DANIEL DEFOE
A JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR
being observations or memorials
of the most remarkable occurrences,
as well public as private, which happened in
London during the last great visitation in 1665.
Written by a Citizen who continued
all the while in London.
Never made public before
It was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I, among the rest
of my neighbours, heard in ordinary discourse that the plague was
returned again in Holland; for it had been very violent there, and
particularly at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in the year 1663, whither,
they say, it was brought, some said from Italy, others from the Levant,
among some goods which were brought home by their Turkey fleet;
others said it was brought from Candia; others from Cyprus. It
mattered not from whence it came; but all agreed it was come into
Holland again.
We had no such thing as printed newspapers in those days to spread
rumours and reports of things, and to improve them by the invention
of men, as I have lived to see practised since. But such things as these
were gathered from the letters of merchants and others who
corresponded abroad, and from them was handed about by word of
mouth only; so that things did not spread instantly over the whole
nation, as they do now. But it seems that the Government had a true
account of it, and several councils were held about ways to prevent its
coming over; but all was kept very private. Hence it was that this
rumour died off again, and people began to forget it as a thing we
were very little concerned in, and that we hoped was not true; till the
latter end of November or the beginning of December 1664 when two
men, said to be Frenchmen, died of the plague in Long Acre, or rather
at the upper end of Drury Lane. The family they were in endeavoured
to conceal it as much as possible, but as it had gotten some vent in the
discourse of the neighbourhood, the Secretaries of State got
knowledge of it; and concerning themselves to inquire about it, in
order to be certain of the truth, two physicians and a surgeon were
ordered to go to the house and make inspection. This they did; and
finding evident tokens of the sickness upon both the bodies that were
dead, they gave their opinions publicly that they died of the plague.
Whereupon it was given in to the parish clerk, and he also returned
them to the Hall; and it was printed in the weekly bill of mortality in
the usual manner, thus -
Plague, 2. Parishes infected, 1.
The people showed a great concern at this, and began to be alarmed
all over the town, and the more, because in the last week in December
1664 another man died in the same house, and of the same distemper.
And then we were easy again for about six weeks, when none having
died with any marks of infection, it was said the distemper was gone;
but after that, I think it was about the 12th of February, another died in
another house, but in the same parish and in the same manner.
This turned the people's eyes pretty much towards that end of the
town, and the weekly bills showing an increase of burials in St Giles's
parish more than usual, it began to be suspected that the plague was
among the people at that end of the town, and that many had died of it,
though they had taken care to keep it as much from the knowledge of the
public as possible. This possessed the heads of the people very much,
and few cared to go through Drury Lane, or the other streets suspected,
unless they had extraordinary business that obliged them to it
This increase of the bills stood thus: the usual number of burials in a
week, in the parishes of St Giles-in-the-Fields and St Andrew's,
Holborn, were from twelve to seventeen or nineteen each, few more
or less; but from the time that the plague first began in St Giles's
parish, it was observed that the ordinary burials increased in number
considerably. For example: -
From December 27 to January 3 { St Giles's 16
{ St Andrew's 17
" January 3 " " 10 { St Giles's 12
{ St Andrew's 25
" January 10 " " 17 { St Giles's 18
{ St Andrew's 28
" January 17 " " 24 { St Giles's 23
{ St Andrew's 16
" January 24 " " 31 { St Giles's 24
{ St Andrew's 15
" January 30 " February 7 { St Giles's 21
{ St Andrew's 23
" February 7 " " 14 { St Giles's 24
Whereof one of the plague.
The like increase of the bills was observed in the parishes of St
Bride's, adjoining on one side of Holborn parish, and in the parish of
St James, Clerkenwell, adjoining on the other side of Holborn; in both
which parishes the usual numbers that died weekly were from four to
six or eight, whereas at that time they were increased as follows: -
From December 20 to December 27 { St Bride's 0
{ St James's 8
December 27 to January 3 { St Bride's 6
{ St James's 9
" January 3 " " 10 { St Bride's 11
{ St James's 7
" January 10 " " 17 { St Bride's 12
{ St James's 9
" January 17 " " 24 { St Bride's 9
{ St James's 15
" January 24 " " 31 { St Bride's 8
{ St James's 12
" January 31 " February 7 { St Bride's 13
{ St James's 5
" February 7 " " 14 { St Bride's 12
{ St James's 6
Besides this, it was observed with great uneasiness by the people that
the weekly bills in general increased very much during these weeks,
although it was at a time of the year when usually the bills are very
moderate.
The usual number of burials within the bills of mortality for a week
was from about 240 or thereabouts to 300. The last was esteemed a
pretty high bill; but after this we found the bills successively
increasing as follows: -
Buried. Increased.
December the 20th to the 27th 291 ...
" 27th " 3rd January 349 58
January the 3rd " 10th " 394 45
" 10th " 17th " 415 21
" 17th " 24th " 474 59
This last bill was really frightful, being a higher number than had
been known to have been buried in one week since the preceding
visitation of 1656.
However, all this went off again, and the weather proving cold, and
the frost, which began in December, still continuing very severe even
till near the end of February, attended with sharp though moderate
winds, the bills decreased again, and the city grew healthy, and
everybody began to look upon the danger as good as over; only that
still the burials in St Giles's continued high. From the beginning of
April especially they stood at twenty-five each week, till the week
from the 18th to the 25th, when there was buried in St Giles's parish
thirty, whereof two of the plague and eight of the spotted-fever, which
was looked upon as the same thing; likewise the number that died of
the spotted-fever in the whole increased, being eight the week before,
and twelve the week above-named.
This alarmed us all again, and terrible apprehensions were among
the people, especially the weather being now changed and growing
warm, and the summer being at hand. However, the next week there
seemed to be some hopes again; the bills were low, the number of the
dead in all was but 388, there was none of the plague, and but four of
the spotted-fever.
But the following week it returned again, and the distemper was
spread into two or three other parishes, viz., St Andrew's, Holborn; St
Clement Danes; and, to the great affliction of the city, one died within
the walls, in the parish of St Mary Woolchurch, that is to say, in
Bearbinder Lane, near Stocks Market; in all there were nine of the
plague and six. of the spotted-fever. It was, however, upon inquiry
found that this Frenchman who died in Bearbinder Lane was one who,
having lived in Long Acre, near the infected houses, had removed for
fear of the distemper, not knowing that he was already infected.
This was the beginning of May, yet the weather was temperate,
variable, and cool enough, and people had still some hopes. That
which encouraged them was that the city was healthy: the whole
ninety-seven parishes buried but fifty-four, and we began to hope that,
as it was chiefly among the people at that end of the town, it might go
no farther; and the rather, because the next week, which was from the
9th of May to the 16th, there died but three, of which not one within
the whole city or liberties; and St Andrew's buried but fifteen, which
was very low. 'Tis true St Giles's buried two-and-thirty, but still, as
there was but one of the plague, people began to be easy. The whole
bill also was very low, for the week before the bill was but 347, and
the week above mentioned but 343. We continued in these hopes for
a few days, but it was but for a few, for the people were no more to be
deceived thus; they searched the houses and found that the plague was
really spread every way, and that many died of it every day. So that
now all our extenuations abated, and it was no more to be concealed;
nay, it quickly appeared that the infection had spread itself beyond all
hopes of abatement. that in the parish of St Giles it was gotten into
several streets, and several families lay all sick together; and,
accordingly, in the weekly bill for the next week the thing began to
show itself. There was indeed but fourteen set down of the plague,
but this was all knavery and collusion, for in St Giles's parish they
buried forty in all, whereof it was certain most of them died of the
plague, though they were set down of other distempers; and though
the number of all the burials were not increased above thirty-two, and
the whole bill being but 385, yet there was fourteen of the spotted-
fever, as well as fourteen of the plague; and we took it for granted
upon the whole that there were fifty died that week of the plague.
The next bill was from the 23rd of May to the 30th, when the number
of the plague was seventeen. But the burials in St Giles's were
fifty-three - a frightful number! - of whom they set down but nine
of the plague; but on an examination more strictly by the justices
of peace, and at the Lord Mayor's request, it was found there were
twenty more who were really dead of the plague in that parish,
but had been set down of the spotted-fever or other distempers,
besides others concealed.
But those were trifling things to what followed immediately after;
for now the weather set in hot, and from the first week in June the
infection spread in a dreadful manner, and the bills rose high; the
articles of the fever, spotted-fever, and teeth began to swell; for all
that could conceal their distempers did it, to prevent their neighbours
shunning and refusing to converse with them, and also to prevent
authority shutting up their houses; which, though it was not yet
practised, yet was threatened, and people were extremely terrified at
the thoughts of it.
The second week in June, the parish of St Giles, where still the
weight of the infection lay, buried 120, whereof though the bills said
but sixty-eight of the plague, everybody said there had been 100 at
least, calculating it from the usual number of funerals in that parish,
as above.
Till this week the city continued free, there having never any died,
except that one Frenchman whom I mentioned before, within the
whole ninety-seven parishes. Now there died four within the city, one
in Wood Street, one in Fenchurch Street, and two in Crooked Lane.
Southwark was entirely free, having not one yet died on that side of
the water.
I lived without Aldgate, about midway between Aldgate Church and
Whitechappel Bars, on the left hand or north side of the street; and as
the distemper had not reached to that side of the city, our
neighbourhood continued very easy. But at the other end of the town
their consternation was very great: and the richer sort of people,
especially the nobility and gentry from the west part of the city,
thronged out of town with their families and servants in an unusual
manner; and this was more particularly seen in Whitechappel; that is to
say, the Broad Street where I lived; indeed, nothing was to be seen but
waggons and carts, with goods, women, servants, children, &c.;
coaches filled with people of the better sort and horsemen attending
them, and all hurrying away; then empty waggons and carts appeared,
and spare horses with servants, who, it was apparent, were returning
or sent from the countries to fetch more people; besides innumerable
numbers of men on horseback, some alone, others with servants, and,
generally speaking, all loaded with baggage and fitted out for
travelling, as anyone might perceive by their appearance.
This was a very terrible and melancholy thing to see, and as it was a
sight which I could not but look on from morning to night (for indeed
there was nothing else of moment to be seen), it filled me with very
serious thoughts of the misery that was coming upon the city, and the
unhappy condition of those that would be left in it.
This hurry of the people was such for some weeks that there was no
getting at the Lord Mayor's door without exceeding difficulty; there
were such pressing and crowding there to get passes and certificates
of health for such as travelled abroad, for without these there was no
being admitted to pass through the towns upon the road, or to lodge in
any inn. Now, as there had none died in the city for all this time, my
Lord Mayor gave certificates of health without any difficulty to all
those who lived in the ninety-seven parishes, and to those within the
liberties too for a while.
This hurry, I say, continued some weeks, that is to say, all the month
of May and June, and the more because it was rumoured that an order
of the Government was to be issued out to place turnpikes and barriers
on the road to prevent people travelling, and that the towns on the
road would not suffer people from London to pass for fear of bringing
the infection along with them, though neither of these rumours had
any foundation but in the imagination, especially at-first.
I now began to consider seriously with myself concerning my own
case, and how I should dispose of myself; that is to say, whether I
should resolve to stay in London or shut up my house and flee, as
many of my neighbours did. I have set this particular down so fully,
because I know not but it may be of moment to those who come after
me, if they come to be brought to the same distress, and to the same
manner of making their choice; and therefore I desire this account
may pass with them rather for a direction to themselves to act by than
a history of my actings, seeing it may not he of one farthing value to
them to note what became of me.
I had two important things before me: the one was the carrying on
my business and shop, which was considerable, and in which was
embarked all my effects in the world; and the other was the
preservation of my life in so dismal a calamity as I saw apparently
was coming upon the whole city, and which, however great it was, my
fears perhaps, as well as other people's, represented to be much
greater than it could be.
The first consideration was of great moment to me; my trade was a
saddler, and as my dealings were chiefly not by a shop or chance
trade, but among the merchants trading to the English colonies in
America, so my effects lay very much in the hands of such. I was a
single man, 'tis true, but I had a family of servants whom I kept at my
business; had a house, shop, and warehouses filled with goods; and, in
short, to leave them all as things in such a case must be left (that is to
say, without any overseer or person fit to be trusted with them), had
been to hazard the loss not only of my trade, but of my goods, and
indeed of all I had in the world.
I had an elder brother at the same time in London, and not many
years before come over from Portugal: and advising with him, his
answer was in three words, the same that was given in another case
quite different, viz., 'Master, save thyself.' In a word, he was for my
retiring into the country, as he resolved to do himself with his family;
telling me what he had, it seems, heard abroad, that the best
preparation for the plague was to run away from it. As to my
argument of losing my trade, my goods, or debts, he quite confuted
me. He told me the same thing which I argued for my staying, viz.,
that I would trust God with my safety and health, was the strongest
repulse to my pretensions of losing my trade and my goods; 'for', says
he, 'is it not as reasonable that you should trust God with the chance or
risk of losing your trade, as that you should stay in so eminent a point
of danger, and trust Him with your life?'
I could not argue that I was in any strait as to a place where to go,
having several friends and relations in Northamptonshire, whence our
family first came from; and particularly, I had an only sister in
Lincolnshire, very willing to receive and entertain me.
My brother, who had already sent his wife and two children into
Bedfordshire, and resolved to follow them, pressed my going very
earnestly; and I had once resolved to comply with his desires, but at
that time could get no horse; for though it is true all the people did not
go out of the city of London, yet I may venture to say that in a manner
all the horses did; for there was hardly a horse to be bought or hired in
the whole city for some weeks. Once I resolved to travel on foot with
one servant, and, as many did, lie at no inn, but carry a soldier's tent
with us, and so lie in the fields, the weather being very warm, and no
danger from taking cold. I say, as many did, because several did so at
last, especially those who had been in the armies in the war which had
not been many years past; and I must needs say that, speaking of
second causes, had most of the people that travelled done so, the plague
had not been carried into so many country towns and houses as it was,
to the great damage, and indeed to the ruin, of abundance of people.
But then my servant, whom I had intended to take down with me,
deceived me; and being frighted at the increase of the distemper, and
not knowing when I should go, he took other measures, and left me,
so I was put off for that time; and, one way or other, I always found
that to appoint to go away was always crossed by some accident or
other, so as to disappoint and put it off again; and this brings in
a story which otherwise might be thought a needless digression, viz.,
about these disappointments being from Heaven.
I mention this story also as the best method I can advise any person
to take in such a case, especially if he be one that makes conscience of
his duty, and would be directed what to do in it, namely, that he
should keep his eye upon the particular providences which occur at
that time, and look upon them complexly, as they regard one another,
and as all together regard the question before him: and then, I think,
he may safely take them for intimations from Heaven of what is his
unquestioned duty to do in such a case; I mean as to going away from
or staying in the place where we dwell, when visited with an
infectious distemper.
It came very warmly into my mind one morning, as I was musing on
this particular thing, that as nothing attended us without the direction
or permission of Divine Power, so these disappointments must have
something in them extraordinary; and I ought to consider whether it
did not evidently point out, or intimate to me, that it was the will of
Heaven I should not go. It immediately followed in my thoughts, that
if it really was from God that I should stay, He was able effectually to
preserve me in the midst of all the death and danger that would
surround me; and that if I attempted to secure myself by fleeing from
my habitation, and acted contrary to these intimations, which I believe
to be Divine, it was a kind of flying from God, and that He could
cause His justice to overtake me when and where He thought fit.
These thoughts quite turned my resolutions again, and when I came
to discourse with my brother again I told him that I inclined to stay
and take my lot in that station in which God had placed me, and that
it seemed to be made more especially my duty, on the account of what
I have said.
My brother, though a very religious man himself, laughed at all I
had suggested about its being an intimation from Heaven, and told me
several stories of such foolhardy people, as he called them, as I was;
that I ought indeed to submit to it as a work of Heaven if I had been
any way disabled by distempers or diseases, and that then not being
able to go, I ought to acquiesce in the direction of Him, who, having
been my Maker, had an undisputed right of sovereignty in disposing
of me, and that then there had been no difficulty to determine which
was the call of His providence and which was not; but that I should
take it as an intimation from Heaven that I should not go out of town,
only because I could not hire a horse to go, or my fellow was run
away that was to attend me, was ridiculous, since at the time I had my
health and limbs, and other servants, and might with ease travel a day
or two on foot, and having a good certificate of being in perfect health,
might either hire a horse or take post on the road, as I thought fit.
Then he proceeded to tell me of the mischievous consequences
which attended the presumption of the Turks and Mahometans in Asia
and in other places where he had been (for my brother, being a
merchant, was a few years before, as I have already observed, returned
from abroad, coming last from Lisbon), and how, presuming upon
their professed predestinating notions, and of every man's end being
predetermined and unalterably beforehand decreed, they would go
unconcerned into infected places and converse with infected persons,
by which means they died at the rate of ten or fifteen thousand a
week, whereas the Europeans or Christian merchants, who kept
themselves retired and reserved, generally escaped the contagion.
Upon these arguments my brother changed my resolutions again,
and I began to resolve to go, and accordingly made all things ready;
for, in short, the infection increased round me, and the bills were risen
to almost seven hundred a week, and my brother told me he would
venture to stay no longer. I desired him to let me consider of it but till
the next day, and I would resolve: and as I had already prepared
everything as well as I could as to MY business, and whom to entrust
my affairs with, I had little to do but to resolve.
I went home that evening greatly oppressed in my mind, irresolute,
and not knowing what to do. I had set the evening wholly -apart to
consider seriously about it, and was all alone; for already people had,
as it were by a general consent, taken up the custom of not going out
of doors after sunset; the reasons I shall have occasion to say more of
by-and-by.
In the retirement of this evening I endeavoured to resolve, first, what
was my duty to do, and I stated the arguments with which my brother
had pressed me to go into the country, and I set, against them the
strong impressions which I had on my mind for staying; the visible
call I seemed to have from the particular circumstance of my calling,
and the care due from me for the preservation of my effects, which
were, as I might say, my estate; also the intimations which I thought I
had from Heaven, that to me signified a kind of direction to venture;
and it occurred to me that if I had what I might call a direction to stay,
I ought to suppose it contained a promise of being preserved if I obeyed.
This lay close to me, and my mind seemed more and more encouraged
to stay than ever, and supported with a secret satisfaction
that I should be kept. Add to this, that, turning over the Bible which
lay before me, and while my thoughts were more than ordinarily
serious upon the question, I cried out, 'Well, I know not what to do;
Lord, direct me I' and the like; and at that juncture I happened to stop
turning over the book at the gist Psalm, and casting my eye on the
second verse, I read on to the seventh verse exclusive, and after that
included the tenth, as follows: 'I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge
and my fortress: my God, in Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver
thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou
trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be
afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor
for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that
wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten
thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with
thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most
High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any
plague come nigh thy dwelling,' &C.
I scarce need tell the reader that from that moment I resolved that I
would stay in the town, and casting myself entirely upon the goodness
and protection of the Almighty, would not seek any other shelter
whatever; and that, as my times were in His hands, He was as able to
keep me in a time of the infection as in a time of health; and if He did
not think fit to deliver me, still I was in His hands, and it was meet He
should do with me as should seem good to Him.
With this resolution I went to bed; and I was further confirmed in it
the next day by the woman being taken ill with whom I had intended
to entrust my house and all my affairs. But I had a further obligation
laid on me on the same side, for the next day I found myself very
much out of order also, so that if I would have gone away, I could
not," and I continued ill three or four days, and this entirely
determined my stay; so I took my leave of my brother, who went away
to Dorking, in Surrey, and afterwards fetched a round farther into
Buckinghamshire or Bedfordshire, to a retreat he had found out there
for his family.
It was a very ill time to be sick in, for if any one complained, it was
immediately said he had the plague; and though I had indeed no
symptom of that distemper, yet being very ill, both in my head and in
my stomach, I was not without apprehension that I really was
infected; but in about three days I grew better; the third night I rested
well, sweated a little, and was much refreshed. The apprehensions of
its being the infection went also quite away with my illness, and I
went about my business as usual.
These things, however, put off all my thoughts of going into the
country; and my brother also being gone, I had no more debate either
with him or with myself on that subject.
It was now mid-July, and the plague, which had chiefly raged at the
other end of the town, and, as I said before, in the parishes of St Giles,
St Andrew's, Holborn, and towards Westminster, began to now come
eastward towards the part where I lived. It was to be observed,
indeed, that it did not come straight on towards us; for the city, that is
to say, within the walls, was indifferently healthy still; nor was it got
then very much over the water into Southwark; for though there died
that week 1268 of all distempers, whereof it might be supposed above
600 died of the plague, yet there was but twenty-eight in the whole
city, within the walls, and but nineteen in Southwark, Lambeth parish
included; whereas in the parishes of St Giles and St Martin-in-the-
Fields alone there died 421.
But we perceived the infection kept chiefly in the out-parishes,
which being very populous, and fuller also of poor, the distemper
found more to prey upon than in the city, as I shall observe afterwards.
We perceived, I say, the distemper to draw our way, viz., by the
parishes of Clarkenwell, Cripplegate, Shoreditch, and Bishopsgate;
which last two parishes joining to Aldgate, Whitechappel, and Stepney,
the infection came at length to spread its utmost rage and violence in
those parts, even when it abated at the western parishes where it began.
It was very strange to observe that in this particular week, from the
4th to the 11th of July, when, as I have observed, there died near 400
of the plague in the two parishes of St Martin and St Giles-in-the-
Fields only, there died in the parish of Aldgate but four, in the parish
of Whitechappel three, in the parish of Stepney but one.
Likewise in the next week, from the 11th of July to the 18th, when
the week's bill was 1761, yet there died no more of the plague, on the
whole Southwark side of the water, than sixteen.
But this face of things soon changed, and it began to thicken in
Cripplegate parish especially, and in Clarkenwell; so that by the
second week in August, Cripplegate parish alone buried 886, and
Clarkenwell 155. Of the first, 850 might well be reckoned to die of
the plague; and of the last, the bill itself said 145 were of the plague.
During the month of July, and while, as I have observed, our part of
the town seemed to be spared in comparison of the west part, I went
ordinarily about the streets, as my business required, and particularly
went generally once in a day, or in two days, into the city, to my
brother's house, which he had given me charge of, and to see if it was
safe; and having the key in my pocket, I used to go into the house, and
over most of the rooms, to see that all was well; for though it be
something wonderful to tell, that any should have hearts so hardened
in the midst of such a calamity as to rob and steal, yet certain it is that
all sorts of villainies, and even levities and debaucheries, were then
practised in the town as openly as ever - I will not say quite as
frequently, because the numbers of people were many ways lessened.
But the city itself began now to be visited too, I mean within the
walls; but the number of people there were indeed extremely lessened
by so great a multitude having been gone into the country; and even
all this month of July they continued to flee, though not in such
multitudes as formerly. In August, indeed, they fled in such a manner
that I began to think there would be really none but magistrates and
servants left in the city.
As they fled now out of the city, so I should observe that the Court
removed early, viz., in the month of June, and went to Oxford, where
it pleased God to preserve them; and the distemper did not, as I heard
of, so much as touch them, for which I cannot say that I ever saw they
showed any great token of thankfulness, and hardly anything of
reformation, though they did not want being told that their crying
vices might without breach of charity be said to have gone far in
bringing that terrible judgement upon the whole nation.
The face of London was -now indeed strangely altered: I mean the
whole mass of buildings, city, liberties, suburbs, Westminster,
Southwark, and altogether; for as to the particular part called the city,
or within the walls, that was not yet much infected. But in the whole
the face of things, I say, was much altered; sorrow and sadness sat
upon every face; and though some parts were not yet overwhelmed,
yet all looked deeply concerned; and, as we saw it apparently coming
on, so every one looked on himself and his family as in the utmost
danger. Were it possible to represent those times exactly to those that
did not see them, and give the reader due ideas of the horror 'that
everywhere presented itself, it must make just impressions upon their
minds and fill them with surprise. London might well be said to be all
in tears; the mourners did not go about the streets indeed, for nobody
put on black or made a formal dress of mourning for their nearest
friends; but the voice of mourners was truly heard in the streets. The
shrieks of women and children at the windows and doors of their
houses, where their dearest relations were perhaps dying, or just dead,
were so frequent to be heard as we passed the streets, that it was
enough to pierce the stoutest heart in the world to hear them. Tears
and lamentations were seen almost in every house, especially in the
first part of the visitation; for towards the latter end men's hearts were
hardened, and death was so always before their eyes, that they did not
so much concern themselves for the loss of their friends, expecting
that themselves should be summoned the next hour.
Business led me out sometimes to the other end of the town, even
when the sickness was chiefly there; and as the thing was new to me,
as well as to everybody else, it was a most surprising thing to see
those streets which were usually so thronged now grown desolate, and
so few people to be seen in them, that if I had been a stranger and at a
loss for my way, I might sometimes have gone the length of a whole
street (I mean of the by-streets), and seen nobody to direct me except
watchmen set at the doors of such houses as were shut up, of which I
shall speak presently.
One day, being at that part of the town on some special business,
curiosity led me to observe things more than usually, and indeed I
walked a great way where I had no business. I went up Holborn, and
there the street was full of people, but they walked in the middle of
the great street, neither on one side or other, because, as I suppose,
they would not mingle with anybody that came out of houses, or meet
with smells and scent from houses that might be infected.
The Inns of Court were all shut up; nor were very many of the
lawyers in the Temple, or Lincoln's Inn, or Gray's Inn, to be seen
there. Everybody was at peace; there was no occasion for lawyers;
besides, it being in the time of the vacation too, they were generally
gone into the country. Whole rows of houses in some places were
shut close up, the inhabitants all fled, and only a watchman or two left.
When I speak of rows of houses being shut up, I do not mean shut
up by the magistrates, but that great numbers of persons followed the
Court, by the necessity of their employments and other dependences;
and as others retired, really frighted with the distemper, it was a mere
desolating of some of the streets. But the fright was not yet near so
great in the city, abstractly so called, and particularly because, though
they were at first in a most inexpressible consternation, yet as I have
observed that the distemper intermitted often at first, so they were, as
it were, alarmed and unalarmed again, and this several times, till it
began to be familiar to them; and that even when it appeared violent,
yet seeing it did not presently spread into the city, or the east and
south parts, the people began to take courage, and to be, as I may say,
a little hardened. It is true a vast many people fled, as I have
observed, yet they were chiefly from the west end of the town, and
from that we call the heart of the city: that is to say, among the
wealthiest of the people, and such people as were unencumbered with
trades and business. But of the rest, the generality stayed, and seemed
to abide the worst; so that in the place we calf the Liberties, and in the
suburbs, in Southwark, and in the east part, such as Wapping, Ratcliff,
Stepney, Rotherhithe, and the like, the people generally stayed, except
here and there a few wealthy families, who, as above, did not depend
upon their business.
It must not be forgot here that the city and suburbs were
prodigiously full of people at the time of this visitation, I mean at the
time that it began; for though I have lived to see a further increase,
and mighty throngs of people settling in London more than ever, yet
we had always a notion that the numbers of people which, the wars
being over, the armies disbanded, and the royal family and the
monarchy being restored, had flocked to London to settle in business,
or to depend upon and attend the Court for rewards of services,
preferments, and the like, was such that the town was computed to
have in it above a hundred thousand people more than ever it held
before; nay, some took upon them to say it had twice as many,
because all the ruined families of the royal party flocked hither. All
the old soldiers set up trades here, and abundance of families settled
here. Again, the Court brought with them a great flux of pride, and
new fashions. All people were grown gay and luxurious, and the joy
of the Restoration had brought a vast many families to London.
I often thought that as Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans when
the Jews were assembled together to celebrate the Passover - by which
means an incredible number of people were surprised there who
would otherwise have been in other countries - so the plague entered
London when an incredible increase of people had happened
occasionally, by the particular circumstances above-named. As this
conflux of the people to a youthful and gay Court made a great trade
in the city, especially in everything that belonged to fashion and
finery, so it drew by consequence a great number of workmen,
manufacturers, and the like, being mostly poor people who depended
upon their labour. And I remember in particular that in a
representation to my Lord Mayor of the condition of the poor, it was
estimated that there were no less than an hundred thousand riband-
weavers in and about the city, the chiefest number of whom lived then
in the parishes of Shoreditch, Stepney, Whitechappel, and Bishopsgate,
that, namely, about Spitalfields; that is to say, as Spitalfields was then,
for it was not so large as now by one fifth part.
By this, however, the number of people in the whole may be judged
of; and, indeed, I often wondered that, after the prodigious numbers of
people that went away at first, there was yet so great a multitude left
as it appeared there was.
But I must go back again to the beginning of this surprising time.
While the fears of the people were young, they were increased
strangely by several odd accidents which, put altogether, it was really
a wonder the whole body of the people did not rise as one man and
abandon their dwellings, leaving the place as a space of ground
designed by Heaven for an Akeldama, doomed to be destroyed from
the face of the earth, and that all that would be found in it would
perish with it. I shall name but a few of these things; but sure they
were so many, and so many wizards and cunning people propagating
them, that I have often wondered there was any (women especially)
left behind.
In the first place, a blazing star or comet appeared for several
months before the plague, as there did the year after another, a little
before the fire. The old women and the phlegmatic hypochondriac
part of the other sex, whom I could almost call old women too,
remarked (especially afterward, though not till both those judgements
were over) that those two comets passed directly over the city, and
that so very near the houses that it was plain they imported something
peculiar to the city alone; that the comet before the pestilence was of
a faint, dull, languid colour, and its motion very heavy, Solemn, and
slow; but that the comet before the fire was bright and sparkling, or,
as others said, flaming, and its motion swift and furious; and that,
accordingly, one foretold a heavy judgement, slow but severe, terrible
and frightful, as was the plague; but the other foretold a stroke,
sudden, swift, and fiery as the conflagration. Nay, so particular some
people were, that as they looked upon that comet preceding the fire,
they fancied that they not only saw it pass swiftly and fiercely, and
could perceive the motion with their eye, but even they heard it; that it
made a rushing, mighty noise, fierce and terrible, though at a distance,
and but just perceivable.
I saw both these stars, and, I must confess, had so much of the
common notion of such things in my head, that I was apt to look upon
them as the forerunners and warnings of God's judgements; and
especially when, after the plague had followed the first, I yet saw
another of the like kind, I could not but say God had not yet
sufficiently scourged the city.
But I could not at the same time carry these things to the height that
others did, knowing, too, that natural causes are assigned by the
astronomers for such things, and that their motions and even their
revolutions are calculated, or pretended to be calculated, so that they
cannot be so perfectly called the forerunners or foretellers, much less
the procurers, of such events as pestilence, war, fire, and the like.
But let my thoughts and the thoughts of the philosophers be, or have
been, what they will, these things had a more than ordinary influence
upon the minds of the common people, and they had almost universal
melancholy apprehensions of some dreadful calamity and judgement
coming upon the city; and this principally from the sight of this
comet, and the little alarm that was given in December by two people
dying at St Giles's, as above.
The apprehensions of the people were likewise strangely increased
by the error of the times; in which, I think, the people, from what
principle I cannot imagine, were more addicted to prophecies and
astrological conjurations, dreams, and old wives' tales than ever they
were before or since. Whether this unhappy temper was originally
raised by the follies of some people who got money by it - that is to
say, by printing predictions and prognostications - I know not; but
certain it is, books frighted them terribly, such as Lilly's Almanack,
Gadbury's Astrological Predictions, Poor Robin's Almanack, and the
like; also several pretended religious books, one entitled, Come out of
her, my People, lest you be Partaker of her Plagues; another called,
Fair Warning; another, Britain's Remembrancer; and many such, all,
or most part of which, foretold, directly or covertly, the ruin of the
city. Nay, some were so enthusiastically bold as to run about the
streets with their oral predictions, pretending they were sent to preach
to the city; and one in particular, who, like Jonah to Nineveh, cried in
the streets, 'Yet forty days, and London shall be destroyed.' I will not
be positive whether he said yet forty days or yet a few days. Another
ran about naked, except a pair of drawers about his waist, crying day
and night, like a man that Josephus mentions, who cried, 'Woe to
Jerusalem!' a little before the destruction of that city. So this poor
naked creature cried, 'Oh, the great and the dreadful God!' and said no
more, but repeated those words continually, with a voice and
countenance full of horror, a swift pace; and nobody could ever find
him to stop or rest, or take any sustenance, at least that ever I could
hear of. I met this poor creature several times in the streets, and
would have spoken to him, but he would not enter into speech with
me or any one else, but held on his dismal cries continually.
These things terrified the people to the last degree, and especially
when two or three times, as I have mentioned already, they found one
or two in the bills dead of the plague at St Giles's.
Next to these public things were the dreams of old women, or, I
should say, the interpretation of old women upon other people's
dreams; and these put abundance of people even out of their wits.
Some heard voices warning them to be gone, for that there would be
such a plague in London, so that the living would not be able to bury
the dead. Others saw apparitions in the air; and I must be allowed to
say of both, I hope without breach of charity, that they heard voices
that never spake, and saw sights that never appeared; but the
imagination of the people was really turned wayward and possessed.
And no wonder, if they who were poring continually at the clouds saw
shapes and figures, representations and appearances, which had
nothing in them but air, and vapour. Here they told us they saw a
flaming sword held in a hand coming out of a cloud, with a point
hanging directly over the city; there they saw hearses and coffins in
the air carrying to be buried; and there again, heaps of dead bodies
lying unburied, and the like, just as the imagination of the poor
terrified people furnished them with matter to work upon.
So hypochondriac fancies represent
Ships, armies, battles in the firmament;
Till steady eyes the exhalations solve,
And all to its first matter, cloud, resolve.
I could fill this account with the strange relations such people gave
every day of what they had seen; and every one was so positive of
their having seen what they pretended to see, that there was no
contradicting them without breach of friendship, or being accounted
rude and unmannerly on the one hand, and profane and impenetrable
on the other. One time before the plague was begun (otherwise than
as I have said in St Giles's), I think it was in March, seeing a crowd of
people in the street, I joined with them to satisfy my curiosity, and
found them all staring up into the air to see what a woman told them
appeared plain to her, which was an angel clothed in white, with a
fiery sword in his hand, waving it or brandishing it over his head. She
described every part of the figure to the life, showed them the motion
and the form, and the poor people came into it so eagerly, and with so
much readiness; 'Yes, I see it all plainly,' says one; 'there's the sword
as plain as can be.' Another saw the angel. One saw his very face, and
cried out what a glorious creature he was! One saw one thing, and
one another. I looked as earnestly as the rest, but perhaps not with so
much willingness to be imposed upon; and I said, indeed, that I could
see nothing but a white cloud, bright on one side by the shining of the
sun upon the other part. The woman endeavoured to show it me, but
could not make me confess that I saw it, which, indeed, if I had I must
have lied. But the woman, turning upon me, looked in my face, and
fancied I laughed, in which her imagination deceived her too, for I
really did not laugh, but was very seriously reflecting how the poor
people were terrified by the force of their own imagination. However,
she turned from me, called me profane fellow, and a scoffer; told me
that it was a time of God's anger, and dreadful judgements were
approaching, and that despisers such as I should wander and perish.
The people about her seemed disgusted as well as she; and I found
there was no persuading them that I did not laugh at them, and that
I should be rather mobbed by them than be able to undeceive them.
So I left them; and this appearance passed for as real as the
blazing star itself.
Another encounter I had in the open day also; and this was in going
through a narrow passage from Petty France into Bishopsgate
Churchyard, by a row of alms-houses. There are two churchyards to
Bishopsgate church or parish; one we go over to pass from the place
called Petty France into Bishopsgate Street, coming out just by the
church door; the other is on the side of the narrow passage where the
alms-houses are on the left; and a dwarf-wall with a palisado on it on
the right hand, and the city wall on the other side more to the right.
In this narrow passage stands a man looking through between the
palisadoes into the burying-place, and as many people as the
narrowness of the passage would admit to stop, without hindering the
passage of others, and he was talking mightily eagerly to them, and
pointing now to one place, then to another, and affirming that he saw
a ghost walking upon such a gravestone there. He described the
shape, the posture, and the movement of it so exactly that it was the
greatest matter of amazement to him in the world that everybody did
not see it as well as he. On a sudden he would cry, 'There it is; now it
comes this way.' Then, 'Tis turned back'; till at length he persuaded the
people into so firm a belief of it, that one fancied he saw it, and
another fancied he saw it; and thus he came every day making a
strange hubbub, considering it was in so narrow a passage, till
Bishopsgate clock struck eleven, and then the ghost would seem to
start, and, as if he were called away, disappeared on a sudden.
I looked earnestly every way, and at the very moment that this man
directed, but could not see the least appearance of anything; but so
positive was this poor man, that he gave the people the vapours in
abundance, and sent them away trembling and frighted, till at length
few people that knew of it cared to go through that passage, and
hardly anybody by night on any account whatever.
This ghost, as the poor man affirmed, made signs to the houses, and
to the ground, and to the people, plainly intimating, or else they so
understanding it, that abundance of the people should come to be
buried in that churchyard, as indeed happened; but that he saw such
aspects I must acknowledge I never believed, nor could I see anything
of it myself, though I looked most earnestly to see it, if possible.
These things serve to show how far the people were really overcome
with delusions; and as they had a notion of the approach of a
visitation, all their predictions ran upon a most dreadful plague, which
should lay the whole city, and even the kingdom, waste, and should
destroy almost all the nation, both man and beast.
To this, as I said before, the astrologers added stories of the
conjunctions of planets in a malignant manner and with a mischievous
influence, one of which conjunctions was to happen, and did happen,
in October, and the other in November; and they filled the people's
heads with predictions on these signs of the heavens, intimating that
those conjunctions foretold drought, famine, and pestilence. In the
two first of them, however, they were entirely mistaken, for we had no
droughty season, but in the beginning of the year a hard frost, which
lasted from December almost to March, and after that moderate
weather, rather warm than hot, with refreshing winds, and, in short,
very seasonable weather, and also several very great rains.
Some endeavours were used to suppress the printing of such books
as terrified the people, and to frighten the dispersers of them, some of
whom were taken up; but nothing was done in it, as I am informed,
the Government being unwilling to exasperate the people, who were,
as I may say, all out of their wits already.
Neither can I acquit those ministers that in their sermons rather sank
than lifted up the hearts of their hearers. Many of them no doubt did
it for the strengthening the resolution of the people, and especially for
quickening them to repentance, but it certainly answered not their
end, at least not in proportion to the injury it did another way; and
indeed, as God Himself through the whole Scriptures rather draws to
Him by invitations and calls to turn to Him and live, than drives us by
terror and amazement, so I must confess I thought the ministers
should have done also, imitating our blessed Lord and Master in this,
that His whole Gospel is full of declarations from heaven of God's
mercy, and His readiness to receive penitents and forgive them,
complaining, 'Ye will not come unto Me that ye may have life',
and that therefore His Gospel is called the Gospel of Peace and
the Gospel of Grace.
But we had some good men, and that of all persuasions and opinions,
whose discourses were full of terror, who spoke nothing but dismal things;
and as they brought the people together with a kind of horror, sent them
away in tears, prophesying nothing but evil tidings, terrifying the people
with the apprehensions of being utterly destroyed, not guiding them,
at least not enough, to cry to heaven for mercy.
It was, indeed, a time of very unhappy breaches among us in matters
of religion. Innumerable sects and divisions and separate opinions
prevailed among the people. The Church of England was restored,
indeed, with the restoration of the monarchy, about four years before;
but the ministers and preachers of the Presbyterians and Independents,
and of all the other sorts of professions, had begun to gather separate
societies and erect altar against altar, and all those had their meetings
for worship apart, as they have now, but not so many then, the
Dissenters being not thoroughly formed into a body as they are since;
and those congregations which were thus gathered together were yet
but few. And even those that were, the Government did not allow, but
endeavoured to suppress them and shut up their meetings.
But the visitation reconciled them again, at least for a time, and
many of the best and most valuable ministers and preachers of the
Dissenters were suffered to go into the churches where the
incumbents were fled away, as many were, not being able to stand it;
and the people flocked without distinction to hear them preach, not
much inquiring who or what opinion they were of. But after the
sickness was over, that spirit of charity abated; and every church
being again supplied with their own ministers, or others presented
where the minister was dead, things returned to their old channel again.
One mischief always introduces another. These terrors and
apprehensions of the people led them into a thousand weak, foolish,
and wicked things, which they wanted not a sort of people really
wicked to encourage them to: and this was running about to fortune-
tellers, cunning-men, and astrologers to know their fortune, or, as it is
vulgarly expressed, to have their fortunes told them, their nativities
calculated, and the like; and this folly presently made the town swarm
with a wicked generation of pretenders to magic, to the black art, as
they called it, and I know not what; nay, to a thousand worse dealings
with the devil than they were really guilty of. And this trade grew so
open and so generally practised that it became common to have signs
and inscriptions set up at doors: 'Here lives a fortune-teller', 'Here lives
an astrologer', 'Here you may have your nativity calculated', and the
like; and Friar Bacon's brazen-head, which was the usual sign of these
people's dwellings, was to be seen almost in every street, or else the
sign of Mother Shipton, or of Merlin's head, and the like.
With what blind, absurd, and ridiculous stuff these oracles of the
devil pleased and satisfied the people I really know not, but certain it
is that innumerable attendants crowded about their doors every day.
And if but a grave fellow in a velvet jacket, a band, and a black coat,
which was the habit those quack-conjurers generally went in, was but
seen in the streets the people would follow them in crowds, and ask
them questions as they went along.
I need not mention what a horrid delusion this was, or what it
tended to; but there was no remedy for it till the plague itself put an
end to it all - and, I suppose, cleared the town of most of those
calculators themselves. One mischief was, that if the poor people
asked these mock astrologers whether there would be a plague or no,
they all agreed in general to answer 'Yes', for that kept up their trade.
And had the people not been kept in a fright about that, the wizards
would presently have been rendered useless, and their craft had been
at an end. But they always talked to them of such-and-such influences
of the stars, of the conjunctions of such-and-such planets, which must
necessarily bring sickness and distempers, and consequently the
plague. And some had the assurance to tell them the plague was
begun already, which was too true, though they that said so knew
nothing of the matter.
The ministers, to do them justice, and preachers of most sorts that
were serious and understanding persons, thundered against these and
other wicked practices, and exposed the folly as well as the
wickedness of them together, and the most sober and judicious people
despised and abhorred them. But it was impossible to make any
impression upon the middling people and the working labouring poor.
Their fears were predominant over all their passions, and they threw
away their money in a most distracted manner upon those whimsies.
Maid-servants especially, and men-servants, were the chief of their
customers, and their question generally was, after the first demand of
'Will there be a plague?' I say, the next question was, 'Oh, sir I for the
Lord's sake, what will become of me? Will my mistress keep me, or
will she turn me off? Will she stay here, or will she go into the
country? And if she goes into the country, will she take me with her,
or leave me here to be starved and undone?' And the like of menservants.
The truth is, the case of poor servants was very dismal, as I shall
have occasion to mention again by-and-by, for it was apparent a
prodigious number of them would be turned away, and it was so. And
of them abundance perished, and particularly of those that these false
prophets had flattered with hopes that they should be continued in
their services, and carried with their masters and mistresses into the
country; and had not public charity provided for these poor creatures,
whose number was exceeding great and in all cases of this nature
must be so, they would have been in the worst condition of any people
in the city.
These things agitated the minds of the common people for many
months, while the first apprehensions were upon them, and while the
plague was not, as I may say, yet broken out. But I must also not
forget that the more serious part of the inhabitants behaved after
another manner. The Government encouraged their devotion, and
appointed public prayers and days of fasting and humiliation, to make
public confession of sin and implore the mercy of God to avert the
dreadful judgement which hung over their heads; and it is not to he
expressed with what alacrity the people of all persuasions embraced
the occasion; how they flocked to the churches and meetings, and they
were all so thronged that there was often no coming near, no, not to
the very doors of the largest churches. Also there were daily prayers
appointed morning and evening at several churches, and days of
private praying at other places; at all which the people attended, I say,
with an uncommon devotion. Several private families also, as well of
one opinion as of another, kept family fasts, to which they admitted
their near relations only. So that, in a word, those people who were
really serious and religious applied themselves in a truly Christian
manner to the proper work of repentance and humiliation, as a
Christian people ought to do.
Again, the public showed that they would bear their share in. these
things; the very Court, which was then gay and luxurious, put on a
face of just concern for the public danger. All the plays and interludes
which, after the manner of the French Court, had been set up, and
began to increase among us, were forbid to act; the gaming-tables,
public dancing-rooms, and music-houses, which multiplied and began
to debauch the manners of the people, were shut up and suppressed;
and the jack-puddings, merry-andrews, puppet-shows, rope-dancers,
and such-like doings, which had bewitched the poor common people,
shut up their shops, finding indeed no trade; for the minds of the
people were agitated with other things, and a kind of sadness and
horror at these things sat upon the countenances even of the common
people. Death was before their eyes, and everybody began to think of
their graves, not of mirth and diversions.
But even those wholesome reflections - which, rightly managed,
would have most happily led the people to fall upon their knees, make
confession of their sins, and look up to their merciful Saviour for
pardon, imploring His compassion on them in such a time of their
distress, by which we might have been as a second Nineveh - had a
quite contrary extreme in the common people, who, ignorant and
stupid in their reflections as they were brutishly wicked and
thoughtless before, were now led by their fright to extremes of folly;
and, as I have said before, that they ran to conjurers and witches, and
all sorts of deceivers, to know what should become of them (who fed
their fears, and kept them always alarmed and awake on purpose to
delude them and pick their pockets), so they were as mad upon their
running after quacks and mountebanks, and every practising old
woman, for medicines and remedies; storing themselves with such
multitudes of pills, potions, and preservatives, as they were called,
that they not only spent their money but even poisoned themselves
beforehand for fear of the poison of the infection; and prepared their
bodies for the plague, instead of preserving them against it. On the
other hand it is incredible and scarce to be imagined, how the posts of
houses and corners of streets were plastered over with doctors' bills
and papers of ignorant fellows, quacking and tampering in physic, and
inviting the people to come to them for remedies, which was generally
set off with such flourishes as these, viz.: 'Infallible preventive pills
against the plague.' 'Neverfailing preservatives against the infection.'
'Sovereign cordials against the corruption of the air.' 'Exact regulations
for the conduct of the body in case of an infection.' 'Anti-pestilential
pills.' 'Incomparable drink against the plague, never found out before.'
'An universal remedy for the plague.' 'The only true plague water.' 'The
royal antidote against all kinds of infection'; - and such a number
more that I cannot reckon up; and if I could, would fill a book of
themselves to set them down.
Others set up bills to summon people to their lodgings for directions
and advice in the case of infection. These had specious titles also,
such as these: -
'An eminent High Dutch physician, newly come over from Holland,
where he resided during all the time of the great plague last year in
Amsterdam, and cured multitudes of people that actually had the
plague upon them.'
'An Italian gentlewoman just arrived from Naples, having a choice
secret to prevent infection, which she found out by her great
experience, and did wonderful cures with it in the late plague there,
wherein there died 20,000 in one day.'
'An ancient gentlewoman, having practised with great success in the
late plague in this city, anno 1636, gives her advice only to the female
sex. To be spoken with,' &c.
'An experienced physician, who has long studied the doctrine of
antidotes against all sorts of poison and infection, has, after forty
years' practice, arrived to such skill as may, with God's blessing, direct
persons how to prevent their being touched by any contagious
distemper whatsoever. He directs the poor gratis.'
I take notice of these by way of specimen. I could give you two or
three dozen of the like and yet have abundance left behind. 'Tis
sufficient from these to apprise any one of the humour of those times,
and how a set of thieves and pickpockets not only robbed and cheated
the poor people of their money, but poisoned their bodies with odious
and fatal preparations; some with mercury, and some with other things
as bad, perfectly remote from the thing pretended to, and rather
hurtful than serviceable to the body in case an infection followed.
I cannot omit a subtility of one of those quack operators, with which
he gulled the poor people to crowd about him, but did nothing for
them without money. He had, it seems, added to his bills, which he
gave about the streets, this advertisement in capital letters, viz.,
'He gives advice to the poor for nothing.'
Abundance of poor people came to him accordingly, to whom he
made a great many fine speeches, examined them of the state of their
health and of the constitution of their bodies, and told them many
good things for them to do, which were of no great moment. But the
issue and conclusion of all was, that he had a preparation which if
they took such a quantity of every morning, he would pawn his life
they should never have the plague; no, though they lived in the house
with people that were infected. This made the people all resolve to
have it; but then the price of that was so much, I think 'twas half-a-
crown. 'But, sir,' says one poor woman, 'I am a poor almswoman and
am kept by the parish, and your bills say you give the poor your help
for nothing.' 'Ay, good woman,' says the doctor, 'so I do, as I published
there. I give my advice to the poor for nothing, but not my physic.'
'Alas, sir!' says she, 'that is a snare laid for the poor, then; for you give
them advice for nothing; that is to say, you advise them gratis, to buy
your physic for their money; so does every shop-keeper with his
wares.' Here the woman began to give him ill words, and stood at his
door all that day, telling her tale to all the people that came, till the
doctor finding she turned away his customers, was obliged to call her
upstairs again, and give her his box of physic for nothing, which
perhaps, too, was good for nothing when she had it.
But to return to the people, whose confusions fitted them to be
imposed upon by all sorts of pretenders and by every mountebank.
There is no doubt but these quacking sort of fellows raised great gains
out of the miserable people, for we daily found the crowds that ran
after them were infinitely greater, and their doors were more thronged
than those of Dr Brooks, Dr Upton, Dr Hodges, Dr Berwick, or any,
though the most famous men of the time. I And I was told that some
of them got five pounds a day by their physic.
But there was still another madness beyond all this, which may
serve to give an idea of the distracted humour of the poor people at
that time: and this was their following a worse sort of deceivers than
any of these; for these petty thieves only deluded them to pick their
pockets and get their money, in which their wickedness, whatever it
was, lay chiefly on the side of the deceivers, not upon the deceived.
But in this part I am going to mention, it lay chiefly in the people
deceived, or equally in both; and this was in wearing charms, philtres,
exorcisms, amulets, and I know not what preparations, to fortify the
body with them against the plague; as if the plague was not the hand
of God, but a kind of possession of an evil spirit, and that it was to be
kept off with crossings, signs of the zodiac, papers tied up with so
many knots, and certain words or figures written on them, as
particularly the word Abracadabra, formed in triangle or pyramid,
thus: -
ABRACADABRA
ABRACADABR Others had the Jesuits'
ABRACADAB mark in a cross:
ABRACADA I H
ABRACAD S.
ABRACA
ABRAC Others nothing but this
ABRA mark, thus:
ABR
AB * *
A {*}
* *
I might spend a great deal of time in my exclamations against the
follies, and indeed the wickedness, of those things, in a time of such
danger, in a matter of such consequences as this, of a national
infection. But my memorandums of these things relate rather to take
notice only of the fact, and mention only that it was so. How the poor
people found the insufficiency of those things, and how many of them
were afterwards carried away in the dead-carts and thrown into the
common graves of every parish with these hellish charms and trumpery
hanging about their necks, remains to be spoken of as we go along.
All this was the effect of the hurry the people were in, after the first
notion of the plaque being at hand was among them, and which may
be said to be from about Michaelmas 1664, but more particularly after
the two men died in St Giles's in the beginning of December;
and again, after another alarm in February. For when the plague
evidently spread itself, they soon began to see the folly of trusting
to those unperforming creatures who had gulled them of their money;
and then their fears worked another way, namely, to amazement
and stupidity, not knowing what course to take or what to do either
to help or relieve themselves. But they ran about from one neighbour's
house to another, and even in the streets from one door to another,
with repeated cries of, 'Lord, have mercy upon us! What shall we do?'
Indeed, the poor people were to be pitied in one particular thing in
which they had little or no relief, and which I desire to mention with a
serious awe and reflection, which perhaps every one that reads this
may not relish; namely, that whereas death now began not, as we may
say, to hover over every one's head only, but to look into their houses
and chambers and stare in their faces. Though there might be some
stupidity and dulness of the mind (and there was so, a great deal), yet
there was a great deal of just alarm sounded into the very inmost soul,
if I may so say, of others. Many consciences were awakened; many
hard hearts melted into tears; many a penitent confession was made of
crimes long concealed. It would wound the soul of any Christian to
have heard the dying groans of many a despairing creature, and none
durst come near to comfort them. Many a robbery, many a murder,
was then confessed aloud, and nobody surviving to record the
accounts of it. People might be heard, even into the streets as we
passed along, calling upon God for mercy through Jesus Christ, and
saying, 'I have been a thief, 'I have been an adulterer', 'I have been a
murderer', and the like, and none durst stop to make the least inquiry
into such things or to administer comfort to the poor creatures that in
the anguish both of soul and body thus cried out. Some of the
ministers did visit the sick at first and for a little while, but it was not
to be done. It would have been present death to have gone into some
houses. The very buriers of the dead, who were the hardenedest
creatures in town, were sometimes beaten back and so terrified that
they durst not go into houses where the whole families were swept
away together, and where the circumstances were more particularly horrible,
as some were; but this was, indeed, at the first heat of the distemper.
Time inured them to it all, and they ventured everywhere afterwards
without hesitation, as I shall have occasion to mention
at large hereafter.
I am supposing now the plague to be begun, as I have said, and that
the magistrates began to take the condition of the people into their
serious consideration. What they did as to the regulation of the
inhabitants and of infected families, I shall speak to by itself; but as to
the affair of health, it is proper to mention it here that, having seen the
foolish humour of the people in running after quacks and
mountebanks, wizards and fortune-tellers, which they did as above,
even to madness, the Lord Mayor, a very sober and religious
gentleman, appointed physicians and surgeons for relief of the poor - I
mean the diseased poor and in particular ordered the College of
Physicians to publish directions for cheap remedies for the poor, in all
the circumstances of the distemper. This, indeed, was one of the most
charitable and judicious things that could be done at that time, for this
drove the people from haunting the doors of every disperser of bills,
and from taking down blindly and without consideration poison for
physic and death instead of life.
This direction of the physicians was done by a consultation of the
whole College; and, as it was particularly calculated for the use of the
poor and for cheap medicines, it was made public, so that everybody
might see it, and copies were given gratis to all that desired it. But as
it is public, and to be seen on all occasions, I need not give the reader
of this the trouble of it.
I shall not be supposed to lessen the authority or capacity of the
physicians when I say that the violence of the distemper, when it came
to its extremity, was like the fire the next year. The fire, which
consumed what the plague could not touch, defied all the application
of remedies; the fire-engines were broken, the buckets thrown away,
and the power of man was baffled and brought to an end. So the
Plague defied all medicines; the very physicians were seized with it,
with their preservatives in their mouths; and men went about
prescribing to others and telling them what to do till the tokens were
upon them, and they dropped down dead, destroyed by that very
enemy they directed others to oppose. This was the case of several
physicians, even some of them the most eminent, and of several of the
most skilful surgeons. Abundance of quacks too died, who had the
folly to trust to their own medicines, which they must needs be
conscious to themselves were good for nothing, and who rather ought,
like other sorts of thieves, to have run away, sensible of their guilt,
from the justice that they could not but expect should punish them as
they knew they had deserved.
Not that it is any derogation from the labour or application of the
physicians to say they fell in the common calamity; nor is it so
intended by me; it rather is to their praise that they ventured their lives
so far as even to lose them in the service of mankind. They
endeavoured to do good, and to save the lives of others. But we were
not to expect that the physicians could stop God's judgements, or
prevent a distemper eminently armed from heaven from executing the
errand it was sent about.
Doubtless, the physicians assisted many by their skill, and by their
prudence and applications, to the saving of their lives and restoring
their health. But it is not lessening their character or their skill, to say
they could not cure those that had the tokens upon them, or those who
were mortally infected before the physicians were sent for, as was
frequently the case.
It remains to mention now what public measures were taken by the
magistrates for the general safety, and to prevent the spreading of the
distemper, when it first broke out. I shall have frequent occasion to
speak of the prudence of the magistrates, their charity, their vigilance
for the poor, and for preserving good order, furnishing provisions, and
the like, when the plague was increased, as it afterwards was. But I
am now upon the order and regulations they published for the
government of infected families.
I mentioned above shutting of houses up; and it is needful to say
something particularly to that, for this part of the history of the plague
is very melancholy, but the most grievous story must be told.
About June the Lord Mayor of London and the Court of Aldermen,
as I have said, began more particularly to concern themselves for the
regulation of the city.
The justices of Peace for Middlesex, by direction of the Secretary of
State, had begun to shut up houses in the parishes of St Giles-in-the-
Fields, St Martin, St Clement Danes, &c., and it was with good
success; for in several streets where the plague broke out, upon strict
guarding the houses that were infected, and taking care to bury those
that died immediately after they were known to be dead, the plague
ceased in those streets. It was also observed that the plague decreased
sooner in those parishes after they had been visited to the full than it
did in the parishes of Bishopsgate, Shoreditch, Aldgate, Whitechappel,
Stepney, and others; the early care taken in that manner being a great
means to the putting a check to it.
This shutting up of houses was a method first taken, as I understand,
in the plague which happened in 1603, at the coming of King James
the First to the crown; and the power of shutting people up in their
own houses was granted by Act of Parliament, entitled, 'An Act for the
charitable Relief and Ordering of Persons infected with the Plague';
on which Act of Parliament the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the city
of London founded the order they made at this time, and which took
place the 1st of July 1665, when the numbers infected within the city
were but few, the last bill for the ninety-two parishes being but four;
and some houses having been shut up in the city, and some people
being removed to the pest-house beyond Bunhill Fields, in the way to
Islington, - I say, by these means, when there died near one thousand a
week in the whole, the number in the city was but twenty-eight, and
the city was preserved more healthy in proportion than any other place
all the time of the infection.
These orders of my Lord Mayor's were published, as I have said, the
latter end of June, and took place from the 1st of July, and were as
follows, viz.: -
ORDERS CONCEIVED AND PUBLISHED BY THE LORD
MAYOR AND ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF LONDON
CONCERNING THE INFECTION OF THE PLAGUE, 1665.
'WHEREAS in the reign of our late Sovereign King James, of happy
memory, an Act was made for the charitable relief and ordering of
persons infected with the plague, whereby authority was given to
justices of the peace, mayors, bailiffs, and other head-officers to
appoint within their several limits examiners, searchers, watchmen,
keepers, and buriers for the persons and places infected, and to
minister unto them oaths for the performance of their offices. And the
same statute did also authorise the giving of other directions, as unto
them for the present necessity should seem good in their directions. It
is now, upon special consideration, thought very expedient for
preventing and avoiding of infection of sickness (if it shall so please
Almighty God) that these officers following be appointed, and these
orders hereafter duly observed.
Examiners to be appointed in every Parish.
'First, it is thought requisite, and so ordered, that in every parish
there be one, two, or more persons of good sort and credit chosen and
appointed by the alderman, his deputy, and common council of every
ward, by the name of examiners, to continue in that office the space of
two months at least. And if any fit person so appointed shall refuse to
undertake the same, the said parties so refusing to be committed to
prison until they shall conform themselves accordingly.
The Examiner's Office.
'That these examiners he sworn by the aldermen to inquire and learn
from time to time what houses in every parish be visited, and what
persons be sick, and of what diseases, as near as they can inform
themselves; and upon doubt in that case, to command restraint of
access until it appear what the disease shall prove. And if they find
any person sick of the infection, to give order to the constable that the
house be shut up; and if the constable shall be found remiss or
negligent, to give present notice thereof to the alderman of the ward.
Watchmen.
'That to every infected house there be appointed two watchmen, one
for every day, and the other for the night; and that these watchmen
have a special care that no person go in or out of such infected houses
whereof they have the charge, upon pain of severe punishment. And
the said watchmen to do such further offices as the sick house shall
need and require: and if the watchman be sent upon any business, to
lock up the house and take the key with him; and the watchman by
day to attend until ten of the clock at night, and the watchman by
night until six in the morning.
Searchers.
'That there be a special care to appoint women searchers in every
parish, such as are of honest reputation, and of the best sort as can be
got in this kind; and these to be sworn to make due search and true
report to the utmost of their knowledge whether the persons whose
bodies they are appointed to search do die of the infection, or of what
other diseases, as near as they can. And that the physicians who shall
be appointed for cure and prevention of the infection do call before
them the said searchers who are, or shall be, appointed for the several
parishes under their respective cares, to the end they may consider
whether they are fitly qualified for that employment, and charge them
from time to time as they shall see cause, if they appear defective in
their duties.
'That no searcher during this time of visitation be permitted to use
any public work or employment, or keep any shop or stall, or be
employed as a laundress, or in any other common employment
whatsoever.
Chirurgeons.
'For better assistance of the searchers, forasmuch as there hath been
heretofore great abuse in misreporting the disease, to the further
spreading of the infection, it is therefore ordered that there be chosen
and appointed able and discreet chirurgeons, besides those that do
already belong to the pest-house, amongst whom the city and Liberties
to be quartered as the places lie most apt and convenient; and every of
these to have one quarter for his limit; and the said chirurgeons in
every of their limits to join with the searchers for the view of the
body, to the end there may be a true report made of the disease.
'And further, that the said chirurgeons shall visit and search such-
like persons as shall either send for them or be named and directed
unto them by the examiners of every parish, and inform themselves of
the disease of the said parties.
'And forasmuch as the said chirurgeons are to be sequestered from
all other cures, and kept only to this disease of the infection, it is
ordered that every of the said chirurgeons shall have twelve-pence a
body searched by them, to be paid out of the goods of the party
searched, if he be able, or otherwise by the parish.
Nurse-keepers.
'If any nurse-keeper shall remove herself out of any infected house
before twenty-eight days after the decease of any person dying of the
infection, the house to which the said nurse-keeper doth so remove
herself shall be shut up until the said twenty-eight days be expired.'
ORDERS CONCERNING INFECTED HOUSES AND PERSONS SICK OF THE PLAGUE.
Notice to be given of the Sickness.
'The master of every house, as soon as any one in his house
complaineth, either of blotch or purple, or swelling in any part of his
body, or falleth otherwise dangerously sick, without apparent cause of
some other disease, shall give knowledge thereof to the examiner of
health within two hours after the said sign shall appear.
Sequestration of the Sick.
'As soon as any man shall be found by this examiner, chirurgeon, or
searcher to be sick of the plague, he shall the same night be
sequestered in the same house; and in case he be so sequestered, then
though he afterwards die not, the house wherein he sickened should
be shut up for a month, after the use of the due preservatives taken by
the rest.
Airing the Stuff.
'For sequestration of the goods and stuff of the infection, their
bedding and apparel and hangings of chambers must be well aired
with fire and such perfumes as are requisite within the infected house
before they be taken again to use. This to be done by the appointment
of an examiner.
Shutting up of the House.
'If any person shall have visited any man known to be infected of the
plague, or entered willingly into any known infected house, being not
allowed, the house wherein he inhabiteth shall be shut up for certain
days by the examiner's direction.
None to be removed out of infected Houses, but, &C.
'Item, that none be removed out of the house where he falleth sick of
the infection into any other house in the city (except it be to the pest-
house or a tent, or unto some such house which the owner of the said
visited house holdeth in his own hands and occupieth by his own
servants); and so as security be given to the parish whither such
remove is made, that the attendance and charge about the said visited
persons shall be observed and charged in all the particularities before
expressed, without any cost of that parish to which any such remove
shall happen to be made, and this remove to be done by night. And it
shall be lawful to any person that hath two houses to remove either his
sound or his infected people to his spare house at his choice, so as, if
he send away first his sound, he not after send thither his sick, nor
again unto the sick the sound; and that the same which he sendeth be
for one week at the least shut up and secluded from company, for fear
of some infection at the first not appearing.
Burial of the Dead.
'That the burial of the dead by this visitation be at most convenient
hours, always either before sun-rising or after sun-setting, with the
privity of the churchwardens or constable, and not otherwise; and that
no neighbours nor friends be suffered to accompany the corpse to
church, or to enter the house visited, upon pain of having his house
shut up or be imprisoned.
'And that no corpse dying of infection shall be buried, or remain in
any church in time of common prayer, sermon, or lecture. And that
no children be suffered at time of burial of any corpse in any church,
churchyard, or burying-place to come near the corpse, coffin, or grave.
And that all the graves shall be at least six feet deep.
'And further, all public assemblies at other burials are to be
foreborne during the continuance of this visitation.
No infected Stuff to be uttered.
'That no clothes, stuff, bedding, or garments be suffered to be
carried or conveyed out of any infected houses, and that the criers and
carriers abroad of bedding or old apparel to be sold or pawned be
utterly prohibited and restrained, and no brokers of bedding or old
apparel be permitted to make any outward show, or hang forth on
their stalls, shop-boards, or windows, towards any street, lane,
common way, or passage, any old bedding or apparel to be sold, upon
pain of imprisonment. And if any broker or other person shall buy
any bedding, apparel, or other stuff out of any infected house within
two months after the infection hath been there, his house shall be shut
up as infected, and so shall continue shut up twenty days at the least.
No Person to be conveyed out of any infected House.
'If any person visited do fortune, by negligent looking unto, or by
any other means, to come or be conveyed from a place infected to any
other place, the parish from whence such party hath come or been
conveyed, upon notice thereof given, shall at their charge cause the
said party so visited and escaped to be carried and brought back again
by night, and the parties in this case offending to be punished at the
direction of the alderman of the ward, and the house of the receiver of
such visited person to be shut up for twenty days.
Every visited House to be marked.
'That every house visited be marked with a red cross of a foot long
in the middle of the door, evident to be seen, and with these usual
printed words, that is to say, "Lord, have mercy upon us," to be set
close over the same cross, there to continue until lawful opening of
the same house.
Every visited House to be watched.
'That the constables see every house shut up, and to be attended with
watchmen, which may keep them in, and minister necessaries unto
them at their own charges, if they be able, or at the common charge, if
they are unable; the shutting up to be for the space of four weeks after
all be whole.
'That precise order to be taken that the searchers, chirurgeons,
keepers, and buriers are not to pass the streets without holding a red
rod or wand of three feet in length in their hands, open and evident to
be seen, and are not to go into any other house than into their own, or
into that whereunto they are directed or sent for; but to forbear and
abstain from company, especially when they have been lately used in
any such business or attendance.
Inmates.
'That where several inmate,-c are in one and the same house, and
any person in that house happens to be infected, no other person or
family of such house shall be suffered to remove him or themselves
without a certificate from the examiners of health of that parish; or in
default thereof, the house whither he or they so remove shall be shut
up as in case of visitation.
Hackney-Coaches.
'That care be taken of hackney-coachmen, that they may not (as
some of them have been observed to do after carrying of infected
persons to the pest-house and other places) be admitted to common
use till their coaches be well aired, and have stood unemployed by the
space of five or six days after such service.'
ORDERS FOR CLEANSING AND KEEPING OF THE STREETS SWEET.
The Streets to be kept Clean.
'First, it is thought necessary, and so ordered, that every householder
do cause the street to be daily prepared before his door, and so to keep
it clean swept all the week long.
That Rakers take it from out the Houses.
'That the sweeping and filth of houses be daily carried away by the
rakers, and that the raker shall give notice of his coming by the
blowing of a horn, as hitherto hath been done.
Laystalls to be made far off from the City.
'That the laystalls be removed as far as may be out of the city and
common passages, and that no nightman or other be suffered to empty
a vault into any garden near about the city.
Care to be had of unwholesome Fish or Flesh, and of musty Corn.
'That special care be taken that no stinking fish, or unwholesome
flesh, or musty corn, or other corrupt fruits of what sort soever, be
suffered to be sold about the city, or any part of the same.
'That the brewers and tippling-houses he looked unto for musty and
unwholesome casks.
'That no hogs, dogs, or cats, or tame pigeons, or conies, be suffered to
be kept within any part of the city, or any swine to be or stray in the
streets or lanes, but that such swine be impounded by the beadle or
any other officer, and the owner punished according to Act of
Common Council, and that the dogs be killed by the dog-killers
appointed for that purpose.'
ORDERS CONCERNING LOOSE PERSONS AND IDLE
ASSEMBLIES.
Beggars.
'Forasmuch as nothing is more complained of than the multitude of
rogues and wandering beggars that swarm in every place about the
city, being a great cause of the spreading of the infection, and will not
be avoided, notwithstanding any orders that have been given to the
contrary: It is therefore now ordered, that such constables, and others
whom this matter may any way concern, take special care that no
wandering beggars be suffered in the streets of this city in any fashion
or manner whatsoever, upon the penalty provided by the law, to be
duly and severely executed upon them.
Plays.
'That all plays, bear-baitings, games, singing of ballads, buckler-
play, or such-like causes of assemblies of people be utterly prohibited,
and the parties offending severely punished by every
alderman in his ward.
Feasting prohibited.
'That all public feasting, and particularly by the companies of this
city, and dinners at taverns, ale-houses, and other places of common
entertainment, be forborne till further order and allowance; and that
the money thereby spared be preserved and employed for the benefit
and relief of the poor visited with the infection.
Tippling-houses.
'That disorderly tippling in taverns, ale-houses, coffee-houses, and
cellars be severely looked unto, as the common sin of this time and
greatest occasion of dispersing the plague. And that no company or
person be suffered to remain or come into any tavern, ale-house, or
coffee-house to drink after nine of the clock in the evening, according
to the ancient law and custom of this city, upon the penalties ordained
in that behalf.
'And for the better execution of these orders, and such other rules
and directions as, upon further consideration, shall be found needful:
It is ordered and enjoined that the aldermen, deputies, and common
councilmen shall meet together weekly, once, twice, thrice or oftener
(as cause shall require), at some one general place accustomed in their
respective wards (being clear from infection of the plague), to consult
how the said orders may be duly put in execution; not intending that
any dwelling in or near places infected shall come to the said meeting
while their coming may be doubtful. And the said aldermen, and
deputies, and common councilmen in their several wards may put in
execution any other good orders that by them at their said meetings
shall be conceived and devised for preservation of his Majesty's
subjects from the infection.
'SIR JOHN LAWRENCE, Lord Mayor.
SIR GEORGE WATERMAN
SIR CHARLES DoE, Sheriffs.'
I need not say that these orders extended only to such places as were
within the Lord Mayor's jurisdiction, so it is requisite to observe that
the justices of Peace within those parishes and places as were called
the Hamlets and out-parts took the same method. As I remember, the
orders for shutting up of houses did not take Place so soon on our
side, because, as I said before, the plague did not reach to these
eastern parts of the town at least, nor begin to be very violent, till the
beginning of August. For example, the whole bill from the 11th to the
18th of July was 1761, yet there died but 71 of the plague in all those
parishes we call the Tower Hamlets, and they were as follows: -
The next week And to the 1st
was thus: of Aug. thus:
Aldgate 14 34 65
Stepney 33 58 76
Whitechappel 21 48 79
St Katherine, Tower 2 4 4
Trinity, Minories 1 1 4
--- --- ---
71 145 228
It was indeed coming on amain, for the burials that same week were
in the next adjoining parishes thus: -
The next week
prodigiously To the 1st of
increased, as: Aug. thus:
St Leonard's, Shoreditch 64 84 110
St Botolph's, Bishopsgate 65 105 116
St Giles's, Cripplegate 213 421 554
--- --- ---
342 610 780
This shutting up of houses was at first counted a very cruel and
unchristian method, and the poor people so confined made bitter
lamentations. Complaints of the severity of it were also daily brought
to my Lord Mayor, of houses causelessly (and some maliciously) shut
up. I cannot say; but upon inquiry many that complained so loudly
were found in a condition to be continued; and others again,
inspection being made upon the sick person, and the sickness not
appearing infectious, or if uncertain, yet on his being content to be
carried to the pest-house, were released.
It is true that the locking up the doors of people's houses, and setting
a watchman there night and day to prevent their stirring out or any
coming to them, when perhaps the sound people in the family might
have escaped if they had been removed from the sick, looked very
hard and cruel; and many people perished in these miserable
confinements which, 'tis reasonable to believe, would not have been
distempered if they had had liberty, though the plague was in the
house; at which the people were very clamorous and uneasy at first,
and several violences were committed and injuries offered to the men
who were set to watch the houses so shut up; also several people
broke out by force in many places, as I shall observe by-and-by. But it
was a public good that justified the private mischief, and there was no
obtaining the least mitigation by any application to magistrates or
government at that time, at least not that I heard of. This put the
people upon all manner of stratagem in order, if possible, to get out;
and it would fill a little volume to set down the arts used by the people
of such houses to shut the eyes of the watchmen who were employed,
to deceive them, and to escape or break out from them, in which
frequent scuffles and some mischief happened; of which by itself.
As I went along Houndsditch one morning about eight o'clock there
was a great noise. It is true, indeed, there was not much crowd,
because people were not very free to gather together, or to stay long
together when they were there; nor did I stay long there. But the
outcry was loud enough to prompt my curiosity, and I called to one
that looked out of a window, and asked what was the matter.
A watchman, it seems, had been employed to keep his post at the
door of a house which was infected, or said to be infected, and was
shut up. He had been there all night for two nights together, as he told
his story, and the day-watchman had been there one day, and was now
come to relieve him. All this while no noise had been heard in the
house, no light had been seen; they called for nothing, sent him of no
errands, which used to be the chief business of the watchmen; neither
had they given him any disturbance, as he said, from the Monday
afternoon, when he heard great crying and screaming in the house,
which, as he supposed, was occasioned by some of the family dying
just at that time. It seems, the night before, the dead-cart, as it was
called, had been stopped there, and a servant-maid had been brought
down to the door dead, and the buriers or bearers, as they were called,
put her into the cart, wrapt only in a green rug, and carried her away.
The watchman had knocked at the door, it seems, when he heard
that noise and crying, as above, and nobody answered a great while;
but at last one looked out and said with an angry, quick tone, and yet a
kind of crying voice, or a voice of one that was crying, 'What d'ye
want, that ye make such a knocking?' He answered, 'I am the
watchman! How do you do? What is the matter?' The person
answered, 'What is that to you? Stop the dead-cart.' This, it seems,
was about one o'clock. Soon after, as the fellow said, he stopped the
dead-cart, and then knocked again, but nobody answered. He
continued knocking, and the bellman called out several times, 'Bring
out your dead'; but nobody answered, till the man that drove the cart,
being called to other houses, would stay no longer, and drove away.
The watchman knew not what to make of all this, so he let them
alone till the morning-man or day-watchman, as they called him,
came to relieve him. Giving him an account of the particulars,
they knocked at the door a great while, but nobody answered; and they
observed that the window or casement at which the person had looked
out who had answered before continued open, being up two pair of stairs.
Upon this the two men, to satisfy their curiosity, got a long ladder,
and one of them went up to the window and looked into the room,
where he saw a woman lying dead upon the floor in a dismal manner,
having no clothes on her but her shift. But though he called aloud,
and putting in his long staff, knocked hard on the floor, yet nobody
stirred or answered; neither could he hear any noise in the house.
He came down again upon this, and acquainted his fellow, who
went up also; and finding it just so, they resolved to acquaint either
the Lord Mayor or some other magistrate of it, but did not offer to go
in at the window. The magistrate, it seems, upon the information of
the two men, ordered the house to be broke open, a constable and
other persons being appointed to be present, that nothing might be
plundered; and accordingly it was so done, when nobody was found in
the house but that young woman, who having been infected and past
recovery, the rest had left her to die by herself, and were every one
gone, having found some way to delude the watchman, and to get
open the door, or get out at some back-door, or over the tops of the
houses, so that he knew nothing of it; and as to those cries and shrieks
which he heard, it was supposed they were the passionate cries of the
family at the bitter parting, which, to be sure, it was to them all, this
being the sister to the mistress of the family. The man of the house,
his wife, several children, and servants, being all gone and fled,
whether sick or sound, that I could never learn; nor, indeed, did I
make much inquiry after it.
Many such escapes were made out of infected houses, as
particularly when the watchman was sent of some errand; for it was
his business to go of any errand that the family sent him of; that is to
say, for necessaries, such as food and physic; to fetch physicians, if
they would come, or surgeons, or nurses, or to order the dead-cart, and
the like; but with this condition, too, that when he went he was to lock
up the outer door of the house and take the key away with him, To
evade this, and cheat the watchmen, people got two or three keys
made to their locks, or they found ways to unscrew the locks such as
were screwed on, and so take off the lock, being in the inside of the
house, and while they sent away the watchman to the market, to the
bakehouse, or for one trifle or another, open the door and go out as
often as they pleased. But this being found out, the officers
afterwards had orders to padlock up the doors on the outside, and
place bolts on them as they thought fit.
At another house, as I was informed, in the street next within
Aldgate, a whole family was shut up and locked in because the maid-
servant was taken sick. The master of the house had complained by
his friends to the next alderman and to the Lord Mayor, and had
consented to have the maid carried to the pest-house, but was refused;
so the door was marked with a red cross, a padlock on the outside, as
above, and a watchman set to keep the door, according to public order.
After the master of the house found there was no remedy, but that
he, his wife, and his children were to be locked up with this poor
distempered servant, he called to the watchman, and told him he must
go then and fetch a nurse for them to attend this poor girl, for that it
would be certain death to them all to oblige them to nurse her; and
told him plainly that if he would not do this, the maid must perish
either of the distemper or be starved for want of food, for he was
resolved none of his family should go near her; and she lay in the
garret four storey high, where she could not cry out, or call to anybody
for help.
The watchman consented to that, and went and fetched a nurse, as
he was appointed, and brought her to them the same evening. During
this interval the master of the house took his opportunity to break a
large hole through his shop into a bulk or stall, where formerly a
cobbler had sat, before or under his shop-window; but the tenant, as
may be supposed at such a dismal time as that, was dead or removed,
and so he had the key in his own keeping. Having made his way into
this stall, which he could not have done if the man had been at the
door, the noise he was obliged to make being such as would have
alarmed the watchman; I say, having made his way into this stall, he
sat still till the watchman returned with the nurse, and all the next day
also. But the night following, having contrived to send the watchman
of another trifling errand, which, as I take it, was to an apothecary's
for a plaister for the maid, which he was to stay for the making up, or
some other such errand that might secure his staying some time; in
that time he conveyed himself and all his family out of the house, and
left the nurse and the watchman to bury the poor wench - that is,
throw her into the cart - and take care of the house.
I could give a great many such stories as these, diverting enough,
which in the long course of that dismal year I met with - that is, heard
of - and which are very certain to be true, or very near the truth; that is
to say, true in the general: for no man could at such a time learn all
the particulars. There was likewise violence used with the watchmen,
as was reported, in abundance of places; and I believe that from the
beginning of the visitation to the end, there was not less than eighteen
or twenty of them killed, or so wounded as to be taken up for dead,
which was supposed to be done by the people in the infected houses
which were shut up, and where they attempted to come out and were opposed.
Nor, indeed, could less be expected, for here were so many prisons
in the town as there were houses shut up; and as the people shut up or
imprisoned so were guilty of no crime, only shut up because
miserable, it was really the more intolerable to them.
It had also this difference, that every prison, as we may call it, had
but one jailer, and as he had the whole house to guard, and that many
houses were so situated as that they had several ways out, some more,
some less, and some into several streets, it was impossible for one
man so to guard all the passages as to prevent the escape of people
made desperate by the fright of their circumstances, by the resentment
of their usage, or by the raging of the distemper itself; so that they
would talk to the watchman on one side of the house, while the family
made their escape at another.
For example, in Coleman Street there are abundance of alleys, as
appears still. A house was shut up in that they call White's Alley;
and this house had a back-window, not a door, into a court which had a
passage into Bell Alley. A watchman was set by the constable at the
door of this house, and there he stood, or his comrade, night and day,
while the family went all away in the evening out at that window into the
court, and left the poor fellows warding and watching for near a fortnight.
Not far from the same place they blew up a watchman with
gunpowder, and burned the poor fellow dreadfully; and while he made
hideous cries, and nobody would venture to come near to help him,
the whole family that were able to stir got out at the windows one
storey high, two that were left sick calling out for help. Care was
taken to give them nurses to look after them, but the persons fled were
never found, till after the plague was abated they returned; but as
nothing could be proved, so nothing could be done to them.
It is to be considered, too, that as these were prisons without bars
and bolts, which our common prisons are furnished with, so the
people let themselves down out of their windows, even in the face of
the watchman, bringing swords or pistols in their hands, and threatening
the poor wretch to shoot him if he stirred or called for help.
In other cases, some had gardens, and walls or pales, between them
and their neighbours, or yards and back-houses; and these, by
friendship and entreaties, would get leave to get over those walls or
pales, and so go out at their neighbours' doors; or, by giving money to
their servants, get them to let them through in the night; so that in
short, the shutting up of houses was in no wise to be depended upon.
Neither did it answer the end at all, serving more to make the people
desperate, and drive them to such extremities as that they would break
out at all adventures.
And that which was still worse, those that did thus break out spread
the infection farther by their wandering about with the distemper upon
them, in their desperate circumstances, than they would otherwise
have done; for whoever considers all the particulars in such cases
must acknowledge, and we cannot doubt but the severity of those
confinements made many people desperate, and made them run out of
their houses at all hazards, and with the plague visibly upon them, not
knowing either whither to go or what to do, or, indeed, what they did;
and many that did so were driven to dreadful exigencies and
extremities, and perished in the streets or fields for mere want, or
dropped down by the raging violence of the fever upon them. Others
wandered into the country, and went forward any way, as their
desperation guided them, not knowing whither they went or would go:
till, faint and tired, and not getting any relief, the houses and villages
on the road refusing to admit them to lodge whether infected or no,
they have perished by the roadside or gotten into barns and died there,
none daring to come to them or relieve them, though perhaps not
infected, for nobody would believe them.
On the other hand, when the plague at first seized a family that is to
say, when any body of the family had gone out and unwarily or
otherwise catched the distemper and brought it home - it was certainly
known by the family before it was known to the officers, who, as you
will see by the order, were appointed to examine into the
circumstances of all sick persons when they heard of their being sick.
In this interval, between their being taken sick and the examiners
coming, the master of the house had leisure and liberty to remove
himself or all his family, if he knew whither to go, and many did so.
But the great disaster was that many did thus after they were really
infected themselves, and so carried the disease into the houses of
those who were so hospitable as to receive them; which, it must be
confessed, was very cruel and ungrateful.
And this was in part the reason of the general notion, or scandal
rather, which went about of the temper of people infected: namely,
that they did not take the least care or make any scruple of infecting
others, though I cannot say but there might be some truth in it too, but
not so general as was reported. What natural reason could be given for
so wicked a thing at a time when they might conclude themselves just
going to appear at the bar of Divine justice I know not. I am very well
satisfied that it cannot be reconciled to religion and principle any
more than it can be to generosity and Humanity, but I may speak of
that again.
I am speaking now of people made desperate by the apprehensions
of their being shut up, and their breaking out by stratagem or force,
either before or after they were shut up, whose misery was not
lessened when they were out, but sadly increased. On the other hand,
many that thus got away had retreats to go to and other houses, where
they locked themselves up and kept hid till the plague was over; and
many families, foreseeing the approach of the distemper, laid up
stores of provisions sufficient for their whole families, and shut
themselves up, and that so entirely that they were neither seen or
heard of till the infection was quite ceased, and then came abroad
sound and well. I might recollect several such as these, and give you
the particulars of their management; for doubtless it was the most
effectual secure step that could be taken for such whose
circumstances would not admit them to remove, or who had not
retreats abroad proper for the case; for in being thus shut up they were
as if they had been a hundred miles off. Nor do I remember that any
one of those families miscarried. Among these, several Dutch
merchants were particularly remarkable, who kept their houses like
little garrisons besieged suffering none to go in or out or come near
them, particularly one in a court in Throgmorton Street whose house
looked into Draper's Garden.
But I come back to the case of families infected and shut up by the
magistrates. The misery of those families is not to be expressed; and
it was generally in such houses that we heard the most dismal shrieks
and outcries of the poor people, terrified and even frighted to death by
the sight of the condition of their dearest relations, and by the terror of
being imprisoned as they were.
I remember, and while I am writing this story I think I hear the very
sound of it, a certain lady had an only daughter, a young maiden about
nineteen years old, and who was possessed of a very considerable
fortune. They were only lodgers in the house where they were. The
young woman, her mother, and the maid had been abroad on some
occasion, I do not remember what, for the house was not shut up; but
about two hours after they came home the young lady complained she
was not well; in a quarter of an hour more she vomited and had a
violent pain in her head. 'Pray God', says her mother, in a terrible
fright, 'my child has not the distemper!' The pain in her head
increasing, her mother ordered the bed to be warmed, and resolved to
put her to bed, and prepared to give her things to sweat, which was the
ordinary remedy to be taken when the first apprehensions of the
distemper began.
While the bed was airing the mother undressed the young woman,
and just as she was laid down in the bed, she, looking upon her body
with a candle, immediately discovered the fatal tokens on the inside
of her thighs. Her mother, not being able to contain herself, threw
down her candle and shrieked out in such a frightful manner that it
was enough to place horror upon the stoutest heart in the world; nor
was it one scream or one cry, but the fright having seized her spirits,
she -fainted first, then recovered, then ran all over the house, up the
stairs and down the stairs, like one distracted, and indeed really was
distracted, and continued screeching and crying out for several hours
void of all sense, or at least government of her senses, and, as I was
told, never came thoroughly to herself again. As to the young maiden,
she was a dead corpse from that moment, for the gangrene which
occasions the spots had spread [over] her whole body, and she died in
less than two hours. But still the mother continued crying out, not
knowing anything more of her child, several hours after she was dead.
It is so long ago that I am not certain, but I think the mother never
recovered, but died in two or three weeks after.
This was an extraordinary case, and I am therefore the more
particular in it, because I came so much to the knowledge of it; but
there were innumerable such-like cases, and it was seldom that the
weekly bill came in but there were two or three put in, 'frighted'; that
is, that may well be called frighted to death. But besides those who
were so frighted as to die upon the spot, there
were great numbers frighted to other extremes, some frighted out of
their senses, some out of their memory, and some out of their
understanding. But I return to the shutting up of houses.
As several people, I say, got out of their houses by stratagem after
they were shut UP, so others got out by bribing the watchmen, and
giving them money to let them go privately out in the night. I must
confess I thought it at that time the most innocent corruption or
bribery that any man could be guilty of, and therefore could not but
pity the poor men, and think it was hard when three of those
watchmen were publicly whipped through the streets for suffering
people to go out of houses shut up.
But notwithstanding that severity, money prevailed with the poor
men, and many families found means to make sallies out, and escape
that way after they had been shut up; but these were generally such as
had some places to retire to; and though there was no easy passing the
roads any whither after the 1st of August, yet there were many ways of
retreat, and particularly, as I hinted, some got tents and set them up in
the fields, carrying beds or straw to lie on, and provisions to eat, and
so lived in them as hermits in a cell, for nobody would venture to
come near them; and several stories were told of such, some comical,
some tragical, some who lived like wandering pilgrims in the deserts,
and escaped by making themselves exiles in such a manner as is
scarce to be credited, and who yet enjoyed more liberty than was to be
expected in such cases.
I have by me a story of two brothers and their kinsman, who being single men,
but that had stayed in the city too long to get away, and indeed not knowing
where to go to have any retreat, nor having wherewith to travel far,
took a course for their own preservation, which though in itself at
first desperate, yet was so natural that it may be wondered that no more
did so at that time. They were but of mean condition, and yet not so very
poor as that they could not furnish themselves with some little conveniences
such as might serve to keep life and soul together; and finding the distemper
increasing in a terrible manner, they resolved to shift as well as they could,
and to be gone.
One of them had been a soldier in the late wars, and before that in
the Low Countries, and having been bred to no particular employment
but his arms, and besides being wounded, and not able to work very hard,
had for some time been employed at a baker's of sea-biscuit in Wapping.
The brother of this man was a seaman too, but somehow or other
had been hurt of one leg, that he could not go to sea, but had worked
for his living at a sailmaker's in Wapping, or thereabouts; and being a
good husband, had laid up some money, and was the richest of the three.
The third man was a joiner or carpenter by trade, a handy fellow,
and he had no wealth but his box or basket of tools, with the help of
which he could at any time get his living, such a time as this excepted,
wherever he went - and he lived near Shadwell.
They all lived in Stepney parish, which, as I have said, being the last
that was infected, or at least violently, they stayed there till they
evidently saw the plague was abating at the west part of the town, and
coming towards the east, where they lived.
The story of those three men, if the reader will be content to have
me give it in their own persons, without taking upon me to either vouch
the particulars or answer for any mistakes, I shall give as distinctly
as I can, believing the history will be a very good pattern for any poor
man to follow, in case the like public desolation should happen here;
and if there may be no such occasion, which God of His infinite mercy
grant us, still the story may have its- uses so many ways as that
it will, I hope, never be said that the relating has been unprofitable.
I say all this previous to the history, having yet, for the present,
much more to say before I quit my own part.
I went all the first part of the time freely about the streets, though
not so freely as to run myself into apparent danger, except when they
dug the great pit in the churchyard of our parish of Aldgate. A terrible
pit it was, and I could not resist my curiosity to go and see it. As near
as I may judge, it was about forty feet in length, and about fifteen or
sixteen feet broad, and at the time I first looked at it, about nine feet
deep; but it was said they dug it near twenty feet deep afterwards in
one part of it, till they could go no deeper for the water; for they had,
it seems, dug several large pits before this. For though the plague was
long a-coming to our parish, yet, when it did come, there was no
parish in or about London where it raged with such violence as in the
two parishes of Aldgate and Whitechappel.
I say they had dug several pits in another ground, when the
distemper began to spread in our parish, and especially when the
dead-carts began to go about, which was not, in our parish, till the
beginning of August. Into these pits they had put perhaps fifty or sixty
bodies each; then they made larger holes wherein they buried all that
the cart brought in a week, which, by the middle to the end of August,
came to from 200 to 400 a week; and they could not well dig them
larger, because of the order of the magistrates confining them to leave
no bodies within six feet of the surface; and the water coming on at
about seventeen or eighteen feet, they could not well, I say, put more
in one pit. But now, at the beginning of September, the plague raging
in a dreadful manner, and the number of burials in our parish
increasing to more than was ever buried in any parish about London of
no larger extent, they ordered this dreadful gulf to be dug - for such
it was, rather than a pit.
They had supposed this pit would have supplied them for a month or
more when they dug it, and some blamed the churchwardens for
suffering such a frightful thing, telling them they were making
preparations to bury the whole parish, and the like; but time made it
appear the churchwardens knew the condition of the parish better than
they did: for, the pit being finished the 4th of September, I think, they
began to bury in it the 6th, and by the 20th, which was just two weeks,
they had thrown into it 1114 bodies when they were obliged to fill it
up, the bodies being then come to lie within six feet of the surface. I
doubt not but there may be some ancient persons alive in the parish
who can justify the fact of this, and are able to show even in what
place of the churchyard the pit lay better than I can. The mark of it
also was many years to be seen in the churchyard on the surface, lying
in length parallel with the passage which goes by the west wall of the
churchyard out of Houndsditch, and turns east again into Whitechappel,
coming out near the Three Nuns' Inn.
It was about the 10th of September that my curiosity led, or rather
drove, me to go and see this pit again, when there had been near 400
people buried in it; and I was not content to see it in the day-time,
as I had done before, for then there would have been nothing to have been
seen but the loose earth; for all the bodies that were thrown in were
immediately covered with earth by those they called the buriers,
which at other times were called bearers; but I resolved to go in the
night and see some of them thrown in.
There was a strict order to prevent people coming to those pits, and
that was only to prevent infection. But after some time that order was
more necessary, for people that were infected and near their end, and
delirious also, would run to those pits, wrapt in blankets or rugs, and
throw themselves in, and, as they said, bury themselves. I cannot say
that the officers suffered any willingly to lie there; but I have heard
that in a great pit in Finsbury, in the parish of Cripplegate, it lying
open then to the fields, for it was not then walled about, [many] came
and threw themselves in, and expired there, before they threw any
earth upon them; and that when they came to bury others and found
them there, they were quite dead, though not cold.
This may serve a little to describe the dreadful condition of that day,
though it is impossible to say anything that is able to give a true idea
of it to those who did not see it, other than this, that it was indeed
very, very, very dreadful, and such as no tongue can express.
I got admittance into the churchyard by being acquainted with the
sexton who attended; who, though he did not refuse me at all, yet
earnestly persuaded me not to go, telling me very seriously (for he was
a good, religious, and sensible man) that it was indeed their business
and duty to venture, and to run all hazards, and that in it they might
hope to be preserved; but that I had no apparent call to it but my own
curiosity, which, he said, he believed I would not pretend was
sufficient to justify my running that hazard. I told him I had been
pressed in my mind to go, and
that perhaps it might be an instructing sight, that might not be without
its uses. 'Nay,' says the good man, 'if you will venture upon that score,
name of God go in; for, depend upon it, 'twill be a sermon to you, it
may be, the best that ever you heard in your life. 'Tis a speaking
sight,' says he, 'and has a voice with it, and a loud one, to call us all to
repentance'; and with that he opened the door and said, 'Go, if you will.'
His discourse had shocked my resolution a little, and I stood
wavering for a good while, but just at that interval I saw two links
come over from the end of the Minories, and heard the bellman, and
then appeared a dead-cart, as they called it, coming over the streets; so
I could no longer resist my desire of seeing it, and went in. There was
nobody, as I could perceive at first, in the churchyard, or going into it,
but the buriers and the fellow that drove the cart, or rather led the
horse and cart; but when they came up to the pit they saw a man go to
and again, muffled up in a brown Cloak, and making motions with his
hands under his cloak, as if he was in great agony, and the buriers
immediately gathered about him, supposing he was one of those poor
delirious or desperate creatures that used to pretend, as I have said,
to bury themselves. He said nothing as he walked about, but two or
three times groaned very deeply and loud, and sighed as he would
break his heart.
When the buriers came up to him they soon found he was neither a
person infected and desperate, as I have observed above, or a person
distempered -in mind, but one oppressed with a dreadful weight of
grief indeed, having his wife and several of his children all in the cart
that was just come in with him, and he followed in an agony and
excess of sorrow. He mourned heartily, as it was easy to see, but with
a kind of masculine grief that could not give itself vent by tears; and
calmly defying the buriers to let him alone, said he would only see the
bodies thrown in and go away, so they left importuning him. But no
sooner was the cart turned round and the bodies shot into the pit
promiscuously, which was a surprise to him, for he at least expected
they would have been decently laid in, though indeed he was
afterwards convinced that was impracticable; I say, no sooner did he
see the sight but he cried out aloud, unable to contain himself. I could
not hear what he said, but he went backward two or three steps and
fell down in a swoon. The buriers ran to him and took him up, and in
a little while he came to himself, and they led him away to the Pie
Tavern over against the end of Houndsditch, where, it seems, the man
was known, and where they took care of him. He looked into the pit
again as he went away, but the buriers had covered the bodies so
immediately with throwing in earth, that though there was light
enough, for there were lanterns, and candles in them, placed all night
round the sides of the pit, upon heaps of earth, seven or eight, or
perhaps more, yet nothing could be seen.
This was a mournful scene indeed, and affected me almost as much
as the rest; but the other was awful and full of terror. The cart had in
it sixteen or seventeen bodies; some were wrapt up in linen sheets,
some in rags, some little other than naked, or so loose that what
covering they had fell from them in the shooting out of the cart, and
they fell quite naked among the rest; but the matter was not much to
them, or the indecency much to any one else, seeing they were all
dead, and were to be huddled together into the common grave of
mankind, as we may call it, for here was no difference made, but poor
and rich went together; there was no other way of burials, neither was
it possible there should, for coffins were not to be had for the
prodigious numbers that fell in such a calamity as this.
It was reported by way of scandal upon the buriers, that if any
corpse was delivered to them decently wound up, as we called it then,
in a winding-sheet tied over the head and feet, which some did, and
which was generally of good linen; I say, it was reported that the
buriers were so wicked as to strip them in the cart and carry them
quite naked to the ground. But as I cannot easily credit anything so
vile among Christians, and at a time so filled with terrors as that was,
I can only relate it and leave it undetermined.
Innumerable stories also went about of the cruel behaviours and
practices of nurses who tended the sick, and of their hastening on the
fate of those they tended in their sickness. But I shall say more of this
in its place.
I was indeed shocked with this sight; it almost overwhelmed me,
and I went away with my heart most afflicted, and full of the afflicting
thoughts, such as I cannot describe. just at my going out of the church,
and turning up the street towards my own house, I saw another cart
with links, and a bellman going before, coming out of Harrow Alley in
the Butcher Row, on the other side of the way, and being, as I
perceived, very full of dead bodies, it went directly over the street also
toward the church. I stood a while, but I had no stomach to go back
again to see the same dismal scene over again, so I went directly home,
where I could not but consider with thankfulness the risk I had run,
believing I had gotten no injury, as indeed I had not.
Here the poor unhappy gentleman's grief came into my head again,
and indeed I could not but shed tears in the reflection upon it, perhaps
more than he did himself; but his case lay so heavy upon my mind that
I could not prevail with myself, but that I must go out again into the
street, and go to the Pie Tavern, resolving to inquire what became of him.
It was by this time one o'clock in the morning, and yet the poor
gentleman was there. The truth was, the people of the house, knowing
him, had entertained him, and kept him there all the night,
notwithstanding the danger of being infected by him, though it
appeared the man was perfectly sound himself.
It is with regret that I take notice of this tavern. The people were
civil, mannerly, and an obliging sort of folks enough, and had till this
time kept their house open and their trade going on, though not so
very publicly as formerly: but there was a dreadful set of fellows that
used their house, and who, in the middle of all this horror, met there
every night, behaved with all the revelling and roaring extravagances
as is usual for such people to do at other times, and, indeed, to such an
offensive degree that the very master and mistress of the house grew
first ashamed and then terrified at them.
They sat generally in a room next the street, and as they always kept
late hours, so when the dead-cart came across the street-end to go into
Houndsditch, which was in view of the tavern windows, they would
frequently open the windows as soon as they heard the bell and look
out at them; and as they might often hear sad lamentations of people
in the streets or at their windows as the carts went along, they would
make their impudent mocks and jeers at them, especially if they heard
the poor people call upon God to have mercy upon them, as many
would do at those times in their ordinary passing along the streets.
These gentlemen, being something disturbed with the clutter of
bringing the poor gentleman into the house, as above, were first angry
and very high with the master of the house for suffering such a fellow,
as they called him, to be brought out of the grave into their house; but
being answered that the man was a neighbour, and that he was sound,
but overwhelmed with the calamity of his family, and the like, they
turned their anger into ridiculing the man and his sorrow for his wife
and children, taunted him with want of courage to leap into the great
pit and go to heaven, as they jeeringly expressed it, along with them,
adding some very profane and even blasphemous expressions.
They were at this vile work when I came back to the house, and, as
far as I could see, though the man sat still, mute and disconsolate, and
their affronts could not divert his sorrow, yet he was both grieved and
offended at their discourse. Upon this I gently reproved them, being
well enough acquainted with their characters, and not unknown in
person to two of them.
They immediately fell upon me with ill language and oaths, asked
me what I did out of my grave at such a time when so many honester
men were carried into the churchyard, and why I was not at home
saying my prayers against the dead-cart came for me, and the like.
I was indeed astonished at the impudence of the men, though not at
all discomposed at their treatment of me. However, I kept my temper.
I told them that though I defied them or any man in the world to tax
me with any dishonesty, yet I acknowledged that in this terrible
judgement of God many better than I were swept away and carried to
their grave. But to answer their question directly, the case was, that I
was mercifully preserved by that great God whose name they had
blasphemed and taken in vain by cursing and swearing in a dreadful
manner, and that I believed I was preserved in particular, among other
ends of His goodness, that I might reprove them for their audacious
boldness in behaving in such a manner and in such an awful time as
this was, especially for their jeering and mocking at an honest
gentleman and a neighbour (for some of them knew him), who, they
saw, was overwhelmed with sorrow for the breaches which it had
pleased God to make upon his family.
I cannot call exactly to mind the hellish, abominable raillery which
was the return they made to that talk of mine: being provoked, it
seems, that I was not at all afraid to be free with them; nor, if I could
remember, would I fill my account with any of the words, the horrid
oaths, curses, and vile expressions, such as, at that time of the day,
even the worst and ordinariest people in the street would not use; for,
except such hardened creatures as these, the most wicked wretches
that could be found had at that time some terror upon their minds of
the hand of that Power which could thus in a moment destroy them.
But that which was the worst in all their devilish language was, that
they were not afraid to blaspheme God and talk atheistically, making
a jest of my calling the plague the hand of God; mocking, and even
laughing, at the word judgement, as if the providence of God had no
concern in the inflicting such a desolating stroke; and that the people
calling upon God as they saw the carts carrying away the dead bodies
was all enthusiastic, absurd, and impertinent.
I made them some reply, such as I thought proper, but which I found
was so far from putting a check to their horrid way of speaking that it
made them rail the more, so that I confess it filled me with horror and
a kind of rage, and I came away, as I told them, lest the hand of that
judgement which had visited the whole city should glorify His
vengeance upon them, and all that were near them.
They received all reproof with the utmost contempt, and made the
greatest mockery that was possible for them to do at me, giving me all
the opprobrious, insolent scoffs that they could think of for preaching
to them, as they called it, which indeed grieved me, rather than angered me;
and I went away, blessing God, however, in my mind that I had not spared them,
though they had insulted me so much.
They continued this wretched course three or four days after this,
continually mocking and jeering at all that showed themselves
religious or serious, or that were any way touched with the sense of
the terrible judgement of God upon us; and I was informed they
flouted in the same manner at the good people who, notwithstanding
the contagion, met at the church, fasted, and prayed to God to remove
His hand from them.
I say, they continued this dreadful course three or four days - I think
it was no more - when one of them, particularly he who asked the
poor gentleman what he did out of his grave, was struck from Heaven
with the plague, and died in a most deplorable manner; and, in a
word, they were every one of them carried into the great pit which I
have mentioned above, before it was quite filled up, which was not
above a fortnight or thereabout.
These men were guilty of many extravagances, such as one would
think human nature should have trembled at the thoughts of at such a
time of general terror as was then upon us, and particularly scoffing
and mocking at everything which they happened to see that was
religious among the people, especially at their thronging zealously to
the place of public worship to implore mercy from Heaven in such a
time of distress; and this tavern where they held their dub being
within view of the church-door, they had the more particular occasion
for their atheistical profane mirth.
But this began to abate a little with them before the accident which I
have related happened, for the infection increased so violently at this
part of the town now, that people began to be afraid to come to the
church; at least such numbers did not resort thither as was usual.
Many of the clergymen likewise were dead, and others gone into the
country; for it really required a steady courage and a strong faith for a
man not only to venture being in town at such a time as this, but
likewise to venture to come to church and perform the office of a
minister to a congregation, of whom he had reason to believe many of
them were actually infected with the plague, and to do this every day,
or twice a day, as in some places was done.
It is true the people showed an extraordinary zeal in these religious
exercises, and as the church-doors were always open, people would go
in single at all times, whether the minister was officiating or no, and
locking themselves into separate pews, would be praying to God with
great fervency and devotion.
Others assembled at meeting-houses, every one as their different
opinions in such things guided, but all were promiscuously the subject
of these men's drollery, especially at the beginning of the visitation.
It seems they had been checked for their open insulting religion in
this manner by several good people of every persuasion, and that, and
the violent raging of the infection, I suppose, was the occasion that
they had abated much of their rudeness for some time before, and
were only roused by the spirit of ribaldry and atheism at the clamour
which was made when the gentleman was first brought in there, and
perhaps were agitated by the same devil, when I took upon me to
reprove them; though I did it at first with all the calmness, temper,
and good manners that I could, which for a while they insulted me the
more for thinking it had been in fear of their resentment, though
afterwards they found the contrary.
I went home, indeed, grieved and afflicted in my mind at the
abominable wickedness of those men, not doubting, however, that
they would be made dreadful examples of God's justice; for I looked
upon this dismal time to be a particular season of Divine vengeance,
and that God would on this occasion single out the proper objects of
His displeasure in a more especial and remarkable manner than at
another time; and that though I did believe that many good people
would, and did, fall in the common calamity, and that it was no
certain rule to ' judge of the eternal state of any one by their being
distinguished in such a time of general destruction neither one way or
other; yet, I say, it could not but seem reasonable to believe that God
would not think fit to spare by His mercy such open declared enemies,
that should insult His name and Being, defy His vengeance, and mock
at His worship and worshippers at such a time; no, not though His
mercy had thought fit to bear with and spare them at other times; that
this was a day of visitation, a day of God's anger, and those words
came into my thought, Jer. v. 9: 'Shall I not visit for these things? saith
the Lord: and shall not My soul be avenged of such a nation as this?'
These things, I say, lay upon my mind, and I went home very much
grieved and oppressed with the horror of these men's wickedness, and
to think that anything could be so vile, so hardened, and notoriously
wicked as to insult God, and His servants, and His worship in such a
manner, and at such a time as this was, when He had, as it were, His
sword drawn in His hand on purpose to take vengeance not on them
only, but on the whole nation.
I had, indeed, been in some passion at first with them - though it
was really raised, not by any affront they had offered me personally,
but by the horror their blaspheming tongues filled me with. However,
I was doubtful in my thoughts whether the resentment I retained was
not all upon my own private account, for they had given me a great
deal of ill language too - I mean personally; but after some pause, and
having a weight of grief upon my mind, I retired myself as soon as I
came home, for I slept not that night; and giving God most humble
thanks for my preservation in the eminent danger I had been in, I set
my mind seriously and with the utmost earnestness to pray for those
desperate wretches, that God would pardon them, open their eyes, and
effectually humble them.
By this I not only did my duty, namely, to pray for those who
despitefully used me, but I fully tried my own heart, to my fun
satisfaction, that it was not filled with any spirit of resentment as they
had offended me in particular; and I humbly recommend the method
to all those that would know, or be certain, how to distinguish
between their zeal for the honour of God and the effects of their
private passions and resentment.
But I must go back here to the particular incidents which occur to
my thoughts of the time of the visitation, and particularly to the time
of their shutting up houses in the first part of their sickness; for before
the sickness was come to its height people had more room to make
their observations than they had afterward; but when it was in the
extremity there was no such thing as communication with one
another, as before.
During the shutting up of houses, as I have said, some violence was
offered to the watchmen. As to soldiers, there were none to be
found.- the few guards which the king then had, which were nothing
like the number entertained since, were dispersed, either at Oxford
with the Court, or in quarters in the remoter parts of the country, small
detachments excepted, who did duty at the Tower and at Whitehall,
and these but very few. Neither am I positive that there was any other
guard at the Tower than the warders, as they called them, who stand at
the gate with gowns and caps, the same as the yeomen of the guard,
except the ordinary gunners, who were twenty-four, and the officers
appointed to look after the magazine, who were called armourers. As
to trained bands, there was no possibility of raising any; neither, if the
Lieutenancy, either of London or Middlesex, had ordered the drums to
beat for the militia, would any of the companies, I believe, have
drawn together, whatever risk they had run.
This made the watchmen be the less regarded, and perhaps
occasioned the greater violence to be used against them. I mention it
on this score to observe that the setting watchmen thus to keep the
people in was, first of all, not effectual, but that the people broke out,
whether by force or by stratagem, even almost as often as they
pleased; and, second, that those that did thus break out were generally
people infected who, in their desperation, running about from one
place to another, valued not whom they injured: and which perhaps, as
I have said, might give birth to report that it was natural to the
infected people to desire to infect others, which report was really false.
And I know it so well, and in so many several cases, that I could
give several relations of good, pious, and religious people who, when
they have had the distemper, have been so far from being forward to
infect others that they have forbid their own family to come near
them, in hopes of their being preserved, and have even died without
seeing their nearest relations lest they should be instrumental to give
them the distemper, and infect or endanger them. If, then, there were
cases wherein the infected people were careless of the injury they did
to others, this was certainly one of them, if not the chief, namely,
when people who had the distemper had broken out from houses which were
so shut up, and having been driven to extremities for provision
or for entertainment, had endeavoured to conceal their condition,
and have been thereby instrumental involuntarily to infect others
who have been ignorant and unwary.
This is one of the reasons why I believed then, and do believe still,
that the shutting up houses thus by force, and restraining, or rather
imprisoning, people in their own houses, as I said above, was of little
or no service in the whole. Nay, I am of opinion it was rather hurtful,
having forced those desperate people to wander abroad with the
plague upon them, who would otherwise have died quietly in their beds.
I remember one citizen who, having thus broken out of his house in
Aldersgate Street or thereabout, went along the road to Islington; he
attempted to have gone in at the Angel Inn, and after that the White
Horse, two inns known still by the same signs, but was refused; after
which he came to the Pied Bull, an inn also still continuing the same
sign. He asked them for lodging for one night only, pretending to be
going into Lincolnshire, and assuring them of his being very sound
and free from the infection, which also at that time had not reached
much that way.
They told him they had no lodging that they could spare but one bed
up in the garret, and that they could spare that bed for one night, some
drovers being expected the next day with cattle; so, if he would accept
of that lodging, he might have it, which he did. So a servant was sent
up with a candle with him to show him the room. He was very well
dressed, and looked like a person not used to lie in a garret; and when
he came to the room he fetched a deep sigh, and said to the servant, 'I
have seldom lain in such a lodging as this. 'However, the servant
assuring him again that they had no better, 'Well,' says he, 'I must
make shift; this is a dreadful time; but it is but for one night.' So he sat
down upon the bedside, and bade the maid, I think it was, fetch him
up a pint of warm ale. Accordingly the servant went for the ale, but
some hurry in the house, which perhaps employed her other ways, put
it out of her head, and she went up no more to him.
The next morning, seeing no appearance of the gentleman,
somebody in the house asked the servant that had showed him upstairs
what was become of him. She started. 'Alas l' says she, 'I never
thought more of him. He bade me carry him some warm ale, but I
forgot.' Upon which, not the maid, but some other person was sent up
to see after him, who, coming into the room, found him stark dead and
almost cold, stretched out across the bed. His clothes were pulled off,
his jaw fallen, his eyes open in a most frightful posture, the rug of the
bed being grasped hard in one of his hands, so that it was plain he
died soon after the maid left him; and 'tis probable, had she gone up
with the ale, she had found him dead in a few minutes after he sat
down upon the bed. The alarm was great in the house, as anyone may
suppose, they having been free from the distemper till that disaster,
which, bringing the infection to the house, spread it immediately to
other houses round about it. I do not remember how many died in the
house itself, but I think the maid-servant who went up first with him
fell presently ill by the fright, and several others; for, whereas there
died but two in Islington of the plague the week before, there died
seventeen the week after, whereof fourteen were of the plague. This
was in the week from the 11th of July to the 18th.
There was one shift that some families had, and that not a few,
when their houses happened to be infected, and that was this: the
families who, in the first breaking-out of the distemper, fled away into
the country and had retreats among their friends, generally found
some or other of their neighbours or relations to commit the charge of
those houses to for the safety of the goods and the like. Some houses
were, indeed, entirely locked up, the doors padlocked, the windows
and doors having deal boards nailed over them, and only the
inspection of them committed to the ordinary watchmen and parish
officers; bat these were but few.
It was thought that there were not less than 10,000 houses forsaken
of the inhabitants in the city and suburbs, including what was in the
out-parishes and in Surrey, or the side of the water they called
Southwark. This was besides the numbers of lodgers, and of
particular persons who were fled out of other families; so that in all it
was computed that about 200,000 people were fled and gone. But of
this I shall speak again. But I mention it here on this account, namely,
that it was a rule with those who had thus two houses in their keeping
or care, that if anybody was taken sick in a family, before the master
of the family let the examiners or any other officer know of it, he
immediately would send all the rest of his family, whether children or
servants, as it fell out to be, to such other house which he had so in
charge, and then giving notice of the sick person to the examiner,
have a nurse or nurses appointed, and have another person to be shut
up in the house with them (which many for money would do), so to
take charge of the house in case the person should die.
This was, in many cases, the saving a whole family, who, if they had
been shut up with the sick person, would inevitably have perished.
But, on the other hand, this was another of the inconveniences of
shutting up houses; for the apprehensions and terror of being shut up
made many run away with the rest of the family, who, though it was
not publicly known, and they were not quite sick, had yet the
distemper upon them; and who, by having an uninterrupted liberty to
go about, but being obliged still to conceal their circumstances, or
perhaps not knowing it themselves, gave the distemper to others, and
spread the infection in a dreadful manner, as I shall explain further
hereafter.
And here I may be able to make an observation or two of my own,
which may be of use hereafter to those into whose bands these may
come, if they should ever see the like dreadful visitation. (1) The
infection generally came into the houses of the citizens by the means
of their servants, whom they were obliged to send up and down the
streets for necessaries; that is to say, for food or physic, to
bakehouses, brew-houses, shops, &c.; and who going necessarily
through the streets into shops, markets, and the like, it was impossible
but that they should, one way or
other, meet with distempered people, who conveyed the fatal breath
into them, and they brought it home to the families to which they
belonged. (2) It was a great mistake that such a great city as this had
but one pest-house; for had there been, instead of one pest-house -
viz., beyond Bunhill Fields, where, at most, they could receive,
perhaps, two hundred or three hundred people - I say, had there,
instead of that one, been several pest-houses, every one able to
contain a thousand people, without lying two in a bed, or two beds in
a room; and had every master of a family, as soon as any servant
especially had been taken sick in his house, been obliged to send them
to the next pest-house, if they were willing, as many were, and had the
examiners done the like among the poor people when any had been
stricken with the infection; I say, had this been done where the people
were willing (not otherwise), and the houses not been shut, I am
persuaded, and was all the while of that opinion, that not so many, by
several thousands, had died; for it was observed, and I could give
several instances within the compass of my own knowledge, where a
servant had been taken sick, and the family had either time to send
him out or retire from the house and leave the sick person, as I have
said above, they had all been preserved; whereas when, upon one or
more sickening in a family, the house has been shut up, the whole
family have perished, and the bearers been obliged to go in to fetch
out the dead bodies, not being able to bring them to the door, and at
last none left to do it.
(3) This put it out of question to me, that the calamity was spread by
infection; that is to say, by some certain steams or fumes, which the
physicians call effluvia, by the breath, or by the sweat, or by the
stench of the sores of the sick persons, or some other way, perhaps,
beyond even the reach of the physicians themselves, which effluvia
affected the sound who came within certain distances of the sick,
immediately penetrating the vital parts of the said sound persons,
putting their blood into an immediate ferment, and agitating their
spirits to that degree which it was found they were agitated; and so
those newly infected persons communicated it in the same manner to
others. And this I shall give some instances of, that cannot but
convince those who seriously consider it; and I cannot but with some
wonder find some people, now the contagion is over, talk of its being
an immediate stroke from Heaven, without the agency of means,
having commission to strike this and that particular person, and none
other - which I look upon with contempt as the effect of manifest
ignorance and enthusiasm; likewise the opinion of others, who talk of
infection being carried on by the air only, by carrying with it vast
numbers of insects and invisible creatures, who enter into the body
with the breath, or even at the pores with the air, and there generate or
emit most acute poisons, or poisonous ovae or eggs, which mingle
themselves with the blood, and so infect the body: a discourse full of
learned simplicity, and manifested to be so by universal experience;
but I shall say more to this case in its order.
I must here take further notice that nothing was more fatal to the
inhabitants of this city than the supine negligence of the people
themselves, who, during the long notice or warning they had of the
visitation, made no provision for it by laying in store of provisions, or
of other necessaries, by which they might have lived retired and
within their own houses, as I have observed others did, and who were
in a great measure preserved by that caution; nor were they, after they
were a little hardened to it, so shy of conversing with one another,
when actually infected, as they were at first: no, though they knew it.
I acknowledge I was one of those thoughtless ones that had made so
little provision that my servants were obliged to go out of doors to buy
every trifle by penny and halfpenny, just as before it began, even till
my experience showing me the folly, I began to be wiser so late that I
had scarce time to store myself sufficient for our common subsistence
for a month.
I had in family only an ancient woman that managed the house, a
maid-servant, two apprentices, and myself; and the plague beginning
to increase about us, I had many sad thoughts about what course I
should take, and how I should act. The many dismal objects which
happened everywhere as I went about the streets, had filled my mind
with a great deal of horror for fear of the distemper, which was indeed
very horrible in itself, and in some more than in others. The
swellings, which were generally in the neck or groin, when they grew
hard and would not break, grew so painful that it was equal to the
most exquisite torture; and some, not able to bear the torment, threw
themselves out at windows or shot themselves, or otherwise made
themselves away, and I saw several dismal objects of that kind.
Others, unable to contain themselves, vented their pain by incessant
roarings, and such loud and lamentable cries were to be heard as we
walked along the streets that would pierce the very heart to think of,
especially when it was to be considered that the same dreadful
scourge might be expected every moment to seize upon ourselves.
I cannot say but that now I began to faint in my resolutions; my
heart failed me very much, and sorely I repented of my rashness.
When I had been out, and met with such terrible things as these I have
talked of, I say I repented my rashness in venturing to abide in town. I
wished often that I had not taken upon me to stay, but had gone away
with my brother and his family.
Terrified by those frightful objects, I would retire home sometimes
and resolve to go out no more; and perhaps I would keep those
resolutions for three or four days, which time I spent in the most
serious thankfulness for my preservation and the preservation of my
family, and the constant confession of my sins, giving myself up to
God every day, and applying to Him with fasting, humiliation, and
meditation. Such intervals as I had I employed in reading books and
in writing down my memorandums of what occurred to me every day,
and out of which afterwards I took most of this work, as it relates to
my observations without doors. What I wrote of my private
meditations I reserve for private use, and desire it may not be made
public on any account whatever.
I also wrote other meditations upon divine subjects, such as
occurred to me at that time and were profitable to myself, but not fit
for any other view, and therefore I say no more of that.
I had a very good friend, a physician, whose name was Heath, whom
I frequently visited during this dismal time, and to whose advice I was
very much obliged for many things which he directed me to take, by
way of preventing the infection when I went out, as he found I
frequently did, and to hold in my mouth when I was in the streets. He
also came very often to see me, and as he was a good Christian as well
as a good physician, his agreeable conversation was a very great
support to me in the worst of this terrible time.
It was now the beginning of August, and the plague grew very
violent and terrible in the place where I lived, and Dr Heath coming to
visit me, and finding that I ventured so often out in the streets,
earnestly persuaded me to lock myself up and my family, and not to
suffer any of us to go out of doors; to keep all our windows fast,
shutters and curtains close, and never to open them; but first, to make
a very strong smoke in the room where the window or door was to be
opened, with rozen and pitch, brimstone or gunpowder and the like;
and we did this for some time; but as I had not laid in a store of
provision for such a retreat, it was impossible that we could keep
within doors entirely. However, I attempted, though it was so very
late, to do something towards it; and first, as I had convenience both
for brewing and baking, I went and bought two sacks of meal, and for
several weeks, having an oven, we baked all our own bread; also I
bought malt, and brewed as much beer as all the casks I had would
hold, and which seemed enough to serve my house for five or six
weeks; also I laid in a quantity of salt butter and Cheshire cheese; but
I had no flesh-meat, and the plague raged so violently among the
butchers and slaughter-houses on the other side of our street, where
they are known to dwell in great numbers, that it was not advisable so
much as to go over the street among them.
And here I must observe again, that this necessity of going out of
our houses to buy provisions was in a great measure the ruin of the
whole city, for the people catched the distemper on these occasions
one of another, and even the provisions themselves were often tainted;
at least I have great reason to believe so; and therefore I cannot say
with satisfaction what I know is repeated with great assurance, that
the market-people and such as brought provisions to town were never
infected. I am certain the butchers of Whitechappel, where the greatest
part of the flesh-meat was killed, were dreadfully visited, and that at
least to such a degree that few of their shops were kept open, and
those that remained of them killed their meat at Mile End and that
way, and brought it to market upon horses.
However, the poor people could not lay up provisions, and there was
a necessity that they must go to market to buy, and others to send
servants or their children; and as this was a necessity which renewed
itself daily, it brought abundance of unsound people to the markets,
and a great many that went thither sound brought death home with them.
It is true people used all possible precaution. When any one bought
a joint of meat in the market they would not take it off the butcher's
hand, but took it off the hooks themselves. On the other hand, the
butcher would not touch the money, but have it put into a pot full of
vinegar, which he kept for that purpose. The buyer carried always
small money to make up any odd sum, that they might take no change.
They carried bottles of scents and perfumes in their hands, and all the
means that could be used were used, but then the poor could not do
even these things, and they went at all hazards.
Innumerable dismal stories we heard every day on this very account.
Sometimes a man or woman dropped down dead in the very markets,
for many people that had the plague upon them knew nothing of it till
the inward gangrene had affected their vitals, and they died in a few
moments. This caused that many died frequently in that manner in
the streets suddenly, without any warning; others perhaps had time to
go to the next bulk or stall, or to any door-porch, and just sit down and
die, as I have said before.
These objects were so frequent in the streets that when the plague
came to be very raging on one side, there was scarce any passing by
the streets but that several dead bodies would be lying here and there
upon the ground. On the other hand, it is observable that though at
first the people would stop as they went along and call to the
neighbours to come out on such an occasion, yet afterward no notice
was taken of them; but that if at any time we found a corpse lying, go
across the way and not come near it; or, if in a narrow lane or passage,
go back again and seek some other way to go on the business we were
upon; and in those cases the corpse was always left till the officers
had notice to come and take them away, or till night, when the bearers
attending the dead-cart would take them up and carry them away. Nor
did those undaunted creatures who performed these offices fail to
search their pockets, and sometimes strip off their clothes if they were
well dressed, as sometimes they were, and carry off what they could get.
But to return to the markets. The butchers took that care that if any
person died in the market they had the officers always at band to take
them up upon hand-barrows and carry them to the next churchyard;
and this was so frequent that such were not entered in the weekly bill,
'Found dead in the streets or fields', as is the case now, but they went
into the general articles of the great distemper.
But now the fury of the distemper increased to such a degree that
even the markets were but very thinly furnished with provisions or
frequented with buyers compared to what they were before; and the
Lord Mayor caused the country people who brought provisions to be
stopped in the streets leading into the town, and to sit down there with
their goods, where they sold what they brought, and went immediately
away; and this encouraged the country people greatly-to do so, for
they sold their provisions at the very entrances into the town, and even
in the fields, as particularly in the fields beyond Whitechappel, in
Spittlefields; also in St George's Fields in Southwark, in Bunhill
Fields, and in a great field called Wood's Close, near Islington.
Thither the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and magistrates sent their officers
and servants to buy for their families, themselves keeping within
doors as much as possible, and the like did many other people; and
after this method was taken the country people came with great
cheerfulness, and brought provisions of all sorts, and very seldom got
any harm, which, I suppose, added also to that report of their being
miraculously preserved.
As for my little family, having thus, as I have said, laid in a store of
bread, butter, cheese, and beer, I took my friend and physician's
advice, and locked myself up, and my family, and resolved to suffer
the hardship of living a few months without flesh-meat, rather than to
purchase it at the hazard of our lives.
But though I confined my family, I could not prevail upon my
unsatisfied curiosity to stay within entirely myself; and though I
generally came frighted and terrified home, vet I could not restrain;
only that indeed I did not do it so frequently as at first.
I had some little obligations, indeed, upon me to go to my brother's
house, which was in Coleman Street parish and which he had left to
my care, and I went at first every day, but afterwards only once or
twice a week.
In these walks I had many dismal scenes before my eyes, as
particularly of persons falling dead in the streets, terrible shrieks and
screechings of women, who, in their agonies, would throw open their
chamber windows and cry out in a dismal, surprising manner. It is
impossible to describe the variety of postures in which the passions of
the poor people would express themselves.
Passing through Tokenhouse Yard, in Lothbury, of a sudden a
casement violently opened just over my head, and a woman gave three
frightful screeches, and then cried, 'Oh! death, death, death!' in a
most inimitable tone, and which struck me with horror and a chillness
in my very blood. There was nobody to be seen in the whole street,
neither did any other window open. for people had no curiosity now in
any case, nor could anybody help one another, so I went on to pass
into Bell Alley.
Just in Bell Alley, on the right hand of the passage, there was a more
terrible cry than that, though it was not so directed out at the window;
but the whole family was in a terrible fright, and I could hear women
and children run screaming about the rooms like distracted, when a
garret-window opened and somebody from a window on the other
side the alley called and asked, 'What is the matter?' upon which, from
the first window, it was answered, 'Oh Lord, my old master has
hanged himself!' The other asked again, 'Is he quite dead?' and the
first answered, 'Ay, ay, quite dead; quite dead and cold!' This person
was a merchant and a deputy alderman, and very rich. I care not to
mention the name, though I knew his name too, but that would be an
hardship to the family, which is now flourishing again.
But this is but one; it is scarce credible what dreadful cases
happened in particular families every day. People in the rage of the
distemper, or in the torment of their swellings, which was indeed
intolerable, running out of their own government, raving and
distracted, and oftentimes laying violent hands upon themselves,
throwing themselves out at their windows, shooting themselves.,;,
&c.; mothers murdering their own children in their lunacy, some
dying of mere grief as a passion, some of mere fright and surprise
without any infection at all, others frighted into idiotism and foolish
distractions, some into despair and lunacy, others into melancholy madness.
The pain of the swelling was in particular very violent, and to some
intolerable; the physicians and surgeons may be said to have tortured
many poor creatures even to death. The swellings in some grew hard,
and they applied violent drawing-plaisters or poultices to break them,
and if these did not do they cut and scarified them in a terrible
manner. In some those swellings were made hard partly by the force
of the distemper and partly by their being too violently drawn, and
were so hard that no instrument could cut them, and then they burnt
them with caustics, so that many died raving mad with the torment,
and some in the very operation. In these distresses, some, for want of
help to hold them down in their beds, or to look to them, laid hands
upon themselves as above. Some broke out into the streets, perhaps
naked, and would run directly down to the river if they were not
stopped by the watchman or other officers, and plunge themselves
into the water wherever they found it.
It often pierced my very soul to hear the groans and cries of those
who were thus tormented, but of the two this was counted the most
promising particular in the whole infection, for if these swellings
could be brought to a head, and to break and run, or, as the surgeons
call it, to digest, the patient generally recovered; whereas those who,
like the gentlewoman's daughter, were struck with death at the
beginning, and had the tokens come out upon them, often went about
indifferent easy till a little before they died, and some till the moment
they dropped down, as in apoplexies and epilepsies is often the case.
Such would be taken suddenly very sick, and would run to a bench or
bulk, or any convenient place that offered itself, or to their own
houses if possible, as I mentioned before, and there sit down, grow
faint, and die. This kind of dying was much the same as it was with
those who die of common mortifications, who die swooning, and, as it
were, go away in a dream. Such as died thus had very little notice of
their being infected at all till the gangrene was spread through their
whole body; nor could physicians themselves know certainly how it
was with them till they opened their breasts or other parts of their
body and saw the tokens.
We had at this time a great many frightful stories told us of nurses
and watchmen who looked after the dying people; that is to say, hired
nurses who attended infected people, using them barbarously, starving
them, smothering them, or by other wicked means hastening their end,
that is to say, murdering of them; and watchmen, being set to guard
houses that were shut up when there has been but one person left, and
perhaps that one lying sick, that they have broke in and murdered that
body, and immediately thrown them out into the dead-cart! And so
they have gone scarce cold to the grave.
I cannot say but that some such murders were committed, and I
think two were sent to prison for it, but died before they could be
tried; and I have heard that three others, at several times, were
excused for murders of that kind; but I must say I believe nothing of
its being so common a crime as some have since been pleased to say,
nor did it seem to be so rational where the people were brought so low
as not to be able to help themselves, for such seldom recovered, and
there was no temptation to commit a murder, at least none equal to
the fact, where they were sure persons would die in so short a time,
and could not live.
That there were a great many robberies and wicked practices
committed even in this dreadful time I do not deny. The power of
avarice was so strong in some that they would run any hazard to steal
and to plunder; and particularly in houses where all the families or
inhabitants have been dead and carried out, they would break in at all
hazards, and without regard to the danger of infection, take even the
clothes off the dead bodies and the bed-clothes from others where
they lay dead.
This, I suppose, must be the case of a family in Houndsditch, where
a man and his daughter, the rest of the family being, as I suppose,
carried away before by the dead-cart, were found stark naked, one in
one chamber and one in another, lying dead on the floor, and the
clothes of the beds, from whence 'tis supposed they were rolled off by
thieves, stolen and carried quite away.
It is indeed to be observed that the women were in all this calamity
the most rash, fearless, and desperate creatures, and as there were vast
numbers that went about as nurses to tend those that were sick, they
committed a great many petty thieveries in the houses where they
were employed; and some of them were publicly whipped for it, when
perhaps they ought rather to have been hanged for examples, for
numbers of houses were robbed on these occasions, till at length the
parish officers were sent to recommend nurses to the sick, and always
took an account whom it was they sent, so as that they might call them
to account if the house had been abused where they were placed.
But these robberies extended chiefly to wearing-clothes, linen, and
what rings or money they could come at when the person died who
was under their care, but not to a general plunder of the houses; and I
could give you an account of one of these nurses, who, several years
after, being on her deathbed, confessed with the utmost horror the
robberies she had committed at the time of her being a nurse, and by
which she had enriched herself to a great degree. But as for murders,
I do not find that there was ever any proof of the facts in the manner
as it has been reported, except as above.
They did tell me, indeed, of a nurse in one place that laid a wet cloth
upon the face of a dying patient whom she tended, and so put an end
to his life, who was just expiring before; and another that smothered a
young woman she was looking to when she was in a fainting fit, and
would have come to herself; some that killed them by giving them one
thing, some another, and some starved them by giving them nothing at
all. But these stories had two marks of suspicion that always attended
them, which caused me always to slight them and to look on them as
mere stories that people continually frighted one another with. First,
that wherever it was that we heard it, they always placed the scene at
the farther end of the town, opposite or most remote from where you
were to hear it. If you heard it in Whitechappel, it had happened at St
Giles's, or at Westminster, or Holborn, or that end of the town. If you
heard of it at that end of the town, then it was done in Whitechappel, or
the Minories, or about Cripplegate parish. If you heard of it in the
city, why, then it happened in Southwark; and if you heard of it in
Southwark, then it was done in the city, and the like.
In the next place, of what part soever you heard the story, the
particulars were always the same, especially that of laying a wet
double clout on a dying man's face, and that of smothering a young
gentlewoman; so that it was apparent, at least to my judgement, that
there was more of tale than of truth in those things.
However, I cannot say but it had some effect upon the people, and
particularly that, as I said before, they grew more cautious whom they
took into their houses, and whom they trusted their lives with, and had
them always recommended if they could; and where they could not
find such, for they were not very plenty, they applied to the parish
officers.
But here again the misery of that time lay upon the poor who, being
infected, had neither food or physic, neither physician or apothecary
to assist them, or nurse to attend them. Many of those died calling for
help, and even for sustenance, out at their windows in a most
miserable and deplorable manner; but it must be added that whenever
the cases of such persons or families were represented to my Lord
Mayor they always were relieved.
It is true, in some houses where the people were not very poor, yet
where they had sent perhaps their wives and children away, and if
they had any servants they had been dismissed; - I say it is true that to
save the expenses, many such as these shut themselves in, and not
having help, died alone.
A neighbour and acquaintance of mine, having some money owing
to him from a shopkeeper in Whitecross Street or thereabouts, sent his
apprentice, a youth about eighteen years of age, to endeavour to get
the money. He came to the door, and finding it shut, knocked pretty
hard; and, as he thought, heard somebody answer within, but was not
sure, so he waited, and after some stay knocked again, and then a third
time, when he heard somebody coming downstairs.
At length the man of the house came to the door; he had on his
breeches or drawers, and a yellow flannel waistcoat, no stockings, a
pair of slipped-shoes, a white cap on his head, and, as the young man
said, 'death in his face'.
When he opened the door, says he, 'What do you disturb me thus for?'
The boy, though a little surprised, replied, 'I come from such a
one, and my master sent me for the money which he says you know
of.' 'Very well, child,' returns the living ghost; 'call as you go by at
Cripplegate Church, and bid them ring the bell'; and with these words
shut the door again, and went up again, and died the same day; nay,
perhaps the same hour. This the young man told me himself, and I
have reason to believe it. This was while the plague was not come to
a height. I think it was in June, towards the latter end of the month; it
must be before the dead-carts came about, and while they used the
ceremony of ringing the bell for the dead, which was over for certain,
in that parish at least, before the month of July, for by the 25th of July
there died 550 and upwards in a week, and then they could no more
bury in form, rich or poor.
I have mentioned above that notwithstanding this dreadful calamity,
yet the numbers of thieves were abroad upon all occasions, where they
had found any prey, and that these were generally women. It was one
morning about eleven O'clock, I had walked out to my brother's house
in Coleman Street parish, as I often did, to see that all was safe.
My brother's house had a little court before it, and a brick wall and a
gate in it, and within that several warehouses where his goods of
several sorts lay. It happened that in one of these warehouses were
several packs of women's high-crowned hats, which came out of the
country and were, as I suppose, for exportation: whither, I know not.
I was surprised that when I came near my brother's door, which was
in a place they called Swan Alley, I met three or four women with
high-crowned hats on their heads; and, as I remembered afterwards,
one, if not more, had some hats likewise in their hands; but as I did
not see them come out at my brother's door, and not knowing that my
brother had any such goods in his warehouse, I did not offer to say
anything to them, but went across the way to shun meeting them, as
was usual to do at that time, for fear of the plague. But when I came
nearer to the gate I met another woman with more hats come out of
the gate. 'What business, mistress,' said I, 'have you had there?'
'There are more people there,' said she; 'I have had no more business there
than they.' I was hasty to get to the gate then, and said no more to her,
by which means she got away. But just as I came to the gate, I saw
two more coming across the yard to come out with hats also on their
heads and under their arms, at which I threw the gate to behind me,
which having a spring lock fastened itself; and turning to the women,
'Forsooth,' said I, 'what are you doing here?' and seized upon the hats,
and took them from them. One of them, who, I confess, did not look
like a thief - 'Indeed,' says she, 'we are wrong, but we were told they
were goods that had no owner. Be pleased to take them again; and
look yonder, there are more such customers as we.' She cried and
looked pitifully, so I took the hats from her and opened the gate, and
bade them be gone, for I pitied the women indeed; but when I looked
towards the warehouse, as she directed, there were six or seven more,
all women, fitting themselves with hats as unconcerned and quiet as if
they had been at a hatter's shop buying for their money.
I was surprised, not at the sight of so many thieves only, but at the
circumstances I was in; being now to thrust myself in among so many
people, who for some weeks had been so shy of myself that if I met
anybody in the street I would cross the way from them.
They were equally surprised, though on another account. They all
told me they were neighbours, that they had heard anyone might take
them, that they were nobody's goods, and the like. I talked big to
them at first, went back to the gate and took out the key, so that they
were all my prisoners, threatened to lock them all into the warehouse,
and go and fetch my Lord Mayor's officers for them.
They begged heartily, protested they found the gate open, and the
warehouse door open; and that it had no doubt been broken open by
some who expected to find goods of greater value: which indeed was
reasonable to believe, because the lock was broke, and a padlock that
hung to the door on the outside also loose, and not abundance of the
hats carried away.
At length I considered that this was not a time to be cruel and
rigorous; and besides that, it would necessarily oblige me to go much
about, to have several people come to me, and I go to several whose
circumstances of health I knew nothing of; and that even at this time
the plague was so high as that there died 4000 a week; so that in
showing my resentment, or even in seeking justice for my brother's
goods, I might lose my own life; so I contented myself with taking the
names and places where some of them lived, who were really inhabitants
in the neighbourhood, and threatening that my brother should call them
to an account for it when he returned to his habitation.
Then I talked a little upon another foot with them, and asked them
how they could do such things as these in a time of such general
calamity, and, as it were, in the face of God's most dreadful
judgements, when the plague was at their very doors, and, it may be,
in their very houses, and they did not know but that the dead-cart
might stop at their doors in a few hours to carry them to their graves.
I could not perceive that my discourse made much impression upon
them all that while, till it happened that there came two men of the
neighbourhood, hearing of the disturbance, and knowing my brother,
for they had been both dependents upon his family, and they came to
my assistance. These being, as I said, neighbours, presently knew
three of the women and told me who they were and where they lived;
and it seems they had given me a true account of themselves before.
This brings these two men to a further remembrance. The name of
one was John Hayward, who was at that time undersexton of the
parish of St Stephen, Coleman Street. By undersexton was
understood at that time gravedigger and bearer of the dead. This man
carried, or assisted to carry, all the dead to their graves which were
buried in that large parish, and who were carried in form; and after
that form of burying was stopped, went with the dead-cart and the bell
to fetch the dead bodies from the houses where they lay, and fetched
many of them out of the chambers and houses; for the parish was, and
is still, remarkable particularly, above all the parishes in London,
for a great number of alleys and thoroughfares, very long, into which
no carts could come, and where they were obliged to go and fetch the
bodies a very long way; which alleys now remain to witness it, such
as White's Alley, Cross Key Court, Swan Alley, Bell Alley, White
Horse Alley, and many more. Here they went with a kind of hand-
barrow and laid the dead bodies on it, and carried them out to the
carts; which work he performed and never had the distemper at all,
but lived about twenty years after it, and was sexton of the parish to
the time of his death. His wife at the same time was a nurse to
infected people, and tended many that died in the parish, being for her
honesty recommended by the parish officers; yet she never was
infected neither.
He never used any preservative against the infection, other than
holding garlic and rue in his mouth, and smoking tobacco. This I also
had from his own mouth. And his wife's remedy was washing her head
in vinegar and sprinkling her head-clothes so with vinegar as to
keep them always moist, and if the smell of any of those she waited
on was more than ordinary offensive, she snuffed vinegar up her nose
and sprinkled vinegar upon her head-clothes, and held a handkerchief
wetted with vinegar to her mouth.
It must be confessed that though the plague was chiefly among the
poor, yet were the poor the most venturous and fearless of it, and went
about their employment with a sort of brutal courage; I must call it so,
for it was founded neither on religion nor prudence; scarce did they
use any caution, but ran into any business which they could get
employment in, though it was the most hazardous. Such was that of
tending the sick, watching houses shut up, carrying infected persons to
the pest-house, and, which was still worse, carrying the dead away to
their graves.
It was under this John Hayward's care, and within his bounds, that
the story of the piper, with which people have made themselves so
merry, happened, and he assured me that it was true. It is said that it
was a blind piper; but, as John told me, the fellow was not blind, but
an ignorant, weak, poor man, and usually walked his rounds about ten
o'clock at night and went piping along from door to door, and the
people usually took him in at public-houses where they knew him, and
would give him drink and victuals, and sometimes farthings; and he in
return would pipe and sing and talk simply, which diverted the
people; and thus he lived. It was but a very bad time for this diversion
while things were as I have told, yet the poor fellow went about as
usual, but was almost starved; and when anybody asked how he did he
would answer, the dead cart had not taken him yet, but that they had
promised to call for him next week.
It happened one night that this poor fellow, whether somebody had
given him too much drink or no - John Hayward said he had not drink
in his house, but that they had given him a little more victuals than
ordinary at a public-house in Coleman Street - and the poor fellow,
having not usually had a bellyful for perhaps not a good while, was
laid all along upon the top of a bulk or stall, and fast asleep, at a door
in the street near London Wall, towards Cripplegate-, and that upon
the same bulk or stall the people of some house, in the alley of which
the house was a corner, hearing a bell which they always rang before
the cart came, had laid a body really dead of the plague just by him,
thinking, too, that this poor fellow had been a dead body, as the other
was, and laid there by some of the neighbours.
Accordingly, when John Hayward with his bell and the cart came
along, finding two dead bodies lie upon the stall, they took them up
with the instrument they used and threw them into the cart, and, all
this while the piper slept soundly.
From hence they passed along and took in other dead bodies, till, as
honest John Hayward told me, they almost buried him alive in the
cart; yet all this while he slept soundly. At length the cart came to the
place where the bodies were to be thrown into the ground, which, as I
do remember, was at Mount Mill; and as the cart usually stopped
some time before they were ready to shoot out the melancholy load
they had in it, as soon as the cart stopped the fellow awaked and
struggled a little to get his head out from among the dead bodies,
when, raising himself up in the cart, he called out, 'Hey! where am I?'
This frighted the fellow that attended about the work; but after some
pause John Hayward, recovering himself, said, 'Lord, bless us!
There's somebody in the cart not quite dead!' So another called to him
and said, 'Who are you?' The fellow answered, 'I am the poor piper.
Where am I?' 'Where are you?' says Hayward. 'Why, you are in the
dead-cart, and we are going to bury you.' 'But I an't dead though, am
I?' says the piper, which made them laugh a little though, as John said,
they were heartily frighted at first; so they helped the poor fellow
down, and he went about his business.
I know the story goes he set up his pipes in the cart and frighted the
bearers and others so that they ran away; but John Hayward did not
tell the story so, nor say anything of his piping at all; but that he was a
poor piper, and that he was carried away as above I am fully satisfied
of the truth of.
It is to be noted here that the dead-carts in the city were not
confined to particular parishes, but one cart went through several
parishes, according as the number of dead presented; nor were they
tied to carry the dead to their respective parishes, but many of the
dead taken up in the city were carried to the burying-ground in the
out-parts for want of room.
I have already mentioned the surprise that this judgement was at
first among the people. I must be allowed to give some of my
observations on the more serious and religious part. Surely never city,
at least of this bulk and magnitude, was taken in a condition so
perfectly unprepared for such a dreadful visitation, whether I am to
speak of the civil preparations or religious. They were, indeed, as if
they had had no warning, no expectation, no apprehensions, and
consequently the least provision imaginable was made for it in a
public way. For example, the Lord Mayor and sheriffs had made no
provision as magistrates for the regulations which were to be
observed. They had gone into no measures for relief of the poor. The
citizens had no public magazines or storehouses for corn or meal for
the subsistence of the poor, which if they had provided themselves, as
in such cases is done abroad, many miserable families who were now
reduced to the utmost distress would have been relieved, and that in a
better manner than now could be done.
The stock of the city's money I can say but little to. The Chamber of
London was said to be exceedingly rich, and it may be concluded that
they were so, by the vast of money issued from thence in the
rebuilding the public edifices after the fire of London, and in building
new works, such as, for the first part, the Guildhall, Blackwell Hall,
part of Leadenhall, half the Exchange, the Session House, the
Compter, the prisons of Ludgate, Newgate, &c., several of the wharfs
and stairs and landing-places on the river; all which were either
burned down or damaged by the great fire of London, the next year
after the plague; and of the second sort, the Monument, Fleet Ditch
with its bridges, and the Hospital of Bethlem or Bedlam, &c. But
possibly the managers of the city's credit at that time made more
conscience of breaking in upon the orphan's money to show charity to
the distressed citizens than the managers in the following years did to
beautify the city and re-edify the buildings; though, in the first case,
the losers would have thought their fortunes better bestowed, and the
public faith of the city have been less subjected to scandal and reproach.
It must be acknowledged that the absent citizens, who, though they
were fled for safety into the country, were yet greatly interested in the
welfare of those whom they left behind, forgot not to contribute
liberally to the relief of the poor, and large sums were also collected
among trading towns in the remotest parts of England; and, as I have
heard also, the nobility and the gentry in all parts of England took the
deplorable condition of the city into their consideration, and sent up
large sums of money in charity to the Lord Mayor and magistrates for
the relief of the poor. The king also, as I was told, ordered a thousand
pounds a week to be distributed in four parts: one quarter to the city
and liberty of Westminster; one quarter or part among the inhabitants
of the Southwark side of the water; one quarter to the liberty and parts
within of the city, exclusive of the city within the walls; and one-
fourth part to the suburbs in the county of Middlesex, and the east and
north parts of the city. But this latter I only speak of as a report.
Certain it is, the greatest part of the poor or families who formerly
lived by their labour, or by retail trade, lived now on charity; and had
there not been prodigious sums of money given by charitable, well-
minded Christians for the support of such, the city could never have
subsisted. There were, no question, accounts kept of their charity, and
of the just distribution of it by the magistrates. But as such multitudes
of those very officers died through whose hands it was distributed,
and also that, as I have been told, most of the accounts of those things
were lost in the great fire which happened in the very next year, and
which burnt even the chamberlain's office and many of their papers,
so I could never come at the particular account, which I used great
endeavours to have seen.
It may, however, be a direction in case of the approach of a like
visitation, which God keep the city from; - I say, it may be of use to
observe that by the care of the Lord Mayor and aldermen at that time
in distributing weekly great sums of money for relief of the poor, a
multitude of people who would otherwise have perished, were
relieved, and their lives preserved. And here let me enter into a brief
state of the case of the poor at that time, and what way apprehended
from them, from whence may be judged hereafter what may be
expected if the like distress should come upon the city.
At the beginning of the plague, when there was now no more hope
but that the whole city would be visited; when, as I have said, all that
had friends or estates in the country retired with their families;
and when, indeed, one would have thought the very city itself was
running out of the gates, and that there would be nobody left behind;
you may be sure from that hour all trade, except such as related to
immediate subsistence, was, as it were, at a full stop.
This is so lively a case, and contains in it so much of the real
condition of the people, that I think I cannot be too particular in it,
and therefore I descend to the several arrangements or classes of
people who fell into immediate distress upon this occasion. For example:
1. All master-workmen in manufactures, especially such as belonged
to ornament and the less necessary parts of the people's dress, clothes,
and furniture for houses, such as riband-weavers and other weavers,
gold and silver lace makers, and gold and silver wire drawers,
sempstresses, milliners, shoemakers, hatmakers, and glovemakers;
also upholsterers, joiners, cabinet-makers, looking-glass makers, and
innumerable trades which depend upon such as these; - I say, the
master-workmen in such stopped their work, dismissed their
journeymen and workmen, and all their dependents.
2. As merchandising was at a full stop, for very few ships ventured to
come up the river and none at all went out, so all the extraordinary
officers of the customs, likewise the watermen, carmen, porters, and
all the poor whose labour depended upon the merchants, were at once
dismissed and put out of business.
3. All the tradesmen usually employed in building or repairing of
houses were at a full stop, for the people were far from wanting to
build houses when so many thousand houses were at once stripped of
their inhabitants; so that this one article turned all the ordinary
workmen of that kind out of business, such as bricklayers, masons,
carpenters, joiners, plasterers, painters, glaziers, smiths, plumbers, and
all the labourers depending on such.
4. As navigation was at a stop, our ships neither coming in or going
out as before, so the seamen were all out of employment, and many of
them in the last and lowest degree of distress; and with the seamen
were all the several tradesmen and workmen belonging to and
depending upon the building and fitting out of ships, such as ship-
carpenters, caulkers, ropemakers, dry coopers, sailmakers,
anchorsmiths, and other smiths; blockmakers, carvers, gunsmiths,
ship-chandlers, ship-carvers, and the like. The masters of those
perhaps might live upon their substance, but the traders were
universally at a stop, and consequently all their workmen discharged.
Add to these that the river was in a manner without boats, and all or
most part of the watermen, lightermen, boat-builders, and lighter-
builders in like manner idle and laid by.
5. All families retrenched their living as much as possible, as well
those that fled as those that stayed; so that an innumerable multitude
of footmen, serving-men, shopkeepers, journeymen, merchants'
bookkeepers, and such sort of people, and especially poor maid-
servants, were turned off, and left friendless and helpless, without
employment and without habitation, and this was really a dismal article.
I might be more particular as to this part, but it may suffice to
mention in general, all trades being stopped, employment ceased: the
labour, and by that the bread, of the poor were cut off; and at first
indeed the cries of the poor were most lamentable to hear, though by
the distribution of charity their misery that way was greatly abated.
Many indeed fled into the counties, but thousands of them having
stayed in London till nothing but desperation sent them away, death
overtook them on the road, and they served for no better than the
messengers of death; indeed, others carrying the infection along with
them, spread it very unhappily into the remotest parts of the kingdom.
Many of these were the miserable objects of despair which I have
mentioned before, and were removed by the destruction which
followed. These might be said to perish not by the infection itself but
by the consequence of it; indeed, namely, by hunger and distress and
the want of all things: being without lodging, without money, without
friends, without means to get their bread, or without anyone to give it
them; for many of them were without what we call legal settlements,
and so could not claim of the parishes, and all the support they had
was by application to the magistrates for relief, which relief was (to
give the magistrates their due) carefully and cheerfully administered
as they found it necessary, and those that stayed behind never felt the
want and distress of that kind which they felt who went away in the
manner above noted.
Let any one who is acquainted with what multitudes of people get
their daily bread in this city by their labour, whether artificers or mere
workmen - I say, let any man consider what must be the miserable
condition of this town if, on a sudden, they should be all turned out of
employment, that labour should cease, and wages for work be no more.
This was the case with us at that time; and had not the sums of
money contributed in charity by well-disposed people of every kind,
as well abroad as at home, been prodigiously great, it had not been in
the power of the Lord Mayor and sheriffs to have kept the public
peace. Nor were they without apprehensions, as it was, that
desperation should push the people upon tumults, and cause them to
rifle the houses of rich men and plunder the markets of provisions; in
which case the country people, who brought provisions very freely
and boldly to town, would have been terrified from coming any more,
and the town would have sunk under an unavoidable famine.
But the prudence of my Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen
within the city, and of the justices of peace in the out-parts, was such,
and they were supported with money from all parts so well, that the
poor people were kept quiet, and their wants everywhere relieved, as
far as was possible to be done.
Two things besides this contributed to prevent the mob doing any
mischief. One was, that really the rich themselves had not laid up
stores of provisions in their houses as indeed they ought to have done,
and which if they had been wise enough to have done, and locked
themselves entirely up, as some few did, they had perhaps escaped the
disease better. But as it appeared they had not, so the mob had no
notion of finding stores of provisions there if they had broken in. as it
is plain they were sometimes very near doing, and which: if they bad,
they had finished the ruin of the whole city, for there were no regular
troops to have withstood them, nor could the trained bands have been
brought together to defend the city, no men being to be found to bear arms.
But the vigilance of the Lord Mayor and such magistrates as could
be had (for some, even of the aldermen, were dead, and some absent)
prevented this; and they did it by the most kind and gentle methods
they could think of, as particularly by relieving the most desperate
with money, and putting others into business, and particularly that
employment of watching houses that were infected and shut up. And
as the number of these were very great (for it was said there was at
one time ten thousand houses shut up, and every house had two
watchmen to guard it, viz., one by night and the other by day), this
gave opportunity to employ a very great number of poor men at a
time.
The women and servants that were turned off from their places were
likewise employed as nurses to tend the sick in all places, and this
took off a very great number of them.
And, which though a melancholy article in itself, yet was a
deliverance in its kind: namely, the plague, which raged in a dreadful
manner from the middle of August to the middle of October, carried
off in that time thirty or forty thousand of these very people which,
had they been left, would certainly have been an insufferable burden
by their poverty; that is to say, the whole city could not have
supported the expense of them, or have provided food for them; and
they would in time have been even driven to the necessity of
plundering either the city itself or the country adjacent, to have
subsisted themselves, which would first or last have put the whole
nation, as well as the city, into the utmost terror and confusion.
It was observable, then, that this calamity of the people made them
very humble; for now for about nine weeks together there died near a
thousand a day, one day with another, even by the account of the
weekly bills, which yet, I have reason to be assured, never gave a full
account, by many thousands; the confusion being such, and the carts
working in the dark when they carried the dead, that in some places
no account at all was kept, but they worked on, the clerks and sextons
not attending for weeks together, and not knowing what number they
carried. This account is verified by the following bills of mortality: -
Of all of the
Diseases. Plague
From August 8 to August 15 5319 3880
" " 15 " 22 5568 4237
" " 22 " 29 7496 6102
" " 29 to September 5 8252 6988
" September 5 " 12 7690 6544
" " 12 " 19 8297 7165
" " 19 " 26 6460 5533
" " 26 to October 3 5720 4979
" October 3 " 10 5068 4327
----- -----
59,870 49,705
So that the gross of the people were carried off in these two months;
for, as the whole number which was brought in to die of the plague
was but 68,590, here is 50,000 of them, within a trifle, in two months;
I say 50,000, because, as there wants 295 in the number above, so
there wants two days of two months in the account of time.
Now when I say that the parish officers did not give in a full
account, or were not to be depended upon for their account, let any
one but consider how men could be exact in such a time of dreadful
distress, and when many of them were taken sick themselves and
perhaps died in the very time when their accounts were to be given in;
I mean the parish clerks, besides inferior officers; for though these
poor men ventured at all hazards, yet they were far from being exempt
from the common calamity, especially if it be true that the parish of
Stepney had, within the year, 116 sextons, gravediggers, and their
assistants; that is to say, bearers, bellmen, and drivers of carts for
carrying off the dead bodies.
Indeed the work was not of a nature to allow them leisure to take an
exact tale of the dead bodies, which were all huddled together in the
dark into a pit; which pit or trench no man could come nigh but at the
utmost peril. I observed often that in the parishes of Aldgate and
Cripplegate, Whitechappel and Stepney, there were five, six, seven, and
eight hundred in a week in the bills; whereas if we may believe the
opinion of those that lived in the city all the time as well as I, there
died sometimes 2000 a week in those parishes; and I saw it under the
hand of one that made as strict an examination into that part as he
could, that there really died an hundred thousand people of the plague
in that one year whereas in the bills, the articles of the plague, it was
but 68,590.
If I may be allowed to give my opinion, by what I saw with my eyes
and heard from other people that were eye-witnesses, I do verily
believe the same, viz., that there died at least 100,000 of the plague
only, besides other distempers and besides those which died in the
fields and highways and secret Places out of the compass of the
communication, as it was called, and who were not put down in the
bills though they really belonged to the body of the inhabitants. It was
known to us all that abundance of poor despairing creatures who had
the distemper upon them, and were grown stupid or melancholy by
their misery, as many were, wandered away into the fields and Woods,
and into secret uncouth places almost anywhere, to creep into a bush
or hedge and die.
The inhabitants of the villages adjacent would, in pity, carry them
food and set it at a distance, that they might fetch it, if they were able;
and sometimes they were not able, and the next time they went they
should find the poor wretches lie dead and the food untouched. The
number of these miserable objects were many, and I know so many
that perished thus, and so exactly where, that I believe I could go to
the very place and dig their bones up still; for the country people
would go and dig a hole at a distance from them, and then with long
poles, and hooks at the end of them, drag the bodies into these pits,
and then throw the earth in from as far as they could cast it, to cover
them, taking notice how the wind blew, and so coming on that side
which the seamen call to windward, that the scent of the bodies might
blow from them; and thus great numbers went out of the world who
were never known, or any account of them taken, as well within the
bills of mortality as without.
This, indeed, I had in the main only from the relation of others, for I
seldom walked into the fields, except towards Bethnal Green and
Hackney, or as hereafter. But when I did walk, I always saw a great
many poor wanderers at a distance; but I could know little of their
cases, for whether it were in the street or in the fields, if we had seen
anybody coming, it was a general method to walk away; yet I believe
the account is exactly true.
As this puts me upon mentioning my walking the streets and fields, I
cannot omit taking notice what a desolate place the city was at that
time. The great street I lived in (which is known to be one of the
broadest of all the streets of London, I mean of the suburbs as well as
the liberties) all the side where the butchers lived, especially without
the bars, was more like a green field than a paved street, and the
people generally went in the middle with the horses and carts. It is
true that the farthest end towards Whitechappel Church was not all
paved, but even the part that was paved was full of grass also; but this
need not seem strange, since the great streets within the city, such as
Leadenhall Street, Bishopsgate Street, Cornhill, and even the
Exchange itself, had grass growing in them in several places; neither
cart or coach were seen in the streets from morning to evening, except
some country carts to bring roots and beans, or peas, hay, and straw,
to the market, and those but very few compared to what was usual.
As for coaches, they were scarce used but to carry sick people to the
pest-house, and to other hospitals, and some few to carry physicians to
such places as they thought fit to venture to visit; for really coaches
were dangerous things, and people did not care to venture into them,
because they did not know who might have been carried in them last,
and sick, infected people were, as I have said, ordinarily carried in
them to the pest-houses, and sometimes people expired in them as
they went along.
It is true, when the infection came to such a height as I have now
mentioned, there were very few physicians which cared to stir abroad
to sick houses, and very many of the most eminent of the faculty were
dead, as well as the surgeons also; for now it was indeed a dismal
time, and for about a month together, not taking any notice of the bills
of mortality, I believe there did not die less than 1500 or 1700 a day,
one day with another.
One of the worst days we had in the whole time, as I thought, was in
the beginning of September, when, indeed, good people began to
think that God was resolved to make a full end of the people in this
miserable city. This was at that time when the plague was fully come
into the eastern parishes. The parish of Aldgate, if I may give my
opinion, buried above a thousand a week for two weeks, though the
bills did not say so many; - but it surrounded me at so dismal a rate
that there was not a house in twenty uninfected in the Minories, in
Houndsditch, and in those parts of Aldgate parish about the Butcher
Row and the alleys over against me. I say, in those places death
reigned in every corner. Whitechappel parish was in the same
condition, and though much less than the parish I lived in, yet buried
near 600 a week by the bills, and in my opinion near twice as many.
Whole families, and indeed whole streets of families, were swept
away together; insomuch that it was frequent for neighbours to call to
the bellman to go to such-and-such houses and fetch out the people,
for that they were all dead.
And, indeed, the work of removing the dead bodies by carts was
now grown so very odious and dangerous that it was complained of
that the bearers did not take care to dear such houses where all the
inhabitants were dead, but that sometimes the bodies lay several days
unburied, till the neighbouring families were offended with the
stench, and consequently infected; and this neglect of the officers was
such that the churchwardens and constables were summoned to look
after it, and even the justices of the Hamlets were obliged to venture
their lives among them to quicken and encourage them, for
innumerable of the bearers died of the distemper, infected by the
bodies they were obliged to come so near. And had it not been that
the number of poor people who wanted employment and wanted
bread (as I have said before) was so great that necessity drove them to
undertake anything and venture anything, they would never have
found people to be employed. And then the bodies of the dead would
have lain above ground, and have perished and rotted in a dreadful manner.
But the magistrates cannot be enough commended in this, that they
kept such good order for the burying of the dead, that as fast as any of
these they employed to carry off and bury the dead fell sick or died, as
was many times the case, they immediately supplied the places with
others, which, by reason of the great number of poor that was left out
of business, as above, was not hard to do. This occasioned, that
notwithstanding the infinite number of people which died and were
sick, almost all together, yet they were always cleared away and
carried off every night, so that it was never to be said of London that
the living were not able to bury the dead.
As the desolation was greater during those terrible times, so the
amazement of the people increased, and a thousand unaccountable
things they would do in the violence of their fright, as others did the
same in the agonies of their distemper, and this part was very
affecting. Some went roaring and crying and wringing their hands
along the street; some would go praying and lifting up their hands to
heaven, calling upon God for mercy. I cannot say, indeed, whether
this was not in their distraction, but, be it so, it was still an indication
of a more serious mind, when they had the use of their senses, and
was much better, even as it was, than the frightful yellings and cryings
that every day, and especially in the evenings, were heard in some
streets. I suppose the world has heard of the famous Solomon Eagle,
an enthusiast. He, though not infected at all but in his head, went
about denouncing of judgement upon the city in a frightful manner,
sometimes quite naked, and with a pan of burning charcoal on his
head. What he said, or pretended, indeed I could not learn.
I will not say whether that clergyman was distracted or not, or
whether he did it in pure zeal for the poor people, who went every
evening through the streets of Whitechappel, and, with his hands lifted
up, repeated that part of the Liturgy of the Church continually, 'Spare
us, good Lord; spare Thy people, whom Thou has redeemed with Thy
most precious blood.' I say, I cannot speak positively of these things,
because these were only the dismal objects which represented
themselves to me as I looked through my chamber windows (for I
seldom opened the casements), while I confined myself within doors
during that most violent raging of the pestilence; when, indeed, as I
have said, many began to think, and even to say, that there would
none escape; and indeed I began to think so too, and therefore kept
within doors for about a fortnight and never stirred out. But I could
not hold it. Besides, there were some people who, notwithstanding
the danger, did not omit publicly to attend the worship of God, even in
the most dangerous times; and though it is true that a great many
clergymen did shut up their churches, and fled, as other people did,
for the safety of their lives, yet all did not do so. Some ventured to
officiate and to keep up the assemblies of the people by constant
prayers, and sometimes sermons or brief exhortations to repentance
and reformation, and this as long as any would come to hear them.
And Dissenters did the like also, and even in the very churches where
the parish ministers were either dead or fled; nor was there any room
for making difference at such a time as this was.
It was indeed a lamentable thing to hear the miserable lamentations
of poor dying creatures calling out for ministers to comfort them and
pray with them, to counsel them and to direct them, calling out to God
for pardon and mercy, and confessing aloud their past sins. It would
make the stoutest heart bleed to hear how many warnings were then
given by dying penitents to others not to put off and delay their
repentance to the day of distress; that such a time of calamity as this
was no time for repentance, was no time to call upon God. I wish I
could repeat the very sound of those groans and of those exclamations
that I heard from some poor dying creatures when in the height of
their agonies and distress, and that I could make him that reads this
hear, as I imagine I now hear them, for the sound seems still to ring in
my ears.
If I could but tell this part in such moving accents as should alarm
the very soul of the reader, I should rejoice that I recorded those
things, however short and imperfect.
It pleased God that I was still spared, and very hearty and sound in
health, but very impatient of being pent up within doors without air,
as I had been for fourteen days or thereabouts; and I could not restrain
myself, but I would go to carry a letter for my brother to the post-
house. Then it was indeed that I observed a profound silence in the
streets. When I came to the post-house, as I went to put in my letter I
saw a man stand in one corner of the yard and talking to another at a
window, and a third had opened a door belonging to the office. In the
middle of the yard lay a small leather purse with two keys hanging at
it, with money in it, but nobody would meddle with it. I asked how
long it had lain there; the man at the window said it had lain almost an
hour, but that they had not meddled with it, because they did not know
but the person who dropped it might come back to look for it. I had
no such need of money, nor was the sum so big that I had any
inclination to meddle with it, or to get the money at the hazard it
might be attended with; so I seemed to go away, when the man who
had opened the door said he would take it up, but so that if the right
owner came for it he should be sure to have it. So he went in and
fetched a pail of water and set it down hard by the purse, then went
again and fetch some gunpowder, and cast a good deal of powder
upon the purse, and then made a train from that which he had thrown
loose upon the purse. The train reached about two yards. After this
he goes in a third time and fetches out a pair of tongs red hot, and
which he had prepared, I suppose, on purpose; and first setting fire to
the train of powder, that singed the purse and also smoked the air
sufficiently. But he was not content with that, but he then takes up the
purse with the tongs, holding it so long till the tongs burnt through the
purse, and then he shook the money out into the pail of water, so he
carried it in. The money, as I remember, was about thirteen shilling
and some smooth groats and brass farthings.
There might perhaps have been several poor people, as I have
observed above, that would have been hardy enough to have ventured
for the sake of the money; but you may easily see by what I have
observed that the few people who were spared were very careful of
themselves at that time when the distress was so exceeding great.
Much about the same time I walked out into the fields towards Bow;
for I had a great mind to see how things were managed in the river
and among the ships; and as I had some concern in shipping, I had a
notion that it had been one of the best ways of securing one's self from
the infection to have retired into a ship; and musing how to satisfy my
curiosity in that point, I turned away over the fields from Bow to
Bromley, and down to Blackwall to the stairs which are there for
landing or taking water.
Here I saw a poor man walking on the bank, or sea-wall, as they call
it, by himself. I walked a while also about, seeing the houses all shut
up. At last I fell into some talk, at a distance, with this poor man; first
I asked him how people did thereabouts. 'Alas, sir!' says he, 'almost
desolate; all dead or sick. Here are very few families in this part, or in
that village' (pointing at Poplar), 'where half of them are not dead
already, and the rest sick.' Then he pointing to one house, 'There they
are all dead', said he, 'and the house stands open; nobody dares go into
it. A poor thief', says he, 'ventured in to steal something, but he paid
dear for his theft, for he was carried to the churchyard too last night.'
Then he pointed to several other houses. 'There', says he. 'they are all
dead, the man and his wife, and five children. There', says he, 'they
are shut up; you see a watchman at the door'; and so of other houses.
'Why,' says I, 'what do you here all alone? ' 'Why,' says he, 'I am a
poor, desolate man; it has pleased God I am not yet visited, though my
family is, and one of my children dead.' 'How do you mean, then,' said
I, 'that you are not visited?' 'Why,' says he, 'that's my house' (pointing
to a very little, low-boarded house), 'and there my poor wife and two
children live,' said he, 'if they may be said to live, for my wife and one
of the children are visited, but I do not come at them.' And with that
word I saw the tears run very plentifully down his face; and so they
did down mine too, I assure you.
'But,' said I, 'why do you not come at them? How can you abandon
your own flesh and blood?' 'Oh, sir,' says he, 'the Lord forbid! I do not
abandon them; I work for them as much as I am able; and, blessed be
the Lord, I keep them from want'; and with that I observed he lifted up
his eyes to heaven, with a countenance that presently told me I had
happened on a man that was no hypocrite, but a serious, religious,
good man, and his ejaculation was an expression of thankfulness that,
in such a condition as he was in, he should be able to say his family
did not want. 'Well,' says I, 'honest man, that is a great mercy as
things go now with the poor. But how do you live, then, and how are
you kept from the dreadful calamity that is now upon us all?' 'Why,
sir,' says he, 'I am a waterman, and there's my boat,' says he, 'and the
boat serves me for a house. I work in it in the day, and I sleep in it in
the night; and what I get I lay down upon that stone,' says he, showing
me a broad stone on the other side of the street, a good way from his
house; 'and then,' says he, 'I halloo, and call to them till I make them
hear; and they come and fetch it.'
'Well, friend,' says I, 'but how can you get any money as a
waterman? Does an body go by water these times?' 'Yes, sir,' says he,
'in the way I am employed there does. Do you see there,' says he, 'five
ships lie at anchor' (pointing down the river a good way below the
town), 'and do you see', says he, 'eight or ten ships lie at the chain
there, and at anchor yonder?' pointing above the town). 'All those
ships have families on board, of their merchants and owners, and
such-like, who have locked themselves up and live on board, close
shut in, for fear of the infection; and I tend on them to fetch things for
them, carry letters, and do what is absolutely necessary, that they may
not be obliged to come on shore; and every night I fasten my boat on
board one of the ship's boats, and there I sleep by myself, and, blessed
be God, I am preserved hitherto.'
'Well,' said I, 'friend, but will they let you come on board after you
have been on shore here, when this is such a terrible place, and so
infected as it is?'
'Why, as to that,' said he, 'I very seldom go up the ship-side, but
deliver what I bring to their boat, or lie by the side, and they hoist it
on board. If I did, I think they are in no danger from me, for I never
go into any house on shore, or touch anybody, no, not of my own
family; but I fetch provisions for them.'
'Nay,' says I, 'but that may be worse, for you must have those
provisions of somebody or other; and since all this part of the town is
so infected, it is dangerous so much as to speak with anybody, for the
village', said I, 'is, as it were, the beginning of London, though it be at
some distance from it.'
'That is true,' added he; 'but you do not understand me right; I do not
buy provisions for them here. I row up to Greenwich and buy fresh
meat there, and sometimes I row down the river to Woolwich and buy
there; then I go to single farm-houses on the Kentish side, where I am
known, and buy fowls and eggs and butter, and bring to the ships, as
they direct me, sometimes one, sometimes the other. I seldom come
on shore here, and I came now only to call on my wife and hear how
my family do, and give them a little money, which I received last night.'
'Poor man!' said I; 'and how much hast thou gotten for them?'
'I have gotten four shillings,' said he, 'which is a great sum, as things
go now with poor men; but they have given me a bag of bread too, and
a salt fish and some flesh; so all helps out.' 'Well,' said I, 'and have you
given it them yet?'
'No,' said he; 'but I have called, and my wife has answered that she
cannot come out yet, but in half-an-hour she hopes to come, and I am
waiting for her. Poor woman!' says he, 'she is brought sadly down.
She has a swelling, and it is broke, and I hope she will recover; but I
fear the child will die, but it is the Lord - '
Here he stopped, and wept very much.
'Well, honest friend,' said I, 'thou hast a sure Comforter, if thou hast
brought thyself to be resigned to the will of God; He is dealing with us
all in judgement.'
'Oh, sir!' says he, 'it is infinite mercy if any of us are spared, and
who am I to repine!'
'Sayest thou so?' said I, 'and how much less is my faith than thine?'
And here my heart smote me, suggesting how much better this poor
man's foundation was on which he stayed in the danger than mine;
that he had nowhere to fly; that he had a family to bind him to
attendance, which I had not; and mine was mere presumption, his a
true dependence and a courage resting on God; and yet that he used all
possible caution for his safety.
I turned a little way from the man while these thoughts engaged me,
for, indeed, I could no more refrain from tears than he.
At length, after some further talk, the poor woman opened the door
and called, 'Robert, Robert'. He answered, and bid her stay a few
moments and he would come; so he ran down the common stairs to
his boat and fetched up a sack, in which was the provisions he had
brought from the ships; and when he returned he hallooed again.
Then he went to the great stone which he showed me and emptied the
sack, and laid all out, everything by themselves, and then retired; and
his wife came with a little boy to fetch them away, and called and said
such a captain had sent such a thing, and such a captain such a thing,
and at the end adds, 'God has sent it all; give thanks to Him.' When the
poor woman had taken up all, she was so weak she could not carry it
at once in, though the weight was not much neither; so she left the
biscuit, which was in a little bag, and left a little boy to watch it till
she came again.
'Well, but', says I to him, 'did you leave her the four shillings too,
which you said was your week's pay?'
'Yes, yes,' says he; 'you shall hear her own it.' So he calls again,
'Rachel, Rachel,' which it seems was her name, 'did you take up the
money?' 'Yes,' said she. 'How much was it?' said he. 'Four shillings
and a groat,' said she. 'Well, well,' says he, 'the Lord keep you all'; and
so he turned to go away.
As I could not refrain contributing tears to this man's story, so
neither could I refrain my charity for his assistance. So I called him,
'Hark thee, friend,' said I, 'come hither, for I believe thou art in health,
that I may venture thee'; so I pulled out my hand, which was in my
pocket before, 'Here,' says I, 'go and call thy Rachel once more, and
give her a little more comfort from me. God will never forsake a
family that trust in Him as thou dost.' So I gave him four other
shillings, and bid him go lay them on the stone and call his wife.
I have not words to express the poor man's thankfulness, neither
could he express it himself but by tears running down his face.
He called his wife, and told her God had moved the heart of a stranger,
upon hearing their condition, to give them all that money, and a great
deal more such as that he said to her. The woman, too, made signs of the
like thankfulness, as well to Heaven as to me, and joyfully picked it up;
and I parted with no money all that year that I thought better bestowed.
I then asked the poor man if the distemper had not reached to
Greenwich. He said it had not till about a fortnight before; but that
then he feared it had, but that it was only at that end of the town
which lay south towards Deptford Bridge; that he went only to a
butcher's shop and a grocer's, where he generally bought such things
as they sent him for, but was very careful.
I asked him then how it came to pass that those people who had so
shut themselves up in the ships had not laid in sufficient stores of all
things necessary. He said some of them had - but, on the other hand,
some did not come on board till they were frighted into it and till it
was too dangerous for them to go to the proper people to lay in
quantities of things, and that he waited on two ships, which he showed
me, that had laid in little or nothing but biscuit bread and ship beer,
and that he had bought everything else almost for them. I asked him
if there was any more ships that had separated themselves as those
had done. He told me yes, all the way up from the point, right against
Greenwich, to within the shore of Limehouse and Redriff, all the ships
that could have room rid two and two in the middle of the stream, and
that some of them had several families on board. I asked him if the
distemper had not reached them. He said he believed it had not,
except two or three ships whose people had not been so watchful to
keep the seamen from going on shore as others had been, and he said
it was a very fine sight to see how the ships lay up the Pool.
When he said he was going over to Greenwich as soon as the tide
began to come in, I asked if he would let me go with him and bring
me back, for that I had a great mind to see how the ships were ranged,
as he had told me. He told me, if I would assure him on the word of a
Christian and of an honest man that I had not the distemper, he would.
I assured him that I had not; that it had pleased God to preserve me;
that I lived in Whitechappel, but was too impatient of being so long
within doors, and that I had ventured out so far for the refreshment
of a little air, but that none in my house had so much as been touched
with it.
Well, sir,' says he, 'as your charity has been moved to pity me and
my poor family, sure you cannot have so little pity left as to put
yourself into my boat if you were not sound in health which would be
nothing less than killing me and ruining my whole family.' The poor
man troubled me so much when he spoke of his family with such a
sensible concern and in such an affectionate manner, that I could not
satisfy myself at first to go at all. I told him I would lay aside my
curiosity rather than make him uneasy, though I was sure, and very
thankful for it, that I had no more distemper upon me than the freshest
man in the world. Well, he would not have me put it off neither, but
to let me see how confident he was that I was just to him, now
importuned me to go; so when the tide came up to his boat I went in,
and he carried me to Greenwich. While he bought the things which
he had in his charge to buy, I walked up to the top of the hill under
which the town stands, and on the east side of the town, to get a
prospect of the river. But it was a surprising sight to see the number
of ships which lay in rows, two and two, and some places two or three
such lines in the breadth of the river, and this not only up quite to the
town, between the houses which we call Ratcliff and Redriff, which
they name the Pool, but even down the whole river as far as the head
of Long Reach, which is as far as the hills give us leave to see it.
I cannot guess at the number of ships, but I think there must be
several hundreds of sail; and I could not but applaud the contrivance:
for ten thousand people and more who attended ship affairs were
certainly sheltered here from the violence of the contagion, and lived
very safe and very easy.
I returned to my own dwelling very well satisfied with my day's
journey, and particularly with the poor man; also I rejoiced to see that
such little sanctuaries were provided for so many families in a time of
such desolation. I observed also that, as the violence of the plague
had increased, so the ships which had families on board removed and
went farther off, till, as I was told, some went quite away to sea, and
put into such harbours and safe roads on the north coast as they could
best come at.
But it was also true that all the people who thus left the land and
lived on board the ships were not entirely safe from the infection, for
many died and were thrown overboard into the river, some in coffins,
and some, as I heard, without coffins, whose bodies were seen
sometimes to drive up and down with the tide in the river.
But I believe I may venture to say that in those ships which were
thus infected it either happened where the people had recourse to
them too late, and did not fly to the ship till they had stayed too long
on shore and had the distemper upon them (though perhaps they might
not perceive it) and so the distemper did not come to them on board
the ships, but they really carried it with them; or it was in these ships
where the poor waterman said they had not had time to furnish
themselves with provisions, but were obliged to send often on shore to
buy what they had occasion for, or suffered boats to come to them
from the shore. And so the distemper was brought insensibly among them.
And here I cannot but take notice that the strange temper of the
people of London at that time contributed extremely to their own
destruction. The plague began, as I have observed, at the other end of
the town, namely, in Long Acre, Drury Lane, &c., and came on
towards the city very gradually and slowly. It was felt at first in
December, then again in February, then again in April, and always but
a very little at a time; then it stopped till May, and even the last week
in May there was but seventeen, and all at that end of the town; and
all this while, even so long as till there died above 3000 a week, yet
had the people in Redriff, and in Wapping and Ratcliff, on both sides
of the river, and almost all Southwark side, a mighty fancy that they
should not be visited, or at least that it would not be so violent among
them. Some people fancied the smell of the pitch and tar, and such
other things as oil and rosin and brimstone, which is so much used by
all trades relating to shipping, would preserve them. Others argued it,
because it was in its extreamest violence in Westminster and the
parish of St Giles and St Andrew, &c., and began to abate again
before it came among them - which was true indeed, in part. For
example -
From the 8th to the 15th August -
St Giles-in-the-Fields 242
Cripplegate 886
Stepney 197
St Margaret, Bermondsey 24
Rotherhith 3
Total this week 4030
From the 15th to the 22nd August -
St Giles-in-the-Fields 175
Cripplegate 847
Stepney 273
St Margaret, Bermondsey 36
Rotherhith 2
Total this week 5319
N.B. - That it was observed the numbers mentioned in Stepney
parish at that time were generally all on that side where Stepney
parish joined to Shoreditch, which we now call Spittlefields, where
the parish of Stepney comes up to the very wall of Shoreditch
Churchyard, and the plague at this time was abated at St Giles-in-the-
Fields, and raged most violently in Cripplegate, Bishopsgate, and
Shoreditch parishes; but there was not ten people a week that died of
it in all that part of Stepney parish which takes in Limehouse, Ratdiff
Highway, and which are now the parishes of Shadwell and Wapping,
even to St Katherine's by the Tower, till after the whole month of
August was expired. But they paid for it afterwards, as I shall observe
by-and-by.
This, I say, made the people of Redriff and Wapping, Ratcliff and
Limehouse, so secure, and flatter themselves so much with the
plague's going off without reaching them, that they took no care either
to fly into the country or shut themselves up. Nay, so far were they
from stirring that they rather received their friends and relations from
the city into their houses, and several from other places really took
sanctuary in that part of the town as a Place of safety, and as a place
which they thought God would pass over, and not visit as the rest was
visited.
And this was the reason that when it came upon -them they were
more surprised, more unprovided, and more at a loss what to do than
they were in other places; for when it came among them really and
with violence, as it did indeed in September and October, there was
then no stirring out into the country, nobody would suffer a stranger to
come near them, no, nor near the towns where they dwelt; and, as I
have been told, several that wandered into the country on Surrey side
were found starved to death in the woods and commons, that country
being more open and more woody than any other part so near London,
especially about Norwood and the parishes of Camberwell, Dullege,
and Lusum, where, it seems, nobody durst relieve the poor distressed
people for fear of the infection.
This notion having, as I said, prevailed with the people in that part
of the town, was in part the occasion, as I said before, that they had
recourse to ships for their retreat; and where they did this early and
with prudence, furnishing themselves so with provisions that they had
no need to go on shore for supplies or suffer boats to come on board
to bring them, - I say, where they did so they had certainly the safest
retreat of any people whatsoever; but the distress was such that people
ran on board, in their fright, without bread to eat, and some into ships
that had no men on board to remove them farther off, or to take the
boat and go down the river to buy provisions where it might be done
safely, and these often suffered and were infected on board as much as
on shore.
As the richer sort got into ships, so the lower rank got into hoys,
smacks, lighters, and fishing-boats; and many, especially watermen,
lay in their boats; but those made sad work of it, especially the latter,
for, going about for provision, and perhaps to get their subsistence, the
infection got in among them and made a fearful havoc; many of the
watermen died alone in their wherries as they rid at their roads, as
well as above bridge as below, and were not found sometimes till they
were not in condition for anybody to touch or come near them.
Indeed, the distress of the people at this seafaring end of the town
was very deplorable, and deserved the greatest commiseration. But,
alas I this was a time when every one's private safety lay so near them
that they had no room to pity the distresses of others; for every one
had death, as it were, at his door, and many even in their families, and
knew not what to do or whither to fly.
This, I say, took away all compassion; self-preservation, indeed,
appeared here to be the first law. For the children ran away from their
parents as they languished in the utmost distress. And in some places,
though not so frequent as the other, parents did the like to their
children; nay, some dreadful examples there were, and particularly
two in one week, of distressed mothers, raving and distracted, killing
their own children; one whereof was not far off from where I dwelt,
the poor lunatic creature not living herself long enough to be sensible
of the sin of what she had done, much less to be punished for it.
It is not, indeed, to be wondered at: for the danger of immediate
death to ourselves took away all bowels of love, all concern for one
another. I speak in general, for there were many instances of
immovable affection, pity, and duty in many, and some that came to
my knowledge, that is to say, by hearsay; for I shall not take upon me
to vouch the truth of the particulars.
To introduce one, let me first mention that one of the most
deplorable cases in all the present calamity was that of women with
child, who, when they came to the hour of their sorrows, and their
pains come upon them, could neither have help of one kind or
another; neither midwife or neighbouring women to come near them.
Most of the midwives were dead, especially of such as served the
poor; and many, if not all the midwives of note, were fled into the
country; so that it was next to impossible for a poor woman that could
not pay an immoderate price to get any midwife to come to her - and
if they did, those they could get were generally unskilful and ignorant
creatures; and the consequence of this was that a most unusual and
incredible number of women were reduced to the utmost distress.
Some were delivered and spoiled by the rashness and ignorance of
those who pretended to lay them. Children without number were, I
might say, murdered by the same but a more justifiable ignorance:
pretending they would save the mother, whatever became of the child;
and many times both mother and child were lost in the same manner;
and especially where the mother had the distemper, there nobody
would come near them and both sometimes perished. Sometimes the
mother has died of the plague, and the infant, it may be, half born, or
born but not parted from the mother. Some died in the very pains of
their travail, and not delivered at all; and so many were the cases of
this kind that it is hard to judge of them.
Something of it will appear in the unusual numbers which are put
into the weekly bills (though I am far from allowing them to be able
to give anything of a full account) under the articles of -
Child-bed.
Abortive and Still-born.
Christmas and Infants.
Take the weeks in which the plague was most violent, and compare
them with the weeks before the distemper began, even in the same
year. For example: -
Child-bed. Abortive. Still-born.
From January 3 to January 10 7 1 13
" " 10 " 17 8 6 11
" " 17 " 24 9 5 15
" " 24 " 31 3 2 9
" " 31 to February 7 3 3 8
" February7 " 14 6 2 11
" " 14 " 21 5 2 13
" " 21 " 28 2 2 10
" " 28 to March 7 5 1 10
--- --- ----
48 24 100
From August 1 to August 8 25 5 11
" " 8 " 15 23 6 8
" " 15 " 22 28 4 4
" " 22 " 29 40 6 10
" " 29 to September 5 38 2 11
September 5 " 12 39 23 ...
" " 12 " 19 42 5 17
" " 19 " 26 42 6 10
" " 26 to October 3 14 4 9
--- -- ---
291 61 80
To the disparity of these numbers it is to be considered and allowed
for, that according to our usual opinion who were then upon the spot,
there were not one-third of the people in the town during the months
of August and September as were in the months of January and
February. In a word, the usual number that used to die of these three
articles, and, as I hear, did die of them the year before, was thus: -
1664. 1665.
Child-bed 189 Child-bed 625
Abortive and still-born 458 Abortive and still-born 617
---- ----
647 1242
This inequality, I say, is exceedingly augmented when the numbers
of people are considered. I pretend not to make any exact calculation
of the numbers of people which were at this time in the city, but I
shall make a probable conjecture at that part by-and-by. What I have
said now is to explain the misery of those poor creatures above; so
that it might well be said, as in the Scripture, Woe be to those who are
with child, and to those which give suck in that day. For, indeed, it
was a woe to them in particular.
I was not conversant in many particular families where these things
happened, but the outcries of the miserable were heard afar off. As to
those who were with child, we have seen some calculation made; 291
women dead in child-bed in nine weeks, out of one-third part of the
number of whom there usually died in that time but eighty-four of the
same disaster. Let the reader calculate the proportion.
There is no room to doubt but the misery of those that gave suck
was in proportion as great. Our bills of mortality could give but little
light in this, yet some it did. There were several more than usual
starved at nurse, but this was nothing. The misery was where they
were, first, starved for want of a nurse, the mother dying and all the
family and the infants found dead by them, merely for want; and, if I
may speak my opinion, I do believe that many hundreds of poor
helpless infants perished in this manner. Secondly, not starved, but
poisoned by the nurse. Nay, even where the mother has been nurse,
and having received the infection, has poisoned, that is, infected the
infant with her milk even before they knew they were infected
themselves; nay, and the infant has died in such a case before the
mother. I cannot but remember to leave this admonition upon record,
if ever such another dreadful visitation should happen in this city, that
all women that are with child or that give suck should be gone, if they
have any possible means, out of the place, because their misery, if
infected, will so much exceed all other people's.
I could tell here dismal stories of living infants being found sucking
the breasts of their mothers, or nurses, after they have been dead of
the plague. Of a mother in the parish where I lived, who, having a
child that was not well, sent for an apothecary to view the child; and
when he came, as the relation goes, was giving the child suck at her
breast, and to all appearance was herself very well; but when the
apothecary came close to her he saw the tokens upon that breast with
which she was suckling the child. He was surprised enough, to be
sure, but, not willing to fright the poor woman too much, he desired
she would give the child into his hand; so he takes the child, and
going to a cradle in the room, lays it in, and opening its cloths, found
the tokens upon the child too, and both died before he could get home
to send a preventive medicine to the father of the child, to whom he
had told their condition. Whether the child infected the nurse-mother
or the mother the child was not certain, but the last most likely.
Likewise of a child brought home to the parents from a nurse that had
died of the plague, yet the tender mother would not refuse to take in
her child, and laid it in her bosom, by which she was infected; and
died with the child in her arms dead also.
It would make the hardest heart move at the instances that were
frequently found of tender mothers tending and watching with their
dear children, and even dying before them, and sometimes taking the
distemper from them and dying, when the child for whom the
affectionate heart had been sacrificed has got over it and escaped.
The like of a tradesman in East Smithfield, whose wife was big with
child of her first child, and fell in labour, having the plague upon her.
He could neither get midwife to assist her or nurse to tend her, and
two servants which he kept fled both from her. He ran from house to
house like one distracted, but could get no help; the utmost he could
get was, that a watchman, who attended at an infected house shut up,
promised to send a nurse in the morning. The poor man, with his
heart broke, went back, assisted his wife what he could, acted the part
of the midwife, brought the child dead into the world, and his wife in
about an hour died in his arms, where he held her dead body fast till
the morning, when the watchman came and brought the nurse as he
had promised; and coming up the stairs (for he had left the door open,
or only latched), they found the man sitting with his dead wife in his
arms, and so overwhelmed with grief that he died in a few hours after
without any sign of the infection upon him, but merely sunk under the
weight of his grief.
I have heard also of some who, on the death of their relations, have
grown stupid with the insupportable sorrow; and of one, in particular,
who was so absolutely overcome with the pressure upon his spirits
that by degrees his head sank into his body, so between his shoulders
that the crown of his head was very little seen above the bone of his
shoulders; and by degrees losing both voice and sense, his face,
looking forward, lay against his collarbone and could not be kept up
any otherwise, unless held up by the hands of other people; and the
poor man never came to himself again, but languished near a year in
that condition, and died. Nor was he ever once seen to lift up his eyes
or to look upon any particular object.
I cannot undertake to give any other than a summary of such
passages as these, because it was not possible to come at the
particulars, where sometimes the whole families where such things
happened were carried off by the distemper. But there were
innumerable cases of this kind which presented to the eye and the ear,
even in passing along the streets, as I have hinted above. Nor is it
easy to give any story of this or that family which there was not divers
parallel stories to be met with of the same kind.
But as I am now talking of the time when the plague raged at the
easternmost part of the town - how for a long time the people of those
parts had flattered themselves that they should escape, and how they
were surprised when it came upon them as it did; for, indeed, it came
upon them like an armed man when it did come; - I say, this brings me
back to the three poor men who wandered from Wapping, not
knowing whither to go or what to do, and whom I mentioned before;
one a biscuit-baker, one a sailmaker, and the other a joiner, all of
Wapping, or there-abouts.
The sleepiness and security of that part, as I have observed, was
such that they not only did not shift for themselves as others did, but
they boasted of being safe, and of safety being with them; and many
people fled out of the city, and out of the infected suburbs, to
Wapping, Ratcliff, Limehouse, Poplar, and such Places, as to Places
of security; and it is not at all unlikely that their doing this helped to
bring the plague that way faster than it might otherwise have come.
For though I am much for people flying away and emptying such a
town as this upon the first appearance of a like visitation, and that all
people who have any possible retreat should make use of it in time
and be gone, yet I must say, when all that will fly are gone, those that
are left and must stand it should stand stock-still where they are, and
not shift from one end of the town or one part of the town to the other;
for that is the bane and mischief of the whole, and they carry the
plague from house to house in their very clothes.
Wherefore were we ordered to kill all the dogs and cats, but because
as they were domestic animals, and are apt to run from house to house
and from street to street, so they are capable of carrying the effluvia or
infectious streams of bodies infected even in their furs and hair? And
therefore it was that, in the beginning of the infection, an order was
published by the Lord Mayor, and by the magistrates, according to the
advice of the physicians, that all the dogs and cats should be
immediately killed, and an officer was appointed for the execution.
It is incredible, if their account is to be depended upon, what a
prodigious number of those creatures were destroyed. I think they
talked of forty thousand dogs, and five times as many cats; few houses
being without a cat, some having several, sometimes five or six in a
house. All possible endeavours were used also to destroy the mice
and rats, especially the latter, by laying ratsbane and other poisons for
them, and a prodigious multitude of them were also destroyed.
I often reflected upon the unprovided condition that the whole body
of the people were in at the first coming of this calamity upon them,
and how it was for want of timely entering into measures and
managements, as well public as private, that all the confusions that
followed were brought upon us, and that such a prodigious number of
people sank in that disaster, which, if proper steps had been taken,
might, Providence concurring, have been avoided, and which, if
posterity think fit, they may take a caution and warning from. But I
shall come to this part again.
I come back to my three men. Their story has a moral in every part
of it, and their whole conduct, and that of some whom they joined
with, is a pattern for all poor men to follow, or women either, if ever
such a time comes again; and if there was no other end in recording it,
I think this a very just one, whether my account be exactly according
to fact or no.
Two of them are said to be brothers, the one an old soldier, but now
a biscuit-maker; the other a lame sailor, but now a sailmaker; the third
a joiner. Says John the biscuit-maker one day to Thomas his brother,
the sailmaker, 'Brother Tom, what will become of us? The plague
grows hot in the city, and increases this way. What shall we do?'
'Truly,' says Thomas, 'I am at a great loss what to do, for I find if it
comes down into Wapping I shall be turned out of my lodging.' And
thus they began to talk of it beforehand.
John. Turned out of your lodging, Tom I If you are, I don't know
who will take you in; for people are so afraid of one another now,
there's no getting a lodging anywhere.
Thomas. Why, the people where I lodge are good, civil people, and
have kindness enough for me too; but they say I go abroad every day
to my work, and it will be dangerous; and they talk of locking
themselves up and letting nobody come near them.
John. Why, they are in the right, to be sure, if they resolve to
venture staying in town.
Thomas. Nay, I might even resolve to stay within doors too, for,
except a suit of sails that my master has in hand, and which I am just
finishing, I am like to get no more work a great while. There's no
trade stirs now. Workmen and servants are turned off everywhere, so
that I might be glad to be locked up too; but I do not see they will be
willing to consent to that, any more than
to the other.
John. Why, what will you do then, brother? And what shall I do?
for I am almost as bad as you. The people where I lodge are all gone
into the country but a maid, and she is to go next week, and to shut the
house quite up, so that I shall be turned adrift to the wide world before
you, and I am resolved to go away too, if I knew but where to go.
Thomas. We were both distracted we did not go away at first; then
we might have travelled anywhere. There's no stirring now; we shall
be starved if we pretend to go out of town. They won't let us have
victuals, no, not for our money, nor let us come into the towns, much
less into their houses.
John. And that which is almost as bad, I have but little money to
help myself with neither.
Thomas. As to that, we might make shift, I have a little, though not
much; but I tell you there's no stirring on the road. I know a couple of
poor honest men in our street have attempted to travel, and at Barnet,
or Whetstone, or thereabouts, the people offered to fire at them if they
pretended to go forward, so they are come back again quite
discouraged.
John. I would have ventured their fire if I had been there. If I had
been denied food for my money they should have seen me take it
before their faces, and if I had tendered money for it they could not
have taken any course with me by law.
Thomas. You talk your old soldier's language, as if you were in the
Low Countries now, but this is a serious thing. The people have good
reason to keep anybody off that they are not satisfied are sound, at
such a time as this, and we must not plunder them.
John. No, brother, you mistake the case, and mistake me too. I
would plunder nobody; but for any town upon the road to deny me
leave to pass through the town in the open highway, and deny me
provisions for my money, is to say the town has a right to starve me to
death, which cannot be true.
Thomas. But they do not deny you liberty to go back again from
whence you came, and therefore they do not starve you.
John. But the next town behind me will, by the same rule, deny me
leave to go back, and so they do starve me between them. Besides,
there is no law to prohibit my travelling wherever I will on the road.
Thomas. But there will be so much difficulty in disputing with
them at every town on the road that it is not for poor men to do it or
undertake it, at such a time as this is especially.
John. Why, brother, our condition at this rate is worse than anybody
else's, for we can neither go away nor stay here. I am of the same
mind with the lepers of Samaria: 'If we stay here we are sure to die', I
mean especially as you and I are stated, without a dwelling-house of
our own, and without lodging in anybody else's. There is no lying in
the street at such a time as this; we had as good go into the dead-cart
at once. Therefore I say, if we stay here we are sure to die, and if we
go away we can but die; I am resolved to be gone.
Thomas. You will go away. Whither will you go, and what can you
do? I would as willingly go away as you, if I knew whither. But we
have no acquaintance, no friends. Here we were born, and here we
must die.
John. Look you, Tom, the whole kingdom is my native country as
well as this town. You may as well say I must not go out of my house
if it is on fire as that I must not go out of the town I was born in when
it is infected with the plague. I was born in England, and have a right
to live in it if I can.
Thomas. But you know every vagrant person may by the laws of
England be taken up, and passed back to their last legal settlement.
John. But how shall they make me vagrant? I desire only to travel
on, upon my lawful occasions.
Thomas. What lawful occasions can we pretend to travel, or rather
wander upon? They will not be put off with words.
John. Is not flying to save our lives a lawful occasion?
And do they not all know that the fact is true?
We cannot be said to dissemble.
Thomas. But suppose they let us pass, whither shall we go?
John. Anywhere, to save our lives; it is time enough to consider that
when we are got out of this town. If I am once out of this dreadful
place, I care not where I go.
Thomas. We shall be driven to great extremities. I know not what
to think of it.
John. Well, Tom, consider of it a little.
This was about the beginning of July; and though the plague was
come forward in the west and north parts of the town, yet all
Wapping, as I have observed before, and Redriff, and Ratdiff, and
Limehouse, and Poplar, in short, Deptford and Greenwich, all both
sides of the river from the Hermitage, and from over against it, quite
down to Blackwall, was entirely free; there had not one person died of
the plague in all Stepney parish, and not one on the south side of
Whitechappel Road, no, not in any parish; and yet the weekly bill was
that very week risen up to 1006.
It was a fortnight after this before the two brothers met again, and
then the case was a little altered, and the' plague was exceedingly
advanced and the number greatly increased; the bill was up at 2785,
and prodigiously increasing, though still both sides of the river, as
below, kept pretty well. But some began to die in Redriff, and about
five or six in Ratdiff Highway, when the sailmaker came to his
brother John express, and in some fright; for he was absolutely
warned out of his lodging, and had only a week to provide himself.
His brother John was in as bad a case, for he was quite out, and had
only begged leave of his master, the biscuit-maker, to lodge in an
outhouse belonging to his workhouse, where he only lay upon straw,
with some biscuit-sacks, or bread-sacks, as they called them, laid
upon it, and some of the same sacks to cover him.
Here they resolved (seeing all employment being at an end, and no
work or wages to be had), they would make the best of their way to
get out of the reach of the dreadful infection, and, being as good
husbands as they could, would endeavour to live upon what they had
as long as it would last, and then work for more if they could get work
anywhere, of any kind, let it be what it would.
While they were considering to put this resolution in practice in the
best manner they could, the third man, who was acquainted very well
with the sailmaker, came to know of the design, and got leave to be
one of the number; and thus they prepared to set out.
It happened that they had not an equal share of money; but as the
sailmaker, who had the best stock, was, besides his being lame, the
most unfit to expect to get anything by working in the country, so he
was content that what money they had should all go into one public stock,
on condition that whatever any one of them could gain more than another,
it should without any grudging be all added to the public stock.
They resolved to load themselves with as little baggage as possible
because they resolved at first to travel on foot, and to go a great way
that they might, if possible, be effectually safe; and a great many
consultations they had with themselves before they could agree about
what way they should travel, which they were so far from adjusting
that even to the morning they set out they were not resolved on it.
At last the seaman put in a hint that determined it. 'First,' says he,
'the weather is very hot, and therefore I am for travelling north, that
we may not have the sun upon our faces and beating on our breasts,
which will heat and suffocate us; and I have been told', says he, 'that it
is not good to overheat our blood at a time when, for aught we know,
the infection may be in the very air. In the next place,' says he, 'I am
for going the way that may be contrary to the wind, as it may blow
when we set out, that we may not have the wind blow the air of the
city on our backs as we go.' These two cautions were approved of, if it
could be brought so to hit that the wind might not be in the south
when they set out to go north.
John the baker, who bad been a soldier, then put in his opinion.
'First,' says he, 'we none of us expect to get any lodging on the road,
and it will be a little too hard to lie just in the open air. Though it be
warm weather, yet it may be wet and damp, and we have a double
reason to take care of our healths at such a time as this; and therefore,'
says he, 'you, brother Tom, that are a sailmaker, might easily make us
a little tent, and I will undertake to set it up every night, and take it
down, and a fig for all the inns in England; if we have a good tent
over our heads we shall do well enough.'
The joiner opposed this, and told them, let them leave that to him;
he would undertake to build them a house every night with his hatchet
and mallet, though he had no other tools, which should be fully to
their satisfaction, and as good as a tent.
The soldier and the joiner disputed that point some time, but at last
the soldier carried it for a tent. The only objection against it was,
that it must be carried with them, and that would increase their baggage
too much, the weather being hot; but the sailmaker had a piece of
good hap fell in which made that easy, for his master whom he
worked for, having a rope-walk as well as sailmaking trade, had a
little, poor horse that he made no use of then; and being willing to
assist the three honest men, he gave them the horse for the carrying
their baggage; also for a small matter of three days' work that his man
did for him before he went, he let him have an old top-gallant sail that
was worn out, but was sufficient and more than enough to make a
very good tent. The soldier showed how to shape it, and they soon by
his direction made their tent, and fitted it with poles or staves for the
purpose; and thus they were furnished for their journey, viz., three
men, one tent, one horse, one gun - for the soldier would not go
without arms, for now he said he was no more a biscuit-baker, but a trooper.
The joiner had a small bag of tools such as might be useful if he
should get any work abroad, as well for their subsistence as his own.
What money they had they brought all into one public stock, and thus
they began their journey. It seems that in the morning when they set
out the wind blew, as the sailor said, by his pocket-compass, at N.W.
by W. So they directed, or rather resolved to direct, their course N.W.
But then a difficulty came in their way, that, as they set out from the
hither end of Wapping, near the Hermitage, and that the plague was
now very violent, especially on the north side of the city, as in
Shoreditch and Cripplegate parish, they did not think it safe for them
to go near those parts; so they went away east through Ratcliff
Highway as far as Ratcliff Cross, and leaving Stepney Church still on
their left hand, being afraid to come up from Ratcliff Cross to Mile
End, because they must come just by the churchyard, and because the
wind, that seemed to blow more from the west, blew directly from the
side of the city where the plague was hottest. So, I say, leaving
Stepney they fetched a long compass, and going to Poplar and
Bromley, came into the great road just at Bow.
Here the watch placed upon Bow Bridge would have questioned
them, but they, crossing the road into a narrow way that turns out of
the hither end of the town of Bow to Old Ford, avoided any inquiry
there, and travelled to Old Ford. The constables everywhere were
upon their guard not so much, It seems, to stop people passing by as to
stop them from taking up their abode in their towns, and withal
because of a report that was newly raised at that time: and that,
indeed, was not very improbable, viz., that the poor people in London,
being distressed and starved for want of work, and by that means for
want of bread, were up in arms and had raised a tumult, and that they
would come out to all the towns round to plunder for bread. This, I
say, was only a rumour, and it was very well it was no more. But it
was not so far off from being a reality as it has been thought, for in a
few weeks more the poor people became so desperate by the calamity
they suffered that they were with great difficulty kept from g out into
the fields and towns, and tearing all in pieces wherever they came;
and, as I have observed before, nothing hindered them but that the
plague raged so violently and fell in upon them so furiously that they
rather went to the grave by thousands than into the fields in mobs by
thousands; for, in the parts about the parishes of St Sepulcher,
Clarkenwell, Cripplegate, Bishopsgate, and Shoreditch, which were
the places where the mob began to threaten, the distemper came on so
furiously that there died in those few parishes even then, before the
plague was come to its height, no less than 5361 people in the first
three weeks in August; when at the same time the parts about
Wapping, Radcliffe, and Rotherhith were, as before described, hardly
touched, or but very lightly; so that in a word though, as I said before,
the good management of the Lord Mayor and justices did much to
prevent the rage and desperation of the people from breaking out in
rabbles and tumults, and in short from the poor plundering the rich, - I
say, though they did much, the dead-carts did more: for as I have said
that in five parishes only there died above 5000 in twenty days, so
there might be probably three times that number sick all that time; for
some recovered, and great numbers fell sick every day and died
afterwards. Besides, I must still be allowed to say that if the bills of
mortality said five thousand, I always believed it was near twice as
many in reality, there being no room to believe that the account they
gave was right, or that indeed they were among such confusions as I
saw them in, in any condition to keep an exact account.
But to return to my travellers. Here they were only examined, and
as they seemed rather coming from the country than from the city,
they found the people the easier with them; that they talked to them,
let them come into a public-house where the constable and his
warders were, and gave them drink and some victuals which greatly
refreshed and encouraged them; and here it came into their heads to
say, when they should be inquired of afterwards, not that they came
from London, but that they came out of Essex.
To forward this little fraud, they obtained so much favour of the
constable at Old Ford as to give them a certificate of their passing
from Essex through that village, and that they had not been at London;
which, though false in the common acceptance of London in the
county, yet was literally true, Wapping or Ratcliff being no part either
of the city or liberty.
This certificate directed to the next constable that was at Homerton,
one of the hamlets of the parish of Hackney, was so serviceable to
them that it procured them, not a free passage there only, but a full
certificate of health from a justice of the peace, who upon the
constable's application granted it without much difficulty; and thus
they passed through the long divided town of Hackney (for it lay then
in several separated hamlets), and travelled on till they came into the
great north road on the top of Stamford Hill.
By this time they began to be weary, and so in the back-road from
Hackney, a little before it opened into the said great road, they
resolved to set up their tent and encamp for the first night, which they
did accordingly, with this addition, that finding a barn, or a building
like a barn, and first searching as well as they could to be sure there
was nobody in it, they set up their tent, with the head of it against the
barn. This they did also because the wind blew that night very high,
and they were but young at such a way of lodging, as well as at the
managing their tent.
Here they went to sleep; but the joiner, a grave and sober man, and
not pleased with their lying at this loose rate the first night, could not
sleep, and resolved, after trying to sleep to no purpose, that he would
get out, and, taking the gun in his hand, stand sentinel and guard his
companions. So with the gun in his hand, he walked to and again
before the barn, for that stood in the field near the road, but within the
hedge. He had not been long upon the scout but he heard a noise of
people coming on, as if it had been a great number, and they came on,
as he thought, directly towards the barn. He did not presently awake
his companions; but in a few minutes more, their noise growing
louder and louder, the biscuit-baker called to him and asked him what
was the matter, and quickly started out too. The other, being the lame
sailmaker and most weary, lay still in the tent.
As they expected, so the people whom they had heard came on
directly to the barn, when one of our travellers challenged, like
soldiers upon the guard, with 'Who comes there?' The people did not
answer immediately, but one of them speaking to another that was
behind him, 'Alas I alas I we are all disappointed,' says he. 'Here are
some people before us; the barn is taken up.'
They all stopped upon that, as under some surprise, and it seems
there was about thirteen of them in all, and some women among them.
They consulted together what they should do, and by their discourse
our travellers soon found they were poor, distressed people too, like
themselves, seeking shelter and safety; and besides, our travellers had
no need to be afraid of their coming up to disturb them, for as soon as-
they heard the words, 'Who comes there?' these could hear the women
say, as if frighted, 'Do not go near them. How do you know but they
may have the plague?' And when one of the men said, 'Let us but
speak to them', the women said, 'No, don't by any means. We have
escaped thus far by the goodness of God; do not let us run into danger
now, we beseech you.'
Our travellers found by this that they were a good, sober sort of
people, and flying for their lives, as they were; and, as they were
encouraged by it, so John said to the joiner, his comrade, 'Let us
encourage them too as much as we can'; so he called to them, 'Hark
ye, good people,' says the joiner, 'we find by your talk that you are
flying from the same dreadful enemy as we are. Do not be afraid of
us; we are only three poor men of us. If you are free from the
distemper you shall not be hurt by us. We are not in the barn, but in a
little tent here in the outside, and we will remove for you; we can set
up our tent again immediately anywhere else'; and upon this a parley
began between the joiner, whose name was Richard, and one of their
men, who said his name was Ford.
Ford. And do you assure us that you are all sound men?
Richard. Nay, we are concerned to tell you of it, that you may not
be uneasy or think yourselves in danger; but you see we do not desire
you should put yourselves into any danger, and therefore I tell you that
we have not made use of the barn, so we will remove from it, that you
may be safe and we also.
Ford. That is very kind and charitable; but if we have reason to be
satisfied that you are sound and free from the visitation, why should
we make you remove now you are settled in your lodging, and, it may
be, are laid down to rest? We will go into the barn, if you please, to
rest ourselves a while, and we need not disturb you.
Richard. Well, but you are more than we are. I hope you will
assure us that you are all of you sound too, for the danger is as great
from you to us as from us to you.
Ford. Blessed be God that some do escape, though it is but few;
what may be our portion still we know not, but hitherto we are
preserved.
Richard. What part of the town do you come from? Was the plague
come to the places where you lived?
Ford. Ay, ay, in a most frightful and terrible manner, or else we had
not fled away as we do; but we believe there will be very few left
alive behind us.
Richard. What part do you come from?
Ford. We are most of us of Cripplegate parish, only two or three of
Clerkenwell parish, but on the hither side.
Richard. How then was it that you came away no sooner?
Ford. We have been away some time, and kept together as well as
we could at the hither end of Islington, where we got leave to lie in an
old uninhabited house, and had some bedding and conveniences of
our own that we brought with us; but the plague is come up into
Islington too, and a house next door to our poor dwelling was infected
and shut up; and we are come away in a fright.
Richard. And what way are you going?
Ford. As our lot shall cast us; we know not whither, but God will
guide those that look up to Him.
They parleyed no further at that time, but came all up to the barn,
and with some difficulty got into it. There was nothing but hay in the
barn, but it was almost full of that, and they accommodated
themselves as well as they could, and went to rest; but our travellers
observed that before they went to sleep an ancient man who it seems
was father of one of the women, went to prayer with all the company,
recommending themselves to the blessing and direction of
Providence, before they went to sleep.
It was soon day at that time of the year, and as Richard the joiner
had kept guard the first part of the night, so John the soldier relieved
him, and he had the post in the morning, and they began to be
acquainted with one another. It seems when they left Islington they
intended to have gone north, away to Highgate, but were stopped at
Holloway, and there they would not let them pass; so they crossed
over the fields and hills to the eastward, and came out at the Boarded
River, and so avoiding the towns, they left Hornsey on the left hand
and Newington on the right hand, and came into the great road about
Stamford Hill on that side, as the three travellers had done on the
other side. And now they had thoughts of going over the river in the
marshes, and make forwards to Epping Forest, where they hoped they
should get leave to rest. It seems they were not poor, at least not so
poor as to be in want; at least they had enough to subsist them
moderately for two or three months, when, as they said, they were in
hopes the cold weather would check the infection, or at least the
violence of it would have spent itself, and would abate, if it were only
for want of people left alive to he infected.
This was much the fate of our three travellers, only that they seemed
to be the better furnished for travelling, and had it in their view to go
farther off; for as to the first, they did not propose to go farther than
one day's journey, that so they might have intelligence every two or
three days how things were at London.
But here our travellers found themselves under an unexpected
inconvenience: namely that of their horse, for by means of the horse to
carry their baggage they were obliged to keep in the road, whereas the
people of this other band went over the fields or roads, path or no
path, way or no way, as they pleased; neither had they any occasion to
pass through any town, or come near any town, other than to buy such
things as they wanted for their necessary subsistence, and in that
indeed they were put to much difficulty; of which in its place.
But our three travellers were obliged to keep the road, or else they
must commit spoil, and do the country a great deal of damage in
breaking down fences and gates to go over enclosed fields, which they
were loth to do if they could help it.
Our three travellers, however, had a great mind to join themselves to
this company and take their lot with them; and after some discourse
they laid aside their first design which looked northward, and resolved
to follow the other into Essex; so in the morning they took up their
tent and loaded their horse, and away they travelled all together.
They had some difficulty in passing the ferry at the river-side, the
ferryman being afraid of them; but after some parley at a distance, the
ferryman was content to bring his boat to a place distant from the
usual ferry, and leave it there for them to take it; so putting
themselves over, he directed them to leave the boat, and he, having
another boat, said he would fetch it again, which it seems, however,
he did not do for above eight days.
Here, giving the ferryman money beforehand, they had a supply of
victuals and drink, which he brought and left in the boat for them; but
not without, as I said, having received the money beforehand. But
now our travellers were at a great loss and difficulty how to get the
horse over, the boat being small and not fit for it: and at last could not
do it without unloading the baggage and making him swim over.
From the river they travelled towards the forest, but when they came
to Walthamstow the people of that town denied to admit them, as was
the case everywhere. The constables and their watchmen kept them
off at a distance and parleyed with them. They gave the same account
of themselves as before, but these gave no credit to what they said,
giving it for a reason that two or three companies had already come
that way and made the like pretences, but that they had given several
people the distemper in the towns where they had passed; and had
been afterwards so hardly used by the country (though with justice,
too, as they had deserved) that about Brentwood, or that way, several
of them perished in the fields - whether of the plague or of mere want
and distress they could not tell.
This was a good reason indeed why the people of Walthamstow
should be very cautious, and why they should resolve not to entertain
anybody that they were not well satisfied of. But, as Richard the
joiner and one of the other men who parleyed with them told them, it
was no reason why they should block up the roads and refuse to let
people pass through the town, and who asked nothing of them but to
go through the street; that if their people were afraid of them, they
might go into their houses and shut their doors; they would neither
show them civility nor incivility, but go on about their business.
The constables and attendants, not to be persuaded by reason,
continued obstinate, and would hearken to nothing; so the two men
that talked with them went back to their fellows to consult what was
to be done. It was very discouraging in the whole, and they knew not
what to do for a good while; but at last John the soldier and biscuit-
maker, considering a while, 'Come,' says he, 'leave the rest of the
parley to me.' He had not appeared yet, so he sets the joiner, Richard,
to work to cut some poles out of the trees and shape them as like guns
as he could, and in a little time he had five or six fair muskets, which
at a distance would not be known; and about the part where the lock
of a gun is he caused them to wrap cloth and rags such as they had, as
soldiers do in wet weather to preserve the locks of their pieces from
rust; the rest was discoloured with clay or mud, such as they could
get; and all this while the rest of them sat under the trees by his
direction, in two or three bodies, where they made fires at a good
distance from one another.
While this was doing he advanced himself and two or three with
him, and set up their tent in the lane within sight of the barrier which
the town's men had made, and set a sentinel just by it with the real
gun, the only one they had, and who walked to and fro with the gun on
his shoulder, so as that the people of the town might see them. Also,
he tied the horse to a gate in the hedge just by, and got some dry sticks
together and kindled a fire on the other side of the tent, so that the
people of the town could see the fire and the smoke, but could not see
what they were doing at it.
After the country people had looked upon them very earnestly a
great while, and, by all that they could see, could not but suppose that
they were a great many in company, they began to be uneasy, not for
their going away, but for staying where they were; and above all,
perceiving they had horses and arms, for they had seen one horse and
one gun at the tent, and they had seen others of them walk about the
field on the inside of the hedge by the side of the lane with their
muskets, as they took them to be, shouldered; I say, upon such a sight
as this, you may be assured they were alarmed and terribly frighted,
and it seems they went to a justice of the peace to know what they
should do. What the justice advised them to I know not, but towards
the evening they called from the barrier, as above, to the sentinel at
the tent.
'What do you want?' says John.*
'Why, what do you intend to do?' says the constable. 'To do,' says
John; 'what would you have us to do?' Constable. Why don't you be
gone? What do you stay there for?
John. Why do you stop us on the king's highway, and pretend to
refuse us leave to go on our way?
Constable. We are not bound to tell you our reason, though we did
let you know it was because of the plague.
John. We told you we were all sound and free from the plague,
which we were not bound to have satisfied you of, and yet you pretend
to stop us on the highway.
Constable. We have a right to stop it up, and our own safety obliges
us to it. Besides, this is not the king's highway; 'tis a way upon
sufferance. You see here is a gate, and if we do let people pass here,
we make them pay toll.
John. We have a right to seek our own safety as well as you, and
you may see we are flying for our lives: and 'tis very unchristian and
unjust to stop us.
Constable. You may go back from whence you came; we do not
hinder you from that.
John. No; it is a stronger enemy than you that keeps us from doing
that, or else we should not have come hither.
Constable. Well, you may go any other way, then.
John. No, no; I suppose you see we are able to send you going, and
all the people of your parish, and come through your town when we
will; but since you have stopped us here, we are content. You see we
have encamped here, and here we will live. We hope you will furnish
us with victuals.
*It seems John was in the tent, but hearing them call, he steps out, and
taking the gun upon his shoulder, talked to them as if he had been the
sentinel placed there upon the guard by some officer that was his
superior. [Footnote in the original.]
Constable. We furnish you I What mean you by that?
John. Why, you would not have us starve, would you? If you stop us
here, you must keep us.
Constable. You will be ill kept at our maintenance.
John. If you stint us, we shall make ourselves the better allowance.
Constable. Why, you will not pretend to quarter upon us by force,
will you?
John. We have offered no violence to you yet. Why do you seem to
oblige us to it? I am an old soldier, and cannot starve, and if you think
that we shall be obliged to go back for want of provisions, you are
mistaken.
Constable. Since you threaten us, we shall take care to be strong
enough for you. I have orders to raise the county upon you.
John. It is you that threaten, not we. And since you are for
mischief, you cannot blame us if we do not give you time for it; we
shall begin our march in a few minutes.*
Constable. What is it you demand of us?
John. At first we desired nothing of you but leave to go through the
town; we should have offered no injury to any of you, neither would
you have had any injury or loss by us. We are not thieves, but poor
people in distress, and flying from the dreadful plague in London,
which devours thousands every week. We wonder how you could be
so unmerciful!
Constable. Self-preservation obliges us.
John. What! To shut up your compassion in a case of such distress
as this?
Constable. Well, if you will pass over the fields on your left hand,
and behind that part of the town, I will endeavour to have gates
opened for you.
John. Our horsemen ** cannot pass with our baggage that way; it
does not lead into the road that we want to go, and why should you
force us out of the road? Besides, you have kept us here all
* This frighted the constable and the people that were with him, that
they immediately changed their note.
** They had but one horse among them. [Footnotes in the original.]
day without any provisions but such as we brought with us. I think
you ought to send us some provisions for our relief.
Constable. If you will go another way we will send you some
provisions.
John. That is the way to have all the towns in the county stop up the
ways against us.
Constable. If they all furnish you with food, what will you be the
worse? I see you have tents; you want no lodging.
John. Well, what quantity of provisions will you send us?
Constable. How many are you?
John. Nay, we do not ask enough for all our company; we are in
three companies. If you will send us bread for twenty men and about
six or seven women for three days, and show us the way over the field
you speak of, we desire not to put your people into any fear for us; we
will go out of our way to oblige you, though we are as free from
infection as you are.*
Constable. And will you assure us that your other people shall offer
us no new disturbance?
John. No, no you may depend on it.
Constable. You must oblige yourself, too, that none of your people
shall come a step nearer than where the provisions we send you shall
be set down.
John. I answer for it we will not.
Accordingly they sent to the place twenty loaves of bread and three
or four large pieces of good beef, and opened some gates, through
which they passed; but none of them had courage so much as to look
out to see them go, and, as it was evening, if they had looked they
could not have seen them as to know how few they were.
This was John the soldier's management. But this gave such an
alarm to the county, that had they really been two or three hundred the
whole county would have been raised upon them, and
* Here he called to one of his men, and bade him order Captain
Richard and his people to march the lower way on the side of the
marches, and meet them in the forest; which was all a sham, for they
had no Captain Richard, or any such company. [Footnote in the original.]
they would have been sent to prison, or perhaps knocked on the head.
They were soon made sensible of this, for two days afterwards they
found several parties of horsemen and footmen also about, in pursuit
of three companies of men, armed, as they said, with muskets, who
were broke out from London and had the plague upon them, and that
were not only spreading the distemper among the people, but
plundering the country.
As they saw now the consequence of their case, they soon saw the
danger they were in; so they resolved by the advice also of the old
soldier to divide themselves again. John and his two comrades, with
the horse, went away, as if towards Waltham; the other in two
companies, but all a little asunder, and went towards Epping.
The first night they encamped all in the forest, and not far off of one
another, but not setting up the tent, lest that should discover them. On
the other hand, Richard went to work with his axe and his hatchet, and
cutting down branches of trees, he built three tents or hovels, in which
they all encamped with as much convenience as they could expect.
The provisions they had at Walthamstow served them very
plentifully this night; and as for the next, they left it to Providence.
They had fared so well with the old soldier's conduct that they now
willingly made him their leader, and the first of his conduct appeared
to be very good. He told them that they were now at a proper distance
enough from London; that as they need not be immediately beholden
to the country for relief, so they ought to be as careful the country did
not infect them as that they did not infect the country; that what little
money they had, they must be as frugal of as they could; that as he
would not have them think of offering the country any violence, so
they must endeavour to make the sense of their condition go as far
with the country as it could. They all referred themselves to his
direction, so they left their three houses standing, and the next day
went away towards Epping. The captain also (for so they now called
him), and his two fellow-travellers, laid aside their design of going to
Waltham, and all went together.
When they came near Epping they halted, choosing out a proper
place in the open forest, not very near the highway, but not far out of
it on the north side, under a little cluster of low pollard-trees. Here
they pitched their little camp - which consisted of three large tents or
huts made of poles which their carpenter, and such as were his
assistants, cut down and fixed in the ground in a circle, binding all the
small ends together at the top and thickening the sides with boughs of
trees and bushes, so that they were completely close and warm. They
had, besides this, a little tent where the women lay by themselves, and
a hut to put the horse in.
It happened that the next day, or next but one, was market-day at
Epping, when Captain John and one of the other men went to market
and bought some provisions; that is to say, bread, and some mutton
and beef; and two of the women went separately, as if they had not
belonged to the rest, and bought more. John took the horse to bring it
home, and the sack which the carpenter carried his tools in, to put it
in. The carpenter went to work and made them benches and stools to
sit on, such as the wood he could get would afford, and a kind of table
to dine on.
They were taken no notice of for two or three days, but after that
abundance of people ran out of the town to look at them, and all the
country was alarmed about them. The people at first seemed afraid to
come near them; and, on the other hand, they desired the people to
keep off, for there was a rumour that the plague was at Waltham, and
that it had been in Epping two or three days; so John called out to
them not to come to them, 'for,' says he, 'we are all whole and sound
people here, and we would not have you bring the plague among us,
nor pretend we brought it among you.'
After this the parish officers came up to them and parleyed with
them at a distance, and desired to know who they were, and by what
authority they pretended to fix their stand at that place. John answered
very frankly, they were poor distressed people from London who,
foreseeing the misery they should be reduced to if plague spread into
the city, had fled out in time for their lives, and, having no
acquaintance or relations to fly to, had first taken up at Islington; but,
the plague being come into that town, were fled farther; and as they
supposed that the people of Epping might have refused them coming
into their town, they had pitched their tents thus in the open field and
in the forest, being willing to bear all the hardships of such a
disconsolate lodging rather than have any one think or be afraid that
they should receive injury by them.
At first the Epping people talked roughly to them, and told them
they must remove; that this was no place for them; and that they
pretended to be sound and well, but that they might be infected with
the plague for aught they knew, and might infect the whole country,
and they could not suffer them there.
John argued very calmly with them a great while, and told them that
London was the place by which they - that is, the townsmen of Epping
and all the country round them - subsisted; to whom they sold the
produce of their lands, and out of whom they made their rent of their
farms; and to be so cruel to the inhabitants of London, or to any of
those by whom they gained so much, was very hard, and they would
be loth to have it remembered hereafter, and have it told how
barbarous, how inhospitable, and how unkind they were to the people
of London when they fled from the face of the most terrible enemy in
the world; that it would be enough to make the name of an Epping
man hateful through all the city, and to have the rabble stone them in
the very streets whenever they came so much as to market; that they
were not yet secure from being visited themselves, and that, as he
heard, Waltham was already; that they would think it very hard that
when any of them fled for fear before they were touched, they should
be denied the liberty of lying so much as in the open fields.
The Epping men told them again, that they, indeed, said they were
sound and free from the infection, but that they had no assurance of it;
and that it was reported that there had been a great rabble of people at
Walthamstow, who made such pretences of being sound as they did,
but that they threatened to plunder the town and force their way,
whether the parish officers would or no; that there were near two
hundred of them, and had arms and tents like Low Country soldiers;
that they extorted provisions from the town, by threatening them with
living upon them at free quarter, showing their arms, and talking in
the language of soldiers; and that several of them being gone away
toward Rumford and Brentwood, the country had been infected by
them, and the plague spread into both those large towns, so that the
people durst not go to market there as usual; that it was very likely
they were some of that party; and if so, they deserved to be sent to the
county jail, and be secured till they had made satisfaction for the
damage they had done, and for the terror and fright they had put the
country into.
John answered that what other people had done was nothing to
them; that they assured them they were all of one company; that they
had never been more in number than they saw them at that time
(which, by the way, was very true); that they came out in two separate
companies, but joined by the way, their cases being the same; that
they were ready to give what account of themselves anybody could
desire of them, and to give in their names and places of abode, that so
they might be called to an account for any disorder that they might be
guilty of; that the townsmen might see they were content to live
hardly, and only desired a little room to breathe in on the forest where
it was wholesome; for where it was not they could not stay, and would
decamp if they found it otherwise there.
'But,' said the townsmen, 'we have a great charge of poor upon our
hands already, and we must take care not to increase it; we suppose
you can give us no security against your being chargeable to our
parish and to the inhabitants, any more than you can of being
dangerous to us as to the infection.'
'Why, look you,' says John, 'as to being chargeable to you, we hope
we shall not. If you will relieve us with provisions for our present
necessity, we will be very thankful; as we all lived without charity
when we were at home, so we will oblige ourselves fully to repay you,
if God pleases to bring us back to our own families and houses in
safety, and to restore health to the people of London.
'As to our dying here: we assure you, if any of us die, we that survive
will bury them, and put you to no expense, except it should be that we
should all die; and then, indeed, the last man not being able to bury
himself, would put you to that single expense which I am persuaded',
says John, 'he would leave enough behind him to pay you for the
expense of.
'On the other hand,' says John, 'if you shut up all bowels of
compassion, and not relieve us at all, we shall not extort anything by
violence or steal from any one; but when what little we have is spent,
if we perish for want, God's will be done.'
John wrought so upon the townsmen, by talking thus rationally and
smoothly to them, that they went away; and though they did not give
any consent to their staying there, yet they did not molest them; and
the poor people continued there three or four days longer without any
disturbance. In this time they had got some remote acquaintance with
a victualling-house at the outskirts of the town, to whom they called at
a distance to bring some little things that they wanted, and which they
caused to be set down at a distance, and always paid for very honestly.
During this time the younger people of the town came frequently
pretty near them, and would stand and look at them, and sometimes
talk with them at some space between; and particularly it was
observed that the first Sabbath-day the poor people kept retired,
worshipped God together, and were heard to sing psalms.
These things, and a quiet, inoffensive behaviour, began to get them
the good opinion of the country, and people began to pity them and
speak very well of them; the consequence of which was, that upon the
occasion of a very wet, rainy night, a certain gentleman who lived in
the neighbourhood sent them a little cart with twelve trusses or
bundles of straw, as well for them to lodge upon as to cover and
thatch their huts and to keep them dry. The minister of a parish not
far off, not knowing of the other, sent them also about two bushels of
wheat and half a bushel of white peas.
They were very thankful, to be sure, for this relief, and particularly
the straw was a -very great comfort to them; for though the ingenious
carpenter had made frames for them to lie in like troughs, and filled
them with leaves of trees, and such things as they could get, and had
cut all their tent-cloth out to make them coverlids, yet they lay damp
and hard and unwholesome till this straw came, which was to them
like feather-beds, and, as John said, more welcome than feather-beds
would have been at another time.
This gentleman and the minister having thus begun, and given an
example of charity to these wanderers, others quickly followed, and
they received every day some benevolence or other from the people,
but chiefly from the gentlemen who dwelt in the country round them.
Some sent them chairs, stools, tables, and such household things as
they gave notice they wanted; some sent them blankets, rugs, and
coverlids, some earthenware, and some kitchen ware for ordering
their food.
Encouraged by this good usage, their carpenter in a few days built
them a large shed or house with rafters, and a roof in form, and an
upper floor, in which they lodged warm: for the weather began to be
damp and cold in the beginning of September. But this house, being
well thatched, and the sides and roof made very thick, kept out the
cold well enough. He made, also, an earthen wall at one end with a
chimney in it, and another of the company, with a vast deal of trouble
and pains, made a funnel to the chimney to carry out the smoke.
Here they lived comfortably, though coarsely, till the beginning of
September, when they had the bad news to hear, whether true or not,
that the plague, which was very hot at Waltham Abbey on one side
and at Rumford and Brentwood on the other side, was also coming to
Epping, to Woodford, and to most of the towns upon the Forest, and
which, as they said, was brought down among them chiefly by the
higlers, and such people as went to and from London with provisions.
If this was true, it was an evident contradiction to that report which
was afterwards spread all over England, but which, as I have said, I
cannot confirm of my own knowledge: namely, that the market-people
carrying provisions to the city never got the infection or carried it
back into the country; both which, I have been assured, has been false.
It might be that they were preserved even beyond expectation,
though not to a miracle, that abundance went and came and were not
touched; and that was much for the encouragement of the poor people
of London, who had been completely miserable if the people that
brought provisions to the markets had not been many times
wonderfully preserved, or at least more preserved than could be
reasonably expected.
But now these new inmates began to be disturbed more effectually,
for the towns about them were really infected, and they began to be
afraid to trust one another so much as to go abroad for such things as
they wanted, and this pinched them very hard, for now they had little
or nothing but what the charitable gentlemen of the country supplied
them with. But, for their encouragement, it happened that other
gentlemen in the country who had not sent them anything before,
began to hear of them and supply them, and one sent them a large pig
- that is to say, a porker another two sheep, and another sent them a
calf. In short, they had meat enough, and sometimes had cheese and
milk, and all such things. They were chiefly put to it for bread, for
when the gentlemen sent them corn they had nowhere to bake it or to
grind it. This made them eat the first two bushel of wheat that was
sent them in parched corn, as the Israelites of old did, without
grinding or making bread of it.
At last they found means to carry their corn to a windmill near
Woodford, where they bad it ground, and afterwards the biscuit-maker
made a hearth so hollow and dry that he could bake biscuit-cakes
tolerably well; and thus they came into a condition to live without any
assistance or supplies from the towns; and it was well they did, for the
country was soon after fully infected, and about 120 were said to have
died of the distemper in the villages near them, which was a terrible
thing to them.
On this they called a new council, and now the towns had no need to
be afraid they should settle near them; but, on the contrary, several
families of the poorer sort of the inhabitants quitted their houses and
built huts in the forest after the same manner as they had done. But it
was observed that several of these poor people that had so removed
had the sickness even in their huts
or booths; the reason of which was plain, namely, not because they
removed into the air, but, () because they did not remove time enough;
that is to say, not till, by openly conversing with the other people their
neighbours, they had the distemper upon them, or (as may be said)
among them, and so carried it about them whither they went. Or (2)
because they were not careful enough, after they were safely removed
out of the towns, not to come in again and mingle with the diseased people.
But be it which of these it will, when our travellers began to
perceive that the plague was not only in the towns, but even in the
tents and huts on the forest near them, they began then not only to be
afraid, but to think of decamping and removing; for had they stayed
they would have been in manifest danger of their lives.
It is not to be wondered that they were greatly afflicted at being
obliged to quit the place where they had been so kindly received, and
where they had been treated with so much humanity and charity; but
necessity and the hazard of life, which they came out so far to
preserve, prevailed with them, and they saw no remedy. John,
however, thought of a remedy for their present misfortune: namely,
that he would first acquaint that gentleman who was their principal
benefactor with the distress they were in, and to crave his assistance
and advice.
The good, charitable gentleman encouraged them to quit the Place
for fear they should be cut off from any retreat at all by the violence
of the distemper; but whither they should go, that he found very hard
to direct them to. At last John asked of him whether he, being a
justice of the peace, would give them certificates of health to other
justices whom they might come before; that so whatever might be
their lot, they might not be repulsed now they had been also so long
from London. This his worship immediately granted, and gave them
proper letters of health, and from thence they were at liberty to travel
whither they pleased.
Accordingly they had a full certificate of health, intimating that they
had resided in a village in the county of Essex so long that, being
examined and scrutinised sufficiently, and having been retired from
all conversation for above forty days, without any appearance of
sickness, they were therefore certainly concluded to be sound men,
and might be safely entertained anywhere, having at last removed
rather for fear of the plague which was come into such a town, rather
than for having any signal of infection upon them, or upon any
belonging to them.
With this certificate they removed, though with great reluctance;
and John inclining not to go far from home, they moved towards the
marshes on the side of Waltham. But here they found a man who, it
seems, kept a weir or stop upon the river, made to raise the water for
the barges which go up and down the river, and he terrified them with
dismal stories of the sickness having been spread into all the towns on
the river and near the river, on the side of Middlesex and Hertfordshire;
that is to say, into Waltham, Waltham Cross, Enfield, and Ware, and all
the towns on the road, that they were afraid to go that way; though it
seems the man imposed upon them, for that the thing was not really true.
However, it terrified them, and they resolved to move across the
forest towards Rumford and Brentwood; but they heard that there
were numbers of people fled out of London that way, who lay up and
down in the forest called Henalt Forest, reaching near Rumford, and
who, having no subsistence or habitation, not only lived oddly and
suffered great extremities in the woods and fields for want of relief,
but were said to be made so desperate by those extremities as that they
offered many violences to the county robbed and plundered, and
killed cattle, and the like; that others, building huts and hovels by the
roadside, begged, and that with an importunity next door to
demanding relief; so that the county was very uneasy, and had been
obliged to take some of them up.
This in the first place intimated to them, that they would be sure to
find the charity and kindness of the county, which they had found here
where they were before, hardened and shut up against them; and that,
on the other hand, they would be questioned wherever they came, and
would be in danger of violence from others in like cases as
themselves.
Upon all these considerations John, their captain, in all their names,
went back to their good friend and benefactor, who had relieved them
before, and laying their case truly before him, humbly asked his
advice; and he as kindly advised them to take up their old quarters
again, or if not, to remove but a little farther out of the road, and
directed them to a proper place for them; and as they really wanted
some house rather than huts to shelter them at that time of the year, it
growing on towards Michaelmas, they found an old decayed house
which had been formerly some cottage or little habitation but was so
out of repair as scarce habitable; and by the consent of a farmer to
whose farm it belonged, they got leave to make what use of it they could.
The ingenious joiner, and all the rest, by his directions went to work
with it, and in a very few days made it capable to shelter them all in
case of bad weather; and in which there was an old chimney and old
oven, though both lying in ruins; yet they made them both fit for use,
and, raising additions, sheds, and leantos on every side, they soon
made the house capable to hold them all.
They chiefly wanted boards to make window-shutters, floors, doors,
and several other things; but as the gentlemen above favoured them,
and the country was by that means made easy with them, and above
all, that they were known to be all sound and in good health,
everybody helped them with what they could spare.
Here they encamped for good and all, and resolved to remove no
more. They saw plainly how terribly alarmed that county was
everywhere at anybody that came from London, and that they should
have no admittance anywhere but with the utmost difficulty; at least
no friendly reception and assistance as they had received here.
Now, although they received great assistance and encouragement
from the country gentlemen and from the people round about them,
yet they were put to great straits: for the weather grew cold and wet in
October and November, and they had not been used to so much
hardship; so that they got colds in their limbs, and distempers, but
never had the infection; and thus about December they came home to
the city again.
I give this story thus at large, principally to give an account what
became of the great numbers of people which immediately appeared
in the city as soon as the sickness abated; for, as I have said, great
numbers of those that were able and had retreats in the country fled to
those retreats. So, when it was increased to such a frightful extremity
as I have related, the middling people who had not friends fled to all
parts of the country where they could get shelter, as well those that
had money to relieve themselves as those that had not. Those that had
money always fled farthest, because they were able to subsist
themselves; but those who were empty suffered, as I have said, great
hardships, and were often driven by necessity to relieve their wants at
the expense of the country. By that means the country was made very
uneasy at them, and sometimes took them up; though even then they
scarce knew what to do with them, and were always very backward to
punish them, but often, too, they forced them from place to place till
they were obliged to come back again to London.
I have, since my knowing this story of John and his brother, inquired
and found that there were a great many of the poor disconsolate
people, as above, fled into the country every way; and some of them
got little sheds and barns and outhouses to live in, where they could
obtain so much kindness of the country, and especially where they had
any the least satisfactory account to give of themselves, and
particularly that they did not come out of London too late. But others,
and that in great numbers, built themselves little huts and retreats in
the fields and woods, and lived like hermits in holes and caves, or any
place they could find, and where, we may be sure, they suffered great
extremities, such that many of them were obliged to come back again
whatever the danger was; and so those little huts were often found
empty, and the country people supposed the inhabitants lay dead in
them of the plague, and would not go near them for fear - no, not in a
great while; nor is it unlikely but that some of the unhappy wanderers
might die so all alone, even sometimes for want of help, as
particularly in one tent or hut was found a man dead, and on the gate
of a field just by was cut with his knife in uneven letters the following
words, by which it may be supposed the other man escaped, or that,
one dying first, the other buried him as well as he could: -
O mIsErY!
We BoTH ShaLL DyE,
WoE, WoE.
I have given an account already of what I found to have been the
case down the river among the seafaring men; how the ships lay in the
offing, as it's called, in rows or lines astern of one another, quite down
from the Pool as far as I could see. I have been told that they lay in
the same manner quite down the river as low as Gravesend, and some
far beyond: even everywhere or in every place where they could ride
with safety as to wind and weather; nor did I ever hear that the plague
reached to any of the people on board those ships - except such as lay
up in the Pool, or as high as Deptford Reach, although the people
went frequently on shore to the country towns and villages and
farmers' houses, to buy fresh provisions, fowls, pigs, calves, and the
like for their supply.
Likewise I found that the watermen on the river above the bridge
found means to convey themselves away up the river as far as they
could go, and that they had, many of them, their whole families in
their boats, covered with tilts and bales, as they call them, and
furnished with straw within for their lodging, and that they lay thus all
along by the shore in the marshes, some of them setting up little tents
with their sails, and so lying under them on shore in the day, and
going into their boats at night; and in this manner, as I have heard, the
river-sides were lined with boats and people as long as they had
anything to subsist on, or could get anything of the country; and
indeed the country people, as well Gentlemen as others, on these and
all other occasions, were very forward to relieve them - but they were
by no means willing to receive them into their towns and houses, and
for that we cannot blame them.
There was one unhappy citizen within my knowledge who had been
visited in a dreadful manner, so that his wife and all his children were
dead, and himself and two servants only left, with an elderly woman,
a near relation, who had nursed those that were dead as well as she
could. This disconsolate man goes to a village near the town, though
not within the bills of mortality, and finding an empty house there,
inquires out the owner, and took the house. After a few days he got a
cart and loaded it with goods, and carries them down to the house; the
people of the village opposed his driving the cart along; but with some
arguings and some force, the men that drove the cart along got
through the street up to the door of the house. There the constable
resisted them again, and would not let them be brought in. The man
caused the goods to be unloaden and laid at the door, and sent the cart
away; upon which they carried the man before a justice of peace; that
is to say, they commanded him to go, which he did. The justice
ordered him to cause the cart to fetch away the goods again, which he
refused to do; upon which the justice ordered the constable to pursue
the carters and fetch them back, and make them reload the goods and
carry them away, or to set them in the stocks till they came for further
orders; and if they could not find them, nor the man would not
consent to take them away, they should cause them to be drawn with
hooks from the house-door and burned in the street. The poor
distressed man upon this fetched the goods again, but with grievous
cries and lamentations at the hardship of his case. But there was no
remedy; self-preservation obliged the people to those severities which
they would not otherwise have been concerned in. Whether this poor
man lived or died I cannot tell, but it was reported that he had the
plague upon him at that time; and perhaps the people might report that
to justify their usage of him; but it was not unlikely that either he or
his goods, or both, were dangerous, when his whole family had been
dead of the distempers so little a while before.
I know that the inhabitants of the towns adjacent to London were
much blamed for cruelty to the poor people that ran from the
contagion in their distress, and many very severe things were done, as
may be seen from what has been said; but I cannot but say also that,
where there was room for charity and assistance to the people, without
apparent danger to themselves, they were
willing enough to help and relieve them. But as every town were
indeed judges in their own case, so the poor people who ran abroad in
their extremities were often ill-used and driven back again into the
town; and this caused infinite exclamations and outcries against the
country towns, and made the clamour very popular.
And yet, more or less, maugre all the caution, there was not a town
of any note within ten (or, I believe, twenty) miles of the city but what
was more or less infected and had some died among them. I have
heard the accounts of several, such as they were reckoned up, as follows: -
In Enfield 32 In Uxbridge 117
" Hornsey 58 " Hertford 90
" Newington 17 " Ware 160
" Tottenham 42 " Hodsdon 30
" Edmonton 19 " Waltham Abbey 23
" Barnet and Hadly 19 " Epping 26
" St Albans 121 " Deptford 623
" Watford 45 " Greenwich 231
" Eltham and Lusum 85 " Kingston 122
" Croydon 61 " Stanes 82
" Brentwood 70 " Chertsey 18
" Rumford 109 " Windsor 103
" Barking Abbot 200
" Brentford 432 Cum aliis.
Another thing might render the country more strict with respect to
the citizens, and especially with respect to the poor, and this was what
I hinted at before: namely, that there was a seeming propensity or a
wicked inclination in those that were infected to infect others.
There have been great debates among our physicians as to the
reason of this. Some will have it to be in the nature of the disease,
and that it impresses every one that is seized upon by it with a kind of
a rage, and a hatred against their own kind - as if there was a
malignity not only in the distemper to communicate itself, but in the
very nature of man, prompting him with evil will or
an evil eye, that, as they say in the case of a mad dog, who though the
gentlest creature before of any of his kind, yet then will fly upon and
bite any one that comes next him, and those as soon as any who had
been most observed by him before.
Others placed it to the account of the corruption of human nature,
who cannot bear to see itself more miserable than others of its own
species, and has a kind of involuntary wish that all men were as
unhappy or in as bad a condition as itself.
Others say it was only a kind of desperation, not knowing or
regarding what they did, and consequently unconcerned at the danger
or safety not only of anybody near them, but even of themselves also.
And indeed, when men are once come to a condition to abandon
themselves, and be unconcerned for the safety or at the danger of
themselves, it cannot be so much wondered that they should be
careless of the safety of other people.
But I choose to give this grave debate a quite different turn, and
answer it or resolve it all by saying that I do not grant the fact. On the
contrary, I say that the thing is not really so, but that it was a general
complaint raised by the people inhabiting the outlying villages against
the citizens to justify, or at least excuse, those hardships and severities
so much talked of, and in which complaints both sides may be said to
have injured one another; that is to say, the citizens pressing to be
received and harboured in time of distress, and with the plague upon
them, complain of the cruelty and injustice of the country people in
being refused entrance and forced back again with their goods and
families; and the inhabitants, finding themselves so imposed upon,
and the citizens breaking in as it were upon them whether they would
or no, complain that when they were infected they were not only
regardless of others, but even willing to infect them; neither of which
were really true - that is to say, in the colours they were described in.
It is true there is something to be said for the frequent alarms which
were given to the country of the resolution of the people of London to
come out by force, not only for relief, but to plunder and rob; that they
ran about the streets with the distemper upon them without any
control; and that no care was taken to shut up houses, and confine the
sick people from infecting others; whereas, to do the Londoners
justice, they never practised such things, except in such particular
cases as I have mentioned above, and such like. On the other hand,
everything was managed with so much care, and such excellent order
was observed in the whole city and suburbs by the care of the Lord
Mayor and aldermen and by the justices of the peace, church-wardens,
&c., in the outparts, that London may be a pattern to all the cities in
the world for the good government and the excellent order that was
everywhere kept, even in the time of the most violent infection, and
when the people were in the utmost consternation and distress. But of
this I shall speak by itself.
One thing, it is to be observed, was owing principally to the
prudence of the magistrates, and ought to be mentioned to their
honour: viz., the moderation which they used in the great and difficult
work of shutting up of houses. It is true, as I have mentioned, that the
shutting up of houses was a great subject of discontent, and I may say
indeed the only subject of discontent among the people at that time;
for the confining the sound in the same house with the sick was
counted very terrible, and the complaints of people so confined were
very grievous. They were heard into the very streets, and they were
sometimes such that called for resentment, though oftener for
compassion. They had no way to converse with any of their friends
but out at their windows, where they would make such piteous
lamentations as often moved the hearts of those they talked with, and
of others who, passing by, heard their story; and as those complaints
oftentimes reproached the severity, and sometimes the insolence, of
the watchmen placed at their doors, those watchmen would answer
saucily enough, and perhaps be apt to affront the people who were in
the street talking to the said families; for which, or for their ill-
treatment of the families, I think seven or eight of them in several
places were killed; I know not whether I should say murdered or not,
because I cannot enter into the particular cases. It is true the
watchmen were on their duty, and acting in the post where they were
placed by a lawful authority; and killing any public legal officer in the
execution of his office is always, in the language of the law, called
murder. But as they were not authorised by the magistrates'
instructions, or by the power they acted under, to be injurious or
abusive either to the people who were under their observation or to
any that concerned themselves for them; so when they did so, they
might he said to act themselves, not their office; ' to act as private
persons, not as persons employed; and consequently, if they brought
mischief upon themselves by such an undue behaviour, that mischief
was upon their own heads; and indeed they had so much the hearty
curses of the people, whether they deserved it or not, that whatever
befell them nobody pitied them, and everybody was apt to say they
deserved it, whatever it was. Nor do I remember that anybody was
ever punished, at least to any considerable degree, for whatever was
done to the watchmen that guarded their houses.
What variety of stratagems were used to escape and get out of
houses thus shut up, by which the watchmen were deceived or
overpowered, and that the people got away, I have taken notice of
already, and shall say no more to that. But I say the magistrates did
moderate and ease families upon many occasions in this case, and
particularly in that of taking away, or suffering to be removed, the
sick persons out of such houses when they were willing to be removed
either to a pest-house or other Places; and sometimes giving the well
persons in the family so shut up, leave to remove upon information
given that they were well, and that they would confine themselves in
such houses where they went so long as should be required of them.
The concern, also, of the magistrates for the supplying such poor
families as were infected - I say, supplying them with necessaries, as
well physic as food - was very great, and in which they did not content
themselves with giving the necessary orders to the officers appointed,
but the aldermen in person, and on horseback, frequently rode to such
houses and caused the people to be asked at their windows whether
they were duly attended or not; also, whether they wanted anything
that was necessary, and if the officers had constantly carried their
messages and fetched them such things as they wanted or not. And if
they answered in the affirmative, all was well; but if they complained
that they were ill supplied, and that the officer did not do his duty, or
did not treat them civilly, they (the officers) were generally removed,
and others placed in their stead.
It is true such complaint might be unjust, and if the officer had such
arguments to use as would convince the magistrate that he was right,
and that the people had injured him, he was continued and they
reproved. But this part could not well bear a particular inquiry, for the
parties could very ill be well heard and answered in the street from the
windows, as was the case then. The magistrates, therefore, generally
chose to favour the people and remove the man, as what seemed to be
the least wrong and of the least ill consequence; seeing if the
watchman was injured, yet they could easily make him amends by
giving him another post of the like nature; but if the family was
injured, there was no satisfaction could be made to them, the damage
perhaps being irreparable, as it concerned their lives.
A great variety of these cases frequently happened between the
watchmen and the poor people shut up, besides those I formerly
mentioned about escaping. Sometimes the watchmen were absent,
sometimes drunk, sometimes asleep when the people wanted them,
and such never failed to be punished severely, as indeed they
deserved.
But after all that was or could be done in these cases, the shutting up
of houses, so as to confine those that were well with those that were
sick, had very great inconveniences in it, and some that were very
tragical, and which merited to have been considered if there had been
room for it. But it was authorised by a law, it had the public good in
view as the end chiefly aimed at, and all the private injuries that were
done by the putting it in execution must be put to the account of the
public benefit.
It is doubtful to this day whether, in the whole, it contributed
anything to the stop of the infection; and indeed I cannot say it did, for
nothing could run with greater fury and rage than the infection did
when it was in its chief violence, though the houses infected were shut
up as exactly and as effectually as it was possible. Certain it is that if
all the infected persons were effectually shut in, no sound person
could have been infected by them, because they could not have come
near them. But the case was this (and I shall only touch it here):
namely, that the infection was propagated insensibly, and by such
persons as were not visibly infected, who neither knew whom they
infected or who they were infected by.
A house in Whitechappel was shut up for the sake of one infected
maid, who had only spots, not the tokens come out upon her, and
recovered; yet these people obtained no liberty to stir, neither for air
or exercise, forty days. Want of breath, fear, anger, vexation, and all
the other gifts attending such an injurious treatment cast the mistress
of the family into a fever, and visitors came into the house and said it
was the plague, though the physicians declared it was not. However,
the family were obliged to begin their quarantine anew on the report
of the visitors or examiner, though their former quarantine wanted but
a few days of being finished. This oppressed them so with anger and
grief, and, as before, straitened them also so much as to room, and for
want of breathing and free air, that most of the family fell sick, one of
one distemper, one of another, chiefly scorbutic ailments; only one, a
violent colic; till, after several prolongings of their confinement, some
or other of those that came in with the visitors to inspect the persons
that were ill, in hopes of releasing them, brought the distemper with
them and infected the whole house; and all or most of them died, not
of the plague as really upon them before, but of the plague that those
people brought them, who should have been careful to have protected
them from it. And this was a thing which frequently happened, and
was indeed one of the worst consequences of shutting houses up.
I had about this time a little hardship put upon me, which I was at
first greatly afflicted at, and very much disturbed about though, as it
proved, it did not expose me to any disaster; and this was being
appointed by the alderman of Portsoken Ward one of the examiners of
the houses in the precinct where I lived. We had a large parish, and
had no less than eighteen examiners, as the order called us; the people
called us visitors. I endeavoured with all my might to be excused
from such an employment, and used many arguments with the
alderman's deputy to be excused; particularly I alleged that I was
against shutting up houses at all, and that it would be very hard to
oblige me to be an instrument in that which was against my
judgement, and which I did verily believe would not answer the end it
was intended for; but all the abatement I could get was only, that
whereas the officer was appointed by my Lord Mayor to continue two
months, I should be obliged to hold it but three weeks, on condition
nevertheless that I could then get some other sufficient housekeeper to
serve the rest of the time for me - which was, in short, but a very small
favour, it being very difficult to get any man to accept of such an
employment, that was fit to be entrusted with it.
It is true that shutting up of houses had one effect, which I am
sensible was of moment, namely, it confined the distempered people,
who would otherwise have been both very troublesome and very
dangerous in their running about streets with the distemper upon them
- which, when they were delirious, they would have done in a most
frightful manner, and as indeed they began to do at first very much,
till they were thus restraided; nay, so very open they were that the
poor would go about and beg at people's doors, and say they had the
plague upon them, and beg rags for their sores, or both, or anything
that delirious nature happened to think of.
A poor, unhappy gentlewoman, a substantial citizen's wife, was (if
the story be true) murdered by one of these creatures in Aldersgate
Street, or that way. He was going along the street, raving mad to be
sure, and singing; the people only said he was drunk, but he himself
said he had the plague upon him, which it seems was true; and
meeting this gentlewoman, he would kiss her. She was terribly
frighted, as he was only a rude fellow, and she ran from him, but the
street being very thin of people, there was nobody near enough to help
her. When she saw he would overtake her, she turned and gave him a
thrust so forcibly, he being but weak, and pushed him down
backward. But very unhappily, she being so near, he caught hold of
her and pulled her down also, and getting up first, mastered her and
kissed her; and which was worst of all, when he had done, told her he
had the plague, and why should not she have it as well as he? She was
frighted enough before, being also young with child; but when she
heard him say he had the plague, she screamed out and fell down into
a swoon, or in a fit, which, though she recovered a little, yet killed her
in a very few days; and I never heard whether she had the plague or no.
Another infected person came and knocked at the door of a citizen's
house where they knew him very well; the servant let him in, and
being told the master of the house was above, he ran up and came into
the room to them as the whole family was at supper. They began to
rise up, a little surprised, not knowing what the matter was; but he bid
them sit still, he only came to take his leave of them. They asked him,
'Why, Mr -, where are you going?' 'Going,' says he; 'I have got the
sickness, and shall die tomorrow night.' 'Tis easy to believe, though
not to describe, the consternation they were all in. The women and
the man's daughters, which were but little girls, were frighted almost
to death and got up, one running out at one door and one at another,
some downstairs and some upstairs, and getting together as well as
they could, locked themselves into their chambers and screamed out
at the window for help, as if they had been frighted out of their, wits.
The master, more composed than they, though both frighted and
provoked, was going to lay hands on him and throw him downstairs,
being in a passion; but then, considering a little the condition of the
man and the danger of touching him, horror seized his mind, and he
stood still like one astonished. The poor distempered man all this
while, being as well diseased in his brain as in his body, stood still
like one amazed. At length he turns round: 'Ay!' says he, with all the
seeming calmness imaginable, 'is it so with you all? Are you all
disturbed at me? Why, then I'll e'en go home and die there.' And so he
goes immediately downstairs. The servant that had let him in goes
down after him with a candle, but was afraid to go past him and open
the door, so he stood on the stairs to see what he would do. The man
went and opened the door, and went out and flung the door after him.
It was some while before the family recovered the fright, but as no ill
consequence attended, they have had occasion since to speak of it
(You may be sure) with great satisfaction. Though the man was gone,
it was some time - nay, as I heard, some days before they recovered
themselves of the hurry they were in; nor did they go up and down the
house with any assurance till they had burnt a great variety of fumes
and perfumes in all the rooms, and made a great many smokes of
pitch, of gunpowder, and of sulphur, all separately shifted, and
washed their clothes, and the like. As to the poor man, whether he
lived or died I don't remember.
It is most certain that, if by the shutting up of houses the sick bad
not been confined, multitudes who in the height of their fever were
delirious and distracted would have been continually running up and
down the streets; and even as it was a very great number did so, and
offered all sorts of violence to those they met,. even just as a mad dog
runs on and bites at every one he meets; nor can I doubt but that,
should one of those infected, diseased creatures have bitten any man
or woman while the frenzy of the distemper was upon them, they, I
mean the person so wounded, would as certainly have been incurably
infected as one that was sick before, and had the tokens upon him.
I heard of one infected creature who, running out of his bed in his
shirt in the anguish and agony of his swellings, of which he had three
upon him, got his shoes on and went to put on his coat; but the nurse
resisting, and snatching the coat from him, he threw her down, ran
over her, ran downstairs and into the street, directly to the Thames in
his shirt; the nurse running after him, and calling to the watch to stop
him; but the watchman, ftighted at the man, and afraid to touch him,
let him go on; upon which he ran down to the Stillyard stairs, threw
away his shirt, and plunged into the Thames, and, being a good
swimmer, swam quite over the river; and the tide being coming in, as
they call it (that is, running westward) he reached the land not till he
came about the Falcon stairs, where landing, and finding no people
there, it being in the night, he ran about the streets there, naked as he
was, for a good while, when, it being by that time high water, he takes
the river again, and swam back to the Stillyard, landed, ran up the
streets again to his own house, knocking at the door, went up the stairs
and into his bed again; and that this terrible experiment cured him of
the plague, that is to say, that the violent motion of his arms and legs
stretched the parts where the swellings he had upon him were, that is
to say, under his arms and his groin, and caused them to ripen and
break; and that the cold of the water abated the fever in his blood.
I have only to add that I do not relate this any more than some of the
other, as a fact within my own knowledge, so as that I can vouch the
truth of them, and especially that of the man being cured by the
extravagant adventure, which I confess I do not think very possible;
but it may serve to confirm the many desperate things which the
distressed people falling into deliriums, and what we call light-
headedness, were frequently run upon at that time, and how infinitely
more such there would have been if such people had not been
confined by the shutting up of houses; and this I take to be the best, if
not the only good thing which was performed by that severe method.
On the other hand, the complaints and the murmurings were very
bitter against the thing itself. It would pierce the hearts of all that
came by to hear the piteous cries of those infected people, who, being
thus out of their understandings by the violence of their pain or the
heat of their blood, were either shut in or perhaps tied in their beds
and chairs, to prevent their doing themselves hurt - and who would
make a dreadful outcry at their being confined, and at their being not
permitted to die at large, as they called it, and as they would have
done before.
This running of distempered people about the streets was very
dismal, and the magistrates did their utmost to prevent it; but as it was
generally in the night and always sudden when such attempts were
made, the officers could not be at band to prevent it; and even when
any got out in the day, the officers appointed did not care to meddle
with them, because, as they were all grievously infected, to be sure,
when they were come to that height, so they were more than ordinarily
infectious, and it was one of the most dangerous things that could be
to touch them. On the other hand, they generally ran on, not knowing
what they did, till they dropped down stark dead, or till they had
exhausted their spirits so as that they would fall and then die in
perhaps half-an-hour or an hour; and, which was most piteous to hear,
they were sure to come to themselves entirely in that half-hour or
hour, and then to make most grievous and piercing cries and
lamentations in the deep, afflicting sense of the condition they were
in. This was much of it before the order for shutting up of houses was
strictly put in execution, for at first the watchmen were not so
vigorous and severe as they were afterward in the keeping the people
in; that is to say, before they were (I mean some of them) severely
punished for their neglect, failing in their duty, and letting people who
were under their care slip away, or conniving at their going abroad,
whether sick or well. But after they saw the officers appointed to
examine into their conduct were resolved to have them do their duty
or be punished for the omission, they were more exact, and the people
were strictly restrained; which was a thing they took so ill and bore so
impatiently that their discontents can hardly be described. But there
was an absolute necessity for it, that must be confessed, unless some
other measures had been timely entered upon, and it was too late for that.
Had not this particular (of the sick being restrained as above) been
our case at that time, London would have been the most dreadful
place that ever was in the world; there would, for aught I know, have
as many people died in the streets as died in their houses; for when the
distemper was at its height it generally made them raving and
delirious, and when they were so they would never be persuaded to
keep in their beds but by force; and many who were not tied threw
themselves out of windows when they found they could not get leave
to go out of their doors.
It was for want of people conversing one with another, in this time
of calamity, that it was impossible any particular person could come
at the knowledge of all the extraordinary cases that occurred in
different families; and particularly I believe it was never known to this
day how many people in their deliriums drowned themselves in the
Thames, and in the river which runs from the marshes by Hackney,
which we generally called Ware River, or Hackney River. As to those
which were set down in the weekly bill, they were indeed few; nor
could it be known of any of those whether they drowned themselves
by accident or not. But I believe I might reckon up more who within
the compass of my knowledge or observation really drowned
themselves in that year, than are put down in the bill of all put
together: for many of the bodies were never found who yet were
known to be lost; and the like in other methods of self-destruction.
There was also one man in or about Whitecross Street burned himself
to death in his bed; some said it was done by himself, others that it
was by the treachery of the nurse that attended him; but that he had
the plague upon him was agreed by all.
It was a merciful disposition of Providence also, and which I have
many times thought of at that time, that no fires, or no considerable
ones at least, happened in the city during that year, which, if it had
been otherwise, would have been very dreadful; and either the people
must have let them alone unquenched, or have come together in great
crowds and throngs, unconcerned at the danger of the infection, not
concerned at the houses they went into, at the goods they handled, or
at the persons or the people they came among. But so it was, that
excepting that in Cripplegate parish, and two or three little eruptions
of fires, which were presently extinguished, there was no disaster of
that kind happened in the whole year. They told us a story of a house
in a place called Swan Alley, passing from Goswell Street, near the
end of Old Street, into St John Street, that a family was infected there
in so terrible a manner that every one of the house died. The last
person lay dead on the floor, and, as it is supposed, had lain herself all
along to die just before the fire; the fire, it seems, had fallen from its
place, being of wood, and had taken hold of the boards and the joists
they lay on, and burnt as far as just to the body, but had not taken hold
of the dead body (though she had little more than her shift on) and had
gone out of itself, not burning the rest of the house, though it was a
slight timber house. How true this might be I do not determine, but
the city being to suffer severely the next year by fire, this year it felt
very little of that calamity.
Indeed, considering the deliriums which the agony threw people
into, and how I have mentioned in their madness, when they were
alone, they did many desperate things, it was very strange there were
no more disasters of that kind.
It has been frequently asked me, and I cannot say that I ever knew
how to give a direct answer to it, how it came to pass that so many
infected people appeared abroad in the streets at the same time that
the houses which were infected were so vigilantly searched, and all of
them shut up and guarded as they were.
I confess I know not what answer to give to this, unless it be this:
that in so great and populous a city as this is it was impossible to
discover every house that was infected as soon as it was so, or to shut
up all the houses that were infected; so that people had the liberty of
going about the streets, even where they Pleased, unless they were
known to belong to such-and-such infected houses.
It is true that, as several physicians told my Lord Mayor, the fury of
the contagion was such at some particular times, and people sickened
so fast and died so soon, that it was impossible, and indeed to no
purpose, to go about to inquire who was sick and who was well, or to
shut them up with such exactness as the thing required, almost every
house in a whole street being infected, and in many places every
person in some of the houses; and that which was still worse, by the
time that the houses were known to be infected, most of the persons
infected would be stone dead, and the rest run away for fear of being
shut up; so that it was to very small purpose to call them infected
houses and shut them up, the infection having ravaged and taken its
leave of the house before it was really known that the family was any
way touched.
This might be sufficient to convince any reasonable person that as it
was not in the power of the magistrates or of any human methods of
policy, to prevent the spreading the infection, so that this way of
shutting up of houses was perfectly insufficient for that end. Indeed it
seemed to have no manner of public good in it, equal or
proportionable to the grievous burden that it was to the particular
families that were so shut up; and, as far as I was employed by the
public in directing that severity, I frequently found occasion to see
that it was incapable of answering the end. For example, as I was
desired, as a visitor or examiner, to inquire into the particulars of
several families which were infected, we scarce came to any house
where the plague had visibly appeared in the family but that some of
the family were fled and gone. The magistrates would resent this, and
charge the examiners with being remiss in their examination or
inspection. But by that means houses were long infected before it was
known. Now, as I was in this dangerous office but half the appointed
time, which was two months, it was long enough to inform myself that
we were no way capable of coming at the knowledge of the true state
of any family but by inquiring at the door or of the neighbours. As for
going into every house to search, that was a part no authority would
offer to impose on the inhabitants, or any citizen would undertake: for
it would have been exposing us to certain infection and death, and to
the ruin of our own families as well as of ourselves; nor would any
citizen of probity, and that could be depended upon, have stayed in the
town if they had been made liable to such a severity.
Seeing then that we could come at the certainty of things by no
method but that of inquiry of the neighbours or of the family, and on
that we could not justly depend, it was not possible but that the
uncertainty of this matter would remain as above.
It is true masters of families were bound by the order to give notice
to the examiner of the place wherein he lived, within two hours after
he should discover it, of any person being sick in his house (that is to
say, having signs of the infection)- but they found so many ways to
evade this and excuse their negligence that they seldom gave that
notice till they had taken measures to have every one escape out of the
house who had a mind to escape, whether they were sick or sound;
and while this was so, it is easy to see that the shutting up of houses
was no way to be depended upon as a sufficient method for putting a
stop to the infection because, as I have said elsewhere, many of those
that so went out of those infected houses had the plague really upon
them, though they might really think themselves sound. And some of
these were the people that walked the streets till they fell down dead,
not that they were suddenly struck with the distemper as with a
bullet that killed with the stroke, but that they really had the infection
in their blood long before; only, that as it preyed secretly on the vitals,
it appeared not till it seized the heart with a mortal power, and the
patient died in a moment, as with a sudden fainting or an apoplectic fit.
I know that some even of our physicians thought for a time that
those people that so died in the streets were seized but that moment
they fell, as if they had been touched by a stroke from heaven as men
are killed by a flash of lightning - but they found reason to alter their
opinion afterward; for upon examining the bodies of such after they
were dead, they always either had tokens upon them or other evident
proofs of the distemper having been longer upon them than they had
otherwise expected.
This often was the reason that, as I have said, we that were
examiners were not able to come at the knowledge of the infection
being entered into a house till it was too late to shut it up, and
sometimes not till the people that were left were all dead. In Petticoat
Lane two houses together were infected, and several people sick; but
the distemper was so well concealed, the examiner, who was my
neighbour, got no knowledge of it till notice was sent him that the
people were all dead, and that the carts should call there to fetch them
away. The two heads of the families concerted their measures, and so
ordered their matters as that when the examiner was in the
neighbourhood they appeared generally at a time, and answered, that
is, lied, for one another, or got some of the neighbourhood to say they
were all in health - and perhaps knew no better - till, death making it
impossible to keep it any longer as a secret, the dead-carts were called
in the night to both the houses t and so it became public. But when
the examiner ordered the constable to shut up the houses there was
nobody left in them but three people, two in one house and one in the
other, just dying, and a nurse in each house who acknowledged that
they had buried five before, that the houses had been infected nine or
ten days, and that for all the rest of the two families, which were
many, they were gone, some sick, some well, or whether sick or well
could not be known.
In like manner, at another house in the same lane, a man having his
family infected but very unwilling to be shut up, when he could
conceal it no longer, shut up himself; that is to say, he set the great red
cross upon his door with the words, 'Lord have mercy upon us', and so
deluded the examiner, who supposed it had been done by the
constable by order of the other examiner, for there were two
examiners to every district or precinct. By this means he had free
egress and regress into his house again. and out of it, as he pleased,
notwithstanding it was infected, till at length his stratagem was found
out; and then he, with the sound part of his servants and family, made
off and escaped, so they were not shut up at all.
These things made it very hard, if not impossible, as I have said, to
prevent the spreading of an infection by the shutting up of houses -
unless the people would think the shutting of their houses no
grievance, and be so willing to have it done as that they would give
notice duly and faithfully to the magistrates of their being infected as
soon as it was known by themselves; but as that cannot be expected
from them, and the examiners cannot be supposed, as above, to go
into their houses to visit and search, all the good of shutting up houses
will be defeated, and few houses will be shut up in time, except those
of the poor, who cannot conceal it, and of some people who will be
discovered by the terror and consternation which the things put them into.
I got myself discharged of the dangerous office I was in as soon as I
could get another admitted, whom I had obtained for a little money to
accept of it; and so, instead of serving the two months, which was
directed, I was not above three weeks in it; and a great while too,
considering it was in the month of August, at which time the
distemper began to rage with great violence at our end of the town.
In the execution of this office I could not refrain speaking my
opinion among my neighbours as to this shutting up the people in their
houses; in which we saw most evidently the severities that were used,
though grievous in themselves, had also this particular objection
against them: namely, that they did not answer the end, as I have said,
but that the distempered people went day by day about the streets; and
it was our united opinion that a method to have removed the sound
from the sick, in case of a particular house being visited, would have
been much more reasonable on many accounts, leaving nobody with
the sick persons but such as should on such occasion request to stay
and declare themselves content to be shut up with them
Our scheme for removing those that were sound from those that
were sick was only in such houses as were infected, and confining the
sick was no confinement; those that could not stir would not complain
while they were in their senses and while they had the power of
judging. Indeed, when they came to be delirious and light-headed,
then they would cry out of the cruelty of being confined; but for the
removal of those that were well, we thought it highly reasonable and
just, for their own sakes, they should be removed from the sick, and
that for other people's safety they should keep retired for a while, to
see that they were sound, and might not infect others; and we thought
twenty or thirty days enough for this.
Now, certainly, if houses had been provided on purpose for those
that were sound to perform this demi-quarantine in, they would have
much less reason to think themselves injured in such a restraint than
in being confined with infected people in the houses where they lived.
It is here, however, to be observed that after the funerals became so
many that people could not toll the bell, mourn or weep, or wear black
for one another, as they did before; no, nor so much as make coffins
for those that died; so after a while the fury of the infection appeared
to be so increased that, in short, they shut up no houses at all. It
seemed enough that all the remedies of that kind had been used till
they were found fruitless, and that the plague spread itself with an
irresistible fury; so that as the fire the succeeding year spread itself,
and burned with such violence that the citizens, in despair, gave over
their endeavours to extinguish it, so in the plague it came at last to
such violence that the people sat still looking at one another, and
seemed quite abandoned to despair; whole streets seemed to be
desolated, and not to be shut up only, but to be emptied of their
inhabitants; doors were left open, windows stood shattering with the
wind in empty houses for want of people to shut them. In a word,
people began to give up themselves to their fears and to think that all
regulations and methods were in vain, and that there was nothing to be
hoped for but an universal desolation; and it was even in the height of
this general despair that it Pleased God to stay His hand, and to
slacken the fury of the contagion in such a manner as was even
surprising, like its beginning, and demonstrated it to be His own
particular hand, and that above, if not without the agency of means, as
I shall take notice of in its proper place.
But I must still speak of the plague as in its height, raging even to
desolation, and the people under the most dreadful consternation,
even, as I have said, to despair. It is hardly credible to what excess
the passions of men carried them in this extremity of the distemper,
and this part, I think, was as moving as the rest. What could affect a
man in his full power of reflection, and what could make deeper
impressions on the soul, than to see a man almost naked, and got out
of his house, or perhaps out of his bed, into the street, come out of
Harrow Alley, a populous conjunction or collection of alleys, courts,
and passages in the Butcher Row in Whitechappel, - I say, what could
be more affecting than to see this poor man come out into the open
street, run dancing and singing and making a thousand antic gestures,
with five or six women and children running after him, crying and
calling upon him for the Lord's sake to come back, and entreating the
help of others to bring him back, but all in vain, nobody daring to lay
a hand upon him or to come near him?
This was a most grievous and afflicting thing to me, who saw it all
from my own windows; for all this while the poor afflicted man was,
as I observed it, even then in the utmost agony of pain, having (as they
said) two swellings upon him which could not be brought to break or
to suppurate; but, by laying strong caustics on them, the surgeons had,
it seems, hopes to break them - which caustics were then upon him,
burning his flesh as with a hot iron. I cannot say what became of this
poor man, but I think he continued roving about in that manner till he
fell down and died.
No wonder the aspect of the city itself was frightful. The usual
concourse of people in the streets, and which used to be supplied from
our end of the town, was abated. The Exchange was not kept shut,
indeed, but it was no more frequented. The fires were lost; they had
been almost extinguished for some days by a very smart and hasty
rain. But that was not all; some of the physicians insisted that they
were not only no benefit, but injurious to the health of people. This
they made a loud clamour about, and complained to the Lord Mayor
about it. On the other hand, others of the same faculty, and eminent
too, opposed them, and gave their reasons why the fires were, and
must be, useful to assuage the violence of the distemper. I cannot
give a full account of their arguments on both sides; only this I
remember, that they cavilled very much with one another. Some were
for fires, but that they must be made of wood and not coal, and of
particular sorts of wood too, such as fir in particular, or cedar, because
of the strong effluvia of turpentine; others were for coal and not wood,
because of the sulphur and bitumen; and others were for neither one
or other. Upon the whole, the Lord Mayor ordered no more fires, and
especially on this account, namely, that the plague was so fierce that
they saw evidently it defied all means, and rather seemed to increase
than decrease upon any application to check and abate it; and yet this
amazement of the magistrates proceeded rather from want of being
able to apply any means successfully than from any unwillingness
either to expose themselves or undertake the care and weight of
business; for, to do them justice, they neither spared their pains nor
their persons. But nothing answered; the infection raged, and the
people were now frighted and terrified to the last degree: so that, as I
may say, they gave themselves up, and, as I mentioned above,
abandoned themselves to their despair.
But let me observe here that, when I say the people abandoned
themselves to despair, I do not mean to what men call a religious
despair, or a despair of their eternal state, but I mean a despair of their
being able to escape the infection or to outlive the plague. which they
saw was so raging and so irresistible in its force that indeed few
people that were touched with it in its height, about August and
September, escaped; and, which is very particular, contrary to its
ordinary operation in June and July, and the beginning of August,
when, as I have observed, many were infected, and continued so many
days, and then went off after having had the poison in their blood a
long time; but now, on the contrary, most of the people who were
taken during the two last weeks in August and in the three first weeks
in September, generally died in two or three days at furthest, and
many the very same day they were taken; whether the dog-days, or, as
our astrologers pretended to express themselves, the influence of the
dog-star, had that malignant effect, or all those who had the seeds of
infection before in them brought it up to a maturity at that time
altogether, I know not; but this was the time when it was reported that
above 3000 people died in one night; and they that would have us
believe they more critically observed it pretend to say that they all
died within the space of two hours, viz., between the hours of one and
three in the morning.
As to the suddenness of people's dying at this time, more than
before, there were innumerable instances of it, and I could name
several in my neighbourhood. One family without the Bars, and not
far from me, were all seemingly well on the Monday, being ten in
family. That evening one maid and one apprentice were taken ill and
died the next morning - when the other apprentice and two children
were touched, whereof one died the same evening, and the other two
on Wednesday. In a word, by Saturday at noon the master, mistress,
four children, and four servants were all gone, and the house left
entirely empty, except an ancient woman who came in to take charge
of the goods for the master of the family's brother, who lived not far
off, and who had not been sick.
Many houses were then left desolate, all the people being carried
away dead, and especially in an alley farther on the same side beyond
the Bars, going in at the sign of Moses and Aaron, there were several
houses together which, they said, had not one person left alive in
them; and some that died last in several of those houses were left a
little too long before they were fetched out to be buried; the reason of
which was not, as some have written very untruly, that the living were
not sufficient to bury the dead, but that the mortality was so great in
the yard or alley that there was nobody left to give notice to the
buriers or sextons that there were any dead bodies there to be buried.
It was said, how true I know not, that some of those bodies were so
much corrupted and so rotten that it was with difficulty they were
carried; and as the carts could not come any nearer than to the Alley
Gate in the High Street, it was so much the more difficult to bring
them along; but I am not certain how many bodies were then left. I
am sure that ordinarily it was not so.
As I have mentioned how the people were brought into a condition
to despair of life and abandon themselves, so this very thing had a
strange effect among us for three or four weeks; that is, it made them
bold and venturous: they were no more shy of one another, or
restrained within doors, but went anywhere and everywhere, and
began to converse. One would say to another, 'I do not ask you how
you are, or say how I am; it is certain we shall all go; so 'tis no matter
who is all sick or who is sound'; and so they ran desperately into any
place or any company.
As it brought the people into public company, so it was surprising
how it brought them to crowd into the churches. They inquired no
more into whom they sat near to or far from, what offensive smells
they met with, or what condition the people seemed to be in; but,
looking upon themselves all as so many dead corpses, they came to
the churches without the least caution, and crowded together as if
their lives were of no consequence compared to the work which they
came about there. Indeed, the zeal which they showed in coming, and
the earnestness and affection they showed in their attention to what
they heard, made it manifest what a value people would all put upon
the worship of God if they thought every day they attended at the
church that it would be their last.
Nor was it without other strange effects, for it took away, all manner
of prejudice at or scruple about the person whom they found in the
pulpit when they came to the churches. It cannot be doubted but that
many of the ministers of the parish churches were cut off, among
others, in so common and dreadful a calamity; and others had not
courage enough to stand it, but removed into the country as they found
means for escape. As then some parish churches were quite vacant
and forsaken, the people made no scruple of desiring such Dissenters
as had been a few years before deprived of their livings by virtue of
the Act of Parliament called the Act of Uniformity to preach in the
churches; nor did the church ministers in that case make any difficulty
of accepting their assistance; so that many of those whom they called
silenced ministers had their mouths opened on this occasion and
preached publicly to the people.
Here we may observe and I hope it will not be amiss to take notice
of it that a near view of death would soon reconcile men of good
principles one to another, and that it is chiefly owing to our easy
situation in life and our putting these things far from us that our
breaches are fomented, ill blood continued, prejudices, breach of
charity and of Christian union, so much kept and so far carried on
among us as it is. Another plague year would reconcile all these
differences; a dose conversing with death, or with diseases that
threaten death, would scum off the gall from our tempers, remove the
animosities among us, and bring us to see with differing eyes than
those which we looked on things with before. As the people who had
been used to join with the Church were reconciled at this time with
the admitting the Dissenters to preach to them, so the Dissenters, who
with an uncommon prejudice had broken off from the communion of
the Church of England, were now content to come to their parish
churches and to conform to the worship which they did not approve of
before; but as the terror of the infection abated, those things all
returned again to their less desirable channel and to the course they
were in before.
I mention this but historically. I have no mind to enter into
arguments to move either or both sides to a more charitable
compliance one with another. I do not see that it is probable such a
discourse would be either suitable or successful; the breaches seem
rather to widen, and tend to a widening further, than to closing, and
who am I that I should think myself able to influence either one side
or other? But this I may repeat again, that 'tis evident death will
reconcile us all; on the other side the grave we shall be all brethren
again. In heaven, whither I hope we may come from all parties and
persuasions, we shall find neither prejudice or scruple; there we shall
be of one principle and of one opinion. Why we cannot be content to
go hand in hand to the Place where we shall join heart and hand
without the least hesitation, and with the most complete harmony and
affection - I say, why we cannot do so here I can say nothing to,
neither shall I say anything more of it but that it remains to be lamented.
I could dwell a great while upon the calamities of this dreadful time,
and go on to describe the objects that appeared among us every day,
the dreadful extravagancies which the distraction of sick people drove
them into; how the streets began now to be fuller of frightful objects,
and families to be made even a terror to themselves. But after I have
told you, as I have above, that one man, being tied in his bed, and
finding no other way to deliver himself, set the bed on fire with his
candle, which unhappily stood within his reach, and burnt himself in
his bed; and how another, by the insufferable torment he bore, danced
and sung naked in the streets, not knowing one ecstasy from another; I
say, after I have mentioned these things, what can be added more?
What can be said to represent the misery of these times more lively to
the reader, or to give him a more perfect idea of a complicated distress?
I must acknowledge that this time was terrible, that I was sometimes
at the end of all my resolutions, and that I had not the courage that I
had at the beginning. As the extremity brought other people abroad, it
drove me home, and except having made my voyage down to
Blackwall and Greenwich, as I have related, which was an excursion,
I kept afterwards very much within doors, as I had for about a
fortnight before. I have said already that I repented several times that
I had ventured to stay in town, and had not gone away with my brother
and his family, but it was too late for that now; and after I had
retreated and stayed within doors a good while before my impatience
led me abroad, then they called me, as I have said, to an ugly and
dangerous office which brought me out again; but as that was expired
while the height of the distemper lasted, I retired again, and continued
dose ten or twelve days more, during which many dismal spectacles
represented themselves in my view out of my own windows and in our
own street - as that particularly from Harrow Alley, of the poor
outrageous creature which danced and sung in his agony; and many
others there were. Scarce a day or night passed over but some dismal
thing or other happened at the end of that Harrow Alley, which was a
place full of poor people, most of them belonging to the butchers or to
employments depending upon the butchery.
Sometimes heaps and throngs of people would burst out of the alley,
most of them women, making a dreadful clamour, mixed or
compounded of screeches, cryings, and calling one another, that we
could not conceive what to make of it. Almost all the dead part of the
night the dead-cart stood at the end of that alley, for if it went in it
could not well turn again, and could go in but a little way. There, I
say, it stood to receive dead bodies, and as the churchyard was but a
little way off, if it went away full it would soon be back again. It is
impossible to describe the most horrible cries and noise the poor
people would make at their bringing the dead bodies of their children
and friends out of the cart, and by the number one would have thought
there had been none left behind, or that there were people enough for
a small city living in those places. Several times they cried 'Murder',
sometimes 'Fire'; but it was easy to perceive it was all distraction, and
the complaints of distressed and distempered people.
I believe it was everywhere thus as that time, for the plague raged
for six or seven weeks beyond all that I have expressed, and came
even to such a height that, in the extremity, they began to break into
that excellent order of which I have spoken so much in behalf of the
magistrates; namely, that no dead bodies were seen in the street or
burials in the daytime: for there was a necessity in this extremity to
bear with its being otherwise for a little while.
One thing I cannot omit here, and indeed I thought it was extraordinary,
at least it seemed a remarkable hand of Divine justice: viz., that all
the predictors, astrologers, fortune-tellers, and what they called
cunning-men, conjurers, and the like: calculators of nativities
and dreamers of dream, and such people, were gone and vanished;
not one of them was to be found. I am verily persuaded that
a great number of them fell in the heat of the calamity,
having ventured to stay upon the prospect of getting great estates;
and indeed their gain was but too great for a time, through the madness
and folly of the people. But now they were silent; many of them went
to their long home, not able to foretell their own fate or to calculate
their own nativities. Some have been critical enough to say that
every one of them died. I dare not affirm that; but this I must own,
that I never heard of one of them that ever appeared after the
calamity was over.
But to return to my particular observations during this dreadful part
of the visitation. I am now come, as I have said, to the month of
September, which was the most dreadful of its kind, I believe, that
ever London saw; for, by all the accounts which I have seen of the
preceding visitations which have been in London, nothing has been
like it, the number in the weekly bill amounting to almost 40,000 from
the 22nd of August to the 26th of September, being but five weeks.
The particulars of the bills are as follows, viz. : -
From August the 22nd to the 29th 7496
" " 29th " 5th September 8252
" September the 5th " 12th 7690
" " 12th " 19th 8297
" " 19th " 26th 6460
-----
38,195
This was a prodigious number of itself, but if I should add the
reasons which I have to believe that this account was deficient, and
how deficient it was, you would, with me, make no scruple to believe
that there died above ten thousand a week for all those weeks, one
week with another, and a proportion for several weeks both before
and after. The confusion among the people, especially within the city,
at that time, was inexpressible. The terror was so great at last that the
courage of the people appointed to carry away the dead began to fail
them; nay, several of them died, although they had the distemper
before and were recovered, and some of them dropped down when
they have been carrying the bodies even at the pit side, and just ready
to throw them in; and this confusion was greater in the city because
they had flattered themselves with hopes of escaping, and thought the
bitterness of death was past. One cart, they told us, going up
Shoreditch was forsaken of the drivers, or being left to one man to
drive, he died in the street; and the horses going on overthrew the cart,
and left the bodies, some thrown out here, some there, in a dismal
manner. Another cart was, it seems, found in the great pit in Finsbury
Fields, the driver being dead, or having been gone and abandoned it,
and the horses running too near it, the cart fell in and drew the horses
in also. It was suggested that the driver was thrown in with it and that
the cart fell upon him, by reason his whip was seen to be in the pit
among the bodies; but that, I suppose, could not be certain.
In our parish of Aldgate the dead-carts were several times, as I have
heard, found standing at the churchyard gate full of dead bodies, but
neither bellman or driver or any one else with it; neither in these or
many other cases did they know what bodies they had in their cart, for
sometimes they were let down with ropes out of balconies and out of
windows, and sometimes the bearers brought them to the cart,
sometimes other people; nor, as the men themselves said, did they
trouble themselves to keep any account of the numbers.
The vigilance of the magistrates was now put to the utmost trial -
and, it must be confessed, can never be enough acknowledged on this
occasion also; whatever expense or trouble they were at, two things
were never neglected in the city or suburbs either : -
(1) Provisions were always to be had in full plenty, and the price not
much raised neither, hardly worth speaking.
(2) No dead bodies lay unburied or uncovered; and if one walked
from one end of the city to another, no funeral or sign of it was to be
seen in the daytime, except a little, as I have said above, in the three
first weeks in September.
This last article perhaps will hardly be believed when some
accounts which others have published since that shall be seen,
wherein they say that the dead lay unburied, which I am assured was
utterly false; at least, if it had been anywhere so, it must have been in
houses where the living were gone from the dead (having found
means, as I have observed, to escape) and where no notice was given
to the officers. All which amounts to nothing at all in the case in
hand; for this I am positive in, having myself been employed a little in
the direction of that part in the parish in which I lived, and where as
great a desolation was made in proportion to the number of
inhabitants as was anywhere; I say, I am sure that there were no dead
bodies remained unburied; that is to say, none that the proper officers
knew of; none for want of people to carry them off, and buriers to put
them into the ground and cover them; and this is sufficient to the
argument; for what might lie in houses and holes, as in Moses and
Aaron Alley, is nothing; for it is most certain they were buried as soon
as they were found. As to the first article (namely, of provisions, the
scarcity or dearness), though I have mentioned it before and shall
speak of it again, yet I must observe here: -
(1) The price of bread in particular was not much raised; for in the
beginning of the year, viz., in the first week in March, the penny
wheaten loaf was ten ounces and a half; and in the height of the
contagion it was to be had at nine ounces and a half, and never dearer,
no, not all that season. And about the beginning of November it was
sold ten ounces and a half again; the like of which, I believe, was
never heard of in any city, under so dreadful a visitation, before.
(2) Neither was there (which I wondered much at) any want of
bakers or ovens kept open to supply the people with the bread; but this
was indeed alleged by some families, viz., that their maidservants,
going to the bakehouses with their dough to be baked, which was then
the custom, sometimes came home with the sickness (that is to say the
plague) upon them.
In all this dreadful visitation there were, as I have said before, but
two pest-houses made use of, viz., one in the fields beyond Old Street
and one in Westminster; neither was there any compulsion used in
carrying people thither. Indeed there was no need of compulsion in
the case, for there were thousands of poor distressed people who,
having no help or conveniences or supplies but of charity, would have
been very glad to have been carried thither and been taken care of;
which, indeed, was the only thing that I think was wanting in the
whole public management of the city, seeing nobody was here
allowed to be brought to the pest-house but where money was given,
or security for money, either at their introducing or upon their being
cured and sent out - for very many were sent out again whole; and
very good physicians were appointed to those places, so that many
people did very well there, of which I shall make mention again. The
principal sort of people sent thither were, as I have said, servants who
got the distemper by going of errands to fetch necessaries to the
families where they lived, and who in that case, if they came home
sick, were removed to preserve the rest of the house; and they were so
well looked after there in all the time of the visitation that there was
but 156 buried in all at the London pest-house, and 159 at that of
Westminster.
By having more pest-houses I am far from meaning a forcing all
people into such places. Had the shutting up of houses been omitted
and the sick hurried out of their dwellings to pest-houses, as some
proposed, it seems, at that time as well as since, it would certainly
have been much worse than it was. The very removing the sick would
have been a spreading of the infection, and the rather because that
removing could not effectually clear the house where the sick person
was of the distemper; and the rest of the family, being then left at
liberty, would certainly spread it among others.
The methods also in private families, which would have been
universally used to have concealed the distemper and to have
concealed the persons being sick, would have been such that the
distemper would sometimes have seized a whole family before any
visitors or examiners could have known of it. On the other hand, the
prodigious numbers which would have been sick at a time would have
exceeded all the capacity of public pest-houses to receive them, or of
public officers to discover and remove them.
This was well considered in those days, and I have heard them talk
of it often. The magistrates had enough to do to bring people to
submit to having their houses shut up, and many ways they deceived
the watchmen and got out, as I have observed. But that difficulty
made it apparent that they t would have found it impracticable to have
gone the other way to work, for they could never have forced the sick
people out of their beds and out of their dwellings. It must not have
been my Lord Mayor's officers, but an army of officers, that must have
attempted it; and tile people, on the other hand, would have been
enraged and desperate, and would have killed those that should have
offered to have meddled with them or with their children and
relations, whatever had befallen them for it; so that they would have
made the people, who, as it was, were in the most terrible distraction
imaginable, I say, they would have made them stark mad; whereas the
magistrates found it proper on several accounts to treat them with
lenity and compassion, and not with violence and terror, such as
dragging the sick out of their houses or obliging them to remove
themselves, would have been.
This leads me again to mention the time when the plague first
began; that is to say, when it became certain that it would spread over
the whole town, when, as I have said, the better sort of people first
took the alarm and began to hurry themselves out of town. It was
true, as I observed in its place, that the throng was so great, and the
coaches, horses, waggons, and carts were so many, driving and
dragging the people away, that it looked as if all the city was running
away; and had any regulations been published that had been terrifying
at that time, especially such as would pretend to dispose of the people
otherwise than they would dispose of themselves, it would have put
both the city and suburbs into the utmost confusion.
But the magistrates wisely caused the people to be encouraged,
made very good bye-laws for the regulating the citizens, keeping good
order in the streets, and making everything as eligible as possible to
all sorts of people.
In the first place, the Lord Mayor and the sheriffs, the Court of
Aldermen, and a certain number of the Common Council men, or
their deputies, came to a resolution and published it, viz., that they
would not quit the city themselves, but that they would be always at
hand for the preserving good order in every place and for the doing
justice on all occasions; as also for the distributing the public charity
to the poor; and, in a word, for the doing the duty and discharging the
trust reposed in them by the citizens to the utmost of their power.
In pursuance of these orders, the Lord Mayor, sheriffs, &c., held
councils every day, more or less, for making such dispositions as they
found needful for preserving the civil peace; and though they used the
people with all possible gentleness and clemency, yet all manner of
presumptuous rogues such as thieves, housebreakers, plunderers of the
dead or of the sick, were duly punished, and several declarations were
continually published by the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen
against such.
Also all constables and churchwardens were enjoined to stay in the
city upon severe penalties, or to depute such able and sufficient
housekeepers as the deputy aldermen or Common Council men of the
precinct should approve, and for whom they should give security; and
also security in case of mortality that they would forthwith constitute
other constables in their stead.
These things re-established the minds of the people very much,
especially in the first of their fright, when they talked of making so
universal a flight that the city would have been in danger of being
entirely deserted of its inhabitants except the poor, and the country of
being plundered and laid waste by the multitude. Nor were the
magistrates deficient in performing their part as boldly as they
promised it; for my Lord Mayor and the sheriffs were continually in
the streets and at places of the greatest danger, and though they did
not care for having too great a resort of people crowding about them,
yet in emergent cases they never denied the people access to them,
and heard with patience all their grievances and complaints. My Lord
Mayor had a low gallery built
on purpose in his hall, where he stood a little removed from the crowd
when any complaint came to be heard, that he might appear with as
much safety as possible.
Likewise the proper officers, called my Lord Mayor's officers,
constantly attended in their turns, as they were in waiting; and if any
of them were sick or infected, as some of them were, others were
instantly employed to fill up and officiate in their places till it was
known whether the other should live or die.
In like manner the sheriffs and aldermen did in their several stations
and wards, where they were placed by office, and the sheriff's officers
or sergeants were appointed to receive orders from the respective
aldermen in their turn, so that justice was executed in all cases
without interruption. In the next place, it was one of their particular
cares to see
the orders for the freedom of the markets observed, and in this part
either the Lord Mayor or one or both of the sheriffs were every
market-day on horseback to see their orders executed and to see that
the country people had all possible encouragement and freedom in
their coming to the markets and going back again, and that no
nuisances or frightful objects should be seen in the streets to terrify
them or make them unwilling to come. Also the bakers were taken
under particular order, and the Master of the Bakers' Company was,
with his court of assistants, directed to see the order of my Lord
Mayor for their regulation put in execution, and the due assize of
bread (which was weekly appointed by my Lord Mayor) observed; and
all the bakers were obliged to keep their oven going constantly, on
pain of losing the privileges of a freeman of the city of London.
By this means bread was always to be had in plenty, and as cheap as
usual, as I said above; and provisions were never wanting in the
markets, even to such a degree that I often wondered at it, and
reproached myself with being so timorous and cautious in stirring
abroad, when the country people came freely and boldly to market, as
if there had been no manner of infection in the city, or danger of
catching it.
It. was indeed one admirable piece of conduct in the said
magistrates that the streets were kept constantly dear and free from all
manner of frightful objects, dead bodies, or any such things as were
indecent or unpleasant - unless where anybody fell down suddenly or
died in the streets, as I have said above; and these were generally
covered with some cloth or blanket, or removed into the next
churchyard till night. All the needful works that carried terror with
them, that were both dismal and dangerous, were done in the night; if
any diseased bodies were removed, or dead bodies buried, or infected
clothes burnt, it was done in the night; and all the bodies which were
thrown into the great pits in the several churchyards or burying-
grounds, as has. been observed, were so removed in the night, and
everything was covered and closed before day. So that in the daytime
there was not the least signal of the calamity to be seen or heard of,
except what was to be observed from the emptiness of the streets, and
sometimes from the passionate outcries and lamentations of the
people, out at their windows, and from the numbers of houses and
shops shut up.
Nor was the silence and emptiness of the streets so much in the city
as in the out-parts, except just at one particular time when, as I have
mentioned, the plague came east and spread over all the city. It was
indeed a merciful disposition of God, that as the plague began at one
end of the town first (as has been observed at large) so it proceeded
progressively to other parts, and did not come on this way, or
eastward, till it had spent its fury in the West part of the town; and so,
as it came on one way, it abated another. For example, it began at St
Giles's and the Westminster end of the town, and it was in its height in
all that part by about the middle of July, viz., in St Giles-in-the-Fields,
St Andrew's, Holborn, St Clement Danes, St Martin-in-the-Fields, and
in Westminster. The latter end of July it decreased in those parishes;
and coming east, it increased prodigiously in Cripplegate, St
Sepulcher's, St James's, Clarkenwell, and St Bride's and Aldersgate.
While it was in all these parishes, the city and all the parishes of the
Southwark side of the water and all Stepney, Whitechappel, Aldgate,
Wapping, and Ratcliff, were very little touched; so that people went
about their business unconcerned, carried on their trades, kept open
their shops, and conversed freely with one another in all the city, the
east and north-east suburbs, and in Southwark, almost as if the plague
had not been among us.
Even when the north and north-west suburbs were fully infected,
viz., Cripplegate, Clarkenwell, Bishopsgate, and Shoreditch, yet still
all the rest were tolerably well. For example from 25th July to 1st
August the bill stood thus of all diseases: -
St Giles, Cripplegate 554
St Sepulchers 250
Clarkenwell 103
Bishopsgate 116
Shoreditch 110
Stepney parish 127
Aldgate 92
Whitechappel 104
All the ninety-seven parishes within the walls 228
All the parishes in Southwark 205
-----
Total 1889
So that, in short, there died more that week in the two parishes of
Cripplegate and St Sepulcher by forty-eight than in all the city, all the
east suburbs, and all the Southwark parishes put together. This caused
the reputation of the city's health to continue all over England - and
especially in the counties and markets adjacent, from whence our
supply of provisions chiefly came even much longer than that health
itself continued; for when the people came into the streets from the
country by Shoreditch and Bishopsgate, or by Old Street and
Smithfield, they would see the out-streets empty and the houses and
shops shut, and the few people that were stirring there walk in the
middle of the streets. But when they came within the city, there
things looked better, and the markets and shops were open, and the
people walking about the streets as usual, though not quite so many;
and this continued till the latter end of August and the beginning of
September.
But then the case altered quite; the distemper abated in the west and
north-west parishes, and the weight of the infection lay on the city and
the eastern suburbs, and the Southwark side, and this in a frightful
manner.
Then, indeed, the city began to look dismal, shops to be shut, and the
streets desolate. In the High Street, indeed, necessity made people stir
abroad on many occasions; and there would be in the middle of the
day a pretty many people, but in the mornings and evenings scarce any
to be seen, even there, no, not in Cornhill and Cheapside.
These observations of mine were abundantly confirmed by the
weekly bills of mortality for those weeks, an abstract of which, as they
respect the parishes which. I have mentioned and as they make the
calculations I speak of very evident, take as
follows.
The weekly bill, which makes out this decrease of the burials in the
west and north side of the city, stands thus - -
From the 12th of September to the 19th -
St Giles, Cripplegate 456
St Giles-in-the-Fields 140
Clarkenwell 77
St Sepulcher 214
St Leonard, Shoreditch 183
Stepney parish 716
Aldgate 623
Whitechappel 532
In the ninety-seven parishes within the walls 1493
In the eight parishes on Southwark side 1636
-----
Total 6060
Here is a strange change of things indeed, and a sad change it was;
and had it held for two months more than it did, very few people
would have been left alive. But then such, I say, was the merciful
disposition of God that, when it was thus, the west and north part
which had been so dreadfully visited at first, grew, as you see, much
better; and as the people disappeared here, they began to look abroad
again there; and the next week or two altered it still more; that is,
more to the encouragement of tile other part of the town. For
example: -
From the 19th of September to the 26th -
St Giles, Cripplegate 277
St Giles-in-the-Fields 119
Clarkenwell 76
St Sepulchers 193
St Leonard, Shoreditch 146
Stepney parish 616
Aldgate 496
Whitechappel 346
In the ninety-seven parishes within the walls 1268
In the eight parishes on Southwark side 1390
-----
Total 4927
From the 26th of September to the 3rd of October -
St Giles, Cripplegate 196
St Giles-in-the-Fields 95
Clarkenwell 48
St Sepulchers 137
St Leonard, Shoreditch 128
Stepney parish 674
Aldgate 372
Whitechappel 328
In the ninety-seven parishes within the walls 1149
In the eight parishes on Southwark side 1201
-----
Total 4382
And now the misery of the city and of the said east and south parts
was complete indeed; for, as you see, the weight of the distemper lay
upon those parts, that is to say, the city, the eight parishes over the
river, with the parishes of Aldgate, Whitechappel, and Stepney; and
this was the time that the bills came up to such a monstrous height as
that I mentioned before, and that eight or nine, and, as I believe, ten or
twelve thousand a week, died; for it is my settled opinion that they
never could come at any just account of the numbers, for the reasons
which I have given already.
Nay, one of the most eminent physicians, who has since published
in Latin an account of those times, and of his observations says that in
one week there died twelve thousand people, and that particularly
there died four thousand in one night; though I do not remember that
there ever was any such particular night so remarkably fatal as that
such a number died in it. However, all this confirms what I have said
above of the uncertainty of the bills of mortality, &c., of which I shall
say more hereafter.
And here let me take leave to enter again, though it may seem a
repetition of circumstances, into a description of the miserable
condition of the city itself, and of those parts where I lived at this
particular time. The city and those other parts, notwithstanding the
great numbers of people that were gone into the country, was vastly
full of people; and perhaps the fuller because people had for a long
time a strong belief that the plague would not come into the city, nor
into Southwark, no, nor into Wapping or Ratcliff at all; nay, such was
the assurance of the people on that head that many removed from the
suburbs on the west and north sides, into those eastern and south sides
as for safety; and, as I verily believe, carried the plague amongst them
there perhaps sooner than they would otherwise have had it.
Here also I ought to leave a further remark for the use of posterity,
concerning the manner of people's infecting one another; namely, that
it was not the sick people only from whom the plague was
immediately received by others that were sound, but the well. To
explain myself: by the sick people I mean those who were known to
be sick, had taken their beds, had been under cure, or had swellings
and tumours upon them, and the like; these everybody could beware
of; they were either in their beds or in such condition as could not
be concealed.
By the well I mean such as had received the contagion, and had it
really upon them, and in their blood, yet did not show the
consequences of it in their countenances: nay, even were not sensible
of it themselves, as many were not for several days. These breathed
death in every place, and upon everybody who came near them; nay,
their very clothes retained the infection, their hands would infect the
things they touched, especially if they were warm and sweaty, and
they were generally apt to sweat too.
Now it was impossible to know these people, nor did they
sometimes, as I have said, know themselves to be infected. These
were the people that so often dropped down and fainted in the streets;
for oftentimes they would go about the streets to the last, till on a
sudden they would sweat, grow faint, sit down at a door and die. It is
true, finding themselves thus, they would struggle hard to get home to
their own doors, or at other times would be just able to go into their
houses and die instantly; other times they would go about till they had
the very tokens come out upon them, and yet not know it, and would
die in an hour or two after they came home, but be well as long as
they were abroad. These were the dangerous people; these were the
people of whom the well people ought to have been afraid; but then,
on the other side, it was impossible to know them.
And this is the reason why it is impossible in a visitation to prevent
the spreading of the plague by the utmost human vigilance: viz., that it
is impossible to know the infected people from the sound, or that the
infected people should perfectly know themselves. I knew a man who
conversed freely in London all the season of the plague in 1665, and
kept about him an antidote or cordial on purpose to take when he
thought himself in any danger, and he had such a rule to know or have
warning of the danger by as indeed I never met with before or since.
How far it may be depended on I know not. He had a wound in his
leg, and whenever he came among any people that were not sound,
and the infection began to affect him, he said he could know it by that
signal, viz., that his wound in his leg would smart, and look pale and
white; so as soon as ever he felt it smart it was time for him to
withdraw, or to take care of himself, taking his drink, which he always
carried about him for that purpose. Now it seems he found his wound
would smart many times when he was in company with such who
thought themselves to be sound, and who appeared so to one another;
but he would presently rise up and say publicly, 'Friends, here is
somebody in the room that has the plague', and so would immediately
break up the company. This was indeed a faithful monitor to all
people that the plague is not to be avoided by those that converse
promiscuously in a town infected, and people have it when they know
it not, and that they likewise give it to others when they know not that
they have it themselves; and in this case shutting up the well or
removing the sick will not do it, unless they can go back and shut up
all those that the sick had conversed with, even before they knew
themselves to be sick, and none knows how far to carry that back, or
where to stop; for none knows when or where or how they may have
received the infection, or from whom.
This I take to be the reason which makes so many people talk of the
air being corrupted and infected, and that they need not be cautious of
whom they converse with, for that the contagion was in the air. I have
seen them in strange agitations and surprises on this account. 'I have
never come near any infected body', says the disturbed person; 'I have
conversed with none but sound, healthy people, and yet I have gotten
the distemper!' 'I am sure I am struck from Heaven', says another, and
he falls to the serious part. Again, the first goes on exclaiming, 'I have
come near no infection or any infected person; I am sure it is the air.
We draw in death when we breathe, and therefore 'tis the hand of
God; there is no withstanding it.' And this at last made many people,
being hardened to the danger, grow less concerned at it; and less
cautious towards the latter end of the time, and when it was come to
its height, than they were at first. Then, with a kind of a Turkish
predestinarianism, they would say, if it pleased God to strike them, it
was all one whether they went abroad or stayed at home; they could
not escape it, and therefore they went boldly about, even into infected
houses and infected company; visited sick people; and, in short, lay in
the beds with their wives or relations when they were infected. And
what was the consequence, but the same that is the consequence in
Turkey, and in those countries where they do those things - namely,
that they were infected too, and died by hundreds and thousands?
I would be far from lessening the awe of the judgements of God and
the reverence to His providence which ought always to be on our
minds on such occasions as these. Doubtless the visitation itself is a
stroke from Heaven upon a city, or country, or nation where it falls; a
messenger of His vengeance, and a loud call to that nation or country
or city to humiliation and repentance, according to that of the prophet
Jeremiah (xviii. 7, 8): 'At what instant I shall speak concerning a
nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and
to destroy it; if that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from
their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.' Now
to prompt due impressions of the awe of God on the minds of men on
such occasions, and not to lessen them, it is that I have left those
minutes upon record.
I say, therefore, I reflect upon no man for putting the reason of those
things upon the immediate hand of God, and the appointment and
direction of His providence; nay, on the contrary, there were many
wonderful deliverances of persons from infection, and deliverances of
persons when infected, which intimate singular and remarkable
providence in the particular instances to which they refer; and I
esteem my own deliverance to be one next to miraculous, and do
record it with thankfulness.
But when I am speaking of the plague as a distemper arising from
natural causes, we must consider it as it was really propagated by
natural means; nor is it at all the less a judgement for its being under
the conduct of human causes and effects; for, as the Divine Power has
formed the whole scheme of nature and maintains nature in its course,
so the same Power thinks fit to let His own actings with men, whether
of mercy or judgement, to go on in the ordinary course of natural
causes; and He is pleased to act by those natural causes as the
ordinary means, excepting and reserving to Himself nevertheless a
power to act in a supernatural way when He sees occasion. Now 'tis
evident that in the case of an infection there is no apparent
extraordinary occasion for supernatural operation, but the ordinary
course of things appears sufficiently armed, and made capable of all
the effects that Heaven usually directs by a contagion. Among these
causes and effects, this of the secret conveyance of infection,
imperceptible and unavoidable, is more than sufficient to execute the
fierceness of Divine vengeance, without putting it upon supernaturals
and miracle.
The acute penetrating nature of the disease itself was such, and the
infection was received so imperceptibly, that the most exact caution
could not secure us while in the place. But I must be allowed to
believe - and I have so many examples fresh in my memory to
convince me of it, that I think none can resist their evidence - I say, I
must be allowed to believe that no one in this whole nation ever
received the sickness or infection but who received it in the ordinary
way of infection from somebody, or the clothes or touch or stench of
somebody that was infected before.
The manner of its coming first to London proves this also, viz., by
goods brought over from Holland, and brought thither from the
Levant; the first breaking of it out in a house in Long Acre where
those goods were carried and first opened; its spreading from that
house to other houses by the visible unwary conversing with those
who were sick; and the infecting the parish officers who were
employed about the persons dead, and the like. These are known
authorities for this great foundation point - that it went on and
proceeded from person to person and from house to house, and no
otherwise. In the first house that was infected there died four persons.
A neighbour, hearing the mistress of the first house was sick, went to
visit her, and went home and gave the distemper to her family, and
died, and all her household. A minister, called to pray with the first
sick person in the second house, was said to sicken immediately and
die with several more in his house. Then the physicians began to
consider, for they did not at first dream of a general contagion. But
the physicians being sent to inspect the bodies, they assured the
people that it was neither more or less than the plague, with all its
terrifying particulars, and that it threatened an universal infection, so
many people having already conversed with the sick or distempered,
and having, as might be supposed, received infection from them, that
it would be impossible to put a stop to it.
Here the opinion of the physicians agreed with my observation
afterwards, namely, that the danger was spreading insensibly, for the
sick could infect none but those that came within reach of the sick
person; but that one man who may have really received the infection
and knows it not, but goes abroad and about as a sound person, may
give the plague to a thousand people, and they to greater numbers in
proportion, and neither the person giving the infection or the persons
receiving it know anything of it, and perhaps not feel the effects of it
for several days after.
For example, many persons in the time of this visitation never
perceived that they were infected till they found to their unspeakable
surprise, the tokens come out upon them; after which they seldom
lived six hours; for those spots they called the tokens were really
gangrene spots, or mortified flesh in small knobs as broad as a little
silver penny, and hard as a piece of callus or horn; so that, when the
disease was come up to that length, there was nothing could follow
but certain death; and yet, as I said, they knew nothing of their being
infected, nor found themselves so much as out of order, till those
mortal marks were upon them. But everybody must allow that they
were infected in a high degree before, And must have been so some
time, and consequently their breath, their sweat, their very clothes,
were contagious for many days before.
This occasioned a vast variety of cases which physicians would have
much more opportunity to remember than I; but some came within
the compass of my observation or hearing, of which I shall name a few.
A certain citizen who had lived safe and untouched till the month of
September, when the weight of the distemper lay more in the city than
it had done before, was mighty cheerful, and something too bold (as I
think it was) in his talk of how secure he was, how cautious he had
been, and how he had never come near any sick body. Says another
citizen, a neighbour of his, to him one day, 'Do not be too confident,
Mr -; it is hard to say who is sick and who is well, for we see men
alive and well to outward appearance one hour, and dead the next.'
'That is true', says the first man, for he was not a man presumptuously
secure, but had escaped a long while - and men, as I said above,
especially in the city began to be over-easy upon that score. 'That is
true,' says he; 'I do not think myself secure, but I hope I have not been
in company with any person that there has been any danger in.' 'No?'
says his neighbour. 'Was not you at the Bull Head Tavern in
Gracechurch Street with Mr - the night before last?' 'Yes,' says the
first, 'I was; but there was nobody there that we had any reason to
think dangerous.' Upon which his neighbour said no more, being
unwilling to surprise him; but this made him more inquisitive, and as
his neighbour appeared backward, he was the more impatient, and in a
kind of warmth says he aloud, 'Why, he is not dead, is he?' Upon
which his neighbour still was silent, but cast up his eyes and said
something to himself; at which the first citizen turned pale, and said
no more but this, 'Then I am a dead man too', and went home
immediately and sent for a neighbouring apothecary to give him
something preventive, for he had not yet found himself ill; but the
apothecary, opening his breast, fetched a sigh, and said no more but
this, 'Look up to God'; and the man died in a few hours.
Now let any man judge from a case like this if it is possible for the
regulations of magistrates, either by shutting up the sick or removing
them, to stop an infection which spreads itself from man to man even
while they are perfectly well and insensible of its approach, and may
be so for many days.
It may be proper to ask here how long it may be supposed men
might have the seeds of the contagion in them before it discovered
itself in this fatal manner, and how long they might go about
seemingly whole, and yet be contagious to all those that came near
them. I believe the most experienced physicians cannot answer this
question directly any more than I can; and something an ordinary
observer may take notice of, which may pass their observations. The
opinion of physicians abroad seems to be that it may lie dormant in
the spirits or in the blood-vessels a very considerable time. Why else
do they exact a quarantine of those who came into their harbours and
ports from suspected places? Forty days is, one would think, too long
for nature to struggle with such an enemy as this, and not conquer it or
yield to it. But I could not think, by my own observation, that they
can be infected so as to be contagious to others above fifteen or
sixteen days at furthest; and on that score it was, that when a house
was shut up in the city and any one had died of the plague, but nobody
appeared to be ill in the family for sixteen or eighteen days after, they
were not so strict but that they would connive at their going privately
abroad; nor would people be much afraid of them afterward, but
rather think they were fortified the better, having not been vulnerable
when the enemy was in their own house; but we sometimes found it
had lain much longer concealed.
Upon the foot of all these observations I must say that though
Providence seemed to direct my conduct to be otherwise, yet it is my
opinion, and I must leave it as a prescription, viz., that the best physic
against the plague is to run away from it. I know people encourage
themselves by saying God is able to keep us in the midst of danger,
and able to overtake us when we think ourselves out of danger; and
this kept thousands in the town whose carcases went into the great pits
by cartloads, and who, if they had fled from the danger, had, I believe,
been safe from the disaster; at least 'tis probable they had been safe.
And were this very fundamental only duly considered by the people
on any future occasion of this or the like nature, I am persuaded it
would put them upon quite different measures for managing the
people from those that they took in 1665, or than any that have been
taken abroad that I have heard of. In a word, they would consider of
separating the people into smaller bodies, and removing them in time
farther from one another - and not let such a contagion as this, which
is indeed chiefly dangerous to collected bodies of people, find a
million of people in a body together, as was very near the case before,
and would certainly be the case if it should ever appear again.
The plague, like a great fire, if a few houses only are contiguous
where it happens, can only burn a few houses; or if it begins in a
single, or, as we call it, a lone house, can only burn that lone house
where it begins. But if it begins in a close-built town or city and gets
a head, there its fury increases: it rages over the whole place, and
consumes all it can reach.
I could propose many schemes on the foot of which the government
of this city, if ever they should be under the apprehensions of such
another enemy (God forbid they should), might ease themselves of the
greatest part of the dangerous people that belong to them; I mean such
as the begging, starving, labouring poor, and among them chiefly
those who, in case of a siege, are called the useless mouths; who being
then prudently and to their own advantage disposed of, and the
wealthy inhabitants disposing of themselves and of their servants and
children, the city and its adjacent parts would be so effectually
evacuated that there would not be above a tenth part of its people left
together for the disease to take hold upon. But suppose them to be a
fifth part, and that two hundred and fifty thousand people were left:
and if it did seize upon them, they would, by their living so much at
large, be much better prepared to defend themselves against the
infection, and be less liable to the effects of it than if the same number
of people lived dose together in one smaller city such as Dublin or
Amsterdam or the like.
It is true hundreds, yea, thousands of families fled away at this last
plague, but then of them, many fled too late, and not only died in their
flight, but carried the distemper with them into the countries where
they went and infected those whom they went among for safety;
which confounded the thing, and made that be a propagation of the
distemper which was the best means to prevent it; and this too is an
evidence of it, and brings me back to what I only hinted at before, but
must speak more fully to here, namely, that men went about
apparently well many days after they had the taint of the disease in
their vitals, and after their spirits were so seized as that they could
never escape it, and that all the while they did so they were dangerous
to others; I say, this proves that so it was; for such people infected the
very towns they went through, as well as the families they went
among; and it was by that means that almost all the great towns in
England had the distemper among them, more or less, and always they
would tell you such a Londoner or such a Londoner brought it down.
It must not be omitted that when I speak of those people who were
really thus dangerous, I suppose them to be utterly ignorant of their
own conditions; for if they really knew their circumstances to be such
as indeed they were, they must have been a kind of wilful murtherers
if they would have gone abroad among healthy people - and it would
have verified indeed the suggestion which I mentioned above, and
which I thought seemed untrue: viz., that the infected people were
utterly careless as to giving the infection to others, and rather forward
to do it than not; and I believe it was partly from this very thing that
they raised that suggestion, which I hope was not really true in fact.
I confess no particular case is sufficient to prove a general, but I
could name several people within the knowledge of some of their
neighbours and families yet living who showed the contrary to an
extreme. One man, a master of a family in my neighbourhood, having
had the distemper, he thought he had it given him by a poor workman
whom he employed, and whom he went to his house to see, or went
for some work that he wanted to have finished; and he had some
apprehensions even while he was at the poor workman's door, but did
not discover it fully; but the next day it discovered itself, and he was
taken very in, upon which he immediately caused himself to be
carried into an outbuilding which he had in his yard, and where there
was a chamber over a workhouse (the man being a brazier). Here he
lay, and here he died, and would be tended by none of his neighbours,
but by a nurse from abroad; and would not suffer his wife, nor
children, nor servants to come up into the room, lest they should be
infected - but sent them his blessing and prayers for them by the
nurse, who spoke it to them at a distance, and all this for fear of giving
them the distemper; and without which he knew, as they were kept up,
they could not have it.
And here I must observe also that the plague, as I suppose all
distempers do, operated in a different manner on differing
constitutions; some were immediately overwhelmed with it, and it
came to violent fevers, vomitings, insufferable headaches, pains in the
back, and so up to ravings and ragings with those pains; others with
swellings and tumours in the neck or groin, or armpits, which till they
could be broke put them into insufferable agonies and torment; while
others, as I have observed, were silently infected, the fever preying
upon their spirits insensibly, and they seeing little of it till they fell
into swooning, and faintings, and death without pain.
I am not physician enough to enter into the particular reasons and
manner of these differing effects of one and the same distemper, and
of its differing operation in several bodies; nor is it my business here
to record the observations which I really made, because the doctors
themselves have done that part much more effectually than I can do,
and because my opinion may in some things differ from theirs. I am
only relating what I know, or have heard, or believe of the particular
cases, and what fell within the compass of my view, and the different
nature of the infection as it appeared in the particular cases which I
have related; but this may be added too: that though the former sort of
those cases, namely, those openly visited, were the worst for
themselves as to pain - I mean those that had such fevers, vomitings,
headaches, pains, and swellings, because they died in such a dreadful
manner - yet the latter had the worst state of the disease; for in the
former they frequently recovered, especially if the swellings broke;
but the latter was inevitable death; no cure, no hell), could be
possible, nothing could follow but death. And it was worse also to
others, because, as above, it secretly and unperceived by others or by
themselves, communicated death to those they conversed with, the
penetrating poison insinuating itself into their blood in a manner
which it is impossible to describe, or indeed conceive.
This infecting and being infected without so much as its being
known to either person is evident from two sorts of cases which
frequently happened at that time; and there is hardly anybody living
who was in London during the infection but must have known several
of the cases of both sorts.
(1) Fathers and mothers have gone about as if they had been well,
and have believed themselves to be so, till they have insensibly
infected and been the destruction of their whole families, which they
would have been far from doing if they had the least apprehensions of
their being unsound and dangerous themselves. A family, whose story
I have heard, was thus infected by the father; and the distemper began
to appear upon some of them even before he found it upon himself.
But searching more narrowly, it appeared he had been affected some
time; and as soon as he found that his family had been poisoned by
himself he went distracted, and would have laid violent hands upon
himself, but was kept from that by those who looked to him, and in a
few days died.
(2) The other particular is, that many people having been well to the
best of their own judgement, or by the best observation which they
could make of themselves for several days, and only finding a decay
of appetite, or a light sickness upon their stomachs; nay, some whose
appetite has been strong, and even craving, and only a light pain in
their heads, have sent for physicians to know what ailed them, and
have been found, to their great surprise, at the brink of death: the
tokens upon them, or the plague grown up to an incurable height.
It was very sad to reflect how such a person as this last mentioned
above had been a walking destroyer perhaps for a week or a fortnight
before that; how he had ruined those that he would have hazarded his
life to save, and had been breathing death upon them, even perhaps in
his tender kissing and embracings of his own children. Yet thus
certainly it was, and often has been, and I could give many particular
cases where it has been so. If then the blow is thus insensibly striking
- if the arrow flies thus unseen, and cannot be discovered - to what
purpose are all the schemes for shutting up or removing the sick
people? Those schemes cannot take place but upon those that appear
to be sick, or to be infected; whereas there are among them at the
same time thousands of people who seem to be well, but are all that
while carrying death with them into all companies which they come into.
This frequently puzzled our physicians, and especially the
apothecaries and surgeons, who knew not how to discover the sick
from the sound; they all allowed that it was really so, that many
people had the plague in their very blood, and preying upon their
spirits, and were in themselves but walking putrefied carcases whose
breath was infectious and their sweat poison, and yet were as well to
look on as other people, and even knew it not themselves; I say, they
all allowed that it was really true in fact, but they knew not how to
propose a discovery.
My friend Dr Heath was of opinion that it might be known by the
smell of their breath; but then, as he said, who durst smell to that
breath for his information? since, to know it, he must draw the stench
of the plague up into his own brain, in order to distinguish the smell!
I have heard it was the opinion of others that it might be distinguished
by the party's breathing upon a piece of glass, where, the breath
condensing, there might living creatures be seen by a microscope, of
strange, monstrous, and frightful shapes, such as dragons, snakes,
serpents, and devils, horrible to behold. But this I very much question
the truth of, and we had no microscopes at that time, as I remember,
to make the experiment with.
It was the opinion also of another learned man, that the breath of
such a person would poison and instantly kill a bird; not only a small
bird, but even a cock or hen, and that, if it did not immediately kill the
latter, it would cause them to be roupy, as they call it; particularly that
if they had laid any eggs at any time, they would be all rotten. But
those are opinions which I never found supported by any experiments,
or heard of others that had seen it; so I leave them as I find them;
only with this remark, namely, that I think the probabilities are
very strong for them.
Some have proposed that such persons should breathe hard upon
warm water, and that they would leave an unusual scum upon it, or
upon several other things, especially such as are of a glutinous
substance and are apt to receive a scum and support it.
But from the whole I found that the nature of this contagion was
such that it was impossible to discover it at all, or to prevent its
spreading from one to another by any human skill.
Here was indeed one difficulty which I could never thoroughly get
over to this time, and which there is but one way of answering that I
know of, and it is this, viz., the first person that died of the plague was
on December 20, or thereabouts, 1664, and in or about long Acre;
whence the first person had the infection was generally said to be from
a parcel of silks imported from Holland, and first opened in that house.
But after this we heard no more of any person dying of the plague,
or of the distemper being in that place, till the 9th of February, which
was about seven weeks after, and then one more was buried out of the
same house. Then it was hushed, and we were perfectly easy as to the
public for a great while; for there were no more entered in the weekly
bill to be dead of the plague till the 22nd of April, when there was two
more buried, not out of the same house, but out of the same street;
and, as near as I can remember, it was out of the next house to the
first. This was nine weeks asunder, and after this we had no more till
a fortnight, and then it broke out in several streets and spread every
way. Now the question seems to lie thus: Where lay the seeds of the
infection all this while? How came it to stop so long, and not stop any
longer? Either the distemper did not come immediately by contagion
from body to body, or, if it did, then a body may be capable to
continue infected without the disease discovering itself many days,
nay, weeks together; even not a quarantine of days only, but
soixantine; not only forty days, but sixty days or longer.
It is true there was, as I observed at first, and is well known to many
yet living, a very cold winter and a long frost which continued three
months; and this, the doctors say, might check the infection; but then
the learned must allow me to say that if, according to their notion, the
disease was (as I may say) only frozen up, it would like a frozen river
have returned to its usual force and current when it thawed - whereas
the principal recess of this infection, which was from February to
April, was after the frost was broken and the weather mild and warm.
But there is another way of solving all this difficulty, which I think
my own remembrance of the thing will supply; and that is, the fact is
not granted - namely, that there died none in those long intervals, viz.,
from the 20th of December to the 9th of February, and from thence to
the 22nd of April. The weekly bills are the only evidence on the other
side, and those bills were not of credit enough, at least with me, to
support an hypothesis or determine a question of such importance as
this; for it was our received opinion at that time, and I believe upon
very good grounds, that the fraud lay in the parish officers, searchers,
and persons appointed to give account of the dead, and what diseases
they died of; and as people were very loth at first to have the
neighbours believe their houses were infected, so they gave money to
procure, or otherwise procured, the dead persons to be returned as
dying of other distempers; and this I know was practised afterwards in
many places, I believe I might say in all places where the distemper
came, as will be seen by the vast increase of the numbers placed in the
weekly bills under other articles of diseases during the time of the
infection. For example, in the months of July and August, when the
plague was coming on to its highest pitch, it was very ordinary to have
from a thousand to twelve hundred, nay, to almost fifteen hundred a
week of other distempers. Not that the numbers of those distempers
were really increased to such a degree, but the great number of
families and houses where really the infection was, obtained the
favour to have their dead be returned of other distempers, to prevent
the shutting up their houses. For example: -
Dead of other diseases beside the plague -
From the 18th July to the 25th 942
" 25th July " 1st August 1004
" 1st August " 8th 1213
" 8th " 15th 1439
" 15th " 22nd 1331
" 22nd " 29th 1394
" 29th " 5th September 1264
" 5th September to the 12th 1056
" 12th " 19th 1132
" 19th " 26th 927
Now it was not doubted but the greatest part of these, or a great part
of them, were dead of the plague, but the officers were prevailed with
to return them as above, and the numbers of some particular articles
of distempers discovered is as follows: -
Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Sept. Sept. Sept.
1 8 15 22 29 5 12 19
to 8 to 15 to 22 to 29 to Sept.5 to 12 to 19 to 26
Fever 314 353 348 383 364 332 309 268
Spotted 174 190 166 165 157 97 101 65
Fever
Surfeit 85 87 74 99 68 45 49 36
Teeth 90 113 111 133 138 128 121 112
--- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
663 743 699 780 727 602 580 481
There were several other articles which bore a proportion to these,
and which, it is easy to perceive, were increased on the same account,
as aged, consumptions, vomitings, imposthumes, gripes, and the like,
many of which were not doubted to be infected people; but as it was
of the utmost consequence to families not to be known to be infected,
if it was possible to avoid it, so they took all the measures they could
to have it not believed, and if any died in their houses, to get them
returned to the examiners, and by the searchers, as having died of
other distempers.
This, I say, will account for the long interval which, as I have said,
was between the dying of the first persons that were returned in the
bill to be dead of the plague and the time when the distemper spread
openly and could not be concealed.
Besides, the weekly bills themselves at that time evidently discover
the truth; for, while there was no mention of the plague, and no
increase after it had been mentioned, yet it was apparent that there
was an increase of those distempers which bordered nearest upon it;
for example, there were eight, twelve, seventeen of the spotted fever
in a week, when there were none, or but very few, of the plague;
whereas before, one, three, or four were the ordinary weekly numbers
of that distemper. Likewise, as I observed before, the burials
increased weekly in that particular parish and the parishes adjacent
more than in any other parish, although there were none set down of
the plague; all which tells us, that the infection was handed on, and
the succession of the distemper really preserved, though it seemed to
us at that time to be ceased, and to come again in a manner surprising.
It might be, also, that the infection might remain in other parts of
the same parcel of goods which at first it came in, and which might
not be perhaps opened, or at least not fully, or in the clothes of the
first infected person; for I cannot think that anybody could be seized
with the contagion in a fatal and mortal degree for nine weeks
together, and support his state of health so well as even not to
discover it to themselves; yet if it were so, the argument is the
stronger in favour of what I am saying: namely, that the infection is
retained in bodies apparently well, and conveyed from them to those
they converse with, while it is known to neither the one nor the other.
Great were the confusions at that time upon this very account, and
when people began to be convinced that the infection was received in
this surprising manner from persons apparently well, they began to be
exceeding shy and jealous of every one that came near them. Once,
on a public day, whether a Sabbath-day or not I do not remember, in
Aldgate Church, in a pew full of people, on a sudden one fancied she
smelt an ill smell. Immediately she fancies the plague was in the pew,
whispers her notion or suspicion to the next, then rises and goes out of
the pew. It immediately took with the next, and so to them all; and
every one of them, and of the two or three adjoining pews, got up and
went out of the church, nobody knowing what it was offended them,
or from whom.
This immediately filled everybody's mouths with one preparation or
other, such as the old woman directed, and some perhaps as
physicians directed, in order to prevent infection by the breath of
others; insomuch that if we came to go into a church when it was
anything full of people, there would be such a mixture of smells at the
entrance that it was much more strong, though perhaps not so
wholesome, than if you were going into an apothecary's or druggist's
shop. In a word, the whole church was like a smelling-bottle; in one
corner it was all perfumes; in another, aromatics, balsamics, and
variety of drugs and herbs; in another, salts and spirits, as every one
was furnished for their own preservation. Yet I observed that after
people were possessed, as I have said, with the belief, or rather
assurance, of the infection being thus carried on by persons apparently
in health, the churches and meeting-houses were much thinner of
people than at other times before that they used to be. For this is to be
said of the people of London, that during the whole time of the
pestilence the churches or meetings were never wholly shut up, nor
did the people decline coming out to the public worship of God,
except only in some parishes when the violence of the distemper was
more particularly in that parish at that time, and even then no longer
than it continued to be so.
Indeed nothing was more strange than to see with what courage the
people went to the public service of God, even at that time when they
were afraid to stir out of their own houses upon any other occasion;
this, I mean, before the time of desperation, which I have mentioned
already. This was a proof of the exceeding populousness of the city at
the time of the infection, notwithstanding the great numbers that were
gone into the country at the first alarm, and that fled out into the
forests and woods when they were further terrified with the
extraordinary increase of it. For when we came to see the crowds and
throngs of people which appeared on the Sabbath-days at the
churches, and especially in those parts of the town where the plague
was abated, or where it was not yet come to its height, it was amazing.
But of this I shall speak again presently. I return in the meantime to
the article of infecting one another at first, before people came to right
notions of the infection, and of infecting one another. People were
only shy of those that were really sick, a man with a cap upon his
head, or with clothes round his neck, which was the case of those that
had swellings there. Such was indeed frightful; but when we saw a
gentleman dressed, with his band on and his gloves in his hand, his
hat upon his head, and his hair combed, of such we bad not the least
apprehensions, and people conversed a great while freely, especially
with their neighbours and such as they knew. But when the
physicians assured us that the danger was as well from the sound (that
is, the seemingly sound) as the sick, and that those people who
thought themselves entirely free were oftentimes the most fatal, and
that it came to be generally understood that people were sensible of it,
and of the reason of it; then, I say, they began to be jealous of
everybody, and a vast number of people locked themselves up, so as
not to come abroad into any company at all, nor suffer any that had
been abroad in promiscuous company to come into their houses, or
near them - at least not so near them as to be within the reach of their
breath or of any smell from them; and when they were obliged to
converse at a distance with strangers, they would always have
preservatives in their mouths and about their clothes to repel and keep
off the infection.
It must be acknowledged that when people began to use these
cautions they were less exposed to danger, and the infection did not
break into such houses so furiously as it did into others before; and
thousands of families were preserved (speaking with due reserve to
the direction of Divine Providence) by that means.
But it was impossible to beat anything into the heads of the poor.
They went on with the usual impetuosity of their tempers, full of
outcries and lamentations when taken, but madly careless of
themselves, foolhardy and obstinate, while they were well. Where
they could get employment they pushed into any kind of business, the
most dangerous and the most liable to infection; and if they were
spoken to, their answer would be, 'I must trust to God for that; if I am
taken, then I am provided for, and there is an end of me', and the like.
Or thus, 'Why, what must I do? I can't starve. I had as good have the
plague as perish for want. I have no work; what could I do? I must do
this or beg.' Suppose it was burying the dead, or attending the sick, or
watching infected houses, which were all terrible hazards; but their
tale was generally the same. It is true, necessity was a very justifiable,
warrantable plea, and nothing could be better; but their way of talk
was much the same where the necessities were not the same. This
adventurous conduct of the poor was that which brought the plague
among them in a most furious manner; and this, joined to the distress
of their circumstances when taken, was the reason why they died so
by heaps; for I cannot say I could observe one jot of better husbandry
among them, I mean the labouring poor, while they were all well and
getting money than there was before, but as lavish, as extravagant, and
as thoughtless for tomorrow as ever; so that when they came to be
taken sick they were immediately in the utmost distress, as well for
want as for sickness, as well for lack of food as lack of health.
This misery of the poor I had many occasions to be an eyewitness
of, and sometimes also of the charitable assistance that some pious
people daily gave to such, sending them relief and supplies both of
food, physic, and other help, as they found they wanted; and indeed it
is a debt of justice due to the temper of the people of that day to take
notice here, that not only great sums, very great sums of money were
charitably sent to the Lord Mayor and aldermen for the assistance and
support of the poor distempered people, but abundance of private
people daily distributed large sums of money for their relief, and sent
people about to inquire into the condition of particular distressed and
visited families, and relieved them; nay, some pious ladies were so
transported with zeal in so good a work, and so confident in the
protection of Providence in discharge of the great duty of charity, that
they went about in person distributing alms to the poor, and even
visiting poor families, though sick and infected, in their very houses,
appointing nurses to attend those that wanted attending, and ordering
apothecaries and surgeons, the first to supply them with drugs or
plasters, and such things as they wanted; and the last to lance and
dress the swellings and tumours, where such were wanting; giving
their blessing to the poor in substantial relief to them, as well as
hearty prayers for them.
I will not undertake to say, as some do, that none of those charitable
people were suffered to fall under the calamity itself; but this I may
say, that I never knew any one of them that miscarried, which I
mention for the encouragement of others in case of the like distress;
and doubtless, if they that give to the poor lend to the Lord, and He
will repay them, those that hazard their lives to give to the poor, and
to comfort and assist the poor in such a misery as this, may hope to be
protected in the work.
Nor was this charity so extraordinary eminent only in a few, but (for
I cannot lightly quit this point) the charity of the rich, as well in the
city and suburbs as from the country, was so great that, in a word, a
prodigious number of people who must otherwise inevitably have
perished for want as well as sickness were supported and subsisted by
it; and though I could never, nor I believe any one else, come to a full
knowledge of what was so contributed, yet I do believe that, as I heard
one say that was a critical observer of that part, there was not only
many thousand pounds contributed, but many hundred thousand
pounds, to the relief of the poor of this distressed, afflicted city; nay,
one man affirmed to me that he could reckon up above one hundred
thousand pounds a week, which was distributed by the churchwardens
at the several parish vestries by the Lord Mayor and aldermen in the
several wards and precincts, and by the particular direction of the
court and of the justices respectively in the parts where they resided,
over and above the private charity distributed by pious bands in the
manner I speak of; and this continued for many weeks together.
I confess this is a very great sum; but if it be true that there was
distributed in the parish of Cripplegate only, 17,800 in one week to
the relief of the poor, as I heard reported, and which I really believe
was true, the other may not be improbable.
It was doubtless to be reckoned among the many signal good
providences which attended this great city, and of which there were
many other worth recording, - I say, this was a very remarkable one,
that it pleased God thus to move the hearts of the people in all parts of
the kingdom so cheerfully to contribute to the relief and support of the
poor at London, the good consequences of which were felt many
ways, and particularly in preserving the lives and recovering the
health of so many thousands, and keeping so many thousands of
families from perishing and starving.
And now I am talking of the merciful disposition of Providence in
this time of calamity, I cannot but mention again, though I have
spoken several times of it already on other accounts, I mean that of
the progression of the distemper; how it began at one end of the town,
and proceeded gradually and slowly from one part to another, and like
a dark cloud that passes over our heads, which, as it thickens and
overcasts the air at one end, dears up at the other end; so, while the
plague went on raging from west to east, as it went forwards east, it
abated in the west, by which means those parts of the town which
were not seized, or who were left, and where it had spent its fury,
were (as it were) spared to help and assist the other; whereas, had the
distemper spread itself over the whole city and suburbs, at once,
raging in all places alike, as it has done since in some places abroad,
the whole body of the people must have been overwhelmed, and there
would have died twenty thousand a day, as they say there did at
Naples;, nor would the people have been able to have helped or
assisted one another.
For it must be observed that where the plague was in its full force,
there indeed the people were very miserable, and the consternation
was inexpressible. But a little before it reached even to that place, or
presently after it was gone, they were quite another sort of people; and
I cannot but acknowledge that there was too much of that common
temper of mankind to be found among us all at that time, namely, to
forget the deliverance when the danger is past. But I shall come to
speak of that part again.
It must not be forgot here to take some notice of the state of trade
during the time of this common calamity, and this with respect to
foreign trade, as also to our home trade.
As to foreign trade, there needs little to be said. The trading nations
of Europe were all afraid of us; no port of France, or Holland, or
Spain, or Italy would admit our ships or correspond with us; indeed
we stood on ill terms with the Dutch, and were in a furious war with
them, but though in a bad condition to fight abroad, who had such
dreadful enemies to struggle with at home.
Our merchants were accordingly at a full stop; their ships could go
nowhere - that is to say, to no place abroad; their manufactures and
merchandise - that is to say, of our growth - would not be touched
abroad. They were as much afraid of our goods as they were of our
people; and indeed they had reason: for our woollen manufactures are
as retentive of infection as human bodies, and if packed up by persons
infected, would receive the infection and be as dangerous to touch as
a man would be that was infected; and therefore, when any English
vessel arrived in foreign countries, if they did take the goods on shore,
they always caused the bales to be opened and aired in places
appointed for that purpose. But from London they would not suffer
them to come into port, much less to unlade their goods, upon any
terms whatever, and this strictness was especially used with them in
Spain and Italy. In Turkey and the islands of the Arches indeed, as
they are called, as well those belonging to the Turks as to the
Venetians, they were not so very rigid. In the first there was no
obstruction at all; and four ships which were then in the river loading
for Italy - that is, for Leghorn and Naples - being denied product, as
they call it, went on to Turkey, and were freely admitted to unlade
their cargo without any difficulty; only that when they arrived there,
some of their cargo was not fit for sale in that country; and other parts
of it being consigned to merchants at Leghorn, the captains of the
ships had no right nor any orders to dispose of the goods; so that great
inconveniences followed to the merchants. But this was nothing but
what the necessity of affairs required, and the merchants at Leghorn
and Naples having notice given them, sent again from thence to take
care of the effects which were particularly consigned to those ports,
and to bring back in other ships such as were improper for the markets
at Smyrna and Scanderoon.
The inconveniences in Spain and Portugal were still greater, for they
would by no means suffer our ships, especially those from London, to
come into any of their ports, much less to unlade. There was a report
that one of our ships having by stealth delivered her cargo, among
which was some bales of English cloth, cotton, kerseys, and such-like
goods, the Spaniards caused all the goods to be burned, and punished
the men with death who were concerned in carrying them on shore.
This, I believe, was in part true, though I do not affirm it; but it is not
at all unlikely, seeing the danger was really very great, the infection
being so violent in London.
I heard likewise that the plague was carried into those countries by
some of our ships, and particularly to the port of Faro in the kingdom
of Algarve, belonging to the King of Portugal, and that several persons
died of it there; but it was not confirmed.
On the other hand, though the Spaniards and Portuguese were so shy
of us, it is most certain that the plague (as has been said) keeping at
first much at that end of the town next Westminster, the
merchandising part of the town (such as the city and the water-side)
was perfectly sound till at least the beginning of July, and the ships in
the river till the beginning of August; for to the 1st of July there had
died but seven within the whole city, and but sixty within the liberties,
but one in all the parishes of Stepney, Aldgate, and Whitechappel, and
but two in the eight parishes of Southwark. But it was the same thing
abroad, for the bad news was gone over the whole world that the city
of London was infected with the plague, and there was no inquiring
there how the infection proceeded, or at which part of the town it was
begun or was reached to.
Besides, after it began to spread it increased so fast, and the bills
grew so high all on a sudden, that it was to no purpose to lessen the
report of it, or endeavour to make the people abroad think it better
than it was; the account which the weekly bills gave in was sufficient;
and that there died two thousand to three or-four thousand a week was
sufficient to alarm the whole trading part of the world; and the
following time, being so dreadful also in the very city itself, put the
whole world, I say, upon their guard against it.
You may be sure, also, that the report of these things lost nothing in
the carriage. The plague was itself very terrible, and the distress of
the people very great, as you may observe of what I have said. But the
rumour was infinitely greater, and it must not be wondered that our
friends abroad (as my brother's correspondents in particular were told
there, namely, in Portugal and Italy, where he chiefly traded) [said]
that in London there died twenty thousand in a week; that the dead
bodies lay unburied by heaps; that the living were not sufficient to
bury the dead or the sound to look after the sick; that all the kingdom
was infected likewise, so that it was an universal malady such as was
never heard of in those parts of the world; and they could hardly
believe us when we gave them an account how things really were, and
how there was not above one-tenth part of the people dead; that there
was 500,000, left that lived all the time in the town; that now the
people began to walk the streets again, and those who were fled to
return, there was no miss of the usual throng of people in the streets,
except as every family might miss their relations and neighbours, and
the like. I say they could not believe these things; and if inquiry were
now to be made in Naples, or in other cities on the coast of Italy, they
would tell you that there was a dreadful infection in London so many years ago,
in which, as above, there died twenty thousand in a week, &c., just as we have
had it reported in London that there was a plague in the city of Naples
in the year 1656, in which there died 20,000 people in a day, of which
I have had very good satisfaction that it was utterly false.
But these extravagant reports were very prejudicial to our trade, as
well as unjust and injurious in themselves, for it was a long time after
the plague was quite over before our trade could recover itself in those
parts of the world; and the Flemings and Dutch (but especially the
last) made very great advantages of it, having all the market to
themselves, and even buying our manufactures in several parts of
England where the plague was not, and carrying them to Holland and
Flanders, and from thence transporting them to Spain and to Italy as if
they had been of their own making.
But they were detected sometimes and punished: that is to say, their
goods confiscated and ships also; for if it was true that our
manufactures as well as our people were infected, and that it was
dangerous to touch or to open and receive the smell of them, then
those people ran the hazard by that clandestine trade not only of
carrying the contagion into their own country, but also of infecting the
nations to whom they traded with those goods; which, considering
how many lives might be lost in consequence of such an action, must
be a trade that no men of conscience could suffer themselves to be
concerned in.
I do not take upon me to say that any harm was done, I mean of that
kind, by those people. But I doubt I need not make any such proviso
in the case of our own country; for either by our people of London, or
by the commerce which made their conversing with all sorts of people
in every country and of every considerable town necessary, I say, by
this means the plague was first or last spread all over the kingdom, as
well in London as in all the cities and great towns, especially in the
trading manufacturing towns and seaports; so that, first or last, all the
considerable places in England were visited more or less, and the
kingdom of Ireland in some places, but not so universally. How it
fared with the people in Scotland I had no opportunity to inquire.
It is to be observed that while the plague continued so violent in
London, the outports, as they are called, enjoyed a very great trade,
especially to the adjacent countries and to our own plantations. For
example, the towns of Colchester, Yarmouth, and Hun, on that side of
England, exported to Holland and Hamburg the manufactures of the
adjacent countries for several months after the trade with London was,
as it were, entirely shut up; likewise the cities of Bristol and Exeter,
with the port of Plymouth, had the like advantage to Spain, to the
Canaries, to Guinea, and to the West Indies, and particularly to
Ireland; but as the plague spread itself every way after it had been in
London to such a degree as it was in August and September, so all or
most of those cities and towns were infected first or last; and then
trade was, as it were, under a general embargo or at a full stop - as I
shall observe further when I speak of our home trade.
One thing, however, must be observed: that as to ships coming in
from abroad (as many, you may be sure, did) some who were out in all
parts of the world a considerable while before, and some who when
they went out knew nothing of an infection, or at least of one so
terrible - these came up the river boldly, and delivered their cargoes as
they were obliged to do, except just in the two months of August and
September, when the weight of the infection lying, as I may say, all
below Bridge, nobody durst appear in business for a while. But as this
continued but for a few weeks, the homeward-bound ships, especially
such whose cargoes were not liable to spoil, came to an anchor for a
time short of the Pool,* or fresh-water part of the river, even as low as
the river Medway, where several of them ran in; and others lay at the
Nore, and in the Hope below Gravesend. So that by the latter end of
October there was a very great fleet of homeward-bound ships to
come up, such as the like had not been known for many years.
* That part of the river where the ships lie up when they come home is
called the Pool, and takes in all the river on both sides of the water,
from the Tower to Cuckold's Point and Limehouse. [Footnote in the original.]
Two particular trades were carried on by water-carriage all the
while of the infection, and that with little or no interruption, very
much to the advantage and comfort of the poor distressed people of
the city: and those were the coasting trade for corn and
the Newcastle trade for coals.
The first of these was particularly carried on by small vessels from
the port of Hull and other places on the Humber, by which great
quantities of corn were brought in from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
The other part of this corn-trade was from Lynn, in Norfolk, from
Wells and Burnham, and from Yarmouth, all in the same county; and
the third branch was from the river Medway, and from Milton,
Feversham, Margate, and Sandwich, and all the other little places and
ports round the coast of Kent and Essex.
There was also a very good trade from the coast of Suffolk with
corn, butter, and cheese; these vessels kept a constant course of trade,
and without interruption came up to that market known still by the
name of Bear Key, where they supplied the city plentifully with corn
when land-carriage began to fail, and when the people began to be
sick of coming from many places in the country.
This also was much of it owing to the prudence and conduct of the
Lord Mayor, who took such care to keep the masters and seamen from
danger when they came up, causing their corn to be bought off at any
time they wanted a market (which, however, was very seldom), and
causing the corn-factors immediately to unlade and deliver the vessels
loaden with corn, that they had very little occasion to come out of
their ships or vessels, the money being always carried on board to
them and put into a pail of vinegar before it was carried.
The second trade was that of coals from Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
without which the city would have been greatly distressed; for not in
the streets only, but in private houses and families, great quantities of
coals were then burnt, even all the summer long and when the weather
was hottest, which was done by the advice of the physicians. Some
indeed opposed it, and insisted that to keep the houses and rooms hot
was a means to propagate the temper, which was a fermentation and
heat already in the blood; that it was known to spread and increase in
hot weather and abate in cold; and therefore they alleged that all
contagious distempers are the worse for heat, because the contagion
was nourished and gained strength in hot weather, and was, as it were,
propagated in heat.
Others said they granted that heat in the climate might propagate
infection - as sultry, hot weather fills the air with vermin and
nourishes innumerable numbers and kinds of venomous creatures
which breed in our food, in the plants, and even in our bodies, by the
very stench of which infection may be propagated; also that heat in
the air, or heat of weather, as we ordinarily call it, makes bodies relax
and faint, exhausts the spirits, opens the pores, and makes us more apt
to receive infection, or any evil influence, be it from noxious
pestilential vapours or any other thing in the air; but that the heat of
fire, and especially of coal fires kept in our houses, or near us, had a
quite different operation; the heat being not of the same kind, but
quick and fierce, tending not to nourish but to consume and dissipate
all those noxious fumes which the other kind of heat rather exhaled
and stagnated than separated and burnt up. Besides, it was alleged
that the sulphurous and nitrous particles that are often found to be in
the coal, with that bituminous substance which burns, are all assisting
to clear and purge the air, and render it wholesome and safe to breathe
in after the noxious particles, as above, are dispersed and burnt up.
The latter opinion prevailed at that time, and, as I must confess, I
think with good reason; and the experience of the citizens confirmed
it, many houses which had constant fires kept in the rooms having
never been infected at all; and I must join my experience to it, for I
found the keeping good fires kept our rooms sweet and wholesome,
and I do verily believe made our whole family so, more than would
otherwise have been.
But I return to the coals as a trade. It was with no little difficulty
that this trade was kept open, and particularly because, as we were in an
open war with I the Dutch at that time, the Dutch capers at first took a
great many of our collier-ships, which made the rest cautious, and
made them to stay to come in fleets together. But after some time the
capers were either afraid to take them, or their masters, the States,
were afraid they should, and forbade them, lest the plague should be
among them, which made them fare the better.
For the security of those northern traders, the coal-ships were
ordered by my Lord Mayor not to come up into the Pool above a
certain number at a time, and ordered lighters and other vessels such
as the woodmongers (that is, the wharf-keepers or coal-sellers)
furnished, to go down and take out the coals as low as Deptford and
Greenwich, and some farther down.
Others delivered great quantities of coals in particular places where
the ships could come to the shore, as at Greenwich, Blackwall, and
other places, in vast heaps, as if to be kept for sale; but were then
fetched away after the ships which brought them were gone, so that
the seamen had no communication with the river-men, nor so much as
came near one another.
Yet all this caution could not effectually prevent the distemper
getting among the colliery: that is to say among the ships, by which a
great many seamen died of it; and that which was still worse was, that
they carried it down to Ipswich and Yarmouth, to Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, and other places on the coast - where, especially at Newcastle
and at Sunderland, it carried off a great
number of people.
The making so many fires, as above, did indeed consume an unusual
quantity of coals; and that upon one or two stops of the ships coming
up, whether by contrary weather or by the interruption of enemies I do
not remember, but the price of coals was exceeding dear, even as high
as 4 a chalder; but it soon abated when the ships came in, and as
afterwards they had a freer passage, the price was very reasonable all
the rest of that year.
The public fires which were made on these occasions, as I have
calculated it, must necessarily have cost the city about 200 chalders of
coals a week, if they had continued, which was indeed a very great quantity;
but as it was thought necessary, nothing was spared. However, as some of
the physicians cried them down, they were not kept alight above four or
five days. The fires were ordered thus: -
One at the Custom House, one at Billingsgate, one at Queenhith,
and one at the Three Cranes; one in Blackfriars, and one at the gate of
Bridewell; one at the corner of Leadenhal Street and Gracechurch;
one at the north and one at the south gate of the Royal Exchange; one
at Guild Hall, and one at Blackwell Hall gate; one at the Lord Mayor's
door in St Helen's, one at the west entrance into St Paul's, and one at
the entrance into Bow Church. I do not remember whether there was
any at the city gates, but one at the Bridge-foot there was, just by St
Magnus Church.
I know some have quarrelled since that at the experiment, and said
that there died the more people because of those fires; but I am
persuaded those that say so offer no evidence to prove it, neither can I
believe it on any account whatever.
It remains to give some account of the state of trade at home in
England during this dreadful time, and particularly as it relates to the
manufactures and the trade in the city. At the first breaking out of the
infection there was, as it is easy to suppose, a very great fright among
the people, and consequently a general stop of trade, except in
provisions and necessaries of life; and even in those things, as there
was a vast number of people fled and a very great number always sick,
besides the number which died, so there could not be above two-
thirds, if above one-half, of the consumption of provisions in the city
as used to be.
It pleased God to send a very plentiful year of corn and fruit, but not
of hay or grass - by which means bread was cheap, by reason of the
plenty of corn. Flesh was cheap, by reason of the scarcity of grass;
but butter and cheese were dear for the same reason, and hay in the
market just beyond Whitechappel Bars was sold at 4 pound per load.
But that affected not the poor. There was a most excessive plenty
of all sorts of fruit, such as apples, pears, plums, cherries, grapes,
and they were the cheaper because of the want of people; but this
made the poor eat them to excess, and this brought them into fluxes,
griping of the guts, surfeits, and the like, which often precipitated
them into the plague.
But to come to matters of trade. First, foreign exportation being
stopped or at least very much interrupted and rendered difficult, a
general stop of all those manufactures followed of course which were
usually brought for exportation; and though sometimes merchants
abroad were importunate for goods, yet little was sent, the passages
being so generally stopped that the English ships would not be
admitted, as is said already, into their port.
This put a stop to the manufactures that were for exportation in most
parts of England, except in some out-ports; and even that was soon
stopped, for they all had the plague in their turn. But though this was
felt all over England, yet, what was still worse, all intercourse of trade
for home consumption of manufactures, especially those which
usually circulated through the Londoner's hands, was stopped at once,
the trade of the city being stopped.
All kinds of handicrafts in the city, &c., tradesmen and mechanics,
were, as I have said before, out of employ; and this occasioned the
putting-off and dismissing an innumerable number of journeymen and
workmen of all sorts, seeing nothing was done relating to such trades
but what might be said to be absolutely necessary.
This caused the multitude of single people in London to be
unprovided for, as also families whose living depended upon the
labour of the heads of those families; I say, this reduced them to
extreme misery; and I must confess it is for the honour of the city of
London, and will be for many ages, as long as this is to be spoken of,
that they were able to supply with charitable provision the wants of so
many thousands of those as afterwards fell sick and were distressed:
so that it may be safely averred that nobody perished for want, at least
that the magistrates had any notice given them of.
This stagnation of our manufacturing trade in the country would
have put the people there to much greater difficulties, but that the
master-workmen, clothiers and others, to the uttermost of their stocks
and strength, kept on making their goods to keep the poor at work,
believing that soon as the sickness should abate they would have a
quick demand in proportion to the decay of their trade at that time.
But as none but those masters that were rich could do thus, and that
many were poor and not able, the manufacturing trade in England
suffered greatly, and the poor were pinched all over England by the
calamity of the city of London only.
It is true that the next year made them full amends by another
terrible calamity upon the city; so that the city by one calamity
impoverished and weakened the country, and by another calamity,
even terrible too of its kind, enriched the country and made them
again amends; for an infinite quantity of household Stuff, wearing
apparel, and other things, besides whole warehouses filled with
merchandise and manufactures such as come from all parts of
England, were consumed in the fire of London the next year after this
terrible visitation. It is incredible what a trade this made all over the
whole kingdom, to make good the want and to supply that loss; so
that, in short, all the manufacturing hands in the nation were set on
work, and were little enough for several years to supply the market
and answer the demands. All foreign markets also were empty of our
goods by the stop which had been occasioned by the plague, and
before an open trade was allowed again; and the prodigious demand at
home falling in, joined to make a quick vent for all sort of goods; so
that there never was known such a trade all over England for the time
as was in the first seven years after the plague, and after the
fire of London.
It remains now that I should say something of the merciful part of
this terrible judgement. The last week in September, the plague being
come to its crisis, its fury began to assuage. I remember my friend Dr
Heath, coming to see me the week before, told me he was sure that the
violence of it would assuage in a few days; but when I saw the weekly
bill of that week, which was the highest of the whole year, being 8297
of all diseases, I upbraided him with it, and asked him what he had
made his judgement from. His answer, however, was not so much to
seek as I thought it would have been. 'Look you,' says he, 'by the
number which are at this time sick and infected, there should have
been twenty thousand dead the last week instead of eight thousand, if
the inveterate mortal contagion had been as it was two weeks ago; for
then it ordinarily killed in two or three days, now not under eight or
ten; and then not above one in five recovered, whereas I have
observed that now not above two in five miscarry. And, observe it
from me, the next bill will decrease, and you will see many more
people recover than used to do; for though a vast multitude are now
everywhere infected, and as many every day fall sick, yet there will
not so many die as there did, for the malignity of the distemper is
abated'; - adding that he began now to hope, nay, more than hope, that
the infection had passed its crisis and was going off; and accordingly
so it was, for the next week being, as I said, the last in September, the
bill decreased almost two thousand.
It is true the plague was still at a frightful height, and the next bill
was no less than 6460, and the next to that, 5720; but still my friend's
observation was just, and it did appear the people did recover faster
and more in number than they used to do; and indeed, if it had not
been so, what had been the condition of the city of London? For,
according to my friend, there were not fewer than 60,000 people at
that time infected, whereof, as above, 20,477 died, and near 40,000
recovered; whereas, had it been as it was before, 50,000 of that
number would very probably have died, if not more, and 50,000 more
would have sickened; for, in a word, the whole mass of people began
to sicken, and it looked as if none would escape.
But this remark of my friend's appeared more evident in a few
weeks more, for the decrease went on, and another week in October it
decreased 1843, so that the number dead of the plague was but 2665;
and the next week it decreased 1413 more, and yet it was seen plainly
that there was abundance of people sick, nay, abundance more than
ordinary, and abundance fell sick every day but (as above) the
malignity of the disease abated.
Such is the precipitant disposition of our people (whether it is so or
not all over the world, that's none of my particular business to
inquire), but I saw it apparently here, that as upon the first fright of
the infection they shunned one another, and fled from one another's
houses and from the city with an unaccountable and, as I thought,
unnecessary fright, so now, upon this notion spreading, viz., that the
distemper was not so catching as formerly, and that if it was catched it
was not so mortal, and seeing abundance of people who really fell
sick recover again daily, they took to such a precipitant courage, and
grew so entirely regardless of themselves and of the infection, that
they made no more of the plague than of an ordinary fever, nor indeed
so much. They not only went boldly into company with those who
had tumours and carbuncles upon them that were running, and
consequently contagious, but ate and drank with them, nay, into their
houses to visit them, and even, as I was told, into their very chambers
where they lay sick.
This I could not see rational. My friend Dr Heath allowed, and it
was plain to experience, that the distemper was as catching as ever,
and as many fell sick, but only he alleged that so many of those that
fell sick did not die; but I think that while many did die, and that at
best the distemper itself was very terrible, the sores and swellings very
tormenting, and the danger of death not left out of the circumstances
of sickness, though not so frequent as before; all those things, together
with the exceeding tediousness of the cure, the loathsomeness of the
disease, and many other articles, were enough to deter any man living
from a dangerous mixture with the sick people, and make them as
anxious almost to avoid the infections as before.
Nay, there was another thing which made the mere catching of the
distemper frightful, and that was the terrible burning of the caustics
which the surgeons laid on the swellings to bring them to break and to
run, without which the danger of death was very great, even to the
last. Also, the insufferable torment of the swellings, which, though it
might not make people raving and distracted, as they were before, and
as I have given several instances of already, yet they put the patient to
inexpressible torment; and those that fell into it, though they did
escape with life, yet they made bitter complaints of those that had told
them there was no danger, and sadly repented their rashness and folly
in venturing to run into the reach of it.
Nor did this unwary conduct of the people end here, for a great
many that thus cast off their cautions suffered more deeply still, and
though many escaped, yet many died; and at least it had this public
mischief attending it, that it made the decrease of burials slower than
it would otherwise have been. For as this notion ran like lightning
through the city, and people's heads were possessed with it, even as
soon as the first great decrease in the bills appeared, we found that the
two next bills did not decrease in proportion; the reason I take to be
the people's running so rashly into danger, giving up all their former
cautions and care, and all the shyness which they used to practise,
depending that the sickness would not reach them - or that if it did,
they should not die.
The physicians opposed this thoughtless humour of the people with
all their might, and gave out printed directions, spreading them all
over the city and suburbs, advising the people to continue reserved,
and to use still the utmost caution in their ordinary conduct,
notwithstanding the decrease of the distemper, terrifying them with
the danger of bringing a relapse upon the whole city, and telling them
how such a relapse might be more fatal and dangerous than the whole
visitation that had been already; with many arguments and reasons to
explain and prove that part to them, and which are too long to repeat here.
But it was all to no purpose; the audacious creatures were so
possessed with the first joy and so surprised with the satisfaction of
seeing a vast decrease in the weekly bills, that they were impenetrable
by any new terrors, and would not be persuaded but that the bitterness
of death was past; and it was to no more purpose to talk to them than
to an east wind; but they opened shops, went about streets, did
business, and conversed with anybody that came in their way to
converse with, whether with business or without, neither inquiring of
their health or so much as being apprehensive of any danger from
them, though they knew them not to be sound.
This imprudent, rash conduct cost a great many their lives who had
with great care and caution shut themselves up and kept retired, as it
were, from all mankind, and had by that means, under God's
providence, been preserved through all the heat of that infection.
This rash and foolish conduct, I say, of the people went so far that
the ministers took notice to them of it at last, and laid before them
both the folly and danger of it; and this checked it a little, so that they
grew more cautious. But it had another effect, which they could not
check; for as the first rumour had spread not over the city only, but
into the country, it had the like effect: and the people were so tired
with being so long from London, and so eager to come back, that they
flocked to town without fear or forecast, and began to show
themselves in the streets as if all the danger was over. It was indeed
surprising to see it, for though there died still from 1000 to 1800 a
week, yet the people flocked to town as if all had been well.
The consequence of this was, that the bills increased again 400 the
very first week in November; and if I might believe the physicians,
there was above 3000 fell sick that week, most of them new-comers, too.
One John Cock, a barber in St Martin's-le-Grand, was an eminent
example of this; I mean of the hasty return of the people when the
plague was abated. This John Cock had left the town with his whole
family, and locked up his house, and was gone in the country, as many
others did; and finding the plague so decreased in November that
there died but 905 per week of all diseases, he ventured home again.
He had in his family ten persons; that is to say, himself and wife, five
children, two apprentices, and a maid-servant. He had not returned to
his house above a week, and began to open his shop and carry on his
trade, but the distemper broke out in his family, and within about five
days they all died, except one; that is to say, himself, his wife, all his
five children, and his two apprentices; and only the maid remained alive.
But the mercy of God was greater to the rest than we had reason to
expect; for the malignity (as I have said) of the distemper was spent,
the contagion was exhausted, and also the winter weather came on
apace, and the air was clear and cold, with sharp frosts; and this
increasing still, most of those that had fallen sick recovered, and the
health of the city began to return. There were indeed some returns of
the distemper even in the month of December, and the bills increased
near a hundred; but it went off again, and so in a short while things
began to return to their own channel. And wonderful it was to see
how populous the city was again all on a sudden, so that a stranger
could not miss the numbers that were lost. Neither was there any miss
of the inhabitants as to their dwellings - few or no empty houses were
to be seen, or if there were some, there was no want of
tenants for them.
I wish I could say that as the city had a new face, so the manners of
the people had a new appearance. I doubt not but there were many
that retained a sincere sense of their deliverance, and were that
heartily thankful to that Sovereign Hand that had protected them in so
dangerous a time; it would be very uncharitable to judge otherwise in
a city so populous, and where the people were so devout as they were
here in the time of the visitation itself; but except what of this was to
be found in particular families and faces, it must be acknowledged
that the general practice of the people was just as it was before, and
very little difference was to be seen.
Some, indeed, said things were worse; that the morals of the people
declined from this very time; that the people, hardened by the danger
they had been in, like seamen after a storm is over, were more wicked
and more stupid, more bold and hardened, in their vices and immoralities
than they were before; but I will not carry it so far neither. It would
take up a history of no small length to give a particular of all the
gradations by which the course of things in this city came to be
restored again, and to run in their own channel as they did before.
Some parts of England were now infected as violently as London
had been; the cities of Norwich, Peterborough, Lincoln, Colchester,
and other places were now visited; and the magistrates of London
began to set rules for our conduct as to corresponding with those
cities. It is true we could not pretend to forbid their people coming to
London, because it was impossible to know them asunder; so, after
many consultations, the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen were
obliged to drop it. All they could do was to warn and caution the
people not to entertain in their houses or converse with any people
who they knew came from such infected places.
But they might as well have talked to the air, for the people of
London thought themselves so plague-free now that they were past all
admonitions; they seemed to depend upon it that the air was restored,
and that the air was like a man that had had the smallpox, not capable
of being infected again. This revived that notion that the infection
was all in the air, that there was no such thing as contagion from the
sick people to the sound; and so strongly did this whimsy prevail
among people that they ran all together promiscuously, sick and well.
Not the Mahometans, who, prepossessed with the principle of
predestination, value nothing of contagion, let it be in what it will,
could be more obstinate than the people of London; they that were
perfectly sound, and came out of the wholesome air, as we call it, into
the city, made nothing of going into the same houses and chambers,
nay, even into the same beds, with those that had the distemper upon
them, and were not recovered.
Some, indeed, paid for their audacious boldness with the price of
their lives; an infinite number fell sick, and the physicians had more
work than ever, only with this difference, that more of their patients
recovered; that is to say, they generally recovered, but certainly there
were more people infected and fell sick now, when there did not die
above a thousand or twelve hundred in a week, than there was when
there died five or six thousand a week, so entirely negligent were the
people at that time in the great and dangerous case of health and
infection, and so ill were they able to take or accept of the advice of
those who cautioned them for their good.
The people being thus returned, as it were, in general, it was very
strange to find that in their inquiring after their friends, some whole
families were so entirely swept away that there was no remembrance
of them left, neither was anybody to be found to possess or show any
title to that little they had left; for in such cases what was to be found
was generally embezzled and purloined, some gone one way, some another.
It was said such abandoned effects came to the king, as the universal
heir; upon which we are told, and I suppose it was in part true, that the
king granted all such, as deodands, to the Lord Mayor and Court of
Aldermen of London, to be applied to the use of the poor, of whom
there were very many. For it is to be observed, that though the
occasions of relief and the objects of distress were very many more in
the time of the violence of the plague than now after all was over, yet
the distress of the poor was more now a great deal than it was then,
because all the sluices of general charity were now shut. People
supposed the main occasion to be over, and so stopped their hands;
whereas particular objects were still very moving, and the distress of
those that were poor was very great indeed.
Though the health of the city was now very much restored, yet
foreign trade did not begin to stir, neither would foreigners admit our
ships into their ports for a great while. As for the Dutch, the
misunderstandings between our court and them had broken out into a
war the year before, so that our trade that way was wholly interrupted;
but Spain and Portugal, Italy and Barbary, as also Hamburg and all the
ports in the Baltic, these were all shy of us a great while, and would
not restore trade with us for many months.
The distemper sweeping away such multitudes, as I have observed,
many if not all the out-parishes were obliged to make new burying-
grounds, besides that I have mentioned in Bunhill Fields, some of
which were continued, and remain in use to this day. But others were
left off, and (which I confess I mention with some reflection) being
converted into other uses or built upon afterwards, the dead bodies
were disturbed, abused, dug up again, some even before the flesh of
them was perished from the bones, and removed like dung or rubbish
to other places. Some of those which came within the reach of my
observation are as follow:
(1) A piece of ground beyond Goswell Street, near Mount Mill,
being some of the remains of the old lines or fortifications of the city,
where abundance were buried promiscuously from the parishes of Aldersgate,
Clerkenwell, and even out of the city. This ground, as I take it, was
since made a physic garden, and after that has been built upon.
(2) A piece of ground just over the Black Ditch, as it was then
called, at the end of Holloway Lane, in Shoreditch parish. It has been
since made a yard for keeping hogs, and for other ordinary uses, but is
quite out of use as a burying-ground.
(3) The upper end of Hand Alley, in Bishopsgate Street, which was
then a green field, and was taken in particularly for Bishopsgate
parish, though many of the carts out of the city brought their dead
thither also, particularly out of the parish of St All-hallows on the
Wall. This place I cannot mention without much regret. It was, as I
remember, about two or three years after the plague was ceased that
Sir Robert Clayton came to be possessed of the ground. It was
reported, how true I know not, that it fell to the king for want of heirs,
all those who had any right to it being carried off by the pestilence,
and that Sir Robert Clayton obtained a grant of it from King Charles
II. But however he came by it, certain it is the ground was let out to
build on, or built upon, by his order. The first house built upon it was
a large fair house, still standing, which faces the street or way now
called Hand Alley which, though called an alley, is as wide as a street.
The houses in the same row with that house northward are built on the
very same ground where the poor people were buried, and the bodies,
on opening the ground for the foundations, were dug up, some of them
remaining so plain to be seen that the women's skulls were
distinguished by their long hair, and of others the flesh was not quite
perished; so that the people began to exclaim loudly against it, and
some suggested that it might endanger a return of the contagion; after
which the bones and bodies, as fast as they came at them, were carried
to another part of the same ground and thrown all together into a deep
pit, dug on purpose, which now is to be known in that it is not built
on, but is a passage to another house at the upper end of Rose Alley,
just against the door of a meeting-house which has been built there
many years since; and the ground is palisadoed off from the rest of the
passage, in a little square; there lie the bones and remains of near two
thousand bodies, carried by the dead carts to their grave in that one year.
(4) Besides this, there was a piece of ground in Moorfields; by the
going into the street which is now called Old Bethlem, which was
enlarged much, though not wholly taken in on the same occasion.
[N.B. - The author of this journal lies buried in that very ground,
being at his own desire, his sister having been buried there a few
years before.]
(5) Stepney parish, extending itself from the east part of London to
the north, even to the very edge of Shoreditch Churchyard, had a piece
of ground taken in to bury their dead close to the said churchyard, and
which for that very reason was left open, and is since, I suppose, taken
into the same churchyard. And they had also two other burying-places
in Spittlefields, one where since a chapel or tabernacle has been built
for ease to this great parish, and another in Petticoat Lane.
There were no less than five other grounds made use of for the
parish of Stepney at that time: one where now stands the parish church
of St Paul, Shadwell, and the other where now stands the parish
church of St John's at Wapping, both which had not the names of
parishes at that time, but were belonging to Stepney parish.
I could name many more, but these coming within my particular
knowledge, the circumstance, I thought, made it of use to record
them. From the whole, it may be observed that they were obliged in
this time of distress to take in new burying-grounds in most of the out-
parishes for laying the prodigious numbers of people which died in so
short a space of time; but why care was not taken to keep those places
separate from ordinary uses, that so the bodies might rest undisturbed,
that I cannot answer for, and must confess I think it was wrong. Who
were to blame I know not.
I should have mentioned that the Quakers had at that time also a
burying-ground set apart to their use, and which they still make use of;
and they had also a particular dead-cart to fetch their dead from their
houses; and the famous Solomon Eagle, who, as I mentioned before,
had predicted the plague as a judgement, and ran naked through the
streets, telling the people that it was come upon them to punish them
for their sins, had his own wife died the very next day of the plague,
and was carried, one of the first in the Quakers' dead-cart, to their new
burying-ground.
I might have thronged this account with many more remarkable
things which occurred in the time of the infection, and particularly
what passed between the Lord Mayor and the Court, which was then
at Oxford, and what directions were from time to time received from
the Government for their conduct on this critical occasion. But really
the Court concerned themselves so little, and that little they did was of
so small import, that I do not see it of much moment to mention any
part of it here: except that of appointing a monthly fast in the city and
the sending the royal charity to the relief of the poor, both which I
have mentioned before.
Great was the reproach thrown on those physicians who left their
patients during the sickness, and now they came to town again nobody
cared to employ them. They were called deserters, and frequently bills
were set up upon their doors and written, 'Here is a doctor to be let', so
that several of those physicians were fain for a while to sit still and
look about them, or at least remove their dwellings, and set up in new
places and among new acquaintance. The like was the case with the
clergy, whom the people were indeed very abusive to, writing verses
and scandalous reflections upon them, setting upon the church-door,
'Here is a pulpit to be let', or sometimes, 'to be sold', which was worse.
It was not the least of our misfortunes that with our infection, when
it ceased, there did not cease the spirit of strife and contention, slander
and reproach, which was really the great troubler of the nation's peace
before. It was said to be the remains of the old animosities, which had
so lately involved us all in blood and disorder. But as the late Act of
Indemnity had laid asleep the quarrel itself, so the Government had
recommended family and personal peace upon all occasions to the
whole nation.
But it could not be obtained; and particularly after the ceasing of the
plague in London, when any one that had seen the condition which the
people had been in, and how they caressed one another at that time,
promised to have more charity for the future, and to raise no more
reproaches; I say, any one that had seen them then would have thought
they would have come together with another spirit at last. But, I say,
it could not be obtained. The quarrel remained; the Church and the
Presbyterians were incompatible. As soon as the plague was removed,
the Dissenting ousted ministers who had supplied the pulpits which
were deserted by the incumbents retired; they could expect no other
but that they should immediately fall upon them and harass them with
their penal laws, accept their preaching while they were sick, and
persecute them as soon as they were recovered again; this even we
that were of the Church thought was very hard, and could by no means
approve of it.
But it was the Government, and we could say nothing to hinder it;
we could only say it was not our doing, and we could not answer for it.
On the other hand, the Dissenters reproaching those ministers of the
Church with going away and deserting their charge, abandoning the
people in their danger, and when they had most need of comfort, and
the like: this we could by no means approve, for all men have not the
same faith and the same courage, and the Scripture commands us to
judge the most favourably and according to charity.
A plague is a formidable enemy, and is armed with terrors that every
man is not sufficiently fortified to resist or prepared to stand the shock
against. It is very certain that a great many of the clergy who were in
circumstances to do it withdrew and fled for the safety of their lives;
but 'tis true also that a great many of them stayed, and many of them
fell in the calamity and in the discharge of their duty.
It is true some of the Dissenting turned-out ministers stayed, and
their courage is to be commended and highly valued - but these were
not abundance; it cannot be said that they all stayed, and that none
retired into the country, any more than it can be said of the Church
clergy that they all went away. Neither did all those that went away go
without substituting curates and others in their places, to do the
offices needful and to visit the sick, as far as it was practicable; so
that, upon the whole, an allowance of charity might have been made
on both sides, and we should have considered that such a time as this
of 1665 is not to be paralleled in history, and that it is not the stoutest
courage that will always support men in such cases. I had not said
this, but had rather chosen to record the courage and religious zeal of
those of both sides, who did hazard themselves for the service of the
poor people in their distress, without remembering that any failed in
their duty on either side. But the want of temper among us has made
the contrary to this necessary: some that stayed not only boasting too
much of themselves, but reviling those that fled, branding them with
cowardice, deserting their flocks, and acting the part of the hireling,
and the like. I recommend it to the charity of all good people to look
back and reflect duly upon the terrors of the time, and whoever does
so well see that it is not an ordinary strength that could support it. It
was not like appearing in the head of an army or charging a body of
horse in the field, but it was charging Death itself on his pale horse; to
stay was indeed to die, and it could be esteemed nothing less,
especially as things appeared at the latter end of August and the
beginning of September, and as there was reason to expect them at
that time; for no man expected, and I dare say believed, that the
distemper would take so sudden a turn as it did, and fall immediately
two thousand in a week, when there was such a prodigious number of
people sick at that time as it was known there was; and then it was
that many shifted away that had stayed most of the time before.
Besides, if God gave strength to some more than to others, was it to
boast of their ability to abide the stroke, and upbraid those that had
not the same gift and support, or ought not they rather to have been
humble and thankful if they were rendered more useful than their
brethren?
I think it ought to be recorded to the honour of such men, as well
clergy as physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, magistrates, and officers
of every kind, as also all useful people who ventured their lives in
discharge of their duty, as most certainly all such as stayed did to the
last degree; and several of all these kinds did not only venture but lose
their lives on that sad occasion.
I was once making a list of all such, I mean of all those professions
and employments who thus died, as I call it, in the way of their duty;
but it was impossible for a private man to come at a certainty in the
particulars. I only remember that there died sixteen clergymen, two
aldermen, five physicians, thirteen surgeons, within the city and
liberties before the beginning of September. But this being, as I said
before, the great crisis and extremity of the infection, it can be no
complete list. As to inferior people, I think there died six-and-forty
constables and head-boroughs in the two parishes of Stepney and
Whitechappel; but I could not carry my list oil, for when the violent
rage of the distemper in September came upon us, it drove us out of
all measures. Men did then no more (lie by tale and by number. They
might put out a weekly bill, and call them seven or eight thousand, or
what they pleased; 'tis certain they died by heaps, and were buried by
heaps, that is to say, without account. And if I might believe some
people, who were more abroad and more conversant with those things
than I though I was public enough for one that had no more business
to do than I had, - I say, if I may believe them, there was not many less
buried those first three weeks in September than 20,000 per week.
However, the others aver the truth of it; yet I rather choose to keep to
the public account; seven and eight thousand per week is enough to
make good all that I have said of the terror of those times; -and it is
much to the satisfaction of me that write, as well as those that read, to
be able to say that everything is set down with moderation, and rather
within compass than beyond it.
Upon all these accounts, I say, I could wish, when we were
recovered, our conduct had been more distinguished for charity and
kindness in remembrance of the past calamity, and not so much a
valuing ourselves upon our boldness in staying, as if all men were
cowards that fly from the hand of God, or that those who stay do not
sometimes owe their courage to their ignorance, and despising the
hand of their Maker - which is a criminal kind of desperation, and not
a true courage.
I cannot but leave it upon record that the civil officers, such as
constables, head-boroughs, Lord Mayor's and sheriffs'-men, as also
parish officers, whose business it was to take charge of the poor, did
their duties in general with as much courage as any, and perhaps with
more, because their work was attended with more hazards, and lay
more among the poor, who were more subject to be infected, and in
the most pitiful plight when they were taken with the infection. But
then it must be added, too, that a great number of them died; indeed it
was scarce possible it should be otherwise.
I have not said one word here about the physic or preparations that
we ordinarily made use of on this terrible occasion - I mean we that
went frequently abroad and up down street, as I did; much of this was
talked of in the books and bills of our quack doctors, of whom I have
said enough already. It may, however, be added, that the College of
Physicians were daily publishing several preparations, which they had
considered of in the process of their practice, and which, being to be
had in print, I avoid repeating them for that reason.
One thing I could not help observing: what befell one of the quacks,
who published that he had a most excellent preservative against the
plague, which whoever kept about them should never be infected or
liable to infection. This man, who, we may reasonably suppose, did
not go abroad without some of this excellent preservative in his
pocket, yet was taken by the distemper, and carried off in two or three
days.
I am not of the number of the physic-haters or physic-despisers; on
the contrary, I have often mentioned the regard I had to the dictates of
my particular friend Dr Heath; but yet I must acknowledge I made use
of little or nothing - except, as I have observed, to keep a preparation
of strong scent to have ready, in case I met with anything of offensive
smells or went too near any burying-place or dead body.
Neither did I do what I know some did: keep the spirits always high
and hot with cordials and wine and such things; and which, as I
observed, one learned physician used himself so much to as that he
could not leave them off when the infection was quite gone, and so
became a sot for all his life after.
I remember my friend the doctor used to say that there was a certain
set of drugs and preparations which were all certainly good and useful
in the case of an infection; out of which, or with which, physicians
might make an infinite variety of medicines, as the ringers of bells
make several hundred different rounds of music by the changing and
order or sound but in six bells, and that all these preparations shall be
really very good: 'Therefore,' said he, 'I do not wonder that so vast a
throng of medicines is offered in the present calamity, and almost
every physician prescribes or prepares a different thing, as his
judgement or experience guides him; but', says my friend, 'let all the
prescriptions of all the physicians in London be examined, and it will
be found that they are all compounded of the same things, with such
variations only as the particular fancy of the doctor leads him to; so
that', says he, 'every man, judging a little of his own constitution and
manner of his living, and circumstances of his being infected, may
direct his own medicines out of the ordinary drugs and preparations.
Only that', says he, 'some recommend one thing as most sovereign,
and some another. Some', says he, 'think that pill. ruff., which is
called itself the anti-pestilential pill is the best preparation that can be
made; others think that Venice treacle is sufficient of itself to resist
the contagion; and I', says he, 'think as both these think, viz., that the
last is good to take beforehand to prevent it, and the first, if touched,
to expel it.' According to this opinion, I several times took Venice
treacle, and a sound sweat upon it, and thought myself as well
fortified against the infection as any one could be fortified by the
power of physic.
As for quackery and mountebanks, of which the town was so full, I
listened to none of them, and have observed often since, with some
wonder, that for two years after the plague I scarcely saw or heard of
one of them about town. Some fancied they were all swept away in
the infection to a man, and were for calling it a particular mark of
God's vengeance upon them for leading the poor people into the pit of
destruction, merely for the lucre of a little money they got by them;
but I cannot go that length neither. That abundance of them died is
certain - many of them came within the reach of my own knowledge -
but that all of them were swept off I much question. I believe rather
they fled into the country and tried their practices upon the people
there, who were in apprehension of the infection before it came
among them.
This, however, is certain, not a man of them appeared for a great
while in or about London. There were, indeed, several doctors who
published bills recommending their several physical preparations for
cleansing the body, as they call it, after the plague, and needful, as
they said, for such people to take who had been visited and had been
cured; whereas I must own I believe that it was the opinion of the
most eminent physicians at that time that the plague was itself a
sufficient purge, and that those who escaped the infection needed no
physic to cleanse their bodies of any other things; the running sores,
the tumours, &c., which were broke and kept open by the directions of
the physicians, having sufficiently cleansed them; and that all other
distempers, and causes of distempers, were effectually carried off that
way; and as the physicians gave this as their opinions wherever they
came, the quacks got little business.
There were, indeed, several little hurries which happened after the
decrease of the plague, and which, whether they were contrived to
fright and disorder the people, as some imagined, I cannot say, but
sometimes we were told the plague would return by such a time; and
the famous Solomon Eagle, the naked Quaker I have mentioned,
prophesied evil tidings every day; and several others telling us that
London had not been sufficiently scourged, and that sorer and severer
strokes were yet behind. Had they stopped there, or had they
descended to particulars, and told us that the city should the next year
be destroyed by fire, then, indeed, when we had seen it come to pass,
we should not have been to blame to have paid more than a common
respect to their prophetic spirits; at least we should have wondered at
them, and have been more serious in our inquiries after the meaning
of it, and whence they had the foreknowledge. But as they generally
told us of a relapse into the plague, we have had no concern since that
about them; yet by those frequent clamours, we were all kept with
some kind of apprehensions constantly upon us; and if any died
suddenly, or if the spotted fevers at any time increased, we were
presently alarmed; much more if the number of the plague increased,
for to the end of the year there were always between 200 and 300 of
the plague. On any of these occasions, I say, we were alarmed anew.
Those who remember the city of London before the fire must
remember that there was then no such place as we now call Newgate
Market, but that in the middle of the street which is now called Blow-
bladder Street, and which had its name from the butchers, who used to
kill and dress their sheep there (and who, it seems, had a custom to
blow up their meat with pipes to make it look thicker and fatter than it
was, and were punished there for it by the Lord Mayor); I say, from
the end of the street towards Newgate there stood two long rows of
shambles for the selling meat.
It was in those shambles that two persons falling down dead, as they
were buying meat, gave rise to a rumour that the meat was all
infected; which, though it might affright the people, and spoiled the
market for two or three days, yet it appeared plainly afterwards that
there was nothing of truth in the suggestion. But nobody can account
for the possession of fear when it takes hold of the mind.
However, it Pleased God, by the continuing of the winter weather,
so to restore the health of the city that by February following we
reckoned the distemper quite ceased, and then we were not so easily
frighted again.
There was still a question among the learned, and at first perplexed
the people a little: and that was in what manner to purge the house and
goods where the plague had been, and how to render them habitable
again, which had been left empty during the time of the plague.
Abundance- of perfumes and preparations were prescribed by
physicians, some of one kind and some of another, in which the
people who listened to them put themselves to a great, and indeed, in
my opinion, to an unnecessary expense; and the poorer people, who
only set open their windows night and day, burned brimstone, pitch,
and gunpowder, and such things in their rooms, did as well as the
best; nay, the eager people who, as I said above, came home in haste
and at all hazards, found little or no inconvenience in their houses, nor
in the goods, and did little or nothing to them.
However, in general, prudent, cautious people did enter into some
measures for airing and sweetening their houses, and burned
perfumes, incense, benjamin, rozin, and sulphur in their rooms close
shut up, and then let the air carry it all out with a blast of gunpowder;
others caused large fires to be made all day and all night for several
days and nights; by the same token that two or three were pleased to
set their houses on fire, and so effectually sweetened them by burning
them down to the ground; as particularly one at Ratcliff, one in
Holbourn, and one at Westminster; besides two or three that were set
on fire, but the fire was happily got out again before it went far
enough to bum down the houses; and one citizen's servant, I think it
was in Thames Street, carried so much gunpowder into his master's
house, for clearing it of the infection, and managed it so foolishly, that
he blew up part of the roof of the house. But the time was not fully
come that the city was to he purged by fire, nor was it far off; for
within nine months more I saw it all lying in ashes; when, as some of
our quacking philosophers pretend, the seeds of the plague were
entirely destroyed, and not before; a notion too ridiculous to speak of
here: since, had the seeds of the plague remained in the houses, not to
be destroyed but by fire, how has it been that they have not since
broken out, seeing all those buildings in the suburbs and liberties, all
in the great parishes of Stepney, Whitechappel, Aldgate, Bishopsgate,
Shoreditch, Cripplegate, and St Giles, where the fire never came, and
where the plague raged with the greatest violence, remain still in the
same condition they were in before?
But to leave these things just as I found them, it was certain that
those people who were more than ordinarily cautious of their health,
did take particular directions for what they called seasoning of their
houses, and abundance of costly things were consumed on that
account which I cannot but say not only seasoned those houses, as
they desired, but filled the air with very grateful and wholesome
smells which others had the share of the benefit of as well as those
who were at the expenses of them.
And yet after all, though the poor came to town very precipitantly,
as I have said, yet I must say the rich made no such haste. The men of
business, indeed, came up, but many of them did not bring their
families to town till the spring came on, and that they saw reason to
depend upon it that the plague would not return.
The Court, indeed, came up soon after Christmas, but the nobility
and gentry, except such as depended upon and had employment under
the administration, did not come so soon.
I should have taken notice here that, notwithstanding the violence of
the plague in London and in other places, yet it was very observable
that it was never on board the fleet; and yet for some time there was a
strange press in the river, and even in the streets, for seamen to man
the fleet. But it was in the beginning of the year, when the plague was
scarce begun, and not at all come down to that part of the city where
they usually press for seamen; and though a war with the Dutch was
not at all grateful to the people at that time, and the seamen went with
a kind of reluctancy into the service, and many complained of being
dragged into it by force, yet it proved in the event a happy violence to
several of them, who had probably perished in the general calamity,
and who, after the summer service was over, though they had cause to
lament the desolation of their families - who, when they came back,
were many of them in their graves - yet they had room to be thankful
that they were carried out of the reach of it, though so much against
their wills. We indeed had a hot war with the Dutch that year, and
one very great engagement at sea in which the Dutch were worsted,
but we lost a great many men and some ships. But, as I observed, the
plague was not in the fleet, and when they came to lay up the ships in
the river the violent part of it began to abate.
I would be glad if I could close the account of this melancholy year
with some particular examples historically; I mean of the thankfulness
to God, our preserver, for our being delivered from this dreadful
calamity. Certainly the circumstance of the deliverance, as well as the
terrible enemy we were delivered from, called upon the whole nation
for it. The circumstances of the deliverance were indeed very
remarkable, as I have in part mentioned already, and particularly the
dreadful condition which we were all in when we were to the surprise
of the whole town made joyful with the hope of a stop of the infection.
Nothing but the immediate finger of God, nothing but omnipotent
power, could have done it. The contagion despised all medicine;
death raged in every corner; and had it gone on as it did then, a few
weeks more would have cleared the town of all, and everything that
had a soul. Men everywhere began to despair; every heart failed them
for fear; people were made desperate through the anguish of their
souls, and the terrors of death sat in the very faces and countenances
of the people.
In that very moment when we might very well say, 'Vain was the
help of man', - I say, in that very moment it pleased God, with a most
agreeable surprise, to cause the fury of it to abate, even of itself; and
the malignity declining, as I have said, though infinite numbers were
sick, yet fewer died, and the very first weeks' bill decreased 1843; a
vast number indeed!
It is impossible to express the change that appeared in the very
countenances of the people that Thursday morning when the weekly
bill came out. It might have been perceived in their countenances that
a secret surprise and smile of joy sat on everybody's face. They shook
one another by the hands in the streets, who would hardly go on the
same side of the way with one another before. Where the streets were
not too broad they would open their windows and call from one house
to another, and ask how they did, and if they had heard the good news
that the plague was abated. Some would return, when they said good
news, and ask, 'What good news?' and when they answered that the
plague was abated and the bills decreased almost two thousand, they
would cry out, 'God be praised I' and would weep aloud for joy, telling
them they had heard nothing of it; and such was the joy of the people
that it was, as it were, life to them from the grave. I could almost set
down as many extravagant things done in the excess of their joy as of
their grief; but that would be to lessen the value of it.
I must confess myself to have been very much dejected just before
this happened; for the prodigious number that were taken sick the
week or two before, besides those that died, was such, and the
lamentations were so great everywhere, that a man must have seemed
to have acted even against his reason if he had so much as expected to
escape; and as there was hardly a house but mine in all my
neighbourhood but was infected, so had it gone on it would not have
been long that there would have been any more neighbours to be
infected. Indeed it is hardly credible what dreadful havoc the last
three weeks had made, for if I might believe the person whose
calculations I always found very well grounded, there were not less
than 30,000 people dead and near 100.000 fallen sick in the three
weeks I speak of; for the number that sickened was surprising, indeed
it was astonishing, and those whose courage upheld them all the time
before, sank under it now.
In the middle of their distress, when the condition of the city of
London was so truly calamitous, just then it pleased God - as it were
by His immediate hand to disarm this enemy; the poison was taken
out of the sting. It was wonderful; even the physicians themselves
were surprised at it. Wherever they visited they found their patients
better; either they had sweated kindly, or the tumours were broke, or
the carbuncles went down and the inflammations round them changed
colour, or the fever was gone, or the violent headache was assuaged,
or some good symptom was in the case; so that in a few days
everybody was recovering, whole families that were infected and
down, that had ministers praying with them, and expected death every
hour, were revived and healed, and none died at all out of them.
Nor was this by any new medicine found out, or new method of cure
discovered, or by any experience in the operation which the
physicians or surgeons attained to; but it was evidently from the secret
invisible hand of Him that had at first sent this disease as a judgement
upon us; and let the atheistic part of mankind call my saying what
they please, it is no enthusiasm; it was acknowledged at that time by
all mankind. The disease was enervated and its malignity spent; and
let it proceed from whencesoever it will, let the philosophers search
for reasons in nature to account for it by, and labour as much as they
will to lessen the debt they owe to their Maker, those physicians who
had the least share of religion in them were obliged to acknowledge
that it was all supernatural, that it was extraordinary, and that no
account could be given of it.
If I should say that this is a visible summons to us all to
thankfulness, especially we that were under the terror of its increase,
perhaps it may be thought by some, after the sense of the thing was
over, an officious canting of religious things, preaching a sermon
instead of writing a history, making myself a teacher instead of giving
my observations of things; and this restrains me very much from going
on here as I might otherwise do. But if ten lepers Were healed, and
but one returned to give thanks, I desire to be as that one, and to be
thankful for myself.
Nor will I deny but there were abundance of people who, to all appearance,
were very thankful at that time; for their mouths were stopped, even the
mouths of those whose hearts were not extraordinary long affected with it.
But the impression was so strong at that time that it could not be resisted;
no, not by the worst of the people.
It was a common thing to meet people in the street that were
strangers, and that we knew nothing at all of, expressing their surprise.
Going one day through Aldgate, and a pretty many people being
passing and repassing, there comes a man out of the end of the
Minories, and looking a little up the street and down, he throws his
hands abroad, 'Lord, what an alteration is here I Why, last week I
came along here, and hardly anybody was to he seen.' Another man - I
heard him - adds to his words, "Tis all wonderful; 'tis all a dream.'
'Blessed be God,' says a third man, d and let us give thanks to Him, for
'tis all His own doing, human help and human skill was at an end.'
These were all strangers to one another. But such salutations as these
were frequent in the street every day; and in spite of a loose
behaviour, the very common people went along the streets giving God
thanks for their deliverance.
It was now, as I said before, the people had cast off all
apprehensions, and that too fast; indeed we were no more afraid now
to pass by a man with a white cap upon his head, or with a doth wrapt
round his neck, or with his leg limping, occasioned by the sores in his
groin, all which were frightful to the last degree, but the week before.
But now the street was full of them, and these poor recovering
creatures, give them their due, appeared very sensible of their
unexpected deliverance; and I should wrong them very much if I
should not acknowledge that I believe many of them were really
thankful. But I must own that, for the generality of the people, it
might too justly be said of them as was said of the children of Israel
after their being delivered from the host of Pharaoh, when they passed
the Red Sea, and looked back and saw the Egyptians overwhelmed in
the water: viz., that they sang His praise, but they soon forgot His works.
I can go no farther here. I should be counted censorious, and
perhaps unjust, if I should enter into the unpleasing work of reflecting,
whatever cause there was for it, upon the unthankfulness and return of
all manner of wickedness among us, which I was so much an eye-
witness of myself. I shall conclude the account of this calamitous
year therefore with a coarse but sincere stanza of my own, which I
placed at the end of my ordinary memorandums the same year they
were written: -
A dreadful plague in London was
In the year sixty-five,
Which swept an hundred thousand souls
Away; yet I alive!
H. F.