Census – Webster’s Census

Alexander Webster’s Account of the Number of People in Scotland in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty Five is generally taken to be the earliest attempt to calculate the population of Scotland accurately. Each parish minister in Scotland was circulated with a request to calculate the population of the parish and to determine how many were Protestants and how many were Roman Catholics. Webster’s original Account is preserved in the National Library of Scotland. It has been republished as Scottish Population Statistics, including Webster’s ‘Analysis of Population 1755’ ed. by James Gray Kyd, (Scottish History Society/T & A Constable, 1975).