Data Source
The original data is in the custody of the National Archives in the UK. The enumerator books have been filmed and can be found in some local archives, libraries and Family History Centres. Dependent on the area of interest, there are some surname indexes available and I would recommend you contact the Family History Society for the county of interest. The Kent Family History Society has various indexes available but as far as I am aware there is no other index for Staplehurst 1851 census.

Data Reference :  TNA (PRO) HO 107/1616
TNA is The National Archives which was previously known as the Public Records Office (PRO). HO 107  is the reference for the 1851 census while 1616 is the piece which includes Staplehurst. The Centre for Kentish Studies in Maidstone holds a copy of the data under reference CKS 1851, film number 23.

Census Date:   30/31 March 1851.

 

Quality of Data
I have transcribed this data from a copy of the film held at the Centre for Kentish Studies in Maidstone. Like all transcriptions, there will be errors which I will apologize for in advance although the use of this data is at your own risk. If you do find errors in the transcription, please notify me and I will correct. You will find my contact information from the home page.

Some pages are extremely difficult to read due to fading of the writing. This is particularly true of District 7 which proved extremely hard to read for almost the whole of the district due to the poor quality of the film. Generally, the writing was fairly legible compared to other census records seen. I have done the best I can. If you do find mistakes, please let me know.

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Regional Description
County of Kent, Kent Western Division
Registration District: Maidstone
Registration Sub-District: Marden
Ecclesiastical Parish: Staplehurst
Number of Enumeration Districts 6, 7, 8.
 
District
The first column contains the District. Staplehurst was divided into 3 enumeration districts (6, 7, and 8) for this census. The description of the districts is copied from the census book as follows.

District 6 - The whole of the village of Staplehurst (including the Rectory, the Cottages, Bly Court, Loddenden, Mr. Butcher’s Farm, and the Windmill Cottages.)

Enumerator: Edward Field
Registrar: Nathaniel Wattenden

Number of inhabited houses: 91
Number uninhabited houses: 5

District 7 – All that part of the Parish of Staplehurst which lies West of the Turnpike Road leading from Maidstone to Cranbrook (except the village) (Including Great Pagehurst, Little Pagehurst, Little Doorn, Great Doorn, Brick Kiln Farm, Staplehurst Plain, Little Hartsheath, Great Hartsheath, Boundsend, Knoxbridge Cottage (West), Tole House, Staplehurst Quarter (West), Chapel Cottages, Cuckolds Corner, the Railway Station and Cottages, Wards Cottage, and Hartley).

Enumerator: George Willsher
Registrar: Nathaniel Wattenden

Number if inhabited houses: 123
Number of uninhabited houses: 2

District 8 – All that part of the Parish of Staplehurst which lies East of the Turnpike Road leading from Maidstone to Cranbrook (except the village) (including Lowdwells farm, Cross at Hand Cottages, Newstead farm, Slaney Place, Milking Pail farm, Carley’s farm, Chickenden, Thorpes farm, Exhurst, Craddocks Cottage, Maplehurst, Old House farm, Great and Little Wadd, Knoxbridge, Knoxbridge Cottages (East), Iden, Staplehurst Place and Staplehurst Quarter (East)).

Enumerator: George Willsher
Registrar: Nathaniel Wattenden

Number if inhabited houses: 84
Number of uninhabited houses: 3


There is an excellent map on the  Old Maps  web site dating from 1873 which clearly shows many of the larger farms.
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Folio
The second column holds the folio number as defined by the TNA with the addition of the character ‘a’       or ‘b’ with ‘a’ being the left hand page and ‘b’ being the right’. This forms part of the reference number      for the data.

Household
In the column marked ‘HH’, the enumerator recorded a number against each household. For each district    the number restarts at 1.
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Address
The address column includes the address as recorded by the enumerator. Many of the houses in the village are just recorded as High Street but most of the farms and bigger houses are identified.

Names
The first name and surname are included in separate columns. These can be difficult to read at times and  when in doubt, I have indicated so with a ‘?’. Spelling is transcribed as written in the original.

Relationship
The relationship column records an individual’s relationship to the Head of the household.

Marital Status
In this column is recorded for all adults their marital status. The abbreviations used are:  W = married,           U = unmarried, W = widow or widower.

Ages
Ages are in 2 columns, M for male and F for female. The enumerator recorded the actual age of the person  in years except those children under 1 and then it includes the number of months (m), weeks (w), and a couple of times days (d).
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Occupations
The occupations are recorded. The term Ag. Lab. stands for Agricultural Labourer and covers many trades in farming. In some cases, the data has been modified when the enumerator was summarising the data.   Generally it is domestic added to servant or similar these changes are noted in brackets. For farmers there    is generally included the number of acres which I have abbreviated to 'a' and the number employed which again has been abbreviated to 'emp'.

Where Born
The persons place of birth is generally given as parish and county. I have split these into 2 columns for ease  of analysis.
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