It is ordered and enjoined that the aldermen,deputies,and common councilmen shall meet together weekly,once,twice,thrice or oftener (as cause shall require),at some one general place accustomed in their respective wards (being clear from infection of the plague),to consult how the said orders may be duly put in execution;not intending that any dwelling in or near places infected shall come to the said meeting while their coming may be doubtful.And the said aldermen,and deputies,and common councilmen in their several wards may put in execution any other good orders that by them at their said meetings shall be conceived and devised for preservation of his Majesty's subjects from the infection.
'SIR JOHN LAWRENCE,Lord Mayor.
SIR GEORGE WATERMAN
SIR CHARLES DoE,Sheriffs.'
I need not say that these orders extended only to such places as were within the Lord Mayor's jurisdiction,so it is requisite to observe that the justices of Peace within those parishes and places as were called the Hamlets and out-parts took the same method.As I remember,the orders for shutting up of houses did not take Place so soon on our side,because,as I said before,the plague did not reach to these eastern parts of the town at least,nor begin to be very violent,till the beginning of August.For example,the whole bill from the 11th to the 18th of July was 1761,yet there died but 71of the plague in all those parishes we call the Tower Hamlets,and they were as follows:-The next week And to the 1st was thus:of Aug.thus:
Aldgate 143465Stepney 335876Whitechappel 214879St Katherine,Tower 244Trinity,Minories 114---------
71145228
It was indeed coming on amain,for the burials that same week were in the next adjoining parishes thus:-The next week prodigiously To the 1st of increased,as:Aug.thus:
St Leonard's,Shoreditch 6484110St Botolph's,Bishopsgate 65105116St Giles's,Cripplegate 213421554---------
342610780
This shutting up of houses was at first counted a very cruel and unchristian method,and the poor people so confined made bitter lamentations.Complaints of the severity of it were also daily brought to my Lord Mayor,of houses causelessly (and some maliciously)shut up.I cannot say;but upon inquiry many that complained so loudly were found in a condition to be continued;and others again,inspection being made upon the sick person,and the sickness not appearing infectious,or if uncertain,yet on his being content to be carried to the pest-house,were released.
It is true that the locking up the doors of people's houses,and setting a watchman there night and day to prevent their stirring out or any coming to them,when perhaps the sound people in the family might have escaped if they had been removed from the sick,looked very hard and cruel;and many people perished in these miserable confinements which,'tis reasonable to believe,would not have been distempered if they had had liberty,though the plague was in the house;at which the people were very clamorous and uneasy at first,and several violences were committed and injuries offered to the men who were set to watch the houses so shut up;also several people broke out by force in many places,as I shall observe by-and-by.But it was a public good that justified the private mischief,and there was no obtaining the least mitigation by any application to magistrates or government at that time,at least not that I heard of.This put the people upon all manner of stratagem in order,if possible,to get out;and it would fill a little volume to set down the arts used by the people of such houses to shut the eyes of the watchmen who were employed,to deceive them,and to escape or break out from them,in which frequent scuffles and some mischief happened;of which by itself.
As I went along Houndsditch one morning about eight o'clock there was a great noise.It is true,indeed,there was not much crowd,because people were not very free to gather together,or to stay long together when they were there;nor did I stay long there.But the outcry was loud enough to prompt my curiosity,and I called to one that looked out of a window,and asked what was the matter.
A watchman,it seems,had been employed to keep his post at the door of a house which was infected,or said to be infected,and was shut up.He had been there all night for two nights together,as he told his story,and the day-watchman had been there one day,and was now come to relieve him.All this while no noise had been heard in the house,no light had been seen;they called for nothing,sent him of no errands,which used to be the chief business of the watchmen;neither had they given him any disturbance,as he said,from the Monday afternoon,when he heard great crying and screaming in the house,which,as he supposed,was occasioned by some of the family dying just at that time.It seems,the night before,the dead-cart,as it was called,had been stopped there,and a servant-maid had been brought down to the door dead,and the buriers or bearers,as they were called,put her into the cart,wrapt only in a green rug,and carried her away.
The watchman had knocked at the door,it seems,when he heard that noise and crying,as above,and nobody answered a great while;but at last one looked out and said with an angry,quick tone,and yet a kind of crying voice,or a voice of one that was crying,'What d'ye want,that ye make such a knocking?'He answered,'I am the watchman!How do you do?What is the matter?'The person answered,'What is that to you?Stop the dead-cart.'This,it seems,was about one o'clock.Soon after,as the fellow said,he stopped the dead-cart,and then knocked again,but nobody answered.He continued knocking,and the bellman called out several times,'Bring out your dead';but nobody answered,till the man that drove the cart,being called to other houses,would stay no longer,and drove away.