8 On the conception cycle, Carville Earle’s research on All Hallow’s Parish yields the following pattern for the period from 1700 to 1776:
Month of |
Month of |
Percent of Annual |
Monthly Index |
Conception |
Baptism |
Births |
(Monthly Mean = 100) |
Dec-Jan. |
Oct. |
|
|
Jan.-Feb. |
Nov. |
|
|
Feb.-March |
Dec. |
|
|
March-April |
Jan. |
|
|
April—May |
Feb. |
|
|
May—June |
March |
|
|
June-July |
April |
|
|
July-Aug. |
May |
|
|
Aug.-Sept. |
June |
|
|
Sept.-Oct. |
July |
|
|
Oct.-Nov. |
Aug. |
|
|
Nov.—Dec. |
Sept. |
|
|
Computed from data in Earle, in The Evolution of a Tidewater Settlement System, 159; similar but not identical cycles are reported in Rutman, Wetherell and Rutman, “Rhythms of Life,” 30-31; and Kulikoff, Tobacco and Slaves, 256. These data refer to the white population only; as will be discussed in volume 3, the rhythm of seasonality among blacks was different.
9 William Byrd to John Custis, 29 July 1723, Tinling, ed., Correspondence of Three William Byrds, I, 346.