The Birmingham Grand Levy Book Project – A Census Substitute Born Out of Grumbling and Shaming

This week I’m sharing the story of my ongoing Grand Levy Book transcription project with you. When complete, I think it will turn out to be extremely helpful as a census substitute for those researching Birmingham ancestry in the late eighteenth century.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that much of my family history comes from the city of Birmingham in the Midlands of England. Birmingham began its existence as a small market town around a thousand years ago and indeed remained so for all but the last two hundred and fifty years or so. With the coming of the Industrial Revolution, it rapidly grew and is now one of the major cities of the United Kingdom. How and why is a blog post in itself, which I may one day tackle!

A few years ago, I stumbled across a published copy of the Grand Levy Book for Birmingham which was printed in the year 1782. This was a time of massive expansion of the population (around 50000 across 8000 households at that time). This was accompanied by all the stresses and strains on infrastructure which would be expected. The original annual Grand Levy Books for Birmingham are held by the Birmingham Archives. They are handwritten and available for consultation by appointment. So why was just this one printed for general circulation at the very time that it was in use?

Collecting the Poor Rates

Firstly, let me explain what it was used for. Poor rates were collected around Easter time from occupants of any houses in Birmingham worth more than twelve pounds a year and were calculated on 2/3 of that property’s value. These rates were then redistributed and used as poor relief.

Birmingham at this time was technically still one parish despite its size. It was divided into twelve sections, one for each of the Overseers of the Poor, who were charged with collecting these rates. They would carry with them a rate book for their section and mark it off as they went. Afterwards, the twelve books were collated into one Grand Levy Book for the parish.

So back to the copy released publicly in a published form in 1782 – why did they choose to do this? The answers lie in the preface. It seems that at that time there was much grumbling amongst the ratepayers about perceived inequities in the rates they were levied. There was a challenge issued by publishing everyone’s rates, along the lines of ‘put up or shut up’. It was also used to publicly shame those who could pay but weren’t doing so.

So why transcribe this copy of the Grand Levy Book?

The Grand Levy Book of 1782 contains the names of the heads of households across all of Birmingham in order of the street they lived in. It gives an indication of the degree of their relative wealth and possibly the type of business they had. It may also give a hint of their character! The book is essentially an early head of household census at this time of great expansion in Birmingham. It is useful for finding the locations of ancestors, and in the case of those who immigrated to the town from other areas, confirmation that they were there by this time. Having the book listed in order of their address is helpful for cluster research too as you can see who the neighbours were as with the later censuses.

I had not seen this information anywhere else and the book is not easily searchable due to the print quality and font used. So I decided to transcribe it. So far I am about 3200 households in and about halfway through. It is a long labour of love assisted by this second lockdown period!

Will it ever be finished and available?

I’m trying very hard not to get sidetracked along the way with discoveries! Many of my family lines were in Birmingham at this time – some had already been there for several centuries, some were arriving from surrounding counties with the move from an agricultural to an industrial economy.

Initially, this was just a personal project. However as the broader value of this book to other researchers has become apparent, I plan to make it freely available once it’s complete (probably on this site).

As for the timeline, I hope it will be in the last quarter of this year, though I am tossing up whether to cross-reference it with contemporary trade directories to add occupations. Trade directories are nowhere near as complete as this list, especially at this time. It would provide an extra layer of information and context to a subset of the population though. This would naturally extend the time to completion. Thoughts, anyone?

But wait, there’s more…

I’m planning a sequel already! I recently found a copy of the Birmingham Out Poor List from October 1781. This was also published publicly in early 1782. The motive for the publication of this one appears to be the parish seeking justification for the rates that were being levied (probably again due to grumbling from the better off!). Between this list of those in receipt of poor relief and those who were (or should have been) paying poor rates, an almost complete picture of the population of Birmingham can be put together for this time. One thing at a time however, I’m only human!

Is anyone else making progress with longstanding projects while time outside has been limited? Comment below, I’d love to hear about them!