This chapter deals with:

• the owners and occupiers of your house.

As well as taxation records and references to owners/occupiers in title deeds, leases and manorial records, there are other records that can help you trace the owners and occupiers. As always, it’s best to work backwards and you may need to work with different sources to find the lines; and you may find that the sources also shed light on the building as well as the occupiers and owners.

This chapter covers different sorts of records to help you find out who lived in your house – what they are, where to find them and where to go next. These include:

• census returns;
• parish registers (baptisms, deaths, marriages);
• street directories;
• electoral registers;
• wills and probate records;
• insurance records;
• records of bankruptcy;
• records of civil and criminal courts.

CENSUS RETURNS

Census returns are records of who occupied a property on a particular day. The census was taken every ten years and records are closed to the public for 100 years.

The census returns up to and including 1831 are simply a count by overseers of the numbers of people (male and female), houses and families in each parish or township. For the most part they do not include names; but some enumerators made lists of names which are available at county record offices. Some family history societies have also published transcriptions.

The census returns from 1841 onwards are more useful because they give more detail. The census takers tended to use the same route, so it’s possible to follow the records backwards from 1901 by checking details of the neighbours. However, remember that properties were built and demolished over the years, so the reference number of the house you’re trying to track down won’t necessarily be the same in every census.

The originals of the 1841–91 census for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are kept in the Family Records Centre in London. However, the ones for your county should also be available in your local record office and in some local studies centres, either on microfilm or on microfiche. You can also search digital images and transcriptions of the 1901 census at www.1901censusonline.com. It’s free to search the indexes although you’ll pay a small fee to see the census pages and transcripts. You can also search the 1891 census at www.ancestry.co.uk, though again this is for a fee; it’s worth asking your local library if they have a subscription to ancestry.co.uk, in which case you can access the site on a computer at the library without charge. The Society of Genealogists www.sog.org.uk also holds copies of the returns 1841–61 and 1891 on microfilm.

Census returns for Scotland are at the General Register Office for Scotland, though there is a computerised index to the 1881, 1891 and 1901 census at the Family Records Centre. You can also search the indexes online for a small fee at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/.

It’s also possible to buy CD-roms which cover the census returns for one county in a particular year, from specialist genealogy suppliers. You can also buy microfiche copies of registration sub-districts from the National Archives.

Some difficulties with census returns

The census only lists the people who stayed at the house on census night. Places of birth are not always correct – the enumerator might have misheard them or spelled them wrongly. And people within the family may not be at home on census night: for example, servants who lived in at their place of work, people in the army and navy, or people in institutions such as workhouses, hospitals, schools and prison.

It’s also possible that ages are inaccurate; some women didn’t want to admit that they’d married a much younger man, and children are often shown as older than they really are because they could earn better wages as a 15-year-old say than as a 12-year-old. Family relationships could also be inaccurate; an unmarried woman’s illegitimate child was often described as being the youngest child of her parents.

Census returns 1841

The details include:

• Name (only gives the first forename).
• Address (may be approximate, e.g. just the hamlet name, but may give the street name).
• Approximate age.
• Occupation.
• Whether the person was born in the same county as he/she was living in on the night of the census (if not, this may be S for Scotland, I for Ireland, F or FP for Foreign Parts, or NK for ‘not known’).

Full addresses are not always given and family relationships are not included. Ages of anyone over 15 were rounded down to the nearest five years (so if someone was 44 their age would be recorded as 40), and birthplaces only show if someone was born in that county, or if that person was born in Scotland, Ireland or ‘Foreign Parts’.

The microfilm for the 1841 survey is a negative copy; it’s quite hard to read white handwriting on a black background, particularly if the ink is feint.

Census returns 1851 onwards

The details include:

• Name.
• Address: streets, roads; it may also give house numbers and names. In 1891 this also included the number of rooms occupied by a family if less than five.
• Exact age at last birthday.
• Marital status: ‘condition’ – the usual abbreviations are ‘mar’ for married, ‘u’ for unmarried and ‘w’ for widow or widower.
• Rank, profession or occupation. Children are often noted as ‘scholars’. In 1891 there are also columns for employer, employed or ‘neither employer nor employed’ – the latter means ‘self-employed’. In 1901 it’s ‘employer, worker or own account’ and there’s also a column ‘if working at home’.
• Relationship to the head of the house, e.g. wife, son, daughter, sister, brother, visitor.
• Parish and county of birth.
• Notes, i.e. if the person is deaf-and-dumb, blind, ‘imbecile or idiot’, or lunatic – by 1891 the last two categories are lumped together.

Census enumerator books

The front pages of the enumerator books describe the boundary of the enumeration district. The number of people enumerated is a running number on the left-hand side of each page; the house number might appear in the second column next to the street name, or is otherwise unlisted.

The originals (and a microfilm set for the whole of England and Wales) are kept in the National Archives at the Family Records Centre. However, the ones for your county should also be available in your local record office on microfilm.

Tracing a house back through the census

I found it trickier than I’d expected to trace the details of Mill House through the census. There were six households listed in Mill Yard in 1901, and it wasn’t immediately obvious which one was Mill House. The occupant of number ‘23’ (i.e. the 23rd house enumerated in that section – the house didn’t have a number) was 64-year-old widow Hannah Wright, and I knew from other sources that in 1901 the cottage was owned by Anna Wright, who’d inherited it from her husband Frederick. (It could be that the enumerator misheard or misspelled Anna as Hannah: the census entry for 1871 matches her name and age.) But number ‘24’ was occupied by the Gathergoods – who I knew from other sources were tenants of Mill House by 1912. So I decided to note down the details of all the properties in Mill Yard, as well as one particular neighbour – number ‘30’ on Levell Street was occupied by 57-year-old shopkeeper Charles Wright, whom I thought was likely to be Anna Wright’s brother-in-law.

In 1891 the area was known as Mill Yard, off Levell Street – the street clearly wasn’t known as Connaught Plain or High Street at that point. This time the house was possibly number ‘29’ – with 45-year-old Emma Thompson as the head of the house, living with her younger aunts Alice Wright and Amelia Wright.

In 1881 the area was known as Mill Yard, off Levell Street. The head of the house at number ‘32’ was Martha Wright, 70-year-old widow and cottage owner. I knew from the deeds that Martha had lived there in 1881 – so this was definitely the right house, and when I looked at the details of the neighbouring properties I could see that the neighbours had stayed the same over the years: some of the women’s surnames had changed, but the age, birthplace, occupation and marital status details proved them to be the same people.

In 1871 the area was still known as Mill Yard. The head of the house at number ‘33’ was Martha Wright – aged 60, deriving her income from houses. This tied in with the 1881 survey. With her lived her married son John Wright, a 28-year-old plumber and glazier, her unmarried son Ellis, a 20-year-old journeyman carpenter and her 17-year-old spinster daughter, Sarah, whose occupation was not given. The family lived nearby: at ‘36’ Market Street, 38-year-old railway porter Frederick Wright (who I knew from the deeds bought the house in 1892) lived with his 34-year-old wife Anna and their children -William aged 11, Alfred aged 7, Anne aged 5 and Charles aged 3.

In 1861 the census return doesn’t even mention Mill Yard. Number ‘34’ Levell Street was occupied by 50-year-old widow Martha Wright, a ‘proprietor of homes’ (which ties in with her occupation in the 1871 survey), with her 15-year-old dressmaker daughter Martha, Ellis aged 10, Sarah aged 7 and a visitor, 13-year-old Emma E. Spraggs.

In 1851 Levell Street appears to be known as ‘Meer Street’. Martha Wright (aged 40) is listed at ‘32’ – along with John Wright (carpenter, aged 43), her children Frederick aged 19, Charles aged 17, Arthur aged 14, Alfred aged 10, John aged 8, Emma, aged 5 (interestingly Emma appears to be known as Martha by 1861), 2-day-old Eliza (probably a mistranscription or mishearing of the name ‘Ellis’) and her sister-in-law Ann Wright, a 55-year-old-nurse who was presumably helping with the baby.

1841 was a much smaller survey – but it was also much harder to pin down the house. I knew the house existed then, from the newspaper advertisement (see Chapter 7). I also knew from the title deeds (see Appendix 2) that John and Martha Wright had bought the cottage in 1850 from Thomas Banks; and from the tithe survey (see page 89) and the land tax returns (see page 127) that the land was occupied by John Mann in 1845.

There was no sign of Thomas Banks or John Mann in the 1841 census, but the Yeomans family was listed in Queen Street. John Yeomans was a 40-year-old miller, living with his wife Hannah and his 20-year-old son Elizah (a misspelling of Elijah, according to the parish records), who was also a miller, and their youngest children Carter aged 13 and Mary aged 8. Next door to the Yeomans lived 30-year-old Martha Wright and her wheelwright husband John (also aged 30), with their children Frederick aged 9, Charles aged 7 and Alfred aged 10 months.

It was very tempting to assume that John Yeomans was a mistranscription of John Mann. John Mann is listed in the Attleborough land tax registers from 1823–32 (and where buildings are mentioned, he and Thomas Dodd are the only ones in the area listed as having a mill as well as a house and land). He was ‘40’ in 1841 (in practice that means anything up to the age of 45), so he could well have owned the land when he was in his early twenties. But tracing him through the parish register made it clear that Yeomans probably wasn’t the miller, though he may have worked at Attleburgh Great Mill.

There are other millers listed in Attleborough on the 1841 census: 80-year-old Thomas Avis on Norwich Road, 60-year-old Thomas Dodd and 42-year-old William Harris in Haverscroft, 30-year-old Samuel W’right at Besthorpe Lodge, and 35-year-old David Palmer and 45-year-old Robert Lovett at ‘near Carr Street’ in Besthorpe. None of these areas is near to the mill in Mill Yard.

Queen Street is probably modern-day Queen’s Road, which leads out of the town to Ellingham Road. The Road Order map from 1814 (see picture 6.8 on page 94) doesn’t show either the mill at Haverscroft (belonging to Thomas Dodd) or the mill in the town centre (or, for that matter, other buildings shown on Faden’s map of 1797). Queen Street isn’t named, and the stretch known as London Road, the High Street and Exchange Street is simply shown as Turnpike Road. But there are two named fields: Mill Field and Mill Piece. Mill Field equates to a plot just above Mill House, and a footpath (which was meant to be ‘stopped up’ in 1814) leads there from Queen Street. It’s certainly possible that John Yeomans was the miller there – but it’s also probable that John Mann (who also had a mill at Shropham) was the master miller and Yeomans was a journeyman miller (i.e. a man who was qualified but who didn’t have any apprentices).

PARISH REGISTERS (BAPTISMS, DEATHS, MARRIAGES)

If you know a name of a previous owner or occupier from a title deed, you may be able to trace that person through parish registers to confirm details or add more information to your knowledge. This assumes that this person was born, married or died in the parish relating to the house, or had children while living in the house. The census records may be able to help you there if the ‘place of birth’ is filled in. If the dates don’t tally with any of the census returns, then it’s a matter of pot luck and searching through the church registers for that particular parish to see if you can spot the name. If you know that the person who lived in your house was born or married in another parish, you’ll need to check the records of that parish.

Before the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths was centralised in England and Wales on 1 July 1837, records of baptisms, marriages and burials were made in the church or chapel where they took place. These records are known as parish registers and they record baptisms, marriages, burials and banns in the Church of England from 1538 onwards. However, not all registers have survived and those dating before 1598 are likely to be copies of earlier books.

From 1 July 1837 all births and deaths had to be reported to a local registrar, who reported them to the superintendent registrar in the district. The superintendent kept one copy and sent a separate copy every three months to the Registrar General. With weddings the church took two registers; one was kept by the church and the other was sent (once filled) to the superintendent registrar in the district. Every three months the church official also sent a copy of entries in the register for the last quarter to the Registrar General.

For marriages in church, banns were called for three Sundays before the wedding in the church where the bride and groom were to be married, and if one of them lived in another parish the banns would also be called in the church of that parish. If the couple married by licence the couple could marry on the same day as the licence was issued, or the day after. Licences were more expensive than banns. A special licence meant that the marriage could take place anywhere, but was rare because only the Archbishop of Canterbury or his officials could grant it. The common licence named one or two parishes where the marriage could take place, and could be issued by archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, ministers or officials entitled to act on their behalf (known as ‘surrogates’). Licences were often accompanied by bonds, which were sworn statements by a couple’s friends or relatives that:

• there was no impediment to the marriage;
• the couple would marry in a specified church;
• the bond money (i.e. how much money they would forfeit if the licence was not complied with).

What information they contain

Baptism registers before 1813

• date of baptism;
• child’s name;
• parents’ names (though sometimes only the father’s name is given).

Some registers will include the father’s occupation, the child’s date of birth and the mother’s maiden name.

Baptism registers 1813 onwards

Baptisms were entered into pre-printed standard registers. Columns were included for:

• date of baptism;
• child’s name;
• parents’names;
• parish of residence;
• father’s trade or occupation;
• the name of the officiating minister.

Sometimes the date of birth and mother’s maiden name were included.

Marriage registers before 1754

• date of marriage;
• names of the bride and groom.

Sometimes the groom’s occupation is listed.

Marriage registers 1754–1837

As with baptisms, marriages were entered into pre-printed standard registers. Between 1754 and 1837 all couples had to marry in an Anglican church for their marriage to be legally valid; only Quakers and Jews were exempt.

The information recorded includes:

• date of marriage;
• names of the bride and groom;
• parish of residence for both bride and groom;
• whether the marriage was by banns or licence;
• whether the groom was a bachelor or a widower;
• whether the bride was a spinster or a widow;
• signatures of bride and groom, the officiating minister and two witnesses (those unable to write would make a mark).

There may be additional information, such as the groom’s occupation or the name of the bride’s father.

Banns registers after 1754

The registers of the banns were kept from 1754. Before 1823 you should find them in the back of the marriage registers; after 1823 they were kept in separate registers.

The information in the banns includes:

• names of the bride and groom;
• the three dates when the banns were read out in church.

They may also record the bride’s and groom’s places of residence, and if one of the spouses lived in another parish the banns register would also note that parish.

Marriage registers after 1837

Births, marriages and deaths were registered centrally from 1 July 1837. Church marriage registers took on the same format as civil marriage certificates. The information includes:

• marriage date;
• names of the bride and groom;
• parish of residence for both bride and groom;
• occupation (usually the groom and sometimes the bride);
• ages (’of full age’ usually means 21 years or over);
• whether the groom was a bachelor or a widower;
• whether the bride was a spinster or a widow;
• name and occupation of the father of both bride and groom;
• whether the marriage took place by banns or licence;
• signatures of bride and groom, the officiating minister and two witnesses (those unable to write would make a mark).

Burial registers before 1812

• date of burial;
• name of person buried (family relationships may be given, e.g. wife of, widow of, son/daughter of – this tends to be mainly in the case of women and children).

Sometimes the age at death and occupation was included. It may also be recorded if the person was from the workhouse (’pauper’). Some clerics give more information than others, e.g. if someone had been murdered the cleric might have recorded some of the details and whether the murderer was caught and paid the penalty (as with, for example, the entry for Samuel Alden at Attleborough in 1807 mentions his ‘horrid murder’ and the fact that his wife Martha ‘paid the price on Castle Hill’).

Burial registers after 1812

As with births and marriages, burials were entered into pre-printed standard registers. Columns were included for:

• date of burial;
• deceased’s name;
• parish of residence;
• age at death;
• officiating clergy.

Clergymen sometimes added a family relationship, e.g. wife of, widow of, son/ daughter of; this tends to be mainly in the case of women and children. Occasionally the cause of death is listed – sometimes as ‘p’ or ‘pest’ if it was the plague.

Where to find them

• County Record Offices.
• Family Records Centre (part of the National Archives) at 1 Myddleton Street, London EC1R 1UW – for union indexes of births, marriages and deaths registered officially in England and Wales from 1 July 1837 up to about 12 months ago. They are known as ‘union’ indexes because registration districts took their name from the poor law union in which they were based. You can search the indexes online for a small fee at www.1837online.com – note that you will need to register, give a password and download a special viewer so you can use the indexes.
• Scottish General Register Office – for indexes of Scottish registers of births, marriages and deaths since 1 January 1855, and of births and marriages in the Church of Scotland from about 1553. There is also a computerised link to these records at the Family Records Centre, or you can search online at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk and view indexes of birth registrations 1855–1903, marriages 1855–1928 and deaths 1855–1953, again for a small fee.
• Family History Societies may also have copies of the indexes.

Potential difficulties

Under the Calendar Act 1752 the first day of the year moved from Lady Day (25 March) to 1 January. Before then January 1-March 24 was the last quarter of a year. So you need to add a year to convert dates in records to ‘modern’ times. For example, the record may show a date of 1 February 1605 (also known as ‘old style’), but it’s what we would know as 1 February 1606 (’new style’). It’s best to write it as 1 February 1605/6 – this avoids ambiguity because then anyone reading your research will know that 1605 was written in the document, but 1606 is the ‘real’ year in the modern calendar.

Also, before the nineteenth century there were no rules about how entries should be set out in the registers or what details should be included, so they’re not consistent between parishes or even between different clerics in the same parish. There are also likely to be gaps during the period of the Civil War, 1645–60.

Usually entries are chronological. However, the layout varies – early registers tend to mix baptisms, marriages and burials, whereas later ones have baptisms at the front, marriages in the middle and burials at the back. Because parchment and paper were expensive, the clergy used all the space in the registers – so sometimes when the last page had been filled they squeezed entries into little gaps found earlier on in the registers.

Some parish register entries are in Latin, particularly those before the eighteenth century. Some of the most common phrases used are:

• baptisatus / baptisata est / erat /fuit – was baptised;
• natus/nata – was born;
• filia – daughter;
• filius – son;
• gemini – twins;
• conjuncti fuerant – were joined in marriage;
• copulati sunt/erant – were married;
• nupti erant – were married;
• nupsit – married;
• licentiam – by licence;
• bannum – by banns;
• uxorem duxit – he took to wife (i.e. married);
• sepultus/sepulta- buried;
• mortus – died;
• eodem die – on the same day (as the previous entry);
• ultimo die mensis – on the last day of the month of;
• primo die mensis – on the first day of the month of;
• parochia – parish;
• in comitatu/in agro – in the county of;
• ibidem – in the same place;
• extraneus – a stranger.

Deaths tend to be registered because after 1837 you could only bury someone if you gave the church a death certificate or coroner’s certificate. However not all births between 1837 and 1874 were registered because you didn’t have to inform the registrar of a birth, and many people thought that a baptism was a legal alternative to registration. The 1874 Births and Deaths Act meant that you could be fined if you registered a birth more than 42 days after the event, or didn’t register it at all: so birth dates might not be accurate because if parents were late in registering a birth they’d tell the registrar a different date in order to avoid a fine!

There’s also the fact that you only had to live in a parish for three weeks before the cleric could describe you as ‘otp’ or ‘of this parish’.

There are a lot of gaps in registers during the English Civil War and Commonwealth periods, because some priests had to leave their parishes for political reasons. From 1653–60 the Parish Register was responsible for the registers rather than the church; this was a person elected by the ratepayers who had been approved by local magistrates. Births rather than baptisms were recorded, and deaths rather than burials. Also from 1653–60, only marriages conducted by the local JP were legal, and notices of ‘publication of intention to marry’ were posted in the market place for three weeks before the wedding rather than having banns called.

Note that if you’re using a microfilm or microfiche copy of records, it will be a negative copy (white text on a black background) and this can be hard to read for a long stretch of time.

Transcriptions

Some parish records have been transcribed and published (with indexes) by local genealogical societies; your local library should be able to tell you if something has been done in your area. Local history societies also publish transcriptions of some records on the web, so it’s also worth checking via GENUKI.

Obviously this isn’t a substitute for looking at the real thing. Handwriting can be very difficult to read, transcribers or typesetters can make errors or omissions, and indexers might not have noted something that you’d consider significant. It’s also possible that with your knowledge from other records you can fill in some gaps. However, transcriptions are a quick way of pinpointing dates and leads to follow up in the original records.

Transcriptions of records for some areas are also available on CD-rom from the Parish Register Transcription Society www.prtsoc.org.uk.

Case study: finding a house’s occupants via parish records

The parish registers of Attleborough (1552–1840) had been transcribed, edited and indexed by Sanderson and Palgrave-Moore and published by the Norfolk and Norwich Genealogical Society. I knew some of the names of occupants (see Appendix 4) and I also knew that a father’s or bridegroom’s occupation was sometimes listed in the parish records. I had high hopes of being able to corroborate information and maybe find new leads in the parish records.

I knew from indexes of wills that Robert Sparke, miller of Attleborough, died around 1559, and John Sparke, miller of Attleborough, died around 1566. The parish records confirmed that Robert was buried on 4 April 1559 and John was buried on 19 September 1566.

Reading the wills themselves shed a little more light on matters. Robert’s will states: ‘I bequethe to Elizabeth my wife my wind myll’ –but adds that after her death it will go to ‘my son Richard’. (Other parts of the will make it clear that Richard was younger than 21.) John’s will states: ‘I bequeath unto Valentyne Sparke my sonne my windemill in Attylburgh with all the furniture belongynge unto the same’, so clearly at some point Elizabeth had sold the mill to John. The entries in the parish register only give the names and date of burial for both Robert and John, but it’s likely they were brothers rather than father and son and that John was the younger of the two.

There was a record of the baptism of John, son of John Sparke, on 30 June 1566 (so clearly John lived just long enough to see his son’s birth), and then Thomas, son of John Sparke (the younger) was baptised on 18 August 1583. However, John appears to be very young when his son was born – a minor, in fact, and he would have needed his parents’ permission to marry. Interestingly, there’s a record of the marriage of John Sparke to Margaret Carman on 13 April 1589 – but unfortunately the records don’t give information about their marital status (i.e. spinster and bachelor, or widow or widower). So it’s possible that Thomas’s father John was a different John Sparke.

John Forbie, who became the rector of St Mary’s in Attleborough in 1614, gave a lot of details in the burials register – often including biographical notes, such as the widow Ann Meakes who was ‘5 score and 14 years of age’ when she died, but ‘was rather to be more 120 years of age’; George Hanford ‘a good smith but a bad husband’; and John Spoorele, who ‘had overheated his bodie & so was inwardly moulten & his bloode thereby turned into a fatt watterie Couller’.

In Forbie’s burial records, I found a completely unexpected entry giving a little piece of history from the mill: ‘Thomas, son of Ralf Moore of Pulham, being slayne by the breaking of the [vane] of the Wyndmill in a great wynd’ was buried on 4 January 1616/7.

The next mention of a miller is 1 December 1630, noting simply the burial of ‘the child of Thomas Howes, myller’. There are records of baptism of three of Thomas’s children: Robert, who was baptised on 6 February 1627/8, Roose (clearly a mis-spelling of Rose), baptised on 15 October 1629, and Elizabeth, baptised 18 February 1629/30. Given the dates, however, it’s possible that the child buried in 1630 died at or shortly after birth, before he or she could be baptised.

Thomas himself appears to have been buried on 19 November 1661, on the same day as his grandson (’Thomas, son of Thomas Howes Junior’).

Thomas Syer, who we know from the hearth tax listing was the miller in 1664, clearly wasn’t married in the parish of Attleborough. He also didn’t have children baptised in the parish and wasn’t buried there either, as he isn’t listed in the parish records.

The next miller we know of from other sources is John Knights in 1781. There are several baptism entries listing John Knights as the father of the child (though, as the rector didn’t bother including the father’s occupation in the entries, we can’t be completely sure that he’s our John Knights). The records hint that he married twice; the baptism register lists his children as:

• Mary, daughter of John Knights and Eliza[beth], 24 January 1763;
• Honoria, daughter of John Knights and Eliza[beth], 10 September 1764;
• Charles, son of John Knights and Eliza[beth], 22 June 1766;
• Mary, daughter of John Knights and Mary, 20 April 1772;
• Elizabeth, daughter of John Knights and Mary, 8 July 1773;
• Joseph, son of John Knights and Mary, 28 July 1774.

From 1813 until 1841 the father’s occupation is included in the baptism registers, which helped me pinpoint a few millers:

• William Littleproud (daughter Ann baptised 1 January 1813; son William baptised 10 March 1815; daughter Alice Lindo baptised 20 December 1816; son John baptised 16 January 1819; son James baptised 18 August 1827).
• Thomas Dodd (son Henry James baptised 27 July 1814; daughter Eliza baptised 30 October 1818; son Thomas baptised 22 September 1822; son Frederick baptised 12 November 1823).
• Edward Sharman (son Thomas baptised 23 November 1817).
• John Rose (son Thomas baptised 22 May 1821).
• Robert Lock (daughter Mary baptised 12 February 1826).
• John Yeomans (son Carter baptised 31 March 1828; daughter Mary baptised 30 May 1833).
• James Ringwood (son Robert baptised 13 December 1831).
• Edmund Nurse (daughter Deborah Martha baptised 28 February 1832).
• Thomas Burroughs (daughter Caroline baptised 11 November 1832).
• William Warns (daughter Louisa baptised 10 December 1832).

Because the census records 1801–31 are just a headcount, we can’t compare the census information with the parish records to place any of the millers. We know from other sources and the 1841 census that Thomas Dodd was based at the mill in Haverscroft; and we know from the 1841 census that John Yeomans lived next door to the Wright family (who owned Mill House from 1850).

From the census records alone it’s tempting to speculate that Yeomans is the same person as Mann. The parish records shed a different light on matters: there is no record of John Mann (who also had a business at Shropham, so it’s likely his details are in the Shropham parish registers), but an entry in the Attleborough baptism register shows that John Yeomans, son of Jonathan Yeomans and Elisabeth, was baptised as an infant on 3 June 1797. This would make him 44 on the night of the 1841 census – so he’s likely to be the John Yeomans ‘aged 40’ in Queen Street. The marriage registers show that he married Hannah Upcraft on 16 February 1819 (preceded by banns; the witnesses were ‘Sar. Lake and H. Johnson’). Their youngest children are shown in the list above, but they had three older children too: Elijah was baptised on 20 August 1820, James was baptised on 25 October 1823 (and buried three years later on 15 October 1826) and John was baptised on 22 August 1825. John Yeomans’ occupation was listed as ‘lab’ (i.e. labourer) for the records of his first three children, so it’s therefore very unlikely that he owned the mill or the land, although he may have worked there.