It is interesting to read on social media at this difficult time, the many people who have mentioned the plague when discussing the Coronavirus situation.

In Salisbury in 1604 there were 1,000 deaths from the plague, 500 of them in St Edmund’s parish where the weavers lived, 348 in St Thomas’s, and 150 in the little parish of St Martin’s. Fisherton was then a suburb and its mortality was not recorded. Salisbury people set themselves to tackle the question. Guards were placed at the gates, strangers from London were not allowed to put up at an inn, but if they had to pass through the city they were given in charge of watchmen who escorted them through the outermost streets and put them on their journey.

Unfortunate citizens of Salisbury who had gone to London and wanted to come back had to camp outside for three months before they were considered fit to come in to reside. No goods from London were allowed to be brought nearer than Three Mile Hill, and that embargo became a very serious matter. The outbreak which began 1627 was the most important in this city. Throughout the sad annals of the whole period one name stood out which Salisbury people should always hold in honour and reverence – the name of John Ivie, a goldsmith.

John Ivie was a strong man, a man of great piety and a man of action, but his election to the mayoralty was evidently contrary to his natural wish. However, he accepted the terrible responsibility which was imposed on him. When the plague broke out the city was cast into a panic. Two-thirds of the people fled, the gates of The Close were shut, and John Ivie was left without recorder or magistrate, having only two petty constables who had no friends to whom they could go. So it was John Ivie who, when all others in authority fled, remained behind in Salisbury to do what he could to relieve the suffering of the distracted people and to govern the city under most trying circumstances.