Preface              

The late sixteenth and the entire seventeenth century was one of the most turbulent periods of English history. Wars, external and Civil, and the taxation to pay for them, brought about economic recessions. For much of this period the population of England was fast growing,[1]putting a great strain on agricultural production, to feed this increase in population. When periodic climatic crises arose, they would trigger catastrophic events. Wet summers during the civil wars of the mid seventeenth century led to bad harvests and the result was dearth, malnutrition, and famine. Following in the wake of shortage and the resulting weakening of the population, were diseases such as plague, smallpox, and typhus etc. giving rise to crises of mortality.[2] Such mortality crises were also of course present in North Staffordshire, though most good quality records of such crises seem emanate from the towns and larger populated areas of south, and central lowland Staffordshire. Upland North Staffordshire being much more thinly populated and often less well documented, may only show the signs of such maladies when a detailed demographic study is undertaken to further illuminate the sparse existing documentation. Using demography techniques largely based on the parish records, we will take a look at one possible mortality crisis in the parish of Burslem.

The Tradition The local tradition is that Burslem or rather Rushton Grange now known as Cobridge in the parish of Burslem was visited by the plague in 1647. This tradition seems to emanate from John Ward’s History of the Borough of Stoke on Trent,[3] Ward quotes his source as being a member of the Bagnall family (Sampson Bagnall born 1740), a descendent of those who were said to be some of the earliest victims of the outbreak. This member of the Bagnall family, presumably drawing on family or local tradition, said the disease came to Rushton Grange from Italy in some clothing belonging to a governess, employed to educate the children of [Francis] Biddulph Esq. the owner of Rushton Grange estate. Ward also recounts how the victims of the plague were not buried in the churchyard but in a plague pit dug near to the initial outbreak at Rushton Grange, and a family Catholic priest gave them the last rights! 

The dell or hollow below the old house is said to be the place were the pit was dug, and according to Ward was traditionally known as singing Kate’s hole after the Italian governess. The old house that Ward refers to could be the farm house at Rushton Grange, or one other possibility, is it could be the Hole House, the two places mentioned in Wards history as being where the pestilence spread to. The Hole House is situated on the outskirts of Burslem Township heading outwards towards Hot Lane. 

Henry Wedgwood writing in 1878 may also have been drawing on family tradition when he said that, the plague was much worse in the Hot Lane and Hole House area.[4]  It is also just possible that Hole House was named after the plague pit. The location of Hole House in the hollow at the bottom of Pitt Street. Pitt Street could also be a pointer to the location of the plague pit, but could also of cause be named after the famous politicians of that name. At the other end of Pitt Street stands St Johns Church, where it was deemed that the plague burials could not take place. The possible reasons for the ban on the Church burial could have been, the danger to the church officials and the greater population of Burslem Township or the plague victims having received the catholic last rights as eluded to in the tradition.

Two members of the Wedgwood family were involved in the administration of the funds raised for the emergency, which may have given rise to the family tradition recounted by Henry Wedgwood. John Wedgwood was one of three auditors, and William Wedgwood was one of three overseers of the poor for the parish at the time of the epidemic. The Sampson Bagnal and the Henry Wedgwood stories as with all oral tradition is open to question, born many years after the event, and in Bagnal’s case elderly at the time of their recounting must be regarded with at lest some suspicion. 

The early victims the Biddulph family held sway over the Rushton Grange estate, they bought in 1540 from James Leveson for £300 7s to whom it was granted soon after the dissolution of Hulton Abbey[5]. The Rushton Grange estate was owned by and provided income for Hulton Abbey in medieval times and was perhaps the origin of the areas strong links with Catholicism of course and up to recent times had a long tradition of Convents (i.e. Little Sisters of the poor). 

Sampson Bagnall’s ancestors were subtenants of the Biddulphs at Rushton Grange and like the Biddulphs were devout Roman Catholics and staunch Royalists[6] at a time when life for such could be very difficult. Francis Biddulph may well have been still imprisoned in Stafford’s Ancient High House as it is now known, at the time of the plague because of his loyalty to the king. Francis’s uncles Francis senior, James, and Andrew, and his four unmarried sisters and his younger brother Thomas, petitioned the parliamentarian controlled local government committee at Stafford in December1644 and were awarded £32 with a review to be held later.[7] His sister was however granted one messuage or tenement with coal mines at Rushton Grange on the 17th of October 1645 allowing the “widow Bagnald” house room and grazing for her cows.[8] The widow Bagnald would have been a sitting tenant and most likely the ancestor of  Sampson Bagnall who had related the tradition to John Ward.[9] 

Rushton Grange at that time may have been a focal point for dissenting Catholics locally, as it certainly was a focal point for Catholicism by the 18th century.[10] When it was the “mother” of the local catholic churches, after the advent of religious tolerance. The 18th century was a time of more religious toleration and catholic people began to be more open again, about their faith. 

The farmhouse at Rushton Grange had a private Roman Catholic Chapel which was dedicated to St Peter, which may well, have existed since the days when the monks had presided over the estate. The Biddulph family had for many years supported a resident Jesuit priests; it is also believed that the Bidulph’s housed the first ever Jesuit priest in England one John Parker[11] in 1613. Two members of the Biddulph family name Peter Biddulph alias Fitton and Francis Biddulph also alias Fitton, were also said to have been Jesuit priests, Peter was part of the London chapter during the 1636 plague in London.[12] Jesuit priests were know to have been particularly stoical in the face of the plague and often provided some comfort to the diseased and dieing. This chapel was said in the early nineteenth century, to be a mere thatched shed[13], in a secluded spot, “a place of resort to that body of Christians”.[14] The chapel may also have served as a seminary for the local catholic children including the Biddulphs and Bagnalls, hence the governess of the Bagnall tradition, and may have been disguised as a barn during those troubled times.[15] It may also have had a resident priest, most likely a Jesuit, given the Biddulph’s close links with the sect. 

The Biddulph’s having had their home The Hall at Biddulph twice besieged, and partly destroyed when it fell in 1644 during the great rebellion,[16] may well have moved to Rushton Grange after their lands at Biddulph were sequestrated by the Parliamentary regime in 1645.[17]The Roman Catholic faith was under interdict at this time and people who practiced this faith could well have been excommunicated and viewed with suspicion as papists plotters and possible traitors to the Protestant republican parliamentary regime.[18] All manner of accusations and derision could be heaped upon this “alien” community, including that of bringing the plague. 

The parish registers Ward said “were quite silent” about this plague visitation although what he had and what we have available to us now, are the transcripts of William Kelsall[19], the original Parish registers having been lost in the fire in 1717 that caused the rebuilding of the church except for its 12th century tower. If the record of plague burials was kept separately from other church burials registers as they often were else ware in the case of plague, they could have been omitted or overlooked by Kelsall.


The Cycle of Civil War, Famine, and Disease.

There were many problems at this time, the first of the English Civil Wars had just concluded, and had done a huge amount of damage to the fabric of the nation. Large bodies of men were traveling the length and breadth of the country, carrying with them fleas and lice, the “vectors” which gave transport to diseases such as plague and typhus, and also taking what food they could were they could. The harvests during the later part of the first civil war period had been disastrous, a series of deficient harvests culminating in the harvest of 1647 bordering on dearth, approaching less than 50% of the expected yield.[20] The price of grains also rose sharply to a peak in 1647/8 to nearly double that of five years earlier[21]. The period 1646-51 has also been referred to as, the long famine, entirely the effect of bad grain harvests.[22] 

The Essex diarist Ralph Josselin made reference to the weather much of the time, and gave dramatic account.[23] He described 1646 as “a wonderful sad wet season, much corn in many places abroad, rotted and spoiled in the fields and grass exceedingly trodden”. He said of 1647 “things are at a rate that never was in our time, every thing what so ever dear”. Of 1648 he said “Season very sad in reference to corn and fallow, very few lands fit to be sown on. Some say that cattle die, their bowels eaten out by gravel and dirt.” 

The burgeoning market economy could have suffered recession, as people spent what money they had on food. Next years seed could also have been consumed, guaranteeing dearth the following year. The poorer folk would have suffered hunger, and possibly malnutrition, making them more susceptible to disease. The poor were known to mix such things as acorns, usually food for pigs, roots, bark, to what grain they had, the hungry would eat almost anything remotely edible maybe even dead rats killed by the plague.

 South and East Staffordshire had had the plague during period 1645-7 mainly recorded in the urban districts. Lichfield and Stafford were to be chronicled as suffering badly, from plague and other diseases such as typhus, though the registers were as is often the case were inadequately kept during and possibly as a result of the epidemic.[24]Further a field Bristol and Stratford suffered plague in 1645 London had a serious epidemic in 1646-7, and in 1647-8 Newark and Chester were both devastated by plague[25], and later Shrewsbury and Whitchurch in 1650.[26]

The Chronology of Plague The earliest document we have for this plague outbreak in the parish of Burslem is dated the 19th of August 1647. This is the date of a letter sent by the justice of the peace Edward Mainwaring of Whitmore, to the Constable of Tunstall Court[27]. He informed the Constable that divers persons suspected of being infected with the plague at Rushton Grange, had gone thence in to the workhouse near the common roadway at Cobridge Gate, near the neighbours there. He also charged the constable with the task of returning the possibly infected people to their “cabins” or some other convenient place in or near the Grange buildings. Mainwaring also offered the alterative of nailing up the workhouse door with the possibly infected people inside and placing a strict “watch and ward”, to restrain them from coming abroad, lest the infection spread further in to the country. Mainwaring then warned the constable “fail at your peril” and signed E Mainwaring. A post script was then added requiring the constable to shut up the house of Thomas Rorolie (Rowley) with him and his family inside restrained from coming abroad, as divers infected persons had frequented his house. 

This Thomas Rowley or more likely a member of his family could well have been the Catholic priest of the legend, as a propaganda pamphlet printed in London dated 4th June 1642,[28] speaks of an out-door meeting at Moule Cop (Mow Cop) were people were seen saying Mass. The meeting was attended by a group of local Catholics and two Jesuits priests, one name Kirsoule, and the other named Roely (Rowley). Curiously the group were said to have been apprehended and tried by one justice Biddulph. Had the Burslem parish clergy and some officers fled, Rowley the Jesuit Catholic priest may well have moved in to the void, to minister to the victims, as was sometimes the case in such an outbreak, most notably in London 1636.[29] This may well account for the divers infected persons visiting the house and for his incarceration, and also give us the Bagnall tradition that a family Catholic priest was present to give the last rights to the victims. John Rowley was a Jesuit priest at this time and he also used the alias Colclough.[30]

The fact that cabins were in existence suggests that the plague had been at Rushton Grange for some weeks, giving us the possibility of a classic bubonic plague outbreak beginning in June. These cabins were hastily erected as a matter of procedure at the onset of a significant out-breaks of plague, to isolate the victims and their families, often on the common land[31]. Provisions for these kinds of actions to restrict the movement of people possibly infected with the plague go back at least as far as the middle of the 16th century, and were reinforced by the plague relief act of 1604[32]. This act says that as much violence as is necessary may be used to force the possibly infected and their families into an isolation situation, either in their own homes, pest houses, or cabins. Edward Mainwaring’s letter may also allude to the possibility of the healthy people having broken out of their confinement with their diseased relatives, and fled to the workhouse in desperation. Going to their former homes would almost certainly have provoked a violent reaction from their neighbours, and the workhouse would have been the place to obtain a roof over their heads and poor relief if they were in a state of destitution, which seems likely. Under the 1604 act any runaways with infectious sores would be treated as felons and could “suffer pains of death”. Any runaway who has no sores about him he was to be deemed a vagabond and “whipped and bound over”, and returned to the place from which they had ran.[33]  The 1604 act also makes provision for the raising of local taxes or rates, to pay for the keepers, watchmen, searchers, gravediggers, and the building of the cabins and pesthouses.

If the workhouse were nailed shut the conditions for the people concerned would rapidly deteriorate, the infected and the uninfected in close confine would dramatically increase the mortality rate. The stench of the dead and dying and the primitive sanitation would be unremitting; the doors would only be opened to allow food in and the dead to be removed. The dead would not have been transported very far as the men doing this onerous task would have known they were in great danger. If the deceased was lying on a sheet or blanket a knot would be tied above its head and two men would take hold of the other two corners at the feet end of the corpse. Then the corpse was unceremoniously and at speed dragged to the place of burial, usually during the hours of darkness. This would also prevent the body from falling apart, if it was in a bad state of decay, if the parish had, had difficulty burying its many dead. An unconsecrated pit and without memorial, would be the last resting-place for many.[34] There would also have been a lack of mourners’ their living relatives’ still in their forced confinement.

The next document we have is recorded in the Staffordshire quarter session rolls, an order for a plague levy on the four neighbouring parishes, of Burslem, Wolstanton, Stoke upon Trent, and Norton in the Moors dated at Newcastle 2nd September 1647.[35] The said parishes churchwardens and overseers of the poor were to raise a lune amongst their parishioners to pay weekly, Burslem 16s 8d, Wolstanton 13s 4d, Stoke 13s 4d, and Norton 6s 8d, a total of £2 10s “by reason of the late infection of the plague at Rushton Grange”. The order goes on to say “that there are still there houses shut up” and that “the number of about forty persons destitute”. E Mainwaring and John Chatwode then sign the order. This order also says that there is a great danger of the infection spreading in Burslem! 

Destitute of course does not necessarily mean infected and would include those who could no longer go about their work, as they had done previously and the families of the infected that would have no income because of their confinement. Such economic dislocation caused by plague was serious, and would have proved a burden on the parishioners of Burslem, and surrounding parishes. A burden some would struggle to bare, a severe epidemic was the most appalling ill that could befall a community.[36] This was also in addition to famine, unemployment, inflated food prices and the political uncertainty of the protectorate.  

The inhabitants of Burslem petitioned the Justices of the peace   for the county of Stafford at Stafford. Dated 5th of October 1647[37] the petition also makes reference to a monthly meeting at Newcastle on the 29th of July when the four neighbouring parishes were to be taxed for the “looking to” of the persons infected with the plague or pestilence at Rushton Grange. Cabins were also to be made for the infected out of the taxes, and within the detailed account of the funds raised for the continuance of “the plague house”. People of the parish of Burslem had also made themselves available for burials, which was also to be paid for out of a total of 13 shillings and 4 pence received each week. The plague house mentioned could well have been the isolated Grange Buildings, or the previously mentioned Hole House, or even the workhouse at Cobridge Gate. This petition shows that the plague has been ongoing on since at least July; it also shows that the cabins were built between the end of July and the end of August. The Hole House was situated in a hollow on the outskirts of Burslem Township on the road heading towards Hanley close by a field name Hole Croft.[38]There is of curse the possibility of the Hole House being named after the plague pit, but is more likely to take its name from the field name.

Two entries in the churchwardens accounts for Stoke upon Trent Church[39] the first dated only 1647 says “Half a lune for the use of those at Rushton Grange that were visited with the sickness, made by the churchwardens and overseers of the poor”. The second entry dated Nov 14th 1647 says “A whole lune made by the present churchwardens and overseers of the poor, for the relief of the poor that were visited with the plague at Burslem”. It is worth noting that the first entry is half a lune for Rushton Grange and the second entry is a whole lune for Burslem. This is further indication that infection had spread further in to Burslem.

 There may well have been some difficulty raising these lunes a local tax or rate, as the county and indeed the country would have been war torn and impoverished at this time. The appointment of three auditors would also suggest this was the case;[40] also the account of the overseers of the poor for Stoke upon Trent Church seems to allude to this being the case.[41] In one of several entries on the subject of the plague in Burslem, in the account for 1647 the overseer sounds quite exasperated he writes, spent going up and down demanding lune according to ye justices warrant 6d. Another two entries say, spent with the officers in laying a lune for Burslem 4d.   

The Easter Quarter Sessions roll for 1648[42] contains an order, confirming a previous order by two Justices of the Petty Sessions granted on application of the overseers of the poor of Burslem, now taxing thirteen parishes for the relief of the poor visited by the plague. The thirteen parishes to be taxed are the previously mentioned four (Burslem, Wolstanton, Stoke upon Trent and Norton in the Moors) plus Newcastle, Keele, Trentham, Cheddleton, Audley, Madeley, Leek, Barleaston, and Swinnerton. 

This is very early in the year for decisions to be made about plague and shows that the pestilence has survived the winter; it also shows that further and greater problems were anticipated. The total sum to be levied has now risen from 13s 4d to £2 10s to the now £12 per week. The sum of £12 per week was a huge sum in those days to be spent on poor relief. John Ward states that £12 is twenty times the expenditure on the poor some fifty-eight years later.[43] It appears that the situation had continued to deteriate, despite the winter weather, or perhaps because of it! 

The fact that the disease had now over wintered 1647-8, as also happened in that well documented case of rural plague at Eyam North Derbyshire in 1665-6, is significant, given that for a long time it was thought that Bubonic Plague would not survive the English winter. In a typical English winter the surviving Black Rats would hibernate and its fleas go dormant. However in recent times historians have questioned this and some now believe that given a mild winter and an active rat flea, and indeed human flea population, Bubonic Plague could over winter.[44] This winter continuance would be at a much-reduced rate during those winter months then returning with a vengeance when the summer weather arrived. 

The weather in the winter of 1647-8 was very mild, according to Essex clergyman diarist Ralph Josselin who said hedges were leafing out and fruit trees budding in January. Josselin also noted a few sharp frosts in February, and a very wet spring and summer[45]. This could well be important in the identification of the type of plague, giving the bubonic type plague the possibility of over wintering, with the fleas hatching from the pupa stage in the unusually warm winter weather. Another possibility why bubonic plague could over winter, unique to Burslem is the production of pottery and the existence of the kilns. If the rats nested in the outbuildings attached to the kilns, this would provide the warmth necessary for the fleas to hatch during the winter. These kilns and buildings were described by Robert Plot as, the kilns being six feet diameter and eight feet high, and the buildings as being made of turf walls and a bough and turf roof[46]. These small workshops would prove ideal nesting sights for the black rats able to burrow and climb as they were. 

In an order of the quarter Sessions dated 11th day of November 1648[47] under the hands of two JPs, Thomas Crompton and Edward Mainwaring Esq., for this county (Staffordshire) at Stone. Twelve pounds per week is to be continued to be raised for the relief of the poor distressed “infected” persons visited with the plague at Burslem. This again indicates a continued increase in the outbreak, and if £2.10s will keep 40 “destitute”[48], and if the criteria remains the same then the now £12 would keep around 192. The population of Burslem may have been around 30 times the average birth rate[49] the ten year average before 1647 was around 18, so the population of Burslem parish could have been around 540. One hundred and ninety two people destitute would constitute about one third of the population of the parish. The crisis is now over 18 months old, and apparently still the cause of major problems in Burslem parish, with winter now approaching for the second time, an end to the plague must surely be in sight? 

The Disease The alternative to bubonic plague was the pneumonic type plague, which flourished in the wintertime, being spread by coughs and sneezes and attacking the lungs. This is encapsulated in the nursery rhyme Ring-a-Ring-a Rose’s in the line a-tissue a-tissue we all fall down. The marks on the skin of the plague victims looked like roses, hence the rose’s in the rhyme.  Pneumonic plague would have been much worse than bubonic as the morbidity rate was approaching 100 percent, as opposed to 30 to 40 percent for deaths from bubonic, with the infected dying very quickly within five days. 

Bubonic plague was of cause spread by fleabites, the bacillus entering via the blood stream and attacking the lymphatic system. Yet another possibility is that of septicaemic plague where the bacillus reproduces in the blood so rapidly that it overwhelms the kidneys, before killing the victim extremely quickly of blood poisoning. Often the victim dies within two days, without necessarily producing the classic symptoms of plague, though this was thought to be very rare type of plague. A combination of bubonic, pneumonic, and septicaemic plague working in concert as the so-called “Black Death” of the fourteenth century was thought to be, is yet another scenario[50]. This of course assumes that the people at that time were able to diagnose plague specifically as opposed to “a plague” in general terms[51], which could include Typhus, Typhoid, etc, by the mid seventeenth century it is however thought that plague meant specific illnesses.[52] The understanding people had of diseases in the seventeenth century were nothing like we have today. Robert Plot however in his history of Staffordshire in 1686was aware that there were “animals so small that they are invisible and are sucked in through the mouth and nostrils, which cause obstinate and incurable diseases”. [53]

The legend of the disease being imported with some clothing from Italy is remarkably similar to the legends at Eyam in 1665, where a delivery of cloth from London was deemed to have begun the outbreak,[54] and Westminster in 1664 where bales of cotton from Holland were deemed to have begun the outbreak[55]. This is most likely to be the popular mythology and the general hysteria of the day that plague was spread in this way. The likelihood is however that the plague arrived in a more obvious way as a bacillus-carrying rat flea or human flea or an infected person spreading it by coughs and sneezes as in the case of pneumonic plague. The rats concerned were different than the ones we know today, they were the black rats, sometimes known as the house rat. Black rats had a much closer relationship with humans than the brown sewer rat which displaced them, nesting in or around houses and out buildings, they were also good climbers and were able to live in thatch, walls, and roof spaces[56]. The Staffordshire born diarist Elias Ashmole commented the rats stole one of his stockings one night and his socks the next.[57] This gives some indication of the close co-existence the rats had with humans and perhaps suggests they were regarded with some amusement. The fleas would not leave the rat until it was dead and it must be remembered that bubonic plague was first and foremost a disease of rats, and the epidemic may also cease when the rat population is sufficiently depleted.

Leek also had an outbreak at this time, clearly marked twice in the parish registers[58] as “time of the Plague” firstly in-between February 26th and the 3rd of March 1648 and again in-between April 17th and 18th 1648. During this time the registers[59] show excessive mortality for the months of February and March but after that return to something near the expected norm. It may be that the disease had been stopped in its tracks by measures taken by the authorities or that after March the victims went unrecorded just as in Burslem. One possible reason for the lack of records may be revealed by the entry given in the parish register between June 4th and June 17th which states the vicar to be Francis Bowyer and the guards (otherwise known as church wardens) to be Robert Rid (rest perished) The remaining church officers may have been disinclined to have anything to do with the plague sufferers or victims, but continued to record the other burials along with baptisms and marriages. During the two months where the plague deaths appear to be recorded there is an interesting family, that of William Thickens of the township of Leek who was buried on the 29th of March 1648 and his daughter Elizabeth was buried 14th of April, and his wife Elizabeth and his son John were buried together on the 17th of April.  This gives about a fortnight between Williams’s death and that of the other family members; this is often taken as being an indication of bubonic plague had it not have been so early in the year; that is unless that winter had been unusually mild and that appeared to be the case.

It seems unlikely that this outbreak continued to develop because there is no documentation to be found, and by Easter 1648 Leek was contributing to taxes raised for the sufferers at Burslem. It would therefore seem likely then that Leek’s experience of this plague was short and sharp. The perished Churchwardens may well have paid with their lives to halt the progress of the outbreak. Despite difficulties in the change over in registration procedure in 1654, there is no sign of a significant recovery period in Leek during the period 1651 to 1654.[60]Also nearby Alstonfield Parish Registers have an indication of plague, Ann daughter of Thomas Walton; she died of the plague, dated July 1646.[61] Though the lack of excessive of burials or any sign of a recovery period, suggests no significant epidemic was present.  


Quantifying the Outbreak

John Ward told us that Burslem parish registers were silent about the plague outbreak, and this is certainly the case as regards the burials. The marriages and baptisms[62] however are not so silent and clearly show a strong recovery period, the birth rate for the years 1651 to 1653 was more than double the ten year average prior to the pestilence, where the average for the ten years which appear completely recorded was 18. The average for the ten years from 1654 had also settled back to 18. Marriages show an even greater recovery being four times the ten-year averages for the periods previously mentioned. These figures for the recovery period may also be under estimates if the outbreak was indeed centered on the Catholic community, whose baptisms and marriages may have gone unrecorded in the parish registers especially if they had used their own Catholic priest. The parish registers for Eyam[63] shows a very similar though longer and slower recovery period over and above the inflated post restoration figures, with Marriages more than double and baptisms approximately 40% up on ten-year average before and after the outbreak there. See graph.

The number of Burslem marriages over and above the average for the recovery period totals 26. A percentage of these additional marriages may be people who have lost spouses during the epidemic, the others being people who because of economic opportunities created by the epidemic are marrying sooner than they otherwise have done.  Either way it is possible they could be deemed to be replacements for people lost in the outbreak. A similar scenario could be presented for the children over and above the average baptism rate. These possible replacement children amount to 66 added to the 52 replacement spouse’s equal 118. While this is not the usual way of calculating plague deaths, it may be the best estimate of the deaths caused by the plague, in the absence of a record of the burials of the victims. This would represent approximately one fifth of the population of Burslem parish, a very conservative estimate if as seems likely the Catholic population was hardest hit. Similar calculations for the parish of Eyam produce almost identical figures, and the deaths at Eyam were said to be very great, possibly as high as two thirds of the population. 


Conclusion

The plague in Burslem 1647-8 marked the 300th anniversary of the so called Black Death 1348-9 and would probably be the last time that plague touched any of the four parishes. The cessation of plague occurred around 1670 and followed the great Fire of London (1666), which could have cleared away the epicenter of plague in England. 

In the Burslem plague case study an estimated 1/5 of the population of Burslem parish died. This case study also shows how the community tried to cope with its disease related problems and it could be argued that it was relatively successfully, given that the pestilence probably never reached the Burslem and Sneyd townships. The isolation of increasing numbers of the infected people and also their friends and relatives, would have resulted in the deaths of 60% of them, but reprieved the population at large. 

So don’t think too harshly of Edward Mainwaring JP and his peers, whose unenviable job it was to deal with a human catastrophe, using the best known remedies and practices of the time. The success of these measures was perhaps one of the factors in the subsequent cessation of plague in England a few years later. Do not forget also, the Jesuit Priest who if my superstitions are correct was one John Rowley alias Colclough, who may well have had the plague himself as a result of his illegal ministering to the diseased. The stoical Jesuits were expected to continue to touch the putrid lips of plague victims in signing the cross during last rights[64]. Nor should we forget the people who bore that most famous name Wedgwood, not the later famous Josiah this time but his predecessors John and William, who helped provide poor relief to the communities suffering this calamity. The Watchers and Warders, Searches and Grave Diggers also played their parts in the management of the pestilence.

The plague in Burslem most likely burnt itself out and after two summers it is likely that the rat population was severely depleted. The probability was that bubonic plague on occasions survived the English winter, is more certain as more local studies come to the conclusion that given a mild winter, the rats and their fleas would continue to pass the bacillus to the human population. Pneumonic and septicemic plague may also have been present in this crisis, pneumonic plague being closely associated with bubonic anyway. There were also other possible instances of local plague visitations in 1591 and 1602, which in particular show recovery periods consistent with plague and were known plague years nationally. 

 The use of only burials data to find crises is fundamentally flawed, since the burials register often falters at the time of a crisis. So baptisms and marriages have to be taken in to consideration also, to give us a bigger and better picture of a crisis. The comparison of recovery periods based on baptisms in particular; give us the opportunity to diagnose such crises as plague after registration has recovered from the crisis.

The strong population growth in England prior to 1650 was most likely one of the causes of the high mortality of the period and particularly child mortality. Conversely the high mortality of the period may have been one of the factors driving the population growth. Life expectancy at birth in North Staffordshire in 1570 was as high as 40 years and was as low as 30 years by 1670.[65] The impact of War, Famine, Plague, Smallpox and other diseases, along with the increasing birth rate, caused this drastic reduction. 

With some documentary evidence of a crisis, demography can further illuminate the picture and as more medical evidence becomes available as time goes on and the better our understanding of plague may be.

What we can never begin understand however is the suffering the people of Burslem and indeed the rest of the country that endured, during these periods of war, famine and disease. As the doors were nailed up someone may have uttered; 

God have mercy.                    

Post Script

Let us not forget the Jesuit Priest who if my superstitions are correct was one John Rowley alias Colclough, who may well have had the plague himself as a result of his illegal ministering to the diseased and dying. Nor should we forget the people who bore that most famous name Wedgwood, not the later famous Josiah this time but his predecessors John and William, who helped provide poor relief to the communities suffering this calamity. Also the Watchers and Warders, Searches and Grave Diggers also played their parts in the management of the pestilence.

 

 

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] J.A. Sharpe, p38


[2] J.A.Sharpe, Early Modern England a Social History 1550-1760, Edward Arnold, p49


[3] John Ward History of the Borough of Stoke on Trent, Simpkin Marshall, London,1838, pp216-218


[4] Henry A Wedgwood, The Romance of Staffordshire, Simpkin and Marshal, 1878, vol 1, p32


[5] Michael W Greenslade, A history of Burslem; extracted from the Victoria History of the County of Stafford, vol. 8 p


[6] Phillip B T Wheeler and Michael A Taylor, A Great Service,Tutissimus Wolfhill-Trentham 1999 Introduction


[7] Wheeler and Taylor, p


[8] D H Pennington, and I A Roots, The Committee at Stafford 1643-1645,Manchester University Press, 1957, p


[9] Ibid


[10] Catholic History Review p


[11] Frank Roberts, The Society of Jesus in Staffordshire, in Staffordshire Catholic History No3 Spring 1963 p1. p


[12] Phillip Caraman, Henry Morse Priest of plague, Longman, 1957 p 


[13] Simeon Shaw, The History of the Staffordshire Potteries, G Jackson, Hanley, 1829, p37


[14] Phillip Caraman, p


[15] Henry  A Wedgwood, p


[16]  Roy Sherwood, Civil war in the Midlands 1642-1651, Alan Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 1992, p87 


[17] Wheeler and Taylor, p


[18]


[19] S.R.O. D1788/V/391


[20] W.G. Hoskins, Harvest Fluctuations, in Agricultural History Review, No16, 1968, p16


[21] H.P.R. Finburg ed, The Agrarian History of England and Wales, vol4, Cambridge University Press, 1967, p850


[22] James E.T.A. Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices in England,Oxford, 1868,  p795 


[23] Alan Macfarlane, ed, The diary of Ralph Josselin 1616-1683, Oxford University Press, 1991, p


[24] David Palliser, Dearth and Disease in Staffordshire,1540-1670, in Rural change and Urban Growth, Longman, 1974, p 65


[25] Plague reconsidered


[26] Stephen Porter, The Great Plague, Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 1999, pp 28-30


[27] Plague Order 1647, Staffordshire Historic Collections, 1933 Pt II,Appendix G, p151


[28] Wheeler and Taylor, p 


[29] |Naphy and Spicer, The Black Death and the history of  plagues 1345-1730, Tempus, Stroud,  p143


[30] Josiah C and Josiah G E Wedgwood, Wedgwood Pedigree’s, Titus Wilson, Kendal, 1925, p


[31] Wheeler and Taylor, p


[32] The Plague act 1604


[33] A Gooder, Plague and Enclosure, The Plague act 1604


[34] Stevie Davis


[35] S.R.O., Q/SR M. 1647 p41


[36] Andrew B. Appleby, Famine in Tudor and Stuart England, Liverpool University Press, 1978, p97


[37] S.R.O., Q/SR M. 1647 p42.


[38] Map ref here


[39] Ward appendix XVI


[40] Ward, Appendix p xxxi


[41] The Transactions of the North Staffordshire Field Club, vol 74, A93


[42] Ward, p217


[43] Ward, p 218


[44] Paul Slack 


[45] Alan Macfarlane, ed, The diary of Ralph Josselin 1616-1683, Oxford University Press, 1991,


[46] Robert Plot, The Natural History of Staffordshire, Oxford, 1686, p 


[47] Ward, Appendix XVI


[48] Ibid.


[49] Wrigley and Scofield


[50] Stephen Porter, p


[51] J.F.D. Shrewsbury, The Bubonic Plague in the British Isles,Cambridge University Press, !970, p


[52] 


[53] Dr Robert Plot p35 


[54]  Paul Slack


[55] Stephen Porter,


[56] 


[57] Ellis Ashmole,                                                 11th & 12th March 1646


[58] Leek Parish Register Transcripts,


[59] Burslem Parish Register Transcripts


[60] See chapter on Quantifying the outbreak. 


[61] 


[62] Burslem Parish Register Transcripts


[63] Francine Clifford, Eyam Parish Register Transcripts, Derbyshire record society 1630-1700, Matlock, 1993,


[64] Phillip Caraman, Henry Morse Priest of plague, Longman,  


[65] J.A.Sharpe, pp38-9