English Population History from Family Reconstitution 1580–1837

This book uses data from 26 Anglican to provide information about fertility, morality and nuptiality in the past.

E. A. Wrigley (Author), R. S. Davies (Author), J. E. Oeppen (Author), R. S. Schofield (Author)

9780521590150, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 July 1997

682 pages, 123 tables
23.5 x 15.9 x 4.2 cm, 1.09 kg

"...an essential reference for all who work in the subjects or the period they have so masterfully surveyed." Theodore K. Rabb, American Historical Review

English Population History from Family Reconstitution 1580–1837 is the most important single contribution to English historical demography since Wrigley and Schofield's Population History of England. It represents the culmination of work carried out at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure over the past quarter-century. This work demonstrates the value of the technique of family reconstitution as a means of obtaining accurate and detailed information about fertility, morality, and nuptiality in the past. Indeed, more is now known about many aspects of English demography in the parish register period than about the post-1837 period when the Registrar-General collected and published information. Using data from 26 parishes, the authors show clearly that their results are representative not only of the demographic situation of the parishes from which the data were drawn, but also of the country as a whole. Some very surprising features of the behaviour of past populations are brought to light for the first time.

List of figures
List of tables
Part I: 1. Introduction
2. The reconstitution parishes
3. Representativeness
4. Reliability
Part II: 5. Nuptiality
6. Mortality
7. Fertility
Part III: 8. Reconstitution and inverse projection
9. Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]