A History of Epidemics in Britain, Volume 1 (of 2) by Charles Creighton

[243] Stow’s _Survey_, p. 392. [244] The population of London is stated on good authority, that of its archdeacon, in a letter to Pope Innocent III. (_Petri Blessensis Opera omnia_, ed. Giles, vol. II. p. 85), to have been 40,000 about the years 1190-1200, a period of great expansion or activity. By the usual reckoning of the poll-tax in 1377 the population would have been 44,770; and in the year 1349 it was probably not far from those numbers. This matter comes up again in the next chapter. [245] _Memorials of London in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries_, edited from the Archives of the City, A.D. 1246-1419, by H. T. Riley. Lond. 1868, p. 219. [246] _Ibid._, pp. 239-40. [247] Blomefield, _History of Norfolk_, III. 93. [248] Peter of Blois, who as archdeacon of London was in a position to know, gives in his letter to the pope the number of parish churches in the City at 120. [249] Popham, “Subsidy Roll of 51 Edward III.,” in _Archæologia_, VII. (1785) p. 337. [250] _Itineraria, et cet._ ed. Nasmith, Cantab. 1778, p. 344. See also Weever, _Funeral Monuments_, p. 862, according to whom the record of the great mortality was on a chronological table hanging up in the church. [251] Walsingham, _Gesta Abbatum_. Rolls ed. II. 370. Abbot Michael, he says, “tactus est communi incommodo inter primos de suis monachis qui illo letali morbo percussi sunt.” [252] Th. Stubbs’ _Chronicle of York_ in Twysden, col. 1732. [253] _Chronicon Monasterii de Melsa_, Rolls ed. III. 36. [254] Rymer’s _Foedera_. [255] Lowth, _Life of William of Wykeham_, p. 93, with a ref. to Regist. Edyngdon, pt. 1. fol. 49. [256] Bentham, _Hist. of Ely_. [257] Clyn. [258] Jessopp, “The Black Death in East Anglia” in _Nineteenth Century_, April 1885, p. 602. The sources of these interesting particulars are not given. [259] Peck’s _Antiquarian Annals of Stamford_, Bk. XI. p. 47. [260] _Hist. MSS. Commission’s Reports_, IX. p. 127: “Hi quatuor tantum moriebantur de pestilencia.” The reporter on the MSS. of the Dean and Chapter conjectures that the monastery may have owed its comparative immunity to the fact that it was supplied with water brought by closed pipes from the hills on the north-east of the city. [261] Walsingham, _Gesta Abbatum_. [262] Knighton. [263] _History of Norfolk_, III. 94. [264] Owen and Blakeway, _History of Shrewsbury_, I. 166:--“The average number of institutions to benefices on vacancies by death in the archdeaconry of Salop, for ten years before 1349, and ten years after, is one and a half per annum, or fifteen in the whole; in that year alone the number of institutions on vacancies by death is twenty-nine, besides other institutions the cause of whose vacancies is not specified and therefore may also have been the same.” [265] F. Seebohm, “The Black Death and its Place in English History,” _Fortnightly Review_, Sept. 1 and 15, 1865:--“In the library of the Dean and Chapter, at York Minster, are voluminous MSS., known by the name of _Torr’s MSS._, which contain the clergy list of every parish in the diocese of York, and which, in by far the greater number of instances, state not only the date of each vacancy, but whether it was caused by death, resignation or otherwise of the incumbent.” _L. c._ p. 150. [266] Jessopp, “The Black Death in East Anglia,” _Nineteenth Century_, April 1885, pp. 600-602. This author remarks that the evidence from manor court rolls and from the Institution Books of the clergy “has hardly received any attention hitherto, its very existence being entirely overlooked, nay, not even suspected.” [267] G. Poulett Scrope, M.P., F.R.S., _The Manor and Barony of Castle Combe_. London, 1852, p. 168. [268] The court rolls of the Manor of Snitterton, Norfolk, in the British Museum. Professor Maitland has lately edited some of the earliest rolls of manor courts for the Selden Society. [269] G. Poulett Scrope, _op. cit._ pp. 151-2. [270] F. Seebohm, _The English Village Community_, London, 1882. The Manor Court Rolls of Winslow, upon which Mr Seebohm bases his work, are in the library of the University of Cambridge. [271] Rev. Augustus Jessopp, D.D. “The Black Death in East Anglia,” _Nineteenth Century_, Dec. 1884. [272] Under the heading “The Black Death in Lancashire,” Mr A. G. Little has printed, with remarks, in the _English Historical Review_, July, 1890, p. 524, the data submitted to a jury of eighteen who had been empannelled to settle a dispute between the archdeacon of Richmond and Adam de Kirkham, dean of Amounderness, touching the account rendered by the dean, as proctor for the archdeacon, of fees received for instituting to vacant livings, for probates of wills, and for administration of the goods of intestates. The dean’s account to the archdeacon is said to run “from the Feast of the Nativity of our Lady [8 September] in the year of our Lord 1349 unto the eleventh day of January next following;” but it may not imply, and almost certainly does not, that the vacancies in benefices, the probates and the letters of administration, or the corresponding deaths of individuals, fell between those dates. The archdeacon alleges what fees Adam de Kirkham had received, but had not accounted for, and the jury find what Adam did actually receive. Nine benefices of one kind or another are mentioned as vacant, three of them twice. The numbers said to have died in the several parishes, with the number of wills and of intestate estates, I have extracted from the data and tabulated as follows: +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Parish | Men & Women | With wills | Intestate | | | dead | (above 100 sh.) | (above 100 sh.) | |------------|-------------|-----------------|-----------------| | Preston | 3000 | 300 | 200 | | Kirkham | 3000 | -- | 100 | | Pulton | 800 | -- | 40 | | Lancaster | 3000 | 400 | 80 | | Garestang | 2000 | 400 | 140 | | Cokram | 1000 | 300 | 60 | | Ribchestre | [illegible] | 70 | 40 | | Lytham | 140 | 80 | 80 | | St Michel | 80 | 50 | 40 | | Pulton | 60 | 40 | 20 | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ Of the alleged 300 who died in Preston parish, leaving wills, five married couples are named, the probate fees being respectively ½ marc, 6 sh., 40 d., 4 sh., and 40 d. The archdeacon’s whole claim for the 300 was 20 marcs, which the jury reduced to 10 pounds. Of the alleged 200 intestates in the same parish, two married couples, one woman, and “Jakke o þe hil” are named. In the parish of Garstang, the executors of 6 deceased are named, whose probate fees in all amounted to 16 sh. 10 d., the whole claim of the archdeacon for 400 deceased leaving wills being £10, and the award of the jury 40 sh. In the parish of Kirkham, on a claim of 20 marcs for probate fees not accounted for, “the jury say that he received £4;” on a claim of £10 for quittance, the jury say 20 sh. This was a parish in which 3000 are said to have died, the number of wills being not stated. The numbers had obviously been put in for a forensic purpose, and are, of course, not even approximately correct for the actual mortality, or the actual number of wills proved, or of letters of administration granted. The awards of the jury amounted in all to £48. 10_s._ See also _Eng. Hist. Review_, Jan. 1891. [273] Thorold Rogers, _History of Agriculture and Prices_, I. 296-7. [274] Cussan’s _Hertfordshire_, vol. I. Hundred of Odsey, p. 37. [275] _Sat. Rev._ 16 Jan. 1886, p. 82. [276] Jessopp, _l. c._ April 1885, p. 611-12. [277] The priory of Christ Church, Canterbury, lost the following live stock in the murrain of 1349: oxen, 757, cows and calves, 511, sheep,