St Ives Union Workhouse 1841 Census

St Ives Workhouse 1841 Census
The 1841 census was taken on the evening of Sunday 6 June. It was the first modern census. The 1841 census asked for name, age, gender, occupation, and if born in the same County, or if born in Scotland, Ireland or 'foreign parts'.

In the Workhouse were 87 inmates, 58 males and 30 females. The census did not record their occupations.
Unemployed men with no family to care for them were the biggest age category. The next largest group was children. There were no family groups (i.e. father, mother and children) although there were several instances of mothers with one or more children present. This shows so long as a husband was present, there was enough employment in St Ives to keep the family away from the workhouse.
The biggest cause for being in the workhouse was old age, or infirmity from age. The next was mothers with children, whether unmarried, widowed or abandoned. There were a surprising number of children without parents, some by themselves, others siblings together.
The last graph shows old aged inmates were more likely to have been born elsewhere. Only one inmate was born outside England.

To view details of the 1841 census, click here.

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