EARLY MODERN 1500 - 1750 DEFINITIONS

alderman

a member of an english council elected by other members by a popular vote

colony

an area of land controlled and often settled by people from another country

contagion

contact with another infected person

dysentery

disease of the digestive tract often caught by drinking contaminated water

gin craze

time in the 17th and early 18th century when gin became extremely popular and was a health and social problem

guild

organizations that control how trade is run

influenza

also known as ‘the sweat’ thrived in cold and damp conditions

middling sort

people in the middle of society - neither rich nor poor

typhys

spread by body lice

bad harvests

1594-97

how many living in countryside

90% to 80%

robert hooke

microscope in the 1660s

east india company

first sailed 1608 to india (new trade)

for the rich meant tobacco, sugar, wine, tea, coffee

pesthouses

buildings outside city walls where people with the plague were meant to stay

the plague

outbreaks every 20 years between 1500 to 1670

in 1665 100,000 killed in London

1518 law

isolate plague victims in houses

identify infected houses with straw on door

pesthouses outside city walls

1578 plague orders

17 plague orders

recording spread of disease (bills of mortality in towns)

financial aid for the sick

quarantine for 6 weeks

burning clothing and bedding

could be spread to towns because of new printing press

1604 plague act

watchmen could give harsher punishments for those who disobeyed orders

plague victims could be hung if they left the quarantine

gin craze

• 1720-1751

• imported from Netherlands because it was cheap, and tariffs on french brandy

• by 1750 7000 gin shops in london

• mother judith defour killed daughter to sell her clothes to pay for gin

gin act of 1729 and 1736

licences on gin shops increased from £20 to £50

impossible to enforce, many began distilling gin in their own homes

gin act of 1751

harsher punishments for those who sold illegal gin - gin craze stopped

improvement to towns

• in london after the great fire 1666

• wider streets, pavements, oil lamps

• mainly benefited the rich