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Historical person
1650–1678
Deborah Willet was born in 1650, the daughter of a Bristol merchant, and entered the Pepys household in 1667 as a companion to Elisabeth Pepys. Samuel Pepys recorded his growing sexual interest in her and the crisis that followed when Elisabeth discovered his conduct in 1668.
Willet’s life did not end with her dismissal from the household. Research has shown that she remained in London, married the clergyman Jeremiah Wells in 1670 and had children before her death in 1678. These findings help restore a biographical outline to a woman long known chiefly through Pepys’s account of his own behaviour.
Series
The Women of Pepys’ Diary series retells Restoration London through women who appear in Samuel Pepys’s diary but are usually seen only through his perspective. Pleasing Mr Pepys places Deb Willet and Elisabeth Pepys at the centre; A Plague on Mr Pepys follows Elizabeth Bagwell during the Great…
All books in this series
