Chapter II: Part 2

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 be 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. 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 plague 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 be 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 inmates 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 SWEPT.

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 be looked into for musty
and unwholesome casks.

‘That no hogs, dogs, or cats, or tame pigeons, or ponies, 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.