STORY OF THE DISEASE IN THE REST OF ENGLAND.
The history of the great pestilence in the diocese of Norwich which
includes the two eastern counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, has been
graphically described by Dr. Jessopp.[229] The results at which he
has arrived by a careful study of the episcopal registers of the
diocese and the court rolls of sundry manors may be very briefly
summarised here. The epidemic was at its height in the East of
England in the summer months of 1349,[230] and the deaths in the
ranks of the clergy were very alarming. The average number of
institutions in the diocese yearly for five years before the sickness
was seventy-seven. In this single year 800 parishes lost their
incumbents, 83 of them twice, and ten three times, in a few months;
and by the close of the year two-thirds of the benefices in the
diocese had become vacant.
Of the seven convents of women in this district, five lost their
superiors, and in at least twelve of the religious houses of men,
including the abbey of St. Benet's Hulme, the head died. How many of
the subjects in these 19 monastic establishments were carried off by
the sickness [p129] can never be known; but bearing in mind what was
remarked at the time, that the disease hardly ever entered a house
without claiming many victims, and what we know of other places of
which there is definite information, the suspicion may be allowed
that the roll of the dead in the religious houses of East Anglia
was very large. At Heveringland the prior and canons died to a man,
and at Hickling only one survived; neither house ever recovered. In
the college of St. Mary-in-the-Fields, at Norwich, five out of the
seven prebendaries were carried off, whilst the Friars of our Lady,
in the same city, are all said to have died. Altogether, Dr. Jessopp
calculates that some 2,000 clergy in the diocese must have been
carried off by the disease in a few months.
From the court rolls the same evidence is adduced for the terrible
mortality among the people. Dr. Jessopp had collected many striking
proofs of this, from which one or two examples may be quoted. On a
manor called Cornard Parva there were about 50 tenants. On 31st March
three men and six women are registered as having died in two months.
During the next month 15 men and women, seven without heirs, were
carried off, and by 3rd November there are 36 more deaths recorded,
and of these 13 have left no relations. Thus during the incidence of
the plague some 21 families on this one manor had disappeared. The
priest of the place had died in September.[231]
To take another example. At Hunstanton on the 16th of October,
1349, it was found that in two months 63 men and 15 women had been
carried off. In 31 instances only women and children had been left
to succeed, and in nine there were no known heirs. In this small
parish, and in only eight months, 172 persons who were tenants of the
manor had died. Of these, 74 had left no heirs male, and 19 no blood
relations at all.[232]
To these examples may be added one taken from the [p130] court
roll of the manor of Snetterton, about the centre of the county of
Norfolk. A court of the manor was held on Saturday in the feast of
St. James the Apostle, that is July 25th, 1349, and it is called
ominously the _Curia pestilencie_, the Court of the Plague. At this
meeting 39 tenants of the manor are named as having died, and in
many cases no heir is forthcoming. One tenant is specially named as
holding his house and ten acres on condition of keeping three lamps
ever burning before the Blessed Sacrament in the parish church. He is
dead and has left no other relation, but a son 16 years of age.
The larger cities of East Anglia, such as Norwich and Yarmouth,
suffered no less than the country districts from the all-pervading
plague. The historian of Norfolk has estimated the population of
Norwich before this catastrophe at 70,000.[233] It was unquestionably
one of the most flourishing cities of England, and possessed some 60
parish churches, seven conventual establishments, as well as other
churches in the suburbs; and on the authority of an ancient record in
the Guildhall, Blomefield put down the number of those carried off
by the epidemic at 57,374. Such a number has been considered by many
as altogether impossible, but that the city was reduced considerably
does not appear open to doubt in view of the fact that by 1368 ten
parishes had disappeared and fourteen more were subsequently found
to be useless. "The ruins of twenty of these," says a modern writer,
"may still be seen."[234]
Yarmouth in the middle of the fourteenth century was a most
flourishing port. When, to assist the attack of Edward on Calais,
but two years before the plague, London furnished 25 ships and
662 mariners, Yarmouth is said to have sent 43 ships and 1,950
sailors.[235] William of Worcester, in his Itinerary, after speaking
in praise of the town, says: "In the [p131] great pestilence there
died 7,000 people."[236] This statement is probably based upon the
number of persons buried in one churchyard. For in a petition of
burgesses of Yarmouth in the beginning of the sixteenth century to
Henry VII. it is asserted that the prosperous condition of the town
was destroyed by the great plagues during the reign of Edward III. In
the thirty-first year of this reign, they say,—probably mistaking the
year—7,052 people were buried in their churchyard, "by reason whereof
the most part of the dwelling-places and inhabitations of the said
town stood desolate and fell into utter ruin and decay, which at this
day are gardens and void grounds, as it evidently appeared."
It is, moreover, certain that Yarmouth Church, large as it appears
in these days, was, before the plague of 1349, not ample enough for
the population,[237] and preparations had already been made for
considerably enlarging its nave. Owing to the pestilence the work was
not carried out. Nor is this the only instance in the county where
the enlargement of churches already vast was rendered unnecessary by
the diminution of inhabitants through the sickness. It is impossible
to examine the great churches which abound in the counties of Norfolk
and Suffolk without coming to the conclusion that they were built to
serve the purposes of a large population.
To take one example, the tax on the town of Dunwich had been granted
by the King to the monastery of Ely; but in 1351 the inhabitants
petitioned for relief as they were quite unable to find the money
for the royal collectors. The King gave way to what he calls "the
relation of the men of the town of Dunwich," which recited that
"the said town, which before this time was completely inhabited by
fisher-folk, had been rendered desolate by the deadly plague late
raging in those parts, and by our enemies the [p132] French seizing
and killing the fishermen at sea, and still remained so."[238]
From Norfolk and Suffolk we pass to the adjoining county of
Cambridge, which is conterminous with the diocese of Ely. The Bishop
of the diocese, Thomas de Lisle, was abroad at the time when the
plague broke out in the county. On the 19th of May he wrote to the
clergy of his diocese, forwarding the letter of Stephen, Archbishop
of Arles, and Chamberlain of the Pope, already referred to elsewhere.
By this anyone was empowered to choose his own confessor, "since in
all places now is, or will be, the epidemic or mortality of people
which at present rages in most parts of the world."[239] The Bishop
had made arrangements for the government of his see during his
absence abroad, but on April 9th, 1349, he wrote from Rome, making
other dispositions in view of the plague. "By reason of the epidemic,
as it is called, wonderfully increasing in the diocese," as he has
lately understood by people from thence, he, "for fear his former
Vicars General should die," augments their number. And, further,
"considering how difficult it is for two people to agree about the
same sentence, he appoints John, prior of Barnwell, singly and solely
to dispose of all vacant benefices, and in case of his death, or
refusal to act, then Master Walter de Peckham, LL.D., to be sole
disposer of them," and then six others in order; a provision which
itself shows how slight he considered the chance of life for any
individual. In other matters any of his Vicars General could act;
and "in case of any death putting a stop to business, as was likely
in such a mortality," whichever Vicar General was present should act
until the arrival of the three specially appointed.[240]
The foresight of the Bishop was not unnecessary. From [p133] the
month of April vacancies followed quickly one upon another. For three
years previous to 1349 the average number of institutions recorded
in the episcopal registers was nine, and in 1348 it was only seven.
In this year of the great sickness 97 appointments to livings in the
diocese were made by the Bishop's Vicars, and in July alone there
were 25.[241] The prior of Barnwell died early in the course of the
sickness, probably even before he could have received the Bishop's
commission to act for him in the matter of vacant benefices.
In June there are evidences of the mortality in the Cathedral priory
of Ely. On the 23rd of the month John de Co, Chancellor of the
diocese, acting as the Bishop's representative, according to the
commission, appointed a new sub-prior to the monastery, and again
on July the 2nd a cellarer and camerarius. A week later, on the 9th
of July, 1349, "brother Philip Dallyng, late sacrist of Ely, being
dead, and the said brother Paulinus (the camerarius) being likewise
dead and both of them buried, he appointed to both offices, namely,
brother Adam de Lynsted as sacrist, and brother John of St. Ives
as camerarius."[242] At the same time also two chantries in the
Cathedral became vacant; one, called "the green chantry," twice in
two months.
The number of clergy carried away by the sickness in this diocese
may be estimated from the number of vacant benefices. Deducting
the average number of yearly [p134] institutions, it is fair to
consider that 89 priests holding benefices died at this time.[243]
The proportion of non-beneficed clergy to those beneficed was then
probably about the same as it was in the second year of King Richard
II. The clerical subsidy for that time shows 140 beneficed clergy
against 508 non-beneficed, including the various religious.[244] On
this basis at least 350 of the clerical order must have perished in
the diocese of Ely.
The University town of Cambridge did not escape. On May 24th, 1349,
the church of St. Sepulchre's fell vacant, and already in July
several of the churches were without incumbents. Towards the end of
April the Master of the hospital of St. John died, and one Robert de
Spronston was appointed to succeed. Then he died a short time after,
and one Roger de Broom was instituted on May 24th; but in his turn
Roger died, and another took his place.
Cambridge, too, had probably its common plague pit. "Some years ago,"
writes the late Professor Thorold Rogers, "being at Cambridge while
the foundations of the new Divinity School were being laid, I saw
that the ground was full of skeletons, thrown in without any attempt
at order, and I divined that this must have been a Cambridge plague
pit."[245]
A curious document preserved in the Bishop's archives shows how
severely some parishes must have suffered. It is a consent given by
the prior and convent of Ely to a proposal of the Bishop to unite
two parishes in Cambridge. It mentions the churches of All Saints'
and St. Giles', of Cambridge, near the castle, and states that the
parishioners of the former are, for the most part, dead in the
pestilence, [p135] and those that had been left alive had gone to
the parishes of other churches. It also says that the people of St.
Giles' have died, and, further, that the nave of All Saints' is in
a ruinous state, "and the bones of the dead exposed to beasts." The
Bishop consequently proposes to unite these two ancient parishes of
Cambridge, and in this consent to the proposal a glimpse is almost
accidentally afforded of the desolation wrought in the University
town by the terrible scourge.[246]
An example of what was probably very general throughout the county
is afforded by a roll of accounts for a Cambridgeshire manor in this
year. Considerable decay of rents is noted, and no wonder, for it
would seem that 50 tenements and 22 cottages were in hand, and that
the services which the holders would otherwise have rendered have to
be paid for. At Easter 13 copyholders' tenements are vacant, and by
Pentecost another 30 are added to the long list.[247]
The clergy were reduced to the greatest straits in consequence of
the deaths among their parishioners, leading to a proportional
diminution of their incomes. On September 20th, 1349, the Bishop's
Vicar addressed a letter to John Lynot, vicar of All Saints', Jury,
Cambridge.[248] "We are informed," he says, "by your frequent
complaint that the portion coming to you in the said church is known
to consist only of offerings of the parishioners, and that the same
parishioners have been so swept away by the plague notoriously
raging in this year that the offerings of the said church do not
suffice for the necessities of life, and that you cannot elsewhere
obtain help to bear the burden laid upon you. On this account you
have humbly petitioned [p136] us to be allowed to have for two
years an anniversary (mass) for your necessary support. Since your
position in God's Church does not make it fitting that you should
seek alms, particularly for necessities in food and clothing, we
grant you the permission asked on the condition that as soon as the
fruit and revenue of the said portion be sufficient to properly
furnish you with necessaries you altogether give up the income of
this anniversary (mass)."[249] At the same time a similar permission
was granted to John Atte Welle, vicar of St. John, "in Melnstreet,"
Cambridge.
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.
"The Bishop of Lincoln sent through his diocese a general power to
all and every priest, both regular and secular, to hear confessions
and to absolve with full and entire episcopal power, except only in
the case of debt. In that case, if able (the penitent) himself was to
make satisfaction whilst he lived, or at least others should do so
with his property, after his death. In the same way the Pope granted
a full remission from all sins, to be obtained once only by every one
in danger of death, and he allowed this faculty to last till the next
Easter following, and each to choose at will his own confessor.
"In the same year, there was a great mortality of sheep everywhere in
the kingdom; so much so, that in one place [p140] there died in one
pasture more than 5,000 sheep, and they were so putrid that neither
beast nor bird would touch them. The price for everything was low;
through fear of death, very few cared for riches and the like. And
then a man could purchase a horse for half a mark, which before had
been worth forty shillings; a large fat ox for 4s.; a cow for 12d.;
a bullock for 6d.; a fat wether for 4d.; a sheep for 3d.; a lamb for
2d.; a large pig for 5d.; and a stone of wool for nine pence; and
sheep and cattle roamed about, wandering in fields and through the
growing harvest, and there was no one to drive them off or collect
them; but in ditches and thickets they died in innumerable quantities
in every part, for lack of guardians; for so great a dearth of
servants and labourers existed that no one knew what to do. Memory
could not recall so universal and terrible a mortality since the time
of Vortigern, king of the Britons, in whose reign, as Bede in his 'De
gestis Anglorum' testifies, the living did not suffice to bury the
dead.
"In the following autumn no one could get a harvester at a lower
price than eight pence with food. For this reason many crops perished
in the fields for lack of those to gather them; but in the year of
the pestilence, as said above of other things, there was such an
abundance of crops of all kinds that no one, as it were, cared for
them."[256]
In the absence of any definite information as to the institutions
made at this time in the county of Leicester it is only necessary
to note that the number of benefices was about 250 at this period.
There were also some twelve religious houses and several hospitals.
In 1351, as we learn from the records, Croxton abbey still "remained
quite deserted." The church and many of the buildings had been burnt,
and "by the pestilence the abbey was entirely deprived of those by
whose ability the monastery was then administered" (the abbot and
prior alone excepted). [p141] The abbot was sick, "and the said
prior (in November, 1351) was fully occupied in the conduct of the
Divine Office and the instruction of the novices received there into
the community, after the pestilence."[257]
A slight confirmation of Knighton's account of the distress in the
country parts after the plague had passed, if any were needed, is
found in an inquisition made upon the death of Isabella, wife of
William de Botereaux, who died upon St. James' Day, 1349. The manor
held by her was at a place called Sadington, in Leicestershire, and
two carucates of land are represented as lying uncultivated and waste
"through the want of tenants."[258]
The adjoining county of Staffordshire formed part of the diocese of
Coventry and Lichfield. It comprised 165 benefices, which may form
some basis on which to calculate in estimating the number of clergy
who were carried off by the pestilence. Some lands in this county,
near Tamworth, belonged to the Earl of Pembroke. Upon his death,
whilst the heir was a minor, they were farmed out at a rent of £38
per annum, to be paid to the King. In 1351 the man who had agreed to
pay that sum petitioned to have it reduced, because "the tenements
with the said land so let are so deteriorated by the pestilential
mortality lately raging in those parts that they do not reach their
wonted value." After inquiry, his rent is reduced by £8 the year.[259]
Of the two counties bordering upon Wales, Hereford and Shropshire,
not much is known at this time. There can be little doubt, however,
that they suffered quite as severely from the epidemic as the other
counties of England.
In the diocese of Hereford, including that county and a portion of
Shropshire, the average number of institutions to benefices, during
three years before and after the epidemic, was some 13. In 1349
there are recorded in [p142] Bishop Trileck's register no fewer
than 175 institutions, and in the following year the number of 45
vacant benefices filled up, points to the fact that many livings had
probably remained for some months without incumbents. This suspicion
is further strengthened by the frequent appearance of the words "by
lapse" in the record of institutions at this period, which shows
that for six months the living had not been filled by the patron. It
is probable, therefore, that in the diocese of Hereford about 200
beneficed clergy fell victims to the disease. Taking the dates of the
institutions as some indication of the period when the epidemic was
most severe in the diocese, it would appear that the worst time was
from May to September, 1349.[260]
One fact bearing upon the subject of the great mortality in the
pestilence of 1349 in the county of Hereford is recorded in the
episcopal register. In 1352 the Bishop united into one parish the two
churches of Great Colington and Little Colington, about four miles
from Bromyard. The patrons of the two livings agreed to support a
petition of the parishes to this effect, and in it they say "that the
sore calamity of pestilence of men lately passed, which ravaged the
whole world in every part, has so reduced the number of the people
of the said churches, and for that said reason there followed, and
still exists, such a paucity of labourers and other inhabitants, such
manifest sterility of the lands, and such notorious poverty in the
said parishes, that the parishioners and receipts of both churches
scarcely suffice to support one priest."[261] The single church
[p143] of Colington remains to this day as a memorial of the great
mortality in that district. Even among the inhabitants the memory of
the two Colingtons has apparently been lost.
In Salop the historians of the county town record that "through all
these appalling scenes (consequent upon the great mortality of 1349)
the zeal of the clergy, both secular and monastic, was honourably
distinguished. The episcopal registers of the diocese, within which
Shrewsbury is situated, bear a like honourable testimony to the
assiduity of the secular clergy of the district."[262] From the
same source it appears that the average number of institutions to
benefices vacant by death during ten years before 1349 and ten years
after are only 1-1/2 per annum, or 15 for the whole period. In that
year the number of institutions to vacancies known to have been
caused by _death_ was 29. If this number be taken as a guide for the
general mortality, Shropshire would appear to have suffered in an
exceptional manner. Besides these, however, there are a number of
other institutions registered at this time, the cause of which is not
specified, and many of them most probably were also caused by the
great epidemic.
As an example of the general destitution caused by the great
sickness, Owen and Blakeway quote an _Inquisitio post mortem_, taken
in the year of the plague, upon the estate of a Shropshire gentleman,
John le Strange of Blakmere. By that record he is found by the jury
to have died, seized with various lands, etc., amongst others, the
three watermills, "which used to be worth by the year 20 marks, but
now they are worth only half that sum, by reason of the want of
those grinding, on account of the pestilence." The same cause is
assigned for the diminution of other parts of his revenue, as tolls
on markets, rent of assize, etc.
In the manor of Dodinton, proceeds the record of the inquiry,
"there are two carucates of land which used to be [p144] worth
yearly sixty shillings, and now the said jurors know not how to
value the said land, because the domestic and labouring servants
(_famuli et servientes_) are dead, and no one is willing to hire
the land." The water-mill has sunk in value from thirty shillings
to six-and-eightpence, because the tenants are dead; the pond was
valueless since the fish had been taken out, and it had not been
stocked again.[263]
This John le Strange, of Whitchurch, died on August 20th, 1349, and
the inquisition held upon his estates names three sons—Fulk, the
eldest, who was married; Humphrey, the second; and John, who was 17
years of age; and it notes that if Fulk were to die then Humphrey
his brother was the heir. The inquiry was held upon August 30th,
ten days after the death of John, and at this very time when Fulk
was thus declared to be the heir he had himself been dead two days.
Apparently also Humphrey was carried off by the sickness as well;
because in the inquisition subsequently held upon the estate of Fulk,
John, the third brother, is named as the heir. In this inquiry the
jury bear out the declarations of that which had testified to the
condition of the estates upon the death of the father. On one manor
it is stated that the rent of assize, which used to be £20, is now
only forty shillings, and the court fees have fallen from forty to
five shillings, "because the tenants there are dead." And in another
Shropshire hamlet the rent of assize, formerly £4, was now "from the
said cause" only eight shillings.[264]
North of a line drawn from the Wash to the Dee, the four counties of
Chester, Derby, Nottingham, and Lincoln stretch across England from
west and east. A brief record of the pestilence in each of these
counties is all that need be here given. In its main lines, and,
indeed, almost in its every detail, the story of one county is that
of every [p145] other, and it is only by chance that the account of
definite incidents has been preserved.
The benefices in the county of Chester numbered some 70. In the
four months June, July, August, and September thirty institutions
are entered in the registers of Coventry and Lichfield for the
archdeaconry of Chester alone. The most numerous are in the month
of September.[265] The non-beneficed clergy are, of course, not
included in this number; and in the city alone, at the end of Edward
the Third's reign, there were at least fifty or sixty of this class.
In one parish, for example, that of St. John by the Riverside, there
were nine non-beneficed vicars and six chaplains.[266] In August a
new prioress was installed at St. Mary's, Chester, and a new prior at
Norton.
From the ministers' accounts for the County Palatine of Chester, at
this period, some facts can be gleaned as to the general state of
desolation to which the great sickness reduced it. Thus, in the manor
of Frodsham, the bailiff returns the receipt of only twenty shillings
rent for the lands of the manor farm, "received for 66 animals
feeding on them." He adds, "and not more this year, because he could
get no tenants by reason of the pestilence." Further he notes the
general prices as being low, and names a mill and a bakehouse that
cannot be let. As an instance of the decay of rent it is noted that
in the town of Netherton, more than a year after the plague had
ceased, eleven houses and a great quantity of land, which fell into
the hands of the lord in the last year through the pestilence, remain
yet in his hands;" the same also is remarked of other townships, and
in one place the miller had been allowed a reduction in his rent on
account of the way his business had fallen off since the disease.[267]
In the same way on another manor, that of Bucklow, at Michaelmas
1350, it is stated that 215 acres of arable land [p146] are lying
waste, "for which no tenants can be found through the pestilence,
which had visited the place the previous year. Further, those who
had held a portion of the manor land during the last year had given
their holdings up at the feast of St. Michael at the beginning of the
account (_i.e._, 1349). On the same estate the rent of a garden was
put down at only 12d., because there was no one to buy the produce.
One of the largest receipts was 3s. 6d., paid by one Margery del
Holes, "for the turf of divers tenants of the manor who had died in
the time of the pestilence." On the whole of the estate there is
represented to be a decrease of £20 9s. 2-3/4d. in the rent of this
year, and a good part of the deficit is accounted for by the fact
that 34 tenants owe various sums, but cannot pay as they have nothing
but their crops, and that 46 of the tenants had been carried off by
the epidemic.
On the estate, moreover, it is not uninteresting to note that a
portion—no less, indeed, than a third part—of the rent was remitted
at this time. The remission, however, hardly appears to have been
made willingly, but in consequence of a threat on the part of the
holders of the manor lands that unless it was granted they would
leave. This is noted upon the roll: "In money remitted to the tenants
of Rudheath (some four miles from Northwich) by the Justices of
Chester and others, by the advice of the lord, for the third part of
their rent by reason of the plague which had been raging, because the
tenants there wished to depart and leave the holdings on the lord's
hands, unless they obtained this remission until the world do come
better again, and the holdings possess a greater value . . . £10 13s.
11-3/4d."[268]
Eastward the adjoining county is Derbyshire. An examination of the
institutions for this county has been made by the Rev. Dr. Cox for
his work on the _Churches of Derbyshire_. The result of his studies
may here be [p147] given almost in his words. In May, 1349, there
is evidence that the plague had reached Derbyshire. At that period
the total number of benefices in the county was 108, and the average
number of institutions registered yearly during the century was only
seven. In 1346 the actual number had been but four, in 1347 only two,
and in 1348 it was eight. In the year of the plague, 1349, no fewer
than sixty-three institutions to vacant benefices are registered, and
"in the following year (many of the vacant benefices not being filled
up till then) they numbered forty-one." In this period seventy-seven
of the beneficed clergy died; that is considerably more than half the
total number, and twenty-two more resigned their livings.
"Of the three vicars of Derby churches two died, whilst the third
resigned. The chantry priest of Our Lady at St. Peter's Church also
died. The two rectors of Eckington both died, and of the three
rectors who then shared the rectory of Derley two died and one
resigned. The rectories of Langwith and Mugginton, and the vicarages
of Barlborough, Bolsover, Horsley, Longford, Sutton-on-the-Hill, and
Willington were twice emptied by the plague, and three successive
vicars of Pentrich all fell in the same fatal year. Nor were the
regular clergy more fortunate, for the abbots of Beauchief, Dale, and
Derley, the prior of Gresley, the prior of the Dominicans at Derby,
and the prioress of King's Mead, were all taken."[269]
The same author has called attention to some obituary notes in the
calendar prefixed to the Chartulary of Derley abbey.
"A glance at this obituary," he says, "is sufficient to draw the
attention of the reader to the remarkable number of deaths in the
year 1349. . . . Of the character of the plague we can form some idea
when we consider the extent of its ravages in a single household—a
household the most wealthy of the neighbourhood, and situated in as
[p148] healthy and uncrowded a spot as any that could be found on
all the fair hillsides of Derbyshire. Within three months Sir William
de Wakebridge lost his father, his wife, three brothers, two sisters,
and a sister-in-law. Sir William, on succeeding to the Wakebridge
estate, through this sad list of fatalities, appears to have
abandoned the profession of arms and to have devoted a very large
share of his wealth to the service of God in his own neighbourhood.
The great plague had the effect of thoroughly unstringing the
consciences of many of the survivors, and a lamentable outbreak of
profligacy was the result."
The accounts for the Lordship of Drakelow, some four miles from
Burton-on-Trent, may be taken as a sample of what must have been the
case elsewhere. There is noted a loss, to begin with, "upon turf sold
from the waste of the manor to tenants who had died in the time of
the pestilence." The decrease of rent is very considerable. From "the
customs of the manor there is nothing, because all these tenants died
in the time of the plague." Then follow the names of seventy-four
tenants, from all of whom only 13s. 9-3/4d. had been received in the
period covered by the account, and practically from the entire manor
there had been no receipt except for grass. Then, instead of the
harvest being gathered in, as before it had been, by means of the
services of the tenants, this year paid-labour had to be employed at
a cost of £22 18s. 10d. On the receipt side of the account appear the
values of the cows, oxen, and horses of tenants who had died, and
whose goods and animals passed into the possession of the lord of the
manor.[270]
In Nottinghamshire the proportion of deaths among the beneficed
clergy is found, as in other cases, to be fully one-half the total
number. Out of 126 benefices in the county the incumbent died in
sixty-five.[271]
Eastwards, again, the county of Lincoln lies between [p149]
Nottinghamshire and the sea. At an early period Pope Clement VI.
granted to the priests and people of the city and diocese of Lincoln
great indulgences at the hour of death, "since on their behalf
a petition had been made to him which declared that the deadly
pestilence had commenced in the said city and diocese."[272] The
extent of the county is large, and its endowed livings numerous. In
all, not including its forty-nine monasteries, the beneficed clergy
of the county numbered some 700, and from this some estimate may be
formed of the probable number of clerics who died in Lincolnshire in
the year 1349.
The chronicle of Louth Park, a Cistercian abbey in the county,
contains a brief note upon the epidemic. "This plague," it says,
"laid low equally Jew, Christian, and Saracen; together it carried
off confessor and penitent. In many places it did not leave even
a fifth-part of the people alive. It struck the whole world with
terror. Such a plague has not been seen, or heard of, or recorded
before this time, for it is thought so great a multitude of people
were not overwhelmed by the waters of the deluge, which happened in
the day of Noah. In this year many monks of Louth Park died; amongst
them was Dom Walter de Luda, the Abbot, on July 12th, who was much
persecuted because of the manor of Cockrington, and he was buried
before the high altar by the side of Sir Henry Vavasour, Knight.
To him Dom Richard de Lincoln succeeded the same day, canonically
elected according to the institutes of Our Lord and the Order."[273]
From a document relating to the Chapter of Lincoln it would appear
that the Courts of Law did not sit every term, during the universal
visitation. The dean and chapter complain that, whereas "from time
beyond all memory" they had received 6s. 8-1/2d. for some 66 acres
of arable and four acres of meadow at Navenby, this year they had
not done so. Still they were called upon to pay the King's [p150]
dues. They appealed; but there was no cause tried at Trinity anno 23º
(1349) "because of the absence of our judges assigned to hold the
common pleas, by reason of the plague then raging."[274]
The audit of the Escheator's accounts for the county of Lincoln
proves that the distress was very real. Saier de Rocheford, who held
the office for Rutland and Lincoln in 1351, sought to be relieved of
£20 18s. 1d., which he was charged to pay for money he should have
received, on the ground that he had got nothing, "because of the
mortality."[275] Three years later, moreover, he again pleads that he
is unable to raise more, "because of the deadly pestilence of men and
of tenants of the land, who died in the year 1349, and on account of
the dearth of tenants" since.
The people, he adds, were so impoverished that they could pay nothing
for "Wapentakes."[276]
Archbishop Zouche of York was apparently one of the first of the
English prelates to recognise the gravity of the epidemic, which in
1348 was devastating Southern Europe, and ever creeping northwards
towards England. Before the end of July, 1348, he wrote to his
official at York, ordering prayers. "Since man's life on earth is
a warfare," he writes, "those fighting amidst the miseries of this
world are troubled by the uncertainty of a future, now propitious,
now adverse. For the Lord Almighty sometimes permits those whom he
loves to be chastised, since strength, by the infusion of spiritual
grace, is made perfect in infirmity. It is known to all what a
mortal pestilence and infection of the atmosphere is hanging over
various parts of the world, and especially England, in these days.
This, indeed, is caused by the sins of men who, made callous by
prosperity, neglect to remember the benefits of the Supreme Giver."
He goes on to say that it is only by prayer that the scourge can be
turned away, and he, therefore, orders that in all parish churches,
on every Wednesday and Friday, there [p151] shall be processions and
litanies, "and in all masses there be said the special prayer for the
stay of pestilence and infection of this kind."[277]
Judging from a reply of the Pope to a petition of the Archbishop,
it would be necessary to conclude that the plague had reached York
as early as February, 1349. It is, however, more probable that the
petition was sent in the expectation that the scourge would certainly
come sooner or later, and it was best to be prepared. From the dates
of the institutions to vacant benefices, moreover, it would seem that
the province of York suffered chiefly in the summer and autumn of the
year 1349. Pope Clement VI., by letters to Archbishop Zouche, dated
from Avignon as early as March 23rd, 1349, bestowed the faculties
and indulgences already mentioned as having been granted to other
Bishops. This he did, as the letter says, "in response to a petition
declaring that the deadly pestilence has commenced to afflict the
city, diocese, and province of York."[278]
The county of York contained at this date some 470 benefices; or,
counting monastic houses and hospitals, some 550. It has been
pointed out that out of 141 livings in the West Riding, in which
the incumbent changed in 1349, ninety-six vacancies are registered
as being caused by death, and in the East Riding 65 incumbents
died against 61 who apparently survived.[279] In the deanery of
Doncaster,[280] out of fifty-six lists of incumbents, printed in
the [p152] local history, a change is recorded in thirty. It may
be concluded with certainty, from an examination of the printed
lists of institutions for Yorkshire, that one-half at least of the
clergy, generally, were carried off by the sickness. So serious did
the mortality among the cathedral officials become that steps were
taken to prevent the total cessation of business. In July, 1349, for
instance, "it was ordained on account of the existing mortality of
the pestilence that one canon, with the auditor and chapter clerk,
might, in the absence of his fellows, grant vicarages and transact
other matters of business as if the other canons were present,
notwithstanding the statutes."[281]
The Archbishop too sought and obtained from Pope Clement VI.
faculties to dispense with the usual ecclesiastical laws as to
ordinations taking place only in the Ember weeks. "For fear the
Divine worship may be diminished through want of ministers, or the
cure and ruling of souls be neglected," writes the Pope, we grant
leave to hold four extra ordinations during the year, since you say
"that on account of the mortal pestilence, which at present rages
in your province," you fear that "priests may not be sufficient for
the care and guidance of souls."[282] With this the Archbishop gives
a specimen of the testimonial letters to be granted to such as were
ordained under this faculty, reciting that it was given "because of
the want of ecclesiastical ministers carried off by the pestilence
lately existing in our Province."
There is little doubt that the religious houses of the diocese
suffered in a similar way. The abbots of Jervaux and Rievaulx,
Welbeck and Roche, the priors of Thurgarton, and Shelford, of
Monkbretton, of Marton, of Haltemprice and Ferriby, are only some few
of the superiors of religious houses who died at this time.
For one of the monasteries of the county, Meaux, there exists a
special account in the chronicles of the house. [p153] Abbot Hugh,
it says, "besides himself had in the convent 42 monks and seven lay
brethren; and the said abbot Hugh, after having ruled the monastery
nine years, eleven months and eleven days, died in the great plague
which was in the year 1349, and 32 monks and lay brethren also died.
"This pestilence so prevailed in our said monastery, as in other
places, that in the month of August the abbot himself, 22 monks and
six lay brethren died; of these, the abbot and five monks were lying
unburied in one day, and the others died, so that when the plague
ceased, out of the said 50 monks and lay brethren, only ten monks
with no lay brethren were left.
"And from this the rents and possessions of the monastery began to
diminish, particularly as a greater part of our tenants in various
places died, and the abbot, prior, cellarer, bursar, and other men of
years, and officials dying left those, who remained alive after them,
unacquainted with the property, possessions, and common goods of the
monastery. The abbot died on 12th August, A.D. 1349."[283]
In the Deanery of Holderness, in which Meaux Abbey was situated,
there is evidence of great mortality. It is striking to observe how
frequently the bailiffs and collectors of royal rents and taxes are
changed. It is by no means uncommon to find an account rendered
by the executors of executors to the original official.[284] This
evidence as to the great extent of the mortality here as in other
places of England, and as to the consequent distress, is borne out by
the _Inquisitiones post mortem_ for the period. In one case, where
the owner of the property had died on 28th July, 1349, it is said
that 114 acres of pasture were let at 12d. a year, "and not more this
year because of the mortality and dearth of men." At Cliffe, on the
[p154] same estate, the rents of customary tenants and tenants at
will are stated to have been usually worth £10 5s. a year; but in
this special year they had produced only two shillings.[285]
The chronicler of Meaux has described the disastrous consequences
of the sickness in his own monastery. That this condition was not
soon mended appears certain from the fact that in 1354 it was found
necessary to hand over the abbey, "on account of its miserable
condition," to a royal commission.[286]
The account of the King's Escheator in Yorkshire for the year, from
October, 1349, to October, 1350, states that he could in no way
obtain the sum of £4 12s. 2d., "due on certain lands and tenements
from which he had levied and could levy nothing during the said time
because of the mortality amongst men in those parts, and owing to the
dearth of tenants, willing to take up the said land and tenements."
Then follows a list of houses standing vacant.[287]
As another instance may be quoted a case related in the history of
the deanery of Doncaster. "John FitzWilliam, the heir of Sir William,
had a short enjoyment of the family estates. He died in the great
plague of 1349. I transcribe, to show public feeling at the time,
from a chronicle: 'And in these daies was burying withoute sorrowe
and wedding without frendschippe and fleying without refute of
socoure; for many fled from place to place because of the pestilence;
but yet they were effecte and myghte not skape the dethe.'
"In another part of the deanery we find a person willing that his
goods shall be divided among such of his children as shall remain
alive. In the FitzWilliams' MS. is a contemporary memorandum that
John FitzWilliam, the father, gave in the time of the pestilence
before his death all his [p155] goods and chattels, movable and
immovable, to dame Joan, his wife, John, his son, and Alleyn, late
parson of Crosby, amounting to the sum of £288 3s. 8-1/2d."[288]
An incident recorded by the same writer will serve to show how
uncertain people, at this time, regarded the tenure of life, a
feeling hardly to be wondered at when so many were dying all round
them. Thomas Allott, of Wombwell, in the deanery of Doncaster, in his
will, proved 14th September, 1349, after desiring to be buried at
Darfield, says: "Item I leave, etc., to my sons and daughters living
after this present mortal pestilence."[289]
These notes upon the evidence for the plague in Yorkshire may be
concluded by a brief account of the state of Hull in consequence
of the mortality and other causes. In 1353 the King, "considering
the waste and destruction which our town of Kingston-on-Hull has
suffered, both through the overflow of the waters of the Humber
and other causes, and that a great part of the people of the said
town have died in the last deadly pestilence which raged in these
parts, and that the remnant left in the town are so desolate and
poverty-stricken in money," grants them permission to apply the fines
ordered to be imposed on labourers and servants demanding higher
wages than before, to the payment of the fifteenth they owe the royal
exchequer.[290]
Westward of Yorkshire the extensive but then sparsely populated
county of Lancashire stretches between it and the Irish sea. Of this
county there is practically little to be recorded. The number of
benefices which existed in the county was about 65, whilst the number
of chaplains and non-beneficed clergy generally must have greatly
exceeded that number. In the deanery of Blackburn alone there were at
the close of the reign of Edward III at [p156] least 55 capellani
without benefices.[291] One document, of its kind unique, relating
to Lancashire and to this great plague, is preserved in the Record
Office. It was long ago referred to by the late Professor Thorold
Rogers, and is now printed in the _English Historical Review_. It is
a statement of the supposed number of deaths during the incidence of
the great pestilence in the deanery of Amounderness. Unfortunately,
as perhaps might be expected in such a mortality, when death came
so suddenly and men followed one another so rapidly to the grave
that vast numbers had to be cast as quickly as possible into the
same plague pit, the figures are clearly only approximate, being in
every instance round numbers. Still, as they were adduced at a legal
investigation and before a jury, when the facts of the visitation
of Providence must have been fresh in the minds of those who heard
the evidence, it is difficult to suppose that they are mere gross
exaggerations, and may at least be taken as proof that the mortality
in this district of Lancashire was very considerable.
The paper in question is the record of a claim for the profits
received, or supposed to have been received, by the dean of
Amounderness, acting as procurator for the Archdeacon of Richmond,
for proof of wills, administration of intestate estates, and other
matters, during the course of the plague of 1349. Ten parishes are
named in the claim, including Preston, Lancaster, and Garstang.
In those ten parishes it supposes that some 13,180 souls had died
between September 8th, 1349, and January 11th, 1350. In both Preston
and Lancaster 3,000 are said to have been carried off, and in
Garstang 2,000. Nine benefices are declared to have been vacant,
three of them twice, whilst the chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, at
Preston, is stated to have been unserved for seven weeks. The Priory
of Lytham is also noted as having been rendered vacant by the
sickness, [p157] whilst 80 people of the village were said to have
died at the same time.[292]
From the Patent rolls it would appear that Cartmel Priory, also,
about this time lost its superior, as upon September 20th, 1349,
the King's licence was granted to the community to proceed to a new
election.[293]
The counties of Westmoreland, to the north of Lancashire, with
Cumberland, still further to the north again, carry the western part
of England to the borders of Scotland. In the former there were
some 57 beneficed clergy, and in the latter about 85. From these
figures the approximate number of beneficed priests who died in the
pestilence in the two counties may be guessed at about 72.
The state of this borderland county of Cumberland was, even before
the arrival of the plague in the district, deplorable. The Memoranda
rolls of the period contain ample evidence that the Scottish
invasions had rendered the land desolate and almost uninhabitable.
Still the mortality added to the misery of the people. The few
_Inquisitiones post mortem_ afford little knowledge, beyond the fact
that here also the dearth of tenants was severely felt.[294] The
audit of the accounts of Richard de Denton, late Vice-Sheriff of the
County, is more precise in its information. He declares, in excuse
for the smallness of his returns, that "the great part of the manor
lands, attached to the King's Castle at Carlisle," has remained until
the year of his account, 1354, waste and uncultivated, "by reason of
the mortal pestilence lately raging in those parts." Moreover, for
one and a half years after the plague had passed the entire lands
remained "uncultivated for lack of labourers and divers tenants.
Mills, fishing, pastures, and meadow lands could not be let during
that time for want of tenants willing to take the farms of those who
died in the said plague." [p158]
Richard de Denton then produced a schedule of particulars, which
may now be seen stitched on to the roll. This gives the items of
decrease in rents; for instance, there are houses, cottages, and
lands to let, which used to bring in £5, and now but £1; "the farm of
a garden belonging to the King, called King's Mead, is rented now at
13 shillings and fourpence less than it used to be," and so on. The
jury, who were called to consider these statements, concluded that
Richard de Denton had proved them, and they enter a verdict to that
effect, giving a list of the tenants, and adding "the said Richard
says that all the last-mentioned tenants died in the said plague,
and all the tenements have stood since empty through a dearth of
tenants."[295]
An indication of the same difficulties which beset the people of
Cumberland at this time is found in the case of the prior of Hagham,
an alien house, to farm which, during the time it was in the King's
hands on account of his French war, the prior had been appointed, on
condition of his paying the sum of threepence a day in rent to be
paid to the Bishop of Carlisle. At this time he could not get even
this out of the land, and could not live, by reason of the great
dearness of provisions.[296]
The city of Carlisle also in 1352 was relieved of taxation to a
great extent, because "it is rendered void, and more than usual is
depressed, by the mortal pestilence lately raging in those parts."
The two remaining counties of England, Durham and Northumberland,
were no exceptions to the general mortality. In the former there were
some 93 beneficed clergy and in the latter about 72, figures from
which, on the usual calculation, may be deduced the numbers of the
beneficed clergy who died at this time.
In the Durham Cursitor records of this time a glimpse is [p159]
afforded of the state of these northern counties. The Halmote courts
were similar to the manor courts, and were held by commissioners
appointed under the great seal of the Palatinate of Durham, by the
Bishop's certificate, to receive surrender of copyhold lands, to
settle fines, contentions, and generally to transact the business of
the estates. At one of these Halmote courts, held at Houghton on the
14th of July, 1349, it is recorded: "that there is no one who will
pay the fine for any land, which is in the lord's hands through fear
of the plague. And so all are in the same way of being proclaimed as
defaulters until God shall bring some remedy." At another court "all
refused their fines on account of the pestilence." In another, after
stating the receipts, the record adds: "And not more on account of
the poverty and pestilence;" and one tenant "was unwilling to take
the land in any other way, since even if he survived the plague, he
absolutely refused to pay a fine." There are many similar instances
in the records at this period, and in one case it is noted that "a
man and his whole family had fled before the dreaded disease."[297]
In Northumberland the case of the people was so desperate that in
1353 more than £600, which was owing to the King for taxes for five
and twenty parishes named, was allowed to stand over for some months
since it was hopeless to press for payment.[298]
Of Newcastle the same story is told. "It has been shown us," writes
the King, "in a serious complaint by the men of Newcastle-on-Tyne,
that, since very many merchants and other rich people who were wont
to pay the greater part of the tenth, fifteenth, and other burdens
of the town, have died in the deadly pestilence lately raging in the
town, and since the population remaining alive, who were wont to live
by their trading, are by the said pestilence and other adverse causes
in this time of war, [p160] so impoverished that they hardly possess
sufficient to live upon,"[299] they cannot now pay what is due.
At Alnwick, still further north, the plague may be traced into the
spring of the following year, 1350; at least, the chronicle of the
abbey there states that "in the year 1350 (which for them began March
25th) John, abbot of Alnwick, died in the common mortality."[300]
Lastly, it is related by two contemporary authors that the Scotch
carried the disease over the borders into their own country. "The
Scots," writes Knighton, "hearing of the cruel pestilence among the
English, thought this had happened to them as a judgment at the
hand of God. They laughed at their enemies, and took as an oath the
expression, 'Be the foul deth of Engelond,' and so thinking that the
terrible judgment of God had overwhelmed the English, they assembled
in the forest of Selkirk with the intention of invading England. The
terrible mortality, however, came upon them, and the Scotch were
scattered by the sudden and cruel death, and there died in a short
time about five thousand."[301]
An account of the visitation given in the continuation of a
chronicle, probably written at the time, and possibly by a monk
at Tynemouth, may fitly conclude this review of the course of the
epidemic in England; telling, though it does, ever the same story,
and reading like an echo of the plaint first raised in Europe on the
shores of the Bosphorus and in the islands of the Mediterranean. "In
the year of our Lord 1348, and in the month of August," writes this
chronicler, "there began the deadly pestilence in England which three
years previously had commenced in India, and then had spread through
all Asia and Africa, and coming into Europe had depopulated Greece,
Italy, Provence, [p161] Burgundy, Spain, Aquitaine, Ireland, France,
with its subject provinces, and at length England and Wales, so far,
at least, as to the general mass of citizens and rustic folk and
poor, but not princes and nobles.
"So much so that very many country towns and quarters of innumerable
cities are left altogether without inhabitants. The churches or
cemeteries before consecrated did not suffice for the dead; but new
places outside the cities and towns were at that time dedicated
to that use by people and bishops. And the said mortality was so
infectious in England that hardly one remained alive in any house it
entered. Hence flight was regarded as the hope of safety by most,
although such fugitives, for the most part, did not escape death in
the mortality, although they obtained some delay in the sentence.
Rectors and priests, and friars also, confessing the sick, by the
hearing of the confessions, were so infected by that contagious
disease that they died more quickly even than their penitents; and
parents in many places refused intercourse with their children, and
husband with wife."[302]
FOOTNOTES:
[229] _The Coming of the Friars_, pp. 166-261.
[230] The following is a table of the Institutions during four
months:—
+---------------------------+
| 1349. |
+------+------+------+------+
|April.| May. | June.| July.|
+------+------+------+------+
| 23 | 74 | 139 | 209 |
+------+------+------+------+
[231] _Ibid._, p. 200.
[232] _Ibid._, p. 203.
[233] Blomefield, _History of Norfolk_ (folio ed.), ii, p. 681.
[234] F. Seebohm, _The Black Death and its place in English History_
(in _Fortnightly Review_, Sept. 1st, 1865).
[235] Fuller, _Worthies_, ed. Nicholas, ii, p. 132.
[236] Ed. Nasmith, p. 344.
[237] Professor Seebohm thinks that Yarmouth had probably a
population of 10,000 before 1349. This seems much too low. It had 220
ships.
[238] R. O., Rot. Claus., 26 Ed. III., m. 5d. This is repeated on two
occasions in the next year.
[239] B. Mus. Cole MS., 5,824, fol. 73. Extracts from Reg. Lisle.
[240] _Ibid._, fol. 76.
[241] The following table will give the number for some months:—
+------------------------------------------------+
| 1349. |
+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
|April.| May. |June. |July. | Aug. |Sept. | Oct. |
+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| 6 | 8 | 19 | 25 | 13 | 6 | 7 |
+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
The total number of benefices in the diocese at this time was 142.
[242] Cole MS., _ubi supra_.
[243] Bentham, _History of the Cathedral Church of Ely_, i, p. 161,
has the following note: Register L'Isle, fol. 17-21. Hinc obiter
notandum duxi, numerum clericorum parochialium in tota Diocesi Elien.
hoc tempore fuisse 145, aut circiter; ex hoc autem numero, constat ex
Registro 92 Institutiones fuisse infra annum 1349 (anno incipiente 25
die Martii).
[244] Clerical Subsidy, 21/1.
[245] _Six Centuries of Work and Wages_, i, p. 223.
[246] _Hist. MSS. Comm., Sixth Report_, p. 299. This document is
dated 27th May, 1366, and consequently may refer also to the effects
of the plague of 1361.
[247] R. O., Duchy of Lancaster, Mins. Accts., Bundle 288, No. 471.
[248] It was this church which some years later was declared to be in
a ruinous state.
[249] Cole MS., 5824, fol. 81.
[250] R. O., Originalia Roll, 23 Ed. III., m. 6. Among the Ministers'
Accounts (Q. R., Mins. Accts., General Series, 874, No. 9) is a set
belonging to a Ramsey manor at this time. "Many holdings of natives"
are said to be in hand "on account of the pestilence," and in one
place "22 virgates of land" for the same reason.
[251] R. O., Chancery Inq. p. m., 23 Ed. III., No. 88.
[252] The following table will show the number of Institutions in
Northamptonshire for some months; before May and after October, 1349,
some 34 institutions are recorded:—
+-----------------------------------------+
| 1349. |
+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| May. | June.| July.| Aug. |Sept. | Oct. |
+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| 8 | 15 | 25 | 36 | 10 | 7 |
+------+------+------+------+------+------+
[253] R. O., Rot. Pat., 28 Ed. III., pars 1, m. 16.
[254] R. O., Chancery Inq. p. m., 23 Ed. III., No. 88.
[255] Escheator's Inq. p. m., Series i, File 201.
[256] Twysden, _Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores Decem_, col. 2699.
[257] Rymer, _Fœdera_, v, p. 729.
[258] R. O., Escheator's Inq. p. m., 23 Ed. III., Series i, file 240.
[259] Originalia Roll, 25 Ed. III., m. 11.
[260] The following table will give the number of Institutions in the
diocese of Hereford for some months:
+--------------------------------------------+
| 1349. |
+------+-------+-------+------+-------+------+
| May. | June. | July. | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. |
+------+-------+-------+------+-------+------+
| 13 | 14 | 37 | 29 | 27 | 13 |
+------+-------+-------+------+-------+------+
[261] Reg. Trileck, fol. 103.
[262] Owen and Blakeway, _Shrewsbury_, i, p. 165.
[263] _Ibid._ The Inquisition is to be found in the Record Office;
Chancery Inq. p. m., 23 Ed. III., No. 78.
[264] Chancery Inq. p. m., 23 Ed. III., No. 79.
[265] B. Mus. Harl. MS. 2071, ff. 159-160.
[266] R. O. Clerical Subsidy, 51 Ed. III., 15/2.
[267] R. O., Q. R. Mins. Accts., Bundle 801, No. 14.
[268] _Ibid._, No. 4.
[269] _Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire._ Introduction, p. viii.
[270] R. O., Q. R. Mins. Accts., Bundle 801, file 3.
[271] Seebohm, _Black Death_, in _Fortnightly Review_, Sept. 1, 1865,
p. 150.
[272] Vatican Archives, Reg. Pontif., Rubrice Litterarum Clem. VI.
[273] _Chronicon de Parco Lude_ (Lincoln Record Society), pp. 38-39.
[274] R. O., Rot. Claus., 24 Ed. III., m. 7.
[275] R. O., L. T. R. Memoranda Roll, 25 Ed. III.
[276] _Ibid._, 28 Ed. III., Trinity term.
[277] Raine, _Historical Papers from Northern Registers_ (Rolls
series), p. 395.
[278] _Ibid._, p. 399.
[279] Seebohm, _Fortnightly Review_, Sept. 1st, 1865.
[280] Joseph Hunter, _Deanery of Doncaster_. The following table will
give the institutions in this deanery for some months of 1349:—
+-----------------------------------------+
| 1349. |
+------+------+------+------+------+------+
|July. | Aug. |Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. |
+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| 2 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 4 |
+------+------+------+------+------+------+
[281] B. Mus. Harl. MS., 6971, fol. 110b.
[282] Raine, _Historical Papers from Northern Registers_, p. 491.
[283] _Chronicon Monasterii de Melsa_ (Rolls series), iii, 37.
[284] _Cf._ for example Mins. Accts. Yorks., Holderness, 23-25 Ed.
III., Bundle 355.
[285] R. O., Chancery Inq. p. m., 23 Ed. III., 1st series, No. 72.
_Cf._ also No. 88.
[286] Rot. Pat., 28 Ed. III., pars 1, m. 3.
[287] R. O., L. T. R. Memoranda Roll, 25 Ed. III.
[288] Hunter, _Deanery of Doncaster_, i, p. 1. The _Inquisitio post
mortem_ of John FitzWilliam is in 1350.
[289] _Ibid._, ii, p. 125.
[290] Rot. Pat., 27 Ed. III., pars 1, m. 18.
[291] R. O., Clerical Subsidy, 15/2.
[292] R. O., Exchequer, Treasury of Receipt 21a/3, in _English
Historical Review_, v, p. 525 (July, 1890).
[293] Rot. Pat., 23 Ed. III., pars 3, m. 25.
[294] _e.g._, Escheator's Inq. p. m., series i, 430.
[295] R. O., L. T. R. Memoranda Roll, 28 Ed. III., m. 9.
[296] R. O., Rot. Claus., 25 Ed. III., m. 16.
[297] R. O., Durham Cursitor Records, Bk. ii, ff. 2b, _seqq._
[298] Rot. Claus., 27 Ed. III., m. 10d.
[299] Rot. Claus., 24 Ed. III., pars 2, m. 5.
[300] B. Mus. Cott. MS., Vitell., E. xiv, fol. 256.
[301] Dr. Creighton (_History of Epidemics in Britain_, p. 119),
speaking of Scotland, says: "The winter cold must have held it in
check as regards the rest of Scotland; for it is clear from Fordoun
that its great season in that country generally was the year 1350."
[302] B. Mus. Cott. MS., Vitell., A. xx, fol. 56.
[p162]