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This is the parish church of Eyam in Derbyshire. Late in the summer of 1665 infected materials from London were delivered to the house of the village tailor, Alexander Hadfield. They were opened by his assistant, George Viccars, who shortly afterwards became ill and died most violently. His death was quickly followed by that of his two stepsons, Edward and Jonathan Cooper, and his immediate neighbours, and eventually by that of the tailor himself.
The infection spread rapidly throughout the autumn, slowing down in the winter only to return with greater vigour in the spring and summer, reaching a peak in August when 78 people died in the month. In the fourteen months the danger lasted, it claimed 260 lives out of a population of around 800.
Under the leadership of the rector, Rev. William Mompesson and his predecessor, the Rev. Thomas Stanley, the villagers agreed to accept strict quarantine to prevent the spread of the disease beyond the village boundary. They were supported by the Earl of Devonshire, and by other charitable but less wealthy neighbours, who provided the necessities of life during their period of isolation.
To control the infection within the village they agreed firstly to bury their own dead, close to their homes, rather than in consecrated ground, in the belief that unburied corpses were a major hazard in the spread of the pestilence, so that speed was essential, and secondly to worship in the open air, where it would be possible to maintain corporate worship without being in close proximity with their neighbours and thus expose themselves to danger.
Apart from the wife of the rector, whose grave is near the church door, there are now no graves of any other victims to be seen in the churchyard, though some of the early victims would have been buried there before their decisions were made.
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