On the Admiral’s arrival in London, he received the Office of the Great Wardrobe, and had the thanks of Parliament for his services and loyalty. Pepys describes with much perspicuity the constant labours in which he and his patron were engaged at the Admiralty, showing that habits of business were a part of this remarkable man’s qualifications, and that in whatever capacity he acted, it was done zealously and diligently. In July 1660, he was raised to the Peerage, by the titles Baron of St. Neots, Viscount Hinchingbrook, and Earl of Sandwich.
He was very merry at the expense of his matter-of-fact secretary when he dined at Whitehall soon after, and “my Lord talked very high how he would have a French cook, and a Master of Horse, and his Lady and child to wear black patches (which methought strange), and when my Lady said she would get a good merchant for her daughter ‘Jem,’ [afterwards Lady Carteret], he said he would rather see her with a pedlar’s pack at her back, than to marry a citizen. But my Lord is become quite a courtier.”
At the coronation of Charles II. my Lord carried the staff of St. Edward, and when he accompanied the King from the Tower to Whitehall, even in “a show so glorious with gold and silver that we were not able to look at it, Lord Sandwich’s embroidery and diamonds were not ordinary;” and afterwards “he talked to me of his coat, which was made in France, and cost £200.” The prudent Pepys occasionally regrets in his patron a magnificence and generosity pushed to extravagance, which indeed caused great anxiety and trouble at different times, not only to himself but to his good wife and housewife, Jemima, and his trusty secretary. Likewise the noble Lord himself confessed, and lamented a taste for card playing.
The marriage of Charles II. with Katherine, daughter of the King of Portugal, being now agreed on, the King chose Lord Sandwich to be his proxy on the occasion, and to fetch over the new Queen from Lisbon, proceeding also to Algiers to settle affairs there. On arriving at Lisbon, Lord Sandwich detached Sir John Lawson, and ordered him to the Mediterranean to curb the insolence of the Corsairs, after which he himself proceeded to Tangiers, where he did some execution on the Turks, and managed his negociations so well, that the place was given up to him by the Portuguese, and Lord Peterborough was appointed Governor. Pains were afterwards taken to preserve the fortress, and a fine mole built: but in 1683, the King sent Lord Dartmouth to bring home the troops and destroy the work, and it fell into the hands of the Moors. There still exists a gate named after Lord Sandwich. “When at Lisbon my Lord sent over presents of mellons and rare grapes to his Countess in London; the grapes so fine that Mistress Pepys packed some up in a basket to send to the King’s Majesty.” Lady Sandwich also received a civet cat, parrot, apes, and many other eccentric proofs of her Lord’s remembrance, which she showed to Mr. Pepys when he dined with her at the Wardrobe.