The Impact of Plague in North-East England 1600-1700

The threat of plague was one of the defining characteristics of
the early modern world. According to Paul Slack, it was 'both
a personal affliction and a social calamity', 'decimating
communities, destroying families, bringing pain and grief to
individuals'. This proposed doctoral study will analyse the
social impact of plague in North-East England throughout the
seventeenth century. In particular, it will assess how the
bonds among households, kinsfolk, neighbours, and the
wider community held in times of crisis. It will draw on a
range of quantitative and qualitative evidence gleaned from
parish registers, wills, household inventories, church and
common law depositions, as well as early printed material to
reconstruct the impact of such regular decimation of the
population on familial and communal social relations. It will
focus on the experiences of marginalised members of society
such as women and the poor in order to provide fresh
perspectives on existing historical and sociological debates
regarding the nature and experience of plague and crisis in
early modern England.