The Mortality Crisis of 1741 in Chipping Campden

In the third of his series of articles using the parish registers and other Campden sources, Nick Woodward examines the a ‘spike’ in burials in 1741 and looks for possible causes. Although the evidence is sparse – sadly the clerics who maintained the burial registers did not give causes of death, as happened in some other parishes – Nick comes to the conclusion, after examining various possibilities, that the most likely cause was smallpox.

The article provides us, as ‘trainee’ local historians, with a greater understanding of the process of examining limited sources of information to produce a conclusion that adds to our knowledge of Campden life two centuries ago.