The accuracy of the London parish registers, 1580–1653

Abstract

In a recent discussion of London mortality experience, and in particular of the impact of the plague from 1563 to 1665, based on the Bills of Mortality, Dr I. Sutherland wrote: ‘...family reconstitution studies on the London parish registers do not appear to be a practical proposition.’ He went on to explain why this was so. ‘It seems likely that during the period under review all the burials came to the notice of the parish authorities, and that deficiencies, perhaps of the order often per cent, will have occurred by omissions either from parish registers or the bills of mortality.... The deficiencies in christenings before the Civil War will certainly have been greater than those in burials....’1 However, because it is impossible to verify the aggregate totals of baptisms and burials given in the Bills of Mortality because they are not broken down by parish, conclusions based on the use of this source will always be open to question. This is why a reconsideration of the London parish registers would merit serious attention. In this respect, the lead has been taken in an important paper by Dr T. H. Hollingsworth and his sister which has shown that it is possible to use parish registers directly for demographic work in London, with their attempt to calculate plague mortality rates for one large parish, St Botolph without Bishopsgate, in 1603 where the burial register gave ages at death.2 The completeness of the register was not the subject of their pioneering article although…