Notwithstanding this ceremony of inspection by the searchers, and of making their reports to the parish clerk, it does not hence follow, that the clerk makes the return of the death to the general hall, unless the corpse is buried in his own ground, or parochial church-yard. If the corpse is carried to any dissenting ground, and to various other places of sepulture not within the bills, the death and disease is so much waste paper, and is never heard of amongst the burials. But if the corpse is carried to a different parish, together with a certificate, and such burying ground is registered within the bills, then the death and disease is returned to the hall by the clerk of that parish where the corpse is interred.
I made it my business to visit, and to converse with a variety of parish clerks in this metropolis, most of whom agreed with me, that, besides radical defects in the christenings and burials, there were many other gross omissions. One instance I shall mention, and many more might be collected. The parish clerk of Bethnal-green, in which are also three private madhouses, made no return to the general hall, during the year 1780, of either births or burials, and in the preceding year he returned only four burials: whereas in former years, this parish alone annually returned from three to five hundred burials. I was assured, that the company of parish clerks in their corporate capacity, even if willing, have no power of compulsion over any of their refractory and negligent members, to make regular and correct returns: it seems almost optional. It is obvious what flagrant discordance and error this must occasion in various calculations.
Exclusive of gross mismanagement and error from searchers and parish clerks, there are other inherent defects in the London registers, both of burials and births. They comprehend the births alone of those belonging to the established church, and the burials of such only who are interred in the registered parochial church-yards. Jews, Quakers, Papists, Protestant Dissenters of various sects, are not included in the annual christenings; and great numbers of their burials, and of the burying-places not only of the dissenting, but likewise of the established church, are omitted: of the former 32, and of the latter 35, according to Short’s list. Maitland, 1729, (see his History of London) discovered 181 religious congregations, whose christenings were not published, and 63 burying-places in and contiguous to the metropolis, wherein 3038 were annually buried, but excluded from the registers. The large modern and populous parishes of Pancras and Mary-le-bone, in one of which also stands the Foundling Hospital, are omitted in the annual bills. Six hundred abortive and stillborn, who have arrived at an age thought deserving of funeral, are added to the annual deaths, but omitted in the list of births; as are also many young infants who die before baptism.
I said, very few of the christenings of the dissenting sects in London were included in the public registers; but several of them are buried according to the formalities, or at least in the cemeteries of the established church; which must unnaturally magnify the comparative list of deaths. Another defect in the burials is, that numbers are carried into the country who are not accounted for: it is agreed, that several hundreds more are annually carried out of than are brought into London for interment. Most of the nobility and gentry are removed from London, after death, to their family seats. Dr. Price calculates the present annual deficiency in the London burials at 6000; and of the births somewhat greater; neither of which are brought to account in the registers.
The following is an average, which I have formed from the London bills of christenings and burials:
London bills at a medium annually.
| Years. | Christenings. | Burials. |
| From 1671 to 1681 | 12,325 | 19,144 |
| 1681 to 1691 | 14,439 | 22,363 |
| 1691 to 1700 | 14,938 | 20,770 |
| 1700 to 1710 | 15,623 | 21,461 |
| 1711 to 1720 | 17,111 | 23,990 |
| 1721 to 1730 | 18,203 | 27,522 |
| 1731 to 1740 | 16,831 | 26,492 |
| 1741 to 1750 | 14,457 | 25,351 |
| 1751 to 1756 | 15,119 | 21,080 |
| 1759 to 1768 | 15,710 | 22,956 |
| 1770 to 1780 | 17,218 | 21,000 |
The parishes, but not all the burial grounds in these parishes, now included within the London bills of mortality, amount to 147: of which there are 97 within the old city walls; 17 without the walls, but within the city liberties; 23 out parishes in Middlesex and Surry; and 10 out parishes in the city and liberties of Westminster. All the 97 parishes within the walls have not, for many years past, at a medium, buried 2000 annually: some of them do not make a return of a single burial in several years. We may name several parishes without the walls, any two of which united, return a number of annual deaths equal to the 97 parishes within the walls. In collecting and conducting the bills of these parishes, there is a rabble of 294 female searchers, and 147 parish clerks.
To render the returns of births, christenings, weddings, and burials in London complete, the clergyman of every religious sect should be compelled by law to make, every three months, a return of their christenings and weddings to the nearest parochial church. All the church-yards and burying grounds hitherto excluded from the bills, together with the parishes of Pancras, Mary-le-bone, and all the other modern additions and population to London, should likewise be comprehended in the registers; together with the numerous villages and excrescences of the metropolis, within seven miles of its circumference. The christenings should specify the name, sex, twins or tergemini, illegitimate if known, and the religious sect. The weddings should discriminate the place of abode, of the parties, the names and ages of each pair; whether first, second, or third marriages, and on which side; whether natives or foreigners, and the religious sect.