Notes to Pages 82–84 • 317Power’s data are compiled in J. A. I. Champion,London’s Dreaded Visitation: The Social
Geography of the Great Plague in 1665 (London, 1995 ), 104 – 7 , app. 1.
10. Gervase Jacques to the countess and earl of Huntingdon, June 1665 , HL HA 7561.
The letter mentions the naval battle of Lowestoft on June 3 and relates information
scaling down early reports of an overwhelming victory over the Dutch.
11. Sir William Petty, “Of Lessening ye Plagues of London” (written in 1667 ). See
The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty,ed. Charles Henry Hull, 2 vols. (Cambridge,
1899 ), 1 : 109 n. 1.
12. Defoe,Journal of the Plague Year,Norton ed., 11 – 16. Defoe humanizes the formu-
laic arguments of the plague tracts of 1665 , but the people’s actual struggles have not
been brought out in historians’ accounts, partly because the documents are difficult to
uncover.
Our discussion is framed in part by two quite different pieces of evidence. First, the
emotional ups and downs before flight are mapped in medical astrologer William
Lilly’s copy of his almanac for 1665 , which we discovered at the Bodleian Library. His
marginal notes include mention of going from his London quarters to his country
home in Surrey in March. In April: “Came to London” and “Woe to the Dut[ch]. Now
we fight.” Then, beside his almanac prediction (“The pestilence may now be feared in
France”), he scribbles in: “Lord deliver England from fear yt a pestilential summer.” Fi-
nally: “Reports of Loss to his Maj[est]y. Its hoped otherwise,” and in June, an allusion
to the English naval victory off Lowestoft: “Fight with the Dutch and they routed.” We
surmise that his flight, discussed in ch. 5 , took place a short time later, when visits by
plague patients to Lilly’s rented quarters terrified his landlord. William Lilly,Merlini
Anglici Ephemeris, or Astrological Judgments for the year 1665 (London, 1665 ), Bodleian
Library, Ashmole MS 264.
A second insight into flight is exemplified by a letter written in distant Westmore-
land telling of a London friend’s ambitious plans: “Mr Dugdale... was resolved to re-
move out of London (on account of the sicknesse) sometime ye last week, into War-
wickshire; and from thence in August he intends for Yorkeshire.” Thomas Smith to
Daniel Fleming at Rydall from Cockermouth, June 28 , 1665. Original letter, London
Museum, Walter George Bell Great Plague Collection 1 / 122.
13. Defoe’s simple view of Muslim reactions to plague echoes the opinions held in
1665. For the more complex and ever-debated reality of Muslim culture on disease and
pestilence, see Michael W. Dols,The Black Death in the Middle East(Princeton, 1977 ),
109 – 21 , under “Religious Interpretation.” We also thank Lawrence Conrad for discus-
sions on this fascinating topic.
14. Dr. Hall, bishop of Chester,A Discourse ofFleeing or Staying in the Time of Pesti-
lence. Whether Lawful for Ministers or People(London, 1666 ).
15. Differences of opinion among religious denominations on who might flee, which
were often distinct in the early Reformation, including between Lutherans and Calvin-
ists, seem to have become considerably nuanced in England by the time of the Restora-
tion. While individuals differed, it is hard to pin down the religious persuasion of the