Search Wiltshire Census Lists 1650-1887

You may find information including

• First name
• Last name
• Event year
• Event date
• Place

Censuses have been taken since biblical times but few survive. In Wiltshire there are a number of surviving censuses, with varying amounts of information. The purpose of these is not always clear. The censuses which have come to light so far have been transcribed by Wiltshire Family History Society in four parts, two of which have been divided into two volumes.

All the censuses in these two volumes are pre 1841, with the exception of Woodford (Part II) which was compiled in 1887, presumably for the Jubilee celebrations as it is in the Jubilee Book. Many of them were compiled in connection with the 1801, 1811, 1821 and 1831 censuses. Sir Mervyn Medlycott ,in the introduction to Local Census Listings (a Gibson Guide) wrote "it could be very difficult, particularly in towns, to survey the population without noting some points of reference, such as householders'

names, to make sure that no people were omitted or repeated. Perceiving a market, stationers, particularly in London, Essex, and Yorkshire, unofficially sold set of printed forms for census compilation with columns requiring householders' names to be given. The statistics only were sent to the census office; the name lists, rough drafts, were put away in parish chests or found their way into private collections, from which they are

now emerging." The census for Grittleton is such an example.

The Donhead census in Part II is only surviving one for South Wiltshire compiled for the 1695 Taxation. Those for North Wiltshire are in a separate part, Surviving North Wiltshire 1695 Tax Censuses, and an explanation of this Taxation Act will be found in the introduction to that book. Some of the censuses are to be found in Estate Papers, such as the 1787 one for Chiseldon with the Galley Papers, and the three for Horningsham (1797, 1799 & 1801) in the archives of Longleat House. The 1799 census states it was compiled for the Marchioness of Bath. The census for Steeple Ashton in 1826 was

compiled for bread distribution and it is likely that the 1827 one was for the same reason, so probably only contains the less well off inhabitants. Most of the censuses in these books have been transcribed into alphabetical order of the surnames of the

householder, but there are sometimes more than one surname in a household, so the additional surname is also listed and will show with which family it is to be found. In cases where two or more families or several individuals are grouped together it may be that they share a dwelling and are not necessarily related.

The censuses in Part I are those in the West of Wiltshire, the others are from parishes located in the remainder of the county

Wiltshire Family History Society (WFHS) wishes to thank and acknowledge the staff of the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre and Longleat Archives for the help given to the transcribers.