Strange Facts?

 This abstract has been kindly supplied by the author, Ian Jessiman.
The full version of the paper, along with references, graphs and data tables may be found at www.loughborough.co.uk/plague

It has been estimated that in 1564, Loughborough
had 256 houses. The shape of the town, as it was, had changed little since
the reign of Edward II (1307-1327 ), for, during his reign, there is a
record of a grant for land in Dede Lane: "In Loughborough there
is a le Dede Lane, le Bygging, le Kirkgate, le Woodgate and le Tollbothe".(This suggests that Dead Lane is in fact
far older than many historians have claimed, for it appears to have been in existence at least
280 years before the 1608-09 plague). A traveller described the town in the
early sixteenth Century, recording that, " ... most of the houses
were made of wood and betraying their various ages by cruck, post and pan,
or the slighter timber frame, all with wattle and daub infilling, gleaming
plaster and new wood showing evidence of recent extensions, alterations
or new erections, for three new ones were built on Bridgeland."

Elizabethan Loughborough was seasonally exceedingly
wet. From the south ran the Woodbrook. This flowed through the town; entering
alongside the Market Place and exiting via The Rushes. The Elizabethan
Le Swynesians, now Swan Street, was probably named after a flock of breeding
swans that was kept there. Les Russhes, now The Rushes, was where the rushes
grew. They were a valuable commodity item for the town and provided an
excellent roofing material. Le Kirkegate, now Churchgate, was a central
part of the town and housed the wealthier townsfolk. A total of 1,632 of the townspeople died in
ten epidemic years between 1545 and 1631.
In 1545, 1558, 1602, 1603 and 1609, but it should be noted that there appears to be a
correlation between times of famine and the incidence of some of the epidemics.

There is evidence to suggest that Loughborough
was occasionally put into quarantine by local towns. During June 1610,
the Rector of Loughborough wrote the following letter to the Mayor of Leicester:

"Sir, I understand from a neighbour of mine that it is your
desire that I should give warning to my neighbours to keep them from coming
to your town of Leicester for the time of the Assizes; with their desire
I will by God's help accordingly fulfil only I desire to know whether the
restraint must be so general as none of the towns for any cause may come
hither with certificate as formally they have done. I desire to be informed
in law upon an arbitrement which we will put off until some other time
if you think that your coming will be offensive to any one. And so thanking
you for your care and kindness towards my neighbours in this time of visitation
I rest. Your loving friend in Christ assured, John Brown."

In 1631, a further outbreak, although not so
severe, (and the last major epidemic) caused such concern that the Parson
of Loughborough, John Browne (successor and namesake of the John Brown
who wrote the 1610 letter), wrote to the Mayor of Leicester :

"These are to certify whom it may concern that the shattered
town of Loughborough is not so dangerous as by some may be considered;
in as much as there are but only three houses visited by the Plague: being
all of them small tenements, and being in a back lane or place far remote
from our market-place or any common passage, being inhabited by poor people:
all attended upon; as well for relief of the visited as for prevention
of danger. And there are dead of the sickness as is supposed only eleven
p'sons in all men, women and children, in the space of seven weeks since
first the infection began."

The last reported plague in Loughborough ended
in 1648, it was reported that, "From
July 20, 1647, to March 25, 1648, died of the Plague, 83. No more of the
plague in 1648." Widespread death in the form of the plague never
returned to England once the epidemic beginning in London in 1665 had run
its course. It remains a mystery exactly why the plagues ended. However,
a tentative hypothesis may include the introduction of effective quarantine
measures. Improvements in the environment may also have accelerated the
demise of the plagues; "... on the 4th day of June 1622 there was
a grievous fire in this town (Loughborough), which burnt down to the ground
many houses." Fire has remained
an extremely efficient and global destroyer of disease. The destruction
of wooden, rat-infested dwellings and their subsequent replacement with
brick buildings, that separated people from the rats, may have also been
a contributory factor.

Local legend has it that Dead Lane was named
after the burial plot that was situated in that area for the victims of
the 16th Century plagues. However, the existence of Le Dede Lane has been traced to the reign of Edward II.
Perhaps it refers to a burial spot for victims of the 12th Century Black Death? Notwithstanding,
there are one or two clues as to why contemporary opinion has dated it
much later. First, when the foundations of the Shakespeare Street school
were being dug in the early 19th Century, old skeletons were discovered.
However, records indicate that on, or near this site, was the 14th Century
burial site for the nearby hospital of St John. Second,
16th Century law required that the corpses of the victims of the plague
be carried to their burial place, by a route other than a busy thoroughfare.
To get to the Churchyard, or other Northern burial spot, the eponymously
named 'Dead Lane' was ideally situated.

 THE BLACK DEATH
PLAGUE IN COTES
by Joan Shaw

In Rambles Around Loughborough published in 1868, T. R. Potter talks of the plague "depopulating" the village of Cotes. There are in Leicestershire over sixty sites whereon once stood a medieval village or hamlet and it is now believed that most became deserted due to large scale sheep farming and enclosure, the process being precipitated in some cases by a drop in population caused by plague. Although Cotes cannot be strictly described as a deserted village, it is, without doubt, very much shrunken. The Enclosure of Cotes began in 1513 and was probably completed by the 1630s.
The events to which Mr Potter alludes took place many years later. The life of Samuel Shaw and the troubles which beset his family in the Autumn of 1665 are well-documented (Mr Potter wrongly identifies Samuel in Rambles Around Loughborough though he corrects his mistake in Spencer's Almanack of 1871).
Samuel Shaw graduated from St John's College, Cambridge in 1650, and after spending some time as master of the Grammar School at Tamworth, was presented by Cromwell to the living at Long Whatton. His name is included in a list dated 1662 of over forty dissenting Leicestershire ministers ejected from their churches, and he came to Cotes having been ousted from his post at Whatton. He was a man of strong principles, prepared to risk everything for his beliefs despite the fact that he had a young family to support and care for. His wife Jane was the daughter of Ferdinando Poole of Thrumpton, another non-conformist priest (she was probably pregnant when the couple came to Cotes; an entry in the Prestwold registers for February 1661 records the baptism of Mary Shaw, daughter of Samuel 'a clerke' and Jane).
In 1665, London succumbed to the Great Plague, and a relative of Samuel and Jane, desperate for the safety of his family, sought refuge at Cotes. It is thought that one of his children was already infected and both Samuel and his wife became ill, though thankfully not at the same time. They nursed the sick and in order to confine the disease, they remained within their home for three months. Two of their children, two friends and a servant died; Samuel himself dug their graves and buried them in his garden for no-one else dared to assist.
Human bubonic plague is caused by bites from rodent fleas and in its wake follows the highly contageous pneumonic plague. It still occurs in the United States, India, China and South Africa, and, if left untreated is almost always fatal. Fortunately, modern antibiotics are very effective in controlling the spread of infection. Our forebears had no such weapons and since the Black Death of the 14th century (so called due to the haemorrhages which occur under the skin), the story of the fight against this terrible disease has been written in parish records throughout England.
The parish registers for Loughborough state that in 1551 'the Swat, called New Acquaintance, alias Stoupe, Knave and Know thy Master' - presumably euphemisms for the dreaded enemy of the English summer - began on the 24th of May. 19 people were buried in six days. In August 1609 a young woman died five days after giving birth, it was January before her son could be baptized. The epidemic raged for 18 months.
The Prestwold incumbent, William Ward, recorded plague in Barrow in 1609 and 'pestis in Loughburgo' in 1610. He wrote nothing of plague within his own flock but entries in the register suggest probable epidemics. In 1617, for example, 32 people were buried at Prestwold, 18 of them during the summer months. Deaths for the preceding thirty years had averaged less than 13.
None of the years showing high death rates include exceptionally large numbers for Cotes. The chapel there was the only one of the three chapels of Prestwold (Cotes, Burton and Hoton) to have a resident chaplain. It enjoyed full sacramental rights, and the privilege of burial. If there was a register separate to that of Prestwold, this does not appear to have survived, neither have we found additional entries for Cotes within the Bishop's Transcripts.
The heroism of Samuel and Jane Shaw was in no way unique. The heroism of the people of Eyam in Derbyshire is well-known, but by the 1500s, towns and villages throughout the land were taking common-sense precautions to prevent the spread of the disease. In the Borough of Leicester, markets were cancelled and the assizes moved to surrounding towns, hurdles were erected around infected houses, watchmen were employed to ensure that rules of isolation were obeyed, and special 'pest' houses were set up. The Loughborough parish registers state that in 1561 (after several plague years) the priest, Sir Edward Arnold 'when he had buried all those before written' was himself buried by George Chew. The Rev Samuel Shaw was luckier. He survived the horrific happenings at Cotes and the following year was appointed master of the free school at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. He became one of that town's most famous figures, and among his prolific religious writings is included 'A Welcome to the Plague' - a sermon written during his confinement at Cotes.
In his essay on Galby and Frisby, W G Hoskins tells us that the Black Death of 1348-9 may have wiped out as many as one-third or even half of the population, and was followed by similar epidemics in the 1360's and 70's.
The final demise of Cotes probably came at the beginning of the 18th century when Cotes Park House was destroyed by fire and the Packe family moved to Prestwold.