The 1851 CENSUS
About the census
The 1851 Census for England was taken on the night of 30 March 1851. The following information was requested:
- Name of street, place, road, etc.
- House number or name
- Name of each person that had spent the night in that household
- Relationship of person enumerated to the head of the family
- Person's marital status
- Age at last birthday (sex is indicated by which column the age is recorded in)
- Person's rank, profession, or occupation
- Person's place of birth (if outside of England or Wales, only the country may be given)
- Whether blind, deaf, or idiot
Enumeration forms were distributed to all households a couple of days before census night and the complete forms were collected the next day. All responses were to reflect the individual's status as of 30 March 1851 for all individuals who had spent the night in the house.
In Marden we have records of 2,298 people, an increase of 224 on the 1841 census. The oldest were 88 year old Thomas Botten a widower of Pattenden Lane, the Beadle, and Mary Ashby, a widow, who was receiving relief from the Parish. There were 30 paupers in the village not including Mary. We can also pick out other misfortunes. There were 4 deaf people, all in the Winchet Hill/ Little Cheveney area. A 4 year old boy was dumb and there were 3 people who were blind including Iden Baker, aged 74, a Chelsea pensioner. 12 people were Annuitants (in receipt of an annuity).
More than half of the population, 1,487 people, had been born in Marden, while 85 came from Goudhurst, 79 from Staplehurst and 65 from Yalding. The vast majority of the rest were from other Kentish villages, with a further 79 from Sussex. Other southern counties were represented, as well as a sprinkling of people from further afield including one from Ireland (Richard Baker, Ag Lab) and one from Scotland (Theodore Head, the Railway Station Master). By far the person most distant from her birthplace was Susannah Iggulden, daughter of William Iggulden, butcher. She had been born in Bangalore, East India. There were 35 visitors in Marden that night including Maria Hartnup at Vicarage House, a governess who had been born in France.
The arrival of the railway in 1842 can be identified in this census. By 1851, as well as Theodore Head, Station Master, there were 4 Railway Plate Layers, 2 Railway Labourers and 4 Porters living in the village. Perhaps as a result of the opening of the railway, Henry Brown at Mount Pleasant had opened a Earthenware Pottery and we can assume that he was employing the 2 Potters and a Potteries Clerk also listed. Despite the arrival of the railway the Turnpike was also providing employment with a Toll Gate Keeper, a Surveyor and a Labourer.
However farming was by far the largest source of employment with 404 Ag Labs (Agricultural Labourers). There were 60 Farmers with acreage ranging from 6 to 472 acres. Farming also employed Servants, Stewards and Bailiffs, not to mention 14 Farmer's wives and 23 Farmer' sons.
292 Scholars were taught by 1 Schoolmaster, 2 Schoolmistresses and 1 Teacher (averaging 73 pupils per teacher).
Perhaps the least enviable occupation of all was that of 42 year old William Clark, a Rag and Skin Gatherer.