Southwark Deaths

Causes of Death

In transcribing the deaths from the Southwark Quaker records, I was struck by the number of deaths of young children, and by the repetition in the causes. So many children died of "Teeth" that I wanted to find out more about that. I found an article titled "The History of Teething in Infancy" by John Rendle-Short that traced the changes in thinking about teething since the time of Hippocrates.

Dr. Rendle-Short points out that many people thought that teething itself caused children to die, including people in fairly recent times. This quotation is from the 16th century:

About ye seveth moneth, sometime more, sometime lesse, after ye byrth, it is natural for a child to breed teeth, in which time many one is sore vexed with sondry diseases and pains, as swelling of ye gummes and jaws, unquiet crying fevers, cramps, palsies, fluxes, reumes and other infirmities, specially when it is long or ye teeth come forth, for the sooner they appear the better and the more ease it is to the childe.

Thomas Phayre, (1530) The Boke of Children, London.

After reviewing the symptoms described for children who died while teething, Dr. Rendle-Short concludes that teething was probably blamed for deaths that were really caused by diseases, including scurvy, rickets, cholera, and dysentery. He quotes Smollett about the conditions of milk sold in the streets of London in the 1770s to illustrate the sanitary conditions of the time:

But the milk itself should not pass unanalysed -- the produce of faded cabbage-leaves and sour draff, lowered with hot water, frothed with bruised snails; carried through the streets in open pails, exposed to foul rinsings discharged from doors and windows, spittle, snot and tobacco quids from foot passengers; overflowings from mud-carts, spatterings from coach-wheels; dirt from trash chuck into it by roguish boys for the joke's sake; the spewings of infants, who have slobberred in the tin-measure, which is thrown back in that condition among the milk for the benefit of the next customer; and finally the vermin that drops from the rags of the nasty drab that vends this previous mixture under the respectable denomination of milkmaid.

Smollett, T. (1771) The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker.
Cited by Drummond, J. C., and Wilbraham, A. (1939) The Englishman's Food. London: p. 231.

In regard to deaths in general, he quotes John Graunt, a 17th-century statistician, on the procedure used in reporting deaths:

When anyone died, then, either by telling, or ringing a bell, or by bespeaking of a grave of the Sexton, the same is known to the Searchers corresponding with the same Sexton. The Searchers hereupon (who are ancient Matrons, sworn to their office) repair to the place where the dead corps lies, and by view of the same, and by other enquiries, they examine by what disease or casualty the corps died. Hereupon they make their report to the Parish Clerk.

Graunt, John (1662) Natural and Political Observations made upon the Bills of Mortality, London.
(Reprinted by Hull, C. H., ed., 1899, Economic Writings of Sir William Petty. Cambridge: 2, 346, 348.)

Here is the citation to this interesting article by Dr. Rendle-Short:

Rendle-Short, John, "The History of Teething in Infancy,"
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 48 (London 1955), pp. 132-138.

Leading Causes of Death

The following is a list of the top thirty stated causes of death in the records I transcribed:

Cause	Count
Convulsions	116
Fever	81
Consumption	69
Age	39
Teeth	37
Gripes	37
Smallpox	36
Stillborn	23
Dropsy	22
Convulsions and Fits	22
Fits	21
Convulsions in the Bowels	17
Childbirth	10
Apoplexy	7
Physic	6
Measles	6
Drowned	5
Inward Fever	4
Inward Fits	4
Hectic Fever	3
Convulsion Fits	2
Gout in the Stomach	2
Imposthume	2
Surfit	2
Rising of the Lights	2
Rickets	2
Stoppage of the Stomach	2
The Stone	2
Thrush in the Mouth	1
Dropsy and Convulsions	1
Dropsy and Consumption	1

Ages at Death

I was also struck by the long lives some of the people lived. Although the average age at death in this sample was about 21, some lived to a very old age. Here are the twenty oldest in this sample:

Surname	Name	Age
Haley	James	95
Harris	Elizabeth	93
Gill	Francis	93
Gosnell	Rebecca	90
Moore	Elin	90
West	Mary	90
Hales	Mary	86
Warner	Simeon	85
Hall	Edmond	85
Charter	Robert	85
Grove	Ruth	85
Sterry	Joseph	84
Lurting	Thomas	84
Chalkly	George	84
Alcock	Mamaris	84
Clarck	Barbery	83
Haill	Ann	82
Griffin	Thomas	82
Telner	Jacob	81
Payer	Anday	80

This is a graph of the distribution of ages at death for the people in the sample I transcribed. Note that the infant mortality was very high, while the deaths in the other age ranges were fairly consistent, rising toward the 70-79 range.

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This file was last updated on 7/15/2004.