Short Account of Malignant Fever in Philadelphia – London Account (1793), 
Philadelphia County, PA

Contributed to the PAGenWeb Archives by Marjorie B. Winter [marjw@cox.net]

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(Page 96 )  APPENDIX – No.  I   

An account o f the plague in London, in the year 1665.

	ABOUT the close of the year 1664, the plague was brought over to London in 
some Levant goods, that came from Holland.

	The narrowness of the streets and lanes in London; the closeness of the 
houses, and their being crowded with families, rendered the inhabitants very 
liable to suffer by infectious disorders in sickly seasons; and the plague was 
almost continually among the diseases enumerated in the bills of mortality.  The 
goods above mentioned, were carried to a house in Long-acre, near Drury-Lane, 
where they were first opened.  There two Frenchmen died; the disorder 
communicated to other houses in the neighbourhood, and infected the parish 
officers who were employed about the dead.  Another Frenchman, who lived near 
the infected houses, removed, for fear of the distemper, into Bearbinderlane, 
where he died: and thus the plague got into the city.

	The further progress of this cruel disorder was stopped during a hard 
frost which set in this winter, and continued till March, 1665,—when its 
virulence was revived, by the advance of the spring.  At first it seized one 
here, then another a mile or more distant, after which it appeared again where 
it was observed before, just as accident furnished it with conveyance, and 
according to the time when persons contracted the distemper.
	
	The usual symptoms of infection, for it is not proposed to enter into a 
strict medical  consideration of the plague, are thus enumerated by Dr. Hodges, 
who lived then in London, and attended patients in all stages of the disorder.  
First, a horror, vomiting, delirium, dizziness, head-ach, and stupefaction; then 
a fever, watching, palpitation of the heart, bleeding at the nose, and a great 
heat about the præcordia but the signs more peculiar to the pestilence, were, 
those pustules, which the common people called blains, (Page 97) buboes, 
carbuncles, spots, and those marks called tokens.  The buboes were hard, painful 
tumours, with inflammation and gatherings upon the glands, behind the ears, the 
armpits, and the groin.  These tumours, at their first appearance, were hard, 
and the event of the disorder was prognosticated from their sudden or slow 
increase, from their genuine or untoward suppuration, and from the virulence of’ 
their contents.  The pestilential spots appeared chiefly on the neck, breast, 
and back, and were not easily distinguishable from flea-bites.  The genuine 
pestilential characters, commonly called tokens, as being the forewarnings of 
death, were minute distinct blasts, which had their origin from within, and rose 
up in little pyramidal protuberances sometimes as small as pin-heads, other 
times as large as a silver penny, having the pestilential poison chiefly 
collected at their bases, gradually tainting the neighbouring parts, and 
reaching the surface as the configuration of the vessels and pores favoured 
their spreading.  They were also derivable from external causes, as from the 
injuries of air, when the pestilential miasmata were pent up and condensed; and 
by that means their virulence increased, so that life was immediately 
extinguished when they reached the noble organs.

	In the treatment of the sick, all the physicians agreed in throwing out 
the pestilential malignity as soon as possible by alexipharmics, and to these, 
as soon as the belly was loosened, recourse was had as to a sacred refuge: in 
extremity some had recourse to mineral preparations, as mineral bezoar, 
sulphur,auratum, aura vitæ, etc. in order to drive out the petulance by mere 
force.  For external applications, they used blisters and cataplasms; the buboes 
were opened by incision; and the efchar formed by the virulent ichor [thin, 
watery, blood-tinged], discharged by the carbuncles, was chiefly got off by 
actual cautery; nor were the blisters, ulcers, or incisions, suffered to heal 
until the malignity of the disease was spent.  But such was the delusory 
appearance of this pestilence, that many patients were lost, when they were 
thought in safe recovery, whereas, others survived, who were (Page 98) given 
over for lost, much to the discredit of the medical art.

	The apprehensions of the people were greatly increased, by the crafty 
predictions of fortune-tellers, cunning-men, astrologers, and quacks, who hung 
out their signs in every street, and found their account in heightening the 
general terror; nor was their trade stopped, until these men of superior 
knowledge in the decrees of providence, were themselves swept away in the common 
calamity.  As soon as the magistrates found that the contagion extended into 
several parishes, an order was issued for shutting up infected houses, to stop 
the communication of the disorder.  These houses had red crosses painted on the 
doors, with this inscription, Lord, have mercy upon us! and watchmen were placed 
before them, who were daily relieved, to hand necessaries and medicines into the 
confined families, and to refrain them from coming abroad until forty days after 
recovery.  But though these regulations were strictly executed, the propriety of 
them was much controverted, and the hardship universally complained of; for if a 
fresh person was seized in the same house, but a day before this quarantine 
expired, it was again renewed; which intolerable tedious imprisonment of the 
healthy with the sick, frequently ended with the deaths of whole families.  
Neither did this confinement of the sick prove effectual for each house having 
but one guard, and many houses having avenues behind, it was impossible to 
secure all passages; so that, some would amuse the watchmen with discourse on 
one side of the house, while the rest of the family made their escape at the 
other; until, at length, the men were left to watch empty houses.  Some watchmen 
were publicly whipped through the streets, for taking bribes to let persons out 
privately; and where such opportunities did not offer, the watchmen were 
sometimes ill treated.  One near Coleman Street was blown up by gunpowder; and 
while he lay disabled by the explosion, those who had strength, escaped out of 
the house.  Some persons also would let themselves down from the windows, armed 
with swords (Page 99) and pistols, in the fight of the watchmen, arid threaten 
them with instant death, if they called out or stirred.  Many of them were even 
killed in disputes with those they were charged with the care of guarding.

	It is a sad, though true character of human nature, to remark, that there 
are always miscreants ready to take advantage of public calamities; and what 
greatly contributed to the loss of persons thus shut up, was the villainous 
behaviour of some nurses.  These wretches from an inhuman greediness to plunder 
the dead, would not only strangle their patients and charge their deaths to the 
distemper in their throats; but would secretly convey the pestilential taint 
from the sores of the sick to those who were well.  Yet though they were without 
witness in these diabolical practices, they often fell themselves, the just 
victims of their own unguarded presumption.

	Dogs and cats, being domestic animals, apt to run from house to house, and 
being supposed to convey the noxious effluvia in their fur or hair; an early 
order was made by the lord-mayor and other magistrates by the advice of the 
physicians, that they should all be immediately killed; and an officer was 
appointed for that purpose.  It was computed that 40,000 dogs, and five times as 
many cats, were massacred in consequence of this prescription; and all possible 
endeavors were used to exterminate rats and mice by poison, on the same account.

	It was inconceivable, as the plague increased with what precipitation such 
inhabitants of the city as were able to leave it, deserted into the country; for 
some weeks it was difficult to get to the lord-mayor’s door, for the throngs 
that crowded in to get passes and certificates of health; without which none 
were permitted to travel through, or lodge in, any towns on the road.  The 
nobility, gentry, and richer tradesmen retired first, and in the broad streets 
leading out of town, nothing was to be seen but waggons and carts loaded with 
goods, and servants; coaches full of families—and horsemen, all hurrying away; 
with empty carriages returning for fresh loads.

	Some families that had no country retreats, laid up stores of provisions 
and shut themselves up so carefully (Page 100) as not to be heard of nor seen, 
until the plague ceased; when they came abroad safe and well;—among these were 
several Dutch merchants, who kept their houses like garrisons besieged, 
suffering no one to go out or come in, and thus preserved themselves in health.—
Many merchants and ship owners shut themselves up on board ships, and as the 
plague increased, removed down the river, nor was it heard that the disorder 
reached any vessels below Deptford.  Poorer persons took refuge in hoys, smacks, 
and fishing boats; but these took the infection; others went up the river in 
boats, lodging by night in tents made of their sails, on shore; for though the 
country people would supply them with provisions, they would not receive them 
into their houses.  The poor who ran abroad in their extremities into the 
country, were often ill used and driven back, which caused great exclamation 
against the cruelty of the country towns; but self-preservation extinguished 
humanity; and yet notwithstanding all their care, there was not a town within 
twenty miles but suffered more or less by the disorder.

	Thus the distemper was felt chiefly to prey on the common people; which it 
did to such a degree as to obtain the name of the poor’s plague.  The lord-
mayor, sheriffs, aldermen, or their deputies, with many of the common council, 
very humanely to compose the minds of the people as much as possible, published 
their resolution not to quit the city, but to be always ready at hand to 
preserve order, and to do justice on all occasions.  The lord-mayor held 
councils every day, making necessary dispositions for preserving the public 
peace; the people were treated with all the gentleness circumstances would 
allow, while presumptuous rogues, housebreakers, and plunderers of the sick or 
dead, were duly punished, and severe declarations issued against them.

	It was one of their principal concerns to see the regulations for the 
freedom and good supply of the markets, observed—and every market-day the lord-
mayor, Sir John Lawrence, or the sheriffs, attended vigilantly on horseback, to 
see their orders executed.  The necessity of going to market was greatly 
contributory to the (Page 101) ruin of the city, as there the people caught the 
infection one of another, and it was suspected that even the provisions were 
tainted; all imaginable precautions were however used in these negotiations for 
customers took the meat from off the hooks themselves, that they might not 
receive it from the butcher—and for his security dropped their money into pans 
of vinegar, always carrying small money with them, that they might receive no 
change.  Every one that could procure them, carried scents and perfumes about 
them, while the poorest inhabitants were forced on all occasions to run all 
hazards.

	The infection, notwithstanding every caution, continued through the months 
of May and June, with more or less severity--sometimes raging in one part, and 
then in another--about the latter end of June, above twenty parishes were 
infected, and the King removed from Whitehall to Hampton court.  Government was 
not however inattentive to the distresses of the metropolis—for beside 
appointing a monthly fast for public prayer, the king commanded the college of 
physicians to compose and publish an English directory of general advice in this 
calamitous season.  Some of the college were appointed to attend the sick on all 
occasions; and two out of the court of aldermen were required to see this 
hazardous duty performed : nor were there eminent physicians wanting who 
voluntarily and courageously gave their assistance in so dangerous an 
employment; eight or nine of whom were destroyed in the duty.

	In the first week of July, the bill rose to 725, the next week to 1089, 
the third week to 1843, and the next week to 2010.  About the middle of the 
month, the disorder, which had chiefly raged in St.Giles’s Holburn, and toward 
Westminster, began to travel eastward, and over the river to Lambeth and 
Southwark; but kept principally in the out parishes which were fullest of poor.  
When it abated in the western parishes, it exerted its violence in Clerkenwell, 
Cripplegate, Shoreditch, Bithopsgate, Aldersgate, White-chapel and Stepney.  In 
the months of August and September the disorder made most terrible slaughter; 
(Page 102) three, four, or five thousand died in a week, the deaths one week 
amounted to 8,000 and were believed to extend to 10,000!  for the registers in 
such confusion were not kept with great accuracy.

	Under these shocking circumstances, when the people were in the greatest 
want of spiritual consolation, they were in general forsaken by their parochial 
ministers; and sad as the minds of the people were, there were not wanting some 
who satirized them in lampoons, for this scandalous desertion of their 
distressed flocks.  When on some church doors were written, Here is a pulpit to 
let, and on others, A pulpit to be sold, then it was that the ejected non-
conforming ministers, showed that disinterested concern for the people, that 
constitutes the true essence of the clerical character; for, unmindful of their 
legal disability, and regardless of the surrounding danger, they resolutely 
mounted the vacant pulpits, often twice a day, and soothed the griefs of crowded 
audiences by their pious discourses and other religious exercises.
	
	When deaths became so numerous, the church yards were unable to contain 
the bodies, and the usual modes of interment were no longer observed: occasional 
pits of great extent were dug in several parts, to which the dead were brought 
by cart-loads, collected by the ring of a bell, and the doleful cry of Bring out 
your dead! They were put into the carts with no other covering than rugs or 
sheets tied round them by their friends, if they had any surviving; and were 
shot down in promiscuous heaps! Sometimes the drivers of those carts would drop 
in their employments, and the carts would be found without any conductor; in the 
parish of Stepney, it was said they lost within the year, 116 sextons, grave-
diggers and their assistants!

	Trade was at a stand, shops were shut up, every day looked like a solemn 
Sabbath; few were to be seen in the streets, and neither cart nor coach appeared 
but such as were employed for immediate acts of necessity: grass grew in the 
most public streets, and in the Royal-Exchange,—and the broad street in 
Whitechapel might be mistaken for a green field.  Those families who carried on 
retail trades, or subsisted by labour, were now supported (Page 103) by charity, 
which is recorded to have been worthily extended by those who had ability to 
bestow it.  The king contributed 1000£ a week, and Dr. Sheldon, archbishop of 
Canterbury, who remained at Lambeth the whole time, beside his own benefactions, 
procured great sums to be remitted from the dioceses under his jurisdiction, by 
his affecting letters to the bishops— Monk, afterwards duke of Albemarle, with 
lord Craven, remained in London, and exerted all their abilities to alleviate 
the distress they were witness to.  Though the city was in general abandoned by 
the rich, yet these did not forget those who were left behind—large sums were 
sent up by them to the magistrates, as well as from the trading towns in the 
remotest parts of England.  The degree of general distress in the metropolis may 
be supposed void of exaggeration, when it is said that beside private charities, 
the lord mayor and aldermen were enabled to bestow 100,000£ a week for several 
weeks together to the poor!

	That nothing might be left untried to disperse the contagion, large fires 
were ordered to be made in the public streets;  yet the physicians were very 
diffident of the success of this expensive experiment; and the trial soon 
decided in favour of their doubts.  Coals were then 4£ per chaldron ; and two 
hundred caldron were applied in making fires at the custom-house, Billingsgate, 
at the bridge-foot, three cranes, Queenhithe, Bridewellgate, the corner of 
Leadenhall and Grace church streets, at the north and south gates of the Royal 
Exchange, Guildhall, Blackwell-hall, at the lord-mayor’s door in St. Helens, at 
Bow church, and at the western end of St. Paul’s cathedral.—These fires 
continued for three days—and were then almost extinguished by a smart rain; but 
the following night, from whatever cause it might proceed, was the most fatal of 
the whole; for more than 4,000 then expired! and this unfortunate event was a 
discouragement to any farther attempts of that nature.

	When the disease was at the greatest height, little regard was had to the 
giving medical assistance; for many of the most eminent physicians and surgeons 
were already dead: and it was in vain to keep houses (Page 104) shut up, when 
they were mostly empty with their doors and windows open and shattering with the 
wind.  At length the disorder, after having braved the art of man, gave way to 
the course of nature, at the decline of the summer season, when, though the 
numbers of the infected were not observed to lessen, yet the disorder grew 
weaker; more in proportion recovered, and the deaths insensibly diminished.  
When this began to be perceived, the dread that had invaded the minds of the 
people wore off, and contributed to their recovery; and whereas in the height of 
the disorder it usually killed persons in two or three days, and not above one 
in five recovered—now it did not kill in less than eight or ten days, and not 
above two in five perished; the nurses also grew either more cautious or more 
faithful; so that after a little while a dawn of health appeared as suddenly as 
it was unexpected.  In the beginning of November, the face of affairs was quite 
altered: though the funerals were yet frequent, yet the citizens began to return 
without fear; and in December they crowded back as fast as they had fled in the 
Spring.  Such as were cautious, took great care in seasoning their houses; and 
abundance of costly things were consumed, which not only answered their own 
particular purposes, but filled the air with grateful smells, which were 
serviceable to their neighbours; some burnt pitch, brimstone, and gunpowder, to 
purge their houses and goods; while others, through eagerness and carelessness, 
entered their dwellings without any preparation.  Earl Craven and the other 
justices of Westminster caused the bedding of infected houses, to be well dried 
and aired, the rooms to be new whitewashed, and the churchyards to be covered 
two feet thick with fresh earth; to prevent, as far as possible, any revival of 
the pestilential taint.

	The winter gave the most effectua1 check toward suppressing this great 
enemy of mankind; and tho’ some remains of the contagion appeared in the 
succeeding spring, it was no more than could be easily conquered by medicine; 
and the city thus got rid of the infection and returned to perfect health.
	
	The bills of mortality computed the numbers of burials (Page 105) this 
year at 97,306, of which 68,596 were attributed to the plague; but this estimate 
was universally received as very erroneous; as it was not difficult to show, 
from circumstances, that the account was manifestly defective.  At the beginning 
of the disorder, there was great knavery and collusion in the reports of the 
deaths; for while it was possible to conceal the infection, they were attributed 
to fevers of all kinds, which began to swell the bills; this was done to prevent 
houses being shut up, and families being shunned by their neighbours.  Add to 
this, that the dead carts working in the dark, no exact accounts were kept; the 
clerks and sextons being naturally averse to so dangerous a duty, and frequently 
falling sick themselves before such accounts as they had were delivered in.  
Quakers and Jews also, who had separate burial grounds, were not mentioned in 
the weekly bills; nor was any register taken of those who died on board vessels 
of all kinds in the river.  It was well known, that numbers of poor despairing 
creatures wandered out of town into the fields, woods, and other remote places, 
where they died of the infection and of want.  The inhabitants of the villages 
would carry food to these distracted refugees, and let it at a distance for 
them; and afterwards frequently found them dead with the victuals untouched.  
The country people would then dig holes and drag the bodies into them with long 
poles having hooks at the ends, carefully standing to the windward; and throw 
the earth over them as far as they could cast it.  On the whole, it was the 
opinion of eye witnesses, that the plague destroyed 100,000 at least.  The 
yearly bill mentions but one parish that remained quite exempt from infection, 
which was that of St.  John the Evangelist in Watling-street.

	As to foreign trade during this year, it was almost extinct; as no port in 
France, Flanders, Spain, or Italy, would admit London ships, or correspond with 
that city; the Turks only and the Grecian isles, to whom the plague was 
familiar, were not so scrupulous.  The Flemings and Dutch had great advantage of 
this circumstance, by buying English goods in those parts of England that 
remained clear of infection, carrying them home, and then exporting them again 
as their own.
 (Page 106)