Population. Comparative account of the population of Great Britain in the years 1801, 1811, 1821, and 1831; with the annual value of real property in the year 1815: also a statement of progress in the inquiry regarding the occupations of families and persons, and the duration of life. As required by the Population act of 1830 / [Ordered by the House of Commons, to be printed, 19 October 1831.

  • Great Britain. Census Office.
Date:
[1831]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Population. Comparative account of the population of Great Britain in the years 1801, 1811, 1821, and 1831; with the annual value of real property in the year 1815: also a statement of progress in the inquiry regarding the occupations of families and persons, and the duration of life. As required by the Population act of 1830 / [Ordered by the House of Commons, to be printed, 19 October 1831. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    but does not possess the elective franchise. In fact the new Parish was a place of little consideration, until ready access to it and through it was opened by the completion of Black- friars Bridge in 1766 ; even after that time new houses stood unfinished, until the Bridge Toll (except the Sunday Toll) was finally relinquished in 1785. The Population of Southwark was 45,000 at the beginning of the last century; at present, it amounts to 01,500. 4. The City of Westminster is an important part of the Metropolis. Edward the Confessor, induced by the reputed sanctity of the place, refounded the Abbey Church, and built his Palace on the site of the present House of Lords (in Old Palace Yard), and William Rufus added to it Westminster Hall, (in New Palace Yard), which became the fixed seat of Justice. The Exchequer of Receipt (the antient Crown Revenue Office), was removed from Winchester to Westminster, probably in the Reign of King Stephen; and from the time of Edward I., Westminster, from Parliament being usually summoned to meet there, may be deemed the Seat of Government also. Its situation was on a River Island, one Mile and a half long, formed by a side stream of the Thames and affording solid ground in the vicinity of the Abbey. The Chelsea Water-works, the Grosvenor Canal, and the ornamental water in St. James’s Park, mark the limits of Thorney Island, the North-east end of which became the City of Westminster. Beyond this natural boundary, the City has been increased by the addition of a larger jurisdiction under the name of the Liberty of Westminster. The Court of the Tudors was removed from the New Palace adjoining Westminster Hall to White-Hall, and a Line of Houses of the Nobility occupied the Strand of the River Thames quite to the Temple, where the Garden and Buildings still exhibit an agreeable remnant of the appearance of this part of the River side in the reign of Elizabeth. At that time the Roads did not admit of dignified land conveyance, and as the Court moved from Whitehall to Richmond or Greenwich by water, the nobles studied convenience as well as splendor in their grand barges, such as are still retained in use for City magnificence, when the several Companies proceed in state to Westminster Hall. The antient Parish of the City of Westminster is that of St. Margaret’s, now called .St. Margaret’s and St. John’s, from a new Church consecrated in a. d. 1728. In the Liberty of Westminster, St. Martin’s in the Fields is the Mother Church of St. Paul Covent Garden (a. d. 1645) of St. Anne Soho (a. d. 1678) of St. James’s (a. d. 1684) and of St. George Hanover Square (a. d. 1724); St. Mary-le-Strand and St. Clement Danes are antient Parishes connecting Westminster with the City of London. The population of Westminster was 130,000 at the beginning of the last century; at present it amounts to 202,050. 5. The Bills of Mortality from which the Fifth Division of the Metropolis is designated, require some explanation. London used always to suffer heavily from the plague, and in the great pestilence, which originating in the East in 1345, reached England in 1348, it seems well established that 100,000 persons died and were buried in the City. (8) In 1563 above 20,000 persons died of the plague; in 1592 above 15,000; and in 1603 more than 36,000. This frequent recurrence caused the establishment of Notices, called Weekly Bills of Mortality, which were kept and published by the Parish Clerks, as a warn¬ ing to the Court and to others to leave London whenever the plague became more fatal than usual. In the year 1625, above 35,000 persons died of the Plague, in the year i636 above 10,000, and 68,596 persons died in the last great plague of 1665. The conflagration which destroyed the whole City occurred in 1666, after which the plague languished, and finally disappears from the Bills of Mortality in 1679. The somewhat obsolete names of diseases in these Bills, have inj ured their reputation, and in some of the large Parishes they are dis¬ continued. The Population of this Division of the Metropolis was 326,000 in the beginning of the last Century; it now amounts to 760,000. 6. A few Parishes not within the Bills of Mortality, but adjoining the Metro¬ polis, form the last Division; and as the increase of the Population of the Metropolis mainly depends on its extension over these Parishes, it is not surprising that although in the beginning of the last Century they contained only 9,150 persons, they now contain 293,560. The (8) It is said that by far the greater part of mankind were swept away by this Indian pestilence, which ravaged Asia, Africa and Europe in succession. Joshua Barnes, in his Life of Edward III. [pp. 428—442] seems to have collected all the truth and all the exaggeration which reached posterity on this subject. From the indisputable fact, that lew persons of rank or condition died, it may be inferred, either that wholesome diet, sufficient clothing, and personal cleanliness operated as preservatives against this disease, or that the alleged mortality is enormously exaggerated, although that in London is supported by circumstantial evidence which appears to be conclusive.