Sir Robt. Clayton's grant of

land from King Charles II.

De Foe's

place of burial.

Third. The upper end of Hand-alley, in Bishopsgate-street, which was then a green field, and was taken in particularly for Bishopsgate parish, though many of the carts out of the city brought their dead thither also, particularly out of the parish of St. Allhallows on the Wall: this place I cannot mention without much regret. It was, as I remember, about two or three years after the plague was ceased that Sir Robert Clayton came to be possessed of the ground; it was reported, how true I know not, that it fell to the king for want of heirs, all those who had any right to it being carried off by the pestilence, and that Sir Robert Clayton obtained a grant of it from King Charles II. But however he came by it, certain it is the ground was let out to build on, or built upon by his order. The first house built upon it was a large fair house, still standing, which faces the street, or way, now called Hand-alley, which, though called an alley, is as wide as a street: the houses in the same row with that house northward are built on the very same ground where the poor people were buried, and the bodies, on opening the ground for the foundations, were dug up, some of them remaining so plain to be seen that the women's sculls were distinguished by their long hair, and of others the flesh was not quite perished; so that the people began to exclaim loudly against it, and some suggested that it might endanger a return of the contagion: after which the bones and bodies, as fast as they came at them, were carried to another part of the same ground, and thrown altogether into a deep pit, dug on purpose, which now is to be known, in that it is not built on, but is a passage to another house at the upper end of Rose-alley, just against the door of a meetinghouse, which has been built there many years since; and the ground is palisadoed off from the rest of the passage in a little square; there lie the bones and remains of near two thousand bodies, carried by the dead-carts to their grave in that one year.

Fourth. Besides this, there was a piece of ground in Moorfields, by the going into the street which is now called Old Bethlem, which was enlarged much, though not wholly taken in, on the same occasion.

N.B. The author of this journal lies buried in that very ground, being at his own desire, his sister having been buried there a few years before.

Fifth. Stepney parish, extending itself from the east part of London to the north, even to the very edge of Shoreditch churchyard, had a piece of ground taken in to bury their dead

close to the said churchyard; and which, for that very reason, was left open, and is since, I suppose, taken into the same churchyard: and they had also two other burying-places in Spitalfields, one where since a chapel or tabernacle has been built for ease to this great parish, and another in Petticoat-lane.

There were no less than five other grounds made use of for the parish of Stepney at that time; one where now stands the parish church of St. Paul, Shadwell, and the other where now stands the parish church of St. John at Wapping, both which had not the names of parishes at that time, but were belonging to Stepney parish.

obliged to

I could name many more, but these coming within my particular knowledge, the circumstance I thought made it of use to record them: from the whole, it may be observed that they were Parishes obliged in this time of distress to take in new burying-grounds take in new in most of the out-parishes for laying the prodigious numbers of burial people which died in so short a space of time; but why care was not taken to keep those places separate from ordinary uses, that so the bodies might rest undisturbed, that I cannot answer for, and must confess I think it was wrong; who were to blame Í know not.

grounds.

burial

Quaker

I should have mentioned that the Quakers had at that time The also a burying-ground set apart to their use, which they still Quaker's make use of, and they had also a particular dead-cart to fetch ground. their dead from their houses; and the famous Solomon Eagle, Solomon who, as I mentioned before, had predicted the plague as a judg- Eagle the ment, and run naked through the streets, telling the people predicted the plague that it was come upon them to punish them for their sins, had as a judghis own wife died the very next day of the plague, and was ment. carried one of the first in the Quakers' dead-cart to their new burying-ground.

I might have thronged this account with many more remarkable things which occurred in the time of the infection, and particularly what passed between the Lord Mayor and the court, which was then at Oxford, and what directions were from time to time received from the government for their conduct on this critical occasion. But really the court concerned themselves so little, and that little they did was of so small import, that I do itself very not see it of much moment to mention any part of it here, except little about that of appointing a monthly fast in the city, and the sending of the the royal charity to the relief of the poor, both which I have people. mentioned before.

The court concerned

the welfare

Neglectful and

Medical

be let !

Great was the reproach thrown upon those physicians who cowardly left their patients during the sickness, and now they came to physicians town again nobody cared to employ them; they were called dedeserters! serters, and frequently bills were set up upon their doors, and Doctors to written, "Here is a doctor to be let!" so that several of those physicians were fain for a while to sit still and look about them, or at least, remove their dwellings and set up in new places and among new acquaintance: the like was the case with the clergy, whom the people were indeed very abusive to, writing verses and scandalous reflections upon them, setting upon the church door -"Here is a pulpit to be let!" or, sometimes, to be sold, which was worse.

Clerical

deserters !

Pulpits to be let!

It was not the least of our misfortunes that, with our infection, when it ceased, there did not cease the spirit of strife and contention, slander and reproach, which was really the great troubler of the nation's peace before it was said to be the remains of the old animosities which had so lately involved us all in blood and disorder. But as the late Act of Indemnity had laid Indemnity. asleep the quarrel itself, so the government had recommended family and personal peace upon all occasions to the whole nation.

The late
Act of

Disagree

ment

between churchmen

But it could not be obtained, and particularly after the ceasing of the plague in London, when any one that had seen the condition which the people had been in, and how they caressed one another at that time, promised to have more charity for the future, and to raise no more reproaches: I say, any one that had seen them then would have thought they would have come together with another spirit at last. But, I say, it could not be obtained; the quarrel remained, the church and the presbyterians were incompatible: as soon as the plague was removed the dissenting ousted ministers, who had supplied the pulpits which were deserted by the incumbents, retired; they could expect no other but that they should immediately fall treated by upon them and harass them with their penal laws, accept their preaching while they were sick, and persecute them as soon as they were recovered again; this even we that were of the church thought was hard, and could by no means approve of it.

and presbyterians.

Faithful

dissenting ministers harshly

church ministers.

A bigoted church unsafe

without

protection

of the

state.

But it was the government, and we could say nothing to hinder it; we could only say it was not our doing, and we could not answer for it.

On the other hand, the dissenters reproached those ministers of the church with going away and deserting their charge, abanthe Church doning the people in their danger, and when they had most

Ministers of

of England

with

need of comfort, and the like; this we could by no means charged approve, for all men have not the same faith and the same neglect of courage, and the Scripture commands us to judge the most duty. favourably and according to charity.

A plague is a formidable enemy, and is armed with terrors that every man is not sufficiently fortified to resist, or prepared to stand the shock against. It is very certain that a great many of the clergy, who were in circumstances to do it, withdrew, and fled for the safety of their lives; but it is true, also, that a great many of them stayed, and many of them fell in the calamity, and in the discharge of their duty.

Some dissenting

ministers

desert their

It is true some of the dissenting turned out ministers stayed, and their courage is to be commended and highly valued, but these were not abundance; it cannot be said that they all stayed, and that none retired into the country, any more than it can be said of the church clergy that they all went away; neither did all those that went away go without substituting curates and others in their places to do the offices needful, and to visit the sick as far as it was practicable; so that, upon the whole, an allowance of charity might have been made on both sides, and we should have considered, that such a time as this of 1665 is not to be paralleled in history, and that it is not the stoutest courage that will always support men in such cases: I had not said this, but had rather chosen to record the courage and religious zeal of those of both sides, who did hazard themselves for the service of the poor people in their distress, without remembering that any failed in their duty on either side, but the want of temper among us has made the contrary to this necessary; some that stayed, not only boasting too much of themselves, but reviling those that fled, branding them with cowardice, deserting their flocks, and acting the part of the hireling, and the like. I recommend it to the charity of all good people to De Foe's look back, and reflect duly upon the terrors of the time, and whoever does so will see that it is not an ordinary strength that could support it; it was not like appearing in the head of an army, or charging a body of horse in the field; but it was charging Death itself on his pale horse: to stay was indeed to die, and it could be esteemed nothing less, especially as things appeared at the latter end of August and the beginning of September, and as there was reason to expect them at that time; for no man expected, and, I dare say, believed, that the distemper would take so sudden a turn as it did, and fall immediately two

advice to the church

clergy and

the dis

senters.

De Foe's

record of

and cou

rageous

men who sacrificed

in the

service of

King.

thousand in a week, when there was such a prodigious number of people sick at that time as it was known there was; and then it was that many shifted away that had stayed most of the time before.

Besides, if God gave strength to some more than to others, was it to boast of their ability to abide the stroke, and upbraid those that had not the same gift and support, or ought they not rather to have been humble and thankful, if they were rendered more useful than their brethren ?

I think it ought to be recorded to the honour of such men, as well clergy as physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, magistrates, and officers of every kind, as also all useful people, who ventured their lives in discharge of their duty, as most certainly all such as stayed did to the last degree, and several of all these kinds. did not only venture, but lost their lives on that sad occasion.

I was once making a list of all such, I mean of all those professions and employments who thus died, as I call it, in the way of their duty; but it was impossible for a private man to come at a certainty in the particulars; I only remember, that there honourable died sixteen clergymen, two aldermen, five physicians, thirteen surgeons, within the city and liberties before the beginning of September: but this being, as I said before, the great crisis and their lives extremity of the infection, it can be no complete list. As to inferior people, I think there died six and forty constables and their Great headboroughs in the two parishes of Stepney and Whitechapel ; but I could not carry my list on, for when the violent rage of the distemper in September came upon us, it drove us out of all measures; men did then no more die by tale and by number, they might put out a weekly bill and call them seven or eight thousand, or what they pleased; it is certain they died by heaps, and were buried by heaps, that is to say, without account; and if I might believe some people, who were more abroad and more conversant with those things than I, though I was public enough for one that had no more business to do than I had, I say if I may believe them, there was not many less buried those three first weeks in September than twenty thousand per week; however, the others aver the truth of it, yet I rather choose to keep to the public account; seven and eight thousand per week is enough to make good all that I have said of the terror of those times; and it is much to the satisfaction of me that write, as well as those that read, to be able to say, that everything is set down with moderation, and rather within compass than beyond it.