Cholera is an infection that causes severe diarrhoea and, untreated, commonly leads to death by dehydration. In the nineteenth century there had been several Cholera epidemics in Britain. In Exeter in 1832, four hundred people died of Cholera. Although at that time known to be transmitted from one person to another, it was not until 1854 that the role of sewerage and the contamination of water supplies was confirmed. The Cholera germ was not identified until 1883.

In 1866 the Crediton Poor Law Union had made some preparations for Cholera. They held a special meeting on 4^th August after which the District Medical Officers were required to report “the presence of Cholera or unusual amounts of diarrhoea”.

By letter of 11 August Dr Warren had requested a “barrel drain from the head to the bottom of Bow”

There was one isolated case in Crediton on 24 August when Robert Steer, the landlord of the Plymouth Inn, died “of Asiatic cholera of 12 hours duration”. As a result each district within the Union then set up a “Choleraic Committee”.

On 12th October 1866 newspapers started reporting the outbreak of Cholera in Zeal Monachorum.

The outbreak began late on Saturday night the 6th October 1866.

“An intelligent and respectable tradesman of Zeal” wrote the following account:

“I had returned late from a long journey on Saturday night, and by the time I had eaten my supper, and done several necessary things preparatory to the Sabbath, I found it was past midnight. At this time I was alarmed by a loud knocking, and on opening my door I saw my neighbour, Mrs Sanders, wife of the village schoolmaster, who bade me come and see her husband, who was alarmingly ill. On visiting him, I saw that he was in great pain and suffering from cramp. I endeavoured to find my pony in the orchard in order to ride for the nearest medical man, but owing to the darkness of the night I did not succeed, and therefore ran to the neighbouring village of Bow for Mr Warren, surgeon, and on arriving there found another person from the other extremity of Zeal village, who told me that he was come on a similar errand, and expressed his fears that some one was also ill at Mr Clotworthy's, in the centre of the village, as he saw a light in his house and several people round the door. Mr Warren was promptly on the spot, but could do nothing to save the sufferers, who all died in a few hours after they were attacked ; and the epidemic spread so rapidly that by noon on Sunday there were more than twenty cases of cholera in Zeal, nine of which terminated fatally."

That night Dr Warren stayed in the village for about three hours, and on his way back to Bow at about 6 am he called at Sutton Farm to ask Mr William Snell, an Overseer of the Poor and a church warden, to obtain "some lime to be used freely as a disinfectant around the village". Warren also sent a message to Dr Christian Budd of North Tawton, asking him to meet him in Zeal early on Monday morning.

Out of a population of 204, 15 died in the Zeal outbreak. There were another 20 severe cases, mainly affecting children. All the funerals were conducted by the Rev Edward Cooper (Rector 1856-1871); two took place that Sunday evening and there were seven more the next day. Apart from two families who were looked after by Mr Densham, surgeon of North Tawton, Mr Warren treated everyone else. The last death was on the 18^th October. There was also one death in Bow.

No local professional nurses were available to assist. The Vicar of Down St Mary, Rev Radford, telegraphed the Sisters of Mercy Convent in East Grinstead, who sent a nurse to the village.

"Bigotry, however, has been at its old work, casting cold water on humane efforts."

This was a reference to the vicar. John Pedler, from Barons Wood, on the outskirts of the village, a local guardian of the poor, wrote referring to Rev Cooper “The like calamity has seldom fallen on any place where more unanimity has prevailed between the inhabitants generally, in rendering assistance to one another, excepting the individual referred to, who has done little or nothing but find fault, of which more will come before the public.” Rev Cooper later complained to the Poor Law Commissioners that the response by the Crediton Union had been inadequate and delayed but Dr Budd submitted a report on 12 October saying how satisfied he was with the use of disinfectants, and that that seemed to have halted the outbreak. His only criticism was that he had had to restrict “the too profuse use of brandy”.

The Sanders Family

The first person affected in Zeal was the school master, 56 year old John Sanders. John Sanders had been born in the village. (His father, an agricultural labourer, had "drowned himself" in 1849.) He married local girl Ellen Haskings in 1850, and they had four children before Ellen died in 1858.

The following year a baby girl was christened Ann Keziah Sanders Haskings in St Peter’s Church, Zeal Monachorum, by the rector of Clannaborough. The child’s mother was noted as “Eliza Haskings, spinster”. This was Ellen’s younger sister. John Sanders was the father and this cost him his teacher’s job. He and Eliza moved to London to find work, where they married. But by 1860 he was insolvent and in prison.