BILGE WATER.-The water that collects in the bottom of a ship by leakage or otherwise. When a ship is tight, the bilge water pumped up is dark; in a leaky ship, clear. It has usually a peculiar and offensive smell. BILGED. In nautical phrase having the bottom of a ship stove in. The lower or flat part of the bottom of a ship on which she rests when aground is called the "bilge" of a ship. The word is prob. connected with "bulge." BILIOUS (bilis, bile).—A term employed to characterize a class of diseases caused by a too copious secretion of bile. Biliary concretions.--Concretions occurring in some part of the biliary apparatus, comprising all the parts concerned in the secretion and concretion of the bile.-Hoblyn. BILLINGSLEY, MR. CASE, was the acting partner in the firm of Bradley and Billingsley, Solicitors, Mercers Hall, for several years preceding 1720; and his name frequently occurs in connexion with the various applications for charters to carry on marine and other branches of ins. [ANNU. ON LIVES.] [LIFE INS., HIST. OF] [MARINE INS., HIST. OF.] BILLINGSLEY'S INSURANCE.-An account of this project, set on foot in 1716, will be found under MARINE INS, HIST. OF. BILL OF EXCHANGE.-An instrument (generally on a long and narrow slip of paper), which contains an order of payment on a debtor at a distance from his creditor, and which may thus become a means for liquidating transactions by transference to some third party, without the actual conveyance of specie. Bills of exchange are generally stated to have been invented by the Jews of Lombardy concurrently with marine ins. There can be no doubt that the same development of commerce which rendered bills of exchange a desirable medium of payment for merchandize transmitted from a distance, rendered marine ins. also a necessity as a means of maintaining the credit of the merchant in the event of maritime disaster. That prob. is the extent of the connexion. Beckmann (Hist. of Inventions) says the first bills of exchange are mentioned by the jurist Baldus, and bore date A.D. 1328; but that they were not in common use until the following century. A bill of exchange is assignable at Common Law by mere indorsement, so that very many names are frequently attached to one bill, and each, any, or all of them may be sued upon the bill if it be not paid in due time. The person who makes or draws the bill is technically called the drawer; he to whom it is addressed is before acceptance the drawee, and after acceptance the acceptor; the person in whose favour it is drawn is the payee or holder; if he indorse the bill to another, he is called the indorser; and the person to whom it is thus assigned or negociated is the indorsee or holder; and so on ad infinitum. In 1833, by 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 98, s. 7, bills of exchange and promissory notes having not more than three months to run were declared to be not subject to the Usury Laws. In 1837, by 7 Geo. IV. c. 80, this exemption was extended to bills, etc., at or within 12 months. On the abolition of the Usury Laws, all these distinctions were happily swept away. Bills of exchange drawn or negociated in Great Britain are subject to the Stamp Laws; as also are foreign bills negociated here. BILL OF GROSS ADVENTURE.—an instrument in writing which contains a contract of bottomry respondentia, and every species of maritime loan.-French Law. BILL OF HEALTH-A certificate or instrument signed by Consuls or other proper authorities, delivered to the masters of ships at the time of their clearing out from all ports or places suspected of being particularly subject to infectious disorders, certifying the state of health at the time such ship sailed. A clean bill imports that at the time the ship sailed no infectious disorder was known to exist. A suspected bill, commonly called a touched patent or bill, imports that there were rumours of an infectious disorder, but that it had not actually appeared. A foul bill, or the absence of clean bills, imports that the place was infected when the vessel sailed.-McCulloch's Com. Dic. Bills of health were issued in Italy as early as 1527. BILL OF LADING.-A memorandum signed by masters of ships, in their capacity of carriers, acknowledging the receipt of merchants' goods, of which there are usually three partsone kept by the consignor, one sent to the consignee, and one preserved by the master. It is the evidence of the title of the goods shipped, and by its indorsement and delivery the transfer of the property in the goods specified therein is generally effected. And the bills of lading do declare what goods are laden, and bindeth the master to deliver them well conditioned to the place of discharge, according to the contents of the charter-party; binding himself, his ship, tackle, and furniture of it, for the performance thereof. Of these bills of lading, there is commonly three bills of one tenor made of the whole ship's lading, or of many particular parcels of goods, if there be many laders; and the marks of the goods must therein be expressed, and of whom received, and to whom to be delivered. These bills of lading are commonly to be had in print in all places, and several languages. One of them is inclosed in the letters written by the same ship, another bill is sent overland to the factor or party to whom the goods are consigned, the third remaineth with the merchant, for his testimony against the master, if there were any occasion or loose dealing; but especially it is kept for to serve in case of loss, to recover the value of the goods of the assurers that have undertaken to bear the adventure with you.-Malynes, 1755. VOL. I. 19 Bills of lading thus have a very intimate bearing upon marine ins. We have not been able to trace the origin of these instruments. The earliest one we have met with was in Philadelphia a few years since. It bears date 1711. We place by the side of it a bill as now in use: Shipped, in good order, and wellconditioned, by in and upon the whereof is good ship called the being marked and numbered as in the Shipped, by the grace of God, in good order, and well-conditioned, by Pentecost Teague, in and upon the good sloop called the St. James, whereof is master under God for this present voyage William Wade, and now riding at anchor in the port Philadelphia, and, by God's grace, bound for Carosoe; to say sixteene half barrells of flower, three terces of bread, two boxes of candles, on ye proper account and risk of said Pentecost Teague, and goes consigned to said William Wade, marked and numbered as in the margin, and are to be delivered in the like good order and well-conditioned at the aforesaid port of Carosoe (the danger of the seas only excepted), unto said William Wade, or to his assigns, he or they paying fraight for the said goods eight pounds per tunn, with primage and average accustomed. In witness whereof, the master or purser of the said ship hath affirmed to three bills of lading all of this tenor and date, the one of which three bills being accomplished, the other two to stand void. And so God send the good ship to her desired port in safety. Amen. Dated, in Philadelphia, ye 18th 2nd mo. 1711. (Signed), William Wade. :, or of this tenor and date, the one of which Dated, in . . ., the . . ., 18 By 18 & 19 Vict. c. 111 (1855), the rights of suit under a bill of lading vest in the consignee or indorsee, without prejudice to any right of stoppage in transitu or of freight. By the 23 & 24 Vict. c. 22 (1860), s. 21, a bill of lading becomes the entry or shipping-bill of goods exported. BILLS OF MORTALITY.-B. of mort. are abstracts from parish registers, showing, as their name imports, the numbers that have died in any parish or place during certain periods of time, as in each week, month, or year; and are accordingly denominated weekly, monthly, or yearly bills. They sometimes include the numbers of the baptisms during the same periods, and generally (in later times) those of the marriages. The hist. of B. of mort. occupies an important place in the development of the science of life contin. Each successive step in this direction may be said to have been either dependent upon, or to have led to, improvements in the early bills. It seems hardly too much to say that if there had been no B. of mort. there would have been no T. of mort., and hence no life ins. conducted on exact scientific principles. The B. of mort. have been used in various ways, and for various purposes. Sydenham, it is evident, had the Lond. bills before him in writing his imperishable commentaries. Arbuthnot used them in an argument on Divine Providence, and in the interests of morality He shows from these bills that males always exceed females in the yearly births, but that external accidents make great havoc among males. He concludes, therefore, that polygamy is contrary to the law of nature and justice. Heberden, in a masterly paper, illustrated the use of the weekly obs., and deduced from them an important law, the Influence of Cold upon Health. Simpson and Price constructed life T. from the Lond. bills. Dr. Farr, 27th Report of R. G. Her Rome had its B. of mort. (Rationes Libitina), which were kept in the Temple of Libitina, the Goddess of Funerals. Her officers were the Libitinarii, our undertakers. temple in which all the business connected with the last rites was transacted-served the purpose of a regis. office. At this temple an account (ratio, ephemeris) was kept of those who died; and a small sum was paid for the regis. of their names.-Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities. We have it on the authority of Dr. Short, that B. of mort. were kept in some of the country parishes of England as early as 1538; and indeed he gives the bills for Worksop (Notts) and Melton-on-Hill (Yorkshire) for that year. He did not find any at an earlier date, although he entered upon a most painstaking inquiry for the purpose. [DEATH, CAUSES OF.] [PARISH REGISTERS.] It is generally stated by writers upon the subject that the first B. of mort. for the city of Lond. was pub. at the close of 1592; but it is now known that a bill was pub. at least 30 years earlier, viz., in 1562, in support of whch position we here quote the following interesting passage from Maitland: As neither the parish clerks' account nor that pub. by Mr. Graunt take any notice of the first B. of mort. pub. in this city for the year 1562, nor of those for the years 1593 and 1603, I shall supply these defects from the great and valuable library of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., which, by the vast number of its books and generosity of its owner, is rendered as useful as any of the publick libraries within the city or suburbs of Lond. In the year 1562 a grievous pestilence raged in this city; therefore, in order to know the increase and decrease of the same, 'twas judg'd necessary to take an account of the number of burials, which being the first of the kind that was ever taken in Lond., it commenced on the 1st Jan., 1562, and ended the last of Dec., whereby it appears that the total number buried within the city and suburbs in that year amounted to 23,630, whereof of the plague, 20,136.-Hist. of Lond. Here is an extract from the bill so referred to as given by Stow : Buried in London, and the places near adjoining, from the 1st. of Jan. 1562, to the 1st of Jan. 1563, in the whole number Whereof of the plague The true number of all that were buried within the Citie and Liberties... ... ... ... 23,630 20,136 20,414 3216 Then follows the numbers who died in each parish, making up the above totals. There is now in good preservation at the Hall of the Parish Clerks a printed B. of Mort. for the year 1582, as follows:-The number of all those that hath dyed in the Citie of London, & the liberties of the same, from the 28 of December, 1581, vnto the 27 of December 1582, with the Christenings; and also the number of all those that have dyed of the plague of eury parish particularly.—Reuela. 14 chap. Blessed are the deade that die in the Lorde, even so sayth the Spirite, for they rest from their labours. There is deade this yeere, that is to say, fro. the 28 of December 1581 unto the 27 of December 1582 within the citie and the liberties of the same .. Of the plague Christened Parishes clear of the plague Of the plague ... vi.MD.cccc.xxx iii. M. lxxv. iii. MDiii V. CCCCXXX. ссхххіх Here followeth the parishes with their numbers, that hath been buried of the plague. [Making up the above totals.] In 1592, the plague again appearing in Lond., the Fraternity of St. Nicholas instituted and provided a weekly account of the burials, which at the end of the year-Dec. 21, 1592, to Dec. 21, 1593-were announced as amounting to 17,844; "whereof have died of the plague, 10,662; christened this year, 4021; parishes clear of the plague, none." -Parish Clerks' Register. The following is a copy of a bill, given from March to Dec. of the same year [1592] by the author of the Four Great Plagues, pub. in 1665: The total of all the burials of the time above said 11,503 This is the bill which is generally, but as we have seen erroneously, spoken of as the "first Lond. B. of Mort.' The first occasion of the weekly bills being issued to the public was in 1594. The charge for them was 4s. p.a. Dr. Farr speaks of it as a part of the general measures of the able Gov. of Queen Elizabeth that "abstracts of burials, baptisms, and marriages, were directed to be compiled in each parish; and persons were appointed to view the bodies of all that died before they were suffered to be buried, and to certify of what prob. disease each individual died, in statements of which it was the duty of the minister to make a weekly return." In this way we may account for the bills being found to exist in places which are now regarded as obscure. [PAROCHIAL REGISTRATION.] The plague still continuing, weekly accounts of burials were issued to 18th Dec. 1595, when the practice was again abondoned, the plague having subsided in the course of the year. Old Stow, in his Survey of Lond., first pub. 1598, says: To know how the City stands in regard of the health and sickness of the inhabitants, the weekly B. of mort, were appointed long ago, carefully and wisely. That so if any infectious disease were found to reign, means might be used for the stopping it, and preventing the deaths of innumerable citizens. Hereby also are many other advantages gained, as to know the populousness of the City, nay, of the whole kingdom, as some ingenious men that have made observations on these bills have discovered. It may be noted here that these early bills included but 109 parishes, which parishes were all alphabetically arranged, and no distinction was made between the out-parishes and those within the walls. At a later date (1665) this was rectified. In 1603, the plague re-appearing, the B. of mort. were resumed, and were thenceforth continued uninterruptedly, without being merely dependent upon plague visitations. They were commonly examined as matters of curiosity, or were consulted by the heads of families anxious to ascertain the healthiness of the City before repairing to it, or selecting it as a place of abode. Thus Lord Salisbury, writing to Prince Henry, the son of James I., says, "Be wary of Londoners, for there died here 123 last week." Copies of the orig. bills for 1602, 1603, and 1604, are now existing in the library of the Corp. of Lond. By the bill commencing 17th Dec., 1602, and ending Dec., 1603, the total deaths regis. were 42,042, whereof of the plague, 36,269. Another bill for the same year gives the figures respectively as 37,294 and 30,561; but we believe this only extended from March to Dec. The entire area included in the bills up to this date was 1853 acres. Between 1604 and 1606 the area was much extended; and then included 97 parishes within the walls, 16 parishes without the walls, and 6 contiguous out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey. It is evident from the foregoing that the existence of the plague conferred upon the B. of mort. their chief value and interest. The Lord Mayor every week transmitted a copy to the Court. The bills of the Co. of Parish Clerks were then professedly made to the "Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, and the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor." Here is a copy of the bill for the year 1606: The whole Year's Collection of all the Burials and Christenings, as well within the Cittie of Lond. and the Liberties thereof, and the Pesthouse: As also in the 9 Out-Parishes, adjoyning to the Citie, and out of the Freedom, from Thursday the Nineteenth of December Anno Domini 1605, to Thursday, the Five-and-Twentieth of December Anno Domini 1606, according to the report made to the King's Most Excellent Majestie, by the Co. of the Parish Clerks of Lond. Buried this yeare in the four score and sixteene parishes of Lond. within the walls Buried this yeare in the sixteene parishes of Lond. within the Liberties and without the walls, as also in the Pesthouse adjoyning to Lond. The whole summe of all the burials in Lond, and the Liberties thereof, together with the Whereof of the plague Pesthouse, this year is... Whereof of the plague Buried this year in the nine out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey 2643 72 3998 1078 6641 1780 1279 344 7920 2124 6614 17 Christened in the foresaid places this year... Parishes that haue been infected this year 104 It seems necessary to warn readers of these early bills not to interpret the term "christened" as synonymous with "born." The former merely represented such a proportion of births as were regis. in connexion with the rites of the Estab. Church. This obs. appears necessary, lest it might be supposed that, as the number specified in the bills as buried exceeded the number christened, the City was gradually being depopulated an inference which misled several authors at a subsequent period.-Farren. The regis. christenings were deficient, because (1) theological opinions were entertained by some unfavourable to the baptismal rite; (2) there were occasionally religious scruples on the part of the Christian ministers regarding the worthiness of parents to have their children baptized; and (3)—what prob. formed the chief difficulty-there was a small fee for regis.-Graunt. In 1611 the Fraternity of St. Nicholas procured a Charter from James I., incorp. them as the Co. of Parish Clerks; and they were formally entrusted with the future regulation and issue of the Lond. bills, which they had superintended since 1592. The Fraternity of St. Nicholas had been incorp. as early as 1233 by Charter, 17 Hen. III. The following is a copy of the bill issued at the close of 1624; but headed "1623" and "1624," prob. from a part of the former year being included in it : The General Bill for the whole year of all the Burials and Christenings, as well within the City of Lond., and the Liberties thereof, as in the nine out-parishes adjoyning to the City, with the Pesthouse belonging to the same: from Thursday the 18th of Dec., 1623, to Thursday the 16th Dec., 1624, according to the report made to the King's Most Excellent Majesty by the Co. of Parish Clerks of Lond. Buried this year in the fourscore and seventeen parishes of Lond. within the walls 5934 5 The whole sum of all the burials in Lond. and the Liberties thereof in this year... ... Buried of the plague, without the Liberties in Middlesex and Surrey, this whole year Buried this year in the nine out-parishes adjoyning to Lond. and out of the Freedom The total of all the burials in the places aforesaid is Christened in all the aforesaid places this year... Parishes that have been infected this year ... ... ... ... ... 6 8299 116 II In 1625, being a plague year, every parish was particularized as we have seen was the case in 1562. This was called a "Great Bill," and was in the following form: 1624-1625. A general, or great bill for this year of the whole number of burials, which have been buried of all Diseases, and also of the Plague, in every Parish within the City of Lond. and the Liberties thereof; as also in the nine out-parishes adjoyning the said City, with the Pesthouse belonging to the same, from Thursday the 16th day of Dec., 1624, to Thursday the 15th day of Dec., 1625, according to the report made to the King's Most Excellent Majesty by the Co. of Parish Clerks of Lond. Albanes in Woodstreet Mary le Bow Alhallows Stainings 183 138 Mary Bothaw Alhallows the Wall 310 155 Mary Coal-church Alphage Cripple-gate 240 190 Mary at the Hill Andrew-Hubbard Andrews Undershaft Andrews by Wardrobe Mary Mounthaw 58 Mary Sommerset Mary Stainings 44 Anns at Aldergate Anns Black-Friers Antholins Parish Austins Parish Bennets Fink... Bennets at Pauls Wharf Bennets-Shearhog Mary Woolchurch 35 Mary Woolnoth 50 18 Bartholomew at the Exchange Bennets Grace-Church Martins Orgars 88 47 Botolphs Billings-gate St. Fosters in Foster Lane Gabriel Fen-Church Georges Botolphs-lane Gregories by Pauls... Hellens in Bishops-gate St. James by Garlick-hith John Baptist... ... Michael in the Quern Michael in the Royal John Evangelist John Zacharies Peters in Cheap James Dukes-place Peters in Corn-hill 318 Katherine, Coleman-st. 260 175 Peters in Pauls Wharf 97 Katherine Cree-Church Lawrence in the Jewrie Lawrence Pountney Leonards Eastcheap Leonards Foster-lane Thomas Apostles Trinity Parish 141 148 107 87 Margarets Lothbury ... Buried in the 16 Parishes without the walls, standing part within the Liberties and part without; in Middlesex and Surrey and at the Pest House Trinity in the Minories ... ... 14340 Georges Southwark 1608 912 ... 3988 2338 3689 2609 Saviours in Southwark Thomas in Southwark |
