Year of Wonders

In her Author’s Note, Geraldine Brooks describes her inspiration for the novel. While vacationing in the English countryside in the summer of 1990, Brooks saw a signpost pointing to “PLAGUE VILLAGE” (305), which led her to Eyam in Derbyshire, where she learned about the village’s choice to quarantine themselves during the last plague outbreak in England in 1666. Brooks returned to Eyam the following summer to conduct research. Though hers is not the first account of the village, she discovered few specific details about the 14-month quarantine. Brooks poured over 17th-century texts about medicine, religion, witch trials, and lead mining to supplement her research about the village. She incorporated some real villagers’ names into the text, while others are entirely fictionalized. The title comes from a John Dryden poem, Annus Mirabilis, The Year of Wonders, 1666, which chronicles the apocalyptic events of The Great Plague and The Great Fire of London, both of which occurred in the same year.

Eyam, a lead mining town since the Roman occupation, had a population of less than 400. In 1665, the plague emerged once again in London. Though it was a primarily localized outbreak within Great Britain, the outbreak killed approximately 100,000 people in London and the surrounding villages. When Eyam’s tailor Alexander Hadfield’s assistant George Vicars received a bolt of cloth from London, it was wet, and he hung it out to dry, most likely releasing bubonic plague-infected fleas into the village. George Vicars became violently ill and died quickly, followed shortly by the entire Hadfield family. 

William Mompesson, with his wife Catherine and two children, became the Anglican rector of Eyam in 1664, replacing the Puritan Thomas Stanley, who refused to acknowledge the 1662 Act of Uniformity, which made it compulsory to use the Book of Common Prayer. The people of Eyam were supporters of Oliver Cromwell, who had opposed the Stuart monarchy during the English Civil War; thus, Mompesson was unpopular with the villagers. When the plague broke out, Mompesson reached out to Stanley, who was living in exile, and they joined forces to unite the villagers in deciding to quarantine themselves to prevent spreading the contagion to neighboring villages. On June 24th, 1666, Mompesson and Stanley announced their plan, and the Earl of Devonshire offered to send food and supplies in exchange for vinegar-washed coins the villagers placed in holes in the boundary stones set in a one-mile circle around the village perimeter. Like the fictional Maggie Cantwell, one villager tried to break through the boundary and was chased away as people threw rotting food at her. Mompesson pledged to sacrifice his own life to help villagers, yet Catherine died soon after at the age of 27. From August to December, 42 people died before a respite during the cold season. However, the plague returned in the summer of 1666, mutating into a mnemonic form, which can be transmitted between humans. 

The Great Plague ended abruptly in London as The Great Fire of London burned the city to the ground, killing the pestilence. On November 1st, 1666, Abraham Morton was recorded as the last casualty. Out of 344 people, only 86 villagers survived. Though no official cause for the miraculous survivals is given, scientists believe that chromosomal differences may account for people like Elizabeth Hancock, who buried all six of her children plus her husband in just eight days, yet never became ill. The town gravedigger Marshall Howe, who stole items off the dead bodies, caught the plague but lived despite losing his entire family.

Mompesson left Eyam in 1669, but when he arrived in his new village, they forced him to live outside town until he could prove he wasn't ill. Though Eyam’s population was decimated, its trade resumed quickly due to its lead-rich mines. Today, Eyam stands as an example of communal sacrifice, and visitors can tour the museum, leave coins in the boundary stone, and visit the graveyard to honor the dead. Every year, on the last Sunday in August, named “Plague Sunday,” a memorial service is held in Cucklett Delf, where the villagers once had their outdoor worship services (“Eyam Plague Village.” Eyam Village in the Peak District).