Chatham, Town of, Ontario (1861 census)

Chatham, Town of was a census subdivision in Ontario, recorded in the 1861 Census of Canada with a population of 4,466. The community is grounded to Wikidata Q5087616. The administrative centroid was at approximately 42.403°N, 82.189°W.

Population

In 1861, Chatham, Town of had a population of 4,466: 2,226 male and 2,240 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, Chatham, Town of shared boundaries with:

• Chatham and Gore
• Dover
• Harwich
• Raleigh

Full census record, 1861

The 1861 census recorded 136 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 6 categories.

Population & families (1861). This community's record includes 4,466 total population, 2,240 females, 2,226 males, Female members of the family who are present: 1,990, Male members of the family who are present: 1,929, 1,475 single males, 1,391 single females, 721 married females, 709 married males, 447 males attending school, 378 females attending school, Males present who are not members of the family: 297, Females present who are not members of the family: 250, 128 widowed females, 118 adult males unable to read or write, 104 adult females unable to read or write, 96 male births, 91 female births, 42 widowed males, 3 blind females, 3 lunatic females, 3 lunatic males. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V1T5.)

Age structure (1861). This community's record includes 370 males aged 5 to 10, 320 females aged 5 to 10, 292 married females aged 20 to 30, 278 single females aged 10 to 15, 274 married males aged 30 to 40, 271 single females aged 15 to 20, 265 single males aged 10 to 15, 236 single males aged 15 to 20, 230 married females aged 30 to 40, 192 married males aged 40 to 50, 160 married females aged 40 to 50, 148 single males aged 20 to 30, 130 married males aged 20 to 30, 98 married males aged 50 to 60, 92 single females aged 20 to 30, 90 females aged 1 to 2, 90 males aged 1 to 2, 87 males aged 2 to 3, 84 females aged 2 to 3, 83 females age 3 to 4, 78 males aged 3 to 4, 72 females aged 4 to 5, 72 males aged 4 to 5, 31 widowed females aged 30 to 40, 25 widowed females aged 50 to 60, 25 widowed females aged 60 to 70, 24 single males aged 30 to 40, 23 widowed females aged 40 to 50, 20 married females aged 50 to 60, 18 widowed females aged 20 to 30, 12 married males aged 60 to 70, 10 married females aged 60 to 70, 10 widowed males aged 40 to 50, 10 widowed males aged 50 to 60, 9 married females aged 15 to 20, 8 single males aged 40 to 50, 7 widowed males aged 60 to 70, 6 single females aged 30 to 40, 5 widowed males aged 20 to 30, 4 single females aged 40 to 50, 4 widowed females aged 70 to 80, 4 widowed males aged 70 to 80, 3 married males aged 70 to 80, 3 widowed males aged 30 to 40, 2 widowed females aged 90 to 100, 1 males of unknown age, 1 widowed males aged 80 to 90, 1 widowed males aged 90 to 100. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V1T5.) The 1861 enumerator also recorded 1 widowed males over 100 — single-county tallies of limited cross-year comparability.

Ethnic origin (1861). This community's record includes 2,161 persons native to Canada, not of French origin, 1,770 negroes or coloured persons, 1,094 persons originating in the United States, 680 female negroes or coloured persons, 628 male negroes or coloured persons, 388 persons originating in England or Wales, 244 persons originating in Scotland, 240 French Canadians, 222 persons originating in Ireland, 52 persons originating in Germany or Holland, 16 persons originating in France, 16 persons originating in Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island, 12 Indigenous persons, 12 persons originating in New Brunswick, 10 persons originating in the West Indies, 7 Indigenous males, 5 Indigenous females, 3 persons originating in Newfoundland, 3 persons originating in the East Indies, 1 persons originating in all other places, 1 persons originating in Spain or Portugal, 1 persons originating in Sweden or Norway. 1 persons originating in Guernsey, Jersey, or other British islands. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V1T1; V1T5.) The 1861 enumerator also recorded 1 persons originating in Russia or Poland — single-county tallies of limited cross-year comparability.

Agriculture (1861). This community's record includes $25,038 value all livestock, 594 acres of farmland held by townspeople who are not farmers, 542 swine, 342 milk cows, 280 horses aged over 3 years, 198 sheep. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V2T11.)

Manufacturing & industry (1861). This community's record includes $4,610 value carriages for pleasure (dollars), $1,140 value carriages for hire (dollars), 76 carriages for pleasure, 18 carriages for hire. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V2T11.)

Deaths & mortality (1861). This community's record includes 99 total number of deaths, Deaths in the past year among females of all ages: 54, Deaths in the past year among males of all ages: 45, Deaths in the past year among females aged 1 to 2: 13, Deaths in the past year among females under age 1: 12, Deaths in the past year among males under age 1: 12, Deaths in the past year among males aged 1 to 2: 6, Deaths in the past year among females aged 2 to 3: 5, Deaths in the past year among females aged 5 to 10: 5, Deaths in the past year among males age 3 to 4: 4, Deaths in the past year among males aged 15 to 20: 4, Deaths in the past year among males aged 5 to 10: 4, Deaths in the past year among females aged 15 to 20: 3, Deaths in the past year among females aged 20 to 30: 3, Deaths in the past year among females aged 4 to 5: 3, Deaths in the past year among males aged 2 to 3: 3, Deaths in the past year among males aged 4 to 5: 3, Deaths in the past year among females aged 10 to 15: 2, Deaths in the past year among females aged 30 to 40: 2, Deaths in the past year among females aged 40 to 50: 2, Deaths in the past year among males aged 20 to 30: 2, Deaths in the past year among males aged 40 to 50: 2, Deaths in the past year among females aged 3 to 4: 1, Deaths in the past year among females aged 50 to 60: 1, Deaths in the past year among females aged 60 to 70: 1, Deaths in the past year among females of unknown age: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 10 to 15: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 30 to 40: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 50 to 60: 1, Deaths in the past year among males aged 70 to 80: 1. (Source: 1861 Census of Canada, V1T5.) The 1861 enumerator also recorded Deaths in the past year among males over 100: 1 — single-county tallies of limited cross-year comparability.

People with Dictionary of Canadian Biography entries

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography includes biographies of 1 person connected to this place who were alive in 1861, listed below by birth year. Each name links to that person's DCB entry.

Identifiers

• TCP UID: ON080002 — 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 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). "Chatham, Town of, Ontario (1861 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/on/chatham-town-of-on080002-1861/.