The Great Plague. The Story of London\'s Most Deadly Year

Bills of Mortality for Greater London

[ 293 ]

APPENDIX A

Table A.1.Greater London Bills of Mortality: Nonplague Burials

in April and May 1665 and the Annual Average of Nonplague

Burials for April and May 1655–1664

Number of Burials

Consumption Dropsy Contagious Enteric Birthing Teething

Annual average 507 137 418 173 31 140
(1655–64)

1665 680 227 490 287 145 189

source:Bodleian Library, Gough Additional MSS London 4° 95–97.
note:The averaging for April and May in 1655–64 is based on the only surviving run of
weekly Greater London Bills of Mortality, which covers May 1655 and April and May for
1657, 1659, 1660, 1662, 1663, and 1664. Records are missing for the rest of the ten-year
sequence. In the Bills of Mortality, “consumption” includes tissick and consumption.
“Dropsy” was a health condition involving swelling of the limbs, especially at the ankles.
“Contagious” includes the nonplague infectious diseases smallpox, spotted fever, (simple)
fever, measles, and French pox (syphilis). “Enteric” includes griping of the guts, stopping of
the stomach, surfeit, flux, and scouring. “Birthing” represents birth-related mortality such as
death in childbed, stillborn infants, abortive rejection of the fetus, and chrisoms. “Teething”
refers to early childhood death (before the age of three), mainly from “teeth” (eruption of
teeth through the gums), “worms,” and “thrush.”