European Heights in the Early 18th Century

We estimate the height of various European populations in the first
half of the 18th century. English and Irish male heights are
estimated at c. 65 inches (165 cm), and c. 66 inches (168 cm)
respectively. These values are below those obtained from the only
other sample available for the period pertaining to British and
Irish men, namely those of runaway indentured and convict servants
in colonial North America, whose height is estimated as between
66.4 and 67.0 inches (168,7 and 170,2 cm). At c. 64.5 inches (164
cm) Saxon, German and Scotch military heights appear to be near the
bottom of the European height distribution in this period. The
English were about as tall as Bohemians and French, but shorter
than the Irish and Hungarians. A large decline in English heights
is evident among the birth cohorts of 1725-29, suggesting that the
subsistence crisis of this period must have had a substantial
lasting impact on the nutritional status of the cohort born during
a time of nutritional deprivation.