legends · 4 min read ·
The Lodger
A family-history researcher finds a lodger aged thirty in every census since 1841.
**Research file — Hallam family, 9 Orchard Lane, Dunmere (client: Mrs. P. Hallam)**
**Researcher:** G. Ainsley · **Task:** trace occupants of the house from 1841
· · ·
**Census transcriptions**
**1841 · 9 Orchard Lane**
- John Hallam, 40, agricultural labourer
- Mary Hallam, 38
- Thomas Hallam, 11
- *Edmund Reeve, 30, lodger, born in county*
**1851 · 9 Orchard Lane**
- John Hallam, 50, labourer
- Mary Hallam, 48
- Thomas Hallam, 21, labourer
- *Edmund Reeve, 30, lodger, born in county*
*Researcher's note: Reeve is recorded as 30 in both censuses. Ten years apart. A clerical slip.*
· · ·
**1861 · 9 Orchard Lane**
- Thomas Hallam, 31, labourer
- Ann Hallam, 28
- *Edmund Reeve, 30, lodger, born in county*
**1871 · 9 Orchard Lane**
- Thomas Hallam, 41
- Ann Hallam, 38
- *Edmund Reeve, 30, lodger, born in county*
*Researcher's note: Reeve again. A thirty-year-old lodger in 1841, still thirty in 1871. I have checked the original enumerator's books for each year. The entries are in four different hands. Each says: Edmund Reeve, 30.*
· · ·
**1881 to 1921 (summary)**
- **Year · Head · Lodger**
- 1881 · William Hallam, 36 · Edmund Reeve, 30
- 1891 · William Hallam, 46 · Edmund Reeve, 30
- 1901 · Samuel Pike, 40 (tenant) · Edmund Reeve, 30
- 1911 · Samuel Pike, 50 · Edmund Reeve, 30
- 1921 · Ada Frane, 52 (widow) · Edmund Reeve, 30
*Researcher's note: eight censuses. The house passes through three families. The lodger does not change.*
· · ·
**Church records**
Baptisms, marriages and burials for Dunmere parish were searched for Edmund Reeve. No baptism. No marriage. No burial. The name does not appear in any register. In the parish rate books for 1841 to 1921 there is no mention of a Reeve paying a rent or being owed one.
I asked Mrs. Hallam whether the family had a tradition of a lodger. She said she had none. She said her grandmother had a saying: *"We never let the room above the porch. We keep it for the lodger."*
· · ·
**Researcher's note (G. Ainsley, 11 October)**
I visited 9 Orchard Lane. Mrs. Hallam showed me the room above the porch. It is a small room, with a casement window and a single bed. The bed is made, with a patchwork quilt. A man's coat hangs on the back of the door. The room is cold.
On the wall by the bed there is a series of pencil marks, a column of small lines, grouped in fives. I counted them. There are 185. Beside the last, in a hand I do not recognise, someone has written *Thirty.*
I asked Mrs. Hallam who had made the marks. She said: "My grandmother said we should never rub them out."
· · ·
**1939 Register**
The 1939 Register lists the household at 9 Orchard Lane. Occupants: Ada Frane (widow), and a second person whose record is closed, as permitted under the rules for persons who may still be alive.
*Researcher's note: a closed record means the person was born less than 100 years before the date of release. No person recorded in this house in 1939 should still be living.*
I applied for the closed record. The Registrar's office responded with a letter, dated yesterday.
· · ·
**Registrar's letter (received 18 October)**
*Dear Mr. Ainsley, We have reviewed your request. The closed entry for 9 Orchard Lane, 1939, has been opened. It is a single line. Name: Edmund Reeve. Age: 30. Occupation: lodger.*
*In the column for notes, the enumerator has written: "Enquired at the door. Told he was out. Will be back."*
· · ·
**Researcher's note (G. Ainsley, 25 October)**
I have been through everything again. The lodger is in every record, in every hand, in every decade. He appears in every census I can find. Each time he is thirty, and each time the household is different, and each time he is a lodger, which is to say, a person who lives in a house but is not of its family.
I looked at the 2021 census. The return for 9 Orchard Lane has been digitised. It lists three persons: Mrs. P. Hallam, 74; her husband, 76, deceased since March; and a lodger.
His name is Graham Ainsley. His age is 30. I am forty-four.
I have not been to Dunmere since 11 October. But I can see from the file that I filled in the return myself, in my own handwriting, in 2021, before I took the commission.