The Great Civil War in Lancashire - researching for a campaign

I started doing some research about 10 days ago, which is why I haven't blogged so far in December.  I have pretty much settled on a map using point to point movement.  Each location will have an initial recruitment value and a replacements value.  This became feasible when I came across population estimates derived from Heath Tax records from 1662.

The hearth tax was an 17th century tax on wealth based upon the idea that the more fireplaces or stoves a household had the wealthier it must be.  It was first implemented after the Restoration.  Fortunately the National Archives holds the records for Lancashire from 1662.  They are at file ref E179/250/11 if anyone wants to take a look at them.  Sadly they have not yet been converted to a digital document so at some stage I need to visit the archives at Kew to obtain additional details. 

I came across these from B G Blackwood's 'The Lancashire Gentry in the Great Rebellion 1642 - 1660' (Chetham Society 1978) which I found parts of on line.  Blackwood used the Hearth Tax records to estimate the population of each of the Lancashire Hundreds and the larger towns within them, by assuming 4.5 people per household.  How he settled on a multiplier of 4.5 I have no idea, but as it derives from his university thesis I'm happy to accept that there was some logic behind it.  He further assumes that 20 years after the start of hostilities the population in Lancashire would have recovered from the deaths of the wars.  I'm happy to accept that theory as well if only due to the fact that no other equivalent records exist.  What he didn't do was publish his results for the smaller townships such as Garstang or Clitheroe which is why I'm planning a trip to the National Archives at Kew next time I'm in London.

Anyway that, coupled with the militia returns for 1639 (summarised  in Stephen Bull's book which I mentioned in the last post I published) gives me a start on the figures for estimating potential manpower.  The raw data is that the population of Lancashire was in the very close order of 150,000 with just under 17,000 living in communities of 1,000 people or more.  That breaks down as follows:

Hundred	Population
Salford	48,451.0
Blackburn	21,330.0
West Derby	31,207.0
Leyland	10,656.0
Amounderness	17,667.0
Lonsdale	21,357.0
	150,668.0

 
The major town's populations run between Manchester at 3,690 down to Lancaster at 949 souls.

So that's manpower and recruitment estimates in hand and if I look at the rest of the Hearth Tax data I should be able to set a threshold for the minimum size of township to represent on the map.  My default for that is likely to be 250 souls.  Adding any vital defensive sites and magazines mentioned in Broxup or Bull should fill out the rest of the map locations.  A bit of editing to ensure that the locations represented are spaced by travel time and the map is about there bar the art work which will probably be based on John Speed's map from 1610.

More next time on the supply, training and events generation system.