Cause on death in Lyncombe and Widcombe 1795 to 1804

[waynenort]

I've been piecing together some family lines in the Lyncombe and Widcombe area. After finding baptisms from around 1795, I then found a few infant and child deaths within the same family lines up until around 1804. Here's an example from the burial registers in particular about 22nd Nov 1802 where it shows a number of child burials (one from my family line and other families)

Was there a particular disease that Lyncombe and Widcombe area was having trouble with during this time, such as Cholera since the quality of water was poor?

[DRH123]

The burial numbers five years either side of 1802 are as follows:

1797 1798 1799 1800 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807
  51     58     68      58    67     89    73     56     93    72     85

So there's definitely a peak in 1802. but I don't know how significant a statistician would judge it.
I think a "real" epidemic would probably cause a bigger jump than that.
Five burials on one day suggests a single incident, e.g. a house fire, but they have different surnames which makes that less likely. Another possibility would be flooding, the parts of the parish nearest the river were quite susceptible to that.

The local newspapers might be helpful. Unfortunately the Bath RO's Georgian Newspaper Project only goes up to 1800. FindMyPast has a lot of newspaper records, if you have the right subscription.

David

[waynenort]

Thank you for the burial numbers, David.   
Can I ask where you found them? 

I do have access to the Findmypast Newspaper section to check through.

Thanks again, Wayne

[philipsearching]

Was there a particular disease that Lyncombe and Widcombe area was having trouble with during this time, such as Cholera since the quality of water was poor?

Cholera would surely affect all ages?  Perhaps an outbreak of an illness particularly deadly to children such as meningitis or measles (among others) could account for the high number of child deaths on the register page.

Philip