In some instances the changes were very rapid; thus at Ditchford Friary an incumbent came on July the 19th, and by August the 22nd his successor was appointed. Kenilworth, too, was thrice vacant between May and August. At Coventry, on May 10th, Jordan Shepey, the Mayor, "who built the well called Jordan well," died.[223] In July the archdeacon of Coventry and a chantry priest at Holy Trinity were carried off. In August the Cathedral prior, John de Dunstable, was elected to fill the vacancy at the priory, and shortly after Trinity church had a new incumbent. At Pollesworth the abbess, Leticia de Hexstall, died, and a successor was appointed on October 13th, 1349. In Oxfordshire, which at the time of the great visitation of the plague, formed part of the large diocese of Lincoln, the number of benefices, exclusive of the Oxford colleges, was some 220. Half this number consequently may be estimated as that of the deaths of the beneficed clergy. The disease was probably prevalent in the county about the same time as in the adjacent places—that is, in the spring and summer months of 1349. The prioress of Godstowe, for example, died some time before May the 20th, on which day the royal permission was given to elect a successor, and the prior of St. Frideswide, Oxford, very much about the same time; since on June 1st Nicholas de Hungerford received the temporalities upon his election. The city of Oxford, with its large population of [p126] students, appears to have suffered terribly. "Such a pestilence," writes Wood, "that the like was never known before in Oxon. Those that had places and houses in the country retired (though overtaken there also), and those that were left behind were almost totally swept away. The school doors were shut, colleges and halls relinquished, and none scarce left to keep possession, or make up a competent number to bury the dead. 'Tis reported that no less than 16 bodies in one day were carried to one churchyard to be buried, so vehemently did it rage."[224] The celebrated FitzRalph, Archbishop of Armagh, who had been Chancellor of the University before the event, declares that in his time of office there were 30,000 students at Oxford.[225] In this statement he is borne out by Gascoigne, who, writing his _Theological Dictionary_, in the reign of Henry VI., says: "Before the great plague in England there were few quarrels between the people and law cases, and so there were also few lawyers in the kingdom of England and few in Oxford, when there were 30,000 scholars at Oxford, as I have seen on the rolls of the ancient Chancellors, when I was Chancellor there."[226] This concourse was diverted by the pestilence, since in 1357 FitzRalph declares that there were not a third of the old number at the schools.