Bills of mortality

In 1611 the duty to produce the bills was imposed on the members of the Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks by a charter granted by James I.

Annual returns were made on 21 December (the feast of St Thomas), to coincide with the city calendar.

In 1632, the Clerks were asked to identify five different infectious diseases caused by human-to-human transmission: tuberculosis, smallpox, measles, French pox, and plague.

[1] In 1819 the bills ceased to be published under the authority of the Corporation of London, coming directly from the Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks.

[2] The area fixed in 1636, adding only St Mary le Strand in 1726 which was already within the outer boundary of the bills.

[5] When someone died within the prescribed limits of London a message was sent to a searcher by an undertaker or relative or friend with the name, age and cause of death of the deceased.

From 11 January 1840, the bills were superseded by the Registrar General's weekly returns for the Metropolis, following the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836.

When the Registrar General began weekly returns in 1840 to the Metropolis defined in the 1831 census were added the parishes of Bow, Camberwell, Fulham, Hammersmith and the Greenwich Poor Law Union.