The Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9), Now Commonly Known as the Black Death

by Francis Aidan Gasquet

The adjoining county of Huntingdon forms a portion of the great diocese of Lincoln. In it there were some 95 benefices, which may give some indication of the probable number of deaths in the ranks of the clergy of the county.

The abbot of Ramsey died on the 10th of June, 1349, and the King did not, as usual, claim the temporalities during the vacancy, but allowed the monks to pay a smaller sum than was usual; "and, be it remembered," says the document allowing this, "that because of the depression of the said abbey by the present mortal pestilence raging in the country, the said custody is granted to the prior and convent for a lesser sum to pay to the King than at the time of the last vacancy."[250]

Among the Inquisitiones post mortem is one relating to the manor of Caldecot, in Huntingdonshire. It formed part of the estates of Margaret, Countess of Kent, who died on St. Michael's day, 1349. Many houses of the manor are represented as ruinous, and of no value. Rents of assize, formerly worth £8 a year, this time produced but fifty shillings; an old mill, which hitherto had been let with [p137] land for two pounds a year, is now only worth 6s. 8d., "because of the pestilence it could be let at no higher rate." And, lastly, the fees of the manor court had sunk from 13s. 4d. to 3s. 4d. "through dearth of tenants there."[251]

Proceeding westward from Huntingdonshire, the county of Northampton next claims attention. Judged by the lists of institutions given in Bridges' history of the county, there were changes at this period in 131 instances out of 281. In fifteen cases two or more changes occurred in the same place in 1349, and the number of institutions was greatest in August, when 36 appointments were made.[252] From the institutions it appears likely that the town of Northampton was attacked most severely about the October of the year 1349; at least, on November the 1st two appointments were made to livings there.

As to the religious houses, at Luffield all are said to have died of the plague. William de Skelton, the prior, was carried off by the sickness, and the rental of the house was subsequently declared to be inadequate for its support. At Delaprey Convent, Catherine Knyvet, the abbess, fell a victim to the disease. At Worthorp, the superior, Emma de Pinchbeck, died, and probably many of the Augustinian nuns there. The Bishop appointed Agnes Bowes to succeed, but the convent never recovered, and in 1354 was, at the petition of its patron Sir Thomas Holland, [p138] united to the convent of St. Michael near Stamford. In the royal licence it is stated "that the convent, being poorly endowed, was, by the pestilence which lately prevailed, reduced to such poverty that all the nuns but one, on account of their penury, had dispersed."[253]

The inquiry just referred to, as to the estates of the Countess of Kent upon her death in 1349, reports as to the state of a manor in Northamptonshire. It is the same tale of depression and desolation as appears everywhere else throughout England. Pasture formerly worth forty shillings now yields only ten, and some even brought in only five shillings in place of eighteen; and the sole reason assigned is "the mortality." A water mill and a wind mill "for the same cause" was let for 6s. 8d., instead of the old 56 shillings.

The priory of Stamford itself moreover was in sad distress. The rents from five free tenants and eighteen customary tenants, were just one-third of their former value "for the same cause." And the same nuns, in place of 19s. 8d. which they used to get for thirteen tenements, now received only four shillings, whilst their yearly tenants, who should pay 13lbs. of pepper, at 12d. the pound, have paid nothing; moreover the fines of the manor, estimated to produce twenty shillings a year, have brought in but two.

A third example is given in the case of a manor near Blisworth, in which two mills are let for twenty, in place of the old rent of sixty-five shillings; and two carucates of land produced only some fifteen shillings the carucate, "and not more, on account of the mortality in those parts."[254]

Of the small county of Rutland, lying at the north of Northamptonshire, little can be said. It likewise formed part of the diocese of Lincoln, and contained some 57 benefices. From an inquisition we learn that on one manor for nine virgates of land there could be estimated [p139] nothing in the way of rent, "because all the tenants died before the feast of Easter (1349). They (i.e., the jury) also say that the natives and cottars did not work this year." In another place, a house and garden formerly let for forty shillings, now produces only twenty shillings; 240 acres of arable land are let for half their former value, and 180 acres of meadow are worth 10d. per acre, in place of eighteen-pence.[255]

Eastward, the county adjoining Northampton is Leicester. For this county there exists the local account of Knighton, a canon of Leicester abbey. As far as concerns England his relation may fitly find a place here. "The sorrow-bearing pestilence," he writes, "entered the sea coast at Southampton, and came to Bristol, and almost the whole strength of the town died as if struck with sudden death, for there were few who kept their beds beyond three or two days or even half a day. Then the terrible death rolled on into all parts according to the course of the sun, and at Leicester, in the little parish of St. Leonard, there died more than 380; in the parish of Holy Cross more than 400; in that of St. Margaret, Leicester, more than 700; and so in every parish great numbers.