City of York : report on the state of York, in reply to questions circulated by the Health of Towns Commission / By T. Laycock, M.D., Physician to the York Dispensary.

Laycock, Thomas, 1812-1876.

Date:: [1844]

Credit: City of York : report on the state of York, in reply to questions circulated by the Health of Towns Commission / By T. Laycock, M.D., Physician to the York Dispensary. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$recorded appearance in England, we find York again ravaged by an epidemic. Whether this was the true sweating sickness does not appear, but it is more than probable that it was. The sanatory regulations of the day are curious. Above thirty years after their date we find it is ordered in London, by the Lord Mayor, that a red cross and “ Lord have mercy upon us,” be posted on all the houses infected with the plague, and persons going abroad from infected houses were required to carry a white rod in their hands, “ two foot long.” The red cross had an early reference to pestilences. In the “ black death ” of 1348, the flagellants, a sect of wandering ascetics, brought into existence by that terrible destroyer, wore red crosses upon their cloaks. Much light would no doubt be thrown upon the epidemics of this century by a diligent search in the valuable ecclesiastical records of our cathedral. No further account of epidemical disease is met with from 1551 until 1604 : “ In this yeare,” in the words of a city parish register, “ was the greate plague in Yorke.” But, in fact, what would now be esteemed a very high mortality was then little thought of, so numerous were the causes of disease and death during the middle ages. When the plague was absent, “the purples” (petechial fever), small-pox, autumnal cholera (termed “the plague in the guts”) and exanthematous typhus were constantly rife. But while these destroyed only 1 in 10 or 15 of the population, “ a great plague,” or “ great visita- tion,” destroyed 1 in 2, or 3 or 4; and this was the kind of epidemic that happened in York in 1604. In the previous year (1603) the disease was prevalent in London ; it was in Pontefract in the autumn of the same year, and only very gradually approached York in the spring of the year following. From the documents found in the city archives it appears that the efforts of the autho- rities were directed principally against the propagation of infection by mendicants and vagrants generally. Apparently, no measures were adopted to purify the city from miasmata ; and as there were wide stagnant moats, no drainage, narrow streets, and filthy open channels, the tide flowing above the city, and at ebb leaving sludge and mud on the deep banks of the river, and exposing the mouths of the sewers, the results may readily be anticipated. The disease broke out, according to tradition, in “The Hag-worm’s Nest,” or Beedham’s-court, on the west side of the river, corresponding to the habitat of the plague in 1551 (vide map), and in a few months carried off 3,512 persons. The registers for that year of 17 parishes are extant (that of St. Nicholas is in the Will-office), and from these I have been enabled to make out the table subjoined, the clergy generally having rendered me all the assistance in their power. It is to be regretted that the registers of six large parishes are wanting for that year. The probable population in each parish is calculated on the average births and deaths in the four or five preceding years ; the estimate for the whole city would be about 11,000, a number very near that fixed by Mr. Rickman in the census abstracts of 1831. A century later it was not 12,000. The deaths, therefore, from this plague would be at least about 1 in 3. The first entry of death from the epidemic is on June 4th, in the register of St. Michael, Spurriergate. It is a singular coincidence, that while the cholera commenced in the “ Hag-worm’s Nest,” the traditional natal spot of the plague under consideration, and probably near to that of 1551 — the first death from cholera took place also in the parish of St. Michael, Spurrier- gate, and on June 5th. The annexed drawing is of a street in this parish (First Water Lane), in which the cholera was most fatal, and in which the first death took place. The street is just wide enough for one cart to pass, and stands now as it probably stood in 1551 and 1604. June, indeed, appears to have been the epidemical month in York : on “June the fift,” 1485, we find the apprentice of Robert Heworth was licensed by his master to leave York, “for fear of the plage of pestilence that reigned,” and so with the other docu- ments referring to 1550 and 1551. The first steps also of the plague seem to have been very similar to that of cholera, marking the badly drained districts by its course, as did the latter. The mortality attained its height in the several parishes of the city progressively, as will be seen by reference to the subjoined table of monthly deaths. The low lying parishes, namely, St. John, Micklegate. St. Michael, Spurriergate, St. Mary, Castlegate, All Saints, Pavement, and All Saints, North-street, first suffered in the order mentioned. St. Mary Bishophill Junior, adjoining Skeldergate, was ravaged concurrently with St. John, to which it is contiguous; and St. Martin cum Gregory concurrently with All Saints, North-street. Next in order were the parishes on the made ground between the two rivers, on the east bank of the river Foss, within the walls; then the eastern parishes ; the outlying parishes suffering last. City of York. Report on the Epidemics of York,$

City of York : report on the state of York, in reply to questions circulated by the Health of Towns Commission / By T. Laycock, M.D., Physician to the York Dispensary.

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