Thomas Rugge

MERCURIUS POLITICUS REDIVIVUS

or, A Collection of the most materiall occurrances and transactions

in Public Affairs since Anno Dni, 1659, untill

28 March 1672,

serving as an annuall diurnall for future satisfaction and

information,

BY THOMAS RUGGE.

Est natura hominum novitatis avida.—Plinius.^[3]

Thomas Rugge's Diurnall is preserved in the British Library, where it forms Add MSS 10116–10117. It belonged in 1693 to Thomas Grey, second earl of Stamford, and was purchased by the British Museum at Heber's sale in February 1836.^[2] It was published as The diurnal of Thomas Rugg, 1659-1661 by William Lewis Sachse ed. in 1961.^[4]

The journal is important, early source for the drinking habits of the English of hot drinks, including a strange, new trend that would later have great cultural impact.

According to Thomas Rugge's Diurnall, in London 'Coffee, chocolate and a kind of drink called tee' were 'sold in almost every street in 1659'.

And theire ware also att this time a Turkish drink to bee sould, almost every street, called coffee, and another kind of drink called tee, and also a drink called Chacolate, which was a very harty drink.^[5]

Thomas Rugge paid hearth tax for nine hearths when he lived in Covent Garden, Middlesex in 1666.^[6] He lived in King Street 1651–c.1663.^[1]

«Thomas Rugge was descended from an ancient Norfolk family, and two of his ancestors are described as Aldermen of Norwich. His death has been ascertained to have occurred about 1672; and in the Diary for the preceding year he complains that on account of his declining health, his entries will be but few. Nothing has been traced of his personal circumstances beyond the fact of his having lived for fourteen years in Covent Garden, then a fashionable locality.»^[3]

This was the same ancient Norfolk family of Rugge that William Rugge, Bishop of Norwich, belonged to.

The Rugge family had a presence in the region for many hundred years.

He may have been the Thomas Rugge of St. Paul, Covent Garden whose will was probated on 31 March 1670,^[7] though this seemingly predates the end of the journal entries.^[8]

That would make him the Thomas Rugge who was buried on 16 March 1669/70 at St. Paul's, Covent Garden.^[9]

At St. Paul's, Covent Garden, we find the following baptisms:

• Elizabeth, baptised 26 October 1653, daughter to Thomas and Elizabeth Rugg, born on 26 October, the first entry of The registers of St. Paul's church, Convent garden, London^[10]
• Ann, baptised 11 December 1654, daughter to Thomas and Elizabeth Rugg, born 11 December 1654,^[11] buried 9 May 1657 at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, Anna, daughter of Tho : Rugg^[12]
• Mary, baptised on 27 June 1659, daughter to Thomas and Eliza : Rugg, born on 26 June 1659,^[13] buried 12 October 1659 at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, Mary, daughter of Tho : Rugg^[14]
• John, baptised 16 April 1662, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Rugg,^[15] buried 17 October 1673 at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, John, son of Thomas Rugg^[16]

At the time of the Commonwealth of England date of birth had to be registered in the parish registers.

Half the entries in the journal, which spans more than a decade, are after the death of Mary in late 1659 and before the birth of John in early 1662.

ODNB identifies the preceding marriage as that between Thomas Rugg and Elizabeth Cox at St. Clement Danes,^[17] in the City of Westminster, London, both of Covent Garden.^[18] The will of the widow of Thomas Rugge, Elizabeth Rugge née Cox (d.1695^[19]) of Saint Giles in the Fields, Middlesex, England, does not mention any children, but does mention her nephew, John Rugge of Bugden in the County of Huntingdon. This was the John Rugge (d.1720) of the Inner Temple, London and Stirtloe, Buckden, Huntingdonshire, gentleman, who married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Robert Wright, Chief Justice of the King's Bench. Their grandson was the Reverend William Rugge, Rector of Buckland (16 May 1740 – 2 November 1786).

From his monument in Buckland Church, the coat of arms of the Reverend William Rugge, Rector of Buckland is described as:

Arms: Gules a chevron engrailed between three mullets pierced Argent.^[20]

Of the arms of William Rugge, Bishop of Norwich, it is said:

William Rugge, Esq. of Felmingham, is said to have changed his arms, per fess, sable and argent, and unicorn saliant, counterchanged, armed, mained and unguled or, to that of gules, a chevron engrailed, between three mullets pierced, argent; but Richard de Rugge, who lived in the 2d of Richard III. and the Bishop of Norwich, bore, as it appears, this last coat.^[21]

William Rugge, Rector of Buckland and William Rugge, Bishop of Norwich, were of the same family.

So also were the Reverend's Rugge relations, amongst them his great-granduncle Thomas Rugge, the diarist.