Evelyn's Diary. 25 Jun 1679. The new Commissioners of the Admiralty came to visit me, viz, Sir Henry Capell (age 41), brother to the Earl of Essex (age 47), Mr. Finch (age 31), eldest son to the [his father] Lord Chancellor (age 57), Sir Humphry Winch (age 57), Sir Thomas Meeres (age 45), Mr. Hales, with some of the Commissioners of the Navy. I went with them to London.

Evelyn's Diary. 07 Dec 1680. Then the Peer spoken to, standing up, and laying his right hand upon his breast, said guilty, or not guilty, upon my honor, and then sat down, the Lord Steward (age 33) noting their suffrages as they answered upon a paper: when all had done, the number of not guilty being but 31, the guilty 55; and then, after proclamation for silence again, the Lord Steward directing his speech to the prisoner, against whom the ax was turned edgeways and not before, in aggravation of his crime, he being ennobled by the King's (age 50) father, and since received many favors from his present Majesty (age 50): after enlarging on his offense, deploring first his own unhappiness that he who had never condemned any man before should now be necessitated to begin with him, he then pronounced sentence of death by hanging, drawing, and quartering, according to form, with great solemnity and dreadful gravity; and, after a short pause, told the prisoner that he believed the Lords would intercede for the omission of some circumstances of his sentence, beheading only excepted; and then breaking his white staff, the Court was dissolved. My Lord Stafford during all this latter part spoke but little, and only gave their Lordships thanks after the sentence was pronounced; and indeed behaved himself modestly, and as became him.

Evelyn's Diary. 29 Oct 1688. There was a Council called, to which were summoned the Archbishop of Canterbury (age 71), the Judges, the Lord Mayor, etc. The Queen Dowager (age 49), and all the ladies and lords who were present at the Queen Consort's (age 30) labor, were to give their testimony upon oath of the Prince of Wales's birth, recorded both at the Council Board and at the Chancery a day or two after. This procedure was censured by some as below his Majesty (age 55) to condescend to, on the talk of the people. It was remarkable that on this occasion the Archbishop (age 71), Marquis of Halifax (age 54), the Earls of Clarendon and Nottingham (age 41), refused to sit at the Council table among Papists, and their bold telling his Majesty (age 55) that whatever was done while such sat among them was unlawful and incurred praemunire;-at least, if what I heard be true.

Evelyn's Diary. 06 Feb 1689. There was much contest about the King's (age 38) abdication, and whether he had vacated the government. The Earl of Nottingham (age 41) and about twenty Lords, and many Bishops, entered their protests, but the concurrence was great against them.

Around 1690 Daniel Finch 2nd Earl Nottingham 7th Earl Winchilsea (age 42) commissioned the building of Burley-on-the-Hill House as it is known today. Christopher Wren (age 66) was consulted. The designs of Montague House and Devonshire House [Map] were reviewed.

Evelyn's Diary. 25 Feb 1690. I went to Kensington, which King William (age 39) had bought of Lord Nottingham (age 42), and altered, but was yet a patched building, but with the garden, however, it is a very sweet villa, having to it the park and a straight new way through this park.

Evelyn's Diary. 01 Jan 1693. Contest in Parliament about a self-denying Act, that no Parliament man should have any office; it wanted only two or three voices to have been carried. The Duke of Norfolk's (age 37) bill for a divorce thrown out, he having managed it very indiscreetly. The quarrel between Admiral Russell (age 40) and Lord Nottingham (age 45) yet undetermined.

Evelyn's Diary. 12 Nov 1693. Lord Nottingham (age 46) resigned as Secretary of State; the Commissioners of the Admiralty ousted, and Russell (age 40) restored to his office. The season continued very wet, as it had nearly all the summer, if one might call it summer, in which there was no fruit, but corn was very plentiful.

Evelyn's Diary. 11 Mar 1705. An exceedingly dry season. Great loss by fire, burning the outhouses and famous stable of the Earl of Nottingham (age 57), at Burleigh [Rutlandshire], full of rich goods and furniture, by the carelessness of a servant. A little before, the same happened at Lord Pembroke's (age 49), at Wilton. The old Countess of Northumberland (age 82), Dowager of Algernon Percy, Admiral of the fleet to King Charles I., died in the 83d year of her age. She was sister to the Earl of Suffolk, and left a great estate, her jointure to descend to the [his future son-in-law] Duke of Somerset (age 42).