The school once attended by diarist Samuel Pepys has suggested the re-naming of a house named after him because of his ‘abusive’ treatment of women.
Hinchingbrooke School, in Huntindgon, Cambridgeshire, was attended by the chronicler of the Great Fire of London in the 1640s.
Pepys House is one of five houses at the school that are named after famous people connected with the area.
The school’s website describes Pepys as having been ‘highly successful and respected by many’.
Pupils who are members of the house ‘work hard to achieve success throughout the wide variety of activities that Pepys himself enjoyed; music, theatre, mathematics, literature and public speaking’, the school adds proudly.
However, parents have now been told that recent research has revealed Pepys’ ‘harmful, abusive and exploitative’ behaviour, ‘especially in his relations with women’.
The school has therefore suggested that the name of Pepys House be changed after a consultation.
But some parents are furious at the proposal, with one branding it an attempt to ‘erase history’.
Although Pepys’ diaries are best known for his vivid accounts of major events, including the Great Fire of London in 1666, he also detailed his extensive misdeeds.
Historian Guy de la Bedoyere’s recent transcription of lesser-known parts of his diaries reveal how Pepys was a serial adulterer and rapist.
The suggested name change at Hinchingbrooke, which was known as Huntingdon Grammar School when Pepys attended, was raised by associate principal Femi Solano and history teacher Tom Wheeley.
They said in an email to parents: ‘While Pepys is an important historical figure who attended our school, recent research on his personal behaviour, recorded in his own diaries, includes actions that were harmful, abusive and exploitative, especially in his relations with women.
‘These behaviours do not align with the values we hold as a school – respect, equality, kindness, and high standards.’
The teachers added that it is ‘right to ask the question: Should Pepys House be renamed?’
They also insisted: ‘This re-evaluation is not about erasing history. Instead, it is about ensuring that the figures we celebrate as role models reflect the values we want our students to live by.’
One angry parent told the Telegraph: ‘It’s another attempt to erase history that doesn’t suit modern times when really we should be learning about those times.
‘He was candid enough to write about it and in a way we are learning what the attitudes to women were like at that time.
‘We should read it and learn from it and do better.’
Journalist Nigel Pauley, a former pupil at the school, wrote on X: ‘Looks like famous Ex-pupil Samuel Pepys is being cancelled by his (and my) old school Hinchingbrooke – aka Huntingdon Grammar.
‘No more Pepys House! His behaviours? Hardly a shock or recent discovery. He wrote about them in his diary!’
The lesser-known sections of Pepys’ diaries reveal the extent of his wrongdoing.
On one occasion, he described how his wife, Elizabeth, called him a ‘dog and a rogue’ after he was caught groping their 16-year-old servant.
According to De la Bédoyère, ‘it’s too glib to dismiss him as a “sex pest” or a “sex offender”.
Instead, he writes, Pepys’ behaviour was ‘consistent with the neuropsychological disorder of addiction’.
Pepys also had a string of extra-marital lovers dotted across London. Of one, called Betty, he wrote: ‘I f****d her under the chair two times.’
Another, a poverty-stricken naval widow, appears to have only slept with Pepys because she knew he was the gatekeeper to her pension.
And of his treatment of Mrs Bagwell, the wife of a naval officer who wanted a promotion, he wrote: ‘Many hard looks and sighs the poor wretch did give me and I think verily was troubled at what I did, but at last after many protestings I did arrive at what I would, with great pleasure.’
He was, at one point, so violent that he injured his hand while holding her down. ‘Nevertheless in the end I had my will,’ he added, shamelessly.
Pepys concealed much of his poor behaviour by using a made-up mixture of foreign languages, English and his own shorthand.
Andy Hunter, headmaster of Hinchingbrooke School, said: ‘Hinchingbrooke School, which was founded as Huntingdon Grammar in 1565, is very proud of its rich heritage and of the success of its former and current students.
‘We are currently exploring what standards of behaviour it is reasonable to apply to historical figures, especially when this links directly to pastoral care through a house name that is a source of pride, identity and belonging for our students.
‘We hope that this discussion will give our students the chance to talk about cancel culture, to weigh all the available evidence and consider how, and when, our understanding of the past should shape the decisions we make today.
‘We are placing our trust in our students to think critically, to approach the issue with maturity, and to come to a balanced, well-informed conclusion.
‘We will respect whatever decision the school community arrives at.’
