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John Graunt

British demographer

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  • 3 chapters

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Biography

Born in London, John Graunt was the eldest of the seven or eight children of Henry and Mary Graunt. Graunt's father was a draper who had moved to London from Hampshire. In February 1641, Graunt married Mary Scott, with whom he had one son (Henry) and three daughters. He became a freeman of the Drapers' Company at age 21.

Graunt worked in his father's shop until his father died in 1662, and Graunt became influential in the City. He was able to secure the post of professor of music for his friend William Petty in 1650. He served in various ward offices in Cornhill ward, becoming a common councilman about 1669–71, warden of the Drapers' Company in 1671 and a major in the trained band.

Graunt, along with Sir William Petty, developed early human statistical and census methods that provided a framework for modern demography. He is credited with producing and widely distributing the first life table, giving probabilities of survival to each age. This was remarkable considering the Bills of Mortality did not include age at death, thus Graunt used his knowledge of mathematics to create such a table. Graunt is also considered as one of the first experts in epidemiology, since his famous book was concerned mostly with public health statistics.

The erudition of Graunt's book, Natural and Political Observations Made Upon the Bills of Mortality, led Graunt to the Royal Society. On 5 February 1661, Graunt presented fifty copies of his book to the Royal Society of London, to which he was subsequently elected a fellow in 1662 with the endorsement of King Charles II. King Charles II's recommendation was notable due to Graunt's status as a tradesman, as the King suggested to the Royal Society that it should accept "any more such Tradesman." Graunt was chosen as a member of the council of the Royal Society in November 1664 and represented the Society at various meetings.

Graunt's house was destroyed in the Great Fire of London at which point he was a shareholder in the New River Company. Because of this, Graunt encountered many financial problems that eventually led him to declare bankruptcy. One of his daughters became a nun in a convent in Ghent, in the Spanish Netherlands, and Graunt decided to convert to Catholicism at a time when Catholics and Protestants were struggling for control of England and Europe, leading to prosecutions for recusancy. John Graunt died of jaundice and liver disease at the age of 53. John Aubrey reported that he was "a pleasant facetious companion and very hospitable" and noted that his death was "lamented by all good men that had the happinesse to knowe him."

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