Preface

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CONTENTS OF PREFACE

ENUMERATION:
Questions asked, with explanations	iii-vii.
Overseers of the Poor in England, Schoolmasters in. Scotland	viii.
Houses, Families and Occupations	ix-xii.
General Summary of Great Britain	xii, xiii
English Counties, Divisions, Parishes, Townships	xiv-xviii.
Extra-parochial Places	xxi, xxii.
Population of the Metropolis and other great Towns	xxiii, xxiv.
Population of the several Dioceses	xix-xxi.
Area of Parishes in England	xxii,
Population of the Metropolis and other great Towns	xxiii, xxiv
PARISH REGISTERS:
Questions asked, with explanations	xxv, xxvi.
Origin of Parish Registers; Parish Registers extant	xxvii, xxviii.
Baptisms, Burials, and Marriages, 1801-1830	xxx.
Proportion of these to the Population of the several Counties of England	xxxii.
Maps of Parish Register Limits	xxxiii.
Marriages; Registry and Number of Marriages, 1755-1830	xxxiii, xxxiv.
Burials: Registry; Ages of Persons buried, 1813-1830	xxxiv-xliii.
Ages of Persons living in 1821	xxxvii.
Baptisms: Registry: and Illegitimates born in 1830	xliii-xliv.
INCREASE OF POPULATION; ascertained by Enumeration, 1801-1831	xliv.
Calculated from the Marriage Register, 1755-1800	xliv.
Baptisms and Burials, 1700-1750	xlv.
Estimate of Population in the several decennary years, 1700-1830	xlv.
Ages of the Deceased not available for calculation unless increase of Population known	xxxi. xliii. xlvi.
Causes of Increase of Population in Great Britain	xlvi, xlvii.
Decennial period of Enumeration	xlvii.
Population of Counties in 1801, 1811, 1821, and 1831	xlviii-l.
Prices of Wheat at the Windsor Market, 1595-1833	lii, liii.
Registered Burials, 1780-1815	liii.
Vie Moyenne and Increase of Population	liv.

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PREFACE

THE ACT which was carried into effect in the Year 1801, "for taking an "Account of the POPULATION of Great Britain , and of the Increase or "Diminution thereof," Having now been repeated in. the Years 1811, 1821, and 1831, a Comparison of the Results of these National Investigations seems to be required, not only as- the Population Abstracts, now Four in number, may hereafter be referred to in connection with each other, but because large volumes, consisting chiefly of Names and Figures, cannot be readily and effectually consulted without such previous Explanation as may serve to shew the Method and Order pursued in digesting and connecting the subject-matter of the ENUMERATION Abstract and of the PARISH-REGISTER Abstract; and in so doing on the present occasion, many of the OBSERVATIONS prefixed to the volume of 1821 will be repeated, with such additions as have become necessary from another Repetition of the Population Act, which not only affords a further comparison of Results, but has produced an additional mass of information, by entering into details never before subjected to national enquiry.

I.- Enumeration Abstract

THE first Five Questions asked in the year 1831, are the same as those of 1811 and 1821; the other Nine Questions embracing a variety of details, require careful perusal by all those who are desirous of perfectly understanding the information, thus laboriously collected throughout Great Britain; and the permission contained in the Act [11^o Geo. IV. c. 30.] to issue explanations with the Schedules, was of further avail, as will appear in a subsequent part of this preface. The Questions of 1831, were as follows:

QUESTIONS addressed to the OVERSEERS in England, and to the SCHOOLMASTERS in Scotland;

Who are respectively required to take an Account of the resident Population, by proceeding from House to House on the Thirtieth Day of May One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, and on the Days immediately subsequent thereto, if One Day shall not be sufficient; and they are also required to specify in writing the Name of the Parish or Place in the Schedule, and whether it be usually called a Parish) Township, Tything, Quarter, or by what other Denomination. Individuals are to be numbered only in those Parishes, Townships or Places where they severally happen to be at the time of taking the account.

1st. How many inhabited Houses are there in your Parish, Township, or Place; and by how many Families are they occupied,

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

3rd. How many other Houses are uninhabited?

4th. What number of Families in your Parish, Township, or Place are chiefly employed in and maintained by Agriculture; or by Trade, Manufacture, or Handicraft; and how many Families are not comprised in either of the Two preceding Classes ?

N.B. The total Number of Families in answer to this Question must correspond with the Number of Families in answer to the First Question; and if any Doubt shall arise as to the Class in which any Family or Families ought to be comprised, such Doubt is to be stated as a Remark, not omitting therein to specify in which Class such Family or Families may have been comprised in your Answer to the Fourth Question.

5th. 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 in the Militia, and exclusive of Seamen, either in His Majesty's Service, or belonging to registered Vessels ?

* Every Female Servant must be again entered under Question 13th.

6th. How many of the Males enumerated in answer to the 5th Question are upwards of Twenty Years old ?

N. B. If this Number of Males upwards of Twenty Years old should differ materially [or otherwise, as compared to the Return of 1821] from One Half of the total Number of Males [in answer to Question 5f/z], some Error has probably been committed, and the Answer to this Question should be examined, and corrected, if necessary.

[¿ In the Year 1821, the Number of Males in Great Britain returned as being upwards of Twenty Years of age, as also the Number of those under that age, somewhat exceeded 3,000,000; But in the City of London and other parts of the Metropolis generally the Number of Males upwards of Twenty years of age preponderated; in other places, wherever the increase of Population has been unusually rapid, a contrary Result may be anticipated.

7th. How many Males upwards of Twenty Years old are employed in Agriculture, including Graziers, Cowkeepers, Shepherds, and other Farm Servants, Gardeners (not taxed or taxable as Male Servants), and Nurserymen ?

In answering this Question, you will carefully distinguish these Males into Three Classes; viz', First, Occupiers of Land who constantly employ and pay One or more than One Labourer or Farm Servant in Husbandry'; Secondly, Occupiers of Land who employ no Labourer other than of their own Family; Thirdly, Labourers in Husbandry and Farm Servants employed by Occupiers of the First Class.

8th. How many Males upwards of Twenty Years old are employed in Manufacture or in making Manufacturing Machinery; but not including Labourers in Warehouses, Porters, Messengers, &c., who are to be included in a subsequent Class? [Question llth.]

9th. How many Males upwards of Twenty Years old are employed in Retail Trade or in Handicraft, as Masters, Shopmen, Journeymen, Apprentices, or in any Capacity requiring Skill in the Business; but not including Labourers, Porters, Messengers,. who are to be included in a subsequent Class?

N. B. To enable you to answer this Question in a Manner satisfactory to yourself, a Half Sheet [Formula No, 2.] containing a List of the Denominations of several Trades is transmitted herewith, with blank Spaces and Lines for Entry of the Answers you obtain; (it being understood that if any Trade or Business carried on in your Parish or Place does not appear in the printed List, you will specify such Trade at Bottom of the said List,) making a Mark for each Male opposite to the Denomination of his proper Trade or Business, and adding alt together for final Entry in the Schedule; to which Schedule you will annex the said printed List with your original Entries thereon.

10th. How many Males upwards of Twenty Years old are * Wholesale Merchants, Bankers, Capitalists, Professional Persons, Artists, Architects, Teachers, Clerks, Surveyors, and other Educated Men ? And in answering this Question, you will include generally Persons maintaining themselves otherwise than by Manufacture, Trade, or bodily Labour.

[*A Retailer sells to the Consumer the Article sold.]

11th How many Males upwards, of Twenty Years old are Miners, Fishermen, Boatmen, Excavators of Canals, Roadmakers Toll Collectors, or Labourers employed by Persons of the Three preceding Classes, [Questions 8th, 9th, 10th,] or otherwise employed in any Kind of bodily Labour, excepting in Agriculture? Labourers in Agriculture having been already entered in the proper Place.

12th. How many other Males upwards of Twenty Years old (not being taxable Servants under the next Question) have not been included in any of the foregoing Classes ? Including, therefore, in answer to this Question, retired Tradesmen, Superannuated Labourers, and Males diseased or disabled in Body or Mind.

13th. How many Household Servants, including all Female Servants, and such Male Servants (of whatever Age) as are taxed or taxable as such; also Waiters and Attendants at Inns; distinguishing the Males upwards of Twenty Years of Age from the Males under Twenty Years of Age?

N.B. Observe that the Number of Males, in answer to Questions 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th collectively, cannot be less than the Number of Males upwards of Twenty Years old, in answer to Question 6th; but will exceed that Number in consequence of including Male Servants under 20 Years of Age; and as a general Rule, always assign an Individual of mixed Occupation or Income to that by which he is supposed to profit more than by any other.

14th. If you have entered any Males in answer to the 8th Question, be pleased to specify the Manufacture or Manufactures in which they are employed; and what Proportion of the Number of those entered in answer to Question llth are employed in any Quarry, Mines, Coal Pits, Fishery, or public Work now in progress?

15th. Referring to the number of Persons in the year 1821, to what cause do you attribute any remarkable difference in the number at present?.

16th. Are there any other matters which you may think it necessary to remark in explanation of your answers to any of the preceding Questions?

EXPLANATIONS

As soon as this Schedule shall have been delivered to the Overseer or Schoolmaster, who is thereby appointed to obtain Answers to the foregoing Questions, He will not fail to read it attentively, and in concert with his Brother Officers in England, and with the Kirk-Session in Scotland, to apply his local Knowledge in considering the best manner of obtaining correct Answers; and especially whether it will be necessary to employ any, or how many Assistants in case of a large Population or extensive District: and as every such Assistant ought to be furnished with the Formula 1. and 2. similar to the inclosed, the Overseer or Schoolmaster will cause Copies to be made, or apply for additional Printed Copies; and in case He forsees any Difficulty in obtaining correct Answers, He will apply for Instruction or Explanation in like manner.

THE Readiness which was manifested in answering the Enquiries made in pursuance of preceding Population Acts (especially in the laborious enquiry as to the Ages of individuals in 1821) affords reasonable expectation that the present enquiry (more particular in other respects, but which does not extend to ages) will be equally successful; but this must depend very much upon the previous estimate formed by Overseers in England, and by the Schoolmasters in Scotland, as to the degree of care requisite to insure a correct Return.

For their assistance herein a prepared Formula (No. 1.) is transmitted with every Schedule, such as may be used in "proceeding from House to House on the 30th Day of May next, and on the Days immediately subsequent thereto, if one day shall not be sufficient." and by means of this Formula the account will be readily taken (in hard black-lead pencil or ink) by marks across the several Lines, thus:-

[Image to be added here]

such account to be summed together afterwards for insertion in the Schedule, by dividing it into Tens for counting, thus:-

[Image to be added here]

To populous places more than one Sheet of Formula is transmitted; and in such places especially, preliminary attention in the Week preceding the 30th May is advisable; for instance, a Meeting and Conference of the several persons instructed with the enquiry, (those specially appointed as well as Parish Officeers,) so as to enable them all to distinguish and understand correctly the limits of their several allotted Districts; and if these persons are desired at such Meeting to mark on the appropriate line of his Formula No. 1., the House (with its Inhabitants) in which He dwells, as the commencement of his task,- such useful discussion will probably arise as to insure regularity of proceeding by all the persons employed in the enquiry. When He arrives at Question 4th, he will mark the family or families who dwell in the same House with himself, on one or more of the Three Lines appropriate to that Question:- and afterwards complete the Entries in his Formula 1. and Formula 2. postponing in all cases the addition of any Numbers until he has finished his Perambulation from House to House; and then entering the Numbers in Ink at the end of the several Lines, and signing his Name at the end of each Formula.

THe new Question 6th, Whether every Male person is more or less than Twenty Years of age,- may be expected to obtain ready answer; and in most cases the enquirer will be able from personal knowledge to assign the individual to his proper class under the subsequent Questions; not but that many individuals of mixed occupation will occur; and in every such case, the N.B. in the Schedule under Question 13th must not be forgotten. Attentive perusal of the List of Occupations in Formula No. 2. will enable the Enquirer in most cases to suggest to every person upwards of Twenty Years of age, in what occupation he ought to be entered.

Male Servants upwards of Twenty Years of age must be placed above the Black Line (13); Male Servants under Twenty Years of age, and all Female Servants under the Black Line.

The total Number of Males upwards of Twenty Years of age (Question 6th) must agree with the collected totals of the several subsequent Questions (down to the Black Line dividing the Answers to Question 13th); and in like manner the Answer to Question 9th, descriptive of Retail Trades and Handicrafts (in which consists the main difficulty of the present enquiry) must balance with the numbers in the several classes specified in the Formula No. 2. herewith transmitted for convenient entry of the several Occupations of this kind; and if any occupation occurs which is not specified in the Printed Formula, it must be specified under the rest in some of the blank spaces reserved for the purpose at the end of the said Formula.

In case satisfactory Answers cannot be obtained at any House, from absence of the Inhabitants, or any other cause, Note the omission of Entry, postponing further enquiry there, until you shall have visited every other HOuse in your allotted district.

In proceeding from House to House, be careful to carry the printed Formula papers in a Pasteboard or other convenient Cover; and if Ink is used by the enquirer, let him also use Blotting Paper.

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THE Investigation attempted by means of the Act of Parliament of 1800, "For taking an Account of the Population of GREAT BRITAIN, and of the Increase or Diminution thereof," was carried into effect in. the month of March 1801, in so far as it regarded the Enumeration of Houses, Families, and Persons;¹ and the Abstract resulting from the Answers returned was laid before Parliament and printed in the year 1802. A controversy of some duration had existed as to the Increase or Diminution of the Population; and the Result of the Act of 1801 being adverse to the opinions of those who had taken a gloomy view of national resources, insinuations were not wanting against the accuracy of the Enumeration; and as these objections obtained some currency at the time, and still exist announcer those who have not been attentive to the subject, it is fit in this place to explain the official machinery on which the Act of 1801, as well as the Three subsequent Decennial Acts, relied for due execution.

Throughout England and Wales the Questions were issued to the "Overseers of the Poor," (an Office established in the year 1572, and too well known for explanation to. Englishmen) in the administration of which office these Overseers are bound to relieve, at the expense of their several Parishes or Townships, all the Poor who can substantiate their claim to such relief. A considerable scarcity had occurred in the Year 1795, 6, and this was aggravated almost to famine in the Year 1800/1; that is to say, the. defective Harvest of 1800 raised the price of Wheat to 1105s. per Quarter, whereas the Average price of the preceding Ten Years had been 54s. per quarter. The Poor therefore applied in augmented numbers to the Overseers, and as Relief was usually afforded according to the number of children maintainable by each applicant, the Overseers could not fail to be informed of the full number of every family, infants included, in March 1801; and in Parishes not unusually large were almost able to state the Population from their personal knowledge, certainly able to detect any attempt at falsehood in answering the enquiry made by themselves from House to House; while in Families above the necessity of applying for relief, the number of Children and Servants is too well known to be falsified with success, did any conceivable temptation exist for misrepresentation. Add to this that the Overseers acted under the obligation of an Oath to make Return according to the best of their knowledge and belief; and that in most cases there are two or more Overseers in each Parish, who must be presumed to concur in wilful falsehood before the truth of their Return can be fairly questioned. It is almost needless to add, that the expense of relieving the Poor in England and Wales, which. in the Year 1800 approached the Sum of Four Millions Sterling, had become Six Millions in 1811, and exceeded that sum in 1821; and in the Year ending March 1831 (Ten Weeks before the Enumeration recorded in these Volumes took place), the Relief of the Poor had amounted to ¿6,800,000; so that the Overseers of the Poor have had but too much reason to exercise habitual vigilance as to the number of Children, ever since the Population Acts became decennial.

The Poor Laws of Scotland are not in such active operation as to require the appointment of special officers; but the machinery for the execution of the Population Act has been usually deemed more perfect there than in England, inasmuch as it is committed to the care of, the official Schoolmaster of each Parish: an institution peculiar to Scotland, which has existed in full vigour since the year 1696;² and as the Office of Precentor and Clerk of the Parochial Session for Poor Relief is often combined with that of Schoolmaster, the personal knowledge of the number of Children in every family appertains to the Schoolmaster in Scotland almost as effectually as to the Overseer in England, and the habit of regularity, together with the official knowledge of writing and arithmetic implied in the character of Schoolmaster, renders the Population Returns of Scotland quite as authentic, and obviously more methodical than those obtained from the Overseers of the Poor in England.

Thus the accuracy of the essential part of the Returns of Population, of the mere number of Males and Females in Great Britain, is placed beyond doubt; but as this principal enquiry afforded good opportunity of asking additional questions not admitting of such distinct answers, the Returns relative to Houses, Families, and Occupations remain to be discussed; and this not only because experience has shewn the necessity of some alterations, but because also (as already stated) further Questions were superadded in the recent enquiry of, 1831, to which more particularly these prefatory remarks appertain.

In fact no Question entirely exempt from objection has been propounded, or perhaps can be propounded, except that which requires the actual number of Males, and Females. The First Question has always been, "How many Inhabited Houses are there in your Parish, Township or Place; and by how many Families occupied?" This Question presumes that one house may be inhabited by more than one family; but what constitutes a distinct House is not, and perhaps cannot be defined. A Cottage containing two families, that is of two tenements, seems to have been principally in view of the framers of the Act of 1801, when they required the number of Houses in contradistinction to the number of Families: but whether a College or Inn of Court, or a Town-House in Scotland, containing as many separate habitations as Stories or "Flats" is to be deemed one House or many, has always been left to the opinion of those who make the Return; Stables and Outhouses to which Bedrooms are sometimes attached have in some instances been returned as inhabited House: but these questionable cases are of rare occurrence, and do not materially affect the general result which shewed rather more than Fifty-eight persons to Ten inhabited Houses in 1801; and exactly Fifty-eight persons in 1831.

That part of the first Question which requires the number of Families, Is even more difficult of definition than that regarding the Houses in, which they live. The degree of connection between the head of the family and the Inmates or Lodgers who reside under the same roof, is too various for description in an Act of Parliament. When the Overseers or School-masters have expressed a doubt upon this subject reply has been made, "that those who use the name Kitchen and board together are to be deemed members of the same family," But even then remains the Question whether a single person inhabiting a House solely, or lodging, but not boarding in another Man's House,, is to be deemed a Family? This admits only of an unsatisfactory reply, "that It cannot be otherwise; and by this negative paralogism, is decided in the affirmative. The general Return of 1801 shewed that every Ten families (as them reckoned) contained Forty-eight individual; and in 1831 the Result is similar.

The number of Uninhabited Houses in 1801 was one; in Twenty-eight, which proportion in 1821 had increased to one in Twenty-four but the Question had been divided in the enquiries subsequent to 1801, for the sake of distinguishing New but Unfinished Houses, and therefore not yet inhabited, from Houses uninhabited from any other cause; and the propriety of thus distinguishing the former, an indication of prosperity, from Houses in decay, or uninhabited from any cause authorising an opposite inference, needs no explanation; -- and this division of the question accounts for part of the seemingly increased proportion of uninhabited Houses, new Houses in different stages of completion not having been numbered as Houses in 1801.

The question of 1801 relating to the Occupation of Person , was found in practice to produce no valuable result. In some cases a Householder seemed to understand that the females of his family, his children, and servants ought to be classed with himself; in some cases he returned them in the negative class being neither agricultural nor commercial; in some cases he omitted them entirely. Thus the failure of the question became manifest, and the worthless answers were entered without attempt at correction,

The question concerning Occupation or Employment us amended in the Population Acts of 1811, 1821, and 1831, enquire, What number of Families [not of Persons ] are chiefly employed in or maintained by Agriculture f How many by Trade, Manufacture or Handicraft? and how many Families not comprized in either of these classes? and in general the Answers appeared to have been made with cure and distinctness in the years 1811 and 1821 but a more particular classification was thought to the desirable and practicable in 1831; and it was recommended to the Committee of the House of Commons, to ask the. occupation or employment of every month Twenty years of age; not only because In is then usually settled in his vocation, but because the number of Mules under Twenty years of age, and the number upwards of Twenty years of age, wan found to have been so equal in the enumeration of l82l, that consolable deviation from that obvious proportion was likely to induce further enquiry and correction in every case suspected of error; for in the Enumeration of 1821 the. Males under Twenty were 3,072,392, upwards of Twenty 3,002,200; including all the Males whose Ages were then ascertained. In the Enumeration of 1831, the Males known to be under Twenty were 3,041,405, -upwards of Twenty 3,944,511;³ indeed, the Increase of Population in Great Britain ban not been materially accelerated or retarded since the year 1801, having been always about one and a half per cent, per Annum.

The new classification of Males upwards of Twenty Years of age, fills an entire page throughout the Two Enumeration Volumes. The agricultural class is now distributed into three columns, which have been found to lead to valuable results; viz. The families of Occupiers of land who employ Labourers are in. number 144,000, of Occupiers who do not employ Labourers, 180,500, and of Agricultural Labourers 686,000;⁴ the two first of these distinctions being deemed more generally illustrative of the grade and condition of those under whose care the soil is cultivated, than the number of acres occupied, or the amount of rental; the first of these two facts affording no information whatever, considering the amount of Capital invested in the occupation of Ten Acres of Garden-ground or Nursery, as compared to the little or no Capital requisite for the occupation of a similar extent of woodland or rough pasture, and the almost infinite gradations between these extremes. Whether the amount of Rental or the annual value of House and Land, be a fit question, is doubtful; certainly it would not be answered so as to afford a genuine result.

The number of those employed in Manufacture is next asked, and the species of Manufactures, as far as such can be distinguished and designated in a Note. These Notes are collected into a Summary at the end of, each county; not in columns (which was impracticable) but in narrative, such as each individual case permitted or required.

The number of those employed in Retail trade and Handicraft (as distinguished from Manufacture) appears in the next column; this was supposed to be capable of Subdivision; and after much consideration and correspondence with the Members of Parliament, who had constituted the Committee on the Population Bill, a List was issued with each Schedule, containing one hundred of the most usual denominations of Retail-trade and Handicraft, as follows:-

FORMULA for Entry of Males upwards of Twenty Years of Age, employed in RETAIL TRADE or HANDICRAFT.
Auctioneer or Appraiser, Sheriff's Broker	Harness-maker, Collar-maker
Baker Gingerbread, Fancy	Hatter and Hosier
Barber, or Hair-dresser, Hair-dealer	Horse-dealer, Stable, Hackney-Coach, or Fly-Keeper
Basket-maker	Huckster, Hawker, Pedlar, Duffer
Blacksmith, Hone-shoes	Ironmonger
Boat-builder, Ship-wright Ironfunder	Jeweller
Bookseller or Vendor	Lace-dealer
Brass-worker, Tinker	Maltster
Brewer	Marble-cutter, Statuary
Broker	Milkman, Cowkeeper
Builder:-	Miller
Land-jobber	Nightman, Scavenger
Bricklayer	Old Clothes-dealer, Rag-dealer
Brickmaker	Optician
Lime Burner	Paper-maker
Plasterer	Pastry-cook, Confectioner
Mason or Waller	Patten-maker
House-painter	Pawnbroker
Butcher, Flesher	Poulterer
Carpenter	Printer
Cabinet-maker	Printseller
Wheelwright	Publican, Hotel or Innkeeper, Retailer of Beer
Sawyer	Rope-maker
Carrier, Carter	Saddler
Carver and Gilder	Shoe and Boot-maker, or Mender
Caulker	Shop-keeper {Dealer in sundry necessary Articles such as are sold in a Village Shop
Cheesemonger	Soot, and Chimney Sweeper
Chemist and Druggist	Spirit-merchant, Spirit Shop
Clock and Watchmater	Stationer
Clotheir	Stock-broker
Linen-draper, Haberdasher	Straw-plait and Bonnets
Silk-mercer, or Dealer	Tallow-chandler, Wax-chandler
Coachmaker	Tanner
Coach-owner, Driver, Grooms, &c	Tinman
Coal-merchant, Fuel	Tobacconist
Cooper	Toyman
Copperplate-printer, Engraver	Turner
Corn-dealer	Undertaker of Funerals Upholsterer
Currier	Upholsterer
Cutler	Wharfinger
Tailor, Breeches-maker	Whitesmith
Drysalter, Colouring Materials Dyer	Wine-dealer
Dyer	-
Tea-dealer	-
Earthen-ware, China, Pottery	-
Farrier, Cow-doctor, Cattle-doctor	-
Feather-dresser	-
Fellmonger	-
Fish-dealer	-
Fruiterer	-
Furrier	-
Glazier, Plumber	-
Glower	-
Grocer, Green-grocer	-
Gun-maker	-
[A blank space was here left for entry of Trades not mentioned in the foregoing List.]

This List known to contain far less than the entire number of Trades in large towns especially in the Metropolis, where in the result no less than 426 Subdivisions of trade were found to exist; but a greater number than one hundred would have been inapplicable and even perplexing in rural parishes, and the space left at the bottom if the List, as well as the List itself, was so attentively and correctly filled, that the defective specification does not exceed one in one hundred and twelve Males upwards of Twenty years of age employed in Retail-trade or Handicraft; the Lists returned by all the Parishes constituting the Metropolis do not present a single defect: a remarkable instance of accuracy.

Persons of independent fortune, Capitalists, Professional and other Educated Men, and, generally speaking, those who do not labour with their hands, are included in the next Question: to these succeed, in another column, all Labourers other than agricultural; and the next column embraces all those not described in any preceding question which applies to Males Twenty years of age. To this indeed there is one exception, as to domestic Male Servants, who are subsequently distinguished as of Twenty years old, and under that age; Female Servants, of whatever age, have been distinctly enumerated.

In what degree this minute analysis of Social life maybe useful in Statistical investigation, experience only can decide, this being the first example on a large scale, and the division of labour being more complicated in Great Britain than elsewhere, in proportion to the capital accumulated and employed.

It was not foreseen that the scrutinizing nature of all these precise Questions concerning Males upwards of Twenty years of age would at all affect the Return of the Occupation of Families, which in 1831 was asked in the same terms as in 1811 and 1821; and considerable surprise was excited when the proportion of Families employed in Agriculture, as well as those employed in Trade in 1831, was found to have decreased as compared to the same classes in 1811 and 1821 respectively.

The Comparative proportion of Families stands thus in Centesimal parts:

GREAT BRITAIN	-	AGRICULTURE.	TRADE &c.	OTHERS.	TOTAL
	1811	35	44	21	100
	1821	33	46	21	100
	1832	28	42	30	100

Thus Trade and Manufactures appear to have somewhat increased between the years 1811 and 1821, Agriculture to have somewhat declined; but between 1821 and 1831, the proportion of Families employed in Trade receded from 46 to 42 per cent., and the agricultural population from 33 to 28 per cent.; the proportion of all other Families, not included in these two large classes, having increased accordingly.

Yet no decay of industry was visible, certainly not in trade or manufactures; nor was the fallacy immediately discovered to spring from an inconsiderate notion, that those not employed in Agriculture, Trade or Manufactures were not employed at all: and without more attention than could be expected in any cursory inspection of the Population Volumes of 1811 and 1821, this was an obvious conclusion. But in the present Summary of Returns of 1831, it appears that no less than 608,712 Labourers were then employed otherwise than in Agriculture (that is, as Miners or Fishermen, in Inland Navigation, and Road-making;) or otherwise than in Trade or Manufactures, although employed in the conveyance of commodities, and in other essential services to the Tradesman and Manufacturer. It also appears in the Summary of 1831, that 115 or 116 [115.5] Males upwards of Twenty years of age represent 100 Families; so that of the proportion of Families (30 per cent.) ascribed to the last class, which has been usually deemed non-productive, no more than 12 per cent.⁵ are really so, even in the largest sense to which that character can be applied; and the residue of these Families, (18 per cent.), has been augmented in the Enumeration of 1831 beyond its former proportion, by reason of a deduction from the Families heretofore classed as Agricultural, or as employed in Trade, Manufacture or Handicraft. The explanation of this in the following manner requires attentive perusal: The Overseer in England, who knew that many Industrious labourers in his Parish were employed in Mines, or in Road-making, and otherwise during the larger portion of the twelvemonth, but were occasionally employed in harvest, or in the cultivation of their own gardens, was heretofore induced to class these as Agricultural rather than in the column which seemed to denote idleness or no employment at all; but when (as in 1831) a distinct column was assigned to useful labour of whatever kind, he placed them in it, and having so classed them, he could not consistently class their Families in the Agricultural column which was thereby lessened in amount, and the seemingly non-productive column of families proportionally increased. The Schoolmaster in Scotland did the same with respect to Miners, and to a larger extent as regarding Fishermen, an employment which seldom being constant throughout the twelvemonth, tended especially to create this kind of discrepancy from the former classification of Families; as indeed several of the Schoolmasters explain distinctly in their observations appended to the returned Schedules.⁶

The similar transference of the Families of labourers employed by tradesmen and manufacturers to the class of Trade and Manufacture in 1811 and 1821, was a more obvious consequence of the same repugnance to dismiss these industrious men into a seemingly non-productive class, and they being now as Individuals placed in an appropriate column, their Families could not consistently be left in the column of families employed in Trade, Manufactures or Handicraft; whereby the proportion of that class of Families was diminished, in like manner and in similar proportion to the diminution of Agricultural Families: and in the; City of London many of the Families of those persons who are now placed in the column of wholesale Merchants and Capitalists, were therefore transferred from the Second to line Third class of Families, as stated in notes explanatory of this variation from the Return of 1821, A memorable example of the danger of altering, even in the slightest degree, any Question intended to produce a comparative Answer: indeed in this instance the Question was not actually altered, yet its comparative result has been vitiated and indeed annulled by asking a collateral question which was not foreseen to have any bearing upon it, In truth, the similar Questions as to Families and to individuals were simultaneously asked in 1801, with an expectation, that hereafter the Question as to Individuals might (by application of the Rule of Proportion to the 1881 Return) supersede any future question as to Families, the preliminary objection to which has been already stated, and the comparative result is here proved to have been defective in accuracy from unforeseen causes.

General Summary of Great Britain

The Abstract of the Rerturn obtained from the Islands in the Bristish Seas, is not included in this General Summary

The Number of Males designated as ARMY, NAVY, &c. includes the Regular Army, The Artillery, and the Staff of Militia Regiments not under training, all according to official documents; but the Militia under training on the 31st May 1831 (not much exceeding 2,000 in number) are added to the Males of their respective Counties. With the Navy are included The Royal Marines: and to these are added The Seamen employed in navigating the Revenue Cutters and Registered Vessels; and Convicts on board the Hulks. None of these Classes can be ascribed to particular Counties, nor consequently taken into account in the foregoing Summary, otherwise than in the General Total; nor properly in that, without making allowance for Foreigners employed as Merchant Seamen, nor without considering, that many Soldiers and Sailors are attributable to Ireland; which consideration would operate proportionally upon the larger Number of Men serving in 1811, as compared with the smaller Number in 1821 and 1831.

The Rate of Increase of the Population of Great Britain has not varied much during the last Thirty Years, even when the Increase or Diminution of the Army, Navy, Sec. is taken into the calculation; but the most accurate knowledge of the Increase of Population may be obtained by adverting to the Increase of the Female Sex exclusively; thereby virtually omitting throughout the Calculation such of the Army, Navy, and Merchant Seamen as were not domiciled in Great Britain.

1801 Families	Increase Cent	1811 Families	Increase Cent	1821 Families	Increase Cent	1831 Families
5,492,354	14.15	6,269,650	15.71	7,254,613	15.45	8,376295

And the absolute Increase of Population in Great Britain (if measured by doubling that of FEMALES only) appears to have been about One Million and a Half in the first period, Two Millions in the second period, and Two Millions and a Quarter in the third period of Ten Years; or always about 1¿ cent, per annum. The progressive Increase of Population in the several Counties is shown at the end of this Preface.

How far such Increase is sustained by a comparison of the Baptisms with the Burials (as entered in the Parish Registers) during these periods, will be discussed in a subsequent part of these Observations; in this place it seems proper rather to explain the order in which the Enumeration Returns have been digested for ready Reference, such Explanation being necessary, or at least serviceable to all who may have occasion to consult the Population Abstract.

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The Name of ENGLAND was established, A.D. 800, when Egbert assumed the Sovereign authority. Several of the Counties are mentioned before the extinction of the Saxon Heptarchy, the smaller Provinces or Kingdoms of which became Counties, as Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Essex, Hampshire, Somersetshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire (portions or shires of the Kingdom of Wessex), are mentioned before the accession of Bong Alfred [A. p. 871.]; Devon and Cornwall about the same time, Gloucestershire soon after, and most of the other Counties, from South to North, are named in history previously to the Norman Conquest.⁷ In the Population Abstract the Counties are placed in Alphabetical order, and in England each distinctly, but in Scotland it has been found necessary to join together the Shires of Cromarty and Ross, the former being as it were scattered in about Fifteen separate fragments throughout the latter, and being indeed usually considered in modern Laws as forming part of it. Much inconvenience is experienced by the Inhabitants of the Shires of Ross and Cromarty from these numerous "Annexations," which were made by authority of two Acts of the Parliament of Scotland in 1685 and 1698, in favour of an Individual, whose estate was thus consolidated into one jurisdiction. But the irregularities of this kind in England are not so numerous nor so extensive as to create serious inconvenience; certainly less than would result from the change of accustomed limits, which have remained unaltered, certainly from the date of the Norman Conquest.⁸ The irregularities of limit now recognised are carefully specified in the Notes of the Enumeration Abstract wherever they occur, and are collected into one view at the end of in hat abstract, (pp. 1064-7.] Ten Cities are, technically speaking, Counties of themselves: LONDON (which having the same Sheriffs as the County of Middlesex creates little inconvenience by its situation locally in that County;) BRISTOL, CANTERBURY, COVENTRY, EXETER, GLOUCESTER, LICHFIELD, LINCOLN, NORWICH, WORCESTER, YORK. In like manner Five Towns in England are Counties of themselves; Kingston-on-Hull NEWCASTLE-on-Tyne, NOTTINGHAM, POOL, and SOUTHAMPTON also Two Towns in Wales, CAERMARTHEN County-Borough, and HAVERFORDWEST.

The further Division of the Southern parts of England into Hundreds is also unquestionably of Saxon origin, and probably in imitation of similar districts which existed in their parent Country:⁹ but in what manner the Name was here applied, is not certain. At least one hundred (which in Saxon Numeration means one hundred and twenty¹⁰ ) Free Men, Householders, answerable for each other, may be supposed originally to have been found, in each Hundred; for that the Hundreds were originally regulated by the Free Population is evident from the great number of Hundreds in the Counties first peopled by the Saxons. Thus Kent, and Sussex at the time when Domesday Book was compiled, each contained more than Sixty Hundreds, as they do at present, and in the Counties which composed the ancient Kingdom of Wessex, the Hundreds are almost as numerous, while this; irre gularity of size, and the scattered confusion of the component parts of several of these ancient Hundreds must have been the result of usurpation or of improvident grants, very inconsistent with the good purpose for which Hundreds were established. On the contrary, Norfolk and Suffolk (the East Anglian Counties) maintain a regularity of Division still applicable, in many instances, to the administration of justice. In the Midland Counties the Hundreds increase in size, but are not deficient in regularity. In Lancashire (a County of greater extent than any of the Wessex Counties) there are no more than Six Hundreds, in Cheshire, Seven: and upon: the "whole, so irregular is this distribution of territory, that while some of the southern Hundreds do not exceed two square Miles in area, nor One thousand Persons in Population, the Hundreds of Lancashire average at Three Hundred square Miles in area, and the Population contained in one of them (Salford Hundred) is 430,000.

This striking irregularity seems to have been felt as an inconvenience as early as the time of Henry VIII.,¹¹ when a remedy was attempted by ordaining Divisions (called also Limits or Circuits ) which still exist (more or less manifestly) in most of the English Counties These Divisions appear to have been formed by a junction of small Hundreds, or a partition of large Hundreds, as convenience required in each particular case, and are recognized in subsequent Acts which regard the Maintenance and Relief of the Poor.¹²

But time, which had caused the irregularity of the ancient Hundreds, gradually has the same effect on more modern arrangements; so that to alter the Names or Limits of the ancient Hundreds would really be equivalent to inventing and being forced to learn a new and changeable language, instead of retaining in use that which has been established for ages, An instance of the inconvenience of such reform occurs in Wales, several of the Counties of which were created by Act of Parliament in 1535,-and the ancient Districts VIII. c.a6. called Cantrefs and Commots altered into Hundreds, by virtue of a Commission under the Great Seal for that purpose¹³ ; but the new Counties and Hundreds exhibit more instances of indistinct boundary, that is, of Parishes and Townships not conterminous with the County: or Hundred, than do the ancient Counties; while the abolished Cantrefs and Commots are not yet quite forgotten after a lapse of 300 years, and occasionally cause some confusion.

Such Innovations are really unnecessary, as Temporary Districts for present convenience will always be settled by the Civil Magistrates, or by custom, around each place where. Petty Sessions are usually holden:¹⁴ and in like manner for the business of the Lieutenancy of each County, Sub-Divisions are formed from the ancient Hundreds, subject to such alteration as circumstances may require.

The County of York is divided into Wapentakes instead of Hundreds, and the adjoining Counties of Lincoln and Nottingham contain instances of Wapentakes; a word evidently of warlike origin; and in the Four Northern Counties of England, liable to predatory incursions until the, union of England and Scotland, the frequent occasion for Military Array predominated over the peaceful purpose of civil jurisdiction, and produced the Division and Sub-Division of Wards , still retained in use in place of the Hundreds of other Counties.

Where the Divisions are very ancient, as the Lathes of Kent and the Rapes of Sussex, or where necessary from the multiplicity of the Hundreds, as in Hampshire and Dorset, they are preserved, and their several Hundreds ranged under them. The Rapes of Sussex were Military Governments at the time when Domesday Book was compiled, the Conqueror having stationed his principal Captains there, in such manner as to secure a ready passage to. arid from the coast, and thereby his communication with Normandy: The Lathes of Kent seem to have been Civil Jurisdictions and of earlier date, connected perhaps with the Cinque Ports, and for defence of the Coast against invasion. Hampshire and Dorset have been: arranged (time out of mind) in Divisions which obviate the inconvenience of numerous small Hundreds, and have been adopted in all the Population Abstracts. In the Years 1829 and 1830, Acts of Parliament were passed [9^o G. IV. c. 43, & 10^o G. IV. c. 46] "For the better regulation of Divisions in the several Counties of England and Wales;" and several Counties have availed themselves of the power thus given to Justices of the Peace in their General Quarter Sessions, the newly established Divisions having been enrolled accordingly. This, novelty was understood chiefly to be intended for the more convenient Licensing of Public Houses; a purpose which soon afterwards became of little importance, from a change of the Law as to the Sale of Beer. But whatever be the convenience resulting from such new Divisions of Counties, they cannot be adopted in the present, nor indeed in any future Population Abstract; because thereby would be destroyed the power of comparing, every portion of each County with the same portion in former Abstracts; such comparison being, essential for Statistical purposes.

One exception to the general arrangement occurs in regard to the larger Towns, which as usual are placed at the end of their several Counties. For this there is a better reason than at first sight appears: Corporate Towns and some other places have a peculiar Jurisdiction, and really are not in any Hundred, The degree of separation and exemption varies infinitely, as might be expected, and cannot be reduced to any general rule, being indeed sometimes a subject of Litigation. Hence the strict propriety of placing many Cities and Towns at the end of the respective Counties: and for the sake of comparison, other Towns, which have risen into importance since the disuse of granting Charters and Immunities, are placed with the rest, although these towns are for every other purpose included within some Hundred of the County. The most ready way therefore of finding the Population of a principal Town, is to refer to the Summary of its County, before searching for the Hundred in which it is locally situate, where however a proper reference will always be found. The METROPOLIS presents an unusual difficulty, as extending into Two Counties, and therefore has been necessarily inserted distinctly in an Appendix.¹⁵ In the County Summaries the Total of entire Hundreds is given; in the Body of the County all recognized Sub-divisions of the Hundred are distinguished, each with its separate Total.

So far the arrangement of the ensuing Volume differs little from those of 1801, 1811, and 1821, nor indeed from the several Poors Rate Returns; nor ought it to differ from established precedent, without good reason for so doing. But the very -repetition of such enquiries has been found to render it absolutely necessary to enter more minutely into the relative connection and the identity of places than before. This necessity will best be understood by stating, that there are in England and Wales about 550 Parishes which are known to extend into Two Counties, or into more than One Hundred, or other Division; and that every one of these places creates a danger of Duplicate Entry. No person entrusted with the care of rendering complete the Population Returns, can fail to refer to all preceding Authorities; nor, doing so, can fail to apply for Returns to Parish Officers, who apparently, but not really, have made default: Nor can any effort of memory prevent this; the orthography of the Names of Places being somewhat unsettled, and indeed many names identically the same occurring too often to permit any certain recognition of the same place. The best method of avoiding these difficulties appeared to lie in a more careful attention to the Parochial connection of places; besides that for many purposes, especially Ecclesiastical, the knowledge of the Population of a Parish is at least as useful as that of its component parts. The Instruction prefixed to the Questions of the Printed Schedule was intended to produce Information of this kind; which indeed had before been asked with some effect, as appears in the Poor Return Abstract of 1803; with the help of which and of subsequent Returns, it is hoped that a successful attempt has been made, to ascertain the Parochial connection of all places in Great Britain; so that no Parish should be named in the Enumeration; Abstract without a Reference to all its component parts; and that no such part should be named without a Reference to its Parish; and this whether the whole Parish be in the same. County, or otherwise disjoined in entry. During the Debates in Parliament in the Committee on the Reform of Parliament Bill in 1881, which mainly turned on the Population and Connection of places, the accuracy with which this unheeded labour had been performed in 1821, was subjected to a severe test, and in no instance was proved to be defective or imperfect; in this attempt some difficulty occurred, which renders it necessary to enter into a brief Statement respecting the Parochial Division of the Kingdom; which may be deemed Ecclesiastical rather than Civil.

The Country Parishes of England (in the modern sense of the word Parish) seem originally to have been of the same extent and limits as the several Manors; nor could it well be otherwise, because when it became settled, during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, that Tythe was generally due to the Church, every Lord of an independent Manor would of course appoint a Chaplain or Clergyman of his own, in default of which the Tythe would have become due to the nearest Mother Church. Hence the Parochial Division of England appears to have been nearly the same as now established, in the Taxatio Eccksiastica , which was compiled in the Reign of King Edward the First. (A. D,, 1288-1292.)

In the Towns indeed there is considerable variation, personal Tythes having been much more productive before the Reformation of Religion than afterwards, and consequently a greater number of Clergymen maintained in populous places. Thus the City of London (within and without the Walls, but not including the Borough of Southwark) which now reckons One Hundred and Eight Parishes, forming no more than Seventy-two Ecclesiastical Benefices, had at that time One hundred and Forty; Norwich in like manner is reduced from Seventy Parishes to Thirty-seven, and other ancient Cities in proportion, a sufficient indication that the number of Parishes in Towns was formerly suffered to increase in proportion to the Population: and (besides that personal Tythes and Dues must always have been in a great degree voluntary,) it appears from the Taxatio Ecclesiastica , that the Profits accruing from one and the same Parish were not confined to one Spiritual Person, nor even to one Religious House or Community. Under such circumstances, it is not likely that Town-Parishes were strictly limited either in number or extent; but the conflicting Rights of Tythe-Owners, and the Perambulations ordained by The Canon Law, must have established the Boundaries of Country Parishes much earlier.

In later times the Boundary of every Parish has been gradually settled with precision, and indeed rendered immutable by any authority short of a special legislative enactment. This exactness has been produced by the Laws for the Maintenance and Relief of the Poor, whose claims on a Parish being regulated by their legal Settlement in it, and the Assessment or Poor's Rate which takes place in consequence, being levied according to the property of the other Inhabitants, a double motive for ascertaining the Boundary of a Parish continually subsists, and has been frequently a subject of litigation since the Poor Laws became burden some.

When this began to take place, the Parishes of the Northern Counties were found to be much too large for the due administration of the Poor Laws, which must always be founded upon a personal knowledge of the situation and character of everyone applying for relief, and is therefore a subject to which no general rule can with propriety be applied. The inconvenience which was felt in the Northern Counties from this cause will be easily explained, by stating, that Thirty or Forty square Miles is there no unusual area of a Parish; and that (generally speaking) Parishes in the North average at Seven or Eight times the area, of those in the Southern Counties.

Hence in the 13th year of Charles II, (soon after his Restoration) a Law was passed, permitting Townships and Villages, though not entire Parishes, severally and distinctly to maintain their own Poor, assigning as a reason for this innovation, "That the Inhabitants of Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland, the Bishoprick of Durham Cumberland, and Westmorland, and many other Counties of England and Wales, by reason of the largeness of the Parishes within the same, have not and cannot reap the benefit of the Act of Parliament (43^o ELIZ.) for the Relief of the Poor."

Under this Law the Townships of the North have become as distinctly limited in practice as if they were separate Parishes;¹⁶ and of course make separate Returns, which in the Abstract of 1801 are placed alphabetically in their several Wards and Hundreds, but are now arranged under their respective Parishes; whereby the perplexity arising from a crowd of explanatory Notes has been avoided, and the convenience of those who have occasion to ascertain the Population of a whole Parish, is best consulted. This arrangement appeared in all the Counties North of the Humber and the Dee, and occasionally elsewhere, in the Abstract of 1811, and was extended throughout the Kingdom in the Abstract of 1821 it originated in Northumberland and Westmorland, but in extending it to the Southern Counties, the place which gives name to the whole Parish is always called Parish ) though it be only part of the Parish (the less important designation merging in the other); nor could this be avoided without departing from the customary manner of speaking. A proper Note of Reference will always be found to accompany the name of every Parish which occurs oftener than once, as not wholly contained in the same Hundred or other Division, Besides this immediate and indispensable purpose of the Notes (which exceed 4,300 in number), they will be found to embrace such other information as may tend to elucidate the arrangement and connection of places, or to obviate doubts which frequently arise where well-known places seem to have been omitted, being indeed included in the Return of their Parish. Many Notes are of a miscellaneous kind, extracted from the Returns themselves, whenever the information contained in them appeared to be explanatory of any remarkable increase or diminution of the Population, or of the employment of any particular class of Labourers or Manufacturers. Indeed no useful information has been omitted.

In attempting an arrangement of the kind above described, comprehending the whole Kingdom, the Question, What is a Parish? has often occurred, and has been found not easily determinable. It has been asserted, that a Parochial Chapel is that which had the privileges of administering the Sacraments (esecially that of Baptism) and the Office of Burial. "For the liberties of Baptism and Sepulture are the true distinct Parochial Rights: and if any new Oratory had acquired and enjoyed this immunity, then it differed not from a Parish Church. And till the year 1300, in all trials of the Rights of particular Churches, if it could be proved that a Chapel had a custom for free Baptism and Burial, such place was adjudged to be a Parochial Church." But however true this may have been until the date of the Taxatio Ecclesiastica before mentioned,- in the present sense of the word Parish, it is evidently fallacious, inasmuch as almost every Chapel of Ease would thereby constitute a separate Parish: and in the various degrees of the dependence of Chapels on their Mother Churches (as some rule must be adhered to) it has been deemed safe to assume, that where the Curate is appointed and removable by the Incumbent of the Mother Church, and more certainly where Church-Rates still continue to be paid towards the Repair of such Church, the Chapelry is not Parochial. On the other hand, a perpetual Curacy has not been struck out of the List of Parishes merely because the Curate is appointed by the Incumbent of the MOther Church, his permanent Tenure (especially if the Curacy has been augmented under the Laws which direct the distribution of Queen Anne's Bounty), seeming to alter the case materially. The Churches built under the Act of 1818 [58^o G. III. c. 45.] for "Building and promoting the building of additional Churches in populous Parishes", have created another class of doubtful Parishes, so that the total number of Parishes ecclesiastically speaking) is materially increased during the last Ten or Twelve years; and for any general purpose the number of Parishes and Parochial Chapelries in England and Wales may be safely taken at -

	10,700
The Number of places in England and Wales of which the Population is distinctly stated in the present Abstract, is -	15,609
The Number of Parishes in Scotland is 948; of Population Returns is -	1,046

It has been found practicable in this Volume, without too much increasing the Notes, to state in one Total the number of Inhabitants in each Parish, when returned in Townships or Tythings; not without an essential view to the Ecclesiastical purposes of the Population Abstract, as regarding the Care of Souls, and the degree of accommodation afforded in the several Parish Churches; the total number of persons in each Parish, being every where shown in the Note referring to such Parish; or to the largest part of a Parish, when not entirely in the same County, Hundred or other Division. In such cases, before the word Parish, the words (part of) are inserted.

So much labour having been bestowed in settling the parochial division of England and Wales, the larger Ecclesiastical division into Dioceses ought not to be unnoticed; wherefore the number of Parishes and other particulars, with the Population of each Diocese or Bishoprick, has been carefully selected from the several Counties, and is here inserted.¹⁷

POPULATION OF THE SEVERAL DIOCESES.
DIOCESE.	COUNTIES.	Number of Benefices.	Number of Parishes.	Churches and Chapels.	Population.
ST. ASAPH	Salop	160	9	9	16,735
	Carnarvon		3	3	1,796
	Denbigh		58	62	68,825
	Flint		19	19	45,665
	Merioneth		11	11	9,934
	Montgomery		39	39	48,201
		160	139	143	191,156
BANGOR	Anglesey	131	72	76	48,325
	Carnarvon		63	69	64,652
	Denbigh		16	17	13,195
	Merioneth		21	22	25,381
	Montgomery		7	8	12,159
		131	179	192	163,712
BATH and WELLS	Somerset	440	479	493	403,795
BRISTOL	Dorset	255	259	263	159,252
	Gloucester		38	42	72,369
	Somerset		1	1	405
		255	298	306	232,026
CANTERBURY	Bucks	343	4	4	2,053
	Essex		4	4	4,875
	Kent		306	311	289,222
	Middlesex		15	15	15,241
	Oxford		2	2	470
	Suffolk		3	3	4,524
	Surrey		15	15	71,007
	Sussex		20	20	17,880
		343	369	374	405,272
CARLISLE	Cumberland	128	78	98	112,653
	Westmorland		22	31	22,349
		128	100	129	135,002
CHESTER	Chester	616	138	142	334,391
	Cumberland		41	45	50,170
	Lancaster		231	292	1,336,854
	Westmorland		34	36	32,692
	York (North Riding)		55	73	60,823
	---- (West Riding)		22	32	53,072
	Denbigh		1	1	1,609
	Flint		8	10	14,347
		616	530	631	1,883,958
CHICHESTER	Sussex	266	289	302	254,460
ST. DAVID	Hereford	451	8	8	3,371
	Brecon		135	143	47,763
	Cardigan		68	72	64,780
	Carmarthen		98	115	100,740
	Glamorgan		23	23	37,190
	Montgomery		2	2	2,743
	Pembroke		143	149	81,425
	Radnor		46	46	19,719
	Monmouth		2	3	720
		451	525	561	358,451
DURHAM	Cumberland	175	1	2	6,858
	Durham		72	112	253,910
	Northumberland		67	100	209,165
		175	140	214	469,933
ELY	Cambridge	156	157	159	132,727
	Norfolk		1	1	995
		156	158	160	133,722
EXETER	Cornwall	607	211	221	300,938
	Devon		470	490	494,478
		607	681	711	795,416
GLOUCESTER	Gloucester	283	295	329	314,065
	Wilts		1	1	1,447
		283	296	330	315,512
HEREFORD	Hereford	326	211	219	107,840
	Monmouth		2	2	5,588
	Salop		106	110	71,878
	Worcester		17	18	12,710
	Montgomery		5	5	3,379
	Radnor		5	6	4,932
		326	346	360	206,327
LANDAFF	Glamorgan	194	98	100	89,422
	Monmouth		123	128	91,822
		194	221	228	181,244
LICHFIELD and COVENTRY	Derby	623	174	176	237,170
	Salop		104	104	122,486
	Stafford		230	232	402,042
	Warwick		142	143	283,783
		623	650	655	1,045,481
LINCOLN	Bedford	1,273	127	127	95,483
	Bucks		205	206	142,111
	Herts		75	75	78,742
	Hunts		97	97	53,192
	Leicester		252	254	197,003
	Lincoln		604	607	317,465
	Northampton		4	4	2,125
	Oxford		3	3	10,986
	Rutland		3	3	2,257
	Warwick			1	104
		1,273	1,370	1,377	899,468
LONDON	Bucks	577	4	4	2,365
	Essex		398	398	312,632
	Herts		56	56	64,599
	Middlesex		192	231	1,343,089
		577	650	689	1,722,685
NORWICH	Cambridge	1,076	11	14	9,286
	Norfolk		684	698	389,059
	Suffolk		483	498	291,793
		1,076	1,178	1,210	690,138
OXFORD	Oxford	208	207	237	140,700
PETERBOROUGH	Northampton	305	289	291	177,211
	Rutland		46	47	17,128
		305	335	338	194,339
ROCHESTER	Cambridge	93	1	1	1,942
	Kent		106	110	189,933
		93	107	111	191,875
SALISBURY	Berks	408	151	160	145,389
	Wilts		299	313	238,709
	Gloucester		1	1	585
		408	451	474	384,683
WINCHESTER	Hants	389	269	320	314,280
	Surrey		139	144	415,327
		389	408	464	729,607
WORCESTER	Salop	222	1	1	11,839
	Stafford		3	3	8,470
	Warwick		71	73	52,723
	Worcester		155	183	198,655
		222	230	260	271,687
YORK	Northumberland	828	4	5	13,747
	Notts		210	216	225,327
	York (East Riding)		228	248	204,253
	---- (North Riding)		126	152	129,933
	---- (West Riding)		173	255	923,278
		828	741	876	1,496,538
	TOTAL	10,533	11,077	11,825	13,897,187

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To arrive at a settled Orthography of the Names of places would manifestly be for general convenience, and this object has not been slighted, the Name which appeared on each Return not having been adopted without collation with the former Population Abstract of 1811, and occasionally with the several Poor Return Abstracts, whereby frequent errors have been corrected; but it is to be understood that this kind of correction has been applied only to the Enumeration Returns, not to those from the Clergymen; so that in the Parish Register Abstract, every name will be found exactly as it appeared to be written in the original Return.

Besides Parishes and their Tythings or Townships, there are many places not contained within the Limits of any Parish, and thence called Extra-Parochial; and from some of these, Returns of their Population are not easily procurable. They are found usually to have been Royal Palaces, or the site of Religious Houses, or of ancient Castles, the owners of which were unwilling to permit any interference with their authority within their own property; and in rude times, the existence of such exemptions, obtained from the Crown by pecuniary purchase or favour, is not surprising. At present the case is widely different; and there seems to be no good reason for permitting Extra-Parochial places still to avoid sharing the burthens borne by the rest of the Community. For an Extra-Parochial place enjoys a virtual exemption from maintaining the Poor, because there is no Overseer on whom a Magistrate's Order may be served; from the Militia Laws, because there is no Constable to make Returns; from repairing the Highways, because there is no Surveyor; besides all which, the Inhabitants have a chance of escaping from direct taxation of every kind. For in the language of the ancient law of England, such places were not 'Geldable nor Shireground' non sub districtions curi¿ Vicecomitis; and as the Sheriff was the Receiver General in his County till about the time of the Revolution, Extra-Parochial places were neither taxable nor within the ordinary pale of civil jurisdiction; and the Inhabitants are still virtually exempt from many civil duties and offices served not without inconvenience by others for the benefit of the community at large.

The number of such places is not inconsiderable, though difficult to be discovered; the present volumes exhibit above 200 of them; and the subject is the more worthy of attention, inasmuch as the acquisition of new Land, whether by reclaiming Forests, Drainage of Fens, or Embankment from the Sea, furnishes frequent occasion for endeavouring even now to establish Extra-Parochial Immunities.

The subject of complaint being an unreasonable exemption from certain general Laws, the remedy might be applied to that defect only; so that all places, where any person is found ready to act as Overseer of the Poor, Constable, and Surveyor of the Highways, might be permitted to remain as they are; but the Magistrates of each County should be empowered to annex all other Extra-Parochial places to adjoining Parishes for the purposes above described Districts of larger extent may be found, which under the name of Liberties interrupt the general course of Law as affecting Hundreds, in like manner as Extra-Parochial places that of Parishes. In Dorsetshire, where this irregularity chiefly prevails, the Grants of some of these Liberties are dated so late as the Reign of Henry VIII. and even of Elizabeth. The proper Remedy for the Inconveniencies arising out of these improvident Grants, might be to subject them to abolition by the County Magistrates, whenever by default in the appointment of proper Officers, these Liberties (under whatever title) are found to elude or obstruct the due administration of Justice or of the Laws.

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The Enumeration of the entire Population may be deemed complete, no place being known finally to have omitted making due Return; but the technical arrangement of Parishes arid places, absolutely indispensable as it is, requires an alphabetical Index, which is accordingly annexed to the Second Volume; a work of time and labour, that is, of expense; but its accuracy will not fail to be duly appreciated by those who have recourse to any of the Three Population Volumes of 1831.

A similar facility was in some measure accomplished in the Comparative Abstract of Population which appeared at the end of the Year 1831, the several places being therein arranged alphabetically in their respective Counties; and in the same Abstract is inserted the Annual Value of Real Property in each place, as assessed for the purpose of taxation in the Year 1815. In addition to this, the present Abstract attempts to give the AREA of every Parish in, England; for which purpose those County Maps which profess to mark the limits of each Parish were sedulously corrected wherever error or defect was discoverable; not less than 3,000 Letters of local enquiry (inclosing explanatory Tracings) having been despatched for this purpose.¹⁸ After correction thus obtained the Area of each Parish was computed by means of Glass plates marked in Squares of 40 Acres; and although reliance for any accurate purpose would be misplaced on the Result thus obtained, it may be deemed usually correct within one-tenth part, seldom erroneous beyond one-fifth part; thus placing in view (on every occasion of reference to the Enumeration Abstract) the density of Population in the particular Parish or District which may be then object of enquiry:-nor indeed, with a view to consequences, can the Result which has been obtained be, deemed useless, if it shall only serve to recommend more exact enquiry in proportion as topographical knowledge shall be applied to rural Statistics, especially as to the agricultural, pastoral, woodland or other descriptions of territory.

The most striking results of a series of general Enumerations are those which place great Towns in comparison with each other, and each with itself, as 'to the Increase of Population. That of the Metropolis cannot readily be exhibited at one, view, from the circumstance of its extending into two Counties, and it is placed first in the subjoined tabular arrangement.¹⁹ Other large Cities and Towns are thus arranged j Next after LONDON is placed EDINBURGH, as the capital of the ancient kingdom of Scotland? Towns flourishing in Manufacture are placed next; MANCHESTER, GLASGOW and PAISLEY, eminent in the Manufacture of Cotton; BIRMINGHAM, which relies on the Hardware trade, that is, the conversion of Metals to useful purposes; LEEDS eminent for Woollens, NORWICH for Crapes, and NOTTINGHAM for the Manufacture of Stockings.

After these are placed the Commercial Sea-Ports; LIVERPOOL, BRISTOL with its Suburbs (which like the Metropolis extend into another County); ABERDEEN, NEWCASTLE- UPON TYNE with its Suburb of Gateshead (in the County of Durham); HULL, and the prosperous Town of DUNDEE: The two great Naval Arsenals, PLYMOUTH and PORTSMOUTH, close this explanatory Catalogue of the following places; viz.

In adverting to the Population of Towns, the number of Females is always found to exceed the number of Males; a fact easily explained by the employment of Females drawn thither from the rural districts as domestic Servants; Females born in a Town usually finding other occupation in it. In Liverpool and at other Ports the disparity becomes more remarkable, a considerable proportion of Males being excluded from the Enumeration of resident Inhabitants, as being Seamen who navigate Registered Shipping (a class of men amounting to 130,000) or migratory foreign Seamen: and as the Burials of Males at Seaport Towns equal or exceed the Burials of Females, it might not be unfair to estimate the actual Population at double the number of existing Females. The Sailors serving in the Royal Navy, and the Garrisons of Plymouth and Portsmouth (none of them enumerated with the resident Population) more forcibly illustrate this argument: so that the Population of Plymouth cannot be less than 85,000, nor of Portsmouth than 70,000; and that of Liverpool may be taken at 200,000, the enumerated females being 101,323.

The number of Registered Burials of Males in the Metropolis in Ten Years (1821-1830) was 100,000, of Females no more than 152,000; according to which proportion the Metropolis contains upwards of 1,600,000 persons;²⁰ that is, one Tenth should be added to the Enumerated Population; but as on all preceding occasions no more than one Twenty-fifth has been added on this account, the same proportion must be retained for the sake of conformity; and the comparative Population of The Metropolis is to be thus stated; in 1801, 900,000 persons; in 1811, 1,050,000 persons; in 1821, 1,274,800 persons; and in 1831, 1,530,000 persons.

Objections may undoubtedly be made to the propriety of the Limits of the Metropolis herein assumed; it therefore is convenient to add, that the total Population of all the Parishes whose Churches are situate within Eight Miles rectilinear distance from St. Paul's Cathedral (Woolwich excepted) amounted to 1,031,500 in 1801; to 1,220,200 in 1811; to 1,481,500 in 1821; and in 1831 to 1,776,500 (one Million and Three quarters); a Twenty-fifth part being always added (as above explained) for the great number of British Seamen belonging to the Shipping at anchor in the River Thames, for Soldiers at the Tower arid in Westminster, and for the transitory Population always arriving and departing so irregularly as to prevent Enumeration of such Individuals in a City where no police regulations exist regarding Strangers and Sojourners.

The Population of PARIS in its extended sense, that is, the population of the Department of the Seine, is included in a District nearly circular of the same Diameter; but as the portion outside of such Circle around Paris is exceeded by the vacancy which appears elsewhere within that circle, the population of the Parish of Woolwich (although its Church is within the Eight Mile radius) is omitted in the London Estimate, to the amount of 17,661 persons: a Compensation exceeding the population of most of the Parishes which overstep the London Circle; viz. Barking (8,036) and Woodford (2,548) in Essex; Hendon (3,110) in Middlesex; and Mortlake (2,698) in Surrey.

The Population of the Department of the Seine amounted to 637,000 in the year 1816; to 742,000 in the year 1820; and to 1,013,000 in the year 1829.²¹

The choice of eight Miles as a Radius for including the Environs of London and of Paris is also convenient as furnishing a Scale whereby all Nations acquainted with European Geography will be enabled to measure distances in and near these two Metropolitan Cities': For Eight Miles English are equal to Seven Geographical Miles as measured on the Meridian, and usually marked at the side edge of every Map; and this is very nearly true at London and Paris. The Area contained in an English Square Mile will therefore be as 49 to 64 in comparison with the area of a Geographical Mile, and this is so nearly as Three to Four , that for all practical purposes, that simple proportion may be safely used. Considering the value of this analogy, by which the English measure of Length and space becomes all but universal, it was judicious to leave the measure of length and consequently of Area undisturbed, when in the year 1824, the Antient Cora measure or Winchester Bushel of Henry III. was superseded and in some degree abrogated by Law. [5^o Geo. IV. c. 74.]

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FOOTNOTES

1 . The Population Acts of l8ll, 1821 and 1831, directed the Enumeration to be made on the last Monday of the month of May, regard being thus had to the length of day, and the Midsummer Quarter Sessions, at which, or after which, the Returns were verified upon Oath. On future occasions Tuesday ought to be the day of Enumeration, because very many persons resident in London go from home on Saturday and return on Monday, thus becoming liable either 10 be omitted or twice enumerated.

2 . The "Teachers of Youth" were in Scotland recognized and placed under regulation by statute A.D. 1567; and Parochial Schools were established by law in Scotland A.D. 1696.

3 . The Army, Navy, Sec. are not included.

4 . That is, respectively as 15, 14, and 71 per cent, of the whole number of Families (961,100) employed in Agriculture,

5 . The Males who represent the Families in Column 7 of the Summary [p. xii.] are included in Columns 17, 18, 19, and 20, [p. xii.] and amount to 1,137,270 5 hut of these 608,712 are actual labourers, [Column l811 and 78,669 are employed as Domestic Servants [Column 20], leaving but 449,889 to represent 12 percent, out-of the 30 per cent. Families supposed to be unemployed; and of these 449,889, (about half) of the Males in Column 19, are superannuated Labourers, thus reducing to 6 per cent, in place of 30 per cent, the class of families who subsist without manual labour. Strictly speaking a large number [Column 12] of the occupiers of land who employ labourers may be said not to subsist by manual labour', but they are so nearly allied to it and in such various decrees, that no computation of the exempted number can be hazarded.

6 . Of the 608,712 labourers in Column 18, no less than 106,000 are stated in the observations on the face of the respective Schedules and appear in the printed Notes, to chiefly employed in Mines, Fisheries, and other branches of productive industry; and their Families seem to have been very generally transferred by the Overseers and schoolmasters from Columns 5 and 6, to Column 7.

7 . The Chronology of Events in the obscure Anglo-Saxon period of our history has been carefully and judiciously investigated by Sir Francis Palgrave, and is given (with original authorities) in his English Commonwealth .

8 . From the; Domesday Book of the Conqueror [completed A.D. 1086] it is known that County limits have since that time undergone no alteration; in fact they have been jealously maintained. An attempt was made by Lord Chancellor Clarendon to transfer to Berkshire that part of the Parish of Wokingham, which is part of Wiltshire, although surrounded by Berks; but the Bill was rejected. A modern attempt (A.D., 1825) failed in like manner.

9 . Tacitus seems to allude to a Hundred-Court: Eliguntur et principes qui jura per pagos vicosque reddunt Centeni singulis ex plebe comites, concilium sitnul et auctoritas, adsunt. DeMorib, German,

10 . Numerus Anglice computatur 1 Cent, pro. CXX, Domesday Book , Vol. 1, p, 336. In Civ. Linc.

11 . 22 ^o Hen.VIII. c.12. A.D. 1531.

12 . 43^o Eliz. & 12-13^o Car.II.

13 . 27^o Hen.VIII. c.26. See p.834 of the Enum.Abst.

14 . Information has been requested from the several Clerks of the Peace, as to the number of places in England and Wales where Petty Sessions or Divisional Meetings are usually holden; they amount to 609; and the number of acting County Magistrates is 5,3215 but many of these no doubt act tinder more than one Commission. of the Peace, which must make the real number much less. (For particulars, see p. xlix.)

15 . Enum. Abstr pp. 1080-3, and Par. Reg.. Abstr. pp, 493, 500, where particulars are given of the ancient and modern portions of the Metropolis.

16 . Yet in some cases the above Law of Cha. II. has not been deemed to have effected its purpose finally, so that the Townships seem to remain always liable to separation and partition upon application to neighbouring Magistrates: an opinion by which private property is largely endangered, and a new source of Litigation opened, Might it not be judicious to prevent these evils by a declaratory Law, against alteration of the limit of any District, now recognized as maintaining the Poor separately ?

17 The number of Benefices is here given on the authority of an official document, annexed to a Return presented to the House of Commons (21st May 1830), in pursuance of an Address, for a "Return of the number of Parish Churches and Chapels, and Chapels of Ease of the Church of England"; and for "a Return of the number of Places of Worship not of the Church of England in each Parish, distinguishing (as far as possible) of what Sect or Persuasion, and the Total number of each Sect, in England and Wales." This address is here mentioned as an example not fit to be imitated in future; the terms of it being so vague that scarcely any two of the Returns from Dioceses or Counties resemble each other, the whole forming an incongruous mass, from which no conclusion can be drawn. Several of the Clerks of the Peace, who were called upon for a Return of the Description and Number of Dissenters, and of their Places of Worship, contented themselves with answering, that they had no official knowledge of these particulars; others, with more zeal than prudence, issued a Circular Letter to every place in their respective Counties, and the little value of the Aswers received may be estimated by observing, that the Address appearing to extend beyond Public Meeting-houses, and regularly Licensed places of worship, was variously understood as to what constituted "a place of worship"; and that the number of Dissenters in some Counties was understood to refer to Families, in others to Communicants, in others to include Infants;-- and the various Returns of the Sects or Persuasions are equally loose and unsatisfactory. These different versions of the meaning of the Address were perhaps inevitable; but in any case, to circulate Questions unaccompanied by a Printed Formula. whereby to insure uniform Answer, can only obtain a vague, or at best an unmanageable Return. The expense incurred in the several Counties in procuring useless answers to the above Address, must have amounted to many thousand pounds.

18 . The Boundaries of Borough-Towns as ascertained for the purposes of the Reform of Parliament Act, have afforded queans (in many instances) of correcting former Maps as to Parish-boundaries: in some instances (on the contrary) they have created confusion or false inference: The Parishes adjacent to the Borough of Lewes are inaccurately stated from this cause.

19 . A particular description of the six portions into which the Metropolis is usually divided, appears in the Parish Register Abstract (pp. 497-500) illustrated by a Map. For the resident Population, distinguished accordingly, see pp. 1060-3 of the Enumeration Abstract, and pp. 493-6 of the Parish Register Abstract.

20 . If 152,000 Burials result from an actual Population of 788,882 Females, 160,000 Burials of Males indicate a Population of 829,810 Males; in all, therefore, 1,608,690 Persons.

21 . See the Moniteur (partie officielle) 29 August 1818, 10 March 1819, 5 February 1829. But the first and second of these totals seem not to include resident foreigners, nor provincials accidentally in Paris who by a Return from the Bureau de Longitudes (14. Dec. 1818), appear then to have amounted to 149,000 Persons. The Population of France was 28,216,254 in the year 1801; 32,560,934 in 1831.

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