Family Limitation and Age at Marriage: Fertility Decline in Sturbridge, Massachusetts 1730-1850.

The question of the timing of the American fertility decline has recently been re-opened. Until the 1960s historians and demographers had assumed that the long term decline in American fertility began in the late nineteenth century, with urban areas leading rural ones in both the onset and the magnitude of the decline. This study examines the fertility behavior of the population of Sturbridge, Massachusetts, from the founding of the town in the early eighteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century. The social history of the town during this period is fairly representative of that of rural central New England as a whole. The data upon which this study of fertility is based have been drawn from family reconstitution of the vital records of the town for the period from 1730 to 1850. While there are family reconstitution forms (FRFs) for approximately 2,400 marital unions over the 120 year period, the rate of geographical mobility, the underregistration of deaths, and changes in the boundaries of the town greatly reduce the number of FRFs available for analysis. How can this early fertility decline be explained? The demographic processes through Which the decline took place must be elucidated before the question of causality can be raised. Change in the mean age of women at first marriage was a powerful factor in determining change in the mean number of children ever born. The increase in female age at marriage accounts for about half of the decrease in completed family size over the period.