Pepys diary entries October 1665

so early in the month, once again we observe the ever decreasing areas in regards to the Plague, not only by region but also by association. It seems to be getting closer to home and even effecting his postmen. (3/10)

"This night I hear that of our two watermen that use to carry our letters, and were well on Saturday last, one is dead, and the other dying sick of the plague. The plague, though decreasing elsewhere, yet being greater about the Tower and thereabouts."

so here is one entry that reminds me of now. There is no inherent logic in regards to the spread of disease. Some areas intense and some not so much.(4/10)

"This night comes Sir George Smith to see me at the office, and tells me how the plague is decreased this week 740, for which God be praised! but that it encreases at our end of the town still, and says how all the towne is full of Captain Cocke’s being in some ill condition about prize-goods (equipment, vessels, vehicles and cargo captured during armed conflict. The most common usage is the capture of an enemy ship and it's cargo as a prize of war)) , his goods being taken from him, and I know not what. But though this troubles me to have it said, and that it is likely to be a business in Parliament, yet I am not much concerned at it, because yet I believe this newes is all false, for he would have wrote to me sure about it."

now at this point I discover that not all is doom, gloom, fear and trepidation in the life of the author. (5/10)

"So I walked through Westminster to my old house the Swan, and there did pass some time with Sarah, and so down by water to Deptford and there to my Valentine"

there to my Valentine? Wait a minute, doesn't Samuel have a wife and son? It appears that Mr Pepys was having an affair with a Mrs Bagwell, the wife of a William Bagwell - a capable and compliant ships carpenter. 

the idea that the sight of plague all around has become commonplace. (7/10)

"Talking with him in the high way, come close by the bearers with a dead corpse of the plague; but, Lord! to see what custom is, that I am come almost to think nothing of it."

but a footnote and a paradox a few days later in the form of glad tidings. (12/10)

"Being overjoyed at this I to write my letters, and at it very late. Good newes this week that there are about 600 less dead of the plague than the last. So home to bed."

there were fears that the sickness was effecting the passage of trade. (16/10)

"So I assisted them in helping to remove their small trade, but by and by I am told that it is only the Custome House men who came to seize the things that did lie at Mr. Glanville’s, for which they did never yet see our Transire, (a customs document on which the cargo loaded on to a ship is listed, issued to prove that the goods listed on it have come from a home port rather than an overseas one.) nor did know of them till to-day. So that my fear is now over, for a transire is ready for them. Cocke did get a great many of his goods to London to-day. To the Still Yarde, which place, however, is now shut up of the plague; but I was there, and we now make no bones of it."

so news of ever decreasing areas of association in regards to the Plague, but it is hard to know for the fears of other types of sickness are also prevalent. Further good news of recent numbers in decline, but news of the overall numbers from the Bill of Mortality and rumors surrounding the accuracy of those numbers. How the rest of the entry takes the form of a reflection, I cannot be sure. (31/10)

"Up, and to the office, Captain Ferrers going back betimes to my Lord. I to the office, where Sir W. Batten met me, and did tell me that Captain Cocke’s black was dead of the plague, which I had heard of before, but took no notice. By and by Captain Cocke come to the office, and Sir W. Batten and I did send to him that he would either forbear the office, or forbear going to his owne office. However, meeting yesterday the Searchers with their rods in their hands —[Coroners Office ?? D.W.]— coming from Captain Cocke’s house, I did overhear them say that the fellow did not die of the plague, but he had I know been ill a good while, and I am told that his boy Jack is also ill.

Thus we end the month merrily; and the more for that, after some fears that the plague would have increased again this week, I hear for certain that there is above 400 [less], the whole number being 1,388, and of them of the plague, 1,031.

According to the Bills of Mortality, there were in total 68,596 deaths in London from the plague in 1665. Lord Clarendon estimated that the true number of mortalities was probably twice that figure. 1666 saw further deaths in other cities but on a lesser scale. Dr Thomas Gumble, chaplain to the Duke of Albemarle, both of whom had stayed in London for the whole of the epidemic, estimated that the total death count for the country from plague during 1665 and 1666 was about 200,000."