Husthwaite plagues and Spanish flu’
In the time of the current 2020 pandemic of the Coronavirus (Covid19), people have queried previous epidemics in the village, in particular the Spanish Flu outbreak around 1919 at the end of WW1. Having looked at the death registers for Husthwaite and Carlton Husthwaite around this period, although the causes of death are not given, there are no indications of Spanish Flu and little change in the number and ages of deaths over the period 1910 to 1925 despite the advent of WW1. The numbers vary between 4 and 11 deaths, with years 1911,1913,1916,1917, 1919 and 1922 sadly each showing the death of a baby. Most deaths were recorded for elderly people with a significant proportion dying in their eighties or early nineties. The numbers of deaths recorded in the district of Easingwold show a similar pattern. Local people in both Husthwaite and Carlton Husthwaite don’t recall hearing about deaths from Spanish Flu in the villages, but have memories of grandparents or great uncles dying from it in Belgium and France near the end of WW1. The main substantial outbreaks were in the cities especially Sheffield and in some of the Prisoner of War Camps.
Guy Wilson and Jill Galloway are in the stage of checking their transcriptions of the parish records and Guy writes …
“Looking again at the spike in 1681 here and following things up I suspect it was more likely caused by smallpox or typhus that were raging in Yorkshire at the time (evidence for plague seems limited and disputed). The mortality rate in the village in 1681 tripled compared to averages of the years either side so something unpleasant was happening. There is another discernible spike in 1750-1 when mortality rate nearly double compared with the years either side. This coincides with national epidemics of smallpox and scarlatina. Deaths again double in 1762-3 when smallpox was raging round the country. In the 19th century spikes occur in 1837 and 1842 (when typhus was rampant) and 1844 (when there was an epidemic of scarlatina). Of course, without the recording of causes of death we cannot be certain of a causal link and may be reading too much into natural variations and bad luck! In the period 1770-1812 when causes of death were recorded there is no evidence of great swathes dying of one cause despite plenty of recorded epidemics.”