63 
A YEAR OF ExcEssIvVE MortTAtirty. 
In 1623, the registers show a year of excessive mortality, but 
whether it was another outbreak of the plague, or epidemic of 
another character, no word of hint is given; in this year the 
normal annual death rate of 50 rose to 239 ; there were two cases 
of burying “on the Fell,” but the reason assigned for the excep- 
tions is ecclesiastical, rather than sanitary. The entries stand 
thus :—“ August 29th, Lanc Wood, being excommunicate, buried 
on the Fell. September 5th, Richd. Gibbon, being excommunicate, 
buried on the Fell.” As a contrast to the ravages of disease of 
this year, it may be worth noting that during the year of the great 
plague of London, 1665, and for the years immediately preceding 
and following, the mortality at Penrith was below the average, 
being 48, 42, and 45, for the years respectively, instead of 50. 
John Hastie’s incumbency was a long one; commencing two 
years before the death of Queen Elizabeth, he saw the reigns of 
James I. and Charles I., and although ejected during the Puritan 
Revolution, he lived on until the dawn of the restoration of 
Monarchy and Episcopacy. 
Mr. Hastier’s EJECTION. 
At what date John Hastie’s ejection from the living took place 
there is no direct evidence. In my former paper, judging only 
from the old churchwarden’s book, which commences in 1656, I 
ventured the opinion that Roger Baldwin, the Presbyterian, had 
only lately superseded the old vicar, but in the additional light of 
the parish registers, I find that surmise was incorrect. Students of 
history will remember that the Monarchy was rudely dethroned 
and Episcopacy abolished in 1645, when Commissioners, called 
“Triers,” were appointed to eject all clergymen from Church 
livings who refused to accept the new form of Church government 
and religious worship, or were in their opinion unfit by character 
or infirmity of age to be ministers. Of the time when John 
Hastie was “tried” by the Commissioners there is no record. It 
may be that like the apocryphal Vicar of Bray, he assented to the 
new state of things, and so retained his living until the infirmities 
