THE EARLIEST known census took place in Babylon around 6,000 years ago and most people are aware of the Doomsday Book of 1083 – a record of a census taken for tax purposes by the Normans after their conquest of England in 1066. Interestingly, the Doomsday book shows that about 70 per cent of the families living in Southampton at that time were Norman.

In the UK a census has taken place every ten years since 1801. The census is important in that it provides information for developing policies and allocating resources for the planning and running of local services. The first four censuses were simple head counts with very few of the original documents surviving but from 1841 onwards names and other personal information was collected and it is the documentation associated with these later censuses that are so valuable to social historians, genealogists and family historians today.

In September 1939, the National Registration Act required all civilians to register their full name, date of birth, and occupation which was collected and an identity card issued to each resident. The information collected was used for manpower control and planning in wartime. It was also used for the issuing of rationing cards. There was no census in 1941 because of the war. After 21 February 1952 people no longer needed to carry their identity card.

An IBM computer at the Royal Army Pay Corps at Worthy Down near Winchester was used for the first time to analyse information from the 1961 census.

The situation in Southampton is interesting because a unique census called a Terrier was carried out in the Town in May 1454 during the reign of Henry VI. The authority for this census came from Royal Letters received in December 1377 by the Mayor and Bailiffs of Southampton requiring them to survey the Town and to ensure that those with property contributed to the cost of building the Town walls. In 1454 the emphasis had moved from building to maintaining and repairing the walls because the Western and Northern coasts of France were no longer in English hands and an invasion may have been imminent.

The Terrier is a record of all the properties in the town in a single year and street by street, house by house it lists the owners and tenants of each property and often previous owners as well. This information then enabled a property to be allocated the responsibility for maintaining and defending a stretch of wall measured in loupes. A loupe is the space for watching or shooting from the crenellations on the top of the Town walls.

A typical entry for a house at the bottom of English Street which today we call the High Street states: “The tenement of Thomas Payn, late of William Nycoll, formally of John Crawle, formally of John Banning and at one time of John Aldeyn, in which Thomas Boteler lives: assigned to the next loop there.”

This property was allocated a single loupe. There are several hundred similar entries which tell us a great deal about the people who lived in Southampton at the time.

A further Terrier was surveyed in 1495 during the reign of Henry VII and both have been transcribed and copies are available through local libraries. Both documents contain family names still found in the city today and are an excellent source of information for family history research as well as local history.