Reckoned from the christenings and burials in the bills of Parish Clerks’ Hall, the population in 1605 would have been 224,275, and in 1622, 272,207. But in those years (and until after 1636) certain of the newer parishes (known as the Seven Parishes), including Stepney and Westminster, kept separate bills, of which some figures for 1603 and 1625 are given at p. 477 and p. 511. The population of the Seven Parishes appears to have been about one-ninth of the whole metropolis in 1603, and about one-seventh in 1625, while Graunt, a contemporary, makes it one-fifth in 1662. These fractions have been added in the table, so as to make 1603 and 1625 comparable with 1665. In 1603 and 1625, the highest mortality in a week does not show the deaths in those parishes (Westminster, Stepney &c.) which did not send their returns to the general bill until 1636, but their figures have been included in the totals for those years. It will be seen that the plague of 1665 fully kept pace with the increase of population. The old City within the walls had 15,207 deaths in the year from all causes. It had become crowded since the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign by its gardens and churchyards being built upon, and its mansions turned into tenement-houses for a poorer class; and yet in 1563 the mortality from plague and other causes in the City and its Liberties, with a population hardly exceeding that of the City alone in 1665, was 20,372. The enormous total of 1665 was largely made up from the populous suburbs of Cripplegate, Whitechapel, Stepney, St Martin’s in the Fields, St Giles’s in the Fields, Southwark and Westminster, which would have contributed but little to the total down to the middle third of the sixteenth century.

The following tables will show the progress of the epidemic from week to week, the weekly deaths from all causes and from plague, and the incidence upon the several parts of London. The so-called ordinary deaths are much in excess of the average, and must have included many that were really cases of plague. Part of the excess, however, was due to the great prevalence of fever and spotted fever, which made a heavy mortality in the early months before the plague began. Bowel complaint also is credited with a good many deaths. The other more important items in the bills are consumption and infantile troubles. Boghurst, however, says: “Almost all other diseases turned into the plague. For five or six months together there was hardly any other disease seen but the plague and a few casualties, whatever the Bills say; and Thucydides says the same of the plague at Athens.” As to the total of deaths in the year from all causes (97,306), Hodges thinks that it does not show the whole mortality. The largest number of burials in one week is 8297; but he thinks that 12,000 were buried in that week, and that 4000 were buried in one day and night. But there seems to be no reason to set aside the tally of the sextons to that extent; the returns were made weekly from one hundred and forty parishes, and might easily have been exact to within a few in each.

Bill of Mortality of the Plague-year 1665 in London.

Week ending Christened Buried Plague
Dec.27 229 291 1
Jan.3 239 349 0
10 235 394 0
17 223 415 0
24 237 474 0
31 216 409 0
Feb.7 221 393 0
14 224 462 1
21 232 393 0
28 233 396 0
Mar.7 236 441 0
14 236 433 0
21 221 363 0
28 238 353 0
Apr.4 242 344 0
11 245 382 0
18 287 344 0
25 229 398 2
May2 237 388 0
9 211 347 9
16 227 353 3
23 231 385 14
30 229 400 17
June6 234 405 43
13 206 558 112
20 204 615 168
27 199 684 267
July4 207 1006 470
11 197 1268 725
18 194 1761 1089
25 193 2785 1843
Aug.1 215 3014 2010
8 178 4030 2817
15 166 5319 3880
22 171 5568 4237
29 169 7496 6102
Sept.5 167 8252 6988
12 168 7690 6544
19 176 8297 7165
26 146 6460 5533
Oct.3 142 5720 4929
10 141 5068 4327
17 147 3219 2665
24 104 1806 1421
31 104 1388 1031
Nov.7 95 1787 1414
14 113 1359 1050
21 108 905 652
28 112 544 333
Dec.5 123 428 210
12 133 442 243
19 147 525 281
9,967 97,306 68,596

Incidence on Parishes of the Plague in 1665.

Ninety-seven Parishes within the Walls.

All deaths Plague deaths
97 City parishes 15,207 9,877

(The parishes with heaviest mortalities were St Anne’s, Blackfriars; Christ Church, Newgate; St Stephen’s, Coleman St; St Martin’s, Vintry; Allhallows Barking, the Great, and in-the-Wall; St Andrew’s, Wardrobe).

Sixteen Parishes without the Walls and in the Liberties.

St Giles’s, Cripplegate 8069 4838
St Botolph’s, Aldgate 4926 4051
St Olave’s, Southwark 4793 2785
St Sepulchre’s 4509 2746
St Saviour’s, Southwark 4235 3446
St Andrew’s, Holborn 3958 3103
St Botolph’s, Bishopsgate 3464 2500
St Bride’s, Fleet Street 2111 1427
St George’s, Southwark 1613 1260
St Botolph’s, Aldersgate 997 755
St Dunstan’s in the West 958 665
St Bartholomew the Great 493 344
St Thomas’s, Southwark 475 371
Bridewell Precinct 230 179
St Bartholomew the Less 193 139
Trinity, Minories 168 123
Pesthouse 159