English Population History from Family Reconstitution 1580–1837

Cover......Page 1
Frontmatter......Page 2
Contents......Page 8
List of figures......Page 13
List of tables......Page 17
PART I......Page 24
1 - Introduction......Page 26
The scope of the present study......Page 27
The origins of the present study......Page 29
Family reconstitution and the estimation of the demographic characteristics of a population......Page 35
The organisation of the book......Page 40
2 - The reconstitution parishes......Page 42
The set of reconstitution parishes......Page 43
The start and finish problem......Page 46
The characteristics of the individual parishes......Page 50
The 8 parishes rejected......Page 51
The final set of 26 parishes......Page 52
3 - Representativeness......Page 62
The occupational structure of the reconstitution parishes......Page 63
A comparison of national totals of events and totals from the parish groups......Page 75
What the tests of representativeness suggest......Page 92
Changes in the relative importance of parishes......Page 93
4 - Reliability......Page 95
Indirect evidence from totals of events in the reconstitution parishes......Page 96
Coverage of events in Anglican registers......Page 109
The completeness of Anglican registration in the reconstituted parishes......Page 113
Reconstitution data and the Registrar-General's early returns......Page 114
Delayed baptism and dummy births......Page 132
The processing of data taken from FRFs......Page 138
Conclusion......Page 139
PART II......Page 141
5 - Nuptiality......Page 143
The special characteristics of the reconstitution marriage data......Page 148
Nuptiality trends and characteristics......Page 150
The frequency distribution of age at marriage in bachelor/spinster marriages......Page 161
Other marriage rank combinations......Page 169
The age gap between spouses......Page 172
Marriage ages from reconstitution compared with the Registrar-General's returns......Page 175
Sources of bias in the estimation of age at marriage......Page 181
The changing relative frequency of different marriage rank combinations......Page 185
Marriage age and birth parity......Page 187
Remarriage......Page 192
Parochial trends and characteristics......Page 202
Conclusion......Page 212
6 - Mortality......Page 216
Mortality and economic circumstances......Page 219
Mortality, social conventions, and life styles......Page 224
The reconstitution data and techniques of analysis......Page 228
Infant and child mortality......Page 232
Adult mortality......Page 296
Overall mortality......Page 309
Male and female mortality......Page 314
Maternal mortality......Page 323
Seasonal mortality......Page 338
Conclusion......Page 363
7 - Fertility......Page 370
The evidence from completed marriages......Page 373
Particular influences on fertility characteristics......Page 416
Long-run trends......Page 443
Fecundability......Page 476
The individual parishes......Page 511
Conclusion......Page 516
PART III......Page 522
Generalised inverse projection and back projection......Page 524
Revised input data......Page 529
The effect of the new data on demographic estimates......Page 540
Changing the input parameters......Page 542
The new GIP estimates and reconstitution......Page 548
9 - Conclusion......Page 554
APPENDICES......Page 568
1 - A list of the reconstituted parishes from which data were drawn and of the names of those who carried out the reconstitutions......Page 570
2 - Examples of the slips and forms used in reconstitution and a description of the system of weights and flags employed......Page 572
3 - Truncation bias and similar problems......Page 578
4 - Tests for logical errors in reconstitution data......Page 583
5 - Correcting for a `missing' parish in making tabulations of marriage age......Page 587
6 - The estimation of adult mortality......Page 590
Infant and child mortality......Page 608
Adult mortality......Page 609
8 - The calculation of the proportion of women still fecund at any given age......Page 617
9 - Summary of quinquennial demographic data using revised aggregative data and produced by generalised inverse projection......Page 620
10 - Selection criteria used in compiling the tables in chapters 5 to 7......Page 624
Bibliography......Page 630
Name index......Page 642
Place index......Page 645
Subject index......Page 648
Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time......Page 665