FOCUS ON: EARLY CENSUSES
Paul Blake explains how Britain’s earliest censuses can confirm your ancestors’ personal details and whereabouts
Paul Blake shows how to get more from the 1801-1831 censuses
The early census returns have often been ignored by family historians because of their poor survival and the lack of information they are believed to contain. Both are true. Nevertheless, they can be of enormous benefit for family, local and social historians.
The United States had taken its first federal census in 1790. And compared with several other European countries, the UK came late to the game. In the years leading up to the end of the 18th century, bad harvests and food shortages were seen as warnings of an impending financial crisis. Also, Britain was at war with France. Much of the impetus for the passing of the 1800 Census Act, “An act for taking an account of the population of Great Britain, and the increase or diminution thereof ”, was to answer vital questions about the human resources available to carry on the war and produce the food required to feed the nation.
In England and Wales, and Scotland census day was chosen as 10 March 1801 or “as soon after that date as possible”. The census was in two parts: the first concerned itself with the people: their occupations and size of families, and number of houses, while the second part was the collection of the numbers of baptisms, marriages and burials, intended to indicate the rate at which the population was increasing or decreasing. The result was an enumerated population for England and Wales of 8.87 million. To this was added just under half-a- million military personnel, seamen and convicts, resulting in an estimated total of 9.4 million.
In England and Wales, the local administration was performed by officers appointed to administer the Poor Law, and by the local clergy of the Established Church. This system continued for the three subsequent censuses. In Scotland, the administration was undertaken by schoolmasters. Individual households were visited and the required information was gathered, then the raw statistical summaries were submitted to the Home Office. In 1801, these
“An act for taking an account of the population of Great Britain and the increase or diminution thereof”
included: the number of inhabited houses and by how many families; the number of uninhabited houses; the number of males and of females; the number of persons employed in agriculture or in trade, manufacture or handicrafts or neither; together with the calculated total of all persons, exclusive of those serving in the army, militia, Royal Navy or merchant service. The following censuses of 1811, 1821 and 1831 all improved on that of 1801.
Rising population
The 1811 census was taken on 27 May and the population was found to have risen to 10.1 million. Although very similar to the 1801 census, information was now taken about families rather than individuals engaged in particular occupation groups. And a distinction was made between uninhabited houses and those being built.
The 1821 census, taken on 28 May, was the first to measure the age of the population, in five-year bands up to 20, and ten-year bands beyond. This revealed that almost half of the population was under 20 years of age, compared with around a quarter today. 1821 also saw the first full census for Ireland.
The 1831 census was taken on 30 May when the question about age, first included in the previous census, was removed, to return in 1841. However, in-depth questions were asked regarding the occupation of males aged 20 years and over. These included classifications of: agriculture, manufacturing or making machinery, retail trade or handicraft, merchants, bankers, miners, fishermen and so on. Two printed ‘formulae’ were provided: the first to record the general data; the second to record the detailed occupations of males aged 20 and over.
The details of households and individuals that were collected were solely for the purpose of compiling the summaries to be sent to the Home Office, who later destroyed them in 1913. There was no requirement to return the details recorded locally to the Home Office, nor to keep the information that had often been painstakingly gathered by the local enumerators. As a result, relatively few have survived.
But there are survivals for parishes from most parts of the country. For 1801, 1811 and 1821 these may just be in cheap exercise books, and for 1831 the completed formulae may have survived. For England, Wales and Scotland, surviving records are all held locally, mainly in county record offices. There are no returns held centrally, at The National Archives or elsewhere.
Scotland’s census was run from London from 1801-1841. As with England and Wales the few remaining records are held at local archives. For the Channel Islands, there appears to be only one survival, for the Vale, Guernsey, in 1821. The Isle of Man appears to have no survivals. For Ireland, a few fragments for 1821 and 1831 are at the National Archives of Ireland with copies held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
Admittedly the survival rate is low and usually only the heads of household are named, but this is the period immediately before general registration began and to be able to identify, or confirm, where a family was living at the time of these first four decennial censuses could prove to be of enormous value.