www.wiltshire.gov.uk
Victorian Censuses Information
1841 to 1891 Uses for local and family historians
Information from Early Censuses
Taken at ten yearly intervals, these provided the most comprehensive social and economic picture of any community. They are of great value for family history, commercial history, migration patterns, family structure and population studies.
The originals are held in the Public Record Office at Kew but microfiche copies for local areas are available in libraries. The complete censuses for Wiltshire are available in the Trowbridge Reference and County Local Studies Library. Also available is the complete index for the whole of England and Wales 1881 census county and a sequence surname index for England and Wales. There are also parish indexes for the 1871 census while the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office hold parish indexes for the 1851 census.
Background
The first U.K. census took place in 1801 but for this and for those in 1811, 1821 and 1831 only statistical information was kept. A few locally kept returns survived for 1821 and 1831 but these are very rare and list only the heads of households.
In 1841 there were official enumerator's notebooks and details for place (not always complete), name, age, employment and whether or not born in the county for every person were included. All notebooks for Wiltshire survive, except a few parishes around Chippenham and Devizes. From 1851 onwards the information collected is far greater and comprises:
Address
Name
Relationship to head of household
Marital Status
Age last birthday
Occupation
Place of birth
In 1891 a column was included to give the numbers of rooms occupied by a family if this was less than five. Categories of 'Employer', 'Employed', and 'Neither Employer nor Employed' were also introduced, but the latter was largely misunderstood.
Personal information from the 1901 census will come into the public domain on 2nd January 2002. The library will hold all census information for Wiltshire on microfiche while the Public Record Office is making the whole census available via the Internet; census.pro.gov.uk Access to the indexes will be free but there will be a charge to obtain personal information.
Arrangement
The census was conducted largely under what we know as civil parishes. Some modern civil parishes are included in ancient greater parishes, such as Bradford on Avon and Westbury. The book Wiltshire Census Returns provides an index for all the censuses from 1841-1891.
Each enumerator had a district, normally no more than 100 households, which filled one notebook. This notebook was written up from forms collected from each household; the forms have not survived. At the beginning of each enumeration district are preliminary pages which, among other things, detail the area covered.
This will sometimes be a comprehensive account of the route taken but may be nothing more helpful than 'The entire parish of Stert'. If a route is indicated it can help identify the individual houses on the ground, particularly if a fixed known point such as a pub, shop or farmhouse still exists. Care must be taken though as some houses may have disappeared, while more than one family may have occupied one house.
The date of the census, the enumerator and statistics from each page are also given in the preliminaries.
Points to Note
- Column 1. The number here is the number in the schedule and not the house number.
- Column 2. Road, Street, Name of House. House numbers do not normally appear on census returns before 1861 and in Victorian censuses are normally only used in towns. It is quite likely that the house number may have been changed since the date of the census. Some street names may also have changed.
- Column 3. Houses. Indicates inhabited and uninhabited houses and the latter should be noted when trying to identify houses from census information.
- Column 4. Name. This is normally accurate, although some spellings may be different than expected
- Column 5. Relations to Head of Family. Care should be taken with these descriptions, as the Victorian meaning is not always the modern one. A ‘brother' or ‘son' could mean a brother in law or a son in law, while the term ‘daughter in law' might mean step-daughter. The term ‘son‘ and ‘daughter' may, on occasions, refer to grandchild of the head of the household where the actual parent(s) are also present in the household; the age difference may provide the clue in this case.
- Column 6. Marital condition. One of the simplest sections. Sometimes ‘U' or ‘S' for unmarried, ‘M' for married and ‘W' for widow or widower is used.
- Column 7. Age. This is the category where most errors and deliberate evasions tend to occur. In the 1841 census the age of every person under 15 years was to be given exactly, but others were to be considered in blocks of five and rounded down to the lowest number. Hence anyone aged between 20 and 24 would be recorded as aged 20.
After 1851 the column was headed ‘Age last Birthday' and householders were asked to record the age of any child under one in months (mo.). It will sometimes be found that people do not age 10 years between each census but sometimes this discrepancy disappears in later censuses. There are many reasons why ages given were incorrect and the following should be noted:
i) Some people did not know how old they were.
ii) The age of children may have been increased if they were still of school age but working.
iii) Working class men in their fifties may have described themselves as over sixty as they would have been entitled to outdoor relief and other benefits.
iv) If the ages of husband and wife are identical it may be that they were uncertain but agreed on a common age.
v) There has always been a tendency in the very old to exaggerate their age.
vi) Although the request was for ‘last birthday', there was a tendency to think of the age next birthday – so a child in their tenth year may be described as ‘ten'. This should be borne in mind if information from parish registers and the census do not agree.
It should also be remembered that parents of children who had not yet been christened or named may have felt that they did not need to include the children.
- Column 8. Rank, Profession or Occupations. This information is valuable but can sometimes be open to misinterpretation. It must be remembered that normally only the primary occupation is given. The full time work of men is normally described accurately, although the terms may now be archaic and it should be noted that the same phrase may mean different occupations in different parts of the country.
As the census was usually taken in March or April, seasonal work, particularly of women and children, was not normally recorded.
The term ‘scholar' normally covered children, aged five and over, who were daily attending school or receiving tuition at home. Many children did carry out part-time and seasonal work that was not recorded, and the term may have also been used by parents of a school age child who wished to conceal the fact of full time work.
- Column 9. Where Born. From 1851 the county (or country) and place were required. As with their age some people really did not know where they were born. The place they first remember may not be the parish in which they were born. Sometimes the birthplace of a person may vary from census to census. You will also find that geographical knowledge was not a strong point among either enumerators or enumerated and places are often assigned to the wrong county. Incorrect spellings of distant places are common and sometimes the place-name given may be a part of a parish which is not easily recognisable today.
Where children are born in different places it could indicate that the family has moved between different farms where the father was working or, if the places have military or naval establishments, it could indicate that the father was in the service of Her Majesty.
Contact Details
By Post
Wiltshire Libraries & Heritage HQ
Bythesea Road
Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 8BS
By Email
By Telephone
01225 713727
By Fax
01225 713715
By Hand
Your Local Library
Opening Hours
Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm
