Samuel Pepys - MP for Harwich

Samuel Pepys had been made a freeman, and with Sir Anthony Deane, was elected in 1679 as a Member of Parliament to represent the borough at Westminster.

Their election was surprisingly easy in view of their close association with the King's brother James, Duke of York, at the Admiralty, for he was a central figure in the fierce anti-Catholic feeling aroused by the Popish Plot of Titus Oates. Both Pepys and Deane had been sent to the Tower of London in May 1679 charged with selling naval secrets. They were released on bail and eventually cleared in June 1680.

Pepys and Deane had been returned for Harwich at the election which followed the death of Charles II in 1685 but the fact that they served James when others were preparing to betray him, meant the end of their careers in Parliament and at the Admiralty.