They realised that praying to God and hoping for the best wasn't good enough and that they had to do something.

Eyam, England's drastic response to the plague—including quarantines and social distancing—influenced later medical practice.

Eyam wasn't self-sufficient—the locals traded with nearby communities—so the town's residents enlisted the support of the Earl of Devonshire and surrounding villages to create a system to obtain needed supplies. They placed a Boundary Stone at the southern border between Eyam and its nearest neighbor, Stoney Middleton, which they used as a drop-off point for necessities. The large rock had six holes drilled into it. Coins to pay for supplies were dropped into holes filled with vinegar, which was believed to kill infection. (The stone still sits at that border today.)

Mompesson’s plan also included holding church services outside—today’s social distancing—as he understood there was less chance of transmission in open spaces. People have suggested avoiding person-to-person contact to fight the Black Death since the 14th century, though we now know pneumonic, not bubonic, plague is more likely to spread via respiratory droplets.

To further discourage people from congregating, villagers were tasked with burying their dead themselves as quickly as possible, and as close to the site of the death as possible. In one sad case, Elizabeth Hancock’s husband and all six of her children died within the space of eight days, and she had the unimaginable task of dragging the bodies from her farmhouse to a nearby field to bury them alone. Entire families were lost to the disease, including all nine members of the Thorpe family, who died between September 1665 and early summer of 1666.

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[mentalfloss.com]