The first census that recorded the name of people nation-wide, was in 1841. What is less known in that a very similar, but less known record of people in defined areas within district parishes was the Marriage Duty Act of 1695. This listing could well be as a direct result of this Act or maybe have been drawn up for other reasons.
There are numerous reasons why this parish listing was carried out, so as a result of idle curiosity, some in conjunction with the Compton Census of 1676 which objective was to prepare an estimate of the population whilst others drawn up to comply with the Marriage Duty Act on 1695, and still others were compiled by the demographer Gregory King of Lichfield.
Registration or Marriage Duty Act of 1695. Operated until 1706. This tax on parish register entries was levied for carrying on the war with France. It was on a sliding scale according to status, with a basic rate of 2/- for a christening, 2/6d for a marriage and 4/- for a burial. As the Parish was the only form of organisation at the time, the duty to comply was applied to parish churches. Every parish had to compile a list of each family listing all resident in the property including lodgers and also the status of the head and sometime the occupation. The form was to list every person from the head of the family down including their status, gent, widow etc. In many ways it is not dissimilar from the early census returns without the occupation. There were no addresses listed as at such an early date they were not yet part of the structure of society. This accurate record covers the town of Stoke, Boothen, Penkhull, Clayton, Seabridge, Shelton, Hanley and Shelton. It is almost certain that the listing was compiled by or on behalf of Thomas Allen, who was the rector of Stoke-upon-Trent from 1697 to 1732
This is an incredible asset to any generalist researching these district as it supersedes the census return of 1841 by 140 years.
