The Black Death, from the October of 1347 to around 1352, it has been said, did not eradicate a third of Europe’s population.
Open almost any textbook on western civilization says historian Sam Cohn and it will claim that the Black Death wiped out one-third of Europe’s population. In fact, in some places such as a village on an estate in Cambridgeshire manorial rolls attest that 70 per cent of its tenants died in a matter of months in 1349. Yet, the plague skipped over or barely touched other villages, even within Cambridgeshire, and may not have infected at all vast regions such as ones in northern German-speaking lands.
I wonder why certain villages suffered when others didn't?
In 1767, just over two hundred years before the birth of my ancestor James Toon in the village of Thringstone in Leicestershire, there were only twenty-six families in his village and only forty-two in the two neighbouring villages of Whitwick and Swannington, according to records it was the Black Death that devastated the village seeing off nearly all the population and after that population growth in this village and the surrounding area was slow.
My family, it seems, were one of the lucky ones.
You can read about my Toon ancestors here:
meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/john-toon-1799.html
I wonder why certain villages suffered when others didn't?
In 1767, just over two hundred years before the birth of my ancestor James Toon in the village of Thringstone in Leicestershire, there were only twenty-six families in his village and only forty-two in the two neighbouring villages of Whitwick and Swannington, according to records it was the Black Death that devastated the village seeing off nearly all the population and after that population growth in this village and the surrounding area was slow.
My family, it seems, were one of the lucky ones.
You can read about my Toon ancestors here:
meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/john-toon-1799.html
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