1625: Thomas Hobson's business operations affected by plague : Court book of the Vice-Chancellor and Mayor and their assistants relating to enforcement of plague measures

1625: Thomas Hobson's business operations affected by plague

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>Plague was endemic in Cambridge in the first half of the seventeenth century, but the years 1625-6 and 1630-2 were periods of particular stress and created serious problems of poor relief for the authorities. On 11 July 1625, the Vice-Chancellor and Mayor agreed a series of orders for the control of infection. Regular sessions were held for the enforcement of these orders and for the distribution of the proceeds of a levy enforced through a fast. The court book includes presentments of breaches of the orders and of the fast; bonds of carriers and letter-carriers to carry no goods from London or other infected places; orders for the release of certain goods and the airing of others; for the implementation of the watch; and for the closing of Sturbridge Fair. It is almost entirely in the hand of Registrary Tabor. </p></p>