A HISTORY OF DORSET 



TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801 to 1901 

 Introductory Notes 



Area 



The county taken in this table is that existing subsequently to 7 & 8 Vict., chap. 61 (1844). 

 By this Act detached parts of counties, which had already for parliamentary purposes been amalga- 

 mated with the county by which they were surrounded or with which the detaciied part had the 

 longest common boundary (2 & 3 Wm. IV, chap. 64 — 1832), were annexed to the same county for 

 all purposes ; some exceptions were, however, permitted. 



By the same Act (7 & 8 Vict., chap. 61) the detached parts of counties, transferred to other 

 counties, were also annexed to the hundred, ward, wapentake, &c. by which they were wholly or 

 mostly surrounded, or to which they next adjoin, in the counties to which they were transferred. 

 The hundreds, &c. in this table are also given as existing subsequently to this Act. 



As is well known, the famous statute of Queen Elizabeth for the relief of the poor took the then- 

 existing ecclesiastical parish as the unit for Poor Law relief. This continued for some centuries 

 with but few modifications ; notably by an Act passed in the thirteenth year of Charles II's reign 

 which permitted townships and villages to maintain their own poor. This permission was necessary 

 owing to the large size of some of the parishes, especially in the north of England. 



In 1 80 1 the parish for rating purposes (now known as the civil parish, i.e. 'an area for 

 which a separate poor rate is or can be made, or for which a separate overseer is or can be 

 appointed ') was in most cases co-extensive with the ecclesiastical parish of the same name ; but 

 already there were numerous townships and villages rated separately for the relief of the poor, 

 and also there were many places scattered up and down the country, known as extra-parochial 

 places, which paid no rates at all. Further, many parishes had detached parts entirely surrounded 

 by another parish or parishes. 



Parliament first turned its attention to extra-parochial places, and by an Act (20 Vict.^ 

 chap. 19 — 1857) •'^ ^^* '^''^ down [a) that all extra-parochial places entered separately in the 

 185 1 census returns are to be deemed civil parishes, [b) that in any other place being, or being 

 reputed to be, extra-parochial, overseers of the poor may be appointed, and (c) that where, how- 

 ever, owners and occupiers of two-thirds in value of the land of any such place desire its 

 annexation to an adjoining civil parish, it may be so added with the consent of the said parish. 

 This Act was not found entirely to fulfil its object, so by a further Act (31 & 32 Vict., chap. 122 — 

 1868) it was enacted that every such place remaining on 25 December, 1868, should be added 

 to the parish with which it had the longest common boundary. 



The next thing to be dealt with was the question of detached parts of civil parishes, which was 

 done by the Divided Parishes Acts of 1876, 1879, and 1882. The last, which amended the one of 

 1876, provides that every detached part of an entirely extra-metropolitan parish which is entirely 

 surrounded by another parish becomes transferred to this latter for civil purposes, or if the population 

 exceeds 300 persons it may be made a separate parish. These Acts also gave power to add detached 

 parts surrounded by more than one parish to one or more of the surrounding parishes, and also to 

 amalgamate entire parishes with one or more parishes. Under the 1879 Act it was not necessary 

 for the area dealt with to be entirely detached. These Acts also declared that every part added to 

 a parish in another county becomes part of that county. 



Then came the Local Government Act, 1888, which permits the alteration of civil parish boun- 

 daries and the amalgamation of civil parishes by Local Government Board orders. It also created the 

 administrative counties. The Local Government Act of 1894 enacts that where a civil parish is partly 

 in a rural district and partly in an urban district each part shall become a separate civil parish ; and 

 also that where a civil parish is situated in more than one urban district each part shall become a 

 separate civil parish, unless the county council otherwise direct. Meanwhile, the ecclesiastical parishes 

 had been altered and new ones created under entirely different Acts, which cannot be entered into 

 here, as the table treats of the ancient parishes in their civil aspect. 



Population 



The first census of England was taken in 1801, and was very little more than a counting 

 of the population in each parish (or place), excluding all persons, such as soldiers, sailors, &c., wlio 

 formed no part of its ordinary population. It was the de facto population (i.e. the population 



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