Some aspects of mortality in three Shropshire parishes in the mid-seventeenth century.

After relatively rapid population growth in the later sixteenth century and slower growth in the first four decades of the seventeenth century, the midseventeenth century nationally saw growth change to stagnation and even loss. Falling fertility, changes in nuptiality or worsening mortality, or a combination of all these, could have caused this phenomenon. The aim of this article is to examine whether three Shropshire parishes – Wellington, Wem and Whitchurch – followed this national trend, to investigate aspects of mortality in the three parishes during this highly significant period and to place this mortality in its economic and social context.