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A56816
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The state of Northampton from the beginning of the fire Sept. 20th 1675 to Nov. 5th represented in a letter to a friend in London and now recommended to all well disposed persons in order to Christian-charity and speedy relief for the said distressed town and people / by a country minister.
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Pearse, Edward, 1631-1694.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing P987; ESTC R12097
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15,327
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25
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in so short a time Some few Houses remain near the Church and only one Tenement in the Drapery from the Street hardly seen to the Street at this time The chief Church in Town only burnt the rest untouched 3. The Influence and effects of this sweeping Judgment fall upon many beside the immediate Sufferers Effects 1. upon the Poor which stood All-Hallows Parish in ten pound the Month the Roll would have been raised to eleven pound this Winter But now the Poor are multiplied who since the Fire fell into their Quarters poor Creatures lay within the Walls to the open Heavens till now of late except such as got into Churches Thither the Fire forced them whither God's Commands nor Mercy nor Exhortations could invite them A Judgment fitted to the sin a Judgment all Voice as in other Instances Secondly the Citizens will lose their Customers the Country-man will lose his Market and the Landlord must fall his Rent if Northampton be not relieved yea more many a Man must go further to seek for an honest Man to teach his Child a Trade and many a one will want a service that cannot well be kept and maintained at home Relief sent in 4. The Relief was considerable as it was seasonable to this impoverished people Many have told me they found tender Mercy and Compassion and that they found more Friends than ever they thought they had The goodness of God and Men was admired The kindness of a Nights Lodging of a small benevolence was magnified The noble Earl of Northampton who came that fatal Evening to see the Fire was affected with the sight and sent great store of Provisions the next day many other persons of Quality Neighbour-Towns and Villages were very forward and generous The bold and raking Poor had a glut but the modest House-Keeper looked pale and thin till necessity overcame their modesty and then they were respected The Mayor sent Messengers with Letters to intreat the Noble-Men and Gentlemen t◠〈◊〉 in the Town-Hall to take their distressed condition into Consideration There appeared the Saturday following the dreadful Fire the Right Honourable the Earl of Northampton Recorder of the Town Relief sent in A Consultation of the Noble-Men and Gentlemen three Lords Sir Richard Rainsford one of the Judges of the Kings-Bench Seven or eight Baronets and Knights and many Justices of the Peace and Gentlemen The Meeting was principally managed by the Earl The Result of all their Discourses was a Subscription to two Papers to this purpose We the Noble-Men and Gentlemen do promise to pay the several sums set down over against our Names c. The one was towards the Re-building of the Town and the other was for the payment of Dr. Conant's Salary which was 100 l. per Annum and for the Relief of the Poor and other uses of the Town They named Robert Haslerig William Tate Henry Edmonds Richard Râ—insford Esquines Receivers and Treasurers Several Summs were gathered speedily upon the News of the Dreadful Fire in several Corporations by the University of Cambridg and already gathered but not received by the University of Oxon Towns Villages and private Persons all which come to about 3000. Pound A distribution made These several Sums of Mony were paid into the Hands of Robert Haslerig Esq living in Town Who with the other Gentlemens consent made a very seasonable Distribution of a great Sum among the Sufferers wherein they had a respect to their Losses to their Trades and to their Conditions and disability to go on This was a timely Assistance given men that were hard put to it to strike up Sheds and Shops and to take in some Winter-Provisions In this Distribution they designed to preserve the Road to bring in the Markes to set Trade on Foot to help the inferior Tradesmen Besides they took Order to lay in a great Stock of Coal to be served out to the Inhabitants at their need in the approaching Winter They disbursed Mony to the Officers of the Parish to pay their Poor And lastly they have and are fitting up Houses for the Poor to live in who had nothing left but bare Walls without a Roof The Care and Pains and tenderness of these worthy Gentlemen deserve the grateful acknowledgment of the distressed Sufferers and indeed they sâ—â—â—â—o me to have an humble sense of the Mercy and Favour I have been the more punctual in these things as to rectify the Reporte of vast Sums said to be flowing in and besides many other Reasons to encourage liberal Souls to generous Acts of Charity when they see the Treasury so well dispensed both deposited into and disposed by the hands of Persons of Quality Estate and Integrity There was about sixty pound sent from several Persons of Quality and others to Dr. Conant which was carefully distributed according to the intention of the Donors The forward and noble beneficence of particular Persons and the kind and Christian Expression of Love made by Corporations and Villages to Northampton brought low though but a small beginning to a great many Gracious providences towards the Town nor the whole exceeding the loss of some one or two Men hath raised the Minds of many so that there is hope in Northampton but yet there are many discouragements that threaten the Life of it in some and keep it from being over-joyful in the most chearful Temper Besides these kindnesses from Men. There are some eminent Providences which have brought kind Remembrances from Heaven to a People under a displeasure The first is that this calamity is fallen upon them in a year of Plenty Had it fallen upon them in one of the years past many that were glad of a piece of Bread must have perished for want of Bread London Fire consumed it after a Plague in a time of War the Nation under Taxes Northampton hath the odds in this that she is fallen when a Nation may the better raise her up The second sweet and reviving providence is that second Summer which God was pleased to give us He said to an approaching Winter Keep off a while He hath given a Midsummer-time after Michaelmas He said to the Sun shine thou still What a Mercy hath this been to poor Northampton By the favour of the Weather abundance of Coal came in even as far as Wedgbury above fourty Miles and as cheap as in Summer A dreadful Fire had done enough to Starve them consuming their Stacks and Heaps but the Sun continuing in its strength relieved them by bringing Firing to them which I hope will be better spent What the Fire destroyed the Sun restored Thus God doth correct and take into his Arms Justice and Fury made quick riddance but Mercy made haste after them Through the goodness of the Season all sorts of Materials for Buildings came whistling in the Carter meeting with no Ruts nor Sloughs to put him out of Tune Yea Deal scame down from London at as low or lower Rates
than Country-Ash By this means Workmen came in go on not being beaten off with Weather By this means raw Walls new-Sawn and unseason'd Boards have been aired and seasoned by this means full Markets have come in and the Market-Man hath not felt the inconvenience of a bad Standing for himself and Horses And Lastly by this means Northampton is brought up a little above its Ruines and her New-Buildings to imitate Bartholomew-Fair And in this Posture I shall leave it praying heartily that God would speak to Northampton It shall be built and take pleasure in the now distressed People and their Posterity Observations upon the Fire And now Sir there remains but the last part of this Trouble and I will relieve your Patience by a Conclusion namely some Observations upon or rather drawn from this Severe but Righteous Providence which speaks to other Places with a loud Voice 1. It hath pleased God to strike at all Conditions of Persons and all the Sins of the Town He hath in great Mercy passed over the Houses of many of the Gentry who lived there for their own Pleasure or Conveniency which hath proved a great Relief to many of the Distressed Neighbours but many of that Quality do also bear their share of Loss and Trouble I desire not to be Critical or Censorious God took in all together the Righteous and the Wicked fare alike though for different Ends It hath happened to the Good to make them better with a gracious Design no doubt And to the Wicked God saith Why will you Die He stretcheth out his Hand to them but if they turn not he hath whet his Sword c. The Long-suffering of God which waited but till the Flood doth wait for their Repentance after the Fire O that they would flie from Wrath to come There were and are in Northampton good Figs very good Such as obey every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether the King as Supreme c. Such as feared God and wrought Righteousness But as the good Figs were to go to Captivity so â—ow these shall pass through a Burning Furnace And there were very naughty Figs evil very evil that cannot be eaten And so much the worse because God came long expecting Fruit having long been a Husbandman to it and more especially to that Parish that is almost totally destroyed God hath diminished two other Parishes St. Peter's Is it not a little one is spared entire there was Iniquity in those Skirts But why God should stretch out his Hand with a flaming Sword over All-hallows more than others â—moâ— 3.2 I can give no other Reason but that of the Prophet You have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore will I Punish you for your Iniquities They have been better Taught than others and made the chief Parish in Town God sent to them Prophets and Wise-Men and Scribes he hath been a Reprover of them all Few Parishes perhaps I am sure I know but few that have had such Labourers as they for Five Successions Security Luke-warmness and bearing them that are Evil are the Sins that God took worse from Magistrates and People than from other Towns How hath the Spirit of God striven with them and within this Year They know the occasion And Fools that make a mock of Sin may now believe that God can be in Earnest O Lord Laugh not at their Calamity who have set at naught thy Counsel and would none of thy Reproof and let them not be as Dross in the Furnace 2. God hath dealt with Northampton in this Fire mixing Mercy with Judgment as in other Providences Here is Mercy and Judgment Patience and Fury How shall I give thee up Ephraim c. He hath made their Houses like Adma but to the People he saith Yet how shall I give thee up Some that were fallen into Fellowship with gross works of Darkness had a long time of Languishing and Repentance and gave Signs of it discovered and warned others But their Companions went on How then Have some escaped What Execution hath God done in the Face of the World in open Streets Night-walking boldness in Sin Swearing and Drunkenness punished in open Streets by sudden Death Remember Lots Wife Remember S's F's O's Wife There was Mercy and here Judgment Of Consorts and Companions that Grind in the same Mill of Sin one shall be taken and another left 3. From the unhappy Hand that kindled this Dreadful Fire I observe that they who escape deserved Punishments may be justly made the unhappy Instruments of punishing those that should have been justly severe with them And it may give notice to Magistrates to look after the Skirts the Back Lanes of their Towns that Iniquity lodg not there The Cages of unclean Birds may bring whole Towns to Ruine 4. It is Marvellous that a Fire breaking out at Noon-day should get so much strength in so short a time consume so many Goods and Houses yea take away so many Lives Eight Persons Burnt Besides two Women and a young Youth Killed by the fall of a stack of Chimneys since as Eight Persons And on the contrary it seems to me a wonderful Mercy that so few perished in the Fire when I consider with what a mighty stream and force the Fire and Wind came on in some narrow Passages that many People were Spent and Faint their Spirits spent their Eyes dazeled or blinded with Dust and Smoak that some Houses fell down when Persons were running by for Life and that many had no other Passage open to fly for their Lives but by venturing close by raging Fire And here I may add what I received from a very worthy Friend that he saw a Country-Fellow bring up a Barrel of Gun-powder out of an Apothecaries Cellar when the Goldâ—â—â—â—â— was Burning and covering it with his Coat went away with it in his Arms which might have been his own Death and the Death of many others 5. Whereas some may look upon this as casually begun and grown to so great a Mischief by Over-sights and Neglects of People I cannot but see a great Plot of many conspiring Circumstances and all laid by the Holy Just Wise and Absolute Lord both for Punishment Correction and Trial. I will Sum those that readily occur That the Wind should fit so full upon that part of the Town that the Fire should kindle in a Street so combustible far from Help speedily to Suppress it so Level upon the principal Places of the Town That it should flie so far as the East in a very little while that the Heart of the Town should be Environed and Barricado'd with Flames that there was no getting in no getting out for Teams when they would have done most good when the Shops and Houses were most Emptied and laid out of Doors ready to be carried away How easily might Teams have cleared the Market-Hill and Church-yard if the Four great Avenues and Passages had been passable How little did many Towns think Northampton to stand in so much need of Help These and more being put together make me Conclude Is there Evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it God is known by the Judgments which he Executeth Selah Go ye now unto my Place which was in Shiloh where I set my Name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my People Israel Jer. 7.12 And now Sir because I said I will conclude I will instead of making an Apologie for my self Why so late Why so long Or to others why so short Or why I I will only say that I have some feeling of the Sufferings of my worthy and dear Acquaintance pray it may rise higher and better that I hope your Interest and Endeavours may do good that I have endeavoured to make their deplorable Condition to speak for them and that I owe you a far greater Service when you shall command it if I can perform it For I am Sir Your most Obliged Servant E. P. FINIS