"Two boys One of the essential adjuncts of Pepys's position at the Navy Office was a boy, who wore his livery (with a sword), walked in attendance upon him, and ran errands for him. One of the first of these was Jane's second brother, Wayneman Birch (fl. 1660–1663), described as ‘a pretty well-looked boy’ when he entered Samuel's service on 22 September 1660, and whose identification with his master became such that on the following 14 February he was referred to as ‘young Pepys’. His employer found him engaging at first, but he soon developed a number of tiresome habits, mostly conventional manifestations of original sin, though he once contrived to explode some gunpowder in his pocket. Samuel's response to Wayneman's misbehaviour was similarly conventional. Servants were regarded as members of their employer's ‘family’ (an expression Pepys often used to describe his household), and were accordingly disciplined with methods appropriate to an age when the right of paternal authority to inflict physical chastisement went largely undisputed. On 1 January 1660 Samuel had been so exasperated by Jane's untidiness that he ‘took a broom and basted her till she cried extremely’, though he immediately regretted his unkindness. Wayneman was much more harshly treated, receiving repeated beatings, though these seem usually to have hurt Pepys much more than they did his servantâ€â€on 28 February 1662 he recorded that ‘the rods were so small that I fear that they did not much hurt to him, but only to my arme, which I am already, within a Quarter of an houre, not able to stir almost’. When Jane begged for mercy for her brother during another of these whippings, on 18 April following, Pepys pleaded the need to correct the boy's faults, ‘or else he would be undone’, but Wayneman proved incorrigible. Pepys already had it in mind to turn him away at the end of 1662. Though he retained his place until the following summer, he was finally dismissed after being spotted playing with other boys in his best suit. He was last recorded in November 1663, being then sent to Barbados as an indentured servant." (2)
John Birch, of Dymock, Gloucestershire, England, had a son William (chr. 1637), a daughter Anne (chr. 1639/40), a daughter Jane (chr. 1641), a daughter Elizabeth (chr. 1646), and a son Wainman [sic] (chr. 1649). This might be the same Wayneman that went to London and then on to Barbados. There was also a Wayneman Birch in Holbon St. Andrews, London in the 1670s with a wife and children. Perhaps it is the same man that went to Barbados and he returned to England after completing his indenture? (3)
Originally a servant to Samuel Pepys of London. Sister Joan Birch, Pepys' maid servant. In his diary, Pepys mentions that Wayneman was sent to Barbados because of bad behavior.
(1) Samuel Pepys Diary, 14 November 1663, accessed 2 August 2007.
(2) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, accessed 2 August 2007.
(3) International Genealogical Index, accessed 2 August 2007.