110 House of Commons 1833

As a result of the various parliamentary reforms and rapid industrialisation, increased awareness was being taken of population and statistical information of the regions of Britain. In 1833 a report was issued in the Government Accounts and Papers outlining the population statistics and the Parish Register Limits: Abstract of the Answers and Returns made pursuant to an Act, passed in the Eleventh Year of the Reign of His Majesty King George IV, Intituled An Act for taking Account of the Population of Great Britain and of the Increase or Diminution thereof. Parish Register Abstract. MDCCCXXXI. This was accompanied by maps of the counties. The account of Devon began on page 63 with the Baptismal, Burial and Marriage statistics of Axminster and ended with the Mortality figures for Plymouth, Stoke Damarel (later Devonport) and Stonehouse deduced from the foregoing Account of Ages on page 78. The map of Devon and Somerset was included here. The Accounts and Papers are all contained in 17 volumes covering the Session 29th January to 29th August 1833.

The map itself is very plain with hundreds being grouped together with up to three others depending on size. The Devon statistics were then listed on the left hand side of the map and included the population statistics for the years 1801, 1811, 1821 and 1831, together with the figures for baptisms, burials and marriages in the previous years. Devon was coloured pink and Somerset green.

Only the county of Cornwall is a single county map. All other English counties are grouped together with up to four other counties. As well as sixteen maps covering the counties, which includes north and south Wales on two maps, there is a map of the Metropolis and a map of England and Wales. Only the latter map is signed: S Arrowsmith Lithog. and it would seem likely that he engraved all the maps.

Samuel Arrowsmith also engraved a map of Devon and Cornwall for the House of Commons and published in the Third Report from His Majesty’s Commissioners in 1836 (117).

Size 288 x 363 mm.                                                                                   Scale of English Statute Miles Nine=One Inch (10+40 = 135 mm).

 COUNTIES OF DEVON AND SOMERSET. Scale bar (CeOS).