WHereas it falleth out by wofull experience, that the great con­fluence and accesse of excessiue numbers of idle, indigent, dissolute and dangerous persons, And the pestering of many of them in small and strait roomes and habitations in the Citie of London, and in and about the Suburbes of the same, haue bene one of the chiefest occasions of the great Plague and mortality, which hath not only most extremely abounded in and about the sayd City, and Suburbes therof, and especially in such strait roomes and places, and amongst persons of such qualitie, but also from thence hath most dangerously ouer­spread, and infected very many principall, and other parts of this Realme, (which Almighty God cease at his good pleasure) His Maiestie tendering the safetie of his louing Subiects, and minding, as much as in him lyeth, to auoide the continuance or renewing of such morta­litie, doth by the aduice of his Priuie Councell, not onely straightly require and command that his Maiesties good and profitable Orders and directions alreadie published for the staying (if God so please) of the same Infection, be carefully, speedily, and duely executed, but also doth straightly prohibite and forbid, That no new Tenant or Inmate, or other person or persons, be admitted to inhabite or reside in any such house or place in the saide Citie, Sub­urbes, or within foure miles of the same, which haue bene so infected, during the continuance of this Plague and mortalitie, in or about the sayd Citie, nor after, vntill such time and as it shall be thought safe and expedient by the principall Officers there for the time being, That is to say, if it be within the sayd Citie, by the Alderman of the Ward, or his Deputie; if with­out, then by the next Iustice of the Peace. Wherein his Maiestie straightly doeth charge and require euery of the said Aldermen, and their Deputies, and euery Iustice of the Peace to whom it shall appertaine, That they take speciall care, that none of the foresaid Roomes, Houses, or places be hereafter pestered with multitudes of dwellers, or with any Inmates. And that such of the said Roomes, Houses, or places as by any Proclamation heretofore published, are ordered or appointed to be rased or pulled downe, shall foorthwith, the same being now voide, or as the same shall hereafter become voide, be rased and pulled downe accordingly. And being once pulled downe, that they or any of them at any time afterwards, suffer not any of the same to be newly erected, as they will answere the contrary at their vttermost perill.

Giuen at his Maiesties Mannor of Woodstocke, the sixteenth day of September, in the first yeere of our Raigne of England, France and Ireland, and of Scotland the seuen and thirtieth.

God saue the King.