Population of Birmingham
Contents: From a relatively small market town to Britain's second largest city, Birmingham's population expanded rapidly from the late 18th to the 20th century. Emigrants have usually been in search of work in this industrially innovative town and have come from both outlying areas and from abroad. This page gives an outline of some of these migratory trends.
The figures in the table on the right give official statistics for the town of Birmingham. Admittedly, the accuracy of the figures is questionable on account of the nature of assessment (mostly extracted from the population censuses). It is difficult enough to define Birmingham through the ages geographically, let alone to quantify its populace. However, they give a good overall picture of the rapid increase in population during the last 300 years. Even before the Industrial Revolution tens of thousands of people from adjoining counties flooded into Birmingham to escape the squalor and poverty of rural life. Some will have experienced no improvement in the overcrowded slum conditions they found there but, significantly, few opted to return to whence they came. Birmingham in the 18th and 19th centuries may have been vile, but other industrial cities were even worse (some wag claimed that had Friedrich Engels lived in Birmingham instead of Manchester communism might never have been conceived!) At least Birmingham offered a wide range of prospective trades (some sources talk of 2,000), the natural drainage of the town also helped to keep hygiene at a (barely) tolerable level and thus reduce the risk of epidemics. Despite that, it cannot be denied that life in Brum years ago was no picnic.  IrishIt is remarkable that much of the literature on the history of Birmingham has neglected the significance of Irish migration to the town. This is particularly mysterious as the Irish have played a large and significant part in Birmingham's history. The first recorded settler from Ireland is James Wright of Dublin in 1723. The first recorded baptism of Irish settlers being that of Lucia Robinson on 12th May 1805. Large scale influx of Irish to the town, however, began in the early 1820s. In 1807 the Irish population numbered around 100, by 1826 this number had risen to about 5,000. In 1800 the passing of the Act of Union meant that Ireland was thereafter ruled from Westminster. One of the effects was for duties on imports to Ireland from England to be abolished and the country supplied with cheap imports from the growing English industrial centres. What few commercial goods had been produced in Ireland soon disappeared. Irish landlords' attempts to establish more economical larger farms with fewer workers led to evictions and increased hardship for the peasants. A poor harvest in 1822 and troops returning from the Napoleonic wars put added strain on their plight. In some cases landlords even paid the boat fare for their no longer needed agricultural workers. The hardest hit areas were the counties of Mayo and Rosscommon. At this time it was possible to book a place on deck from Dublin to Liverpool for 3d. The wealthier of the emigrants headed for New York and Canada. The England-bound passengers, who arrived mainly at Liverpool and London docks, dispersed to those developing industrial centres offering opportunities for work, like Manchester and Birmingham. The latter expanded at a great rate in the years after 1820, with the population rising by 70% till 1840. There was thus great need for new housing and new factories, and the Irish labourers were mostly employed in building them. Another insurge of Irish settlers then occurred in the mid to late 1840s. The potato famine of 1845–8 not only caused great hardship for the poor agricultural labourers in the West of Ireland, but also meant that the landowners no longer had need of their labours. Obliged in some cases to pay a poor rate for the impoverished peasants they sought to rid themselves of the burden. The result was mass eviction of the starving masses, who were forced to seek salvation elsewhere. Many of those who survived the famine fled abroad. Aside from the unskilled labourers in building, many Irish travelled around the country as "spalpeens", seasonal workers involved mostly in agricultural work. The 1851 census lists 136 of them. There was also a relatively high proportion of Irish in the new police force, analogous to developments on the other side of the Atlantic.
The poor Irish settlers naturally congregated in some of the poorest areas of Birmingham, particularly in the dreadful slums around the Suffolk Street area. They worked wherever they could earn a meagre living, mostly in building factories and houses. But this was not easy, and the Irish were proportionally poorer than other segments of the populace. This fact is borne out also by the statistics of the Birmingham Workhouse, which from the 1860s to 1900 accommodated a disproportionate number of Irish. The strain of providing relief led to many Irish being returned to the parish of their birth, despite the 5 year residency qualification which legally gave them a claim to relief from the Birmingham authorities. Complaints relating to this practice were indeed sent from Cork, Galway and Dublin North. The later generations of Irish spread away from the slums after their clearance to all areas north of the centre, from the Summer Lane area across to Aston and Erdington. Whilst the English poor traditionally sought occupation in the factories, the Irish preferred the even less attractive work in construction, railway and canal building, without which the rise of the town would never have been achieved. Of course the Irish also brought with them their Catholic religion. Birmingham is home to England's first post-reformation Catholic Cathedral at St Chad's. JewsSketchley's Directory of 1767 lists 8 Jewish tradesmen in Birmingham, the first documented of these being the Hungarian Mayer Oppenheim, who established a glass house in Snow Hill in 1762. Due no doubt to a great degree to persecution in their home countries, many Jews sought refuge in the town. Most arrived destitute and were forced to re-start life from the bottom. Still, the Jewish community grew steadily and by 1851 of a total population of 232,841 730 were Jewish. They lived mostly around the Hurst Street area. Indeed the Market Hall Ward was represented by Jewish Councillors for many years. Simon King Marks (1865–7) was followed by Michael Davis (1867–1889), who was succeeded by his own son, Sir David Davis, later to become Birmingham's first Jewish Lord Mayor (1921–2). All were Liberals. The majority were originally occupied in modest trades typical of many immigrants, as they required little capital or training. Most were tailors, hawkers, glaziers, and also many pawn-brokers. The established families later became merchants, watchmakers and jewellers. The Criterion pub in Hurst Street was a popular meeting place for Jewish working men until the official Jewish Working Men's Club opened at the Jungle in Hinckley Street around 1903.
Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century many achieved success in their respective trades and the more wealthy moved to the affluent areas around Colmore Row and Newhall Street. David Barnett, for instance, lived next door to the later Sir Edward Burne-Jones, the pre-Raphaelite painter, in Bennett's Hill. A few Jewish families also settled around St Paul's Square. In the 20 years following the Jewish populace grew rapidly, and by 1871 had reached 2,360 of a total population of 343,787. Several had become active in civic and even national affairs. Jacob Josephs, who was born in the town and made a career in Hong Kong, was even proposed as Town Mayor. In 1851 121 were from Central and Western European countries, as opposed to 102 from Russia. By 1871 the figure was reversed, with 251 originating from Germany and Northern Europe, while 397 were Russians and Poles. Those of German origin often considered themselves a cut above the Russians. Many of the well-to-do had by now moved northwards towards the Jewellery Quarter and later Handsworth, but also southwards to desirable Edgbaston.
Child emigrationIn 1872 an organisation called Children's Emigration Homes was formed by John Throgmorton Middlemore (1844–1925) to "rescue" poverty-stricken youngsters. In the following years that followed the population of Birmingham was reduced by around 5,500 of the mites, shipped abroad, mostly to Canada, divided from their families and possible siblings—often forever. Despite being at the complete mercy of their new "parents" the odd one will no doubt have indeed gone to a better life.
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In 1843 the Hebrew National School was established in Hurst Street. It later moved to more commodious premises behind the Singers Hill Synagogue.