The Great Plague of 1665 was the last major plague in England. The outbreak began inLondon in February. Within seven months 100,000 Londoners (20% or one-fifth of thepopulation) were dead. Many fled the capital to escape the disease.
Victims were shut intheir homes and a red cross was painted on the door with the words ‘Lord have mercyupon us’. The theatres and other public entertainments such as football were banned tostop the disease spreading.Every week, each London parish recorded the number of people who had died.
Thenumbers from all the parishes were added up and printed in lists called mortality bills.This is a bill from the week in September which had the highest total of plague dead:7,165 people. From then on the number of people dying gradually dropped. By Decemberthe people who had fled the plague started to move back to London and life slowlyreturned to normal. The Great Plague of 1665 was the last major plague in England. The outbreak began inLondon in February. Within seven months 100,000 Londoners (20% or one-fifth of thepopulation) were dead.
Many fled the capital to escape the disease. Victims were shut intheir homes and a red cross was painted on the door with the words ‘Lord have mercyupon us’. The theatres and other public entertainments such as football were banned tostop the disease spreading.
Every week, each London parish recorded the number of people who had died. Thenumbers from all the parishes were added up and printed in lists called mortality bills.This is a bill from the week in September which had the highest total of plague dead:7,165 people. From then on the number of people dying gradually dropped. By Decemberthe people who had fled the plague started to move back to London and life slowlyreturned to normal.
