Oswestry was visited with other calamities some few years before this period. In 1542 a fire broke out in the town, which was so destructive, that “two long streets with great riches” were consumed; and in 1567 there was another fire, which destroyed “seven-score within the walls, and three-score without.” The suburb still known by the name of Pentre-Poeth (the burnt end of the town) suffered severely, and may have derived its designation from this destructive fire; or, as Price intimates, from the frequent fires that may have occurred there during the conflicts between the Welsh and English. These accidents were looked upon, at the time, through astrological telescopes, by Camden, the historian, and a Dr. Childrey. They both gravely ascribed these events to astrological phenomena, Camden seriously remarking, “that the eclipses of the sun in Aries have been very fatal to this place; for in the years 1542 and 1567, when the sun was eclipsed in that sign, it (Oswestry) suffered much by fire!” After reading such absurdity as this from men professing to be learned, we have reason to be thankful that we are living in a more enlightened and scientific age.
A few years before the conflagration last referred to, the town was visited by a no less alarming evil. In 1559 pestilence consigned to the grave, within one year, more than five hundred of the inhabitants. The disease which thus afflicted the people is stated to have commenced with profuse perspiration, (from which it was called “the sweating sickness,”) and to have continued until the death or recovery of the patient. Its operation was quick and powerful, and cure or death occurred within twenty-four hours. Those persons who were seized in the day were put to bed in their clothes to wait the issue; and those seized in the night were desired to remain in bed, but not to sleep. The desolation of the town during the long continuance of the plague is described in affecting language by the writer of the clever historical sketches, on the History of Oswestry, that appear in Mr. Roberts’s publication, entitled “Oswald’s Well:”—
“It was then that Croeswylan received its name. Croes wylan, or the Cross of weeping, was there erected, the base of which still remains to be seen. To this, with superstitious reverence, all the people resorted. The diseased and dying sought in grief beneath its sacred shadow a preparation for the doom to which they were appointed, and there they languished till that doom was fixed. Before it, the whole and healthy ones confessed and deplored their sins, and deprecated the vengeance of heaven. Throughout the succeeding century this foul contagion lurked on our shores, and at intervals visited our town, converting it into a vast charnel house. Its attacks were so insidious and sudden that the glow of health suffered no process of removal, but instantly fled, as scared and affrighted on the approach of the fell devourer. During its presence no sights were to be seen but the wan and sickly visage of those who were dying, or the panic-stricken gaze of the man yet uninfected, almost delirious with alarm, and starting from the touch of the dearest friend of his heart. The air was rent with shrieks and laden with lamentation. Death alone seemed contented and satisfied, and sat like a monster unmoved as he banqueted on hundreds of his victims. All commerce was at a stand-still. Every house was locked, the inmates scarcely venturing upon a communication with each other, much less exposing themselves to contact with those without. With foreboding reluctance they breathed the breath of heaven, pregnant as it was with the seeds of death. If one of their number was attacked, no consideration of friendship or kindred spared him the aggravation of being hurled into the street, there to await the regular arrival of the dead-cart. That sad accompaniment of the contagion, the gibbet of the scene, rolled sullenly along the death-smitten streets upon its gloomy mission, and never returned without the sad evidences of the rapid progress of the desolating scourge. In the ears of the expiring it must have sounded like the toll of the passing bell, the knell of their speedy departure. Upon it, whether dead or just gasping for life, the diseased victims were heaped, and hurried off to the brink of a huge pit, dug, probably, in a corner of the Old Churchyard, into which they were remorselessly thrown. Everything bespoke the presence and working of a mighty power, in league with ‘the King of terrors.’ All human ties were forcibly disrupted, every human sympathy was sacrilegiously immolated, until the people were reduced to that extremity of sadness, in which life is burdensome for its sorrows, and death terrible for the grim and ghastly shroud in which it lies hid.”
The market was held, during the Plague, at Croes wylan, that the people from the surrounding country-places should not visit the town, and thereby suffer from the infection. No doubt that with the dreadful scourge stalked, hand in hand, gaunt poverty. It may be easily imagined that the poor suffered severely from the sickness, and that many of them required relief. We have some testimony before us that the public authorities of the time sympathized with the sufferers. The following extracts from the “Accompt of Richard ap Lley, Muringer of the town of Oswestr, for and from the xvj day of September, in the 2nd yere of our sovraynge Lady Elizabeth,” show how pecuniary aid was rendered to certain parties:—
The sayde accomtante doth asc alowaunce forrent bayted to the Towlers (toll-takers) for one qr. inconsidracion of the PLAGE: | |||
s. | d. | ||
Fyrst to the executors of John Vyghan | xx | ||
Allso, &c. rent bayted to Thomas ap Rc.for Wolyws-gate | xx | ||
Allso, &c. to David Glover the elder, forNewe-gate | xiij | iiij | |
Allso, &c. to Wyling Lloyd, forBetresce-gate | x | ||
iiij | ij | ||
Allso, &c. rent of Crofft-pystil, in thehande of Rc. ap Mrdyth, dyssessed | ij | ||
Allso, &c. money payde for wrytinge of asuplycacion to my lord of Arundell | xij | ||
Allso, &c. for Lewys Tayler, and GuttynFurbur, beinge unpayde for setting of stales, by reason of thePlage | xiiij | ||
Allso, &c. for Rc. Lewther, for one qr.beinge absent from the towne | xx | ||
Tanners. | Allso, &c. for a qr. rent unto tanners beinge apsentin in tyme of the plage; and fyrste, Thomas Baker (2 othersimilar items) | xiiij | |
Glovers. | Itm. The sayde accomptaunt dothe asc alowaunce forthem that are deade or fled, and them that are in decaye; andfyrst, Thomas ap John Wyling, beinge a poore man (five othersfled, &c.) | xij | |
Buchers. | Imp. the sayde accomtant, &c. Lewys, bucher, that isdead (one for the like and 7 fled) | v | |
Corvsers. | Edward Gorg, fled (2 others fled) | iij | |
Backers. | David ap sr. Rc. saythe that he dothe not occupey hisbackhowes, and prayth alowance | vi | |
David Bobyth hathe ben longe secke, and asc alo | iij | ||
Hucksters. | Jonet vrch. David ap Morys asc alowance for a qr. Rent (1other) | x | |
Alle Selers. | Edward Lloyd pray the alowance for a qr. | xjj | |
David Glover the elder, in lycke manner | xiiij | ||
Richard Salter was longe sycke, and praythe alowance | xiijj | ||
Thomas Glover praythe alowaunce for half a yere;aledginge, that he sold no alle for that space (3 others) | xx | ||
Payments for the provision of the genrall Feast unto the Coo-burgesses according to the aunsient costom, holden the vth day of Desember, in the thryde yere of the raynge of our sovraynge layde Ellizabeth, by the grace of God quene of England, &c. at the making of this accompt:
s. | d. | ||
Whete. | Fyrste, the saide accomptaunt hathe payde for ii stryckesand a hoope of whette for brede and for peys | xj | |
Maullt. | Allso payde for iii strycke of maullt | xij | |
Boochers. | Allso payde for a qr. and ii rybes of byff | vj | viij |
Allso payde for mytton for to make peys for this feast | ij | vj | |
. . . for iijlb. ressyns | xij | ||
. . . s pep | v | ij | |
Allso payde for cloves, masses, aud saffrone | vj | ||
Allso payde for synamon and sugr. | vij | ||
Itm. pd. for buttr. spent at this feast | viij | ||
Chese. | Allso payde for chesses | ij | ix |
Nyttes, &c. | Allso pd. for appells and nyttes | xvj | |
Saullt. | Allso payde for a hoope of sallt for the byff | x |
This Accompt was made before us, the persons under-named, then Bailiffe of the said Towne, John Stanney, Thomas Evans.
With these awful calamities the people endured severe privation, both as to food and clothing. Provisions had risen so enormously in price as to place even the coarsest food beyond the reach of the poor. We are told that so deficient were the working-classes of the commonest provision, that they were glad to resort, for subsistence, to horse-bread, composed of beans, oats, and bran. “The good old times” are too frequently quoted as periods of comfort, compared with the present days; but such facts as have been now related must convince every Englishman of right feeling that, however humble his lot, he still possesses “a goodly heritage.”
For a considerable time no event occurred in Oswestry worthy of detailed notice. In the 42nd of Elizabeth, Coke, Attorney-General, acknowledges all the liberties and franchises of Oswestry, by an order that all further proceedings on the part of the Crown, on a writ of Quo Warranto against the Bailiffs and Burgesses of Oswestry, should wholly cease. In 1603 a dispute took place between the Bailiffs, Burgesses, &c. and the Earl of Suffolk, then lord and owner of the town and manor, the former body having, in numerous assembly, resolved to maintain the rights and privileges granted to them by Richard II., and confirmed by their “late sovereigne of famous memorye, queene Elizabeth.” A petition setting forth their grievances, mainly caused by the Earl of Suffolk’s steward, had been presented by them to the Lord President of the Marches; to which Lord Suffolk replied as follows:—