Eyam's Quarantine: The Real Village Of The Damned Who Sacrificed Themselves To Save Their Neighbors During The Plague

By | April 14, 2020


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(Blogspot)

During the 14th century, the bubonic plague wiped out an estimated 50 million people, ripping them away from their families in a matter of weeks. The fatality rate at the time was around 60%, so if you got it, you were more than likely done for. They best you could do was keep to yourself and try not to infect anyone else, but it's understandably hard to consider others when you're dying.

When the Great Plague returned in the 1660s, the citizens of a small English town called Eyam made the courageous decision to quarantine, saving neighboring towns while condemning themselves to death. The Plague wiped out at least one-third of the small village, but their terrible and heroic plan worked, and they managed to stave off an outbreak of the bubonic plague.

The Plague Came On A Pile Of Clothes

Deadly things can come in small packages. In 1665, the Plague arrived in Eyam in the form of infected fleas embedded in a bale of cloth shipped from London, where the disease had already killed thousands. Local legend states that George Viccars, a tailor's assistant, opened the bale of cloth and hung it to dry, waking the fleas and becoming the first victim of the Plague in Eyam. Following the demise of Viccars, the illness spread throughout the village in the final months of 1665. By spring, 42 villagers had perished, and the survivors were panic-stricken.

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An Unpopular Proposal

Newly appointed rector William Mompesson proposed the quarantine to keep the Plague from spreading to the nearby villages, but getting the town on board was no easy feat. Aside from the risk and general unpleasantness that a quarantine would bring to the residents, Mompesson hadn't made many friends in his short time as rector. He arrived in April 1664 after the previous rector, Thomas Stanley, was removed for refusing to acknowledge the the 1662 Act of Uniformity, a law mandating the use of the Book of Common Prayer, introduced by Charles II, in religious services.

Mompesson tried to enforce this religious stranglehold while also asking the villagers to put their lives on the line. It didn't go well. He had no choice but to reach out to Stanley, who was living in exile on the edge of the village, and ask for his help to convince the people of Eyam that a quarantine was the only way forward.