A Project to transcribe and index the 1901 census for Rushden was undertaken by the Rushden & District History Society to add to our collection of documents and indexes for display at the first “Rushden Discovery Day” in October 2002.
Rushden was in the Higham Ferrers Hundred and was by far the largest parish with 12,455 names in the index. The “hundred” was an ancient administration district and the parishes within the Higham Ferrers Hundred were Bozeat, Chelveston cum Caldecott, Easton Maudit with Strixton, Hargrave, Higham Ferrers, Irchester, Newton Bromswold, Raunds, Ringstead, Rushden, Stanwick & Wollaston.
The Census was taken in April 1901. An enumerator was appointed to give out forms asking each household for the information which he then copied into a book and later an analysis was done of the numbers of households, males and females. Where no one in a household could write, the enumerator would visit and ask for the information and write it down for them. The requirement was for names, marital status, sex, age, occupation and whether they worked, employed others or were financially independent and the relationship to the head of the household was given for each person. Everyone was also asked for their parish of birth and this makes it a most valuable source for family and local historians. One schedule number was allocated for each household.
Some people did not know where they were born, nor their true age, but most made a guess with only a few stating “not known” when asked for their home parish. Many of these places were mis-spelt and as far as possible we have tried to correct these spellings, but we have made no changes to the recorded names except where contractions have been used e.g. Wm is transcribed as William, Eliz is transcribed as Elizabeth. Where a shortened or pet name is given, such as Willie or Lizzie or Fred, these have been transcribed as written.
Errors will occur, either from the original evidence given, the poor education of some of the inhabitants, misreading of handwriting by the enumerator, mistakes in our transcription or missed by checkers. We hope there will not be too many faults and will be pleased to receive notice of any discrepancies found. The three ways to look at our transcript; names index, household index or street index (latter two sections to follow).
