In the year 1977, the number of persons in this county who were charged to a poll-tax, from which the clergy, children, and paupers were exempted, amounted to 20,239. This tax was levied not long after a fatal pestilence. In the year 1700, the to tal population was estimated at 48,500 ; - in 1750, 53,900. By the returns to Parliament, in 1801, the number of inhabited houses was 11,888 ; of un inhabited 185 ; the number of families was 13,980 ; the number of persons chiefly employed in agricul ture was 18,766 ; the persons chiefly employed in manufactures, trade, and handicraft, 13,816; and persons to whom no occupation was assigned, and children, was 28,789: the total number of resident in habitants was 63393; of whom 30,523 were males, and 32,870 females. The population, in 1811, had in creased to 70,213 ; of whom 33,171 were males,' and 37,042 females ; the number of inhabited houses was 13,286 ; of families 14,927 ; of houses building 189 ; of houses uninhabited 219 :—the number of families employed in agriculture was 9481; and the annual value of the land at rack-rent was nearly L.280,000. The number of families chiefly employ ed in trade, manufactures, &c. was 4155 ; and the amount of annual profits was rather more than L.94,000. The number of people to a square mile was 171 ; the annual proportions of baptisms was 1 to 32 persons ; of burials, 1 to 56; and of mar riages, 1 to 126.
In the year 1776; the amount of the poor-rates raised in this county was L.18,198 ; in the year 1784, L.22.638 and in the year 1803, L.47,4.84. This was at the rate of 3s. sid in the pound, on a rental of L.248,600, or 14s. 9.2a. a head, on the whole po pulation.. The expenditure for the poor, in 1808, was L.38,070; nearly L.10,000 being ex pended in law-suits, county-rates, &c. ; L.87,944 was distributed to 7276 persons, or 1 in every 8-fth of the whole population, the average allowance being 2s. a week. Of these paupers, 674 were wholly maintained in work-houses, at the average expce of L.12 en , 10s. 5d. each annually, or 4s. 91d. per week. There were at that time 2370 persons asso ciated in 75 Friendly Societies ; eight parishes in the county had schools of industry, in which 196 children were taught to work. Only an incomplete return has as yet been made to Parliament of the poor-rates, or other rate or rates raised in Bedford shire, in the year ending 25th March 1815 ; six pa rishes out of the 140 having made no return ; but it appears, from the return actually made, that 134 parishes paid, at that time, L.69,464, 6s. Sid.
Remains of the earliest style of Gothic architec ture are to be seen in this county, in the nave of Elstow church, in the west part of Folmeisham church, and in the.west end of Dunstable church. Of the succeeding style of Gothic architecture, which prevailed during the fourteenth century, few examples are to be met with in Bedfordshire. Wim mington church, however, though small, is an ele gant specimen of it, and appears never to have been altered. Several of the Bedfordshire churches are in the latter style of Gothic architecture, which pre vailed during the fifteenth, and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. The churches of Northill, Wil
mington, Mayton, Eaton-Socon, Odill, Biggleswove, and St Paul's at Bedford, are in this style.
In the original work, there are notices of the his tory of this county till the time of Alfred. Nothing. important occurred in it for several centuries after wards. During the civil wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, it presents no remarkable events, probably in consequence of the destruction of its castles by King John, in his march northward. But Bedfordshire was one of the first counties that associated against Charles I. ; and Lord Clarendon observes, that this was one of the counties in which the King had not any visible party, nor one fixed quarter.
To the notice of the town of Bedford, in the ori ginal work, some particulars may be added. It is 50 miles north-west by north from London; the la titude of St Paul'i church, according to the govern ment trigonometrical survey, is 52, 8, 8, 8, north ; and its longitude 0, 27, 43, 8, west of Greenwich Observatory, or 1', 50w, 9, in time. The right of election is vested in the burgesses, freemen, and inhabiting householders not receiving alms ; their number is about 1400. Besides its parish-churches, its public buildings; are a county-infirmary, a coun ty-jail, and bridewell, a town-jail, and a county-hall. It is situate rather to the north of the centre of the county, and in the midst of a very rich tract of land, BMW ca lled the Vale of Bedford. The Ouse is navigable d.e from the Eastern Sea to this town. By its situation, on this river, the inhabitants carry on a considerable trade in forwarding the corn of the adjacent fertile country to Lynn ; and in importing from thence coals, timber, wine, and groceries. The inundations of the Ouse have been more frequent and destruc tive latterly than they used to be, in consequence, it is supposed, of the many newly inclosed parishes, which drain into the river. There is sometimes a stagnation of water in the meadows of the Ouse, near Bedford, to the depth of 12 or 14 feet.
Thread-lace is the principal manufacture of the place. According to the Parliamentary returns of 1801, of 3948 inhabitants, which it then contained, there were 2236 females. This great disproportion between the sexes has been justly ascribed to the will of Sir William Harper, who, in the year 1561, bequeathed 13 acres of land in the parish of St An. drew, Holborn, to the corporation of Bedford, for the support of a grammar-school, and the apportion ing young women of the town upon marriage. The rent of this estate being now between L.4000 and L. 5000, it may well be supposed that young women from the vicinity of Bedford are drawn into the town in the hope of getting apportioned and mar ried. In 1811, the population of the town consisted of 2057 males, and 2548 females; the inhabited houses were 940, and the families inhabiting them 1099.