Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Bills of Mortality 1830

Tuesday, October 20, 2015


Loretta reports:

I’ve posted Bills of Mortality before, for 1820. It was a little disappointing not to get the same kind of detail—e.g., what people died of—for 1830. This Wikipedia entry seems to account for the dearth of information. It's important to remember that these are the figures for burials in the Church of England, which leaves out many people.

Even so, and allowing for the drawbacks of the data compilation, we can still find food for thought.  The slight increase in births and deaths would correspond, I think, to the increase in population. If the year were 1832 or 1833, I'd expect a much higher death rate, because this was when the first major cholera epidemic struck the U.K.

Bills of Mortality 1830
Meanwhile, though, given the increase in population, the rates are similar, including the high death rate of children under two years old.






Image: St. Mary's Church, Woolwich, 1845, courtesy Wikipedia. Image for 1820 edition is a scan from my copy of the book.

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will take you to the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.

1 comments:

:Diane said...

Only one murder? Interesting data to be sure. Wonder what the population as a whole numbered for this data set of deaths. Perhaps the population for Woolwich or for the church membership in Woolwich.
Diane

 
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