A Supplement to a Paper, Entitled, Observations on the Population of Manchester. By Thomas Percival, M. D. F. R. and A. S.

VIII. A Supplement to a Paper, entitled, Observations on the Population of Manchester (a). By Thomas Percival, M.D. F.R. and A.S. TO THE REV. DR. HORSLEY. REV. SIR, R. Dec. 14, 1775. A painful nervous complaint in my eyes, with which I have been troubled a few days, lays me under the necessity of writing to you by an amanuensis. I beg leave to return you my best thanks for your kind attention to my Memoir. If you think the following additions of importance, you are at liberty to annex them to it (b). I have the honour to be, &c. FROM the table of the number of males and females baptized in different places it appears (c), that the proportion of males to females baptized is nearly as 13 to 12, agreeable to the calculation of Mr. De Rham; but the succeeding ones shew, the number of females alive considerably exceed the number of males, in a variety of places; and that the widows are almost double the number of widowers. (a) See Philosop. Transactions, vol. LXV. art. xxiii. (b) These papers came too late to my hands to be inserted in the last publication. S. Horsley. (c) See Philosop. Transf. vol. LXV. p 333. A comparative view of the numbers of males and females in different places. | Places | Males | Females | |-------------------------|---------|----------| | Manchester | 10548 | 11933 | | Salford | 2248 | 2517 | | Townships of ditto | 947 | 958 | | Parish of Manchester | 6942 | 6844 | | Bolton | 2159 | 2392 | | Little Bolton | 361 | 410 | | Monton | 196 | 190 | | Hale | 140 | 136 | | Horwich | 149 | 136 | | Darwen | 900 | 950 | | Cockey | 320 | 391 | | Chowbent | 554 | 606 | | Ackworth | 340 | 388 | | Eastham | 451 | 461 | | Chinley | 181 | 168 | | Brownside | 40 | 47 | | Bugsworth | 80 | 95 | | Ashton under Line | 1406 | 1453 | | Parish of ditto | 2584 | 2513 | | Tattenhall parish | 382 | 399 | | Waverton parish | 310 | 332 | | **Total** | **31238** | **33339** | Vol. LXVI. A comparative view of the number of widowers and widows in different places. | Places | Widowers | Widows | |-------------------------------|----------|--------| | Manchester | 432 | 1064 | | Salford | 89 | 149 | | Township of ditto | 21 | 42 | | Parish of Manchester | 232 | 315 | | Monton | 14 | 13 | | Hale | 8 | 12 | | Horwich | 9 | 8 | | Darwen | 30 | 48 | | Cockey | 10 | 27 | | Chowbent | 26 | 43 | | Chinley, Brownside, and Bugsworth | 15 | 18 | | Ashton under Line | 50 | 81 | | Parish of ditto | 67 | 95 | | **Total** | **1003** | **1915**| Let no arguments in favour of polygamy be drawn from these tables. The practice is brutal; destructive to friendship and moral sentiment; inconsistent with one great end of marriage, the education of children; and subversive of the natural rights of more than half of the species. —"Higher of the genial bed by far. "And with mysterious reverence I deem." MILTON. Nor Nor is this tyranny of man over the weaker, but more amiable sex favourable to population. For notwithstanding the number of females in the world may considerably exceed the number of males, yet there are more men capable of propagating their species, than women capable of bearing children. This painful office gradually becomes more dangerous and less frequent as the rigidness of the fibres increases, and ceases entirely at the age of fifty. The fatality of it is thus wisely obviated, and the comforts of declining life are not interrupted by the arduous toil of nursing. An institution, therefore, which confines in servile bondage to one usurper, many females in the prime of youth, must leave numbers destitute of the means, which nature hath pointed out, for perpetuating and increasing the race of mankind. And it is a fact well known, that Armenia, in which a plurality of wives is not allowed, abounds more with inhabitants than any other province of the Turkish empire. P. S. Since the preceding paper was written, the rev. Mr. Craddock hath favoured me with a survey of the town and parish of Ashton under Line, distant about eight miles from Manchester. The inhabitants consist of manufacturers and farmers. An enumeration of the inhabitants of the town and parish of Ashton under Line, made in 1775. | | Town | Parish | |----------------|------|--------| | Inhabitants | 2859 | 5097 | | Houses | 553 | 941 | | Families | 599 | 971 | | Males | 1406 | 2584 | | Females | 1453 | 2513 | | Married | 982 | 1679 | | Widowers | 50 | 67 | | Widows | 81 | 95 | | Under five years of age | 509 | 896 | | From five to ten | 396 | 764 | | ten to twenty | 541 | 1011 | | twenty to fifty | 1044 | 1882 | | fifty to seventy | 307 | 471 | | seventy to ninety | 62 | 73 | The rev. Dr. Peploe, chancellor of the diocese of Chester, has honoured me with the following account of the parishes of Waverton and Tattenhall, both in the neighbourhood of Chester. The inhabitants are farmers and labourers. An enumeration of the inhabitants of Tattenhall, made in August, 1774, by the rev. BRICE STORR, curate. Inhabited houses, 148 Uninhabited ditto, 2 Heads of families, 176 Aged above 14 years, 462 Men and boys, 382 Women and girls, 399 | Year | Christenings | Burials | |------|--------------|---------| | 1764 | 28 | 8 | | 1765 | 21 | 9 | | 1766 | 19 | 12 | | 1767 | 29 | 11 | | 1768 | 28 | 16 | | 1769 | 24 | 15 | | 1770 | 37 | 15 | | 1771 | 30 | 9 | | 1772 | 26 | 15 | | 1773 | 38 | 20 | Total: 280 Christenings, 130 Burials An enumeration of the inhabitants of Waverton, made in August, 1774, by the rev. Mr. Bissett, minister of the parish. Inhabited houses, 109 Uninhabited ditto, 2 Heads of families, 116 Aged above 14 years, 406 Men and boys, 310 Women and girls, 322 | Year | Christenings | Burials | |------|--------------|---------| | 1764 | 19 | 10 | | 1765 | 26 | 2 | | 1766 | 17 | 7 | | 1767 | 18 | 10 | | 1768 | 22 | 10 | | 1769 | 17 | 7 | | 1770 | 20 | 8 | | 1771 | 23 | 9 | | 1772 | 18 | 12 | | 1773 | 13 | 9 | 193 84 In the valuable work which I have so often quoted, Dr. Price hath given many convincing and melancholy proofs of the declining state of population in this kingdom. The growth of large towns; the prevalence of vice vice and luxury; the discouragements to marriage; the destruction of cottages; and various other causes have the most unfavourable influence on the increase of mankind. But it is to be hoped, that these evils do not universally prevail; and that even some good may arise from them to check their baneful effects. Certain it is, that in this part of England the inhabitants multiply with great rapidity: and though the increase may be chiefly owing to recruits drawn from other counties, yet the flourishing state of our manufactures cannot fail to promote population, by affording plentiful means of subsistence to the poor. The bishop of Chester informs me, that in various parish registers which he has consulted, the births have progressively become more numerous from generation to generation. At Boxley in Kent, where his lordship was vicar, he divided the times, from the commencement of the reign of queen Elizabeth, into periods of twenty-one years; and found, that the number of births in the first period was 310, and in the last 525. The increase was gradual through the whole time. Manchester, Sept. 20, 1775.