A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



widows, impotent men and orphans, and for apprenticing and schooling 

 of the latter ; i js. 6d. is left in consideration of an inclosure made by 

 the testator, and 22 is to keep a competent master for the new free 

 school just built by the parish, to teach the children ' The Cross Row 

 and the arts of writing, grammar and arithmetic.' 



The plague epidemics were another frequent charge on the poor's 

 rates. Sporadic cases of plague were of constant occurrence, and the 

 authorities seem always to have had the fear of an epidemic before their 

 eyes. In 16079 the Sessions Acts contain orders against the plague, 

 enforcing the strict seclusion of infected persons in their houses, and 

 forbidding the importation of rags from London for paper-making ; and 

 on one occasion eleven persons were actually committed to Newgate 

 for attending the funeral of a victim of the plague. 135 " In 1625 tne 

 Cockpit Theatre in Whitehall was closed for fear of infection. 136 In the 

 same year there was an outbreak at Enfield, and in 1630 at Edgeware. 137 

 In 16367 there was a serious outbreak in and round London. Except 

 for an isolated parish here and there the plague at this time and in the 

 great outbreak of 1665 was chiefly severe in London and its immediate 

 suburbs, the only rural parish for which the weekly assessment was 

 made in 1637 being Isleworth. 138 This assessment was levied on the 

 county for the relief of the affected parishes in sums varying from i os. 

 to 3. The plague was worst in Stepney, and the ' Green goose fair ' 

 held there in Whit week was prohibited for fear of spreading the 

 infection. 139 



After the Great Plague in 1665 the overseers of the poor in 

 St. Katharine's, Ratcliff, Whitechapel, and Limehouse were called upon 

 to answer for refusing to make an assessment in their districts. 1 * 



During the latter half of the sixteenth century the persecutions 

 of Protestants in France and the Netherlands led to a considerable immi- 

 gration of refugees from both countries into the suburbs of London, 1 * 1 

 where a small alien population was already settled, protected by Tudor 

 governments both as Protestants and as the importers of new and 

 improved methods in the various trades they plied. The new comers 

 settled chiefly in the parish of St. Katharine by the Tower, where in 

 1583, 285 foreigners were living; in East Smithfield, where there were 

 445; in Whitechapel 146, in Halliwell Street 152, in Blackfriars 

 275, and in the adjoining parishes, 148 making altogether a population of 

 1,604 foreigners. A small number were more or less substantial mer- 

 chants, but the great majority were wage-earning servants and artisans 

 of a great variety of trades. 



The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 caused a fresh 

 immigration, this time from France, the great majority of the immi- 

 grants belonging to the silk-weaving industry and trades connected 



" ia Jeaffreson, Midd. Sest. R. ii, 3 1, 41, 50 ; iii, 167. IM MM. Seu. R. iii, 3, 4, 6. 



137 Ibid, iii, 33. 1M Ibid, iii, 62, 63. 



Ibid, iii, 62. ' Ibid, iii, 387. 



" Burn, Hiit. of Foreign Protestant Refugees in Engl. ; Returns of Aliens in Lend. (Huguenot Soc.). 

 )4> Returns of ARens in Land. (Huguenot Soc.), x (2), Cecil MSS. 208-14. 



96 



