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8
made up of shop-keepers and artizans, with a margin of
the upper middle class. It is the more populous, more
prolific, and poorer section of the parish.
It may be safely predicated of many of the residents
in St. John's, that they had lived elsewhere in earlier
life, and had only moved into this district after having
achieved success in their calling. Hence many of the
wives of the wealthier inhabitants would be of mature
age before coming into the locality, and as a consequence,
would afterwards bear few or no children.
This district too, has its contingent of independent
persons—bachelors and spinsters—who, in consideration
of its higher situation, and the more bracing atmosphere
of this side of Hyde Park, not to speak of its social
advantages, choose it as a place of residence; and though
as units they add to the population, they do not further
contribute to its increase. The large number, moreover,
of single men and women engaged in domestic
service, must not be forgotten when considering the
birth-rate.
Of the 1,992 deaths, 137 or 7 percent. occurred in
the two hospitals in the parish, viz., 3 in the Lock, and
134 in St. Mary's, leaving 1,855 deaths to be accounted
for, of which 1,368 occurred in St. Mary's District, and
487 in St. John's.*
*As only a traction of the 137 deaths were those of parishioners,
and it being impossible to determine with accuracy the precise number,
I have not included them in the tables, nor considered them in calculating
the death-rates, believing that the deaths of non-parishioners
within the parish were probably as numerous as the deaths of parishioners
in the public Institutions, and that, therefore, the deaths of the one class
may be fairly regarded as a set-off against the deaths of the other.
The corrected number 1,855, includes the 168 deaths in the Workhouse,
the inmates being decayed parishioners.