Non-conformists

[sharinj]

I was wondering if in the mid 19th century were non-conformists (Catholics) usually included in the census' ?

[stanmapstone]

Religion had nothing to do with the census. It was an enumeration of the whole population.

The censuses undertaken by the General Register Office (GRO) in England and Wales from 1841 onwards, and in Scotland by a separate Scottish GRO from 1861 onwards, were true censuses in the United Nations' terms. That is, each householder was mandated by law to record on a census schedule the details of each member of their household on one night in the year, and this was the data from which the subsequent Census reports were compiled. The only slight exception to this was in the case of the merchant marine where ships arriving in port in a set period after census night were also to be enumerated
Stan

[sharinj]

Well thank you Stanmapstone

[GreySquirrel]

Also, in case there is any confusion, Roman Catholics are not normally regarded as Non-Conformists. The latter are the various Baptist, Methodist, New Connection, Presbyterian etc offshoots of Anglicanism. So if your ancestor was a Non-Conformist, she or he wouldn't have been a Catholic.

[Arranroots]

Also, in case there is any confusion, Roman Catholics are not normally regarded as Non-Conformists. The latter are the various Baptist, Methodist, New Connection, Presbyterian etc offshoots of Anglicanism. So if your ancestor was a Non-Conformist, she or he wouldn't have been a Catholic.

Sorry, but I disagree.  I know what you mean, but anyone who didn't conform to the main religion - the Church of England/Scotland - was not conforming = non-conformist!

 

[GreySquirrel]

Hmmm, maybe, but with a big N and a big C it normally excludes Catholics, at least in my experience.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonconformism (I know Wikipedia isn't the ultimate arbiter of the truth!), which links to the Catholic site http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11095b.htm which refers to "Catholics and Non-Conformists".

[Arranroots]

Well, I confess I argued with myself about this one, but technically anyone who doesn't subscribe to the 39 Articles is a non-conformist.

We do tend to think of protestant non-conformists as NC and "others" such as Jews, Roman Catholics and so on.

Well it excercised the brain a bit and brought back memories of poor old thingy nailing his wotsits to a door in Germany (I was good at history, lol!)

 

[JAP]

I suspect this is one of those "how long is a piece of string" definitions 
And that there is no one universally accepted meaning nowadays.

It is important to be careful to distinguish between the meaning of the generic word 'non-conformist' vis-a-vis the meaning of the specific word (with a capital 'N') 'Non-conformist'.

My understanding (take your pick!) is that - and I'm referring solely to the word with a capital 'N' - Non-conformist was originally a usage in England applied (in Acts in the 1600s) to Protestants who did not adhere to the doctrines and practices of the Established Church of England.

But others may disagree and/or may use it differently.

Incidentally, the Church of Scotland is not connected to the Church of England; it is a presbyterian, not an episcopalian, church.  The church of the Anglican communion in Scotland is the (relatively small) Scottish Episcopalian church.  And the Church of Scotland is not Established in the sense that the Established Church of England is in England - unlike the Church of England, the Church of Scotland is independent of government.

Well, I think all of the above makes sense 

JAP

[behindthefrogs]

The critical distinction for genealogists is how the records are grouped together.  Thus in England

The Anglican (which incidently is a catholic church) follow one set of rules'
The Roman Catholics another set.
The methodists who broke off from the Anglicans now have many of their records gathered together.
The dissenters who are usually refered to as the Non-conformists form another group, where for example many records are in Dr William's Library.

David