Page 27 - Gen Mag Online November 2020

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While pockets of the Black Death probably continued in some local areas, on the whole, the epidemic
in Britain was all but over and normality returned by 1350.

Battling plague in Britain has been continuous for centuries. One of the most famous local epidemics
th
occurred at Eyam in Derbyshire in the 17 century. This time the outbreak occurred in 1665 when
local tailor, Alexander Hadfield had bought a flea-infested piece of cloth which came from London.
His assistant George Viccars noticed the cloth bundle was damp so investigated, hanging it up to
dry. This was Ideal conditions for the parasitic fleas which then became active. Within a very short
time George succumbed to the disease followed by other household members and eventually the

William Mompesson, town was forced to go into what we now
vicar of Eyam, call a lock down. Trading with outsiders
Derbyshire still took place but precautions such as
disinfecting money with vinegar were introduced.

Eyam in short was quarantined, and it took 14 months before it was
safe to open up again. It was the vicar of Eyam - William Mompesson
who convinced the villagers to stay. If they had left, the devastation
of another epidemic across the nation was a real possibility.

There was only one problem. The vicar was unpopular, so it must
have been a really brave thing to do to make this controversial
suggestion. But it worked. It was helped though when the Earl of
Devonshire offered food parcels if the villagers agreed to the

quarantine proposals. The Earl’s wife, Catherine wrote in her diary:

"It might be difficult to predict the outcome because of
For those interested in
the resentment as to William's role in the parish, but
discovering more about the
considering that the Revd Stanley was now stood at his
Eyam Plague the following
side, perhaps he would gain the support necessary to
books will help.
carry the day."
Eyam plague, 1665-1666
In total, the Eyam plague took the lives of 273 villagers
(John G Clifford)
including 18 members of the Morten family. It could have
been much worse.
Eyam - Plague Village (David
Paul)
Eyam is a small village in the Derbyshire dales. Lying in the
Peak District National Park was named by Anglo-Saxon
Eyam, Plague Village (Jan
settlers, but the area was well known to the Romans who
Carew)
mined for lead. This story however, was forgotten for centuries.

IRISH FAMILY HISTORY

Millions of British people will have Irish ancestry, and while many of the records used to discover
Irish relatives are similar to that used in the UK, one of the biggest problems is the paucity of them.
The major reason for this was the bombing of the Public Record Office in Dublin in 1922.

Called the Battle of Dublin, which occurred during the week 28 June to 5 July 1922, heralding the
Irish Civil War, many atrocities took place, not just against people but against government buildings.
One of these atrocities was the bombing of the Four Courts, which housed the thousands of records
stretching back hundreds of years. Major record collections destroyed in the fire included wills and
census records, possibly the 2 two most important document sets relied upon by family historians.
However, although this makes researching Irish family history difficult it can be surmounted.