19th Century

The 19th century censuses.

There has been a census taken every ten years since 1801 but the first ones did not contain the names of the people counted. From 1841 there has been a census every ten years, apart from 1941 when the war meant that everyday life and the bureaucracy which underpins a census were too disrupted for it to take place.

Only the census material from 1841 to 1901 is available on the internet, so I was not able to access information about families in the 20^th century.

The 1841 census gives no numbers for the houses. Later ones have numbered entries but start in different places in the village.

In the 1851 version entries are numbered and appear to start at Hill Farm where Martin Tagg is listed as farming 380 acres and employing 31 men. Another farm is run by Ann Harris, a widow, whose son Henry farms 100 acres and employs 4 men and 1 boy. His brother Joseph is a widower living at the same address along with a third brother, William, and both are recorded as being agricultural labourers. Henry’s wife and children and Joseph’s two daughters are all part of the same establishment, so the house must have been a substantial one. Since they are next to the vicar in the list of inhabitants, it may well be that they were living at Church Farm.

There are two other farmers listed: Joseph Gibbs, farming 418 acres and employing 16 men, and John Greaves, farming 420 acres and employing 21 men. John Greaves lived at Home Farm so where did Joseph Gibbs live? Was it Forest Farm?

Number 16 is the Manor where William Herbert lived with only three servants. He was a cabinet maker born in Oxford.

The 1861 census starts with the Manor occupied by Herbert Parsons, his family and six servants, including a lady’s maid, cook, nurse, nursemaid, butler and groom, obviously a much more substantial and socially important household than in 1851.

The acreage of the farms is recorded, which means that it is possible in this respect to match up 1851 to 1841.

The rectory comes third from last in this list, number 41, so perhaps the person doing the recording started at one side of the road and came back along the other. Or perhaps not!

The 1871 census begins with Forest Farm, the road is called Oxford Road, and the houses appear to be numbered from the end farthest from the church. It also lists the school and the church, so it is slightly easier to identify the houses.

One of the questions I thought it would be interesting to examine was how long people lived in the village. To do this, I have compared the surnames in each census return, to try to get an idea of the names of people who lived here and for how long.

Obviously with very common names such as Smith or Taylor there is no guarantee that one entry for a name such as this will refer to the same person ten years later. But there are names which appear very distinctive: Gammon, Narroway, Basson, Gurdon. It is perfectly possible to trace them from one census to the next and to note what has happened to the family. It is also possible to see whether these names were common Oxfordshire names in the 19^th century by visiting the National Trust web site: Map a name. Basson is a local name, though Clay seems to have drifted south from the Leicestershire area. Gammon is a Devon name, while Narroway is uncommon though more common in this area than nationally. There is no distribution map for Narroway in 1998.

Tracing a family can show us to some extent the family pattern, the Clay family for instance. In 1841 Thomas Clay, an agricultural labourer, was 45 and married to Lettisha, aged 40 and born in Forest Hill. They have a son of 29, John, and four more children at home, Elizabeth aged 10, Richard aged 9, William aged 7 and Jane aged 5. One wonders about the gap between John and Elizabeth. Were there still births? Were there miscarriages? Have children left home to work as live-in servants or farm workers? The answer to one of these questions lies in the 1861 census.

In 1851 there are two families listed with the name Clay, one of them being Thomas and Letitia, now spelt as we would expect it to be. This reminds us that the people supplying the information to the census taker may be illiterate, unable to spell their own names, especially such an unusual one as Letitia. Two sons, John and William still live at home and are agricultural labourers like their father. Daughter Jane is still at home, with no occupation listed for her.

In 1861 Letitia has become Latisha. There are no sons living at home but there is now an unmarried daughter Sarah aged 37, a dressmaker. Where was she ten years ago, I wonder? Jane, aged 23, is still at home and there is also a grandson aged four, a scholar. It is not recorded whose son he is. Does he belong to Sarah, who left home and acquired dressmaking skills? Is he illegitimate? Is he the son of John or William or Jane?

By 1871 Thomas is 82, and his wife Letitia 72. If he was 45 in 1841 he should now be 75. Either I have misread the original document, Thomas was unsure when he was born or the recorder misheard or mis-wrote. Anyway, he’s still alive! They have Sarah their 48 year old unmarried daughter living with them, now earning her living as a servant, and 36 year old William.

By 1891 Letitia is still with us, now 93 and living with her daughter Sarah, aged 65. There are no other Clays listed in the village, so we must presume that the rest of the family have moved away. Are Thomas, Letitia and Sarah buried in the churchyard? That is another question which needs an answer.

We pick up the story of Sarah again from Mrs Allam’s “Elsfield recollections” recorded in 1966. She remembers “Miss Sarah Clay who lived in an old thatched cottage. She sold sweets and tobacco which she fetched from Oxford, walking both ways with a large basket on each arm. She had pieces of food from the Manor, also the tea leaves which were saved for her to brew again.” Mrs Allam follows this with a comment that “in those days the poor were allowed 2/6d and a quartern loaf weekly. Perhaps Sarah received these along with the tea leaves. (A quartern loaf was a loaf of bread four inches square or weighing 1600gms).