Together with the Observations Upon the Bills of Mortality, More Probably by John Graunt; Volume 1 Graunt's contemporary Sir William Petty adopted a similar approach in his analyses, published in Political Arithmetic (1682) and other works that made Petty a founding father of economics. However, despite Graunt's demonstration of the importance of supplementary data that the Bills had incorporated, a system geared to report the weekly ebb and flow of epidemics was unable to provide the statistics that statisticians wanted. John M. Last (see also: Certification of Causes of Deaths; Graunt, John; Mortality Rates) Born in London, the eldest of seven or eight children of Henry and Mary Graunt. [rendered into HTML format by Ed Stephan 25 Jan 96] ... Now having (I know not by what accident) engaged my thoughts upon the Bills of Mortality, and so far succeeded therein, as to have reduced several great confused Volumes into a few perspicuous Tables, and abridged. He made his mark because he grasped the potential in an overlooked data source of his day-the weekly Bills of Mortality-and he mined this resource admirably in his only scientific work. By JOHN GRAUNT, Citizen of LONDON. In 1662 statistics derived from the annual summaries of the London Bills provided the base for John Graunt's path-breaking actuarial calculations. John Graunt (24 April 1620 – 18 April 1674) was one of the first demographers, though by profession he was a haberdasher. His father was a draper who had moved to London from Hampshire. Publication date 1759 Publisher A. Miller Collection americana Digitizing sponsor Google Book from the collections of New York Public Library Language English. John Bell's 1665 publication London's Remembrancer states that “the Bill of Mortality is of very great use…it giveth a general notice of the Plague, and a particular Accompt of the places which are therewith infected, to the end such places may be shunned and avoided.” But the Bills were much more than an early warning system for disease outbreaks. The earliest work of this nature is that by Captain John Graunt, entitled "Natural and Political Observations made upon the Bills of Mortality," first published in 1661, and subsequently much enlarged by Sir William Petty. Author of Bills of Mortality, London's Dreadful Visitation, Or, a Collection of All the Bills of Mortality for This Present Year Beginning the 20th of December, 1664, and Ending the 19th of December Following, and Economic Writings. This singularly interesting volume is the first instance of the application of statistical methods to the phenomena of human society. such Observations as naturally flowed from them, into a few succinct Paragraphs, … Collection of Yearly Bills of Mortality, from 1657 to 1758 Inclusive by James Postlethwayt , John Graunt, Sir William Petty, Corbyn Morris, William Heberden. History knows him, however, as the first epidemiologist and demographer. The first edition of Graunt's Observations upon the Bills of Mortality was published between 25 January, 1662, the date of the first epistle dedicatory, and 5 February, 1662, when Graunt presented fifty copies to the Royal Society to be distributed among its members.In the world outside Gresham College as well as among the Fellows of the Royal Society, Graunt's work soon attracted attention. In February 1641, Graunt married Mary Scott, with whom he had one son (Henry) and three daughters. John Graunt, 17th century citizen of London, thought of himself as a haberdasher.