Plague and Smallpox in Bishops Stortford, Herts.

[Findem]

One of the registers I saw had at the back a table of the numbers of Baptism, Marriage and Burial entries per year, in the burials table I found the number of Plague and Smallpox deaths for B S.

1582: 66 died of the plague.
1666: 227 died of the plague.
1667: 4 died of the plague.
1685: 43 died of Smallpox.
1711: 93 died of the plague.

That register finished in 1713, I hadn't looked in the last pages of other B S parish registers I searched prior to the one above.

There was also a note stating simply "1563 Plague in London."

 

[Bonzo Dog]

This comment can be found in the burial entries in the registers for St Mary, Dalton in Furness, Lancashire:

In this moneth of July 1631 did the plague begin in Dalton and Bigger; there died in Dalton of this sickness three hundred and three score and in Waney (Walney Island) one hundred and twenty, it ceased about Easter followeinge

During this period the churchyard was closed for burials. A child was buried 17 July 1631, the next recorded burial, another child, was on 5 March 1631/2. Baptisms seem to have been performed as usual in the church during the period, but there are no marriage entries.