Letter Book F, fo. 120b.
-Id., fos. 121-125b.
Letter Book F, fos. 127, 127b, 130.
-Id., fos. 132b-133b.
-Id., fos. 139, 140.
-Id., fo. 140 b.
Hist. Angl. (Rolls Series No. 28), i, 272. Cf. Chron. Angliæ (Rolls Series No. 64). p. 26.
It was the first of the three pestilences (the others occurring in 1361 and 1369) which served occasionally as land marks in history for dating conveyances and other records.—See Bond's Handy-book for verifying dates, p. 311.
Stow extravagantly conjectures that no less than 50,000 perished within a year, all of whom were buried in Walter Manny's cemetery, near the Charterhouse. Another chronicler states that 200 were buried there alone between February and April, 1349.—Avesbury (Rolls Series No. 93), p. 407.
Whilst the king forbade the encouragement of beggars by gifts of charity, the municipal authorities fixed the price of labour.—Letter Book F. fos. 163, 168, 169, 181. At the close of the year (1349) a statute—known as the Statute of Labourers—was passed, fixing the scale of wages at the rate prevalent before the Black Death, and ordering punishment to be inflicted on those who demanded more.