The 1841 Census
Jad Adams explains why the addition of several key questions to the 1841 version of the census makes it the first modern survey of our British ancestors
Make the most of 1841 census records with our advice
The 1841 census is the most valuable of the early ones for family historians. It is called the first modern census because it was the first to list the names of every individual in the country on a single night and count them under central control.
The man who had overseen the first three censuses, John Rickman, died in August 1840 aged 68. He had presided over the operation for four decades; he had been working from his sickbed on
‘The new census procedure was the result of major changes in administration’
the 1841 census, but it now fell to a new generation of officials to take the project forward.
The new census procedure was the result of major changes in administration. The structure of the British state was developing to deal with the social complexities brought about by the Industrial Revolution. The 1835 Municipal Corporations Act, the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and the 1836 Act for Registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England were all responses to these new social challenges.
The first registrar general of births, death and marriages was Thomas Henry Lister, a novelist with aristocratic connections who was asked to oversee the 1841 census.
Feeding into a national mood of progress were the increasingly assertive scientists, some of whom applied themselves to population figures. Learned
statistical societies had been formed in Manchester, London and Glasgow in the 1830s. They had an ambitious programme of statistical goals, and called for a radical change in the organisation of the census. They argued for a wider range of questions including on matters such as health which were not, in fact, included in 1841.
Reviews of the previous censuses had also expressed concern about omissions and crosscounting in enumerations that were conducted over weeks (although the questions all related to who was in a house on a single night). The solution was to take the census at the same time across the whole country, collecting data as fast as possible so people could not be counted in two places.
Compulsory Participation
As previously, the census required an Act of Parliament. The 1840 Population Act for the first time created an offence of refusing to answer a census question, or providing false information, under the threat of a £2–5 fine. England and Wales were already divided into 2,193 registration units for births, marriages and deaths, with a superintendent registrar for each. These districts were subdivided for the census into areas under the control of part-time registrars, often doctors, who commanded an army of enumerators. They were recruited from men who could “read and write well and have some knowledge of arithmetic” and were “temperate, orderly and respectable”.
In Scotland the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths had not yet started; schoolmasters had done well enumerating other censuses so the task was left to them. In Ireland the census was carried out by the lord lieutenant, who deputised the police or other local officials such as coastguards.
The districts an enumerator had to cover were to contain no more than 200 inhabited houses, and no fewer than 25. In the countryside, with greater distances between houses, there were fewer to visit but farther to travel.
The original intention was for enumerators to gather information themselves by houseto-house inquiries, because it was believed that most householders were too illiterate to fill in ‘household schedules’. It became clear that a prohibitive number of enumerators would have to be employed, however, and the civil servants relented and issued forms to householders.
The enumerator left a schedule with each householder. These asked them to enter the name, age and occupation of everyone sleeping in the house on the night of 6 June. The forms were collected the following day by
the enumerator, who would have been up at dawn to do his rounds. He would help householders who had difficulties understanding the forms, or had other impediments such as blindness.
The census schedules filled in by householders were destroyed after the enumerators wrote them up in their books. These enumerators’ books are the records used in research today. Unfortunately, they wrote in pencil which has faded in some cases.
Ages were rounded down to the nearest five-year point for those aged 15 and over. Some enumerators, however, would put down an exact age, if known.
Location, Location, Location
Information was sought as to whether people had been born in the county in which they
were being enumerated. This was a yes/no question. British subjects born in another county, or abroad while their parents were travelling or doing colonial work, were to answer no. The last column was for people who had been born in Scotland, Ireland or “Foreign Parts” with the designation “S”, “I” and “F”. A common abbreviation seen in the records is “NK” for not known.
Relationships between members of the same household are not stated; two people in the same house with the same name might be husband and wife, brother and sister or some other relationship. With precise occupations recorded for the first time, a range of abbreviations appeared for the most common ones such as “Ag” – agricultural labourer; “Cl” – clerk; “J” – journeyman (a qualified worker employed by another person); “m.” as in “clock m.” or “saddle m.” – maker or manufacturer; and “Sh” – shopman.
The armed services were enumerated in their barracks for the first time in this census, and they had their own set of abbreviations including “Army” or “Navy” – any rank of serving soldier or sailor; and “HP” – armed forces living on half-pay.
The census found that there were just over 15 million people in England, just over eight million in Ireland, over 2.5 million in Scotland but fewer than a million (911,603) in Wales. The total came to 26,707,091.
There was considerable internal migration, with 426,000 people born in Ireland having moved to England, Scotland and Wales in search of better opportunities.
There had been a 10 per cent increase in population since the previous census, but the rise was smaller than it would have been if there had not been mass emigration. During the previous 10 years 429,775 people had emigrated from English and Welsh ports, mainly heading to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.