Census Act 1800

The idea of a census had been championed, in the House of Commons, by Charles Abbot, MP for Helston, Cornwall, and future Speaker of the House of Commons. Prompted by the 1800 crop failure, which led to significant increases in food prices, a manufacturing recession and mass unemployment, and riots, Abbot believed the crisis could be solved, and future crises averted, by better knowledge of population, "wise legislation and good government". A census, Abbot argued, would enable the government to plan the distribution of grain supplies more effectively.[2] Learning from a 1753 attempt to introduce an individual-level census combined with civil registration of births, marriages and deaths,[3][4] Abbot's plan was designed to collect only a limited amount of information.[5][6] Abbot was assisted in his plan by John Rickman who was a clerk in the House of Commons. Rickman subsequently undertook the analysis of the results and the preparation of abstracts and reports from the 1801 census (and the three following censuses).[7]

The 1801 census was geared to collecting data on an aggregate rather than an individual basis.[8] Only statistical summaries were to be provided to the Government in Whitehall, on government issued enumeration forms: authorities neither requested nor required information about individuals.[9][10] Information was to be collected from every household by census enumerators who in England and Wales were usually the local Overseers of the Poor,[11] aided by constables, tithingmen, headboroughs and other officers of the peace.[12] In March 1801 every Overseer was charged with walking to every house or dwelling in their parish and from their visits compiling the following data for their area (parish, township or place):[13]

• the number of inhabited houses and the number of families inhabiting them, and the number of uninhabited houses;
• the number of people, by sex, excluding men on active military service;
• the number of people occupied in agriculture, in trade, manufacture or handicraft, or not occupied in those classes;
• any other remarks.[14]

In addition to this, local clergy were also called upon to supply data for the following:

• the number of baptisms, by sex, in various years over the preceding century;
• the number of marriages, annually, since 1754.[15]

The figures obtained in each parish throughout England and Wales were presented to magistrates at the Easter Quarter Sessions and from there were sent on to the Home Office in Whitehall to be tallied.[16][17] However, it was found that overseers and priests in England and Wales often had either not supplied the data using the centrally issued forms, or had not been able to compile it at all. As a result, many places in England and Wales lacked returns.[18] In Scotland, however, the responsibility for taking the count was placed on parish schoolmasters, and in recognition of the remoteness of many parishes they were given an extra six months in which to collect the information and return it to London.[19][20] On the mainland of Scotland there was almost a complete return, owing to the efficiency of the schoolmasters.[21]

Analysis of the 1801 census was carried out at Whitehall, in offices in The Cockpit by St James's Park,[22] by a team of clerks, working under Rickman, before being printed in two volumes by the parliamentary printer, Luke Hansard.[23] It had taken just over a year for the complete results to be published, by which time the crisis in grain supply was over and prices had fallen. The total cost of collecting and analysing the data came in at less than £6,000.[24]

As the government only wanted a headcount, and not individual details, householder registration forms were not issued to enumerators. Enumerators often made unofficial notes to assist in producing their area report, with differing levels of detail. Some drew up lists that noted the head of household and gave figures in columns opposite their name to say how many were in the family and the work they did.[25] Others made listings of their local area on a level of detail equal to or greater than the 1841 and 1851 censuses, including names, family groups and relationships, ages, dates of birth, and population movements between parishes.[26] The census legislation stipulated that overseers should hand over any such lists drawn up during the enumeration to the churchwardens for safe-keeping.[27] Where this was complied with, these detailed census records were kept in a variety of record sets, such as parish registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials, or the accounts books of the overseers or churchwardens. These record sets, where they survive, are often now publicly available in local record offices and libraries and/or online, though others may exist in private hands.[28]

The censuses held in 1811, 1821, and 1831 were based on the same model as the 1801 census. With the passing of the Population Act 1840, a new approach to censuses was adopted under the responsibility of the Registrar General and was first implemented in the 1841 census.

• Chronology of the United Kingdom 1800-1849
• BBC History Working Life and the First British Census
• Image of the Act on the Parliamentary website
• Guide to United Kingdom Census resources, including surviving 1801 census records