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, 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 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 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, 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 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 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). 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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
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