The year 1635, which saw the beginning of the Hull plague, at a time when the infection was absolutely quiet in the capital, saw also the beginning of an outbreak at Sandwich, with accompanying cases at Canterbury, and a beginning at Yarmouth, Lynn and Norwich[1050], in all which places the infections lingered at a low endemic level for a year or more. The dates are important only as showing that these provincial infections were looking up some months before the sharp outburst in London in the late autumn of 1636 made any sign. In Sandwich, on the 12th of March, 1637, there were 78 houses “visited,” and 188 persons infected; on June 30, 24 houses shut up, with 103 persons, some of them lodged in tents; from July 6 to October 5, there were buried of the plague about ten every week in St Clement’s parish. Considerable expenses were incurred (more than £40 a week), to which the county of Kent and the other Cinque Ports contributed[1051].

Besides these lingering endemics in Kent and Norfolk, the great plague epidemics of 1636 were in Newcastle and London. The Newcastle epidemic was both earlier and relatively far more severe than that of the capital. For a town of some 20,000 inhabitants, the following weekly figures[1052] indicate a plague of the first degree, comparable to the London death-rates of 1625 and 1665:

Died of plague at Newcastle, within the liberties, from May 7 to December 31, 1636:

Week ending Plague
deaths
May14 59
21 55
28 99
June4 122
11 99
18 162
25 133
July2 172
9 184
16 212
23 270
30 366
Aug.7 337
14 422
21 346
28 246
Sept.4 520
11 325
To end of Dec.908
Total to 31st Dec.5027

Besides in Garthside, from May 30 to October 17, 515, making a total of 5542.

This tremendous visitation of Tyneside is said to have begun in October, 1635, at North Shields, where the infection rested during the winter cold, to begin again at Newcastle in spring. During the height of the epidemic in summer and autumn all trade was suspended, no one being about in the streets or in the neighbouring highways. The means tried to check the infection were fumigations with pitch, rosin, and frankincense. Newcastle had one other visit from the plague, as we shall see, in 1644 and 1645, during and after the siege by the Scots Presbyterian army; but in 1665 it is said to have escaped, although Defoe says that the infection was introduced by colliers returning from the Thames.

The London Plague of 1636.

The London plague of 1636 was one of the second degree, for the capital, and was otherwise peculiar as being rather later in the autumnal season than usual. The following table of the weekly mortalities shows how it increased, reached a height, and declined.

Christened Buried in all Buried of
plague
Dec.24 231 170 0
31 195 174 0
1636
Jan.7 217 189 0
14 242 174 0
21 220 190 0
28 214 171 0
Feb.4 227 183 0
11 234 160 0
18 207 203 0
25 198 238 0
Mar.3 221 198 0
10 231 194 0
17 244 187 0
24 215 177 0
31 193 196 0
Apr.7 202 199 2
14 221 205 4
21 202 205 7
28 271 210 4
May5 197 206 4
12 199 254 41
19 171 244 22
26 160 263 38
June2 189 276 51
9 153 275 64
16 145 325 86
23 149 257 65
30 141 273 82
July7 152 265 64
14 142 298 86
21 146 350 108
28 183 365 136
Aug.4 152 394 181
11 166 465 244
18 167 546 284
25 161 690 380
Sept.1 163 835 536
8 153 921 567
15 166 1106 728
22 172 1018 645
29 168 1211 796
Oct.6 170 1195 790
13 164 1117 682
20 174 855 476
27 133 779 404
Nov.3 153 1156 755
10 164 966 635
17 143 827 512
24 162 747 408
Dec.1 168 550 290
8 175 335 143
15 134 324 79
9,522 23,359 10,400

The parishes chiefly affected were the same as in 1625 and 1603. Stepney is still wanting from the general bill; but after 1636 it was included therein, along with Newington, Lambeth, Westminster, Islington and Hackney. These omitted parishes doubtless contributed largely, Stepney in particular, so that the total of plague-deaths would have to be increased by perhaps two thousand. The following parishes had the severest mortalities: