Samuel Pepys witnessed the ceremony on April 13th, 1661, and refers to it in his Diary. "Went to the Banquet House, and there saw the King heal, the first time I ever saw him do it, which he did with great gravity, and it seemed to me to be an ugly office and a simple one."
In Evelyn's Diary on March 28th, 1684, there is a record of a serious accident, "There was," he writes, "so great a concourse of people with their children to be touched for the evil, that six or seven were crushed to death by pressing at the chirurgeon's door for tickets."
According to Macaulay, Charles II. during his reign touched nearly a hundred thousand persons. In the year 1682 he performed the rite eight thousand five hundred times.
No person was allowed to enter the King's presence for the purpose of receiving the rite without first obtaining a certificate from the minister of his parish from whence he came, nor unless he had not previously been touched. A proclamation of Charles II., dated January 9th, 1683, ordered a register of the certificates to be made. Here is a record drawn from the Old Town's Book of Birmingham:--
"March 14th, 1683, Elizabeth, daughter of John and Anne Dickens, of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, was certified for in order to obtayne his Majesty's touch for her cure.
HENRY GROVE, Minister. JOHN BIRCH, } HENRY PATER, } Churchwardens."
We cull from the churchwardens' accounts of Terling, Essex, the following item:--
"1683 Dec{ r}. Pd. for his Majestie's order for touching 00.00.06."
A page in the register book of Bisley, Surrey, is headed thus, "Certificates for the Evill commonly called the kings Evill." Two entries occur as follow:--
"Elizabeth Collier and Thomas Collier the children of Thomas Collier, Senior, had a certificate from the minister and churchwardens of Bisley, August 7th 1686."
"Sarah Massey, the daughter of Richard Massey, had a certificate from the minister and churchwardens of Bisley, 1st April 1688."
Old parish accounts often contain entries similar to the following, from Ecclesfield, Yorkshire:--
"1641. Given to John Parkin wife towards her trauell to London to get cure of his Matie. for the disease called Euill which her soone Thom is visited withall 0. 6. 8."
