Chatham, Town of, Ontario (1851 census)
Chatham, Town of was a census subdivision in Ontario, recorded in the 1851 Census of Canada with a population of 2,070. The community is grounded to Wikidata Q5087616. The administrative centroid was at approximately 42.403°N, 82.189°W.
Population
In 1851, Chatham, Town of had a population of 2,070: 1,059 male and 1,011 female residents.
Population trajectory across census years
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1851 | 2,070 |
| 1861 | 4,466 |
Cross-year identity established by spatial polygon overlap (SAME_AS chains across the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary files).
Neighbouring Census Subdivisions in 1851
In the 1851 census, Chatham, Town of shared boundaries with:
Full census record, 1851
The 1851 census recorded 121 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 5 categories.
Population & families (1851). This community's record includes 2,070 total population, 1,059 males, 1,011 females, Female members of the family who are present: 957, Male members of the family who are present: 905, 684 single males, 614 single females, 383 families, 361 married males, 350 married females, 187 males attending school, 179 females attending school, Males present who are not members of the family: 154, Females present who are not members of the family: 54, 49 female births, 47 widowed females, 32 male births, 14 widowed males, Male members of the family who are present: 2. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V1T3.)
Age structure (1851). This community's record includes 177 married females aged 20 to 30, 146 single males aged 20 to 30, 140 females aged 5 to 10, 138 married males aged 30 to 40, 127 males aged 5 to 10, 120 single females aged 15 to 20, 115 single males aged 15 to 20, 111 single females aged 10 to 15, 106 married males aged 20 to 30, 99 single males aged 10 to 15, 84 married females aged 30 to 40, 72 married males aged 40 to 50, 52 females under age 1, 50 single females aged 20 to 30, 45 married females aged 40 to 50, 38 males aged 1 to 2, 37 females age 3 to 4, 36 females aged 1 to 2, 32 males aged 2 to 3, 32 males under age 1, 31 females aged 2 to 3, 30 males aged 3 to 4, 29 males aged 4 to 5, 29 married males aged 50 to 60, 24 females aged 4 to 5, 22 married females aged 15 to 20, 22 single males aged 30 to 40, 16 married females aged 50 to 60, 14 married males aged 60 to 70, 12 widowed females aged 40 to 50, 10 widowed females aged 30 to 40, 10 widowed females aged 50 to 60, 8 widowed females aged 60 to 70, 7 single females aged 30 to 40, 7 single males aged 40 to 50, 6 married females aged 60 to 70, 5 single females aged 40 to 50, 5 single males aged 50 to 60, 4 widowed females aged 20 to 30, 3 widowed females aged 70 to 80, 3 widowed males aged 20 to 30, 3 widowed males aged 30 to 40, 3 widowed males aged 40 to 50, 2 widowed males aged 50 to 60, 2 widowed males aged 60 to 70, 1 married males aged 15 to 20, 1 single females aged 50 to 60, 1 single males aged 60 to 70, 1 single males aged 70 to 80, 1 widowed males aged 80 to 90. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V1T3.)
Ethnic origin (1851). This community's record includes 917 persons native to Canada, not of French origin, 435 persons originating in the United States, 353 negroes or coloured persons, 258 persons originating in England or Wales, 163 persons originating in Ireland, 139 persons originating in Scotland, 118 French Canadians, 16 persons originating in Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island, 5 persons originating in the West Indies, 2 persons originating in New Brunswick, 2 persons originating in Newfoundland, 1 persons originating in all other places. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V1T1.)
Manufacturing & industry (1851). This community's record includes 24,800 employees in breweries, 10,000 carding and fulling mills returning capital, $2,750 value capital returned by saw mills (pounds sterling), 400 distilleries returning capital, $400 value iron produced in foundries in the past year (pounds sterling), 15 foundries not reporting, 3 breweries not reporting, 3 grist mills, 3 grist mills not reporting, 3 grist mills powered by steam, 3 saw mills, 3 saw mills powered by steam, 2 distilleries, 2 distilleries reporting, 2 foundries reporting, 2 saw mills not reporting, 2 saw mills returning capital, 1 breweries, 1 breweries reporting, 1 carding and fulling mills, 1 foundries returning capital, 1 saw mills reporting annual production, 1 woollen factories, 1 woollen factories not reporting. 1,100,000 feet of lumber produced per year by saw mills reporting annual production. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V2T7.) The 1851 enumerator also recorded 6,000 gallons of liquor produced in distilleries — single-county tallies of limited cross-year comparability.
Deaths & mortality (1851). This community's record includes 26 total number of deaths, Deaths in the past year among females of all ages: 13, Deaths in the past year among males of all ages: 13, Deaths in the past year among males under age 1: 6, Deaths in the past year among females under age 1: 4, Deaths in the past year among males aged 1 to 2: 4, Deaths in the past year among females aged 1 to 2: 2, Deaths in the past year among females aged 30 to 40: 1, Deaths in the past year among females aged 4 to 5: 1, Deaths in the past year among females aged 40 to 50: 1, Deaths in the past year among females aged 50 to 60: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 10 to 15: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 5 to 10: 1, Deaths in the past year among males of unknown age: 1. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V1T3.)
People with Dictionary of Canadian Biography entries
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography includes biographies of 3 people connected to this place who were alive in 1851, listed below by birth year. Each name links to that person's DCB entry.
| Name | Lifespan | Connection |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Cartier | 1787–1855 | died here |
| John Landon Read | 1787–1857 | died here |
| Alexander Rocke Robertson | 1841–1881 | born here |
Identifiers
- TCP UID:
ON017008— year-scoped identifier from the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary file - Persistent place ID:
PLACE_ON080002— computed from spatial-overlap chains across census years - Wikidata: Q5087616
- Wikipedia (EN): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham,_Ontario
Sources
Census tabulations from the 1851 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). "Chatham, Town of, Ontario (1851 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/on/chatham-town-of-on017008-1851/.