That there is some factor operating chiefly
in the spring, in particular from March, or, in exceptionally bad cases,
until June, seems likely. A possible explanation is that these deaths were
caused either directly or indirectly by malnutrition. In the case of 1602-03
there is some evidence to support this, for in the Syston Parish Register
there is a note :14
"In 1601 all the hay was inned out of Syston Great Meadow
on the Wednesday before St James (25th July). In 1602 harvest was so late
that it was St Matthew's day (21st September) before all the barley was
inned. In 1603 a pound of good hops was sold for 2s. 6d., a strike of malt
for 17d. and a strike of wheat for 2s. 4d."
Nichols also mentioned another entry in that
Register :
"In 1607 the frost was so hard and so continued that it was
after St. Valentines Day (14th February) before men could set forth plough.
In 1609 there died at Loughborough of the plague in one year 500 people."
Although no records have been found of any large
numbers of people dying of starvation, a strong possibility exists that
there was a correlation between malnutrition, due to poor, late crops and
an increased mortality due to a widespread lowering of resistance to disease(s).
Furthermore, Graph II Average burial rates in
Loughborough, indicates some interesting statistical information.
Between 1550 and 1566, when Bubonic plague and
Influenza were sweeping through the country, (The population of England
probably fell by at least 6% between 1556 and 1560) 15
the average burial rate in Loughborough dropped to 37.16
As Griffin points out, this lower than anticipated figure may have been
the result of a large epidemic striking the town in the years in which
the Parish Register was not kept (1548-58, during the reign of Queen Mary),
therefore possibly reducing the population and the subsequent death rate.
However, analysis of the burial figures for 1550-53 indicates an annual
average burial rate of 27, whilst 1560-66 was 42, thus invalidating the
hypothesis.
Nichols reported17
that a dreadful plague broke out in Loughborough in August 1609, which
raged for 18 months. He continues "... that this destructive disorder
seems to have ended about the 19th February, 1610-11, and at that time
there had died within the town and parish, 452 persons men, women and children;
and within a mile of Loughborough is a spot of ground to this day called
The Cabin Lees (whereon many of the inhabitants prudently built themselves
huts and encamped, to avoid the infection." (Cabin Lees has been
identified as having existed in an area known as Bottle Acre. A recently
built small housing estate, off the Belton Road, has a road called Cabin
Lees.)
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