27 November 2015

The Sead: Life Expectancy in 17th Century London

Funeral Ticket
It’s generally accepted that life expectancy in earlier centuries was lower than today, but what did people actually die of in the 1600’s?

Londoners believed that disease was spread by germs which thrived on dirt, the washing of hands before eating or cleaning the streets unheard of, and malaria came from a poisonous gas called 'miasma' that arose from sewers and cesspits, thus diseases spread quickly.

In the 16th Century, the Merchants of London petitioned Thomas Cromwell to discover what the average age expectancy of a Londoner was, in order to determine whether plague was still a problem and if their prospective customers were on the increase or decrease. Data was collected via birth and death records from parish registers, a haphazard method subject to inaccuracy. 127 years later, a man named John Graunt asked the same question, and decided to compile an estimate of life expectancy in London in the mid 1660’s.

Graunt’s father was a draper from Hampshire who served in various offices in Cornhill ward, became a common councilman, warden of the Drapers' Company and a major in the trained band. His influence allowed him to secure the post of professor of music for his friend William Petty, who worked with him on his ‘Life Table’

He began his analysis in 1592, when Mortality was high; and after some disuse, works was resumed in 1603.His social experiment showed that the city was rapidly outgrowing its medieval infrastructure, noting, “The old Streets are unfit for the present frequency of Coaches.” That overpopulation and squalid conditions accounted for poor health and frequent bouts of plague.

The Bills of Mortality were submitted by 'Searchers'; usually middle aged women who were not medically qualified, but considered to be 'of good moral standing’ given the authority to decide the cause of a death.  Whenever someone died, even if a doctor had been in attendance, a Searcher was summoned to make an examination of the corpse, a system which likely resulted in many suspicious deaths deemed as natural and vice versa. Their findings were sent to the Clerk of Parishes, then printed and distributed to families who paid a small fee for early warnings of plague epidemics.


In January 1662, Graunt published his ‘Observations on the Bills of Mortality’ . His statistics indicated a 50 year old person had the same chance of dying within 12 months as did a 20 year old; thus most Londoners died from non-age related causes – like smallpox or plague related diseases. He informed the Royal Society of London that the answer to Thomas Cromwell’s question was that 'Yes' the plague continued to be a problem in London.

At this time, France began registering births and deaths, which encouraged Charles II to endorse Graunt's membership the newly-established Royal Society. This was not a welcome decision as Graunt was a businessman, not medical or noble and had Catholic leanings. However, King Charles was reputed to have observed, ‘if they found any more such tradesmen, they should be sure to admit them all, without any more ado.’ Samuel Pepys also mentions Graunt several times in his diaries.

Graunt’s Life Table – which he admitted was partly guesswork because the Bills of Mortality did not record age at death, means he estimated the mortality of infants and young children to age 6 based upon references to childhood diseases in the Bills. Similarly, mortality among the elderly was calculated through references to degenerative diseases.


Graunt deduced that the population of London stood at 384,000 people, assuming:
  • Each woman had one child every two years, so 12,000 births implies 24,000 women of childbearing age, with eight members to each family.
  • Using a 1658 map he calculated the number of families in London, both inside and outside the walls was 47,520.
  • The number of deaths in London as a whole was four times the number of deaths within the city walls.
  • A third of children died of infant ailments: thus 64% of children survived to age six.
  • 7% of deaths were among the ‘aged’ thus only 1% of the population would survive to age 76.
  • Men do not die in actual proportion to their age.
  • More boys than girls are born but the mortality rate was greater for males, resulting in the population's being almost evenly divided between males and females.
  • Doctors had twice as many female as male patients, but that males died earlier than females
  • In 1625, a quarter of England's population died, many from the plague.
  • In the 1636 outbreak, plague killed 10,400,
  • Between 1647 and 1657 - Tuberculosis claimed almost 30,000 people when London’s population was an estimated 350,000
  • A malady described as “teeth and worms” killed 14,236 inhabitants over a 20-year period.
  • Between 1647/57, almost 30,000 deaths resulted from consumption. 
    John Graunt
Other purported causes of death were:  “stopping of the stomach.” “lethargy,” “grief” and “lunatick.” A single fatality from “itch” [scabies] took place in 1648, while in 1660 nine people perished after being “frighted.” Between 1629 and 1632, 27 deaths occurred due to “fainting in a bath,” and in 1630, 24 people were “smothered and stifled.” although “excessive drinking” was only recorded as being the cause of just two deaths.

Others fell victim to 'King's Evil' - a swelling of lymph nodes on the neck - thought to be a disease which accompanied the coronation of kings as it could only be cured by the touch of a monarch. Graunt called this theory 'seditious', and it is now accepted this was scrofula, a form of tuberculosis.
Then there were the results of accidents and executions

Some causes of death and their modern equivalents.
  • Consumption: Tuberculosis
  • Falling sickness: Epilepsy
  • French Pox: Syphilis
  • Gout: Inflammation due to build-up of uric acid in tissue
  • Impostume: A cyst or abscess
  • Itch: Scabies
  • Jaw Faln: Lockjaw, known as tetanus
  • King's Evil: Tuberculosis of neck (scrofula)
  • Lethargy: Sleeping sickness (possibly encephalitis)
  • Meagrom: Severe headache
  • Rising of the lights: 'Lights' is another word for lungs
  • Stone: Gall stone
  • Strangury: Urinary disease
  • Surfet: Vomiting from over-eating
  • Tissick: Tuberculosis (also known as consumption)
  • Thrush: White spots/ulcers on tongue, mouth and throat due to parasitic fungus
  • Tympany: Tumours

Around 1655, one of Graunt’s daughter became a nun in a Belgian convent, and Graunt himself converted to Catholicism at a time when many were being prosecuted for recusancy. Gilbert Burnet in his History of his own Time stated how Graunt was thought to be responsible for the Great Fire of London; in that as a manager at the New River Company involved with furnishing London's water supply, he was thought to have been aware the fire was being set and entered the water house in Islington and shut off the supply, thus delaying firefighting efforts.

Mourning Ring
Despite that the fire was not arson, Graunt didn’t have access to the supply until 23 days after the fire. That the flames destroyed Graunt’s own clothing business and drove him into bankruptcy didn’t halt the rumours either.

John Graunt's figures might have been massaged, but he gave us an interesting picture of how precarious life was in 17th Century London.

Sources and Further Reading
John Graunt
Daily Mail Article

Queen House History

John Graunt's List


20 November 2015

New & Noteworthy: November 20

Unusual Historicals wishes a very Happy Thanksgiving to our U.S. readers.

Lindsay Townsend's short novella Sir Baldwin and the Christmas Ghosts is one of 7 novellas featured in the forthcoming anthology "One Christmas Knight", available now from Amazon.com. For more information, see the Amazon page or visit lindsaytownsend.com

16 November 2015

The Dead: Join the Club

Roman death masks
Since the Romans believed the dead lived on as spirits who participated in the living world, influencing the lives of their descendants for good or ill (see last month's post for more on that), funerals in ancient Rome were serious business. Insufficient mourning could doom the deceased to wander the earth without peace, lonely and restless; this might turn them from benevolent lares to malevolent lemures, wreaking havoc on the living, and possibly drawing the ire of the gods on those who had neglected to show the dead the proper respect. Therefore, a decent funeral was a necessity. For wealthier Romans this was no problem; you can read all about the elaborate funerals put on by the well-to-do, sometimes lasting for weeks, featuring everything from a grand lying in state to public parades, games, sacrifices, feasts, and eulogies by famous orators. But what about the ordinary Roman? How did the vast majority of the population – tradesmen, laborers, farmers – provide a suitable farewell for their dearly departed? The answer was thoroughly Roman: they joined a funeral club.

Social clubs, known as collegia (colleges), were quite common in Roman society, so much so that the government kept track of them to make sure they weren't used to foment dissent. Romans formed clubs based on all sorts of associations: trade guilds, religious cults, sports affiliations, various hobbies and pastimes. One of the most common was the funeraticium collegium, the funeral club. Members paid an entrance fee and monthly dues, which were used to pay for each member's eventual funeral expenses. This ensured your funeral would have all the trimmings an ordinary Roman couldn't afford: a good undertaker, a death mask, professional mourners (usually women, paid to wail theatrically and keep up the required level of grief), musicians and singers, a procession to the cemetery outside of town, offerings for your pyre, and a tomb for your ashes. Club members were bound to help plan and attend the funerals of fellow members, and were responsible for providing the cena novientas, the dinner that took place nine days after death to celebrate the life of the deceased. Membership in a funeral club ensured that even the poorest Romans would be ushered into the afterlife in style.

One such club in the Italian town of Lanuvium had the minutes of their first meeting carved in marble as a charter. Dated 133 CE, these by-laws show in great detail how funeral clubs operated:

...it is decided that those who wish to join this club should pay an initiation fee of 100 sesterces and an amphora of good wine. Then each month he should pay five ases. 
...if any member of this club has paid his dues regularly and then dies, 300 sesterces will be allotted from the treasury for his funeral. Of this amount, 50 sesterces will be used to reimburse participants in the funeral procession.
...if any member of this club should die beyond the 20th milestone from this town, three men chosen from this club will go to that place and make arrangements for his funeral. They will then make a report of the expense  without deceit.
...if any member of this club who is a slave should die, and if his body should not be handed over to us because of the unfairness of his master, a funeral will be held for an effigy of him.
...if any member of this club has not paid his dues for six months in a row, and then meets death, arrangements will not be made for his funeral.

Regulations were set down for electing a club president, scheduling meetings and dinners, setting fines for infractions, and investigating fraud. The club president was tasked with making offerings at festivals on behalf of all members, keeping track of the treasury, and hosting the monthly meeting, including providing dinner and oil for bathing.

You might think that a club based on death would only meet when a member had died, but records show that funeral clubs were in fact active social groups. For poor Romans who couldn't afford multiple membership dues, or people who lived in sparsely populated areas, the funeral club might be their only social outlet; it seems morbid to modern sensibilities, but to the Romans being dead was just another version of being alive, and what could be a stronger basis for friendship than helping each other find peace in the afterlife? Such clubs provided community interaction and social welfare, with members looking after each other in good times and bad. Besides the monthly dinner meeting, one can imagine them getting together for holidays and festivals, inviting each other to weddings and births as well as funerals. Roman funeral clubs were more than a group savings account for cremation  they were an example of the Roman integration of death into life, and the importance placed on taking proper care of the dead, even before they've died.

Quotes from the Lanuvium charter are taken from As the Romans Did by Jo-Ann Shelton (1998), pg 97.



Heather Domin has been an Unusual Historicals contributor since 2011. She is the author of The Soldier of Raetia, set in Augustan Rome, and Allegiance, set in 1920s Dublin. Her newest title, The Heirs of Fortune (sequel to Soldier of Raetia) will be released on November 30.

08 November 2015

Author Interview & Book Giveaway: CASTLES, CUSTOMS & KINGS, Volume II - True Tales of English Historical Fiction Authors

This week as a special feature, we're offering insight into Castles, Customs, and Kings: Volume II - True Tales of English Historical Fiction AuthorsThe Second Volume of a Special Anthology. The works of fifty authors are included.  The authors will offer a free copy of Castles, Customs, and Kings to a lucky blog visitor. Here's the blurb:


An anthology of essays from the second year of the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, this book transports the reader across the centuries from prehistoric to twentieth century Britain. Nearly fifty different authors share the stories, incidents, and insights discovered while doing research for their own historical novels. 

About the Anthology


From medieval law and literature to Tudor queens and courtiers, from Stuart royals and rebels to Regency soldiers and social calls, experience the panorama of Britain’s yesteryear. Explore the history behind the fiction, and discover the true tales surrounding Britain’s castles, customs, and kings.



For those who have read Volume 1, you know this book will contain great information, a book you can pick up when you have ten minutes to spare, but a book that will be hard to set down. Fifty authors contributed articles on British history from pre-Roman times through World War II, not dry dates and documents, but the interesting stuff.

In both volumes, the book starts with the authors and their biographies, a list of their historical novels, and then begins a parade of persons from the past, from druids moving freely across tribal boundaries to the uncovering of Lady Godiva to Sir Geoffrey Luttrell who commissioned the Luttrell Psalter to the London life and paintings of John Singer Sargent—truly a varied and fascinating ensemble.



**Q&A with Debra Brown, editor of Castles, Customs and Kings

– Volume II**

Thanks for being our guest. How does this volume differ from the previous issue?
Thanks for having me!

Volume II is mostly articles from the second year of the English Historical Fiction Authors blog by fifty histfic authors. Like Volume I from the first year, it is set up chronologically with articles on history topics from pre-Roman times to World War II. Many of the same authors from Volume I contributed as well as numerous others, some indie, some mainstream published.
What would you like to readers to know most about this volume?

Like Volume I, it is full of surprises and interesting tidbits from history. Each topic is a few pages in length, so it is a good book to pick up during a coffee break or in bed for a short read before the lamp goes off. The Volume I  25+ hour audio book has sold very well, so that is in the works for the second as well if all goes as planned.
How were the contributions compiled?

They were originally posts on the blog. It was quite a bit of work to sort through the 365 excellent posts and select few enough to make up what is, even so, a big book. Since topics on the blog vary widely from day to day, the next project was to organize them.
Why do you believe this publication is important for historical fiction readers?

Most histfic readers enjoy history and want to learn more about past customs that seem strange now, amusing laws, interesting people, and happenings that have sometimes led to today’s traditions. Since authors try not to write too much of the history into their books, which would be tiresome to better informed readers, but to give a flavor of living in the midst of it, readers will enjoy the novels more if they know the history behind the story.
Any plans for a future volume?

That is on our minds, assuming the new Volume II is as well received as Volume I has been. Though the posts are on the blog, reviewers have stated that they enjoy the convenience of having them organized in a beautiful book for easy access. Authors have commented that some of the articles are good fuel for a novel, or that they have included what they learned in their books.

05 November 2015

Excerpt Thursday: CASTLES, CUSTOMS & KINGS, Volume II - True Tales of English Historical Fiction Authors

This week as a special feature, we're offering insight into Castles, Customs, and Kings: Volume II - True Tales of English Historical Fiction AuthorsThe Second Volume of a Special Anthology. The works of fifty authors are included.  Join us again on Sunday for an author interview, with more details about the story behind the story. The author will offer a free copy of Castles, Customs, and Kings to a lucky blog visitor. Here's the blurb:


An anthology of essays from the second year of the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, this book transports the reader across the centuries from prehistoric to twentieth century Britain. Nearly fifty different authors share the stories, incidents, and insights discovered while doing research for their own historical novels. 

About the Anthology


From medieval law and literature to Tudor queens and courtiers, from Stuart royals and rebels to Regency soldiers and social calls, experience the panorama of Britain’s yesteryear. Explore the history behind the fiction, and discover the true tales surrounding Britain’s castles, customs, and kings.



For those who have read Volume 1, you know this book will contain great information, a book you can pick up when you have ten minutes to spare, but a book that will be hard to set down. Fifty authors contributed articles on British history from pre-Roman times through World War II, not dry dates and documents, but the interesting stuff.

In both volumes, the book starts with the authors and their biographies, a list of their historical novels, and then begins a parade of persons from the past, from druids moving freely across tribal boundaries to the uncovering of Lady Godiva to Sir Geoffrey Luttrell who commissioned the Luttrell Psalter to the London life and paintings of John Singer Sargent—truly a varied and fascinating ensemble. Some interesting excerpts follow; each is but a paragraph from an essay:

**Excerpts from Castles, Customs, and Kings: Volume II**

From Mark Patton’s “The Flavian Palace at Fishbourne: Luxury Unparalleled in Europe North of the Alps”:

“Close to the modern city of Chichester is a Roman Palace that bears comparison with Nero’s ‘Golden House’ and the Palace of Domitian in Rome itself. Much of it is now hidden beneath modern housing, but in its heyday it had a larger footprint than Buckingham Palace. Not only is it, by far, the most lavish Roman dwelling ever built in Britain, it is also one of the earliest, having been built within a few decades of the Roman invasion of 43 A.D.”

This article goes on to discuss the palace, and it is followed by fascinating information about what existed inside a Roman home, including reason to believe that graffiti and even sexually explicit paintings adorned the walls. It is nice to have an archeologist in our group of authors!

Patricia Bracewell, in her article “The Science of History” brings out the horror of an unknowable (at the time) event:

“Part of the entry for 1014 reads: ‘his year, on the eve of St. Michael’s day, came the great sea-flood, which spread wide over this land, and ran so far up as it never did before, overwhelming many towns, and an innumerable multitude of people.’

“Anyone reading this today would recognize it as a description of a tsunami. We’ve already experienced two such massive sea floods in this young century, and we knkow what devastation such events can cause. The word itself would not be incorporated into the English language until the nineteenth century, thanks to the Japanese who, like the English, live surrounded by water. But although the word we use today did not exist in 1014, the great sea-flood of that year was corroborated all over southern Britain by annalists writing in Wales, Cornwall, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire. In addition, a chronicl written at the Convent of Quedlinburg Abbey in Saxony states that in that year a great flood struck Juteland, Holstein, Friesland, the Netherlands, and Belgium.”

Patricia goes on to explain what apparently caused the tsunami; perhaps not what you think.

For Tudor lovers, the book has, among other essays, “Unveiling Marie Stuart: The Poetry of the Queen of Scots” by Linda Root.

“It is small wonder that one of Scotland’s two contributors to the list of technically accomplished royal poets of the sixteenth century wrote her verse in French.
“It is more puzzling to explain how easily the creative aspect of her character is trivialized. The poet of whom I speak is Marie Stuart, a woman we know as the French Queen Consort and anointed Queen of Scots, but often forget that she was a student and life-0long confidante of Pierre Ronsard, the leader of the Pleiade, frequently called the Prince of Poets, and that both Ronsard and the scholar-historian Brantome acknowledged her expertise….”

Linda goes on to write about the poetry of the French child and the later Regnant Queen of Scots.

To see more of the variety of topics and to meet the authors in each of the volumes, please see the Table of Contents of each using Amazon’s Look Inside feature.


01 November 2015

Author Interview & Book Giveaway: Alison Stuart on THE KING'S MAN

This week, we're pleased to welcome author Alison Stuart again with her latest novel, THE KING’S MAN (Guardians of the Crown Book 2).  The author will offer a free copy of The King's Man to a lucky blog visitor.  Be sure to leave your email address in the comments of today's author interview for a chance to win. Here's the blurb.

The second in a tantalising trilogy from award-winning author Alison Stuart, about warriors, the wounds they carry, and the women that help them heal.

London 1654: Kit Lovell is one of the King’s men, a disillusioned Royalist who passes his time cheating at cards, living off his wealthy and attractive mistress, and plotting the death of Oliver Cromwell.

Penniless and friendless, Thamsine Granville has lost everything.  Terrified, in pain, and alone, she hurls a piece of brick at the coach of Oliver Cromwell, and earns herself an immediate death sentence. Only the quick thinking of a stranger saves her.

Far from the bored, benevolent rescuer that he seems, Kit plunges Thamsine into his world of espionage and betrayal – a world that has no room for falling in love.

Torn between Thamsine and loyalty to his master and King, Kit’s carefully constructed web of lies begins to unravel. He must make one last desperate gamble – the cost of which might be his life.


Tell us a little about yourself and your interest in the English Civil War?

I was born and brought up in Kenya and only moved to Australia when I was ten. Outside of writing I trained and practiced as a lawyer and now work as a Company Secretary. I am married with two grown sons, two gorgeous daughters in law and I am owned by a very loving cat.

My father loved history and every Sunday he would read to us from HIS favourite books (in retrospect, not always suitable for an 8 year old!). One of the books he chose was Daphne Du Maurier’s THE KING’S GENERAL, a fictional account of the real life Sir Richard Grenville, set in the English Civil War which tore England apart from 1642 until the restoration of King Charles II in 1660. I was mesmorised by the romance of the period, the intrigues and dangers of civil war and these dashing heroes in broad brimmed hats and bucket top boots. That was it. I was lost.

All through my growing up I would scribble stories in notebooks (some of which are still in existence), most of which were set in the English Civil War. I kept scrapbooks and saved up my pocket money for any reference book or novel I could lay my hands on.

I made the mistake of formally studying the period at University which just about killed the passion off and then there was marriage, children, careers etc.

It wasn’t until I dislocated my shoulder in a skiing accident that I returned to the English Civil War and started on what would be my first novel, now published as BY THE SWORD (the first in the Guardians of the Crown Series).

THE KING’S MAN is the second in the Guardians of the Crown series, tell us a little about the series and what we can expect.

The series covers the stories of three men (and the women who love them) across the years 1651 to 1660. It begins with the Battle of Worcester (the last attempt by King Charles II to regain his throne). That battle is pivotal to the lives of Jonathan Thornton (the hero of BY THE SWORD), Kit Lovell (the hero of the KING’S MAN) and Kit’s brother Daniel, who we meet as a callow youth in the first book but has his own story in Book 3 – EXILES’ RETURN which comes out in February.

Where the first two books can be read in isolation, it will probably help readers to have read Books 1 and 2 before Book 3 because EXILES’ RETURN brings the loose ends of the previous two books together.

What was your inspiration for THE KING’S MAN?

Inspiration can come from the strangest sources.  THE KING’S MAN began as a snippet about a ‘Miss Granville’ who hurled a brick at Oliver Cromwell. I never discovered who she was or why she threw the brick so I made my own story. It happened to coincide with a time in London where every second inn was frequented by disillusioned royalists all plotting the death of Cromwell and the return of the King. They were universally unsuccessful owing to Cromwell’s brilliant spy network but as a plot for a book, it practically wrote itself.

Tell us about the hero of THE KING’S MAN, Kit Lovell?

Readers’ reactions to Kit have been very interesting. Like all my heroes he comes with baggage and is probably one of the most complex men I have written. He is not an easy man to like, let alone love, mostly because he doesn’t like or love himself. I really struggled with his motivations for some of the truly heinous things he does until he himself told me Daniel’s story (OK…that sounds weird… but that’s how writer’s roll – we know it’s working when our characters start talking to us) and then it all became clear.

Notwithstanding that Kit and Thamsine do earn a happy ever after and the worst of their problems are resolved, I do leave the fate of Daniel unresolved at the end of the book and I hadn’t realised how much that still affected Kit until I began to write EXILES’ RETURN. Normally my stories are told only in two points of view, hero and heroine but In Exiles’ Return, Kit gets a say. I hope that makes sense.

You live in Australia, can you share with your Northern Hemisphere readers a little picture of life ‘downunder’ at this time of year?

I live in Melbourne, the capital of the State of Victoria, which is right at the bottom of Australia. We wave (figuratively!) at Tasmania. Our last winter was pretty cold, for us. I know it surprises my American friends when I say it does snow here… not in Melbourne itself but certainly in the hills surrounding us.

Unfortunately I think we are in for a hot summer.  Even in our little inner suburban garden we now have a large water tank for the plants and we are now self sufficient with solar power (go us!).  We don’t ‘celebrate’ Halloween or Thanksgiving so it is a little shocking to find Christmas decorations appearing in our shops by the end of August!

But summer holidays are coming which for us means cricket (that inexplicable game!) and of course the Australian Tennis Open which is played right here in Melbourne so if you tune in, be sure to wave! Our family will take a week outside of the school holidays (which are only 5 weeks) to drive for TWO days to my husband’s childhood home in South Australia.

BUY THE KING’S MAN:
AMAZONiBooks, and where all good Ebooks are sold (see Escape Publishing for the full list)

Thank you for hosting me today.  

Today is the last day to enter my RAFFLECOPTER CONTEST for a chance to win a 6” Kindle Ereader… all you need to do is click HERE.

Allow me to take you back to 1654 … the years after a bloody civil that tore the country apart and saw a King executed. The new King, Charles II, sits in exile and England is ruled by a ‘Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell…



READ MORE HERE

About the Author
Award winning Australian author, Alison Stuart learned her passion from history from her father. She has been writing stories since her teenage years but it was not until 2007 that her first full length novel was published. Alison has now published 6 full-length historical romances and a collection of her short stories.  Her disposition for writing about soldier heroes may come from her varied career as a lawyer in the military and fire services. These days when she is not writing she is travelling and routinely drags her long-suffering husband around battlefields and castles.


Visit her at her websiteFacebookTwitter and Goodreads