Samuel Pepys was born in London, England on February 23, 1633. One of eleven children, he ended up becoming the eldest of only three who survived to adulthood. Pepys grew up in a household of humble means. His mother was the sister of a butcher and his father was a poor tailor, barely able to collect money for his services. Pepys's one family asset was his father's first cousin, Edward Montagu, the first Earl of Sandwich, who would grow to become his close friend and patron.

In his pupil days, Pepys was sent to St. Paul's School in London. The English Civil War was well under way, and he witnessed the beheading of Charles I. In 1650, he went to Magdalene College at Cambridge University, where he received his bachelor's degree. In 1655, Pepys, then twenty-two, married fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Marchant de St. Michel, the daughter of a penniless Huguenot refugee...