24 
shut up and watched, and the house of a neighbour was to be 
closed, because he had sent his child to fetch yarn from Harrison’s 
house. A third person was ordered to stay in his house, because 
he had conversed with Harrison. In North-street, on the same 
side of the river, several houses were suspected, and ordered to 
be shut up. 
The Monkgate suburb did not escape. The household of a 
person residing on Barker-hill was ordered to be removed to the 
lodges in Tang-hall fields, and the street was ordered to be 
watched. All persons having kyne or horses in Tang-hall pas¬ 
ture were to remove them; the milkers in Payne-lathe-crofts 
were to take out their kyne. Soon afterwards all the inhabitants 
on Barker-hill were shut up, and a strict watch was set. 
As the disease continued to spread, a person from Malton was 
engaged as a cleanser upon the following terms :—He was to be 
paid 16s. a week ; he was to do his best endeavour for the help, 
ease, and cure of the sick and visited, and for washing, smoaking, 
airing, and cleansing of their houses and clothes, and other 
things therein, without embezzling any of them ; he was to keep 
himself apart and not come near persons not infected; he was 
not to go abroad, but with a keeper and a white rod in his hands. 
A day or two after the arrival of the cleanser, some persons 
in Nout-gate, a narrow street leading from Walmgate towards 
Fishergate Bar, were reported to be infected, and he was 
ordered to cleanse there. All persons were forbidden to buy 
second-hand clothes. 
On the 19th of September, the neighbouring villages of 
Osbaldwick and Heworth were suspected, and ordered to be 
watched. On the same day two of the aldermen, Matthew 
Tophan and Thomas Hoyle, were deputed to wait upon the Lord 
President and the ‘ Maisters of the church’ and move them to 
give directions for a General Fast, to be solemnised on such day, 
and in such manner as they should appoint. 
The continual advance and spread of the pestilence not only 
at York, but in several parts of Yorkshire, and of the adjacent 
counties of Lincolnshire, Notts,, and Lancashire, had now 
become most appalling; and the lord president thought it a 
fitting subject to be brought under the special notice of the 
