Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), English diarist and admiralty official. Pepys played a key role in the establishment of the modern Royal Navy. Between 1660 and 1669, he kept a diary that detailed daily life, contemporary gossip, and his work for the Navy. The diary is significant because it provides a record of important events in English history, such as the Great Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666. Portrait taken from "Memoirs of Samuel Pepys", originally published in London in 1825 by H. Colburn.