One aspect of the Death by Numbers project which is perhaps the most interesting to me personally are the trends that I have begun to notice from year to year. After transcribing over 100 years of death records, you begin to recognize patterns not only between the same causes of death, but also the differences between separate causes as well. The one which immediately caught my eye was Abortive and Stillborn since it also happens to be the very first cause of death which is listed in the Millar and Guildhall General Bills. I was astounded at the percentage of prenatal and fetal mortalities which comprised the total number of deaths for each year, and after speaking about this more with Professor Otis, it came to my attention that the vast majority of these deaths were either infants or the elderly, even those which did not initially appear to be related to either. Apart from Abortive and Stiborn mortalities, it seems as though a large percentage of children also succumb to the following… Chrisomes or infant deaths under one month old, Ache and Fevers, Colds, Epilepsy, Infants or death of a child over a month old but still in infancy, Miscarriage, Suddenly, Overlaid or accidental smothering of an infant by rolling over them in sleep, and Starvation. What stood out to me about these deaths was not necessarily the transformation of their numbers over time, but rather the consistency of those numbers. For instance there is hardly one example in the years between 1650-1750 where Abortive and Stillborn deaths numbered under 500, yet countless examples where they exceeded 1000 or 2000. Perhaps the most shocking cause I discovered was stifled in a house of office, which can either refer to a sewage worker suffocated by fumes, or an infant who was intentionally disposed of in an outhouse.
While deaths among elderly individuals are less shocking, there are almost as common as those in infancy. Apart from the sporadic outbreaks of plague, Aged is perhaps the second most common cause of death among these records. although ages of the dead are not provided in the yearly bills, elderly individuals were almost certainly more likely to succumb to wasting diseases such as Bed-ridden or confined to bed through sickness or infirmity, Stone or concretion in the body, esp. kidneys, bladder or gallbladder, Tissick, Tympany, and Strangury slow and painful urination. These documents provide a somewhat morbid insight into the hardships endured by two of the most vulnerable portions of the population, and the level of normalcy and acceptance which surrounded their high mortality rates.
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