The 1881 Census for Bottesford, Easthorpe, Muston and Normanton
A transcript of the census and an alphabetic index, in PDF format
By Neil Fortey
This page gives a transcription of the 1881 census for Bottesford, Easthorpe, Muston and Normanton.
You can use these links to go to the 1841 census or the 1901 census.
The PDF-format documents
Because of the amount of information that has to be included, the census is presented as four PDF documents that you can open using the links at the bottom of this page. Two of these contain the full 1881 censuses of Bottesford-Easthorpe-Normanton and of Muston, respectively, each preserving the sequence of houses in the original census. The other two documents are indexes to these tables, arranged in alphabetic order of the people’s names.
You will need to upload Adobe Reader on your PC, if you don’t already have it, in order to read them. This software is available as a free download from the Adobe website. With Adobe Reader installed, all you have to do is click on the appropriate document link at the foot of this page and the table will open. You can then read the transcript, print it or make a copy on your disc drive. When you have finished with the table, click the ‘return’ button on your web browser to get back to this page.
The transcript
I have attempted to create an accurate transcription of the 1881 census, but there may well be errors, hopefully minor. Please use the Comments box at the foot of this page to point out any mistakes that you come across, so that I can correct them and produce an updated version.
In these tables, each separate house (strictly speaking, each household) visited by the enumerator is indicated by a ‘Census Number’ in the left-hand column labelled ‘CNo’. This records the numbers allocated to the households during the census and hence indicates the sequence in which the households were visited. The ‘CNo’ is also shown in the alphabetic index tables, so that to find someone in the census you can look them up in the index then use the CNo to locate them in the full census to see where they lived, who their family was and what occupation they followed.
There were separate censuses for Bottesford and for Easthorpe-Normanton, respectively. The transcript starts with houses in Bottesford itself, so that CNo 1 in the transcript indicates the first house in the Bottesford census. CNo’s starting with ‘E’ refer to houses to Easthorpe and those starting ‘N’ to houses in Normanton. Houses in Muston have a CNo starting with ‘M’.
The tables include the “address” recorded during the census, but these require a ‘health warning’. This is because in most cases the census enumerator recorded the name of the street where the house was located together with a ‘house number’ which indicates only the sequence in which the houses were visited by the enumerator. These are not the postal address house numbers that we are familiar with today. Indeed, most houses in Vale of Belvoir villages did not have postal addresses in 1881. Moreover, the census does not tell us which end of the street the enumerator started from (though we can sometimes deduce this), nor does it tell is whether he went down one side and back up the other, or if he zig-zagged along the street. In addition, there were houses in 1881 that have since been pulled down, and of course other houses have been built since then. Finally, several of the street names recorded in the 1881 census have fallen out of use and can be hard to locate today; in some cases a house name rather than a street was recorded, which can create further confusion. So the advice is to use these ‘addresses’ with caution.
The index table gives all the people in the census in alphabetic sequence. It also indicates, by means of the CNo, which house or household they were in during the census, thereby providing the cross-reference between the two tables. Addresses are shown for the heads of household in this table.
This transcription is based on digital images of the original census pages compiled by Sheila Marriott, to whom we are most grateful, and the transcribed census data provided by Ancestry.co.uk.
Document Links:
Phillip Brewster
AB A/SG DEMS Gunner P/JX335909, Royal Navy - SS Oporto
Comments about this page
My Great Grandfather was Thomas Marriott listed at 17 Queens Street. He was a Veterinary Surgeon. His son Thomas, my Grandfather was born in 1889 at Bottesford and emigrated to Canada as a young man. He married and had 8 children in Canada. He died at the ripe old age of 104.
Many thanks for your comment and information about your Grandfathers emigration to Canada. I am trying to trace five other Bottesford young men who emigrated to Canada around 1911. These are listed on the WW1 Bottesford War memorial as killed in action as members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. If you are able to give any further details of when your Grandfather left Bottesford and where he headed to in Canada that might help my searches in ships passenger lists and 1911 Canadian census returns. Those I have managed to tracked down appear to have headed to places where other village members had already settled in Canada.
My Grandfather saw Wild Bill Hickock at a show in Nottingham and decided that he wanted to become a cowboy in Canada. He was approx. 21 when he worked his way over on a cattle boat to eastern Canada. He went to an uncle John Marriott at Union, Ontario, Canada. This John Marriott was born at Car Colston and was a trained Veterinary surgeon before he came to Canada. My grandfather stayed several years and worked on his uncles farm before he left and went to Alberta, Canada (the wild west at that time). There he worked as a cowboy for a time before he met and married my grandmother, a young lady from Caldicot, Monmouthshire.
Thank you very much for this background information – most helpful. It is very interesting that he left around the same year as the other young men. We also know from the Bottesford School log book that Canada, as a place to emigrate to had featured, in the early1900s school curriculum.
I was fascinated to find various ancestors – Lanes, Daybells and Robinsons – and their addresses. I am the great-great-grand-daughter of James Robinson, born in Bottesford on 14 Feb 1864 to James William and Mary Robinson (nee Daybell). James and his wife Kezia Lane, migrated to Australia, where I live. His brother John was a butcher and baker in Bottesford and I found photos of his shops and info about him on other pages. Thank you for preserving such wonderful information. I would love to hear from any family members still in Bottesford, or anywhere else!
Thanks for your comment and information. It’s great to think that we are picked up over in Australia. Quite a few Bottesford families have moved down under over the years. I’m glad we help them keep in touch with their roots.
In the 1881 Census No 107 the name states Catherine Straw in fact it should be Catherine Stray. She was the widow of William Stray who died in Bottesford in 1854. She was born at Normanton/Easthorpe, married at Bottesford and lived for a time at Muston before settling in Bottesford before 1841. Her children Ann and Mary were christened at Muston. Catherine brought up her 2 illegitimate grandchildren in Bottesford. Thank you for the web site as I find it most interesting.
Thank you for your update and interest in the web site.
Dear Margaret, Thanks for pointing out this mistake. I am generally aware that there are some errors in the census transcription and always hope that they are neither too many nor too serious. They arise in a number of ways, including (1) a mistaken entry by the census-taker back in 1881, (2) a mistake by Ancestry in their transcription of the census, or (3) from an error at our end in reading the census-taker’s hand writing. Whatever the cause, I am grateful that the mistake relating to Catherine Stray has been spotted and drawn to our attention – I will amend our tables accordingly. Neil Fortey
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