they came, for of the 247 new comers nearly half bore names which indicate their place of origin.
Sixty-five of these names are derived, as might be expected, from villages in the counties of Leicester and Rutland, and 27 more from villages lying in the neighbouring counties of Nottingham, Lincoln, Northampton, Warwick, Stafford and Derby. A few come from far-away villages in Lancashire and Northumberland, and the remainder from various towns, among which are London, Liverpool, Dublin, Ely, Coventry, Northampton, Nottingham, Stamford, Tiverton, Lynn, Peterborough, Wellington, Leek, Huntingdon, Stafford, Dunstable, Chester, Grantham, and the French town of Lille.
Nevertheless, although the check given to Leicester's prosperity by the Black Death was not lasting, there must have been a large falling off in the number of inhabitants.
In the year 1377 an ungraduated poll-tax of one groat a head was levied upon all English subjects, except beggars, over fourteen years of age. The number of persons contributing to this tax in the borough of Leicester was returned as 2,101. If one-third is added for the estimated number of persons under 14, the population would, on this evidence, be 2,800. Some may have evaded this unpopular impost, which was soon openly resisted, and the results of the poll tax are no longer considered wholly trustworthy guides to population. Yet it may perhaps be gathered from this return that the population of Leicester was smaller than it had been thirty years before. Sixteen English towns contributed more to the tax than Leicester did. And in 1398, when "the well-beloved Mayor and the honest men of the town of Leicester freely and voluntarily lent one hundred marks" to King Richard the Second, there were eighteen towns which provided the Crown with larger sums. It may be concluded that the population was somewhat lower in 1400 than it had been in 1300.
With the new century the prospects of Leicester became brighter, and for a generation or two the borough increased in wealth and repute, and doubtless in the numbers of energetic citizens who carried on its trade. Unfortunately almost all the
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