Consequences of the Plague

Consequences of the Plague

• Over a fourteen-month period, the plague at Eyam claimed the lives of 260 people in a town of 800. It was calculations made from Eyam's Hearth Tax returns that confirmed a population of around 800. However, what is clear overall is an exceptionally high percentage of the people in the village died.
• According to Mompesson, 76 families were affected due to the plague.
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Consequences of the Plague

• By Christmas 1666, the plague had died out and the quarantine was lifted. In an effort to prevent further outbreaks of the plague a burning was organised. Some people burned everything but the clothes they owned in order to destroy the plague. The quarantine was effective as the plague did not afflict anywhere else in Derbyshire. The Great Plague did have a long-term demographic effect though:
• There was a sharp fall in population immediately following the end of 1666, there was a sharp rise from 1667-70, but the population was still well below 1665 levels
• Mortality rate was extremely high:
• Ratio of epidemic to average burials: 10.2 from 1665-66 (Eyam)
• Ratio of epidemic to average burials: 5.9 for 47 parishes in London
• Epidemic refers to an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected for the population in that area
• Eyam Parish Registers highlight there was very few baptisms after 1666, most likely because there was few adults of child-bearing age
• Local economy: farms were left empty, the land was uncultivated and key business and trade posts were left unfilled for years
• Effectiveness of the quarantine:
• The decision of the villagers to put themselves in quarantine undoubtedly prevented the plague from spreading further