The following is taken from a contemporary pamphlet:—

“A Particular of the new buildings within the Bills of Mortality, and without the City of London, from the year 1656 to 1677, according to the account now taken by the churchwardens of the several Parishes and the old account of New Houses from 1620 to 1656, and what they did amount to at one whole year’s value, as appears by the Duplicate in the Exchequer:

The total of the New Buildings from 1656 to 1677 is about Ten Thousand.

The Total from 1620 to 1656 was about Seven Thousand Five Hundred.

Their value at one year’s rent about Seventy Thousand Pound if it had been collected.

Though the particular makes the number but 6646, and the sum but 57,606 Pounds, some Parishes being wanting.

As there have been great mistakes about the Damage and Nuisance by the increase of New Buildings in the Suburbs: so by this we may see the mistake to be as great about their number and value; some reporting their number to be Twenty Thousand; others Thirty Thousand: though it is very plain to any man that considers that their number cannot be much above Ten Thousand, for that the Total of all the Houses, both New and Old, both in the City and in the Bills of Mortality, are not Threescore Thousand.

That this is true, and that the number from 1656 to 1677 cannot much exceed Ten Thousand, will appear by comparing the Increase of the Burials from 1620 to 1656 with the particular of the New Houses built within that time....

The Medium is the Increase of two Burials for every five houses that were built, so that the Increase of Two Thousand Five Hundred Houses raises the Burials One Thousand.

And If we examine the Increase of the Burials from 1656 to 1677 we shall find them to be about Four Thousand, which being but a fourth more than were from 1620 to 1656. The new houses since that time cannot be reckoned above a Fourth, which makes the Total about Ten Thousand.

And this way of calculation, though it may not exactly discover the particular number of Houses, yet it is sufficient to prove there can be no mistake of Thousands in the Account: for that the Inhabitants of two or three Thousand Houses would have added a visible Increase to the Burials.

And to fully justify this computation, it agrees very well with the calculation made by the Ingenious Mr. Grant both of the Total number of the Inhabitants within the Bills of Mortality, and his probable guess that about three in one hundred die, allowing twelve Inhabitants to every House, one with another, which no man I suppose will dispute.

This will apparently confute that wild conjecture of some, who report that there is Three Thousand Five Hundred New Houses in St. Martin’s Parish, when the Burials of that Parish are not above Eighteen Hundred in a year: so that the Total of New and Old in that Parish cannot be above Four Thousand Five Hundred, and therefore it is probable that the Account of 1780 now given in is very true.

The conjectures of many concerning the value of these Houses, that they will make twenty pounds a year one with another, and raise two or three Thousand pounds, are as false as about the number of them.

For Ten Thousand Houses will not raise about fifty Thousand pounds, it being the half years value at ten pounds a year one with another, which is the most they can be reckoned at.

As will plainly appear from the account of the value of those seven thousand five hundred Houses, which did not amount to Seventy Thousand pound at a whole year’s value, as appears by the Duplicate in the Exchequer, they are making one with another ten pound a year.

Now the great houses in the Piazza, Lincolns-Inn-Fields, and Queen-street, were equal in value to these twenty-two Houses in St. James Square, or Bloomsbury Square, or other places: and are more in number of that sort of Houses than have been built since.

Besides the middle sort of Houses in the streets of Covent-Garden, Long-Acre, Clare-Market, Old-Southampton Buildings, and other places have equall’d both the number and value of Leicester-Fields, Bloomesbury, York-Buildings, Essex-Buildings and the rest. And the number of the small houses at four and five pounds per Annum since 1656 are much greater.

So that upon enquiry it is plain that the Houses that were built before 1656 were equal in value to what have been built since. And therefore it is not probable that a Tax upon the New foundation can raise above Fifty Thousand Pound, which considered with the charge of collecting it, and the loss of His Majesties customes upon Timber, Boards, Wainscot and Iron, being not less than Ten Thousand pound per annum, which will be occasioned by the discouraging of Building will not bring in Thirty Thousand pounds clear into the Exchequer, if it were possible to make the Law so that all might be collected.

But not to mention how hard the purchasers of New Houses will believe such a Law to be, having paid a valuable consideration for them and offended no Law.

Nor how severe the Workmen Builders will think they are dealt with, to be punished for exercising their lawful Trades.

Nor how partial it will be to those that build since 1656, that have already paid a year’s value. Not to mention what the owners of the great houses that have been altered think, not being allowed the £500 a year which their Houses yielded before: since they pay for improvement by the building of their Gardens.

Nor what is general all those sufferers will think, who believe they have done good service to the nation by Building. The Law will have this peculiar disadvantage, it will be impossible so to word it, or to comprize all men’s interests, so as to raise that money as shall be designed by it. For after the Commissioners of Oliver’s Act had set four years, they did pay in Twenty Thousand pounds into the Exchequer of the £70,000 that was returned upon the Duplicates.”