Tay, Ontario (1851 census)

Tay was a census subdivision in Ontario, recorded in the 1851 Census of Canada with a population of 600. The community is grounded to Wikidata Q115262963. The administrative centroid was at approximately 44.734°N, 79.780°W.

Population

In 1851, Tay had a population of 600: 333 male and 267 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).

Boundary continuity (non-identical overlaps)

Spatial polygon overlaps with adjacent census years where the boundary shifted enough that the SAME_AS chain didn't merge them. These show where the territory came from and went to even when it isn't tracked as the same persistent place.

Later boundary forms

• In a later year, this CSD became part of Tay and Tiny, 1861 (35.4% share).

Neighbouring Census Subdivisions in 1851

In the 1851 census, Tay shared boundaries with:

• Medonte
• NO DATA
• Orillia and Matchedash
• Tiny

Full census record, 1851

The 1851 census recorded 140 measurements for this Census Subdivision across 7 categories.

Population & families (1851). This community's record includes 600 total population, 333 males, Male members of the family who are present: 313, 267 females, Female members of the family who are present: 247, 219 single males, 150 single females, 105 married males, 100 married females, 97 families, 35 males attending school, 21 females attending school, Females present who are not members of the family: 20, Males present who are not members of the family: 20, Male members of the family who are present: 18, 17 widowed females, Female members of the family who are absent: 10, 10 male births, 9 widowed males, 3 female births, 1 blind females, 1 blind males, 1 deaf and dumb males, 1 lunatic males. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V1T3.)

Age structure (1851). This community's record includes 52 single males aged 10 to 15, 44 females aged 5 to 10, 41 males aged 5 to 10, 35 married females aged 20 to 30, 31 married females aged 30 to 40, 31 single males aged 15 to 20, 28 single females aged 10 to 15, 27 married males aged 30 to 40, 26 single males aged 20 to 30, 25 married males aged 40 to 50, 24 married males aged 50 to 60, 24 single females aged 15 to 20, 20 married males aged 20 to 30, 17 married females aged 40 to 50, 15 males aged 2 to 3, 13 males aged 1 to 2, 12 males under age 1, 11 married females aged 50 to 60, 10 males aged 3 to 4, 10 males aged 4 to 5, 10 single females aged 20 to 30, 9 females aged 2 to 3, 8 females aged 1 to 2, 8 females aged 4 to 5, 7 females age 3 to 4, 6 females under age 1, 5 married females aged 15 to 20, 5 married males aged 60 to 70, 5 widowed females aged 60 to 70, 4 single females aged 40 to 50, 4 widowed females aged 70 to 80, 3 married males aged 15 to 20, 3 single males aged 40 to 50, 3 widowed females aged 50 to 60, 3 widowed males aged 50 to 60, 2 single females aged 30 to 40, 2 single males aged 30 to 40, 2 single males aged 50 to 60, 2 widowed males aged 30 to 40, 1 married females aged 60 to 70, 1 married males aged 70 to 80, 1 single males aged 60 to 70, 1 single males aged 70 to 80, 1 widowed females aged 20 to 30, 1 widowed females aged 30 to 40, 1 widowed females aged 40 to 50, 1 widowed males aged 40 to 50, 1 widowed males aged 60 to 70. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V1T3.) The 1851 enumerator also recorded 1 widowed males over 100 — single-county tallies of limited cross-year comparability.

Ethnic origin (1851). This community's record includes 287 persons native to Canada, not of French origin, 156 persons originating in Ireland, 70 French Canadians, 61 persons originating in England or Wales, 14 persons originating in Scotland, 7 persons originating in all other places, 5 persons originating in the United States. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V1T1.)

Agriculture (1851). This community's record includes 6,800 pounds of maple sugar, 3,889 bushels of potatoes, 3,865 acres of land in farms, 3,200 acres of farmland in woodland or forest, 2,432 pounds of homemade butter, 2,138 bushels of oats, 889 bushels of corn, 869 bushels of wheat, 665 acres of farmland under cultivation, 460 acres of farmland under crops, 260 pounds of wool produced on farms, 240 bushels of turnips, 197 acres of farmland in pasture, 196 bushels of peas, 179 tons of hay, 134 swine, 133 sheep, 97 milk cows, 80 calves and heifers, 73 acres of wheat, 73 bulls, oxen, or steers, 65 acres of potatoes, 62 acres of corn, 62 occupants of farms, 55 acres of oats, 40 bushels of carrots, 38 horses, 37 persons living on farms between 100 and 200 acres, 23 acres of peas, 20 bushels of rye, 12 persons living on farms between 50 and 100 acres, 8 acres of farmland in gardens or orchards, 7 persons living on farms under 10 acres, 4 bushels of buckwheat, 4 persons living on farms between 20 and 50 acres, 4 pounds of tobacco, 2 acres of rye, 2 acres of turnips, 2 pounds of hops, 1 acres of buckwheat, 1 bushels of beans, 1 persons living on farms between 10 and 20 acres, 1 persons living on farms over 200 acres. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V2T6.)

Manufacturing & industry (1851). This community's record includes 19,500 feet of lumber produced daily by saw mills reporting daily production, $501 value capital returned by grist mills (pounds sterling), $500 value capital returned by saw mills (pounds sterling), 118 yards of flannel, 49 yards of fulled cloth, 3 saw mills powered by water, 2 employees in grist mills, 2 saw mills, 2 saw mills reporting daily production, 1 grist mills, 1 grist mills powered by water, 1 grist mills reporting daily production, 1 grist mills returning capital, 1 saw mills returning capital. 70 barrels of flour produced per day by grist mills reporting daily production. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V2T6; V2T7.)

Fisheries (1851). This community's record includes 49 barrels of cured fish. (Source: 1851 Census of Canada, V2T6.)

Deaths & mortality (1851). This community's record includes Deaths in the past year among males aged 80 to 90: 2. (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.

Identifiers

• TCP UID: ON035002 — year-scoped identifier from the Canadian Census Subdivision boundary file
• Persistent place ID: PLACE_ON144012 — computed from spatial-overlap chains across census years
• Wikidata: Q115262963

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). "Tay, Ontario (1851 census)" in HGIS Canada Knowledge Graph. Retrieved from https://jimclifford.ca/hgiscanada/places/on/tay-on035002-1851/.