Crop Returns for England, 1801

<p>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</p>The aim of the project was to extract the 1801 crop returns for England from the National Archives, Home Office Papers, reference PRO, HO67. The objective was to produce a transcript of the returns for subsequent publication. This was achieved in 1982/3 as Michael Turner (transcriber and editor), <i>Home Office Acreage Returns (HO 67): List and Analysis</i>, (PRO, List and Index Society, in 4 volumes, 189 and 190 in 1982, and volumes 195 and 196 in 1983), 827 pp.<br> <br><B>Main Topics</B>:<br>The resource arises from a full transcript of the 1801 Crop Returns. The originals are contained in the National Archives, Home Office Papers, under the reference PRO, HO67. The 1801 Crop Returns were collected by the Home Office in a period of concern about two issues: the recurrence of poor harvest in the second half of the 1790s; and the suspected impending invasion by the French at the time of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The 1801 returns took the form of a census or audit of standing crop resources. The Secretary of State for Home Affairs devolved the enquiry to the bishops of the 26 dioceses of England and Wales that existed at the time. The bishops in turn organised their parish clergy to list the acreages of growing crops. The printed pro-forma employed for the purpose listed eight crops: wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, peas, beans, turnips or rape, and rye. Sometimes the clergy also volunteered the details of other crops and of other agricultural matters. The published collation of these details on a county by county basis, and within counties on a parish by parish basis, formed the printed version of the returns in 1982-3 and now also the digital version. Not all parish clergy were able to collect the required details, and some of the original pro-forma must have gone astray. However, something like 47 per cent by area of the parishes of England are covered ranging from over 80 per cent of Worcestershire, the Lindsey Division of Lincolnshire, and the Isle of Wight, to less than one per cent of Suffolk and zero per cent for Nottinghamshire. The omission of Nottinghamshire is a mystery since at the time it was mainly in the Diocese of York, and other counties associated with that diocese have on or over 70 per cent by parish area accounted for.<br> <br> Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.<br>