The Bedfordshire Demographic Crisis of 1727–1731: Some Evidence of Differentiated Socially Selective Mortality

Abstract

This paper uses parish burial records to examine the impact of the 1727–1731 mortality crisis in Bedfordshire. This was a significant local event resulting in almost 4,000 excess deaths relating to multiple overlapping events starting in the autumn of 1727 and ending in the spring of 1731. It is argued that the temporal and geographic spread of burials is indicative of epidemic disease, most likely typhus and influenza-like infections, with famine playing, at best, a minor and localised role. The spread and impact of the disease was socially selective though with an element of differentiation. The elderly, the labouring poor and those living in urban areas found themselves at greatest risk, due to age-related susceptibility and their cramped living conditions, which created the conditions that allowed disease to spread effectively. Death rates among the traditional poor reduced during the crisis, possibly representing the triumph of effective local parish arrangements under the Old Poor Law.