A Noble Quarantine

 Eyam village, Derbyshire.

 William Mompesson, rector of
St Lawrence's Church, Eyam.

I used to live in Derbyshire, that beautiful county, for many years so how come, given the current hysteria about the Coronavirus, that I didn’t immediately remember Eyam, the plague village, famous in the seventeenth century for the truly remarkable way in which it decided to self-isolate as the current phrase has it, during a vicious return of the bubonic plague? It was an item by Peter Wilby in last week’s New Statesman referring to the famous Plague Village story which pulled me up instantly. The narrative of Eyam is inspiring.

 Plague scenes in stained glass,
St Lawrence's.

It began in the summer of 1665 when a bale of cloth arrived from London where the plague had already killed thousands. A tailor’s assistant, George Viccars, opened the damp bale and hung it in front of a fire to dry, unwittingly stirring the disease-ridden fleas contained within the parcel.. George was visiting Eyam to help make clothes for Wakes Week but became the first victim of the plague in Eyam. The pestilence swept through the community and between September and December 1665, 42 villagers had died; by Spring of 1666, many were about to flee to save their lives.

 During the plague, Sunday services were held  outside.
Any communal gathering was held in the open air.

 Mompesson's chair still remains in
Eyam church.

The recently-appointed (and unpopular) rector, William Mompesson decided that the village must be quarantinedHis predecessorThomas Stanley, had been summarily removed from his Church position, after refusing to acknowledge the Act of Uniformity (1662) which made it compulsory for churches to use the Book of Common Prayer introduced by Charles 11. He, and most of the village, were fervent supporters of Cromwell’s Puritan Government before the restoration of the monarchy. Stanley lived on the edge of the village more or less in exile but Mompesson realised that he needed the support of Stanley whom the villagers trusted. Together, they devised a remarkable plan: on 24 June, 1666 Mompesson told his assembled parishioners that the village must be closed with no one entering or leaving. The Earl of Devonshire who lived nearby at Chatsworth, had offered to send food and supplies if the villagers agreed to be quarantined. Mompesson said he would do everything in his power to help them and he and his wife would stay.

His wife’s diary recorded that the difficult decision William had asked of the village was helped by

 Catherine Mompesson's grave.

the fact that the popular Rev. Thomas Stanley stood by his side, in strong support of the quarantine. Though, she also recorded, that there were many misgivings over the wisdom of the plan which eventually received the reluctant support of the whole village. There is a nobility about the Eyam decision which resonates today. No one else, outside Eyam, in Derbyshire caught the plague; no one else died but the villagers knew the huge risks to which they were condemning themselves. By August 1666 there were five or six deaths a day. The weather was remarkably hot, the fleas were highly active and the pestilence spread unchecked through the village. In spite of this, no one broke the cordon sanitaire and whole families died. Elizabeth Hancock, for instance, buried six of her children and her husband, all of whom had died within eight days.

Mompesson’s letters record his appreciation of his young wife, Catherine, who had worked unstintingly among the victims and in so doing, had contracted the plague herself. On 22 August 1666 they went for a walk in the hills and she spoke of the sweet smell in the air. This sweet smell in the nostrils of the afflicted, was a common feature of the bubonic plague and she died the following morning, aged 27. Mompesson wrote of the smell of ‘sadness and death’ in the air saying, ‘I am a dying man.’ He did, in fact, survive. The worst was over and the number of cases fell in September and October and by November 1, 1666, the disease had gone. In just over a year, 260 of Eyam’s inhabitants from 76 families, had died. Historians estimate the size of the village before the plague, as between 350 and 500.

 Mompesson's well.

It seems to me that the self-imposed Eyam quarantine is of a different order from today’s cancellation of public events and those afflicted by the Coronavirus imposing a self-isolation. The inhabitants of the village sentenced themselves to remain in the highly-infected theatre of the disease with no defence for anyone against the plague swirling around them. Poor Mompesson remained unloved in Eyam, and left in 1669 to work in Eakring, Nottinghamshire but such was the reputation of the plague village that he was forced to live in a hut in Rufford Park until eventually, the villagers’ fears died away.

 St Lawrence's Church, Eyam, Derbyshire.

Post Script

Until a vaccine is discovered, tested and is ready to be administered, perhaps 9-12 months in the future] it is interesting to note that the only techniques available for limiting the spread of the epidemic today are essentially mediaeval. Isolation of the afflicted while waiting to see if the patient has the illness and can survive or not. No large groups of people assembling inside; groups outside to be avoided.