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Famine and the female mortality advantage: sex, gender and mortality in northwest England, c. 1590–1630

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2015

JONATHAN HEALEY*
Affiliation:
Kellogg College, University of Oxford.

Abstract

Studies of modern famines have found disproportionately high mortality amongst adult men. The most commonly suggested root of this ‘female mortality advantage’ is biological, and it seems to be strongest when starvation is the main cause of death. The present study is the first to investigate the phenomenon in an early-modern society. Looking at the famines of 1597 and 1623 in northwest England, it finds some evidence for a female mortality advantage in 1623, but that this was concentrated in the first 12 months of the crisis (after the 1622 harvest). The female advantage was also much greater in north Lancashire and Westmorland than it was in the wealthier western Lancashire plain. Together this supports the idea that there was actual starvation during the 1623 crisis, at least in these areas at these times. There are, however, some reasons to suppose that the most mortal phase of the crisis, around the winter of 1623–1624, took place at a time when food was becoming more widely available, and hence should be attributed to diseases that followed the famine.

Famine et supériorité féminine en matière de mortalité: sexe, genre et mortalité dans l'angleterre du nord-ouest (1590–1630)

Les travaux sur les famines modernes ont mis en évidence une surmortalité parmi les hommes adultes, disproportionnée par rapport à celle des femmes. La cause la plus couramment avancée pour expliquer cette «supériorité féminine » est biologique, et cet avantage face à la mortalité semble être encore plus marqué lorsque c'est principalement la famine qui la provoque. La présente étude est la première à examiner le phénomène pendant la période moderne. L'examen des famines de 1597 et 1623 dans le nord-ouest de l'Angleterre révèle des signes de moindre mortalité chez les femmes en 1623, mais ceux-ci se manifestent dans les douze premiers mois de la crise (après la récolte de 1622). La supériorité féminine était aussi beaucoup plus marquée dans le nord du Lancashire et le Westmorland que dans la plaine plus prospère de l'ouest du Lancashire. Ces deux phénomènes, ensemble, confirment la notion que l'on mourut effectivement de faim pendant la crise de 1623, au moins dans ces régions, à cette période. Il y a toutefois raison de croire que la phase la plus mortelle de la crise, pendant l'hiver de 1623–1624, eut lieu alors que la nourriture redevenait de plus en plus disponible, et qu'elle doive donc être attribuée à des maladies qui suivirent la famine.

Hungersnot und weiblicher mortalitätsvorteil: geschlecht und mortalität im nordwestlichen england, ca. 1590–1630

Untersuchungen über moderne Hungersnöte zeigen eine unverhältnismäßig hohe Mortalität bei erwachsenen Männern. Die am häufigsten genannte Ursache dieses „weiblichen Mortalitätsvorteils“ ist biologisch, und er scheint am stärksten ausgeprägt zu sein, wenn Hungertod die häufigste Todesursache darstellt. Die vorliegende Untersuchung geht diesem Phänomen erstmals in einer frühneuzeitlichen Gesellschaft nach. Sieht man sich die Hungersnöte von 1597 und 1623 im nordwestlichen England an, so ergibt sich für diejenige von 1623 tatsächlich ein gewisser weiblicher Mortalitätsvorteil, der jedoch auf die ersten zwölf Monate der Krise (nach der Ernte von 1622) konzentriert war. Der weibliche Vorteil war ferner im nördlichen Lancashire und in Westmorland größer als in der wohlhabenderen Ebene des westlichen Lancashire. Zusammen genommen stützen diese Befunde die Annahme, dass es während der Krise von 1623 zum Hungertod kam, zumindest in diesen Regionen zu diesem Zeitpunkt. Andererseits sprechen auch einige Gründe für die Annahme, dass die tödlichste Phase der Krise, um den Winter 1623–1624, in eine Zeit fiel, in der Nahrungsmittel wieder in größerem Umfang zur Verfügung standen, und diese Phase daher den Krankheiten, die im Anschluss an die Hungersnot auftraten, zugeschrieben werden sollte.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

ENDNOTES

1 For a succinct summary of extant literature, see: K. Macintyre, ‘Famine and the female mortality advantage’, in T. Dyson and C. Ó Gráda eds., Famine demography: perspectives from the past and present (Oxford, 2002), 240–59; also C. Ó Gráda, Famine: a short history (Oxford, 2009), 98–105; Razzaque, A., ‘Socio-demographic differentials in mortality during the 1974–5 famine in a rural area of Bangladesh’, Journal of Biosocial Science 21, 1 (1989), 1322CrossRefGoogle Scholar; de Waal, A., ‘Famine mortality: a case study of Darfur, Sudan, 1984–5’, Population Studies 43, 1 (1989), 524, here 13CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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3 Dyson, T., ‘On the demography of South Asian famines, part I’, Population Studies 45, 1 (1991), 525CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dyson, T., ‘On the demography of South Asian famines, part II’, Population Studies 45, 2 (1991), 279–97CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

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11 Hionidou, ‘Demography of a Greek famine’; Hionidou, ‘“Send us food or coffins”’.

12 Macintyre, ‘Female mortality advantage’, 250.

13 Boyle and Ó Gráda, ‘Fertility trends’, 553–4; Macintyre, ‘Female mortality advantage’, 252.

14 Macintyre, ‘Female mortality advantage’, 248–9.

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16 Macintyre, ‘Female mortality advantage’, 251–2.

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20 The present article distinguishes between ‘dearth’, i.e. high food prices, and ‘famine’: a period of high mortality due to high food prices.

21 K. J. Cullen, Famine in Scotland: the ‘ill years’ of the 1690s (Edinburgh, 2010), 10–30.

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23 Appleby, Famine, 109–21, 133–45.

24 Appleby, Famine, 125–32, 145–54; Hoyle, ‘Famine’.

25 C. D. Rogers, The Lancashire population crisis of 1623 (Manchester, 1975), 10.

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27 Rogers, Lancashire population crisis, 13.

28 For examples of these ‘famine foods’: J. Thirsk and J. P. Cooper eds., Seventeenth-century economic documents (Oxford, 1972), 24; K. Thomas, Man and the natural world: changing attitudes in England, 1500–1800 (Harmondsworth, 1991), 55.

29 M. Livi-Bacci, Population and nutrition: an essay on European demographic history (Cambridge, 1991), 47–50; see also Ó Gráda, Famine, 108–21.

30 Laslett, World we have lost, 130–48.

31 Rogers, Lancashire population crisis, 26–7.

32 Howson, W. G., ‘Plague, poverty and population in parts of north-west England, 1580–1720’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 112 (1961), 33Google Scholar. Howson also noted the evidence of starvation in Cumberland. On plague: P. Slack, The impact of plague in Tudor and Stuart England (Oxford, 1985).

33 C. Creighton, History of epidemics in Britain (2 vols.) (Cambridge, 1891–4), II, 258; France, R. S., ‘A history of plague in Lancashire’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 90 (1938), 51Google Scholar.

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36 The registers used are: H. Brierley ed., The parish registers of the church of Altham in the county of Lancaster, 1596–1695 (Lancashire Parish Register Society [hereafter LPRS], 36, Cambridge, 1909); H. Brierley ed., The parish registers of Ashton-under-Lyne, 1594–1720 (LPRS, 65, Preston, 1927–8); H. Brierley ed., The registers of the parish church of Blackburn in the county of Lancaster, 1600–1660 (LPRS, 41, Cambridge, 1911); A. Sparke ed., The registers of the parish church of Bolton, 1573–1660 (LPRS, 50, Bolton, 1913); W. Farrer ed., The registers of the parish church of Burnley in the county of Lancaster (LPRS, 2, Rochdale, 1899); H. Brierley and W. J. Löwenberg eds., The registers of the parish church of Bury, 1590–1646 (LPRS, 1, 10, Rochdale, 1898–1900); H. Brierley ed., The registers of the parish church of Cartmel in the county of Lancaster, 1559–1661 (LPRS, 28, Rochdale, 1907); H. Brierley ed., The registers of Caton, 1585–1718 (LPRS, 59, Preston, 1922); E. McKnight and H. Brierley eds., The registers of the parish church of Chorley in the county of Lancaster, 1548–1653 (LPRS, 38, Cambridge, 1910); Lancashire Parish Register Society eds., The registers of the parish church of Cockerham in the county of Lancaster, 1595–1657 (LPRS, 21, Cambridge, 1904); T. B. Ecroyd ed., The registers of the parish church of Colne in the county of Lancaster, 1599–1653 (LPRS, 17, Rochdale, 1904); A. E. Hodder ed., The registers of the parish church of Eccles in the county of Lancaster, 1564–1632 (LPRS, 25, Rochdale, 1906); H. S. Cowper ed., The oldest register book of the parish of Hawkshead in Lancashire, 1568–1704 (London, 1897); H. Brierley and R. N. Brierley eds., The registers of Kendal, Westmorland (Kendal, 1921–52); H. Brierley ed., The registers of the parish church of Lancaster, 1599–1690 (LPRS, 32, Cambridge, 1908); E. Axon and H. Brierley eds., The registers of the cathedral church of Manchester, 1573–1655 (LPRS, 31, 55, 56, Cambridge, 1908–16); H. Brierley ed., The parish registers of North Meols, 1594–1731 (LPRS, 66, Preston, 1929); J. Arrowsmith and T. Williams eds., The registers of the parish church of Ormskirk in the county of Lancaster, 1557–1678 (LPRS, 13, 98, Rochdale, 1902–1960); W. E. Robinson ed., The registers of the parish church of Poulton-le-Fylde in the county of Lancaster, 1591–1677 (LPRS, 19, Wigan, 1904); F. V. Driffield ed., The parish register of Prescot, 1573–1631 (LPRS, 76, Preston, 1938); J. Croston ed., The register book of christenings, weddings, and burials within the parish of Prestbury, 1560–1636 (Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 5, Manchester, 1881); A. E. Hodder ed., The registers of the parish church of Preston, Lancashire, 1611–35 (LPRS, 48, Wigan, 1913); H. Brierley ed., The registers of the parish church of Standish in the county of Lancaster, 1560–1653 (LPRS, 46, Cambridge, 1912); H. Brierley ed., The registers of the parish church of Prestwich, 1603–1688 (LPRS, 34, Cambridge, 1909); J. Clayton ed., The registers of the parish church of Radcliffe, 1557–1783 (LPRS, 60, 61, Cambridge, 1922–23); J. Arrowsmith ed., The registers of the parish church of Ribchester in the county of Lancaster, 1598–1694 (LPRS, 26, Wigan, 1906); Cumbria Record Office (Kendal Branch), WPR 62/1/1/1-2, Troutbeck Chapelry Register, 1579–1629, 1633–61; G. E. C. Clayton ed., The registers of the parish of Walton-le-Dale in the county of Lancaster, 1609–1812 (LPRS, 37, Wigan, 1910); A. Sparke ed., The parish registers of Warrington, 1591–1653 (LPRS, 70, Preston, 1933); T. B. Ecroyd ed., The registers of the parish church of Whalley in the county of Lancaster, 1538–1653 (LPRS, 7, 74, Preston, 1900–1936); W. H. Chippendall ed., The parish registers of Warton, 1568–1812 (LPRS, 73, Preston, 1935); Lancashire Parish Register Society eds., The registers of the parish church of Wigan in the county of Lancaster (LPRS, 4, 152, Wigan and Preston, 1899–2001); R. Dickinson and F. Dickinson eds., The register of Winwick parish church (LPRS, 109, 113, Preston, 1970–74).

37 Sex was determined either by name, or by the description of someone as a ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ in the records.

38 Obviously one additional test could be to compare the crisis with the period afterwards. This would be an interesting exercise; however, there would always be the possibility that findings would be skewed by the ‘shadow’ effect of the crisis. Thus, given the extremely time-consuming nature of the data compilation, this was not attempted.

39 For an attempt to do this on a parochial scale using family reconstitution: Scott and Duncan, ‘Mortality crisis of 1623’.

40 D. E. C. Eversley, ‘Exploitation of Anglican parish registers by aggregative analysis’, in E. A. Wrigley ed., An introduction to English historical demography from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century (London, 1966), 71.

41 Gritt, A. J., ‘The “survival” of service in the English agricultural labour force: lessons from Lancashire, c. 1650–1851’, Agricultural History Review 50, 1 (2002), 2550Google Scholar.

42 An analysis of patterns in the seven parishes with ‘child’ proportions below 35 per cent found that these outliers suggested similar patterns to the rest of the sample, although at much lower levels of statistical significance. The only tested p value below 0.10 related to a swing towards female mortality advantage amongst adults during the 1622–1623 harvest year (p = 0.07).

43 The following is based on: C. M. L. Bouch and G. P. Jones, A short economic and social history of the Lake Counties, 1500–1830 (Manchester, 1961), 63–145; J. K. Walton, Lancashire: a social history, 1558–1939 (Manchester, 1987), 7–35; C. B. Phillips and J. H. Smith, Lancashire and Cheshire from AD 1540 (London, 1994), 5–54.

44 J. K. Walton, ‘Proto-industrialization and the First Industrial Revolution: the case of Lancashire’, in P. Hudson ed., Regions and industries: a perspective on the Industrial Revolution in Britain (Cambridge, 1989), 41–68.

45 Appleby, Famine, 17–94.

46 G. N. Tupling, The economic history of Rossendale (Manchester, 1927), 42–97; J. T. Swain, Industry before the Industrial Revolution: north-east Lancashire, c. 1500–1640 (Manchester, 1986).

47 Healey, J., ‘Land, population and famine in the English uplands: a Westmorland case study, c. 1370–1650’, Agricultural History Review 59, 2 (2011), 151–75Google Scholar. Here 172–4.

48 Phillips and Smith, Lancashire and Cheshire, 7–9.

49 Laslett, World we have lost, 133; there was almost certainly a major mortality crisis in the North-West in the late 1550s: Moore, J. S., ‘Population trends in Lancashire, 1548–1563’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 157 (2009), 3355CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 Appleby, Famine, 95–108.

51 Phelps-Brown, E. H. and Hopkins, S. V., ‘Seven centuries of the price of consumables, compared with builders' wage-rates’, Economica 23, 92 (1956), 296314CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 302.

52 These and successive food price data are taken from Bowden, P., ‘Statistical appendix’, in Thirsk, J. ed., The agrarian history of England and Wales, V(ii) (1985), 827902Google Scholar; Appleby, Famine, 132–45.

53 Appleby, Famine, 110–12, 133–45; H. Kamen, European society, 1500–1700 (London, 1994), 34.

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55 Wrigley and Schofield, Population history, 675–7; Appleby, Famine, 120–25.

56 R. Romano, ‘Between the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries: the economic crisis of 1619–22’, in G. Parker and L. M. Smith eds., The general crisis of the seventeenth century, 2nd edn. (London, 1997), 153–205.

57 Hoyle, ‘Famine’.

58 Rogers, Lancashire population crisis.

59 These are calculated from baptism rates, using the figures in Wrigley and Schofield, Population history, 528.

60 Obviously these regions are, to a point, arbitrary, but after careful consideration it was felt that other plausible ways would have been even more problematic. Categorising by population size would end up largely reflecting the size of parishes rather than density, though another study might use calculated population density to interesting effect. Height above sea level, another important variable, was decided against because of the complex topography of the region, with some registers, such as Kendal, Troutbeck or Blackburn covering areas of considerable topographical variety, and with large areas of land given over to upland fell and moor, but with most of the population clustered in the lower-lying valley bottoms. Similarly, proximity to transport routes was also decided against because of the large size of the parishes under study and the distortion this would cause. Overall, although other methods would have been interesting – and some of them may also have been valid – a simpler approach based on the economic geography of the region was chosen. There is a useful introduction to Lancashire's economic history and geography in J. G. Timmins, Made in Lancashire: a history of regional industrialisation (Manchester, 1998), 11–82.

61 See Macintyre, ‘Female mortality advantage’, 247.

62 It is worth pointing out that, were we to include those parishes with unusually low recorded child proportions, the south/southeast region would see a swing of +3.1 percentage points (p = 0.027) for the whole crisis, and +4.2 percentage points (p = 0.013) for the early crisis.

63 Slack, P., ‘Vagrants and vagrancy in England, 1598–1664’, Economic History Review 27 (1974), 360–79Google Scholar.

64 Healey, J., ‘The development of poor relief in Lancashire, c. 1598–1680’, Historical Journal 53 (2010), 551–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 The National Archives, State Papers, SP 16/388/7, Poor Law Returns for Kendal Ward, 1638.

66 Manchester parish, for example, ordered a general rate in the immediate aftermath of the famine: Lancashire Record Office, QSR/21, Quarter Sessions Roll, 1624.

67 Laslett, World we have lost, 130.

68 Hoyle, ‘Famine’, 978, 999–1000.

69 Hoyle, ‘Famine’, 1000. Emphasis added.

70 Bowden, ‘Statistical appendix’, 821.

71 J. R. Dasent ed., Acts of the Privy Council of England (46 vols.) (London, 1890–1964), XXXVIII, 394, 424, 434, 454; Ibid., XXXIX, 21, 155; see also: T. Gray ed., Harvest failure in Cornwall and Devon: the Books of Orders and the Corn Surveys of 1623 and 1630–1 (Redruth, 1992), xxvii–xxvii; Appleby, Famine, 146.

72 A. M. Maclean ed., The registers of the parish of Greystoke in the county of Cumberland, baptisms, marriages and burials, 1559–1757 (Kendal, 1991).

73 Rogers, Lancashire population crisis, 17–18.

74 Rogers, Lancashire population crisis, 27.