Scotland Free Census Project - 1871 Enumerator's Instructions

INSTRUCTIONS

THE ENUMERATOR

AS TO HIS DUTIES IN TAKING THE CENSUS

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Prepared under the Direction of one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State.

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I. Duties before Monday, the 3rd April 1871.

1. Having received from the Registrar a written Description of your District, your first duty will be to obtain a thorough knowledge of every part of it. You should make yourself well acquainted with its boundaries, and the precise boundaries of every other local division wholly or partly within it, such as Civil or Quoad Sacra Parish, Parliamentary, Royal, or other Burgh, Village, Hamlet, or other local Division, applying to the Registrar for further information in all cases where you may be in doubt. If you are able to confer with the Enumerators of the Contiguous Districts, and to come to a clear understanding with them, so that no single dwelling may be overlooked, it will be well to do so.

2. You will receive from the Registrar with the "Instruction and Memorandum Book":-

(a) A Form of Appointment.

(b) An adequate number of blank Schedules of every description, including double Schedules for large Households or Establishments, Special Schedules for Public or Charitable Institutions, and Schedules for Vessels, if required.

(c) An Enumeration Book, in which you will copy as distinctly as possible the contents of the several Schedules after they have been filled up.

3. You should carefully examine the Householder's Schedule and other Forms, and familiarize yourself with their intended use, and the proper mode of filling them up. If at any time you find that you require an additional supply of Schedules, you must immediately apply to the Registrar for them.

Delivery of Householders' Schedules.

4. In the course of the week commencing March 27th, 1871, it will be your duty to deliver for each Occupier or Lodger in your District, a Householder's Schedule. As a general rule, the term "Occupier" is to be understood to apply to the resident owner, or to a person who pays rent, whether (as a tenant) for the whole of a house, or (as a lodger) for any distinct floor or apartment; but instances will occur in which persons who are neither owners nor tenants paying rent, as in public buildings, porters' lodges, &c., are to be treated as "Occupiers."

5. The various compartments on the back of the Schedule must be carefully filled up by yourself, and whenever it is possible this ought to be done when the Schedule is delivered. You will make every effort in your power to fill up with accuracy the compartment provided for the number of Rooms with one or more Windows. In reckoning the number of Windowed Rooms, the Kitchen, if any, must be taken into account; but Windows with a borrowed light are not to be included.

6. Visitors staying in Hotels or Inns are to be included in the Schedule to be filled up by the Proprietor or Manager; and persons in Licensed Lodging Houses are to be returned in the same manner.

7. Persons travelling during the night of Sunday, April 2nd, and who arrive at Hotels or Inns on the morning of Monday, April 3rd are to be entered by the Proprietor or Manager of the Hotel in his Schedule.

8. The following are amongst the cases in which one Householder's Schedule must be left:-

(a) For a family consisting of a man, his wife, and children; or of parents, children, servants, and visitors.

(b) For a family consisting of parents and children, with boarders at the same table, and the servants of the family, if any.

(c) For a lodger alone or two or more lodgers boarding together, but not occupying the same apartment as the family with whom they lodge.

(d) For an out-door servant living, with or without a family, in a detached out-office or tenement contiguous to a mansion, as in a lodge, gardener's cottage, or coach-house and stable with dwelling rooms attached. But a servant sleeping in any out-building, and boarding in his master's house should be included in his master's Schedule with the other servants of the family.

9. For every family, the members of which, including servants, &c., exceed 15 in number, you must leave one of the Double Schedules, intended for the use of family mansions, large establishments, schools, hotels, licensed lodging houses, &c. If you find that you have not a sufficient supply of Double Schedules, you may leave two of the ordinary Schedules, or more if needful.

10. You must also be careful to leave at any Public or Charitable institutions which you may be instructed to enumerate, the appropriate form of Schedule.

11. Should your District include any portion of a canal or navigable river, you will deliver one o the Schedules for vessels (printed in blue) to the master or person in charge of every barge or other vessel.

12. On leaving the Schedules, you will afford any explanation, which may be asked for. Yu should also state in every case that you will call for the Schedule on the following Monday, that the answers should be written in by the morning of that day, and that the Schedule must on no account be lost or mislaid. You will of course take care to observe the utmost civility in carrying this and all your other instructions into effect. In performing this important duty of delivering the Schedules in person, you will obtain such a knowledge of every part of your district, and of the number of Occupiers in every house, as will prove of the greatest assistance to you on the day of the Enumeration.

13. The whole of the Schedules must be delivered before the night of Saturday, April 1st.

14. For your assistance in the Delivery and subsequent Collection of the Schedules, a Memorandum Book is appended; and you are to use it in the manner therein directed.

II. Duties on Monday, April 3rd.

1. Early on the morning of Monday, April 3rd, commence the Enumeration of your District, having provided yourself with (1) a pencil, or pen and ink―(if the latter, blotting paper will also be required), (2) some blank Schedules of each kind, and (3) your "Instruction and Memorandum Book." It will be useful to take with you also a bag, in which you can deposit your Schedules, arranged as they are collected, and tied up with an elastic band or with string. The greatest care must be taken that none of the Schedules are lost.

2. You should, if possible, visit every house on Monday, April 3rd; but if at the end of the day any houses remain unvisited, you must conclude your task on Tuesday, April 4th.

3. In addition to the instructions given in the "Memorandum Book," the following are to be carefully attended to on visiting each house:-

(a) If the Schedule is given to you filled up, you must examine it to see if all the particulars appear to be correctly entered, and ask any questions which may be necessary to satisfy yourself upon this point; and when any errors are discovered, you must draw a line through the erroneous words without erasing or obliterating them, and enter the correct words over them in the proper columns. You should pay particular attention to the column headed "Rank, Profession or Occupation," taking care that what is entered under that head is in conformity with the instructions. You should also see that the Christian names of persons described as wife, son, daughter, &c., are consistent with the position of their ages in the columns headed "Males" and "Females," respectively, and with their occupation, &c.

(b) If on inquiry for the Schedule it is delivered to you not filled up, you must fill it up yourself, asking all necessary questions. You should, if possible, see the "Occupier" for that purpose, and obtain the information from him. In the absence of the Occupier, a member of the family, or any other competent person possessing the necessary information, may supply the required particulars. When filling up a Schedule yourself, you may use such contractions as are mentioned in the "Enumeration Book."

(c) If the Schedule is lost or mislaid, you must supply a fresh one from the reserve in your possession; number it, and proceed to fill up the particulars as before directed, after which you should read it over to the Occupier or person supplying the information, who will sign it as the foot with his or her name or mark.

(d) You should be very careful that no person alive* at midnight, dwelling in the house or lodgings on the night of April 2nd, is omitted from the Schedule; and that no inmate who was then absent is inserted, except those travelling or out at work during that night, and who return home on Monday morning, April 3rd, all of whom must be entered in the Schedule.

(e) In case of refusal to fill up the Schedule, or to ensure the questions which you are authorized to put, remind the person so refusing of the penalty imposed by the Act of Parliament. In like manner, warn any person you suspect of wilfully giving false information. If the person still refuse to give any information or to give correct information, note the fact in your "Memorandum Book," and report refusal to Registrar as soon as possible.

(f) You must not omit to take an account of persons because you cannot get all the information required respecting them. If, for example, you can learn no more than that a person had slept in the house on the night of April 2nd, who had since gone away, and whose name was unknown, you must not fail to enter such a person in the Schedule of the house or in a separate Schedule, stating the sex and the probable age, and writing "Not known," or "N.K." where the name and other particulars should be.

4. You will carefully collect the Schedules from every barge or other vessel in canals or other navigable waters (not in ports) within your District on April 3rd, and fill in the particulars where that has not been already done.

5. Take an account of Persons not Dwelling in Houses wherever you find them, or learn that they have been in your District during the preceding night, noting the places in the Memorandum Book, and using Householders' Schedules where details can be obtained.

6. You will enumerate the Houses, carefully distinguishing those inhabited, uninhabited, and building, in conformity with the instruction prefixed to the Memorandum Book, reckoning as a separate House, all the space within the external and party walls of the building, although it may be occupied by several families living in distinct apartments or flats.

III. Duties subsequent to the Enumeration.

1, The requisite information concerning all the houses and inhabitants of your District having been obtained, your next business will be to enter very legibly the particulars recorded on every Schedule into the "Enumeration Book," which must be done in strict conformity with the instructions given therein.

2. Having cast up the totals, entered the "persons not in houses" and made the book as correct and clear as possible, you must, on or before the 8th day of April 1871, transmit the following documents to the Registrar:-

(a) All the Schedules unfolded and arranged in order from No. 1 to the last No., as entered in the Enumeration Book.

(b) Your Enumeration Book.

(d) Your Claim for Payment (a Form for which you will be furnished o you by the Registrar).

3. If upon examination the Registrar finds that you have duly performed your duties, he will append to your Claim a certificate which will entitle you to receive payment for your services according to the scale of allowances sanctioned by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury.