Do you have ancestors from Poole, Dorset? Explore this unique record set and uncover more about their lives, and the history of Poole, in 1574.
Do you have ancestors from Poole, Dorset? Explore this unique record set and uncover more about their lives, and the history of Poole, in 1574.
(Poole Borough Archive Reference PBA 92 18pp) The concept of enumeration seems routine to present day society, yet even though the process was referred to in Biblical times, this document from the Poole archive is remarkable. It is one of the earliest known in this country and was carried out at a time when Liverpool was a "village" of 750 people.
It establishes a standing for a port which a few years earlier (1568) had achieved by Charter the status of "Borough and County of the Town of Poole". In other towns only fragmentary or partial evidence exists upon which to assess relative importance and size. In Poole we have information on the total population (1373), the balance of sexes, the number of servants and the number of households (165).
It must be read with caution. The numbers are not entirely accurate, names are duplicated and spellings are as maverick as the earlier use of Latin and Norman French had been precise. We do not know if it represents a "snapshot" of the day in question - 5 May 1574 - or if, as internal evidence suggests, it was carried out over a period of time. It seems to include those likely to require absence from the town to carry out their seafaring occupation and it also records those visiting the town. It was written by at least two different scribes and in the manner of a "rough book" contains drafts of a "passport" for a stranger and information on the town's need to protect itself from pirates or privateers. The numbering of the folios being modern, it may be proper to regard the book as having started on folio 9, in which case folio 8A would have formed a back cover, on which is scribbled a memorandum of names to be added to the list.
One may speculate why a census was necessary? It is certainly different from a document prepared for registration purposes, such as paying tax, or bearing arms, although the first pages contain the lists of those under a duty to fight at Branksea Castle. (The Castle or blockhouse had been built in 1547 by King Henry VIII for coastal defence and was manned by six men from the Borough until a grant by the Queen to Christopher Hatton in 1576). The list of ships and shipowners is also additional to and precedes the Census. Local historians have reminded us o f the apprehension of Spanish invasion following the Queen's excommunication and the role played by the port in transporting soldiers to Low Countries, but the answer may lie in another document in the Borough Archive, the "Great Boke appartayneinge to the Chamber of the Town and Contie of Poole" (PBA 26) started in 1568. On the last folio there is a reference to a visit at the town's expense on 26 July 1574 by one Crstoter Saxton, servant unto Mr Sektord, by virtue of a Commission from the Queen to take a "plot of the town" and the wolle (whole) ballance "in a plot". This indicates that Constables Howes and Niclys may have been doing the preparatory work for this.
© Poole Borough Archives & Dorset Family History Society