Deb Willet
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Deborah "Deb" Willet (1650–1678) was a young
maid A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids ...
employed by
Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...
(1633–1703), an
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
naval administrator and
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
. She and Pepys, 17 years her senior, engaged in a liaison that was chronicled in his famous diary. When Pepys's diary first was published in the late 19th century, the more explicit parts describing the author's affair with Willet were not printed. They only appeared in the most recent version of the diary.


Early life

Willet was the third of seven children born to the
Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
merchant Robert Willet and his wife Elizabeth. She was baptised in December 1650.


Willet and Pepys

In late September 1667, Pepys was introduced to Willet and she was employed as a companion for Pepys's wife, Elisabeth, from 1 October 1667, with whom she attended the theatre. In late October 1668, Willet began an intimate relationship with Samuel Pepys. Elisabeth Pepys discovered her husband with Willet and after a few weeks the maid was dismissed. Pepys wrote in his diary that his wife "coming up suddenly, did find me imbracing the girl con ''
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' my hand sub ''
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' su '' er' coats; and endeed I was with my main ''
and or AND may refer to: Logic, grammar, and computing * Conjunction (grammar), connecting two words, phrases, or clauses * Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition * Bitwise AND, a boole ...
' in her cunny. I was at a wonderful loss upon it and the girl also...." Following this event, he was characteristically filled with remorse, writing of being "absolutely resolved ... never to give
lisabeth Lisabeth or Lizabeth is a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: ;Given name * Lisabeth Hughes Abramson (born 1955), American justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court * Lisabeth H. Muhrer, Norwegian handball player * Lizabeth ...
occasion while I live of more trouble of this or any other kind ... and to be true to my poor wife". Equally characteristically, he continued to pursue Willet after she had been dismissed from the Pepys household. Pepys later gave Willet money, sought her out at her new home, and kissed her. His wife discovered the meeting and threatened to walk out on Pepys, so long as he would give her "3 or 400l" to keep her quiet, and threatened to slit Deb's nose. The situation was calmed down with the help of an old family friend,
William Hewer William Hewer (1642 – 3 December 1715), sometimes known as Will Hewer, was one of Samuel Pepys' manservants, and later Pepys's clerk, before embarking on an administrative career of his own. Hewer is mentioned several times in Pepys' diary an ...
, but Pepys was forced to renounce Willet in writing. Willet was not the only personal servant with whom Pepys was intimate, but she appears to have been the one with whom he was most smitten. In the next-to-last sentence of Pepys's 10-year diary one reads, "my amours to Deb are past."


After Pepys

In 2006, Kate Loveman reported that Willet remained in London after leaving the Pepys household, marrying a theology graduate named Jeremiah Wells in 1670. Pepys later helped Wells obtain a position as a ship's chaplain. The couple had two daughters, Deborah (b. 1670) and Elizabeth (b. 1672).Loveman (2011), 388 Mrs Wells died in 1678 and her husband followed a year and a half later.


References


Further reading

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Willet, Deb 1650 births 1678 deaths Maids English domestic workers