Most didn’t live long enough to die of cancer.

I think infant mortality was high, and the likelihood of simple infection killing you was high.

One rusty nail - one splinter of wood could be your end. I tried to visualize once what can kill you, without anti-biotics - its incredible how many death traps are everywhere.Just one tool splintering into your hand with dirt on it and you were done for.

Which explains why manual labour was so feverishly avoided by anyone "upper class". Death roulette is not for the important people.

Those shovelling peasants were every day risking their life and were thus "expendable".

Even sports could kill you: US President Coolidge’s son died of an infection from a blister after playing tennis in the White House garden in 1924.

Medical info, including infection deaths for former presidents and their families:

https://coolidgefoundation.org/blog/the-medical-context-of-c...

A few things, I assume that growing up in a tough manual labour world people would be 1) thicker 2) smarter at handling tools to avoid injuries[0].

That said it's impressive how easy it is to pierce your body with just about anything when just enough effort is involved and I doubt they had ergonomic tools and safety equipment too. Even gloves are a luxury.