Pre-1841 census records

Pre-1841 census records in the UK

National pre-1841 census records in the UK date back to the first census of Great Britain in 1801. The first census of Ireland followed two decades later.

Pre-1841 census records – Great Britain

In 1801, the first national census of Great Britain was conducted. It involved two concurrent censuses; the Census of England and Wales, and the Census of Scotland. The first census of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man was carried out in 1821 and added to the census report for England and Wales. The census of Great Britain was designed to be a headcount. Hence the full title of the 1800 Population Act:

‘An Act for taking an Account of the Population of Great Britain, and the increase or diminution thereof.’

Population Act 1840

Some personal details were unofficially recorded by enumerators but these details were usually destroyed. Fragments have occasionally survived, such as the 1801 and 1821 Dartford Census (see above link).

Pre-1841 census information

Prior to the census of 1841 the questions asked were broadly the same. Official policy was not to record any personal census information but to record the number of:

• Houses – occupied and unoccupied. (From 1811: unoccupied houses split between new builds and other unoccupied houses).
• Families.
• Males and females.
• People employed in certain occupations (later, this question was revised to number of families). The 1831 census also asked for the occupation of men aged over 20 years.
• Baptisms and burials (with male/female split) – including historic data dating back to 1700.
• Marriages – including historic data dating back to 1735.

(In the 1821 census, there was also a voluntary question relating to age – to the nearest 5 years).

In England and Wales, the Overseers of the Poor were responsible for compiling the census returns, apart from data relating the baptisms, burials and marriage; the clergy were best placed to provide this information by referring to the parish registers. By good fortune, an injunction by Henry VIII to the Church of England dating back to 1538 had compelled the clergy to keep their registers in good order.

In Scotland, the parish registers had not been so well maintained (largely because Henry VIII’s injunction obviously did not have force in Scotland). As a result, the official schoolmaster or similar able bodied person was responsible compiling all the census information.

Pre-1841 census records – Ireland

The first decennial census of Ireland was in 1821 and, whilst held at the same time as its counterparts in England, Wales and Scotland, it was radically different. Most importantly, it collected personal details including name, relationship to the head of the household, age, occupation and location.

The 1831 census was clouded by disagreements over enumerators’ pay and was not considered a success. Nevertheless, it still managed to record the names of the householders and whether each inhabitant was Catholic or Protestant. Competent men were engaged as enumerators, superintended by magistrates and assistant barristers.

Ireland is the only nation of the UK that officially recorded personal information in the pre-1841 census returns. It is a cruel twist of fate that it is these census records that have been largely destroyed by a catastrophic fire at the Four Courts, Dublin in 1922.

Background

A national UK Census was first proposed in the UK Houses of Parliament in the mid-18th Century but it was comprehensively sunk by financial, privacy and religious considerations. Nevertheless, there were some unofficial UK censuses that were carried out around this time.

In Scotland, Webster’s Census of 1755 produced the most reliable set of Scottish population statistics prior to the official census of 1801. There were also local censuses in the UK such as the 1790 Corfe Castle and District Census which provides some remarkable details on the inhabitants of Corfe Castle in Devon.

By the late 18th Century, the argument for an official national census became more compelling. There was a pressing need for Government to determine the number of potential fighting men for the impending Napoleonic Wars. Around the same time, the economist Thomas Malthus was generating panic amongst the governing classes with his ‘Malthusian Theory’ which argued that population control was necessary to avoid inevitable starvation and general misery.

However, it was the statistician John Rickman who was credited with finally persuading Parliament to agree to the first British Census. Author of Thoughts on the utility and facility of a general enumeration of the people of the British Empire, Rickman almost certainly supervised all the pre-1841 Censuses. He died in 1840.

Sources

Great Britain. Census Office. Census of England And Wales. (63 Vict. C. 4.) 1901: General Report With Appendices. London: Printed for H.M. Stationery Office, by Darling & Son, Ltd. 1904.

Ireland. Census Office. Census of Ireland, 1901. Dublin: Printed for H.M. Stationery Off., by Cahill, 1901- 1902. p. 24