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The History and Antiquities of Eyam
By William Wood (1842, 1845 & 1860)

MEMORIALS OF THE PLAGUE

PAST AND PRESENT

- The Past -

Two centuries and a half will soon have transpired since the commencement of the plague; and as might be expected, many of the stones which told of the calamity of Eyam, have been destroyed. In order that the future inhabitants of Eyam may be enabled to point out to the tourist some of the places where the ashes of the sufferers repose, the places will be here noted where stones have been known to exist; where bones and other human remains have been found; and where the still-existing few memorials may be seen. Besides Riley graves, already described, Mrs. Mompesson's tomb, and a few other stones in the Churchyard, there were in the Cussy Dell about a century ago, two or three grave-stones to the memory of a portion of a family named Ragge; and the Register mentions four persons of that name who died of the plague. The stones have either been broken or carried away. It was the last of these memorials which is the theme of the short and beautiful poem, entitled 'The Tomb of the Valley', written some years ago by the late Richard Furness. At the Shepherds' Flat some stones existed until very lately, to the memories of the Mortins and Kempes; two families who perished by the plague, with the solitary exception, as we have before seen, of one individual. These memorials, after having marked for more than a century and a half the precise places where the mortal remains of the sufferers of Shepherds' Flat were interred, have been destroyed by some late barbarian occupants of that secluded place. Bretton, about a mile north of Eyam, was visited by the plague, and many grave-stones or other memorials once recorded the names of those who died. The victims were of the families of Mortin, Hall and Townsend. One of these sufferers was buried in Bretton Clough, and a round stone without any inscription still marks the grave. Behind, or rather at the west end of some dwellings, once known as the Poor-houses, one or two of these stones, which are said to have recorded the deaths of some persons of the name of Whiteley, have been of late demolished. In a field adjoining the back part of the house occupied by Mr. J. Rippon, Eyam, one of these "melancholy tablets of mortality" once existed. That part of Eyam called the Townend was, about one hundred and twenty-five years back, bestrewn with these calamitous memoranda. Some have served for the flooring of houses and barns; while others have been broken up for numerous purposes. The house and barn contiguous to the Foresters' Arms Inn was built on a small plot of ground which contained the unconsecrated graves of a whole family at least. The stones which commemorated the untimely fate of these sufferers were sacreligiously broken when the present building was erected. A piece of waste land at the east end of the village, now forming a part of the Miners' Arms Croft, must, from the number of monumental stones it once contained, have been the general place of interment for many families. Some of these humble tablets were inscribed with a single H., probably the initial of Heald, the name of a family of whom many perished. This brief and simple inscription is, however, applicable to two other families, named Hawksworth and Hadfield, who might inter their deceased members in this place. These mournful memorials, with their serious and impressive records, are no longer seen. A want of becoming veneration for the remains of those unparalleled sufferers: an utter absence of proper feeling, marks most peculiarly that degraded being who could be the means of destroying these simple monuments of the greatest moral heroes that ever honoured and dignified mankind! The inhabitants of Eyam ought to have vied with each other in the preservation of every relic of the eventful fate of the victims of the plague; the ground in which their ashes are laid ought to have been for ever undisturbed; and the tables which told the stories of their calamities guarded, as much as possible, even from the defacing hand of time. Alas! alas! such has not been the case; nearly all the humble stones which were laid to perpetuate their memories have been demolished.

"Ah! There no more The green graves of the pestilence are seen; O'er them the plough hath pass'd; and harvests wave, Where haste and horror flung th' infectious corse."

- ELLIOTT

"Yet still the wild flowers o'er their ashes creep."

- FURNESS

In a field behind the church, known as Blackwell's Edge-field, there are two stones with the following inscriptions:- "Margaret Teylor, 1666;" "Alies Teylor, 1666." According to the Register, Margaret was buried July 14, 1666; and Alies was one of the last who perished by the hand of the pest. Nearly the whole of this family died of the distemper, although there is no mention of any other on the present existing stones.

In a field adjoining Froggatt's factory, there is an old dilapidated tabular tomb, with H.M. inscribed on one end. These letters are the initials of Humphrey Merril, who was buried there on the 9th. of September, 1666.

In the parson's field, in the Lydgate, Eyam Townend, two grave-stones are laid nearly parallel to each other, containing the following records:- "Here lye buried George Darby, who dyed July 4th, 1666; "Mary, the daughter of George Darby, dyed September 4th, 1666." The house which this family occupied is supposed to have been contiguous to their graves. There is a tradition that this lovely young maiden was extremely beautiful and engaging: that she was frequently seen in the adjoining fields; that she was suddenly seized by the terrific pest while gathering flowers in the field of her father's sepukchre; and that she lingered only one short day before she was laid beneath the daisy-sods, beside her father's grave. How sudden the change! Homer's beautiful simile on the death of Euphorbus, may be applied with equal felicity to the fate of this young maiden:-

"As the young olive, in some sylvan scene, Crown'd by fresh fountains with eternal green, Lifts the gay head, in snowy flowrets fair, And plays and dances to the gentle air; When lo! a whirlwind from high heaven invades The tender plant, and withers all its shades; It lies uprooted from its genial bed, A lovely ruin, now defaced and dead."

A stone once in the possession of the late Mr. John Slinn, Eyam, and now in a cabinet of curiosities at or near Derby, has the following inscription: Bridget Talbot, Ano. Dom.,1666." She was buried on the fifteenth of August, 1666. The stone was found in a small piece of ground, now forming, as before mentioned, part of the Miners' Arms Croft. A stone lies under the parlour* floor of a house opposite the church, occupied by Mr. P. Furness; it was found in a back room when the house was rebuilt, about sixty-five years ago.

* The room on the right hand of the entrance. Mr. furness is now dead.

---

It was probably brought there from the garden and used as a flag. It contains an inscription to the memory of a person of the name of Ragg. These tablets, with those in the Churchyard and at Riley, still bear testimony of the plague at Eyam. Many have been destroyed, and probably many more are buried beneath the surface of gardens and fields of the village.

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