Life Expectancy

John Wesley lived a LONG time for his time – 87 years. Charles lived until he was 80. They came from a long-lived family – dad Samuel died at 72 and mom Susannah at age 73. Their brother Samuel lived to 49, still pretty good for the time. Liza Picard explains life expectancy in the 18th century like this: 50-60% of London children died before the age of 10 (especially before the age of 2). When adolescents came to London to get jobs, they would sicken and die because they had no immunity to London diseases. For a woman, she then has to get through child-bearing years – no easy feat – and old age was considered to be 30. In England and Wales in 1751 the life expectancy was 36.6 years according to modern-day estimates. However, living in contagious, polluted and over-crowded London, it’s thought expectancy was mid-20s. Don’t you feel really healthy now?

(Picard, Liza. Dr. Johnson’s London: Coffee-Houses and Climbing Boys, Medicine, Toothpaste and Gin, Poverty and Press-Gangs, Freakshows and Female Education (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), 156-57.)