Feudal Aids

The Black Death : In 1348 two ships landed at Melcombe (Weymouth)  in Dorset a little before Midsummer. In them were sailors … infected with an unheard of epidemic illness called pestilence. They infected the men of Melcombe, who were the first to be infected in England. The first inhabitants to die from the illness of pestilence did so on the Eve of St John the Baptist [23 June], after being ill for three days at most. No doubt, Martinstown did not escape the effects of this plague.

To be completed