However, the Mayor of Leicester was not placated,
for he issued the following proclamation :
"To the Constable of the Bishopp's Fee in or near Leicester
and to his deputies : Forasmuch as we understand that the sickness is growing
very dangerous in Loughborough and many of the inhabitants there have of
late endeavoured to bring their goods into the town of Leicester, and to
settle themselves here to the great endangering of the Corporation, for
preventing whereof (so far as by God's assistance wee maye) we have taken
order for a watch to be kept daily in several places in and about the town.
And here also have given the strict charge that none shall resort to the
said town of Loughborough until it please God to stay the said Visitation.
This is therefore to command you to cause convenient watch to be daily
and constantly kept within your said ward, or Constabulary for preventing
of the dangers aforesaid and to give stout charge and warning to all inhabitants
within the said Fee not to entertain or harbour any of the inhabitants
of Loughborough or their goods, that they forbear coming to the said town,
either to the Market or otherwise. Therefore fail not at your peril. Given
under our hand the nineteenth Day of May, Anno Domini 1631. Thomas Smithe,
Mayor." 20
The parish records indicate that in Loughborough,
in that year of 1631, there were 135 deaths due to the plague.21
Table1 Average monthly burials 1539-1640
NB The statistics are taken from Epidemics in Loughborough by N.
Griffin. Published by Leicester Archaeological and Historical Society,
1978.
The 'very bad' years totalled six, (recorded
burials in brackets), 1558-9 (332), 1609-11 (603) and 1631 (167). The 'exceptional'
years totalled four, 1543 (98), 1577 (78), 1602 (98) and 1617 (90). In
the 'normal' years the highest death rate occurred in April and May, the
rate then generally dropped away to rise again in mid winter. However,
in the very bad (plague) years the months July, August, September and October
brought the highest death rates with January to April being low. A student of Elizabethan mortality in England
has two important sources of evidence on which to base their research.
Prior to 1538 there are probate records and after 1538 there are parish
registers. A detailed study of probate records may reveal years of unusually
high deaths which may indicate years of epidemic. However, there was a
large percentage of society that never made wills, for instance, travellers
and the poor. It may be prudent to assume that the non-will-making class
were those with the least, and, in common with the poor of any society,
this group may have been the most vulnerable to disease. "Wills
were generally made by a small and unrepresentative social group - those
adults, mostly males, who had property to bequeath."22
The Area graph, Graph III, highlights a close
correlation between monthly burial patterns for the exceptional and very
bad years: both indicate a slight rise in May and then a sharp dip in June.
Similarly, the following months are matched in both rise and fall, with
a common zenith in September.
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