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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Having lately had occasion to examine the Subsidy Roll of the 51st year of Edward the Third, printed in the seventh volume of the “Archæologia,” I am induced to offer you some remarks on the degree of information which that curious document appears to supply, with reference to the population of our ancient Cities.
page 524 note a P. 14. edit. 1802.
page 525 note b Two centuries before this, Malmsbury had described Lincoln as, “civitatem unam ex populosioribus Angliæ, emporium hominum terrâ marique venientium.' De' Gestis Pontif. Angl. lib; 4. p. 290. edit. 1601.
page 525 note c From the curious Petition presented to Henry VI. by the Citizens of Winchester in 1450, it appears that 997 houses had recently become unoccupied. See Archæol. vol. I. p. 91.
page 526 note d p. 177, edit. Hearne. He says that the greater part of the people died.
page 526 note e Twysden, col. 2599.
page 526 note f p. 159, edit. 1574. See also the continuation of Murimuth, p. 101.
page 526 note g Annales, p. 245. edit. 1631.
page 526 note h The only early authority I have met with which represents the mortality to have been so little as one half of the inhabitants is Hygden, or rather his Continuator, who, in the language of Trevisa's translation, says, “That tyme fell great dethe of men in all the worlde wyde, and beganne in londes, out of the Southeest sydes, soo that unneth lefte halfe ye people alyve.” p. 315, edit. 1527. The accuracy of this translation I find confirmed by an ancient MS, of the Latin original Chronicle, which has been obligingly lent to me by the Rev. P. Hansell, of Norwich.
page 526 note i In Rymer's Fœdera, vol. v. p. 693, is a very curious Order of Council for remedying some of the evils, and correcting the extortions occasioned by the plague, entitled, “De magna parte populi in ultima pestilentia defuncta, & de servientum salariis proinde moderandis.” The same volume contains two proclamations for proroguing the Parliament while the pestilence was raging in Westminster and the neighbouring districts; and also a proclamation, forbidding persons to leave the kingdom, with their property, without special licence. See also the Rolls of Parliament for the same period, vol. ii. p. 225 et seq.
page 527 note k Annales, p. 246; also, Survey of London, by Strype, vol. ii. p. 62. edit. 1720.
page 527 note l col. 2599.
page 527 note m Annales, p. 246.
page 527 note n Hist. Norf. vol. ii. p. 68.
page 528 note o Since the reading of this Paper, the above observations have been illustrated and confirmed by some ingenious Maps of Norwich in the earliest period of its history, which have been carefully compiled from good authorities, by Mr. Samuel Woodward of that city, who permitted me to exhibit them to the Society.
page 529 note p The details of the depopulation occasioned by this second pestilence are not so copiously given as those which relate to the former mortality, but that it was considerable, is evident from the words of the contemporary historian, Knighton, who says, “Eodem anno mortalitas generalis oppressit populum, quae dicebatur pestis secunda. Et moriebantur tam majores quam minores, et maxime juvenes et infantes.” col. 2626. The Continuator of Murimuth, and after him Stow and Barnes, have enumerated the deaths of many illustrious personages during this latter calamity. The third pestilence, in 1369, is recorded by Murimuth's Continuator, p. 122, and by Walsingham, p. 179, edit. 1574. Knighton's History is defective at this period.
page 529 note q It is said (though the authority seems doubtful) that at this time there were no fewer than 46,822 parish Churches, and 52,204 towns and villages in England. See the Minutiae, at the end of R. Avesbury, edit. Hearne, p. 264. At present, the parish Churches in England and Wales are no more than 10,458 in number, according to Mr. Rickman's Preliminary Observations to the Abstract of Population Returns for 1821, p. xxxv. If we divide the population, as computed from the Subsidy Roll, by the number of parishes said, in the Minutiae, to be then in England, we shall not find more than 50 inhabitants to each parish; a result which can only be accounted for by the depopulation of the country from the cause mentioned above. Allowing for exaggeration in the account here referred to, it cannot be doubted by any reader of our County Histories, that the number of parishes during the middle ages was much greater than at present.
page 530 note r p. 428 to 442.
page 530 note s Annals of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 223.
page 531 note t col. 2600.
page 531 note u Mil. Antiq. vol. i. p. 278.