Notes to Pages 201–205 • 333(London, 1904 ), 60 – 65 ; Slack,The Impact of Plague, 106 – 7 ; W. F. Quin,A History of
Braintree and Bocking(Lavenham, 1981 ), 91 – 99.
8. Elizabeth Gauden to Symon Patrick, Oct. 5 , 1665 , in Patrick,Works, 9 : 585. Patrick’s
letters continually reflected his anxiety about Elizabeth’s health. On September 23 he
had written, “I am sorry you speak so faintly of your own condition and tell me only
that you are presently well in health. I pray study to be better, and I wish your mind and
body may both recover together” ( 581 ).
9. Josselin,Diary, 519 – 20.
10. John Evelyn, Sayes Court, to the duke of Albemarle, Deptford, Sept. 8 , 1665 ;
Evelyn to Lord Viscount Corniberry, Lord Chamberlain to Her Majesty, Sept. 9 ; BL,
John Evelyn Book of Letters, 3 : 250 , 3 : 251.
11. F. H. Dinnis, ed.,Paddington in 1665 : The Year of the Great Plague, being Extracts
...from Old Parish Registers(London, 1814 ), 20 (Paddington parish register entry for
July 24 , 1665 ); Sir Thomas Peynton to Sir Joseph Williamson, Under-Secretary of State,
Knowlton, Kent, Aug. 7 , quoted by William Durrant Cooper,Letters of John Allin ...to
Philip Fryth and Samuel Jeake(London, 1856 ), 3 n. a.
12. Josselin,Diary, 519 – 20.
13. BL, Stowe MS 840 , fol. 44 r. Copy by the Colchester historian Phillip Morant.
14 .“Ye sicknes increase at Norwich. 42 there last weeke. And at Colchester having
bene at nere 200 weekly there it is this last weeke risen to nere 300 .” John Allin to
Philip Fryth, Nov. 8 , 1665 , ESRO FRE 5479 ; Josselin,Diary, 520.
15. There is a good description of Colchester in Diary of Edward Browne, fol. 40 v,
BL, Sloane MS 1906 ; Peter Clark and Paul Slack, ed.,English Towns in Transition,
1500 – 1700 (Oxford, 1976 ), 9.
16. The best account of Colchester’s economy is the Victoria History of the Counties of
England: Essex,vol. 9 ,Colchester,ed. Janet Cooper (London, 1994 ), 81 – 99. Quotation
from ibid., 68. Similarly, Paul Slack concluded that “the great city of Colchester suf-
fered most of all” during the Great Plague. Slack,The Impact of Plague, 107. The most
sweeping assessment remains that of Charles Creighton: “The plague at Colchester in
1665 – 66 was the greatest of all provincial plagues since the Black Death. It reproduced
the mortality of the Great Plague of London on a scale more than proportionate to its
size.” Charles Creighton,A History of Epidemics in Britain(London, 1891 ), 688 .See
PRO E 179 / 246 / 20 , Colchester Hearth Taxes, 1666. The best short guide to the epi-
demic in Colchester is Rosalyn Barker’s pamphlet on Essex plague epidemics, in the
Colchester Record Office.
17. ERO SR 406 / 104.
18. William Doyly to John Evelyn, Colchester, July 10 , BL, Addit. MSS 4182 , fol. 37 r;
BL, Evelyn Papers SXW 1 1665. The Quakers had especially strong contacts with Lon-
don and the Netherlands. ERO (Colchester branch) Microfilm T/A 424 / 6 / 3 ,“A Col-
lection of Letters Written by Many of the People called Quakers from the Year 1662 to
1777 ,” esp. the letters by William Caton from Amsterdam (original at the University of
Essex Library).