Plague is in the city of London…

Plague is in the city of London itself by July.

King Charles II, his family and his court leave the city for Oxfordshire.

The aldermen and the majority of the other city authorities opt, however, to stay at their posts

The Lord Mayor of the city, Sir John Lawrence, also decides to stay in the city.

Businesses are closed when most wealthy merchants and professionals flee.

Only a small number of clergymen, physicians and apothecaries choose to remain, as the plague rages throughout the summer.

Among the people who choose to stay are Samuel Pepys, the diarist, and Henry Foe, a saddler who lives in East London.

While Pepys provides an account of the Plague through his diary, Henry Foe's nephew Daniel Defoe will later publish A Journal of the Plague Year, a fictional account of the plague in 1722, possibly based on Foe's journals.