Corfe Castle and District 1790 Census
Discover your English relatives in the fascinating Corfe Castle & District 1790 census. You will be able to find out where your relatives lived within the village, what their occupation was and even what they earned in a year. The census also includes additional notes which add a colourful insight to your ancestors’ lives. This collection is published in partnership with Dorset Family History Society and the Family History Federation.
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Discover your English relatives in the fascinating Corfe Castle & District 1790 census. You will be able to find out where your relatives lived within the village, what their occupation was and even what they earned in a year. The census also includes additional notes which add a colourful insight to your ancestors’ lives. This collection is published in partnership with Dorset Family History Society and the Family History Federation.
Learn about these records
Each record includes transcript of the original census. The amount of information in each record can vary, but most will include the following information:
- Name
- Year
- Year of Birth
- Address
- Place
- Country
- Salary
- Occupation
- Number (within the census record)
- Notes
- Condition (Married, Widow, Spinster or Bachelor)
Corfe Castle is a village and a parish in Dorset in South West England. The village sits along the English Channel. It has two main roads, East Street and West Street.
The Corfe Castle and District census is an unofficial detailed account of 1,237 lives. The census was recorded privately by William Morton Pitt. Pitt was the MP for Poole from 1780-1790 and Dorset from 1790 until 1826. He had a keen interest in living conditions in these areas. He actively sought to combat poverty by opening a cordage factory in Isle of Purbeck and a hat factory in Dorchester gaol.
The census is a fascinating look into the lives of the people of Corfe. The census records the occupations and even the salaries of the residents; such as, Elizabeth Gook who spins flax and receives 3s, 6d; George Damon who was a flax dresser and received 4s; and Deborah Damon, the school mistress earned 3s,6d. The salary is listed in pre-decimal amounts. For some of the residents they recorded additional notes; for example, Richard Davy was described as foolish, Ann Smith was described as a dwarf and Eliz Benfield’s notes explained that she was a lodger. Unlike other censuses, the Corfe Castle and District census includes all members of the household, including those born within 1790.
Prior to decimalisation in 1971, English money was written as pounds, shillings and pence or £,s,d. In some records you will find it written as L,s,d from the original Latin: libra, solidus and denarius. In the census you will find that all the money is pre-decimal.