ABSTRACT

English parish registers have a number of quirks which differentiate them from the continental registers to an important degree, quirks which need some exploration before the main analysis can get under way. After 1929 it seemed that the major problems of English population history in the period 1700-1850 had been solved. According to this view, infant mortality started to fall after about 1750, fell sharply around 1800, and started to climb again after 1821, although never again regaining the levels of the early eighteenth century. While an ecclesiastical system of registration functioned with relative efficiency in Sweden and many other countries, the number of Dissenters from Anglicanism posed problems. In examining the data for the 1690’s and the early eighteenth century, it seems that the system probably functioned well as a demographic source. Burial registration probably remained relatively adequate because non-Anglican burial grounds, outside of London, were unimportant until the 1780’s, and probably increased very slowly until about 1800.