Thanks Josie, I suspect this is where someone got the idea of all the deaths. I'm still trying to track down my note but will let you know when I do! Gillian From: "Josie Mackie" <josie.mackie@tesco.net> Reply-To: eng-ken-woodchurch@rootsweb.com To: <eng-ken-woodchurch@rootsweb.com> Subject: Re: [ENG-KEN-WOODCHURCH] Plague Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2007 21:15:57 +0100 Michael Zell wrote an interesting article called 'Population and Family Structure in the Sixteenth -Century Weald' which can be found in Volume 100 of Arch Cant. (For those not familiar with Kent, Woodchurch is on the eastern side of the Weald of Kent). He says that Woodchurch, even in the sixteenth century, had a low population density and gives a figure of 550 in the 1560s. To compare, next door High Halden, with an acreage roughly half the size of Woodchurch, had 400 inhabitants, and Bethersden, roughly the same size asWoodchurch, had 700 inhabitants. I'll quote the next bit as it's particularly relevant to Gillian's email: "What about crisis mortality? Could occasional disastrous outbreaks of disease or famine have wiped out most of the net 'natural increase' shown in the parish registers? The answer is almost certainly no. The only widespread mortality crisis, during which normal burial figures were doubled or trebled occured in 1557-59, before the substantial net 'surpluses' of the Elizabethan period. In all the extant registers the highest burial figures occurred in one or two years between 1557 and 1559 (Benenden, Edenbridge, Hadlow, Horsmonden, East Peckham, Tenterden, Tonbridge, and Woodchurch). ......However the only substantial plague outbreak of the later sixteenth century was that which struck Cranbrook in 1597-98. .....Ocasional plague burials are recorded in a few of the region's other parishes, but the Weald seems generally to have escaped the major outbreaks seen in Elizabethan and early Stuart London and several other towns (including Maidstone) in this era. Certainly when I transcribed the 18th century burials, I don't remember seeing any plague burials. Smallpox was the biggest killer at that time. I have in my notes (From: Religion and Society in Kent 1640-1914) that smallpox superseded the plague as the most dreaded epidemic from the second half of the17th century. For example, between 1740-1763 smallpox accounted for 28% of all deaths in Maidstone, Kent's county town. As Gary said, plague isn't noted in any of the published histories of Woodchurch, so if it struck, I think it would have been before he start of the registers in the 1530s. Best wishes, Josie ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-KEN-WOODCHURCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________ Former Police Officer Paul Gillespies TAKE BACK THE INTERNET tips and tricks, watch the video now http://safety.sympatico.msn.ca/