Barnwell ague, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Barnwell ague n.

[proper name Barnwell, a brothel district or f. joc. ‘burn well’ + SE ague; note Hall, College Words and Customs (1856): ‘Barnwell. At Cambridge, Eng., a place of resort for characters of bad report’; note Cambridge University decree 1675: ‘Hereafter no scholar whatsoever [...] upon any pretence whatsoever, shall go into any house of bad report in Barnewell, on pain [...] of being expelled from the university’]

gonorrhoea.

1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 88: He hath got a Kentish ague [...] The Covent-garden ague. The Barnwell ague.
1803		‘A Pembrochian’ Gradus ad Cantabrigiam 16: barnwell ague. The French *** [i.e. pox].
1811		Grose Provincial Gloss. 61/2: A Barnwell ague. The venereal disease. Barnwell is a village near Cambridge, famous for the residence of the women of pleasure attending the university.