Ashfield, Ontario (1861 census)

Ashfield was a census subdivision in Ontario, recorded in the 1861 Census of Canada with a population of 2,617. The community is grounded to Wikidata Q115260729. The administrative centroid was at approximately 43.931°N, 81.649°W.

Population

In 1861, Ashfield had a population of 2,617: 1,335 male and 1,282 female residents.

Population trajectory across census years

Cross-year identity established by spatial polygon overlap (SAME_AS chains across the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary files).

Neighbouring Census Subdivisions in 1861

In the 1861 census, Ashfield shared boundaries with:

• Colborno
• Huron
• Kinlas
• Wawanosh

Full census record, 1861

The 1861 census recorded 164 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 7 categories.

Population & families (1861). This community's record includes 2,617 total population, 1,335 males, 1,282 females, Male members of the family who are present: 1,245, Female members of the family who are present: 1,220, 914 single males, 852 single females, 383 married males, 381 married females, 275 females attending school, 273 males attending school, Males present who are not members of the family: 90, 69 adult females unable to read or write, 69 adult males unable to read or write, Females present who are not members of the family: 62, 49 widowed females, 47 male births, 46 female births, 38 widowed males, 2 persons at sea. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V1T1; V1T5.)

Age structure (1861). This community's record includes 186 single males aged 10 to 15, 182 males aged 5 to 10, 176 single females aged 10 to 15, 174 females aged 5 to 10, 166 single females aged 15 to 20, 161 single males aged 15 to 20, 140 single males aged 20 to 30, 117 single females aged 20 to 30, 107 married females aged 20 to 30, 98 married females aged 30 to 40, 89 married males aged 30 to 40, 85 married males aged 40 to 50, 72 married females aged 40 to 50, 70 married males aged 50 to 60, 63 married females aged 50 to 60, 60 married males aged 20 to 30, 53 married males aged 60 to 70, 47 females aged 1 to 2, 46 males aged 2 to 3, 45 males aged 1 to 2, 37 females aged 4 to 5, 37 males aged 3 to 4, 36 females aged 2 to 3, 35 females age 3 to 4, 34 males aged 4 to 5, 29 married females aged 60 to 70, 22 married males aged 70 to 80, 14 single females aged 30 to 40, 13 single males aged 30 to 40, 12 widowed females aged 40 to 50, 11 widowed males aged 70 to 80, 10 widowed females aged 50 to 60, 10 widowed females aged 70 to 80, 9 single males aged 40 to 50, 7 single males aged 50 to 60, 7 widowed females aged 30 to 40, 7 widowed males aged 40 to 50, 7 widowed males aged 60 to 70, 6 married females aged 70 to 80, 6 widowed females aged 60 to 70, 5 married females aged 15 to 20, 5 widowed males aged 50 to 60, 4 single males aged 60 to 70, 4 widowed males aged 80 to 90, 3 widowed females aged 20 to 30, 2 males of unknown age, 2 married males aged 15 to 20, 2 married males aged 80 to 90, 2 single females aged 40 to 50, 2 widowed males aged 20 to 30, 2 widowed males aged 30 to 40, 1 married females aged 80 to 90, 1 single females aged 50 to 60, 1 single females aged 60 to 70, 1 single males aged 70 to 80, 1 widowed females aged 80 to 90. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V1T5.)

Ethnic origin (1861). This community's record includes 1,377 persons native to Canada, not of French origin, 684 persons originating in Ireland, 408 persons originating in Scotland, 91 persons originating in England or Wales, 41 persons originating in the United States, 4 persons originating in France, 3 female negroes or coloured persons, 3 male negroes or coloured persons, 3 persons originating in Germany or Holland, 3 persons originating in Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island, 2 persons originating in New Brunswick, 1 persons originating in all other places. 1 persons originating in Guernsey, Jersey, or other British islands. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V1T1; V1T5.)

Agriculture (1861). This community's record includes $378,048 value farms (dollars), 68,021 bushels of turnips, 62,418 bushels of spring wheat, $51,847 value all livestock, 38,911 bushels of potatoes, 36,731 acres of land in farms, 27,535 acres of farmland in woodland or forest, 26,451 pounds of homemade butter, $23,558 value horses aged over 3 years, 22,744 bushels of oats, 22,563 bushels of peas, 13,836 pounds of maple sugar, $9,940 value farm implements in dollars, 9,196 acres of farmland under cultivation, 6,751 acres of farmland under crops, 4,217 pounds of wool produced on farms, 2,729 acres of spring wheat, 2,283 acres of farmland in pasture, 1,921 bushels of winter wheat, 1,541 swine, 1,427 sheep, 1,167 tons of hay, 941 pounds of cheese produced on farms, 904 acres of peas, 879 calves and heifers, 811 acres of oats, 762 milk cows, 593 bulls, oxen, or steers, 449 bushels of barley, 426 barrels of pork, $417 value garden and orchard crops, 408 occupants of farms, 381 acres of potatoes, 375 acres of turnips, 268 persons living on farms between 50 and 100 acres, 172 horses aged over 3 years, 166 barrels of beef, 162 acres of farmland in gardens, 83 persons living on farms between 20 and 50 acres, 82 horses aged 3 years and under, 78 acres of winter wheat, 75 pounds of hops, 70 bushels of carrots, 37 persons living on farms between 100 and 200 acres, 30 bushels of corn, 22 acres of barley, 21 acres of farmland held by townspeople who are not farmers, 14 persons living on farms under 10 acres, 12 bushels of clover, timothy, or other grass seed, 10 bushels of buckwheat, 4 persons living on farms between 10 and 20 acres, 2 acres of corn, 2 persons living on farms over 200 acres, 2 pounds of flax or hemp, 1 acres of buckwheat, 1 bushels of beans. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V2T11.)

Manufacturing & industry (1861). This community's record includes 2,944 yards of flannel, $1,228 value carriages for pleasure (dollars), 464 yards of fulled cloth, 23 carriages for pleasure. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V2T11.)

Fisheries (1861). The 1861 enumerator also recorded 4 quintals of dried fish sold — single-county tallies of limited cross-year comparability.

Deaths & mortality (1861). This community's record includes 11 total number of deaths, Deaths in the past year among males of all ages: 7, Deaths in the past year among females of all ages: 4, Deaths in the past year among females aged 15 to 20: 1, Deaths in the past year among females aged 30 to 40: 1, Deaths in the past year among females aged 40 to 50: 1, Deaths in the past year among females of unknown age: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 1 to 2: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 15 to 20: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 20 to 30: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 5 to 10: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 60 to 70: 1, Deaths in the past year among males of unknown age: 1, Deaths in the past year among males under age 1: 1. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V1T5.)

Identifiers

• TCP UID: ON079001 — year-scoped identifier from the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary file
• Persistent place ID: PLACE_ON119001 — computed from spatial-overlap chains across census years
• Wikidata: Q115260729

Sources

Census tabulations from the 1861 Census of Canada, transcribed and georeferenced by the Canadian Peoples / TCP project, hosted at the HGIS Lab, University of Saskatchewan. Persistent place identity computed from spatial-overlap chains across all available census years (1851–1921). Identity grounding to Wikidata performed via the HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph project's MCP-assisted disambiguation pipeline. See the About / Methodology page for the full data pipeline.

Cite this page

Clifford, J. (2026). "Ashfield, Ontario (1861 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/on/ashfield-on079001-1861/.