Calamy in his Continuation of the account of ministers ... ejected .... Part 2

His Account of the Plague in his Treatise call'd God's Terrible Voice in the City, is very affecting. He there tells us, that it was in Holland in the Beginning of May 1664, and the same Year began in some remote Parts of this Land, though [in London] the Weekly Bills of mortality took notice but of three. In the Beginning of May 1665, nine died of it in the Heart of the City, and eight in the Suburbs. The next Week, the Bill fell from nine to three. In the next Week it mounted from three to 14, in the next to seventeen, in the next to 43. In June the Number increas'd from 43 to 112; the next Week to 168; the next to 267; the next to 470. In the first Week of July, the Number arose to 725, the next 1,089, the next to 1,843, the next to 2,010. In the first Week in August the Number amounted to 2,817, the next to 3,880, the next to 4,237, the next to 6,102. In September a Decrease of the Distemper was hop'd for: But it was not yet come to its Height. In the first Week there died of it six thousand nine hundred eighty-eight: And though in the second Week the Number abated to 6,544; yet in the third Week it arose to 7,165, which was the highest: And then of the 130 Parishes in and about the City there were but four which were not infected; and in those there were but few People remaining that were not gone into the Country.

In the House where he lived, there were eight in Family; three Men, three Youths, an old Woman, and a Maid. It was the latter End of Sept. before any of them were touched. The Maid and two of the youths were first seiz'd with the Distemper, which began with a shivering and trembling in her Flesh, and quickly seiz'd on her Spirits. This was on the Monday, and she died on the Thursday full of Tokens. On Friday one of the Youths had a swelling in his Groin; and on the Lord's Day died with the Marks of the Distemper upon him. On the same Day another of the Youths sicken'd, and on the Wednesday following he died. On the Thursday Night the Master of the House fell sick, and within a Day or two was full of Spots, but was strangely recovered, beyond his own or others Expectations. In the fourth Week in September there was a Decrease, to 5,538. In the first Week of October, there was a farther Decrease to 4,929; in the next to 4,327, the next to 2,665, the next to 1,421 and the next to 1,031.

The first Week in Nov. there was an Increase, to 1,414; but it fell the Week after to 1,050 and the Week after to 652 and so lessen'd more and more to the End of the Year. And the whole Number of those that were reckon'd to die of the Plague in London, this Year, was 68,596. But God was pleas'd to take a particular Care of this Good Man. He continued in perfect Health all the while, and surviv'd this sad Providence, and was useful by his unwearied Labours to a numerous Congregation, till the Year 1678.

Daniel Neal on the plague

The next judgment which befell the nation was the most dreadful plague that had been known within the memory of man. This was preceded by an unusual drought; the meadows were parched and burned up like the highways. insomuch that there was no food for the cattle, which occasioned first a murrain among them, and then a general contagion among the human species, which increased in the city and suburbs of London until eight or ten thousand died in a week.

The richer inhabitants fled into the remoter counties; but the calamities of those who stayed behind, and of the poorer sort, are not to be expressed. Trade was at a full stand; all commerce between London and the country was entirely cut off, lest the infection should be propagated thereby. Nay, the country housekeepers and farmers durst not entertain their city friends or relations till they had performed quarantine in the fields or outhouses. If a stranger passed through the neighbourhood, they fled from him as an enemy. In London the shops and houses were quite shut up, and many of them marked with a red cross, and an inscription over the door, Lord, have mercy upon us! Grass grew in the streets; and every night the bellman went his rounds with a cart, crying, Bring out your dead. From London the plague spread into the neighbouring towns and villages, and continued near three quarters of a year, till it had swept away almost one hundred thousand of the inhabitants. Some of the established clergy, with a commendable zeal, ventured to continue in their stations, and preach to their parishioners throughout the course of the plague, as Dr. Walker, Dr. Horton, Dr. Meriton, and a few others, but most of them fled, and deserted heir parishes at a time when their assistance was most wanted; upon this some of the ejected ministers ventured to preach in the vacant pulpits, imagining that so extraordinary a case would justify their disregard to the laws.

The ministers who embarked in this service were, the Reverend Mr Thomas Vincent, Mr Chester, Mr Janeway, Mr Turner, Grimes, Franklin and others. The face of death, and the arrows that fled among the people in darkness at noonday, awakened both preachers and hearers: many who were at church one day were thrown into their graves the next; the cry of great numbers was, “What shall we do to be saved?” A more awful time England had never Seen. But it will amaze all posterity, that in a time both of war and pestilence, and when the Nonconformist ministers were hazarding their lives in the service of the souls of the distressed and dying citizens of London, that the prime minister and his creatures, instead of mourning for the nation's sins, and meditating a reformation of manners, should pour out all their vengeance upon the Nonconformists, in order to make their condition more insupportable.

One would have thought such a judgment from Heaven, and such a generous compassion in the ejected ministers, should have softened the hearts of their most cruel enemies; but the Presbyterians must be crushed, in defiance of the rebukes of Providence. Bishop Kennet and Mr Echard would excuse the ministry, by alleging that some of the old Oliverian officers were enlisted in the Dutch service, which, if true, was nothing to the body of the Presbyterians, though Lord Clarendon did what he could to incense the Parliament, and make them believe they were in confederacy with the enemies of the government. ....

*** Dr. Grey has introduced here a full and affecting narrative of the progress of this calamity, and of the mortality it produced; drawn up by the pen of Mr. Vincent, one who charitably gave his assistance at that time, as copied by Dr. Calamy, in his Continuation, p. 33. It was usual for people, as they went about their business, to drop down in the street. A bagpiper, who, excessively overcome with liquor, had fallen down and lay asleep in the street, was taken up and thrown into a cart, and betimes the next morning carried away with some dead bodies. At daybreak he awoke, and, rising, began to play a tune: which so surprised those who drove the cart, and could see nothing distinctly, that in a fright they betook them to their heels, and would have it they had taken up the devil in the disguise of a dead man. —Sir John Reresby's Memoirs, p. 10, 11

De Foe has recorded this awful visitation in a most graphic volume.

Baxter's Life, part iii., p. 2. Baxter, in another place, says, “It is scarcely possible for people that live in times of health and security to apprehend the dreadfulness of the pestilence! How fearful were people, even a hundred miles from London, of anything bought in a draper's shop there, or of any person that came to their houses! How they would shut their doors against their friends, and if men met one another in the fields, how they would avoid each other.” Baxter says that only three Nonconformist ministers died of the plague.--Baxter's Life, part it. to. 448

Thomas Vincent 1665

The great plague in London, in the year 1665, gave occasion for the display of the piety and zeal of several of the ejected ministers, and of the providence of God in preserving them from the contagion, when prosecuting their ministerial labours in the midst of it.

The Rev Thomas Vincent was at this period tutor of an academy at Islington, but determined to leave his situation, and devote himself to the spiritual instruction of the people in London, where many of the pulpits were deserted. His friends vainly endeavoured to dissuade him from the dangerous enterprise. He agreed, however, to follow the advice of his reverend brethren in and about the city. When they were assembled, he told them his resolution, and assured them that it had been the result of much serious thought. He had carefully examined the state of his own soul, and could look death in the face with comfort. He thought it absolutely necessary that the vast numbers of people then dying, should have some spiritual assistance, and that he could never again have such a prospect of ministerial usefulness as now presented itself. He added, that he had solemnly devoted himself to God and souls upon this occasion; and that, therefore, he hoped none of them would endeavor to weaken his hands in this work.

Encouraged by the ministers, who prayed for his protection and success, he entered on his labors with fortitude and diligence. During all the time of the plague, he preached every sabbath in some of the parish churches. He chose the most moving and important subjects, and treated them in the most pathetic and searching manner.

The awfulness of the judgment then before the eyes of all, gave great force to his addresses, and a very general inquiry was always made where he would preach the next sabbath. Many learned from him the necessity of salvation, and the way to heaven through the blood of Christ. He visited all who sent for him, and it pleased God to take especial care of his life; for though in this year there died in London, of the plague, 68,596, including seven persons in the family in which he lived, he continued in perfect health all the time, and was a useful minister to a numerous congregation at Hoxton for upwards of twelve years afterwards. Thus were the promises in the ninety-first psalm fulfilled to this servant of God.

From Anecdotes. Originally published 1841 by the Religious Tract Society of London.

Appleby on the Nonconformists and the Plague 1665 Part 1

From David J Appleby's essay in The Great Ejectment of 1662: Its Antecedents, Aftermath, and Ecumenical Significance editor Alan P F Sell

In 1665 plague crossed the Channel, bringing perhaps the worst visitation since the Black Death of 1348. Over the next two years it spread across England and Wales, mainly through the cloth trade routes. As London citizens began to die in droves, the wealthy and well connected fled. King and Parliament removed to Oxford, leaving George Monck, Duke of Albemarle and his army in charge of London. England was by now at war with the Dutch and, with the economic and political life of the capital seriously disrupted, the authorities were understandably more nervous than usual. The traditional ties between English religious dissenters and the Netherlands gave rise to suspicions of treasonable collaboration, and Albemarle kept his soldiers busy rounding up both Quakers and more conventional Nonconformists. Many of these unfortunate individuals subsequently died of plague in the unhealthy environs of London's prisons; including Richard Flavell, a minister who had come to London after having been ejected from his Gloucestershire living, only to perish in Newgate. Hundreds of arrests were also made in the provinces. Charles appointed his brother, James. Duke of York to supervise operations in the areas so recently affected by the Northern Rising. Predictably, little effort was made to distinguish been radicals and moderates, with the result that peaceable Presbyterian ministers such as Philip Henry found themselves caught in the net.

Whatever else he may have been, Gilbert Sheldon was no coward. He remained working in Lambeth throughout the epidemic. Similarly, at least nineteen Anglican clergy stayed to comfort their London congregations, and eleven of them paid for this devotion with their lives. Several of their colleagues, however, deserted their parishes in panic. Nonconformist clergy who had remained in the city promptly climbed into the empty pulpits, or held prayer meetings in private houses to bring spiritual solace to people by now desperately afraid that judgement day was approaching. Calamy records the names of fourteen such ministers who preached in London during these troubled times, the best known being Thomas Vincent, formerly of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street. Several more ministers are known to have been living in London and may also have participated in the work. A number of others, Richard Baxter among them, moved out of the city, taking the plague with them in some cases. Relatively little work has been done to investigate the conduct of Nonconformist clergy (and 

their episcopalian counterparts, for that matter) in provincial areas affected by the Great Plague, although it has been suggested that matters in the grievously afflicted cloth-working town of Colchester in Essex followed a similar course to London. The former Colchester minister Owen Stockton may well have engaged in pastoral work in the plague-ridden town, for example, and Obadiah Grew certainly did so in Coventry. ....