In 1880 Major George Graham, second Registrar General of the GRO, retired. Under Graham's steady and long stewardship - 38 years all told - the decennial census had become firmly established. Hence on the cusp of the 1881 census he was succeeded by Sir Brydges Powell Henniker (1835-1906), who was to remain in post until 1900.
As previously, schedules were delivered in the week preceding enumeration. The census was taken on the night of Sunday 3 April 1881 and enumerators collected returns on the Monday.
A piece in the The Portsmouth Evening News (29 March 1881) pointed out that 'People who cannot write may have the forms filled up by another person, and it would be well for those who are thus situated, to apply if living in the country, to their clergyman, but if living in a town, to a shopkeeper with whom they are in the habit of dealing.'
For 1881 the census headings for England and Wales were as follows:
No. of Schedule
ROAD, STREET, &c. and No. or NAME OF HOUSE
HOUSES [with Inhabited and Uninhabited (U.) or Building (B.) in columns below]
NAME and Surname of each Person
RELATION to Head of Family
CONDITION as to Marriage
AGE last Birthday of [with Males and Females in columns below]
Rank, Profession, or OCCUPATION
WHERE BORN
If
1. Deaf-and-Dumb
2. Blind
3. Imbecile or Idiot
4. Lunatic
In England and Wales, census enumerators' books (CEBs) were organized by civil parish or township, city or municipal borough, municipal ward, parliamentary borough, town or village or hamlet, urban sanitary district (USD), rural sanitary district (RSD) and ecclesiastical parish or district. (1881 was the first census to make use of the aforementioned sanitary districts, as created by the Public Health Acts of 1874 and 1875.)
Throughout all countries of the UK married women exceeded married men. The grand total of 'excess wives' amounted to 89,860. Having a husband serving overseas would obviously account for many of these, but maybe impending marriage or the covering of a child out of marriage accounted for the rest.
1881 was the last census to ask for 'Rank'. The oft-used entry of 'Gentleman' was of no worth when it came to classifying a person's activity.
Detail from a printed handkerchief which utilizes an original 1881 household schedule .
The so-called humour is aimed at how an Irishman might have completed the 1881 census. In addition to mocking illustrations, the artist has added stereotypical entries, such as 'Shooting Landlords' in the occupation column and 'Laziness my only infirmity'
in the final column.
In institutions housing more than 200 'inmates', returns were to be made in institutional books by the residing officer.
Amongst these special census returns were teetotal institutions. Also recorded were homes for 'inebriates' (alcoholics) as run by the recently founded Salvation Army. As a movement teetotalism, or temperance, was on the rise. A week before enumeration the Riot Act had been read in the southern town of Basingstoke; triggered by a confrontation between the Salvation Army and over 2,000 supporters of the alcohol trade.
British and foreign vessels in port (arriving since 26 March) were included. British vessels engaged in the coasting and home trade who berthed between 26 March and 3 May were also enumerated. Shipping schedules are usually located at the end of household returns for the nearest census night port/place or schedule delivery point.
In 1881, England and Wales were shown to have a combined population of 25,974,439. Scotland recorded a population of 3,735,573.
The only missing pieces from 1881 are house numbers 17-22 Cunard Street in Camberwell, South London.
Henniker, the recently appointed Registrar General, did make waves as to the quality of temporary staff employed as census clerks; an issue raised by his predecessor in 1861 and 1871. They were recruited by the Treasury, not the GRO.
Of the 98 appointed men, Henniker claimed four were totally unsuited for work and two had [inconveniently] died. He viewed over half the rest as either 'indifferent', 'bad' or 'very bad'. Come 1891 the Treasury finally relented and more work was performed by seasoned GRO staff, with lesser tasks assigned to temporary employees.
1881 Indexed & Transcribed: An Impressive Volunteer Project
The 1881 census is notable as the first United Kingdom census to be indexed and computer transcribed in its entirety.
In the 1980s, the Genealogical Society of Utah worked with the Federation of Family History Societies (a UK-based charity) and the Scottish Association of Family History Societies to fully index the census. It 'was the first major crowd-sourced exercise in the world' and later became 'the largest collection of historical source data to be made available in computerised form.'
Between 1994 and 1995, county by county, the index was released on microfiche and made available to institutions. In 1999 the Genealogical Society of Utah published a searchable 25-set CD-ROM transcription, which was made available for public purchase.
In February 2003 the transcriptions were uploaded to FamilySearch, a non-profit genealogical website operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS).
The National Archives (TNA) digitized the 1881 returns and in association with Ancestry launched them online in 2004.
The '1881 British Census and National Index: England, Scotland, Wales, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, and Royal Navy' was released in 1999 on a 25 CD-ROMS.
How to Access the 1881 Census
England and Wales
As a volunteer-generated project transcriptions (but not images) of the 1881 census can be accessed for free via FamilySearch, Findmypast and Ancestry (N.B. If necessary, create a free account first).
Scotland
Digitised images from the Scotland Census (1841-1921) are only publicly available through ScotlandsPeople. Each record is free to search, but currently costs £1.50 (six credits) to view.
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