Apothecary 2020

apothecaries and surgeons are dead of this distemper in
and about the city since this visitation.” Whittet
estimated between 5 and 40 per cent of the membership
may have died during the epidemic. This supports
Samuel Pepys' well-known diary entry from 16 October
1665: “they tell me that in Westminster there is never a
physitian, and but one apothecary left, all being dead.”
Although Christopher Merrett claimed that
apothecaries stayed in the capital because they could
not afford to leave, Whittet's research into their wills
showed that 17 th century apothecaries were generally
wealthy men, and a number had properties in the
country, so it seems that they made the conscious
decision to remain in their communities. Apothecary
William Boghurst, based in St Giles-in-the-Fields, wrote
Loimographia, An Account of the Great Plague of London in
1666. He felt strongly that, if they were not putting their
families at risk or were dependent on a particular
physician for their livelihood, apothecaries had a duty
to stay and support the sick: “those Apothecaries which
stand upon their own legs, and live by their own
practice, are bound by their undertakings to stay and
help as in other diseases. Every man that undertakes to
bee of a profession or takes upon him any office must
take all parts of it, the good and the evill, the pleasure
and the pain, the profit and the inconvenience
altogether, and not pick and chuse.”
This included continuing to contribute to the
Society's activities. Although there is only one direct
reference to the epidemic in the Society's Minute Books
on 22 June 1665 - “In regard of the sickness this yeare it
is ordered that there bee no herberisering meeting this
yeare.” - the records show that Society business
continued. Court meetings were held throughout 1665.
Apothecaries John Battersby and Walter Pelling are
mentioned numerous times in Pepys' diaries in the
1660s, and Richard Lytlar, Upper Warden, Symon
Williams, Renter Warden, and John Burton, the Clerk,
remained in London. Michael North, elected Master in
August 1665, also stayed in the capital, taking office in
1666. William Garnett, the Beadle in this period, was
awarded an additional £7 by the Court “in regard of his
long sickness and povertie in the Contagion.”
Whittet found conclusive proof that around 50
apothecaries or members of their immediate families
died during the plague, with an inevitable impact on
Society membership. For example, on 26 May 1666 111
people were called to the Livery and only 25 accepted.
At least 10 members of the Court and 5 former Masters
died during the plague, although not necessarily of the
plague. These included Benjamin Bannister, Master in
1663/4 who was present at Court meetings up to and
including 30 May 1665, but was buried at St Stephens
Walbrook on 16 January 1666. Stephen Chase, a founder
member of the Society and apothecary to Charles I and
Charles II, died during 1665 and his three daughters
subsequently applied for relief from the Society. At the
Court meeting on 22 February 1666, the son of Henry
Best, apothecary to the Charterhouse, informed those
present that “his father is very weake and like to dye”,
and therefore would not be able to take up his role as
Assistant. Best's will was proved on 18 May 1666.
Our knowledge about the treatments and cures
promoted for the plague come mainly from
contemporary pamphlets and medicinal texts which
were published in large numbers. In themselves, they
show that apothecaries were actively supplying
medicines for the plague such as Thomas Cock's treatise
A Plain and Practical Discourse...upon Air...With cautionary
rules and directions for the preservation of people in this time
of sickness, which lists his remedies as available from Mr
Wilkinson at the Mortar and Pestle in French Lane, and
from Mr Reede at the Queen's Arms in Fan-church [sic]
Street. A Brief Treatise on the Pestilence also published in
1665 stated “Any may make these medicines themselves
or be-speak them at their apothecaries, or may buy
them ready made, at Mr John Danson's at the Sign of the
Pestle and Mortar in Coleman Street or at Mr Hamnet
Rigbies' at the Seven Stars in Fetter Lane.” William
Boghurst, author of Loimographia, also advertised his
services in the Intelligencer, for example, on 31 July 1665:
“Whereas William Boghurst, Apothecary at the White
Hart in St. Giles-in-the-Fields, hath administered a long
time to such as have been infected with the Plague, to
the number of 40, 50, or 60 patients a day, with
wonderful success by God's blessing upon certain
excellent medicines which he hath, as a water, a lozenge,
etc. Also an Electuary Antidoate, of but 8d. the oz.
price.”
Historians have argued that the plague tested the
medical profession's faith in classical, particularly
Galenical, treatments and moved practitioners to share
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