This comprehensive edition makes available two of the most important sources for population studies in the early modern period. The bishops' returns of 1563 and 1603 represent the earliest census-type information that has survived in England and Wales. The 1563 returns, surviving from twelve dioceses, record the number of households; the 1603 documents, from nine dioceses, were intended to survey religious nonconformity and estimate the number of communicants in each parish. A full introductory essay explores the origins of both surveys, and illustrates their significance for local and demographic historians, and those concerned with social and economic history, government and the church.
