Plague and Pestilence Down the Centuries

   Early Records 

One of the most iconic moments in the folk memory of Dundee is the image of the Protestant preacher George Wishart preaching in 1544 from the walls of the burgh to the unfortunate victims of plague shut outside.  Though represented as fact (by John Knox), nobody is sure that the event actually happened and if it did , that it was from the particular place – the Wishart Arch in the East (Cowgate) Port – which has been uniquely saved from the  whole-scale demolition of Dundee’s early architecture because of its association with Wishart.  Some have suggested the arch in fact was built in the 17^th century. (This portion of the city wall has been extensively rebuilt and remodelled, but is likely to sit on the original place where the Cowgate Port stood.)

   The historian Richard Oram notes the charitable awarding of two bolls of meal on 8 November 1545 by the Graniter of St Andrews to 'certain poor dwellers in the town of Portincraig' (Broughty Ferry) who could not sustain themselves and were suspected of having plague. Three years after Wishart's iconic act, Dundee was again hit by the 'pest', though whether this was bubonic or pneumonic plague is unknown.

   It is not known exactly when the first victims fell to the Black Death in Angus, any more than it can be known the numbers and names of the victims over the centuries.  The first mentions- such as an outbreak in 1348 - are scanty.  But more is recorded in the Early Modern era, when authorities tried their best to prevent the rampant spread of the contagion.  Typical is the regulations enacted in Arbroath on 26 August 1565/6, which recognise the potential risk of infection from strangers:

Anent the ordour tayn for eschewyng the pest, it is statut and ordanit that na maner of parson within this broich resauve ane stranger or out man within thair hous day nor nycht without lecens askit and optenit of the bailyeis, onder the payn of tynsall of his fredom and comon landis; and the brekeris heirof to be haldyn as suspect; and the quarter maisters to pass nychtly and wesy thairefter gyf ony beis strykyn with infirmitie or rasaue strangers, and schaw the samin to the bailyeis. [Arbroath and its Abbey, Miller, p. 283.]

   In 1585 there appears to had been a significant occurrence of the plague in Dundee.  The royal cunyiehous (mint) had been been moved in June from Edinburgh to Dundee (and the set up costs of getting it operational in the city was a significant sum of £551), but disease in October necessitated its further removal to Perth.  On 30 November 1585 the council minutes state that a section of that body met in the open air to the west of the burgh, at Magdalen Green, as a precaution against infection. But, on 30 July 1588, the burgh authorities had reports of the plague breaking out in the south of the realm and were desperate to prevent an outbreak in the town:

It is statute that, in respect of the last infectioun of the plague or pest within the toun of Leyth, that this burgh sall be substantiouslie attendit to and watchit, as far as is possabill, for preservatioun of the sam, and first, that thair be four quarter-maisters electit for visiting daylie, in the morning betwix  fyve and sex, of all personis within thair quarteris quha  sall immediatlie report gif thair be ony seik or diseasit personis, to the baillie of thair quarteris. [History of Dundee, Thompson, pp. 278-9.]

   The division of the town into quarters to aid administration had come into effect several years earlier.  During the winter of 1587-8 the plague had erupted at Leith and was blamed on 'the opening up of some old kists'.  Instances of the disease followed in Edinburgh and other places, but Dundee was apparently spared.  The only reference of it found by local historian Alexander Maxwell was the payment of £20 the following winter to a man named George Robertson for 'the laubours and pains tane be him in the time of the visitation of the burgh with the plague of pest'.


   Other records of plague from this time are less official, but no less affecting.  The Rev Buxton Fraser recorded a tradition of the Wood family of Bonniton (associated with Maryton parish from 1493 to the 18th century):

...there is a tradition, deserving of notice... It is that during one of the visitations of plague two members of the family (it is said by some, the laird and his wife) were seized when walking on the hill of Bonniton and died in a very short time.  Their bodies were buried on the spot where they had died, and the place is still known as the "Pesty's Grave". [St Mary's of Old Montrose, p. 89.]

The Seventeenth Century

   In the year 1600 the town of Elgin authorised the employment of a expert from the south to manage the pestilence in their own town.  A message was sent 'to bring Bell the cleinger out of Dundey'.  That Dundee at this date employed a professional to manage sanitation and thus, hopefully, control the plague, was a measure of the dangers that Dundee recognised itself to be in.  An act was passed in Elgin to levy a tax to pay the considerable fee's of Dundee's cleanser.  The plague reappeared in the south of Scotland in the spring of 1602 and spread up the coast of Fife, forcing the council of Dundee to take security measures again to prevent the deadly incursion.  On 2 March 1602 it was enacted that:

during the continuance of the pest, the inhabitants dwelling in the south quarters sall bear the chairge for keeping the water side, and those in the other pairts, that for the three ordinary ports;  and that none sall receive ony person at back yetts or ony other entry nor the ordinary ports,under the pain of dead; and forder, that na neighbour sall reset ony stranger in lodging efter seven hours at nicht, without he first signify the same to the Bailie, under the pain foresaid. [The History of Old Dundee, Maxwell, p. 372.]

   This time the disease did not enter Dundee.  King James VI took the precaution to flee the south and reside for a time in Brechin. (Parliament fled for a time to Perth in 1604.) On 18 October 1602 the following year John Lovell was ordered by Dundee council to 'attend upon the keeping of the south side of the water [the Tay], and to suffer nane to have passage except sic as sall present ane sufficient testimonial fra ane unsuspectit place'.There is the following mention from the records of Aberdeen in 1603:  'To Caddell the post to gang to Brechin at command of the Provost for inquisition of the pest at Killimuir, 1 lb 10s.' In 1604, only three ferry boats at a time were allowed into Dundee's harbour.  But plague still came again in 1606.  In 1607, those infected with the plague were housed in makeshift riverside huts in the Sickmen's Yards to the east of the burgh (see below) and cleansers were appointed to separate infected goods.  Orders were given to prevent people visiting those suspected of being infected and who were confined to their homes, but this regulation was flouted, sometimes violently.  William Strathauchine, a Dundee cordiner:

abused ane of the quarter-masters appointit to attend upon persons infected, by saying that he had usurpit the office, and be giving him of the lie; and theirefter provoked him to the combat, and passed to his awn house and returnit seeking him with ane drawn sword. [The History of Old Dundee, Maxwell, p. 376.]

   William was made to crave forgiveness on his knees at the town Cross and another cordiner who had assisted him was also punished.

   In July 1608 many houses in Dundee were touched and so many magistrates had succumbed to death that the Privy Council had to appoint replacements. The notary Robert Wedderburne noted that:' the pest come from St Bartillis market in Franchland to Dundie at the first fair thairof in anno 1605 and zit continueis to this present day, the first of November 1608.  In the quhilk thair depairtit 4000 personis'.  It did not just originate overseas apparently, as in August it was spotted in Strachan on Deeside.  Dundee's  two expert clengers again went north and charged the sum of 500 merks.  Dundee, Perth and other places suffered a fresh plague outbreak in 1607 and 1608.

( *** The fascinating and unique record of Peter Goldman who wrote a personal account of the plague in Dundee at this time will be considered in a forthcoming post.)

   Another large outbreak swept across the whole nation in 1644-1648, with entry in Edinburgh in autumn 1644 possibly caused by the return of infected soldiers returning from a plague-hit area in north-east England. The illness spreading through the eastern Borders, then northwards. Menmuir parish was badly affected (by fear if not actual outbreak), so that there was no public worship in the parish kirk for several months in 1647 (as reported by the Rev. William Cron in the New Statistical Account in the 19th century). Menmuir's Session records report on 11 April that 'because of the forthbreaking of the plague in Brechin, the minister preached in the fields, therefore no collection'.  The entry is repeated every week until 26 September.

   Local historian Frederick Cruickshank believed that the minister of Navar, the Rev Laurence Skinner (who died in April 1647) died of the plague.  Local tradition told a believable human tale of the surviving family:

The minister is said to have caught the infection during a visit to Arbroath.  He was able to return home, but survived only a short time.  His wife and family were left in great distress with no means of obtaining food.  Such was the dread of infection that no one would venture, or have been permitted, to go near the manse.  The tenant of one of the Lichtnies, whose place was close at hand, was so far moved with compassion for the poor distressed family as to supply them with necessary sustenance.  He had not courage, however, to go to the house, and therefore set the provisions he had brought with him upon the top of a dyke.  He carried a gun with him, which he handled in a threatening manner, so as to intimidate any of the family from approaching him.  The wife took the infection from her husband, and died a little later in the month.  The maid-servant also died. [Navar and Lethnot, pp. 38-39.]

   The plague entered Montrose in May 1648 and raged until the following February.  Crowds fled from the infected into the countryside.  In the Links north-east of the town there was a large tumulus pointed out for many years as the place where many victims were interred.  On 15 October that year the burgh of Montrose was the thankful recipient of £42, 14s 2d collected by the people of Brechin 'for the distressed people of Montrose'.  Brechin itself was suffering the tail end of a fearful outbreak (see below).

   It appears that the 1640s outbreak did not substantially affect Dundee.  Towards the end of 1645 the disease had been noted in Fife and in the Carse of Gowrie, but for some reason - providence perhaps - there was no immediate outbreak in Dundee.  Fear and watchfulness continued.  In June or July 1645 it was recorded:

The Counsall takand consideratioun that the plague is now spotting in Meigle, as also how it is daily increasing in Leith, Edinburgh, and other places... it is ordained that thair sall only be two portis keiped oppen, and those gairded be the inhabitantis of this burgh... and for securing the passage be water they have ordained Robert Stirline and Walket Rankine to goe to ffyffe, and thair to cause transport hither all boatis and yollis in ffyffe.

Alexander Maxwell believes that the following prophetic rhyme was coined at the time as a result of this respite:

                      Between Sidlaw and the sea, pest or plague shall never be.

   But there was an alarm on 22 August 1648 when:

The Counsall, being convened to tak som course anent the death of a foottman, laitly come from Aberdeen, who being visite be the peysitiones is found to be suspected to be dead in the plague, [and] hes resolved that Andro Nicol, stabler, in whose house he died, shall be put furth, with his familie, in the fields to abyde ane tryall, and the thesaurer ordained to cause put up the lodge for him.

   Another panic occurred in October 1653 when a Queenburgh vessel entered the Tay and was suspected of harbouring plague; it was quarantineed 'quhill the change of the moon be past'.  A watch by two townsfolk was kept at the Craig in Dundee for incomers two years later with signs of the plague, following news of its outbreak in England, but Dundee luckily escaped.

A Place for The Dying:  The Plague Huts of Murlingden

   Murlingden, near Brechin, is a place I have never visited, and I'm not sure what my reaction to it would be if I ever did.  For if ever a place deserved to be haunted on the basis of a concentration of misery there, this spot would surely be.  When the plague came to Brechin in 1647, it disrupted the entire civil and religious life of the ancient city, as the records show:  25 July, at Buttergill hill.  No meeting [of the Presbytery] since the first of Aprill till this tym becaus of the pestilence in Brechin.'  The Presbytery took the same precaution of convening at the same place on 9 August. On 9 September it was recorded:

The Lord visiting this burgh with the Infecting seikness, thair was no session holden from the seventh of Aprill till the day and moneth wnderwritten, but when it pleased the Lord that the seikness began to relent thair wer som persones contracted and maried.

    So life, as ever, continued, but so did the fear of contamination.  On 23 and 30 November there was 'No session be reason the moderator and remenanent sessiones feared to convene vnder one roof.'   Cleansers were imported into the town from Edinburgh to carry away the dead and fumigate the streets by dragging blazing tar barrels up and down them.  A stone built into the churchyard wall at Brechin sombrely records the fact that 600 souls were taken by the disease.  

   The disease continued into 1648, perhaps after going into abeyance for a time.  On 2 and 23 August it was recorded that there was 'No session be reason the infection was begun again in the toun.'   The strange fate of some of the town's people is recorded in a Session-book note written on 2 January:  'Given to William Ros lying in the seikness in ane hutt, xxxs'. William and other unfortunates known to be infected were transported several miles outside the town and made to survive, as best they could, in makeshift dwellings in a deserted landscape (now part of the gardens  to the east of the Georgian mansion of Murlingden House,  just north of Brechin). A second individual who received charity but evidently escaped infection herself is named in the Brechin records on 1 March (recorded by Jervise in Memorials of Angus and the Mearns, 2, p. 310): 'Given to ane poore woman in the Craigend of Auldbar, who lost all hir gear by cleansing thairof the tym of the infection, called Janet Mitchell, xx lib.'

   Provisions for those living (and dying) in the Murlingden huts continued to be made:

Oct. 6.  Payit for meall for the people in the hwtts, 59s.

Oct 22.  Given to buy malt and meall to those in the hutts, 3 lib. 12s. 

   William Marshall, in Historic Scenes in Forfarshire (p. 227) tells us:

The infected were separated from others, and put into huts erected on the common moor; and these were in many instances pulled down over their corpses, which was all the sepulchre they got.  The knolls thus raised might be traced till recently, when they were effaced by laying out the garden of Murlingden... Those of its victims, whose dust was carried to the churchyard, were buried in a plot by itself, which received no new tenant till as lately as 1809; not for fear of the dead being infected, but for fear of the plague, which was thought to be buried in the graves of its victims, escaping if these were touched, "in the form of a bluish mist or vapour," and overspreading the country!

   Another legend, somewhat similar, is attached to the kirkyard of Lethnot, as told by the Rev. Cruickshank:

The mound in Lethnot kirkyard probably marks the place of common burial for those who were cut off by the plague.  Mrs Smith gave me the warning, which had come down by tradition, that if ever that portion of ground was opened, the pestilence would break out again, and one is not sure but that its germs may still be there waiting only a chance of development.  There is no risk, however, of this.  The ground has never been touched since by the gravedigger's spade...[Navar and Lethnot, p. 223]

 

Murlingden House.  The plague huts were to the east of the present day house.

   Jervise (Memorials of Angus and the Mearns, p. 202) further informs us that the market at Brechin was also removed outside the burgh:

... instead of the weekly markets being held in the town at the time, they stood upon the estate of Kintrockat, about two miles to the westward, also that a cauldron was used for purifying the money which was exchanged on these occasions.  In commemoration of that event, a late proprietor is said to have had a mound raised upon the site of the reputed market place.

   More recent opinion, however,  believes that the mound, to the north west of Kintrockat House, is an ancient burial cairn.  At one time, many stone bows were evident here, supposedly receptacles for payment for goods left on the mound.  It has been said - and it is not improbable - that the source of the entry of the plague into Aberdeen in April 1647 was a woman visiting from Brechin who crossed the Dee surreptitiously at night and doomed a good population of the city.

Kitntrockat mound: memory of the plague or more ancient?

Dundee's Sick-men's Yards and Other Sites

   As noted above, Dundee's plague stricken were, for a period, made to live beyond the eastern boundary of the burgh.  In this area, near the Dens Burn and comprising part of the lands of Wallace-Craigie, was situated St Roque's Chapel.  Probably the plague victims who died here were buried in this kirkyard.  Not co-incidentally this saint was the patron of those afflicted with the plague.  To the east of this, even further outside the town, was the Holy Rood Chapel, also called the Chapel of St John (the Evangelist) 'of the sklait heuchs', so named because it stood on a grey slate outcrop adjacent to a slate quarry. (The rock was anciently called Kilcraig, church on the rock, suggesting a very ancient foundation, and stood near the Tay shore, just east of Carolina Port.  The successor to this church and kirkyard is to the south of the current Broughty Ferry Road.)  As early as 1442 there was a hospital for the afflicted here and later plague victims were also put to rest in the kirkyard. The burgh actually rented out the kirk lands to a man named James Black and again for agricultural use in 1561, which, suggests historian Elizabeth Torrie, that the kirk itself was in dereliction. A few years earlier than this official re-usage, someone had illegally occupied these lands were were properly to be used for drying of fishing nets, common pasturage and 'for the lodges to sick folks in time of pest, as they were of before past memorie of man'.  The illegal crops were trampled down.  But by the start of the 17th century a new wave of plague sufferers were living in the Roodyards.  According to James Thompson's History of Dundee:

In the course of the 19th century, and perhaps earlier, the churchyard, open and neglected, was used as a place of interment for seafaring people not belonging to the town, for strangers, and for those whom accident or violence brought to a premature end. It was also the family burial place of the Kyds, formerly designed of Craigie, who acquired that estate about or before 1660; and as a place of interment it was still used, particularly by that family of Craigie (who erected a vault in 1829, at nearly the centre of the ground), and by several other families possessing a right of sepulchre within its precincts, either as feuars of parcels of the lands of Craigie, or by purchase. The area is limited, a large part of the south side having been quarried away many years ago; but what remains is substantially enclosed, and tastefully planted with ornamental trees and shrubs. [History of Dundee, p. 228.]

     While the bubonic or pneumonic plague were periodic visitors to the scene, there was an ever present risk of leposy in town and country, plus other diseases such as cholera to contend with (which may account for some 'plague records').  Dundee's leper house, first recorded in the 15th century, stood on the banks of the Den's Burn and was well recorded in the 16th century.  It was one of four hospitals which served various illnesses in the medieval burgh.

   There is an elusive tradition that there was a plague pit situated beyond the western boundary of Dundee, near present Tay Street, in an area called The Devil's Green.  This has never been satisfactorily explained or investigated, though it may be connected in some way with the Witches' Knowe nearby.

A view which would have been familiar, a century earlier, to afflicted plague sufferers shut outside the east side of the burgh.

Selected Sources

Black, David G., The History of Brechin to 1864 (Brechin, 1867).

Coutts, Walter, Historical Guide, Brechin and Neighbourhood (Brechin, 1889).

Cruickshank, Frederick, Navar and Lethnot, the History of a Glen Parish in the North-East of Forfarshire (Brechin, 1899).

Edwards, D. H., Around the Ancient City (Brechin, 1904).

Hume Brown, P. (ed.), The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland (Second series, vol. 3, Edinburgh, 1901).

Inglis, Rev. W. M., Annals of An Angus Parish (Dundee, 1888).

Jervise, Andrew, Memorials of Angus and the Mearns (revised edition, 2 volumes, Edinburgh, 1885).

Lythe, S. G. E., Life and Labour in Dundee from the Reformation to the Civil War (Abertay Historical Publication No. 5, Dundee, 1958).

Marshall, William, Historic Scenes in Forfarshire (Edinburgh, 1875).

Maxwell, Alexander, The History of Old Dundee (Edinburgh and Dundee, 1884).

Miller, A. H., Haunted Dundee (Dundee, 1923).

Miller, David, Arbroath and its Abbey (Edinburgh, 1860).

Montrose Basin Heritage Society, Ebb and Flow, Aspects of the History of Montrose Basin (Balgavies, 2004).

Oram,  Richard , "It cannot be decernit quha are clean and quha are foulle." Responses to Epidemic Disease in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Scotland, Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Reforme, 30 (4) (2006).

Ruxton Fraser, Rev. W., St Mary’s of Old Montrose, or Parish of Maryton (Edinburgh and London, 1896).

The Municipal History of Dundee (Dundee, 1878).

Thompson, James, The History of Dundee (new edition, Dundee, 1874).

Torrie, Elizabeth P. D., Medieval Dundee, A Town and its People (Abertay Historical Society, Publication No. 30, Dundee, 1990).

Warden, Alexander, Angus, or Forfarshire (volume 1, Dundee, 1880).