Population
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Population Mortality may have been quite high in the 1640's,
though the parish register evidence is fragmentary. The siege itself caused
limited casualties with only c. 50 people killed 56 There were,
however, outbreaks of disease in 1641 and, more seriously, in 1645-6. 57
In 1646 Gloucester's town clerk spoke of `so great a change in this place by
reason of sickness'. 58 At St.Nicholas burials were then running at
three or four times the normal rate. 59 During the 1650's Gloucester was apparently free of epidemics,
but the population may well have declined with the departure of the garrison and
the return to the countryside of many of the earlier refugees. During the war
years of 1642-4 there was a marked decline in the number of apprentices
registered in the city, but with the advent of peace the figure returned to its
normal level, and throughout the period the pattern of apprenticeship migration
to the city remained broadly the same. 60 Notes:- Source: Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 4, page 096, by permission of the General Editor. Submitted by Alan Longbottom Gloucester 1660-1720. Population. The various population estimates for the period
indicate that the city's demographic performance was generally sluggish with
virtually no growth and possibly even a slight loss of inhabitants in the late
17th century. The hearth-tax assessment for 1672 listed about 1,100
houses, suggesting a population of just over 5,000. 58 According to
Gregory King, the total was 4,756 in 1696, 59 while Atkyns c. 1710
counted 1,003 houses with c. 4,990 inhabitants. 60 By George II's
reign the population was rising again, with 1,284 houses enumerated in 1743 and
a population of c. 5,585. 61 The general picture, though tentative,
is broadly in accord with what has been found for a number of middle-rank towns
in the post-Restoration era. 62 The parish register evidence is difficult to analyse
but it sheds some light on the demographic stagnation. One problem is that after
the Restoration an attempt was made to reverse the parochial reforms of the
preceding regime and new parish arrangements were only completed c. 1676. 63
Even after that date double registration of baptisms and burials was not
uncommon. Other complications arise from the inclusion in the registers of
inhabitants of hamlets outside the city, and the omission of data for
dissenters, a substantial group in post-Restoration Gloucester. Nevertheless
evidence for the parishes of St. John, St. Nicholas, St. Mary de Lode, St.
Michael, St. Mary de Crypt, and the cathedral provides a reasonable insight into
the demographic trends. 64 In the first place, a steady increase in
baptisms can be seen, particularly after the turn of the century. Second, burial
rates were very high and in most decades exceeded baptisms. Though plague was
absent after 1666, smallpox was a major killer. In 1687 it was said `smallpox is
very rife in this city' and there was another epidemic in the years 1712-13. 65 With a running deficit of births against deaths,
immigration remained a crucial element in the city's demographic matrix.
Biographical information provided by Gloucester witnesses appearing in the
church courts in the years 1660-85 indicates that c. 53 per cent of the male
inhabitants and 60 per cent of the women had migrated there. Those were somewhat
lower proportions than before the Civil War. Again fewer than in the past had
come long distances: only c. 13 per cent of the men had travelled from outside
the county. Localized migration was particularly strong among women, where fewer
than one in ten had travelled from outside the shire.66 Many of them
may have come to work in Gloucester as domestic servants or in the shops and
victualling houses which were proliferating by 1700. In contrast to the century
before the Civil War, there is declining evidence of vagrants and other poor
migrants coming to Gloucester. 67 Together with high mortality, the reduced level of
migration almost certainly contributed to the static demographic position in
post-Restoration Gloucester. At the same time, the higher incidence of female
movement may have been an important factor in the unbalanced sex ratio in the
city, with a surplus of women in all the parishes. The excess was particularly
great in the wealthier areas like the cathedral close, St. Mary de Grace, and
St. Nicholas, where there were substantial numbers of domestic servants working
in the houses of the gentry and other well-to-do citizens. 68 Notes
:- Source: Quoted from the Victoria County History,
Gloucestershire, volume 4, page 102, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom
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