Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of plates
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART I Landscapes of the past
- PART II Contours of mortality
- 3 Geographical patterns of mortality
- 4 Geographical rhythms of mortality
- PART III Environments and movements of disease
- PART IV Contours of death; contours of health
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time
4 - Geographical rhythms of mortality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of plates
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART I Landscapes of the past
- PART II Contours of mortality
- 3 Geographical patterns of mortality
- 4 Geographical rhythms of mortality
- PART III Environments and movements of disease
- PART IV Contours of death; contours of health
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time
Summary
In marshy and unwholesome situations … many of the offspring in such places die in their infancy and childhood, as we see from 40 to 54 per cent … Seldom any, though born here, continuing in it, have lived to the age of twenty-one years.
(Short, 1750, p.65; Hasted, 1797–1801, vol.vi, p.144)AGE AT DEATH ACROSS THE PARISHES OF SOUTH-EAST ENGLAND
Burial:baptism ratios and crude death rates sketch the broad vistas of the contours of death and contours of health of our past. Many historical demographers, however, are no longer content to limit their analysis to such basic indices – there is now a demand for more penetrating statistics describing the structure of mortality and, in particular, its variation by age, sex and season. This chapter looks at mortality patterns across space and time using some of these measures of mortality. The findings reinforce those of the previous chapter and provide us with further clues for an understanding of the epidemiological landscapes of south-east England.
Age-specific mortality rates for the 600 or so parishes across a span of 200 years would be impossible to calculate. But towards the end of the eighteenth century, a number of parish burial registers began to contain some information on the age status of the deceased. For Essex, Kent and East Sussex about 100 parish registers have been found which systematically recorded age at death (in years or years and months) for a reasonable length of time prior to 1812. This material has been supplemented with a small sample of age at death data drawn from the Clergymen's Returns in the 1831 Census.
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- Contours of Death and Disease in Early Modern England , pp. 160 - 220Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997