Book Review

The Butcher, the Baker and the Candlestick Maker. Roger Hutcinson. Pub. 2017.

The introduction of the census in England, Scotland and Wales in 1801 was largely the inspiration of one man, John Rickman, an obscure journalist in his mid-20s who, in 1796, hit on the far-from-earth-shattering idea that it might be handy to know the size of the nation’s population.

Rickman, who had no previous experience of public administration, spent 40 years overseeing the census, assisted by a small team of clerks who collated the returns from an army of data gatherers in the field – overseers of the poor in England and Wales, schoolmasters in Scotland, and policemen and clergymen in Ireland, (which was added in 1821).

Hutchinson looks at every census between the first in 1801 and the latest in 2011. He uses this much-loved resource of family historians to paint a vivid picture of a society experiencing unprecedented changes.

All human life is here, from prime ministers to peasants and paupers, from Irish rebels to English patriots, from the last native speakers of Cornish to the first professional footballers, from communities of prostitutes to individuals called 'abecedarians' who made a living from teaching the alphabet.

The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker is as original and unique as those people and their islands on the cutting edge of Europe.