Great Plague of London - Quiz
Great Plague of London
  • 1. By what month in 1665 was the plague rampant in the City of London?
A) June
B) August
C) July
D) September
  • 2. Who left the city for Salisbury, including his family and his court?
A) Samuel Pepys
B) Defoe
C) Sir John Lawrence
D) King Charles II of England
  • 3. To which city did King Charles II move in September when some cases of plague occurred in Salisbury?
A) Bristol
B) Oxford
C) Derby
D) Norwich
  • 4. Who was the Lord Mayor of London who decided to stay in the city during the plague?
A) Sir John Lawrence
B) Samuel Pepys
C) King Charles II
D) Vincent
  • 5. Which author wrote about wagons, carts, goods, and coaches hurrying away from the city?
A) Ellen Cotes
B) Vincent
C) Defoe
D) Samuel Pepys
  • 6. What was the title of the work authored by Ellen Cotes?
A) Exodus from the City
B) London's Dreadful Visitation
C) The Great Plague Diary
D) Plague in London
  • 7. What document were poorer people required to possess before exiting through the city gates?
A) A tax exemption form
B) A trade license
C) A travel visa
D) A certificate of good health
  • 8. Who had to sign the certificate of good health required for leaving the city?
A) The Lord Mayor
B) The parish clerk
C) The chief physician
D) The King
  • 9. What did refugees from London face when villagers outside the city refused to accept them?
A) They were immediately welcomed into local towns
B) They were given free housing
C) They were placed in royal quarantine camps
D) They were turned back and forced to live rough across the country
  • 10. What caused many refugees to die in wretched circumstances during the hot summer?
A) Execution by villagers
B) Drowning in rivers
C) Starvation and dehydration
D) Freezing temperatures
  • 11. How many plague deaths were shown in the London Bill of Mortality in the last week of July?
A) 1,114
B) 3,014
C) 2,020
D) 7,000
  • 12. What phrase did drivers of dead-carts call out as they travelled the streets?
A) Lord, have mercy upon us
B) Bring out your dead
C) Plague is here
D) Clear the streets
  • 13. Why did authorities order that body removal and interment should take place only at night?
A) To hide bodies from the King
B) Because carts only worked after dark
C) To keep the graveyards cool
D) To avoid public alarm
  • 14. In which parish was a great hole dug that eventually housed 1,114 corpses?
A) Aldgate
B) Oxford
C) Westminster
D) Salisbury
  • 15. At what depth was ground water reached when laborers dug the plague pit deeper?
A) Five feet
B) Fifty feet
C) Ten feet
D) Twenty feet
  • 16. What animal cull was ordered by the City Corporation under the mistaken belief they transmitted the disease?
A) Dogs and cats
B) Cows and horses
C) Pigs and sheep
D) Rats and mice
  • 17. What action by the authorities may have extended the length of the epidemic by increasing the rat population?
A) Culling dogs and cats
B) Restricting travel
C) Closing businesses
D) Burning giant bonfires
  • 18. What did authorities order to be burned in the streets to cleanse 'bad air'?
A) Infected clothing
B) Giant bonfires
C) Piles of corn
D) Houses of the dead
  • 19. What substance was thought to be a prophylactic against the plague?
A) Tobacco
B) Salt
C) Vinegar
D) Alcohol
  • 20. Whose diary recorded the empty, melancholy streets and the dying victims in Westminster?
A) Samuel Pepys
B) Ellen Cotes
C) Vincent
D) Defoe
  • 21. How did Sir John Lawrence and the Corporation of London ensure people did not starve?
A) By importing food exclusively from France
B) By opening royal food storage lockers
C) By arranging for a commission of one farthing to be paid above normal price for corn
D) By distributing free gold to every citizen
  • 22. In what substance were coins submerged to 'disinfect' payment for vegetables from surrounding villages?
A) Water
B) Oil
C) Vinegar
D) Alcohol
  • 23. By September, plague deaths in London and the suburbs reached over how many per week?
A) 1,114
B) 2,000
C) 3,014
D) 7,000
  • 24. Which religious group refused to co-operate with record keeping during the plague?
A) Quakers
B) Catholics
C) Anglicans
D) Puritans
  • 25. What event destroyed many of the records of plague recovery and deaths the following year?
A) The Great Fire of London
B) A civil war
C) A royal decree
D) A massive flood
  • 26. In the few districts with intact records, what percentage of the total population did plague deaths reach?
A) Between 10% and 20%
B) Exactly 75%
C) Between 30% and over 50%
D) Around 5%
  • 27. What words were written in great letters on the doors of infected houses?
A) LORD, HAVE MERCY UPON US
B) KEEP OUT
C) WARNING: PLAGUE INSIDE
D) UNSAFE AREA
  • 28. What symbol was painted on the doors of infected houses?
A) Black circles
B) White flags
C) Yellow stars
D) Red crosses
  • 29. What weapon were watchmen standing before infected doors holding?
A) Muskets
B) Halberds
C) Pikes
D) Swords
  • 30. According to Vincent, how many days did the typical progression of the disease often take?
A) Three days
B) Fourteen days
C) One day
D) Seven days
  • 31. In which village in Derbyshire did the plague allegedly arrive with a merchant carrying a parcel of cloth?
A) Bristol
B) Norwich
C) Eyam
D) Derby
  • 32. What measure did the villagers of Eyam take to stop the further spread of the disease?
A) Burned down the entire village
B) Requested military intervention
C) Imposed a quarantine on themselves
D) Fled to the surrounding hills
  • 33. What percentage of Eyam's inhabitants died over a period of fourteen months?
A) Around 33%
B) Around 10%
C) Around 90%
D) Around 50%
  • 34. Which city limited its death rate to about 0.6 percent due to strenuous efforts by the City Council?
A) London
B) Derby
C) Bristol
D) Norwich
  • 35. During what months did the outbreak in Bristol last?
A) January to June 1665
B) July to December 1665
C) April to September 1666
D) September to November 1666
  • 36. The Great Plague of London was the most recent major epidemic of which disease in England?
A) Typhoid fever
B) Smallpox
C) Cholera
D) Bubonic plague
  • 37. The Second Pandemic originated in Central Asia in what year?
A) 1431
B) 1331
C) 1531
D) 1231
  • 38. In what year did the Second Pandemic end?
A) 1700
B) 1800
C) 1666
D) 1750
  • 39. What fraction of London's population was killed by the plague?
A) Almost a quarter
B) Almost three-quarters
C) Almost a tenth
D) Almost a half
  • 40. Over how many months did the Great Plague claim its victims?
A) 12 months
B) 6 months
C) 24 months
D) 18 months
  • 41. What bacterium caused the plague?
A) Bacillus anthracis
B) Yersinia pestis
C) Vibrio cholerae
D) Escherichia coli
  • 42. What was seen in the sky in late 1664 that made Londoners fearful?
A) A meteor shower
B) A bright comet
C) A cluster of falling stars
D) A solar eclipse
  • 43. Approximately how many acres was London surrounded by a city wall in 1665?
A) 100 acres
B) 2,500 acres
C) 1,000 acres
D) 448 acres
  • 44. Which river bordered London in the south?
A) River Ouse
B) River Thames
C) River Severn
D) River Trent
  • 45. Which of the following was a gate in the London city wall?
A) Eastgate
B) Southgate
C) Westgate
D) Ludgate
  • 46. What flowed along the centre of winding streets in poorer parts of the city?
A) Stone aqueducts
B) Clean streams
C) Open drains
D) Wooden pipes
  • 47. What did the City Corporation employ to remove the worst of the filth?
A) "Rakers"
B) "Cleaners"
C) "Scavengers"
D) "Sweepers"
  • 48. Where was the removed filth transported and accumulated?
A) Into the River Thames
B) Mounds outside the walls
C) Buried deep underground
D) Burned in giant furnaces
  • 49. What did people walk around pressing against their nostrils due to the stench?
A) Woolen cloths
B) Sponges soaked in vinegar
C) Leather masks
D) Handkerchiefs or nosegays
  • 50. What formed bottlenecks through which it was difficult to progress?
A) The tavern doors
B) The gateways in the wall
C) The narrow alleyways
D) The market stalls
  • 51. How many arches did London Bridge have?
A) Twelve arches
B) Seven arches
C) Twenty-five arches
D) Nineteen arches
  • 52. What sprang up outside the city walls, providing homes for craftsmen and tradespeople?
A) Tented military camps
B) Formal apartment blocks
C) Shanty towns with wooden shacks
D) Stone castles
  • 53. What were districts with historically granted rights to self-government called?
A) "Liberties"
B) "Parishes"
C) "Wards"
D) "Boroughs"
  • 54. Which of the following was an independent town with its own liberties, joined to London by urban development?
A) Westminster
B) Greenwich
C) Winchester
D) Richmond
  • 55. Areas outside independent administrations north of the river came under the authority of which county?
A) Essex
B) Surrey
C) Kent
D) Middlesex
  • 56. Areas outside independent administrations south of the river came under the authority of which county?
A) Berkshire
B) Middlesex
C) Hertfordshire
D) Surrey
  • 57. Who identified the causal agent of the plague, the bacterium Yersinia pestis?
A) Edward Jenner
B) Louis Pasteur
C) Robert Koch
D) Alexandre Yersin
  • 58. In what year was the causal agent of the bubonic plague identified?
A) 1910
B) 1665
C) 1894
D) 1750
  • 59. In what year was it confirmed by DNA analysis that the Great Plague in London was caused by Yersinia pestis?
A) 2016
B) 2010
C) 1985
D) 2000
  • 60. Besides rats, what is now believed to have played a key role in causing infections during the plague?
A) Pigeons and birds
B) Human body lice
C) Pigs and farm animals
D) Domestic cats
  • 61. What period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics did the 1665 outbreak happen within?
A) First Pandemic
B) Modern Pandemic
C) Third Pandemic
D) Second Pandemic
  • 62. What was the scale of the 1665-66 epidemic compared to the earlier Black Death pandemic?
A) Much smaller scale
B) Much larger scale
C) Twice as large
D) Exactly the same scale
  • 63. Originally, what was London's city wall built to keep out?
A) Flo floodwaters from the Thames
B) Invading foreign armies
C) Wild animals
D) Raiding bands
  • 64. Which city was the next largest in the kingdom after London?
A) Brode Lane
B) Norwich
C) Westminster
D) The Liberties
  • 65. What item were searchers required to carry outdoors during times of plague to warn of their occupation?
A) A cup of ale
B) A red cross
C) A copy of the Bills of Mortality
D) A white stick
  • 66. To whom did the searchers report their findings?
A) John Graunt
B) The Minister of State
C) The French Ambassador
D) The Parish Clerk
  • 67. Where did the Company of Parish Clerks receive returns from parish clerks?
A) Norwich Cathedral
B) The Royal Society
C) Brode Lane
D) Westminster Abbey
  • 68. Until what year did the system of Searchers continue?
A) 1662
B) 1836
C) 1674
D) 1665
  • 69. What false cause of death did Searchers frequently record due to incompetence or bribery?
A) Consumption
B) The plague
C) Starvation
D) Old age
  • 70. How many official cases of plague were recorded in the official returns?
A) 384,000
B) 68,596
C) 460,000
D) 30,000
  • 71. Who stood guard outside a quarantined plague house?
A) John Graunt
B) A local sexton
C) A searcher of the dead
D) A watchman
  • 72. When did reports of plague around Europe begin to reach England according to the text?
A) 1630s
B) 1650s
C) 1640s
D) 1660s
  • 73. Which body considered steps to prevent the plague from crossing to England?
A) City and Liberties
B) Privy Council
C) Parliament
D) King's Bench
  • 74. When was quarantining of ships introduced for vessels coming to London following outbreaks in Amsterdam and Hamburg?
A) November 1664
B) November 1663
C) May 1663
D) May 1664
  • 75. Where were ships from infected ports required to moor before travelling up-river?
A) Great Yarmouth
B) St Giles parish
C) Holehaven near Canvey Island
D) Tilbury and Gravesend
  • 76. What was the name for the 30-day period ships had to spend moored near Canvey Island?
A) Quarantine
B) Isolation
C) Embargo
D) Trentine
  • 77. In how many other ports were quarantine measures against ships coming from the Dutch Republic put in place in May?
A) 49
B) 39
C) 19
D) 29
  • 78. When did plague first dramatically appear in Britain with the Black Death according to the text?
A) 1400
B) 1348
C) 1300
D) 1500
  • 79. In what year did the Bills of Mortality begin to be published regularly?
A) 1563
B) 1603
C) 1665
D) 1625
  • 80. How many people were reportedly dying in London each week during the 1563 plague?
A) Ten thousand
B) Hundred
C) A thousand
D) Five hundred
  • 81. How many deaths from plague were recorded in the year 1625?
A) 41,313
B) 33,347
C) 15,003
D) 11,000
  • 82. What type of medical practitioners acted as doctors alongside those who attended the college of physicians?
A) Monks
B) Apothecaries
C) Barbers
D) Surgeons
  • 83. What other major disease abounded in London the year before the plague epidemic?
A) Influenza
B) Typhus
C) Cholera
D) Smallpox
  • 84. How many times was river traffic on the Thames blocked by ice during the winter of 1664-65?
A) Three times
B) Twice
C) Four times
D) Once
  • 85. Where is the outbreak of bubonic plague in England thought to have spread from?
A) Spain
B) Germany
C) France
D) Netherlands
  • 86. Since what year had the disease occurred intermittently in the Netherlands?
A) 1603
B) 1640
C) 1599
D) 1563
  • 87. How many plague deaths had been recorded by the end of April?
A) Four
B) Nine
C) Three
D) Two
  • 88. Where did a riot break out when the first house was sealed up?
A) St. Giles
B) Great Yarmouth
C) Cripplegate
D) St Michael, Crooked Lane
  • 89. What were built away from other people to care for the sick or where they could stay until they died?
A) Quarantine stations
B) Pest-houses
C) Almshouses
D) Workhouses
  • 90. Which parish's recorded death was the only one actually inside the city walls during the week 2-9 May?
A) St Giles
B) St Andrew Holborn
C) St Clement Danes
D) St Mary Woolchurch Haw
  • 91. Whose responsibility was it to diligently clean the streets outside their property?
A) State
B) Householder
C) Scavenger
D) Alderman
  • 92. How old was Daniel Defoe when the plague struck?
A) Ten
B) Seven
C) Five
D) Three
  • 93. What was Daniel Defoe's uncle's profession in East London?
A) Butcher
B) Scavenger
C) Saddler
D) Minister
  • 94. What was Daniel Defoe's father's profession in Cripplegate?
A) Apothecary
B) Minister
C) Butcher
D) Saddler
  • 95. What was the profession of Thomas Vincent, who recalled the onset of the disease two years later?
A) Saddler
B) Government official
C) Puritan minister
D) Physician
  • 96. According to Thomas Vincent, in what month was the plague first taken notice of?
A) May
B) April
C) December
D) November
  • 97. In the beginning of May, how many deaths from the disease did the bill tell of for the current year?
A) Seventeen
B) Nine
C) Three
D) Fourteen
  • 98. To what number did the dead by the plague mount in the bill after dropping briefly?
A) Fourteen
B) Seventeen
C) Nine
D) Forty-three
  • 99. To what number did the dead by the plague mount after fourteen?
A) Seventeen
B) Nine
C) 290
D) Forty-three
  • 100. To what number did the dead by the plague mount after seventeen according to Thomas Vincent's account?
A) Nine
B) Forty-three
C) Fourteen
D) 398
Created with That Quiz — where a math practice test is always one click away.