The Web of Authority • 221their homes, sending servants out for necessaries. Others defied Charles II’s
orders to stay at their posts and followed his example, fleeing to the country-
side.
Mayor Lawrence had convened the aldermen seven times in July, his voice
becoming ever more strident as one emergency decree after another failed to
stem the plague’s progress. While he still talked of “cureing the infected” and
staying the further spread of plague “by the blessing of God,” his primary fo-
cus shifted dramatically to easing the suffering. It was hoped that the city
chamberlain could distribute the special plague levy to sustain parishes in the
greatest need of money.^9
After a two-week lapse, the mayor chanced another meeting in mid-Au-
gust, encouraged by the attendance of several aldermen at a special service in
the cathedral.^10 Thirteen members joined him in making final appointments
to the public medical staff. Turner felt satisfied that his committee had found
the best surgeons, apothecaries, and doctors of physick that the city budget
could support. Parish collections of the special plague-relief tax were slow to
come in, however, and Lawrence’s threat to report delinquent officials to the
king and his council in distant Salisbury was unenforceable. What to do?
The Guildhall chamberlain dipped into the city’s cash fund to meet the most
crucial needs of individual parishes and citywide services.
Food and water had to be supplied to the infected jails. Bedding and other
accommodations at the Cripplegate pesthouse had to be taken care of, as the
supply ran short of the demand. The keeper of the pesthouse, Mr. Upton,
was ordered to take in all poor visited persons recommended by the cham-
berlain and to charge householders who sent their servants the top rate for
inmates of two pounds. The Guildhall would cover the rest, hoping that its
funds would outlast the visitation.^11
Almost a month went by before Mayor Lawrence called another meeting
of the court of aldermen. Meanwhile, out of sight of the public, the city gov-
ernment was doing what it had to, although the infrequency of aldermanic
sessions and new mayoral proclamations gave a false impression that nothing
was happening at the Guildhall.
The mayor counted on individual aldermen to work with officials in wards
and parishes to enforce regulations. The parish, after all, was the center for
plaguetime action, collecting the special plague levy from taxable household-
ers, relieving the sick, burying the dead, and paying the nurses, watchmen,
searchers, and bearers. As for law enforcement, now that the law courts were
no longer holding quarter sessions and jail delivery, the mayor had to rely on
parish constables to enforce most plague controls. A few miscreants could be