Following the
passing of the Census Act in 1800, an almost
unbroken sequence of head counts in Britain began
with the first national census on 10th March 1801.
The one break in the sequence occurred in 1941, when
no census was taken because of the War.
In 1801 the
census was undertaken through house to house enquiry
by the parish Overseers of the Poor, who had to
provide answers to three main questions:
1.
How many inhabited and uninhabited houses and by how
many families occupied?
2. How many males and females?
3. How many employed in (a) Agriculture (b) Trade,
Manufacture & Handicraft and (c) Neither? In larger
parishes information gathering took more than one
day.
The details,
which did not include names or addresses, were
entered onto a prescribed schedule, attested before
a Justice of the Peace and then forwarded to Mr.
John RICKMAN in London. RICKMAN was formerly a clerk
in the House of Commons and had been involved in the
preparation of the Census Bill. He was given the
responsibility by His Majesty’s Privy Council for
collating all the census schedules sent to him. It
took nearly 9 months to arrive at the Official
Population of England & Wales, which in 1801 was
about 8.34 million.
RICKMAN died
in 1840, having played a large part in the first
four censuses. In the same year, the Population Act
was passed, which gave responsibility for future
censuses to the Registrar General and set the
pattern for modern censuses.
In 1904 the
schedules for the first four censuses, which all
followed a similar pattern to the 1801 one, were
destroyed, when it was decided that they were of no
historic value and took up too much room. All that
remains now are the population figures.
Fortunately
for local historians some parishes made copies of
their schedules before despatching them. For
Somerset, a mere handful of such copies exist, but
thanks to the Overseers, Dr Peter Edward SCOBELL and
Richard BROOKE, a full copy of the 1811 schedule for
High Littleton and Hallatrow was entered in the back
of the Overseers Account Book. In 1821, a copy was
made of the individual column totals, but without
any names.
The 1841
Census was taken on Monday 7th June.
This was the first of the censuses to be organised
by the Registrar General and aimed to list the
entire population by name. Being taken in June, it
is likely that a number of persons were not counted
as they moved around the country in search of
seasonal work. Similarly no special arrangements
were made to cater for persons who were on night
work or otherwise out of their homes temporarily on
the night of the census. The information requested
was very simple and consisted of:
Place of abode - often no more than the name of the
village or hamlet was given.
Number of houses inhabited, uninhabited and being
built.
Name, age and sex of each person in the household.
Up to the age of 15 years, ages were required to be
recorded exactly, from 15 to 19 as 15, 20 to 24 as
20, 25 to 29 as 25 and so on. Notwithstanding this
instruction many people gave their actual age.
Profession, Trade, Employment or of Independent
Means. Enumerators were instructed to write J. for
Journeyman, Ap. for Apprentice and Sh. for Shopman
after a person’s trade. It was unnecessary to insert
the word Master, as everyone not described as a
Journeyman or Apprentice was deemed to be a Master.
Other abbreviations used were MS and FS for male and
female servant, Ag. Lab. for agricultural labourer,
Ind. for independent means and Annt. for annuitant.
Where born. The information was required in the form
of Yes or No to the question “whether born in the
same county”. If one was born in Scotland, Ireland
or Foreign Parts, the letters S, I or F had to be
added as appropriate. In some cases the county of
birth was gratuitously recorded, instead of “No” -
contrary to instructions.
The 1851
Census was taken on Sunday 30th
March.
The information provided was far more detailed than
in 1841 and therefore of much greater benefit to
researchers. In particular:
Schedules were listed in walking order, making it
relatively easy to identify the whereabouts of a
particular property.
The name or number of each house and street name was
required to be given, although in a rural district
few houses had names, numbers were generally
non-existent and street names unofficial.
As before, houses inhabited, uninhabited and being
built had to be identified separately.
Schedules were required to be completed by the head
of each household. However, in the absence of clear
instructions, lodgers and servants who lived in were
sometimes recorded as separate households and other
times as part of the main family’s household.
Relationship to the head of the household was shown
for the first time, as was the marital condition of
each person of marriageable age.
Exact ages in years (or days, weeks, months as
appropriate, for children under 1 year) were
required to be shown. However, the person completing
the Schedule was not always accurate and often
guessed the ages of members of the household.
Profession, Trade, Employment” replaced “Rank,
Profession or Occupation” and employers were
instructed to show additional details, such as
number of hands employed and acreage farmed. A
farmer’s family who worked on the farm were to be
described merely as Farmer’s wife, Farmer’s daughter
or son etc.
Where born” called for the name of the parish of
birth and county, rather than a mere Yes or No to
the question “Whether born in the same county”.
However, here again, the person completing the
Schedule sometimes did not check what he answered on
behalf of others.
Persons who were Blind or Deaf or Dumb had to be
identified as such on the Schedule.
The 1861
Census was taken on Sunday 8th April.
The information provided differed in one minor
respect from 1851 in that Imbeciles or Idiots and
Lunatics had to be identified as such on the
Schedule.
Guidance was
given to Enumerators as to what constituted a
household. Thus, a household might consist of
parents, children, live-in servants, visitors and
boarders at the same table, but a lodger
alone or lodgers who boarded together
constituted a separate household, although,
ironically, the head of the latter household would
still be described as Lodger, rather than
Head, on the Schedule.
The 1871
Census was taken on Sunday 2nd April
and followed the pattern of the 1861 one.
The 1881
Census was taken on Sunday 3rd April
and followed the same pattern as 1861 and 1871.
The 1891
Census was taken on Sunday 5th April.
It included two new sections, viz:
The
Occupation section on the Schedule required persons to
be identified as either Employer, Employed or neither
employer nor employed, but working on own account. An
Employer was defined as a master employing in his own
trade workers under him. A married woman who assisted
her husband in his trade was treated as Employed. The
results thrown up by these new occupation requirements
were regarded officially as untrustworthy. Some persons
omitted to complete the section, some (possibly quite
correctly) claimed to be in more than one category and
others appeared from their declared occupations to have
put a cross in the wrong column. Sadly, the new
requirements led to the abandonment of the previous
instructions to provide such additional information as
numbers employed and acreage farmed.
A further attempt was
made to define a household and ease the continuing
difficulties in interpretation. The rather ambiguous
term “lodger” was dropped and an occupier (householder)
was described as a resident owner or a person who pays
rent for a whole house or for a tenement consisting of
one or more rooms. This description only caused more
difficulties in answering the question as to number of
rooms, in that a resident owner was uncertain whether to
include the rooms occupied by his lodger, who was
counted as a separate household.
The 1901
Census was taken on Sunday 31st March
1901.
The questions asked did not differ materially
from those of 1891. There was a small refinement in
the employment questions, where instead of answering
whether one was Employer, Employee or Neither, the
1901 Census required one to state whether Employer,
Worker or Working on Own Account and if one worked
at home.
In the
infirmities section the word Idiot was replaced by
the more politically correct Feeble-minded.
Enumerators
The parish of High Littleton was enumerated in two
districts until 1901, when Charles BODY of Church
Farm, a 21 year old colliery clerk, enumerated the
whole parish himself.
1841 John
DUDDEN & James WEEKS
1851 Isaac COWEN & John SPERRING
1861 Thomas MELHUISH & Isaac COWEN
1871 Thomas MELHUISH & George Emmanuel COWEN
1881 Herbert H.F. CROSS & George Emmanuel COWEN
1891 Miss Myra MELHUISH & George Emmanuel COWEN
1901 Charles BODY
Official
Population of High Littleton and Hallatrow, compared
with England & Wales 1801-1951
The population of High Littleton and Hallatrow
peaked in 1841 at approximately 1,100 and that level
was not reached again for over a hundred
years. Coalmining was by far the largest single
occupation throughout the nineteenth century.
In 1851 no less
than 60% of the population living in the parish were
born there. This percentage reduced in every
successive census, reflecting the general migration
from rural parishes to the larger towns and cities.
Today the number of parishioners actually born in
the parish is very small. This migration can be
clearly demonstrated by comparing the relatively
static population of High Littleton with England and
Wales as a whole.
|
High Littleton & Hallatrow |
England
& Wales |
|
1801 811 |
1801 8.3m |
|
1811 804* (should be 791) |
1811
10.2m |
|
1821 864 |
1821
12.0m |
|
1831 911 |
1831
13.8m |
|
1841 1,112* (should be
1,098) |
1841
15.9m |
|
1851 951 |
1851
18.0m |
|
1861 860 |
1861
20.0m |
|
1871 740 |
1871
22.7m |
|
1881 775 |
1881
26.0m |
|
1891 798 |
1891
29.0m |
|
1901 812 |
1901
32.5m |
|
1911 1,008 |
1911
36.1m |
|
1921 997 |
1921
37.9m |
|
1941 No census |
1941 No
census |
