Good Morning Bob, I have found a few references which may interest you. It's very likely that the high number of deaths was, as you said, contagious disease related: Hay and Rogers ('Eighteenth Century English Society' OUP 1997, p77) say, (bearing in mind they are talking about the whole of England, not the SE in particular) "...with the possible exception of the late 1720s, famine -related mortality disappeared by the second quarter of the seventeenth century......it appears that in early-modern times such crises probably accounted for no more than 10 per cent of normal mortality...." Arthur Ruderman ('A History of Ashford' Phillimore 1994, p.30) (For our overseas members, Ashford is about seven miles from Woodchurch) : "The burial registers give us some idea of incidence of disease over the centuries. If the number of burials in any year is more than twice the average for the decade, it can be assumed that some form of epidemic occured. For Ashford, this happened in 1578, 1584, 1594, 1625, 1687, and 1741. In 1625 this was due to an outbreak of plague, some 100 persons being marked in tthe registeras dying from this disease. The situation was so bad that the Justices levied a special tax on the neighbourhood to relieve those without means of support, or, as they phrased it, 'lest the sick should be forced for the succour of their lives to break forth of the town to the great danger of the country'. " [Sounds as they they need to be congratulated as Eyam] To continue: "In 1741 the deaths were almost certaily due to smallpox, since, although the registers give no indication, several cases are recorded in other documents at this time." He goes on to give examples of smallpox deaths 1717 onwards. Then, from 'Religion and Society in Kent, 1640-1914', I made the following notes. [I do not have the book myself, so can only say what I noted down, but it's in main libraries. There may be more of interest, for late 17th century, on this topic in the book]. Outbreak of smallpox at Folkestone: 1720 , 145 died. 140 died at Canterbury in 1729. 33 died at Deal and 61 at Dover in 1725-6. Inoculation virtually unknown in Kent in 1724. Other illnesses at time [I'm not sure whether the author is referring to his whole period or not] were tuberculosis, typhus, typhoid, influenza, scarlatina, diphtheria. Best wishes, Josie