Edward Quincey in 1857

Country-wide censuses have been taken every ten years since 1801 (except 1941), but the 1841 census was the first to name all the inhabitants of each village or town. The Burton Latimer census enumerator in 1841 was the local schoolmaster Edward Quincey; he was required to deliver a form to each household, which they would complete ready for collection later. If they were unable to read or write, the enumerator would complete it for them.                                                    

In theory, the census names everyone who spent the night of Sunday 6^th June in the parish. The result shows a population of 965; there were 201 inhabited houses, 13 uninhabited and one house being built.

Except for children under 15, ages were rounded up to the nearest 5 years; however, as will be seen, this rule was not always followed. Each person was asked to declare whether they were born in the same county, hence the ‘Y’ or ‘N’; if they were born “In Scotland, Ireland or Foreign Parts”, the initial of that country was recorded, e.g. ‘S’ for Scotland , ‘I’ for Ireland or ‘F’ for Foreign. As Burton Latimer was only a small parish, very few individual addresses were given.

In our transcription, bold lines indicate separate households. We have also added a first column reference number. This is our indexing, not part of the official census. However, by using it for the demarkation of each house or household, it allows the names to be re-sorted into alphabetical order for easy location and to remain cross-referenced to the household in the original census list.

The occupations etc. are listed as in the original return. The enumerator’s abbreviations and their meanings are as follows:

Ag Lab = Agricultural labourer              

Ap = Apprentice

F.S. = Female servant                 

Ind = Of independent means

J. = Journeyman                         

M.S. = Male servant (usually a farm servant)                          

Shoe m. = Shoe maker

N.K. = not known.

The symbols < > indicate that the words have been deleted in the original.