The Black Assizes is an epithet given to several outbreaks of "gaol fever" which struck various prisons and court-houses in England in the late 16th century and which caused the deaths of not only many prisoners awaiting trial but also the magistrates in the court buildings holding assizes.
The basic cause was fever spreading from insanitary jails via prisoners into dirty and overcrowded courtrooms.
[3] Among the dead victims were 8 judges,[4] 11 of the 12 jurors, several constables,[5] and the surrounding population which was ravaged by the disease for several months.
Amongst the dead were the following, many being prominent members of the Devonshire gentry: An historical account written by Alexander Jenkins (1841) stated "A noisome and pestilential smell came from the prisoners who were araigned at the crown bar which so affected the people present that many were seized with a violent sickness which proved mortal to the greatest part of them".
He suggests three possible causes:[16] Adam[17] Wyote (or Wyatt) was town clerk of Barnstaple in North Devon and kept a personal journal from 1586 to 1611.