A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



Let the infected houses be p'fumed with the p'fumes of Tarr, pitch or Rosin or guinig wood and 

 also all their clothes. Also let them p'fume their houses with viniger or Rosemane or Bayleaves. 



If anie botches or plague sores arise let them use either of these following remedies to draw them 

 to a head and to ripen and burst them. . 



Take the rootes of white liUiesrost them well in a good quantitie of sorrel lapped in a wett paper 

 then stamp and apply them hot to the swellinge and lett it lie too 24. houn or apply fresh if need be 

 But be sure to bume the plaister soe taken of in the Chimney Fire. 



or this 



Take a quantitie of Leaven a handfull of Mallowes of sorrell as much of scabious as mutch figgs 

 cow ingons pilled and slised. Lett all theise be boyled in old ayle untill they come to a soft pultis 

 stampe it and apply it hot to the place thick spredd and this renew everie twentie howers 

 burning it after it be taken of as is formerlie said. 



They male drinke (if they can get it) whigg or butter milke ; But not wey.* 



In 164s the West Riding suffered terribly; Leeds between March and December lost 1,325 

 of its inhabitants by plague.^ Wakefield suffered in a less degree ; from August 1645 to August 

 1646, 245 people died of the disease,* but the great plague of 1665, the last plague in England, 

 apparently left Yorkshire untouched.' 



It is asserted that there was a considerable settlement of Flemings in Yorkshire during the 

 reign of Henry VII,' but of this no evidence is forthcoming. The Lay Subsidies, which ought to 

 throw light on the subject, for in and after the reign of Henry VI aliens paid double the amount 

 paid by natives, are not extant for this reign.** During the previous reign, however, several 

 lists of those who paid to the subsidies have been preserved ; but, according to these, Scotsmen, who 

 were of course regarded as aliens, were in great preponderance. Of the twelve aliens who figure in 

 the West Riding list only one, Thomas Francheman, comes from the Continent ; the twenty 

 East Riding aliens are all Scots, while the North Riding aliens include John Ducheman, Herman 

 Ducheman, Benet Magnus, and seventeen Scotsmen.' 



The Roll for the next two years simply bristles with Scotsmen, though Mounder Johnson 

 Iselman, David Atteson Dutchman, Thomas Nanson, nation not given, and Paul Scolemaster in 

 Orkeney, relieve the monotony of the tale.' 



But the West Riding undoubtedly returns the fewest aliens in both cases, and the disparity is 

 even greater in the next roll, for the East Riding returns thirty-three aliens, mostly Scots, John 

 Ausryn Purceman, Briget Skirner Icelandwoman, being the most interesting exceptions ; the North 

 Riding returns twenty-six and the West Riding only seven." The continental wars of Henry VIII 

 would naturally stop any stream of immigration to England, but a curious light is thrown on the 

 intense animosity with which the Scots alien was regarded in the city of York by a case of which an 

 account is preserved in the city records. 



On the 20th day of November the fifth yere of the regne of the sovereign lord Kyng Henry VIII 

 William Robynson wever which was diffamed and slandered to be a Scott borne came personally 

 before the right reverend father in God Edmond th' Abbot of the Monastery of (our) Lady 

 withowte the walls of the citie of York and then and there brought witnesses to swear he was 

 trewe Englyshman. 



In another case, that of Nicholas Maland, the testimony of the Mayor and Aldermen of 

 Newcastle was evoked and the following letter was received by the Mayor of York : 



Be it knowen to ye that whereas we ar credably informed that Nicholas Maland nowe of the 

 citie of York merchant is diffamed noysed and slandered that he shuld be a Scottysman borne 

 not only to the rebooke of his good name but also to the gret hurt and hyndrance of his 

 goods world])' "" . . . honeste and credible persons came affore us and hath sworne upon the holy 

 evangeliste by them bodely touched that the said Nicholas Maland was born of his mothers womb 

 in Crawcoke in the said Bysschopryche and christened in the parish church of Ryton aforesaid." 



According to the lay subsidy of 1545 all the aliens, of whom seven are distinctly Scots, three 

 French, and one of doubtful nationality, pay a double tax.^^ But in the following reign this rule 

 was not observed. Francis Gaven, Edmimd Jordan, Martin Sofay paid double, but Robert Jordan, 



' York Munic. Rec. xxxv, fol. 120a. 'Ibid. fol. i2o3. 'Whitaker, Hist, of Leeds, 75. 



^Torks. Arch. Journ. xv, 437, 453. 'C. Creighton, op. cit. 688. 



' J. James, Hist, of the Woollen Trade, 586, 613 ; Mrs. J. R. Green, Tozm Life in the l^th Century, ii, 94. 



^ 'Alien Merchants in England,' Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), ix, 94. 



' P.R.O. Lay Subsidy Roll, bdle. 217, no. 55, Doncaster (Oct. 12, 28 Hen. VI). 



' Ibid. bdle. 217, no. 59 (28-30 Hen. VI). 



' Ibid. bdle. 2 1 7, no. 67 (3 1-34 Hen. VI). 



'" List of witnesses inserted here. " York Munic. Rec. ix, fol. 73, 74, 21 Sept. 15 14. 



" P.R.O. Lay Subsidy Roll, bdle. 217, no. 109 (City and Ainsty, 37 Hen. VIII). 



458 



