In the late
summer of 1665 some cloth samples were sent from London to Alexander Hadfield
who was the tailor in Eyam village in Derbyshire
(population 800.) The damp cloth contained infected fleas from small animals
and brought the plague to the village. Over the next 14 months 260 Eyam villagers died, some families being completely wiped
out.
The remaining 540 villagers survived by cutting
themselves off from surrounding areas. Essential supplies were brought to the
village and left at specific spots to be collected by locals. The vicar held
services outside to prevent the spread of infection. The plague spread rapidly
throughout autumn 1665, slowing down in the winter only to return with greater
vigour the following summer. In the August 78 people died. The churchyard was
closed to burials to prevent the spread of infection. Families were buried
their dead in their own fields and gardens.
Here I am at the grave of Catherine who needn't
have died so young at 27. She was the wife of the village vicar William Mompesson. When the plague broke out William wanted the
whole family to leave Eyam. He tried to persuade his
wife to leave with their two children so he could stay to help the villagers
but she refused (the children were sent to Yorkshire.) She helped deliver
herbal remedies and one day told her husband she could smell a sweetness in the
air - an alarming symptom of the plague. She did not linger long and was soon
weak as the bacteria spread into her organs. Like other victims sictims developed swellings in the lymph modes in the
armpits, groin and neck. Headaches and chronic vomiting followed. She died at
the rectory with William at her side and was Eyam's
200th victim (the rectory is available for rent at £1950/month.) William wrote
a difficult letter to the children to inform them of their mother’s end.
I’ve visited Eyam a few
times and it’s a quiet quintessentially English village. You’d think there’d be
a sprinkling of victims graves in the cemetery but there are none to see - only
Catherine’s. In England 30 to 40% of the population died from the plaque. It
killed so many people in London the population plummeted from 100,000 to
20,000.
Anyway here I am saluting at Catherine's tomb.
Eventually her husband William moved to a new parish in Nottinghamshire and
remarried. As I tramped around the cemetery I wondered if he ever came back to
visit his wife. Twenty-seven isn't much of an age is it? Second gear. I did a
salute and left.
Eyam Rectory now (where Catherine died)...
The main bedroom. Did she die in here?