BoAr: Parliamentary Gaz: Title

BoAr:ParliamentaryGaz:Title

http:// boar.org.uk /ariwxo3PGTitle.htm Latest edit 3 Jan 2008.

The Bourne Archive

The Parliamentary Gazetteer 1843

At first glance, the Parliamentary Gazetteer is like a trade directory of the period but it does not list businesses. It aims to give a summary of each place under headings such as Church administration, local government, Poor Law arrangements, geography, economic base and degree of prosperity, markets, charters, demography, public income and major expenditures and so on: matters which would give a neutral overview of the place to a member of Parliament or government official should some proposal, concerning the place, arise.

It was however, also publicly available, though its size (twelve volumes each of 180-200 pages plus several maps on double spreads; plus an index volume) would have priced it beyond most people’s reach.

The edition used here is that of 1843, early in the reign of Victoria, shortly after the 1832 Reform Act and 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act when governments were beginning to come to terms with the implications of the industrial economy.

The abbreviation A. P., which is found among the statistics in each entry, stands for ‘assessed property’. It seems to be the equivalent of what was later called ‘rateable value’. The A. P. of Bourne in 1844 was £10,139 (Parliamentary Gazetteer). In 1882, the rateable value was £20,581 (White’s Directory).

Loading Parliamentary Gazetteer 1844. Title Page. Extracts:-

Boston

Holland

Kesteven

The following are linked by being constituents of the Bourne Union. Their relationship in this connection, is shown in the text of White’s Directory 1882.

Aslackby Sub-District (part of the wapentake of Aveland)