The Census of 1841 provides us with a view of village society exactly contemporary with the Slade letters.  Analysis of the Parish Records enables a wide-ranging analysis into the deeper relationships that existed between the people registered in the Census.  We can set the framework built by this information against the picture presented by the letters, or, as may more properly be the case, the view of Charlotte Slade.

At this time, we cannot tell easily the birthplace for people living in the villages.  We can, however, tell the county: 98% Berkshire for Upthorpe against 91% for Tirrold.  This masks an apparently sharp difference between these villages as analysis of subsequent Census returns suggests.  Aston Upthorpe consistently had a larger proportion of its population who had seen first light elsewhere.  Aston Tirrold, therefore, appears as a much more inward looking community.  For both villages, of course, this proportion dropped over the rest of the century. Interestingly, the proportion born in the county of Berkshire, while it declined also for this period, remains virtually identical.  We also find that the proportion of the Aston Tirrold population born in Aston Upthorpe consistently comes out lower than the other way around.  In other words, Aston Tirrold-born people migrated to Aston Upthorpe in greater proportions than Upthorpe people coming to Tirrold.  The figures average out over the period from 1851 to 1891 at about 15% (Upthorpe population born in Tirrold) and about 5% (vice versa).  We might see one explanation for the more open aspect of Upthorpe society in ecclesiastical factors.  Remember that, at this time, Upthorpe – in common with Upton – was a chapelry in the parish of Blewbury.  This would cause more outward relationships even with Blewbury than might naturally occur for Aston Tirrold.

A more interesting statistic, however, concerns the proven kinship that exists between the households comprising the village.  Without doubt, as in most other communities at this time, substantial amounts of interrelationship existed between these two villages.  Of one hundred and thirteen households, only seventeen seem to have no traceable relationship with other households.  A further twenty-one households link to one other family, while for the remaining seventy-five we can find relationships with multiple other families.

The perils of inbreeding are known and madness can lie there.  Charlotte Slade had no doubt whatsoever that the insanity affecting Mrs Fuller traced back through her mother’s line.  Mrs Fuller was probably one of the four Fullers who married each other one March day in 1817.  Advantages from controlled family groupings, however, include continued or improved economic control and the maintenance of social position.  We can find examples of this, particularly in the families who control the main economic units in addition to the two main farming families, the Slades and Fullers.