Bill of Mortality

Bill of Mortality is a return of the deaths within a certain district, specifying the diseases, and giving a progressive view of the age at death. Such were the mortuary tables of Geneva, the Northampton and Carlisle tables, on which much of the business of life-insurance has been founded. The London bills were begun after a visitation of the plague in 1592, and continued by the company of parish clerks till shortly after the Registration Acts of 1840, being superseded by the Registrar-general's returns. The material for the returns was obtained by persons called 'searchers,' and the system was one of disgraceful inaccuracy and systematic imposition. The common expression, 'within the bills of mortality,' is a local term relating to an area which gradually increased with the growth of London, but defined under municipal arrangements which no longer exist. See LONDON, VITAL STATISTICS.