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Who is Living at the Vicarage? an Analysis of the 1881 Census Returns for Clerical Households in Lincolnshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

John W. B. Tomlinson
John W. B. Tomlinson*
Affiliation:
Lincoln College
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Extract

The 1881 census took place on the evening of Sunday 3 April and provides a snapshot of the composition of virtually every household in the UK, including details of age, occupation and birthplace. In Lincolnshire the census returns for 647 ecclesiastical parishes and districts provide a valuable source of information about the households of the clergy. The range of this record, from remote rural villages to urban communities, although limited to one region of the country, can be considered as largely representative of typical clerical households in England in the late nineteenth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 50: Religion and the Household , 2014 , pp. 416 - 427
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2014

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References

1 Census of England and Wales, 1881, 3: Ages, Condition as to Marriage, Occupations and Birth-places of the People (London, 1883), 294-6. The compilers of the census decided to count clergymen who were working as schoolmasters only as schoolmasters.

2 See the introduction to Crockford’s Clerical Directory (London, 1882).

3 Kew, TNA, Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881, RG11/3238, fol. 92, p. 20; RG11/3222, fol. 32, p. 23; RG11/2957, fol. 65, p. 10; RG11/3213, fol. 43, p. 1; RG11/3374, fol. 72, p. 6.

4 RG11/3221, fol. 60, p. 10; RG11/3293, fol. 39, p. 7; RG11/3298, fol. 28, p. 5.

5 No resident serving clergyman was found in Gunness with Burringham (864 people), Upton-cum-Kexby (562), Elsham (502), Fosdyke (477), Frithville (436), Normanby-by-Spital (397), Scredington (397), Eastville with Midville (359) or Forton (357).

6 Since the 1830s the Church authorities had been successful in reducing this phenomenon: see Knight, Frances, The Nineteenth-Century Church and English Society (Cambridge, 1995), 142 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The three mile restriction was imposed by the Pluralities Act (1850), and this was increased to four miles in the Pluralities Acts Amendment Act (1885). Both Acts also recognize the importance of benefice income.

7 Russell, Anthony, The Clerical Profession (London, 1980), 236.Google Scholar

8 Obelkevich, James, Religion and Rural Society: South Lindsey 1825-1875 (Oxford, 1976), 168.Google Scholar

9 The terms ‘closed’ and ‘open’ respectively describe those villages under the control of one or a few landowners who were usually Anglican and those relatively free from such social influence.

10 The census records very few non-Anglican ministers in rural areas.

11 The 1851 Religious Census and later worship registers showed higher attendance at the parish church where the majority landowner was Anglican.

12 Whereas one in three incumbents was over 60, only one in ten men in Lincolnshire had reached or exceeded this age: Census 1881, 3: 277.

13 RG11/3258, fol. 31, p. 13.

14 Census 1881, 3: 277, RG11/3212, fol. 66, p. 13.

15 Kelly, Edward Robert, Kelly’s Directory of Lincolnshire (London, 1885), 591.Google Scholar

16 Kelly, , Directory, 55. The Act allowed retiring clergy to receive a pension from the income of the benefice, up to one third of the benefice value Google Scholar.

17 RG11/3196, fol. 32, p. 29; RG11/3379, fol. 106, p. 12. In other parishes the census shows that the curate stayed in a different house, usually close to the church.

18 RG 11/3282, fol. 137, p. 3.

19 RG11/3246, fol. 17, p. 7, Hutton, Arthur, Some Account of the Family of Hutton (n.pl., 1897)Google Scholar; RG11/3236, fol. 82, p. 20, Kelly, , Directory, 334 Google Scholar; RG11/3263, fol. 123, p. 13, Kelly, , Directory, 386 Google Scholar.

20 Information is from Crockford’s and Kelly, , Directory, and corresponds to national figures provided in Russell, , Clerical Profession, 245 Google Scholar.

21 RG11/3246, fol. 97, p. 1; RG11/3374, fol. 32, p. 9; RG11/3266, fol. 72, p. 10.

22 RG11/3221, fol. 25, p. 44; RG11/4696, fol. 106, p. 6.

23 RG 11/3247, fol. 59, p. 2.

24 RG11/3195, fol. 49, p. 25.

25 Census 1881, 3: 310-12.

26 RG11/3285, fol. 107, p. 23; RG11/3266, fol. 107, p. 10; RG11/3255, fol. 95, p. 8; RG11/3260, fol. 93, p. 14; RG11/3234, fol. 44, p. 2; RG11/3247, fol. 87, p. 4; Kelly, , Directory, 634 Google Scholar.

27 This was noted by Hammond, Peter, The Parson and the Victorian Parish (London, 1977), 37–8.Google Scholar

28 RG11/3237, fol. 75, p. 10; RG11/3223, fol. 117, p. 15; RG11/3288, fol. 92, p. 24; RG11/3225, fol. 45, p. 8; RG11/3235, fol. 99, p. 18; RG11/3246, fol. 44, p. 2; RG11/3196, fol. 91, p. 12.

29 RG11/3247, fol. 23, p. 11; RG11/3224, fol. 72, p. 8; RG11/3293, fol. 104, p. 13; RG11/3263, fol. 69, p. 8.

30 RG11/3298, fol. 17, p. 7.

31 RG11/4699, fol. 90, p. 7.

32 RG11/3246, fol. 17, p. 7; RG11/3279, fol. 82, p. 1.

33 RG11/3265, fol. 11, p. 1.

34 RG11/3374, fol. 38, p. 1.

35 RG11/3286, fol. 90, p. 16; RG11/3285, fol. 25, p. 15; RG11/3194, fol. 74, p. 4; RG11/3257, fol. 153, p. 7.

36 RG11/3286, fol. 116, p. 9; RG11/4700, fol. 97, p. 4.

37 RG11/3236, fol. 4, p. 1; RG11/3252, fol. 32, p. 6; RG11/3256, fol. 88, p. 8.

38 RG11/3247, fol. 20, p. 6; RG11/3290, fol. 4, p. 2; RG11/3262, fol. 55, p. 7; RG11/3286, fol. 56, p. 15.

39 RG11/3255, fol. 95, p. 8; RG11/3223, fol. 97, p. 1; RG11/3281, fol. 143, p. 10; RG11/3248, fol. 50, p. 23.

40 RG11/3234, fol. 11, p. 13.

41 RG11/3249, fol. 68, p. 12; RG11/3287, fol. 10, p. 13, RG11/3227, fol. 63, p. 10.

42 RG11/3197, fol. 46, p. 6; RG11/3216, fol. 6, p. 5.

43 RG 11/3255, fol. 69, p. 6; RG11/3265, fol. 74, p. 6; RG11/3234, fol. 130, p. 5.

44 The unreliability of the census record in this respect is referred to by Delap, Lucy, Knowing their Place: Domestic Service in Twentieth-Century Britain (Oxford, 2011), 11–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 RG11/3194, fol. 103, p. 6; RG11/3241, fol. 85, p. 38; RG11/3266, fol. 19, p. 14; RG11/3223, fol. 74, p. 2.

46 RG11/3202, fol. 94, p. 20; RG11/3257, fol. 39, p. 11; RG11/3260, fol. 59, p. 12; RG11/3196, fol. 53, p. 1.

47 Figures from Crockford’s 1882; Kelly, Directory, 1885.

48 Hammond, , Parson, 41 Google Scholar.

49 This is the approximate necessary income suggested by MrsBeeton, in The Book of Household Management (London, 1861)Google Scholar, section 21, online at: <http://www.mrsbeeton.com>, accessed 24 May 2012; see also Flanders, Judith, The Victorian House (London, 2004), 93–119 Google Scholar.

50 The balance of power, including sexual, between servant and employer is explored in Benson, John, ‘One Man and his Servants’, Labour History Review 72 (2007), 203–14 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

51 See, for example, remarks made at the chapter meetings in north Lincolnshire: Lincoln, Lincolnshire Archives Office, RD1/4/2, Ruridecanal Minute Book (Yarborough No. 2), 1871-1897, 18 September 1879, 2 March 1881, 26 June 1884.

52 See Dawes, Frank, Not in Front of the Servants, Domestic Service in England 1850-1939 (London, 1973), 46–50, 102.Google Scholar

53 See Haig, Alan, 77ie Victorian Clergy (London, 1984), 304.Google Scholar

54 Crockford’s 1884, ix.

55 England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, online at: <http://www.ancestry.com>, accessed 24 May 2012.

56 The 870 ordination total for 1885 was never surpassed: see Russell, , Clerical Profession, 242; Hinton, Michael, The Anglican Parochial Clergy (London, 1994), 12 Google Scholar.