Census of England and Wales, 1821

Edward Higgs

The 1821 census was the third decennial census undertaken by John Rickman. Its organisation was similar to the first two censuses of 1801 and 1811. The Act, Census Act, 1820 (1 George IV c. 94), was again titled "An Act for taking an Account of the Population of Great Britain, and the increase or diminution thereof". The schedule of the Act for the census of 1821 carried the following questions for overseers of the poor in England and Wales, and for schoolmasters in Scotland:

1. How many inhabited houses are there in your parish, township or place; by how many families are they occupied?

2. How many houses are now building, and therefore not yet inhabited?

3. How many other houses are uninhabited?

4. What number of families in your parish, township or place, are chiefly employed in and maintained by agriculture; how many families are chiefly employed in and maintained by trade, manufacture or handicraft; and how many families are not comprized in either of the two preceding classes?

5. How many persons (including children of whatever age) are there actually found within the limits of your parish, township, or place, at the time of taking this account, distinguishing males and females, and exclusive of men actually serving in his majesty's regular forces or the old militia, or any embodied local militia, and exclusive of seamen either in his majesty's service or belonging to registered vessels?

6. Referring to the number of persons in 1811, to what cause do you attribute any remarkable difference in the number at present?

7. If you are of opinion that in making the preceding enquiries (or at any time before returning this schedule), the ages of the several individuals can be obtained in a manner satisfactory to yourself, and not inconvenient to the parties, be pleased to state (or cause to be stated) the number of those who are under five years of age, of those between 5 and 10 years of age, between 10 and 15, between 15 and 20, between 20 and 30, between 30 and 40, between 40 and 50, between 50 and 60, between 60 and to, between 70 and 80, between 80 and 90, between 90 and 100, and upwards of 100, distinguishing males from females; and are there any other matters which you may think it necessary to remark in explanation of your answers to this or any of the preceding questions; and in what manner and to what place of residence or post office town are letters intended for you usually directed?

These questions were addressed to those responsible for taking the census by house-to-house enquiries on 28 May 1821, or as soon as possible thereafter.

The schedule of the Census Act of 1821 carried the following questions for the clergy in England and Wales:

1. What was the number of baptisms and burials in your parish, township or place, in the several years 1811, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20; distinguishing males from females?

2. What was the number of marriages in your parish, township or place, in the several years 1811, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20?

3. Are there any matters, which you think it necessary to remark, in explanation of your answers to either of the preceding questions? Especially whether any and what annual average number of baptisms, burials and marriages, may, in your opinion, taken place in your parish, without being entered in the parish registers?

Because of the paucity of parish returns from Scotland in 1801, the above questions were not asked there in 1821.

These questions were almost identical to those asked in 1811, with the exception of those regarding ages. This information on age structure was gathered partly in order to improve the life tables upon which friendly societies and life insurance schemes could be based, and partly to establish the number of men able to bear arms (Minutes of Evidence taken (Session 1830) before the Select Committee on the Population Bill, 6–7, 25–7).

All the census returns had to be made on forms that were attached to the schedule of the act (Higgs, 1989, 116). These forms merely asked for the insertion of raw numbers (Higgs, 1989, 22). In order to make the returns, some overseers drew up nominal listings of the inhabitants of their parishes from which the final returns were compiled. In some areas printers produced printed forms for this purpose. In London and elsewhere printed schedules were left for householders to fill up themselves. These unofficial documents were retained locally amongst the Poor Law records, or in the parish chest (Higgs, 1989, 24–6).

The official returns made by the overseers were to be sent to the Home Office not later than 1st August. There they were to be "digested and reduced to Order by such Officer as such Secretary of State (for the Home Department) shall appoint for the Purpose". Returns compiled from the parish registers had to be forwarded by the clergy to the bishop of the diocese, who was required to send them to his archbishop, who sent them to the Privy Council. The job of preparing the abstracts of the returns that were laid before Parliament was given to John Rickman (Higgs, 1989, 6).

In 1821 the published Report was in three parts. The Preliminary Observations reproduced the questions asked, and gave a general commentary on the returns. An Enumeration Abstract gave the numbers of houses, families in economic groups, and persons in counties, hundreds and parishes, and the ages of persons by hundreds. The Parish Register Abstract returned the numbers of baptisms, burials and marriages in each of the years 1811 to 1820 for hundreds and towns in England and Wales.

REFERENCES

Census of Great Britain, 1821, Abstract of the answers and returns made pursuant to an Act, passed in the first year of the reign of His Majesty King George IV, intituled, "An Act for taking an account of the population of Great Britain, and of the increase or diminution thereof". Preliminary observations. Enumeration abstract. Parish register abstract, 1821, BPP 1822 XV. (502). [View this document: Observations, enumeration and parish register abstracts, 1821]

Edward Higgs, Making sense of the census. The manuscript returns for England and Wales, 1801–1901 (London, 1989).

Minutes of Evidence taken (Session 1830) before the Select Committee on the Population Bill BPP 1840 XV [396].