Bubonic Plague (or the Black Death as it was also known) was a deadly disease that caused headaches, vomiting, a swollen tongue and turned a victim’s skin black. It led to caused inflamed glands or ‘buboes’ in the groin and ultimately, death.

After arriving in the UK, the plague spread rapidly and communities were wiped out as corpses littered the streets. To place these numbers in context, over 54,000 people died in London during the summer of 1665.

In 1652, Haverfordwest (perhaps not for the first time) was struck with an outbreak. The first suspected victim died in February and numbers spread rapidly as ‘some of the more affluent members of society fled and the fairs were moved out of town’*. Urgent medical care was clearly needed and came in the form of ‘two barber surgeons, Benjamin Price and James Sonnegon, between whom there was obvious tension and professional rivalry’. However, records also reveal the presence of a ‘strange woman’ to help with the crisis.

Joane Cheate was paid six shillings a week for ‘un­specified nursing duties’, although contemporary reports from other parts of the country describe how women were required as ‘searchers’, (people to identify signs of plague on corpses), and to care for the victims. Furthermore, ‘at Westminster Goodwife Wells was employed to destroy fleas with salt in the churchwarden’s pews’.

In this era of widespread crisis and threat to life, women were still subjected to criticism and suspicion for working outside the home. Rumours were spread of nurses ‘murder(ing) patients, robb(ing) the dead and exhibit(ing) a general callousness and lack of care’. Their judgment was questioned and one writer, Thomas Dekker, even claimed that they were ‘dirty, ugly and unwholesome Haggs, even a Hell in itself’. He went on to compare the receiving of care from a woman as equal to the plague itself.

Joane Cheate received much criticism for her work and was defended in a letter from ‘Mayor Thomas Davids from the Blacke Lyon on Fleete Bridge, London on 17 May 1652’. He wrote: ‘Lett the visitor woman be encouraged and not be abused by idle people, as I heare she is [.. .] for I am sure that providense guided her thither and that shee under God has bene as instrument of good.’ She returned to her home in England with ten shillings in March 1653.

Roedd y Pla Bwbonig (neu’r Pla Du fel y’i gelwid hefyd) yn glefyd marwol oedd yn achosi pen tost, chwydu, tafod chwyddedig ac yn troi croen y dioddefwr yn ddu gan arwain at achosi chwarennau llidus neu ‘fwbos’ yn yr afl, ac yn y pen draw, marwolaeth.

Ar ôl i’r pla gyrraedd y DU, ymledodd yn gyflym a chafodd cymunedau cyfan eu difodi wrth i gyrff marw gael eu gweld ar y strydoedd. I roi’r niferoedd hyn yn eu cyd-destun, bu farw dros 54,000 o bobl yn Llundain yn ystod haf 1665.

Yn 1652, cafodd tref Hwlffordd (nid efallai am y tro cyntaf) ei tharo gan achos o’r pla du. Bu farw’r dioddefwr cyntaf fis Chwefror a lledodd y niferoedd yn gyflym wrth i ‘rai o aelodau mwy cyfoethog y gymdeithas ffoi a symud y ffeiriau allan o’r dref‘*. Roedd yn amlwg bod angen gofal meddygol brys a daeth hynny ar ffurf ‘dau farbwr-lawfeddyg, Benjamin Price a James Sonnegon, yr oedd tensiwn amlwg a chystadleuaeth broffesiynol rhyngddynt’. Fodd bynnag, mae cofnodion hefyd yn datgelu bod ‘menyw ryfedd’ yn bresennol i helpu gyda’r argyfwng.

Roedd Joane Cheate yn cael ei thalu chwe swllt yr wythnos am ‘ddyletswyddau nyrsio amhenodol’, er bod adroddiadau o’r un cyfnod o rannau eraill o’r wlad yn disgrifio fel yr oedd gofyn cael menywod i wneud gwaith ‘chwilio’ (pobl i adnabod arwyddion o’r pla ar gyrff), ac i ofalu am y dioddefwyr. Ar ben hynny, ‘yn San Steffan cyflogwyd Goodwife Wells i gael gwared ar chwain gyda halen yn seddi warden yr eglwys’.

Yn yr oes hon o argyfwng ar hyd a lled y wlad a’r bygythiad i fywyd, roedd menywod yn dal i fod yn destun beirniadaeth ac amheuaeth am weithio y tu allan i’r cartref. Roedd sibrydion ar led am nyrsys ‘yn llofruddio cleifion, yn dwyn eiddo’r meirw ac yn dangos agwedd ddidostur a diffyg gofal‘. Cwestiynwyd eu barn a’u doethineb, ac roedd un ysgrifennwr, Thomas Dekker, hyd yn oed wedi honni eu bod yn ‘hen wrachod budr, hyll ac afiach, oedd yn uffern ynddo’i hun‘. Aeth rhagddo i gymharu derbyn gofal gan fenyw fel profiad cyffelyb i’r pla ei hun.

Derbyniodd Joane Cheate lawer o feirniadaeth am ei gwaith a phlediwyd ei hachos mewn llythyr gan ‘y Maer Thomas Davids o’r Blacke Lyon ar Bont Fleete, Llundain ar 17 Mai 1652’. Ysgrifennodd yn ei lythyr: ‘Gadewch i’r wraig gael ei hannog ac nid ei dilorni gan bobl segur, gan i mi glywed bod hynny’n digwydd […] oherwydd rwy’n siŵr bod rhagluniaeth wedi ei thywys i’r fan hon a’i bod hi dan law Duw wedi bod yn gyfrwng i wneud llawer o ddaioni’. Dychwelodd i’w chartref yn Lloegr gyda deg swllt yn ei phoced fis Mawrth 1653.