- Weakness

- Shortness of breath

- Fluid fills the lungs and can cause death if untreated

- Insomnia

- Staggering gait

- Speech disorder

- Memory loss

• Black bile: related to earth, with cold and dry properties.
• Yellow bile: related to fire, with dry and warm properties.
• Blood: related to air, with moist and warm qualities.
• Phlegm: related to water, with moist and cold qualities.

However there have been famous cases where it is severe and fatal- notably in 1918-1919.

An influenza virus called influenza type A subtype H1N1 is now known to have been the cause of the extreme mortality of this pandemic, which resulted in an estimated 25 million deaths.

This influenza started during WWI, and spread around the world, in 3 waves.

In the two later waves about half the deaths were among 20- to 40-year-olds, an unusual mortality age pattern for influenza. This was also known for impacting and being spread in part due to the Great War. More U.S. soldiers died from the 1918 flu than were killed in battle during the war.

In 1918, Edwin John Luce (pen-name: Elie) – probably the most read and recited Jèrriais poet – died at the age of 37, a victim of the flu pandemic.

A journalist and newspaper editor, he wrote reportage, satire, poetry and plays, and encouraged other writers in Jèrriais. He organised theatre and concerts in Jèrriais, especially for fundraising during the First World War and was a passionate promoter of Jersey’s own language, including being one of the founders of the Jèrriais section of the Jersey Eisteddfod, where his well-loved poems are still regularly performed today.

After very limited influenza activity during 2020 and 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak, the 2022-2023 winter period saw Jersey experience a return of more typical influenza activity. 

In 1563 the Royal Court met in St Saviour's Church owing to an outbreak of the plague in town and in 1592 both the Court and the market were transferred outside St Helier.

The Church Assembly were effectively putting in place a mechanism to punish those who consulted people seeking a cure for their friends or family using non-conventional means.

It is clear that there was a link between outbreaks of plague in Jersey and witch trials. In late 1585 we see a cluster of executions in Jersey with 4 women and one man executed for witchcraft in November and December of that year.

The link between those who were seen as potential witches at the time and who we might now see as healers is shown in the trial of Jeanne Le Vesconte who was accused of the diabolical crime of witchcraft. They claimed that she was

‘infecting some and curing others.’

Jeanne was tried in November 1585 and was executed at St Ouen. Jeanne’s trial is the first entry that we see in the books of the Cour de Cattel in which the accused was condemned to death. The extract from the court books shows that she had been accused of the diabolical art of witchcraft, always carrying out evil spells and employing her arts towards both people and their property.

The next outbreak of plague in Jersey took place in 1591 and again Jersey’s Church Assembly resolved that any of those who were sick or had family who were sick and resorted to consulting witches should be excommunicated.

This plan backfired when leading UK politician Sir John Hobhouse decided to spend his holidays in Jersey. As luck would have it, he was chairman of the Board of Control in England had had responsibility for the cholera outbreak there.

He found to his horror that ‘the disease was everywhere in St Helier … with 13 out of the 16 inhabitants of a nearby house dying within its walls’ two days after his arrival and ‘all the remaining residents in the street having retreated to a hilltop refuge’.

Sir John Foote was scathing about the conditions of some areas of the town. ‘There were parts of St Helier which were extremely filthy and thickly inhabited, especially with the lower classes,’ he wrote. He described part of the town around Parade Place as ‘irregular, close, dirty and ill-ventilated and he compared Parade Place itself to the squalor of St Giles in London, a notoriously poor part of the capital known for its criminals, overcrowding and disease.

To try to contain it, the authorities decided to deport the poor who were not native-born while the poorest of the Islanders were despatched to tents at Gallow’s Hill.

There was considerable criticism of these actions and petitions presented to the British government against the ‘extreme injustice’ of the policy, but Foote defended the Jersey authorities in his report, suggesting it had been vital to try to curtail the disease among the narrow, densely inhabited streets of the town.

From a demographic viewpoint, just over 2% of the island population suffered from the disease and nearly 1% died - 43% of the cases proved fatal. However we can discover from the figures given by Hooper that the disease was fairly evenly distributed: of the cases listed 356 were women, 316 were men, and 134 were children below 14 (respectively 44%, 39% and 17% ). The percentages for fatalities are almost identical - women 152 (44%), men 138 (40%), and children 58 (16%).

It would seem that though the epidemic of 1832 was serious its effects on the population were not catastrophic. In 1849 nearly 300 people died, but no statistics appear to be available for 1867; however the pattern of the earlier epidemic was repeated, most of the cases and fatalities being in the poorer districts of St Helier, with only a few cases in the rural areas.

16 years later, the disease was to return again with some ferocity. It was not until it was recognised that cholera was a disease caused by a bacterium spread chiefly by polluted water supplies that real steps forward in its control and final eradication.

Assuming the accused pleaded not guilty, there would then be an official inquiry, albeit one in which those deciding the fate of the accused were exclusively male.

‘There would be a jury of 24 men and there would have to be a five-sixth majority for a guilty conviction, which would be punishable by death,’ says Linda. ‘There was a legal process behind it but, of course, it was all effectively dependent on your neighbours being witnesses.’

The session would last approx. 45mins-1 hour and is aimed at secondary school students.

Simply contact education@jerseyheritage.org for booking and more information.

Email education@jerseyheritage.org to organise this.