LIST17 - DEUXIEME DIZAINE - DEATHS

 
 
This list presents all the known deaths of the "Deuxieme Dizaine", 1775 in all 
or just over half the total.
 
The information presented for each death includes: 
 
 date of death
 place of death or church of burial
 age at death
 Christian name
 father's Christian name 
 father's family name 
 mother's Christian name 
 mother's family name 
  parents' civil status at the time of the child's birth 
 parents' marital status at the time of the child's birth
 surname at the time of death.
 
The list is arranged in date of death order. If there should be more than one 
death on the same date or if only the year of death is known, the entries are 
arranged alphabetically on the father's surname. 
 
In this list no attempt has been made to distinguish between date of death and 
date of burial, unlike baptisms, these are virtually the same. 
 
The age at death is expressed in days if the child died younger than one month, 
in months if younger than one year, otherwise in years. The years are 
calculated to be rounded down, for example both a child dying at 1 year 1 
month and 1 year 11 months would be listed as 1 year old at death. In several 
cases the age at death cannot be calculated or even estimated because the date 
of birth is unknown.
 
It is mainly the married women of course who  would have a different surname 
at death from that of her father but spelling variations care also included.
 
The dates of death of 1775 (51%) of the "Deuxieme Dizaine" are currently known. 
Unfortunately the date of birth of eight of these are unknown meaning that 
no estimate can be made of their age of death, six of these were infants but 
Hannah King (Hansen) died in 1855 and George Board in 1850 making them a 
fair age indeed.
 
The places of death gives a good indication as to how far and wide some 
of the "Deuxieme Dizaine" were dispersed in their lifetimes. Their were many 
deaths in Van Diemens Land and well as several in Victoria, Queensland, South 
Australia and New Zealand. It was not only the other Australian colonies that 
they spread to. 
 
There were very many whose deaths are recorded in England and no doubt many 
more amongst those who left the colony to return 'home'. At least eleven 
deaths are known to have occurred in India. Thomas Millington died in 
California USA.
 
Particularly sad were the cases of military families when the New South Wales 
Corps returned to Horsham Barracks in Sussex, in 1811 an outbreak of 'flu 
during their first English winter decimated many fine young Australians, 
including at least six of the "Deuxieme Dizaine". 
 
In ten cases the person died at sea. Unfortunately the ship is unknown for 
Jean Huon and the date for Mary Ann Anthony. Four of these deaths were for 
children who died before reaching the colony:
 
 James Vincent 1801 'Minorca'
 Alexander Johnston 1802 'Coromandel'
 son Fletcher 1803 'Ocean'
 Caroline Martin 1804 'Experiment'
 
In 52 cases the place of death has not been supplied by the descendants 
of the deceased, even when in 21 cases an exact date of death was given.
 
There are also twelve instances where the place of death is known but not the 
date, most occurring overseas. Whilst interesting to record they have not been 
included in the general calculations in the tables below.
 
Both Francis Barnes and James Loder are known to have died as infants but 
neither their date nor place of death are known.
 
 Table 13.1. - Deaths - Date Unknown 
 
 Name Place Birth
 -----------------------------------------------
 Mary Ann Anthony at sea 'Lynx' 
 Thomas Millington California USA 1807 
 Frances Green England 1798 
 Elizabeth Gibbons England 1801 
 Robert Lambert England 1810 
 Mary Lambert  England 1808 
 William Arden Lewin England 1805 
 Sarah Parsons India 1802 
 Anthony Roussuea India 1803 
 Mary Gowen New Zealand 1806 
 
 Joc Baldwin Hawkesbury 1806 
 Sophia Meredith Tasmania 1803 
 
The person with the greatest longevity of the "Deuxieme Dizaine" was Matilda 
Carey (nee Byrne), who lived for 98 years 2 months and 29 days. Her brother, 
William Byrne who lived for 98 years and 9 days, was the longest living male.
 
Susannah Devlin (nee Hughes) was the last survivour of the "Deuxieme Dizaine" 
dying on 20th June 1907. Fifteen others lived into the 20th century and ten 
of those had lives than spanned the Georgian, Wilhelmenian, Victorian and 
Edwardian eras.
 
The first table listed below shows the total number of deaths each year from 
1801 to 1815 and the number dying at each age. The main point is to illustrate 
the sad infant mortality of the time, since by 1815 the youngest of the "Deuxieme 
Dizaine" would have reached the age of 5 years. Fortunately there was not the 
same 'slaughter of the innocents' as occurred with the 'First Generation' 
during the near starvation of the early years of the colony but 200 children 
did not survive their first year and 314 did not reach their 5th birthday with 
349 death in total. 
 
  Table 13.2. - Deaths in the Years 1801 - 1815 
 
 Total inf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ? 
 -----------------------------------------------------
 1801 15 15 1 
 1802 19 17 3 
 1803 21 19 2 1 
 1804 24 18 3 2 1
 1805 22 15 3 1 2 1
 1806 39 29 2 4 2 2  
 1807 24 17 3 3 1 1 
 1808 23 15 2 1 1 4
 1809 27 18 3 2 3 1 
 1810 49 27 8 4 5 3 1 1  
 1811 45 10 8 5 7 3 1 5 2 3 19:1
 1812 17 2 7 1 3 1 2 1 
 1813 9 2 2 1 1 1 1 20:1 
 1814 10 1  2 1 1 1 11:1 12:3
 1815 5 2 2 1 
 ---------------------------------------------------
 349 200 37 29 24 17 7 14 3 4 4 2 6 
 
The second table listed below shows the number dying at each particular 
age. If the young colonist survived infancy and childhood they had a 
very good chance of then living to a reasonable age, 514 or nearly one third, 
reaching their biblical "three score and ten" or more.
 
 Table 13.3. - Deaths by Age
 
Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No. Age No.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
inf 200 10 8 20 8 30 11 40 17 50 22 60 25 70 24 80 27 90 3
 1 37 11 7 21 9 31 20 41 12 51 18 61 25 71 25 81 29 91 5
 2 30 12 7 22 11 32 19 42 9 52 18 62 21 72 22 82 41 92 6
 3 26 13 3 23 13 33 13 43 20 53 13 63 19 73 27 83 22 93 4
 4 18 14 5 24 12 34 13 44 16 54 16 64 23 74 31 84 28 94 2
 5 10 15 7 25 6 35 15 45 11 55 11 65 24 75 26 85 21 95 1
 6 12 16 7 26 16 36 19 46 15 56 22 66 24 76 38 86 17 96 1
 7 6 17 7 27 10 37 15 47 12  57 10 67 25 77 22 87 17 97 2
 8 3 18 7 28 19 38 10 48 15 58 18 68 38 78 29 88 10 98 4
 9 7 19 11 29 15 39 9 49 18 59 19 69 35 79 22 89 8 99 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Tot. 349 69 119 144 145 167 259 266 220 28
Grand Total 1766
 
The third table listed below shows the percentage dying in each decade of life. 
The first decade is the most dangerous with a 20% death rate. If a child survives 
the first decade then the second is the least dangerous with a mere 4% death 
rate. The death rate then slowly rises until the eighth decade when it peaks 
at 15.1% before rapidly declining again as one might expect.
 
 Table 13.4. - Deaths in Decade Percentages
 
 Decade Absolute Cummulative Cummulative Cummulative
 sans Infancy sans Childhood
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 Infancy 11.3% 11.3%
 First 5 Years 6.9% 18.2% 7.7%
 Second 5 Years 1.6% 19.8% 9.5% 1.9%
 Second Decade 3.9% 23.7% 13.9% 6.7%
 Third Decade 6.7% 30.4% 21.5% 14.9%
 Fourth Decade 8.2% 38.6% 30.7% 24.9%
 Fifth Decade 8.2% 46.8% 40.0% 34.9%
 Sixth Decade 9.4%  56.2% 50.7% 46.5%
 Seventh Decade 14.7% 70.9% 67.2% 64.4%
 Eighth Decade 15.1% 86.0% 84.2% 82.8%
 Ninth Decade 12.5% 98.5% 98.2% 98.0%
 Tenth Decade 1.6% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
 
If the classical definition of "average life expectancy" is defined as 
the age to which 50% of the population lives then for the "Deuxieme Dizaine" , 
life expectancy was 53 years. However one can see from the tables that the 
huge infant mortality tends to skew the figures to a very young age. If those 
who died in infancy (ie less than one year) are excluded from the calculation 
the average life expectancy rises to 59 years. If those who died in childhood 
(ie less than five years) are excluded from the calculation the average life 
expectancy rises to 61 years.
 
If would be interesting to compare similar figures for the mother country at 
the same period of time. Whilst the infant mortality is regrettable by modern 
standards perhaps it may have been better than in England because of a milder 
climate in the colony.
 
It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that civil registration 
of deaths and burials commenced in New South Wales when the cause of death 
was routinely recorded, the various church burial registers before this time 
very rarely recorded the cause of death unless somewhat dramatic, for example 
Mary Ann Turnbull was murdered by her husband James Wright. In the early days 
of the colony death by drowning was a fairly frequent cause of death, especially 
at times of flooding of the Hawkesbury river which was a reasonably frequent 
event.
 
Charles Kable, John Hangan, Joseph Posatkee all sadly badly let their 
generation down by managing to get themselves hung.
 
As stated this list represents just over half of the total known "Deuxieme 
Dizaine" . What can be said of the remaining half ? In List 30 the reader 
will find an analysis of the fate of the "Deuxieme Dizaine" in general 
which sheds some light on the missing half.
 
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the name 
would be made on List 1 from which the date of death would be retrieved, secondly 
using the appropriate date, the death would be located on this list and finally 
an alphabetical search on the name would be made on the death date if there 
should be more than one entry for that date which would certainly be the case 
if only the year of death were known. 

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