Table for London.
407
- ↑ The original bills being lost, it is impossible to check most of Graunt's figures before 1658. Bell's Remembrancer, however, gives the christenings, the plague burials, and the aggregate burials, week by week, with the total of each year, for seventeen of the years included in Graunt's table, viz. for 1606—1610, 1625, 1630, 1636—37, and 1640—47. In 13 years Bell's figures agree with Graunt's. The disagreements in the remaining four years are exhibited by the following table: The small discrepancies in the christenings, in 1641—42 are obviously due to a transposition of figures, and the error is probably Graunt's, since Bell's figures here, as in all the years in question, are the correct footings of his weekly returns. The discrepancies in the number of burials, particularly in 1641, are more serious. Contemporary letters afford a check upon four of Bell's weekly bills as follows: 19—26 August, 1641, Bell's total burials are 610, plague burials, 139; Wiseman to Pennington, 26 August: "131 dying here this week of the pest, and 118 of the small-pox, and 610 in the whole of all diseases." Cal. State Papers, Dom., Charles I., 1641—43, p. 105. 2—9 September, Bell's plague burials are 185; Cogan to Pennington, 9 September: "there died this week of the plague 185." Ibid., 120. 23—30 September, Bell's decrease of plague burials over previous week is 30; Wiseman to Pennington, 30 September: "the sickness, I hope, will every day diminish, [the deaths] being less by 42 than the last [week]." Ibid., 128. 1—7 October, Bell's total burials are 654, plague burials, 239, an
