In the year of the visitation Oxford had no fewer than three Mayors. Richard de Selwood died on the 21st April of this year, and the burgesses then made choice of [p127] Richard de Cary. Before he could reach London to take the oath to the King he was taken sick, and the abbot of Osney was named as Commissioner to attend at Oxford and administer the oath of office to him. On May 19th the abbot certified that he had done this, but on the 16th of June, letters dated from Oxford two days previously were received in London announcing the Mayor's death and the election of John Dereford in his place.[227] Without doubt Oxford had its plague pit like other cities. The late Professor Thorold Rogers, writing about this pestilence, says: "I have no doubt that the principal place of burial for Oxford victims was at some part of New College garden, for when Wykeham bought the site it appears to have been one which had been previously populous, but was deserted some thirty years before during the plague and apparently made a burial ground by the survivors of the calamity."[228] FOOTNOTES: [205] At p. 92 of the printed edition of this chronicle the author describes the breaking out of the plague in France, just after the taking of Calais by the English. He attributes the truce between the French and the English to the epidemic. [206] _Chronicon Galfridi Le Baker de Swynebroke_, ed. E. M. Thompson, pp. 98-9. [207] R. O., Originalia Roll, 24 Ed. III., m. 8. [208] R. O., Rot. Claus., 25 Ed. III., m. 9. [209] R. O., Clerical Subsidy, 21/1 (51 Ed. III.) [210] The author seems to imply that the plague reached Ireland in 1348. It is, however, probable that 1349 was in reality the date, for in that year, on July 14, Alexander de Biknor, the Archbishop of Dublin, died, and also the Bishop of Meath in the same month (_cf._ Gams, _Series Episcoporum_, 219.) [211] Dalkey in the margin. [212] Friar John Clyn's _Annals of Ireland_ (ed. _Irish Archæological Society_, 1849). [213] Rot. Pat., 25 Ed. III., pars 2, m. 19. [214] _Ibid._, 26 Ed. III., pars 1, m. 11. [215] R. O., L. T. R. Memoranda Roll, 27 Ed. III., Hilary term, m. 7. [216] The following is a table showing the Institutions in some months:— +------------------------------------------------+ | 1349. | +------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | May. | June.| July.| Aug. | Sept.| Oct. | Nov. | +------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | 5 | 9 | 23 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 8 | +------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ [217] Nash, _Worcestershire_, i, p. 226.