I have pasted below an extract from an Angus Roots Web Post which may be of interest.:- "Just a wee tad of further information about Census records of Scotland. Agreed, the first official census was 1841. However there were at least two previous censuses taken. 1783 Census by Parish and the 1821 Census by Parish. Both of these censuses were supposed to be taken by the Clergy of the Official Church of Scotland, Parish by Parish. The problem was however that some clergy did not or refused to participate, I am not sure which ( unfortunately I am not old enough to ask them), therefore the records do not exist for each Parish. Also some were no doubt lost and "I am told" there are others that are still in private collections and have not been released to the public. " When searching Google for information on the1783 & 1821 census I came across a good description during this period of Neilston Parish Renfrewshire commencing page 286 http://books.google.com.au/books?id=A0wSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA291&lpg=PA291&dq=1821+Neilston+Census&source=bl&ots=dErPSMmMTM&sig=HGcuDFNhIBVXy81IeoWFK7ffGDE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result Hoping the link works. Regards, John Carswell. Interests , Carswell , Howie, Stevenson, Gemmell,,McLuckie , McKay , farmers of Neilston parish .