1665 — A Journal of the Plague Year — Ministers who stayed or fled
A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe 1722
Part of a series — A Journal of the Plague Year — An Annotated Text
Thomas Vincent
During 1665, the year of the Great Plague of London, he constantly preached in parish churches.[2]
And if Monday night was dreadful, Tuesday night was more dreadful, when far the greatest part of the city was consumed: many thousands who on Saturday had houses convenient in the city, both for themselves, and to entertain others, now have not where to lay their head; and the fields are the only receptacle which they can find for themselves and their goods; most of the late inhabitants of London lie all night in the open air, with no other canopy over them but that of the heavens: the fire is still making towards them, and threateneth the suburbs; it was amazing to see how it had spread itself several times in compass; and, amongst other things that night, the sight of Guildhall was a fearful spectacle, which stood the whole body of it together in view, for several hours together, after the fire had taken it, without flames, (I suppose because the timber was such solid oak,) in a bright shining coal as if it had been a palace of gold, or a great building of burnished brass.[4]
His account of the plague in God’s Terrible Voice in the City by Plague and Fire, 1667, is graphic; seven in his own household died as a result of the plague.[2] Subsequently, he gathered a large congregation at Hoxton, apparently in a wooden meeting-house, of which for a time he was dispossessed.
Thomas Wadsworth
Moving to Theobalds in the parish of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, he preached privately there, and, also privately to a section of his old flock at Newington Butts, taking no salary. He continued his works during the plague of 1665. After the Great Fire of 1666 he preached in a timber building erected in Deadman’s Place, Southwark
John Pritchett
After the Restoration, he returned to his position at St Andrew Undershaft.[7] He was appointed vicar of St Giles Cripplegate in 1663,[4] successor to John Dolben. He avoided the Great Plague of London in 1665 by moving to the country.
In the plague year of 1665 Doolittle and his pupils moved to Woodford Bridge, near Chigwell, close to Epping Forest, Vincent remaining behind. Returning to London in 1666, Doolittle was one of the nonconformist ministers who, in defiance of the law, erected preaching-places when churches were lying in ruins after the Great Fire. His first meeting-house (probably a wooden structure) was in Bunhill Fields, and here he was undisturbed. But when he transferred his congregation to a large and substantial building which he had erected in Mugwell (now Monkwell) Street, the authorities set the law in motion against him.
William Sancroft (30 January 1617–24 November 1693) was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury. He was criticized for leaving London during the Great Plague of 1665, though in his defence it must be said that virtually all of the upper class did the same.
Samuel Fisher (1605–1665) was an English Quaker controversialist.
During the Great Plague of London he was temporarily released, and went to the house of Ann Travers, a Quaker at Dalston, near London, where he died of the plague on 31 August 1665. Fisher’s works were Quaker text-books for more than a century. William Sewel called him ‘dextrous and well skilled in the ancient poets and Hebrew’; and William Penn, a close associate, praised his even temper and humility.
Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh (22 March 1615–3 December 1691), also known as Lady Ranelagh, was an Anglo-Irish scientist in seventeenth-century Britain. She was also a political and religious philosopher, and a member of many intellectual circles including the Hartlib Circle, the Great Tew Circle, and the Invisible College. Her correspondents included Samuel Hartlib, Edward Hyde, William Laud (the Archbishop of Canterbury), Thomas Hyde, and John Milton. She was the sister of Robert Boyle and is thought to have been a great influence on his work in chemistry.
Jones believed in respecting other people despite their religious affiliations and fought to unite nonconformist and conformists during the Great Plague of 1665. Although she called herself a conformist, she had a deep concern for the nonconformists and their treatment during the Plague. She argued that they were following their spiritual duties and doing what they believed God would want them to do despite what the law says. She said that they have the right to follow their own religious beliefs.