Census and Vital Registration Data Base

-38??55 A User Guide to the 1861 Census and Vital Registration Data Base By David Alan Gatley Staffordshire University (c)DavidAh GaUey1996 3895 A User Guide to the 1861 Census and Vital Registration Data Base by David Alan Gatley Published by The Knowledge, Organizations and Society Research Group The Sociology Division School of Social Sciences Staffordshire University Stoke-on-Trent (c) David Alan Gatley1996 ISBN 1897898061 1861 Data Base Created by David Alan Gatley Terms and Conditions of Use The data base, ‘POPN186 1.WK1’ on the enclosed disk, is supplied on the following conditions of use. 1) Purpose: To use the data base only for the purpose of non-commercial research or teaching. 2) Acknowledgement: To acknowledge in any publication, whether printed, electronic or broadcast, based wholly or in part on the data base, both Staffordshire University and David Alan Gatley who created the data base. 3) Publications: To forward to the Dean of Social Sciences at Staffordshire University two copies of atry publication based wholly or in part on the 1861 data base. 4) Copyright: Not to distribute copies of the data base to others nor to make copies of them except to carry out individual research projects or for teaching purposes. 5) Errors: to noti& the creator of the data base (at StatTordshire University) of any errors discovered in the data sets, 6) Liability: To accept that David Alan Gatley and StatTordshire University bear no legal responsibilhy for the accuracy or comprehensiveness of the two data bases. Purchasing the data base constitutes acceptance of the above terms and conditions of use. Acknowledgements This book would not have been possible without the hel~land co-operation of many people and institutions. First and foremost, and often forgotten, are the four and a half million people, many of them children, who completed their census schedules, the 31,000 enumerators who distributed and collected the census schedules, and copied them into their enumeration books, the 2,828 registrars and their staff who were responsible for recording vital events, and the clerks of the General Register Ofice who compiled the census volumes under the dkection of William Farr. In more recent times, particular thanks are due to Leonie Simpson, Debrah Charlotte Ross, Sheena Bateman, Joy Shields and Susannah White who helped to compile the data base. Thanks are also due to Hugh Burt for digitizing and producing the map contained in this volume, and George Iwaniak for his invaluable assistance. The project was financed with monies from the writer’s bank account, Staffordshire University and the Local Population Studies Research Fund. Data for this volume has come from copies of the 1861 Census Volames (Command Papers: 2846 (1 861), 3056 ( 1862) and 3221 ( 1863)), Vre Re&”strarGeneral’s Annual Reportjhr 1861 and the Decennial Supplement 10the Registrar General’s Annual Report for 1861. Finally, the writer would like to thank Jean Mutch, Mary Morries, Mary Hodges, Peter Franklin, Humphrey Southall, Thomas Gatley, Harold \’Jells, Malcolm Henson, Michael Dent and Joan Smith who kindly read through the various drafts of this manuscript and whose comments helped to improve it. Int reduction. Section 1: The Origins of the Census and Vital Regi:,tration. Section 2: The Uses of the Data Base. Section 3: The Structure of the Data Base. Section 4: The Relational Data Base. Appendix A: Coding Schema. Appendix B: Registration Districts. Appendix C: Alphabetical List of Registration and Sub-Registration Districts , I 11 1 , * Introduction . , This book is a guide to using the /86/ Ce/~sus cd Vit[tlRegislra[io/t Data Base included on * the enclosed disk. It is divided into four sections, Section One looks at the background of the census and vital registration. Section Two looks at the u;es of the data base to researchers and 9 teachers in further and higher education. Section Three iooks at the structure of the data base , that can be analysed using a variety of data base packages such as Micro-Sofi Works and Access, DBase and Paradox. Finally, Section Four looks at the linked data base also contained a on the enclosed disk which has been devised for use with the Census Enumerators’ Books (CEBS). * , Readers are reminded that the data contained on the disk is copyright, and as such must not be given to other people without the express permission of the author. The source of the material , must also be cited in any published work based in whole or in part upon it. Researchers are reminded of Clause 3 of the terms and conditions of use, requiring them to send two copies of I any publication based, in whole or in part, on the data I:ase to the Dean of Social Sciences at Staffordshire University. , s Dr David Alan Gatley, , Victorian Census Project, School of Social Sciences, I Staffordshke University, , College Road, Stoke-on-Trent, I Stafford shire ST4 2BD. I , 1 , , , , Section One: The Origins of the Census and Vital Registration Before the Census The origins of the census and vital registration have berm discussed in detail by other writers and need not detain us unnecessarily here. Suflice it to say that the origins of vital registration lay in the parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials that have been kept in England and Wales since 1538. The form in which these records were to be kept was not, however, standardized until, in the case of marriages, 1754 and of baptisms and burials, 1812. The lack of standardized forms for these records led to great v,triation in the amount of information recorded. Some of the early baptismal records, for example, contain oniy the name of the child and his or her father, the mother’s name being omitted. Similarly, many burial records record only the name of the deceased, whilst others contain additional information such as the age at death, the name of the nearest relative and occasionally tire cause of death It is generally acknowledged that parish registers have never recorded the whole of the population. Many people were not baptized, many couples chose to live together without entering into a church wedding, and it is thought that many events that did take place in church were not recorded in the parish registers, Moreover, it seems probable that the extent to which vital events were recorded in these registers declined following the growth of religious nonconformity in the eighteenth century (see Ashurst 1995). In England and Wales, the first systematic attempt at estimating the size of the population was that of Gregory King who, in 1701, undertook a serits of sample surveys to ascertain the average household sizes in different types of community, and multiplied the resulting figures by the number of houses in the country as estimated from the Hearth Tax Returns of the late 1680s. Gregory King’s figure, however, was ordy so est.mate of the population of the country (see Schurer and Arkell, 1992). Glass (1978) shows us that demand for holding a national census grew throughout the eighteenth century following some controversy over the exact size of the population and the extent to which it was increasing or declining. A number of small scale censuses or population listings were compiled for specific communities, such as that undertaken by Thomas Allen in 1701 of the parish of Stoke-upon-Trent (see Gatley, 1994), The first Bill to undertake a census in Britain, howevel, was not introduced until 1753. This proposed both a census and the setting up of a system of vital registration (see Glass, 1978: 90). This Bill was not enacted because of opposition to it in the House of Lords. As the eighteenth century progressed, however, demand for a national census grew. The population controversy over whether the population was increasing or decreasing continued, concluding with the publication of Malthus’s Essay on /he Principle of Population which argued that the population of the country would increase at a lower rate than the means of subsidence, creating a population that would always exist in poverty. Moreover, concern was expressed nationally concerting increasing expendkure on poor relief and food imports were growing. Probably the main proponent of a national census was John Rickman, who, in a memorandum to the MP Charles Abbott in 1796 and an article written in 1800, outlined the main arguments for undertaking a census, 1 These were: a) that some knowledge of the size 1 These were Thoughts on the L’ti/iw and Fnci/i& of a Genera/ Enmrera[io)? of the Pe’oP/e of fheBr;/iJ1 Empire (cited in Glass, 1978:90) and articlefor The Cmrmnemid ,md ,4gricu/tural .Magazine, June 18(XJ 2 and condition of the population was an essential conditions of good government and state planning; b) that in times of war it was essential to knov how many able-bodied men could be called to arms; c) to learn more about population dynamics and those factors that cause the birth, marriage and death rates to fluctuate over time; :1) other countries had benefited from undertaking censuses: e) it would act as a spur to tht government to undertake additional studies; and f) it would help life assurance companies to prepare life tables (Glass, 1978: 106- 9) The First Census Charles Abbott, MP, to whom Rickman had sent his memorandum four years earlier, introduced the Census Bill of 1800 which, with minor amendments, was passed later that year. The Bill had two main objectives: a) an enumeration of the population of the country; and b) to ascertain the main population trends over the previous 100 years. The enumeration of the population was undertaken by means of making a simplt head count of the population, and of counting the numbers of males and females, the numbers of inhabited and uninhabited houses, and the numbers of persons employed in agriculture, trade, manufactures and handicrat?s.

Load more