In the year 1776, the poor-rates of this county amounted to the sum of L. 39,933, 98. Sd. ; in the year 1783, they had increased to L. 49,866, 10s. 8d. ; and in the year 1803, to L.96,860, 198. 100.: in this year the rate was at 4s. 11d. in the pound. Of the sum thus collected, L. 82,604 was expended in the maintenance of the poor ; there were relieved, in and out of workhouses, e2,588 poor people, at the rate of L. 3, 12s. 10d. annually, for each person relieved. .The number relieved in the workhouses was 1169, at the rate of L. 12, 6s. 5id. per head ; the number relieved at their own houses was 21,419, at the rate of L. S, 2s. 101d. per head. The total money raised by rates was 17s. 9d. per head, on the population at that time. Twenty-one persona in a hundred were relieved. There were 47 Friendly Societies, containing 2843 members ; and there were 805 children in the Schools of Industry. By the last return to Parliament, 192 parishes in Berkshire (81 not having made any return) paid, in the year ending the 21st of March 1815, L.125,710, Os. 4141. for poor's-rates, and other parochial rates.
The population of this county, at the time of the Norman survey, amounted to between 40,000 and 50,000. In the year 1700, it was estimated at 75,000. The number of inhabited houses, in 1800, was 20,573, of uninhabited houses 622, and of in habitants 109,215. Of these 52,821 were males,
and 56,394 females ; 38,155 were chiefly employed in agriculture, and 16,921 in trades, manufactures, or handicraft. In 1811, the number of inhabited houses was 22,104; of families inhabiting them, 24,051 ; houses building, 129; uninhabited, 563; families employed in agriculture 13,409, on land, the annual rent of which was L.407,186; families employed in manufactures and trade 7584, the amount of their annual profits being L. 272,582 ; families not in cluded under these two heads 4058 ; males 57,360 and females 60,917. Total population 118,277. The number of people to a square mile was 744; the annual proportions of baptisms were one to 34 per kons; of burials, one to 53; and of marriages, one to 144.
During the civil war in the seventeenth century, this county was frequently the scene of action be tween the contending parties. In September 1643, the first battle of Newbury was fought, in which the Celebrated Lord Falkland lost his life. In October 1644, a second battle was fought near Newbury ; in each of them, both parties claimed the victory.—See Mayor's Agricultural Report of Berkshire ; Beauties of England and Wales, Vol. I.; Lyson's Magna Bri tannia ; Smith's Map of the Strata of England, and Memoir. (c.)