The Black Death

The Black Death spread from the East, to Sicily, then up through Italy and across the continent to reach Surrey in autumn 1348.

The disease strikes rapidly. Within 24 hours of infection and the first appearance of the first black pustule, came an agonising death.

By the time it petered out in September 1350, approximately one third of the nation had died of plague.

The plague struck both rich and poor. London, packed and insanitary suffered dreadfully. Those who could afford to fled the stink and terror to the countryside. Sutton is just south of Stane street which would have been a busy route and the fact that the registers between 1345 and 1366 are lost may indicate that Sutton suffered severely.

Across England in 1348 the monastic system came close to collapse when the black death killed off something like two thirds of all people in holy orders.

The Chertsey Abbey still continued the tax on death (heriots) and had difficulty housing all the animals it received as a result. If there had been land shortages in the early 14th century then suddenly in two years there was more land than people to farm it and many holdings may have become vacant.

Subsequent epidemics of bubonic plague occurred in 1360-2, 1369 and 1375, leading to a further fall in population. In the next 100 years there were at least a further 13 major national epidemics. But perhaps of even greater significance was the the fact that the plague became endemic, flaring up in local outbreaks.

There had been about 2 million people in England in 1066. In about 1300 the population had risen to near six million, but famine, disease and changes to the economy meant the population dropped to about 3 million by the end of the century.

The period of optimism and growing economic welfare had been brought to a sudden and catastrophic end.

Free from the feudal bonds of the countryside, the inhabitants of London must have been envied by the villeins in Sutton. It must have been tempting to run to London, as a villein could gain freedom by escaping to the city and living there for more than a year; but this avenue involved the loss of land and agricultural livelihood, which would have been a prohibitive price.

After the black death much of the feudal consensus would have broken down. The Abbot as Lord of the manor may have realized that if the peasants were now free from any obligation to the Abbey, the Abbey was equally free from any obligations to care for the peasants.

It is quite possible that the Abbot saw he could now make more money out of sheep than he could out of his peasants.

Oslacus

From "A History of Sutton A.D. 675 - 1960" by Robert Smith.

A translation of the Cartulary of Chertsey Abbey published by the Surrey Records Society contains many references, dating from A.D. 1339, to tenants in Sutton and the terms of their tenure....

..An entry in 1343 is suggestive. 'Admission of Oslacus Clericus, to a tenement called Strechereslond, to build a house within three years the lord finding for the house 12 timbers, each 16 feet long. Fine 6d. rent 6d per annum.'

The Abbot of Chertsey at the time of Oslacus was John de Rutherwyk who was unwearied in improving and extending the Abbey estates, in draining marshes, erecting mills and stone bridges, inclosing lands, sowing acorns, repairing chapels and farmhouses, sinking wells, building barns etc. The Abbeys property was very extensive, and near Sutton was Coulesdon, Ewell, and Carshalton.

There is a dedication stone built into the chancel wall at Great Bookham. A similar dedication stone, with the date 1327, at Egham, which preserves the record of the rebuilding of the chancel of that church by John de Rutherwyk, traces of whose work were visible also in Sutton and Epsom Churches, prior to their 19th-century re-construction.

Source: 'Parishes: Horley', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 200-208.

Why did the Abbot of Chertsey, the lord of Sutton give the timber for a house unless it was for a Rectory? Was Oslacus the Clerk the priest of Sutton at the time?

If John de Rutherwyck did cause work to be carried out on Sutton Church then it may have been done over several years as building with stone requires time for the mortar made of lime to dry, shrink and settle, a process that can take six months or more. The financing of the work would have been another question. It would have come from the income from the manor, with the Abbot spending money when it was available and just delaying work when the harvest and tithe income was bad.