Unlucky Marsh Gibbon was badly damaged by a fire in 1741, and was also one of the villages most seriously affected by the Rinderpest of 1866. This cattle plague was imported from Finland in 1865, first affecting cattle markets in London. It raged for eighteen months and 500,000 cattle were lost. Few farmers were insured, and even with official grants of compensation from the county, which under the Order of Council of 5 December 1865 ordered the diseased animals to be destroyed (but the carcasses sold), many men lost their livelihood, since the land could not safely be used for livestock again for over a year. On the whole, it was land north of the A418 (Aylesbury-Oxford turnpike) which was affected, and very strict supervision by the police of movement of cattle prevented more than minor outbreaks elsewhere.
Marsh Gibbon, for a smallish village, suffered badly, and the financial loss was as follows:
Robert White £174-17-6
Joseph Mason £38-0-0
Thomas Burnell £48-12-6
Henry Phipps £6-5-0
John Ivens £63-15-0
James Ayres £7-0-0
James Plater £95-10-0
John Templar £91-10-0
John Bonner £111-0-0
John Kilby £28-5-0
Michael Parker £47-5-0
James Ayres £9-10-0
William Herring £110-0-0
Henry Phipps £34-10-0
Joseph Burnell £12-10-0
Joseph Mason £62-5-0
Joseph Burnell £20-10-0
James Jones £18-10-0
John Templar £205-5-0
Thomas Jones £25-5-0
Michael Parker £47-0-0
Thomas Jones £9-0-0
William Gough £12-5-0
James Jones £18-10-0
Jesse White £10-0-0
This is one case where no one would want to keep up with the Joneses, or the unfortunate John Templar.
The total losses in cash terms were; Buckingham Hundred £4,956-15s, Newport Hundred £1,065. (hundreds not noted)
The police were ordered to make sure that there was no movement of livestock without a license, but, very sensibly, warned not to intrude more than was vital on farms, and to keep to windward of any carcasses, not to help with their burial, or tread in any offal or blood. This limited the amount of infection carried around by their size tens PC Abraham Mott, in the thick of it at Marsh Gibbon, sadly got into a quarrel with James Plater, farmer (from Haddenham originally) and offered to fight him, for which he was reduced to third class; his hitherto exemplary service deteriorated rapidly and he was asked to leave the force two months later. This may be not unconnected with the Chief Constables complaint that farmers were evading the cattle movement order all over the place.
Among other sufferers of interest to members were William Flowers (loss £270-10s), Edward Flowers (loss £156), Daniel Malins (£56-2s-6d) all of Padbury, Clement Holt of Grendon Underwood (£139-10s), George Thorn of Blackgrove in Waddesdon (£218-17s-6d), John Simons of Quarrendon (£7), Mark Dancer of Pitchcott (£166-10), William Crook of Quainton (£97-5s) and Jonathon Clark of Lower Winchendon (£345-17s-6d).
This cattle plague may account for the sudden leaving of the county by families hitherto of comfortable farmers. A considerable number actually emigrated soon after. Marsh Gibbon's population which had been 534 in 1801, and peaked at 944 in 1851, declined sharply, markedly after the second cattle plague of 1877, and in 1901 was only 598.
Bucks Ancestor - Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society - December 1995 By Eve McLaughlin
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