Catherine Mompesson grave (? to 25th August 1666)

 

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)...

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The main bedroom. Did she die in here?

 

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Grave - Catherine Mompesson 5b