Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

CHAPTER THREE
POPULATION
In the previous chapter I established the zones into which I divide my study area.
Before looking at the occupational structure a brief survey of population change may be
informative. Where the population of certain parishes grew dramatically at certain
periods, other places stagnated or shrank. To a great extent such population changes
reflect each community’s economy.
Before 1801 attempts at calculating local population figures are problematic.
Some surveys may omit statistics for certain settlements or list numbers of houses,
households, families or communicants rather than inhabitants. Different interpretations
of these numbers produce widely ranging population estimates. For example, Schurer
and Arkell demonstrate the differences between figures for the Hearth Tax 1670-1674
and the Compton Census of 1676 in selected parishes in the Warwick deanery including
some in the study area. 1
The most complete set of information before 1801 for my
parishes is the Compton Census, so that is analysed below for comparison with the
nineteenth century censuses. The Compton census of 1676 was taken conveniently close
to the commencement of my study period so it provides a useful starting point in looking
at demographic change over the two centuries. Some of the tables below also refer to the
Hearth Tax and to surveys circa 1730 and 1780, but this information is not available for
all parishes. 2
To supplement these sources of information baptism figures are also used
in this chapter to confirm demographic change.
1 K. Schurer and T. Arkell, eds., Surveying the People, (Oxford, Leopard Head’s Press, 1992), p. 115.
2 The multipliers used to obtain population estimates are discussed below.
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