6. Help in times of sickness and plague.
Methods of relieving the poor in times of sickness were also numerous. The Great Plague of London was not an isolated attack; throughout the seventeenth century few years pass without an outbreak in one of the large towns. Special orders were drawn up to prevent the spread of infection; watchmen were appointed to guard stricken houses, and the inmates for the time had to be supported by the community[477]. The cost of this severely taxed local resources. At Cambridge we hear that in 1630, 2800 claimed relief and only seven score were able to contribute. In this case a brief was issued authorising collections from other parts[478], and London and Norwich sent generous contributions[479]. One town seems to have helped another frequently when this scourge broke out: New Sarum sent aid to London, Norwich to Yarmouth, and both New Sarum and Bury thanked the Londoners for the help they had themselves received under like circumstances[480].
Pest houses were often established; at Reading eight were built, and we hear of their erection in Norwich, London, Cambridge and Windsor[481]. The way the funds were raised for the plague-stricken poor of Windsor is one of the many illustrations of the fact that private charity and public rates were often used for the same purposes and administered by the same officials. The site for the pest house was given by an alderman, some of the money was raised for the relief of the infected poor "by way of taxation," part was given by gentlemen of the neighbourhood, and the rest was probably paid out of the town chest[482]. At Hitchen and in other places relief was given to the plague-stricken by means of the poor law organisation[483].
The Privy Council frequently made orders connected with the plague. Sometimes they ordered the erection of pest houses, sometimes a special collection. In Grantham and Worcester the rich fled from the infected town, so that government was at a standstill; the absentees were required to pay double rates and, if necessary, to return and help govern the town[484]. At another time the paper-makers in Suffolk were prevented from working because of the plague, and a special collection was ordered for them[485]. All these orders illustrate the paternal nature of the Privy Council government, and also seem to show that in social matters it was exercised in favour of the poor.
But not only in time of plague was provision made for the sick. At Norwich it was part of the regular organisation for the poor; in London St Thomas's and St Bartholomew's hospitals were already in existence, and in most towns there were numerous lazar houses. In some places the help provided was even greater than that of to-day; a town physician was appointed especially to look after the poor. Newcastle adopted this plan in the reign of Elizabeth, and the practice was continued down to the time of the Civil War, and in 1629 a "learned physician" was engaged by the Mayor and Corporation of Barnstaple to give advice gratis to the poor[486]. This happened just at the time when, as we have seen, there was great activity in matters connected with the poor, and is an illustration of the fact that the duties of the seventeenth century municipality were very various, and that even in 1629 the town authorities were sometimes pioneers in matters concerning the poor.
7. Contributions to sufferers from fire.
Fire was another way in which sudden loss was caused to large numbers of people. Houses were still built largely of wood and often very close together. Whole towns were not infrequently destroyed. Tiverton suffered twice in this way, and the suddenness of the calamity to so flourishing a town seems to have especially struck men's imagination. "He which at one a clocke was worth fiue thousand pound and as the Prophet saith drunke his Wine in bowles of fine Siluer plate, had not by two a clocke so much as a woodden dish left to eate his meate in, nor a house to couer his sorrowfull head"[487]. In the second destruction of 1612 three hundred of the poor people were boarded in the shire, and collections to rebuild the town were made throughout the country. Similar disasters happened to several other towns, to Dorchester in 1613 and Hertford in 1637, and like collections were made for them among charitable people.
1632: "Paid Mr Henderson the townes physician his ½ yeares stipend due at lady-day 1632, 20l." A payment of £10 was also made in 1647, to "doctor Samuel Rand the townes physition." M. A. Richardson's Tracts, Vol. III. p. 47. Extracts from the municipal accounts of Newcastle. Barnstaple, Nov. 24th, 1629: "Dr Symes a learned Physician engaged by Mayor and Corporation to be resident in town and give advice gratis to the poor at £20 per annum for two years to be paid out of town stock if not raised by subscriptions." Wyot's Diary, Barnstaple Records, North Devon Herald, April 21, 1881.