33 
On the 25th of June all apprehension had ceased, and the 
corporation agreed to move the Lord President and the Dean 
to appoint a day of general thanksgiving for the great mercy 
of God towards this city, in delivering the same from the late 
sickness of the Plague.” Their request would, doubtless, he 
complied with; and we may conceive the sense of fervent grat¬ 
itude and joy that would prevail throughout the city, upon being 
relieved from the harassing terror and distress which had been 
endured for the last nine months. 
The pestilence of 1631 appears to have been most destructive 
of human life in the vicinity of the church-yard of St. Lawrence, 
where it was originally brought by the lewd woman from Armyn. 
In that suburb of the city, as we learn from Lord Wentworth’s 
letter to the Secretary of State, at least eighty persons had fallen 
victims to the virulence of the sickness within three weeks after 
its first arrival, and to that number a considerable addition 
must have been made before the close of the year. The preceding 
narrative contains nothing from which it can be inferred that 
the cases of infection were numerous within the walls of the city. 
The parochial registers do not show that at any time during 
the visitation the number of deaths much exceeded the ordinary 
rate, except in the parish of St. Lawrence. So prompt and 
vigorous were the means of prevention adopted by the civic 
authorities, whenever a case of infection, or even of suspicion, 
occurred, that the spread of the disease by contagion, was in 
most instances effectually stayed. The city was greatly indebted 
to the recommendations, or perhaps they may be more properly 
termed the commands, contained in the admirable letter ad¬ 
dressed by Lord Wentworth to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen 
as soon as the disease broke out. Being in constant communi¬ 
cation with the Lord President and Council of the North, in 
all their proceedings, some of which probably were stretched a 
little beyond the limits of the law, the city magistrates would 
have their hands strengthened by the support and countenance 
of the vice-regal court. 
The citizens of York were fully sensible of their obligations 
to the Lord President. Towards the end of October, a short 
time before his departure from York, upon having received the 
G 
