Epidemics

It's a frightening time for those of us at the Charterhouse, with the majority of us over 70.  So it seems appropriate to look at how various epidemics affected the hospital through the centuries.  But there's a problem; there is absolutely nothing in the records about it.  Is that because the hospital's inmates escaped unscathed, or simply because no one bothered to record any impacts?
Frequent epidemics of disease were a fact of life.  Thirty years before Michael de la Pole founded his Priory a huge number of people in England had died of the plague, and that disease was to flare up occasionally right through to the 17th century.  There is information in the 16th century Bench Books about its effects in Hull, but no mention of hospitals like the Charterhouse.  In 1575 an outbreak of plague caused the Bench to confine all the poor to their houses, since they were the ones thought to be spreading it.  A tax was levied to pay for their upkeep.  Presumably almshouses were under the same lock-down.
It is possible that there was safety in being relatively isolated and self-sufficient outside the city walls.  But when the plague struck Hull again in 1637-8 the hospital at last gets into the records, because the Master was affected.  Andrew Marvell and his wife were suspected of having caught the disease and were quarantined in the home of Alderman Maccabeus Hollis for 14 days.  They were cleared.  One estimate is that 2,000 people in the town died, a huge part of the total population; at least 2,500 survivors had to apply for financial assistance; and many left the town altogether.  The Charterhouse, which had 18 residents and an income of £133.7s.6d., in 1638 gave a donation of £56 "to the poor in general on account of the pestilence".
An ever-present problem in the city was poor drainage, because the land is so flat.  (This still poses difficulties for modern sewers.)  Complaints about the drains recurred at the Charterhouse.  The situation almost certainly contributed to the numerous outbreaks of diarrhoeal disease; there was a particularly severe epidemic in 1884/5.  However, no spike in deaths of Charterhouse inmates is evident from our register.
This is also true of the two major cholera epidemics.  Cholera is a water-borne disease, but it is

James Alderson

thought that it as brought into England on infected rags, and Hull was particularly badly affected.  Around 300 people died.  Quarantine and other public health measures had been put in place rather reluctantly because the city's rulers didn't want to damage trade.
James Alderson MD wrote a History and Progress of Cholera at Hull, an account of his own experience in the 1832 epidemic.  He mentions the Infirmary, the gaol and the new workhouse, noting that measures had been taken, such as cleaning, to minimise the risks.  He doesn't mention the almshouse-type hospitals.  Alderson's work was vital in understanding the disease.  But lessons were not learned.

The next big epidemic occurred in 1849, and its affects were far worse.  1,834 people died in Hull and Sculcoates.  The outbreak is well documented.  Henry Cooper MD published a paper on it in 1853.  He gives detailed figures for deaths (but not percentages, which seem not to have been used in this period) but this doesn't help us to know what was happening at places like the Charterhouse.  (He also presents an interesting analysis of what was wrong with the drainage system in Hull.)  Our register again gives little indication of a spike in deaths.

In June 1918 Hull experienced its first case of what became known as Spanish flu.  The epidemic lasted almost a year and resulted in 1,261 deaths, across all sectors of the community.  The Charterhouse records don't mention the outbreak, but presumably it was as badly hit as the rest of the population.  The elderly residents would have been particularly susceptible.

We are now in the early stages of an epidemic, covid-19,  which could be the worst yet, and we, of course, don't know what will happen.  If I'm spared, I will try to update this post.