Some new insights I have gained as a result of working on Professor Otis’ Death by Numbers project is an appreciation for “making personal the impersonal aspects of the past.” Additionally, I have gained a new appreciation for microhistories when it comes to their ability to teach us more about society as a whole. In a way, the mortality bills are a series of microhistories, especially the weekly bills, and we can extract rather large findings even from data that covers relatively short periods of time.
This semester, along with taking Dr. In Tayac’s curating history class, I am also currently enrolled in Professor Otis’ early Modern England course which undoubtedly provided me with incredibly useful background knowledge and resources about the country during this period of time. While reading many of the works we have been assigned over these past few months, I couldn’t help but think of the Death by Numbers project and how they can be used to understand that data in a more personal context, as well as give a name and a story to a few of these numbers I have been seeing all year long.
Last semester, I wrote a blog post about George Washington, whose personal life and history I happen to be very familiar with since I work at Mount Vernon as a history interpreter. Washington died in 1799 of Quinsie which is a bacterial infection of the throat, and every time I would see Quinsie as a cause of death on the Laxton General Bills, it struck me how few of these names actually survive today. These were ultimately human beings with their own stories, experiences, and emotions, yet the best and often only indicator we have of their entire existence is simply a number on a page.
Two of the assigned books from this semester stood out to me in particular because they painted a much clearer image in my mind of what some of these individuals’ lives may have been like. Anatomy of a Duel in Jacobean England: Gentry Honour, Violence and the Law by Lloyd Bowen details the fatal duel which occurred between Edward Morgan and John Egerton in April of 1610. Bowen’s retelling of this event is a microhistory chalk full of themes relating to personal conflict, familial tensions, gentry honor, conspiracies, and legal battles of the early 17th century. When we see the line “killed in a duel” in the Laxton Bills it can be easy to forget that these deaths were merely the final point of longstanding personal rivalries that in some cases spanned years or decades. The reason Morgan and Egerton’s case even survived was mainly because of the extensive legal proceedings which followed; others were not so lucky to have their stories told.
The other work which raised my interest was titled Conspiracy Culture in Stuart England: The Mysterious Death of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey by Andrea McKenzie. This is also a quite extraordinary incident, not only due to the bizarre circumstances which surrounded Godfrey’s alleged murder, but also due to its survival in the history books which was mainly thanks to his position as a magistrate and connection to individuals associated with the so called popish plot. Although it would seem natural that his death would be listed as “found dead in the streets,” that designation was really only used for natural deaths, and because Godfrey was found with his own sword sticking out from him, the more likely cause would have simply been “stabbed.”
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