Blog

Comparing the Bills of Mortality and Old Bailey Proceedings

by Savannah Scott
2023-11-27
analysis

The Bills of Mortality were weekly reports that recorded the number of deaths in London, beginning in 1603 and continuing consistently until 1819. These bills reported the number of burials and plague deaths in each London and surrounding parish. They also reported the different causes of death, male/female christenings, and male/female burials for the entire city. The causes of death included illnesses and ailments, as well as accidents and killings. Two causes of death—execution and murder—have the possibility of being cross-referenced with other early modern documents, particularly court records.

Death by Numbers: the Monarchical Bills of Mortality, 1665-1669

by Katie Kania, Jessica Otis
2023-11-07
analysis

During the early modern period, the city of London produced weekly mortality reports called bills of mortality. These bills—printed from 1603 onward—detail the number of deaths per parish; plague deaths per parish; and deaths citywide by cause of death. However printed bills were actually summaries of manuscript bills produced for the monarch, which contain a parish-by-parish breakdown of every cause of death throughout the city of London for the preceding week.

Infant Mortality In The Monarchical Bills of Mortality, 1665-1669

by Katie Kania, Jessica Otis
2023-10-25
analysis

During the early modern period, the city of London produced weekly mortality reports called bills of mortality. These bills—printed from 1603 onward—detail the number of deaths per parish; plague deaths per parish; and deaths citywide by cause of death. However printed bills were actually summaries of manuscript bills produced for the monarch, which contain a parish-by-parish breakdown of every cause of death throughout the city of London for the preceding week.

London, 1665: Living in a Deathtrap

by Cecilia Ward
2023-08-24
analysis

Samuel Pepys is primarily remembered for his decade-long diary, which recorded major events in 17th century English history including the Great Plague Outbreak (1665).1 Just before the height of the plague, on September 7, 1665, Pepys wrote in his diary, “[I] sent for the Weekely Bill, and find 8,252 dead in all, and of them 6,878 of the plague; which is a most dreadfull number, and shows reason to fear the plague hath got that hold that it will yet continue among us.

Recent Posts

Death by Words: Textual Geography of Suicides, Drownings and Killings in the Bills of Mortality Hernan Adasme · 2024-09-26
Ambiguous Bills and Anonymous Commentators: Reflections on My Experience Transcribing the Bills of Mortality Lazlo Taba · 2024-09-10
A Deadly Decade: Yearly Plague Spikes in Early Modern London between 1638-1647 Hernan Adasme · 2024-08-28
A Woman's Touch on the Bills of Mortality Luz Adriana Giraldo Mueller · 2024-06-10
Who Counts? Religion, Inclusion, and Exclusion in the Bills of Mortality Jessica Otis · 2024-05-23

Post Tags

1665-1670 (1) adasme (6) age (1) background (8) brett (5) bukovich (2) data (2) database (2) defoe (1) disasters (3) food (3) geography (8) gis (1) grief (1) hammond (1) heppler (2) howlett (4) journal-of-the-plague-year (1) kania (5) metadata (3) meyers (5) mitchell (2) monarchical-bills (2) mueller (1) old-bailey (1) omeka (1) otis (14) pedagogy (1) plague (1) printing (2) providence (1) religion (1) scott (1) seng (1) shuman (1) taba (1) time (1) time-to-event-analysis (1) transcription (3) tropy (2) visualization (6) ward (3) weather (1) women (1)

Post Categories

analysis (14) announcements (5) context (14) workflows (7)