Inventory of a Plague Victim, 19 September 1665 William Bull of St. Giles Cripplegate, London, died of the Plague in September 1665.

Under normal circumstances, an inventory of household items would have been taken and their value assessed. However, the risk of infection was considered too great in this case and Bull's explanatory note was penned in place of the usual estate valuation.

This stated: '. dyed possessed of . goods and chattels to the value of above thirty pound but by reason the deceased dyed of the sickness the same cannott as yet be valued'.

Samuel Pepys's diary for the same day records a similar fear of the disease, the child of a friend having 'gone to bed sicke'. In the face of suspected plague, running away was the simplest answer. 'However I thought it not fit to discover too much fear to go away, nor had I any place to go'. The sick boy recovered.

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