The plague came again in 1647, and cut off 2053 in the short space of twenty-three weeks from 22 June to 30 November. The bills of it are extant[63], and show on what parishes the plague fell most. All the parishes were originally within the walls but one, St John’s, the ancient collegiate church of Mercia, built upon a rocky knoll in the south-east angle made by the walls with the river. The other nine parish churches and their graveyards were within the walls; but the parishes of three of them extended beyond the gates, just as the three parishes dedicated to St Botolph at the gates of London did. These three were St Oswald’s, which included the Liberty on the east side, Trinity, which included the shipping quarter on the west as well as the houses along the Liverpool road on the north, and St Mary’s, which included the millers’ suburb across the Dee on the south. Hollar’s map, made a few years after the plague of 1647, shows very few houses beyond the walls, except in the ancient Liberty on the east. But it will appear from the following table that the parishes which had extended beyond the walls must either have been very crowded close up to the walls (as the Gate parishes were always apt to be), or there must have actually been a greater population outside the gates than the contemporary map shows: _Burials from Plague in the several Parishes of Chester in 23 weeks, June 22-Nov. 30, 1647._ _5 parishes wholly within the walls._ Total. First Worst (7th) week. week. St Peter 75 0 14 St Bridget 85 7 9 St Martin 173 9 23 St Michael 133 26 9 St Olave 59 3 5 _3 parishes extending beyond the walls._ St Oswald 396 11 37 St Mary 314 5 20 Trinity 232 1 32 _1 parish wholly without the walls._ St John 358 2 26 Pesthouse 228 0 34 ---- -- --- 2053 64 209