A Study of the Longevity of Males at different periods in the History of Great Britain and Ireland from the Sixteenth to the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, based on Data from the “Dictionary of National, Biography” and “Burke's Peerage and Baronetage.”

Abstract

The life tables that have been constructed from the recorded mortality in England and Wales as a whole at more or less regular intervals since registration of death was introduced in 1837, and those that have been prepared for special districts and cities at various times since that date, afford accurate information regarding the average length of life at different periods during the greater part of last century. There is still comparatively little known, however, about the mean duration of life, and the conditions of health on which it so largely depends, amongst those who lived in the British Isles in pre-registration times and the present paper contains the results of and attempt to supplement existing knowledge on this subject. The data on which the paper is based have been derived from two sources, namely, the Index and Epitome of the Dictionary of National Biography and Burke' Peerage and Baronetage. In the first of these are records of the dates of birth and death with brief summaries of the life histories of persons who were selected as being wminent in various spheres of life in the British Isles and the Colonies from the earliest historical period; in the second are given the genealogical histories of members of the different titled families.