Notice to be given of the Sickness.
‘The master of every house, as soon as any one in his house
complaineth, either of blotch or purple, or swelling in any part
of his body, or falleth otherwise dangerously sick, without
apparent cause of some other disease, shall give knowledge
thereof to the examiner of health within two hours after the said
sign shall appear.
Sequestration of the Sick.
‘As soon as any man shall be found by this examiner, chirurgeon,
or searcher to be sick of the plague, he shall the same night be
sequestered in the same house; and in case he be so sequestered,
then though he afterwards die not, the house wherein he sickened
should be shut up for a month, after the use of the due
preservatives taken by the rest.
Airing the Stuff.
‘For sequestration of the goods and stuff of the infection, their
bedding and apparel and hangings of chambers must be well aired
with fire and such perfumes as are requisite within the infected
house before they be taken again to use. This to be done by the
appointment of an examiner.
Shutting up of the House.
‘If any person shall have visited any man known to be infected of
the plague, or entered willingly into any known infected house,
being not allowed, the house wherein he inhabiteth shall be shut
up for certain days by the examiner’s direction.
None to be removed out of infected Houses, but, &C.
‘Item, that none be removed out of the house where he falleth
sick of the infection into any other house in the city (except it
be to the pest-house or a tent, or unto some such house which the
owner of the said visited house holdeth in his own hands and
occupieth by his own servants); and so as security be given to
the parish whither such remove is made, that the attendance and
charge about the said visited persons shall be observed and
charged in all the particularities before expressed, without any
cost of that parish to which any such remove shall happen to be
made, and this remove to be done by night. And it shall be lawful
to any person that hath two houses to remove either his sound or
his infected people to his spare house at his choice, so as, if
he send away first his sound, he not after send thither his sick,
nor again unto the sick the sound; and that the same which he
sendeth be for one week at the least shut up and secluded from
company, for fear of some infection at the first not appearing.
Burial of the Dead.
‘That the burial of the dead by this visitation be at most
convenient hours, always either before sun-rising or after
sun-setting, with the privity of the churchwardens or constable,
and not otherwise; and that no neighbours nor friends be suffered
to accompany the corpse to church, or to enter the house visited,
upon pain of having his house shut up or be imprisoned.
‘And that no corpse dying of infection shall be buried, or remain
in any church in time of common prayer, sermon, or lecture. And
that no children be suffered at time of burial of any corpse in
any church, churchyard, or burying-place to come near the corpse,
coffin, or grave. And that all the graves shall be at least six
feet deep.
‘And further, all public assemblies at other burials are to be
foreborne during the continuance of this visitation.
No infected Stuff to be uttered.
‘That no clothes, stuff, bedding, or garments be suffered to be
carried or conveyed out of any infected houses, and that the
criers and carriers abroad of bedding or old apparel to be sold
or pawned be utterly prohibited and restrained, and no brokers of
bedding or old apparel be permitted to make any outward show, or
hang forth on their stalls, shop-boards, or windows, towards any
street, lane, common way, or passage, any old bedding or apparel
to be sold, upon pain of imprisonment. And if any broker or other
person shall buy any bedding, apparel, or other stuff out of any
infected house within two months after the infection hath been
there, his house shall be shut up as infected, and so shall
continue shut up twenty days at the least.
No Person to be conveyed out of any infected House.
‘If any person visited do fortune, by negligent looking unto, or
by any other means, to come or be conveyed from a place infected
to any other place, the parish from whence such party hath come
or been conveyed, upon notice thereof given, shall at their
charge cause the said party so visited and escaped to be carried
and brought back again by night, and the parties in this case
offending to be punished at the direction of the alderman of the
ward, and the house of the receiver of such visited person to be
shut up for twenty days.
Every visited House to be marked.
‘That every house visited be marked with a red cross of a foot
long in the middle of the door, evident to be seen, and with
these usual printed words, that is to say, “Lord, have mercy upon
us,” to be set close over the same cross, there to continue until
lawful opening of the same house.
Every visited House to be watched.
‘That the constables see every house shut up, and to be attended
with watchmen, which may keep them in, and minister necessaries
unto them at their own charges, if they be able, or at the common
charge, if they are unable; the shutting up to be for the space
of four weeks after all be whole.
‘That precise order to be taken that the searchers, chirurgeons,
keepers, and buriers are not to pass the streets without holding
a red rod or wand of three feet in length in their hands, open
and evident to be seen, and are not to go into any other house
than into their own, or into that whereunto they are directed or
sent for; but to forbear and abstain from company, especially
when they have been lately used in any such business or
attendance.
Inmates.
‘That where several inmates are in one and the same house, and
any person in that house happens to be infected, no other person
or family of such house shall be suffered to remove him or
themselves without a certificate from the examiners of health of
that parish; or in default thereof, the house whither he or they
so remove shall be shut up as in case of visitation.
Hackney-Coaches.
‘That care be taken of hackney-coachmen, that they may not (as
some of them have been observed to do after carrying of infected
persons to the pest-house and other places) be admitted to common
use till their coaches be well aired, and have stood unemployed
by the space of five or six days after such service.’