Religious Census Figures

Two Religious Censuses

1851 - a national survey

In 1853 the Registrar General wrote from the Census Office to the Home Secretary, Lord Palmerston:

My Lord,
When the Census of Great Britain was taken, in 1851, I received instructions from Her Majesty's Government to endeavour to procure information as to the existing accommodation for Public Religious Worship.
Every exertion has been made to obtain accurate Returns upon which reliance may be placed; and the duty of arranging these Returns in a tabular form, accompanied by explanatory remarks, has been confided by me chiefly to Mr. Horace Mann. He has devoted much time and labour to the subject, and I trust that your Lordship will be of opinion that the task delegated to him has been well executed.

This was the first census of its kind (cf Luke 2.2!) - apart from one in Ireland in 1834, which had asked about religious affiliation (and led to parochial reorganisation). Such questions were resisted for the 1851 census, by bishops and others - even though they might have shown the established church in a better light than the method finally adopted, which was primarily as a count of morning, afternoon and evening attendances on a single day (30 March 1851, which happened to be Mothering Sunday), and an assessment of 'average' attendances. It was also the last of its kind: continued opposition to 'prying' questions ensured that it was not repeated in 1861, or subsequently.

Three different forms were used, each with slightly different questions - black print on blue paper for Anglican churches (which asked about endowments and income; at the insistence of the bishops these 'prying' questions were made voluntary, though most clergy completed them); red print on blue paper for non-Anglican churches; and black on white for Quakers. The forms were delivered and collected by the census enumerators, and self-completed by the churches - giving scope for exaggeration or estimate (and some of the questions were ambiguous). Registrars followed up incomplete returns.

From this data Mann attempted to extrapolate 'membership' figures, though the complexities of multiple attendances, different denominational factors and interpretation of children's involvement produced unreliable results. He was an 'assistant to the Registrar-General in the Matter of the Census' - he was only 28 at the time - and he produced a long and detailed report in 1854, which was a best-seller! It gave statistics for each registration district. He concluded that the most important fact which this investigation as to attendance brings before us is, unquestionably, the alarming number of non-attendances. He calculated the amount of extra accommodation that was needed to allow 58% of the population (i.e. excluding 'children, the sick, those engaged in household duties and in public conveyances &c.') to attend worship - which ranged from nil in rural areas districts to 94% in London. However, he recognised that an additional provision of religious edifices was not the main solution; other factors were

social distinctions
indifference of the churches to the social conditions of the poor
misconception of the motives of the ministers
poverty and crowded dwellings

and added Probably...the grand requirement of the case is, after all, a multiplication of the various agents by whose zeal religious truth is disseminated. Better attendance required the necessity of aggressive measures.

Here are the local results, for the whole of Tower Hamlets:

TOWER HAMLETS PARLIAMENTARY BOROUGH (population 539,111)

Religious Denomination

No. of places of worship

Number of sittings

Number of Attendants at Public Worship on Sunday March 30, 1851
(including Sunday Scholars)

		free	appropriated	total	morning	afternoon	evening
TOTAL	214	56,249	22,805	133,457 (?)	82,522	13,561	63,870
Protestant Churches
Church of England	65	31,476	22,805	67,126 (?)	34,724	7632	26,551
Church of Scotland	1	150	602	752	505	-	305
Presbyterian Church in England	1	50	480	530	370	-	220
Independents	46	8900	17,379	26,779	18,921	2073	15,994
General Baptists	2	350	460	810	634	-	450
Particular Baptists	22	4412	5975	10,387	6373	1794	6423
Seventh Day Baptists	1	300	-	300	15	40	16
Baptists [not otherwise defined]	5	440	384	974	390	-	193
Society of Friends	1	560	-	560	66	24
Unitarians	2	270	500	770	228	-	263
Wesleyan Methodists	20	4348	7381	11,729	5851	709	724
Methodist New Connexion	3	290	52	342	111	-	75
Primitive Methodists	4	280	505	785	572	366	724
Bible Christians	1	100	300	400	220	-	200
Wesleyan Association	2	200	200	400	310	-	160
Wesleyan Reformers	4	180	550	730	886	-	870
Lady Huntingdon's Connexion	3	520	2752	3272	1698	-	1787
Brethren	2	150	-	180	60	-	45
Isolated Congregations	13	817	788	2285 (?)	1001	470	1360
Lutherans	2	431	321	752	570	160	-
German Protestant Reformers	1	140	60	200	120	-	60
Other Christian Churches
Roman Catholics	6	585	761	2006	8340	-	2300
Catholic Apostolic Church	1	700	-	700	400	-	-
Latter Day Saints	5	550	18	618	117	253	281
Jews	1	50	-	50	40	40	40

Mann's report notes: The returns omit to state the number of sittings in one place of worship belonging to the ESTABLISHED CHURCH, attended by a maximum number of 900 persons at a service; in four places belonging to the INDEPENDENTS, attended by a maximum number of 2288 persons at a service; in one place belonging to the PARTICULAR BAPTISTS, attended by a maximum number of 120 persons at a service; and in one place belonging to the WESLEYAN METHODIST REFORMERS, attended by a maximum number of 160 persons at a service.—The number of attendants is not given for six places of worship belonging to the ESTABLISHED CHURCH.

Further comments:

the number of 65 Anglican places of worship reflects the first stage of an astonishing programme of church buildings, driven by Bishop Blomfield - for instance, the provision of twelve churches in Benthnal Green (where previously there had been only two) was nearing completion; our own parish had also begun its programme of expansion (Christ Church Watney Street, St Mary Johnston Street, plus Trinity Episcopal Chapel)
figures are as printed, but the totals of free and appropriated [pew-rented] do not always tally
some of these figures are obviously estimates
the Wesleyan Reformers are the only group for whom attendances exceed sittings, apart from the Roman Catholics, where (as instructed) they presumably aggregated attendances at all morning masses
'Independents' (there may have been some mis-categorisation here) have good attendances, and the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion maintains its local support
it's interesting to see five Mormon congregations at that date (none of them in this parish)
Seventh Day Baptists, and Jews, gathered primarily on Saturday rather than Sunday, so are under-represented
there was certainly more than one synagogue in the borough at that time!

1886 - a London survey

On 24 October 1886 the British Weekly made a survey of church attendance, morning and evening, across London, followed by a further survey of mission halls the following year (published by Hodder and Stoughton). The full results are here: below are the figures for churches and chapels within the civil district of St George-in-the-East:

Church of England	am	pm
St Peter, Old Gravel-lane	226	220
St Matthew, Princes-square	131	207
St Mary, Johnston-street	48	82
St John-the-Evangelist	98	128
St George-in-the-East	292	425
Christ Church, Watney-street	234	254
Congregational
Ebenezer Chapel, Watney-street	137	335
Baptist
Commercial-road	320	376
Wesleyan
Dee-street	144	64
St George's Centenary Chapel	281	399
United Methodist Free Church
Cannon Street-road	114	87
Primitve Methodist
Sutton Street	59	103
Lutheran
Swedish Church, Princes-square	61	-
Roman Catholic
SS. Mary and Michael, Commerical-road	325	475

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