Feasting prohibited. That all public feasting, and particularly by the companies of this city, and dinners in taverns, ale-houses, and other places of public entertainment, be forborne till farther order and allowance, and that the money thereby spared be preserved, and employed for the benefit and relief of the poor visited with the infection. Tippling-Houses. That disorderly tippling in taverns, ale-houses, coffeehouses, and cellars, be severely looked unto as the common sin of the time, and greatest occasion of dispersing the plague. And that no company or person be suffered to remain or come into any tavern, ale-house, or coffee-house, to drink, after nine of the clock in the evening, according to the ancient law and custom of this city, upon the penalties ordained by law. And for the better execution of these orders, and such other rules and directions as upon farther consideration shall be found needful, it is ordered and enjoined that the aldermen, deputies, and common-council-men shall meet together weekly, once, twice, thrice, or oftener, as cause shall require, at some one general place accustomed in their respective wards, being clear from infection of the plague, to consult how the said orders may be put in execution, not intending that any, dwelling in or near places infected, shall come to the said meeting while their coming may be doubtful. And the said aldermen, deputies, and common-council-men, in their several wards, may put in execution any other orders, that by them, at their said meetings, shall be conceived and devised for the preservation of his majesty's subjects from the infection. Sir JOHN LAWRENCE, Lord Mayor. Sir GEORGE WATERMAN, Sir CHARLES DOE, Sheriffs. I need not say, that these orders extended only to such places as were within the Lord Mayor's jurisdiction: so it is requisite to observe, that the justices of peace, within those parishes and places as were called the hamlets and out-parts, took the same method: as I remember, the orders for shutting up of houses did not take place so soon on our side, because, as I said before, the plague did not reach to this SHUTTING UP HOUSES AND FAMILIES. 37 eastern part of the town at least, nor begin to be violent till the beginning of August.-For example, the whole bill from the 11th to the 18th of July, was 1761, yet there died but seventy-one of the plague in all those parishes we call the Tower-hamlets; and they were as follows: It was indeed coming on amain, for the burials that same week were, in the next adjoining parishes, thus: St. L. Shoreditch 64 the next week 84 to the 1st. 110 105 of Aug. 116 431 thus: 554 342 620 780 cruel This shutting up of houses was at first counted a very and unchristian method, and the poor people so confined made bitter lamentations; complaints of the severity of it were also daily brought to my lord mayor, of houses causelessly, and some maliciously, shut up; I cannot say, but upon inquiry, many that complained so loudly were found in a condition to be continued; and others again, inspection being made upon the sick person, and the sickness not appearing infectious; or, if uncertain, yet, on his being content to be carried to the pesthouse, was released. As I went along Houndsditch one morning about eight o'clock, there was a great noise; it is true, indeed, there was not much crowd, because the people were not very free to gather together, or to stay long together when they were there, nor did I stay long there; but the outcry was loud enough to prompt my curiosity, and I called to one, who looked out of a window, and asked what was the matter? A watchman, it seems, had been employed to keep his post at the door of a house which was infected, or said to be infected, and was shut up; he had been there all night, for two nights together, as he told his story, and the day watch man had been there one day, and was now come to relieve him; all this while no noise had been heard in the house, no light had been seen, they called for nothing, sent him of no errands, which used to be the chief business of the watchmen, neither had they given him any disturbance, as he said, from Monday afternoon, when he heard a great crying and screaming in the house, which, as he supposed, was occasioned by some of the family dying just at that time. It seems the night before, the dead-cart, as it was called, had been stopt there, and a servant-maid had been brought down to the door dead, and the buriers or bearers, as they were called, put her into the cart, wrapped only in a green rug, and carried her away. The watchman had knocked at the door, it seems, when he heard that noise and crying, as above, and nobody answered a great while, but at last one looked out, and said, with an angry quick tone, and yet a kind of crying voice, or a voice of one that was crying, What d'ye want, that you make such a knocking? He answered, I am the watchman, how do you do? What is the matter? The person answered, what is that to you? Stop the dead-cart. This it seems, was about one o'clock; soon after, as the fellow said, he stopped the dead-cart, and then knocked again, but nobody answered; he continued knocking, and the bellman called out several times, Bring out your dead; but nobody answered, till the man that drove the cart being called to other houses, would stay no longer, and drove away. The watchman knew not what to make of all this, so he let them alone till the morning-man, or day-watchman, as they called him, came to relieve him. Giving him an account of the particulars, they knocked at the door a great while, but nobody answered, and they oberved that the window or casement, at which the person looked out who had answered before, continued open, being up two pair of stairs. Upon this the two men, to satisfy their curiosity, got a long ladder, and one of them went up to the window, and looked into the room, where he saw a woman lying dead upon the floor, in a dismal manner, having no clothes on her but her shift; but though he called aloud, and putting in his long staff, knocked hard on the floor, yet nobody stirred or answered, neither could he hear any noise in the house. He came down again upon this and acquainted his fellow, VARIOUS MEANS ADOPTED TO ESCAPE. 39 who went up also, and finding it just so, they resolved to acquaint either the lord mayor, or some other magistrate of it, but did not offer to go in at the window. The magistrate, it seems, upon the information of the two men, ordered the house to be broke open, a constable and other persons being appointed to be present, that nothing might be plundered, and accordingly it was so done, when nobody was found in the house but that young woman, who, having been infected, and past recovery, the rest had left her to die by herself, and every one gone, having found some way to delude the watchman, and to get open the door; or get out at some back-door, or over the tops of the houses, so that he knew nothing of it; and, as to those cries and shrieks which he heard, it was supposed they were the passionate cries of the family at this bitter parting, which to be sure, it was to them all, this being the sister to the mistress of the family. The man of the house, his wife, several children and servants, being all gone and fled, whether sick or sound, that I could never learn, nor, indeed, did I make much inquiry after it. At another house, as I was informed, in the street next within Aldgate, a whole family was shut up and locked in, because the maid-servant was taken sick; the master of the house had complained by his friends to the next alderman, and to the lord mayor, and had consented to have the maid carried to the pesthouse, but was refused; so the door was marked with a red-cross, a padlock on the outside, as above, and a watchman set to keep the door, according to public order. After the master of the house found there was no remedy, but that he, his wife and his children were locked up with this poor distempered servant, he called to the watchman, and told him he must go then and fetch a nurse for them to attend this poor girl, for that it would be certain death to them all to oblige them to nurse her, and told him plainly that, if he would not do this, the maid would perish either of the distemper, or be starved for want of food, for he was resolved none of his family should go near her, and she lay in the garret, four story high, where she could not cry out, or call to anybody for help. The watchman consented to that, and went and fetched a nurse, as he was appointed, and brought her to them the same evening; during this interval, the master of the house took his opportunity to break a large hole through his shop into a bulk or stall, where formerly a cobbler had sat before or under his shop window; but the tenant, as may be supposed, at such a dismal time as that, was dead or removed, and so he had the key in his own keeping; having made his way into this stall, which he could not have done if the man had been at the door, the noise he was obliged to make being such as would have alarmed the watchman; I say, having made his way into this stall, he sat still till the watchman returned with the nurse, and all the next day also; but the night following, having contrived to send the watchman of another trifling errand, which, as I take it, was to an apothecary's for a plaster for the maid, which he was to stay for the making up, or some other such errand, that might secure his staying some time; in that time he conveyed himself and all his family out of the house, and left the nurse and the watchman to bury the poor wench, that is, throw her into the cart, and take care of the house. Not far from the same place they blowed up a watchman with gunpowder, and burnt the poor fellow dreadfully; and while he made hideous cries, and nobody would venture to come near to help him, the whole family that were able to stir got out at the windows, one story high, two that were left sick, calling out for help. Care was taken to give them nurses to look after them, but the persons fled were never found, till after the plague was abated they returned; but as nothing could be proved, so nothing could be done to them. In other cases, some had gardens and walls, or pales between them and their neighbours; or yards and back-houses; and these, by friendship and entreaties, would get leave to get over those walls or pales, and so go out at their neighbours' doors; or, by giving money to their servants, get them to let them through in the night; so that, in short, the shutting up of houses was in nowise to be depended upon; neither did it answer the end at all; serving more to make the people desperate, and drive them to such extremities, as that they would break out at all adventures. And that which was still worse, those that did thus break out, spread the infection farther by their wandering about with the distemper upon them, in their desperate circumstances, than they would otherwise have done: for, whoever considers all the particulars in such cases, must acknowledge, and can |