Two households in Coundon, County Durham

Explore the census entries for two households living in Coundon in County Durham in 1851. Compare their places of birth, their relations to the head of household and occupations by selecting the different features. Discover how to interpret this information and what the data can reveal.

	John Cooper head married 44   potter Derbyshire, Chesterfield Charlotte Cooper wife married 39   Derbyshire, Dronfield Edward Cooper dau 11   Yorkshire, Bradford George Cooper son 10   scholar Yorkshire, Leeds Louisa Cooper dau 7   Durham, Thickley Charles Cooper son 5   Durham, Coundon Mary Jane Cooper dau 3   Durham, Coundon Charlotte Cooper dau 1   at home Durham, Coundon Henry Kay brother unmarr 15   house servant Derbyshire, Chesterfield William Hardy visitor widower 55   late potter Derbyshire, Chesterfield John Sproats lodger unmarr 24   carrier Durham, St Andrew Auckland Henry Sanderson servant unmarr 28   basket maker Yorkshire, Great Driffield
	Relation to head of household The Coopers have a very complicated household. As well as the parents and six children, their house is also shared by a brother, Henry Kay. Since the head of the house is John Cooper, the different surname must mean that he is in fact Charlotte's brother and really a brother-in-law (other evidence shows that this was the case). The terminology of the census may not be as accurate as we hope; a visitor, William Hardy, staying in the house who might be a distant relative; a lodger, John Sproats - an unmarried man who was not yet in a position to set up house on his own; a servant, Henry Sanderson, who is described as a basket-maker. Perhaps Henry Sanderson was doing two jobs - some domestic work and also part-time employment as a basket-maker (baskets might have been used to carry pots in the works itself). The household is not only more complex than the Garthwaites', but also higher in status as it includes at least one servant.
	Looking closer The census includes information about the structure of households, because it states for each individual his or her relationship to the head of the house. Who was the head of the house? Normally, this would be the husband or the father, but women heads of households were quite common - they were normally widows or spinsters. The rest of the family were then listed underneath the entry for the head, beginning with the wife and then the children, usually in order of age (though sometimes the list gives all the boys first and then all the girls, which tells us something of Victorian attitudes to women). After the children came the other inhabitants of the household - other members of the family, servants and visitors.