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from this period. The graph shows burials marked in the register with and without the letter “P”, denoting plague. The profile is highly characteristic of plague. One case in May was followed by fourteen in June, roughly one every other day. Usually there were on average about five burials per month (more in winter and fewer in summer) but from June to October 1627, monthly mortality more than doubled. In effect, the deaths due to plague were “excess” deaths, as we say today. Whether the outbreak arose independently or came from elsewhere, we don’t know. In 1625 the new reign of Charles I began with plague in London and Exeter, followed in 1626 by outbreaks in Plymouth, Ashburton and elsewhere in Devon. In 1625 Charles launched a disastrous military expedition against Spain, embarking 6000 soldiers from Plymouth. On their return, the troops were kept in the south-west for future campaigns and forcibly billeted on local populations, causing great resentment. When plague broke out it was widely thought they were responsible. In the spring of 1627, fourteen soldiers billeted in Dartmouth died of plague (apparently not buried in St Saviour’s as they don’t appear in the register). The women who had housed them also died. Immediately, anyone able to do so fled the town for safety, the common response to a plague outbreak. On June 20, as deaths mounted, the Mayor, Andrew Voysey, told the Privy Council: “Most men of ability in body and purse have left [Dartmouth] for fear of the plague, though as yet not above ten houses are infected. Many others being at sea or in the King’s service, the town is left to be a prey for the enemy, and the poor cannot be relieved by reason of the absence of bailiffs and constables”.


The flight from the town significantly disrupted normal life,


stopping trade and commerce and affecting local administration. Outbreaks caused major crises this way – people were impoverished by sudden economic collapse; local services were not maintained; public order was threatened. At this period, there were clues about how plague was transmitted, but the mechanism remained mysterious and disputed. In Britain, like elsewhere in western Europe, policy was based on the idea of contagion, requiring stringent segregation of infected households, and confining sick and well together. Those infected had to declare it immediately, and “socially isolate” (using today’s language) in a specially built “pesthouse”. Two pesthouses at the top of


Crowthers Hill accommodated thirty people, with another in Townstal. The almshouse on the road to Warfleet was also used.


ISOLATION HELPED TO CONTAIN


CONTAGIOUS CASES, BUT MEANT WHOLE FAMILIES OFTEN DIED TOGETHER


“Watchers” were appointed to prevent infected people mixing with others. People from elsewhere were warned to keep away and it’s likely that public meetings were banned and the school closed. Money was raised through charity and special rates to support those who were isolated so could not work or obtain food, and to fund other costs of the outbreak. Funerals of people from the pesthouses were handled officially. Isolation helped to contain


contagious cases, but meant whole families often died together – for example, Stephen Harwood, a cooper, his wife Gillian, and their sons Benjamin, aged nearly twelve, and Philip, aged three, died in the pesthouse within a few days of each other. Because women took responsibility for nursing the sick in their household, they were at higher risk of cross-infection; the


Martin Voysey coat of Arms


St Saviour’s register shows that 19 women died, compared to 9 men. The other 28 people who died were children.


On July 19, Voysey updated the


Privy Council: “notwithstanding the letters of


the Council, the inhabitants still forsake the town, although the plague has ceased. Only fifteen households [are] infected, the inhabitants of which [have] all been removed to the pesthouses, remote from the town.” On September 14, he petitioned


the Privy Council for money to maintain harbour defences, because the town was “much weakened … by the late visitation”. But plague continued; Robert Martin, the Mayor’s own father in law, was buried on September 28, making his will five days earlier, “sick and weake of body”. He left money to his widowed sister, Marie Churchward, but she too died of the disease in November. The outbreak finally ended that


month. We don’t know the total death toll – 56 names are marked “P” in the St Saviour’s register but it’s possible other burials during the outbreak were cases not from the pesthouses. Nor do we have burial records from the other two churches. Plague disappeared from Britain


by 1700 – why, we don’t know. But living through Covid-19 surely deepens our understanding of what people faced in 1627.


© Text Gail Ham The Dartmouth History Research Group researches the history of Dartmouth and surrounding villages. To find out more, have a look at our website www.dartmouth- history.org.uk or contact us on dhrg. enquiries@dartmouth-history.org.uk


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