Page 302 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

in the next two centuries but Martha may, indeed, be the first.
1851 Census
The pattern of Soothills in the 1851 Census compared to the 1841 Census is more complex. For a start there are 40 Soothill names instead of 26. Secondly, the 40 Soothills are distributed in ten households instead of four. A curiosity, however, is that there are just 18 males in both the 1841 Census and the 1851 Census. In other words, the increase in overall numbers comes from an increase in females from just eight in 1841 to 22 in the 1851 Census. However, there are some discrepancies in the latter figure. There seem to be three extra females – Mally, Mary and Hannah who are not listed in the computerised index of Soothills, but who seem to be in the same household as Alfred (b. abt. 1842) who certainly is listed. A further discrepancy – which just seems an error – is that Louise Soothill (b. abt 1841) is listed as a son to William and Eliza in the computerised index, but seems to be Squire (the son of William and Eliza) in the actual census. So I think there are , in fact, 19 Soothill males and 24 Soothill females actually contained in the 1851 Census.
There are now six households headed by a husband and wife. Listed again in order of seniority of the head of household – Joseph (c.1777) and Hannah (c.1781); James (c.1789) and Ann (c.1789); Joseph (c.1795) and Margaret (c.1804); John (c.1805) and Hannah (c.1806); William (c.1816) and Eliza (c.1817); and William (c.1827) and Mary (c.1825). Certainly I would have expected most of these to appear in the 1841 Census. In fact, of the males, only William (c.1827) – shown in the 1841 Census as being the son of Thomas (c.1806) and Elizabeth (c.1806) – is the only one that does so.
Another of the ten households is headed by a woman – Elizabeth (c.1758 – and, thus, aged around 93 years at the time of the 1851 Census), while it is difficult to distinguish the household among those identified as Alfred, Mary, Hannah and Mally. The remaining tow Soothills are in households headed by other
298