Pennant died from jail fever caught from prisoners in the court dock.

He sank under a contagious disorder, very prevalent at that time, and vulgarly termed the jail fever.

Beaulieu fell terribly ill from jail fever and died in a poor humble lodging.

'Jail Fever' (typhus) raged through the ship, which lost 95 convicts before arriving at Sydney on 26 July 1799.

Typhus was also common in prisons (and in crowded conditions where lice spread easily), where it was known as Gaol fever or Jail fever.

Sometimes, the counties resorted to sending convicted criminals in lieu of punishment, further creating ill feeling among ships' companies, and sometimes introducing typhus (otherwise known as jail fever).

Typhus was also common in prisons, where it was known as 'gaol fever' or 'jail fever', and often occurs when prisoners are frequently huddled together in dark, filthy rooms where lice spread easily.

This ship would have bred the plague or jail fever, if there had not been great exertions since the storm to wash, sweep, air and purify clothes, cots, cabins, hammocks and all other things, places, and persons.

"I don't know which is worse - to rot in England from jail fever, where your onlycrime was to be in the Royalist army, or to die of cholera in the pouring rain in a field in Hispaniola."

Undoubtedly he is headed for Newgate Gaol - where, without the intervention of Sala, he may await a hearing for upwards of a year - if he does not die of jail fever, in which case the fact of his innocence becomes moot.

Epidemic typhus (also called "camp fever", "jail fever", "hospital fever", "ship fever", "famine fever", "putrid fever", "petechial fever", "Epidemic louse-borne typhus," and "louse-borne typhus") is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters.