Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Postlethwayt, James
POSTLETHWAYT, JAMES (d. 1761), writer on revenue, probably a brother of Malachy Postlethwayt [q. v.], published ‘The History of the Public Revenue from the Revolution in 1688 to … Christmas 1758,’ &c., London, 1759, obl. 4to. This work is one of the most valuable authorities for the financial history of the period to which it relates. Postlethwayt also devoted some attention to vital statistics. He published a ‘Collection of the Bills of Mortality from 1657 to 1758 inclusive,’ with ‘A Comparative View of the Diseases and Ages, and a Table of the Probabilities of Life, for the last Thirty Years,’ London, 1759, 4to. He died in Hatton Garden on 6 Sept. 1761.
[Gent. Mag. 1761, p. 430; Sinclair's Hist. of the Public Revenue, pt. ii. pp. 61, 77, 100; McCulloch's Literature of Political Economy, pp. 272, 331.]