In message <000a01c6aff5$8d88f810$0100000a@Hugo>, Patricia Ann Burke <hpbur5@bigpond.net.au> writes >Do you mind if I repeat this question? > >Does anyone else have an 1851 pensioner in ther families? > >May I draw your attention to the 1851 census for Milton Ernest (HO107/1751/175A) >where William Cox aged 78 is described as a pensioner? How on earth did an Ag >Lab get to be a pensioner in 1851? A pension from whom? Probably from the army - did he serve at e.g. Waterloo, or in the Indian wars, and get invalided out? You should be able to check this by studying the (indexed) WO97 class (from TNA Kew). Many former soldier had other jobs once they left the army. Very few employers ever rewarded even the longest service on the farm with money - (in most cases, only a nanny, butler or housekeeper, amybe a cook, would be given money in a will ); if this had occurred, he would probably have been referred to as an annuitant, not a pensioner. -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society