The Black Assizes is an epithet given to several outbreaks of "gaol fever" which struck various prisons and court-houses in England in the late 16th century and which caused the deaths of not only many prisoners awaiting trial but also the magistrates in the court buildings holding assizes.
Causes.
The basic cause was fever spreading from insanitary jails via prisoners into dirty and overcrowded courtrooms.
Notable outbreaks.
The most notable Black Assizes were:
Exeter Black Assize 1586.
The Black Assizes at Exeter Castle were the Lent Assizes held from 14 March 1586 by Sir Edmund Anderson (1530–1605), Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who survived the disease. Exeter Prison was situated underneath the royal Exeter Castle and the courtrooms were within the castle buildings. The cause according to modern medical opinion was typhus transmitted by the human body-louse. Among the dead victims were 8 judges, 11 of the 12 jurors, several constables, and the surrounding population which was ravaged by the disease for several months. Amongst the dead were the following, many being prominent members of the Devonshire gentry:
Descriptions.
An historical account written by Alexander Jenkins (1841) stated ""A noisome and pestilential smell came from the prisoners who were araigned at the crown bar which so affected the people present that many were seized with a violent sickness which proved mortal to the greatest part of them"."
Contemporary accounts.
By John Hooker.
The best contemporary account of the outbreak is by John Hooker (c.1527–1601), published in Holinshead's "Chronicle" (1587). He suggests three possible causes:
By Adam Wyote.
Adam Wyote (or Wyatt) was town clerk of Barnstaple in North Devon and kept a personal journal from 1586 to 1611. The first entry records the Black Assize of Exeter, and lists the names of eight of the gentry of Devon who died from "gaoll sickness" as follows: ""to wit one of the Justices of Assize, Mr Flowerdewe, Sir Barnard Drak, Mr Welrond, Mr Cary of Clovelly, Mr Cary" (sic, should be "Carew") "of Hackome, Mr Fortescue, Mr Rysdon, Justices of the Peace, Sir John Chichester"".
1700s.
Outbreaks of Gaol Fever were still common in the 1750s. Two judges and the Lord Mayor died from the affliction in 1750, and there was another outbreak in 1772. 
References.
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