SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



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 

 amalgamated with the county by which they were surrounded or with which the detached part 

 had the longest common boundary (2 & 3 Will. 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 01 

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

 The hundreds, &c., in this table also are 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 the 

 reign of Charles II 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 1 801 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) it was laid down {a) that all extra-parochial places entered separately in the 

 1851 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, however, 

 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, ^"^^ 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 

 boundaries 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., who 

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

 actually resident at a particular time) and not the de jure (i.e. the population really belonging 

 to any particular place at a particular time). This principle has been sustained throughout the 

 censuses. 



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