The 1831 census of Jedburgh is now transcribed

As we all know the 1841 census is the first Scottish census which has survived throughout almost all of Scotland, however there are some pre 1841 censuses that do survive and some are very detailed. We have just published the 1831 census of Jedburgh in Roxburghshire. You can buy it directly from Maxwell Ancestry for just £8.99. Follow this link for a free list of  the surnames contained in the book: http://www.maxwellancestry.com/ancestry/publishing/names/31792.htm

Only basic statistical information was required to be submitted for each parish in the censuses prior to 1841. Very few listings containing the names of individuals, therefore, have survived.  In the case of Jedburgh parish, what has survived is simply a listing of heads of households, followed by statistics about their household. As the manner in which the data was collected in these early census years was left up to each individual schoolmaster to decide for himself, there is no standard way the information is laid out. We have followed closely the format the original material is laid out in.

The population of Jedburgh parish in 1831 was 5.647, with 1,227 households listed. The record is split into two sections, one for the burgh (population 3,617) and one for the landward part of the parish (population 2,030). The burgh section includes the houses within both the ancient Royal Burgh and the Parliamentary Burgh boundaries. The Burgh section includes frequent additional information in the ‘Remarks to enable to answer additional Queries’ column, but unfortunately this has not been filled in for the landward section of the parish. In the ‘Remarks’ column, frequent reference is made to ‘above’ and ‘below’. This refers to other individuals in the household other than the household head, above or below the age of 20 years, engaged in occupations to be recorded for the census statistics. If another occupation is listed in the remarks column, and the ‘Males above 20’ column is higher than one, the additional occupation(s) are likely to be for the other adult males in the household.