By the Lords and others His majesty's Commissioners.  
An Order for the Observance and Execution of the Statute made for the relief and Ordering of Persons infected with the Plague.  
WHereas by an Act of Parliament in the first year of the reign of our late sovereign Lord King James, several good and necessary provisions were made and ordained, touching those that be or shall be infected with the Plague: by which Act power is given to justices of Peace of Counties, Majors, bailiffs, Head Officers, or justices of Peace in Cities, Boroughs, towns Corporate, and places privileged, and to the vicechancellor of either of the Universities, and to the Bishop and Deane of every cathedral Church respectively, within their several and respective Precincts and jurisdictions, to tax and assess all Inhabitants, and all houses of Habitation, Lands, Tenements, and Hereditaments, at such reasonable taxes and payments as they shall think fit for the reasonable relief of Persons Infected, & to levy the same of the goods of such as shall refuse or neglect to pay, and in default thereof, to commit them to the goal without bail or mainprise until payment; And also to appoint Searchers, Watchmen, Examiners, Keepers, and Buriers, for the Persons and places Infected, and to Minister oaths unto them for the performing of their Offices, and to give them other directions as shall seem good unto them in their discretions for the present necessity. And it is thereby farther Provided and Enacted, that if any person, or Persons Infected, or being or dwelling in any houses Infected, shall be commanded or appointed to keep his or their house, for avoiding of farther Infection, and shall notwithstanding wilfully and contemptuously disobey such direction and appointment, offering or attempting to break or go abroad, and to resist such Keepers or Watchmen as shall be appointed to see them kept in: that then it shall be lawful for such watchmen with violence to enforce them to keep their houses: And if any hurt come thereby, that the Keepers, watchmen, and their assistants shall not be impeached therefore. And farther that if any Infected persons being commanded to keep house, shall notwithstanding wilfully and contemptuously go abroad, and converse with company, having any Infectious sore about him uncured, such person shall be taken and adjudged as a Felon, and suffer death as in case of Felony: but if they shall have no sore found about them, nevertheless for such offence they shall be punished as Vagabonds in all respects, and also be bound to his or their good behaviour for one whole year, as by the said Act may more fully appear. The Lords and others entrusted and authorized by His Majesty, by His Commission under His Great seal of England, for, and concerning, the safety, preservation, and well Ordering of this University and City of Oxford, and the County of Oxford, and other Counties and places adjoining, in His majesty's absence, taking into their consideration, that the due observance and execution of the said Law, may (by God's blessing) be a good means to prevent the farther spreading of this present infection, and that the neglect of the observance of the same Law, hath been, and may be, in probability, an occasion of the increase thereof, do therefore hereby in His majesty's name, by virtue of His majesty's said Commission, straightly Charge and Require, the vicechancellor of this University, and the Major, Justices of Peace, bailiffs, and other Officers of this City of Oxford, and the Justices of Peace of the County of Oxford, and all others whom it may concern, that with all possible care and diligence, they cause the said Law to be duly and effectually put in execution, as well for the help and relief, as for the governing and keeping in of Infected persons, as they will answer their neglect and remissness therein at their perils. And they do likewise in His majesty's name, straightly Charge and Command all persons whatsoever, as well soldiers as others, upon whom it hath pleased, or shall please God to lay this his visitation, that they submit and yield obedience to the said Law. Letting them know that a strict and severe proceeding shall be had, for punishing of all such as shall wilfully or contemptuously offend against the same to the endangering of others: and that a very strict account will be required of all who are or shall be any way concerned in this just and necessary command, tending so much to the health and preservation of this University and City, and all that are resident therein or resort thereunto. Dated at Oxford this first day of August in the year of our Lord God 1644. and in the twentieth year of the reign of our sovereign Lord King CHARLES.  


York.  
Ed. Littleton C. S.  
Cottington.  
Hertford.  
Dorset.  
Hen. Dover.  
Chichester.  
Chr. Hatton.  
Ed. Nicholas.  
Ed. Hide.  
Io. banks.  
Arth. Ashton.     

Printed at Oxford by Leonard Lichfield Printer to the University. 1644.