The Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9)

Unfortunately the Court rolls for this period are often, if not generally, found to be missing. They are either lost, or the disorganised state of the country consequent upon the great mortality did not permit of the court being held. There are, however, quite sufficient of these records to afford a tolerably good idea of what must have happened pretty generally throughout the country. Dr. Jessopp has been able by the use of the Norfolk Court rolls to present his readers with a vivid picture of the havoc made by the plague in East Anglia. As an illustration of the same, some notes from a few Court rolls of West of England manors may here be given.

The records of the royal manor of Gillingham, in the county of Dorset, show that at a court, held on "Wednesday next after the feast of St. Lucy (13 December), 1348," heriots were paid on the deaths of some twenty-eight tenants, and the total receipts on this account, which at ordinary courts amounted to but a few shillings, were £28 15s. 8d. Further, at the same sittings, the bailiff notes that he has in hand the lands and tenements of about thirty tenants, who had apparently left no heir to succeed to their holdings. In numbers of cases it is declared that no heriot has been paid, and this although the receipts on this score at the sitting of the court, and on many subsequent sittings, are unusually large. At another court, held early in the following year (1349) the names of two-and-twenty tenants of the manor are recorded as having died, and two large slips of parchment, belonging to the court held on May 6th, give the lists of dead tenants. Thus in the tything of Gillingham alone forty-five deaths are recorded, and in the neighbouring tything of Bourton seventeen.313

The next example may be taken from the rolls of a Wiltshire manor, and ought, perhaps, to have been given in the account of the plague in that county. On June the 11th, 1349, a court was held at Stockton, some seven miles from Warminster, consequently only a short distance from the boundaries of Somerset. The manor, be it remarked, was evidently only a very small one. On the parchment record it is stated that since the previous Martinmas (November 11th, 1348) no court had been held, and from the entries upon the roll it appears that out of a small body of tenants on this estate fourteen had died. How many had been carried off in each household does not, of course, appear, but in the majority of instances it looks very much as if the dead tenant had left no heir behind him.314

A third instance is taken from the Court roll of the manor of Chedzoy, near Bridgwater. The plague had made its appearance at Bridgwater, as before related, some time previous to November 21, 1348. It was to be expected, therefore, that the rolls of a manor only three miles off would show some sign of the mortality among the tenants about the same period. As a matter of fact a glance through the parchment record of a court held on St. Katherine's day, November 25, 1348, shows that it had made its appearance some time between September 29th and November 25th. On this latter day some few of the tenants of the manor are noted as dead, and three or four fairly large holdings have also fallen into the hands of the lord of the manor, no heirs being forthcoming. Amongst others, one William Hammond, who had rented and worked a water-mill, at a place called le Slap, had been carried off by the sickness. The house, it is noted, had since, up to the date of the court, stood vacant. The mill wheel no longer spun round at its work, for William Hammond, the miller, had left no one to succeed him in his occupation.

But this was only a beginning. The next court was held on Thursday after the Epiphany, January 8th, 1349. What a terrible Christmas time it must have been for those Somerset villagers on the low-lying ground about Bridgwater, flooded and sodden by the long months of incessant rain! At least twenty more tenants are marked off upon the roll as dead, and as in this case the actual days of their deaths are given, it is clear the plague claimed many victims in this neighbourhood about the close of December, 1348.

Between this and March 23, 1349, the sickness was at its worst in this manor of Chedzoy. The record of the proceedings at the court, held on "Monday after the feast of St. Benedict," 1349, occupies two long skins of parchment closely written on both sides. Some 50 or 60 fines are paid by new tenants on their taking possession of the lands and houses, which had belonged to others now dead and gone. Again, who can tell how many had perished in each house? One thing is absolutely clear. In this single Somerset village many homes had been left vacant without a solitary inhabitant; many were taken over by new tenants not connected with the old occupier; and in more than one instance people came forward to act as guardians to young children who had apparently been left alone in the world by the death of every near relative. Take an instance. At this court one John Cran, who, by the way, took up the house and lands formerly held by his father, who is said to have died, also agreed with the officer of the court to take charge of William, the son of Nicholas atte Slope, for the said Nicholas, and apparently every other near relative of the boy William had perished in the sickness.

In this same court of March 23rd also several law cases are disposed of, for they had been settled by the death of one or other or both of the parties. Thus, in January, 1349, a claim had been laid, at the sitting of the court, against one John Lager, for the return of some cattle by three tenants, William, John, and Roger Richeman. At the March sitting of the court in due course the case was called on. No plaintiffs, however, appeared, and inquiry elicited the fact that all three had died in the great pestilence.

The actual document which contains these particulars has, moreover, a tale of its own to tell. The long entries on these two skins of parchment are not all in the same hand. Before the record of the heavy business done at this court had been all transcribed, the clerk was changed. The hand which had so long kept the rolls of these Manor Courts ceases to write. What happened to him? Did he too die? Of course nothing can be known for certain, but it is not difficult to conjecture why another at this very time takes up the writing of the Chedzoy manor records.315

Another glimpse of the desolate state to which the country was generally reduced by this disastrous sickness is afforded by the case of Hinton and Witham, the two Somerset Carthusian houses. The King had endeavoured by every means in his power to restrain the tenants, who survived the plague, from leaving their old holdings and seeking for others where they could better themselves. Not only were fines ordered to be inflicted upon such labourers and tenants, as endeavoured to take advantage of the market rise in wages, but under similar penalties landowners were prohibited from giving employment to them. That such a law must have proved hard in the case of those owning manors, in which some or all of the tenants and labourers had died, is obvious. It was this hardship which some years after the epidemic, in 1354, made the Carthusians of Witham plead for some mitigation of the royal decree. "Our beloved in Christ, the prior and brethren of the Carthusian Order at Witham, in the county of Somerset," runs the King's reply, "have petitioned us that since their said house and all their lands and tenements thereto belonging are within a close in the forest of Selwood, placed far from every town, and they possess no domain beyond the said close, they have nothing to support the prior and his brethren," (and this) "both because almost all their servants and retainers died in the last pestilence, and because by reason of a command lately made by us and our Parliament, in which inter alia it is ordered that servants should not leave their villages and parishes in which they dwelt, as long as they could be hired there, they have been brought to great need on account of the want of servants and labourers. Further, that a large part of their lands (for this same reason) remain waste and untilled, and the corn in the rest of their estate, which had been sown at the time of harvest, had miserably rotted as it could not be gathered for lack of reapers. By this they have been brought into great and manifest poverty." Looking at the circumstances, therefore, the King permits them for the future to engage servants and workmen on reasonable wages above the legal sum, provided that their time of service elsewhere had expired.316

The second instance is recorded in the following year, 1355, and has reference to difficulties springing from the same regulations as to the employment of labourers: – "The prior and brethren of the Carthusians of Hinton, in the county of Somerset, have petitioned us," says the King, "that seeing that they have no support except by the tillage of their lands, and that the greatest part of their estates, for want of workmen and servants from the time of the last pestilence, have been unused and still remain uncultivated, and that they cannot get any labourers to work their lands," (and further) "that as many people and tenants were wont to weave the woollen cloth for the clothes of the brethren from their wool, and do other various services for them, now through fear of our orders as to servants that they may not receive greater salaries and stipends from the said brethren, do not dare to serve them as before, and so leave their dwelling, so that the brethren cannot get cloth to clothe themselves properly," they beg that these orders may be relaxed in their regard. To which petition the King assented, allowing the Carthusians of Hinton to pay the wages they had been used to do.317

The diocese of Exeter, comprising the two counties of Devon and Cornwall, was stricken by the disease apparently about the same time as the county of Somerset. The institutions made by the Bishop of the diocese, in January, 1349, number some 30, which shows that death had already been busy among the clergy. The average number of livings annually rendered vacant in the two counties during the eight years previous to 1348 was only 36. In the year 1349 the vacancies were 382, and the number of appointments to vacant livings, in each of the five months from March to July, was actually larger than the previous yearly average. It would appear, therefore, that in 1349 some 346 vacancies may reasonably be ascribed to the prevailing sickness.

In looking over the lists of institutions it is evident that the effect of sickness was felt for some years. It is not until 1353 that the normal average is again reached. The year following the epidemic the number of vacancies filled up was 80, and even in 1351 it still remained at the high figure of 57. It is curious to note in these years that numerous benefices lapsed to the Bishop. These must have been vacant six months, at least, before the dates when they were filled by Bishop Grandisson. Sometimes, no doubt, patrons were dead, leaving no heirs behind them. Sometimes, in all probability, the patron could find no one to fill the cure. Further, the number of resignations of benefices during this period would appear to point to the fact that many livings were now found to be too miserably poor to afford a bare maintenance.

After the sickness was over here, as in other parts of England, the desolation and distress is evidenced by chance references in the inquisitions. Thus at Lydford, a manor on Dartmoor, the King's escheator returns the value of a mill at fifteen shillings, in place of the previous value of double that amount, because "most of the tenants, who used to grind their corn at it, have died in the plague." It is the same at other places in the county, and in one case 30 holdings are named as having fallen into the hands of the lord of the manor.318

A bundle of accounts for the Duchy of Lancaster gives a good idea of the effect of the pestilence in Cornwall. The roll is for the year from Michaelmas, 1350, and includes the accounts of several manors in the Deanery of Trigg, such as Helston, Tintagel, and others, in the district about the river Camel. In one it is noted that "this year there are no buyers;" in another only two youths pay poll tax, two more have not paid, as they have been put in charge of some land, "and the rest have died in the pestilence." In the same place pasture, which usually let for 3s. 4d., now, "because of the pestilence," fetched only 20d.; the holdings of five tenants are named as in hand, as well as nine other tenements and 214 acres of land. Again, in another place the rent has diminished by £7 14s., because 14 holdings and 102 acres are in hand, together with two fulling mills; on the other hand credit is given for 8s. 11d., the value of the goods and chattels of the natives of the manor who have died. And so the roll proceeds through the accounts of some twelve or fourteen manors, and everywhere the same story of desolation appears. Besides numerous holdings and hundreds of acres, represented as in hand and producing nothing, entire hamlets are named as having been depopulated. The decay in rent of one manor alone is set down at £30 6s. 1–3/4d.

Attached to the account of Helston, in Trigg, is a skin giving a list of goods and effects of different tenants named which the lord Prince "occupied." There are 57 items in this list, which includes goods of all sorts, from an article of female dress and a golden buckle to ploughs and copper dishes; and the total value of the goods which thus fell into the hands of the Black Prince, presumably by the death of his tenants without heirs, is £16 18s. 8d.

At Tintagel it is noted that the "fifty shillings previously paid each year as stipend to the chaplain who celebrated in the chapel, was not paid this year, because no one would stay to minister there for the said stipend."319

On the 29th May, 1350, the Black Prince, in view of the great distress throughout the district, authorised his officials to remit one-fourth part of the rents of the tenants who were left, "for fear they should through poverty depart from their holdings."320 But John Tremayn, the receiver of the revenues of the Prince in Cornwall, states that even in the years 1352 and 1353, so far from the estates there showing any recovery, they were in a more deplorable state still. "For the said two years," he relates, "he has not been able to let (the lands), nor to raise or obtain anything from the said lands and tenements, because the said tenements for the most part have remained unoccupied, and the lands lain waste for want of tenants (in the place of those) who died in the mortal pestilence lately raging in the said county."321

The loss of the episcopal registers of London for this period makes it impossible to form any certain estimate of the deaths in the ranks of the clergy of the capital during the progress of the epidemic. London contained within its walls, at that time, some 140 parish churches, exclusive of the large number of religious houses grouped together in its precincts. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the mortality here was greater than elsewhere. The population was closely packed in narrow streets, the religious houses were exceptionally numerous, and many of them, from their very situation, could have had but very little space. It has already been seen how fatal was the entry of the plague into any house, and consequently the proportion of deaths among the regulars in London was doubtless greater than elsewhere, whilst other causes must have also contributed to raise the roll of death among the seculars.322

The diocese of London included, with Middlesex, the county of Essex and a portion of Hertfordshire. The benefices of the county of Essex were in number some 265, and, like the actual institutions of the Middlesex clergy for this period, those made in the county of Essex are unknown. By July, 1349, the consequences of the scourge clearly appear in the Inquisitiones post mortem for this county. In one manor ten acres of meadow, which had formerly been let for twenty shillings, this year produced only half that amount, "because of the common pestilence." For the same reason the arable land had fallen in value, and a water-mill was idle, as there was no miller. In another place 140 acres of arable land was lying waste. "It cannot be let at all," says the Inquisition, "but if it could be let, it would be worth but eleven shillings and sixpence" only, in place of twenty-three shillings. Here, too, pasture had fallen fifty per cent, in value, and the wood that had been cut could not be sold. So, too, at a manor near Maldon, in this county, prices had fallen to half the previous value, and here the additional information is given that, out of eleven native tenants of the manor eight have died, and their tenements and land were in hand. It is the same in every instance; rents had dropped, owing to the catastrophe, to one-half. Arable, meadow, and pasture could be obtained this year in Essex anywhere at such a reduction. Other estate receipts had fallen equally. In one place court fees were three in place of the usual six shillings, and the manor dove-house brought in one instead of two shillings. Water mills were at a greater discount even than this. One, at a place called Longford, was valued at twenty shillings in place of sixty shillings, and even at this reduction there is considerable doubt expressed whether it will let at all.

Lastly, to take one more example in the county of Essex. An inquiry was made as to the lands held by the abbot of Colchester, who died on August the 24th, 1349. In this it appears that, in the manors of East and West Denny, 320 acres of arable land had fallen in yearly value from four to two pence an acre; 14 acres of meadow from 18d. to 8d.; the woods are valueless, "because there are no buyers;" and out of six native tenants two are dead. In another place four out of six have been carried off; in another, only two are left out of seven. The rent of assize, it is declared, is only £4, "and no more, because most of the land is in hand."323

No account has been preserved of the ravages of the pestilence at the abbey of Colchester; but the death of the abbot at this time makes it not unlikely that the disease was as disastrous here as in other monasteries of which there is preserved some record. It is known that the town suffered considerably. "One of the most striking effects was," writes one author, "that wills to the unusual number of 111 were enrolled at Colchester, which at that time had the privilege of their probate and enrolment."324

Talkeley, an alien priory in Essex, was reduced to complete destitution. It was a cell of St. Valery's Abbey, in Picardy, and when seized into the King's hands on account of the war with France the prior was allowed to hold the lands on condition of his paying £126 a year into the royal purse. Two years after the plague had visited the county this payment had fallen into arrears, "by reason of the pestilence lately raging, from which time the said land remained uncultivated, and the holdings, from which the revenues of the priory were derived, remained unoccupied after the death of the tenants. So terribly is it impoverished that it has nothing upon which to live, and on account of the arrears no one is willing to rent the lands and tenements of the priory." In the end the King was compelled to forgive the arrears of rent.325

In the county of Hertfordshire 34 benefices were in the diocese of London, whilst 22 more were under the jurisdiction of no Bishop, but formed a peculiar of the abbey of St. Alban's. In both of these consequently the actual institutions made in the year of the great plague are unknown. For the portion within the diocese of Lincoln 27 institutions were made in the summer of 1349; so that probably at least 50 Hertfordshire clergy died at this time.

The values of land and produce fell, as in other places. In one instance, given in an Inquisitio post mortem into the estate of Thomas Fitz-Eustace, the lands and tenements, formerly valued at 67 shillings, were on the 3rd of August this year, 1349, estimated to produce only 13 shillings, and this only "if the pasture can be let."326 In the same way the Benedictine convent of Cheshunt, in the county, is declared shortly afterwards "to be oppressed with such poverty in these days that the community have not wherewith to live."327

Again the destitution and poverty produced by the pestilence is evidenced in the case of some lands in the county, given by Sir Thomas Chedworth to Anglesey priory in Cambridgeshire. It had been agreed, shortly before the scourge had fallen upon England, that the monastery should for this benefaction endow a chantry of two secular priests. In 1351, however, the state of Anglesey priory, consequent on the fall in rents, made this impossible, and the obligation was, through the Bishop, readjusted, and the new document recites: – "Carefully considering the great and ruinous miseries which have occurred on account of the vast mortality of men in these days, to wit, that lands lie uncultivated in innumerable places, not a few tenements daily decay and are pulled down, rents and services cannot be levied, nor the advantage thereof, generally had, can be received, but a much smaller profit is obliged to be taken than heretofore," the community shall now be bound to find one priest only, whose stipend shall be five marks yearly instead of six as appointed, the value of the property being thus estimated at less than half what it had been before.328

In Buckinghamshire there were at the time between 180 and 200 benefices, in the county of Bedford some 120 and in Berkshire 162. From these a calculation of the probable number of incumbents carried off in 1349 by the sickness may be made.

As some indication of the state to which these counties were reduced by the scourge, a petition of the sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, made to the King in 1353, may be here mentioned. He declared that it was impossible then to pay into the Exchequer the old sums for the farming of the hundreds, which had been usual "before the late pestilence." Coming before the King in February, 1353, he not only urged his petition, but claimed to have £66 returned to him, which he had paid over and above his receipts. For the years 1351 and 1352 he had paid £132 for these rents, as had been usual since 1342; but he claimed that "from the time of the pestilence the bailiffs of the hundreds had been unwilling to take them on such terms." An inquiry by a jury was held in both counties, and it was declared "that since 1351 the bailiffs of the hundreds had been able to obtain nothing for certain – except what they could get by extortion – from the county. Further, that the inhabitants of the said county were now so diminished and impoverished that the bailiffs were able to get nothing for the farms in that year, 1351." In the same way also John Chastiloun, the sheriff, had received nothing whatever for his office. In the end the sum claimed was allowed.329

In the Canterbury portion of the county of Kent there were some 280 benefices, which number may form the basis for a calculation of the death roll. The condition to which this portion of England was reduced may be estimated from one or two examples. In 1352 the prioress and nuns of the house of St. James' outside Canterbury were allowed to be free from the tax of a fifteenth granted to the King, because they were reduced to such destitution that they had nothing beyond what was necessary to support them.330 Even the Cathedral priory of Christchurch itself had to plead poverty. About 1350 the monks addressed petitions to the Bishop of Rochester asking him to give them the church of Westerham "to help them to maintain their traditional hospitality." They say that "by the great pestilence affecting man and beast," they are unable to do this, and as arguments to induce the Bishop to allow this impropriation, they state that they have lost 257 oxen, 511 cows, and 4,585 sheep, worth together £792 12s. 6d. Further they state that "1,212 acres of land, formerly profitable, are inundated by the sea," apparently from want of labourers to maintain the sea walls.331

The neighbouring county of Sussex, at the time of the appearance of the disease, counted some 320 benefices. From the Patent Rolls it appears that in 1349 the King presented to as many as 26 livings in the county; amongst these no less than five were at Hastings, at All Saints', St. Clement's, St. Leonards, and two at the Free Chapel.332