William Mompesson (1639 – 7 March 1709) was a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

priest whose decisive action when his

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

parish,

Eyam Eyam () is an English village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales that lies within the Peak District National Park. There is evidence of early occupation by Ancient Britons on the surrounding moors and lead was mined in the area by the R ...

, became infected with the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

in the 17th century averted more widespread catastrophe. The earliest reference to him is in ''

Alumni Cantabrigienses ''Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900'' is a biographical register of former members of the University of Cambridge whic ...

'', he was baptized at

Collingham, West Yorkshire Collingham is a village and civil parish south-west of Wetherby in West Yorkshire, England. It is in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 2,991. It sits in the Harewood ward of L ...

on 28 April 1639, he attended school in Sherburn and went to

Peterhouse Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite o ...

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, in 1655, graduating BA 1659 and Master of Arts (Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin), MA 1662. He was ordained in 1660. After a period of service as chaplain to George Saville, 1st Marquess of Halifax, Sir George Saville, later (1679) Lord Halifax, he came, as Rector (ecclesiastical)#Anglican churches, Rector to Eyam in 1664, with his wife Catherine, (daughter of Ralph Carr, Esq., of Cocken, County Durham).Genealogical research
/ref> In 1665 Great Plague of London, plague hit England, and a consignment of cloth bound for his village brought with it the infection, infectious fleas which spread the disease. After an initial flurry of deaths in the autumn of that year it died down during the winter only to come back even more virulently in the spring of 1666. Mompesson, in conjunction with another clergyman, the Great Ejection, ejected Puritan, Thomas Stanley, took the courageous decision to isolate the village. In all, 260 of the village's inhabitants, including his wife Catherine, died before the plague claimed its last victim in December 1666. Mompesson became associated with the plague and was not universally welcomed at his next parish, Eakring, Nottinghamshire. In 1670 he remarried, his second wife being a widow, Elizabeth Newby. She was a relative of his patron, Sir George Saville, and through his patronage Mompesson eventually became Prebendary of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, although he declined the opportunity to be Dean (religion), Dean of Lincoln Cathedral. He died in 1709. This historic episode, commemorated each year in the village, has been the subject of many books and plays, notably ''The Roses of Eyam'' by Don Taylor (1970). Recently academics have begun to examine the factual basis of the story's key ingredients: for example the extent to which wealthier residents were able to circumvent the ban. For example, despite insisting all villagers should remain in Eyam, Mompesson had his own children sent away to Sheffield in June 1666, just before the quarantine was agreed. At this time he also desired to send his wife Catherine with them but she refused to leave him, later succumbing to the plague. Mompesson did many things to help the village during the plague including preventing the spread of it by filling pockets drilled in the Boundary Stone full of vinegar for trading. This helped stop the spread of the plague by sterilising any coins that came in or out of Eyam. "Mompesson's Well", listed at Grade II by Historic England, is a substantial well on the edge of the village and another site for the exchange of payment for food and other essentials left by neighbouring parishioners.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mompesson, Reverend William 1639 births 1709 deaths 17th-century English Anglican priests History of Derbyshire Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Clergy from Leeds People from Eyam

See also

References