The GANDER (& GANDAR)
One-Name Study

Timeline

1642-1700

1642 First Civil War in England (to 1649)
1649 King Charles I executed
1649-1660 Commonwealth Period - Oliver Cromwell
1651-1652 The second English Civil War
1660 Restoration Period
- Commonwealth registers ended, Parish Registers resumed
1663 Earliest Roman Catholic registers
1665 Great Plague of London
1666 Great Fire of London
- Act of Parliament - burials to be in woollen
1668 British East India Company obtains control of Bombay
1684 Huguenot registers begin in London
1685 Monmouth rebellion and battle of Sedgemoor
- Revocation of the Edict of Nantes - drove thousands of Protestants (Huguenots) from France
1688 Nov: James II abdicates - William of Orange lands at Torbay on 5 Nov - William III and Mary II, daughter of James II, jointly take the throne
1689 Deposed James II flees to Ireland - defeated at the Battle of the Boyne (1 Jul 1690)
1696 Act of Parliament establishes Workhouses
1698 Duties (taxes) on entries in parish registers - repealed after five years
1700 population in England and Scotland approx 7.5 million

1701-1750

1702 Anne Stuart becomes Queen
1707 Union with Scotland
1708 First Jacobite rising in Scotland
1710 Tax on Apprentice Indentures
1712 Last trial for witchcraft in England (Jane Wenham)
1714 Queen Anne Stuart dies - George I Hanover becomes king (1714-1727)
1715 Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, under the Old Pretender
1719 Third abortive Jacobite rising
1721 Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742)
1723 The Workhouse Act or Test - to get relief, a poor person has to enter Workhouse
1727 George I dies - George II Hanover becomes king
1729 Methodists begin at Oxford
1730 Irish famine
1732 Earliest Cavalry and Infantry Muster Rolls
1733 Law forbidding the use of Latin in parish registers generally obeyed - some continued in Latin for a few years
1738 Earliest Calvinistic Methodist registers
1739 Dick Turpin, highwayman, hanged at York
1741 Benjamin Ingham founded the Moravian Methodists or Inghamites - Earliest Moravian registers
1743 Battle of Dettingen - last time a British sovereign (George II) led troops in battle
1745 Jacobite rebellion in Scotland ('The Forty-five')
1746 Battle of Culloden - last battle fought in Britain
1748-1756 Countess of Huntington's (Calvinistic) Methodist Connexion founded

1751-1800

1751 decision to adopt Gregorian Calendar in 1752: so 1752 started on 1 January and 1751 was a short year.
1752 - 3 Sep: Julian Calendar dropped and Gregorian Calendar adopted in England and Scotland, making this 14 Sep
1753 Earliest Inghamite registers
1754 Hardwicke Act (1753): Banns to be called, and Printed Marriage Register forms to be used - Quakers & Jews exempt
- First printed Annual Army Lists
1755 Publication of Dictionary of the English Language by Dr Samuel Johnson
1756 The Seven Years War with France (Pitt's trade war) begins
1760 George II dies - George III Hanover, his grandson, becomes king
- Beginning of intense Inclosure Acts in England
1762 Earliest Unitarian registers
1764 Lloyd's Register of shipping first prepared
- Practice of numbering houses introduced to London
1765 Stamp Act passed - imposed a tax on publications and legal documents in the American colonies
1769 Capt James Cook maps the coast of New Zealand
1770 Capt James Cook lands in Australia (Botany Bay) formally claims Australia for Britain
1772 First Navy Lists published
1775 Battle of Lexington: first action in American War of Independence (1775-1783)
1776 American Declaration of Independence
- Somerset House in London becomes the repository of records of population
1780 The Gordon Riots
- Earliest Wesleyan registers
1781 Lord Cornwallis's army surrenders to George Washington; ends the American War of Independence
1783 Duty payable on Parish Register entries (3d per entry - repealed 1794) - led to a fall in entries
1788 First convicts (and free settlers) arrive in New South Wales - the 'First Fleet'
1789 14 Jul: The French Revolution begins - storming of the Bastille
1791 Establishment of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain
1793 England declares war on France (1793-1802)
- Execution of Louis XVI - Reign of Terror starts in France
1795 Speenhamland Act proclaims that the Parish is responsible for bringing up the labourer's wage to subsistence level
1798 The Irish Rebellion; 100,000 peasants revolt; approximately 25,000 die - Irish Parliament abolished
- Battle of the Nile (won by Nelson)
1799 'Combination Laws' in Britain against political associations and combinations
1800 Parliamentary union of Great Britain and Ireland
- Earliest Bible Christian registers

1801-1850

1801 First census puts the population of England and Wales at 9,168,000 - population of Britain nearly 11 million (75% rural)
1802 Treaty of Amiens signed by Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands
1803 Peace of Amiens ends on 12 May - resumption of war with France - The Napoleonic Wars (1803-18l5)
1805 - 21 Oct: Nelson's victory at Trafalgar
1806 Earliest Primitive Methodist registers
1807 Parliament passes Act prohibiting slavery and the importation of slaves from 1808 - but does not prohibit colonial slavery
1808 Peninsular War (1808-1814)
- Beginning of 'Luddite' troubles in England
1810 Bible Christians denomination formed by schism in Wesleyan Methodists
1811 Prince of Wales (future George IV) made Regent after George III deemed insane
1812 Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, assassinated
- Napoleon retreats from Moscow
1813 Rose's Act (1812) established a printed format for baptism & burial registers
1814 Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba
1815 - 1 Mar: Napoleon escapes Elba; arrives in France
- 18 Jun: The Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon defeated and exiled to St. Helena
1819 Peterloo Massacre at Manchester
1820 Accession of George IV, previously Prince Regent
1821 Napoleon Bonaparte dies on St Helena
- Populations: France 30.4M, German States 26M, Britain 20.8M, Italian States 18M, Austria 12M, the USA 9.6M
1824 Pitt's Combination Acts repealed (Trades Unions allowed)
1829 Earliest Irvingite registers
1830 George IV dies - his brother, William IV, accedes to the throne
- Agricultural 'Swing' Riots in southern England, repressed with many transportations
1833 Factory Act forbids employment of children below age of 9
1834 Slavery abolished in British possessions
- Poor Law amendment, tightening up relief
- Tolpuddle Martyrs transported (to Australia) for Trades Union activities
1835 Earliest Universalist registers
1836 First Potato famine in Ireland
1837 William IV dies - accession of Queen Victoria (to 1901)
- 1 Jul: Compulsory registration of Births, Marriages & Deaths in England & Wales - Registration Districts were formed
1840 Last convicts landed in NSW (some say 1842 or 1849)
1841 6 Jun: First full census in Britain in which all names were recorded
- Population: Britain 18.5M, USA 17M, Ireland 8M
1842 Civil Registration in Channel Islands started
- Illustrated London News published
1844 Outdoor Relief Prohibition Order - parish relief received only in a workhouse
1848 General revolutionary movement throughout the Continent ('Year of Revolution')
- Marx and Engels The Communist Manifesto

1851-1900

1851 - 30 Mar: Second full British Census
1852 Tasmania ceases to be a convict settlement
1854 Allied armies land in Crimea
1855 Registration of births, marriages & deaths made compulsory in Scotland
1856 End of Crimean War
1857 London postal districts introduced
1857-8 Indian Mutiny
1858 Proving of Wills taken out of ecclesiastical jurisdiction
1861 American Civil War begins
- 7 Apr: Third full British Census
- Prince Albert dies
- Populations: Russia 76M, USA 32M, Italy 25M, Britain 23M
1864 Civil Registration in Ireland starts
- Civil Registration of marriages in Isle of Man starts
1865 End of American Civil War - slavery abolished in USA
1867 Dominion of Canada founded
1868 Last British election for which Poll Books available
- Last convicts landed in (Western) Australia
1871 - 2 Apr: Fourth full British census
- Trades Unions legalised in Britain, but picketing made illegal
- Commissions in British armed forces no longer to be purchased
1872 Secret Ballot introduced in Britain (no further Poll Books produced)
- Penalties introduced for failing to register births, marriages & deaths (Eng. & Wales)
1874 Disraeli and the Tories come to power in Britain - pass 11 major Acts of social reform in next 2 years
- First Trades Union MP is elected
- Factory Act introduces 56-hour week
1876 Victoria proclaimed Empress of India
1879 Zulu war
1880 Greenwich Mean Time adopted throughout UK
1881 - 3 Apr: Fifth full British Census
- First Boer War - Transvaal independence recognised
- Flogging abolished in Army and Royal Navy
1883 Married Women's Property Act of 1882 becomes law
1887 Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee
1891 5 Apr: Sixth full British Census
1893 Keir Hardy founds Independent Labour Party
1897 Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
1899-1902 Second Boer War
1900 Relief of Ladysmith
- Relief of Mafeking

1901-1960

1901 Commonwealth of Australia founded
- Queen Victoria dies - Edward VII king
- 31 Mar: Seventh full British Census
1902 Second Boer War ends
1906 Labour Party formed
1907 New Zealand becomes a Dominion
1909 Old Age Pensions Act came into force
1910 Union of South Africa formed - Botha first Prime Minister
- Edward VII dies - George V king
1911 - 2 Apr Census: Pop. Eng.&Wales 36M, Scot. 4.6M, North.Ire. 1.25M
1912 The Titanic sinks on maiden voyage - loss of 1,513 lives
- Captain Scott's last expedition - he and his team die on way back from the south pole
1913 Suffragette demonstrations in London
1914 -1918 First World War (The Great War)
1914 - 28 Jun: Archduke Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo
- 4 Aug: Britain declares war on Germany
- Oct-Nov: Battle of Ypres - beginning of trench warfare on western front
- First Zeppelin air raid on England
1915 - Apr-May: Second Battle of Ypres - poison gas used for first time
- 25 Apr: Gallipoli campaign starts
- 7 May: RMS Lusitania sunk by German submarine off coast of Ireland - 1,198 died
- Coalition Government formed in Britain under Asquith
1916 - Feb-Dec: Battle of Verdun - appalling losses on both sides
- 24 Apr: Easter Rising in Ireland
- 31 May-1 Jun: Battle of Jutland - only major naval battle between the British and German fleets
- 1 Jul: Battle of the Somme starts - first use of tanks by Britain
- Compulsory military service introduced in Britain
1917 - February revolution in Russia; Tsar Nicholas abdicates
- USA declares war on Germany
- 16 Apr: Lenin returns to Russia after exile
- Jul-Nov: Battle of Passchendaele
- October Revolution in Russia - Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government; Lenin becomes Chief Commissar
1918 - Jul-Aug: Second Battle of the Marne: last major German offensive
- 11 Nov: Armistice signed
- War of Independence in Ireland
- World-wide 'flu epidemic
1919 Treaty of Versailles
1920 First meeting of the League of Nations
1921 - 19 Jun: Census: Pop. Eng. & Wales 37.9M, Scot. 4.9M, North. Ire. 1.25M
- Irish Free State and Northern Ireland formed
1922 Fall of Lloyd-George coalition
- Law of Property Act - the manorial system effectively ended
1923 Mussolini becomes dictator of Italy
- Canberra made Federal Capital of Australia
1924 First Labour government, headed by Ramsay MacDonald
- Death of Lenin; succeeded by Stalin
1925 Adolf Hitler writes Mein Kampf
1926 - 26 Apr: General Strike begins, till 12 May (mine workers for 6 months more)
- Adoption of children is legalised in Britain
1928 Women over 21 get vote in Britain - same qualification for both sexes
1929 Abolition of Poor Law system in Britain
- Minimum age for a marriage in Britain (which had been 14 for a boy and 12 for a girl) now 16 for both sexes, with parental consent (or a licence) needed for anyone under 21
1930 First Nazis elected to the German Reichstag
- R101 airship disaster - British abandons airship construction
1931 - 26 Apr Census: Pop. Eng.&Wales 40M, Scot. 4.8M, North.Ire. 1.24M (but details destroyed by fire during WW2)
- Statute of Westminster: British Dominions become independent sovereign states
1933 Hitler becomes German Chancellor
1934 Hitler becomes Fuehrer of Germany
- Mao Tse-tung's 'Long March' starts in China
1935 Italy invades Abyssinia
1936 - 20 Jan: George V dies; Edward VIII king
- 18 Jul: Spanish Civil War starts
- 5 Dec: Edward VIII abdicates Duke of York becomes George VI
1937 Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister in Britain
- German planes bomb Guernica in Spain
- Japanese forces invade China
1938 Germany invades and annexes Austria
- Chamberlain visits Hitler in Munich - promises 'peace in our time'
1939 Germany annexes Czechoslovakia
- 1 Sep: Germany invades Poland
- 3 Sep: Britain and France declare war on Germany at 5pm
- 6 Sep: First air-raid on Britain
- 11 Sep: British Expeditionary Force sent to France
- 14 Oct: HMS Royal Oak sunk in Scapa Flow with loss of 810 lives
1940 - 11 May: National Government formed under Churchill
- 24 May: Germany invades France
- 27 May-4 Jun: Evacuation of British Army at Dunkirk
- 25 Jun: Fall of France
- 7 Sep: Germany launches bombing blitz on Britain
- 15 Sep: Battle of Britain in the air ends with British victory
- Trotsky assassinated on Stalin's orders
1941 No census - total British population estimated at 48.2M
- 22 June: Germany invades Russia
- 7 Dec: Japan attacks US fleet at Pearl Harbour
- Britain introduces severe rationing
1942 - 30 May: Over 1,000 bombers raid Cologne
- 4 Jun: Battle of Midway
- 19 Aug: Abortive raid on Dieppe, largely by Canadian troops
- 6 Sep: Germans defeated at Stalingrad
- 23 Oct-4 Nov: Battle of El Alamein - Montgomery defeats Rommel
1943 - May: 'Dam Buster' raids on Ruhr dams by RAF
- 24 Jul: Allies invade Italy - Benito Mussolini resigns as Italian Dictator
1944 - 4 Jun: Allies enter Rome
- 6 Jun: D-Day invasion of Normandy
-12 Jun: First V1 flying bombs hit London
- 8 Sep: First V2 rocket bombs hit London
- 11 Sep: Allies enter Germany
- 16 Dec: Battle of the Bulge: German counter-offensive
1945 Yalta Conference between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin
- 25 Apr: Berlin surrounded by Russian troops
- 30 Apr: Hitler commits suicide
- 8 May: Victory in Europe Day
- 6 Aug: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
- 9 Aug: Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
- 15 Aug: Victory in Japan Day
- 2 Sep: Japanese surrender
1946 First session of new United Nations Organisation
1947 India gains independence: sub-continent partitioned to form India and Pakistan
1948 Gandhi assassinated
- Apartheid starts in South Africa
- Berlin airlift starts
- National Health Service begins in Britain
1949 Russians lift the Berlin blockade
- 1950 Points rationing ends in Britain
- Petrol rationing ends in Britain
- Korean War starts (to 27 Jul 1953)
- Soap rationing ends in Britain
1951 Census: Pop. Eng.& Wales 43.7M, Scot. 5M. North.Ire. 1.37M
1952 George VI dies
- End of tea rationing in Britain
1953 Sweet rationing ends in Britain
- Everest conquered by Hillary and Tensing
- Coronation of Elizabeth II
- Sugar rationing ends in Britain (after nearly 14 years)
- Death of Stalin: Malenkov becomes Premier of USSR
- End of the Korean War
1954 Food rationing officially ends in Britain
1956 Britain and France invade Suez
1957 Sputnik I launched by Soviet Union - first artificial satellite
1959 Postcodes introduced in Britain
1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa

Distribution Maps

Numbers listed on the Electoral Rolls for England, Wales & Scotland 2002

« Maps Index «

The 2002 Electoral Rolls for England, Wales & Scotland was probably the last comprehensive ones produced that can be publicly viewed. Changes in the law now means there are in effect 2 sets of Electoral Rolls around, as people can now opt out of having their names on a public list which in the past, often got mis-used for commercial purposes.

Whereas the 2003 Electoral Rolls showed only some 800 plus GANDER and GANDAR voters, the 2002 Electoral Rolls returned 1200 GANDER voters and another 29 with the GANDAR spelling, which is about what I expected.

To state the obvious, these are adults over 18 years of age and whilst there will inevitably be some who've not registered to vote, the list I'm sure contains some duplicates, so this probably evens things out.

What the map to the right shows clearly is that Sussex remains the the mostly densely populated county for GANDERs with more GANDERs in Brighton than anywhere else.

The table below breaks the numbers down - I know, I should get out more...