Conclusion: Poverty and the Pox in Early Modern London

Summary

On the night of February 7, 1734, Elizabeth and John Byon lay in a rented room that they could barely afford. John was a fan painter and he paid two pence to Magdalen Jones for one night’s lodging so that he and Elizabeth could get off the street. Elizabeth was extremely sick. John tried to explain away his wife’s weakness by telling Magdalen that she was drunk. But when what a servant would later describe as “dismalgroans” emanated from Elizabeth’s bed, Magdalen came upstairs to check what was wrong. John was afraid that Magdalen would turn them out if she knew the nature of Elizabeth’s illness, so he lied again. Changing his story he now said that Elizabeth had a cold. He had good reason to worry. Magdalen was not fooled. She ordered them out, and refused to allow them to lie in the house, despite the couple’s pleas to let them stay until morning. “You told me your wife was only drunk, but she is rotten with the Pox, she shall not lye here, and so take your Groat again, and take your Time to dress her, and carry her out.” Magdalen’s husband became impatient for them to quit the house. Not allowing them to finish dressing, he forced them into the street. It was 10:30 at night, and it was February. John helped Elizabeth to a bench where he finished dressing her. They tried to move on but they had nowhere to go. Elizabeth made it just a few blocks before she collapsed in the street and died.

John and Elizabeth had lain for two nights on the pavement in front of a churchwarden’s door, but their settlement details were contested. They sought relief in St. Ann’s, but the officers would not acknowledge them as settled parishioners. St. Ann’s officers refused to accept them without a pass from St. Giles. So they gave up seeking alms in St. Ann’s and made their way across town and into St. Giles, where Magdalen Jones lived. They may have come into the parish too late in the evening to apply for relief. Perhaps they planned to apply at the workhouse in the morning.