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Skeleton from the Black Assize of Oxford 1577...



Item # 679741

March 23, 1767

THE GLOCESTER JOURNAL [Gloucester], England, March 23, 1767  Page 3 has an interesting item: "Last week the skeleton of a man in setters, with one jaw and some of the large bones perfect, was dug up in removing some ground in our Castle Green, eastward of the ruins of the old County Hall, memorable as the place wherein was held the fatal black assize, in the year 1577... upwards of 500 other persons were infected by a gaol disease, and died between the sixth of July and the tenth of August. This skeleton is by some conjectured to be the remains of one Rowland Jenkes, the person condemned at the assize for for sedition, and who was at the bar when the dreadful catastrophe befel the court..." 
Also in the issue is an article "Monday a curious plough, with which one man can plow, harrow, and sow corn all at once, was deposited for the inspection of Society of Arts..." and another of a cock-match that bread was used as instead of money and then benefitted the poor.
Complete in four pages, a red-ink tax stamp on the front page, handsome masthead, untrimmed margins, great condition.

Category: The 1600's and 1700's