Pre 1841 Norfolk Censuses and other Name Lists

The chronological list which follows will increase as information is located. When the national headcount was done in 1801/11/21/31 some villages produced more information (including names) and that which is known to survive is indicated. These items can mostly be found in the Norfolk Record Office. Please note that some of the items in the list are not true full national population censuses, but alternatives (mainly sub-sets of the population) to try and help fill the gaps. For example "Voting Lists" might help locate a person from 1700 onwards. Remember that people after appearing in some lists eg. Muster Rolls, found themselves taxed and so disappeared in others, not unlike the Poll and Council taxes of today.

Some namelists were produced for military purposes and these are fully listed under Norfolk Military Records.

• 1086
  • Domesday Book for Norfolk
    [Phillimore & Co. Ltd.: Vols I,II, 1984, ISBN 0850334780(case) & 0850334799(limp)]
• 1200+
  • Manor Court Rolls
• 1523/69/72/74/77
  • Muster Rolls
    [Norwich Record Society: Vols I,VI,VII (1931/5/6)]
• c.1600
  • Ashwellthorpe, Fundenhall, Hapton and Wreningham
    Heads of households and population.
• 1600+
  • Hearth Taxes
    [NNGS: Vol.15 Norwich Archdeaconry Hearth Tax. Mich. 1664]
    [NNGS: Vol.20 Norfolk & Norwich Hearth Tax Assessment 1666 Lady Day. Occupiers and number of hearths from 300 parishes. Indexed.]
• 1651
  • Reepham - Statistics only.
• 1676
  • Compton Census
    This census gives the number of Roman Catholics, village by village. The total for the whole of Norfolk is 379. There were 62 resident in the city of Norwich, giving 317 for rural Norfolk.
  • A map showing non-conformity in the Diocese of Norwich (whole county) is available in some libraries.
• 1700+
  • Voting lists.
• 1704
  • Walsham, North - Names of inhabitants.
• 1736/7/9
  • Shotesham All Saints & St Mary - Heads and number in each family.
• 1747
  • Wymondham - Statistics only.
• 1759
  • Mattishall - Statistics only and totals for 1775 and 1790.
• 1763
  • Shotesham St Mary & St Martin - Heads and number of Adults, Children and Servants in each family.
• 1764
  • Shotesham All Saints - Heads and number of Adults, Children and Servants in each family.
• 1768
  • Baconsthorpe - Head and number in each family.
  • Bodham - Head and number in each family.
• 1770
  • Blakeney. Heads and number of households, no of families.
• 1777
  • Bunwell - Heads and wives, occupations, children and servants under and over 16 years and religion.
  • Carleton Rode - Heads and wives, occupations, children and servants under and over 16 years and religion.
• 1787
  • Northwold - List of property owners and tenants names, occupations and number of men, women and children in house.
• 1788
  • Felbrigg - Heads and number of Adults, Children and Servants in each family.
• 1793
  • Wells - next - the -Sea - Contains the Head of family and numbers in households (totals for 1793 & 1757 given).
• 1800
  • Repps, South - Head of family, occupations, marital status and numbers in household.
• 1801 - 1831
  • National head counts were done every 10 years from 1801 to 1831. Books and forms were produced by Goverment and printers to make this counting easy. The few which survive are listed below. Those that just contain numbers are marked "Figures" although some also have the enumerators name. Note that these figures for every parish in the county were published by the Government and are available in some libraries.
  • Other census taken between the years 1801 to 1840 have been included where a date is indicated.
  • Dates of the actual census may vary slightly from those given at the head of each column.

• 1829
  • Houghton next Harpley - Name list at NFHS Library.
• 1831
  • Taken on the night of May 30th.
  • The Government issued printed forms called Formula No 1 and Formula No 2. Examples of these can be seen under Forncett St Peter above.
  • Clergymens Returns (National Archives ref HO71) give numbers (but no names) of births, marriages and death's for parish in this and some previous years. See Brisley for an example of the 1821 returns which cover the years 1811 to 1820.
• 1832
  • Houghton next Harpley - Name list at NFHS Library.
• 1834
  • Houghton next Harpley - Name list at NFHS Library.
• 1839
  • Tacolneston - Names.
• 1842
  • Heacham - Names, relationships, occupations, character description and migration.
• 1846
  • Burston - Names.

Books

Aylsham Local History Society (edited by Mollard, Tom)

AYLSHAM in 1821
The population of the parish of Aylsham recorded by William Morris, Assistant Overseer 28-31st May 1821
(Lists names of heads of households and numbers therein.)
[ISBN 0-9521564-2-3, Aylsham Local History Society, 1997]

Buckenham, Old - Census of 1811 and 1821

Transcript in NFHS Library and the Norfolk Record Office (contains names and occupations)
[Graham Loveday King, typescript, 1977]

Chapman, Colin.R.

Pre 1841 Censuses and Population Listings in the British Isles
[Genealogical Publishing Company,5th ed., 1999, ISBN 0 806316136]

Notes

• Indexes of names are provided with the online transcripts.
• Further entries will be added once their content ie. "Names" or "Figures" have been ascertained.
• UFP means the original document was "Unfit for Production" by the Norfolk Record Office at present and there is no alternative copy available to transcribe.
• Census which are in the Norfolk Record Office collections but are not in Norfolk have not been transcribed. This covers part of Suffolk and includes :-
  • 1811 - Lowestoft - St Margaret (PD 589/92)
  • 1831 - Rushmere (PD 116/7)

Link back to main Census page