Welsh Journals

THE INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE OF MONTGOMERYSHIRE IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY J. M. POWELL, M.A., PH.D. THE EVIDENCE OF THE PARISH REGISTERS None of the published censuses for the early part of the nineteenth century gives sufficient information for an adequate regional analysis of economic structure. Some picture may be obtained from the occupational statistics given in the returns for 1801, 181 and 1821, although only a simple division between agriculture and industry is shown. There is, however, another important source from which a more detailed picture may be obtained; this is the coll- ection of parish registers. Parochial registration was introduced into England in 1538, but although it was made compulsory at that date, the registers were in fact irregularly kept until the early seventeenth century.1 More rigid regulations were enforced by Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 17542, but for some time, only the marriage entries were recorded diligently. Complete uniformity in the baptismal and burial entries was not achieved until Rose's Act of 18123, when it was decreed that entries of baptisms were to include the names, abodes and occupations of the parents, and the burial entries were to show the names, abodes and ages of the deceased. For several Montgomeryshire parishes, this detailed information had already been recorded intermittently, depending upon the zeal of the incumbent, and many others had adopted the exact form established by the act some years before its introduction.4 For most parishes, however, 1812 marks the earliest date from which detailed information for any considerable span of years be- comes available, and only then is a county-wide analysis possible. 1 For a detailed introduction to the parish registers see Tate, 'The Parish Chest'; R. E. C. Waters, 'Parish Registers in England', (1883); J. C. Cox, 'Parish Registers of England' G. H. Tupling, 'The Parish Registers'. Amateur Historian, Vol. I, No. 7, 1953, p. 198. 2 26 Geo. II c. 33 (1783). 3 52 Geo. III c. 146 (1812), coming into force on New Year's Day 1813. « e.g. Llansantffraid, Llangurig, Carno, Llanidloes, Machynlleth.