed ; but that 60 years later his body was exhumed, whereupon a brass plaque was found on his chest correctly stating the date and time when his grave would be opened and cursing the exhumers.

Pepys was born in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, London on 23 February 1633, to John Pepys ( 1601 – 1680 ), a tailor, and Margaret Pepys ( née Kite ; d. 1667 ), daughter of a Whitechapel butcher.

His father's first cousin, Sir Richard Pepys, was elected MP for Sudbury in 1640, and appointed Baron of the Exchequer on 30 May 1654, and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, on 25 September 1655.

Nevertheless, Pepys consulted Thomas Hollier, a surgeon ; and, on 26 March 1658, the operation took place in a bedroom at the house of Pepys's cousin, Jane Turner.

Pepys ' stone was successfully removed and he resolved to hold a celebration on every anniversary of the operation, which he did for several years.

Montagu was made Earl of Sandwich on 18 June, and the position of Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board was secured by Pepys on 13 July.

A short letter from Samuel Pepys to John Evelyn at the latter's home in Deptford, written by Pepys on 16 October 1665 and referring to ' prisoners ' and ' sick men ' during the Second Dutch War

In September 1660 he was made a Justice of the Peace, and on 15 February 1662 Pepys was admitted as a Younger Brother of Trinity House, and on 30 April he received the freedom of Portsmouth.

In early 1665 the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War placed great pressure on Pepys.

About this Second Anglo-Dutch War Pepys wrote: " In all things, in wisdom, courage, force and success, the Dutch have the best of us and do end the war with victory on their side ".

Pepys made a long speech at the bar of the Commons on 5 March 1668 defending this practice.

In 1669 Pepys had to prepare detailed answers to the committee's eight ' Observations ' on the Navy Board's conduct, and in 1670 he was forced to defend his own role.

A seaman's ticket with Pepys's name on it was produced as incontrovertible evidence of his corrupt dealings, but thanks to the intervention of the king Pepys emerged from the sustained investigation relatively unscathed.

The system of odd numbered rounds is said to have been originated by Samuel Pepys, Secretary to the Navy in the Restoration, as a way of economising on the use of powder, the rule until that time having been that all guns had to be fired.

* May 9 – Samuel Pepys witnesses a Punch and Judy show in London ( the first on record ).

In 1669 the diarist Samuel Pepys kissed the long-deceased queen on his birthday:

Samuel Pepys, as President, gave his imprimatur on 30 June 1686, licensing the book for publication.

This account is also quoted on a plaque on the wall of the Hung, Drawn and Quartered public house near Pepys Street, where the diarist lived and worked in the Navy Office.

Samuel Pepys saw Lacy's adaptation on 9 April 1667 and again on 1 November, enjoying it on both occasions.

" The king ," wrote Samual Pepys in November, " who not long ago did say of Bristol that he was a man able in three years to get himself a fortune in any kingdom in the world and lose all again in three months, do now hug him and commend his parts everywhere above all the world.

In this church Josias Alsopp, who had succeeeded Stone as Rector in the early Restoraion years of the 17th century, was heard preaching by Samuel Pepys who noted the following in his diary for 24 November 1661:

Pepys was dining with his friend Sir George Downing on November 9, 1666, when the deaf servant had a conversation in sign language with his master, which included news of the Great Fire of London.

This claim was put forth in The Ill-Framed Knight: A Skeptical Inquiry Into the Identity of Sir Thomas Malory, written by the aforementioned William Matthews, a British professor who taught at UCLA ( and is most famous for his transcription of the Diary of Samuel Pepys ).

They were even eaten by royalty, as a letter from a baker to Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour ( 1508 – 1537 ) confirms: "... hope this pasty reaches you in better condition than the last one ..." In his diaries written in the mid 17th century, Samuel Pepys makes several references to his consumption of pasties, for instance " dined at Sir W. Pen ’ s ... on a damned venison pasty, that stunk like a devil.

* August 24-Samuel Pepys sees the new production of Hamlet by Sir William Davenant's troupe of actors, the Duke's Company, with the innovation of stage scenery.

Thomas Povey, the colonial civil servant and friend of Samuel Pepys, was a Londoner, but a branch of his family lived at Woodseaves, Market Drayton ; the most prominent of this branch was Sir John Povey, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland 1673-9.

Cottenham was born in London, the second son of Sir William Pepys, 1st Baronet, a master in chancery, who was descended from John Pepys, of Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, a great-uncle of Samuel Pepys the diarist.

Another member of the Pepys family was Henry Pepys, third son of Sir William Pepys, 1st Baronet, and younger brother of the first Earl.

* Sir William Pepys, 1st Baronet ( 1740 – 1825 )

* Sir William Weller Pepys, 2nd Baronet ( d. 1845 )

* Sir Charles Pepys, 3rd Baronet ( 1781 – 1851 ) ( created Baron Cottenham in 1833 and Earl of Cottenham in 1850 )

* Sir Lucas Pepys, 1st Baronet ( 1742 – 1830 )

* Sir Charles Christopher Pepys 1834

During the Restoration era, Sir William Davenant staged a production, starring Thomas Betterton, that was seen by Pepys.

The church has been a common venue for " society " weddings, including those of Samuel Pepys, former prime ministers Sir Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan and members of the Bright Young People.

But still, Samuel Pepys notes in his diary on 19 July 1667: " The Dutch fleete are in great squadrons everywhere still about Harwich, and were lately at Portsmouth ; and the last letters say at Plymouth, and now gone to Dartmouth to destroy our Streights ' fleete lately got in thither ; but God knows whether they can do it any hurt, or no, but it was pretty news come the other day so fast, of the Dutch fleets being in so many places, that Sir W. Batten at table cried, By God, says he, I think the Devil shits Dutchmen.

In 1655, Cromwell appointed three Commissioners of the Great Seal of Ireland, Richard Pepys, Chief Justice of the Upper Bench, Sir Gerard Lowther, Chief Justice of the Common Bench ; and Miles Corbet, Chief Baron of the Exchequer.

Montagu was the only surviving son of Sir Sidney Montagu, by his wife Paulina Pepys of Cottenham ( great-aunt of Samuel Pepys ) and was brought up at Hinchingbrooke House.

They appear to have been acquitted, for when in 1663 Sir Charles Sedley was tried for a gross breach of public decency in Covent Garden, Sackville, who had been one of the offenders, according to Samuel Pepys was asked by the Lord Chief Justice " whether he had so soon forgot his deliverance at that time, and that it would have more become him to have been at his prayers begging God's forgiveness than now running into such courses again.

" I perceive ," writes Pepys on 23 August 1667, " Sir William Coventry is the man and nothing done till he comes ", and on his removal in 1669 the duke of Albemarle, no friendly or partial critic, declares that " nothing now would be well done.