The Mid-Tudor Population Crisis in Midland England, 1548-1563

This article considers the possible sources for the demographic history of the midlands in the sixteenth century, eliminates subsidy assessments and muster rolls as too fragmentary, and shows that many parish registers in the midlands only start in 1558-9 and are of limited use in studying populatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Midland history 2009-03, Vol.34 (1), p.44-57
Main Author: Moore, John S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
CHANTRIES
DIOCESAN CENSUS
INFLUENZA
MID-TUDOR CRISIS
POPULATION
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Summary:This article considers the possible sources for the demographic history of the midlands in the sixteenth century, eliminates subsidy assessments and muster rolls as too fragmentary, and shows that many parish registers in the midlands only start in 1558-9 and are of limited use in studying population trends in the pre-Elizabethan period. It identifies the chantry certificates of 1546-48 and the ecclesiastical census of 1563 as useful sources for calculating estimated populations. Their quality is studied and multipliers for calculating total population are validated by reference to studies done elsewhere in England. Problems in eliminating results with improbably high rates of change caused mainly by scribal error are studied, and it is shown that, after allowing for such scribal error, population in the midland counties as a whole probably dropped by around one-fifth in 1548-63, though there were wide rates of decline in different counties. Nevertheless the midlands suffered severely from the 'mid-Tudor' population crisis caused mainly by a combination of influenza and typhus in 1556-60 following the 'sweating sickness' of 1550-2.
ISSN:0047-729X
1756-381X
DOI:10.1179/175638109X406604