Profitable pursuits? Rural industry and mortality in the proto-industrial west riding 1650-1830

Local Population Studies

Volumn , Issue 59, 1997, Pages 26-40

  King, Steve ^a  

^a OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; HEALTH; HISTORY; INDUSTRY; MORTALITY; UNITED KINGDOM;

GREAT BRITAIN; HISTORY, 17TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 18TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; INDUSTRY; MORTALITY; RURAL HEALTH;

DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORY; MORTALITY RATES; RURAL INDUSTRY;

UK, ENGLAND, YORKSHIRE, WEST RIDING;

EID: 0031284742     PISSN: 01432974     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (55)

1. E. A. Wrigley and R. S. Schofield, The population history of England: a reconstruction, (London 1981). Also E. A. Wrigley, 'No death without birth: The implications of English mortality in the early modern period' in R. Porter and A. Wear eds, Problems and methods in the history of medicine, (Beckenham, 1987), 133-50 and E. A. Wrigley and R. S. Schofield, 'English population history from family reconstitution: summary results 1600-1799', Population Studies, 37 (1983), 157-84.
2. E. A. Wrigley and R. S. Schofield, The population history of England: a reconstruction, (London 1981). Also E. A. Wrigley, 'No death without birth: The implications of English mortality in the early modern period' in R. Porter and A. Wear eds, Problems and methods in the history of medicine, (Beckenham, 1987), 133-50 and E. A. Wrigley and R. S. Schofield, 'English population history from family reconstitution: summary results 1600-1799', Population Studies, 37 (1983), 157-84.
3. E. A. Wrigley and R. S. Schofield, The population history of England: a reconstruction, (London 1981). Also E. A. Wrigley, 'No death without birth: The implications of English mortality in the early modern period' in R. Porter and A. Wear eds, Problems and methods in the history of medicine, (Beckenham, 1987), 133-50 and E. A. Wrigley and R. S. Schofield, 'English population history from family reconstitution: summary results 1600-1799', Population Studies, 37 (1983), 157-84.
4. For examples of nineteenth century analysis, see P. Huck, 'Infant mortality in nine industrial parishes in northern England 1813-1836', Population Studies, 48 (1994), 513-26 or N. Williams and G. Mooney, 'Infant mortality in "An age of great cities". London and the English provincial cities compared 1840-1910', Continuity and Change, 9 (1994), 185-212 and N. Williams, 'Death in its season: class, environment and the mortality of infants in nineteenth-century Sheffield', Social History of Medicine, 5 (1992), 71-94.
5. For examples of nineteenth century analysis, see P. Huck, 'Infant mortality in nine industrial parishes in northern England 1813-1836', Population Studies, 48 (1994), 513-26 or N. Williams and G. Mooney, 'Infant mortality in "An age of great cities". London and the English provincial cities compared 1840-1910', Continuity and Change, 9 (1994), 185-212 and N. Williams, 'Death in its season: class, environment and the mortality of infants in nineteenth-century Sheffield', Social History of Medicine, 5 (1992), 71-94.
6. For examples of nineteenth century analysis, see P. Huck, 'Infant mortality in nine industrial parishes in northern England 1813-1836', Population Studies, 48 (1994), 513-26 or N. Williams and G. Mooney, 'Infant mortality in "An age of great cities". London and the English provincial cities compared 1840-1910', Continuity and Change, 9 (1994), 185-212 and N. Williams, 'Death in its season: class, environment and the mortality of infants in nineteenth-century Sheffield', Social History of Medicine, 5 (1992), 71-94.
7. On crisis mortality, see M. Drake ed., Population history from parish registers, (Milton Keynes, 1981) and R. Schofield, D. Reher and A. Bideau eds, The decline of mortality in Europe, (Oxford, 1991). Also C. Galley, 'A model of early modern urban demography', Economic History Review, 44 (1995), 448-69, and C. Galley, 'A never ending succession of epidemics? Mortality in early modern York', Social History of Medicine, 7 (1994), 29-58.
8. On crisis mortality, see M. Drake ed., Population history from parish registers, (Milton Keynes, 1981) and R. Schofield, D. Reher and A. Bideau eds, The decline of mortality in Europe, (Oxford, 1991). Also C. Galley, 'A model of early modern urban demography', Economic History Review, 44 (1995), 448-69, and C. Galley, 'A never ending succession of epidemics? Mortality in early modern York', Social History of Medicine, 7 (1994), 29-58.
9. On crisis mortality, see M. Drake ed., Population history from parish registers, (Milton Keynes, 1981) and R. Schofield, D. Reher and A. Bideau eds, The decline of mortality in Europe, (Oxford, 1991). Also C. Galley, 'A model of early modern urban demography', Economic History Review, 44 (1995), 448-69, and C. Galley, 'A never ending succession of epidemics? Mortality in early modern York', Social History of Medicine, 7 (1994), 29-58.
10. On crisis mortality, see M. Drake ed., Population history from parish registers, (Milton Keynes, 1981) and R. Schofield, D. Reher and A. Bideau eds, The decline of mortality in Europe, (Oxford, 1991). Also C. Galley, 'A model of early modern urban demography', Economic History Review, 44 (1995), 448-69, and C. Galley, 'A never ending succession of epidemics? Mortality in early modern York', Social History of Medicine, 7 (1994), 29-58.
11. P. Razzell ed., Essays in English population history, (Chichester, 1994).
12. D. Levine, Family formation in an age of nascent capitalism, (New York, 1977).
13. See S. Ogilvie and M. Cerman eds, European proto-industrialisation, (Cambridge, 1995). Also R. Braun, Industrialisation and everyday life, (Cambridge, 1990) and J. Lehning, The peasants of Marhles, (Cambridge, 1987).
14. See S. Ogilvie and M. Cerman eds, European proto-industrialisation, (Cambridge, 1995). Also R. Braun, Industrialisation and everyday life, (Cambridge, 1990) and J. Lehning, The peasants of Marhles, (Cambridge, 1987).
15. See S. Ogilvie and M. Cerman eds, European proto-industrialisation, (Cambridge, 1995). Also R. Braun, Industrialisation and everyday life, (Cambridge, 1990) and J. Lehning, The peasants of Marhles, (Cambridge, 1987).
16. See for instance J. L. Flandrin, Families in former times: kinship, household and sexuality, (Cambridge, 1979) and M. Mitteraur, 'Peasant and non-peasant family forms in relation to the physical environment and the local economy', Journal of Family History, 17 (1992), 139-59. Also S. A. King, 'Poor relief and English economic development re-appraised' Economic History Review, 50 (1997), 360-8.
17. See for instance J. L. Flandrin, Families in former times: kinship, household and sexuality, (Cambridge, 1979) and M. Mitteraur, 'Peasant and non-peasant family forms in relation to the physical environment and the local economy', Journal of Family History, 17 (1992), 139-59. Also S. A. King, 'Poor relief and English economic development re-appraised' Economic History Review, 50 (1997), 360-8.
18. See for instance J. L. Flandrin, Families in former times: kinship, household and sexuality, (Cambridge, 1979) and M. Mitteraur, 'Peasant and non-peasant family forms in relation to the physical environment and the local economy', Journal of Family History, 17 (1992), 139-59. Also S. A. King, 'Poor relief and English economic development re-appraised' Economic History Review, 50 (1997), 360-8.
19. J. Lawson, Letter to the young on progress in Pudsey during the last sixty years, (Stanningley, 1887).
20. E. Parsons, The civil, ecclesiastical, literary, commercial and miscellaneous history of Leeds, (Leeds, 1822).
21. Lawson, Progress, 136.
22. S. A. King and P. Hudson, 'A sense of place: Industrialising townships in eighteenth-century Yorkshire', in R. Leboutte ed., Proto-industrialisation: recent research and new perspectives, (Geneva, 1996), 181-210.
23. Though see R. M. Carpenter, 'Peasants and stockingers: socio-economic change in Guthlaxton hundred, Leicestershire, 1700-1851', (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leicester, 1994).
24. For more on the reconstruction, see S. A. King, 'Multiple source record linkage in rural industrial communities', History and Computing, 6 (1994), 43-53.
25. H. Heaton, The Yorkshire woollen and worsted industries from earliest times to the Industrial Revolution, (Oxford, 1965).
26. For more on this, see King and Hudson, 'A sense of place'
27. D. Gregory, Regional transformation and industrial revolution: a geography of the Yorkshire woollen industry, (London, 1982).
28. For a wider discussion of infant mortality figures, see S. A. King, 'Sharing the urban graveyard: mortality conditions in town hinterlands 1650-1830' in J. Voegle and W. Woelk eds, Cities and sickness, urban health conditions during the epidemiological transition, (forthcoming, 1997).
29. I am grateful to Roger Schofield for providing the figures which underlie much of the discussion which follows.
30. I am grateful to May Pickles for discussion of these issues.
31. I am grateful to Roger Schofield for sending me the (then) proofs of the mortality sections of the new Cambridge Group book on population history from family reconstitutions. Figures drawn from this source form the bedrock of Table 2. See E. A. Wrigley, R. S. Davies, J. E. Oeppen and R. S. Schofield, English population history from family reconstitution (Cambridge University Press, 1997).
32. For further information, see S. A. King, 'The nature and causes of demographic change in a rural industrial township: Carverley 1680-1820' (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Liverpool, 1993).
33. Infant mortality has been discussed in considerable depth elsewhere. See S. A. King, 'Dying with style: infant death and its context in a rural industrial community 1650-1830', Social History of Medicine, (forthcoming, 1997).
34. For a discussion of the wider importance of this observation in the modelling of demographic systems, see S. Ruggles, 'Family demography and family history: problems and prospects', Historical Methods Newsletter, 23 (1990), 22-30.
35. Familial concentration of infant mortality was accompanied by a marked geographical bias in the location of high mortality families, but the same is not true of childhood mortality. Explanations relating concentrated mortality and features such as poor water supply thus have little validity in this context.
36. M. Drake ed. Population history from parish registers (Milton Keynes, 1981).
37. For the epidemiological foundations of this discussion, see P. G. Lunn, 'Nutrition, immunity and infection', in R. S. Schofield, D. Reher and A. Bideau eds, The decline of mortality in Europe, (Oxford, 1991), 131-45.
38. C. Creighton, A history of epidemics in Britain vol. II, (London, 1965).
39. Other studies have also revealed late childhood mortality upsurges. See R. S. Schofield and E. A. Wrigley, 'Infant and child mortality in England in the late Tudor and early Stuart period', in C. Webster ed. Health, medicine and mortality in early modern society, (Cambridge, 1979), 61-96. Also R. S. Schofield, 'Micro demography and epidemic mortality: two case studies', in J. Sundin and E. Soderlund eds, Time, space and man: essays in microdemography, (Uppsala, 1979), 53-68.
40. Other studies have also revealed late childhood mortality upsurges. See R. S. Schofield and E. A. Wrigley, 'Infant and child mortality in England in the late Tudor and early Stuart period', in C. Webster ed. Health, medicine and mortality in early modern society, (Cambridge, 1979), 61-96. Also R. S. Schofield, 'Micro demography and epidemic mortality: two case studies', in J. Sundin and E. Soderlund eds, Time, space and man: essays in microdemography, (Uppsala, 1979), 53-68.
41. L. Henry, 'Men's and women's mortality in the past', Population, 44 (1989), 177-201 and B. M. W. Dobbie, 'An attempt to estimate the true rate of maternal mortality, sixteenth to eighteenth centuries', Medical History, 26 (1982), 79-90.
42. L. Henry, 'Men's and women's mortality in the past', Population, 44 (1989), 177-201 and B. M. W. Dobbie, 'An attempt to estimate the true rate of maternal mortality, sixteenth to eighteenth centuries', Medical History, 26 (1982), 79-90.
43. R. S. Schofield, 'Did the mothers realty die? Three centuries of maternal mortality in "The world we have lost'", in L. Bonfield, R. M. Smith and K. Wrightson eds, The world we have gained: histories of population and social structure, (Oxford, 1986), 231-60 advanced 'national' maternal mortality rates of 16:1000 1650-99, 11.3:1000 1700-49 and 7.7:10001750-99. The latest findings based upon 26 family reconstitutions suggest that the figure for 1700-49 should be 12.5 and that for 1750-99 9.1. In Calverley the figure for 1750-99 was 14, significantly above these 'national' figures.
44. C. Wilson, 'The proximate determinants of marital fertility in England 1600-1799', in Bonfield, Smith and Wrightson eds, The world we have gained, 203-30.
45. For a review of similar continental experiences, see J. L. Flandrin, Families.
46. Age at death statement for Calverley starts in relatively comprehensive fashion from the 1790s.
47. S. Ruggles, 'Migration, marriage, and mortality: correcting sources of bias in English family reconstitutions', Population Studies, 46 (1992), 507-21.
48. The dates were chosen to minimise bias. Those marrying at the average age of 23-24 in 1770 would have been over eighty at the upper cut off point.
49. E. A. Wrigley, 'Mortality in pre-industrial England: the example of Colyton, Devon, over three centuries', Daedalus, 97 (1968), 546-80. Also J. Dûpaquier, 'Problemes de representativitie dans les études fondées sur la reconstitution des families', Annales de Démographie Historique (1972), 82-91.
50. E. A. Wrigley, 'Mortality in pre-industrial England: the example of Colyton, Devon, over three centuries', Daedalus, 97 (1968), 546-80. Also J. Dûpaquier, 'Problemes de representativitie dans les études fondées sur la reconstitution des families', Annales de Démographie Historique (1972), 82-91.
51. A. Blum, 'An estimate of local adult mortality based on family cards', Population, 44 (1989), 39-59. To work out the length of this extra period of observation a 'donor' with a similar family size at a similar time is found and the interval to their next event substituted for the missing event on the part of the migrant.
52. Ruggles, 'Migration'.
53. Wrigley, Davies, Oeppen and Schofield, English population history.
54. See Carpenter, 'Peasants'.
55. See P. Hudson and S. A. King, Industrialisation, material culture and everyday life of stockingers (forthcoming).