Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2014
It is notable that, in contrast to Ireland, there was no religious question in the decennial censuses of Great Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Parliament debated and determined the contents of the enumeration and the inclusion of religion was keenly disputed until 1914. The debates raised issues of religious liberty, church establishment and practical applicability. However, census-taking required broad public cooperation and the possibility of widespread opposition to the question led to its repeated exclusion. Only in the twenty-first century was the religious question reconsidered and included, as a result of changes in British society.
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17 Abstract of the answers and returns made pursuant to an act passed in the first year of the reign of His Majesty King George IV, 1822 (502), xv.
18 Abstract of the answers and returns made pursuant to an act of the united parliament, passed in the 55th year of the reign of his late majesty George the third, 1824 (577), xxii.411.
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26 Population Bill, 1840 (338) iii.275; Population (Ireland) Bill, 1840 (552), iii. 315.
27 History of the census of 1841, TNA, RG27/1.
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44 Appendix to the reports of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Public Petitions 1860 [APP 739]: Petition of the Committee of the Board of Congregational Ministers in and around the Cities of London and Westminster, PA, HL/CL/PO/6/368, 340.
45 Hansard clvii.1766, 25 May 1860 (Lewis).
46 Hansard clix.1695, 11 July 1860 (Baines).
47 Ibid. 1696–7.
48 Ibid. 1698.
49 Ibid. 1729 (Mansell).
50 Ibid. 1735 (Whiteside).
51 Ibid. 1713 (Lewis).
52 Ibid. 1714.
53 Ibid. 1733 (Palmerston).
54 Ibid. 1729 (Mansell).
55 Ibid. 1741.
56 The census of Ireland, 1861, part IV: Report and tables, religious professions, education and occupations of the people, volume I, 1863 (3204–III), lix.1.
57 ‘Recommendations of the Council of the Statistical Society as regards the census of 1871’, JSSL xxxiii (1870), 113.
58 Hansard ccii.1356–57, 4 July 1870 (Bruce).
59 Ibid. cciii.1260, 29 July 1870 (Hay).
60 Ibid. 811, 22 July 1870 (Bruce).
61 Ibid. 812.
62 Ibid. 813 (Baines).
63 Chronicle of Convocation 1870, 6 July, 491
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69 Hansard ccliv.145, 12 July 1880 (Enfield).
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78 Ibid. 518, 22 July 1890 (Dimsdale).
79 Ibid. 520 (Picton).
80 Ibid. 534, division.
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82 Petition re census from Presbytery of Dumbarton, PA, HL/PO/6/13/52, 16 June 1890.
83 Hansard ccxlvii.538, 22 July 1890 (Somervell).
84 Ibid. 539 (Robertson).
85 Ibid. 540 (Esslemont).
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87 Chronicle of Convocation 1900.
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89 Hansard lxxx.505, 9 Mar. 1900 (Williams).
90 ‘Report of the census committee, 1908–09’, JRSS lxxiii (1909), 574–93.
91 Report on the census of the British Empire 1901, 1905 (Cd2174), ci.1.
92 Circular despatches, secretary of state to colonial governors, 17 Nov. 1909, TNA, CO854/45.
93 Report of the Royal Commission on the Church of England and other Religious Bodies in Wales and Monmouthshire, 1910 (Cd5432), xiv.1.
94 Hansard xvii (Commons), 1232, 14 June 1910 (Burns).
95 Hansard xviii (Commons), 257, 21 June 1910 (Rawlinson).
96 Ibid. 259 (Jones).
97 Even in Wales more marriages still took place in the Established Church than in Nonconformist chapels, again emphasising the differing approaches to evaluating denominational attachment: Seventy-fourth report of the registrar general 1910, 1911 (Cd5988), xi.1, 206–9.
98 Hansard xviii (Commons), 266, 21 June 1910 (Cecil).
99 Ibid. 290, division.
100 Hansard vi (Lords), 67, 12 July 1910 (Newton).
101 Ibid. 74 (Beauchamp).
102 Ibid. 76 (St Davids).
103 Ibid. 79.
104 Ibid. 89 (Canterbury).
105 Ibid. 90 (Crewe).
106 Ibid. 83 (Lansdowne).
107 Ibid. 94, division.
108 Ibid. 287, 19 July 1910 (Eversley).
109 Ibid. 302, division.
110 Ibid. xix (Commons), 2284, 27 July 1910 (Burns).
111 Ibid. 2294, division.
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123 Hansard dcviii (Lords), 1709, 27 Jan. 2000 (Weatherill).
124 Ibid. 1711 (Newby).
125 Ibid. 1719 (McIntosh).
126 Sherif, ‘A census chronicle’, 10–11.
127 Hansard ccclii (Commons), 266, 20 June 2000 (Sayeed).
128 Ibid. 281 (Mactaggart).
129 Ibid. 271 (Hogg).
130 Ibid. 280 (Forth).
131 Ibid. 310, division.
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133 Report of the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords: a house for the future, 2000 (Cm4534), 155–8.
134 Debates of the Scottish Parliament, 13 Jan. 2000 (Wallace).
135 Ibid. 16 Feb. 2000 (Wallace).
136 Ibid. (Monteith).
137 Office for National Statistics, Census 2001, 86.
138 Hansard dccxiv (Lords), WA35, 3 Nov. 2009 (Crawley).
