Is there a doctor in the house....? Illness in NE Norfolk

[Geoffers]

My family came from Buxton in Norfolk, a small village by the River Bure. The river is the main route for transporting goods through the Broads to the port of Yarmouth. Not far from Buxton is Worstead, the village after which the type of woven wool is named. In the 1700's, this was a busy area, exporting woollen goods to many places.

In the second quarter of the 18th century, my family all but disappear from the village - along with other local families. Where they went is still uncertain; but I think I may have found out (partially) why.

Buxton registers are incomplete and so I have to get basic missing data from the ATs and BTs. I've been working on one year, 1727/8 for a while, its condition is poor but I've at last been able to decipher 99% of it.

continued.......

[Geoffers]

One thing stands out - the number of burials. In a normal year, Buxton had about 8 burials, in 1727 there were 30. The increase began in July and ran through to February.

I looked at nearby parishes - All those affected were upsteam of Hoveton/Wroxham; Coltishall had 24 instead of the usual 10. To the South, Frettenham had an increase, but there was nothing obvious in Hainford or Horsham St.Faiths - both towards Norfolk's city, Norwich.

To the west of Buxton, Cawston normally buried 18 a year. In 1727 there were 26 and 1728 36 burials. Aylsham, a market town to the north of Buxton normally buried 20, in 1727 there were 47 burials - the increase beginning in August and going on through to February.

continued......

[Geoffers]

Around the centre of the weaving industry, Honing normally had 6 burials a year, in 1727 there were 11, the increase beginning in January and carrying on to 1728 when there were 25, most before June.

In Worstead there were normally 12 burials and in 1727 there were 24. The market town for Worstead being North Walsham - normally it recorded about 36-38 burials - in 1727 there were 73, the increase beginning in October.

It looks like the cause of the burials first hit Buxton in July, taking a couple of months for the effect to reach North Walsham, about 7 miles away.

I have not yet found a mention in any register of a particular illness at this time.. I looked at the Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence (George C Kohn ISBN 9 781753 267536), which mentioned Typhus in London from 1726-1729 and am now wondering if this may have been transported by the crew of a wherry or keel, working the coastal trade moving woollen goods.

continued........

[Geoffers]

What makes me particularly wonder this is one entry in the burials at Buxton, right near the start of the increased number of deaths is recorded:

1727
"July 31 Angel OSNABRUG" and in the ATs (not included in the register) is a helpul addition, "A German stranger buryd."

Could this 'stranger' have brought Typhus to Norfolk in 1727? To return to the question which is the title of this thread, is there someone on these forums who is medically qualified and could suggest if the idea is feasible? Does anyone know of anything else that was doing the rounds then?

Whatever it was, it seems to have caused several local families, including my LOW(E) ancestors to scarper somewhere else for a couple of decades.

Geoffers

[Mythology]

No strangers from Gloucester kicking around I suppose, Geoffers?

http://www.institutions.org.uk/hospitals/info/gloucester_epidemics.htm - quoting from the VCH, mentions a smallpox epidemic there in 1726 which killed 99 people.

[kazrbutler]

Hi Geoffers,
illness of somekind may be a factor, but it may be secondary. There are records of illness elsewhere in the country, for example:

Alcester: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/square/fk26/localpast/86su/plague.htm

From what I have found on the web, 1727 was a particularly dry year. That would certainly have greater affect at places further upstream. According to the met site, 1976 was the longest recorded dry spell since 1727!

http://www.metoffice.com/corporate/pressoffice/anniversary/summer1976.html

The following site has some information on weather in particular years.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/booty.weather/climate/1700_1749.htm

I will find my copy of HH Lamb tomorrow, and see if it has any information to add.
Karen

[Ken Boyce]

Hi Geoffers
Here is the 18C xtract from a list of epidemics which I came across several years ago I do not have a note of the source whence this list came from. It may compliment your source data

1702 Yellow Fever US *NY
1702 Scarlet Fever US Boston
1706 Yellow Fever US South Carolina
1713 Measles US Boston
1721 Smallpox US Boston
1723 Influenza Worldwide
1723 Famine UK *7 years poor harvests & epidemics
1728 Yellow Fever US South Carolina
1729 Measles US Boston
1732 Yellow Fever US South Carolina
1732 Influenza Worldwide *
1735 Diphtheria/Scarlet Fever US *4 yrs -New England
1738 Smallpox US South Carolina
1739 Measles US *Boston
1743 Yellow Fever US *NY
1747 Measles US CT, NY, PA, SC
1759 Measles US North America
1761 Influenza US & West Indies
1763 Smallpox US *Boston
1772 Measles US
1775 Influenza Worldwide*
1783 Bilious disorder US Fatal
1788 Measles US PA, NY
1789 Influenza US
1792 Yellow Fever US *7 yrs
1793 Unknown US PA
1793 Influenza US Vermont, Virginia

Regards

[AnnB]

I wonder if it could have been an outbreak of 'marsh fever' which, I believe, affected the areas around the Norfolk Fens? There has been some suggestion that this could, in fact, have been malaria, take a look at http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/malaria/MalariaAndControl/chist1.html

1727 was also the year the Gin Act was introduced....... ;)

Best wishes
Ann

[kazrbutler]

Looked in HH Lamb, Climate, History and The Modern World:

There is nothing specific about 1727/8 that I can see, though it appears to be a period very unsettled climatically, with poor harvests etc following the Little Ice Age - though some would include the C18th in the Little Ice Age.

This may be of interest though p219: "A close study of the registers of births, marriages and deaths in a sample parish, Colyton (near Exeter) in southwest England, provides a survey of its population from about 1150 onwards." "The yearly number of burials exceeded the births from the 1660'6 until about 1730." "Whatever the exact causes of these changes in this agricultural parish, with its small market town and involvement in the woollen industry, the numbers of the population and the expectation of life show an obvious and direct association with what we believe to have been the variations of prevailing temperature, apart from the plague of the 1640's."

Karen

[Geoffers]

Many thanks for all of your replies.

Very interesting to read about the year being very hot, also about the malaria and it possibly being marsh fever. Though I wonder why the spike in deaths is so localised? No trace of any extra deaths in Potter Heigham or Neatishead which are both by large Broads and so, I would have thought, equally likely to be subject to marsh fever/malaria.

Both these latter parishes and Smallburgh show large numbers dying from the effects of the famine of 1741 and subsequent outbreak of smallpox in 1742 - the number of deaths spreading out to other parts of NE Norfolk during the 1740's.

I like a good puzzle, I think this one will keep me going for a while yet. It makes me realise how we perhaps take modern medicine for granted. I can't ever remember being worried about smallpox, scarlet fever, typhus, cholera or even malaria. There must have been times when our ancestors were being visited by yet another outbreak that they thought to themselves, "not again".

Geoffers

[coenmfam]

Just a thought ....

we have a certain mosquito problem here in WA called "Ross River Virus" which tends to be very localised. Down the road from where we live now is a hotbed of the virus called "Lower King" but here at "Oyster Harbour" only 2 - 3 kms away, no problem at all. We still have the dratted mossies but no "RRV" problem.

I'm not sure but I believe that weather plays a big part in RRV outbreaks, I would suppose if the weather was usually wet the mossies would be happy in their little part of the world - but if there was a dry summer they might spread further afield looking for "greener pastures".

just a bit more info re my local situation
http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&X=13130000&Y=-4135000&width=700&height=400&gride=&gridn=&srec=0&coordsys=mercator&db=&addr1=&addr2=&addr3=&pc=&advanced=&local=&localinfosel=&kw=&inmap=&table=&ovtype=&keepicon=&zm=0&scale=200000&multimap.x=339&multimap.y=197
( sorry about the long URL )
anyway on the map our suburb is called Bayonet Head, we have very little in the way of wetlands, whereas in Lower King they have mudflats ( even quicksand ) and because the area is very low-lying quite a few swampy areas. I'm not sure but I think animals also play a big part in RRV outbreaks - I think Kangaroos in particular. RRV is not fatal but very debilitating.

edit
Just to add : I did a little research re RRV
that one of the main culprits is a type of mosquito that breeds in brackish water and salty swamps. The disease does start in animals and spreads to humans via mossies.
http://www.abc.net.au/southwestwa/stories/s1049936.htm
http://www.dh.sa.gov.au/pehs/Youve-got-what/specific-conditions/ross-river.htm


hope this helps
Nev

[kazrbutler]

Hi Geoffers,


the following link seems to be a good write up about malaria during the Little Ice Age. Covers items such as drought malaria - where mosquitos breeding limited due to lack of water, but life cycle speeded up due to temperature. Also why some clergy lived away from their parishes!
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no1/reiter.htm
I've bookmarked it to read more thoroughly later myself.

Also, worth being aware that some areas of the country were generaly drier than they are now in C16 and C17, with settlements in valleys close to water sources. Any drought would therefore probably have a greater effect on populations whose water source was ordinarily less plentiful - which would include those higher up any river valley. As well as lack of potable water, nd water for livestock, crops would be more likely to fail if the land higher up was slightly drier.

Wonder if the history of Norfolk you are interested in might have information too.

Karen

[coenmfam]

Fascinating article Karen

until today
* I didn't know mossies could breed in brackish water.
* and I didnt realise what a problem malaria was to England.

Nev

[Geoffers]

I've been reading further and think I may have confirmation of the cause of the rise in deaths.

The Norfolk Record Society's anual publication this year is;
'John Buxton, Norfolk Gentleman and Architect - letters to his son 1719-1729' (edited by Alan Mackley ISBN 0 95382898 7 1)

Page 118, letter dated 16 Oct 1727
"The sicknes continues yet in the country about us; God knows when it will cease.............My uncle Marsham is ill, & your cozen Robert carried the ague with him to the coronation, & some bark also in his pocket."

Ague is old word for Malarial fever. The 'bark' is that from the cinchona tree, whose active ingrediant is quinine.

continued......

[Geoffers]

In his next letter, dated 1 Nov 1727, John Buxton writes:

"The sicknes rather encreases as well the mortality occasioned by it, & we have dayly sad accounts from all parts. Poor Bardswell, the ingenious country-man who assistance I have often taken in country affairs is dead, & my new tenant at Rushford has buried both father & mother of his wife since Michaelmas, & his own is so ill that they have but little hope of his recovery. Last saturday I heard of the detah of the bishop of Norwich, St Lambert Blackwell of Sprowston, & Sukey Cooper, a favourite of Mrs. Harbord's.........Sr Edmd Bacon of Gaboldisham has this feaver and is very bad with it. Several of the doctors are dead, as Dr Aldis near Walsham & Dr Hepburn at Lynn."

Various references to the 'common illness' continue in the letters over the next months.
Geoffers

[coenmfam]

here a a couple of links re Malaria

http://www.malaria.org.zw/ecology.html

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs192/en/

it would seem that malaria outbreaks are definately link to climate changes, and someone mentioned a warm year that year

here is an interesting comment about grape vines being used to track climate change in England
http://www.ic.ac.uk/p5257.htm
it would be an interesting lecture

regards
Nev

[robbieuk]

Hello,

No prrof of plague or disease but three of my Dunnell ancestors died very close together in 1738 in Weston Longville:

Henry Dunnell on 15th October aged 56 years
David his son on 10th December aged 24 years
Mary, David's wife, on 21st December aged 22 years.

I recently started a new job with an Icelandic company. A colleague recently commented on the Mount Hekla eruption of 1766 (Mt Hekla is Iceland's majot active volcano, last erupted significantly in 2000), which apparently continued unabated for about eighteen months. The ask was carried down the east coast on Scotland and England, and caused deaths due to respiratory problems. I have no prrof but my colleague claims to have read this in a historical tome...any evidence?

Back to the Dunnells. They lived in Weston at the same time as Parson Woodforde (1776-1803) and he noted in his diary that Harry Dunnell suffered the Tertiary Ague. Harry seems to have been a bit of a sloth and Woodforde hints that he shirked work, claiming the Ague. But there is no doubt that this ailment was a real problem. Woodforde also details outbreaks of smallpox in his parish and the innoculation of the poor.

Rob

[Geoffers]

A colleague recently commented on the Mount Hekla eruption of 1766......The ash was carried down the east coast on Scotland and England, and caused deaths due to respiratory problems. I have no prrof but my colleague claims to have read this in a historical tome...any evidence?
I've checked the burials in half a dozen parishes and the number of burials in the 1765-1775 period seems to be about average, there was a small spike in 1763-4. I would antcipate that (as per the Mount St.Helens eruption 20-odd years ago), the weather may have been adversly affected, and thus crops. But I cannot find a reference to ash being deposited - at least, not in Norfolk.


Woodforde also details outbreaks of smallpox in his parish and the innoculation of the poor.
It's well worth browsing parish registers, not just for events relating to family, but also in case the local cleric made notes about who contributed to collections (e.g Stratton Strawless), gossip and an annual comment on life (e.g. Frettenham) and mass inoculations (as in Blickling). The notes often appear in endpapers at the front, or back of a register - though every now and then (e.g. Buxton), they're in the middle.

Geoffers