PREECE FAMILY HISTORY & ONE NAME STUDY - POPULATION ANALYSIS - 1881 AND 1999

Population Analysis - 1881 and 1999 - Numerical only

A glance at modern telephone directories will tell you that the Preece name is very prevalent in the general western Midlands area. It would also tell you that there are now arguably more Preece families in Wales than 100 years ago, and that there are Preece families in almost every county in England and Wales, and a far greater number in Scotland in 1881.

As shown elsewhere, it is widely thought that the Preece name originated in Wales, and spread into the border counties of England, where it retains a large presence today.

However, the picture in 1881 was very different.

At that time, Herefordshire was home to almost a third of all the Preeces living, With Shropshire weighing in with 15% itself, resulting in almost half of the total in just two counties. Further large concentrations were found in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and the two Welsh counties of Monmouthshire and Glamorgan. In addition quite a number had moved to London (Middlesex and Surrey) and Cheshire, but outside these counties the numbers were very sparse, reflecting the fact that traveling many miles for work was an exception rather than a rule as far as Preece families were concerned.

By 1999, the picture had changed, although the majority (around two thirds) still lived within the Western Midlands counties, with most counties having a number of Preece families. There are limitations in the 1999 data, which does affect the overall quality of the data, but the results are sufficient to produce the details required for trends and movement. Since the 1999 data is necessarily extracted from electoral roll lists and telephone directories the figures exclude anyone not appearing in either of these sources, and also fails to count young family members, who will of course be neither in the telephone directory nor old enough to vote! Various estimates have put the figure excluded at up to 20%, meaning that the figures shown for 1999 in the tables which follow could be increased by 20%, but since this would be theoretical I have not acted upon this, but have left the data as extracted.

The raw data is shown in the tables which follow, for England, Wales and Scotland. Two maps also follow the tables, showing a graphical representation of the density of the name Preece in the counties in both 1881 and 1999.

ENGLAND	1881				1999
Area/County	Number of Preece	Population in 000's	Preece density per 100k	% of total Preece	Number of Preece	Population in 000's	Preece density per 100k	% of total Preece
NORTH EAST
Durham	20	867	1.3	0.41	53	880	6.0	0.71
Northumberland	5	434	0.9	0.10	7	310	2.3	0.09
Tyne & Wear					87	1116	7.8	1.16
NORTH WEST
Cumberland	4	250	1.2	0.08
Westmorland	0	64	0.0	0.00
Cheshire	46	644	6.1	0.93	242	672	36.0	3.23
Cumbria					18	493	3.7	0.24
Greater Manchester					95	2577	3.7	1.27
Lancashire	110	3454	2.8	2.23	139	1739	8.0	1.86
Merseyside					86	1409	6.1	1.15
YORKSHIRE & HUMBER
Yorkshire	56	2886	1.6	1.14
East Yorkshire					12	575	2.1	0.16
North Yorkshire					28	848	3.3	0.37
South Yorkshire					119	1304	9.1	1.59
West Yorkshire					199	2113	9.4	2.66
EASTERN MIDLANDS
Rutland	0	21	0.0	0.00	0	36	0.0	0.00
Derbyshire	25	461	6.7	0.51	123	970	12.7	1.64
Leicestershire	6	321	2.2	0.12	31	893	3.5	0.41
Lincolnshire	4	469	0.6	0.08	46	931	4.9	0.61
Northamptonshire	5	272	1.8	0.10	79	616	12.8	1.06
Nottinghamshire	13	391	2.8	0.26	42	1032	4.1	0.56
WESTERN MIDLANDS
Herefordshire	1574	121	1113.2	31.92	625	168	372.0	8.35
Shropshire	783	248	269.0	15.88	387	430	90.0	5.17
Staffordshire	380	981	33.5	7.71	362	1062	34.1	4.84
Warwickshire	247	737	28.2	5.01	84	507	16.6	1.12
West Midlands					900	2628	34.2	12.03
Worcestershire	411	380	90.3	8.34	443	538	82.3	5.92
EAST
Huntingdonshire	0	59	0.0	0.00
Bedfordshire	1	149	0.7	0.02	41	556	7.4	0.55
Cambridgeshire	0	185	0.0	0.00	15	720	2.1	0.20
Essex	16	576	2.6	0.32	74	1606	4.6	0.99
Hertfordshire	15	203	5.9	0.30	52	1034	5.0	0.70
Norfolk	1	444	0.2	0.02	23	790	2.9	0.31
Suffolk	5	356	1.1	0.10	30	671	4.5	0.40
LONDON & SOUTH EAST
Greater London					192	7188	2.7	2.57
Berkshire	10	218	5.0	0.20	51	800	6.4	0.68
Middlesex	217	2920	6.7	4.40
Sussex	10	490	2.2	0.20
Isle of Wight					17	127	13.4	0.23
Buckinghamshire	8	176	4.0	0.16	53	682	7.8	0.71
East Sussex					60	747	8.0	0.80
Hampshire	6	593	1.0	0.12	110	1644	6.7	1.47
Kent	12	977	1.4	0.24	123	1575	7.8	1.64
Oxfordshire	5	179	2.8	0.10	71	617	11.5	0.95
Surrey	120	1436	7.3	2.43	115	1061	10.8	1.54
West Sussex					68	752	9.0	0.91
SOUTH WEST
Cornwall	1	330	0.3	0.02	16	490	3.3	0.21
Devon	28	603	4.0	0.57	146	1068	13.7	1.95
Dorset	2	191	1.0	0.04	55	690	8.0	0.74
Gloucestershire	229	572	34.4	4.64	408	1200	34.0	5.45
Somerset	34	469	6.4	0.69	93	845	11.0	1.24
Wiltshire	3	258	0.8	0.06	54	606	8.9	0.72

ENGLAND TOTALS	4412	24385	18.1	89.47	6074	49316	12.3	81.18

WALES	1881				1999
	Number of Preece	Population in 000's	Preece density per 100k	% of total Preece	Number of Preece	Population in 000's	Preece density per 100k	% of total Preece
Blaenau Gwent					61	72	84.7	0.82
Brecon	43	58	74.1	0.87
Bridgend					96	131	73.3	1.28
Caernarvonshire	9	118	0.8	0.18
Caerphilly					166	170	97.6	2.22
Cardiff					133	321	41.4	1.78
Cardiganshire	0	71	0.0	0.00
Carmarthenshire	7	123	5.7	0.14	49	169	29.0	0.65
Ceredigon					3	71	4.2	0.04
Conwy					8	112	7.1	0.11
Denbighshire	1	110	0.9	0.02	5	91	5.5	0.07
Flintshire	3	78	3.8	0.06	17	147	11.6	0.23
Glamorgan	162	509	27.1	3.29
Gwynedd					14	118	11.9	0.19
Isle of Anglesey	0	51	0.0	0.00	0	65	0.0	0.00
Merionethshire	1	53	0.0	0.02
Merthyr Tydfil					48	57	84.2	0.64
Monmouthshire	167	211	81.0	3.39	36	86	41.9	0.48
Montgomeryshire	60	66	92.4	1.22
Neath Port Talbot					60	139	43.2	0.80
Newport					129	139	92.8	1.72
Pembrokeshire	26	92	27.2	0.53	39	114	34.2	0.52
Powys					87	126	69.0	1.16
Radnorshire	36	23	156.5	0.73
Rhondda, Cynon, Taff					81	240	33.8	1.08
Swansea					74	230	32.2	0.99
Torfaen					150	90	166.7	2.00
Vale of Glamorgan					59	121	48.8	0.79
Wrexham					12	125	9.6	0.16

WALES TOTALS	515	1563	32.9	10.44	1327	2934	45.2	17.74

SCOTLAND	1881				1999
	Number of Preece	Population in 000's	Preece density per 100k	% of total Preece	Number of Preece	Population in 000's	Preece density per 100k	% of total Preece
Aberdeenshire	0	271	0.0	0.00	14	439	3.2	0.19
Angus	0	271	0.0	0.00	10	257	3.9	0.13
Argyll & Bute	0	99	0.0	0.00	0	90	0.0	0.00
Ayrshire	0	220	0.0	0.00	4	375	1.1	0.05
Banffshire	0	60	0.0	0.00
Berwick	0	35	0.0	0.00
Caithness	0	40	0.0	0.00
Clackmannanshire	0	24	0.0	0.00	1	49	2.0	0.01
Dunbartonshire	0	79	0.0	0.00	0	205	0.0	0.00
Dumfries-shire	0	65	0.0	0.00
Dumfries & Galloway					0	147	0.0	0.00
East Lothian	0	39	0.0	0.00	0	90	0.0	0.00
Fife	0	174	0.0	0.00	10	349	2.9	0.13
Highland					0	208	0.0	0.00
Inverclyde					5	85	5.9	0.07
Inverness-shire	0	89	0.0	0.00
Kincardineshire	0	35	0.0	0.00
Kircudbrightshire	0	42	0.0	0.00
Lanarkshire	3	955	1.4	0.06	18	1254	1.4	0.24
Midlothian	0	392	0.0	0.00	3	431	0.7	0.04
Moray	0	45	0.0	0.00	4	86	4.7	0.05
Nairnshire	0	8	0.0	0.00
Orkney Islands	0	32	0.0	0.00	0	20	0.0	0.00
Peeblesshire	0	13	0.0	0.00
Perth & Kinross	0	139	0.0	0.00	0	133	0.0	0.00
Renfrewshire	1	229	0.4	0.02	5	266	1.0	0.07
Ross & Cromarty	0	80	0.0	0.00
Roxburgh	0	53	0.0	0.00
Scottish Borders					0	106	0.0	0.00
Selkirkshire	0	26	0.0	0.00
Shetland Islands	0	30	0.0	0.00	0	23	0.0	0.00
Stirling	0	108	0.0	0.00	6	227	2.6	0.08
Sutherland	0	22	0.0	0.00
West Lothian	0	44	0.0	0.00	1	153	0.7	0.01
Wigtown	0	38	0.0	0.00

SCOTLAND TOTALS	4	3757	0.4	0.08	81	4993	1.6	1.08

BRITISH TOTALS	4931	29705	16.6	100.00	7482	57243	13.1	100.00

PREECE POPULATION COMPARISON - 1881 & 1999

1881 Census - all Preece entries

1999 Electoral Roll & Telephone Directories

Counties shown as percentage of total Preece population :-

<1%

1-5%

6-10%

11-20%

21-30%

30%+

A further, more detailed look at 1881 has been carried out, taking into account place of birth, and excluding those shown on the census as wives, as they are not originally 'holders' of the Preece name. Click here to view this analysis.