Yet another inquiry into the trustworthiness of eighteenth-century Bills of Mortality: the Newcastle and Gateshead Bills, 1736-1840.

Abstract

This note is a preliminary analysis of the Newcastle and Gateshead Bills of Mortality, a hitherto unused source for understanding some of the most significant aspects of vital registration and burial practices in the North East's capital, c. 1736-1840. The Bills are annual totals of the number of burials and baptisms which took place in all of the ancient Anglican parishes in Newcastle and Gateshead. One of the most lucid aspects of the Bills is that they recorded the number of burials which took place in the 'infamous' un-consecrated burial ground of Ballast Hills located on the outskirts of the east-end of the town. Attention here is given to the initial accuracy of the Bills by focusing upon All Saints parish in Newcastle which accounted for approximately 50 per cent of the town's total population over the entire period. Here the data revealed in the Bills are compared directly with the burials which were registered by the parish clerk in All Saints. The major finding of this preliminary study is the huge discrepancy between the number of reported burials and the number of baptisms which took place in All Saints over time. The Bills also provide a fully documented account of the impact of Ballast Hills and the apparent "export in corpses" which was clearly taking place on a large scale. By the 1770s-1790s, this one burial ground alone, was consuming roughly 60-70 per cent of the town's dead population. The reasons behind this phenomenon are discussed by looking specifically at the possible impact of religious dissent, burial costs and burial space in the town. The note concludes that while this preliminary analysis is revealing, more work needs to be done which would involve a fuller analysis of all of the parishes recorded in the Bills as well as looking more closely at the registration of baptisms, stillbirths and the heavy "traffic in corpses" which was clearly a major defect of vital registration in Georgian Newcastle.