Chronology of Plague, 1564-1592.

The amount of plague in London for the two or three years next following the great epidemic in the autumn of 1563 is accurately known from Stow’s abstracts of the weekly bills of mortality. It was exceedingly little, the deaths being but one or two or three in a week, and often none. The figures come to an end with July, 1566, and it is probable that the bills may not have been made for a time after that. The proposal made by Sir Roger Martyn in a letter of 20th October, 1568, to the earl of Northumberland, that all strangers arriving from over sea should be quarantined at Gravesend, would have been instigated by the known prevalence of plague and other malignant types of sickness in Scotland and at various parts of the continent of Europe. It was just in those years, before and after the founding of the Royal Exchange in 1566, that the concourse of merchants to London, especially from the war-troubled Low Countries and France, was greatest.

The revival of plague in London, after the great epidemic of 1563, was probably in 1568. In the city records there are orders relating to searchers, shutting up of houses, and collections for infected households, dated 12 October, 1568 (10 Elizabeth), 27 March and 19 October, 1569. But in 1568 the regulations, like the proposal for quarantine of shipping, may have been made more against the importation of cases from outside than on account of cases actually in London. It is in 1569 that we definitely hear of plague in the capital:—

“The plague of pestilence somewhat raging in the city of London, Michaelmas Term was first adjourned unto the 3rd of November, and after unto Hillary Term next following[644].” This outbreak of the autumn and winter of 1569 must have been considerable: for we find the earl of Essex writing from York on the 30th October to Cecil to say that he would have come to London before “had not the plague stayed him[645];” and Thomas Bishop, giving account of his movements to the Council, says that he remained in London until the 10th October, “when the plague increasing, I departed[646].”

The year 1570 was one of the more disastrous plague-years on the Continent, that now recur somewhat frequently down to the end of the century. “There was general disease of pestilence,” says Stow, “throughout all Europe, in such sort that many died of God’s tokens, chiefly amongst the Venetians, of whom there died of that cruel sickness about threescore thousand.” In London, on 2nd August, a death in the Tower was put down to plague; but there is no other evidence of its prevalence in the capital[647]. In the beginning of next winter, 1571, there was plague at Cambridge (letter of 18th November)[648]; and at Oxford in the same year it left such misery, says Anthony Wood, that divers scholars were forced to beg[649]. In 1573 it reappeared in London, at its usual season, the end of the year: it raged so violently “that the Queen ordered the new Lord Mayor not to keep the usual feast upon his inauguration[650].” The register of St Andrew’s parish, at Hertford, bears witness to the flight of Londoners to that favourite refuge; there were numerous burials of the plague in 1573, and in subsequent years, many of them being of London citizens[651]. It was in London again in 1574: a letter of 15 November, to the sheriff and justices of Surrey, orders that they should not allow the people to resort to plays and shows [in Southwark] “at that time of contagion[652],” while the figures from a weekly bill of mortality, which have been preserved, show that the outbreak had been one of the more considerable degree—for the week 22-28 October, in the city and liberties (108 parishes), buried of all diseases, 166, whereof of the plague, 65[653].

The known provincial centres in 1574 were Stamford, Peterborough and Chester. The Stamford visitation was one of a good many that the town suffered from first to last, and must have been a severe one; in one month, from 8 August to 7 September, 40 had been buried of the plague, “and the town is so rudely governed, they have so mixed themselves, that there is none that is in any hope of being clear. It is in seventeen houses, and the town is in great poverty; but that the good people of the country send in victuals, there would many die of famine. St Martin’s parish is clear[654].” The corporation records also bear witness to the confusion caused, the new bailiffs having been sworn in before the Recorder in a field outside, instead of in the usual place[655]. Peterborough, which was not far off, is known to have had a visitation, from an entry in the parish register, “1574, January. Here began the plague[656].” At Chester, “plague began, but was stayed with the death of some few in the crofts[657].”

The year 1575 is somewhat singular for an epidemic of plague in Westminster, but none in the city of London: the deaths for one week in the former are known[658]; and, as regards the immunity of London, Cecil had removed previous to 16 September, from Westminster to Sir Thomas Gresham’s house in the City to avoid the infection[659]. It had been at Cambridge in the winter of 1574-5, and was “sore” in Oxford down to November, 1575.

The same year, 1575, was a season of severe plague in Bristol and other places of the west of England. Some 2000 are said (in the Mayor’s Calendar) to have died in Bristol between St James’s tide (July 25) when the infection “began to be very hot,” and Paul’s tide (January 25)[660]. As early as the 11th July, the corporation of Wells had ordered measures against the plague in Bristol; but Wells also appears to have had a visitation, if the 200 persons buried, according to tradition, in the “plague-pit” near the north-eastern end of the Cathedral (besides many more buried in the fields) had been victims of the disease in 1575[661]. At Shrewsbury in that year the fairs were removed on account of plague[662]. From a claim of damages which came before the Court of Requests in 1592, it appears that plague had been in Cheshire in 1576; at Northwich the house of one Phil. Antrobus was infected and most of the family died; on which some linens in the house, worth not more than 13sh. 4d. were put in the river lest they should be used; the son, who was a tailor, claimed compensation, through the earl of Derby, sixteen years after[663].

At Hull, in 1576, there was an outbreak, small compared with some other visitations there, in the Blackfriars Gate, the deaths being about one hundred[664]. It is somewhat remarkable to find the borough of Kirkcudbright making regulations in the month of January, 1577, a most unlikely season, to prevent the introduction of the plague then raging on the Borders[665]. In September, 1577, there were issued orders to be put in execution throughout the realm in towns and villages infected with the plague. More definitely it is heard of on 21 October at Rye and Dover, and on 3 November, 1577, in London.

We now come to a series of years, 1578 to 1583, for which we have full particulars of the burials in London, from plague and other causes, and of the christenings. These valuable statistics, the earliest known, are preserved among the papers of Lord Burghley, who procured them from the lord mayor of London[666], and are here given in full, having been copied from the MS. in the library of Hatfield House[667].

Abstracts of Burials and Baptisms in London, 1578-1583

1578

Week
ending		 Dead Of
plague		 Of other
diseases		 Christened
Jan.2 62 7 55 66
9 90 12 78 52
16 63 14 49 59
23 95 33 62 59
30 82 25 57 65
Feb.6 88 24 64 51
13 102 25 77 59
20 100 26 74 77
27 84 12 72 84
Mar.6 79 10 69 58
13 66 9 57 53
20 75 5 70 57
27 63 12 51 60
Apr.3 96 19 77 64
10 89 25 64 67
17 102 31 71 66
24 91 37 54 62
May1 109 25 84 44
8 116 33 83 37
15 141 43 98 48
22 109 36 73 66
29 119 34 85 43
June5 99 38 61 51
12 91 35 56 41
19 76 34 42 54
26 75 18 57 48
July3 92 34 58 52
10 99 35 64 48
17 98 39 59 52
24 129 63 66 49
31 100 41 59 59
Aug.7 132 73 59 76
14 152 78 74 72
21 232 134 98 63
28 205 113 92 58
Sept.4 257 162 95 84
11 297 183 114 64
18 308 189 119 68
25 330 189 141 72
Oct.2 370 230 140 76
9 388 234 154 62
16 361 234 127 73
23 281 175 106 58
30 258 130 128 68
Nov.6 278 127 151 60
13 230 116 114 64
20 172 77 95 66
27 155 84 71 68
Dec.4 160 77 83 60
11 161 65 96 69
18 129 44 85 62
25 94 20 74 68
7830 3568 4262 3150

1579

Week
ending		 Dead Of
plague		 Of other
diseases		 Christened
Jan.1 100 27 73 54
8 67 13 54 68
15 75 16 59 74
22 63 9 54 81
29 79 19 60 75
Feb.5 84 23 61 46
12 81 16 65 63
19 69 15 54 61
26 70 10 60 77
Mar.5 51 6 45 71
12 61 16 45 72
19 66 10 56 65
26 75 13 62 68
Apr.2 81 19 62 53
9 82 27 55 79
16 77 22 55 53
23 58 10 48 44
30 71 10 61 57
May7 64 12 52 51
14 68 14 54 42
21 75 12 63 54
28 78 13 65 47
June4 66 7 59 56
11 49 7 42 46
18 74 14 60 60
25 65 13 52 45
July2 57 11 46 50
9 62 9 53 66
16 73 19 54 52
23 72 12 60 63
30 72 13 59 67
Aug.6 66 12 54 61
13 70 18 52 67
20 68 12 56 61
27 63 10 53 58
Sept.3 66 14 52 65
10 85 25 60 55
17 66 11 55 80
24 44 8 36 63
Oct.1 60 9 51 42
8 56 8 48 75
15 68 14 54 70
22 49 6 43 71
29 52 10 42 76
Nov.5 47 8 39 66
12 37 2 35 69
19 60 2 58 84
26 44 6 38 69
Dec.3 43 3 40 78
10 55 4 51 80
17 49 4 45 70
24 51 3 48 78
31 42 3 39 72
3406 629 2777 3370

1580

Week
ending		 Dead Of
plague		 Of other
diseases		 Baptised
Jan.7 49 1 48 78
14 58 4 54 58
21 50 5 45 63
28 28 2 26 74
Feb.4 54 5 49 81
11 49 2 47 91
18 47 3 44 81
25 48 3 45 68
Mar.3 52 0 52 77
10 48 2 46 74
17 48 1 47 75
24 52 3 49 68
31 48 2 46 59
Apr.7 48 1 47 77
14 53 1 52 78
21 40 1 39 74
28 43 1 42 75
May5 58 1 57 72
12 54 0 54 69
19 40 2 38 75
26 44 0 44 72
June2 36 1 35 59
9 41 0 41 54
16 46 2 44 60
23 55 2 53 59
30 47 4 43 57
July7 77 4 73 65
14 133 4 129 66
21 146 3 143 61
28 96 5 91 64
Aug.4 78 5 73 71
11 51 4 47 53
18 49 1 48 72
25 63 3 60 62
Sept.1 48 0 48 71
8 35 2 33 69
13 52 1 51 69
22 52 1 51 95
29 65 2 63 55
Oct.6 35 1 34 63
13 44 2 42 56
20 45 2 43 56
27 40 3 37 80
Nov.3 60 7 53 75
10 59 5 54 67
17 57 3 54 75
24 45 2 43 70
Dec.1 54 3 51 83
8 58 1 57 56
15 53 8 45 59
22 53 4 49 61
29 89 3 86 66
2873 128 2745 3568

1581

Week
ending		 Dead Of
plague		 Of other
diseases		 Baptised
Jan.5 42 5 37 63
12 53 4 49 65
19 50 1 49 65
26 46 1 45 59
Feb.2 49 2 47 56
9 38 0 38 63
16 48 0 48 87
23 56 5 51 52
Mar.2 56 0 56 62
9 60 2 58 74
16 52 2 50 80
23 41 1 40 89
30 44 3 41 74
Apr.6 42 2 40 39
13 47 1 46 53
20 37 1 36 41
27 37 2 35 60
May4 47 0 47 52
11 40 1 39 50
18 46 1 45 59
25 64 13 51 62
June1 48 4 44 60
8 57 2 55 56
15 65 7 58 62
22 57 6 51 73
29 56 7 49 52
July6 72 9 63 62
13 69 9 60 64
20 94 19 75 70
27 95 24 71 89
Aug.3 87 23 64 58
10 130 30 100 75
17 148 47 101 72
24 143 43 100 55
31 169 74 95 72
Sept.7 186 85 101 54
14 180 76 114 59
21 203 86 117 55
28 218 60 158 88
Oct.5 205 107 98 74
12 193 74 119 83
19 128 42 86 77
26 125 35 90 88
Nov.2 115 45 70 85
9 93 26 67 61
16
23
30
Dec.7 [The figures in part wanting, and in part defaced.]
14
21
28
3931 987 2954 2949

(45 weeks)

1582

(74 Parishes clear, week ending Jan. 4.)

Week
ending		 Dead Of
plague		 Of other
diseases		 Baptised
Jan.4 63 11 52 57
11 75 13 62 76
18 79 13 66 73
25 58 13 45 90
Feb.1 73 5 68 66
8 71 12 59 77
15 76 16 60 88
22 82 10 72 74
Mar.1 69 11 58 81
8 85 13 72 81
15 77 11 66 71
22 62 11 51 65
29 73 16 57 85
Apr.5 90 13 77 74
12 78 19 59 63
19 88 22 66 56
26 82 20 62 69
May3 95 23 72 55
10 68 12 56 62
17 62 11 51 59
24 61 10 51 61
31 57 15 42 65
June7 67 15 52 49
14 48 11 37 52
21 72 11 61 63
28 57 9 48 62
July5 60 20 40 54
12 88 25 63 66
19 80 30 50 61
26 99 31 68 65
Aug.2 101 45 56 68
9 116 42 74 77
16 142 70 72 64
23 148 85 63 67
30 205 111 94 70
Sept.6 229 139 90 74
13 277 189 88 79
20 246 151 95 76
27 267 145 122 63
Oct.4 318 213 105 87
11 238 139 99 63
18 289 164 125 74
25 340 216 124 54
Nov.1 290 131 159 66
8 248 149 99 77
15 202 98 104 70
22 227 119 108 74
29 263 124 139 63
Dec.6 144 58 86 59
13 155 68 87 —
20 — — — —
27 142 68 74 91
6762 2976 3786 3433

(51 weeks)

1583

Week
ending		 Dead Of
plague		 Of other
diseases		 Baptised
Jan.3 137 50 87 69
10 140 57 83 53
17 160 72 88 67
24 162 59 103 59
31 144 40 104 73

These tables were compiled from weekly bills furnished to the Court, and doubtless drawn up like the bills of 1532 and 1535 to show the deaths from plague and from other causes in each of the several parishes in the City, Liberties and suburbs. It is clear that the results were known from week to week, for a letter of January 29, 1578, says that the plague is increased from 7 to 37 (? 33) deaths in three weeks. But that was not the beginning of the epidemic in London; it was rather a lull in a plague-mortality which is known to have been severe in the end of 1577, and had led to the prohibition of stage-plays in November[668].

In that series of five plague-years in London, only two, 1578 and 1582, had a large total of plague-deaths. The year 1580 was almost clear (128 deaths from plague), and may be taken as showing the ordinary proportion of deaths to births in London when plague did not arise to disturb it. The baptisms, it will be observed, are considerably in excess of the burials; and as every child was christened in church under Elizabeth, we may take it that we have the births fully recorded (with the doubtful exception of still-births and “chrisoms”). But while the one favourable year shows an excess of some 24 per cent. of baptisms over burials, the whole period of five years shows a shortcoming in the baptisms of 33 per cent. Thus we may see how seriously a succession of plague-years, at the endemic level of the disease, kept down the population; and, at the same time, how the numbers in the capital would increase rapidly from within, in the absence of plague. There is reason to think that plague was almost or altogether absent from London for the next nine years (1583 to 1592); and it is not surprising to find that the population, as estimated from the births, had increased from some 120,000 to 150,000. The increase of London population under Elizabeth was proceeding so fast, plague or no plague, that measures were taken in 1580 to check it. The increase of London has never depended solely upon its own excess of births over deaths; indeed, until the present century, there were probably few periods when such excess occurred over a series of years. Influx from the country and from abroad always kept London up to its old level of inhabitants, whatever the death-rate; and from the early part of the Tudor period caused it to grow rapidly. I shall review briefly in another chapter the stages in the growth of London, as it may be reckoned from bills of mortality and of baptisms. But as the proclamation of 1580, against new buildings, the first of a long series down to the Commonwealth, has special reference to the plague in the Liberties, and to the unwholesome condition of those poor skirts of the walled city, this is the proper place for it:

“The Queen’s Majesty perceiving the state of the city of London and the suburbs and confines thereof to encrease daily by access of people to inhabit in the same, in such ample sort as thereby many inconveniences are seen already, but many greater of necessity like to follow ... and [having regard] to the preservation of her people in health, which may seem impossible to continue, though presently by God’s goodness the same is perceived to be in better estate universally than hath been in man’s memory: yet there are such great multitudes of people brought to inhabit in small rooms, whereof a great part are seen very poor; yea, such must live of begging, or of worse means; and they heaped up together, and in a sort smothered with many families of children and servants in one house or small tenement; it must needs follow, if any plague or popular sickness should by God’s permission enter among those multitudes, that the same should not only spread itself and invade the whole city and confines, as great mortality should ensue the same, where her Majesty’s personal presence is many times required; besides the great confluence of people from all places of the realm by reason of the ordinary Terms for justice there holden; but would be also dispersed through all other parts of the realm to the manifest danger of the whole body thereof, out of which neither her Majesty’s own person can be (but by God’s special ordinance) exempted, nor any other, whatsoever they be.

For remedy whereof, as time may now serve until by some further good order, to be had in Parliament or otherwise, the same may be remedied, Her Majesty by good and deliberate advice of her Council, and being thereto much moved by the considerate opinions of the Mayor, Aldermen and other the grave, wise men in and about the city, doth charge and straitly command all persons of what quality soever they be to desist and forbear from any new buildings of any new house or tenement within three miles of any of the gates of the said city, to serve for habitation or lodging for any person, where no former house hath been known to have been in memory of such as are now living. And also to forbear from letting or setting, or suffering any more families than one only to be placed or to inhabit from henceforth in any house that heretofore hath been inhabited, etc.... Given at Nonesuch, the 7th of July, 1580[669].”

Among the more special suggestions of the mayor, on the causes and prevention of plague, previous to this proclamation were[670]:

1. The avoiding of inmates in places pretending exemption.

2. The restraining of the building of small tenements and turning great houses into small habitations by foreigners.

3. The increase of buildings in places exempt.

4. The increase of buildings about the Charterhouse, Mile End Fields; also at St Katherine’s along the water side.

5. The pestering of exempt places with strangers and foreign artificers.

6. The number of strangers in and about London of no church.

7. The haunting of plays out of the Liberties.

8. The killing of cattle within or near the city.

The best glimpses that we get of the plague in London in 1578 are in letters to Lord Burghley[671]. On October 22, the Recorder of London, Sir W. Fleetwood, writes to him that he “has been in Bucks since Michaelmas, because he was troubled every day with such as came to him having plague sores about them; and being sent by the Lords to search for lewd persons in sundry places, he found dead corses under the table, which surely did greatly annoy him.” It will be seen by the statistics that the deaths from all causes had risen to more than three hundred in a week before Michaelmas—a small mortality compared with that of 1563, or of any other London epidemic of the first degree. From other letters, relating to plague at St Albans, Ware and other places near London, it may be concluded that the citizens had escaped from London to their usual country resorts in plague-time. On August 30 there were said to be sixty cases of plague at St Albans, and on October 13 Ware is said to have been “of late” infected. Plague-deaths are entered also in the Hertford parish registers in 1577 and 1578[672]. On 14 September the infection was in the “Bull” at Hoddesdon (Herts), but the landlord refused to close his house against travellers on their way to the Court. On Oct. 13, 1578, two deaths are reported from Queens’ College, Cambridge, “the infection being taken by the company of a Londoner in Stourbridge Fair;” these two deaths had “moved many to depart” from the University[673]. In the same month it was at Bury St Edmunds. Earlier in the year, a letter from Truro (11 April) says that the plague was prevalent in Cornwall.

The epidemic of 1578 at Norwich was relatively a far more serious one than that of the capital, and was traced to the visit of the queen: “the trains of her Majesty’s carriage, being many of them infected, left the plague behind, which afterwards increased so and continued as it raged above one and three-quarter years after.” From August 20, 1578, to February 19, 1579, the deaths were 4817, of which 2335 were of English and 2482 of “alyan strangers,” ten aldermen being among the victims[674]. At Yarmouth, in 1579, two thousand are said to have died of the plague between May-day and Michaelmas[675]. Colchester had plague from December, 1578 to August, 1579[676]. It was at Ipswich and at Plymouth in 1579; the epidemic at the latter must have been severe, if the estimate of 600 deaths, given in the annals of the town, is to be trusted[677]. It was again at Stamford in 1580, as appears from an order of the corporation, September 7, prohibiting people from leaving the town[678]. Other centres of plague in 1580 were at Rye, which was cut off from intercourse with London[679], at Leicester, where an assessment for the visited was appointed by the common hall of the citizens[680], at Gloucester, from Easter to Michaelmas, and at Hereford and Wellington, the musters in October having been hindered by “the great infection of the plague[681].”

On February 4, 1582, six houses were shut up at Dover, and on September 12 there was plague in Windsor and Eton[682]. In the parish register of Cranbrooke (Kent), 18 burials are specially marked (as from plague) in 1581, 41 in 1582, and 22 in 1583[683]. It was much dispersed in the Isle of Sheppey, the year after (1584) from Michaelmas into the winter.

Although the years from the spring of 1583 to the autumn of 1592 appear to have been unmarked by plague in London, they witnessed a good many epidemics along the east coast, and in a few places elsewhere, of which the particulars are for the most part meagre.

A casual mention is made of plague at Yarmouth in 1584[684]. The town of Boston appears to have had plague continuously for four years from 1585 to 1588. In 1585 houses were shut up[685]; in 1586 a case at Southwell was supposed to have been imported from Boston[686]; in the parish register the burials from plague and other causes in 1587 reach the high figure of 372, and in 1588 they are 200, the average for eight years before being 122, and for twelve years after, only 84. In 1588 one Williams, of Holm, in Huntingdonshire, was sent for to cleanse infected houses in St John’s Row, which had been used as pest-houses[687]. Within ten miles round Boston the plague prevailed; at Leake there were 104 burials from November, 1587, to November, 1588, the annual average being 24; at Frampton there were 130 burials in 1586-87, the average being 30; at Kirton there were 57 burials in 1589, and 102 in 1590[688].

Another centre on the east coast was Wisbech. In 1585 it appeared in the hamlet of Guyhirne. In 1586 it entered Wisbech itself, caused the usual shutting up of houses, and so increased in 1587 that there were 42 burials in September and 62 in October[689], being three or four times more than average. It is mentioned also at Ipswich in 1585, and at Norwich in 1588[690]. At Derby, in 1586, there was plague in St Peter’s parish[691]. At Chesterfield in November, 1586, there were plague-deaths, and again in May 1587[692]. At Leominster, in 1587, there was an excessive mortality (209 burials)[693].

The other great centre on the east coast in those years was in Durham and Northumberland[694]. In 1587 the infection began to show at Hartlepool, and in the parishes of Stranton and Hart; at the latter village 89 were buried of the plague, one of them an unknown young woman who died in the street. In 1589 the plague entered Newcastle and raged severely; of 340 deaths in the whole year in St John’s parish, 103 occurred in September; the total mortality of the epidemic to the 1st January, 1590, was 1727. Durham also had a visitation in 1589, plague-huts having been erected on Elvet Moor. Those were years of scarcity, the year 1586 having been one of famine-prices.

The great event of the time was the defeat of the Spanish Armada off the French coast from Calais to Gravelines in the last days of July, 1588. A southerly gale sprang up, which drove the magnificent Spanish fleet past the Thames as far as the Orkneys. It was perhaps well for England that the winds parted the two fleets. The English ships, which had come to anchor in Margate Roads to guard the mouth of the Thames, were in two or three weeks utterly crippled by sickness. The disease must have been a very rapid and deadly infection. Lord Admiral Howard writes to the queen: “those that come in fresh are soonest infected; they sicken one day and die the next.” In a previous letter to Burghley he writes: “It is a most pitiful sight to see the men die in the streets of Margate. The Elizabeth Jonas has lost half her crew. Of all the men brought out by Sir Richard Townsend, he has but one left alive.” The ships were so weak that they could not venture to come through the Downs from Margate to Dover[695]. It is doubtful whether any part of this sickness and mortality was due to plague, which was not active anywhere in the south of England in that year. Want of food and want of clothes, and in the last resort the hardness and parsimony of Elizabeth, appear to have been the causes. Lord Howard begs for £1000 worth of new clothing, as the men were in great want, and Lord H. Seymour writes that “the men fell sick with cold.” Dysentery and typhus were doubtless the infections which had been bred, and became communicable to the fresh drafts of men. But in the Spanish ships, beating about on the high seas and unable to land their men or even to help each other, the sickness grew into true plague, so that the broken remnants of the Armada which reached Corunna were like so many floating pest-houses.

In 1590 and 1591, at a clear interval from the Armada year, there was much plague in Devonshire. The evidence of its having been in Plymouth comes solely from the corporation accounts; at various times in 1590 and 1591 there were paid, “ten shillings to one that all his stuff was burned for avoiding the sickness,” a sum of £5. 19s. for houses shut, and a like sum to persons kept in, and sixteen shillings to four men “to watch the townes end for to stay the people of the infected places[696].” The chief epidemics, however, appear to have been at Totness in 1590 and at Tiverton in 1591. The parish register of Totness enters the “first of the plague, Margary, the daughter of Mr Wyche of Dartmouth, June 22, 1590,” from which it may be inferred that plague was first at Dartmouth, nine miles down the river, and had ascended to Totness. The following monthly mortalities will show how severe the infection became at Totness in the summer and autumn immediately following[697]:

July 42 (36 of plague, 6 not),
August 81 (80 of plague, 1 not),
September 39 (all of plague),
October 37 (all of plague),
November 25 (24 of plague, 1 not),
December 19 (all of plague),
January, 1591, 10 of plague,
February 1 of plague.

This heavy mortality from plague (246 deaths) was hardly over, when the infection began in March, 1591, at Tiverton. It is said to have been introduced by one William Waulker “a waulking man or traveller.” From 1st March, 1591, to 1st March, 1592, the deaths from plague and other causes were 551, or about one in nine of the population[698].