New Brunswick Census Legislation 1824 - 1861

    Prior to joining Canada as a founding province in 1867, New Brunswick conducted its own censuses independent of the other British North American provinces and colonies. I am aware of five pre-Confederation New Brunswick censuses: 1824, 1834, 1840, 1851, and 1861. Although the latter two were synchronized with the rest of the British Empire, all of these censuses were authorized by acts of the New Brunswick legislature and conducted by the government of New Brunswick. The purpose of this page is to summarize the acts.

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1824, 1834, 1840 Censuses of New Brunswick

(Click here for text of 1824 Act.)

    The first three acts - 1824, 1834, and 1840 - were virtually identical. They instructed the Justices of the Peace in each county to appoint one or more enumerators for each civil parish. If a parish had more than one enumerator, then the parish was to be divided into districts. The enumerators were to count the number of people of each sex, age group, and race, and return their figures to the county's Clerk of the Peace. No fixed date was specified to conduct the census, but December 1 was the deadline for returning the forms. The acts only required aggregate figures for each parish and did not make any explicit demand for a list of names of inhabitants.

 

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1851 Census of New Brunswick

(Click here for text of 1848 Act. Click here for text of 1849 Act.)

    The 1851 census had originally been scheduled for 1849, having been authorized by an act passed in 1848. In April 1849, however, the Assembly amended the act to postpone the census until 1851. This was done because the British government wanted all of the colonies to take a census in 1851.
 

Census Questions

    Prior to being amended, the act of 1848 had merely ordered a population count and did not require a record of names. In fact, the original 1848 act had been nearly identical to the earlier census acts of 1824, 1834, and 1840. Fortunately, the 1849 amendment also added a requirement to record people's names - the first time this had been done in the history of the New Brunswick censuses. The personal questions were:⁽²⁾
 

1		Dwelling.
2		Name.
3		Sex.
4		Relationship.
5		Age.
6		Race.
7		Rank or Occupation.
8		Date of entering the Colony.
9		Sick or Infirm.
10		Remarks.

Note that these are not the same questions asked in the 1851/52 census of the Province of Canada (Ontario and Quebec). See Differences between New Brunswick and Canadian Censuses, 1851 and 1861 below for more information.
 

Enumeration Date

     The acts did not specify an official enumeration date for the 1851 census, but November 1, 1851 was set as the deadline for returning the results to the county Clerks of the Peace. The enumerators' oaths for the Charlotte County and Kings County parishes were mainly dated between September and November, 1851, with a few earlier and later ones, as shown in Table 1 below. Note that New Brunswick did not use the same enumeration date as the 1851/52 census of the Province of Canada (Ontario and Quebec). See Differences between New Brunswick and Canadian Censuses, 1851 and 1861 below for more information.

 

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1861 Census of New Brunswick

(Click here for text of 1861 Act.)

    The act for the 1861 census was passed in 1860 and came into effect on January 1, 1861. It authorized the provincial government, rather than the county Justices of the Peace, to appoint enumerators for each parish. As always, larger parishes were to be divided into smaller districts if necessary. For the purpose of the census, the cities of Saint John and Fredericton were to be considered parishes of their respective counties, and the incorporated towns of Moncton and Woodstock were to be considered districts of their respective parishes. The act had few other specific points and simply authorized the provincial government to establish detailed regulations for the census.
 

Census Questions

    The act did not specify the questions to be asked by the census, nor even whether people's names should be recorded. Fortunately the government did decide to record names. The following are the actual census questions from Schedule I:⁽³⁾
 

1		Number.		9		Children at School within the Year.
2		Names of Inhabitants.		10		Sick and Infirm.
3		Sex.		11		Deaf and Dumb.
4		Relationship to head of family.		12		Blind.
5		Age.		13		Lunatic or Idiotic.
6		Race and where born.		14		Births in Previous Year.
7		Rank or Occupation.		15		Deaths in preceding year.
8		Religious Profession.		16		Marriages in preceding year.

Note that these are not the same questions asked in the 1861 census of the Province of Canada (Ontario and Quebec). See Differences between New Brunswick and Canadian Censuses, 1851 and 1861 below for more information.
 

Enumeration Date

    The act authorized the government to chose the exact date of the census, but the enumerator instructions containing this date have apparently not survived. However, Brookes ⁽⁴⁾ has located a contemporary quote from the instructions stating that the census should "represent the state of the country as it existed on the 15th of August." Brookes cautions, however, that many enumerators did not seem to understand this and they may have simply recorded the information as it existed on the actual day that they visited each house. This is made worse by the fact that many enumerations were not completed until well after August 15 in late fall or early winter, as shown by the dates of enumerators' oaths in Table 2 below. Note that New Brunswick did not use the same enumeration date as the 1861 census of the Province of Canada (Ontario and Quebec). See Differences between New Brunswick and Canadian Censuses, 1851 and 1861 below for more information.
 
 

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1871+ Censuses of Canada

   In 1867 New Brunswick entered Confederation as one of the founding provinces of Canada. Subsection 91(6) of the Constitution Act, 1867 made census-taking a federal, rather than provincial, responsibility and Section 8 specifically required that a federal census be taken in 1871 and every ten years thereafter:

8. In the general Census of the Population of Canada which is hereby required to be taken in the Year One Thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, and every Tenth Year thereafter, the respective Populations of the Four Provinces shall be distinguished.

This brought the New Brunswick censuses to an end. From 1871 onwards, New Brunswick has been enumerated by the federal government as part of the nation-wide censuses of Canada.

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Differences between New Brunswick and Canadian Censuses, 1851 and 1861

    The questions and dates for the 1851 and 1861 censuses of the Province of New Brunswick were not the same as the questions and dates for the 1851/52 and 1861 censuses of the old Province of Canada (i.e. Ontario and Quebec).⁽⁵⁾ This is to be expected, of course, since New Brunswick and Canada were two separate colonial provinces, each with its own government and legislature, and neither was part of the other.⁽⁶⁾

Differences in Questions

    The questions for the 1851/52 and 1861 censuses of Canada, but not New Brunswick, are listed on the following sites:

• Getting the Most Out of Ontario Census Records by Hugh L. Armstrong.
• Information Collected by Canadian Census by Marlene Simmons.

It is interesting to compare them to the New Brunswick questions. There is some overlap of course, but each has some unique features. For example, in 1851 and 1861 New Brunswick asked for the relationship of each person to the head of the household, but Canada only asked for marital status. In 1851 New Brunswick also asked for the date of entering the colony, but Canada did not. On the other hand, Canada asked for information on religion and school attendance in both 1851 and 1861, but New Brunswick only asked these questions in 1861. In addition, Canada asked for age at next birthday in both censuses, while New Brunswick simply asked for age, which I assume meant age at last birthday as it does in normal speech. Generally speaking, there were fewer differences between the provinces in 1861 than in 1851/52, but in neither year were their questions identical.

    Keep these differences in mind when downloading the blank census forms that are available on many websites for the 1851/52 and 1861 censuses of "Canada". They apply only to what are now Ontario and Quebec, not to New Brunswick.

Differences in Dates

    The enumeration dates for the 1851/52 and 1861 censuses of the Province of Canada are given in Gagan's reprint of the enumerator instructions ⁽⁷⁾ and they are not the same as the New Brunswick dates. The 1851/52 enumeration of Canada was to begin on Jan. 12, 1852 and to be based on the occupants of the previous night.⁽⁸⁾ In contrast, the 1851 New Brunswick census did not have a start date or enumeration date, but the enumerators had to submit their results by Nov. 1, 1851. Similarly, the 1861 enumeration of Canada was to begin on Jan. 14, 1861 and to be based on the occupants of the previous night.⁽⁹⁾ New Brunswick, on the other hand, had an official enumeration date of Aug. 15, 1861 and most of the actual enumerations were done between September and December, 1861.

    The National Archives census records page gives Jan. 12, 1852 and Jan. 14, 1861 as the enumeration dates of the 1851 and 1861 censuses, but it does not explain that these only apply to the old Province of Canada, not to New Brunswick. I seriously doubt they would apply to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island either, since they were also separate provinces.

    There are numerous websites that say the 1861 census of the Province of Canada was taken Aug. 14, 1861, apparently because that date is given in Brenda Dougall Merriman's Genealogy in Ontario: Searching the Records.⁽¹⁰⁾  However, the author has informed me ⁽¹¹⁾ that she now favours the Jan. 13/14 date given in the enumerator instructions, although it is still an open question as to where the Aug. 14 date came from. It is certainly curious that it is so close to the New Brunswick date. However, I have checked several Canada West enumerator oaths as shown in Table 3 below and all were dated Feb. 1861 or shortly thereafter. They are consistent with the Jan. 13/14 date but not the Aug. 14 date.
 

 

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Dates of Enumerator Oaths
 
 

Table 1: Dates of Enumerator Oaths for Selected Parishes/Districts, 1851 Census of New Brunswick

County Parish or District Enumerator Date of Oath NAC Microfilm Charlotte Saint George Robert I? Clinch 1851 Sep 1 C994 " Saint David John C. Moore 1851 Oct 23 C994 " Saint Andrews Hugh Morrison 1851 Sep 15 C994 " Pennfield Isaac Justason 1851 Jul 23 C994 " Campobello John Larnur? 1851 Nov 1 C994 " Grand Manan Josias Winchester 1851 Oct 23 C994 " Saint James James Buchanan 1851 Nov 7 C995 " Saint Patrick Donald McCallum 1851 Mar 26 C995 " Saint Stephen James Fink? 1851 Sep 15 C995 " West Isles William H Chaffey 1851 Sep 16 C995 Kings Greenwich Isaac Haviland 1851 Oct 21 C995 " Hampton J. D. ? 1851 Oct 21 C995 " Kingston John T. Appleby 1851 Oct 21 C995 " Norton Oliver Barberie 1851 Oct 31 C995 " Springfield, East District Isaac Crawford 1851 Oct 22 C995 " Springfield, West District William Cromwell 1851 Oct 22 C995 " Studholm, District 1 William Keith 1851 Oct 20 C995 " Studholm, District 2 Samuel A. B. Gosline 1851 Oct 20 (I) 1851 Nov 10 (II) C995 " Sussex Robert B. Vail 1851 Oct 22 C995 " Upham Isaac A. Dodge 1851 Oct 21 C995 " Westfield, District 1 Obadiah Purdy Richard Sands, Jr. 1851 Dec 8 1852 Mar 6 C995 " Westfield, District 2 Robert Morris Hazen 1851 Dec 10 C995 " Westfield, District 3 n/a n/a C995 The oath for each parish is generally located at the beginning or end of the nominal census returns. The front page of the Norton returns says "Taken in July A. D. 1851" although the oath is dated October 31, 1851. The final page of the Springfield East returns contains the isolated note, "Springfield King's  County Oct. 17th. 1851. Isaac Crawford." Studholm, District 2 has two oaths. The Oct. 20 one was on the final page of Schedule I while the Nov. 10 one was on the final page of Schedule II. Westfield, District 1 has two oaths. The Dec. 8, 1851 Purdy oath was sworn before a Justice of the Peace from Saint John County for some reason. The Mar. 6, 1852 Sands oath was sworn before a J.P. from Kings County and referred to a "Duplicate Account of the Population." NAC = National Archives of Canada. Table compiled by Craig Walsh from microfilmed census returns.

 

Table 2: Dates of Enumerator Oaths for Selected Parishes/Districts, 1861 Census of New Brunswick

County Parish or District Enumerator Date of Oath Date Rec'd NAC Microfilm Charlotte Saint Andrews, District 1 Robert Shaw 1861 Sep 18 1861 Sep 21 C1000 " Saint Andrews, District 2 John Bradford 1861 Oct 5 1861 Oct 8 M557 " Saint Stephen, Lower District William T. Rose 1861 Oct 11 1861 Oct 14* C1001 " Saint Stephen, Milltown District Robert Clark 1861 Nov 7 1861 Nov 9 C1001 " West Isles John Warren Fountain 1862 Jan 17 1862 Jan 23 C1001 " Grand Manan n/a n/a 1862 Jan 8 C1000 " Campobello Arthur Flagg 1861 Dec ? 1861 Dec 23 C1000 " Saint George Rueben Brockway 1861 Dec 14 n/a C1000 " Dumbarton John Peacock 1861 Oct 3 1861 Oct 5 C1000 " Saint Patrick Isaac C. Hanson 1861 Nov? 24? 1861 Nov 29 C1001 Gloucester Beresford Jeremiah Sweeney 1861 Oct 17 n/a C1001 Kings Greenwich Joseph G. Flewelling 1861 Sep 16 1861 Sep 21 C1003 " Havelock William Backin? n/a 1861 Nov 19 C1003 " Upham John Bell 1861 Sep 25 1861 Sep 27 C1003 " Westfield Obadiah Purdy 1861 Nov 9 1861 Nov 12 M558 " Hammond John Armstrong 1861 Nov 27 n/a M557 " Hampton, NW of Hammond R. Dis. Lewis Burnes 1861 Dec 7 n/a M557 " Kingston Henry Piers 1861 Dec 31 1862 Jan 2 M557 " Norton, unnamed district Samuel Frese? 1861 Dec 31 1861[sic] Jan 7 M557 " Norton, North of Kennebecasis R. Dis. H. B. Smith 1862 Jan 28 n/a M557 " Springfield Charles E. McNaught 1861 Nov 8 1861 Nov 11 M557 " Sussex, Western District. James T. Dysart 1861 Nov 15 n/a M557 Northumberland No. 1 Blissfield John Mitchell 1861 Aug 29 1861 Aug 30 C1003 The oath certificate for each parish is generally located at the beginning of the nominal census returns. NAC = National Archives of Canada. Date Rec'd = Each census return is marked with a date received. It is probably the date received by the Provincial Secretary's office or possibly some intermediary official. * The opening page of Saint Stephen, Lower District is marked "recd 9h Oct 1861" but a note located directly on the oath certificate says "recd 14 O. / ?" Table compiled by Craig Walsh from microfilmed census returns.

 

Table 3: Dates of Enumerator Oaths for Selected Districts, 1861 Census of the Province of Canada

Region County City Township/Ward District Enumerator Oath Date NAC Microfilm Canada West York - Scarborough  1 Charles C. Brown 1861 Feb 13 C1089 " " - " 2 Frank Hellwell 1861 Feb 11 C1089 " " - " 3 Frederick J. Norris 1861 Feb 12 C1089 " " - " 4 William Norris 1861 Feb 22 C1089 " " - " 5 W. J. Mitchell 1861 Feb 8 C1089 " " - Vaughn 1 C. E. Lawrence and James M Lawrence 1861 Feb 5 C1089 " " - " 2 H. Edwards 1861 Apr 8 C1089 " " - " 2 Matthew Teefy 1861 Feb 13 C1089 " " - " 3 John Orr 1861 Feb 4 C1089 " " - " 4 George Miller 1861 Mar 1 C1089 " " - " 5 D. McCallum and Jacob McCallum 1861 Jan 28 C1089 " Carleton Ottawa Wellington 1 Richard O'Reilly? 1861 Jan 28 C1101 " " " " 2 [I or J] C. Keir 1861 Jan 24 C1101 " " " " 3 John Burns 1861 Jan 25 C1101 " " " Victoria 2 John Langford 1861 Jan 24 C1101 " Ontario - Pickering 1 John Weir 1861 Feb 9 C1057 " " - " 2 William A. McCullough 1861 Feb 23 C1057 " " - " 3 Nelson Chapman 1861 Feb 4 C1057 " " - " 4 Robert Higmore 1861 Feb 8 C1057 " " - " 5 Peter Taylor 1861 Feb 16 C1057 The oath certificate for each district  is generally located at the beginning of the nominal census returns. NAC = National Archives of Canada. Table compiled by Craig Walsh from microfilmed census returns.

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Links

    For more information on the censuses of New Brunswick and the rest of Canada, especially for genealogical purposes, see the following offsite links:

• National Archives of Canada Census Records (general info)
• New Brunswick GenWeb Census Records (general info; reel numbers)
• New Brunswick Gen Links Census Records (NB transcriptions)
• Canadian Genealogical Projects Registry (Canada-wide transcriptions)

 
• Getting the Most Out of Ontario Census Records by Hugh L. Armstrong.
• Information Collected by Canadian Census by Marlene Simmons.

 

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Notes

1. A transcription of the Charlotte County portion of the 1851 New Brunswick census, edited by Robert F. Fellows, has been published by the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick at Fredericton in two volumes (Vol. 1, 1974; Vol. 2, 1975). The introductions to both volumes state that an act regulating the 1851 census was passed March 28, 1850, but I have been unable to find any such act in the statutes of 1850, 1851 or 1852.

2. The questions were taken from a table in the 1849 act for the 1851 census and are identical to the actual questions on Schedule I in the nominal returns for the Charlotte County parishes on National Archives of Canada microfilm reels C994 and C995.

3. The questions were copied directly from the printed forms holding the nominal census returns for Saint Patrick Parish, Charlotte County on National Archives of Canada microfilm reel C1001.

4.  Alan A. Brookes. "'Doing the Best I Can': The Taking of the 1861 New Brunswick Census." Histoire sociale - Social History, Vol. IX (No. 17). May, 1976. pp. 70 - 91. The quote from the instructions is on p. 81.

5. The Province of Canada was formed in 1841 from a union of the Province of Upper Canada and the Province of Lower Canada. The old provinces were still recognized as distinct regions of the new province and were renamed Canada West and Canada East respectively. In 1867, the Province of Canada was divided again into the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, with the same boundaries as the old Upper and Lower Canada. Ontario and Quebec were simultaneously joined in a federal union with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to form the new Dominion of Canada, which is the Canada that we know today. It is vital to realize that pre-1867 references to "Canada" refer to what are now Ontario and Quebec, not all of modern-day Canada.

6. Actually I believe the governor of the Province of Canada was also nominally the governor of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island through his role as Governor General of British North America. However, in practice the other provinces still effectively ruled themselves through their resident lieutenant governors.

7. David P. Gagan. "Enumerator's Instructions for the Census of Canada 1852 and 1861." Histoire sociale - Social History. Vol. VII (No. 14). November 1974. pp. 355 - 365.

8. The instructions directed the enumerators to record "every person who sojourned in the house on the night of Sunday, the 11th of January," including temporarily absent family members. Strictly speaking the instructions did not say that either Jan. 11 or Jan. 12 were to be used as effective enumeration dates. In other words, they did not explicitly say to record information as it existed on either date, merely that information was to be recorded for persons present on the night of the 11th.

9. The instructions directed the enumerators to record "every person who sojourned in each house, on the night of Sunday, the 13th of January," including temporarily absent family members. As in 1851/52, the instructions did not actually set an official or effective enumeration date.

10. Brenda Dougall Merriman. Genealogy in Ontario: Searching the Records. 3rd Ed. Toronto: Ontario Genealogy Society. 1996. p. 73.

11. Personal communication. October 2001.