Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
Several writers on Irish population in the pre-famine period have suggested that detailed local studies are urgently needed to supplement the evidence from national data, such as the early census returns or the hearth tax lists, and to assist in clarifying elusive problems such as age of marriage, size of family, death-rate changes etc. It is often asserted, however, that the amount of detailed information relating to specific areas is limited and of poor quality; in particular, contrasts are drawn between the availability and usefulness of parish registers relating to pre-famine Ireland and those available to scholars in England, France and Scandinavia. Pre-famine parochial registers of burials, marriages and baptisms do nonetheless exist, and, although their use poses problems, there are indications that a good deal of useful information may be waiting to be uncovered.
1 Tucker, G.S.L., ‘Irish fertility rates before the famine’ in Econ. Hist. Rev., series 2, 23 (1970), pp 267–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Lee, Joseph, ‘Marriage and population in pre-famine Ireland’ in Econ. Hist. Rev., series 2, 21 (1968), pp 283–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Drake, Michael, ‘Marriage and population in Ireland, 1750–1845’ in Econ. Hist. Rev., series 2, 16 (1963), pp 301–13.Google Scholar
2 Morgan, Valerie, ‘The Church of Ireland registers of St Patrick’s, Goleraine as a source for the study of a local pre-famine population’ in Ulster Folklife, 19 (1973), pp 56–67.Google Scholar
3 Hollingsworth, T.H., ‘The importance of the quality of data in historical demography’ in Daedalus, 47 (1968), p. 535.Google Scholar Krause, J.T, ‘The changing adequacy of English registration 1690–1837’ in Population in history, ed. Glass, D.V. and Eversley, D.E.C. (London, 1965), pp 379–94.Google Scholar Henry, Louis, ‘The verification of historical demography in Population Studies, 22 (1968), pp 61–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4 Morgan, op. cit.
5 Wrigley, E.A., ‘Mortality in pre-industrial England, the example of Colyton, Devon over three centuries’ in Daedalus, 47 (1968), pp 548–80.Google Scholar
6 Johnson, J.H., ‘Development of the rural settlement pattern of Ireland’ in Geog. Annaler., 43 (1961), pp 165–73.Google Scholar
7 Lee, op. cit. Krause, J.T, ‘Some aspects of population change, 1690–1790’ in Land, labour and population in the industrial revolution, ed. Jones, E.L. and Mingay, G.E. (London, 1967), pp 187–205.Google Scholar Razzell, P.E., ‘Population growth and economic change in eighteenth and early nineteenth century England and Ireland’, ibid., pp 260–81.Google Scholar
8 Wrigley, op. cit. Eversley, D.E.C., ‘A survey of population in an area of Worcestershire from 1660 to 1850, on the basis of parish registers’ in Population Studies, 10 (1956), pp 253–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9 Drake, Michael, ‘The Irish demographic crisis of 1740–41’ in Historical Studies, 6 (1968), pp 101–25.Google Scholar
10 Krause, op. cit. Razzell, op. cit.
11 Wrigley, E.A., ‘Family limitation in pre-industrial England’ in Econ. Hist. Rev., series 2, 19 (1966), pp 91–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12 Ibid.
13 Chambers, J.D. ‘Population change in a provincial town, Nottingham 1700–1800’ in Population in history, ed. Glass, D.V. and Eversley, D.E.C., p. 399.Google Scholar
14 McKeown, Thomas, Brown, R.G. and Record, R.G., ‘An interpretation of the modern rise of population in Europe’ in Population Studies, 26 (1972), pp 345–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar McKeown, Thomas, Brown, R.G. and Record, R.G., ‘Medical evidence related to the English population changes of the eighteenth century’ in Population Studies, 9 (1955), pp 119–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar McKeown, Thomas and Record, R.G., ‘The reasons for the decline in mortality, in England and Wales during the nineteenth century’ in Population Studies, 14 (1962), pp 94–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Razzell, op. cit.
15 Razzell, op. cit.
16 Cullen, L.M., ‘Problems in the interpretation and revision of eighteenth century Irish economic history’ in R. Hist. Soc. Trans., series 5, 17 (1967), p. 20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar